Canterlot, Castle Gates
Three years ago
Of course it had to be noon. There wasn't a better time for Princess Luna, the princess of the moon and night itself, to have a secret meeting. No one would be expecting her to meet with ponies in the middle of the day when it was well-known she was usually sleeping at that time. But during his meeting with her, it was clear Luna had prepared for it; she didn't look the least bit tired at all.
And Barro knew why. He wasn't the only one she was meeting with.
A crowd exited the courtyard of Canterlot Castle through the gates. A group of the castle's cleaning and landscaping crew were changing their shifts. Plenty of the servants talked among themselves, made plans, most went straight home. The staff of Canterlot Castle was extensive enough that not all the guards, servants and other workers that kept up the castle could be quartered within it. Only the core staff and guards- royal advisors and the elite praetorian guards remained all the time.
The shift change was the perfect time for someone innocuous, or at least someone who wanted to appear innocuous, to leave the castle. Right through the front gate.
The crowd continued walking down the street into the city. A few branched off to the avenues and headed towards their homes or other places, a few pegasi took to the skies. They said their good-byes as they parted ways but most continued down the same street, gradually dwindling off until only the closest friends remained. Most of the talking stopped and the rush of the busy city took over. The perfect time.
Barro made his move.
"Hey Vinyl! Octavia! How great to see you- good to see you guys."
"Barry? Wait uh, I mean-"
"It's Barro. Good to see you again," the white stallion said, taking up pace beside the two mares as he walked.
Vinyl Scratch and Octavia both exchanged a confused glance. "Do we...?"
"Do we actually-"
"Do we actually know you?" Vinyl asked.
Barro smiled. The two mares would've nearly stopped but he kept the same pace, encouraging them to move forward.
"Of course! We met at your music store, remember? After that big sale you had last month."
"That was our going-out-of-business sale," Octavia said.
"Uh, yeah- hey, let's talk over here down this secluded alley." Barro steered the two mares around the bend to the corner of Secluded Street and Dark Alley Avenue. He looked around, checking to be sure no one had seen them.
"What's this about, Barro?" Tavi asked.
"I need to know about your meeting with Luna," Barro said quickly.
Both of them recoiled at the statement at first. Business with the princess was almost always an important matter, and this matter especially. It begged many questions immediately and if brought loyalty into question.
"How do you know about that?" Octavia asked. She did most of the talking, intentionally because Vinyl had a tendency to keep going if she started.
"Because I had a meeting with her, too, a few weeks ago. And I believe it may have been about the same thing," Barro said.
Vinyl and Tavi locked eyes again. Did they have some sort of twin-telepathy going? Unknown, but they seemed to be able to read each other, through their bestie connection.
"It was about a defense project. For Equestria," Octavia explained. "She contracted us to build a device that could be used to defend the kingdom in the event the princesses and the elements failed."
Vinyl lowered her head. "She passed on our design. And it's not even fair because it totally worked. Once."
"Yeah. It also worked in shorting out all of the audio equipment at my station, too. Your 'tests' blew out every speaker we had," Barro said.
With an apologetic half-grin and full shrug, Vinyl responded, "Hey, you gotta test the equipment before you use it."
"We're trying to market the bass cannon for parties now, anyway. They'll be for commercial and recreational use while the... more potent ones will be for home defense," Tavi explained.
"And house PARTY defense!" Vinyl added.
Barro nodded, more to himself than the two mares. He rubbed his chin, thinking on what to do next. "It's that bad, then. Well, that certainly changes things." You don't prepare for something you don't think has a chance of happening, even a remote chance.
"Why do you want to know? What's it to you?" Vinyl asked.
"Uh, well, that's not important. But what IS important is that I've found a way you guys can pay me back for when your bass cannon test wrecked my audio equipment," Barro said, smiling.
Again, the two exchanged a concerned glance. "And what way is that exactly?"
"You can tell me how noticeable those tranquilizer darts are."
"What tranquilizer- oh, you son of a biiiiiiiii-" Tavi fell over, unconscious.
Took a moment for Vinyl. "I don't really feel anything," she said, despite the fact there was a dart sticking on her neck. "Ohhh, wait, there it is!" And then she hit the ground.
Barro carefully removed Vinyl's trademark DJ sunglasses. Slapped a fake music note cutie mark on his flank, put on a blue wig and stuffed his muzzle into a mask that made it look more like a mare's, put on a fake horn and he was ready to go. Even though he still had a stallion's build, most ponies wouldn't give him a second glance. A rudimentary disguise but a functional one, Barro now bore at least a passing resemblance to Vinyl Scratch.
Of course, pony disguises were easy- wigs and paint were cheap, but body painting took time. For Vinyl's look, he just needed a pair of her sunglasses. He wasn't going to pay twenty bits for the official DJ Pon-3 replicas so Barro borrowed the real ones. Michael, who had darted the two mares, would make sure they were returned home safely.
Meanwhile, Barro made his way to the castle.
"Hey uh, dudes, I-"
"Halt," the first guard said. "What business have you in the castle... miss?"
"Heyyy, uh, I'm Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch. I had errr, a meeting with the princess today. I forgot something inside though- mind if I run back in and get it?"
The guards had changed shifts as well, so they didn't remember seeing Vinyl and Octavia leaving. Which was good, because that would've only brought up more questions. While the first guard talked to the disguised Barro, the second went over the appointment schedule. Meetings with the princess were of the highest importance and discretion, and so guests of the princesses, particularly ones with private business, were handled with a degree of haste.
They found Vinyl's name quickly, as Barro knew they would.
"Alright, go back in. Make it quick, though." They cleared 'Vinyl' and let Barro pass.
"Thanks dudes. Like, uh... tubular! And stuff. Woo!"
The two guards looked at him quizzically, but slowly returned their attention to the gate as he trotted by.
This was not the first time Barro had been in the castle. It wasn't even the first time he'd been in the castle in a disguise. Or even the first time he'd been in the castle disguised as a mare. The first time he'd been invited for lunch after his first interview with Celestia, and the report that followed caught a lot of attention. Barro had been invited to the castle along with Michael to interview some visiting diplomats from Equestria's neighbors. The event had ended up with him impersonating Princess Burrito, the pony princess of the Fiesta Islands. The two apparently had an uncanny resemblance to one another.
Guards patrolled the halls in pairs regularly. Normal traffic included the occasional tour group or servants, maids and cooks and royal attendants. All regular as clockwork. Princess Luna usually slept during the day and woke around sundown for her nightly duties. She was active during the day at least a couple of times a week, sometimes just to visit and spend time with her sister and others.
Barro kept a nonchalant trot through the halls and made his way to Princess Luna's wing. The Lunar Wing was styled similar to the rest of the castle; differences were present but not as pronounced as in other castles to symbolize unity. Harmony was the overarching theme of Canterlot Castle and was observable in every room. Princess Luna's wing was for business, like Celestia's on the opposite side but the private chambers of both princesses was in the keep high above and behind the throne room.
Barro checked every room in Luna's wing. But he didn't find her. Luna's wing held a parlor, a study, guest quarters, barracks and armory for the night guard, a ballroom and an enclosed garden, dining room and the castle library. Luna didn't seem to be anywhere. Barro was about to try sneaking up to Luna's private quarters when he heard something.
"Nnnnzzzzzz..."
Snoring. At the back of the library, sure enough there was a closet. Opening it, Barro discovered Princess Luna.
"Umm..." He knocked on the open door. "Excuse me, your highness?"
"Nnffffff..." The alicorn was lying on a pile of rags, asleep. "Five more minutes..."
Barro swallowed and knocked again. Luna's eyes opened.