Alicorn Switcheroo

by Fuzzyfurvert

Chapter 3

Twilight Sparkle eyed the clock on the front wall of the passenger car she rode in.  Then she glanced out the window to the east, judging the Sun’s position.  It looked like it hadn’t changed since she reached the station, and that only served to make her frown harder.  If the clock on the wall was correct, then the train was running seven minutes late.  Accounting for a few passengers that had boarded and what she had overheard from the conductor after getting her ticket punched, they were expecting to make up four of those lost minutes.  Given the overall one way trip time, that would place her in Canterlot by 8:02 and give her precisely fifty eight minutes to get to the castle, meet with the Princess and get things resolved before court officially started.

“Hey, are you a princ—“

“No.”  Twilight’s magenta eyes snapped to a pair of green eyes staring back at her from over the back rest of the seat in front of her.  They belonged to an orange colored colt no older than the CMCs.

“Are you sur—“

“For the fourteenth time; yes, I’m sure!”
 

The conductor pony eyed the ticket he held in his hoof, and then looked back at its owner.  He chewed on his mustache idly; his wife would give him hell for that later.  After a moment he shrugged and punched a hole in the ticket.  “You know, Miss, you have a ticket.  For a seat in the third car, with an included complimentary coffee, even.  There is no need to stowaway in a crate, in the caboose… while dressed like a hobo-pony.”

Pinkie blinked up at the conductor through her disguise eyeglasses and twirled the end of her disguise handlebar mustache.  “It’s for romance,” she stated as a matter of fact.

“But…”

“Oh!  Don’t worry, I got my coffee!”  Pinkie held up a small paper cup that steam wafted from weakly.

The conductor opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it and chewed more on his increasingly ragged facial hair.  He sighed.  It wasn’t like she was breaking any rules, per se, and there wasn’t anything that was supposed to be transported in the crate this particular trip.  With a shake of his head, the conductor lowered the crate’s lid.  From inside he could hear the pink pony snort.

“Alicorns huh, amirite?”
 

                
Twilight wasn’t sure if not being bothered by other ponies so much about her appearance was a good thing or not.  It certainly helped that she wasn’t being detained or distracted as she made her way up the winding streets of the capitol to the castle.  Conversely, her relative peace was due to the Sun not moving in the sky since dawn.  She suspected that back in Ponyville, everypony would be just hitting their stride in a frothing riot led by the screaming Flower Trio.  At least in the capitol, the ponies had the good sense to make sure everyone was awake and aware of the situation before a very polite (if a little snobbish) looting ensued.
 
As Twilight made her way up the final hill, the front gates to the castle proper stood open and welcoming as ever, though rather more mob-choked than usual.  She eyed the crowd for a moment.  The ill-content rabble of ponies both noble and common eyed her back.  Surprisingly few of them started chanting, and only a hoof full or so bowed to her.  Most ponies just started whispering her name and the word ‘alicorn’ until the two started to merge into a sort of hodgepodge portmanteau.  Those ponies then quickly broke into two competing groups based on how they thought the resulting monstrosity was pronounced.
 
“Twil-acorn!”
 
“Twily- corn!”
 
Twilight rolled her eyes and turned away from the main gates.  Her many years spent at the castle studying and certainly not those times she had snuck out late for doughnuts cravings or going to certain underground poetry houses of ill-repute, led her around the side of the east wall where she ducked under a low slung canopy of ivy to a small, simple door that had only two guards posted at it.  The guards, both pegasi she knew from her time spent at the castle, flared their wings, barring the door from entrance.
 
Twilight stopped a few feet away from the guardsponies and spoke the official pass phrase known to her and a few other ponies close to the royal sisters.  “I-don’t-care-what-the-scales-say-I-haven’t-gained-weight-stop-writing-down-everything-I-say-for-the-official-pass-phrase.”
 
