NOV 30 Friday.

I take a deep breath and Stone gives me a moment I really need.

To say this day has been a mess would be a massive understatement. I'm just trying not to freak out or bury myself in regret and worry while everything is dealt with and resolved. There is at least some light in this situation, mainly me catching onto it in time.

Who knows what that Changeling is after or what they are doing, so my being able to spot it quickly and possibly catch them is a stroke of luck. My luck really is a mess, though, huh? One moment, I'm exposed in a way I never wanted, and in another, I might have caught something before it could really get bad.

I once again let my mind flash through an uncomfortable fact, that fact that I'll be telling my friends a great many things soon. Oddly though there is a small part of me and it is a little, I don't know... Content, or relief maybe? This is out in the open now.

I never wanted it to come out like this, but I never enjoyed all the secrets, and assuming I still have friends when this is over it will be nice to not hide as much. Sadly that thought doesn't bring me much comfort. I look over to Stone as he waits with a mostly calm expression. "Ok, I have a few things that can wait for later, and I can't answer a lot right now, we still need to deal with this after all." I start off with a more calm tone than before.

He nods back in understanding and waits silently. "To start off with, I've worked under the crown and Princess Celestia for a few years now, before I met you actually." He raises a brow in surprise and I shrug. "Like I said, not much time to really get into it, but I have skills that are considered pretty valuable." I am a little vague but make that clear in my tone.

He seems to think for a moment. "I did find it odd how determined you always were." He points out and I tilt my ears. "Colt, most guards would have stopped long before the point you are at. The palace guards are definitely a lot better than you, but you're still above a lot of regular guards. So, what do you actually do?" He asks the main question bluntly. "No need for details, just a clear answer." He adds.

I shake my head a little and chuckle. "Actually I'm like that with just about anything I do, I just like improving." I am honest as a start to try and ease my self-doubts, I pause and decide to just be very forward. "Ok, quickly. I do several things, but mainly it's spell development and improvement. You know how nopony ever figured out who... Veil Winter was?" I ask slowly and with hesitation.

He stares down at me for a long moment before it quickly clicks in his head. His eyes widen a bit and he looks me up and down before chuckling, which develops into a full laugh that lasts a few seconds. "By Celestia! Why does that make sense? Really?" I nod. "Colt, that. That is one large secret, I would have never..." He seems to quickly realize everything.

I'm a little surprised to see some pride in his tone and on his face. "So that's why you never told me. Second job? Daisy knew?" He really put it together quickly, I nod in response. "Wait? You would have to have been what, eleven? When you first made a spell?" Again I nod and he whistles. "Well, that explains what you meant by skills." He adds with some certainty.

"Again I'm sorry about lying, but... Later. Yes, I find it very, easy, to work with spells. Daisy found out by accident, and you know me well enough to know I don't trust easily, or like sharing things about myself." He rolls his eyes a bit. "Part of that is just who I am, I hate attention. Another part of that is my secrets, I like my quiet life." I emphasize that last point.

He gives me a knowing look. "Understood, and don't worry." He pats me on the shoulder with a kind look. "I've worked with the guard long enough to know when to shut my muzzle. That and your identity might actually be classified, it’s not worth it. Seriously, Veil Winter, nopony even got close, HA!" He states plainly and I feel a slight weight come off of me.

He didn't use fancy words or the like, he simply said he wouldn't and pointed out why. It helps, having not just a promise but an actual reason to hold him back from telling others. "So, what's with somepony making themselves look like me? Why break into the palace of all places?" He moves us right along and I also appreciate him keeping us on track.

He took the news in stride but I honestly expected that from him. Out of my friends, he's the one least likely to react all that much, after all, he was a guard for a long while and has likely seen things like this before. He's also just the type to roll with things and keep going.

I think for a moment and take another of the many deep breaths I'll need to deal with today. "I can't tell you much about that, very little in fact. But, there is a... Group, that would try something like this." That gets his attention and I can see him thinking about it. "I can not stress this enough, do not talk about that with anypony, there is real danger in knowing just that. We will have to have Daisy keep it a secret too, or just lie." I sound remorseful about it as I don't like the idea.

