On the outskirts of Equestria in a small town that was known by the name Hoof’s Rock, there sat a prison protected by members of the royal guard. Hoof’s Rock was small in size, but an ideal location for keeping prisoners due to its convenient location on a plateau and the heat making it somewhere that saps ponies of energy; perfect for would-be escape artists.

Placing a prison so far out in such a small town though proved difficult as there were few that could serve as guards, so the orders from Canterlot were to send royal guards out that way as sort of contracted help. The situation worked out well for both sides, Hoof’s Rock didn’t need to worry about the prison being protected by inadequate guards, and Canterlot got to send newer guards out to a low-risk job that would provide excellent experience and training for when they received promotions. Arrangements like this were the cornerstone of how Celestia was known as an economic ruler who could stretch budgets far and wide without the need to tax the citizens more, all while maintaining the standards she had set forth.

The prison at Hoof’s Rock was known as Dusty Gate by the people, though its proper name was “Correctional Facility #8”, but such a name didn’t roll off the tongue so well. It had earned its name from the never-ending dust storms that often left the bars looking worn and dusty.

The fortification was key to a great prison, and Dusty Gate was no exception, as two young guards looked up to the towers that looked down at the facility, all stationed with many powerful unicorns ready to act in the event that anyone dared tried to climb the walls, from the inside or the outside.

The first guard yawned as he approached the front gate, showing his badge to the guard pony who gave a salute. “Morning, Private Sword Swipe!”

The guard looked over at the pony with Sword Swipe and grinned at the other young stallion at his side. “I see you’ve had quite the night, Private Steel Clash…”

“Don’t remind me…” Steel rolled his eyes as he gripped his head.

“A youngin’ like you clearly lacks the experience necessary to handle that much liquor. Take my advice, try and go a little softer next time… At least until you’re older kid…” The guard winked as the two stallions walked by and entered the facility, ready to begin their shift.

Once they were out of earshot of the front guard, Steel opened his mouth to complain, something he did often. “That old bastard is such a pain… Thinks he’s so smart just because he’s been around the block…”

Sword rolled his eyes as he prepared himself mentally for another day of listening to his partner bitch and complain about how the generation before them all look down on the younger generation and how one day he’ll be in charge and things would be different. “To be fair… You did kind of overdo it…”

“Hey! You’re supposed to be on my side! Besides, you saw that bartender… She was all over me! I had to keep going, I wanted to impress her!” Steel defended as he pointed an accusing hoof.

Sword grew a smirk as he replied. “Yeah, but you ended up not impressing her at all… Instead, all you accomplished was vomiting on the poor girl and making her call you a big disgusting drunk.”

“Don’t remind me… I haven’t had any tail in months…” Steel frowned as the two entered the main building.

Sword shot his friend a sympathetic look as he offered what he believed to be level-headed advice. “Have you possibly considered not trying to show off for a change? Seems like most of the mares you flex your wings for and then brag about being a royal guard to are usually repulsed by you within a few minutes… The longest I’ve seen it take was like… eight minutes…”

Steel grunted and ran a hoof through his short white mane as he shook his head. “And what about you, Mr. Lady Killer? I don’t see you with a marefriend right now either!”

Sword merely shrugged. “No, but I can at least say I’ve had sex within the last two weeks… Something that you can’t say…”

“So what’s your secret then?” His partner asked with a raised brow.

“There isn’t one… I just act like myself…” Sword replied with yet another shrug.

Grumbling, Steel looked forward and checked the message board posted in the employee break room that the two had traveled to. It was a common stop when they began their shift, as they both enjoyed grabbing a cup of coffee before beginning their rounds.

“Let’s see what’s the latest for today…” Steel said as his eyes were caught by a specific memo, “Check it out.” Steel pointed.

Sword’s eyes gravitated to the same memo.

As many of you know, Princess Twilight Sparkle’s leave of absence from royal duties is continuing. There is still no estimate on how long she will be off duty, but for the time being, her duties shall be handled by her star student and royal advisor, the honorable Starlight Glimmer. All guards are to treat her as they would the Princess herself.

She will be making rounds across the prison systems of Equestria over the next month, doing the routine inspections. Ordinarily, this is a job handled by Luna, but by order of the royal family, this job shall now be conducted by Starlight Glimmer; again, she is to be treated as if the princess herself were carrying out this job.

Officer promotions have been put on hold until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and ask for your understanding at this time.

Thank you,

Captain of the Royal Guard,

Prince Shining Armor

Steel blew a raspberry after he finished reading. “Man, this is horse manure… How much longer is Twilight Sparkle going to shirk on her duties? Wish I could be a princess, must be easy letting everyone else do all the work...”

