Those two days had gone by awfully quick and Twilight found herself waiting anxiously at the train station in Vanhoover, wishing at least one of her friends had been there to support her. After sitting there for a short eternity, enjoying the most persistent drizzle ever, her silent reverie was broken by the arrival of a pegasus chariot, bearing both princesses, another unicorn and a miserable looking earth pony.

"Apologies about our lateness Twilight," Celestia said as she nuzzled her. "I'm afraid Miss Octavia was rather reluctant to leave without her instrument." She indicated the earth pony, who looked up enough to catch Twilight's eye and give a weak smile.

"These ponies are the ones joining me on my mission?"

"Oh yes," Celestia pointed a wing at the tall white and pink maned unicorn. "This you may recognise as the model Fleur De Lis. She is a native of Mareitania, from the region of Prance."

Twilight quizzically looked at Fleur who smiled and said "Charmed."

"And this," Celestia continued, "is Miss Octavia Melody, although her friends call her Tavi."

"Begging your pardon Princess- Princesses, but only one of my friends calls me that. I prefer to be called Octavia."

Twilight smiled at Octavia before whispering out the side of her mouth "Could I have a word with you and Luna. In private." Disappearing around the corner of the station, Twilight checked they were out of hearing range of Fleur and Octavia before exploding. "A model and a musician!? What am I meant to do with them? Use them as a distraction while I tear the Duchy down from behind?"

Celestia looked sideways at her sister before answering Twilight’s concerns. "Twilight, Fleur is a native of Mareitania and has a lot of knowledge that may prove to be invaluable. She's the reason we know as much as we do. Octavia on the other hoof is an earth pony, which will prove helpful in a country dominated by them. Don't doubt them Twilight, they may well surprise you."

"Besides," Luna interrupted, "you have one more companion who may prove useful. She is a skilled magic user and hails from Neigh Orleans, herself having some knowledge of the country. I just wish she weren't so late."

"Another unicorn in a country where unicorns are second class citizens? You sure about that?"

Luna raised an eyebrow at Twilight. "Do you not have faith in us to choose adequate companions for you?"

"That line might have worked if I weren't a princess myself. One of these 'companions' you have picked can't even keep time! How am I supp-"

"I'm here! I'm here! Trixie is here!"

"Oh no..." Twilight stood frozen as the pale blue unicorn ran up to them. She waited as Trixie fought to regain her breath and waited further as Trixie nearly fainted from light-headedness'.

"I apologize for being so late. I was in my hotel room trying to decide what was important to pack and I couldn't, so I ended up taking longer than I thought and when I found I had missed my carriage to the station I had to hoof it the entire way and Vanhoover is a lot bigger than I gave it credit for."

Celestia gave a kind look to Trixie, "It's quite alright Trixie. The others are waiting on the platform if you wouldn't mind waiting with them while we talk with Twilight."

"Oh, of course princesses." Trixie bowed and departed for the platform, but not before giving a big smile to Twilight, who just about managed to not grimace in return.

"Trixie. Why Trixie?" Twilight asked, giving Luna a flat look.

"We hath heard she is most skilled in many schools of magic. She will be a boon to your efforts."

"She's a braggart and a phoney. You have more magical talent in your plo- left hoof than she has in her entire body!"

"Oh."

"And she tried to take over Ponyville using a dark magic amulet!"

"Which one?"

"What?"

"Which amulet Twilight?"

"The... uh, the Alicorn amulet."

"Then I'm sure she learned her lesson."

"Well...yes, yes she did! But that's not the point." Twilight sighed, "A princess, a model, a musician and an egotist! Sounds like the start of a bad joke..."

Celestia wrapped a wing around Twilight. "Or the start of a great story."

"Hmmph, maybe. I just don't know what I'm supposed to do with them? I should have my friends with me."

"Tell me Twilight, what would you do with an apple farmer, a freelance vetinarian, a party planner, a seamstress, a weather pony and a baby dragon, that you wouldn't do with these three in this situation?"

Twilight looked down, avoiding Celestia's gaze. "That's not fair."

"Just as I think you're not being fair to these ponies. Give them a chance Twilight."

"Fine."

Celestia gave Twilight another hug with her wing before heading back to the platform, her sister and a grouchy Twilight in tow. "I'd like to thank you all for agreeing to carry out this task. While I realise that you all have different reasons for doing it, some of them perhaps less altruistic than others-" Twilight looked at Trixie in shock. Trixie however, looked like she could explode from pride "-I just want you to know I am very proud of you for trying. Princess Twilight is leading this mission, so if you have any questions you should address them to her. Good luck my little ponies."

