A Bhaalspawn in Equestria

by Thadius0

Chapter 19 - Bring the threads together...

So yeah, Canterlot. The one place I'd been avoiding for ages. If I was going to pull this off, I would need to prepare at least a few weeks in advance. Fortunately, we still had funds to fall back on, so we had options.

The plan quickly evolved after I mentioned it to my recruits...and three regular members. Rover and Spot had succeeded in a modified version of training, whereas Fido was still a wee bit too beefy to be considered a proper thief. Maybe a warrior? We'd have to hit an armory up while at the castle...

But I digress.

Plans were mentioned, drawn up, contingencies planned for, entire scenarios drawn out of the blue and cast aside. Our 'perfectly legitimate secondhand goods' shopfront was overtaken with a plethora of papers before we finally settled on a course of action.

Gilda would go in first, rent a room, inform the staff that her thestral friend would be arriving that night. Whispered would be guided in by Gilda, and he'd then come back, find me, and show me the way to said room. Then he'd go and find the Dogs and get them to the room.

Over the next few days, we'd carefully and discreetly have the dogs dig towards the dungeons of Canterlot Castle from...somewhere else in the city, close enough to the room that it wouldn't be more than a five minute walk. Gilda would mingle in the town during the day, observing the patrol routes of the guards, while Whispered would take over at night.

It was, all in all, a wonderful plan for stealing the spotlight of Cadence's wedding. A beautiful, solid, yet simple plan, that could be modified as needed should any situation come up.

And that was when Murphy butted in with his damn law. No plan survives contact with the enemy.

-----

We'd only been there three days before the damn shield went up around the city. Discreetly sending the others to check revealed it to be porous and permeable, though they did report back to me that they'd encountered slight...resistance. And when I went under cover of night to check if I could get through, the answer was a firm 'no'. My attempts left the shield ringing, and that was when I decided to take cover. Ten bits said that whoever cast the shield would have a squad of guards on the way to check on disturbances.

I would have won ten bits had anyone been there to take the bet. Not fifteen seconds had passed before two thestrals showed up and looked around. More than once they glared a little too hard at the tree I'd taken refuge in, but ultimately they moved on. I slowly lowered myself from the tree and made my way back to the hotel we'd taken refuge in.

I managed to get some practice in with my Hide In Shadows skill again, thankfully. It'd been a while since I could even think to 'turn it on,' so to speak. What should have been the indispensable thievery skill had been...altered. Probably on my entry to Equestria. It wasn't a skill that made me unnoticed by acting like part of the crowd. I'd had one unicorn look at it about...eight hundred years ago? Sounds right. He found it was a form of natural magic my body emanated when I told it to, and it combined several smaller effects into a wonderful illusion of light and shadow.

A subtle Notice Me Not effect, to ensure that none looked too hard at me. A tiny Suggestion spell, to make them think that I was just an ordinary biped. A reflexive bit of Mind-Reading, to determine what an ordinary biped looked like, which also altered my behavior and the way it came across in miniscule ways, so as to make it easier for the illusion to hold together. And finally, a portion of shadow and light manipulation, to hide my very presence from sight, given the right circumstances.

All this boiled down to two very simple things. Were I attempting to Hide In Shadows, and the ponies I was attempting to hide from used to bipedal visitors, I would be able to walk down the street in broad daylight, and none of them would figure it out.

...However, places like Ponyville, where the town was composed of quadrupeds, they'd notice right off the bat.

This led to a very...awkward conversation between myself and Whispered Secret atop the hotel.

"Almost didn't realize it was you, sir. What is that, by the way?"

I slowly eased my swords back into their sheathes, only now realizing that I'd reflexively drawn them when Whispered had seen through my skill. Calming myself by taking deep breaths, I turned my head slightly so he'd hear my response all the clearer. "A skill thieves like me learn. It is meant to hide ones self in the shadows, or the particularly talented can use it as a cloak to go unseen even in broad daylight. It was...changed, slightly, upon my entry to Equestria. It gained far more magical components to it, but the cost is simple enough to spot. I can only use it in a town with bipeds or bipedal visitors. Otherwise, ponies see through it with ease."

"I...noticed that, sir. You looked vaguely like a diamond dog. But then I picked out a few discrepancies, and it faded, to show me you."

I nodded. "Yes, that happens sometimes. Those that are of strong mind and will tend to pick apart my illusion easily. Though there was that one ti-"

And then my voice cut out as I felt something. Something stirring.

The Slayer was stirring, talking again. Cadence's bonds had faltered, flickered...failed.

This meant one of two things. Either the Slayer was stronger than previously thought...