“I heard she was studying magic or something… At the Royal Training Ground…” Sword stated as the two wandered over to the pot of coffee that had been calling their name.

“What the hell for? The Princess is already a fantastic mage… Feels redundant to have her go off to some secret training area…” Steel rolled his eyes as he reached for the pot and began to pour himself a cup of hot liquid, only throwing in a cube or two of sugar.

Sword followed suit and poured himself a steaming cup of coffee, internally thanking the guards before them that had brewed a fresh pot. Unlike his colleague, however, he added a generous amount of creamer, to the point where half of the coffee was just creamer.

“I have no idea how you can drink that… It’s not even coffee anymore!” Steel shuddered as he watched his partner and friend prepare the cup of sacrilege.

“There’s no wrong way to make coffee…” Sword rolled his eyes as he levitated the cup with magic in front of himself and took a sip. Steel only waved a wing at him.

“Except that way… Seriously, I can’t believe your teeth don’t just rot out from how much of that shit you put in there! That stuff is overly sweet!” Steel exclaimed.

Taking a seat to enjoy their coffee, Sword changed the subject. “Say… Ever wonder why the Royal Training Ground is such a closely guarded secret? Or why it requires top secret clearance just to know where it is?”

Steel shrugged as he sipped. “Not really… Probably just has tons of texts on advanced magic techniques that if they fell into the wrong hooves would cause all kinds of hell… It’s probably better that it’s a secret so the guard doesn’t have to clean up more magical messes than we already do.”

Sword looked down at the nearly white liquid in his cup that only had a hint of brown. “I guess I just worry that something bad is going to happen… I mean it’s not like Princess Twilight to just… Disappear for so long… This has been going on for weeks now…”

“What’re you saying? You think she’s dead or something and they are trying to cover it up?” Steel chuckled at the absurd proposal.

“Well that’s one possibility, I guess…” Sword looked up and squinted in thought. He hadn’t thought about that specific scenario, but it could have happened, and it would explain the Princess’ extended absence.

Steel waved a wing dismissively at his friend. “That’s conspiracy level shit. That’s like that one play… That kind of shit would never happen in real life, it’d be too impossible to keep it all a secret; you know that.”

“I guess you’re right…” Sword agreed with a nod. After further thought, he realized that it did sound ridiculous, though he was still curious as to what the Princess was up to. It was very unusual for her to vanish from the public eye for so long, and Celestia was keeping what she was doing extra secret, even to the royal guards. He had heard around that even some of the higher-ups were not being told what was going on.

A part of Sword suspected that only the royal family was privy to what was going on with Princess Twilight, but that only made him wonder why even more. It wasn’t customary in Equestria to keep even the royal guards out of the loop for so long. Was something in their home of Equestria amiss?

“Say… You have a thing for Princess Twilight… Right?” Steel asked, changing the subject.

Blinking, a blush came to Sword’s face as he rubbed behind his neck nervously. “Well… Uh…”

“I’ve seen you stare at her when she came by that one time… You were checking out her flank the moment she turned around…” Steel grinned.

Sword blushed deeper but decided there was no point in denying it. “She is pretty hot, isn’t she? Like she’s at least an eight on the scale.”

“I’d fuck her, I mean I don’t think she’s the hottest of the princesses, but I would still do nasty things to her if I were permitted… I’d make her beg for more… She’d come crawling back when I was done…” Steel smirked as he thought about the kind of lewd and reprehensible things he’d do if he were given a chance at the princess.

“I think I’d break out the leash…” Sword nodded in approval at his partner’s proposal.

“You dog. We could tag team her… Man, that’d be great, wouldn’t it? I bet she is super tight! A workaholic like her? She probably doesn’t get much action so that thing is probably fresh and unused… Meaning it’s probably in perfect condition if you know what I mean…” Steel was practically drooling into his coffee as he spoke.

“Maybe one day…” Sword sighed contently. His mind filled with equally perverse and impure things that he wished he could do with the princess.

“Luna is a possibility too… I mean a thousand years away from Equestria? She’s probably pretty starved… Bet she’d be down to try just about anything…” Steel suggested.

“I could think of a few moves I’d like to try on her…” Sword smirked.

The two friends broke out into jovial laughter, chuckling and guffawing for several minutes before their laughter subsided.

Shaking his head, Steel smiled at his friend. “I guess we should probably get to work, huh? If we’re tardy again, the CO is going to kick our asses. Last time we got mop duty… I don’t think I could feel my wing for a good week.”

