Sometimes, decades of your life go by without a single pony noticing any of your efforts to move up the ranks. Sometimes, you fall into a hole in the ground, wind up trapped in a political plot, and meet a cute librarian in the middle of it all.
The last part's nice.
Due to the nature of the AU, the story deserves a [Dark] tag, but it's not a good fit for the story's genre. I also strongly hesitated between Mystery and Adventure.
Mild [Profanity] included (but not enough to warrant the tag).
Huge thanks go out to: Everfree Pony, for saving this fic in at least a dozen different ways, Sir Mediocre, for holding my writing to a certain standard and correcting my broken English, Aisteru Fìre for pre-reading, and Cyeion, for his detailed and thought-out critique.