"Come on, get a move on!"
Monty's and Pacifica's group was thrown straight into the training grounds, first, was the galloping, and it wasn't easy.
The entire group was wiping away the dusty layer of the ground's soil with their excessive panting, it had been over ten minutes of constant running at full speed and they were at their limit long ago.
"Rest!"
Monty never thought that the sound of that leisurely word could be so... unpleasant, it's as if it didn't matter what their supervisor said, it always seemed like he was telling you off...
A pack of water was supplied to everypony, it wasn't enough.
The rest of the day passed more like a month, the newbies were thoroughly tested under every aspect, both physical and mental, not only their bodies were being worn out like wood on a sander but their minds were being screwed over to such an extent that when the time to sleep finally came, nopony was even close to tired, they were on a whole new level of exhaustion and the two spies still had to orient themselves around the terrain as well as send a message to the castle ASAP.
2 weeks... that's the time that Monty and Pacifica had before they set out to war, neither of them knew how they'll pull it off.
The group was presented with a long green tent, within it stood countless wooden bunk beds... one would be surprised at how fast a chengeling is able to work when he has carrot up front and a stick at the back.
"These will be your quarters during your training, pick a free bed, that's where you'll sleep"
The changelings were too tired to even question anything at this point, they took the final walk, those unlucky enough had to climb on the top bunk on top of it all.
"The wake up call is at 5am!"
The body of group moaned unanimously with the remains of what they had in their lungs.
Monty and Pacifica found a free bunk, it was essential that they stay together the entire time, how else would Monty watch over her? but that wasn't the hardest part, by far the hardest thing of all was the fact that they would both have to sneak out in a few hours. once everypony falls asleep.
It seemed nearly impossible to stay awake for more than a few minutes, however, fortunately for the spies, the same applied to everypony else in the tent and much sooner than expected, the place was covered with a dreamy veil that embedded the entire tent in the creamy subconscious.
Pacifica, lying down on the lower bunk bed, knocked on Monty's part of the bunk above to signal the start of the mission, she wasn't woried about waking anypony up, not even Luna was necessary to keep them at bay, not that she had any power over changeling's dreams in the first place.
It took about a minute for Monty to finally descend and follow Pacifica.
The two bobbed their heads out of the camp and scanned the area with their eyes, there was a minimum number of guards though most of them were located by a cave further up ahead.
"That's where we need to go" Pacifica pointed at the cave.
"You think that might be their center?"
"It's protected the most"
"I see your point"
"You stay here"
"Why?"
"Keep an eye on things"
"I should go with you"
"No, you stay here and if anything happens, make a distraction"
Pacifica used her magic to spawn the Rumble Suit on her as did Monty with his Pegazooka.
"If you go, I go with you"
"No, you stay!"
"It's because I'm black isn't it?"
Pacifica rolled here eyes and got going, Monty remained beside the tent, eyeballing the scene for any possible trouble.
Pacifica stealthily tiptoed around the open field, using her small body to avoid detection by swimming in the shadow bars of trees on the very edge of the field, silently swishing from one to the other, like a cat going for its prey, every now and then stopping when a guard's attention was inched towards her general area.
in no time at all, she was as close to the entrance as she could, Monty focusing on her whereabouts, when he noticed that getting inside was going to be a different thing altogether, there was no way of passing the guards unnoticed.
Pacifica couldn't afford a diversion, especially considering just how close she was to the guards, she could easily reach them from the side and so she would be caught before anything happened which probably wouldn't be an issue as she had the rumble suit and she would probably take them on but the whole point of this mission is not to go head on but to infiltrate.
Monty aimed his pegazooka high up in the air, trying to remember what Twilight said about activating it.
"So this thing might work on my feelings, huh? let's hope she's right"
Monty tried to remember what he felt at the time he shot the giant timberwolf... he felt pretty much what he did right now, the needed to protect Pacifica, though not nearly as desperately as back then.
"I swear to god, if you don't-"
Click
A steady beam of magic streamed with a gentle whistle up into the infinite sky, giving his position away.