Daisy is a sticking point. Her knowing about me being Veil Winter is one thing, but her knowing about Changelings is something else altogether. Just knowing about them could make your emotions off and catch their attention, and that puts you in more danger.

He gives me a hard look, not angry or anything just very intense. "How dangerous?" In response, I motioned to the office. "Right, just you hearing about it and you get us here as fast as possible secrets be damned. This is bad." He states the last part as it seems to sink in more. "Don't lie, just say it was classified and you can't tell her. I'll do the same. As for the whole Veil Winter thing though." He trails off. "Are you in danger?"

I stay silent for a long moment before nodding. "Maybe, but I've trained a lot for good reason. To be blunt, I hold back, a lot. Not in bland skills, but in many other ways." He glances down at his foreleg, likely realizing he didn't see me cast a spell to cut into it. "I'll need to tell Maple and Blaz about Veil Winter though," I add, hoping that saying it out loud would help me deal with the idea.

He tilts his head a bit. "Why? I get having to explain this to me and Daisy, but why them? You could just keep quiet." He offers some advice and while he's right I can't do that. Well, I can, but I absolutely refuse to. I take a second to feel around the palace and beyond, a lot of Ponies moving around and Celestia is somewhere outside, but things seem calm.

"Because we have no idea what they were here for. And if they know who I am, my friends aren't completely safe anymore." I say rather somberly and he also looks concerned about that. "If I'm Veil Winter I can make them things to keep them safe. Although we don't know if they found anything on me, they did know my name and seemed surprised that I was there though. You know anyway, they could have learned that from you?" I ask, trying to figure things out.

I don't think my friends are in a large amount of danger yet, but I just don't know, and Veil Winter would be able to put up some good defenses for them. He goes silent and seems to think very hard for a few moments, "There are a few ways somepony could learn about my life, at least enough to fake walking into here." He mumbles in thought.

He takes a moment to sit down for the first time. "You'd have some paperwork at the training building we use, not much but if somepony wanted to learn about who I work with as cover, or my background. Your appearance and name would be listed at least, mostly so you can't skip a bill." I take out some paper and make a note of that, along with writing down what we've talked about so far.

"There are also my old colleagues, I may not talk much but a lot of guards like to banter about smaller stuff like an older retired guard." I again mark that down for later and feel a bit better hearing that. "Can you think of any reason they would be looking for you? You said they acted surprised, right?" He asks back and brings up a good point.

The Changeling I encountered was all too willing to let me go, to move on and do something else. If a Changeling was trying to learn about Stone enough to copy him and get a meeting with somepony Stone knows, they are likely to at least learn about me. "They did, in fact, they followed me for a bit as if to confirm it was me."

That could be seen as them looking for me, or just them being actually surprised that a Pony they had copied had a friend inside the palace. "We can't really know if they were here for you, huh?" I shake my head slowly as he is correct. "Well, what do we know?" He asks and I shrug a little.

"Not much. They might be here for several things, if I remember right Cele- Princess Celestia doesn't mark my actual name on anything unless absolutely needed. I'll need to ask about that later." I slip up a little and his brow twitches, but he doesn't comment on it. "They said they were meeting an old friend, can you guess who they would be trying to meet?"

He again sinks into thought before answering. "I've trained a lot of guards in my time, many ended up as palace guards or higher-ranking guards. I think old Lump would be a good guess though, he always liked to ramble and I think he's still a quartermaster for the guards here, he'd have a lot of documents. Me and him also go far back, all the way to enlistment actually."

I make a note of that and try not to react to the name, to be fair humans aren't that good at names either. Still, Lump? He chuckles at my expression and I roll my eyes while trying to enjoy the slight bit of humor. "Ok, I know you are you, but can you think of anything out of the ordinary recently? A feeling of being watched? Things going missing?" I try a different topic to focus on.

He shakes his head but then stops short. "Maybe, I train other Ponies and I had one sign up not long ago, two or three months back now? A unicorn stallion. He books a lot of days actually, even paid one of my other trainees to take their days." I raise a brow as that seems very out of the ordinary.