“Unfortunately…” Sword frowned as he came to a stand, his memories of the last time the two were punished for tardiness motivating him far faster. “So, who do you like for the buckball game this weekend?”

The two made their way out of the break room and began heading toward their designated patrol route as they continued to converse about sports. “I’m going to have to go with the Iron Wings, their form has been pretty good this year, they got that new guy on their team from Trottingham that can whack a ball at least 70 to 80 yards… Plus they got those hot cheerleaders that I like, so naturally, I have to root for them. Hot mares always get my vote.”

“Hot cheerleaders are always a plus… I especially like it when they put them in those cute outfits with the socks…” Sword winked and chuckled as he walked next to his co-worker, the two coming to a fork in the hallway.

“Alright, I’ll take left, you take right, we’ll rendezvous at the courtyard entrance in about eight minutes, sound good?” Steel asked.

Sword nodded as he turned his body to the right. “Sounds fine to me, see you in a few.”

“Ditto. Let’s hope today passes by quick, I can’t wait until we get stationed somewhere else, nothing ever happens at this place…” Steel complained as he seemed to do every day.

Sword nodded in agreement as the two parted ways, leaving Sword to head down the right hall on his own. He could hear the sounds of prisoners out in the courtyard in the center. The two hallways looped around it on both sides with a single entrance to the courtyard proper at the northern end where both hallways reconnected. Sword had memorized the blueprints for the prison at least a dozen times, each time wondering why he bothered, though he already knew it was mostly because night shifts seldom had much to do except sit at a desk and count ceiling tiles.

His thoughts returned to what Steel said about not being able to wait until they were stationed somewhere else. He couldn’t agree more. Sword had been a member of the royal guard for a good year now, and his orders extended for another eight months at Dusty Gate before he would be transferred into a “real job”. The rest of the guard referred to prison patrol duty as “trainee work”, with the exception of the commanding officers of those teams, who were often older guards who were on their way toward retirement.

Sword got annoyed just thinking about some old bird sitting at a desk barking orders while he and the others went out and did the real work. It boiled his blood to think that those old bags probably got paid at least eight times what he made as well.

As he wandered down the hallway with nothing eventful happening shy of walking past another co-worker and giving a gentle head nod of acknowledgment. To say his job was dull was an understatement.

It wasn’t long until his brain had been wandering again, falling back onto his conversation about Princess Twilight. What could she be up to? He wondered when she’d be back or when he’d be seeing Starlight Glimmer in her stead.

He rolled his eyes at the thought of the Princess’ star student. Starlight was an odd one to him, she was a blunt pony with hoof-in-mouth syndrome it seemed, and she came across as socially awkward at times. Despite all of that, she was difficult to read when it came to her assessments. He recalled once she filled in for Twilight and that entire time he couldn’t make heads or tails if she was pleased or displeased with how the prison was being run.

His attention was then drawn to something up ahead in the hallway. A pony wearing a cloak and a hood to conceal their face. He cleared his throat and spoke up to the pony. “Excuse me, no hoods, masks or any items that conceal one’s face, it’s the facility policy, rookie.”

Sword had guessed it was a newbie, unaware of the rules, however, when the pony didn’t adhere to his advice, he stepped closer and spoke a bit more sternly. “That’s not negotiable, rookie… Remove your hood, now.”

The figure held their ground but didn’t even lift the hood. Instead, they stood staring in Sword’s direction. There was something off about this pony, something that gave him the chills, so he paused his advance and squinted at them as he examined them carefully.

Upon further inspection, he noted that the cloak looked old and tattered, shreds decorated it as the pony underneath stood there protected by the secrecy it offered. Something seemed amiss to Sword, so he kept his distance.

“Where are you supposed to be, newbie?” Sword asked suspiciously.

“I’m right where I want to be…” They responded in a gentle emotionless voice.

Sword tilted his head in confusion before noticing the pony dart forward at alarming speed. He dodged an attack and turned around to face the pony that was now behind him. Sword opened his mouth to scream for back up, but the pony tossed something in his direction, a large heavy rock that hit him in the head, staggering him.

The guard gripped his skull feeling blood trickle down his forehead as he cursed under his breath, trying to regain his composure.

Taking advantage of the situation, the hooded figure jumped forward and delivered a second blow to Sword’s head, this time with their hoof. Before Sword had a chance to retaliate, the hooded pony swiveled around and delivered a mighty buck to his skull with their hind hooves, knocking Sword into the air and then landing onto his back.

