//------------------------------//
// 6 - Home Invasion 
// Story: Night Owls 
// by Rambling Writer 
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Where Iron Phalanx was a stereotypical pegasus guard, Captain Dauntless Vanguard was a stereotypical unicorn guard; perhaps even a bit more so.  His dark gray coat was practically polished, it was so uniform.  His brilliant amber eyes bespoke bravery and a determination to protect everyone he could.  His mane and tail were carefully trimmed down to the millimeter.  He was big, muscular; he looked like he would be a formidable bastion in combat, a pony you wouldn’t want to cross.  All in all, he gave off a regal composure befitting of the Protective Pony Platoons and the Captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard.

As long as you never saw him as he was currently: still asleep, sprawled out on his cot in the barracks, head hanging over the edge, a thin strand of drool dangling towards the floor, mane in a complete mess in spite of its short length, and snoring up a storm.  Rough sleep can make anyone look bad.

He rolled over, snorted, and blearily blinked sleep out his eyes as he woke up.  He squinted at the window, trying to get a look at whatever light was coming in as a quick guess at the time.  Nothing.  A thought pierced through the dim fog of sleep: So I’m probably up early.

Stretching his legs out, Vanguard glanced at the clock.  5:34.  Yep; early.  Annoyingly, though, it was just at the wrong place in the boundary of very-early and barely-early.  Not enough time to get back to sleep and sneak a few more winks in, too much time to just lie resting and awake in bed until it was actually time to get up.  Bleh.

With not much else to do, Vanguard yawned and rolled out of bed.  He landed on his back, sending a jolt up and down his spine from his horn to his tail.  He grunted, turned upright, and pushed himself to his hooves.  He could get a little bit of exercise in.  Maybe get to the mess hall early and actually get some of the halfway-decent food for once.  Rank didn’t matter much in the mess hall; when it came to food, royal guards were fierce.

He walked quietly out of the barracks, careful not to wake anyone.  Royal guards had a special kind of crankiness if woken up for no good reason.  Once he was outside, he gave a quick nod to the nightwatchpony, just so he knew he was out.  With the shifts ready to change soon, the guards on duty weren’t quite at their best.

Vanguard left the barracks and headed into Canterlot for a trot around town.  Even though Canterlot was more or less dead this time of day (or night or whatever), nopony’d think much of it; every now and then, a guard who couldn’t sleep would do exactly what Vanguard was doing and trot through town for an exercise.  Or simply get up early for it.  They were quiet, and they didn’t disturb anypony, so nopony cared all that much.

Knowing Canterlot like the back of his hoof, Vanguard immediately went first for a circuit of the palace grounds.  The palace had the best view of the mountainside, and Vanguard always liked going over there to look out over the land.  He squinted up at the deep blue sky and its stars.  It’s early for sunrise, but should still be a halfway-decent view from the moonlight.  Good thing the moon’s still full tonight.

As he began his trot through town, Vanguard noticed a largish group of ponies moving through town as well, maybe a dozen and half, a roughly even assortment of earth, unicorn, and pegasus.  That, in itself, wasn’t too unusual.  There were always a few ponies up.  With a group this size, they could’ve been a group of college foals doing an all-nighter or something.

What was unusual was the fact that they were completely silent -- you’d think a group that size would have at least some ponies talking amongst themselves -- and heading towards the palace.

It didn’t trigger any alarm bells just yet, but military paranoia made Vanguard expectantly reach for the switch.  If they were trying to break into the palace, they’d run into the guards stationed there.  If those guards captured them, fine.  If they managed to incapacitate the guards before anyone could sound the alarm…  Well, Vanguard decided he’d try to stay out of sight, just in case.

It wasn’t that hard; their hoof-falls were quiet, but at this time of night, the only other things making noise were the wind and the occasional cricket.  Vanguard followed them by sound, traveling on parallel roads to keep buildings between them and him.  Sometimes he lost them, but never for long; he knew Canterlot well enough to predict where they’d be.

A few minutes of pursuit later, Vanguard let the alarm bells go off in his head.  They were outside the palace, with the group using one of the last buildings as cover from the guards for… something.  Vanguard poked his head around another building just in time to see them launch round things from several large slingshots.  The projectiles trailed some sort of inky smoke; Vanguard couldn’t be sure of their color in the moonlight, but they looked purple.

Before Vanguard had time to track their path, each one smacked into a patrolling guard, exploding in a larger cloud of smoke.  Tired from their shift, the guards hadn’t noticed the missiles in time.

The guards froze in place, apparently choking.  Then they limply keeled over, one after the other.

