{RP} My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The Mystery Of Blanktown.

[Miranda_]

Applejack sighed with relief once they were finally within the castle grounds. "Phew," she said. "That was a close one."

"Follow me, everypony," Star whispered, indicating which way they were going. It was behind a copse of trees, to the back door of the palace.

[spirit_queen]

Twilight nodded and followed Star, trusting he knew what he was doing.

[Miranda_]

The back door was locked, but there was no keyhole. Instead, there was a round hole in the centre of the door. No ordinary unicorn horn could fit in that hole; only the horn of a royal alicorn. Star bent his head and pushed his horn into the door hole; the door opened straight away.

[spirit_queen]

Twilight watched in wonder as the doors opened.

[Miranda_]

"Come on," Star said, and he led the other ponies into the castle. Everything seemed as normal within, which was itself eerie.

[spirit_queen]

Twilight was afraid they'd be caught at any moment.

[Miranda_]

But their luck held and they reached the throne room, which was empty. This was the first really unusual happening; usually, in the daytime, if Princess Celestia wasn't there, there would at least be a few guards patrolling the place. But the room was completely empty, with nopony around.

Star opened the door to the room where the Elements were kept in the same way as he'd opened the back door. When the other ponies had entered, he closed it, just in case anypony did come into the throne room. They could always leave it at any time, since he could just unlock it again, but an open door would be unusual. The Elements were there, in their jeweled box.

[spirit_queen]

Twilight levitated them and put separated them evenly, then placed them in the saddlebags each pony carried.

[Miranda_]

"We'd better go," Star began to say, when Applejack shushed him. He listened intently, hearing the same thing that the blonde earth pony had heard; approaching hooves. Two ponies were approaching the throne room. If he, Applejack and Twilight stayed silent, they wouldn't be discovered and if this was the usurpers, then they might learn something useful before they left.

[spirit_queen]

"So," came a voice remarkably similar to Celestia's. "What sort of plans have you got? How slow are we going to take this?"