The guard's attention was successfully averted, the two closest to the entrance came to a common understanding and went out to check what fired that beam.
Now was the time, Pacifica had to get going, there were still two other guards left on the other side but she might not get another chance... she took it as she slipped thrugh the narrow gap of the two other guards and the cave wall that was shapeshifting under the flamed light of the torches.
Inside the cave lay a few chairs and tables and even a sofa, on the other end, a few changelings (the leaders and planners no doubt) were doing their stuff, some were resting, others were discussing matters of importance and one was sitting by the largest table whose surface was clothed by some sort of map and a litter of papers... Pacifica unfortunately was too far to be able to make out their mumbling let alone be able to read what was on those papers, hopefully if everything goes just right they'll be out of here by tomorrow.
There just had to be a way to get closer, and every second she spent behind those guards was an increase in the risk of being found out.
A few meters up ahead of Pacifica there was a ledge, higher than any of the changelings in the cave that would make a great hiding spot from the light and the rest of the changelings, a wide crack large enough for her to squeeze through and it would lead her as close to the tables as she needed to be.
There was no time, she had to get on there, but flying wasn't going to do the trick, it was way too loud and she'd be discovered in no time... she had to jump.
The ledge seemed pretty far but out of all days, today Pacifica had a good workout (to say the least)
She tilted and bent her backbone like a spring, giving her that edge that she needed to make that jump.
The took the jump, as calculated, she had made it far enough to grab onto the ledge, however the momentum of the massive jump caused the rest of her armoured body to smash against the rock and with a loud scrape she slid down the ledge and onto the ground.
Everypony's attention was now on her, it was too late, she was found out, luckily for her, she was in particularly dark spot which made it hard for the other changelings to make out who was there, but that didn't matter, they certainly knew they saw somepony and were on their way to her already.
It happened momentarily, the sudden surge of adrenalin activated Pacifica's fight or flight switch.
Flight
but how? the way out was blocked.
Teleport!
Pacifica in the last moment remered how Twilight was known for her ability to magically teleport through short distances... she never tried it before but that wasn't going to stop her, if she'd go out fighting in the cave that would raise the alarm across the entire area and the mission would be over at once.
Pacifica stood still using the darkness to her advantage, she focused as hard as she could on teleporting out of here...
But that's not what happened, instead, a faint bulging sound, like that of a hungry stomach grumbled for a moment and Pacifica was still there.
It was too late, the guard was already right next to her looking straight at her.
Pacifica remained still at this point having no idea what to do, they were in deep trouble.
"What was it Tim?"
The changeling right in front of Pacifica went towards her, she swayed to the side and let him through, he seemed to be ignoring her.
"I have no idea, I can't see anything here, just a pile or rocks, maybe they broke off or something"
Then an idea came to Pacifica's mind, was he an ally?
"I don't know Tim, that didn't sound like rock to me"
"Well then, have a look yourself"
No, that wasn't it, if that were the case he wouldn't call out to the other guard.
the other guard came within eyelash length to Pacifica who was now desperately trying to be as soundless as possible..
"Hmmm... maybe you're right"
"Everything all right there?"
It's as if she was invisible.
"Yes sir! just a pile of rocks broke off the cliff"
That was it! she was invisible! she didn't know how this had happened but the Suit must have absorbed her magic or something and turned her invisible!
Things suddenly became much more simple.
She had to make sure that her theory was correct, she had to risk it, at this point using that rock cliff once again was out of the question.
She approached one of the guards and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Huh?"
The guard turned around to look directly at her.
Pacifica remained still, her heart pounding away.
The guard resumed his duty
"What?"
"This cave sure gets drippy, I need to get a waterproof coat or something"
"True that"
She was invisible after all.
Now that she had this out of the way she felt confident enough to casually walk right next to the tables beside the changeling going through the papers, among the papers she could make out a number of plans and weapons, some that could have only been invented by mad ponies, those machines weren't meant to kill, they were meant to break ponies... what would they need them for?
and then she noticed the map on the entire table, it was an ancient map of Canterlot but what was circled and scribbled upon all over the place was a cave that lay deep below the castle grounds.
