Bright Glow was a white unicorn, wearing the silvery armour of the Legion, her helmet nowhere in sight and her mane braided to keep it out of the way.
She blinked at me from across the table before she looked at Sunset.
Sunny nodded.
You could almost see the gears working beneath Bright Glows ear for a moment before she took a deep breath and nodded, “Yes, My Lord. And we are going up against the Solar Guard, why?”
“The official announcement will be in four days,” I said and shifted my wings, reaching to pull a scroll from a table as I rolled it out, “It’s going to be announced as a exercise for the new guard force.”
Bright Glow lit up her horn and smoothed the map of the castle grounds, “The official reason.”
I nodded, “The slightly less official reason which will leak to the press a couple of days into it is that it’s a test to changes made after the Changeling Invasion to improve security.”
“And the actual reason?” she asked with a frown.
I put my hoof on the map, “The actual reason is that I had a discussion with Princess Celestia and she didn’t think you could do it. I disagreed.”
Bright Glow flicked her ears and her jaw got a bit of a stubborn set to it, “I understand, My Lord. Well then, we have some planning to do.”
“We do,” I agreed, “Quite frankly going directly up against the Solar Guard is a bad idea.”
Bright nodded, “Yes, sir. What’s the objective?”
“Getting me onto throne. If I’m captured, we fail. If we don’t manage it in a week, we fail.”
She cringed a bit before she nodded, “…We’re going to have to get sneaky.”
Sunset nodded, “We are. Luckily we have the Alicorn of Lies on our side.”
Looking at her in disbelief I then facehoofed, “Sunset, that’s not how it works. It’s imagination, dreams and stories.”
“Alicorn of Sneaky?” she suggested cheerfully.
Sighing, I shifted my wings, “…We better hope so or there is no way this will work, even if it’s limited to just the Castle Guard, not the full Canterlot garrison, they still outnumber us by ten to one. Okay, we need to start preparing. We can’t count on the Solar Guard just sitting there defending, they might attack and try to capture me or strike a blow to our numbers.”
Bright Glow looked between us before she nodded, “You’re right, sir. We can’t stay at the barracks. We should move camp to the mountain outside the city.”
“Silently and carefully,” I said, “Alert the Legion, start preparations. But first, send the instructors from the Solar Guard away, not sure they can be trusted for this.”
Bright Glow shook her head, “I’d vouch for them, sir. They want to see this work and if we fail, it would make it seem like they failed,” before she smiled, “Most are from the Lunar Guard anyway.”
“They stay then,“ I agreed, “You know most of them better than me. I’ll get us some reinforcements.”
“Reinforcements?”
“Changelings,” I clarified, “We need scouts and axillaries. Only the unicorns of us can hide behind illusions and almost nopony as good as them.”
Bright Glow hesitated and frowned a bit, “…But isn’t this mean to be between the Legion and the Guard?”
Sunset shook her head, “Nothing in the rules says we can’t bring in assistance. Besides, cheating remember?”
Bright Glow nodded, “…Agreed, Lady Shimmer. Help would be good. I’ll gather the squad leaders and instructors before filling them in on what’s happening. See if they have any ideas.”
“Good plan,” I agreed, “I want you and them back here with a basic plan by the morning.”
“Yes, sir,” she agreed and picked up her helmet on the way out.
The door closed behind her and Sunset flicked her ears, looking at the map, “This will be… difficult.”
“Yep,” I agreed, “I’m going to track down Skitter and get her onboard before tomorrow. We’ll need her help with this.”
Sunset nodded, “Yeah,” and stretched, “Not looking forward to the entire camping thing.”
I eyed her for a second, “…You know… you’re not officially part of this. You could stay behind.”
Sunset shook her head, “Wouldn’t help. The second this entire thing start I’ll be banned from entering castle grounds, everypony know how close we are. First thing they would suspect.”
“…Good point,” I agreed, “Yeah, that wouldn’t work anyway.”
