Chapter twenty nine

Celestia stands across a table, looking down at the map that stretches its length. With her is her husband, who banters back and forth with his wife. Trying to come to some sort of reasonable decision for this current situation that they have found themselves in. Last night was supposed to be pleasant, her and Discord got back at a reasonable time, and put the kids to bed. Thanks to several more cups of coffee to fuel him, the master of chaos himself was able to stay up with his wife, Luna, and both Shining and Cadance as they chat amongst themselves. The day had come up in conversation, and as expected so did the topic of Flash and Twilight. Even Shining and Cadance talked about having kids of their own. They share a few laughs with one another and even a drink of the stronger sort or two…

That’s though when the solar princess gets the news from one of the staff members delivering a message. The medical report had come back from the coroners doing the autopsy on the changeling. After looking it over for a bit with the others, they have a good starting point to go from now, finally.

The chaotic prince with a snap of his fingers conjures up some scotch and a single glass, tossing the glass off to the side though, in instead opts to take it straight from the mouth of the chalice. Celestia knows that her husband doesn’t drink that often, not as much as one may think, and especially not this early in the morning. Taking her place opposite of him in this case she watches as he tries not to guzzle down the alcohol, and attempts to maintain some sort of self-control, especially after hearing what she has asked.

“Seriously dear?” she raises an eye brow to him, “you want to break that out now?”

“Well after what you just suggested,” he pauses for another gulp, “I would say it’s about time for a drink.”

“The possibility that this is just a changeling that has made his way around is more likely then what you have been saying so far.”

“And yet when there is trouble a brewing, who is the one that manages to feel it coming on first?” he glares over to her, taking a swig here and there.

Though she may not like it, her husband is right about that one for sure. He has a knack for knowing when something bad is going to happen… but that’s what happens when you are the master of chaos, and end up marrying him as well, “Well no matter what may be there, it couldn’t hurt really to look in to it… after all there may be a connection here.”

“So we can agree at least that it should be looked in to…” Discord says to his wife, holding the bottle of scotch in his magical grasp. Taking a sip to calm his nerves at what his wife is proposing.

“Yes we should, though when I say we…” Celestia looks at the map once more to check her details, “I mean her, Flash, and a few guards for good measure.”

“And you’re sure that Twilight is ready for such a thing? After all wouldn’t it be even better that you or I even go for a quick peak?” he tries to reason with her, “After all I know how much you care for Twilight… we are more capable after all.”

“Do you doubt my student?”

Discord bites his tongue at the moment to think, trying to save himself from ending up in the dog house tonight, “now I never said that, and don’t get me wrong I care for Twilight just as much as you do. That’s why I was thinking that maybe you or I should go… let’s be honest, we’re both more accustom to getting out hands dirty here, well hooves in your case. Besides, either you or I would be much faster for that matter,” he tries to explain to her. Though in truth it’s hard for him to admit that he does see Twilight as fragile when it comes to physical matters, and getting in the grime of things. He trusts the young alicorn because of her brilliance none the less, just some things should be taken care of by more experienced ones.

Though she knows that Discord is right in the end, Twilight has been sent out on quite a few vexing journeys here and there. With her possible new job at being a ruler, or even at the very lease a co-ruler of a kingdom. Celestia wants her to stay safe, though at the same time she would want Twilight to learn to make the tough calls and live with them, along with having to go out and do a princesses duty…even if what’s asked of her may not be her job.

In the end, such trials can only make the young alicorn stronger. “Twilight is capable of many things, and no matter how you may try and spin your excuse…yes I know what you’re thinking about. The young princess is sure to become better from such things,” she slightly scorns her husband, while at the same time trying to make a point.

“Okay…” he tries to admit, seeing as even for him. It’s rather hard to hide what you really think from your own wife, “She is frail when it comes to certain things, but if you trust her, and want her to get stronger… then I guess the only thing to do is send her in to Tartarus.”

“Oh come now, this is not the worst thing that she has been sent to do,” Celestia rolls her eyes at her husband, “after all this could just be a coincidence here.”

“More than likely though it’s sure to be a huge problem waiting to blow up in our face…” Discord taunts her, while sipping from his bottle.

“Well I know you would enjoy a little chaos thrown in to the mix for good measure,” she winks at him.

Now the spirit of disharmony himself takes a gulp of his drink after his wife's response, almost gagging on the burn he is experiencing going down his throat at the moment. Just in time to have Twilight and Flash walk in to the room after the door is opened for them by a pair of guards, each saluting Flash by his presence. Celestia makes her way around the table and throws a hard hoof on her coughing husbands back. Getting only a rather odd look from the young couple that just walked in as they look at one another, and then to the married couple in the room.

“Umm…did we miss something here?” Twilight asks.

“Oh nothing…” Tia plays it off, “just Discord here biting off more than he can chew at the moment, so the usual.”

