Super Secret Cider Squeezy 6000

by nucnik

Chapter 3 - Sender Unknown

The whiteness of the ceiling is deafening.

The previous night had done miracles in helping me relax and forget about the whole fiasco with Pearl. Partly it was down to the company; dad always knew how to get me to calm down and it almost always involved food. I still don’t know why, but if you gave me something to sink my teeth into, I would have been able to forget a meteor strike. Munching on food must have disconnected some vital part of my brain and transferred it over to tasting, but I'm no biologist, so that's just a poor guess. The fact that Fast Grass was anything but the fast-food type joint its name implies was merely a bonus that helped me turn my mind to other things. The wine I was allowed to have, since I was technically still on leave, didn’t hurt either. I didn’t dare risk getting drunk, but returning to the dorm late at night slightly buzzed felt heroic in a way. Now, though, my leave was over and with the morning washing away the dreamless night, it was time to go back into the routine of an apprentice. Only now I had something else to worry about.

Everypony at the Academy knows it by now, don't they?

I had woken up even before my alarm clock buzzed me out of bed, so I reached out to my nightstand to disengage the alarm. I really didn't want it going off while I was getting ready. As I was nudging the clock back into place, I found myself focusing on the background that was my room with never before felt hint of sadness. After the vibrant colors of my Ponyville residence, or most other places I had stayed in over the years, this one was outright sterile. It wasn’t just the ceiling that was white, so were the walls and the door. The furniture was brown, but so pale I had to wonder what tree it had come from and there wasn’t that much of it anyway. A bed with a nightstand next to it, a simple chest of drawers and a small table. It had no personality whatsoever, but then I hadn’t done much to liven the place up. Most of my things were put away in the chest of drawers and I only had a single picture of my family on the table; me, my mom and dad. I was still a colt in it, but I didn’t replace it with a newer one as that would reduce the total number of ponies on it. And that was it. I had no posters on walls, no stuff lying around the room or on the furniture. Nothing that would make the room my own in any way.

As I returned to lying on my back and once again stared at the ceiling that had greeted me when I awoke, I pondered that for a while. I never had anything against the dormitory or the ponies living there – if anything, I was happy to be there. Yet I always treated my room as something temporary. A waiting room of sorts, even though I had spent many years there and I still had a year and a half ahead of me before I would leave it. The dormitory, the Academy - they were a temporary stage that I knew I had to get through before I would reach the final destination of becoming a Royal Guard. The only thing that didn't make sense now was why it had taken me so long to form that thought, but that was a question for another day.

Just as I reached that conclusion, I heard hoofsteps tapping against the floor of the hallway. I wasn’t the only one who was awake, but even as others were walking out of their rooms I kept my gaze frozen to the ceiling, my whole body sinking in that pleasant state of warm paralysis you get if you keep motionless long enough. I knew I would have to get up eventually, but for the time being I just wanted to continue losing myself in the blank view above me. As soon as I heard the key in the door turning, I knew my time was up. The door flew open before I could form a proper frown.

“Come on sleepster, time to go!” The voice of Sweeney Pod cut through the room before I could even raise a voice in protest as the blue Unicorn unlocked the door from the outside and let himself in. Right behind him was Lakemaw, who quickly added, “Don’t be so hard on him. He has to get some rest after the vacation.” Laughter ensued.

I moved my head to the side to face them. Both were looking at me with mischievous smiles on their faces. Closest to me was the one responsible for the trespassing. Sweeney Pod stood close to my bed, his aqua blue figure blocking the wonderful view of my dull room nicely, his blue and white mane combed back perfectly, as always, and the linen eyes completing the smile of his mouth. Slightly behind him, to his left side and thus directly in front of me was Lakemaw - dark olive green, with lime eyes and a light green mane that he deliberately kept unkempt whenever possible, although this wasn't one of those occasions. He was one of the Specialists that made you marvel at the strength of the magic used in the Final Stride.

They'll have their work cut out turning his coat gray.

