//------------------------------//
// Princes, Cookies, and Close Calls 
// Story: The Triumvirate 
// by Fedora71 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 27



        The next morning, Twilight and Entomology came down and picked up Ancro with, as promised, five more guards, doubling the amount that were following him. Though now their job wasn't to keep him from running away, it was to keep a changeling from killing him. He didn't see this as much of an improvement. Ancro tasted the air and became well aware of the frustration his friends were feeling towards Twilight. The changeling, while a bit upset about the whole thing, wasn't nearly as upset as his friends were. He knew that he would have several living shields in case somling took a shot at him. Then he felt a magical spike directly on his horn and let out a sigh of relief.
        “Would you two mind taking a tour of the gardens?” Twilight asked. “I know you've been trapped inside the palace for a few days and Ancro will be busy for a few hours.”
        “No, we'll go with him,” Stigandr said.
        “Trust us,” Entomology said, “the guards will keep him safe.  If something does happen you two will most likely just be in the way.”
        “No,” Scott said.
        “Guys, trust them,” Ancro said with a small smile, “I'll be fine.”
        “If you both go in there with Ancro there will not be enough room for the guards to protect him effectively,” Twilight said then turned to look at Ancro.
        “Thank you,” Ancro said, keeping a smile on his face. If his friend's knew just how scared he was then they'd never let him do it. Reluctantly they agreed and were escorted to the gardens.
        “Besides, I'll have the element of magic protecting me too, right?” he asked happily.        
        “Unfortunately no,” Twilight replied, “I'm studying geass' and how to release them.”
        “...Okay?” Ancro said, trying to place the word with a definition.
        “You don't know what those are?” Entomology said, raising her eyebrow. Her emotions showed that she had a combination of frustration and embarrassment. Ancro figured it was a changeling thing that he didn't get.
        “I'm familiar with the term but not the meaning,” Ancro replied.
        “It's a type of spell that controls an individual.”
        “Oh!” Ancro said, “like with what Chrysalis did to Shining Armor?” After saying that Ancro felt several twinges of anger from everypony in the room. He typically would've tried to catch that but right now he was nervous. “Entomology will you help?”
        “No I have to document my findings,” she said and tasted the emotional glare Ancro gave her.
        “Blueblood will be observing you,” Twilight said, trying to put a smile on the situation.
        “Seriously, that's my back up?” Ancro asked, “The guy who threw Rarity in front of a cake?”
        “How do you know that?” Twilight asked, filing it in her mental folder of things Ancro knew about them. It was starting to get a bit unnerving what the changeling had considered mostly common knowledge and freely divulged.
        “Long story,” Ancro smiled.
---

        “Okay, she's good,” Ancro said as he waved the maid on.
        “I cannot believe Celestia is having me spend my day with a changeling,” Blueblood said to nopony in particular. It was only Ancro, Blueblood and the guards in the room and Blueblood had already made it a point that he wasn't talking to anypony.
        “I'm not that bad of company, am I?” Ancro calmly quipped towards one of the guards. Dealing with Blueblood was no picnic for him either. As if discovering that oatmeal raisin cookies weren't strong enough to get a good taste on and it helps tremendously if he is feeding off the pony which meant that they had to like him. To add to it the changeling had to deal with the bitter tastes of disdain and anger in his mouth constantly. Ancro took a deep breath and started using his coping mechanism. Plot the best possible way to kill him and get rid of the body. He typically reserved this method for coworkers who don't understand that mixing bleach and draino is a very bad idea.
        “No, you are far worse,” He said. “I'm having to sit in here with you and put up with your voice.”
        “I'm sorry my lord,” Ancro said, egging him on. He swapped his voice to a slightly more effeminate version of Blueblood's, “Does this voice offend you less?”
        “Who is that supposed to be?” he said, glaring at Ancro as if daring him to answer. “You best think before you answer.”
        “You need to develop thicker skin,” Ancro said after sorting out the disdain from the raisins in the cookie. “Next!”
        “As though your opinion matters,” Blueblood huffed. Ancro rolled his eyes as the next pony came in and took one of the cookies. After a short moment Ancro waved her on.
        “Why don't you go cower from a cake?” Ancro said with a chuckle.
        “How did you know about that?” Blueblood asked. Ancro could tell he hit a button, a nice big red one. The guards were enjoying the show at least.
        “I was watching,” Ancro said.
        “Why?  So you could replace somepony there, you cretin!”
        “No, I just enjoy dances and music,” Ancro quipped.