The ponies promptly made a break for the door, leaving the guards’ bodies behind them.

Vanguard chased after them, mentally cursing himself.  I should’ve stopped them.  Yelled out.  Tried to sprint ahead of them to warn the guards here.  Something.  But now, some of my stallions are probably dead, just because I didn’t think to do anything.

But as he drew near one body, he heard a breath.  It wasn’t a death rattle, more of a gasp.  It wasn’t much, but it brought Vanguard’s heart up a bit.  They might not be dead after all.

Vanguard skidded to a stop next to the pony, a pegasus.  He was twitching stiffly on the ground.  He couldn’t move.  Paralysis, probably.  “Can you hear me?” whispered Vanguard.

The pony’s eyes swiveled to look at Vanguard.  Yes, then.  A moan came from his mouth.  Like he was trying to speak, but couldn’t.

“Blink once for yes, twice for no.  Got that?”

Blink.  Not that paralyzed, then.

“Can you move at all?”

Blink blink.

“Does it hurt?”

There was a pause.  Then: blink.  Then: blink blink.

Sort of?  “On a scale of one to ten.”

Blink blink blink.

Huh.  You’d think it’d hurt more.  “I’m going to sound the alarm, then I’m heading in there after them,” said Vanguard, nodding towards the door.  “I’m sorry I can’t get help for you, but the Princesses are our priority.”

Blink.  The pegasus understood.

Vanguard promptly bolted for the palace door.  Inside, he managed to catch a last glimpse of a tail whisking around a corner.  Another paralyzed guard lay in the middle of the hallway.  Vanguard didn’t chase after the invaders immediately, though.  Instead, he ducked inside a currently-vacant guard post just inside the entrance.  He grabbed a red cord hanging in there and yanked hard.

Immediately, a low, droning horn began resounding through the corridors of the palace.  The invasion alarm.  Guards throughout the palace would immediately report to key areas for defense, stalling any group that tried to break in.

That settled, Vanguard left the post and sprinted after the invaders, scooping up the fallen guard’s pike as he passed with a quick, “Sorry.”  They’d turned left, hadn’t they?  Yeah.  The Princesses’ sleeping quarters were in that direction.  Luna was still up, of course, but Celestia…

When he slid around the corner, Vanguard didn’t see the group.  Probably after Celestia, though.  Could be coincidence, but unlikely.  And from here, the sleeping quarters were-  Vanguard took the second door on the right and ran up the staircase inside.

Jackpot.  He heard the group bickering amongst themselves further up.  Not quietly, either; with the alarm, keeping silent wouldn’t do anything.  Vanguard tiptoed up a few more steps, trying to listen to them, to get an idea of their plans.

“I’m telling you, I got all the guards out there.  You certainly didn’t tell me I missed any.”  A stallion’s voice.  Kinda husky.

“Someone in a side hall, maybe?  I told you we were going too fast.”  A mare’s.  Tentative, maybe a little scared.

“It was necessary, we were behind schedule,” snapped a second mare.  Light, a little breathy, still somehow commanded authority.  “And it doesn’t matter how or why, because whoever sounded the alarm’s probably following us.  You, you, and you: stay here, delay anypony who comes up those stairs.”

“Yes, ma’am!”  Three voices in unison.

“The rest of us need to keep moving.”  Vanguard heard a clopping sound as, presumably, the group headed deeper into the palace.  They weren’t on the stairs anymore, at least.  It was the right level for the sleeping quarters.

So.  They were well-organized, that one mare was the leader, they had a schedule of some kind,  and they were going after Celestia.  Hmm.  Not to mention the three ponies outside the stairwell right now.

First things first.  Vanguard couldn’t stick his head out the right door without exposing himself and alerting the ponies outside, so he couldn’t see their positions.  Regrettable, but he could get around that.  Jump out yelling and screaming to surprise them; crude, but effective.  And if they were this organized, they may or may not have some kind of combat training.

But then, Vanguard had a pike; he had reach.  He was a unicorn; he had magic.  He was the Captain of the Guard; he had more experience and/or skill than most other ponies in the service.

Vanguard wasn’t too worried about his chances.

After tensing for a moment, he threw himself through the doorway, screaming bloody murder around the pike he held clenched firmly between his teeth.  The three ponies outside jumped in surprise, and in the half-second it took for them to regain their senses, Vanguard looked over them as best he could.

Triangular formation.  Two unicorns, one earth, all mares.  Unicorn right ahead, earth three yards away at 1 o’clock, other unicorn six yards at 10.  Can handle this.

