We leave Ponyville and a map reveals Canterlot our next focus as the map comes to life. Late in the morning light the royal castle comes into view, and we find a few of the royal guards standing in line. But in the line 4 stand out from the rest, the captain of the royal guard and 3 younger guards with oddly colored armor. The royal guard elite scouts, the toughest guards in the entire army. The hardest positions to get into, they wear custom colored armors bearing Celestia’s day guard star. The rookie, Blue Flame a unicorn with blue eyes and hair with a gray coat wearing brown armor. The wise, Wolf an earth pony brown coat light blue eyes and brown hair he wears green armor. Finally the mysterious, Silver Fall a pegasus wearing blacked out royal armor. His metallic gray coat purple tipped wings, white hair and blue eyes with a falling meteor cutie mark.
Shinning Armor the captain of the guard is drilling his troops,
“Silver Fall, Blue Flame, and Wolf you may wear their armor but you haven’t earned my respect yet. So before I make full use of your talents, I have one last challenge of your skills. Silver Fall, you may have led them to this point but your under my command now. Your squad needs to operate alone if necessary and I need to know that they can make logical decisions on their own. You have any problem with this cadet?”
“No Sir.” Silver Fall replies without looking at him.
“That’s good sergeant, your order is to follow my sister Twilight Sparkle she is a student of Celestia’s and lives here in Canterlot. You’re not to been seen by any pony, but your to track her for 3 days and report directly to me your findings. Private Wolf, you’re to break into the castle and steal a scroll from the library. Private Blue Flame, its time you’re given some leadership you’re going to drill the other cadets until your squad mates complete their tasks. Do you all understand your tasks cadets?”
The 3 reply, “SIR YES SIR.”
“Then fallout and prep for your assignments. Squad dismissed!”
As the cadets return to their rooms they remained silent till Silver Fall breaks the silence.
“He has us doing what we were not trained to do me following and tracking that’s your training Wolf. Blue Flame has the infiltration mastery, and I was selected for leadership.”
Wolf answers him with his usual wisdom; “He is testing us as individuals, addressing our weakest skills as we were able to rely on each other during training.”
Silver Fall sighs, “Lets do our best we can guys or our elite rank will be gone, squad good luck and move out.”
As the three separate Silver Fall takes off heading towards the royal library all the guards know his armor know his face. He needs to make use of the shadows but he wasn’t the best he made his armor black to help him blend in the night sky. Not usually doing the scouting he relied on Wolf for that so now he had to crash course himself in tracking and blending in.
“There she is Twilight Sparkle, that’s your sister Shinning Armor? What makes her so special to be an apprentice of Princess Celestia? She just sitting there reading a book and yet your big brother is the captain of the guard. This is going to be easier then I thought she's not bothering to look around. Completely absorbed in her book there is she just going to sit there and read all day? This is going to be a long three days if this keeps up… sigh. Guess I should follow her home tonight, best not to get too close or else the Captain will catch me. Ok relax I’ll get some sleep and be ready early the next morning.”
Meanwhile, Wolf is using the cover of night to make his infiltration. With some quick movements he unlocks an unguarded window pulling himself up. He had traded out his armor for a much better stealth gear. Waiting for a guard to pass so he could knock him out and take his armor and keys.
“This is too easy, and I failed this course in training. Now where did you leave your keys? What no keys I forgot unicorns use magic. Still every lock has a key I still have some lock picking skills. Breaking into the Star Swirl wing to steal a scroll, to prove my skills I got off easy. Silver Fall has to track, and poor Blue Flame he is way too shy to lead.”
As Silver Fall falls asleep everything fades to black. He is awoken by the sunlight hitting his face. She is already gone he does his best to catch up with her but he runs out of cover to hid in.
“Oh no, well at least she back to reading again girl must not have any friends. Wait where is she off to now? The royal library I must get closer without being spotted. I can’t see her from there, a cloud perfect camouflage. Well I’m starting to appreciate Wolf’s talent a lot more. Is that a baby dragon, she is being followed by a baby dragon. Ok that different he appears to be helping like her assistant. Wait what she sends Celestia letters with that dragon’s fire? No being sent away from Canterlot… I have to keep tracking her no matter what. I'll sneak back into the barracks and get the rest of my gear she probably say her goodbyes and such so I still have time.”
As he returns with supplies weighting him down he finds her just as she is preparing to head off. We return to the barracks where Shinning Armor wakes up Blue Flame,
“Wake your fellow cadets, its time to drill.”
He replies, “Sir I don’t know how to Silver Fall use to do all that.”
“Don’t back talk me you're a leader now stop messing around and shape up. You seen others do it every morning now wake the cadets.”
He softly replies, “Sir yes sir.”
Shining Armor answers, “It’s going to be a long three days for you if you don’t shape up soon.”
A pegasus wearing royal armor rushes in “Captain permission to speak sir?”
“Granted”
he takes a deep breath, “Sir your sister is being sent to oversee preparations for the summer sun festival in Ponyville. It appears Silver Fall broke in and got supplies to follow her.”
“Thank you for the information your dismissed, return to your post.” As he flies out Shinning Armor follows him, “I expect to see you and the cadets in 10 minutes drilling, move out!”