        “Don't expect to fool me so easily,” Blueblood said, looking Ancro dead in the eyes, “just because my aunt is lenient upon you doesn't mean I will be.”
        “Before I ask if you even have any authority to do anything, I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell my insane sister,” Ancro said shifting to meet Blueblood's gaze. Ancro could tell the guy had magic and knew he was about to make a major mistake. “If you plan to do something, do it. Otherwise shut up. Next!”
---
        Scott tried to relax and take his mind off worrying about his best friend being put in danger from the griffin's own plan. Between last night's work-out session with Specs and his own worrying he felt exhausted. Add that to the feeling of utter helplessness to this situation and you get a pissed of griffin with the mouth of a sailor. Granted, he was happy for this respite and slight bit of freedom. Even if it was just to take a turn down whichever direction he chose, it was enough to comfort him. He didn't have Ancro's ability to acknowledge his own powerlessness in the face of events like this. After all, he didn't have to deal with four sisters. Scott only had a little brother.
        “Scott, you are Ancro's best friend right?” Pinkie asked, coming out of thin air, startling him and his escorts. Stigandr had gone to the sculpture section of the massive garden.
        “Yes, don't suppose you've figured out Ancro's riddle yet?” Scott said in a hurry to get rid of her. The meth head pony is the last one he want to deal with.
        “No not yet, but don't worry I'm close to big break in it.  I can smell it.”
        “That's nice,” Scott said and tried to scoot past her. Instead of staying still she bounced along beside him.
        “Anyways,” she said, “I'm just a bit curious as to how you two became friends.” She said, “I mean, he's calm, funny, and polite; you on the other hoof are cranky, grouchy, and a bit of a meany pants.”
        Scott took a deep breath. There was no getting rid of her and he hoped it wouldn't end with him flapping his beak with no sound coming out. “He wasn't always like that.” He said, “he used to be really weird, disrespectful, and a major jerk.”
        “Really,” Pinkie said, “when did you meet him?”
        Recalling the dream from Luna he knew he couldn't say seventh grade. He wasn't sure if he could even say junior high. “Years and years ago.  We've been friends for nine years by my count; ten by his.”
        “Why count them differently?”
        “He counted me as a friend when we first met.” Scott said, “I just counted him as some weird feller who sat across from me during lunch.”
        “What do you mean weird?”
         Scott sighed, “he'd bring up all kinds of weird and pointless bits about history and he'd bring them up at random, stupid, and useless times. Even if he was wrong about it he would argue about it until I showed him proof.” Remembering having to bring his World War II plane encyclopedia to shut him up about baka bombs having machine guns.
        “You are a real good friend then,” Scott nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the extremely soft voice right behind him. Upon turning around he knew his reaction had scared Fluttershy more than she had frightened him.
        “Yeah,” Scott said trying to calm down, “I honestly doubt that sometimes.”
        “Why?”
        “He's in danger because of me right now.”
        “Yeah I know,” Pinkie Pie said, “who do you think helped bake all those cookies?”
        Scott ignored the last half, not quite sure what she meant. “I mean it was my plan so I should be there to, y'know, do something to help.”
        “Scott,” the pink maned pegasus said softly, “you have helped a lot more than you think. You need to be willing to let the guards do their jobs now.”
        “I know but I just, argh.” Scott growled in frustration.
---
        Stigandr browsed through the sculpture garden. He was able to put his mind a bit more at ease, having confidence in his friend and the guards. Still, the unicorn was nervous about the whole situation. Occasionally he stopped to examine a statue for a few moments but quickly moved on. He was looking for a specific statue. Though one could easily admire the effort put into the statues that didn't have omnipotent beings trapped within. Stigandr finally reached the one he had been looking for. Discord's statue was so different from it's first appearance. Instead of being in the middle of what appeared to be a prideful speech and hadn't seen it coming this time he saw it coming and tried his best to fight the inevitable.
        “If you are looking for cracks you won't find any,” Discord's voice whispered into the unicorn's ear. “Those serve as a kind of an alarm that the spell won't hold me any longer. As it stands now though I can't touch it.”
        “That's nice,” Stigandr thought to the voice. “Like the pose.”
        “Yes it is,” he said, “it gives me a bit more power.”
        “So were you watching while you were trapped the first time?” Stigandr asked trying to gather a small amount of information.
        “No, that time I hadn't been expecting such a spell to even exist within my realm.” Discord said and Stigandr could somehow sense him shrugging. “But when you're immortal, what's a millennium of total sensory deprivation? Other than infuriating.”
