The hotel in the poorer eastern district was a mediocre establishment, with dark hallways and impersonal rooms that were practically mirror images of one another. The owner was a sleepy, irritable silver-haired unicorn who did not bother with courtesy: it was quite clear that all he was interested in was your money, and not who was paying it. He'll ask you no questions, you'll tell him no lies. The perfect hiding place.

Silent Knight and Phillip were holed up in a first floor room (near the back door for a quick escape), talking over the hayburgers that Phil had picked up on the way for their dinner. Silent was explaining his story: his memory of the hooded three-legged pony, his escape and entering the hobo camp, sneaking into the hospital to acquire the records, and his frustrating inability to remember anything else.

"Framed for murder by a mysterious figure with a unique mark," Phillip said softly, lying on the faded bedding, staring at Silent over his hayburger. "It's like the premise for a thriller movie."

Silent realized that he had not seen Phillip blink once. It was beginning to make him uncomfortable the way he stared at him, his eyes like storm clouds on the horizon. "It's what happened," he said.

"Didn't say I didn't believe you," Phil said, taking another bite of his burger and chewing slowly. He looked at the three copies spread out on the bed. "But if you were planning on checking all these names off yourself, you've got 'roos loose in the top paddock, mate," he added, tapping the side of his head with a hoof.

Silent scowled, recognizing the insult for what it was, but didn't get a chance to respond. "We'd better get to it, then," Phil said, finishing his burger and snatching up the papers, bringing them over to the desk in the corner. "Right. You said the prosthetic was for the entire lower leg and the knee?"

"Yes," Silent replied, the image of the hooded intruder leaping into his mind, as fresh as though he was still standing right in front of him. Phil looked over the list, striking out a few names.

"Male or female?"

"I'm not sure. Most likely male," Silent replied, recalling the breadth of the attacker's shoulders and their thinner hips.

"Height? Build?"

"Taller than me by a couple inches."

"Color of coat?"

"Light gold. And he was left-hooved."

The interrogation continued through the night, with Phillip squeezing as many details as he could out of Silent's memory. Silent realized the necessity of this questioning, but it still made him uncomfortable, to have a total stranger poking around in his mind. The cold, impersonal method of questioning did nothing to allay his discomfort.

Finally, Phillip had managed to scratch out about a third of the names on their list. He blinked, shaking his head and yawning. "Right. We'd best get some sleep." Taking off his trilby and vest and tossing them aside, he flopped down on the couch and curled up, his back to Silent.

Silent Knight frowned at his parter's sleeping form for a moment before climbing into the bed and pulling the sheets over himself. He had to remind himself that this was temporary: much as he would prefer to do this alone, he did need help with an investigation. He just wished he could have gotten somepony who would actually look at him once in a while instead of staring at him a bug on a slide.

A warm touch on his snout brought Silent Knight back to the waking world. His exhaustion and the comforting warmth of the bed had allowed him to sleep deeply and peacefully for the first time in a long time. Opening his eyes, he saw through the window that the sun had already risen past the horizon, its warm light shining directly onto his face as if calling him to duty. Rising with a yawn, he threw the sheets off him and leapt out. It was time to get to work. He turned to face his partner and stared in disbelief.

He was alone in the room. Phillip's hat and vest were gone, as was the list of names. The only sign that he had left was a scrawled note, torn from a notebook, on the desk.

Stay here. I'll be back.

Silent stared at the note in disbelief for a moment before seizing it and flinging it into the dustbin. He left him! Left him to do his work on his own, and ordered him to stay behind like a dog! For a moment, he considered flying out after him and telling him off, but then realized that was a bad idea. He had no idea where his absconding partner was, and going out in public without a plan was an unnecessary risk.

He was stuck in here for now. All he'd done was trade one cell for another, because behind that locked wooden door was the entire world, looking for him. Alone and trapped once more.

At least the accommodations were better than Clovenworth. Phillip had had the foresight last night to purchase some groceries. With nothing else to do, Silent Knight trotted into the kitchen to prepare some breakfast.

Phillip did not return for the rest of the morning, or the afternoon. No visitors came by. Nothing happened. It wasn't the long stretches of silence that Silent minded: he'd been trained since childhood to be a Guard, after all, to stand at post for hours at a time. It was the emptiness that got to him: the time wasted, spent without purpose, not knowing what was happening and unable to do anything about it except allow the fury inside him to percolate. He paced, lay on the bed, stared out the window at the leaf-strewn street outside, worked out for a couple hours as well as he could. It did nothing to calm his restless energy.

