//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Twilight Sparkle and the Master Thief // by DungeonMiner //------------------------------// Princess Twilight Sparkle, High Ruler of Equestria, sat in her throne room, listening to her unicorn advisor as she presented the latest item on her docket. They were currently breaking down the yearly budget, and while Princess Celestia had spared her by finalizing a budget before she abdicated, Twilight couldn’t put it off any longer. The lavender alicorn sat, wings fluttering occasionally, as Raven Inkwell, one of Princess Celestia’s old advisors, continued to list the percentages of the current budget. That alone would have been bad enough, but Twilight knew that a new list of percentages that was mostly the same except for a few proposed changes threatened her time further. The grey-colored mare smiled as neared the end of the first list. “And finally, security, as it stands now, is at 10%.” “That seems a little high,” Twilight noted. “Well, with you six retiring from adventuring, they have to make the difference up somewhere,” Spike said, sitting next to her. The young dragon sat next to Twilight’s throne, reading a comic book, to the obvious annoyance of Raven. Twilight’s old friend, and famed “Number 1 Assistant,” frequently entertained himself during meetings, mostly because he had little to add, and these kinds of politics quickly bored him. Still, Twilight was growing more and more confident that he was playing it up to annoy his fellow advisor. “The proposal to defund them was your idea!” Raven growled. “We’ll get to that item,” Spike said, before continuing on with the comic. “I have a particular problem.” Raven glared at him but nonetheless continued. “Now, your Highness,” she said with a sigh, “the budget as proposed is as follows.” She began listing the new budget, and Twilight resisted the urge to sigh. Sure, Princess Celestia—or rather, Just Celestia these days—groomed her to be the new ruler of Equestria before she and Luna retired, but no amount of grooming could prepare her for how utterly boring the bureaucracy was. Maybe she could hire someone to deal with it for her? Perhaps one of her old friends, like Rarity, she certainly had an eye for detail. She’d just...have to give up...the boutique business she spent so much time working on… Okay, so no luck on that. Still, it would be hilarious to watch Pinkie Pie give a report. “And finally, Mr. The Dragon would like to cut the security budget from 10 to 7.5%,” Raven said with a slight edge in her tone. “Why the twenty-five percent drop?” Twilight asked, turning to Spike. Spike closed his comic book and sat straight. “Because, when I asked Captain Azure about it, he replied that ten percent of the budget went to two ponies.” Twilight blinked. “Two ponies?” she asked, before turning to her Captain of the guard. “Is that true Captain?” she asked, suspicious of the fact that millions of bits went to two ponies. Captain Azure Heart, a large earth pony by most standards, glanced up from his position at the side of the throne room. “This is true, your Majesty, though I will say that the ponies in question are incredibly talented. One is the Royal safemaker, and is responsible for much of the research, development, designing, and building of the various vaults around the country for your use. And…” he suddenly trailed off. “I can vouch for their usefulness of the other.” Twilight blinked, confused. “I...see,” she said. “Well, if they're as useful as you say, then I would like to speak with them.” The Captain shook his head. “That will not be necessary. Your Highness, I can present papers to prove his usefulness.” Twilight sighed before checking the time. It was getting late, and Spike was probably going to get hungry here in a few minutes. “Let’s...let’s finish this discussion later, I’m getting tired, and I’m not in the mood to think about meeting anypony.” Spike, Inkwell, and Captain Azure nodded. Twilight stood from her throne, feeling relief flooding her hind legs as she moved them for the first time in hours. Spike stood up beside her, ready to walk beside her. She sighed as they turned away, and she whispered as they began to head to the Royal Dining Room. “I miss my friends.” “You’ll see them again soon,” Spike offered. “The next council of friendship will be in a few weeks.” She nodded, but that wasn’t what she really meant. She missed being with them, going on adventures with them, talking with them, about the important things, and the trivial things. She missed… She sighed, and went to eat, hoping that dinner would at least make her feel better. ---$--- A shadow climbed the side of Canterlot Castle. The shadow of a pony, hooded and cloaked, slowly pulled himself up a rope to the top of the castle wall. The pony strangely cast no shadow of his own, but he did have a name. His name was Night Silk, and closer inspection would reveal that he was not a shadow. Though, in fairness, his warm, dark-grey coat did disguise him against the darkness. Even that could be deceiving, however, as the horn on his head rang with magic, letting anyone who saw him know that magic was involved. Beyond the horn, no one could tell this was an illusion, and the real Night Silk was climbing a different wall. He liked to use “Control Image” spells to move his visible form and draw attention away from where he was heading.  