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Prologue1,692 words
Chapter 1: Arrival at the Hive1,248 words
Chapter 2: A Lovely Discussion2,341 words
Chapter 3: A Trot through Canterlot1,563 words
Chapter 4: Just your Average Teenage Outlaws2,245 words
Interlude: Immortals897 words
Chapter 5: A Pleasant City (E)scape2,672 words
Chapter 6: Run Wild. Run (Ever)Free.3,324 words
Chapter 7: Castle Crashers2,096 words
Chapter 8: Welcome to the Show1,589 words
Interlude: How to Care for Your Candleberry Canine1,404 words

Chapter 3: A Trot through Canterlot

Author's Note:

Two chapters on the same day baby! I actually finished this one before chapter 2, so tell me if there are any continuity errors i didn't catch. Sorry for the wait and enjoy!

Next time: Chapter 4: Just your Average Teenage Outlaws

Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, home of Princess Celestia and most of the kingdom's nobility and governmental facilities. The streets were clean, the roads were smooth, green cobble and ponies went about their day, blissfully unaware of the shenaniganry that was about to start.

All in all, it was the perfect place to cause trouble.

The trio plus Silica rolled up to the front gate of the city in their Timberwolf drawn wagon, tired and hungry from the trip. Passing ponies gave them a wide berth at the sight of Birch.

"Well, it's been fun, but this is where I get off." Silica, disguised as a beige pegasus mare with a brown mane and eyes and a glass heart for a cutie mark stepped out of the wagon. "The hubby's waiting and I'm starving, see ya round."

Before they could say their own good-byes, she'd already vanished into the busy city crowd.

After taking some time to find a parking spot for their wagon and even more time to find a pet sitter for Birch, the odd group found themselves sitting on a park bench, watching foals run about on the playground.

"So." Kindle started. "What are you guys gonna do? Cuz I'm gonna get some lunch, maybe set up a rigged ring toss."

Dartz (in his pony form, black coated unicorn with a red mane and eyes with a cutie mark of three flying darts) pulled out the beetle pendant that Chrysalis had given him. "Well, I gotta give this to Shining, so I have a break-in planned. How 'bout you Archer?"

"I hear that they do castle tours, so I'll just use that to see if I can get into the archives, find anything on the Crystal Empire. And aren't ring tosses rigged by default?"

Kindle simply "mhm'd '', mostly focused on watching a colt under the slide shovel hoof-fuls of sand into his mouth.

"Think we'll see jolly ol' Sunny D?"

Archer raised an eyebrow towards the disguised changeling. "Doubt it. She wouldn't have enough free time during the day, so she'd likely be restricted to moving between her throne room and her office, which are both on the castle's top floor."

Kindle pulled out the schematics that Silica had given them. "According to this, the archives are on the west side of the third floor, and the captain's office is on the north section of the ground floor."

Dartz smirked. "Makes things simpler for me. Good luck with your snoopin' my dude." With that he was off.

Archer took the schematics and spread his wings for take off. "Have fun, Kindle. And pleeeeeease, don't get into more trouble than you have to, we're already risking a lot."

The dragoness shrugged. "What happens happens."

After a sigh the griffin flew off after Dartz.

"Welp." Kindle clapped her claws together. "Let's find a jewelry store."

She promptly stood up and marched off in a random direction.

-Twenty Minutes Later-

Sure Fire let out a loud yawn and adjusted his armor. It was a slow day, but in his line of work, a slow day is a good day. But that didn't mean it wasn't boring.

"Mew!"

The guard quickly turned around, scanning the hallway to find…nothing?

"Mew."

Looking down at his hooves, he saw a kitten. Black fur, red eyes and a baby blue collar with a golden name tag that read "Bingo".

"Hey there little guy." Sure Fire began scratching Bingo's ears, earning him a purr of approval. "How'd you get in here?"

"Mew."

Sure Fire took hold of the name tag and flipped it.

"Ok "If lost, please return to Shining Armor." Didn't know cap was a cat pony. You follow 'im here little guy?"

"Mew."

"Alright. Let's get you back over to the captain." He used his mouth to pick the feline up by the scruff of his neck and place him on his back.

Unbeknownst to Sure Fire, Bingo wore an impish grin on his face.

-Meanwhile-

The bell on the door jingled as Kindle walked out of the jewelry store, holding a small bag of gems. The dragoness lazily chewed a mouthful of the shiny minerals as she walked through the streets of the city.

Turning the corner, she suddenly collided with a walking stack of about twenty books which tumbled to the ground with a 'thud' and an 'oof'.

