Truly Evil?

The guards watched kind of bewildered when June started so defiantly, and then jumped into the carriage that was to carry her along with the two guards, Diamond and Ician back to Canterlot. Looking to each other, they shrugged before climbing in as well, one going to the reins and the other standing near the back to ensure neither got the idea to leave suddenly. As soon as Ician climbed into the chariot, it took off smoothly into the air and angled towards Canterlot.

A little while later, the castle was looming before them all as the chariot came about to land. When it stopped, the guards were quickly joined by additional forces who preformed a mix of salutes and odd looks at the trio as they were escorted into the castle itself. Ician, Diamond, and June were shown to the throne room, while simultaneously another group of ponies were ushered out. With a quiet nod from the large, elegant alicorn sitting on the throne, most of the guards left the room as well while a moment later the smaller alicorn sister strode in.

With a second quiet nod to each other, both Celestia and Luna looked towards the trio of ponies assembled before them. Celestia spoke first, "It is good to see the three of you appear to be unhurt, though it pains me to hear that the one absent member received such grievous injuries. Allow me to assure, that we are doing all we can to save him."

Then Luna spoke up as her sister's head lowered in remorse. "Lieutenant Colonel Ician, we'd like to hear a report on what you experienced inside the manor as well as your statements on your companions. We'll also need their own accounts of what occurred within the manor before discussing new information with you," Luna said in a serious tone.

During this, Dusk was rushed into the emergency room of the hospital nearest to the mansion. Not knowing how much damage there was internally, the doctors decided to open him up to not miss anything. Two surgeons and a number of nurses were working on him, doing everything in their power to save him. At the same time it was hard to identify him, but they soon had his blood type and the proper blood to give him. It was still unknown if Dusk would survive at this point, but the doctors stayed optimistic.

As Diamond was escorted into the castle with the others, a strange looking pony walked into the group, the guards didn't react as she walked right past them. She appeared to be a unicorn wearing a tattered dress, an equally tattered hat that looked similar to Diamond's, and was a little bit shorter than Diamond. She walked right up to the catatonic Halfling and placed a mark on them. She then walked off, right through a Royal Guard as if she was a ghost. 

Diamond convulsed, then blinked a few times, everything beginning to process as normal again. They realized that they were being escorted to the throne room. Diamond glanced around, wondering when the transition had taken place. When they were led into the throne room, Diamond glanced around, remembering how it was before Luna's return. They had been six at the time. Diamond began to quietly cry when Celestia mentioned Dusk. The love potion hadn't worn off yet, and the effects were taking their toll.

Ician saluted. "Yes, your highness. I shall note down a full report on paper, but for the moment I suppose a summary will have to suffice. In all, the navigation of the manor proved difficult, owing to the large number of traps, such as rune-animated objects and illusions. Some magic is likely at play as well, as the doors seemed to act as portals; closing them and reopening them would yield a different room beyond. Most strange of all, however, was that there was some advanced technological equipment, within which we found Diamond," he gestured to Diamond, "being held within one of the tanks. I am afraid that I was not qualified to recognise the equipment, and now it likely is no longer standing, given the obliteration of the manor at the hooves of Diamond."

June listened to all of what was going on, taking in the throne room from behind the familiar tint of her backup glasses.  The emptiness hadn't stopped yet, but she could still pretend, and pretend she did, quietly trying to comfort Diamond when she had started crying.  She looked back up at the princesses.  "I'd like to add that Sin seemed to be planning some sort of big revenge thing." A pause, and then she remembered something important. "And, this will be in a report I'll write, but I'd like to say it now.  If and when you do investigate the mansion, there will be a... tomb.  It belongs to Sin Ester's wife.  Please let it remain intact, as Ician," she took a moment to glare at the named pony, "already searched it very thoroughly."  She thought for another second.  "There's also a demon of some sort, so look out for that.  He was bound when we saw him, but now..." June shrugged.  "Again, I'll write everything down."

