Night moved through the streets of Canterlot as quickly as he could. He already decided on the way here that there wouldn’t be any jokes, jabs, or messing around with this one. He was not going to sneak into the castle, he wasn’t going to lead the guards around on a chase. This was big enough and important enough that he felt the need to treat it with a gravitas that Night felt Twilight would appreciate.
The castle loomed above him as he approached, and sure enough, he found himself at the castle gate.
“Sir, visiting hours are over,” the guard standing watch over the gate reported.
“I have urgent news for the Princess,” Night said, in a voice slightly above a whisper. “She’s expecting me.”
The guard glanced at him for a second before checking a sign on the post out of his sight. “So she is,” the guard said before he reached for a speaking tube. “One moment, we’ll get you an escort.”
Night sighed but nodded. Having to wait wasn’t really something he wanted to put up with, but he figured there had to be a trade-off somewhere.
A few minutes later, another guard appeared.
“He’s expected,” the gateman explained and pointed at the hidden posting.
The escort nodded. “Understood. Follow me, sir.”
Night fell in step behind, and the two made their way into the keep.
They moved quickly and quietly on the way through the hallways, and for some reason, Night felt put off by the silence. “You know, I...uh...I think this is the first time I’ve gone through the front door.”
The guard looked over at him.
“It-it’s uh...kinda nice not having to wear yourself out trying to get inside. I can see why normal ponies do it all the time.”
The guard smirked. “I do hear it’s easier to get around, yes.”
Night smiled as he received some verbal response before noticing that they passed the stairs to Twilight’s office. “Um, isn’t the Princess’s office that way?” he asked.
“I was told to present you to Miss Raven’s office, so she could begin to mobilize all of the legal work.”
“Okay…” Night said, glancing back at the stairs that would lead up to the Princess’s office.
They took another few turns into the keep before Night found himself in front of lady Raven’s door. The guard knocked, and a voice called. “Come in.”
The guard pointed Night inside.
Night nodded before he stepped into the office.
Raven’s office felt nearly claustrophobic for some reason, but under normal circumstances would have probably been cozy and welcoming. A desk, surrounded by low bookshelves, filled with law textbooks and other knick-knacks.
The cream-colored unicorn looked up. “Ah, Mister Night, I’m glad you got here.”
Night nodded. “Uh...Good to meet you,” he said. “I...uh...found the warehouse where the Triad’s been hiding.”
Raven nodded. “Good!” she said. “Where are they?”
“They’re up in Vanhoover,” Night said. “They’re in a warehouse on the docks, connected to a private railroad that leads all the way here. You can move a lot of soldiers there by rail and cut off their escape in that direction in one move.”
Raven nodded. “Good to hear. You may go.”
Night blinked. “Go?” he asked.
Raven smiled. “Oh, don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming?”
Night felt something drop into his stomach. “See...what?”
“You’re being let go, Night,” Raven said.
“What?”
“The Princess is too honorable to let you know without giving you the full three months, but she’s already come to a decision. You still get to help Azure keep the castle up to date, but you’re not going to be receiving funding for anything else.”
Night blinked.
For a second, a part of him denied that this could be true. There was no way she could have lied to him like that. He couldn’t believe that the same Princess that held him for the entire night when he told her about how he failed Gleaming couldn’t just turn him down so quickly. She wouldn’t turn on a friend like that and—
“You’re not her friend, Night. Why would a princess be friends with a pony like you?”
The thought hit him like a train.
“You’re not worth it, you know that.”
“I…” Night began.
He could see her, staring up at him as they lay together in a bed the morning after his confession. The smile she wore as he listened to the story of how she moved to Ponyville and the friends she made. The look she had in her eyes as they talked that morning shone with such kindness and joy that Night wasn’t sure he’d ever forget that look.
She…
“She’s not your friend. She’s the Princess.”
But...she wouldn’t lie like that.
He might not know her so well to be her friend, but she still wouldn’t lie to his face like that. He knew that much about her. This...something was not right here.
“That can’t be right,” Night said.
“Read it yourself,” Raven said, as she rolled out a scroll.
“Mr. Night Silk,” the letter read.
“After much deliberation, We have decided that the efforts you deploy to deal with the criminal element of this country to be inefficient, though well-meaning. Your actions do not solve long-term issues but instead solve short-term problems at the cost of long-term solutions.
“That is not to say that what you do is without merit.
“Your motives are obviously built on a need for justice. However, in your need to enact justice, you’re ignoring the more significant problem at hand. These solutions you offer are short-sighted and fail to attack the source of the problem. Thus with Our most generous sympathies, We decree that you cannot continue in this way.
“Your salary from the Royal treasury is to be reduced to one-tenth of its current amount. You shall continue to act in your advisory role in castle security, as your talent in this area is undeniable. However, any further criminal activity will not be tolerated and shall be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law.
“Thus do We decree,
“High Princess Twilight Sparkle, Keeper of the Skies, The Archmage Ruler, Protector of the Tribes, Lady of Friendship.”