“Funny,” I muttered as I slowly got out of bed to face my intruding friends at eye level. Half dazed, I told them to wait while I got ready, then proceeded to the washroom for a shower and some basic hygiene. When I got back, Sweeney was slouching on my bed and ‘Maw was looking out the window. I didn’t quite make out what they were talking about when I entered the room, but from the nonchalant way in which they paused when I opened the door, I knew they weren’t having one of their occasional grand debates about regional politics or some other issue they had no real influence on. This was more smalltalk than anything else, so I focused on finishing my preparation, hearing only a haze of words behind me as I scavenged the chest of drawers for everything I needed.

Freshly washed uniform – check; assortment of brushes and cleaners - check; saddlebags – check; mail pouches – check; the will to do this – not yet, but I have no real choice, so… check.

The uniform was only the second most important item there, but the rules demanded we wear it anytime we were on official business, and keeping it presentable even on a long journey was vital. At the same time, it was another of the many areas where the real Guards had the advantage. Their uniforms were made of gold – well, Celestia’s anyway; nopony had figured out what the Night Guards’ armor is made of – which only requires some basic cleaning. Gold is a metal after all. And you don’t have to worry about stains or creases on metal.

Our uniforms were designed to look like theirs, minus the helmet and the tail ornament, but were made of hardened cloth instead. This way, it appeared to be made from something solid from afar, but if the white color didn’t tip anypony off, the visible stitches did. I looked a bit ridiculous in it. Actually, no – we all looked ridiculous in them. The only consolation was that they were probably more comfortable and easier to wear than actual Guards’ uniforms. No amount of padding can take the weight off them after all. Truth be told, sometimes I didn’t even know why I bothered myself with these comparisons. We were required to wear them so we had to. I put mine on and signaled to the intruders that I was ready to go.

After stopping by the Main Office to pick up whatever it was we needed for our missions - mail and stamped orders in my case - we moved on to more pressing matters. The first was breakfast in the lounge, during which I was quite surprised that the events of the past few days didn’t get mentioned once. I could see that they knew and it wasn’t like they pretended nothing happened, but they guided the conversation nicely, from complaining about test results to guessing which of the mares teaching at the Academy any of us would have a chance with, while at the same time carefully avoiding the realistic conclusion of 'none'. As soon as we were done eating, we took some pre-made food packets for the road and went out. The train station was the next destination, so we left the confines of the Academy and moved out into the World. Or Canterlot, if you want to be specific.

Good morning, Royal City!

For all its glamor and sophistication Canterlot was a very lively city, but in a fundamentally different way to other large cities of Equestria. In the ones that I’d been in, the ponies were always rushing to get things done as fast as possible; bringing the drinks quickly, drinking quickly, talking quickly. It was as if time was always in short supply, whereas there was a certain elegance to the fast paced movements of waiters and merchants and the like here in Canterlot. Every step they took and every gesture they made was done without a single wasted movement, ensuring that the high-brow guests and customers wouldn’t wait a second longer than was strictly necessary, yet at the same time, there was no sense of urgency in the looks and words of those doing the serving.

Looking at the ponies going around their business mirrored the life at the Academy. Oh, we had plenty to do and plenty to prove and only the best would join the ranks of the Royal Guards, but not once did I get the feeling that we should push ourselves to braking point in order to excel. We were treated more as students than the soldiers we had pictured in our minds as colts. In keeping with that, there was a gradual but constant progression of training and studying, with the best advancing through the years. I guess that’s why training started at such a young age, since this approach took longer to produce Royal Guards, but I digress. I was rather happy with that kind of working pace.

If Canterlot operated on Ponyville speed, nothing would ever get done.

I immediately regretted forming that connection. That one thought brought back everything from my vacation. I stopped mid-walk and stared blankly into an orange stand handled by a young brown colt, if only for a second.

“Are you OK?” Sweeney intervened and snapped me back to the real world.