“You’re funny, dear…” he looks behind himself to see his wife standing there with the widest grin she can muster at the moment.

Getting back in to the play of things. Both Discord and Celestia take a place at the table to try to fill Twilight in on what exactly was found. Celestia brings out the medical report, passing it to Twilight so she can get a look. Taking out a pair of glasses from her back pack draped over her back, Twi sets them on her muzzle. Quickly taking note of the perked up eye brow that her guard gives her at the sight, she just returns it with a simple smirk, as they both keep quiet for now to her mentor about what happened last night at the park. As she flips through the files though, she is even able to see the issues that run in with this little find.

“And this is for sure?” Twilight asks the royal pair across form her, as she passes the report to her guard for him to see.

“It has been run several times at this point,” Discord answers her, rubbing his stomach as he feels the groaning of the drink already hitting him this early in the morning, “and they all come out to that.”

“You see…” Celestia explains, breaking out the memory of the report and hitting every piece she can, to make a point, “the body that was brought from Ponyville turned up a few interesting things along its corpse. Some were just normal minerals that you can find anywhere in the nation, though in particular there was something rather special found on, or more so, in the body…”

“…crystal dust from the same ones found in only the Crystal Empire,” Twilight finishes her mentors sentence.

“Seems that this changeling, and the one me and your brother dealt with, might have something in common after all,” Flash tags on to her comment as he looks at he papers.

Both regal mares look at one another, putting that piece of the puzzle in place as Discord brings out another report and places it on the table, drawing out a little tack to place as he twiddles it in his fingers first. “On top of this, a certain mineral was also found that after closer examination… and luckily several hours of looking through the library by yours truly,” he says rather proud of himself, before tossing the tack up in the air, “the only place it can be found in all of Equestria is… there…” Discord finishes off as the tack lands right where he wanted on the map, “Oddly enough, it’s the same place where some of the crystals for the Empire were once mined long ago.”

Twilight and Flash look over the map and find where the spot that was marked is now. Finding the area between Canterlot, and the Crystal Empire, in a small mountain range there. “He has a lot of that mineral on him, to the point that it was even inside of his own lungs and stomach, probably from living around it so much and breathing in the fine dust, along with it getting mixed in with his food,” Celestia explains to the two, “so I would have to bet, that’s where he spent a lot of his time, between travels. On top of that, a few of the mountains have caves in them, though many aren’t more than a hundred feet deep. Only a few could serve as a home to more of the creatures if there are any.”

“He certainly is the traveler,” Twilight looks at the map once over, “going from these mountains, likely to the Empire, then ending up at my house.”

“That’s where the next part of you coming here to talk about this comes up actually…” Celestia looks over to Discord to see if he is going to say anything smart while she starts this off, considering his earlier expressions of doubt in this matter, “… some pony has to go and check out the area, the larger caves in this case have been marked on a travel map, and in this case…well.”

“You’re sending me out there?” Twilight looks at her mentor, watching her nod.

“Well actually you, and Flash here…” Discord points out watching the spring in the guards eyes return as they snap open at attention, “along with several other guards for good measure, I mean after all it would be just cruel to have only one guard on such a trip like this.”

“Thank you for the backup, sir,” Flash acknowledges, looking over the map a bit more with Discord himself as they talk more so in terms of backup, “What type of support are we looking at?”

“A few unicorn guards. The Pegasus guards would be able to make the trip, but the thick forest that dots the area around the mountain would inhibit a lot of flight, plus the possible cross winds affecting them as they get higher in to the mountain could cause harm if they crash… blah, blah, blah,” he spits out from his tongue, “long story short, walking would be best to go about this whole thing, even for you. There’s really no rush, this could be absolutely nothing after all…” Discord eyes the smug look on his wife at the moment.

“And I’m sure it will end up as such,” she sees the glare from him, gesturing her student to follow her out while they let the two guys talk with one another about the support and overall what to expect exactly. All the while Twilight and Celestia step out to talk about the trip itself, taking it upon themselves to walk about the castle and chat.

“Well it should be an interesting trip,” Celestia points out, “even if you don’t run in to anything on your way.”

“Let us hope that is the case, princess,” Twilight elaborates, not really looking forward to the few days journey it would take to make that.

Considering there are no tracks for the train that head directly off in to the mountains. It’s already summarized that at some point during their train ride, they’ll have to get off and hoof it for the remainder of the distance. Not particularly looking forward to the little excursion that they’ll have to make to find this one out. ‘At least we don’t have to walk all the way,’ Twilight welcomes the thought with open hooves, though it’s already weighing on her mind of what she has to get ready to do now. So much so that she manages to completely miss the princess asking her something.

“Twilight?” Celestia says again to her.

“What? Oh, sorry about that,” she rubs her eyes. Immediately her mentor takes notice of the slight dreariness in them.