He swung the pike, aiming for the unicorn right in front of him.  The earth pony danced back a step, trying to avoid it, even though it wouldn’t’ve hit her if she’d stayed still; Vanguard knew that trying to sweep two ponies at once was generally a bad idea.  It was better to hit one opponent with more damage.

The pike hit the unicorn right in the flank, knocking the wind out of her and sending her flying towards the wall.  Vanguard jumped forward at the same time, using the resistance of the unicorn as a sort of fulcrum for the pike to propel himself forward, towards the second unicorn.  His rear hooves caught her in the chest just as he released the pike.  The two of them rolled briefly across the floor before Vanguard gained the upper hoof and smashed her head against the floor, knocking her out.

One down, one to go, one coming up.  Vanguard was turning to the earth pony when she slammed into his side and smashed him into the wall.  A pained breath escaped him and his head bounced off the stone, sending stars swimming across his vision.

Vanguard blinked a few times and instinctively shuffled to one side.  The earth pony’s front hooves hit the wall where his head had been, hard enough to crack the stone and inches from his face.  She froze for a moment, cringing at the shocks from the hard impact, and Vanguard took the opportunity to headbutt her in the chest.  The move could easily do terrible things to his horn, but he was still too dazed to summon up any sort of magic and too close for anything else.

His head rang, but it worked; the mare had the breath knocked out of her and she staggered away, gasping.  Pivoting on a front hoof, Vanguard whirled around and bucked her in the ribs.  The blow was too much for her and she collapsed with a moan.

But when she did, a magic missile impacted the wall right behind Vanguard.  With her friend out of commission, the last unicorn could freely aim at Vanguard without worrying about friendly fire.  Vanguard turned to face her in time to see a blur of color tackle her from one side.

A pegasus guard, Steel Ringer, finally responding to the alarm.  “Hi, Captain!” he yelled out, dissonantly cheerful as he and his opponent rolled across the floor.  “You doing-”  His head hit the wall; he planted his rear hooves in the unicorn’s belly and pushed her away.  “-all right?”

“I’ve been better.”  Vanguard telekinetically snatched the unicorn from the air and threw her down to the floor.  With no ponies attempting to murder him anymore, he took the opportunity to magically bind her hooves; it wouldn’t last forever, but it’d last long enough.  “Where’re the other guards?”

Ringer shook himself off.  “Most of them’re going to Celestia’s bedchambers for defense.  Some of the remainder’re combing the rest of the palace in case we’re wrong, and the rest -- one of which is yours truly -- are taking a roundabout route to the chambers in the hopes that, if we’re right, we can flank them from behind.  Obviously, we were right.”

Vanguard finished restraining the other two mares.  “Good to have you.  If they throw something like a bottle at you, hold your breath.  They’ve got some kind of paralytic gas.”

“Good to know.”

Vanguard and Ringer set off towards Celestia’s quarters.  As they galloped, they kept passing by guards, stiff and paralyzed on the floor.  Every now and then they’d see one or two of the invading group knocked out, obvious by their lack of armor, but Vanguard was still troubled by how little of them there were.  But at least the invaders were getting whittled down.

Vanguard knew when they were getting closer to Celestia’s quarters and motioned for Ringer to keep quiet.  As he neared a corner, he could hear the invaders bickering; there were still four or five different voices.  “What do you mean it’s locked?” hissed the leader.

“I mean it’s locked,” snapped a stallion.  “It was probably sealed once the alarm was pulled.”

Motioning to Ringer to stay back, Vanguard poked his head around a corner.  A cluster of paralyzed guards were scattered in front of Celestia’s doors, while the remaining invaders, three of them, were right up against the doors.  One of them was pulling something out of a set of saddlebags; it looked like an air pump of some kind.  “Luckily for you,” the stallion said, “I came prepared.”  He began shoving an air hose underneath the door.

Vanguard heard some hooves behind him and turned around.  Six more guards were trotting up, the rest of the rear guard Ringer had mentioned.  The moment Vanguard stepped up in front of them, they all snapped to attention.

“All right, stallions,” Vanguard whispered, “we outnumber them almost three to one.  Maybe they’ll surrender if they see us.  You know what to do if they don’t, but if they throw something at you, hold your breath.”

The small contingent collectively nodded, and, with them at his back, Vanguard stepped around the corner to face the invaders.  For a moment, they didn’t seem to notice him and were still squabbling amongst themselves as they fit a container filled with green mist on top of the pump.  Then one of the mares noticed Vanguard and jabbed the other in the ribs.  She turned and flinched a little when she saw the group, and promptly began digging around in a saddlebag.

Nope.  No surrender today.  “Move in!” Vanguard yelled to the guards.  Guessing that the mare who had noticed them was the leader, he made a move towards her.