Sword grumbled for a few seconds before the pony delivered another swift kick to his head.

He could feel everything around him start to fade as he slipped out of consciousness. Once he was out could the hooded figured gripped his body and began to drag him away, needing his unconscious form to be long gone in order to continue his operations in the prison. Part one of his plan was now complete and it was time to spring part two into motion.

Steel had made his way back to the rendezvous point where he and Sword had agreed to meet. The stallion peered around realizing that his co-worker was running late. A sigh escaped him as he leaned against the wall and fell to his haunches, deciding it was best to simply wait for him to arrive.

A good few minutes passed and by the time he had become nearly fifteen minutes wait, Steel groaned as he came to a stand. “Fuck, Sword… We’re going to get in trouble again… Please don’t tell me you stopped to flirt with that girl down at Sector C…” He thought out loud.

Steel made his way down the hallway where his friend was supposed to be monitoring, noting that he didn’t see him anywhere. “That’s odd… He’s supposed to be here somewhere…”

As he spoke, two other guards were making their way down the hall, prompting Steel to straighten up and clear his throat to get their attention. “Excuse me, guys?”

The taller of the two guards raised a brow. “What is it, Steel?”

“Have either of you seen, Sword? He was supposed to be making his rounds down this hallway, and we were supposed to meet at the intersection on the other side, but he seems to have vanished…” Steel explained.

The taller guard shrugged and looked at his unicorn companion. “Dunno… Did you see them, Lock?”

Lock shook his head. “Nah… Are you sure he didn’t go off to flirt with that hot girl in Sector C?”

“That was my first thought as well…” Steel grinned.

Lock grinned back at Steel and nodded. “Yeah, can’t say I blame him… That girl is fine…”

“Oh, you mean the one with the dyed mane right?” The taller guard chimed in.

“That’s the one!” Lock nodded and pointed a hoof at his partner.

“Oh man, she had her mane down today too! Did you see that?” The tall one said.

“What!? Oh man, I gotta get a look at that… We should make a detour through that sector and say hi to her… Maybe one of us can ask her out…” Lock wiggled his eyebrow suggestively.

The taller guard laughed. “You couldn’t ask her out if your life depended on it.”

“Can so! I bet you eighty bits that I will!” Lock growled.

The tall guard grinned delightedly. “Let’s make it interesting… Eighty if you do it… A hundred if she says yes…”

“I’ll take that action! You’re on!” Lock offered his hoof which his friend shook, sealing their little wager.

Steel, however, rolled his eyes and cleared his throat once more. “That’s all fine and good, but where the fuck is Sword? We should go looking for him, if we miss mid-shift headcount we’re going to get another citation.”

“Yikes… That would probably mean bathroom duty…” Lock shuddered at the thought.

The taller stallion nodded in agreement. “Alright, we’ll find him, he couldn’t have gone far.”

“Who couldn’t have gone far?” A familiar voice rang in all of their ears.

The trio turned their heads and there standing next to them coming from another hallway was Sword, a plain look on his face.

“Sword? Where were you? We were worried sick. Did you run off to go flirt with that girl in Sector C again? You gotta tell me before you just vanish like that, we could get in trouble again! You know, our fates are tied together when it comes to getting in trouble. If you get busted, then I get in trouble just for not stopping you.” Steel raised a brow as he questioned and scolding his partner.

Sword shook his head, his expression remaining unchanged, emotionless and empty “I got a call… I need to go speak with the CO about something now…”

“The CO…? About what?” Steel blinked.

“It doesn’t concern any of you… Please, continue your rounds without me, I’ll be back later, I promise.” Sword bowed gracefully as he walked off.

Once he was at the end of the hall and out of earshot, Lock spoke up. “Well, mystery solved…”

“Not quite…” Steel squinted as he watched his friend go around a corner at the end of the hallway.

“How so?” The tall guard asked in confusion, not seeing anything out of place.

“Something about that seemed odd… For starters… I’ve never seen Sword bow to anyone but superiors, actually, he’s gone on record saying he hates bowing to ponies in general… So it’s strange that he would bow to us… Secondly, the CO put out an order that he wouldn’t be seeing anypony today due to needing to make preparations for Starlight Glimmer’s visit… Third… Didn’t he seem… Off to you all?” Steel responded.

“So what? Maybe he had a run in with that ugly broad from the other block? I know I’d be looking like that if I had to look at her, she’s a fucking cow.” Lock asked.

Steel stood in silence for a moment as he mulled it over. “It’s… Probably nothing… But… I just don’t know… I have a bad feeling, that’s all…”

“Yeah well… Let’s all get back to work before the CO calls all of us into his office… To give us mop duty!” Lock suggested.

