//------------------------------//
// Castle break in 
// Story: Repercussions 
// by vortex123 
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‘If Luna was here, she’d smugly say that she was right.’ Celestia thinks as she nears a secret passageway to the castle. She was in the outskirts of Canterlot. She knew that she couldn’t walk to the castle in the open, because ponies would recognize and swarm her. She couldn’t fly there, because of the same reason. Granted, most ponies were asleep at this hour (Shining had apparently implemented a mandatory curfew, so there wasn’t much point in staying up this late), but she didn’t wanna take the risk. 

Without another thought, she rushed into the secret entrance…or at least she tried too. When she reached the entrance, her perception blurred for a moment, and then she found herself galloping in the opposite direction.

‘A misdirection spell?’ Celestia thought in surprise. ‘That’s certainly new.’ While there were definitely traps and countermeasures that she knew were in place, there wasn’t any at the entrance (that she or Luna put anyway). That’s because putting something like that might clue somepony in that this specific entrance was important. Of course the misdirection spell wasn’t flawless, but it’d take a few moments to properly get past in.


Canterlot castle meeting area


“-And to properly counter any Pegasus who tries to get in through flying, we should have high powered fans here, here, here and here.” Shining says, pointing at various spots on the castle map. “And to avoid a repeat of the Changelings, the doors leading in the castle should be magically sealed, and only be openable via a special crest, and these crests will be located on the front of a solder’s armor. And since many of the guard are (as much as I hate to admit this) easily distracted, it stand to reason that somepony could trick a guard into losing their crest, so I believe another measure is needed. So starting tomorrow, all guards are to stand a minimum of 10 feet from the doors at all times, and should the crest get farther then 5 feet from it’s assigned guard, that crest will no longer function as a key until that specific guard puts it back on.”

“What about mind control?” One of his subordinates pointed out. Remembering how Chrysalis managed to mind control him, Shining felt like that was a very good point.

“Thanks for the reminder. To counter that, another spell will be placed on the crest. Should a guard be hit with mind control magic, the crest will send a silent alarm to the other guards in the area. In this situation, until the controlled guard has been identified, all guards will go through a magic screening test.” Shining says, then sighs. "Now the last issue for security: countering unicorn magic, and more importantly, Alicorn magic."

"Forgive me for my ignorance, sir, but what do you mean?" Another one of his subordinates asked. "Can't we just use the same method we used to beat them last time?" Many others nod in agreement at his statement, only to gain a confused look as Shining shook his head.

"We had the element of surprise then, the former princesses didn't have time to muster up any counter for that plan. But now that they know where we stand, they'll definitely try to come up with a countermeasure. I can predict what Twilight and Candice would come up with, and maybe some ideas about what Celestia might do, but Luna is a different story. Due to how little we know about her, we can't properly make a game plan for facing her. Plus since she can look into our dreams, she'd probably know bits and pieces of whatever plan we come up with." Shining said with a frown. "There's the castle of the two sisters, but only the sisters, Twilight and her friends know where that is. And we killed 5 of them, and can't ask the other 4, so we'll have to search the entire forest for it." All four Alicorns were very thorough in clearing their rooms, so anything they knew is long gone.

"When do you want us to search the forest?" Another one of his subordinates asked.

"After all the security measures already planned have been fully implemented. It's better to focus on security while the civilians are still in shock and fear over what happened, so when they've finally come to terms with what happened, we can properly handle the fallout." Shining says with a frown. "We're in the eye of the storm soldiers, let's make the most of the time we have left before we leave it."


Celestia's POV


'As much as I hate to complement that traitor, I have to admit, Shining certainly has initiative. I didn't expect him to cover the secret entrances so soon, considering how long it takes to cover all political bases.' Celestia thinks, having finally gotten past the miss direction spell, without raising suspicion. There were many things that Shining would have to take care of politically, if he wanted complete control. The press could easily riled up the citizens, making them harder to control. Getting the citizens to cooperate. This could lead to two major problems, technically more, but those can be touched on later. One was that the citizens wouldn't want to help the guard, so without force, the guard will die off do to age. The other was those that are either forced or willing to join the guard, could sabotage it from within.

As I snuck through the tunnel leading to the castle, I noticed some of the traps were disabled.

*CLANG*

"Dear Faust!" I heard somepony shout.

"Dude, you ok?" I heard somepony else ask.

"Yea…ugh…who's the sadist who made these traps!?" The first asked with a pained groan.

"No idea, but at least we won't have to worry about it after we get done with this tunnel." The second one said.

"I guess." The first said, annoyance clear in his voice. The two the walked further in.

'If I remember the layout of this tunnel correctly, then considering how far in I am, then that was probably one of Luna's.' I think with a chuckle. I then waited for a few moments, listening to the clanking of shoes fading away. I never realized how loud they were until now, that explains how the Changlings infiltrated the castle without getting caught, the guard might as well have been wearing bells on their hooves. After a few moments, I no longer hear any clanking, so I continue on. When I reached a certain point in the tunnel, I push a brick in the wall, and a secret door opens up.

"What's the point in having a secret tunnel if you have only one entrance?" I remember Luna asking me. "You might as well make it publicly known if you're gonna make it THAT predictable."

'Maybe it's not a bad idea to reinstate some of the old ways after all, to an extent at least.' I think, nodding to myself. I step in and look around. This looks like the old armory, this hadn't been used in a while since the guard normally only had to use swords or spears, but was kept and maintained should it ever be needed. You don't really need a mace when you have pegasi who can use storm clouds, unicorns who can use magic, and earth ponies who could potentially hit harder without weapons. Better safe than sorry.

"Now let's see if these enchanted pebbles work, they should be mentally stressed enough for it to work without any problems." I muttered as I stepped out of the armory.