Night read every word before re-reading the letter again.
This wasn’t right. There was something wrong here. There had to something wrong with the letter, or, at least…
He glanced up pony behind the desk.
She smiled at him.
And Night ran.
“Hey!” a voice called behind him as he rushed back into the keep for the door.
“Stop him!” a voice called, but Night kept running through the castle. He dove down the alcoves and hallways that he knew almost like the back of his hoof before ducking away into a hidden passageway.
As soon as he was sure that he was hidden, Night began to think about his options. If one of the Princess’s advisors were after him, then he couldn't trust the guard anymore. He could go directly to Twilight, but the chances that the advisors were already moving up to stop any communication between them was something that Night couldn’t ignore.
He frowned. He didn’t get his bottled dragon fire restocked, so he didn’t have a way to communicate with the Princess without possibly being intercepted. He’d have to find a different way to let her know what was happening. Were they connected to Gleaming somehow? Had she infiltrated the Princess’s advisors somehow? Was there going to be an assassination attempt of some kind?
He forced himself to breathe and focused on what he knew. Someone had planted evidence that Twilight wanted to end the deal, somehow. Seemingly, the advisor believed the evidence. This had two possibilities: the first that the advisor had planted the evidence herself, or she believed it whole-heartedly for another reason.
He had evidence for neither, so he couldn’t rely on either one.
If the advisors couldn’t be relied on, then Night couldn’t count on getting to the Princess’s chambers unscathed. What’s worse, if the advisors were in on it, then the possibility of an assassination attempt wasn’t something that could be ignored.
Still, she was a powerful mage. She might be able to defend herself if she could see it coming but—
Someone was coming. Night held his breath, staying as quiet as possible as footsteps sounded, approaching him.
A purple dragon passed him by.
Night grabbed him and pulled Spike in, covering his mouth. “Spike, I think Twilight could be in danger,” he whispered.
Spike stared back at him, with his massive green eyes, confused at suddenly being pulled into the darkness, but listening.
“Something’s wrong,” Night said. “I think someone might be working for Gleaming, and I think someone might be coming after her.”
Spike’s eyes darted in front of him as though processing the information.
“I can’t stay. The guards are trying to kick me out for some reason. Make sure Twilight’s safe.”
The dragon blinked and then nodded. Just as he pulled away, Night turned and ran, rushing for the castle door.
Spike didn’t wait for another second and ran for the steps, all the way to Twilight’s office.
---$---
Raven shook her head. That Night pony was obviously up to something if he thought running was the best way to get out of being escorted off the premises. What’s worse, she now had to have Azure organize a castle-wide search to find him.
Of course, all that had to wait. She’d been called by the Princess, and what she wanted had to come first.
She entered the Princess’s office and froze under her glare. “What did you do?” the alicorn demanded.
Raven blinked before she saw Azure standing to the side, head bowed, and his eyes closed. Spike wasn’t looking at her but simply stared out the office’s window.
“I...uh...I don’t understand—”
“What did you do, Raven?” Twilight demanded again.
Raven blinked and glanced around the room, trying to figure out what was going on. “I... I’m not sure—”
“What did you do?”
“I don’t—”
“Your Highness,” Azure said suddenly. “I must once again apologize, I moved against your will upon seeing the letter, and I had—”
“You’ve already made your part in this debacle perfectly clear, Azure,” Twilight said. “I am talking to Raven.”
The letter? Which letter? What could—Oh. Oh… “Oh, no,” she muttered under her breath.
“Oh, no?” Twilight asked. “That’s what you have to say?”
“I...I saw the letter on your desk. I thought that you had written it, and I was trying to be proactive—”
“And you didn’t run that idea past anyone else?” Twilight asked. “You didn’t ask Spike, who has been working closely with me on this particular case for the past month?”
Spike didn’t look at her, and Raven was thankful for that much at least. “It was your letter,” Raven began weakly.
“I wrote it nearly a month ago!” Twilight said. “And if you asked Spike, you would have known that. Instead, you told Night, who has proven himself to be incredibly competent and trustworthy, that I was firing him. What’s worse is that he thinks now that one of you is a plant by Gleaming Coin, and one of you is trying to kill me!”
Raven blinked and hung her head.
“Of course, if Spike had anything other than sarcasm to say to you, he might have been able to stop this himself. After all, I told him that there was a note missing. He knew. He just sat on his butt and didn’t say anything to anyone about it, even though he knows he gets information that you two don’t. Instead, he seemed happy to let you blunder into this, without mentioning that ‘hey, have you seen this letter the Princess has wanted to throw away?”
Spike continued to stare out the window.
“Now, I can’t reach him because he’s hiding from you because he thinks that you’re a part of a coup!”
Twilight turned and sighed. “I suppose I should have thrown it away,” she said. “But somehow, I felt safe leaving my documents out in the open. I guess I should have known better.”
All three advisors winced.
