Intrigue

by aKaPinkiePie

Prologue

In order to understand a little more of the plot listening to this song and reading the description is recommended.
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Twilight could feel a yawn creep up her throat as the clock stroke twelve thirty. She shook her head, and cleared the pieces of her mane from her sight. The lack of sleep visible in her bloodshot eyes and from the way her usually tidy mane was scattered around her head like a birds nest.

She could not go to sleep though, there was too much to do. Twilight was due to having an exam in just under a week. In other words, sleep was not high on her list of important things anymore. Neither was her social life, food nor cleaning. Thankfully she had her number one assistant there to help her on the way.

Celestia had told her the exams were going to be in magic. She’d told Twilight it was to pinpoint her improvement within the subject over the years she’d been in Ponyville. There was something else behind it though, Twilight knew so. There was always some kind of grand scheme behind everything Celestia did.

Therefore Twilight had to study more now than ever. And that meant no distractions. The emergencies could wait, Cerberus could stay on guard like he should and there was no way Discord, Chrysalis or Sombra were going to return now. No, this weekend was going to be calm and collected with no distractions whatsoever.

Or you know, someone could be knocking on the door after midnight and make said distractions. Twilight gave an annoyed groan as exactly this happened. She slowly rose to her feet preparing to give Pinkie a long ramble about why parties should not be planned in her library after midnight.

As she descended the stairs she spotted two stallions through her window. Why would anypony but Pinkie come knocking at somepony’s door at this hour? She quickly levitated a comb over and ran it through her mane so that she would at least look a little decent before greeting the mysterious strangers.

Twilight hesitated for a moment halfway to the door, who were those ponies anyways? Well, she would find out soon. With that she continued her short journey. As she finally reached the door and put on a friendly smile. She opened it with her magic and greeted the strangers.

“Hey guys, how may I help you?” Outside stood a grey unicorn with a headset and a microphone as his cutie mark. Beside him stood a white pegasus with a rather similar cutie mark. So they were musicians then.

“We are travelling musicians who would love to have somewhere to sleep tonight. Would such a fine mare as yourself be willing to offer us such?” The unicorn was the one to speak, his voice having an artistic clang to it. “Well, I guess I could move the extra mattress downstairs. You guys don’t mind sleeping on the couch and the floor?” Twilight asked with a sheepish smile.

“That sounds good to us. Thank you,” the other pony said with a deep voice. Twilight could not recognise the thick accent, but guessed it was from somewhere north in Europe. With that the ponies trotted inside.

“Sorry about the mess, I’ve been pretty busy lately. I have an exam soon and I have been so caught up in studying my assistant has been doing all the cleaning by himself. But enough about that, you guys want something to drink? Tea maybe?” Twilight asked in a more chirpy voice now. Her former sleepiness had been forgotten.

The mysterious ponies gave her a nod and another “thank you”. She trotted into the kitchen and levitated some of the equipment necessary. Usually Spike lit up the stove, but he was currently on a sleepover with the cutie mark crusaders. Luckily Twilight had been studying an ignition spell she was dying to test. It was nothing dangerous, though. It only caused a couple of sparks. Combined with the gas from the stove it would catch a small fire.

The stove was now lit and water placed in a can neatly on it. This gave Twilight some time to think. However there was not much that came to her mind. Despite the exams coming up and total strangers in her living room she felt calm. Maybe the distraction would do her some good.

She was about to head into the living room to ask the colts whether they wanted sugar in their tea or not when she heard muffled voices. She knew that listening in on her guests was not part of the magic of friendship, but she could not help herself as she inched a bit closer and concentrated on the voices.

“She seems very lovely, this one,” The unicorn stated.

“Yeah, but you know the princess’ orders,” the heavy-accented pegasus replied.

“You’re always so serious; I’m starting to believe you’re a cyborg or something. So you want the honour of taking this one out?”