The older guard, whom she had seen around the castle since she had been a wee filly, lowered his wings first and gave a swift bow.  “Hello, Miss Sparkle.  We’re glad you’re here.  I’m certain you can see we’ve got something of a situation on our hooves.”  He removed his helmet and shook out a close cropped, grey mane as he looked up at her.  “If you’ll follow us, we’ll escort you to the Princes—er, Princess Celestia’s—chambers.  I’ll fill you in on what we know so far as we go.”
 
Twilight nodded.  “Thank you, Mister Leadfeather.  What is going on?  I thought my mis-casting a spell in my sleep was the worst that could happen today!”
 
“’Fraid not, Miss.  Her Majesty’s gone and locked herself up in her bedroom and refuses to come out!  She’s canceled court for today.”  Sun Ray, the younger guard spoke up, ruffling his wings as he lowered them.  He frowned slightly and looked up at Twilight’s glittery, shifting mane.  “You get a haircut, Miss?  Looks nice.”
 
Twilight groaned and shook her head for a moment.  “No, I just mis-cast a spell in my sleep.  How many times am I going to have to explain this?  It just changes my appearance, that’s all.”
 
“Makes you taller too, huh?”
 
“Huh?”  Twilight looked down her snout at Sun Ray.  “No, it didn’t make me—“  Twilight stopped as she realized that she was looking down at a full grown stallion.  “By Luna’s sparkly goatee!  It’s getting worse!  Quick!  I need to get to the Princess so she can help me stop this!”
 
Leadfeather snorted and opened the door behind them before dropping his helmet back on.  “Good luck with that, Miss Sparkle.  As Ray said, she’s hold up in her chambers.  Wouldn’t even let Princess Luna in earlier.”
 
Twilight followed the guards into a narrow hall filled with even more guards that were rapidly getting into armor.  The hall they were in ran along the outer walls and was joined by many others like it that were used by castle staff to get around unseen and certainly not by young fillies that just needed a break from all the studying and wanted to see the infamous Canterlot night life or purchase some pastries with a very convincing fake I.D.
 
“I think I know how I can get the Princess to let me in.”  Twilight allowed herself a small grin.  “Take me to the kitchens first.  I need to put in a special order.”
 
 

Meanwhile, outside, Pinkie Pie dropped gracefully out of the ivy overhang, landing on all fours and going into a crouch.  She scanned the area quickly and yanked off her mustache disguise—

“Aaahh!  Friggin’ hay, that stings!”
 
--before moving to the door and pressing her ear to it.  She couldn’t make out any of the words, but she could hear Twilight’s voice getting distant.  Pinkie pressed her ear to the door harder, straining to hear where her quarry was headed.  She squinted with her left eye.  Then she tried squinting with her right eye.
 
“Solid reinforced oak doors are hard to hear through.”  Pinkie frowned and eyed the door for a moment before she turned around and sat down.  She rubbed her chin with one hoof.  “I need a plan for sneaking into the castle.  There are guards everywhere, so it’ll need to be my most sneakiest, craziest, planned-ist plan ever!”
 
“Excuse me, Miss Pie?  Are you here to help with the situation too?”
 
Pinkie’s eyes went wide, her pupils contracting to pinpoints as she glanced nervously over her shoulder.  Two new guards were exiting the door and looking at her.  One of them still had his hoof on the door handle.  Pinkie stared at them for a moment.
 
“Er… yes?”  She blinked and then spun about on her backside until she was facing them.  “But I’m here incognito!  You two didn’t see me—except that you did see me—so please don’t tell anypony that I’m here!”
 
The guards looked at each other for a moment until one of them shrugged.  “Ok… I guess.  Do you need to go inside?”
 
Pinkie smiled and grinned happily.  “Yep!”
 
Pinkie hopped up and bounced into the door past the two confused looking guard ponies.   They exchanged a glance before Pinkie stuck her head back out, now wearing a pair of golden colored night vision goggles.
 
“Hey!  I’m on a stealth mission and I need to get into my skintight catsuit!  But I always have a dickens of a time getting it zipped up in the back!  Can one of you guys lend a hoof?”
 
