"I can't believe I missed that!" said Rainbow Dash, groaning loudly in frustration while they were sitting at the café.

"It wasn't that exciting, Rainbow Dash. It could have been a lot more exciting. You'll have some excitement soon enough," said Pinkie Pie patting her on her back. They were back at the café, looking at the Mariam Mare Bank down the street. They were just taking a break from after the fight, they would soon return to duty.

"Doesn't it seem a bit excessive for somepony to bribe every seedy place in Canterlot to give us false info?" asked Spike.

"Well, yes, but whoever it is doesn't seem to take any chances. We'll be going in there, me and Rarity. You stay here and keep a look out for anything mysterious," said Twilight.

"Me? Why me, Twilight?" asked Rarity.

"Well, because honestly, you're better at dealing with banks than I am, Rarity," said Twilight.

"Oh, right. Well, shall we be off then?"

"Lead the way," said Twilight and got up from her seat.

***

Banks had always been a bit odd for Twilight. On one side, she loved the strict organization, but on the other, none of the ponies working there seemed to ever enjoy what they were doing. The Mariam Mare Bank was one of the oldest banks in Canterlot, but it didn't show. The halls were anything but old stone walls and pillars. This was a modern building, one where Rarity was more at home. The ceiling was ridiculously high, and the hallways were frankly too big and roomy. If they hadn't walked on big blue carpet they would probably have heard the faint echo of every step.

They entered one of the smaller rooms on the second floor through a large door. While they had visited a place too dirty not too long ago, this place actually seemed to be too clean. The dirtiest thing in this room were a few plastic plants in the corners.

"Do you have that order from Celestia?" asked Rarity as silently as she could.

"Yes, don't worry. With this we'll get to know everything," said Twilight. A young, gray pony in an expensive suit was sitting behind a desk, reading some very important looking documents. He looked up at them, adjusting his glasses. They were able to see half of Canterlot in the large window behind him.

"Can I help you?" he asked with a dry voice.

"Yes. I was just thinking, that, I sort of needed to well, check some-" Twilight  was basically stuttering, she wasn't quite sure how to talk in a situation like this. She didn't even like banks, fortunately, Rarity pounced to help her.

"Hello, good Sir. How are you? We're awfully sorry to disturb such an important pony as yourself, but we are here under direct order of the Princess. We believe that your bank has recently extracted a large sum of money to one of your clients and we are here to find out the name of that particular client," said Rarity.

"I can not simply give you such sensitive information without some sort of permit," said the pony. Twilight presented the permit Princess Celestia had sent them. The pony read it through carefully.

"Hm, yes, this does seem to be an official request by Princess Celestia. You are aware of the fact that if this turns out to be a forgery you might face up to twenty years in prison, correct?" asked the pony.

"Of course," said Twilight. The pony took out a paper from a drawer and started writing on it. He then handed it over to Twilight.

"Please sign here, here, here, and here," said the pony. Twilight quickly signed and the pony took it back, filing it away along with the permit. "There. Now. What is it you want to know about this client?"

"Could you perhaps tell us who she is?" asked Twilight Sparkle. The pony looked at her with a deadpan expression on his face.

"Could you perhaps give something a bit more, or, you know, actually substantial to go on?" asked the stallion.

"Right, the transaction was a minimum of 3000 bits," said Twilight Sparkle. The pony didn't change his expression, he just looked at her for about five seconds before he sighed and rubbed his hoof over his forehead.

"Ma'am. This is just not any bank. This is Mariam Mare. We deal with literally thousands of exchanges every day. 3000 bits might just be the most commonly 'large' sum extracted from our bank on a daily basis. This suit, costs 3000 bits. If you're going to want to find someone in our records, you will have to be much more specific than that. We know you are looking for somepony specific, but we will simply not allow you to look through every statement made here until you find the one you are looking for. I sincerely hope that wasn't your plan all along," said the pony, glaring at Twilight, ignoring Rarity's '3000? I could have done one for 300.'

"Of- of course not. I'm just wondering if... What has the largest transaction been recently?" asked Twilight.

"That is public information, fortunately. It was ten million bits. It was extracted by a griffin prince for charity. That is the largest amount in a single transaction this month. It's hardly a record breaker here at Mariam Mare" That clearly didn't help them at all.