Laying on his bed, he tried, once more, to remember the night. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he brought himself back to the hallway...

"What happened?" Miley asked.

"There's an intruder," he replied, wiping the remaining salt from his eyes. "Lock down this wing and search these hallways. I'm going to check on Princess Luna." At his word, the Guards split up into two-pony teams, hurrying down the hallways with their flashlights illuminating every dark corner. There would be no place to hide.

Taking flight, he soared down the hallway, past his office, down towards Princess Luna's quarters, moving faster than he knew he could. Reaching the doors, regally gilded in dark blues and purples, he shoved them open and...

And...

With a growl, Silent turned and lashed out, his hoof smashing through the wall and leaving a large hole. He still couldn't remember what had happened! Trapped in here, and trapped in his own mind, and completely helpless to do anything about it. It was almost enough to make him scream.

Night fell, then the next day passed in the same agonizing stillness. Rest, eat, pace, think, wait until night. Still Phillip did not appear. That night, unable to sleep for the burning, itching restlessness in his chest, Silent lay on the bed in the dark, staring at the door, which he'd lit with the lamp. As the hours passed in stillness and silence, it seemed like the door was staring back at him, taunting him with the things that lay behind it...Princess Luna, traitors, hooded ponies with prosthetic legs, knives and blood and darkness, all behind the locked cell doors that sealed him within while his captors and tormentors laughed at him from without...

"Oi."

Silent hadn't realized he'd fallen asleep until he was woken up by a strange voice and a hoof shaking him by the shoulder. Instinctively, he seized his attacker's leg and twisted it in a lock while snapping out a counterpunch. The assailant slapped the punch aside and knocked his grip loose, stepping back out of range. "It's just me."

Silent blinked, finally recognizing Phillip as his attacker. "Where've you been?" he snapped.

"I think I found him," Phil replied. "I might have found the intruder." He took a photograph out of his vest and gave it to Silent. It showed a tall, but slim earth pony with a light golden coat and dark brown mane and tail, with dark blue eyes and a cutie mark of a white key and a hoofprint walking down the street. His right hind leg from the knee down was a metal prosthetic.

"That might be him," Silent agreed, handing the photo back. "Who is he?"

"Soft Step," Phillip replied. "Been on the Royal Guard's watchlist for months. Accused of multiple break-ins, but never convicted. Lost the leg in a cart accident."

"Where is he?" Already Silent felt that initial slow rush, the controlled adrenaline flow that came with the beginning of a mission, like the tension of a bowstring drawn and aimed at its target. His anger was still there, but now it was set aside, allowing him to focus on the job at hand.

"Fifteen minutes after we get you changed and ready," Phillip replied.

"Changed?" It was then that Silent noticed that Phillip had brought in a large cloth bag with him and laid it down on the floor. Taking the bag in his teeth, he shook the contents out onto the bed. A dark red coat with holes for pegasi wings, a black slouch hat, and a makeup kit.

"It'll be a bit big, but it'll work," Phil said, opening the makeup kit and taking a brush in his teeth. "Hold still."

Fifteen minutes later, the two were trotting through the shadowy streets of the Canterlot evening. Silent was now clad in the coat and had the slouch hat pulled down low over his face, which was expertly done up to make him seem older than he actually was. His cutie marks were now covered by fake images of a storm cloud with a lightning bolt.

"How'd you find Soft Step?" he asked Phillip softly.

"I have contacts in the Guard, the homeless and the underworld," Phillip replied. "They eliminated all the unlikely ones, and I started checking on the likely ones."

A pair of patrolling Guards turned the corner ahead of them. Ignoring the momentary panic-fueled urge to turn and go the other way, Silent kept walking forward at the same pace. "Don't give them a reason to stop us," Phil muttered out of the corner of his mouth. The two continued to walk, seeming to all the world like two friends out for a stroll, and the Guards passed them by without a second thought.

"We're here," Phillip said, pausing in front of a three story brick building that stood dark against the night sky. A stone sign next to the concrete walkway read "Sunrise Apartments."