 

The royal kitchens were a bustle of activity when Twilight arrived with her escort.  Breakfast for the castle and meals for the visiting nobles were being prepared whether the sun got its lazy plot up fully over the horizon or not.  The staff ponies were well used to being around alicorns regularly and thus were much less given to groveling and chanting for the most part.  Twilight was glad she only had to explain her new appearance three times before getting the cooks to whip up what she needed.

After a little bickering over the color of frosting to use(they decided on color scheme of purples and pinks that matched Twilight’s coat and mane), a doughnut topped monstrosity of a cake floated safely down the hallway in front of Twilight as they walked towards the tower that contained the Princess’ personal chambers. As they passed the windows that lead to the skybridge that connected the tower to the castle proper, Twilight examined her reflection out of the corner of her eye.
 
She was much larger now than she had been in Ponyville just an hour ago.  Though she was nowhere near the size of Celestia, her form had become lithe and trim, similar to the way Princess Luna looked.  As best as Twilight could gauge, she was about Princess Luna’s height as well.  Her horn seemed slightly longer, and of course, her mane and tail had become fluctuating fields of energy that glowed with an inner light and occasionally spawned pinkish colored arc lightning along its length.  It was little wonder why so many ponies continued to assume that she had become a new alicorn princess.
 
Twilight lowered her head and whispered to herself.  “It was just some stupid mis-cast in my sleep, right?  Please, please let that be all it is.  This day is already weird enough, and now the Princess is acting strange too.  Is it too much to ask that we get to the bottom of this quick and have it all turn out to be harmless just this once?”

The small procession reached the end of the skybridge and Twilight gulped down the lump in her throat for what seemed the hundredth time as she looked at the gilded set of doors that led to Princess Celestia’s personal chambers.  Even though she’d visited the Princess in her room dozens of times in the past, it was always with the Princess leading her, each time she’d been invited.  This time, however, she wasn’t invited and she felt she was going to need every ounce of the bribe she’d had the kitchens prepare.

She sighed as the guards took up positions at a respectable distance from the entry way.  She reached out with a hoof and knocked gently.  There was a slight echo from inside but it was the only sound.  Twilight waited for about a minute before knocking again with a bit more force.  Silence was still the only response.  Actually, it wasn’t silent, exactly.  Twilight could hear the guards breathing and the grating of her own teeth as the seconds ticked away without any answer from the Princess.  Now that she thought about it, Twilight realized she could hear the ticking of the large grandfather clock inside Celesia’s bedroom.  That same clock marked time during her personal lessons with the Princess as a filly, counting down the seconds until she had to leave and go back to being a normal unicorn and not Celestia’s favored pupil.  She’d always hated that clock.

Twilight’s brows began to knit as she stared at the unopened doors.  As that infernal clock kept reminding her, time was slipping away and she was no closer to fixing her problem, nor figuring out what was going on with the Princess herself.  “Ok, no more ‘miss-waits-patiently’.”

Twilight snorted as her horn started to glow brighter and she directed power into a spell that would force the doors open.  Her glittering mane flashed pink colored arc lightning as it suddenly came alive like some sort of head-based thuamagical octopod. She wanted to apply pressure to the lock mechanism and pull the doors open, but her head squid hair tentacles had its own ideas and decided to just yank the doors off their hinges and fling them back down the skybridge.  With the task complete, Twilight’s sealife-esque coif burst into a fading cloud of vapors before returning to its normally scheduled scoffing at physics.

As the guardsponies scrambled about in the confusion, Twilight took the opportunity to wipe the stunned grimace off her face and replace it with something passing for cool and collected.  The unrestrained imaginative part of her brain giggled more than a little manically at the sheer amount of power such a spell would require.  The rest of Twilight’s brain was looking for a brown bag to hyperventilate into.  Somehow, her mouth managed to craft an intelligible set of sentences.  “Somepony get those doors back up!  I’m going in and I don’t want anypony interrupting me and the Princess until I have this all sorted out!”

