Shadows of Equestria

The three sat around a small table eating the cakes they had bought and drinking seemingly infinite cups of tea, the three mares entered and they were the only ones that had enough courage to go anywhere near the three around the table.

“Howdy” Said the orange mare

“You here to sell me some cider?” Inquired Burning

“No... I came here for the truth” Replied the orange mare in a proud tone

“Truth is I’m out of cider” Sulked Burning

“Not about that!” Exclaimed the mare “Can’t ya at least tell me your name, or did ya forget your manners?”

“I have manners, but no cider” Grinned Burning “So I can’t really converse very well”

“Look I just wanted to talk about what ya did out there” Managed the mare getting tired of this entire cider thing

“Sure, what do you want to know” Replied Burning, the mare smiled she obviously thought she was getting somewhere

“How did you do that?” Inquired Applejack

“With my hooves” Replied Burning “That’s your only question gone now leave me to eat and drink” as this was occurring the lavender mare was also trying her luck at getting some information

“You’re that pony from earlier aren’t you?” Inquired the mare

“That’s me” Replied Double blankly

“Your magic was amazing!” Complimented the mare “Where did you learn that?”

“Private magic school” Continued Double still with no emotion

“I highly doubt you went to a private magic school, I went to Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns and I didn’t learn anything like that ground moving technique from earlier” Replied the mare now on to his false story

“Well, I did” Resumed Double

“You three are amazing as a team...” Continued the mare “Can I at least get your names?” Double turned and looked at the mare her eyes full of curiosity

“Names Double Vision” Replied Double “Now be polite and tell me yours”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle” Chirped Twilight offering a hoof to Double, they shook hooves and a silence ensued

“You’re Celestia’s student” Simply stated Double “Then I’d thought she would have told you about us... strange”

“Huh?” Uttered Twilight “I don’t know how you knew that but Celestia tells me everything and I’ve never heard of a pony named Double Vision”

“Nor has anypony else, just means I’m doing my job” Replied Double

“And what exactly is your job then?” Pushed Twilight, Double simply raised an eyebrow and remained silent.

Meanwhile Rainbow Dash was trying to get information out of Dark

“You’re that Pegasus I bumped into on the roof aren’t you?” Inquired Dark with a blatantly forced smile

“You don’t have to smile at me” Rainbow rolled her eyes after explaining this

“I’ll take that as a yes” He chuckled in reply

“So what was your name again?” Inquired Rainbow

“Dark Feather” He replied falling off of his chair “And I’m still drunk it seems”

“Yeah...” Continued Rainbow “I don’t think this conversation is getting anywhere fast”

“Why Rainbow, it’s quite the opposite!” Resumed Dark now obviously still drunk, Rainbow backed away sighing

“I’ll talk to you later...” She managed opening the door to which Dark dashed to his feet and raced up to her

“Will you now? I look forward to it” Replied Dark to which Rainbow grew even more afraid and began to back away again

“O-okay then...” She stuttered in fear and as she did so Dark motioned for a hug to which Dash flew full speed out of the Sugarcube Corner destroying the door as she did so. Dark turned around and gave the biggest grin ever

“And that, that is how you stop having a conversation with somepony permanently!” He grinned “Any questions?” Burning and Double gave a laugh at this even Twilight chuckled but the orange mare still remained unsure of Dark’s humour

“By the way, you never told me your name” Stated Burning turning to the orange mare

“I’m Applejack” Replied Applejack “And yourself?”

“Burning Brawl” Stated Burning “A name which pretty much sums up my personality”

After a few hours of idle conversation between the two mares and the three division members Sugarcube Corner began to close to which the three donned their cloaks

“You still haven’t told us your jobs” Rushed Twilight “Or why the Princess never talked about you!”

“Perhaps another time” Replied Double quite hurriedly “But aside from that it’s been a pleasure talking to you”

“Still no cider” Jested Burning looking at Applejack who laughed slightly at this

“And if you see Rainbow Dash tell her I’ll be seeing her soon, just to freak her out” Chuckled Dark as he wrapped his cloak around him outside it was raining and the wind was cold

“I’ll be sure to do that” Managed Twilight between spells of laughter

“Are you two gonna be alright walking home in this rain?” Inquired Burning generally concerned

“We’ll be fine, it’s literally a few blocks until my library and Applejack can stay with me until the storm blows over” Chirped Twilight, Double removed his cloak as did Dark and threw them over Twilight and Applejack

“Wha?” Uttered Applejack, confused by this

“Keep them, we have but a few metres to where we’re staying” Replied Double wandering to the door alongside Dark and Burning

“See you later” Muttered Burning as they left Sugarcube Corner

“This is intriguing... 3 ponies appear and defeat a Stalliongrad army and say they know the Princess. I should probably write a letter to the princess letting her know about this...” Murmured Twilight

“I think they might be extendin’ the truth a lil with the Princess Celestia thing” Replied Applejack “But either way we should head back home, I’ll be fine now I have this cloak” and with that the two mares said their goodbyes and left for their homes.

Dark, Double and Burning were in a less than ideal situation, their encampment was in the middle of a pile of bodies and shattered armour they doubted they would be able to sleep all at the same time and instead set up watches and shifts. While they were awake they drank, ate and jested with one another and during their shifts they drank and ate. A rather repetitive schedule for a bunch of ponies such as themselves but it allowed the hours to pass by seemingly quickly as they began to lack sleep, the sun finally rose and they had all only had around 2 hours of sleep each which they knew would be bad if there was another attack but it was highly unlikely that Stalliongrad would launch a second attack at the same place after 3 ponies took down the army they sent to take over Ponyville, however they still had a mystery to unravel they needed to discover any involvement with a Draconequus force but Stalliongrad would be eternally difficult to access now there was a war especially now that the three of them had probably made the Stalliongrad’s most wanted list in a matter of hours. As the trundled towards Sugarcube Corner in hopes of coffee they were met simply by a sign reading ‘CLOSED’ but of course it would be closed it was Nightmare Night tonight an event which had been forgotten by the Division entirely because it was a waste of time for them. Besides nopony in their right mind ever knocked on a door like theirs.

So they not only had a lack of sleep with no coffee and were in a town of strangers who had no idea they were stealth ponies attempting to uncover a devious plan from Stalliongrad but it was also nightmare night just to make things more difficult.

What could possibly go wrong?