The two princesses nodded at the statements, and both their eyes seemed to follow something unseen for a moment or two, but they didn't say or do anything until after June had spoke. Only then did Celestia speak up, and it started with a long sigh after a brief nod to her sister. "I see, we thank you for this, and again so for making such a dangerous venture upon our behalf... We will see to the, preservation, of this tomb," Celestia went on to assure June.

With another nod to her sister, Luna now stepped up. "To bring thees as one would say, up to speed on thou's situation, Sin Ester has committed another large felony and one just as bold as the prior ones. Sin staged a series of minor crimes and disturbances that had our guards scrambling to keep order and peace. In the chaos, Sin broke into the castle vault and stole an unknown amount of treasure. We are currently assessing the inventory, but the process is slow given the vastness of the vaults inventory. He also issued a threat to an unknown number of what is highly suspected to be the nobility of Canterlot. There are already a number of the guards and a few other interested parties already investigating the scene," Luna summarized while continuing to stand resolutely by her sister's side.

"You three are free to go investigate the crime scene or if you have further questions for us, feel free to speak them now," Celestia spoke again. "We also understand if you'd no longer wish to be a part of this investigation as it seems to have taken a very dangerous turn, and in good conscience, we can't ask you to continue. We have some other investigators looking into a few other potential locations where Sin Ester may be, and are expecting a report from them within the relatively near future as well," Celestia finished with a solemn bow to all the ponies and a brief glow of magic from her horn to open a side door. "Down that hallway is the crime scene if you'd wish to go."

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Down the hall a short ways was the destroyed vaults as they were. Several guards were all around the area and the whole thing was roped off. The outer wall had a massive hole in it, making a very obvious entry and exit point and yet there was still the majority of the mountain of treasure that made up the majority of the vaults. A series of glowing magical lighting above the giant hole was arranged in such a manner as to create a lasting message for an unknown amount of time. It read, "The greed of the nobility is but the seed of their doom, and I will be the harbinger for this doom, as they have drove me to it."

Faerie Fire leans against one of the walls, contemplating the message while her spell took effect. The vault, like most important structures, had a heavy amount of abjuration magic to shield it. She was running a diagnostic on the places the wards would've been anchored to that would tell her how Sin had gotten past them. She could tell at a glance they were were utterly gone. Seeing as if Sin had been able to trick them they would probably remain, it was safe to assume they'd been destroyed. Which was worrying, as completely destroying the wardings on the Castle Vault was no easy task. The spell she was running would tell her what was left, and hopefully something about how they'd been destroyed.

The message itself was fairly uninteresting. The idea of the nobility pissing off someone who had a lot of resources and intelligence wasn't implausible or especially new. While the message did hint at additional crimes by the nobility, this also wasn't new. Assuming of course the message wasn't just a red herring. Faerie pushes off the wall back onto all fours as her spell finishes. "Hey, come over here for a moment." she calls to the guards also examining the room. As she does so, she pulls up an illusion to show her findings. Helping the guard was sensible, and would also reinforce the message that she was supposed to be here.

Diamond reverted back to their form as a mare, wiping away her tears as June comforted her. She realized that they had left out a detail about the machinery. She turned to the princesses, bowing her head in the process. "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, I need to tell you something important. The machinery there looked to be used for cloning ponies. We got a look in one of the tanks, and I saw...." Diamond trailed off. "Myself. It...it disappeared on contact with the air. The other tank was broken and something escaped from it. I don't know if it survived the fireball or not, or if it even survived outside the tank." She shook her head. "Sorry for wasting your time." She said as she walked towards the vault.

Ician bowed deeply. "Princess, I cannot speak for my companions, but it is my sworn duty as a member of the Guard to ensure order and stability. Whether or not I operate on a personal or official basis, I am bound by my oath to continue investigating, if only protect any more potential victims. I will examine the crime scene, if you allow." With another bow, Ician headed off down the side door and began inspecting the vaults. He noticed Faerie there, but he didn't initiate any greeting as of yet, allowing her to carry out her job in peace.