Twilight was about to head over to her new companions, when a dark wing stopped her. "A moment Twilight, if you would." Leading Twilight to one side, Luna turned to face Twilight before summoning a small, dark stone from the ether. Upon the stone was a glowing green rune in the shape of what sort of looked like a stylised tongue coming out of a mouth. "This is a speaker stone. It will allow you communicate with a partner stone over great distances. To make it work all you must do is apply a magical spark. If you need advice, help or even a rescue just give us a shout; me or my sister will have its partner on one of us at all times. Do not hesitate to use it." Slipping the stone into Twilight's saddle bag she led Twilight back to where the others were waiting.

Sitting a small distance from the others, Twilight looked to Celestia and asked "So, how are we to get to Mareitania?"

"By train of course."

"But I thought there was no train line there?"

"There is, but since it’s not a passenger line nopony really knows about it. I had it constructed some time ago to facilitate trade."

"If it’s not a passenger train, how are we to get in?"

Celestia pointed to a large box lying on its side, with the lid off. "In there. Since nopony is allowed into or out of the country, you must smuggle yourself in as cargo."

"Oh this plan gets better all the time."

"Once inside the country, you'll be taken off the train and transferred to carts before being taken to the city of Stalliongrad. Once there it’s up to you to break yourself out and begin your task."

Twilight got up and was about to head into the crate when Celestia stopped her. "You may want to drink this first." Celestia was holding up a bottle containing a milky blue liquid.

Twilight took it in her magic and gingerly sniffed it. "What is it?"

"Well the journey to Mareitania is quite long, and your crate doesn't exactly have plumbing. The potion suppresses your...uh, biological needs for roughly twenty four hours. Hopefully you'll be well within Mareitania by then."

"Right." Twilight downed her potion, as did the others, hugged the princesses farewell and got herself locked in a crate. All in the name of freedom.

"I'm probably being silly, but Trixie would like to know, did they put air holes in this box?"

"Um."

The four ponies now sat in a circle in the crate as it carried out its journey to Maretania. The only sound was the click-clack of the rails since none of the ponies seemed willing to talk to the others. To Twilight's left was Fleur, who seemed to have an unwarranted interest in looking at the floor. Across from her was Octavia who looked miserable and kept making small motions with her hooves that looked like she was mimicking playing a tiny cello. Trixie on the other hoof looked far too excited and kept smiling at the others. She also kept looking at Twilights' wings every ten seconds as if checking they were still there.

Taking a deep breath, Twilight grabbed her biggest imaginary hammer and prepared to break some ice.

"So, I guess we should make some introductions since we're going to be working together for some time. Why don't we start with who we are, why we're doing this and what skills we can bring to the mission."

She gestured at Fleur who sighed quietly before speaking; "Well I am Fleur de Lis, although you can call me Fleur since my full name is a bit of a mouthful. I agreed to come on this mission since Maretania is my home country, and when I left I promised myself I would come back some day, and the chance to come back and help liberate Maretania was too great a chance to pass up. That's also why Celestia asked me to come. I probably know more about Maretania than most since I was already fairly old when I left, and she felt my knowledge would be valuable." She shrugged lightly. "As for practical skills I'm not sure what to say, I'm no great magic user or anything like that." She shrugged, "If looking pretty can be made into a practical skill though..." She shrugged again.

Trixie gave Fleur a critical look through most of that speech before triumphantly exclaiming "Aha! You can't be the real Fleur de Lis! She has a foreign...ish accent!"

The abnormally tall, beautiful and unique looking unicorn giggled into her hoof. "The accent’s just for show. I've lived in Equestria for almost fourteen years now and spoke the language perfectly well before I even got there." She tossed her mane and gave Trixie a smoldering look. "As a model it never hurts to be a little exotic," she said before winking and going back to normal. "I just didn't see the point of using it with you girls since you're bound to find out how phoney it is when you hear a proper Mareitanian accent."

Twilight clapped her hooves; "Excellent! Your turn." She said looking at the morose earth pony opposite her, while also ignoring Trixie's huff of disappointment.