"Well, then, um... oh! Has there been a large amount of 3000 bit transactions from the same client this month?"

"How do you mean?"

"As I said, has any pony extracted 3000 bits in large amounts," said Twilight. The pony thought about it for a bit, and then opened his drawing looking through it.

"Let's see... yes, here it is. Now that you mention it, usually, 3000 bit transactions only range in the tens from different ponies each day, but this month one pony extracted no less than a 100 of them at once. While not rare, it is specific enough that I will allow you to at least learn the client's name. You will have to then talk to the Princess' archiver to learn more. It is merely a way to make sure that Mariam Mare is not responsible for any unwanted outcome," said the young stallion and went through a few lists. "Ah, here it is. It was done in the name of someone with the Silver Whitemane. Wait, Whitemane? That sounds... familar," said the pony.

"Sir?"

"This is no business of mine, however. I'm merely doing my job. I will have to request you to leave. Of course, if this isn't the pony you are looking for you will require another permit to do more here. Have a good day," said the pony, putting the files back in the drawer.

They walked out of the room and continued towards the stairs leading out.

"So, what now?" asked Rarity.

"We'll be going to the castle. Let's see if can find out about this Silver Whitemane," said Twilight.

***

Without wasting time, they swiftly returned to the castle. Once they entered the main archive, Twilight accidentally bumped into somepony familiar, her brother. He still had that expression on his face like he was all alone. Joe walked up to Twilight and helped her up after falling over.

"Twilight Sparkle! We have just found out something awful, well, it was actually your bro who did, but, well, in any case. He noticed there was a pattern to all the places that had clues in them! They are all-"

"In a grid-pattern, yes, we know," said Twilight.

"Oh. So, you know we are back to square one?" asked one of the guards.

"We might not be, we were just on our way to the archive. We think we've found a real clue this time. Get my brother inside and we'll talk, but first we have to find the birth register," said Twilight.

***

"I found something!" yelled Rainbow Dash, holding up a book above her head in triumph. Every single pony in the room who had been searching though books to find this Whitemane immediately crowded around her. Rainbow Dash looked into the book. She stared to read some of the information. "Wait, this is just a book of baby names. Wow, that was a dud. Sorry guys!" said Rainbow Dash.

"I, I found something," said Fluttershy quietly, holding up a book of her own. To her despair, they all started to crowd around her instead. It was about old Canterlot families, and was more of a history book than an actual register, which surprised Twilight.

"I found a name here, in the back of the book. It was Whitemane, but, the actual pages have been covered with ink," said Fluttershy, showing the pages in question.

"Somepony has censored out these parts, it looks like some pretty official work too. Only the ponies of highest rank are allowed to do such a thing," said one of the guards.

"On the bottom it says 'For more information, please get permission to access... Celestia's private archive?'" said Fluttershy, surprised.

"Well, let's go ask her," said Twilight.

***

In the throne room, they were once again talking to the Princess, this time she was a bit more relaxed. Most of her work of the day had been taken care of. Once they mentioned the name 'Silver Whitemane' she got a bit more tense. She looked at them with a serious look on her face.

"Guards, will you-"

"Give you some privacy?" asked the nearest guard, immediately apologizing for stepping out of line.

"It's alright, but please," said Celestia. They immediately left the throne room. "To think that not one but two old ghosts in my history would come back at a time like this," said Celestia.

"Oh no, are we up against ghosts now, too?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Princess, who is this stallion, this Silver Whitemane?"

"The Whitemanes. An old family. They were great at their peak, but even when they dwindled they were one of my greatest allies. Most of them had hearts as pure as snow. They were all very kind, and I remember them fondly... except one. That one. What I'm about to tell you is of utmost secrecy. It was something I decided that I simply didn't want the ponies of Equestria to hear. That one of the oldest and greatest families had ended with such a darkness. I cherish their memory too much for that. So I made sure that any mention of what happened was hidden. Only I know of it and an old guard who happened to be there at the moment. He actually helped save my life that day."

"That day?" asked Twilight.

"Let me explain. This all happened when you were all very young."

