Outside the Changeling Princess' playroom, a dramatic event is unfolding.



A Night Guard, dressed in enchanted camoflarge armour, emerged from the shadows, creeping towards the unsuspecting Changeling princess's play chamber. Two other night guards, a unicorn and an earthpony, emerged out of the shadows with him. He whisper down the microphone, in their guards' silent code "Team Alpha, in position."



On the other corridor, another Night Guard team was just finished disposing the corpses of two praetorian Changeling guards they had killed, blood and ichor from their slited throats lacing their coats and equipment, "Team Beta, in position." the female lead called.



"Team Gamma, on overwatch," a third voice called from the phone, crispy and deep, a veteran's voice.



"Alright, Operation Sandpony is a go." A fourth voice ordered. It was male, rather young, but carried authority and weight in its tone, that, and a bit of simmering anger. "You have another ten minutes to sedate the package and get out, before the rest of those guards' shift change is over. Report progress every five minutes, and make sure you have that bug secured and ready for extraction, at all costs."



"Understood." The three team leaders affirmed.



"Should we really be doing this? I mean, we're going to kidnap a child here." One of the night guards in Team Beta asked, scanning through the bedchamber's doors with a scrying spell. Behind the walls, the Changeling princess was playing fondly with figures resembling Princess Cadence, Shining Armour and her own mother in front of a picture of Canterlot. Save for her crooked horn, black carapace, membranous mane and tail, the resemblance with a normal pony filly was just too close for comfort.



"Hush," Team Beta's leader told her, "This is not any normal child. This is the heir of the Changeling Empire. And nobody's going to know - not even the Princesses. This is pure black ops. Just remember that and do your job; we have gone too far to mess up now."



She took a look at her watch. At twelve midnight, the Changeling guards downstairs with change shifts, and the window will open for them to get out in ten minutes time the same way they spent half an hour to sneak through. Too many things can go wrong, but it must be done. It will be done.



Few seconds left now. Four... three... two... one...



"Initiate!"