Date: Oct 8, 4 ALR
Place: The Royal Palace
objective: meet with both princesses to discuss... business
Plan: A.V.O.I.D (Avoid Various Other Individuals in Darkness)
Time: 01:00 hours
After having scanned the castle grounds for guards for the past 30 minutes, Shade finds a gap in the guard’s pattern of sweeping through the gardens in which he can reach the base of the castle. He packs up his equipment, and prepares to make a run for the canterlot gardens from his position atop an old bakery next to the castle wall. Once everything has been secured in his cloak, now with bits of grass and leaves woven in to provide more camouflage in the garden, he counts down in his head, bolting from his position towards the wall just as the guards in the garden are nearing the half-way mark near where the statue of Discord once stood. He scales the wall with great ease, landing in the garden as the guards reach the ¾ mark in their sweep of the garden. Shade runs as fast as he can, sticking to the right hedgeline of the maze to avoid being spotted by the next patrol.
By the time he has reached the pedestal that Discord’s statue was once placed on, the first patrol had disappeared behind the left corner of the castle, while voices can be heard coming from the right side. Shade steps it up as he continues to run towards the side of the castle, stopping to hide behind a row of hedges that was planted right along the side of the castle. As the voices of the next patrol reach his ears, shade peeks out of the bush, trying to find where he will go next. Scanning the courtyard, he finds only one entrance to his left that has two guards standing in front of it.
“That’s one way to get in, but I’m going to keep my options open.” he says to himself as he continues to search for another way into the castle. However, he cannot find another doorway on his side of the castle and is contemplating using the entrance he spotted earlier until he hears
“It sure is lovely tonight, you did an excellent job Princess.”
“Thank you Silver Scroll, it is nice to hear praise about my night coming from somepony other than my sister for once.”
“Tis my pleasure Princess. Oh my, look at the time, you need to get back to night court! The recess is almost over!”
“Let us be off then! For justice and making fun of nobles using the tongue of old!”
Shade looks up just as the sound of hoofsteps recede down the hallway to find a balcony overlooking the garden. Thinking for a moment, he decides to go through with his original plan and to use the balcony as an exit should he need a quick escape. He pulls out a small pad and lays it out under the balcony, so he would have a safe spot to land should he need to jump from the balcony. The mat is a dark brown with green splotches mixed in, rendering it hidden from anypony who may poke their head over the hedge.
With his exit secured, Shade quickly, but quietly ran along the wall of the castle, making sure to stop whenever a patrol would walk by. While he was running, he continued to think about how he could sneak past the guards, until an idea came to him.
“I if this works, I have a pretty good idea as to what job the princesses have for me.” he mumbles to himself as he stops to pick up a rock. He takes aim at a bush that is a few feet to the left of the guards, and throws it, hitting the rock and creating a rustling sound. All of the guards within an eight foot radius swarm the bush, including the door guards. One stops to pick up a rectangular device and shouts
“We have a disturbance in the garden, requesting backup from all available units! Code omega dusk!”
He walks into the castle, completely unnoticed by the overreacting guards, all of whom were surrounding the bush preparing for a stand off.
“ I really should have a talk with Celestia about how her guards are trained. At least this explains the wedding.”
As he slips into the castle, he pulls out a map of the castle he had snagged from a group of tourists doing some late night sightseeing. After locating the entrance he had used to enter the castle, shade traced the quickest route to Princess Celestia’s room, through the west wing hall and through the kitchens in which he could take a dumbwaiter up to his destination. However when he tried to put his plan into action, a few minor “complications” arose. In the halls, there were still guards either running to help their comrade in the garden, or standing in front of various doors. Thinking quickly he hid behind a door and waited for a guard to pass by. After only waiting for a minute or two he heard the sound of hoof steps coming down the hallway. Once the sounds were outside of his door, he kept out grabbed the pony and pulled him back into the room. However he wasn’t expecting to have nabbed
“Princess Cadence?”
“Unhoof me! My husband will not take this lightly!”
“Oh great, the one pony in the entire castle I had hoped to avoid other than Luna.”
They said to each other while Cadence was being held in a choke hold. Suddenly she breaks out of it, charges her horn and turns around to face her foe. However when she sees Shade, she is confused.
“Wait, what? Who the hay are you? You’re parents must be worried sick about you! Come with me, I’ll see if I can help yo..”
“You honestly have no idea who I am, do you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well Princess Mi Amore Cadenzia, I’ll tell you, albeit against my better judgement. I am Night Shade, the one of the most ruthless mercenarys Equis has ever had.”
“And why are you here?” Cadence asks nervously
“I caught wind that one of the royal sisters was in need of my services, so I came for a house call.” Shade replies. Suddenly from the other side of the door a loud voice can be heard
“Comb the castle, we have reason to believe that changelings have invaded and have foalnapped Princess Cadence. I want everypony to be on high alert and call in everything that seems out of place!” Cadence facehooves after hearing her husband’s suspicions.
“Seriously? It was the one time! Now it’s all changeling this and changeling that! anyway shade, I think that prince… where did you go?”
She says after realising that she was alone. Meanwhile, Shade was crawling through an air vent that had been conveniently located in the back corner of the room he left the princess in.
“Glad that I got out of there, if the guards had spotted me with Cadence, they’d ruin my plans for sure.”
Shade says to himself as he continues to crawl, trying to remember the directions to Celestia’s quarters. After only a few minutes of crawling, he catches the scent of cooking food and decides to follow it, remembering that the kitchens were located underneath his destination. Soon the smells become more distinct, and Shade decides to slow down to avoid detection. He comes to a complete stop as he hears the sounds of ponies working in the kitchen.
“I’ll tell ya five, those guards have been on edge ever since those changelings attacked.”
“You can say that again slice, whenever anything happens, the first response is changelings invading. It’s a miracle that nopony’s been hurt yet!”
This causes Shade to think, could the job be a hoax made by changelings? Or what if the job was something to do with changelings? Either way, he was going to find out and soon. He continues to move onwards, and begins his ascent towards his final destination.
Meanwhile
It’s early in the morning and Celestia has just woken up due to an extreme hunger that only the most perfect of foods can satisfy. A craving so great that if not dealt with correctly, could cause a pony to give away even their most valuable possessions. Celestia craved… Cake! She sat on her bedside, waiting for her heavenly treat to arrive, while contemplating how she should go about the “problem” that had arisen. However she is snapped out of her thoughts as the dumbwaiter arrived, carrying the cargo that she had so desperately wanted. She cuts a piece of the cake using her magic and levitates it to her mouth, taking a bite out of it before starting to walk towards her bed. When she turns around though, she drops her cake in surprise as she sees another pony sitting on her bed. Before she can speak the new pony says
“Don’t bother trying to call the guards, the doors are soundproofed, and locked. Now, I heard you needing somepony with a particular set of skills for a job?”
“Yes, I am.” Celestia says slowly “but may I ask who it is I am talking to?”
“Ah, where are my manners princess. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Night Shade, one of the most lethal ponies in Equestria.”