“I second that idea, mop duty sucks ass… Last time I was given that, I was here from 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM the next day!” The taller guard gulped at just the thought of having to repeat that shift over again.

Sighing, Steel couldn’t think of a better idea, so he nodded and turned around to go back to his duties, the other two guards making a turn to go about their business as well toward the cells. The entire way toward his next checkpoint, Steel couldn’t shake the feeling that his partner had been acting strangely. A part of him wondered if he should have turned around and followed the stallion to the CO’s office. Another part wondered if there was something going on that was bigger than he realized.

Officer Cage Keeper wasn’t exactly having the best day. He had just been informed that the inspection being conducted by Starlight Glimmer would be moved a few days earlier, and that meant he had to make sure all of his ducks were in a row. If they found a single violation, he could likely kiss his promotion goodbye. His dream was to make it to understudy of the guard captain, serving next to Shining Armor himself, ready to take on the role of Captain of the Guards when Shining retired.

It was a dream that he had been chasing since he was a foal, and he was so close, too close to allow his subordinates to screw it up. He had ordered all safety inspectors to do triple checks today, all patrols to be on extra guard, and to confiscate three times as much contraband as they normally did. He was determined to make sure that this prison was running at optimal efficiency when Starlight arrived to inspect it. If she returned a great report back to Celestia, his promotion was assured.

His day after barking orders to his second-in-command now consisted mostly of going through various forms and checking on the state of things that he had ordered. Currently, he was checking over the recent mental health evaluations of some of the more violent criminals that they detained at Dusty Gate. Most were unremarkable, reporting the same extremely vicious and volatile behavior that had become to be expected from them.

He chuckled a bit at one he read about a stallion who tried to get up and stab the psychiatrist with a pen but was instantly hit with a shock spell by a nearby guard. The report suggested that he vomited after the fact.

It wasn’t normal for criminals to be held so tightly in Equestria, in fact, the prison was reserved strictly for those who committed serious offenses such as robbery on a massive scale, or molesting a child.

The majority of prisons in Equestria were more or less reformation centers that seldom held onto ponies for longer than two years at a time with an incredible amount of programs to help their population make it on the outside once they were released. The royal family believed heavily in reformation over permanent punishment, which made murder and other more serious crimes very rare in Equestria.

Naturally though, bad seeds usually always existed, and Dusty Gate was one of three prisons intended for those who were likely never to get out. The kind that simply refused to adhere to societal norms or stop their life of crime. The only places with more security were places like where the infamous Tirek was held, specially crafted holding cells intended for the worst of the worst.

By Officer Keeper’s count, there were exactly 808 prisoners at Dusty Gate, and while murder and molestation were not common in Equestria, decades or even centuries ago they were slightly more commonplace than they were now. Because of that, most ponies locked away in Dusty Gate were older. Keeper recalled their oldest resident was a unicorn approaching 309 years of age.

It wasn’t uncommon for unicorns to live to be around 400 or so, and more powerful ones were known to reach as high as 800. Pegasi and earth ponies however usually lived to be around 250 to 350; scientists believed this had something to do with magic slowing down the aging process.

Most of the ponies who resided in Dusty Gate hadn’t seen the outside world for at least a good 80 years or so. New inmates were rare, due to the improvement of reform programs, preventative measures set in place by law enforcement, and ever-improving education and economy. Celestia’s changes over the past hundred years or so certainly had made huge impacts.

As Keeper finished a few sheets of paperwork, he sighed and leaned back in his chair, wondering if being higher up on the scale would make doing paperwork obsolete.

Rubbing his head, he yawned and when he heard a noise from the door to his office, his ears perked up as he focused his attention in that direction. “Who’s there?”

A face that the leader of the prison guards had only seen a few times stepped into the room. He glanced at the name tag pinned to his chest plate and squinted as he attempted to read it. It was difficult to keep track of what ponies worked for him, and thus name tags had become essential to identifying personal in the prison. There simply weren’t enough hours in the day to get to know every guard on a personal level.

“Private Sword Swipe… I hope you have a good reason for disturbing me… I could have sworn I gave a strict order to all guards that I’m not to be disturbed. Ms. Starlight Glimmer will be here in the next few days and if this prison isn’t in perfect order she’s going to have my ass…” Officer Keeper grunted as he stood up from his desk and came around to the front of it, his tall stature allowing him to look down at the stallion approaching.

“Yes, sir…” Sword nodded with not a shred of emotion on his face.