Twilight walked forward, her bribe floating alongside her as she entered the royal bedchambers.  Specifically, she entered the antechamber before the actual bedroom.  There was another door still between her and her mentor, but it didn’t have a lock.  She wanted to stop and check her appearance in the full body mirror on the wall, but she knew if she paused, all the false confidence she was running on would collapse and leave her blubbering on the floor.  Even as she reached the second doorway, the efficient guards in the hallway were already muscling and magiking the first door back into place.

The inner door opened without protest or tentacle-assisted action.  The bedroom was just as Twilight remembered it: immaculate and simple with only a few signs that a pony actually slept there.  The curtains were closed but Philomena’s ever present flame plumage provided plenty of light from her enclosure by the far wall to navigate the furniture.  The bed was empty, the desk unpiloted and the couch unoccupied.  Twilight nodded to the phoenix and set her gift on the desk.

“Princess?  I’m sorry about the doors but I really need to see you about… whatever is going on.” Twilight pawed nervously at the plush carpeting with one hoof.  “I miscast a spell in my sleep—I think—and I sorta look like an alicorn now.  Not that that’s a bad thing, of course!  I’d like to get that fixed.  Oh, and the sun isn’t moving, which is causing a panic—not that it takes a lot to panic ponies around here.  I’d sorta like to get that fixed too.”

She started to chew on one lip, thinking of where she could look for her missing monarch next.  “It’s weird being in here without you.”

It seemed like a fairly tall order to hide a pure white pony with a flowing, glowing rainbow mane that stood at least three times the height of a grown stallion.  Twilight’s inner foal snickered at the ‘tall order’ phrasing of the thought.  She was about to choke that little part of herself when Twilight heard a small noise that sounded like a muffled voice.  Her ears perked up as she turned and looked at the armoire in the corner.   She heard it again.  Twilight raised an eyebrow as the quiet noise took on a melodic cant.  She was fairly certain that this armoire held a few dresses and office bric-a-brac and had nowhere near enough extra-dimensional space to hide a pony as massive as the Princess.

As mornings went, in the vast accumulated experience of mornings that Celestia had acquired, this particular morning started out as pretty forgettable.  Like so many other mornings, she awoke in her chambers just as the first photons were beginning to bombard the upper atmosphere directly above the castle.  Once more she had successfully raised the sun in her sleep.

As she lay there with the sheets still pulled over her head, an errant memory surfaced and brought a small smile to her face.  Some six hundred odd years ago, one of her castle stewards witnessed the sunrise while the Princess was still asleep.  He went running through the corridors claiming her reign to be nothing more than a sham, all based on an elaborate lie about her ability to control the sun.  Celestia could still see his face after all the intervening years, but for the life of her, could not recall whatever became of him.

Celestia yawned and stretched leisurely, arching her back so she could spread her--!
 
“Where are my wings?!”  Celestia sat up and yanked the sheet off of herself as she looked at her now barren shoulders.  No faintly pink iridescent feathers ruffled at her withers, no toned flight muscles flexed under her coat.
 
She stared, open mouthed at the smooth expanse of her back for only a moment before noticing that her mane was no longer a shimmering mass of light waves broken into its component colors.  Celestia raised a hoof and pulled the now solely pink strands of hair closer to examine.  She started to make a small choking sound in her throat.  She hadn’t had actual physics obeying hair for thousands of years.

Celestia’s heart hammered in her chest as she twisted to get a look at her cutie mark.  Her flank was still emblazoned with the familiar mark of the sun.  She swallowed a lump in her throat as she scrutinized it.  Was it slightly off color?  Did it always have that many flanges? Was it smaller than before?

“W-what is going on h-here?”  Celestia dropped her hoof back down and looked around her room.  Everything looked huge and out of proportion.  Philomena eyed her curiously from her perch as the Princess slipped cautiously out of her suddenly too tall bed.

