//------------------------------// // One day before the riot // Story: The Triumvirate // by Fedora71 //------------------------------// The Triumvirate 9 One Day before the riot. The train arrived later than expected. It was night, and Luna’s moon hung in the sky overhead. The griffon and the unicorn rode in silence. Partly out of worry, and partly because they were crammed into coach, and talking about their plans to rescue their changeling friend from a maximum security prison cell underneath Canterlot would’ve made them look very suspicious. So, they found ways to pass the time. They played poker, a game more to Scott’s liking, since there was more chance and less thought of how many moves ahead you had to be. They also occasionally glanced through the pictures they had gotten from Featherweight, who had been very thorough with his infiltration of the prison and very willing to give them the pictures before they left. Probably had something to do with the griffin mumbling angry half-threats towards his general direction. Most of the ponies had taken the night train by choice. The choice was that they just wanted to get home. As the train came to its stop at the Equestrian capital, Stigandr and Scott filed out of the train with the rest of the multi-colored, tired looking ponies. “Do you think we can pull it off?” Scott whispered loudly, when he was sure not even his voice could be heard. “I don’t know, but we don’t have any other options.” Stigandr replied as they walked into the relative darkness that was the sleeping Canterlot. Scott and Stigandr were still fascinated as to the just how bright the nights could be in Equestria. The streets seemed to shine in the moonlight, and for the most part the night was clear, except for the storm clouds that were rolling in from Ponyville. They were for about half-way over the Everfree. “Glad I’m not trying to fly through that,” Scott said, trying to make idle conversation. “I’m glad you’re not carrying me through that,” Stigandr chuckled as they made their way to the cheap hotel they stayed at last time they were there. “Well, there are plenty of pegasi pushing the storm to catch us if we get hit.” “Shut up,” Scott said, trying to pass the san check and opening the door. “Well Scott, they’re definitely going to remember you this time,” Stigandr said, magicking the door open. “It was an accident,” he groaned, pulling bits of dirt and flowers off his head and out of his feathers. “I didn’t know the snake was behind me.” “Scott, everypony knew that. In fact, we told you that several times,” Stigandr said with a light chuckle. He was used to Scott’s complete lack of self-awareness. “I’m just surprised you didn’t break the chandelier.” “Yeah, we don’t have the bits to replace that.” He said, “Cleaned me out for the vase and the mirror.” He heard the chime of Stigandr’s horn, and turned and saw him laying the pictures on the bed. One fell off, and he picked it up. He had to laugh at the sight of Ancro striking the Captain Ginyu pose. Then the next picture was of him vomiting. Feeling his own stomach churn, he put the picture down and asked, “what we got so far?” “Entrance, several hallways, ventilation shafts that he used to sneak around in.” Stigandr felt a little frustrated sorting through the pictures. He took pictures of everything, and he thought he was OC. “Guard break room, several guard stations, checkpoints, armory.” “Armory?” Scott said, snatching the picture excitedly and then became depressed when he saw what he meant by armory. “Of course there are trains, airships, and magic, but when it comes to weapons we are stuck in the damn dark ages.” “It’s for the best actually.” Stigandr said, “would you like to be shot at by a magically assisted gun?” “True,” he replied, seeing the point. “So, how we getting in?” Stigandr levitated a picture of a laundry cart entering and leaving. It was clear that these pictures were taken several days in advance, and he came and went daily. “No, no, no, no, no, that won’t work,” Scott said, shaking his head in disbelief. “Scott, it’s an underground prison with only one exit. Unless you have another way in, we’re kinda stuck with it.” “Well…damn, let’s hope that ponies don’t have that old cliché.” The griffin groaned. A guard was hard at work on patrol around the prison. Not that it was actually hard work, it was more or less just mentally tiring remaining that vigilant for hours on end. She had discovered on her first day that the difference between actual vigilance and fake vigilance was recognizable by the warden. When they called her out, she nearly changed on the spot, thinking they had discovered her. The work was just making sure the more dangerous ponies were kept under lock and key. They called them anti-social, but sexual sadist was a sexual sadist, they were dangerous. ‘Pssst.’ A noise snapped her out of her daze, and at first she thought somepony noticed. She lowered her blocks and looked over, feeling her brother’s presence. “What is it, Shift?” She hissed towards a shadow. “We have a slight problem.” “What is it?” She groaned, eager to get on with her day. “Did you get some mare pregnant?” “No,” he objected, both offended and revolted, “but there are other changelings here.” “…What?” Her tone went from annoyance and agitated, to fear in a split second. She let it control her for a second, then snapped back into control. “Are they rogues or loyalist, how many are there, what’s their ranks, do they know abo-“ She cut herself off as her brother shook his head from the shadows. “I don’t know, I just bumped into one of them and saw his eyes flicker,” he stated, keeping his voice in some semblance of control, but clearly sweating. “Specs, what are we going to do?” “I don’t know,” she said, trying to cope with the pressure that had suddenly come to her plan. “Calm down and let me think.” “Are we going to fight them?” Shift asked hesitantly. “I don’t know, maybe. Give me some time to think.” She sighed. Keeping herself together was tough enough, she didn’t need her brother to make things worse. “Just stay calm and stick with the plan.” There was a rustle and a small green flash, as Shift changed back to the guard he had stolen and calmly went back to his patrol as if nothing had happened. Even if you were watching them, you wouldn’t believe anything was going on. “Everything in place?” The commander who had taken the appearance of the laundry ponies asked the guard, who nodded slightly. “Any news on when Cadence will be arriving? I’d hate for her to miss the party.” “One of our agents has read her schedule. She’ll be here at noon, and we can hold her up at the checkpoint if necessary,” he replied, with a volume that would’ve put Fluttershy to shame. He didn’t say anything, just nodded slightly and carried on with his work like it was his life’s calling. Granted, it was the pony's whom he had killed life’s calling, but still he had picked it up fairly well. What a calling, he thought to himself. Doing laundry for the rest of your life, how dull. He found himself wondering if the old pony ever had dreams in life other than this, then he realized it didn’t matter, seeing as how the elderly stallion was dead and therefore not worth mentioning. He did notice one thing, for his age the stallion had put up an amazing fight. Not squishy, as old things typically are. “Good, that’s well within our window,” he mumbled to the guard as he finished loading up the wagon. “Be ready, because we move at one.” He noticed the look on the other changeling’s face was one of confusion, although a pony couldn’t identify it. “We wouldn’t want our charge going hungry would we? Besides, I have a feeling that he will be in quite the mood to repay Cadence for her kindness.” “Yes, sir,” he said, snapping back to attention, memorizing the details of the plan. Although all he had to remember was they let out the more…violent ponies... at one o' clock to run amok, there wasn’t that much else to do. Other than inform the ten other changelings who were impersonating guards. “You'd think they’d at least have the decency to leave me a book,” Ancro said, his back against the wall. “Except you can’t read,” Discord reminded him. “I’m well aware of that,” he replied. “Still, it’s the thought that counts.” “Well, you won’t have to put up with this too much longer,” Discord said lazily. “Why, what do you mean?” Ancro raised an eyebrow, and Discord developed a look of genuine shock. “What?” “You mean to tell me, you don’t remember what happens tomorrow?” The serpent-like chimera withheld a chuckled. “No, I’ve been a bit incapacitated the past few days,” Ancro reminded him. “So, did Stigs come by and tell me some elaborately simple plan for breaking me out of here while I had my migraine?” “Not exactly,” Discord replied, rubbing his chin in thought. “I think I’ll just leave it a surprise.” Ancro grinned and looked at the twirling god. He couldn’t help but laugh at the predicament he was in, and the amazingly good trollage Discord was pulling off. He had to applaud him. “So you hate those Roman guys, huh?” Discord said after a while of silence. “Yes…why?” Ancro asked warily. “Oh, nothing. I just heard from a reliable source that you hate them,” he said. Ancro new far too well than to trust Discord, especially when it was 'oh nothing', he never trusted anyone’s 'oh nothing' statements. He just knew not to waste time pushing an issue that didn’t matter. “Alright, Scott. Again,” Stigandr said as Scott tried to hit him with several more lunged slashes. They were steadily improving, and he had gotten better about keeping his guard up around his face. Stigandr made note of this as he jabbed him squarely in the beak, momentarily stunning Scott at a crucial moment in his attack. This, of course, left him vulnerable to all manners of nasty attacks, most of which Stigandr exploited. Finally, Scott flinched and