In the kitchen Twilight was still processing the last thing she’d just heard. Take her out? How? Does that not usually refer to? Oh Celestia, they were gonna kill her? What did they mean by Princess’ order? Don’t panic Twilight, whatever you do don’t panic. And don’t scream. Be silent. Silent as a mouse, you can do that. Right Twilight?

~~~~~~~~~~
In a small house in another district of the small town, currently inhibited by a white unicorn DJ known as Vinyl Scratch, aka DJ Pon3, two earth ponies and a unicorn had just arrived. To the outside world they were known as Octavia, the famous cellist from Canterlot, Lyra the less than sane lyre player and BonBon, her candy-creating marefriend.

To the rebels, however, they were a completely different story. To the rebels they were known as the alpha team, third highest ranked ponies after their leader and master. They were sent when emergencies called. They were the best at what they did, and when their friend Vinyl Scratch was attacked there was no hesitation.

When they finally arrived Vinyl was lying on the floor in a mess of blood. From the looks of it she’d tried crawling to the front door before fainting from the loss of blood. She’d been in a great deal of pain, but Octavia could tell she was going to make it. Luckily it seemed these were inexperienced assassins working under the princess. Before she could relax completely, though, Octavia heard a high pitched sound.

Octavia’s ear flickered a little as she picked up the sound. “Did you guys hear the scream?”

“Yeah, I think it came from somewhere around there.” The mint green unicorn said and motioned her hoof in the general direction of the library.

“Okay. Lyra, take the white unicorn to the hospital. She should be alright. BonBon, you clean up the mess here. Leave no trace. I’ll go see what’s happening, if they’re back whoever they’ve targeted is in trouble.” With that Octavia galloped out the front door and towards the direction Lyra had motioned.

As she closed in on the area she started scanning the potential houses. Judging by the light emitting from the library Octavia changed her direction slightly. She quickly came to a halt before the door, deciding a more stealthy approach was her best chance at success. She’d learnt the hard way not to underestimate Celestia’s thugs.

Octavia pressed her hoof slowly against the wooden portal which would change her into what she called combat mode. It was a cheesy thing to call it, but it was the best way to describe it. Once she did so all emotions were locked out, no distractions were allowed into her mind and she had one goal and one goal only. Eliminate all threats in the most efficient way possible.

With eliminating threats she did not mean kill all enemy ponies in sight, rather disarm, knock out or trap them. She would never kill unless it was necessary. Octavia had yet to face such a situation and hoped she never would, but there was always a chance and she would always be prepared.

The gray earth pony silently crept into the room, hoofsteps barely audible. Not a single pony was in sight. At least that meant nopony had died in the living room. That was a good sign. There were two options, the kitchen to the right, or the stairs. Octavia figured the kitchen would be the most plausible place to find anything

As she got closer she could hear the muffled sound of crying, followed by a repeat of the words “Oh Celestia”. The solar thugs were about to strike, she had little time left. In a blur of motions Octavia galloped into the kitchen preparing to attack, but as she entered the kitchen all she could do was drop her jaw.

“T-That mare is... c-crazy! S-Somepony... save us!” the pegasus begged in between spasms on the floor. The grey unicorn just stared at the roof like there was some salvation to get from it. His pupils had shrinked into the size of two pinpricks. “I-It’s from Tartarus, I tell you!”

In the middle of it sat the lavender unicorn responsible. Face pale, hooves sweaty and eyes staring into nothingness. She was still muttering the words “Oh Celestia” to herself in a shaky voice. She finally seemed to pick up on the fact that Octavia was in the room. By the way her ears perked up and a wide smile made it to her face, it seemed Octavia’s sudden appearance had a positive effect on her.

“Octavia!” She exclaimed.

“Octavia, Octavia, Octavia. Aha! She’s the famous cellist from Canterlot, but what is she doing here? She’s a musician right, the attackers were musicians. Is she here to kill me to? Hehe, oh Twilight, if she’s here to kill you, why don’t you just kill her? Just like you did with the others,” her eyes twitched as she finished the sentence.

“I did not kill the musicians, they tried killing me! It was self-defence, please don’t send me to magic kindergarten,” She started weeping uncontrollably and gave Octavia a pleading look. Just as quickly it’d started the weeping stopped. What came next was something Octavia was not prepared for.

Twilight’s horn glowed for a short second before a beam of magic charged straight at Octavia. With the agility of a cat the grey mare dodged, the beam hitting the ground she’d just abandoned. Before she could even react a new beam charged at her. This time dodged purely from reflex. Eventually Twilight had to tire out, right?

