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To Another Land2,107 words
Contact2,209 words
Polite Introductions2,235 words
Infiltration2,386 words
Showers and Dining Rooms2,089 words
Dinner and a Show3,489 words
Dreams and Paranoia3,679 words
Early Mornings and Negotiations4,524 words
Time Wasting and Questions3,166 words
Bad Ideas6,761 words
Under Attack3,819 words
Tactical Strike4,003 words
Close Combat3,135 words
Capture and Ill Rest3,560 words
Meetings and Flashlights4,394 words

Infiltration

As Princess Celestia’s sun began to sink towards the horizon, the occupants of the castle had begun to wrap up their own duties for the night. Maids and groundskeepers who had been diligent throughout the day were relieved by their lunar counterparts. The guards too, having stood stalwart throughout the shining day were met by their shadowy brethren; switching the watch, and allowing those who were awake to prepare for slumber themselves. That is, except for a certain maid who had yet to bother signing herself out.

The dainty figure of a unicorn trotted through the now empty and darkened halls, as the magical lights were lowered to Princess Luna’s specifications. Her black and white attire sat prim and proper atop her dark grey coat, and her black mane was kept neatly in place by a matching white bun. Her eyes, a gentle green, surveyed the halls as she let out a smirk.

“These ponies are fools, how simple it was to return to this wretched place,” she thought. “Without that little pupil of the Princess to ruin her plans, I shall begin anew my plot for taking this pony infested city for my own!” she mused, lost within her own thoughts for a second as she let out a slight fit of laughter.

Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings smirked, and her spell faltered as her concentration on the maintaining of the illusion and transformation spells slipped slightly, causing a slight flicker before she returned the spells to full strength. She had to maintain her concentration on those spells. She had sensed earlier that they put up wards to disable infiltration magic, making maintaining such a spell far too difficult for a drone. It was still perfectly within her reach, of course, and she was more than willing to take the fore-guard of her soon-to-be second invasion.

Despite that minor damper on the mood, the Queen was quite delighted about how stupid the royal guards had been, they neglected to check her seriously, not bothering with any magical sensors to see if she was a timberwolf in sheep's fur. She had learned from her mistakes before, she wasn’t planning on failing yet again, and she was willing to shed the blood of anypony important she or her minions took this time, there would be no quarter.

The disguised queen walked through the halls of the castle which she had passed through only months before during her first infiltration. She frowned as one particular memory replayed in her mind over and over in her mind, and she felt anger rising because of it. It had been going so well before that cursed Twilight Sparkle had shown up and became suspicious of the actions of her ‘former foal sitter’.

Chrysalis breathed in deeply, suppressing her anger almost just as quickly as it had come. She and her subjects would have their time soon though, it may have been a defeat for her grand horde but the ponies, in their foolishness, had thought she had been bested once and for all. “Such ignorance these ponies possess,” she thought, “All their struggling has done was trim some drones from my swarm, which were a pittance to replace.” She smirked, considering how generous it was of them to launch her and some of her commanders into a village of some small, fluffy creatures she never bothered to learn the name of.

The Queen walked through the halls, making sure that she appeared to have a sense of purpose and direction. If there was one thing she had learned over the centuries of cloak and dagger, it was that if you looked like you belonged, everyone would treat you like you belonged.

She had already passed by quite a few ponies who were leaving for the night, many weary and exhausted, not taking heed to the threat that was before their very eyes as she slipped through the front gates. She was now without hindrance to explore the castle as she kept her ears peeled for any sign of something to... capitalize on within her infiltration mission, prior to executing her grand plan.

“Sister, be reasonable, I am sure that he will not harm anypony except in self defense,” the voice of Celestia echoed from up ahead as Chrysalis stopped, trotting quietly to the side of the hallway and pressed her body tightly against the wall as she crept over to the edge, just close enough to hear the group down the other way clearly.

“You act as if he did not appear from out of nowhere, and covered in blood no less! We have no idea what he may do Tia, especially after that earlier comment of his.” answered a rather angry sounding voice, which she was sure belonged to Princess Luna.

“Please, Luna, I am sure he did not mean it,” Celestia argued, “It was almost surely a minor cultural misunderstanding; correct, Deadman?”

A new voice answered this time, a deep voice with an eerily unnatural undertone within it, as if it were speaking through a metal tube stuffed with metallic filters, “Blacklight protocol states that I am to respond to aggression with equivalent force. This means that if I were to be harassed by her guards, I would be perfectly fine with committing multiple acts of assault and battery if the situation demands it.”

“See, sister, he just admitted he is dangerous!” Luna exclaimed, quite obviously distraught at this current situation.

“...Deadman?” Chrysalis whispered to herself “What folly is this?”

“Sister, as much as I would love to continue this lovely debate which we sharing in, I have to remind you that we have duties to perform at this time, regarding the time,” Celestia said, most likely referring to the cycle of the sun and moon, “Shall we convene once more at the chamber?”

There was a pause for a few seconds, before Luna responded “I suppose we do have such duties, but we will continue this discussion later. What will our guest do in the meantime?”

Celestia levelly responded “I will have some of our guards escort him to the staff baths, as to clean off the blood from his armour. I am sure that this will allow him some time to himself as evening dinner approaches. I trust this is acceptable, Deadman?”

“It is not unreasonable,” the unnatural voice stated, completely avoiding the question.

The clacking sound of hoof-falls on marble approached her as Chrysalis ducked away, she wasn’t willing to be face to face with either Princess so she made herself scarce, quickly seeking cover behind one of the large statues to watch the group of Celestia and Luna, along with their personal guards trot towards the room they must go to in order to move the heavens.