***

It was just about twenty years ago. Celestia, who had usually all the time in the world, suddenly found herself with very little time at all. She was running in the old, dried out sewers of Canterlot, the ones that hadn't seen use for at least half a century. Her light was the only thing that lit the way. Both in front of her and behind her were guards doing their best to keep up with their Princess in the damp darkness. They were following a wire that was on the dirty floor. They didn't have much time.

"Where is this leading, Captain?" asked Princess Celestia.

"I think this is leading towards the eastern part of old Canterlot, Your Higness," said the guard.

"This can't be," said Celestia, but she didn't hesitate. "Are you sure the wire simply can not be cut from down here?" asked Celestia.

"I'm sure, Princess. It would create a short circuit, making the explosives go off," said the guard. As he said that word, Princess Celestia saw a metal box stuck to the wall immediately to her right, there was another bomb, one of hundreds strewn across the old sewers. This was part of the foundation of Canterlot, if they would all explode at the same time. Her entire city would first collapse, and then fall off the very side of the mountain.

"We have four more minutes!" said one her soldiers. Four minutes, 240 seconds. If they couldn't stop this within 240 seconds everyone would die, and whoever did it would never be held responsible for what they had done.

They suddenly ran into a dead end, but it wasn't really the end of the line. The wire was suddenly going up. Celestia focused a blast of energy into the brick wall cutting off their path. It fell apart at the sudden force. They rushed into an old room, a basement. They saw a faint light at the top of a staircase. Celestia rushed up there and blew the door open.

She found herself in a very old, luxurious, familiar home. The tapestry was almost golden, the red carpets under her hooves incredibly soft. The windows were in several colors and created beautiful patterns. Celestia saw the wire, and she heard the faint sound of somepony crying. Celestia rushed out from the hallway and into the living room. In front of her she saw something that was nothing short of tragic.

On the old sofa, with a knife in his neck, there lied an earth stallion. He was middle aged. His coat was sandy and even in death it gave a strange impression of warmth. His mane was, as his namesake suggested, white as snow, with just some of the blood staining its otherwise pure color. Celestia had known him well. His eyes were wide open in death, and he was lying in a pained position not fitting for one that had been as noble as him. In front of him, holding his hoof, there was a little filly, crying. This wasn't the most worrisome thing in the room, however. On the table in front of the sofa, there was a mechanical box. It was tied to a clock, counting down until it would set off the explosions. There was less than one minute left.

"Guards! Stop the countdown!" ordered Celestia. Several of the guards removed the screaming filly from her dead father as they were forced to coldly ignore the stallion and focus on the detonator. One of the guards carefully opened up the box, showing the mechanical parts carefully put together within.

"This, this isn't magical machinery, this, this is scientific. Spells won't work," said one of the more intelligent ponies there. The captain of the group pushed aside the ponies before it. There was only forty more seconds on the timer.

"I took some basic classes in this when I was in college, sure, the teacher was a unicorn who didn't know his Watts from Amperes, but hey, I might be the most qualified pony here," said the captain.

"Are you... making jokes? We could all die!" Twenty seconds.

"If we're going to die I'd rather go out with a smile on my face," said the captain. He muttered to himself, trying to remember the most basic of rules from several years ago."This mechanism, leading to that, is that a magnetic surface? Yes, to set off the initial signal, which will probably travel in a tree shaped route towards the," was everything Celestia managed to hear. The little filly was yelling through her tears.

"Don't touch Daddy's project! He worked hard on it! You're ruining his hard work!" shouted the filly, clearly not understanding the situation, but then again, Celestia hardly did either. She never expected the dead stallion on the sofa, her old friend, to ever do something so horrible. Seven seconds.

"Give me a feather!" ordered the captain. Celestia pulled one from her wings and basically shot it at him. He grabbed it with his hoof and basically shoved it into the box. There was a ding from the clock, making everyone tense up at the sound.

For a few seconds, you could have heard a grain of salt hit the floor. Some of the guards fainted, having been pushed to their limits. But, since they were not dead, they seemed to have succeeded. Everyone lost their cool for a moment, even Celestia cheered. "IT'S NOT OVER YET!" yelled the captain, making everyone fall silent again. "The battery is still letting out a charge, and while I've stopped the electrical signal, the metal piece that's supposed to carry it is still pushing against the feather. We are literally a feather away from all dying. I need a unicorn to carefully remove the battery from this thing," said the captain.