“And if that happens, I’m going to have your ass, private. So tell me… What is so damn important that you decided it was a good idea to leave your post and come to bother me in my office…” Keeper got really close to the stallion, breathing directly on his face as he put himself in an optimal position for delivering a whack to the low ranking guard’s head should his answer not be sufficient.

“I came to deliver an important message, sir…” Sword spoke quietly.

“Well let’s hear it, son…” Keeper hissed, his patience running thin.

Sword nodded before speaking slowly. “I need your keys.”

“Huh?” Keeper asked.

Before he knew it, the young guard head-butted him straight in the chest, knocking him back into the wall. Before Keeper could even get back up, the stallion moved so quickly he was in front of Keeper again, pinning him to the wall delivering blow after blow to his skull with his free hoof until finally, Keeper fell unconscious.

Once Officer Keeper was out cold, the young guard reached down and grabbed a keyring in his hoof, eyeing the keys with a smile. “Thanks, chief…” He replied before stepping over the unconscious leader of the prison guards and made his way out the door toward the cells. The next step of his plan proving an equally big success.

Cutter Edge, perhaps the most well-known criminal in Dusty Gate sat in the courtyard with his group of satellites all watching over him while he eyed another stallion from across the way. His eyes filled with hatred and fire as he watched the likes of Dice Roller.

Dice was known for being one of the biggest con-artists in all of Equestria. A good ninety years ago, he swindled an eighth of the population of Canterlot out of their life savings, every pony he knew he had a plan on how to rip off. It was said that he even swiped his own grandmother’s retirement savings, took everything he had taken and bought himself a zeppelin ride down to Los Pegasus where he ate, drank and bought all the mares he could handle for months.

His scam went on for years, every few months it was a new city and he’d go under a new name. It had taken a good five years before they caught him.

Sure enough, on the inside, he was the local smuggler, the most resourceful one in all of Dusty Gate at that. Dice could probably sneak in a few spears and wine stolen from the Princess’ royal wine cellar if the price was right. Naturally, his markups were notoriously high, but if you wanted something bad enough, he was the stallion for the job.

Cutter loathed him.

Cutter, on the other hoof, was serving time for something far worse; murder. Back in his youth, his mother and he had a bit of a disagreement. Didn’t take long before he stabbed her with a kitchen knife. When his father came home, he disemboweled him as well and left the two to bleed on his kitchen floor while he had a big bowl of cereal. Cutter was only thirteen when that happened, and now he was almost a hundred.

“Look at that smug little shit stain over there…” Cutter cursed under his breath as he stared at the stallion that he would call his arch nemesis on the inside. He didn’t know why he hated him so much, but every time he saw that stupid teal coat of his and that stupid gold tooth that was in his mouth, Cutter wanted to knock him out. He wanted to drown the little shit stain in a toilet when the guards weren’t looking. Given the chance, he’d shove a coat hanger up the guy’s rectum.

“Thinks he’s a big shot because he gets a little contraband in… Big fucking deal… Bet he can’t get some pussy in here!” One of Cutter’s minions laughed.

“What’re you talking about? He is a pussy, look at him.” Another chuckled.

“One day… I’ll break that fucker’s jaw… I’ll slit his throat and watch him bleed in front of me… Man, that’ll be sweet…” Cutter closed his eyes and envisioned, the thought of ending his nemesis bringing him great pleasure.

“I bet he’ll beg for mercy…” The first one of Cutter’s goons said.

Noticing the group staring in his direction, Dice raised a brow and called out across the yard. “Hey sweetie, see something you like?”

Cutter licked his upper lip and hopped off the table he was sitting on as he took a powerful step forward. “I don’t know yet… Depends what color your guts are…”

“Big talk coming from you…” Roll grinned.

One of the royal guards standing watch coughed and gave disapproving looks to both of them.

They both grumbled and returned to their prior engagements, Cutter complaining as he sat back down. “What I wouldn’t give to be out of this fucking hell hole… The kind of damage I could do on the outside… The world would regret ever fucking with me…”

“Yeah… Outside… Away from the pigs… We could do anything we wanted then!” One of the ponies at Cutter’s table agreed.

Cutter shook his head and sighed. “Yeah, well sadly dreaming isn’t going to get us anywhere… We’re in here, and that’s how it’s going to stay it looks like… I’ve been staring at these fucking walls almost my whole life at this point… Who even knows what the outside world is like now… Probably gone to shit anyway…”

With those words, sirens began to go off causing every stallion in the prison to look up. “Well… Looks like we got another runner…” Cutter chuckled.