But there was a lot of space to cover, and before he was halfway, the second mare had found what she was looking for: another one of those paralytics.  She lightly tossed it into the air, then spun and bucked it towards the guards.

Vanguard dug his hooves into the floor and skidded to a halt as he took a deep breath.  Behind him, he could hear the others doing the same.  In front of him, the paralytic beaker was arcing gracefully through the air; behind it the first mare and the stallion were still scrambling to get the container on the pump.

An idea popped into Vanguard’s head.  Reaching out with his magic, he caught the beaker and flung it back towards the invaders.  Paralyze them and keep them from turning on the pump, whatever it was for.  Easy.

In the second it took the thrower to process what had happened, the beaker hit the ground in front of her and shattered, obscuring the invaders in a cloud of purple smoke.  “Get ready to move in once the smoke clears, but watch yourselves,” Vanguard muttered to the stallions behind him.  “It might not have gotten everypony.”  Which seemed unlikely, but it always paid to be prepared.

Including this case.  A light winked on through the haze and a low hum started up.  The smoke began to clear; the first mare was standing next to the pump, protected by a shield of magic.  The container had been secured to the pump and was depleting rapidly.

Crap.  This wasn’t going well.  Vanguard cleared his throat.  “Turn off the pump and step away from the door,” he said, taking a few steps forward.  “Don’t make me use force.”  He doubted it would work, but it might take a while to break through the shield, longer than he had.

No luck.  The mare didn’t even glance at Phalanx, and the pump was empty before he could respond.  With a soft chuckle, the mare turned to Vanguard, grinning broadly.  “Go ahead!  Do your worst!  It doesn’t matter now, f-”

Part of the outside wall exploded inward and a powerful blast of magic shattered the mare’s shield and slammed into her.  She was blown across the floor, spinning wildly for several moment until she managed to get a grip on the floor.  The pump went sailing past her and smashed into a wall, where it shattered into a thousand pieces.  She turned to face her assailant, snarling, until she saw who assailant was and shrank back, eyes wide and ears back.

Luna stood over her, horn glowing, wings beating.  Her ears were folded back, she was pawing at the ground, and she looked angry enough to start spitting fire.  She wasn’t actively casting magic, but she was still radiating it with such intensity that the mare’s shield crumbled before her.  “We do not tolerate trespassers.”

Her voice was booming, but this wasn’t the Royal Canterlot Voice.  This was a voice Vanguard had only heard a few times before and was sincerely glad he hadn’t heard it any more.  This was a voice tinged with barely restrained anger.  This was the Start Praying Before I End You Voice, and Luna was damn good at it.

“The Elements of Harmony stolen, I go without sleep for thirty-six hours, and just when things seem to be calming down, now you show up?” she said, taking another step forward.  The pony took another step back.  “You ought to be thankful that I have kept my temper in check enough to not vaporize you where you stand!”  If possible, her voice was rising.  Everypony in the room was shying away from her.  “As it stands, you dese-”

“Luna.”

The door to the bedchambers was pushed open, and Celestia strode out in spite of being half-asleep.  She was missing her crown, her mane wasn’t done (Vanguard’s thoughts faltered a bit trying to process how weird that looked on her), but she still had the presence of royalty about her.  Everypony not cowering in front of Luna immediately bowed.

Luna whirled to face Celestia, but her gaze softened, if only a smidgen, and when she spoke, her voice was distinctly quieter.  “Celestia, I-”

“Calm down.  It’s done.”  Celestia put a hoof to her mouth and coughed.  “I’m fine, the ones responsible for the invasion have been captured, and, most importantly, it’s 6 in the morning.  Please stop yelling.”  Luna may have been more intimidating overall, but Celestia could get you to listen without raising her voice.

Luna opened her mouth, but it took her a few moments to spit out, “Very well.”  She took a few steps out of the center, giving Celestia the stage, but not before shooting the captured mare a very angry look.

Celestia turned to Vanguard.  “Captain.”

“Ma’am,” said Vanguard, saluting.

Celestia coughed again.  “Everything is under control, right?”

“Yes’m,” said Vanguard, nodding.  “Those captured are already being taken into custody as we speak.  As far as I know, n-”

Celestia silenced him with a quick wave of her hoof.  “Please, I don’t want the specifics right now.  But stay afterwards; you can give a full report then.”  She turned to the captured mare, who was still shaking and staring at Luna with eyes wider than dinner plates.  Celestia lightly tapped her on the shoulder, drawing her attention.  “I’ll be talking to you later,” she said to the mare.  Considering she was talking to someone who had just tried to kill her, Celestia’s voice was surprisingly friendly and free of malice.  “I’m sure we can come to some arrangement to learn why you did this.”