Celestia had the steadiest magical ability. She walked up next to the captain and very carefully removed the two things he pointed at, making up some sort of chemical mixture that Celestia had to admit, she didn't understand.

"Now, don't do anything else until I'm done explaining. This is a tricky step," said the captain, managing to keep a cool head, despite the fact he was sweating so much it dripped from him. "This thing is clearly hooked up to a secondary charge, which will set off the explosions in case of excessive tampering. I noticed a fault in it, however. If I let the original method of the charge be set off without the battery, the secondary can't do anything. In other words, I need you to, when I say so, cut the wires between those two containers making up the battery," said the guard. Sweating more than ever.

"I will follow your command, Captain. Have no fear. I trust you," said Celestia and nodded.

"Let's just synchronize first, this is a split second thing, we can't make a mistake. Counting to three isn't going to cut it, too uncertain, not precise enough. I will make three 'ah' sounds. At the very start of the third 'ah', you cut the wire completely. Let's just test, before the actual thing. Say it when I do. Ah, ah."

"Ah!" they finished in unison.

"Good. Now for the real thing. If you have any last words, now might be the time," said the captain, looking at his trusted soldiers and friends. One of the newer guards poked his hoof at the floor a bit, before turning to one of the more experienced guards.

"I've never liked you," said the young pony spitefully without regrets.

"Time to start. Ready?" Celestia nodded gently, she was keeping a cool head. "Ah, ah."

"Ah!"

***

"Wow, that might have been a really exciting story if we didn't obviously already know how it ended," said Rainbow Dash.

"I'm not finished yet, keep listening," said Celestia.

***

"So, when I said I didn't like you, I didn't mean it totally like that," said the young guard sheepishly to the guard glaring at him. The captain was lying on the floor, exhausted. Ponies had already received orders to remove the now harmless boxes in the old sewers. This threat was officially over. Celestia was standing by the sofa, looking down on the dead stallion.

"Silver, what could possibly have pushed you to do this?" asked Celestia. She didn't shed a tear for him. She had in her youth cried plenty. She was used to the concept of death. She would always cherish the time they had spent together as good friends. She swept her hoof over his eyes, closing them. The smell of blood got on her hooves, but the Princess endured.

"What's wrong with Daddy!? Why isn't he waking up!?" yelled the little filly from the hallway. The guards tried to get the little filly outside, but she struggled to stay with her deceased father. She looked just like her father, but had her long mane in a ponytail.

"Get that filly out of here. We need to find out where he has the plans stored for this system. This could create some serious damage," said the captain, finally having the strength to get up again.

"Wait. Sweetie, does your father have a place where he's ever built something?" asked Celestia, walking up to the filly just as the guards were about to take her away.

"I, I think he works in his study sometimes," said the little filly.

"What's your name, little one?"

"It's, it's Merry," she said, sounding quite shy.

"Captain, would you help me? Lead the way, dear," asked Celestia. The filly seemed confused, but she did as the nice lady told her to. They walked up the stairs, and into a room filled with books, and on the floor, several mechanical tools, wires, and such. It certainly looked like a place to work on this.

"Daddy was in here all the time. He told me he was working, working on a project. You messed up his project! When he wakes up you're going to say you're sorry to him!" said the filly with an angry look in her eyes.

The captain carefully examined everything on the floor, as far as he knew, it was enough to create explosives, some of the books on the floor was about pyrotechnics. Despite all these evidence, there was just something wrong with this whole thing. There was something missing. He realized something that somepony with more modern experience could, but somepony as old as Celestia might not.

"Celestia, the bank statement from Mariam Mare. It was about gunpowder, right?" asked the captain.

"That's correct," said Celestia. The captain walked up to the door, passing by the filly and sensing something. He looked outside into the hallway and then whispered something in Celestia's ear. She didn't change her expression, but it was still clear that she was surprised. She nodded at a particular question from him. "Sweetie, are you sure that this is all your father's things?" asked Celestia. The filly nodded weakly, still a bit teary eyed.