        “So you were able to guard against it the second time?” Stignadr asked.
        “Not entirely,” Discord said, “think of it as the flu virus.  Each year it's a bit different. If the spell that was used had been the exact same one I would've laughed it off.”
        “You been staring at that statue fer a while,” Applejack said coming up behind Stigandr.
        “Yeah,” Stigandr said, switching conversations, “I'm just admiring your work.”
        “Likely,” Applejack remarked, “with all the trouble your friend stirs up I wouldn't put it past you to get in on it yourself.”
        “Which one are you talking about?” Stigandr smiled.
        “The changeling,” she said, “Scott doesn't cause much trouble.  He's just obnoxious.”
        “While Ancro and I do like to one up each other, even I have my limits.” Stigandr chuckled.
        “Somepony needs to remind your friend that he has them too,” Applejack griped. “He keeps goin’ around sayin’ that he's perfect when everypony else see's dang well that he is not.”
        “And he knows he's not perfect,” Stigandr said. “When he makes a mistake he's going to be the first to admit it. Honestly if you worked with the guy you may enjoy his work ethic.  His mouth, not so much.”
        “Ah don't see how an honest pony like you got wrapped up with them,” she said.
        “Applejack, if you told me back when I first met those two that they were going to be some of my best friends,” Stigandr chuckled, “I would have thought you'd gone crazy.”
        “How did you end up with them as your friends?”
        “We had similar interests and hobbies,” he said. “Besides, if your friends were exactly like you, would you enjoy hanging out with them all the time? Sometimes you need a break from yourself.”
        “I'll give you that,” she said, “but how can you say that I'd enjoy working with that changeling friend of yours?  Work ethic isn't what comes to mind after you guys break into a library and then a prison.”
        “Ancro's said hauling hay was the most fun he's had making money,” Stigandr said. “He loves hard work when given the option for it.”
        “Ahm not gonna have him workin’ on my farm.” She said flatly
        Stigandr laughed, “I'm not asking you to employ him. I'm just saying you should be a bit slower when it comes to judging.”
        “Ah'll keep that in mind,” she replied.
        “Stigandr,” one of the guards said, “there's been an incident and you are needed in the infirmary.”
---
        The line, which had been moving along at a crawl, had picked up the pace. The spy nervously waited for her turn. She wracked her mind for what the test could conceivably be; the ponies were being extremely guarded and secretive about it. She was confident that whatever the princesses cooked up was nothing more than a farce that would give them confidence that the traitor was wrong. He and his friends had already narrowed down the list to various members of the regular palace cleaning crew and several of them had suggested working in pairs. Not impossible, just made going through mail and other papers a major pain since she could only do it briefly before her partner's attention would be drawn. Having a partner would’ve only been a minor setback. She would eventually be able to warp her mind to see nothing out of the ordinary. Then she was told that the partners would be changed daily and at random. Luckily she was only to report if something of interest came up and she could do that at anytime of night. Gathering intelligence was going to be the problem.
        She was called in and there was the traitor, sitting at the table placed in the middle of the room. On the table were cookies. She knew she was beat.
        'One shot,' she thought. 'He'll know me as soon as I take a bite of the cookie. In the moment it takes for him to register, I'll kill him. If I can have one of the guards kill me then I won't have to worry about the punishment the praetorians would have in store for me.'
        Calmly, as though she was sure of her innocence, she took one of the cookies off the table and brought it to her mouth. Before she took a bite she noticed that the traitor had his hooves on the table and was extremely nervous for some reason. She took a bite and immediately transformed.
---
        There was a bright green flash as the changeling appeared in front of them. Two horns atop her head glowed and a fireball launched at the changeling who sat at the table. Having braced himself when he noticed the list starting to get thinner he ducked under the table in time to only lose his horn and dorsal fin thingy. Between the time it took for the guards to get the changeling she fired a second fireball that hit under the table where Ancro had ducked to. It exploded and lifted the table to the ceiling, sending Ancro flying backwards into the wall. Immediately after the fireball, two rings came down onto the spy's horns and she felt her magic blocked off. Then the pegasi and earth pony guards tackled her to the ground. They had to tie her muzzle shut after she bit one of the guards.
        “Inform the princesses of what happened immediately,” Firecracker said to one of the guards under her command. Then turned to Ancro, who was giggling in the corner. “Changeling. are you alright?”