After a long few minutes of dodging Octavia started having doubts. How did a sleep deprived unicorn keep up her attack on for so long? Being Celestia’s student probably played a factor in the case, as well as being the element of magic. It seemed Octavia would have to change her approach.

If she could just talk some sense into the unicorn without getting hit by Luna-knows-what horrifying spell. If only she could distract Twilight long enough to get to cover. Maybe then Octavia could at least try and get her to listen. There was just a matter of time before she would fall to one of the attacks.

Fortunately an opportunity revealed itself as Twilight stumbled into one of the now unconscious victims of her powerful spells. Octavia rushed out of the kitchen only to realise just how empty the main room was. The only real furniture covering the room was a stand to hold books in the corner.

With little time to think the grey earth pony went for the theory behind all librarians. They would never harm a book. She sprinted over to the shelves and searched for a book big enough to use as a shield against the same mare she walked in on with the intention of helping. She found a big brown tome with the head of an armoured pony illustrated on the front page. The elements of harmony, a reference guide was the ever so convenient title, maybe she could learn a little about Twilight in it later?

The distressed unicorn finally got out of the kitchen and into the main room. After staring at Octavia for a few seconds her face expression changed from one of concentration to one of shock. It was followed by one of pure disgust.

“You’re really using a book as a shield versus a librarian? Even Discord would never sink that low.” She finished with a flat look. Her eyes went wide. “Wait, is that The Elements of Harmony, A Reference Guide?” Octavia simply nodded. “Oh, no no no no. Give me that book right now!”

“How about we make a deal? You listen to what I have to say, and I will hand you the book. Okay?” She was getting kinda tired of this whole situation.

“I guess listening won’t hurt, but how would I know you don’t lie?” Twilight said with a little bit of suspicion on her voice.

“You probably won’t, but having read your file there should be a device downstairs that could, with some minor adjustments, tell whether I’m lying or not. First we would have to make sure the other two do not escape, though.” Octavia replied flatly.

“And how to you suggest we do that?”

“Follow me.” Octavia trotted into the kitchen. “Could you just levitate the pegasus at head height?”

Seeing no reason to object Twilight did so. Much to her shock Octavia turned around, steadied her legs and gave a strong buck straight to his head. The surprise caused Twilight to lose her magic grip and the white pegasus flew into the wall with a loud thud. Twilight stared.

“ D-Did y-you just k-kill him?” She asked in disbelief.

“No, I simply knocked him out. I’m guessing he will wake up within the next two hours. Now could you help me with the unicorn?” Octavia asked, a little disappointed Twilight would think she was a murderer.

“Oh, no. I’m not helping you with whatever vendetta you’re on anymore,” Twilight stated matter of factly. Octavia was starting to get sick of this whole situation. Maybe she should just knock Twilight out, drag her down to base and tell them it was an accident? It would certainly be easier than to deal with her struggling.

Deciding it was better to just settle with a sigh and get it over with Octavia pressed her hoof against the unicorn’s neck. She counted the seconds necessary to make him faint from the lack of air. It was not the safest or most delicate way to knock someone out, but she would just have to settle with it for now.

“Before you start, no I did not kill this one either. He should be waking up within two hours so let’s get this done with so I can take you to the boss for training.” Octavia would need to have word with him later, she was done recruiting. Lyra was better with ponies anyways. Octavia had always been a little reserved, and an upcoming war between the day and night was not going to change that.

As the two ponies ascended the stairs Octavia started feeling a little uneasy. Her training did not specifically tell her not to follow a pony, who could possibly take her down within half a second into their dark basement laboratory thing. Not to mention she had no idea what was in there, except for the giant machine she’d read about in her file. It could be all kinds of unknown traps.

This was just some of the minor things that put her at unease, she also had a, ironically enough, fear of smaller dark places, the underground and the lack of escape routes. Despite her fears she kept moving in what little light the unicorns horn created, praying silently to Luna nothing would happen in this seemingly forsaken place.

With little sight of the surroundings Octavia could only guess what it looked like down there. It did not exactly help her case a lot, but at least she would not see all the horrifying things the librarian would hide here, right? Right. The thought process failed to calm the earth pony.