As the unicorn crested the wall, he saw his visual form had just finished climbing the tower, and guards were beginning to run for it, their torches little pinpricks of light in the darkness. Night smiled before turning down the wall and whistling to himself, knowing full well his visual form was doing the same. He had to say their reaction time was getting better, even if they were going the wrong direction, but they had plenty of time to fix that mistake. He walked along, before spotting his target, the donjon, the tallest tower of the keep, with a light shining at the highest room. “Our new Princess should be going to sleep any minute now,” he said, aloud, as if hoping someone would hear him. In fact, any guard next to the image would hear it and being scrambling just like Night hoped they would. He dropped the spell, giving himself a moment to breathe before he leaped down to the courtyard. He ran across the opening, unimpeded. Most of the ponies stationed there, especially the ones that should be watching for him, went off chasing his magical image, all the way to the far end of the castle. He flattened himself against the Keep wall and glanced back up at the donjon, where the light at the very top went out. At the sight of the princess going to sleep, Night smiled to himself and slipped inside, confident that the entire place was his to ransack. He whistled his way through the foyer and made his way to the open bridge that led to the donjon proper. Usually, a strategic chokepoint made for a great point to hold back invaders, but here, it only served as a place to watch the guards scramble as they tried to keep up. Night shook his head and whistled across the bridge. Once in the tower proper, Night passed by a handful of tapestries, priceless pieces of pottery, and the occasional invaluable knick-knack. He trotted past these with a smile and an upturned nose, before making his way to the real treasures. With a smirk, he approached the door that read, “Do Not Enter! Princesses Only!” before checking the lock. The door opened without resistance, and Night rolled his eyes. Still, he slipped past and down the stairs, before finding his first target. A bell, much like the ones worn by the Goat people in the mountains north of Griffinstone, sat on a small pedestal, in a glass box. The dark blue metal looked bent, battered, and cracked, but the etching in it belied a faint glow of the power that still sat in it. He glanced down at the bell and wondered how to take it best. He could theoretically make a copy of the bell, but it would drain his magic the longer he let it go, not to mention the teleport spell he’d need to make the switch, which was far beyond his capabilities. He could also try and lift the bell, but he couldn’t be sure what security measures were on the box. Then again, considering that the Princess left the door open, he couldn’t put it past her to leave the bell without something to protect it. He glanced around the case, trying to determine what was defending the bell, and wishing that he knew a perceiving spell. Finally, he decided that he didn’t have much choice, and if an alarm did go off, he’d just have to take the bell and run. If an alarm didn’t go off, then he’d get to have more fun. He frowned before looking around the room. There was a large mirror, far too big for him to carry out with him, so pilfering that was out of the question, but he was sure he could find something else. Another pedestal caught his eye, with several blue, crystal shards laying at its top. He smiled as he saw the little plaque underneath it reading “Key of Unfettered Entrance to be fixed with Relic Reconstruction spell.” He casually picked up one of the shards and wondered if it was worth grabbing the pieces. They didn’t have as much worth until the Key was back in one piece, but he was still here to make a point. He set one down before checking the next pedestal. “The Animamulet,” its plaque read, which was as far as he got before Night slipped that into his bag. Along with the amulet on the next pedestal, which simply read “Time Twirler, WARNING: may explode in Equestrian atmosphere, do not use.” He glanced around again, before figuring that there wasn’t much else that was dangerous enough to be worth stealing other than the Bewitching Bell itself. He approached the case one more time, before glancing at the inside of the case once more. He didn’t see anything that suggested any “Perceiving” magic, but then again he hadn’t figured out how to work with alarms. He usually didn’t have to worry about it, because he’d just grab the item and go, but Night still had one more stop on this little heist of his, and with the guards slowly closing in on him, he didn’t have much chance to go up before coming back down. There was no way he was passing this up, though. So, without much choice, he carefully lifted the box. There was no fireball, so Night took that as a good sign, before swiping the bell in a quick motion. When nothing happened again, he smiled and slipped the bell into his saddlebags. “Well then,” he thought with a smile, “these ponies need a good talk about security.” Pushing that thought aside, he then looked up the stairs, where the real prize still waited. ---$--- Twilight Sparkle sat up. “Someone’s touched the bell!” the thought crashed through her mind like a gong, waking her to attention. Her “Amethyst’s Silent Alarm” spell had woke her in an instant, and she checked the room as she got to her hooves. The Royal Bed-chamber was silent, which offered her no comfort at the moment. She slipped out of her bed and felt her hooves faintly slap against the tile below her. The sound rang in her ears, so she spread her wings floated across the room to land next to the door, which she cracked open with a creak. “Princess?” the guard posted at her door asked. “Is something wrong?” “I...” she began. “Somepony’s taken Grogar’s Bell. My alarm spell went off, and I…” “I’m on it, your Majesty,” the guard replied, before rushing off down the stairs. “No, wait, I—” she began, though the guard didn’t hear her. She sighed and turned back to her room. “No, go ahead, it’s not like I wanted to check it out or anything,” she grumbled, before mentally berating herself. “It is his job, Twilight. He’s supposed to go and check on those kinds of things.” Still, it seemed unfair that she was stuck in her room while her guards were heading to stop a possibly country-threatening situation in the bowels of her castle. It’s not like she couldn’t deal with the problem herself; she had saved Equestria what, nine times now? She quickly double-checked. No, it was ten times, she forgot to count the time Flurry Heart needed to have her Crystalling, the Crystal Heart broke, and nearly threw the Crystal Empire into a winter