Chapter 1: It Begins
Silent hoofsteps could be faintly heard, if one paid enough attention. The guards posted to their positions of a nighttime were getting weary and restless. Nothing ever happens during a nighttime, and not that much happens during the day, either. Luna made it her personal mission to post guards all throughout Canterlot Castle in case things got out of hand, after the Nightmare Moon incident.
One lonely guard by the name of Iron Sky was posted outside of Celestia's bedroom. He was a bulky pegasus with a dull grey mane and light brown coat. He was personally appointed by Luna to guard her sister, because he was well known as a diligent and powerful soldier. Along with him was his best friend, who called herself "Traveler". Nopony knew her real name, or even that much about her, but she was very well known for her wide variety of skills, learned from years of adventuring all over Equestria. She wasn't a soldier in the Royal Army, but was also personally requested by Luna to guard Celestia's chambers. Her fighting and survival skills were legendary, comparable to that of other famous adventures, such as Daring Do.
Iron Sky was about to say something to his friend, when his attention was grabbed by something else. He looked around, making sure it wasn't simply Traveler, and was about to resume his vigilant watch, when he heard the noise again.
"Hoofsteps?" He thought to himself. "Can't be, there's nopony here!"
He observed the fact that Traveler noticed it too. She was peering round a corner, eyeing the guards charged with protecting Luna while she slept. He heard the hoofsteps a third time, and decided enough was enough.
"I'm going off to check out that noise." He whispered in a thick, British accent back to his friend, who still had her head stuck around the corner.
"Sure. Be back soon." She whispered back, in a calm, yet cold voice.
He rounded the opposite corner, to the sight of the moonlit halls. He quickly and accurately observed that nopony was there. He checked in on his friend, who had finally returned to her post, before wandering down the hall.
~~~~~
A black-clad pony crept down the foyer. The puzzling pony was completely covered, from head to hoof, in a black stealth suit borrowed from a friend, along with night vision goggles also borrowed. Saddlebags hung limply at the pony's sides, partially filled with a wide variety of gadgets and miscellaneous objects., created by the mystery pony solely for this dangerous mission. They were painted a deep shade of black, to blend in with the suit and the utter blackness of the night.
"I remember this place... where the Grand Galloping Gala is held every year!" The pony suppressed a soft, feminine laugh, revealing her gender to the world despite all the measures taken to assure herself that nopony would recognize her. She crept up the stairs with practiced silenced, accustomed to not waking up her roommate during the middle of the night.
"Tonight is no different." She reminded herself, simultaneously steeling herself for the incredible challenges that lay ahead. First up was sneaking past the guards in front of the guest bedrooms. These rooms were not commonly used, but the Summer Sun Celebration was approaching, and many rich and/or powerful ponies took the opportunity to enjoy a night or two in the castle among royalty before the celebration itself began, when Canterlot would be the most crowded.
"One hoof forward... make sure not to drop it... stealth and caution are the key..." She repeated in her head, following her instructions to the letter.
The large windows splashed moonlight all over the various halls, illuminating the guards, doors, and other key features she would have to avoid. Fortunately, the window sills were tall enough for her to crawl under without being revealed by the moonlight. She made a mental note of this, before swallowing her pride and rounding a bend to hide under the first windowsill. The closest guard wasn't paying much attention, but still managed to notice something moving. Or at least, he thought he did. A quick scan of the hall revealed nothing nearby, so he resumed his watch with renewed vigilance
She rolled her eyes in relief, careful not to make the slightest noise before moving on. A few minutes passed, before she was free from the moonlight and among a crossroad, of halls. Doors lined the halls, but no guards were there to protect them. She pulled a gold watch from her saddlebag, noted her performance and the time, before moving on.
She replaced the watch with a map of the castle, made with the help of a few 'acquaintances' on the inside. She quickly found her position, and started down the corridor to her right. At the end of the corridor and around yet another corner was another hall, except this one only had one large door, and two guards in the whole hallway. She noticed the guards were making strange faces and exchanging glances every few seconds, but thought nothing of it.
"This must be Cadence and Shining Armor's room!" Everypony was aware of the marriage between princess and captain of the guard. The media talked about it for days, and close friends and family of them were making sure that everypony knew of the couple at any chance they got. She came to a stop parallel to the door. Unusually loud and suspicious noises were coming from behind that door.