Celestia automatically reached for her tiara, where it rested on a bust by her bedside.  Her horn glowed weakly and the tiara moved a fraction of an inch.  It felt as if she was attempting to lift the entire castle off the mountain. Her wings, her mane and now even her most basic magic had all vanished in the night, stolen in her sleep.  She was a goddess no more, reduced to the level of a mortal pony and not even a very impressive mortal pony at that.
 
“Great Faust!”  Celestia sank into a seated position, her tail wrapping around her legs like a pink security blanket as she started to hyperventilate.
 
 

Twilight eyed the oaken furniture skeptically as she walked over to it.  Once she reached the door she could even make out the words being sung with a flat melancholy tune.

“'Neath the black
 The sky looks dead.
 Call my name
 Through the cream,
 And I'll hear you
 Scream again.”
 
Twilight rolled her eyes and silently mouthed ‘seriously?’ at Philomena.  The bird shrugged.  She was sure it was the Princess’ voice she heard coming from inside.  Something was terribly wrong, and by the name of the self-same pony that was being really emo in an armoire right now, Twilight promised herself that she was going to get to the bottom of it.
 
“Black hole sun,
 Won't you come
 And wash away the rain?”  
 
 

Celestia learned a great deal many things that morning.

Chiefly among these things was an as of yet unknown ability to generate a panicked squeal of such a high pitch that presumably, only Diamond Dogs could hear it.

Draconequus too, apparently.

Discord appeared in the middle of the room wearing oversized earmuffs.  He smiled lopsidedly at Celestia, and offered her an empty brown bag to breathe into.

“Please stop making that noise Celestia, it’s rather unbecoming of somepony of your station.”  Discord lifted his legs and took a seat on nothing.  “Taking a shot at a second chance, hmm?  I applaud your bravery!  It takes a lot of guts to give up what you’ve enjoyed for so long just to get something you want.”

Celestia choked back a sob; her lips trembled as she tried to form words.  Discord snaked through the air until his face was inches from hers.  “I’m almost jealous that you’d do something so unexpected and out of character for someone other than me.”  Discord’s voice dropped into a whisper.  “Almost.”

Discord reached over and patted Celestia gently on head with his lion’s paw.  “I sincerely hope this turns out to be as entertaining as it promises to be!”  He tousled her mane affectionately before he floated quickly back to the center of the room. 
                
“Oh, and by the way Celly, I really like your mane!  Everypony at court is gonna love it—assuming there is enough light to see by!” Discord barked laughter and bent his long body into heart shaped silhouette before exploding into a cloud of rainbow colored glitter.  Celestia stared slack jawed at the spot in the air where the Spirit of Chaos had been.
 
She startled when a loud knock came from the door to her bed chambers.  “SISTER!  WE DEMAND TO KNOW WHY YOUR SUN LINGERS OVER LONG UPON THE HORIZON!”
 
“What.”
                
 

Twilight swallowed and reached up to the pearl knobs of the armoire door and tugged it open before its occupant finished the refrain.  Inside the armoire, as she had thought, Twilight found perhaps a half-dozen stately gowns and drapes of equally ridiculous proportions and historic political importance.  Each garment had its own name and was associated with a significant event in Equestrian history.  Each piece of cloth belonged in a museum behind glass in magically sealed cases, but Celestia kept them in her closet where they smelled faintly of mothballs.  Sandwiched between the outfits and the rack of drawers that held the Princess’ historically significant paperweights (and less significant collection of dried out ink pens), was a pale ivory pink unicorn mare with a long, unkempt, bright pink mane and a very familiar looking face.
 
 

“WE REQUEST ONCE AGAIN THAT YOU OPEN THIS DOOR AND SPEAK WITH US FACE TO FACE, TIA!”  Luna’s Royal Canterlot Voice made the door rattle even though Celestia had locked it and currently had her back pressed to it as she held it shut.

“I told you, Lulu, we do not use the RCV inside.  Or even outside anymore!  I will speak with you, but I shall not open the door.  I am… not dressed…”  Celestia hung her head and looked down at her hooves.  Outside, she heard Luna ‘hrumph’.  She could almost feel the eyeroll that most certainly went with it.
 