“Hmm… long night out?” Celestia asks while she and Twi pause for a moment, looking up and out of a balcony at the rest of Canterlot.

“Oh you could say…” Twilight starts to blush, while playing with her mane with her own hoof.

“Well I am glad to hear that the rest of your night went great after we left…” Celestia beams at her honestly, “…but we can talk about that later as well when you get back, for now… when could you be ready to leave?”

Twilight thinks for a moment or two. Considering that she has only a bag to pack for now, and on top of that the guards that still have to be put together, along with her own (very) personal escort. Then again though, when the sun princess next to her demands something to get done, it is sure to happen. So it shouldn’t take forever for the pieces to fall in to place, all in all, Twilight comes up with a final answer.

“Tomorrow morning, bright and early… we can take the first train headed towards the Empire to get close, and then go from there,” Celestia is rather pleases to hear this indeed, as she brings out a scroll to send off to the guards and a few others to get things together.

“Thank you, Twilight, for this, I’ll see that you get all that you need for your trip…” Celestia wishes her the best of luck in her travels as for the next several hour are spent getting things ready for the trip upon them.

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Sitting there with the princess’s head on his lap for the moment, Flash looks out the window at the terrain going by before them. Slowly and softly stroking the dark blue mane with pink and violet highlights with his hoof, he knows that she has her work cut out for her if anything does happen. Though he hopes this is truly nothing, and they can look around and pack back up for home.

They left as early as possible this morning, with half a dozen guards in seats around them. The others take their time to sharpen their swords and spears that only a few carry, while the more adept unicorns prefer to focus on magic than anything, and are left mediating in silence to themselves. The trip is rather smooth as the train rides along the tracks to carry them as far as it will allow, soon enough though they all know they’re going to have to walk.

They have been at this for the better part of the morning after all, and both Flash and Twilight figured that they will have to travel for about five hours to get to their drop off point. Looking at the unrolled map in front of him, Sentry estimates only about a half hour more till they are there. Slowly he gets up and rests the princess’s head carefully on a pillow, so it doesn’t seem that he’s missed. The highest ranking guard steps out in to the middle of the aisle to address his colts as the gestures them to wake up and listen.

A few of them nudge the ones sleeping, and once Flash has their attention, he starts, “Okay, you all know the basics of where we are going… some mountains between Canterlot and the Crystal Empire have to be looked at and investigated for signs of Changelings,” he explains, going in to the details about what they are looking for. “Do not engage unless necessary, for all we know there could be nothing, but if you see one, do not do a thing to provoke them unless done to first… after all, they could be just survivors from the Canterlot incident looking for refuge,” he tries to put out of his mind about the last two occasions when he ran in to one. At heart he knows that more than likely if they find one, the creature will give them no choice but to put it down, given their nature. But it doesn’t hurt to offer the chance to live.

“What of the princess, sir?” one guard out of the bunch asks, “was she assigned to this detail as well?”

“Princess Celestia requested Princess Twilight to lead this party…” Flash tells them even more how this was brought to them, “As her personal guard, she leads me. In terms of rank, I lead you. We are to, more or less, escort the princess to the area of interest. So does any pony have any questions?” he asks the rest of them.

Only a single unicorn raises his hoof, “are you expecting a fight sir?”

Flash takes a second to think the best way to answer that one. On one hoof, it could all be just a lone traveler that made his way around Equestria and decided to break in to the wrong house, no matter how unlikely that may seem to him. Then again on the other hoof, they could be looking at a fight once they walk in to the territory… in truth, he has no idea.

“As your higher up, it’s my job to hope for the best. I always expect a fight, as should you, so there isn’t any surprise,” he tries to sound professional in the slightest, even with him going in to this matter basically without a clue, “in the end, we should always hope that there isn’t… no matter what though, be ready for one.”

All of the soldiers with him get up on to their feet out of respect, saluting their royal guard leader with a unanimous, “yes sir!” he salutes them back, as they sit back down. Flash turns around and goes back to his little booth seat, upon sliding in he sees the open lavender eyes of his Marefriend laying there with a grin across her face.

“Nice pep talk, Flash,” she leans back up for a sec so he can sit and rests her head back down on his lap.

“Well what am I supposed to tell them?” he tries to find an answer, “after all they know about as much of what’s going on as you or I.”

Twilight can’t really say much on the matter, considering that it’s true after all. Instead she decides to lean up and give him a peck on the lips while the others on the train can’t see them for now, savoring the moment for they may not have the chance much when they disembark their train. For now though, he smiles back down at the mare now using him as a pillow as he rests a gentle hoof over her torso for the remainder of their little trip.