June followed the others to the vault.  She considered stopping the adventure.  For a moment at least.  She had signed up for mansion-exploring.  She got danger.  But danger meant injuries.  She helped fix-

June stopped suddenly.  She remembered something she had to write.  She pulled her notebook from her backpack.  Took out a pencil.  Flipped open to a fresh page and scribbled down a few triangular letters.  There.  "Check on Dusk".  That's done.  June moved onto the task at hoof.

Sniffing the air revealed magic.  Of course.  Tough to tell what for.  Probably protection.  There was a lot of treasure in here.  She wondered how they counted it all.  Hmm.  She could steal a lot.  Like back at the mansion.  But she wouldn't.  She had plenty of bits.  A few more decades worth at least.  This was more useful money.

June visibly cringed at the note.  Melodramatic villain.  Of course.  The name was Sin Ester after all.  But it was still a threatening note.  She knew Sinny planned something big.  And now well-funded.

She turned her attentions to the others in the vault.  Guards.  That one wasn't a guard.  Maybe a detective?  June went up to her as she was showing a guard something.  She nodded by way of introduction.  Serious face.  Glasses straightened.  "Hello, Doctor Kings, local investigator.  Any leads on how Sin Ester broke in?"

At the hospital Dusk was at, his concerned parents and siblings arrived. They had left Trottingham to see him as soon as they received word he was in critical condition. After getting directions from the receptionist, they made their way to the emergency room. Of course, they weren't able to do much, as the doctors were still operating on Dusk.

A nurse soon came out, asking for a Mr. Brass Horn and Mrs. Ivory Keys. Both of Dusk's parents responded to their names, and came up to the nurse, with the rest of their children following.

"What's going on? Is my boy alright?" Dusk's mother asked.

"He's still being operated on. He was caught in an explosion, and was very close to what exploded. Third degree burns, internal bleeding, a few ruptured organs, and... his back legs are mostly gone. He must've just turned to run when whatever it was exploded," the nurse said.

They all knew they'd just have to wait and see if Dusk survived. Unable to do anything else, they again found themselves waiting. Every member of the family was silently crying in some fashion. One of Dusk's brothers, Silver Liner, felt a very strong desire to bring Sin Ester did this to justice, since they knew Dusk was helping with that investigation.

The princesses nodded as the group departed and were already beginning to discuss among each other as the group left.

While the vault was examined in the various ways, several guards continued about the standard practices for sectioning off the scene of the crime so as to avoid any loss of evidence. Also outside, a decent sized collection of common ponies had gathered around to see the destruction that had transpired. Several murmurs were going around in hushed voices.

Faerie's spell however would make several of the voices go silent as illusions began to form over the scene. However when the magic went to accurately form shapes, the image was horribly blurry and distorted. One could barely make out some form that was too distorted to even tell if was in fact a pony. It seemed to do something to the wall for a moment, though what it was must have remained a mystery as it was completely undefined against the white stone of the wall. Then the wall itself simply seemed to collapse inward and the figure entered the vault, but after that point, the form distorted even more to the point where even the treasure and normally visible things inside were hard to see. This remained so until the figure reappeared as the similar distorted blur outside the vault and left promptly.

Faerie growls, seeing her spell fouled up by concealment magics. She let's out a long suffering sigh, and begins trying to build another spell off what little data she had gained from the diagnostic spell.
"Has anyone else had better luck?" She calls out, before turning to greet June. "Greetings. Faerie fire, current adjunct to this investigation. As you can see" she says, waving to the image. "As of this moment, we have no clue what's going on. If you have anything that can help me or one of the other mages running scans, please let us know. We've all got to work together, especially with the vault busted." She looks outside to the gathering crowd, before calling out to the guards in general. "Oi! Can someone back the crowd up a bit? I don't know what spell hit the vault, but I'm not placing any bets on he stability of the structure for the moment."

Ician nodded. He doubted he'd be much use in an investigation of magical nature, so he instead opted to assist in controlling the crowd. He nodded to Faerie with a curt "Understood" and then moved over to the guards. He wasn't quite sure exactly which division they belonged to, so he decided to go with a more general address. "Alright, men. The stability of this place is in question. Which means that it may fall down at any given moment. We need crowd control."