“Yes.” I quickly turned toward him and brought a reassuring smile to my face. “I just got lost in a thought.” With that we started walking again.

“We know how your trip to Ponyville ended.” Sweeney remarked as soon as we left the most crowded part of the city, with ‘Maw slowly nodding his head in acknowledgment. “Don’t worry, I’ve asked some friends to look into who exactly it was that reported you. Once I find out, we’re gonna go visit him.”

Sweeney wasn’t the kind of stallion to make idle threats. He would say something and, no matter how insignificant or important the statement was, do it in the nearby future, often when you least expected it. For a split second I enjoyed that I could always count on my friends, but another issue soon overshadowed that thought.

If he starts going around Ponyville looking for that prick...

The last thing I wanted was more trouble with Ponyville and, in return, Pearl. If word got out that I was looking for revenge, it could spell the end of my days at the Academy. I had to act fast, so I waved him off while trying to sound as indifferent as I could.

“It’s done. They realized how stupid it sounded and that’s it. It’s over.”

Not my finest reaction, but then again I hadn’t expected him to go that far either. I hadn’t expected him to go there at all, if I’m honest.

“No. Somepony tried to set you up and we have to do something about it.” Sweeney wasn’t giving up. “Don’t worry, we’re just going to find him, hunt him down and -“ I started raising a hoof to my face in anticipation of what would follow “- have a nice little chat with him before we take him to the Academy to explain the whole mess.”

Oh, OK. That wasn’t as bad as I anticipated.

I don’t know what we talked about for the last few minutes before reaching the train station or how I got the Defenders Special ticket for the days of traveling that were ahead of me. I know I was supposed to show my approved orders to get it and I’m sure I did, but the whole thing was such a routine, I failed to notice it. Just as my mind cleared and I was becoming once again aware of my surroundings it was time to say goodbye. First to ‘Maw, who was going on a logistics course in Vanhoover and, as soon as his train departed, to Sweeney. He was on the same assignment as me only to a different city – his home town of Manehatten. Sometimes we got lucky like that. Half an hour later, my train arrived and I jumped into the carriage closest to me.

Well, this is nice!

The carriage I had entered was completely empty, which was something I had never seen before. In the best case scenario, there was always at least a lone traveler aboard with whom to talk to when things got boring. In the worst case, the carriage would be packed full of ponies, sometimes even a family with crying foals added as an added test of mental strength. But not this time.

I walked to the second bench nearest to the door and sat down. For a while, I didn’t really dare making myself comfortable. A part of me thought I must have missed something about the carriage I was in. Maybe there was a sign on it that said something about it being reserved or freshly painted or something, so I looked around and scanned with my ears for any sound of other ponies entering, but apart from all the regular hissing sounds of a waiting train, there was nothing. A look out of the window didn’t reveal anything out of place either, just a platform and ponies waiting for other trains.

Are they going to unhook this ca-

My thought was interrupted as the ear-piercing sound of the whistle echoed through the carriage. The gentle hissing of steam turned to familiar deep thumps, now going through the wooden planks like a heartbeat and slowly growing in frequency. A second later, the whole carriage was momentarily jerked forward, before it settled down into an even acceleration. I turned my head and looked out of the window in a pointless and somewhat silly attempt to confirm that the train was moving in the right direction.

It was. The towers and walls of Canterlot - the ones that I could see, looking out of the window at an angle - were slowly shrinking, the land below them basking in the crisp air and radiant glow of the Sun. I found myself smiling. A look through the other side of the carriage offered only the side of the mountain rushing past the windows, until the mountain gave way to darkness. Tunnels, one after the other, hid the scenery for a few seconds at a time as the train descended to the base of the mountain. After the train had gone through the last tunnel, forests and meadows appeared simultaneously on both sides of the carriage. As this signaled the start of the dull part of the journey, where we would be passing mostly uninhabited terrain all the way to Baltimare, I looked to my saddlebags and pulled out my new favorite book. I had planned on leaving it aside until I would get too bored on the train, but that plan was counting on one factor: that I wouldn’t be alone in the carriage. And this was a trip that would take nearly two days.