Kindle quickly offered a claw to the fallen pack mule. "Gee, sorry kid. Didn't see ya there."

A smaller, purple, scaly claw grabbed on to her own, the owner of which was an awestruck "baby" dragon.

"Uh, uh. No problem! The name's Spike!"

Kindle already knew that, but grinned nonetheless, turning the grip Spike had on her claw into a handshake. "Cool name. Mine's Kindle."

"Cool. Mine's Spike."

"Hehehe! You already said that!"

Spike blushed and cast his gaze towards the ground "Oh."

The dragoness reached down and picked up one of the fallen books. "Need any help with these?"

"Oh! Sure! Thanks!"

The duo soon trudged along the streets, Spike carrying nine books while Kindle carried eleven.

"So what's with all the books? A kid your age seems like he'd be more interested in comic books than the third volume of "The Advanced Mechanics of Teleportation Matrices"."

She knew perfectly well "what was with all the books", but some small talk wouldn't hurt would it?

"Mhm. They're not for me. They're for Twilight. I'm her Number One Assistant!"

"Sounds busy."

The little dragon nodded. "Tell me about it. Not all bad though. I get all the gems I could ever eat. Besides, she studies so hard that she'd forget to eat or even sleep if I weren't around."

"So, you take care of eachother?"

Spike blinked. "Huh. Never thought about it that way. But I've been meaning to ask, what's it like? In the Dragon Lands I mean. With… all the other dragons. We don't get, well, any dragons around here, so you're the first one I've ever even met."

Kindle cringed. "Sorry kid. I couldn't tell you what that's like. I was raised by griffins. You're the second dragon I've ever met."

Poor little guy looked like a kicked puppy. "Oh." But then he perked up. "Who was the first?"

A smile formed on Kindle's face. "Oh that's a story. Magma, lemme tell ya! He was big! An absolute unit! Had kids, but they'd already moved out. Great sense of humor too. What'd the baby volcano spirit say to his dad? "I lava you!" Hah!"

"Heh! It's not that funny!" Regardless of the bad joke, Spike was grinning.

-Meanwhile-

It was large, a dimly lit room with walls of gray brick, filing cabinets lined wall to wall with the occasional display of silver guard armor in between. It was a room of complete, uniform monotony, broken only by the voice of its single occupant.

"No. Nope. Useless. Huh. Didn't know that counted as tax fraud."

Archer rummaged through the numerous filing cabinets of the royal archives. With no training in bureaucratic bullcrap, he couldn't make heads or tails of the organization system and was forced to search the documents one by one.

"There's gotta be something dammit!" He slammed the cabinet shut and opened another.

"Let's see if there's any luck here."

Opening the next cabinet yielded the same result.

"Faaaaaaack!" To emphasize his frustration, he punched the brick wall beside him. Unlike most bricks, one in particular was pushed deeper into the wall with a 'click', causing the brick beside it to jut out.

"Secret entrance. Classic." The feathered felon pushed against the protruding piece of masonry, only for it not to budge.

"Goddamnitt. What else am I missing?" The very irritated griffin scanned the room with his gaze, finding another brick on the exact opposite side of the room, sticking out of the wall.

"Takes two huh? You really don't want the wrong people to see this, do ya Sunny D?"

Archer took a helmet from one of the armor displays and tossed it into the air to test its weight, before nodding in satisfaction and lobbing the steel armament. Hard! He quickly shoved the brick with all his might while the helmet impacted the second brick at full force, pushing both back into place with a 'click', the sound of metal clanging on concrete echoed throughout the room.

That sound was soon replaced by that of stone scraping against stone, as the wall opened up like a slide door.

Inside this newly revealed room was a large number of shelves, stacked with scrolls and books from top to bottom. Archer entered the room and started taking scrolls from the shelves and skimming through them.

He soon pulled an old but well preserved piece of parchment from one of the higher shelves, it seemed to be "A trade agreement? With the Crystal Empire! Signed by… Luna Von Haos Platinum. Does that mean Celestia's full name is "Celestia Von Haos Platinum"? Whatever, this is great."

The griffin leafed through the files, finding peace treaties, meetings, laws and various other documents in relation to the Crystal Empire, including "A map! Perfect!"

Carefully folding the map, he stowed it and some miscellaneous files under his hat.

"Let's get outta here"

That was when the 'clip clop' of hooves began to echo throughout the archive. Only one word entered Archer's mind: "shit".

To be continued ------->

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