The Masquerade

by Uncle Knot

Chapter 5, letter 1,203

To my grand and glorious Princess Celestia, in the 99th YR, my 1,203rd letter

Hooray, victory is close. Sgt Snow Stone and the royal guards have found our missing ponies in the crystal mines beneath Canterlot. Do not release this news to the public until latter. I need this confidence to catch the villains. In total five ponies have been found, worse for wear and neglect, but recovering and eager to participate in my little surprise at the upcoming Gala. Captain Sharp Spear is fervent to resume his duties, but is understanding and in agreement with my plan to catch the scoundrels.

Holly the magnificent has explained the process the rogues used to spirit our ponies away. Before Am Dodger had arrived, they would sneak into the smithy and construct latent mines or traps with obvious magical abilities to teleport. Now that the iron works are reinforced with a special guard, access has been denied them. Now recovered, Holly is using her magic to prevent any more teleportations, but cannot do this indefinitely. It is good that the Gala is tonight. I need yea to make a special announcement.

The evening progressed wonderfully, ponies arrived in their finest regalia and even I put on a green bow tie. The arrangements I had earlier made with the hat makers were less than adequate. There was only so much they could do in the time they had. It was necessary to cordon off segments of the joyous crowd. I gambled that ‘guests’ we had arranged for would be in the palace courtyard or the throne room. Since I needed your cooperation, I decided to start with the throne room.

Lord & Lady Jasper were the first to greet me. Such a charming couple, I was at a loss with myself for failing to interview them earlier. Sophia Onyx came to my rescue and recounted the pleasant day she had spent with them. Thy entrance into the throne room brought a gasp of delight, even from me. The crimson robe flowing over thy scarlet dress silenced the room. Those ruby red shoes tapped gently upon the court floor. On cue, thy proclamation, that this was a special event requiring special action, and the wearing of masks for this masquerade brought cheers from most. And panic from our doppelgangers, but the doors were already shut. I suspected correctly from Dodger’s lore, that these imposters could not maintain their mass illusions if we were all wearing masks. The main entrance opened and the dark creatures rushed the door. Captain Sharp Spear and the guards (all in masks) were arranged and netted them up before they could escape.
Captain Spear, Sgt Snow and I repeated the masquerade throughout the palace, and into the courtyard and then into the streets. No other doppelgangers were captured and I believe we apprehended them all in our first netting. I am confident that my recent expensive purchases from the hat makers will be approved, with thy persuasion, by Lord Dash Diamond and Viscount Apricot Emerald. All in all, with the exception of the incident in the throne room, this Gala has been the least disastrous of all the ones I have attended.

The interment of our prisoners is a difficult thing. Several times they have sought to fool the guards by pretending to be other ponies. This fails for two reasons, we as guards are wearing masks and secondly they have an aversion to my loveless self. I will explain more in my next letter with notes from my interrogation; Sum-po-neigh Knot Yew.