Of course, I could have always gone through the door separating my carriage from the next, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to do that, although perhaps that's not the proper word. I didn't want to bring myself to do that. I wasn’t usually one to crave solitude, but the events of the past days suddenly made it seem very attractive. I suppose there’s only so much hoof-pointing that anypony can take from others and himself before he wants to be secluded for a while. And it did feel good.

”The CloudPuff remains the most used type of train locomotive in Equestria. Named for the shape of the steam exiting its chimney, it has ferried ponies to every destination reachable by tracks for generations. Despite occasionally running out of coal and having to resort to pony power to continue the journey, it remains the ponies’ champion in transportation to this day - even Pegasi enjoy taking a trip in these proud machines.”

As the mountains near Baltimare came into view, I was approaching the end of the book. For all its drawings it was quite a technical thing, so every now and again I shifted my attention to the scenery passing by the window to clear my mind. The railroad cut a path through the wilderness. Serene landscape combined with the sense of isolation in the carriage to bring about the feeling of being the only pony alive in all of Equestria. In the next hours my mind drifted from the events of days gone by to the upcoming birthday party for ‘Maw. I already had a fairly good idea of what to do, but pulling off the surprise was a two-pony job, so I needed Sweeney’s help. Now I could just work out the details in peace and when my mind was full, I simply closed my eyes and napped for a few minutes. Another luxury of solitude that I wasn't used to on these trips.

Every now and again the arrival of the conductor brought me out of my daydreaming, but even that didn’t bother me. I didn’t want to sleep too much during the day anyway, as that would make sleeping at night all the more difficult. The other reason why I wasn’t bothered was because I sympathized with him. He must have been bored. Having to walk around a train that isn’t stopping anywhere but its destination was fruitless work, but it had to be done. Officially, he was probably looking out for freeloaders, and who knows, maybe some brave and talented ponies could have gotten the bright idea of hitching a free ride to Baltimare by jumping aboard the moving train, but in reality the conductor was merely keeping in shape by obeying the rules. Occasionally, he pushed a food cart through the carriages in the hopes somepony would buy something, but the thing always looked as full as the first time he’d come around. On another one of these visits, he must have finally had enough of wandering about.

“Ah, I see you’re still here,” he said with a note of surprise in his voice, bringing me out of my nap.

Well, where was I supposed to have gone?

“Yes, I’m enjoying the trip. I always forget how nice the Filly Hills are,” I nearly yawned back.

He extended a hoof, holding a bag of snacks and offered them to me. I looked at him for a moment, not quite sure where the sudden generosity had come from, then thought, eh, why not?, and took some pretzels. It was a rare treat, even if it was basic. All I had with me was some pre-packed food from the lounge.

“Well you still have some time to look at them, but not long. I think Princess Luna is getting ready to raise the moon.”

Now I was the one who was surprised. I sharply turned my head back towards the window on the other side of the carriage, and saw the Sun approaching the horizon. My naps must have been longer than I thought. Just as I was about to comment on this realization, the conductor kindly informed me what I already knew.

“Anytime you feel like getting some rest, just head over to the sleeping carriage. Right through that door.”

I automatically looked in the direction he was pointing at, then looked back at him and nodded with a smile, “Thank you.” As always, the sleeping carriage was at the very back of the train and seeing there was little point in staying on the upholstered bench, if I could move to a bed, I made my way to the back. During the short walk I went by a few ponies in various states of rest scattered around the five passenger carriages and one multi-pony sleeping carriage, but I didn't pay too much attention to them. Nopony likes being stared at, especially when they're trying to get some sleep and double so when they know you're walking toward the private sleeping carriage for the night. The Academy may have given us dull tasks but it sure knew how to treat us.

