> The Shadow of Equestria
>  by Shadow96
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> Chapter 1: Of Cakes and Shadows
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It was a beautiful night over Equestria. The moon was full, the stars shined bright. The princess could be proud of what she has done. Although not everyone could admire the sky that night. A certain brick-red earth pony, with a sword as a cutie mark, was standing on top of the walls of Castle Stonestein. And to it's most displeasure, it was raining. We could hear him, yes it was a stallion, whispering about the weather. Though I will not write what he has spoken.

It was the middle of the night and he had to patrol this goddess damned castle. He was slowly getting hungry, but he knew there wouldn't be a change till 2 o'clock. Ok. What worst could happen if he ran to the general kitchen and back. He was sure he could do it in ten seconds flat. There was a slight moment of hesitation, thoughts like, what would happen if I get caught run through his mind, but they were stopped by a growl of bis stomach. Then he ran away. At the place he just left the shadows started moving. It was quiet, just a faint hint of something giggling, which stopped slowly as one of the shadows disappeared.

The stallion was already getting to the doorknob of the kitchen, when he heard a sigh. He turned around just to see a light brown pegasus with a dark brown mane. He smiled. "Hey Cookie! Wouldn't expect you here at this hour"  The brown mare looked at him with resignation in her eyes. "Shouldn't you be guarding right now. I tell you, someday you'll get it all thrown back at you. A freaking big bundle of karma. I guess you are here... For food? I'll get something ready." The stallion didn't even had time to nod, she was in the kitchen already. When he followed her in, she was serving some cake to a small table in the middle of the room. "You know Cookie, I don't know how I could have lived without you. " he said giving her a hug. They released each other and the stallion got started at eating the cake. She smiled as she saw he liked it. "Well, Cutie, you probably would have starved to death on your patrols. And I would have a lot more sweets for myself."

The Shadow stopped shortly at the kitchen door. Mhm, cake. It W
wondered when it ate cake the last time. It was probably just after Hearths and Hooves Day last year. From itself, to itself. Best present ever. It had to remember to get some cake on the way back.

After getting himself full, Cut Deep returned to his post. Nothing has happened, for the rest of his change.

Cookie stayed a while in the kitchen after Cut went out. She cleaned up after the quick cake making. She was tired, so she left some of the mess there. Ok, well, most of the mess. At least it looked 20% cleaner now. She started going to her room, but At the door of the kitchen something caught her eye. She turned around and took a good. It was the cake. Or better to say, the lack of it. Cut has left a giant piece of it lying on the table, and she was sure she didn't throw it away. Wasting food was not ok for her. But there where it should have been she observed a lack of cake. She went up to the table. Then she heard a quiet voice. "Shhhh... I'm sorry, but I have to do this." She felt a little sting at the side and then her whole world turned black.
> Chapter 2: Of New Days and Afterthought
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The day started beautiful. Over the night the rain was gone and there was still a rainbow in the sky. Everyone felt relaxed after they woke up, happy for another day. Nearly everyone. In the town surrounding the castle, in her house, a purple earth pony mare was nervously walking in circles, in her living room. She just got a message that there was another theft last night. It would be the third in this month and the second happening in the castle. At least they probably had a witness this time. She hoped she could get something useful out of the pony this time. The last witness she had was blabbering something about moving shadows and daemon eyes hypnotizing with a stare. It didn't make sense at all.

It was shortly after 5 o'clock when she came back to consciousness. the first thing she saw was a red blur. She tried to stand up, but felt if something was pressing against chest. Then there was a moment of immense pain and she blacked out again. The last she heard was Cuts voice, whispering "Don't worry, everything is going to be ok."

Violet Proof was on her way to castle Stonestein. It was hard to be a detective in Equestria, where the crime rate was probably negative, but she was doing fine with finding lost things. But these cases where something totally different. She hadn't heard of a case of stealing since she was a little mare, and even so, it was only in criminal books she read. Well, she had to say, it was giving her the spice to her life, that she wanted.

Cut Deep was still thinking about what happened last night. After he finished guarding he went back to the kitchen for a aftermidnight snack. He was sure he left cake, and he had hoped it was still there. Instead of the cake, he found Cookie, lying on the floor, unconscious. After trying to wake her up for some time and various tests to see if she is alive, he took her to the doc. The old Whooves told him she was knocked out. He spoke about it with his supervisor and was send to check around the castle if something was wrong.

This moment he got abruptly ripped away from his thoughts. Somepony came into the waiting room. A purple mare. She asked him quickly if this was the way to the unconscious ponies. "Yes, but none is awake yet." She was probably the detective they have hired. "So you work at the caste, don't you? Can you tell me anything you know about yesterday?" Cut asked if she was the detective. After a nod, believing in the honesty of the pony, he began telling about everything, leaving out the kitchen outbreak on his watch. "So after I got to the post I found the guy who was watching after me, knocked out too. And going further I found two more of guard ponies, lying on the ground. After I reported about this to my boss, he took most of our forces to check over the castle. That's when we found out about the theft." "And you called me." The story was finished. They sat in silence, both thinking about what has happened. 

> Chapter 3: Of Patients and Witnesses
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A loud thud came from the patient room. Cut quickly run towards the door, Violet followed him after a second. It was Cookie, who has fallen out of her bed. It looked like she was waking. He leaned over her and said: "Don't worry, everything is going to be ok." Unfortunately she passed out after a few seconds. 