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The train hits its breaks and skids along the track for a few hundred feet, coming to an eventual halt. Although the other ponies on there don’t know why it has stopped, all they can see is the guards getting off of the train with a bag each of supplies, while Twilight soon follows with her own draped over her back. Once they have gotten off, Twilight signals the conductor and the train starts back up, leaving them in the dust.

The ponies watch the small dot of the train as it makes its way out in to the distance. Knowing that they are on their own until it’s called back to meet them here by princess Twilight sending word to Celestia for their pick up. The terrain around them is a little bit rocky with forest around it that stretches up and over the hills, with the peaks of the mountains that is their destination, off in the distance.

Twilight bucks up a bit to get her pack seated just right, “Well… let’s get to it,” she says to the others as they join her for the journey ahead.

Flash taking up a spot next to her in their travels, while the other guards keep in a two columns of three behind them. Following the two lead ponies to their intended location of interest. The trek is not as bad as expected, the sun is out, but even through the trees around them acting as shade, they can feel the nice breeze of the wind brushing by to give a simple cooling effect.

All in all, so long as things keep this simple it will be a rather pleasant trip.

Celestia’s sun takes its rightful spot in the highest point of the sky, after several hours of walking the ponies are starting to feel the effects. The fact that the breeze has stopped, and the fields that they are starting to encounter offer no cover from the sweltering heat doesn’t help those that are clad from head to hoof in armor. Twilight is even starting to feel the temperature getting to her, the warm sweat trails down under her wings as they lock in a lot of the heat. Unable to imagine what the guards around her could be dealing with in the sweltering temperatures.

Twilight takes a sip from her canteen to cool her off a bit, putting it back in her bag to save for later when she may need it. Seeing the tired faces on the other guards with her, the princess calls it the next time they get in to the tree line to take a break. Sending out a few of those with her to look for a source of water, with water bladders to bring it back in. The others in the meantime take out a few provisions for lunch as the time would have it, and top off their energy levels to the max.

Munching on a few slices of bread with a jam spread on them, Twilight looks over to her side and sees Flash in the zone at the moment. Looking over the map to try and figure out what they should be expecting out here in the area. Twilight has seen playful Flash, and she has seen professional Flash… this though is a totally new one for him.

‘Completely serious, in the zone Flash,’ Twilight dubs it as she watches him take minuscule bites out of the wedges of cheese that he brought with him on bread, paying more attention to the ‘road’ ahead then to those around him.

She is glad that her first Coltfriend does take the time to do his job right and plan accordingly. He has really only brought the essentials when it comes to travel. Food that will keep for a while if taken care of properly, Hard Tack that resist rotting easily, hard cheese, dried out fruit for a quick sugar rush, and on top of that several canteens of water. Unlike the others that have only brought with them maybe one or two.

‘He must have been out on trips like this a lot for him to pick up on this so well?’ she peers in the bag on his back side without him even noticing, ‘Hmm, we should talk about that later at some point, when we get the chance,’ she tells her self, getting back to her own snack at the moment. In a short while the other guards get back with fresh water from a stream, and after they have their own time to eat and refresh themselves, its back on their little trip through to the mountains.

The terrain has started to change around them as it gets steeper in some areas, then levels out with even more trees on top higher up in the air, almost having to climb up sides of steep hills that are slowly growing larger and larger. Though even with all this, they have managed to cover a fair amount of ground to final destination. The slowly dimming light as the sun is lowered back in Canterlot to make way for the moon isn’t going to help them in their travels either. Flash and Twi reach flat ground after they hit a rather steep incline, thanks mostly to their wings, and the pair reach down to help a few of the other wingless guards up to get their footing.

Once they are all up and situated, Flash looks around them for a moment before making a proposition, “the sky is getting darker, Princess Twilight…” he keeps it professional to some extent while they are around others at the moment. “We should make camp here for the night.”

“You’re right,” she looks up to the dimming sky, already agreeing him over the fact of simple safety for the others, “somepony may get hurt if we try to continue over this terrain in the dark,” she turns her attention to the others in the group as a few of them rub their weary hooves, “We’ll make camp here for the night, and continue in the morning… we don’t have that much further to go,” she assures them, thankfully seeing the edge of the mountains not too far off.

Many of them are relieved to hear this and soon take out the few rucksacks and a late night meals before calling it and hitting the hay. A couple, Flash among them, break off some the branches of the trees around them and pile it in the center of them. Starting a fire in no time with a little help of magic from the numerous horned ponies around them. While Twilight takes out her simple sleeping bag and lays it out next to Flash’s, there isn’t much talk about private matters though while the others are still up.

So as Twilight watches Flash go out to do a perimeter patrol before getting comfortable, her eyes after the long day take advantage of her and in no time at all she is out like a light. It doesn’t take long for the others to soon fall asleep as well, with a warm fire there and the peaceful night about them, it’s rather soothing to have the quaint sounds of nature about you to gently put one to sleep.