Before finally climbing into the bed to sleep, I tried making myself extra sleepy by reading the always boring addendum at the very end of the book. Nothing would get my eyes closed faster than some technical garble about which machine was invented when or some things like that. I opened the book and was proven right. For the most part anyway. I saw a series of dates and names, cobbled into a list by somepony who hadn’t heard of alphabetical sorting, but in the final paragraph there was something that gave me a coffee-like boost.

“Once deemed unusable and unsalvageable, the locomotives and other devices mentioned herein are transported to the Dodge City salvage yard. By being taken apart these well-worn devices ensure at least some of the metal and wood can be reused...”

Maybe my hunch about the brothers’ machine being an old railway locomotive wasn’t that far off.

Dodge huh? That's not so far… No. You're going to get in trouble. Time to sleep.

Dodge was indeed close to Baltimare, but we weren't allowed to leave our Area of Operation while on assignments. If you were smart, you know how to circumvent that rule by making the most out of the free time you have inside the AO, but Dodge was most definitely out of my current one. I tried thinking of ways to make it work, which resulted in my brain working overtime as I lay in bed. It took me until morning to fall asleep, but once I was tired enough for my brain to shut down, I found myself sleeping like a colt. Well, that’s not really the right expression I suppose – I found myself waking up close to noon, so I deduced I had slept like a colt. Thank Celestial Railways for putting heavy curtains on the windows.

With over half the journey over, I knew I should be in Baltimare shortly after dusk. When I first made this trip by myself a long time ago, I was amazed at how a routine trip to a town like Ponyville can take a full day and night, whereas not one day of travel more will bring you to a faraway city like Baltimare or Phillydelphia. On the map the distances seemed at least twice as long. As a result these kind of trips always felt like they were over far too quickly.

I wonder if I’ll ever be able to make a normal visit to Ponyville again.

That town really wasn't staying out of my mind as much as I'd wanted it to. Thankfully, something more important allowed me to brush that thought aside.

I'm hungry.

I had already eaten everything I brought with me yesterday, so I put on my uniform and made my way back to my previous carriage, hoping the conductor would come around with the same cart of goodies as the day before. Only this time, he wouldn’t be leaving without me buying something.

On the way back the ponies of yesterday, now wide awake, were looking at me with a mix of sublime wonder, jealousy and even fear as I passed them. It was like that on every train ride and at first I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but with time I recognized a pattern. Some ponies wanted to be like us. Some feared us. Some disliked us. Some were just unsure of what to think or how to act. And very rarely you met those who you could talk to as if you were just another civilian. I suppose I could have counted most of the conductors in that last group, but I was never really sure if they were being polite just because they had to be or because they were used to us. Maybe some entirely different reason.

I entered the last carriage before my own, when I saw somepony I hadn't seen in a very long time. A light brown mare with gleaming gray eyes. Her mane was only slightly darker than her body, but a thin silver stripe cut through it on her right side. She saw me as well, and before I could say anything, she smiled in surprise and shouted out to me.

“Swifty? Hey!”

It was Silverline, an old childhood friend. She looked at me with a huge grin on her face and it wasn’t long before I mirrored her expression. It had been more than a decade since I last saw her. I was more surprised that I still knew her name than that she had recognized me, but that was a thought for another day. Without worrying too much about what the other ponies in the carriage were going to make of it, we jumped towards each other in a gratifying hug. I had began to wonder how I had managed to miss her the previous evening, only to have another thought override that as soon as we hugged.

There are ponies you can live without for years and still feel like they never left your side, but there are ponies you see every day and will never be more than mere acquaintances.

“What are you doing here?”

“Going back to Baltimare. I’ve been living there for three years now.” I wished I’d known that earlier. I must have made half a dozen trips there in that year alone.

“So, you left Canterlot behind? School, business, …a stallion?”

I deliberately said the last part in a playful way. She was quite a shy filly when she was young and that's something you never really grow out of, so it made her twitch a little. She tried to hide it behind a short laugh before she changed the topic.

