Chapter 11: A job request.

"Alpha, wake up."

"I'm up." Alpha said, opening his eyes and pushing his tiredness away.

"Let's go."

Alpha nodded as he slipped his bag on, walked outside his cave and took off into the sunset. He had a window to get into the castle without being seen, but it was closing quickly. With Celestia falling asleep, and Luna raising the moon, Alpha had a short amount of time to sneak in. The moon began to rise when Alpha made it to the Castle.

"Follow the underside of the castle. I'm expecting a shield to be in place for any break-ins/trespassing like we are doing right now. Find the shield and I can teleport us through it."

Alpha followed the underside of the castle and came in contact with an invisible wall. He pushed as hard as he could against it but could not get through. "Beta, I think this is the shield."

"Alright, take a deep breath."

Alpha took a deep breath as Beta teleported him to the other side of the shield. He felt like he was crushed into oblivion then rearranged back into physical form. It was painful as hell. Alpha bit on his lip to help himself not scream out in pain. He felt the tang of blood in his mouth. He wiped his hoof across him mouth, getting rid of the blood and headed for the nearest tower. He swooped through an open window, banked hard and landed with such grace that would make RD notice.

"Alright, now we got to find out where Zeta is."

Alpha nodded in reply as he set off down the dimly lit hallway. Every few meters were candles, flickering, dancing on their own wicks, casting shadows on the walls. Alpha felt his hearing get clearer as Beta enhanced his hearing.

"You should be able to hear easier. If guards come, don't worry, I'll cloak you so you can gallop past them without them noticing."

The white Pegasus sneered. Beta was covering up for him, thinking for everything. He began to gallop, picking up speed as he raced down the hallway. He slowed down to a halt and looked at the candles beside him. He walked over to them and watched the flame flicker. "Beta," Alpha whispered. "Ever want to burn down the castle? Or light a portion of it aflame?"

"What makes you think I don't want to?" Beta replied in a chuckle

"If anything goes wrong, the candles will help with our escape." Alpha replied, softly chuckling as he began to gallop again down the hallway. He jumped into the air and began to fly down the hallway.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"I am much stealthier, faster and more agile when I fly then if I run."

"But if you fuck up, you will make a lot more noise."

"It's a risk I'm willing to take." Alpha slowed to a halt and landed once he saw an open door. He felt Beta rise as he entered the room. It was dark, no lights were there. Alpha heard some pony breathing and thought it was a guard asleep. His eyes adjusted to the darkness and looked around. He saw a map on the wall and walked up to it. It was a map of Equestria and had X's on it. Cloudsdale was circled on it.

"Looks important, let's take it."

Alpha walked to the map, and took it down, rolling it up into a scroll and placing it in his backpack. He turned around to leave and stopped dead in his tracks. What he thought was a guard wasn't a guard.

"Holy Shit, it's her."

On the ground, asleep in front of them, was Her Majesty, Celestia. Alpha felt his anger rise quick within him.

"If I killed her right now…"

"If you killed her right now, not only will you fuck up Equestria more than it is now with her ruling it all, but you will not be able to learn your reason; why you are alive right now. You will hurt more ponies than I have ever done when I was on my rampage! Ponies trust her. If you destroy that trust by showing ponies your past and mine, they will start to loose trust in her. They will see her lies. Then she will be weak, politically weak. Then you got to defeat her using magic, agility, and strength. But that happen in time. For now we got to learn who the hell Zeta is. If she isn't here, we then need to leave."

Alpha stared at Celestia's body, and then headed for the door when it opened.

"SHIT!"

Alpha backed away from the door, Beta cloaking him instantly.

"It will only hide you visually; it will not cloak the sounds you make. Breathe quietly."

Princess Luna walked through the door, a candle floating behind her, and closed the door. "Sis, wake up." She said as she walked to her sister. Luna laid down on the ground and nudged her. "Wake up; I need to talk to you."

"Yes?" Celestia replied. She open her eyes, saw Luna and closed them again.

"Wake up!"

"I am awake; just resting my eyes. What do you want?"

"It's about Alpha…and Beta…"

Celestia raised her head, fully awake now. "What is wrong?"

Luna sighed. "Beta asked me why I wasn't in his dreams when I was on the moon. I replied that I was still NMM when he was alive, but I know that wasn't the truth."

"So?"

"What did Beta actually do? I know you aren't telling me the truth. Was he actually innocent? Was he bullied to the point where he broke and could not handle the pain anymore?"

Celestia sighed. "He told you that, didn't he?"

"Is it true?"

Celestia lowered her head. "It is."

Luna stood instantly, changing into Nightmare Moon. "YOU LIED TO ME! I NEARLY KILLED AN INNOCENT CIVILIAN. A CIVILIAN WHO WAS IN PAIN, WHO KILLED BECAUSE HE WAS PUSHED OVER THE LIMIT! YOU BLAME HIM FOR THINGS THAT GO WRONG THAT YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND! WHY!?" Night Mare moon screamed.

"I HAD NO CHOICE!" Celestia said, standing up and walking toward where the map was. "I had no choice. Some pony was to blame. If I told them what actually happened, how it all happened, and why it happened, My rule would be over. I would have been killed; executed for killing a civilian." She looked up at the non-existent map. "It's gone."

"What is?" Luna said, now calm.

"The map."

"Oh no," Luna said, her eyes widening. "I will alert the guards. We have a thief in this castle."

"Don't." Celestia said, pointing her hoof at Luna. "Call for Zeta. Have her find out and kill this thief."

"Consider it done." Luna said as she walked out of the room. Alpha, invisible, walked out right behind her.

"We got to leave this place now!"

Alpha looked up at Luna and began to walk backwards, away from her.

"Alpha," Luna said, looking around. Alpha stopped cold. "If you are here, I'm sorry for everything that has happened and everything that will happen." Alpha thought about replying, then pushed that thought away. He turned around and flew down the corridor. He found the window that he got into the castle and flew out. He felt as if he was crushed into oblivion and put back together as Beta teleported him to his cave.

"You know, we could have done that at first. Just teleport me there then break in."

"Yeah, but you needed to wake up first. What was on the map that was so important to Celestia?"

Alpha took out the map. "Don't know. Let's look at it." He unrolled the map and looked at the X's and the circle around Cloudsdale. There was some writing near the circle. "Destr-" Alpha stopped midsentence.

"What?"

"I know what the X's are."

"No…there can only be one, why would she need more than one?!"

"I don't know. I'm really bummed out that we didn't find Zeta." Alpha said as he rolled up the map and placed it in his bag. He walked to the front of his cave and lit a fire, lying down behind it.

"I wonder where she was. Well, good night Alpha." Beta said as he nestled in Alpha.

"Night." Alpha replied as he stared at the fire. He watched for a bit before placing his head on his bag and falling asleep.


Rainbow Dash was asleep when she heard somepony knocking on her door. "What the Hell? Who would be knocking on my door at this hour?" She said to herself as she walked to her door, half asleep. She open the door to see a Pegasus standing there. She had a purple-turning-black mane, and 1 eye purple. The other eye was glowing green.

"Hello Rainbow Dash, sorry for waking you up at this hour but I have a request." Zeta said, grinning.

"What request?" Dash said.

"A job request; one that will pay you much more than your current one."

"You have my attention." She said, fully awake.

"How would you like to work at the Rainbow Factory?"

Everything that happens has a reason behind why it happens.