"Is that... moaning?" She quizzed herself. Indeed, it was moaning. Two distinct ponies were making these strangely loud noises, much to the dismay and enjoyment of the guards. One of the guards had the aforementioned dismay written on his features, while the other was desperately trying to stifle a laugh. Quite unsuccessfully, too.
"Dude! Don't make so much noise!" One guard hissed to the other.
"I...I'm sorry! It's-it's just so... funny!" He stuttered out between suppressing fits of laughter.
She quashed her confusion and used this fleeting moment to make some more progress on the mission.
~~~~~
A quite night was what he had hoped for, but Iron Sky knew this wouldn't be one of them. The castle was no different on appearance, but something felt wrong. His soldier instincts told him that the mysterious hoofsteps weren't a resident of the castle. He cautiously made his way through the maze of halls and openings, careful not to alert his presence to the intruder. He didn't come here often, but tonight he noticed how much the walls echoed sounds through the castle.
"The echo is right awful!" He thought to himself. "Gotta watch out for those hoofsteps. They could be coming from anywhere in this bloody loud castle!". Continuing on his chosen path, he came to an intersection of hallways, each wall lined with doors, except for one. The large windows in the wall bathed the sole door in light. He too noticed the two guards stationed to protect the room and its inhabitants. He heard creaking and moaning from the other side of the door, but the two guards were rolling on the floor, laughing and wheezing at the lowest volume possible. He took a quick glance around, in case the intruder was nearby, before foregoing his mission in order to set these guards straight.
"Oi! What on earth do you two think your doin!?" He hissed as loudly as possible as he charged right up to them, his accent replaced by his duty as a fellow soldier. They instantly stopped laughing, realising what was happening. They instantly stood up stiff and saluted with stone-cold expression, as if nothing had happened.
"Soldiers! What was that I just witnessed!? You're supposed to be soldiers of the Royal Army!" He lectured them with fierce authority.
"Sir! We were distracted, Sir! We are sorry, Sir!" They said in response to each phrase that Iron Sky spat out. He eyed them with the same fierce authority, before calming down somewhat.
"I expect you to return to your posts, immediately. You've got a job to do." He said professional and evenly. "You! What's your mission?" He suddenly pointed to the taller of the two ponies.
"Protect the Royal Couple, Sir!" He expertly replied.
"Good, now get on that, ASAP." He said, his rage subsiding and his accent returning. He left without saying another word. They seemed to have sorted themselves out, which allowed him to resume his mission. He backtracked to the crossroads, before taking the path opposite to the one he entered from.
~~~~~
She was getting extremely tired of this castle and its incredibly difficult-to-navigate corridors. On a normal day, she loved visiting the castle. During the day, everything was so grand! The decorations were amazing, and the colours were... well, royal. But at night, the darkness shaped a different perspective of the castle. The shadows covered a large percentage of the castle, only occasionally banished by moonlight from the gaudy windows. The walls seemed to have eyes, and anypony could be behind any of the doors. Watching, listening. Paranoia began to set in, so she increased her pace, glancing at the corner of the map that was visible from the corner of her eye. It was set up to be visible to her, but also firmly stuck in her saddlebags, just in case.
She had stopped watching the time a long time ago. The halls had just seemed to blend into eachother, and she had no idea where she was. The map wasn't helping very much, either. She gave up trying to use the map, and began trying to remember where she had been before. Through a stroke of good luck, she did notice that she was on the opposite end of the castle, somewhere close to the Princesses' bedrooms. Also through good luck, there were some windows in the adjacent corridor, which gave her a great view of the balconies attached to the Princesses' rooms.
Several minutes of wandering through the halls and checking the outside balconies led the mysterious pony to her destination. Princess Celestia's room. What seemed like hours of being lost somewhere in the castle boiled down to the next few minutes. She breathed a sigh of relief, and paused for a moment.
"This is it. It all begins here..." She whispered to herself, staring at the door just centimeters in front of her. She nervously opened the door, breathing heavily all the way. There was a mass resembling a princess lying in the royal bed, most likely Celestia. The pony crept close to the bed, and peered at the head poking above the sheets. It was indeed Celestia who was soundly asleep. She took a few steps back, and pulled out an unmarked potion from her saddlebags. It was a spherical potion with a deep blue liquid inside. She pulled the stopper from the neck of the bottle with her teeth, sneaked back over to Celestia, still asleep, opened her mouth, and gave her a massive dose of the potion. She held Celestia's head up and let gravity do the work.