Octavia traced a few circles with her hoof before speaking. "My name is Octavia Melody, which is even more of a mouthful than Fleurs' name. I prefer to be called Octavia though, and not Tavi or Octi or any other variant you can come up with. My talent lies in music and I can play most any stringed instrument, though my true love is the cello," Octavia sighed deeply, "Which I was forced to leave behind."
She lapsed into silence until Twilight encouraged her to go on. "The reason I'm coming is that Celestia asked me to, saying she needed an earth pony familiar with the ways of upper class society without being encumbered by them, which my friend Vinyl nicely translated as 'she needs a posh earth pony that isn't a stuck up noble.'"

"You told someone about the mission! It’s supposed to be a secret!"

"I know and I'm sorry, but trying to keep a secret from Vinyl is next to impossible. I told her I was going away for a few months to work and told her I would be out of touch the entire time. She just kept smirking at me and telling me I was lying to the point I either had to tell her, or kill her and hide the body! But she won't tell anypony, she's not like that." Twilight nodded gently, after her experiences with Pinkie she could appreciate that.

"Trixie can't believe you're coming just because Celestia asked you to."

"Well, there was some not insignificant remuneration involved. Musicians don't usually have a guaranteed income and the amount she offered was more than I could earn in quite some time playing the cello."

Twilight looked sideways at Trixie before looking back at Octavia. "So you're the one doing this for money?" Octavia nodded. "Oh."

"You thought Celestia meant Trixie didn't you?" Trixie asked with a pout.

"Sorry."

"Oh don't be," said Fleur to Twilights' surprise. "We're all getting paid something, lost earnings and all that. Trixie's just trying to wind you up."

Twilight gave Trixie a cool look before going back to Octavia and asking what helpful skills she possessed.

"Apart from playing music I'm also a bit of an actor, albeit an amateur one, and I am quite good at improvisation though which may have its uses. I'll try my best to not disappoint you princess."

Where did that come from? Twilight thought to herself. "You don't have to call me princess, or your majesty or anything like that. Just call me Twilight. In fact calling me anything but Twilight may jeopardise the mission, so definitely just call me Twilight." This raised a few smiles.

"Trixie's turn! Trixie's turn!" Trixie waited until she was sure she had their undivided attention before throwing her legs into the air, "I am the GREAT and POWERFUL Trix-ack!" Trixie yelped as a purple glow smacked the end of her horn. "What was that for?" she asked as rubbed her now aching horn.

"You were about to set off fireworks weren't you?"

Trixie suddenly looked coy. "Maaaybe..."

"In the small enclosed box?"

"It is quite small isn't it." agreed Trixie who suddenly felt it was too small by far.

"We're also trying to smuggle ourselves into a country where unicorn magic is practically non-existent. A country where magical firework displays are probably capable of getting a pony into an awful lot of trouble."

"You're talking awfully slow Twilight."

Twilight sighed. "Just don't do it again, ok?"

"Oh very well." She cleared her throat, "My name is Trixie Lulamoon, and I am a magician extraordinaire!" Ignoring Twilight's eyeroll Trixie continued, "The reason I am doing this is a tale of woe that goes back many years, to when I was but a young filly escaping Maretania." She looked at the others sceptical expressions. "Ok, dramatics aside, it is actually a tale of woe. My parents wanted to escape with my aunt, uncle and their children, but the guards caught wind of the escape attempt and caught most of us save me, my aunt and her two children. Those of us that did escape made it to Equestria, where I was raised by my aunt in Manehatten. I don't really remember much of the escape as I was very young, but I do remember my parents. My aunty said that if they were alive they'd probably be back in Neigh Orleans and I was hoping that during our mission we might be able to locate them. If it interferes with the mission, then it can wait...but, y'know."

Twilight placed a reassuring hoof on Trixie's shoulder. "I can't promise we'll find them, but I can promise we'll try," she said to the nodded agreement of the other two. Trixie gave them a shaky smile in return.

Things fell silent for a bit until Fleur smirked and gave Trixie a sly look. "Soooo...what does the great and powerful Trixie bring to the table?"

"What doesn't she bring! The Great and Powerful Trixie is a master magician, capable of defeating even the most deadly creatures with her amazing skills! I could tell you about the time I defeated an ursa major-" Trixie looked at Twilight who was clearing her throat very noisily. "You ok Twilight? I'll have to admit that first aid is an area my skill is perhaps...lacking...a bit."

Twilight stopped clearing her throat and instead asked what practical skills Trixie had. She then facehoofed as soon as Trixie looked away.

"Well the thing that The Great and Powerful Trixie is best at is illusions." To make her point she lit her horn and made a magical copy of herself that sat next to her and mimicked everything she did. "They can't talk and they aren't corporeal, which is something I've been working on but can't quite get right. Yet. But they are rather convincing to look at." Even Twilight had to admit to being impressed.

