Hidden Secrets

As Twilight Sparkle sat eating lunch with her friends, she was surprised to receive a letter from her brother. Not that it wasn't a pleasant surprise, until she actually read the letter, but her brother had been extremely busy. He had been doing royal guard duties for Celestia, as well as helping Cadence rule the Crystal Empire. Because of that, the purple alicorn hadn't heard fro  her brother in over a month.

"Well, Twilight, what is it?" Twilights friend Rarity asked. "Or is it private? I can respect if it is, but..." The white unicorn really did want to hear the contents of the letter.

"Well..." Twilight started. "Shining Armor still has a lot of duties to the Crystal Empire, but Princess Celestia has assigned him something else to do to; hunt down a little filly who escaped a mass imprisonment spanning over a small colony inside the boarders of Equestria, but outside its rule. He says the villagers were told to move to the surrounding towns, but refused. Girls, I think we should move this conversation to my house. Who knows what will happen out here."

The ponies trotted over to Twilights house, where they talked in whispers about her encounter the night before. "Zecora told me what happened, too. I was going to tell you about it over lunch, but then the letter came. From what I can tell, the filly had no way of knowing it was the royal guards, and simply described them as 'unicorns in armor'. I guess the pegasi were transporting prisoners."

*  *  *

Twinkle was in the basement when the guards arrived. Zecora told them over and over she hadn't seen anyone like their picture, but they kept asking. Then, the little filly saw something else that interested her. A rat scuttled across the floor. Suddenly, Twinkle had an idea. Using the illusion magic she had learned the night before, she made herself seem like a bigger rat, and stood in front of the skinny one heading towards Zecoras grain supply. Squeaking, the real rat ran off, and Twinkle ceased casting the illusion with a look of smug satisfaction on her face. She didn't have to restrict herself to ponies. Heck, she could probably become Karl if she wanted to.

*  *  *

"Nopony? Are you sure you asked everypony?" The squad leader asked frantically. "There is a dangerous criminal out there that could strike at any moment! We can't report this to Princess Celestia? What will she say about your failure?"

"His failure in what?" This stopped the squad leader dead as he turned around to face the princess of the night. She didn't look very happy.

"Oh, uh, Princess Luna! Didn't expect to see you around here!" He said, looking back at the guards who had failed him as if to say Hey! A little help here? and getting angry looks from them.

"Stop stalling, Iron Shield. Failure in what?" Princess Luna was definitely angery with the squad leader now. Her glared caused him to shrink back a lot.

"Your sister has sent us out to round up a criminal with illusion magic. We haven't found them yet. Our intelligence states that they are under the guise of a dark blue pegasus filly with a yellow mane. We are unsure if they have a cutie mark, but it is likely. Flight speed is--" He never got the chance to finish.

"Would this filly happen to be from one of the 'Rebel Colonies' nopony told me about? It was purely a slip of the tongue on the part of Twilight Sparkle that I heard about them at all! Have you been involving her in these villainous crusades?" The princess of the night was using the royal Canterlot voice now, which she rarely ever did anymore.

"We were told not to tell her, either." The guard admitted fearfully. "Your sister told us she wasn't to know! We don't like it but we have to!" The squad leader known as Iron Shield was nearly crying by now. "I went to her how myself and had to constantly remind myself not to tell her, and this whole time she was just glaring at me and I had no idea she knew and I wanted to tell--"

"I understand that this is not your fault. I will be speaking to Celestia myself about this. Particularly about nopony telling me beforehoof. You are dismissed... To your quarters." She added that last part over her wing before taking off.

"You know," Said one of the pegasus guards. "Rainbow Dash said she already knew what was happening before I even said anything. I was going to tell you, but Luna arrived. If she and Twilight both know than the rest of the element bearers probably know, too.