"There, it's finally down. Now the real trouble begins..." She thought slowly. She pondered all the possibilities of her actions for an incredible length of time, before finally snapping out of her stupor. Weariness began to set in, and she realised just where in the castle the Princess's bedroom was. She sighed deeply, before pulling another potion out of her saddlebags. It was similar to the previous, except it contained a vibrant purple liquid. This one was labelled, and it read:
"Rush-Teleport Potion"
"For the pony that needs to leave his/her surroundings in a hurry."
"Not safe for cats, dogs, young ponies, bronies, or other animals."
She threw it high in the air with her mouth, sidestepped it's assumed trajectory, and let it fall and smash on the cold stone floor, creating a somewhat small purple cloud of dust, which enveloped her and magically sent her home.
Once there, she set her saddlebags down under her bed and threw herself on top of her bed. She closed her eyes, not bothering to take off her guise, and let sleep slowly capture her body and mind as she reflected on the happenings of the night. She glanced out her window, and noticed the faintest of light skewing the clouds and night, signalling a new day. She thought to herself:
"The plan is set, a new day has arrived. At last... it begins." And she promptly fell asleep.
Chapter 2: Revealed in Time
That night did not go down gently with the guards. In addition to Iron Sky and Traveler, some of the other guards heard the gentle tapping of the mysterious pony invading the castle. Some guards claimed to have seen the shadows slithering on the walls, or even both. The Princesses weren't impressed, especially Luna, on the other hand. The guards began speculating among themselves, brewing up a wide variety of crackpot theories and madman ravings. When confronted by the guards, the Princesses refused to believe there was anything wrong. They did not feel any different, or act any different, and insisted that their food wasn't poisoned.
The guards weren't convinced, however. The Captain of the Royal Guard argued with the Princesses about keeping ponies posted around the castle. This situation worked for some time, but Celestia and Luna were fed up with the constant watch of the armour-clad ponies endlessly cycling through and patrolling the castle. All three of them eventually came to a conclusion that pleased them all; they would call upon some of the most brilliant minds of the recent years, including Twilight Sparkle.
A letter was sent to a half-dozen of said individuals, with a disclaimer asking for silence regarding the matter of an intruder among the castle. Celestia feared the possibility of discord spreading among the public if this news were to spread, so the ponies were sworn to secrecy in their letters. They were personally met by Luna in the foyer of the castle, and escorted by herself and the Captain into their personal meeting room down a few of the many halls, up a flight of stairs, and into a secret meeting room reserved for the most important of ponies.
Twilight Sparkle was exactly on time. Almost to the second, she noticed. However, when she did arrive, she noticed that the other ponies were already there and waiting. She started sweating a little, at the thought of ponies even more organised and calculating than she was. She swallowed her pride and joined the group at the large, dark, mahogany table dominating the room. Candles adorned the walls, washing the room in a brilliant, amber light. Her eyes wandered around the walls, soaking up vast amounts of information printed on even larger pieces of paper, which almost covered the walls. She noticed that the notes abruptly ended, with a space between the paper and the ground measuring up to be about half her height, she guessed.
Written on the paper, was all kinds of notes (personal and otherwise), guides, messages between ponies, diagrams, and anything else you can think of. She began reading the nearest sheet behind her, but was abruptly brought back to reality by the gentle, yet firm voice of none other than Princess Celestia.
"Good evening, everypony. I trust that Luna and the Captain were hospitable enough?" She said as she trailed off somewhat, sending a large hint to the small gathering. She was met with murmurs from three or four ponies, mixed with possible grumbling. She took it as another hint, and continued on without a thought.
"As I hope you all know, we seem to have an intruder in the castle. Whoever he or she is, this pony is an unusually talented individual, and has managed to escape the attention of the Captain and his guard ponies." The Captain huffed at this statement, feeling paranoid about being perceived as weak by the ponies at the table, and ponies in general.
"We have gathered some of the brightest young individuals here today to formally ask for your assistance regarding the matter." Celestia was about to begin a new sentence, when the guests started applauding randomly. Twilight Sparkle blushed a little when Celestia said what she did, and began the round of applause as soon as she paused for breath. The other ponies joined in, pleased with their Princess's efforts. She stepped down for a moment and allowed the uproar to die down. Once the ponies were satisfied with themselves, they calmed down and silenced themselves.