"Well, I better check for schematics, think you could help me, Sweetie? Captain, thank you for all your hard work. I will see you later today when you give me your final report on this matter. Good day," said Celestia. The guard bowed and walked outside of the room, closing the door behind him.

Celestia and the little filly was alone in the room. Celestia trusted the guard completely, and his theory, while incredibly wild, if true, would in a strange way make sense. It was time to find out. Celestia turned her back towards Merry, looking through the documents on a nearby desk.

"I can't help but to wonder how your father built something like his project. His talent is agriculture. Did you know that? He's helped a lot of ponies. He and I were good friends, at least I thought we were, so why he would do this project without telling me is a bit-" There was a large bang on the door. Celestia turned around so quickly that lightning itself could be jealous of her, she focused a spell, aiming at the air. The filly was frozen in the middle of her leap, levitating, with a blade in her mouth, picked up from the floor. The door slowly opened and the captain was standing there, after peeking in through the keyhole.

"It turns out I was right. It was odd that the stallion didn't reek of gunpowder, but that the filly did," said the captain and closed the door.

"I almost can not believe it. A filly, his daughter, murdered him to make him seem guilty. Even I was fooled, I would have never expected Silver to have done something so terrible if the alternative wasn't so horrible. In twisted way, I'm relieved you were right. What do you have to say for yourself, Merry Whitemane?" asked Celestia, with cold rage in her voice.

The filly struggled in the magical grip, but she might as well have tried to move mountains with her mind. She started to laugh with the blade in her mouth, eventually dropping it so it fell, landing with the pointy end down. She laughed, and laughed, and laughed. It was sickening, the laugh of a filly, laughing completely sincerely at her murder of her own father.

"It would have been nothing short of beautiful. It would have been remembered forever. My father, my own father, bearing the Whitemane name, was a worthless farmer. Such dishonor, despicable. I would rather die than let the heritage and name of this family fade out into obscurity. I was even ready to die for it, I was so close, I could have gotten away, blaming it on him as the only survivor! But you had to figure it out, didn't you? You just had to figure it out! Didn't you?! You just had force me to stay behind trying to reset it!" Celestia barely heard the filly talking, she just looked on with disgust.

"This family... this family was a good one. Every single pony in it, from the first father to the last son were my friends! You've destroyed any honor the Whitemane bloodline had! If my anger didn't obscure everything else, I would be able to hear them turning in their graves. You will be punished for this, I swear. You could have been born yesterday, you could be so old you'd die tomorrow, I would still give you your punishment!" roared Celestia. This family's fate, made her shed a single tear. The filly just laughed mockingly.

"Well, what are you going to do, Princess? Who in this entire world, except for that stupid guard there, would even believe you? A filly, killing her father and almost destroying Canterlot all by herself? You couldn't even think of it a few minutes ago, why would anyone else want you to punish this?" asked the filly, suddenly pouting, creating a shockingly good facade of a young heartbroken filly. "I- Don't- Know- Why- She- Is- So- Mean!" Merry said, breathing heavily because of sudden tears.

Celestia realized she was right. Nopony would believe them, even if some ponies did, they might not even have allowed it. She remembered Silver, dead on the couch, having faced an undignified end at the hand of a monster he had created, a monster he had loved. She would not allow this pony to get away with that.

"Nopony has to know about any of this. I will make this act die out into obscurity. You will be sent to that new prison in the griffin kingdom."

"Ha! Even they have a court. You simply can't prove I have anything to do with this! I'm a genius, don't you think I know a thing or two about laws? I hid every trace of making the bombs! Your testimony isn't nearly enough, neither of you are!"

"She does have a point. There isn't enough evidence to put her into jail for murder or conspiring against the kingdom," said the captain. Celestia could have almost cursed in frustration. "But, remember that signed bank statement? We do have enough evidence to put her in jail for that. She forged her father's signature. It was that thing that allowed us to notice this thing to begin with. We have evidence her father haven't signed it, and with some of this new information, we can put her in jail, even despite her age," said the captain. "What was it that stallion said? 'For at least twenty years'?" Celestia looked at him, and then turned her attention back to Merry.

"I've never wanted to give somepony a raise so badly," said Celestia, feeling odd satisfaction at being able to put this monster in its place.