“The second one actually. Once I got my cutie mark…”

“Excuse me, would you kindly return to your seats? I’m afraid I’ll be needing some room for the food trolley.”

The conductor managed to mask the fact he wasn’t really asking fairly well, but then we were being inconsiderate, what with standing in the middle of the only path through the carriage. Instead of politely moving out of the way, I surprised him.

"What do you have?"

With a nicely sized dinner - for a train buffet anyway - we made our way to the empty carriage at the front to continue our conversation in private. Time flew as we talked about what we had been doing for the past ten years. I learned that she had found her calling in dancing, but her shy nature had guided her to a career as a dancing instructor rather than a performer. And how she had gone from helping out in a dance school to opening a franchise of it in Baltimare. In turn I explained my long ago predicted but nonetheless challenging climb to the Royal Guards. It didn’t matter it was still in progress; it was with a sense of elation that I spoke of the days gone by and even about the days still ahead of me.

I pointed my hoof towards the window as we were discussing the good and less good sides of Baltimare, getting ready to compliment the stunning scenery around it, when I noticed my hoof was actually pointing to the lights of the city itself. We were nearly there. In a stark contrast to the mountains and fields of grass surrounding it, Baltimare was sticking out of the ground, chiseled buildings as high as the Canterlot castle rising in great numbers from the ground.

I didn’t have much luggage to gather, seeing as my only remaining items were the two saddlebags containing the mail and a change of clothes. My old friend, on the other hoof, appeared to bring her entire worldly possessions with her. In the carriage she was in the previous day she had no fewer than three large suitcases, while her saddlebags were with her at all times, much like mine.

“How did you get these on the train in the first place?” I had doubts she could have dragged all of them onboard herself.

“I improvised.” A smug smile crept across her muzzle. I wasn’t going to get an answer to that question.

“OK.”

I helped her get the luggage off the train and after stumbling down to the platform, suitcases in tow, we made our way to the nearest chariot we could find. My DS ticket would cover the expenses, much to my friend's surprise. The taximare didn't question Silverline's presence with me despite the solitary ticket, but as I've said before, the Academy knew how to treat us. The first destination was Silverline's apartment.

"Come around if you have some time," Silverline said as she stepped from the chariot, leaving the doormare with the luggage, "If I'm not here, I'm at work!"

She smiled just as she did when she first saw me on the train and I gladly replied once more. Now more than ever I had a reason to find as much extra time tomorrow as I could, but before I could plan out my next day, it was time to check-in to the hotel. I gave the taximare the new address and waved goodbye to Sivlerline, while lamenting having to go the hotel in the first place, but orders were orders. This turn of events did manage to spike my appetite though, although not for food. Let's just say I started observing things I probably wouldn't have otherwise immediately observed after a long trip such as the one I had just had, and my eyes wandered from the sights of the city to the pony pulling the chariot.

The taximare was something special, as it wasn't very often that a regular town chariot was pulled by a Pegasus. She was pink, but it was the white mane, barely hidden behind the taxi cap, that really caught my attention. It wasn't the kind of white you expect to find on the head of an elder pony, it was pearlescent almost, reflecting light from the passing street lamps. My gaze involuntarily moved onward to her flank – just to see her cutie mark, I swear – but it was obstructed from view. Before she or anypony else noticed me staring like that I realized just how inappropriate what I was doing was. If the staring itself wasn't bad enough, there was also the point that I was in an open-top chariot that anypony could see into and that I was wearing my uniform, which was a great way to promote the Academy. So I shook my head and my thoughts with it and refocused my mind to the buildings passing us by, taking in the sights of the large city falling asleep around me, with barely a pony in the streets.

No wonder Silverline loves this place.

The smooth road brought me to the Greenlit all too soon. The sight of the old yellow building stopped my daydreaming in an instant. It was time to thank the pink pony for the trip, take my saddlebags and get checked-in to the misnamed hotel. Stepping through the narrow gates felt like going into a cavern, but the moment I passed through the doorway, the interior opened up to reveal a large lobby with a half luxurious décor and wide stairs leading to the upper floors. It was almost as if the building was undercover, odd on the outside with a hidden center within.