"You will be allowed to stay here in the castle until the intruder is brought to justice. If you do not wish to stay here, then transportation will be arranged for you. All accommodations have been taken care of thanks to our company's personal chefs", hinting at the Royal cooks. She noticed the ponies began to murmur among themselves, so the stepped up and hushed them before another riot could be had.
"Now, without any further interruptions, my sister and I would like to begin brainstorming any ideas. We already have some written down, as you might have seen on your way in." She pointed a hoof at an unassuming brown box, sitting idly at the other end of the table. Celestia reeled it in with her golden magic, and gently let it down in between the two middle ponies, sitting at opposite ends of the table. Twilight was at the end closest to the door and the box, and when the box did make its way to the center, he began eyeing it curiously, and watching his fellow ponies. He shot glances all around the room, as if he was spying on the others.
"Uh.. are you okay?" Twilight asked him slowly. He almost jumped in his seat in response.
"What are you talking about!? I'm fine! There's nothing wrong here!" He hastily spat out, almost mashing words together in an attempt to say the faster. At this point, he was being watched by every other pony in the room.
"Yeah, chill out!" "Calm down!" And other generic responses emanated from the other guest ponies. He slowly took his seat, cleared his throat, and seemingly shrunk in his seat a little bit due to embarrassment.
Somepony else jumped in her seat, shouting "MAGIC!" all the way, flapping her wings in delight. She had the brightest look on her face, and her sudden outburst startled everypony else, even Princess Celestia. They all looked at her with varying degrees of confusion and surprise. She, on the other hand, seemed unfazed.
"...Care to elaborate on that?" Said a pony with an unusual red mane.
"Oh! ...sorry." She said as she sat down, mentally calming herself. "What I was meaning was, we should use some sort of magic trick or enchantment to detect the intruder!" The other five guests looked at each other, before setting their attention on her sudden spark of inspiration.
Eventually, Twilight spoke up. "You mean we should use an enchantment to detect any intruders entering or leaving... or moving through the castle?" She said a little un-decidedly.
"Yes!" She said, pointing a hoof straight at Twilight's face. Twilight jumped in her seat a little, unsure of what to make of this strange individual. The other five glanced at her, before turning to the strange one. Celestia seemed to be pleased with this turn of events, and silently chuckled to herself. Naturally, she personally knew all six guests, and she considered this to be nothing more than her typical behavior.
"Who are you, anyway!?" An angry pony with a suit and tie yelled at her, startling her in the process.
"Well, I'm Thunder Wing, of course! Only the smarterest in all of Hoofington!" She replied with vigor.
"Don't you think you should behave?" He retorted, hinting at his high expectations of his fellow ponies.
"And you should learn to have fun!" She joked, chuckling loudly in response to her 'joke'.
The evening continued in a similar fashion, with the six ponies clashing, making friends of enemies, enemies of friends, and in the end, getting hardly anywhere with their ideas. At the break of dusk, paper was scattered all over the room. All of them were exhausted, physically and mentally, and they were preparing to hit the hay for the night, so to speak. When the other five had left the building, Twilight was asked to remain behind by Celestia.
The room was empty, except for the two. Celestia leaned in close to Twilight, unnerving her, and looked her in the eyes with a look than she had never seen on her face before.
"Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student." She began softly and slowly. "I need you to join the guards in patrolling the halls tonight. I've already set up an enchanted field of magic mist around the castle, only visible to certain ponies specifically chosen by me."
"Princess... I'm sorry, but I can't! I need to return to Ponyville! I can't leave Spike and Owlowiscious on their own in the library! And who will-" Twilight hurriedly replied, only to be silenced by Celestia.
"Twilight... If that is what you want, then I will understand. I will arrange transport for you home, immediately." Celestia warmed up somewhat, her cold demeanor fading fast. Twilight mentally breathed a sigh of relief, before following out of the room, and into a royal carriage, bound for Ponyville. The day replayed itself in her mind, rooting everything she had experienced firmly in her memory. She had wondered why anypony would decide to invade the castle, let alone do any of the possible actions suggested. She worried for the Princesses' safety, but she couldn't abandon Spike and Owlowiscious, either. She knew the Princess would understand, but she still felt bad.
It was then, she decided she would temporarily abandon her studies, and concentrate on catching the invading pony. First thing in the morning, preparations would be made, and the race to catch the intruder will begin.
"I'm sure everything will be revealed in time. Time goes on, and we must strike before the intruder strikes again." She yearned for her bed, oblivious to the coming storm just on the horizon.