It seemed that the rebels are going to strike from below this time, but something felt off, why would they do that if there are so many other more effective ways of getting through?
Then Pacifica noticed a whole number of little grills drawn in various areas of the cave system.
It wasn't going to be a passage, it was going to be a prison.
But how? how were they going to beat down the army? they didn't have nearly enough troops.
Pacifica had to think this through, little made sense and that which did, lead to a dead end... there were too many question being raised and too few being answered.
Pacifica was going to have to spend a few hours in that cave hoping to overhear something that might help her in understanding any of this.
"I swear to god, if you don't-"
Click
A steady beam of magic streamed with a gentle whistle up into the infinite sky, giving his position away.
Two of the four guards who were located right next to Pacifica were on their way towards Monty, it'll have to do for now.
"Oh..."
Monty had intended on creating a diversion but didn't really think through the rest.
"I think it's time for me to go"
Monty turned his Pegazooka back into the pendant and ran alongside the tent as fast as he could, only seconds later after he turned around the corner, on the far end where he was moments ago, the guards had arrived.
Monty looked at Pacifica far off in the distance who was now further in the cave but jammed between the cave wall and the other two guards.
The two guards who were distracted must have assumed that the beam was of no significance as they were both were already coming back to their post.
Monty panicked, Pacifica was in plain sight, if any of those guards would come back to the cave, she would be discovered and it would all be over.
Monty had to think fast, and he nearly did... nearly.
He spawned his pegazooka, knowing that his plan had involved the use of it and without thinking he decided to shoot one of the guards.
The Pegazooka, as if it had heard the command of its master, snapped towards one of the guards, and Monty pulled the trigger wanting to just grab his attention, not harm him.
A very light whisp of magic travelled towards the guard and smacked him gently enough to have him think that somepony is throwing something at him.
"Ok, who was that? I know that wasn't a coincidence"
"Maybe one of the recruits are pranking us?"
"Let's find out"
Monty jumped into the sea of trees nearby the tent and shot once again at one of the guards.
"In the woods!"
This was more fun than Monty could hope for as far as he remains hidden he could do this for hours.
And he did, approximately 15 minutes of pranking later, Monty was jumped by a Pacifica who appeared out of nowhere.
"How did you get here?"
"This suit can make me invisible"
"Did you get what you needed?"
Pacifica nodded
"And?"
"I'll tell you later, we need to get back and send the letter"
The two snuck by the guards who at this point were highly doubting what they saw all those minutes ago, it was late and they were tired.
Pacifica and Monty came to the back of the tent, Pacifica took out a small plain piece of parchment that she nicked from the cave along with a small quill.
"So what is their plan?"
"They are going to imprison everypony in canterlot's secret underground caves"
"But how? the army is so big compared to this one"
"The cave has a lot of special crystals that are able to deflect magic, they want to lure us in, and they'll shoot us from the entrance, the crystals will keep deflecting the magic fired and it will take down the whole army, we won't be able to fight back with magic if we enter the caves because of the crystals, all they have to do is seal the entrance and exit and we'll be trapped and they'll use everypony in there as food"
"But that's like... thousands of ponies"
"Exactly, and most leaders including the Princesses as well, it would be enough to feed almost every changeling in Equestria"
Pacifica finished writing just that, she rolled the parchment and sprinkled some of that powder that was given to her by Celestia, she then proceeded to ignite the message via a magical spark and soon enough the whole thing puffed in magical smoke.
Tonight's mission was a success.
"Do you think we'll manage to stop this war?"
"..."
Time was for Mark just like the machine that he has been working on, nearly over, with a last push, he screwed in the last few bolts and cogs, it was done, it was ready, may the army come and he will show everypony the machine that will bring peace to their kind, once and for all.
Mark's body was growing numb, his condition couldn't get much worse at this point and all that recent stress wasn't helping much either, but the job was done and he had managed to keep his condition secret for long enough.
Mark fell to the ground, his mind falling into the unconscious.