“Shit…” One of the two guards said as they came to a stand and made toward the door. Peeking inside the facility, he gestured for his co-worker to follow him. “Lock the door behind you! We have an emergency, we need all hooves on deck it looks like!”

Both guards vacated the courtyard and locked the door behind them, trapping all the inmates inside.

The moment they were alone, Cutter and Dice both came to a stand and approached each other, Cutter smirking as they came within inches of each other. “So… Alone at last… Any last words?”

“Yeah, your mom’s pussy was delicious…” Dice hissed back at him.

The two began to trot in a circle around each other, never breaking eye contact as Cutter spoke again. “It must be my lucky day… The pigs are distracted long enough for me to end you…”

“I’ve learned in my line of work that you shouldn’t count the cash before you’ve made the sale, twinkle toes…” Dice replied.

“Good thing I’m not in your line of business and you’re as good as dead…” Cutter growled.

The crowd of stallions around them had begun to whoop and cheer, chanting for a fight to go down, eager to see some bloodshed between the two enemies.

Cutter raised a hoof, but all fell silent as the door to the courtyard opened. There standing with a ring of keys in his hoof was the guard captain. He cleared his throat and stepped out of the way of the door and gestured toward it. “Congratulations… You’re all free…”

“What?” Cutter raised a brow.

“Yeah, what gives?” Dice asked.

Officer Keeper smirked and looked at the open door. “The door to freedom is open… All you need to do is walk through… I’ve opened every cell in the facility… A riot is going on now, and the guards are overrun. If you go now… You might actually get out of this place…”

“What’s the catch?” Cutter stood his ground.

“The catch is… You can leave if you like, but if you wish to be a part of something greater… To have a chance at getting back at these ponies who shunned you… You can join something bigger than yourself…” Officer Keeper stated.

Dice squinted. “I don’t trust pigs…”

Keeper tilted his head and smiled at the group. His body shifting and his form changing into something else entirely. Before they all knew it, there stood a creature with hooves filled with holes, piercing red eyes and wings like an insect. His body was decorated with a yellow cloak with blue trimmings. It looked new and fresh, decorated with an emblem that no one there recognized.

“I assure you all… I am no pig…” The creature responded.

“A changeling…” Dice gasped.

“That’s right, and this changeling has a proposal… All who are interested should step forward…” The changeling grinned. “What I have in store will blow your minds…”

With that, phase three was a-go.

Starlight Glimmer wasn’t exactly having the best of days already, but now having to meet with the Princess to discuss such troubling news was only going to make it worse. In a way, she felt a bit like a failure for not being able to prevent the prison break, but she reminded herself that while she had agreed to take on Twilight’s duties in her absence, she couldn’t be everywhere at once. Still, it did feel a bit awkward to make a report directly to Celestia to more or less inform her that the prison she was on her way to inspect in the next few days just had one of the largest prison breaks in Equestrian history.

The mare gulped before tapping on the door to Celestia’s study. “Y-your Highness?”

The soft motherly voice of Celestia called to Starlight through the door. “Come in, the door is unlocked.”

Taking a deep breath, Starlight composed herself before trotting in with the scrolls and notes she had strapped to her via a saddlebag.

There sitting at a desk, Celestia was reading a book. She looked so peaceful. Starlight hardly wanted to disturb her, however, she braced herself to do exactly that.

Looking up from her text, Celestia smiled at Starlight. “Starlight! It’s good to see you, what brings you here? I thought you were doing inspections of the prisons for the next few weeks and that I wouldn’t be seeing you until you completed your report.”

Sighing, Starlight stepped forward. “Yes… About that… There has been… An incident…”

“Incident?” Celestia raised a brow.

Starlight nodded before retrieving scrolls from her bag and placing them on the table. “I’ll cut right to the chase… There’s been a prison break, pretty much eighty percent of the population has escaped. We haven’t been able to track a single one down, but we’re on the biggest pony hunt imaginable…”

Celestia blinked and simply stared at the documents. She spoke quietly. “Who was the guard in charge?”

“That would be Officer Cage Keeper, why?” Starlight asked.

“What is his explanation? How did all of these prisoners escape on his watch?” Celestia asked.

“He said that one of his subordinates came into his office and knocked him out. He said the guard was Private Sword Swipe… We detained Swipe, but he doesn’t remember ever going to the CO’s office. He claims he was unconscious in a broom closet the entire time… We looked into it and his story checks out as well…” Starlight frowned, not being a big fan of delivering bad news to the princess.