"Soft Step lives on the third floor, apartment 3C. Come on." Phillip led the way up the walkway and opened the door for Silent, ushering him in quickly. The two walked quietly up the dark, narrow stairs, the small lamps casting huge, ominous shadows upon the walls. All was silent. Then, from up ahead came a strange sound: claws upon wood.

Silent froze, his heart rate accelerating immediately. Griffons! He pushed Phillip behind him, reaching for the sword that was no longer at his hip.

"What is it?" Phillip asked.

"I..." Had it been merely his imagination? "Thought I heard something."

"I didn't hear anything except you giving us away," Phil said impatiently. "Come on." He continued up the stairs to the third floor and proceeded down the shadowy hall towards room 3C. The door sat waiting for them at the end of the hallway. Kneeling at the keyhole, Phillip took a set of lock picks out of a pocket in his vest and started picking the lock. Silent covered his back, staring into the darkness of the hall. He was calm, but still felt that same nervous tension. He felt that same familiar tingling down his spine, like there was something there in the darkness, just outside of what he could see...watching...waiting...

With the faintest of clicks, the door unlocked. Stepping to the side of the door, Phillip opened the door very slowly to avoid making it creak, peering in with one eye. Taking a small, shoulder-mounted flashlight from another pocket, he strapped it on and turned it on to the lowest setting. Stealthily, he crept inside, with Silent right behind him.

The two entered the main sitting room, which was barely decorated and furnished sparsely with a couple of sofas and a coffee table. "Soft Step might not be home," Phillip said in the quietest whisper. "We should look around—AUGH!" He cried out in surprise as a golden aura suddenly surrounded him, freezing him in position. Before Silent could react, another spell struck him from out of the darkness. The impact hit like a minotaur's kick, knocking the breath out of his lungs, and then the air around him seemed to solidify, as if the weight of the world was pressing down on his whole body. For a moment, he couldn't breathe and gasped in panic until his lungs learned to work again. He struggled, but the immobilization spell was too strong; save for his eyes and mouth, he couldn't move an inch, and neither could Phillip.

"Mr. Step isn't here at the moment," said a voice from the darkness. A cold, slick voice with a Gerwhin accent. "He asked me to housesit for him."

Phillip's eyes narrowed and he let out a breath in a venomous hiss. "Zugzwang."

A lamp switched on, casting the room in semi-light and revealing a pony sitting in a chair outside of the room, his back to them. He wore an expensive suit and tie and his cutie mark was a black king chess piece.

"I imagine they'll be pulling Mr. Step's body from the reservoir within the hour," the unicorn continued, slowly turning to face into the room as he puffed his on his silverleaf cigarette. This pony had a light tan coat, professionally styled dark chestnut brown mane, mustache and tail, and eyes as black as an abyss. "I have little doubt that the escaped mad fugitive Silent Knight will be suspected in his murder." Smiling, he turned the cigarette into ash with a flicker of golden light from his horn.

"Ah, Phillip. Predictable as the sunrise and as subtle as a thunderstorm," Zugzwang said, rising and walking over to Phillip, who growled back at him softly. "I was expecting you to show up sooner or later." He then turned to Silent. "Lieutenant Knight, a pleasant surprise." Silent just glared back at him.

"So," Zugzwang said, sitting on the sofa between them. "I assume you've figured it out, Phillip? What did happen that night?"

Phillip glared at him for a moment more, then spoke. "You hired Soft Step to break into the palace and attack Lieutenant Knight, scratching him with a knife doused in a hallucinogenic drug. Dr. Nevermore's work, I'm assuming?"

Zugzwang nodded, looking delighted. "He was very excited when I commissioned him. He finds Royal Guards to be a most interesting subject." He puffed on the cigarette, filling the room with the heady aroma of Saddle Arabian tobacco as he gestured for Phillip to continue.

"When Silent returned to Princess Luna's chambers, as you predicted he would, he hallucinated that Luna was an enemy and attacked her," Phillip said. "When he woke up the next morning, unable to remember what had happened, it would appear to everypony that he'd gone mad. You just got lucky when he was sent to prison instead. Or maybe unlucky."

Silent listened in quiet astonishment. As if the words were a cue on stage, the curtain suddenly pulled back and the memories flooded his brain...

He burst through the doors into Luna's chambers, into the darkened bedroom. "Your Highness, are you—?"