He sees my look and shrugs. "He was well built and trained hard, his skill was what was lacking, not his body. I thought it was just another guard recruit who slacked off a little too much and needed to go hard for a bit. I am a good trainer." I nod as that does make some sense. "I'll get anything we have on them when I can, I do remember their name, Lemon, probably fake if it was our intruder." He reasons and even if he's probably right I add it to my notes.

I pause as I feel space rend inside the room. I blink as there is a flash and Celestia reappears inside the office. Stone once again lives up to his name by standing at attention and acting like a statue. Celestia motions for him to stand down and for me to move over to her desk. As I get close she seems to relax a small bit. "We are free to speak, is he, himself?" She gets right down to the important question.

I nod firmly and feel myself slump a little. "Definitely. I even drew some blood to make sure." She raises a startled brow and I shrug. "We NEEDED to make sure. And even a great illusion won't work perfectly on an injury. I healed it in a few seconds anyway. Here, a few things I've learned and a few things we need to check on. What happened out there?" I also don't stand on formality or familiarity and be blunt.

She reads through it quickly before refocusing on me. "The guards are still looking into it, but it seems Sir Stone somewhat guessed already if I'm reading your note right. Lump Sum. He was found to have met this fake Stone briefly." It seems Stone's guess was good then, maybe I should ask him some more things when I get the chance?

"However he seems to not remember anything out of the ordinary, despite several of his files also being missing from his office. We're not completely sure what was taken, but we are going through records to find out." I feel my blood run cold at that and she gives me a smile. "Nothing involving you, at least not directly." She adds quickly.

I slump even more and feel the tiredness from everything wash over me before I collect myself. "It seems the target of this was to find out more about the Love Gatherers and collectors, we at least know the files were about that. The quartermaster had some files on the project because of the guard transporting and using them." That news makes me frown and she nods. "It's not looking great, and worse still one of them got away." I give her a startled look as that is big news.

She motions for me to sit and I realize I've just been standing, so I sit down slowly. "The files are mostly statistics and only mention Veil Winter, it's likely whoever ordered this found out through one of the hiveless, or possibly another source? Either way, they tracked it back here somehow. That will be looked into later." She adds her own knowledge and my mind turns to who could be responsible.

It could be Chrysalis, but she seemed smart enough not to do something so risky when things were already going well. Plus she knows we would suspect her if she went after the Love Gatherer. "So what actually happened?" I ask again as I need a base to start with before making more wild theories.

She nods once again and takes out some papers, they look to be a very rushed report. "I was mainly working on the palace's magical defenses, I wasn't there for any of this and arrived too late to help. The intruder got what they wanted and left successfully, we're still looking for them." She sounds a little annoyed, but is calm about things, grounding my mood.

I read the basic report and there isn't much to it. A few guards spotted the fake Stone leaving and with quick action were able to catch up to them at a back alley where the intruder was meeting with another Changeling. There was a fight but the intruder seemed to be pretty good at magic and caused enough of a mess to get away, luckily the other Changeling didn't get away in time.

I pass it back and sigh, "Anything from the one captured?" She shakes her head and to be fair this is all still really recent. "Any idea on how they actually got inside? He may be a retired guard but that doesn't seem like enough to be let in and left alone." I ask another question that comes to my slightly tired mind.

She places a hoof on the desk. "On the magical side of things it was rather simple, they had permission." I tilt my head. "The wards around the palace are complicated, but to simplify, there are some points not as shielded so Ponies can leave and enter as needed. They showed an invite to the guard from Lump Sum and along with his good reputation that was enough."

She can already see my next question and answer me before I can say anything. "It's an older practice, letting retired guards be invited in so they can advise on things as needed. It makes things much more simple and helps when older problems come up again. It will be banned by tomorrow." She adds with determination.

That actually makes sense. Letting older guards in to advise the newer ones without needing to go through a lot of work to invite them in. "Lump Sum claimed he did invite Stone over at his request, it's clear he received a fake letter." She moves the papers I gave her to the side and looks me over for a moment. "Are you ok?" It's a far more personal question with a far lighter tone.