Sunny looked at the map, “We’ll figure it out. I basically grew up in the castle, I know it as well as anypony. I’ll see if any of my old sneak away and read spots are still open.”
“A secret and unguarded way into the castle sound useful. Terrifying if it exists, but useful right now,” I said with a slight frown, “You really should have told somepony.”
“Most are too small for an adult pony,” she said and hesitated, “…And to be honest, I kind of forgot about them until now. Sorry.”
“It’s fine, if the Guard don’t know about them, it’s unlikely a enemy would either,” I admitted, “But we have to block them of after. One of the reasons I actually ‘want’ to do this is to find those holes in our defences.”
That and getting one over Sunshine.
Okay, mostly getting one over Sunshine.
“I’ll go find Skitter,” I said and stretched my wings, “See if I can talk her into giving us a hoof on this.”
Sunset nodded, “I’ll go over these maps and then check some spots I remember. See you at the meeting tomorrow.”
i suspect you meant sunset not skitter there
would still have been amusing if she was there the entire time though
AH AH AH
its sunset cause skitter is not here he is going to go get skitter
9091318
Nope, she is super sneaky!
9091318
Indeed. Fixed.
there is gonna be a traitor for sure or the changlings gonna play both teams like chryssi and skitter are both gonna play each their own team good training for skitter
or chryssi is gonna do it with out telling skitter. (SURPRISE M***** F*****!! Pie to their faces)
nice tempo with releases but down burn yourself out, keep yourself healthy and steady in your life
or maybe... just maybe... another hive!?
9091356
I like this idea of an other Hive. I have a Shadow Hive Kingdom that Hiver could use if he likes it.
You know, I can easily imagine Celestia going to Chrysalis for Changeling assistance and her granting it to fuck with Page for his stunt.
...You know, I can totally see Chrysalis getting involved just to see how many times she can betray them.
That and getting one over Sunshine.
I've always seen/heard it: That and getting one over on Sunshine.
I like her!
Whatever you say, Prince Dreamy, Alicorn of Fantasies.
Oh, my!
An all-mare guard called the "Dream Legion" really sells the playcolt prince narrative, too. Should've gone with Dreamcatchers :D Too late, now, haha!
In fact, since the rules specifically prohibit interference from the other princesses, and then utterly fail to mention anypony else, one could argue that that is implicit permission to seek non-alicorn help.
...Page, there is no way a canny, experienced politician like Sunbutt doesn't realize that. Watch out for traps!!!
I'm probably not the first to realize this, but the penny just dropped for me based on the name, the description, and the picture that goes with this story. I know how this competition ends.
Page succeeds in taking the throne, only to find that in so doing he has taken the throne in more than the purely physical sense and has assumed the duties of running the government for a while.
9092552
Right. He gets one over on Sunshine just as he wanted, only for him to pay him back tenfold within seconds.
This really isn't anything new.
9091494
She could just as easily play them both and put herself on the throne. In fact i’d Be fine with that outcome.
9092552
I know this is old... I seriously see him ending up having to handle Celestia's duties, either way, this turns out.
9092552
One of the rules is that celestia can't give him her duties so that theory is out
9982027
But he's taking the throne for himself, so technically she didn't give it to him, he took it from her. Celestia probably wanted him to organize her a nice holiday.
Do not do that Page, Celestia is much like you and Skitter is her student, go to Chysalis
P "Just let me know what you guys have and I'll do my part."
Glow "But sir your are our leader!"
P "My plans are usually running in, spells blazing towards the danger?"
Glow "...Noted Sir, we'll let you know."
Changelings are perfect for 'hit and run' as well as espionage and infiltrator tasks ♡
10483254
It’s sit on the throne not take the throne
If Page is cheeky he can ask a Changeling to become a Celestia in Maid uniform
Snuggelbugs for victory. A few decoy Blank Pages will be a great help!
**Insert G5 Izzy Moonbow "Medium sneaky" joke here.**
I wish there were G5 emojis.
Page go for Changeling help... but has he considered asking Griffons? Eye on the sky and so on...