He froze, staring in disbelief. It was not Princess Luna who stood before him. It was a griffon, adorned in armor, clutching a bloody sword in his claws and sneering at him. Alastair. The griffon captain who had murdered his comrades in an ambush. The traitor that he himself had killed with his own hooves, now alive, standing before him, and threatening his Princess.

"You!" he shouted, drawing his sword and attacking in one motion. Cackling, Alastair ducked the blade, swooping out of reach. Again and again, Silent attacked, rage and fury powering him. Every attack was dodged, the griffon continuing to laugh mockingly from out of his reach. Suddenly, several other griffons flew into the room and seized Silent's limbs, holding him back. Still he fought, trying to get to his attacker, to make sure that he stayed dead this time!

Suddenly, exhaustion filled his mind and he felt himself falling. The last thing he heard before unconsciousness overtook him was his enemy's taunting laughter.

He went numb with disbelief. A wave of nausea traveled up from his stomach. He looked down at his hooves, feeling as though his own body had betrayed him. For a moment, the conversation taking place before him felt far away, and he had to force himself back to reality.

"The only question is why," Phillip finished.

"Why does any player make a move?" Zugzwang scoffed, shaking his head. "To gain an advantage." He turned to Silent Knight, casually blowing cigarette smoke into his face and making him cough.

"I want you to understand something, Lieutenant," Zugzwang said in a disdainful tone. "As much as I despise you as an individual, choosing you was not personal. You were the most vulnerable one of all of them."

"Vulnerable?" Silent almost shouted, his fury breaking through his disbelief. "I would never betray Princess Luna!"

"Would you?" Zugzwang said softly, smirking like a cat holding a mouse in its paws. "Are you absolutely certain of that?" He spoke in a soft, almost condescending tone. Moving to Silent's side, he leaned in close and stage-whispered into his ear from out of his sight.

"I know about Alastair, Lieutenant," he said. Silent stiffened in disbelief at hearing his enemy's name spoken as the taunt continued. "I know that he ambushed and killed your comrades. I know that you had him hunted and stalked him for months. I know that you gathered a group of innocent ponies and put them all at risk, just so you could kill him yourself." Zugzwang slowly circled the immobilized Silent as he spoke, sliding back into his view, smirking at him the whole time. "There's no denying it, Silent Knight. You have the mind of a murderer. A cold-blooded killer. So tell me this...how can you be certain that you didn't show everypony your true face when you attacked Princess Luna that night?"

Silent only stared back at Zugzwang in stony silence, breathing heavily through his nostrils as his emotions churned inside him. Looking into the mocking black eyes, he felt as though he were falling into a dark, endless abyss.

"That's enough," Phillip spoke firmly. Zugzwang slowly turned back to him, his gloating smile vanishing. "You said this was a game, mate. And what's the fun in watching your opponent staggering around in the dark?" Phillip paused, collecting his thoughts behind his stoic mask. "It'd be much more fun to give them something to ponder over, a little piece of bait to chew on. After all, what's the point of being clever if you can't prove it, rub it in our faces a little?" There was another pause, the two nemeses staring coldly at one another. "You know how this works, Zugzwang," Phillip growled.

Slowly, Zugzwang smiled again. "Yes, and so do you, mein liebling," he cooed softly, striding over to Phillip and gently stroking his cheek with the back of his hoof. "That's why I love you." He looked at both his captives and nodded. "Yes. I'll give you a little clue...when you wake up." His horn glowed gold with magical energy and a sudden, heavy drowsiness dropped onto both stallions. Both of them struggled against the sleeping spell.

"Now, now, boys," Zugzwang said in the chiding tone of a parent scolding a child. "I know you're excited, but it's time for bed." Shaking his head at their continued struggling, he began to softly croon. "Guten abend, gute nacht...mit Rosen bedacht..."

Phillip collapsed to his knees, then the floor. Silent slowly followed, the weight of sleep pressing down harder and harder on him. Despite his best efforts, his eyelids slowly closed and his brain was forced to let go of the conscious world.

Author's Notes:

In which Silent Knight gets repeatedly screwed over and we finally meet the pony behind the curtain.

Sorry for the long wait! I've been goofing around too much recently. And I really, really hope I'm doing okay with this story. What do you all think? Drop me a comment and tell me what you liked/didn't like!