that would have caused the entire city-state to starve. Though that one did have a few stipulations like the fact that it wasn’t actually “Equestria” but an allied neighbor, and that Sunburst had done the research to fix the— Her door creaked. She spun, turning to face the door, which sat slightly open. “Guard?” she called, wondering if he returned. There was no answer. “Guard?” she called again, staring into the dark. Still no answer. Tink! The sound nearly made her jump a foot into the air, as it was, she immediately turned to the left to see where the noise came from. A small marble rolled across her floor, having obviously bounced off one of the marble columns that lined the room. She blinked, before turning back to the door, which hung wide open. Twilight felt her heart leap into her throat before turning. A shadowed figure stood behind her, and that’s when her body jumped into action. A shove of telekinetic energy slammed the pony into the wall. The thief moved to dodge, but his hind leg was caught in the blast, leaving him spinning across the room. Twilight caught him in a second, using Starswirls’ Net of Entrapment, which pinned the thief down with a magical force that forced him to the ground. He groaned under the weight before Twilight bore down on him, hoof on his throat. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” He gurgled, before holding out his hoof. Her eyes went wide as she looked down at his hoof, which held an amulet. More specifically, her amulet. The one that she used to focus her power to raise the sun and moon. “Are you insane?” she screeched, grabbing the amulet and retreating from the still-pinned thief. “Yeah, no, that one was on me. I should have stuck to the lower levels,” the figure said, gasping. “Are you insane!” Twilight asked again, before bundling him together in the magical net. This time, now that Twilight wasn’t stepping on this throat, he could breathe and answer her properly. Which was a change that he felt thankful for. “Hey, taking the bell was so simple that I had to try. Can you imagine the fame of the thief that stole the Princess’ ability to control the sun and moon?” “Are you insane?” she asked once more. “Your Majesty, what’s—” a guard asked, before seeing the thief bound together in a magical net laying on the ground. “Arrest this pony!” Twilight said. “Throw him in the dungeon.” “Hey, that’s not fair,” the thief said. “I’m doing this for you, after all.” Twilight turned back to face him, confusion written on her face. “Excuse me?” “Oh, Princess,” the thief said. “Don’t you know, you hired me?” Twilight looked absolutely aghast and turned back to the guard. “Throw him in the dungeon right now, before I do something drastic.” “Yes, Your Highness!” The guard replied before grabbing the thief. The thief, for his part, had relaxed, almost completely. “Now throwing me in the dungeon is hardly fair. I mean, I didn’t even get to keep anything,” he said, reaching into his bag to pull the old metal bell. “I assume you want this back, too, at least.” Twilight paled at the sight of it, before snatching it away. “Give me that! Do you even know what this thing could have done to us all?” “Of course I did, that’s why I stole it,” he said, indignantly. The Princess stared at him with eyes wide open, trying to decide whether she was confused, terrified, or furious. “Take him away! Take him away right now!” "Yes, Ma’am!” the guard said, before pulling the thief away. “You’re going to throw me in jail before knowing my name?” the thief asked, sounding hurt. “Yes!” Twilight said, still trying to piece the thief’s attitude to his actions. “Yes, that’s typically how being thrown in jail works! You get processed after being arrested!” “Yes, but I snuck into your personal bed-chamber while you were still here. Surely the brazenness counts for something?” Twilight glanced up at him. “You...you are actually insane,” she said. “You are actually an insane pony. That’s the only explanation for this.” “Well, that’s a little rude,” the thief said, throwing back his hood to reveal his gold and ivory mane. “But that’s secondary to the point I keep trying to get at. My name is Night, Night Silk, and it’s a pleasure to meet you, your Majesty.” Twilight didn’t say anything else. Instead, her horn lit as she began to push both Night and the guard out of her room before the door closed behind them. Night smiled to himself as he was being led away, still with two artifacts in his bag. His next big challenge would be to sneak at least one of them into his cell. Twilight, meanwhile, stood on the other side of the door and blinked. “I...I’m going back to bed,” she said to no one in particular. She climbed back into her bed and took a deep, shaky sigh as she tried to relax back to sleep. She’d...she’d deal with the madpony tomorrow, right now, she was too wound up to even think about it. She sunk beneath the covers of her bed and released a slow, shaky breath. She could deal with this in the morning, right after raising the sun. It was going to be just fine. Just fine. Her door slammed open. “Twilight!” Spike’s voice called, scaring her from her bed. “Twilight, we’re being robbed!” Twilight lay against the stone floor for a moment, then sighed. ---$--- Night was thrown into a cell and smiled to himself as he took a seat on the cot he had. Sure, prison cots weren’t the most comfortable things in the world, but he always found the cot in the castle’s prison to be the nicest. He laid back, his bag and cloak gone, and the guards sealed his horn and magic by forcing him through the bubble-like doorway to his cell. Honestly, he wasn’t worried about that, though. The spell had been built for public events and would wear off on its own by morning. More importantly, he was going to prove his point and get paid for it. He reached up into his mane and carefully pulled out the small purple talisman called the Time Twirler. This was the one that he read could explode. It didn’t seem terribly dangerous, but that would only help him make his point. And he was going to make it a very loud point.