I nod as this isn't all bad news. "First, check any other document storage in the palace, just to be sure." She gives me a look telling me they already have. "Good. And no, this was all far too, close. Stone now knows I'm Veil, and I'll be telling my other friends soon, I don't really have a choice now." She gives me a sad smile, a mix of pride and reassurance. "They will need protection, but explaining why to them. That part I still haven't really figured out."

I need to protect them, but I also need an actual reason for that to happen. I don't really need to do too much, a shield around where they sleep and a good bracelet with a shield in it. I don't want to uproot their lives and this seems like the best start I can come up with to keep them safe for now.

She looks off a little. "I could have guards watch them?" She suggests, but I shake my head a little. I would be telling them if I did that and they might have a big problem with it. Most Ponies don't like having others watching them constantly. "It is an option then. What do you intend to do now?"

I paused as I hadn't really thought that much about it. "Well, Daisy is still in my apartment for her own safety, I left her there. And... I don't know. I need to check on my other friends." I let my concern bleed into my voice openly, and she kept her reassuring eyes on me. "I don't think I'd be of much help here, would I?" I say with a slightly defeated tone, it really sucks feeling useless.

She smiles more. "Sadly no, but I would like my competent rune scribe to be rested and well. That helps all on its own." She says with some seriousness and care. I huff a bit, "Actually, hmmm. If I remember right, your other two friends both live at the library?" She asks and seems to get an idea.

I nod. Blaz always said he didn't need much room and liked not having to go anywhere for work, and Maple is just happy with her home as is. "Then I'll increase the guard presence there." I raise a brow in surprise. "It protects them more and from what I remember there are few guards there normally, it would be good to have such an important place better protected in times like this."

I can see full well what she's trying to do, finding a workaround I can't object to. I wouldn't reject it anyway, she's completely right. It is a good way to guard my friends more without causing any big problems and it is a good idea to guard the library more. There are several long moments of silence, "So, I just, go home?" I say more to myself than her.

She answers anyway. "Yes, you already did a great deal. Finding them so early lets them only get away once, they won't be doing this again." There is a firmness to her tone, a silent promise. "And we actually caught one of them, they would have gotten away freely if you didn't act quickly. So go rest, recover, and deal with your friends." She encourages me and I know she's right.

Personally, I want answers and to find whoever did this, but I'm already feeling mentally tired from the stress, and leaving Daisy too long would only make her worry. I sigh and nod after a long moment, "Fine, but send me an update as soon as you can. And, maybe also send me a copy of the stolen documents if it's possible, I'd like to know what they learned."

She smiles much more and nods quickly. "I promise, and please stay safe. I will be rather... I will be angry if you put yourself in danger, don't." She says firmly, with almost a hint of desperation. I don't fight her on it as my safety is causing her some stress it seems.

"I promise, but only if you do the same," I say back to lighten the mood before turning to Stone. He's standing there, not at attention but very much ready. "Do you mind sending us back? I don't want to show Entropy's ability to be inside my shadow, more for her sake than mine."

Celestia nods and looks over to Stone, who tenses a bit. "I'll drop the privacy spell. Thank you Shade, you did good, no matter how little it feels." With that, she stands up straighter and slips on her mask, and I do the same. "Sir Stone, please come over here."

He moves with sure and quick steps, marching up to her desk and bowing a little once again. "Your Highness?" He glances at me a little and I give him a professional but tired look, trying my best to look the part. "Is there anything needed from me?" He asks simply.

Celestia shakes her head. "No, I'll be sending you and Sir Evergreen home shortly. I simply wished to stress the need for silence on some of the things you may have heard and seen today." Her tone is royal and firm but not unkind, and Stone stands at attention before he bows in recognition. "Very well, you may be called upon if needed."

With that, her horn glows brightly for a moment and by the time I blink the light out of my eyes, I'm met with my apartment again. I blink rapidly as I watch Daisy spring from the couch in surprise before running over and quickly hugging Stone. "Oh thank Celestia you are ok!" She sounds relieved as she pulls back and looks him over. "You are ok, right?!"