“Okay, if you would put your hooves into the holders there this should be over within the minute.” Twilight’s suddenly cheery voice only unsettled the cellist even further. What was wrong with that unicorn? She did however as told and put her hooves into what looked like hoofcuffs. Twilight then levitated a huge helmet with blinking lights onto her head.

Even though Octavia had read about this machine, it scared her beyond any assassin, manticore or even dragon. It could probably electrocute her if it was commanded to do so. Octavia distinctly remembered hearing something about these machines reacting to her heartbeat, so that when you lied your heartbeat would quicken and it would go off. She needed to relax for her own sake.

Music, that was what she needed. Or simply the memory of music. The memory of playing on a scene with her ensemble, even the highest class of the Canterlot elite would simply sit down and enjoy the notes played by her friends and herself. One of her favourite moments was when she saw Celestia simply standing there watching her play for a good minute at the gala, before the pink pony went crazy and ruined her performance.

“Okay, so it works like this. You tell me everything, slowly, and the machine will tell me whether you’re lying or not.” Her thought process was disturbed by Twilights voice, but she felt calm and ready now.

“Let’s begin then. I work under the pony called Neon Lights, a unicorn who owns most the clubs in Canterlot. He’s our current leader, as we still await Luna’s return.”

“Wait, what was that? Luna is in Canterlot helping Celestia ruling.”

“Twilight Sparkle, have you seen Luna since nightmare night two months ago?”

This took Twilight off guard. She simply stared at nothingness for a second before replying. “I can’t say I have.”

“Exactly, now let me finish. Our suspicion is that Celestia has imprisoned her somewhere nopony would find her.” It looked like Twilight was about to protest, but after seeing Octavia’s stern gaze she decided to keep her mouth shut. “I know this might sound crazy, and I thought so as well. But we have to face it, Celestia has gone mad.

“See those thugs trying to kill you earlier? They work under her. Their job is to exterminate everyone who is awake during the night for reasons unknown. We do believe Celestia is for some reason trying to fight the night itself. We are the rebellion, however. We make sure this information does not leak, while fighting off her thugs.”

“We’ve got several headquarters spread around Equestria, all under command of Neon Lights. We have a total of seven units stationed in Ponyville. Now we need you to help us fighting Celestia and her army of daywalkers, yes I do realise how cheesy that sounds, so that we can bring peace to Equestria once more.” Octavia finished with a sigh, she hated giving this speech. It was just way to cheesy for her likings, how they’d managed to recruit so many with it she had no idea.

Twilight simply stared at her for a second before bursting out in laughter. She then proceeded to start walking in circles around Octavia. It seemed she’d not been able to process the amount of craziness in one night. It was understandable. Octavia could not claim she’d been very composed when she’d found out at first either.

“Why is everybody always so crazy? It’s like I’m the only sane pony left in this town!” Twilight suddenly exclaimed. Getting fairly sick of the whole situation she’d gotten herself wrapped into Octavia just patiently waited. She was now standing behind Octavia.

The cellist could not take it anymore. She gave a strong buck straight into Twilights jaw, sending the mad pony across the room. She heard a satisfying thud as the unicorn hit wall with a loud thud. Now to the more important matters, how to get out of hoofcuffs. It was going to hurt, but right now nothing but finishing this assignment mattered.

Comments

[EchoWolf31]

If this is just another Celestia is evil and Twilight has to beat her kind of thing, I'm going to be very disappointed. However, it's written very well, good grammar, and no spelling mistakes that I saw. And let me just say, you couldn't have picked a better cover art, it's just beautiful.

[aKaPinkiePie]

1910966 You'll just have to see :) Also I had the cover art made for me by my good friend Scoots :)

[EchoWolf31]

1910972 Well, I hope you thanked her, because it's one of the best pieces FIM art I have ever seen.

[aKaPinkiePie]

1911017 She's happy to hear you think so :)

[DeadShot262]

I love this story very well done you made me worry a little with Vinyl but other then that i hope to see more good Chapters

[Librarian]

Twilight not having any doubts at all letting total strangers in her home during the night? Were their names Gary and Mary? Using book as a shield? And it worked? Celestia is presumably trying to kill her own student? Octy hitting Twi in the end?

This needs "random" tag, because so far the story makes so little sense

[aKaPinkiePie]

1912293 Thanks :)

1913185 Answers will come later :)