The mare blinked twice, then looked bizarrely calm for a moment.  At least until Luna pushed her head against the former’s.  “And if we do not,” she hissed, “you will hear from me.”

All the mare could say as she was led away was a high-pitched, “Meep.”

Following after her, the rest of the guards led or dragged the remaining prisoners and the remains of the pump away; it wasn’t long before Vanguard and the princesses were the only ponies left outside the door.  (Vanguard attempted to convince Celestia to let a few of them stay to protect her, but no dice; Celestia was in one of her rare stubborn moods.)  With everyone gone, Luna sighed.  “Too much?” she muttered to Celestia.

“Maybe a little.”

“I apologize, Tia,” said Luna, “but the last few days have left me a touch… frustrated.”  She rubbed her head.  “I was just thinking that maybe I should’ve downplayed it back a little.”

“Actually,” said Celestia, “in this case, I think hamming it up may have been the right idea.  They couldn’t have gotten this far into the palace without some amount of confidence, and you just deflated that confidence by quite a bit, I imagine.  That’ll soften her up for later.”

Luna smiled tentatively.  “Good.  I’d hate to have disrupted a lead so early.”

As they were speaking, Vanguard’s mind was spinning.  It almost sounded like…  “Excuse me,” he interrupted, “but… are you really playing Good Princess/Bad Princess?”

“Well… of a sort,” said Luna.  “It has worked in the past, or at least similar methods have.  It might not, everypony’s different, but there’s no hurt in trying, is there?”  She shrugged.

“And you just… happened to be ready for it?” Vanguard asked, unable to keep a little bit of incredulity out of his voice.  “And knew that Celestia would know what you were doing?”

Luna raised an eyebrow.  “My sister and I have worked together for centuries, even discounting my time in the moon.  Needless to say, we know each other quite well.”

“Ah.”

“Now, then,” said Celestia, “I’d like to hear the details of this invasion.”

“Right.”  Vanguard cleared his throat.  “I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep.  I was out for a quick run when I saw a group of ponies.  There were…”  Vanguard racked his mind for the exact number, didn’t come up with it, and guessed.  “…about sixteen or seventeen of them.  Considering the size of the group, they weren’t talking much, which was suspicious, so I followed them to the palace.  They paralyzed the guards outside with some kind of gas held in… bottles, I think, before I could do anything.  Launched them with slingshots.  I followed them inside, activated the alarm, and tracked them to here.  They tried to leave behind groups to slow me down, but other guards were alerted by the alarm and restrained them.  Two of them got paralyzed from the gas when one of the bottles broke.  By the time I got here, the last one remaining -- I think she was their leader -- did something to the door, I don’t know what.  Then Luna came in and you woke up.”

“Hmm.”  Celestia coughed again.  “Well, aside from a scratchy throat, I feel fine, so whatever they did can’t have worked.”

“Tia, we cannot be sure of that,” said Luna anxiously.  “You need a medical examination, just to be safe.  What if it is, just as an example, a slow-acting poison?  You may not feel the effects now, but days or weeks down the line-”

“Yes, yes.”  Celestia dismissively waved a hoof at Luna.  “I’ll get to that soon enough.  Captain, is there anything you need to add?”

“No, Princess.”

“Then you are dismissed.”  Celestia waved Vanguard away with a hoof and set about repairing Luna’s hole in the wall.

Vanguard bowed, but gears were turning in his head.  Celestia was being awfully blasé about this.  Sure, nothing appeared to have happened, but at the same time, Luna had a point; they just didn’t know enough.  While Celestia was arguably justified in sending away any bodyguards (She raised and lowered the sun!  How are you supposed to bodyguard someone like that in a way they couldn’t do much better themselves?), there was also the matter of P.R.; Equestria would feel better if it saw Celestia being protected by a small cadre of guards after an assassination attempt.  She’d be aware of this; was she just too tired to want to bother?  And then there was Celestia just kind of… letting the leader go.  Yeah, she went to the dungeon, but Celestia didn’t have much of a reaction, considering she was almost murdered.  Luna may have been the fiercer one, but even Celestia’s patience had its limits.  It was like she wanted to forget about it, brush everything under the rug as quickly as possible.  Which, okay, wasn’t that bad of a thing to do, but she was usually one to find out why somepony would want to kill her rather than let any murderous grudges sit.

And yet, as he left, in spite of all his mental turmoil, Vanguard couldn’t forget that Celestia had really bad bedhead.