He smiles at her. "Yes, we're fine, or I am. You still good, Colt?" They both turn to me and I nod a little slowly while taking off my saddlebags. Stone takes a moment to kiss her quickly. "We are fine, but a lot happened. It's well, classified, highly." He adds quickly because he knows all too well how she can get when trying to get answers. "Are you ok? That seemed draining, and I'm not taking a nod for an answer." Daisy turns to me a little worried.

I place my saddlebags to the side and can sense nothing in the apartment is out of place or changed. I chuckled dryly, "Yes and no. I need to have a serious talk with you two along with Maple and Blaz." I pause for a second as my tired mind remembers something. "We have a game night on the seventh, right?"

I would normally not wait a week for something like this, but acting normal in this situation actually works out better. And while Changelings are a danger I can at least rely on one thing that is predictable about them, they are cautious. They will need time to analyze and retrieve that information before they act, so a week-long delay should be fine. Please let it be fine.

Daisy nods and walks over to me, I jump a small bit as she hugs me pretty hard, and after a moment I hug back. "I don't know what this is, but it will be fine, Shade... What can you tell me, what happened? Is Entropy ok? What was that when you left?" She comforts me for a moment and asks obvious questions.

I think for a moment and look over at Stone, he just looks curious. "Entropy is... Complicated, she's fine though." I reassure her and let go of the hug. "I need to think, and like I said, I have a lot to talk about. Something bad happened, it's not catastrophic but it's a problem. I've already told him about my second job and I'm telling Maple and Blaz as well." I use an example to emphasize my point.

Daisy's brows jump up in surprise and Stone cuts in to back me up. "Daisy, he brought us directly into THE Princesses office, it was important. I'm sorry we can't explain, but when Celestia of all Ponies says to not talk about something, we can't talk about it." He adds a good and very blunt point to really stress things. Daisy looks shocked at that and promptly turns back to me and hugs me again.

"Are we, safe?" I nod, Stone is no pushover and I live nearby. "Are you safe?" I smile and nod as she lets go once again. "Good, good. I- I'll wait until next week, probably drive Stone up the wall with questions though." Stone just huffs. "If you need anything, you will talk to me, got it?!" She demands and I chuckle a little.

"Yes. And I can give you some more answers, or at least better ones." She backs up a bit and passes me something from the countertop, my dagger. "Thanks." I flip a hidden switch with a thought. "I need rest, and I need to think. Stone? I think it's best you stay over with her, and, please check in on Maple and Blaz." I add and look at both of them.

Daisy looks at Stone as well and he nods. "No problem, I was thinking the same thing. Try to sleep some, Colt, you need it." They both seem to understand my dismissal and move to the door.

Daisy gives me one last worry and looks like she wants to hug me a third time. "I'll check in tomorrow, and you remember that promise." I smile back slightly more in response. "Goodnight, Shade." It's a simple goodbye but it means a lot that they are giving me some space even now. Daisy is definitely going to question Stone though.

They close the door behind them and I sigh before slumping and slowly walking over to the couch before flopping down on it. I look out to see the sun setting while Entropy leaves my shadow and swiftly moves to snuggle into my chest. "It's ok, safe, all safe." She chirps to me as I hug her.

I feel my mind slip a bit and know that I'll fall asleep if I stay here too long, but I can't seem to shake away my thoughts to get up again.

Everybody keeps saying that it will be fine, I just hope they are right.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :]
Current year is 996

First, thank you all for the lovely words, sorry if I couldn't respond to it all, I got busy.

Second. I think this is going well so far, it at least makes some sense. I know thins isn't exciting, but I don't think this story is good at exciting in the first place. I did try to at least get across that Shade was a little helpless her, to a degree at least.

Sure he could have done some things, but he's still just a Pony. And I felt this showed that well.

Also, sorry if there is more errors than normal or I am slow to respond, I currently have some internet troubles due to bad weather. It should be fine but fair warning.