When Luna spoke again, she did so at a normal volume.  “We are concerned, dear sister.  We can feel your sun slowing to a stop and it is barely risen!  Already Our little ponies begin to fret.”
 
“I understand, Luna.  However, there is no need for concern.  Everything is under control!”  Celestia closed her eyes, her mind focused on keeping her voice calm and reassuring.  She disliked being untruthful with Luna, but her sister would probably freak out if she knew the truth.  “Why don’t you take over Court duties today, Luna?  I have… important paperwork to attend.”
 
Luna was silent for so long that Celestia started to wonder if her sister had left.
 
“Ha!  No thank you Tia, We have other matters to attend Ourselves rather than to listen to the pandering of those that think themselves nobility!  If you do not wish to see to your duties, then We shall send word that Court is cancelled!  Whatever joke you are pursuing, you will not catch Us in it so easily.”  Celestia heard Luna turn away and her hoofsteps as she retreated across the skybridge.
 
Once Princess Luna was gone, Celestia slumped to the floor, letting her breath in a whoosh.  She laid there for a moment before she worked her way into a seated position and looked into the mirror on the wall.  Her dinky reflection frowned back at her.  It was better, in her mind’s eye, that the ponies of Equestria saw her as childishly besmirching her duties as Princess, rather than actually see her and lose faith in their almighty alicorn leader.  Nopony could be allowed to see her until she figured out what was going on.  There would be a panic.  There might be a loot-crazed mob before lunch.  There certainly would be a loot-crazed mob after lunch if she didn’t figure out how to get the sun moving again.
 
Celestia climbed to her hooves and plodded slowly back into her main bedroom.  She tried again to move her sun.  She couldn’t feel it, and it refused all her commands.  It sat there, paused just above the horizon, now completely out of momentum.  She tried to find a way to nudge it along but it didn’t respond no matter how she strained and pushed.  Celestia gasped as her magic strength quickly left her weak in the knees and her coat slick with sweat.  Was this really how her little ponies felt every day?
 
“This sucks.”
 
 

Thousands of questions raced through Twilight’s mind as she looked down at her teacher.  Each one begged for an answer, so she selected the one that seemed most appropriate to start with.  “BWUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!?”

Celestia blinked wet magenta colored eyes and stared up at Twilight.  “GAAAAAHH!”
 

Celestia rocked back and forth on the floor in front of the mirror in her antechamber, her legs wrapped around herself.  She still couldn’t figure out what entity and by what means her powers had been stripped from her.  While it seemed like something Discord might do, he didn’t gloat when he had visited her, only teased her a little.  Luna liked her games, but they always made sense.  It wasn’t Chrysalis’ style either. Sombra? That would be a cold day in Tartarus.  If not one of them, then who and why?

Celestia shook her head as she tried to think of a solution.  She could hear a murmur going through the guards outside and angled one ear towards the door.  It sounded like somepony else was on their way to check on her.  That was quick.  She wasn’t even late for Court yet, technically.  “At least I haven’t lost my hearing along with everything else!  This is unbearable…”

She groaned and started to climb to her hooves when Celestia heard one of the guards mention Twilight.  She froze.  Twilight Sparkle could absolutely not see her like this.  Twilight was brave and smart, skilled and passionate about solving puzzles.  Anypony could see she would be the perfect pony to research this mystery, plus she had a close personal history with Celestia.  However, knowing the pony better than anyone else, Celestia knew Twilight was the worst pony for this job.  The unicorn was obsessive and easily shaken by surprises when she expected none.  She had stared dragons and gods down without batting an eye, but remove the goddess she worshipped and idolized and her world would crumble.  Twilight might never recover.

Celestia galloped back into her main bedroom with newfound energy and looked around.  She couldn’t fly, so escape out the window was impossible.  Her magic was laughably weak, so teleportation was equally out of the question and she wouldn’t be able to maintain any invisibility spells.  Celestia danced in place nervously as she thought.  Her only remaining option was to hide and hope Twilight went to search for her elsewhere.