        “Hehehehe, I'm starting to think I can survive anything,” Ancro moved to stand up but found the task excruciatingly painful and promptly vomited and collapsed. Futilely, he tried to steer himself away from the pool.
        “Get him to an infirmary now!” she said and two of the unicorns immediately levitated him to what was left of the table and used their makeshift stretcher to carry him to the infirmary.
---
        “What's happened?” Scott barked to Twilight as he walked into the infirmary. “You said he would be safe!”
        “I'm sorry,” was all she could say before Scott cut her off again.
        “Yeah, you said you could keep him safe!” Scott said. “Now he's in the damn hospital.”
        An orange pegasus guard got between them.
        “Calm down immediately or we will have you removed,” she said in an authoritative tone, “if he hadn't followed my instructions the situation would've been different.”
        “What's going on?” Stigandr asked, running in with two pegasi guards flanking him. “Is Ancro alright?”
        “He's in rough shape,” the guard said. “He followed my instructions to the letter and ducked the second anything fishy came up. If he hadn't he'd be dead.”
        “Can we see him?”
        “Yes you can.”
        “How bad is it?” Twilight asked the guard after his friends had gone in.
        “Not enough to remove his sense of humor,” she replied, not believing that he talked her into this.
        Scott and Stigandr walked into the dark room and saw their friend laying motionless on a bed. As their eye’s adjusted to the dark they saw his horn was gone and so was part of his dorsal fin. His breathing was ragged and occasionally a pop could be heard from a bone setting itself. An occasional beep could be heard in the background as the device that monitored his heart kept track of the slow, rythmic beat. Weakly the changeling rolled over and coughed. Slowly he opened his eyes and extended his hoof upon seeing his friends.
        “Scott, Stigs,” he said with a wheeze, “I have been and always shall be your friend.”
        Scott responded by giving Ancro a left hook to the face. Stigandr's response was to kick the changeling's bed and walking around the room swearing at his friend's terrible joke, but also relieved that he was fine.
        “I deserved that one,” Ancro said reeling from the punch, “but it's not like I'll get another chance at it.”
        “Yeah hopefully you don't you asshole,” Scott said, his loud voice easily going through the walls. “I was genuinly worried about you.”
        “And I'm glad I have friends that do.” Ancro replied, “Also your hook had poor follow through and you hit my skull, from this angle the jaw would've been a preferred shot.”
        “I'll keep that in mind,” Scott said, folding his forelegs.
        “So I'm guessing you found the spy?” Stigandr said through sarcasm.
        “Yeah and she wasn't real happy about it,” Ancro said, focusing on the shattered nub that was his horn and missing fin thingy.
        “So do you still think Equestria is fun happy place?” Scott said hoping that this might set his friends priorities straight.
        “Of course I do Scott,” Ancro said with a wise ass smile, “I never had this much fun at home.”
        “I'm trying to be serious,” Scott replied. “You could've died!”
        “But I didn't,” Ancro replied. “If there's anything I've learned throughout the years it is that killing me can be pretty tricky.”
        “How does it not bother you?” Scott said. “You nearly get you head blown off and start cracking jokes?”
        “It does,” Ancro explained, “I'm just not showing it.”
        “And you say my emotional control isn't healthy.”
        “Humorous apathy and blind anger are two different animals,” Ancro said.
        “Yeah but mine doesn't try to get me killed.”
        “When has my sense of humor nearly gotten me killed?” Ancro said, “this is me coping.”
        “I want you to act like you take it seriously,” Scott replied. “You keep treating this like it's some damn vacation! I don't care how bad your sister's are, they are not taking shots at your head.”
        “Scott,” Ancro said evenly, “you cope by freaking out, I cope by hiding in a shell of jokes and one liners and saying I'm perfect. If I didn't I would be a nervous wreck and unable to do anything.”
        “Yeah but you don't even acknowledge that you were almost killed,” Scott said.
        “I'm going to reply in two parts,” Ancro smirked. “Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades and Scott, Stigs, if I let it out and let you guys know anything but comedic quips, I may break down.”
        “And you say I take myself too seriously?” Scott chuckled.
        “Scott,” Ancro said trying to keep the tears out of his eyes, “I tasted her desire to kill me. In the prison they were trying to keep me alive so I used that. If a praetorian comes after me I'll be dead before I hit the floor. I'm powerless before an enemy that's stronger, faster, and more skilled than me.”
        “And now that they actually want you dead,” Stigandr said.
        “It's funny when you can feel how happy that would make them,” Ancro said. “And I was always told that being a people pleaser would get me ahead.”
