The Day of Discord

by GJT_Productions

Bats No Good!

"So we need to make sure all this stuff gets to the Captain in the medical ward, so that he can finish the day's paperwork. Make sure to bring a bottle of ink and several quill pens as..."

"INCOMPETENT FOAL, GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

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The roar of Princess Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice booming through the castle startled Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas enough to temporarily stop his explanation of what he wanted done to the pair of Upper Class Guards. Left in temporary authority by Acting Captain Shining Armor's attempt to penetrate Discord's maze, Fidelitas made it a priority to attempt to get the paperwork to Captain Gibraltar in medical so that he could finish it. Interruptions to this effort were frequent, mostly by subordinates reporting something going on in the city as an aftereffect of Discord's "rampage" through it, but hearing the voice of Princess Luna herself reverberating through the hallways stop the effort cold.

"Continue your organization effort, I have to check out what exactly is going on with Princess Luna." Fidelitas orders the two Guards, taking off without any additional delay or dialogue.

Fidelitas sprints at full gallop out the door and twists and turns through several hallways, narrowly missing some ponies trying to conduct business as much as they could on such a bizarre day as had already transpired. A million thoughts raced through the Lieutenant Captain's head about what the booming words might've been, and he was so distracted he nearly tripped over an Upper Class pegasus guard!

This guard was sitting near the entrance to the royal suite where the alicorn sisters were currently located, nursing a bump to his head, although in reality his pride had been hurt more than any actual physical injury he suffered. Beside him was a rolled-up parchment scroll, also ejected in anger by the night princess.

"Guard, what are you doing sitting here?! Report!" Fidelitas snaps out upon finally seeing the guard and stopping near the suite entrance.

"Sorry sir, the bump knocked me dizzy for a few minutes, I couldn't stand up straight. You know Princess Luna does not know her own strength sometimes, even without the voice..." the guard sheepishly tries to answer.

"Princess Luna tossed you out of the royal chamber?! Why?" a now-suspicious Fidelitas asks the subordinate guard.

"I was trying to give her this." the guard answers, fumbling with hooves to try to pick up the scroll beside him. "Lieutenant Vesper of the batponies told me to go back to Her Highness and rewrite whatever orders were supposedly on here, but Her Highness said she never wrote such orders and that I was trying to trick her!"

"Let me see that scroll..." Fidelitas asks, pulling it up with grey-colored unicorn magic. While levitating it in the air, Fidelitas unrolls it, trying to study the scribbles on the parchment.

"Odd... maybe its written backwards, or upside-down..." Fidelitas then comments after a few seconds of fruitless study, manipulating the unrolled scroll several different ways.

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Finally, after a minute of careful study, Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas lets the scroll roll back up, a thoroughly-puzzled look on his face. He couldn't deny the official seal of the princess of the night affixed to the document in the lower-right corner, but as far as he could tell the ink on the page was scribbles - nothing that resembled text appeared to be written on the parchment.

"Guard, I don't know what's going on here, but both the Princess and I have higher priorities than this right now." Fidelitas finally speaks, continuing to look at the guard warily. "Since Princess Luna clearly doesn't want to be bothered dealing with this, I want you to go back to the batpony caves and have them resuming following their previous orders, irrespective of whatever this text was supposed to convey."

"But sir, the original orders were for them to assist searching the city for 'Discord'. We know where he is now, so going back to the original orders will do no good!" the guard objects.

"How do you know what those original orders were?" Fidelitas asks again, his suspicion increasing as he does so.

"Guard Upper Class Arcturus told me, sir." the guard answers, hoping that would allay the suspicion.

Fidelitas is lost in thought for a minute, before finally deciding to stuff the scroll he was still levitating into a saddlebag and giving a new set of instructions: "I still want you to go back to the batpony caves, Guard, but tell them to stand down until nightfall unless another set of orders reach them. If this is not to Princess Luna's liking, I will deal with it myself. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then go. And make it doubletime - we've already wasted enough effort on this back-and-forth."

"Right away, sir!" the guard answers, quickly turning around and starting a doubletime canter down the castle hallways.

Fidelitas, meanwhile, decides to go back to his previous task - the distractions of the day would ensure the scroll, and its deceptive intentions, would be forgotten about until it was too late to do anything about it. Meanwhile, the guard, a disguised Changeling drone, now had free reign to keep spreading confusion among the batponies - confusion that would eventually lead to resentment and fertile ground for further deceptions to be performed.

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SOMETIME LATER...

"Halt, feathered one!" the batpony guard in the sentry box exclaims as a pegasus guard appears to descend into the cave opening.

The pegasus lands, then crosses his hooves over his chest while on his haunches. The batpony guard does the same - a sign that both of them were Changeling drones in disguise. The infiltration was now complete, with two members of the Royal Guard "replaced".

"You have returned with new orders for Lieutenant Vesper?" the batpony asks, presumably to throw off the suspicion of anyone that might be observing the scene.

"That is correct." the disguised pegasus dutifully answers.

"Very well, you may proceed." the batpony guard comments, and the pegasus wastes no time disappearing into the caves. The plan was working to perfection, for the benefit of Queen Chrysalis and the Changeling kingdom...