Celestia nodded and came to a stand, making her way toward the window in her study. She looked outside and smiled at the view of the city she had. It all seemed so peaceful, the thought of someone disrupting that peace made her stomach churn.

“It sounds like we have a changeling among us then…” Celestia frowned.

“A changeling?” Starlight raised a brow in confusion.

Celestia turned back to Starlight and nodded. “Indeed, it’s clear he took the form of Private Sword Swipe, and tricked the CO in charge… That also explains why no one saw him leave…”

Starlight nodded in agreement, Celestia’s logic made perfect sense there.

“How many casualties were there?” Celestia asked.

“T-two, ma’am… eight injured… The other two were beaten pretty badly…” Starlight frowned.

Closing her eyes, Celestia took in a breath. “Well, we can safely assume that whoever is doing this is not the merciful type…”

“I also came to report that Princess Twilight has entered the next stage of her training… She should be entering the most difficult part at this point…” Starlight informed.

Celestia’s expression quickly shifted into a smile as she heard about her former student. “That’s good to hear… Twilight is a resilient mage and a gifted one at that… If anyone can complete such training at such a young age it’s her…”

“It sounds dangerous though… What will happen if she can’t-“ Starlight was cut off.

“I don’t dare think about that, Starlight…” Celestia dismissed.

Starlight decided it was best to leave the matter alone. She nodded and stood there awkwardly before Celestia began to speak once more. “Starlight…”

“Y-yes ma’am?” Starlight straightened up her posture as she stood.

“We’ll be increasing security heavily around the two remaining maximum security prisons… We can’t take any chances with this changeling… I’m also putting changeling detection experts at both as well… We’ll sniff him out…” Celestia informed.

Starlight bowed and then nodded. “Consider it done! I’ll get to work on that right away!”

Before Celestia even had a chance to thank her, Starlight had made her exit and ran off to start her newly assigned duties. Celestia chuckled as she marveled at how despite Twilight’s student being significantly different than she was, she took her duties just as seriously.

Her happy thoughts dampened though when Celestia turned her attention back to her problem. Even with changeling detection experts on the scene, that would only go so far if there were multiple changelings. Nothing stopped them from replicating all the experts and then sneaking in that way.

The only other question she had was “why”? What was this changeling hoping to gain by freeing a bunch of criminals? Perhaps he was merely a sympathizer? No, that didn’t make sense, no one would go through such effort just to be sympathetic toward a criminal’s plight. The entire prison break was clean, thorough and calculated; there had to be an end goal in sight for him.

Whatever he was after had to be big if he was willing to risk it all on a bunch that was possibly the most untrustworthy type in all of Equestria.

It had occurred to Celestia that perhaps the reason he was so confident that they posed no threat to him was because he had some kind of leverage, something that put him in a position where they’d have no choice but to give him their obedience. The question now, was what could that possibly be? What could a changeling have that kept the worst criminals in Equestria in line?

Her head was spinning with ideas, but one thought came to the surface, Twilight. She missed her former star student, but more importantly, she was concerned. While she had confidence and faith in Twilight, and she would never show her worry to others, Celestia found herself worried that the training that Twilight was undergoing could possibly be too much for her. She recalled a time long ago where she allowed a student to attempt it way before they were ready, and the results were disastrous. The thought of the same thing happening to Twilight crushed her, and those worries only increased when Celestia remembered that Twilight's training was even more unique and thus more strenuous.

She shook her head and calmed herself. She needed to stay positive, Starlight was right if anyone could complete that training it was Twilight. Furthermore, Twilight could likely do it in record time. She was ready, Celestia knew that. Twilight had what it took, Celestia just needed to believe.

Celestia closed her eyes and calmed herself. “Please Twilight… I hope this matter is resolved before your return… And that this training is unnecessary… But if not… Please come back prepared…”

The stereotype of all the royal guards spending most of their time having lewd conversations about what they'd do to princesses exists because... They do spend most of their free time having lewd conversations about what they'd do to princesses.

Sometimes stereotypes are absolutely correct.

We also see that unanimously, almost every guard despises cleaning shifts. That's likely why it's used as a punishment.

Wow, it has just occurred to me that by the time people are reading this author's note, they will not have seen Sunset in this story for nearly a month! Crazy to think about, a story so focused on her and there is such a long period in the story where she does not appear at all.

Let's also talk about pony life spans. Since the show is always vague about the idea, I sort of created my own headcanon here. I know someone out there is going to naysay and point out some random obscure evidence from the show that suggests my theory about lifespans is totally wrong but like... It's just a story, bro.