After he put her back on the bed he saw the stallion at the next bed starting to move. "Hey Red Scar." All response he got was a tired grunt of dissapproval. The green pony didn't really was in the mood to talk. But after being shaken for a while he was finally awake. Not really happy, but awake. His first response wasn't one of the most original ones. "Where, the bucking hell, am I?" It was an easy question and was answered quickly. Now the other side had its move. Cut spoke first. "So Red, this here is a detective, and we need you to tell us everything you remember from yesterday." Red rubbed his forehead for a while. He was trying to progress the mass of word that has fallen on him, which wasn't easy with a mind as clear as a storage room in a long forgotten museum. At least he didn't faint. Slowly, trying to not to forget the question, he started: "Well... Wait what! How late is it?! I was asleep the whole night! That hasn't happened in a long time." Violet interrupted: *Ekhem* "Last night." "Ah yes, so it was a normal night, maybe not as normal, now that I know someone knocked me down, but that doesn't matter. The night seemed normal at that time." *Ekhem* "Ok, ok. I'll do pure facts, no getting sidetracked. It was dark. Blues and I were guarding the corridor to when suddenly the lights went out. And it was like in those scary movies. They started flickering and went out one after another. In pairs, if I remember good. When the darkness came to us there was silence for a moment. We were at an end of the corridor, there were no more lights to go out. I was blinded a bit, was never good at seeing at dark, and then I felt someone very close to me, at first I thought it was Blues. Then I saw something red, felt a sting, and the next thing I remember is you two shaking the hell out of me, while I try to sleep." Red and Violet both looked accusingly at Cut. After a while and a whispered, I'm sorry, from the red  pony Scar started tubing his eyes. Then with an expression of panic on his face, he nearly shouted: "How the hell could I forget. WHERE THE BUCK IS BLUES!?!" Cut smiled. While Red was just like a smaller brother for Blues, the other way around was a bit more complicated. "Don't worry, he's in the bed next to you." Whithout the scared look on his face, the pony almost imideatly fell asleep.
> Chapter 4: Of Thoughts and Voices
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Both Violet and Cut went back to the waiting room. It was Violet who started talking: "May I ask, or is this a great secret, what, the buck, was stolen?" "Wait, you are saying you came all the way up here, and firstly, took a case, not knowing what was stolen?" He giggled a little. "That's... very professional." "Just shut up, could you just tell me?" He waited a while, and then finally spoke, with a more serious manner: "Well, it's not a secret. It was seven hundred thousand bits, in gold bars. Just behind Scar's and Blues' guarding post was the treasury." After that sentence Violet's face looked like Scar's some moments ago. "How, the goddess damned buck, did somepony took that amount of bits out of there in this amount of time. What did you say? They had like one hour! Or even less! Ok. This is going to help a lot. It had to be either and bucking load of ponies, like a herd or something, or it was an unicorn. How much does gold weights. This amount of gold." Cut looked a little disoriented. "Ahhh. I think a lot." "Thanks. That was really helpfully. It is going to be... about five hundred kilo. An unicorn pretty good at levitation." "I'm more for the herd option. Have you ever seen an unicorn around here. Nah. Counterlot, that’s were unicorns are.” She thought for a while. There were some unicorns down at the town, where she lived, but she knew them for a time, and she didn’t expect them to do anything this stupid. Well, it wouldn’t, hurt if she asked them about this anyway. She started talking again. “And I'm not really into the herd option. It would take a lot of planning to sneak a group of ponies into the castle. And if I'm thinking right, it would have to be the same thieves as from the Grey Gargoyle incident. All more I need is one thing. Could you please get somepony to check the surroundings of the castle?" He looked at her with a stare that didn't mean understanding. "Just do it." "Ok. You're the detective."

The conversation drifted to yesterday's weather, and how it could be better, even if they knew it was an important step in growing stones, that needed lots of water. Somewhat around 6 o'clock Cut sent a guard to check the castles surrounding. It was really helping that he was the guard captain's assistant. Finally the patient door opened to reveal a brown, old pony with an hourglass as a cutie mark. Cut stepped up. "You haven't seen each other yet, have you? Well, Doc, this is Violet Proof, Violet, this is the Doctor." Violet looked at him, than at the new pony. "Doctor? Doctor who?" "-oves. It's Doctor Whooves. Nearly got that right. So, what matters more now, your girlfriend seems getting alright, Cut." The red stallion blushed. "She is not my girlfriend!" The Doctor smiled. "That isn't what matters right now. Come in."

Colors where coming back into their right places. Everything was still moving around, but Cookie saw a red blur, that at further inspection revealed itself pony shaped. "Cut Deep!" "Oh. You're back to conciousness Cookie. That's good. Listen to me closely." Cut explained the whole situation to her. He also told her who Violet was, and that she had to tell her about what happened to her. Having no other way, Cookie stated her tale. "I was in the kitchen and wanted to clean up. Then I thought I heard something, like silent munching. I turned myself in the direction of the cake I had baked the moment before, and it was gone. That's when I heard a voice behind me. It was this kind of calming voice that tells you that everything is going to be better. It said something like, I'm sorry, but I have to do this. That was when I blacked out."