"So I guess that concludes introductions so I think we sh-"

Trixie waved a hoof in Twilight's face. "Ah ah! What about you princess? You don't get out of this."

"Oh, right. You all seemed to know who I am so I didn't really think it was necessary."

"It’s probably not, but you're still going to do it. Trixie demands it."

"Ugh, fine. My name is Twilight Sparkle and I am a princess of Equestria, not that it’s some secret or something. Why I'm doing this is...well, because Celestia asked me to if I'm honest. But this mission is important and I'm glad to help. As for practical skills...well...I am pretty good at magic and I can fly which I'm sure is going to come in handy at some point." Twilight laughed nervously, she always was bad at saying how good she is.

Trixie just looked disappointed. "How about the fact you're a freaking alicorn! Stop being so modest Twilight."

"Speaking of," said Fleur, who seemed rather happy to be interrupting Trixie, "surely ponies are going to notice the wings in Mareitania?"

Twilight's horn glowed briefly as she cast a spell that made her wings fade out of sight, making her look like a regular unicorn. "Luna taught me a spell that makes my wings invisible. They’re still there Trixie," she said since Trixie had started to prod her in the side; "I just have to keep them folded all the time and hope no one catches on."

"So no inappropriate wing-boners?"

"Trixie!"

"What? It’s not like it’s a secret or something, everypony knows they happen."

Twilight growled and rubbed the bridge of her nose, as Fleur and Octavia failed to hide their amusement. "Right, ignoring that I guess we should talk about the mission, not that there should be much to discuss since we've all been briefed on this."

Trixie held up a hoof. "And what if certain ponies, naming no names, failed to turn up to the briefing in time?"

Twilight grit her teeth as she spoke. "Then I would hope that certain pony read the dossier they were given."

"Right, right. And if that certain pony got as far as reading the exciting sounding title of Operation: FreeMare, but got no further?"

Twilight looked to the other two who seemed to have a sudden yet engrossing interest in their hooves. Taking a calming breath she looked back to Trixie. "You're telling me you don't know what we're doing here?"

"With a name like FreeMare I assumed it was some kind of rescue mission."

Twilight groaned and buried her head in her legs, leaving one of the other two to sort this out. After a quick game of rock paper scissors, which they drew, Octavia swallowed and just got it over with. "Miss Lulamoon, operation freemare is a mission to tear down the government of Mareitania, thus freeing it."

"Oh." Trixie frowned in concentration for a bit. "Oh! Operation freemare! Free-mare, as in Mareitania. Now I get it. Good name."

Twilight peeked from between her forelegs. "That's it? That's your reaction? Wow. You're a lot calmer than I was when the princesses told me."

"Pfft, I tear down governments on a weekly basis. This should be nothing." Her eye twitched, but thankfully the others were too busy looking at her rictus grin to notice.

Taking another breath, Twilight explained the mission. It didn't take long.

"That's it?" Trixie exclaimed, "There's no master plan? No great scheme with possible shenanigans? Kinda underwhelming there."

"Yep. First step is the journey there which, by my count, is going to be at least another eight hours. And that's just the train."

"In that case, Trixie brought playing cards if it helps pass the time."

Twilight gave Trixie a stare so level you could have built things on it. "You were late because you couldn't decide what was important enough to pack. Yet you brought playing cards."

"What? I'm a magician! What'd you expect from me? So, everyone know go fish? I'll deal."

"Blackjack's far better..." Twilight grumbled to herself.

"Are we there yet?"

"For the hundredth time Trixie, NO!"

Twilight wished she had packed some headache pills.

The crate lurched as the train came to a shuddering halt.

"Does that mean we can get out of this fresh air forsaken crate now?"

"No, now we get transferred to carts and taken to Stalliongrad."

"Aww-eep!" Trixie yelped as the crate was lifted up and swung around, sending its occupants flying; before being put down with a heavy thud. "Clearly these ponies don't know the meaning of fragile." Trixie said from somewhere from beneath Fleur.

"Probably can't read." Fleur muttered as she tried to disentangle herself from the others.

"How much longer now?" Trixie asked once she shoved a stunned Octavia off her rear.

"About seven hours now to Stalliongrad according to what Celestia said."

"Oh for ponies sake, worst travel method ever!"

Author's Notes:

I think I should apologise now for the talky nature of some of these early chapters.