//------------------------------// // Shadow Dealings // Story: Imperial Forclousure // by The Sound of Loneliness //------------------------------// "...Eight...nine...ten... eleven... twelve...who knows how many on stand-by. More than enough guards for just for one gate, they must be expecting trouble." "No. They are here waiting to redeploy, their planes are not being unloaded," Shadow confidently contradicted. "Maybe they didn't get to it yet." "Ammunition is a hazard to the airfield unless stored safely. An accident will cause critical damage to the entire facility. They would not risk it unless they knew they had no time." Nightstar turned away from her binoculars to look at Shadow curiously, "You know way too much about this for a maid." Shadow opened her mouth to explain, but the thestral had already turned back to observing: "Your Mistress will be pleased to know that the supposed heavy security will clear off in a day." "We still must appraise their strength and equipment." "Well, since you spoke against bringing anyone else, we can't just send someone in disguise to take a look." "Soldiers lack training for infiltration, they are likely to be uncovered and expose our presence." "Yes, you said that already. I can't imagine how they can mess up so much for their illusion to not be enough, but Her Eminence agrees with you." "There are other ways. If one of the guards were to disappear, it would arouse much less suspicion." "I guess that can work, except we would have to dispose of them afterwards. That will upset our Lady." "No, we will bring them back with us. The Lady will question them for all she wishes to know." "That's... not a bad idea, actually," Nightstar looked over to the gate again. "There's a lot of them though, how are you planning to pull this off?" "I will enter the guardhouse and capture a soldier coming to rest. Then, we shall fly them away and ask aid for smuggling them out of the city from your criminal subordinates." "They are not... Okay, fine. How are we going to do that without them spotting us? They are not thestrals, but even they can see us dragging their comrade through the air. Besides, you don't fly quietly." "No, I don't," Shadow confirmed and turned to leave. "Wait, that's all you have to say? Look, the plan is lousy. We are going to fail, or worse." "That is true, but it changes nothing, as we must achieve the goals Mistress appointed for us. If we must take risks to do so, then this is what we shall do." "But what if something goes wrong? She won't like us getting caught." "Then we must not fail," Shadow once again started walking, expecting the baffled mare to follow. Nightstar did follow, cursing under her breath and questioning her choice of volunteering to serve as a middlemare entirely. This was definitely not what she expected to do. The two mares silently crawled through long grass to the chainlink fence guarding the base's perimeter. The rusty sign on the fence warned of high voltage; but with a simple experiment using a grass blade, it turned out that the guards neglected the power. Shadow cautiously waited to see if any patrol had its route by the guard room, but after an hour none came. Climbing the fence would've been far too loud, not to mention razor wire coils at the top, so the mares elected to fly over. Nightstar could do so quietly, but Shadow - no. The buzzing of her wings will make a sound that will spread far in the night air. Whether or not that will bring attention remained to be seen. Trying to make her buzz as light as possible, Shadow made the jump. Landing across the fence, Shadow immediately dashed towards the closest wall and waited silently to hear if anyone was coming to check. "It's quiet," Nighstar whispered, her hearing keener. Shadow crept towards the guardhouse's corner. The soldiers at the gates still stood calmly. If they heard her, they paid it no mind. There were no convenient windows on the rear side of the house, but that was no bother, they could sneak in through the front door easily enough. They could either wait for the guard to change or some other distraction and move in then, or they could go now and wait inside. Provided there was no one else waiting for them there, otherwise, the mission will be over much sooner. Shadow chose to move. She ran up to a door, before anyone could see her, cracked the door open and looked inside to make sure she wouldn't run into a full room. Seeing no one initially, she dove inside. Hurrying Nighstar in, Shadow closed the door and stood still, listening to the noises around her. There was a noise coming from what she assumed had to be the water closet, although she did not see anyone enter the house recently. Shadow signaled Nightstar to hold the door and began quietly creeping towards the noise. The source was a pony, she was sure of that. The grunts and underneath curses gave that away. It was a mare, she sounded labored and frustrated. Shadow peeked through the door and immediately noticed robust, pink legs peeking from under a cabin. The door creaked quietly, but the mare still heard, immediately falling quiet. Shadow began moving in to strike. "Who's there?" the mare asked, Shadow was undeterred, reaching for the door. "Shadow, is that you?" That made her freeze in place, her mind panicking for a moment, how did she... "Well, of course, it's you. It can only be you right now. Look, I know this sounds weird, but I really need your help. I want to help your Mistress but she won't let me if I go to her directly. Also, I need a moment, I am a bit... stuck." "...Stuck?" Shadow asked, her rational mind trying to piece together what was going on. "Yeah... I am feeling really stupid right now. I miscalculated teleport distance and now my leg is stuck in this damn toilet, I've been trying to pull it out for five minutes already, so if you could, maybe help me out?" Her confusion still rampant, Shadow opened the cabin door. On the other side was Princess Flurry Heart, awkwardly smiling, with her back leg stuck in the toilet. Shadow did not