It was the dead of night in Canterlot, and the moon shone down brightly. Everypony was asleep in their beds, except for the occasional patrolling guard.
Hurrying through alleys and side streets, a shadowy figure headed in the direction of the Royal Palace. The figure turned onto the street, and
The figure's horn lit up with a grey glow, attracting the attention of the guards. They approached slowly, but when the light ducked back into the alley, they broke into a full gallop. When they reached the alley and shined light from their horns into it, they found nothing. They galloped down the alley, looking for the source of the light.
On the street the guards had just left, a shadow crawled across the sides of the homes and businesses. When the shadow settled in the middle of the street, a stallion rose from them. He was dark blue, with a shaggy purple and red mane. He approached the palace entrance, then stopped to cast another spell. He went from an average-looking unicorn stallion to looking exactly like Twilight Sparkle. He chose her appearance because she is allowed unrestricted access to all of the Royal Palace.The appearance spell he had cast was thorough, even matching Twilight's voice.
He headed straight to the vault that housed the Elements of Harmony, passing plenty of guards along the way. As he knew, the vault itself was unguarded. After all, who would be able to break all of Princess Celestia's protection spells? The imitator closed his eyes and concentrated. He sunk into the floor, becoming one with his shadow. The shadow slid over to the vault door and forced its way in through the smallest of cracks between the door and the floor. Inside the vault, the stallion rose up from the blob of shadow. He could feel the magical power of the Elements radiating from the locked chest on the pedestal in the center of the room. Now was the moment he had spent months practicing for. He levitated the chest onto his back, then braced himself. He began casting a spell, and all of the shadows in the vault started drifting over to him. As the shadows reached him, they traveled up his legs to the rest of his body, covering him in shadow. The moment he was completely enveloped by the shadows, there was a flash of light and the stallion with the Elements was no longer in Canterlot.
Princess Celestia awoke with a start. She had known something was horribly wrong when she felt the power of the Elements suddenly disappear from where they should be.
Princess Luna had her Night Court in session.
"Now, Your Majesty, surely you can reconsider your decision?" a dark green unicorn asked.
"I will most certainly not reco--" Princess Luna froze mid-sentence, her eyes growing wide in fear. She knew she had to avoid panicking the citizens, so she quickly regained her composure. "I must attend to more important matters," she said as she rose from her throne.
The attending members turned and began filing out the exit. As the last attendee left, Luna turned and was about to set off to Celestia's quarters when she heard her sister's voice come from the door the members of her court had just left through.
"The Elements, Luna," she said. "They are gone."
"My Faithful Student, can you explain why the only pony the guards saw heading in the direction of the vault tonight was you?" Both Celestia and Luna were sitting in their respective thrones, watching a very sleepy Twilight. "And the Elements left Canterlot shortly after the guards claim to have seen you."
Suddenly, Twilight didn't feel so sleepy anymore.
"What?!" Twilight exclaimed. "The Elements were stolen!? Ohnononononono! What are we going to do?" Twilight stood up and started pacing back and forth in front of the two Princesses.
"Twilight Sparkle, you were the only pony with the magical abilities to access the vault seen in the area. Were you or were you not in Canterlot earlier tonight