        “Who told you that?” Scott said.
        “No one,” Ancro said, “was just making another joke.”

---
        “Sorry I'm late,” Firecracker said landing next to Shift. 
        “It's alright,” Shift replied, “from what I've heard you had a busy day at the palace.”
        “Wow, news travels fast in the restaurant world?” she laughed, surprised he had heard of the event already. Then she looked into the restaurant and saw who was sitting at one of the tables. The captain, his sister, and his wife.
        “I'm tempted to go in and ask for my old position back,” Firecracker said.
        “So you've been moved from Cadence's royal guard?” Shift asked as he walked down the streets at twilight.
        “Yeah so I get a pay cut,” Firecracker replied. “It was temporary anyways, until she got back to the Crystal Empire. It came with a promotion so I'm not too upset. Yet.”
        “Well at least you didn't get transferred,” Shift chuckled.
        “Yeah, there are no good restaurants in the Crystal Empire from what I've heard,” she smiled.
        “Maybe I need to talk to my boss about expanding then,” Shift joked. “Did you hear something?”
        “Help me,” a voice under a box said, sounding scared. Firecracker hurried over to help. Shift trotted along right behind her. The changeling felt more glee than fear from under the box. He wrote it off as a foal playing prank. He figured as soon as Firecracker lifted the box he would have a squirt gun or a water balloon, get her and run off. Firecracker lifted the box. There was the glint of the knife and the unmistakable taste of pain, fear, and blood.
        “TAG!” he shouted again as he slashed across her face, the jagged knife having already been stabbed into her leg. Playtime went to stab again. Firecracker had overcome the initial shock and attacked, blocking it at the cost of her wing.
        Shift tackled Playtime. The force behind it knocked the blonde pegasus back a bit but failed to remove the knife from his mouth and drug it through Firecracker's wing. Shift's rage only built from her shriek. The taste of her pain and Playtime's rage distracted Shift a moment too long and the knife ended up going into the green shoulder and with a single motion the crazed pegasus twisted and yanked the serrated blade from helpless pegasus.
        “That is very rude!” he shouted, swiftly stabbing the gasping pegasus in the side. “Wait your turn.”
        Shift heard Firecracker say something. The injured changeling couldn't make it out. Right now he was too focused on healing while keeping his disguise up. He hoped Firecracker would get away because he wasn't sure how long he could hold it like this. All of his senses were blurry; he knew any moment now he'd be revealed. Luckily he had built up quite reserve at the restaurant. He had just as much as he had in the prison when he sent a praetorian flying.
        A yellow and orange blur crashed into the rapidly blurring Playtime. There was a tumble then a groan. Shift turned his head and saw that Playtime stabbed Firecracker. She couldn't heal, like him blood was coming out of her mouth. Shift tackled into the pegasus headlong. He didn't even notice he had changed back.
        Playtime took the curved horn from a changeling in the side. Weakly, Playtime tried to run. However, the injury in his side and a shot of green goo anchored him. He was bleeding badly. His head friend's weren't making sense. He thought the black bug ponies were nice and helped him. Now one was hurting him. He was hurting him bad. He needed to have someone fix the hole in his side.
        Even when enraged it was important for a changeling to keep a cool head. Shift was failing in that regard. The inner sadist that most changelings had in them was loose. Their love for the emotions like fear and sadness could drive one mad if they lost focus. Shift's focus was on one thing, inflicting as much pain on Playtime as possible. He didn't want to kill him, Shift wanted him to suffer.
        Playtime's defense crumbled when Shift bucked him on his injured side. The changeling pulled the serial killer's wing out of socket with a swift motion and followed through by shattering Playtime's jaw. The next thing to break were his forelegs, then his hind legs. Shift followed by channeling power to his forelegs and shattering the pegasus' ribs with a single stomp. Shift was so focused on inflicting suffering upon Playtime that he didn't notice the crowd at the end of the alley. He didn't sense the shield engulf the area around him. He barely noticed the guards tackling him and taking him away.

(Hope you all enjoyed another chapter and thanks for reading. So anyways my teacher is giving me extra credit since I'm proving that yes I am in fact writing something. She was reluctant about it since it is a fan fic but extra credit is extra credit so I'm not complaining. If only my economics professor would give me bonus for this than I'd be set. Anyways thanks to Tsujin Rilauco for editing and such. As usual I like all the feedback I can get since it helps me improve the story for you guys. Again thanks for reading next chapter will be posted Monday of next week!)