“He was supposed to report back to me, you know, with the info for where Gleaming’s Triad was hiding, but now I don’t even know where that is,” she muttered angrily.
“He...Mr. Night Silk reported on its location, actually,” Raven said.
Twilight turned to her. “Well?”
“He said he found a warehouse in Vanhoover, connected to a private rail to Canterlot. He’s positive they’re there.”
“Glad to know,” Twilight said. “I’m going to take the prepared taskforce and deal with it myself because I obviously can’t trust any of you.”
No one said a thing as she stepped out of her office and left them alone.
A few minutes of silence passed by, no one willing to say a word as they waited.
Finally, Spike spoke up. “I think we messed this one up, guys.”
Raven nodded. “Yeah, I think so too.”
---$---
Twilight gathered the task force and stood at the rail station in Canterlot. They worked quickly and carefully to ensure that there wasn’t anything on the line that would see them approach.
It took them several hours to secure the Canterlot station, but finally, they had it to the point where it would hold anything that came their way. The larger problem was they needed to be sure that no one could stop them midway, with cargo coming the opposite way.
By the time they cleared the rail, it was already sunset, and Twilight and her taskforce wouldn’t arrive in Vanhoover until the next morning. The delay wore on Twilight’s nerves more than her advisors had earlier in the day, but she didn’t have much choice. She only hoped that Night would be able to find them when they moved in on the warehouse.
Twilight woke up in the VIP car of the guard’s operation train to the sound of her alarm and shook her head as she stood up. The rattle of the train kept her up for a few hours after she laid down, but she still managed to get some sleep.
She pulled out her amulet and used her magic to raise the sun before she turned to face the room. The royal compartment was sparsely decorated, though it did have three features of note. The first was the bed, which was comfortable despite the noise that Twilight felt grinding on her nerves. The second piece of furniture was the writing desk, though Twilight wasn’t sure why she would need one for an operation like this. Still, it was there.
The last piece was a coronation gift from Luna. A set of armor explicitly built for her. Celestia told her that it was merely ceremonial but sturdy enough to withstand a spear or crossbow bolt if she needed it to, but Twilight felt this was probably the best time to wear it.
She sighed. “Please be there, Night,” Twilight silently hoped, before she began to don the gilded, enchanted steel.
“Your Highness,” a voice over the PA said. “We’re approaching the warehouse. We’ll arrive in ten minutes.”
Twilight nodded before remembering that nopony could see her. Sighing, she finished donning her armor before leaving the VIP car to pass through the barracks car to the command car.
A handful of guards waited for her and saluted as she passed them by. “What’s the situation?” she asked in her best commanding voice.
“Your Highness,” the Lieutenant replied, saluting before approaching the table with the map of the warehouse placed on it. “Our approach from the rail gives us access to the main doors of the warehouse. This is where we will be entering from, while the local forces will surround the building and keep the garrisoned criminals from leaving the area before entering with us.”
Twilight nodded. “They’re already in position?” she asked.
“Of course, Your Highness.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant.”
The pony nodded. “As you will, Princess.”
She nodded and prepared for the mission at hand.
The train approached quickly, and before she knew it, they were there.
The taskforce moved ahead of her, pouring out of the train on either side as they rushed the warehouse. Guards in gilded armor rushed the building from every side.
Nothing responded.
The guards didn’t hesitate. They continued the charge all the way to the building, securing every entrance as they went.
Twilight strode down from the train and approached the warehouse, surrounded by a small contingent of guards, armed with spears and crossbows.
The warehouse remained silent.
“Breach!” one of the guards cried, and they slammed the doors open, revealing the warehouse inside.
It was empty.
The guards rushed in, checking every single nook and cranny for any signs of life.
Twilight glanced around, confusion growing on her face. Was Night’s info wrong? Did they see the train coming somehow through the night? Was Raven feeding her incorrect information like Night thought? “Search everywhere!” she ordered. “We can’t let anything escape us.”
Ponies started pouring into the warehouse from every direction.
Was there something she was missing? A secret tunnel that they missed? Were they working from a basement they didn’t know about? Was there a mole that warned Gleaming they were coming?
“Princess!” the Lieutenant reported, approaching her with a salute. “Your Highness, we’ve found evidence that the warehouse was used recently, but we haven’t seen any ponies yet.”
“Keep looking,” Twilight said, “but start collecting any evidence we can. If they’ve left something behind, we need to find some way of using it against them.”
“Yes, Your Highness!” he replied before he rushed back into the warehouse proper.
Twilight glanced around and could see the tracks in the dust that marked where tables once sat, and a singular pedestal still sat in the middle of the warehouse. These seemed like things that Gleaming might have set up, but she wasn’t sure.
Twilight began to gather up her magic to cast a Perceive spell to let her see if ponies came through here when the Lieutenant approached. “Your Highness! We’ve found something.”
“What?” Twilight asked before she saw the small letter that the Lieutenant was handing her.
She took it and read the first line.
“Dear Princess Twilight…”