know the specifics of pony magic, but this was the most extreme teleportation accident she had ever seen, even after perhaps hundreds of times she teleported with her Mistress. Shadow pushed past the Princess to her back leg and took a hold of it. She pulled putting her weight into it and both of them ended up on the floor. "Right..." Flurry got up with a grunt, crawling from underneath the surprisingly lithe changeling. "Okay, back to business. Shadow, we aren't even introduced, but I need your help and you need mine. Your Mistress won't understand, not yet." "I cannot aid you in anything Mistress won't approve of," Shadow defensively stepped back. "She... she will approve, I promise you. She just needs to see it, but she won't let me do it right now because she is going to think I am trying to betray her." "I cannot help you then." "Shadow, you have to! She is the reason you live, right? You are loyal to her above all else. What I am doing is in her interests, she just doesn't know it and she is way too suspicious to simply trust me at my word. She will thank both of us later." "Princess, you should go. We have a mission from my Mistress. You may get hurt." Flurry stared at Shadow for a whole second, as if she had no idea what Shadow was saying, "Oh... Right... Your recon. I actually forgot why you are here. Okay, what if I help you with that? I can divine any kind of intel you want to find here, I can even get you confidential documents if you want them. How about I do that and you hear me out?" Shadow was growing suspicious, of the Princess herself and her motifs. Shadow was a changeling, she was taught to deceive ponies from an early age and this felt like the same knowledge used against her. Caution was in order, but Shadow saw no harm in accepting the trade just once, "Very well, Princess. Aid me and I shall listen, but be aware that my Mistress will know of this." "I don't doubt that you will report everything to her. It would be against your character to do otherwise, but I think that once you hear me out, you will want to wait for some time before telling her. Okay, anyway, what do you need?" "Mistress sent us to learn the state of the garrison, their numbers, equipment, chain of command. Anything that could aid my Mistress to stage an assault." "Oh... W-well, I guess that is easy enough. Wait a moment," Flurry sat back onto the toilet closed her eyes and grew silent. Her lips moved, producing no sound, sometimes becoming a frown or a satisfied smile, "Okay, I got it," she said without opening her eyes. With a soft pop, several folders of documents appeared on the floor beside Shadow. "These were in the commander's office. I think it's all you need and then some." Shadow began methodically looking into the folders to know what she was getting. To her surprise, it looked like it really were documents from the table of an officer. One page even had still fresh ink. "Hey, Shadow, what's happening? You are taking too long," Nightstar called to her through the door. "I think I have what we need." "What? But we just got in." "I have the base's inventory documents and personnel manifest." "How?" "Princess Flurry Heart gave them to me, in exchange that I listen to her words." "...What?" Nightstaer peeked through the door, giving the Princess a stare of utter confusion. "Come in," Flurry offered her a friendly smile. "Nobody will come for at least five more minutes." With that, she was back to focusing on Shadow, "As I said, you need to help me. Your people are dying and I am trying to prevent that." "Our queen is dead, without her we are doomed," Shadow morbidly reminded. "That's the part that I need your help with, you need a new queen but there's no one alive who can fill the slot. We have to recreate a Changeling queen, but Nightmare will order you to kill me if she hears what I am up to. You have to help me to get it done without her finding out until it's time, she will think I am trying to bring back her mortal enemy. She might have been willing to tolerate her being alive back then, but now she will not allow a threat like that to appear if she can help it. You aren't quick to jump to conclusions, are you?" "Our queen was unworthy. She only cared for her own ambitions. Our kind would rather die out than suffer her ever again. I will report you to my Mistress now." "Wait! Shadow, you are doing exactly what I am afraid Nightmare will. You are jumping to conclusions before you hear me out. I don't want to resurrect Chrysalis! That would be a disaster waiting to happen. I said: I want to make a new queen so that changelings don't go extinct. Nightmare won't even let me finish the sentence before ordering me to be taken away. You know how self-sure she is. All I am asking is that you get her to think about fixing this, she won't be suspicious of you and we still need her in the end, no one else will fit. It won't be hard either, she regrets letting Chrysalis go after you and she would do a lot to fix her mistake. Get her thinking so that she won't be as resistant to the idea of you getting a queen again." "Princess, I do not understand. If your cause is truly so benevolent, you have nothing to fear from my Mistress. She is kind and noble, she won't punish you for aiding her in caring for her subjects, she will likely even reward you." Flurry bit her lip, "Shadow, you know better than anyone else that she is not constant, no creature is. Right now she is not willing to see it like that. She already expects me to stab her in the back so when she hears about me trying to make a changeling queen, she will connect that to Chrysalis. She will send you to do the job. I have seen it. I don't want to die and I know you don't want to hurt anyone. You can help her more than you ever helped her before. Don't tell her just yet and help her be more open-minded." Suddenly, the entrance door was pushed open and a melodic whistling announced that their time was up, "Okay, time to leave," Flurry said and transported them away from the suddenly very crammed guardroom.