He gestured out to the crowd. "I want you all to form a line in front of them and gradually move forward. Push them back until the order is given to stop. Is that clear?"

Diamond Mind walked over to Faerie and June, glancing around at the vault. She used a spell to scan the overall integrity of the vault, wondering what she would find. "Hmm...If need be, I can craft a spell to keep the structure stable. Though I'll need a little bit of time for that." She checked her spell, wondering what the results were.

After what felt like an eternity for the family, one of the doctors came out. Dusk's mother immediately went up and asked how Dusk was doing, the rest of the family following her. The solemn expression on the doctor's face gave them all the impression that something was wrong.

"He's alive, but we don't know for how long," the doctor said, "We suspect he won't live through the night. If he does live through the night, then his chances improve significantly. But even if he does live, he'll be crippled for the rest of his life."

There was at least some hope. It wasn't much, but it brightened the spirits of the family. "Can we see him?" Dusk's mother asked.

"Yes. He's not awake, but we're uncertain if he will wake. He's being moved to room 143," the doctor replied.

With that, the family entered the halls of the hospital again. Room 143 turned out to not be far from the emergency room. Silver thought it was because he might need to go back there again. When they got to room, neither one of them were prepared for the sight. There was Dusk, with bandages around his torso, an oxygen mask on his face, charred skin and flesh across his body, and bandages covering the stumps of his back legs. Dusk's mother and father were the first to move to the bed. His mother could help but cry at the side of his bed, seeing his precious son battered and broken. His father lovingly held his wife, silently crying with her. His little sister, Pastel, went to the other side of the bed and called for her Big Bro, hoping he would wake. Silver moved beside his sister, and viewed the stallion he looked up to so much. The eldest brother, Torchlight, stood off to the side, feeling like he wasn't sure whether or not he should be there.

After some time, a guard entered the room and asked, "Is this the family of Dusk Hammer?"

The father got up to respond. "Yes, we're all his family."

"I see. We're still looking for volunteers to go after Sin Ester. As of now, he's still at large."

"What!?" Silver shouted from across the room, "What do you mean he's still at large!?"

"Forgive my son," the father said, "We're all very... emotional from how Dusk is. I hope you find more ponies who will bring him to justice."

"So we're just going to sit back and do nothing?!" Silver shouted, "No. I won't do that. I volunteer."

"Silver. Our family is already suffering. We could lose Dusk at any time. We don't want to lose you too."

"Yeah Silver. Dusk was the toughest and smartest stallion here, how are we going to help?" Torchlight asked.

"I'll at least do something. I'm going, and that's final," Silver said. He then moved from his spot by the bed and went up to guard. "Let's go, but I want to make a quick stop in Trottingham."

The guard simply nodded and led the way out. As Silver left the room, he heard his mother calling for him. He turned around to see her running up to him, with his father behind her. He was prepared to tell them that nothing would stop him from going, but he was surprised when his mother gave him a tight hug and said, "Promise me you'll come home safe."

Silver felt his heart melt from this, and he hugged his mother back. "I promise. And I promise I'll be back here tonight."

"Thank you Silver. I love you so much."

"And I love you too Mom."

With that, they parted ways. Silver followed the guard out to a sky chariot. His first stop was his family's home in Trottingham, where he dug up the last birthday present he received from Dusk. It was a suit of armor with a sword. Though Silver wasn't a soldier and couldn't really make a passable mercenary, he did learn a few things from Dusk. This armor was almost exactly like the armor Dusk would've worn, looking very much like guard armor, but Dusk magically treated the steel of both the armor and the sword to look and shine like sterling silver. It was perhaps Dusk's finest workmanship.

With that, he got back on the sky chariot and flew to Canterlot. The guard led him to the throne room where the Princesses were. Silver respectfully bowed before his monarchs and said, "Your Graces, I am Silver Liner. I am here to serve in my brother's place for this investigation."