For a moment it was silent before a new sound, something metallic echoed down the hall, overshadowing the sounds of more armour hoofsteps.

Chrysalis grimaced, an unnatural smell suddenly filling the air; it was similar to molten metal, mixed in with the scent of... blood... decay... burning, and various chemicals she could not recognize.

There, walking down the hall that the princesses had just passed through was a figure far larger in stature than anything she had ever seen walk on two legs. The queen’s eyes went wide as the metallic glint of its armour was caked in a red hue of blood and other disgusting things of something not so long ago deceased.

She withheld the urge to gag at the scent; this creature, was like nothing else she had seen on this world. It was larger than any Diamond Dog, and none of her own kin could rival that stature, even while using their mixture of shapeshifting and illusion spells.

Like a golem from the eons before, it walked slowly and purposefully, escorted by an equal mixture of the Sun and Moon guards, numbering four total, in silence as they led it towards the baths the princesses had previously mentioned.

Chrysalis thought to herself, “W-what is that thing?” as her eyes both widened, and focused on the beast of machinery. It was clad in metals beyond those of her own swarm's forge, as well as cloth-like materials she was sure that were far more than they appeared. On top of that, she noticed the dull glint of some material that she did not even have a name for.

For the first time I a long while, Chrysalis felt uncertainty, everything about this thing stated that it was well honed for combat. From the the pair of axe and hammer like weapons clinging to its side to the rather large weapon which was hanging from its back as the sound of small pieces of metal jingling rather quietly emenated from a box hanging from the side of the device. However, despite the weapon of alien origin, despite the size, despite the metal and the smell, what worried her most of all was the mixture of grey and black patterns on its armour.

Camouflage, she had seen similar patterned styles before, donned by the war-like Griffons; but, even then, this was different, darker...

They told her that it fought not with honour, like the guard, but pragmatism.

The creature raised one of its arms, before bringing it up to tap something on the side of its helmet. It seemed to look around at nothing, for a second, before its gaze drifted towards her location.

She ducked her head back behind the statue and a second later she heard it stop, and the guards which were walking in front of it quickly stopped moving too, as soon as they heard the footsteps of the being fall silent.

“What is it?” she heard one of the guards ask.

“There is a maid hiding behind one of the statues,” the being Celestia referred to as Deadman stated dryly, and Chrysalis’ heart caught in her chest. How did it see her? She had ducked back behind the statue’s plinth before it was looking in her direction.

“Are you sure?” she heard one of the guards ask the giant.

“Positive,” it affirmed, and began walking towards her hiding spot, its footsteps drawing ever closer.

She had to make up a lie, and quick. Possibilities shot through her mind as she came up with various plots, before settling on the most obvious one.

She contorted her face into one of fear, some fake, some real, as she saw the expressionless faceplate of the creature enter her view as it leaned around the edge.

“Are you uninjured?” it asked from an uncomfortably close distance.

She could smell the death all the more intensely in this close proximity, making her next lines all the easier. “I- I heard you coming and I was scared,” she said, “I hid behind the statue because I didn’t see anywhere else to go.”

“Acceptable reasoning,” the creature said before, mercifully, backing off and nodding to seemingly itself.

It turned and walked back towards the guards, joining back up with the group, and then motioning down the hall with one of its hands, which seemed to spur the guards into action as they went on and continued the way they were originally traveling towards, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that a ‘maid’ was hiding near a perfect listening position, right near where the princesses were arguing not minutes before.

As they left, she stepped out from behind the statue, and watched them silently as they left, keeping track of the fact that the guards seemed like they were not too eager to stand too closely to the creature, as they were giving it a rather wide berth. As soon as they were out of sight, Chrysalis breathed a sigh of relief. For once, her heart had stopped, and the moment that thing, that... Deadman had left, she felt a sudden rush of life return to her; how did it see where she was?

The Queen cleared her mind as she tried to think through this logically. Whatever it was, it seemed to be at least on friendly terms with the Celestia, and that would mean that if she were to go through with her plans, she would need it to be a non-factor. There was no chance that she would attempt to do so in open combat, as she knew it was likely incredibly dangerous, especially if Luna was so worried about it.

More questions crossed her mind, the more she thought about the situation. How did it get here? What was its purpose? It was clear enough that the princesses did not have any clue, and if it did, it did not tell them. More importantly, however, what was it and how could it see her when she hid so well? She wracked her brain for anything even remotely similar, but nothing came to mind, this was something entirely unknown to her, and that was what worried her. She was old, she had seen centuries come and go, absolutely nothing like this should be able to remain hidden from the world for so long without making contact with some group or another.

But... where did it come from, then?

She would need to be subtle about this, if her plans were to succeed with such a large unknown factored in, but how would she do this? It was nearly guaranteed to be superior in skill compared to the Princess’s soldiers, and its weapons, as different as they were, would almost certainly be far more devastating against her hordes than the ponies' spears, but it was those eyes that concerned her the most. Those mechanical eyes, if it even had eyes, could see her even through a solid stone statue, nothing like that could have existed without powerful magic to support it, yet this thing bared no horn to do so.

For a brief moment, Chrysalis felt that with this creature here, her plan would be ruined; if its sight was all-seeing as it had been against her, then what was stopping it from seeing her own army advancing towards the capital? Then, a devious plan crept into her mind. She would use Luna’s rather healthy caution against Equestria, and perhaps put this Deadman in use for her own schemes.

Author's Note:

Big thanks to SilverCreep for helping me edit this chapter, and giving it some direction after I was stumbling around like an idiot in the first few hundred words.

Once again, feel free to share, favourite, upvote, and leave love/hate in the comments, as well as feedback.

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