Her new smaller frame was useful for once, but her hiding spots were limited.  The bed was too low, the desk was too high and the couch was just not made for hiding ponies.  That left only Philomena’s enclosure and her armoire with her musty old dresses.  Celestia shot Philomena a questioning glance and the phoenix shook her head before motioning with her beak at her fiery feathers.  Celestia wondered if she was still fireproof for a moment, and then dived for the armoire.
 
“Philomena, don’t tell Twilight where I am!”  Celestia pulled the armoire open and stepped in.  She closed the door behind her as quietly as she could and took a seat behind her Royal Gown for Christening Royal Aeronaval Ships, Government Buildings and Public Latrines.

The former alicorn rested her head against the polished oak and started counting silently, waiting for her student to start knocking.  Celestia wanted Twilight to leave as quickly as she arrived.  She managed to count to nineteen.  Twilight knocked several times and called for her.  Twilight sounded distressed.  Celestia clenched her teeth to keep herself from replying.  She knew this must be driving her poor student crazy with worry.  Twilight all but worshipped the ground Celestia walked on.
 
A small part of Celestia cheered when she heard the doors to her suite get forcibly opened.  Nothing as trivial as a door would stop her Twilight!  Of course it meant her poorly thought out plan of hiding would eventually fail.  Perhaps if she approached Twilight carefully, with a solid strategy, she might avoid breaking the mare’s worldview too much.  Celestia allowed herself a small smile as she heard Twilight apologizing to the room about the door.  She knew if she could make her predicament seem like a puzzle and downplay her transformation then she might distract Twilight’s mind and get this fixed.  She would even get to enjoy a day with her favorite pupil.
 
Celestia blinked and whispered to herself.  “Wait, is that cake I smell?”

        Pinkie Pie grumbled to herself as she adjusted the zoom on her spy goggles.  Twilight had just entered Princess Celestia’s room a moment ago and the guards were already replacing the door.  There wasn’t any way she could get across the skybridge hallway without being seen.  What sort of silly billy pony built a castle without air ducts big enough for a grown mare to sneak through?

Pinkie raised her goggles and rubbed her eyes with one hoof.  The goggles looked cool, but they really were better suited to night jobs.  She looked around quickly and ducked behind a crenellation to make sure no pony saw her on the castle’s wall-walk overlooking the courtyard.  Well, at least no pony other than the guard on duty that was using the wall-walk.  He wouldn’t be off shift until midday so Pinkie knew he wouldn’t blab her position.  For now.  

“Well, sassafras!”  Pinkie rubbed her chin thoughtfully.  “How am I supposed to get in there?  I can’t get down the hallway, or climb up the side of the tower without being seen!”

“Why don’t you use some of those ninja smoke bombs?”

Pinkie rolled her eyes and frowned through her catsuit mask.  “I already toldja I’m a spy pony, not a ninja pony, duh!  Besides, I left those back at Sugarcube Corner.”

“I’s just trying to help Miss Pinkie.”

“I know, Teacup.”  Pinkie sighed and looked over at the unicorn guard.  “Frankly, I feel all dumbie-wumbie for not bringing them.”

Teacup adjusted his helmet and shrugged awkwardly.  Pinkie gave him a smile because he was just trying to help and he had been awful nice already just letting her come up here and because she just liked smiling anyways.  Teacup gave her a lopsided grin and tilted his head and when he did, Pinkie caught a glimpse of another tower across the courtyard.

“Of course!  Teacup, that’s a great idea!”  Pinkie bounced to her hooves and kept on bouncing.  “I’ll just climb that tower over there, where no pony is looking and then hang glide over to Princess Celestia’s tower and land on the balcony!  That’s genius!”

“What?”  

Pinkie started bounding along the wall-walk away from Celestia’s tower.  She stopped for a moment to wave goodbye to Teacup, who returned the wave with a confused look on his face.  “But that’s Princess Luna’s tower.”

Pinkie Pie must have not heard him though, because she started hopping and bouncing faster, giggling as she went.