Silver's sudden arrival had come as unexpected to the princesses, and they looked towards the pony with grim, uncertain faces before speaking. "We understand you're a relative to the injured Dusk," Luna started. "We'd like to extend our greatest condolences to him and wish for the best on his recovery," Celestia continued. "We can't ask you to continue in the investigation, and are hesitant to permit you to pursue it," Luna said then, followed by Celestia saying "There's a worry that your connection to the case might cloud your judgement and drive you to take matters in your own hoof. If we do allow you to continue in the investigation, can you promise you'll only seek his apprehension and not personal vendetta's?" The princesses left their question awaiting a response.

At the vault break in, even Diamond's spell would give fuzzy results that told of relatively little. However the break in the wall seemed fairly clean and there weren't many cracks spreading out from the hole.

The crowd responded wearily enough, none wanting to go against the guards who were carrying out Ician's commands. Gradually the crowd backed away, and a number of them even dispersed since they could no longer see the scene or had gotten their fill of it.

"Of course. I swear I will do everything in my power to bring Sin Ester in alive. I think Dusk would prefer it that way," Silver said. he thought the Princesses could easily receive information on Dusk's condition, but telling them now might speed things up. "The doctors say that Dusk might not live through the night. But if he does, his chances improve greatly. I plan on being back at the hospital tonight, just in case. I hope the other ponies I'll be working with haven't left yet," Silver said.

Faerie Fire sighs in relief as the crowd backs up, sitting on the floor with a huff. turning to Ician, she nods in gratitude. "Thank you. Since I got here I've been jumping at every creak in the structure. They built this thing well, but after whatever Sin did to it..... I didn't want a crowd to be crushed under the ceiling if it could be prevented."
Faerie looks around, examining the walls. "I don't suppose you have any information regarding Ester? Goes with out saying we could use it right now."

Diamond sighed as her spell resulted in nothing. There wasn't anything that needed fixing or reinforcing. Having become familiar with her situation, she turned towards Faerie Fire with a sigh. "Is there anything I can help you with? I'm proficient in many a manner of spells. I'm sure there's something you can use. If not, I have a few things I need to tend to."

Ician soon found himself rather busy, and unable to really answer Faerie as he was basically drafted into ordering the guards around to maintain control of the situation. The walls still seemed secure though, and weren't posing any danger to the investigators. Over near the doors however, Silver would be entering the vault as it was.

As Silver entered the vault, he immediately noticed who he thought must be Lieutenant Colonel Ician ordering guards about. He also matched the description he was given of him. He took note of the others looking at the vault, noticing they weren't soldiers, and figured they were also part of the investigation.

With that, he approached Ician. When he was close, he then said, "Colonel Ician. I'm Silver Liner. I'm here to serve in my brother's place as best as I can." Silver then thought he might be saying this a lot.

Faerie nods to Diamond. "If you have any divination magic, or can boost my own, we might be able to get through some of whatever Sin has done to this area. I'd really love to be able to tell the Diarchy by the end of the day how he got through the wall, but it's looking like that's not an option." She sighs, clearly disappointed in herself. "Wishful thinking I guess." She takes out a flute, and begins weaving another spell. She wasn't an expert in song spells, no where near. But at this point she was going for any small boost to her magic she could find. 'At least I can play the flute well enough..'

Diamond shrugged at Faerie. "I can boost your magic. Divination is not my strong suit." She began muttering under her breath, strange words and symbols began tracing themselves over her coat. She raised her voice slightly, and an incantation could be heard, but the language seemed incomprehensible. The symbols removed themselves from Diamond's coat, channeling themselves into Faerie, amplifying and enhancing her magic.

Diamond herself would finish, looking strained and tired. She was panting hard, due to drawing on magic that she herself rarely ever used. "J....just tell me if you need another dose....Let me have a slight breather..."

Ician was a little too busy to really respond past giving Silver a brief and quick, "help them," along with a point towards Diamond and Faerie.

((Go ahead and proceed with the spell a bit more, I wish to see how it's working or what it's supposed to do))