...Or something had happened to Cadence, so that she couldn't even keep up a trickle of power to subdue the beast within me.

"Sir? Are you all right?"

I replied absently as I looked up to the castle.

"No. No I'm not. And that scares me."

I whipped around to look at Whispered, even as my mind whirled.

"Get to the dogs, tell them to double-time that tunnel. Stealth is no longer as much of a priority as getting in that castle."

Whispered balked for a moment before nodding twice and flying off into the night.

Cadence...

-----

The next day was when we got a bit of surprise information, in the sense of Gilda catching sight of a certain rainbow-mane while she was doing her rounds on the town. Rainbow Dash and her friends had apparently shown up. Why, I didn't know. Probably had something to do with the upcoming wedding, but I was uncertain as to what use those six would be.

That night brought welcome news, thankfully. The dogs had completed the tunnel to the dungeons of Canterlot. Fortunately, their tunnel was near a set of stairs, and Spot had already told me the lock was so easy to pick, Fido could have done it.

The day after that was the day of the wedding, and just as I was preparing to start up our sneaky plan for me to get in the castle, everything went to hell.

A swarm of black locusts in vaguely pony form appeared on the edge of the shield and started battering away at it. The cracks weren't encouraging in the least. I stared at it and began to issues orders. Not suggestions, orders.

"Gilda, guys, I want you all to start looking around at the citizenry here. Take a good look at where they are, in relation to where our tunnel is."

"Why?"

I pointed to the sky as an answer. "The guys know why I'm familiar with situations like this. Boys, I want you to take care of the ground, Gilda can handle the air. Get everyone into the dungeons of Canterlot as fast as you can to minimize casualties. If one of them attacks you, feel free to harm it back. I get the feeling they're not here to wish the happy couple a good honeymoon."

The group around me nodded before Gilda spoke up. "And what about Whispered?"

I replied in a deadpan voice. "Did you get his shades today?"

She blinked a few times before smiling and pulling out a special pair of sunglasses that had been made for thestrals. Even that normally wasn't enough, so Gilda had to take them to an optometrist and get them enchanted further. Hopefully, these would work.

I nodded and continued my thought from earlier. "Give them to him and whether they work or not, he has to go find Luna and tell her we're under attack. I'd like to have the help of at least one of the alicorns today."

They all tilted their heads at that. "Huh?"

I began ticking off the reasons on my fingers. "Whoever is attacking Canterlot would plan for Celestia. Cadence had a spell on me to restrict a bit of my more violent nature at the cost of a trickle of power from her, which has failed. That's two of three that we can count out. Luna's return is still a fairly recent thing, at least by my standards, so either whoever's doing this didn't plan for her, or didn't think she'd be a threat."

They slowly nodded as the words I said sunk in, and then I let out a vicious grin. "Besides which, even if they did, there's one thing they didn't plan for, besides Luna."

Gilda asked the question. "What else didn't they plan for?"

I drew my short blades as I watched the shield crack. "Me."

At this, the dogs and griffon were off to their tasks, leaving me alone on the roof of the hotel as the shield began to shudder, groan, creak. And then, with an explosion of magic, it failed.

And instantly, it rained green comets into Canterlot. One landed right before me, and I saw it was an insectoid pony. It chittered a bit and looked up at me, its horn lighting up as its wings fluttered.

I didn't give it a chance and threw a knife at the base of its horn, causing the magic to backlash onto it. As it clutched its head in pain, I darted forward and smacked the back of its head with the pommel of one of my swords. It let out a squeal as it slumped forward, and I caught it before it hit the ground.

I felt the Slayer react, then, and it chilled me. If...if this one was related to me, then...

My eyes swept the battlefield that Canterlot had become, noticing the absurd amount of creatures in the streets.

...were they ALL related to me?!

...I cracked open the chitin of the creature before me, causing it to bleed, before doing the same to myself and forming a Blood Bridge between us.

That was probably the biggest mistake I've ever made, hands down.

-----

Meanwhile, a gloating queen suddenly felt something tear into her Hive Mind...

Comments

[DeltaOsprey]

This is going to be awesome.

[Borderline Valley]

4707319 So very, very awesome.

[The Serpent Mage]

Oh shit, it's going down.

[-------]

'Dis gun be gud. Real gud. Thanks for writing!

[SeventhBrony]

4707319 SO very awesome!

MOAR MOAR, WE NEED MOAR!

[HoneyBadgerr]

That was probably the biggest mistake I've ever made, hands down.

-----

Meanwhile, a gloating queen suddenly felt something tear into her Hive Mind...

oh, sheeit.