"Stop here," Bravado said.

The carriage rolled to a halt. The gray earth pony stepped out and tipped his hat to the zebra pulling the cart. "Much obliged," he said. "We'll call this even this time, okay?"

"Even?" the zebra said, looking shocked. "How can this begin to repay you? You saved my daughter's life."

Bravado sighed. "Yeah. I figured you'd say that." He waved goodbye and started through the streets of the Dalquen district. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the gratitude and the occasional free ride, but it made him nervous when ponies vowed to serve him for life when he'd really never done anything truly heroic. Daring Do, now- that pegasus would go out of her way to help ponies. But Bravado was always just in the right place and the right time. That's how it had always been for him- right place, right time.

Well, this time it would be different. Azure Lightning had given him the latest Marabian news every time Bravado had been in the area, even when the information was difficult or dangerous to obtain. Now that he'd gone missing, Bravado needed to at least find out what happened so that he could alert the authorities. He owed Azure that much, at least.

A few rumors had pointed him in the direction of the Dalquen district. He wasn't very familiar with the area, and he didn't like the look of the place, but he'd said he would find out what happened to Azure Lightning and he was going to stick to it.

He was in a marketplace, but it had a more sinister feel than other Marabian marketplaces he'd seen before. Watermelons and other huge, easy-to-hollow-out fruits sold for suspiciously high prices. Jewelers and spice merchants always examined every passerby carefully and kept a close watch for guards. Ponies walked about in cloaks with hoods that hid their identity, and spoke to the shopkeepers in whispers. Coins were exchanged on the sly- sometimes jangles, sometimes the more economically stable bits, sometimes gemstones or other objects.

Bravado kept a close watch on everypony.

"Psst."

Bravado turned around. He didn't see anypony.

"Hey, you in the hat," a youngish voice said in Equestrian.

Bravado checked to see if anypony else was wearing a hat.

"I know you. You that pony who done gone and killed Mister Mareton."

Bravado was around in a flash. "Wait, you mean that actually happened?"

The colt blinked up at him innocently. "Of course. You think it a dream?"

"We-well…" Bravado decided not to pursue this topic of conversation any longer. "Wait, how did you- why- are you following me?"

The colt grinned. "Nah. I just head here for some business. I got things to sell. Artifacts. You want look see?"

The grammar made Bravado cringe. Was the colt trying to sound stereotypical? Not even the Marabians who had just learned Equestrian usually had accents that horrible.

"Okay, what you got?" he said.

The colt began unloading his collection. "I have this amulet, this scarab, this gemstone…"

Bravado stared at the objects in shock, his eyes bugged out. "Those were Mareton's."

"Of course. The dead don't need items, do they?"

Bravado began blinking hard, trying to un-bug his eyes.

So it was real. Oh, Celestia, it was real.

Not that Bravado was the least bit sorrowful that he had killed, of all ponies, Sebastius Mareton. He had no sympathy for that sociopath. No, the part that worried him was how he'd killed him.

All he did was punch him. That's all he'd been trying to do. But Mareton's head had come off instead.

He'd secretly tested himself in the odd hours since the murder, but he didn't seem to be any stronger than normal. So… did it only work when he was hurting ponies? …Or when he was angry?

All Bravado knew was that he'd killed Sebastius. He didn't know how. And he didn't know if it would happen again.

And that scared him.

"You want?" the colt said.

Bravado shook himself out of his thoughts. "What do you want in return?"

"30,000 jangles, minimum," the colt said. "These are precious stuff."

'Minimum' in Marabian was code for 'I'm not going to haggle with you because I could easily get a buyer who'll pay more if I wanted to.'

Bravado pushed his red bangs out of his eyes and studied the objects carefully. They were certainly worth that much at least, and he could sell them for twice that amount back in Equestria. He had to focus on business. Get his mind off the…

…pony he'd killed…

…to free up these items…

"You seem reluctant, Mister Mareton," the colt said.

That made Bravado pay attention. "I am not Mareton. I am Bravado."

The colt blinked in surprise. "Eh, sorry. You look alike."

"No we don't! We're nothing alike!"

The colt stared at him. "Your eyes. Your build. You both real strong ponies. You both like mane and tail long. You take dye bath, you come out Mister Mareton. I thought you brothers. Sorry."

"B-brothers? Brothers?" The thought was incomprehensible. "No way- that's just- that's ridiculous."

"Okay, okay, Mister Bravado. Point taken." The colt sullenly kicked one object. "So you no buy now?"

Bravado forced himself to stop glaring at the colt. Maybe it was truly an innocent mistake. "I'm still interested, yeah. I'm just not equipped to make such a transaction right now." Actually he did in fact have lots of bits on him, more than enough to pay what the colt was asking, but like hay he was going to announce that fact in the middle of such a shady market. "I want to make sure the trip to fetch my money will be worthwhile. Is this truly all?"

"Aha, Mister Mare-Bravado," the colt said, grinning slyly. "I like you. You want big prize. I like. You want see super special secret treasure I got?"

Bravado leaned against a nearby wall. "Sure."

"I not show if you not got bits for it."

There was a good chance that this colt did not actually have a super special secret treasure and just wanted to make Bravado say how much money he had. So Bravado just slipped a hooful of bits out his pocket, the non-secret one where he kept small amounts.

"This is what I carry on me," he said, tossing the bits in the air and catching them. This made them highly visible and easy to steal, communicating that this amount was casual change for him and that he wouldn't think it much of a loss if it was stolen. This suggested higher amounts back home.

"Ooh," the colt said, his eyes widening. "Nice glitter. Now you see what I got." The colt drew two pointy gemstones from his pocket.

"What are those?" Bravado said.

"Two genuine unicorn horns," the colt whispered. "Not wands, but I know a wand crafter if you want them shaped for you."

Bravado stared at the horns in shock. Perhaps the horn and/or wand trade was more socially acceptable (while still illegal) in Marabia, but Bravado felt like he was being offered a recently severed limb to graft onto his own body.

"Oh, piffle," the colt said. "Don't tell me you uptight Equestrian. Mister Mareton seemed fine holding these."

"That's because he's a sociopath," Bravado said evenly.

Then something clicked together in his head. Mareton had been bragging about stealing Swinn and Dell's horns, and these horns were certainly the right color to belong to them. Bravado really felt for those poor girls; he'd heard horror stories about psychically linked unicorn twins who'd needed to be committed to mental hospitals when their link was broken. Perhaps the universe was giving him another chance to do a good deed.

Right place, right time.

"Tell you what," Bravado said. "I'll pay you two solid gold bits for the whole lot. Horns, artifacts and all."

The colt's eyes bugged out. "Show me."

Bravado unsheathed his dagger and kept it pointed at the colt with his mouth while he drew the gold coins from his bag with his hoof.

"Deal, Bravado," the colt said, throwing down the items in between them and backing off. Bravado tossed the gold bits to him, stuffed the items in his saddlebag, and took off.

Now he just had to find Swinn and Dell.