"You... fool! Do you think this is over? I made a simple mistake, but I'm barely six! I will come back, better than ever! I can't be held in prison forever. Mark my words, you old fucks, when I'm get my freedom back you will never have a moment to rest. I will return, and when I do, your life will be nothing but misery!"

"Shut up, you little brat," said the captain.

"Come on, Miss Merry. You have a train to catch, far away from here," said Celestia. The sooner she could remove this... thing from Canterlot, the sooner she might be able to get some rest. It had been a very tiring day.

***

"The last of the Whitemanes. A dark spot on their bright history, leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth. She was a terrible monster, brilliant but terrifying, especially for her age. Why she is like she is I will never understand, which is why she is so frightening. Ponies usually become evil because of a good reason, with her, there wasn't one. She is just an irrational being. And, it seems she has returned. I expected her first in another ten years, as her sentence had been extended, this is far too early. It seems she have broken out and somehow kept the news from me. At least she can't blow everything up this time. I made sure to enforce the very foundation of the entire city. You could drop the moon on this city now and it wouldn't budge, sure, it would be crushed, but it wouldn't collapse," said Celestia.

"Was she... Was she really that evil?"

"Worse. I was filled with anger, but my mind was very vivid. I didn't suffer from poor judgment. There has been ponies in history that has done less horrible things than her and been punished more severely. In my opinion, she got off easy. I caution you to be even more careful. I am certain that she is far worse than Random or whoever cursed Shining Armor. I fear for my citizens when I think of her being back in the city."

***

The sun was setting, which the young stallion could easily see from his office window. The bank pony looked out the window into the sunset, it was so calming after a stressful day of hard work. Whenever he was forced to disclose information about clients, he got nervous. He was so afraid that he would make a mistake and lose everything he had worked so hard for. Somepony opened the door and walked inside the room. The pony turned around in his rotating chair, sitting up straight.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but we're closing now. If you could just come back tomorrow."

"Actually, I'm just here to ask a few questions. Are you Vault Keeper?" asked the mare. She took off the hood hiding her face, showing a young face, quite beautiful. Her sandy coat gave an impression of warmth, especially in the golden sunlight. Her white long mane was hanging free. He wasn't particularly taken with her, frankly, the mare that had been in there earlier, the white and purple one, had been much more beautiful.

"Yes, that's right," said the pony.

"And your father is Vault Holder?" asked the mare. Her voice was oddly curious and yet calming.

"That's right."

"I was just at his office. He's grown quite a lot since I saw him the last time I was here personally. He was about your age when I saw him last."

"Oh, you've been here before?"

"A few times, yes. Not personally in a long time, however. It's funny, he and you did the exact same mistake at about the same time in their lives," said the mare and laughed a bit. Vault didn't understand.

"Who are you, if I may ask?"

"Well, your father said the same. I might as well tell you too. I'm Merry Whitemane, but I go by something else nowadays."

"Oh, you're the client, an old one, isn't that right?"

"Yes."

"I didn't know how to contact you, so I feel obliged to tell you now that somepony has been informed about your family's account. I was legally forced to. Mariam Mane Bank takes this very seriously."

"I know, I knew the moment they walked into the bank. This time it wasn't a mistake, but intentional. She should know now," said the pony fiddling with something attached to her front leg with some steady straps, it was something a bit foreign in design to Vault. He certainly had never seen something like that before.

"What's that?" asked Vault, curious as he always were in matters not related to the bank.

"A mechanical wonder, created by me. This world has never seen something like it. Do you know Gunther from the east? Who invented fireworks? I decided to name this contraption after that, since it relies on the same principle heavily. I've already showed your father it. Do you know what I call it?" asked Merry.

"No, what?" Merry pointed the end of the small elegant contraption at Vault.

"A gun."

The small explosion had been the last thing Vault would ever hear. Unlike his father who had been forced to suffer a bit at first, Vault essentially got to join him immediately. He didn't need to feel any pain as the small metal slug pierced his skull in between his eyes.

"I don't care who you are or what you do. Don't ever betray me. Say hi to your father from me." She covered the gun with he cloak and calmly turned away from the dead stallion. "Your move, Celestia."