backed away, covering himself with his arms and screaming for time out. The ponies that had gathered were trying not to chuckle as the unicorn beat the griffin. It wasn’t a bad beating. Stigandr was going easy on him, just trying to improve him. Which Scott had, he was now throwing punches and going in for hits, and taking them far better. He still had a long way to go, though. “C’mon Scott, I didn’t even charge those,” he said, throwing several jabs at the air to stay loose and work off some adrenaline. “They still hurt,” he griped, rubbing his bruises and fixing his feathers. “How do you and Ancro do this to each other all day?” “Well, we practiced a lot before we became, well…” he said, wishing the other ponies weren’t in the gym, because it was sometimes good to actually be able to talk about it. He knew it would be good to have Ancro back; he needed someone to spar with, because he was going crazy. He looked back at his flank that advertised his two crossed pugil sticks. They represented his desire to compete, not necessarily win, and something else he picked up on Parris Island, 'adapt and overcome'. Every time Ancro came up with a new trick, he’d find a way to counter it. Ancro figured out he can charge his hooves. He develops a force push thing for his. Ancro figures out those flaming energy bolts, Stigandr learns to deflect them. They had a nice rivalry going on; Ancro once compared it to Vegeta and Goku. That made Scott, Krillin. “C’mon Scott, a little more practice before tomorrow morning won’t hurt.” “Fine,” he groaned, getting up. “But how are we going to sneak into the laundry?” He lowered his voice to a near whisper. “Leave it to me,” Stigandr replied, “now don’t hold back.” A guard walked through the halls of the prison doing one last check to be sure everything was in place for tomorrow. The ten other changelings that had infiltrated were in places to which they could release the more aggressive inmates. The guards at the innermost checkpoint were informed to delay Cadence’s exit. The armory was locked down. Every eventuality was taken care of. They were going to unlock the cells, subdue the three guards that were guarding the changeling (the other three had already been replaced), break the shield and go out through the drainage system. The red stallion walked onwards finishing his patrol, and entered the locker room with the pony who had bumped into him yesterday. “Sorry about yesterday, probably gave you a good knock on the head,” he said, remembering that to ponies, being cordial was important. They were typically always looking for ways to make new friends. “Not a problem,” Shift replied, smiling warmly back at him, “my sister always said I have a hard head.” The other changeling noticed something... Not in his voice, but directly from him. It was a hint of fear, barely detectable. He wrote it off as nothing, the room had been quiet and he probably just startled him a little. Discord leaned back and smiled, his shadow sitting upon the shadiness of the Equestrian throne as Celestia lowered the sun. All the things that could add up to make tomorrow enjoyable were adding up. He wondered how much power would be released from this little squabble. If how much was released from when the human fought the guards was to be any indication, then hopefully he’d have enough to peer through the folds of the universes and look back to their earth. It was beginning to sound fairly interesting. He smiled darkly as Cadence’s ‘maid’ put the daily planner down leaving no trace it had been disturbed. As Stigandr went over the plan with Scott, the griffin could barely hold together how ridiculous it sounded, but bowed to the reality of the situation that they would be fighting other changelings. As the changelings, both those of Chrysalises’ elite guard and the disloyal peons made their final preparations. Ancro was sitting in the bubble thinking, trying desperately to remember what was going to happen tomorrow. Finally, Discord looked to Cadence, the object of the animosity and revenge of the Changelings, and how she was about to unexpectedly walk into a trap out of the kindness of her heart. He let out a chuckle. The scenario couldn’t be any more perfect if he had planned it himself. (Going to thank my editor/artist Sara for making this readable and going to apologize because my run-ons were apparently awful this time around if you want to contact her for commissions email her at shaya.laperro@gmail.com. Also going to thank my friends for letting me right about them in such a way and thank Stigs for helping come up with how to do his special talent. Also thanking my friends who have agreed to let me write about them in such a way. If anybody has been wanting more back flashes don’t worry will be taken care of in the near future bear with me I have some level of a plan. Thanks for reading and if you fav it please like it. My prayers go out to the victims of 9/11 attack.)