The receptionist knew I was coming, so I should have been on my way to the room soon, but that was a moot point. I was so well rested from the train there was no point in trying to sleep, not yet at least. A better idea was to get my keys and settle down on one of the couches in the hallway that bypassed the stairs and continued towards the restaurant. If I wasn’t going to sleep, I might as well have planned my mail route for tomorrow, but I wasn’t going to do that in the confines of my room. Being on that couch in the hallway somehow made me feel like I was still among other ponies, even if most of the guests had gone to sleep already.

The list of delivery destinations in Baltimare was not very interesting to read, although the only thing less interesting than that were the deliveries themselves. No matter the city, it was always the same greeting, the same conversation and the same bad jokes. My favorite one was when someponies would inevitably say “You come here all the way from Canterlot? Aren’t your wings tired?” and then try to hold back the embarrassment as they would realize I don’t have wings. For some reason everypony was just used to the Guards being Pegasi. Or when somepony would deliberately question my appearance. “How can you be a Royal Guard if you’re blue?” They knew full well I wasn’t a Guard yet, but it was just fun to mess with Specialists. I often wondered how those ponies reacted to those of us who were naturally white or gray. Were they quietly disappointed to lose their favorite tease or did they use something else?

With a map of the city in front of me I finished planning my route from the list in no time at all. It was quite a lot like connect-the-dots, only here I was trying to find the fastest way through all the addresses and one that preferably led to either the dance school or Silverline's apartment. With the path planned, I knew I should have plenty of time for myself the next day, but there was nothing left for me to do today, so I decided to call it a night. As I circled around the stairs and put my hoof on the first step the receptionist called out for me.

“Mister Neigh? I'm sorry, I almost forgot - you have mail!”

Great. They figured out how little I have to do and decided to pile on more.

With the hope of a leisurely workday quickly evaporating, I turned to face her. And immediately felt that feeling replaced by astonishment as I saw her holding a small package in her hooves. She dropped it on the counter as I slowly approached. It certainly didn't look like anything from the Academy, as our orders and any kind of packages were always not only clearly marked, but also the prescribed color and shape that the Academy used for mail. There were also no markings on it except for a regular Canterlot seal, my name and the address of the hotel. No sender, no return address. The receptionist handed me a note that accompanied the package.

“You always were forgetful. Next time please try to keep your books about you. Have a nice trip! Love, dad.”

If the purpose of that message was to confuse me than I had nothing else to say but job well done! That wasn’t my father’s writing and I certainly didn’t leave a book behind. I never read anything unless I had to and even then I read it in my own room at the dorm. And there weren’t many places to lose a book from the library at the Academy to the dorm. Still, it was sent to me. Not wanting to look suspicious I took the package and went to my hotel room where I unpacked the mysterious item. At least the note was true about the contents.

- Advanced formations and discipline for Guards

Talk about being dumbstruck. I knew that I would need this very book in the near future for my studies, but it was at least half a year early for that.

Looks like somepony wants me to study…

I flipped through the first few pages and stopped abruptly as a small piece of paper dropped on the ground. I looked at it for a moment and rolled my eyes at the colt-like levels of hide and seek somepony was playing with me. Then I picked it up.

“If you ever need to be someplace fast there’s a pink Pegasus with a cutie mark of an acorn that’ll be going by your hotel every two hours from noon.”

Why noon?

That meant it wasn't my ride for the mail delivery and I got the feeling it didn't mean the dance school or the apartment either. Not unless somepony had predicted my running into Silverline on the train and the subsequent invitation. But there was really only one other destination I would possibly want to visit from Baltimare.

Dodge City. Fine.

If somepony had gone through all the trouble of sending me the note in the most complicated way possible instead of - I don't know - just telling me, and had arranged for the taximare to take me where I needed to go, I wasn’t going to let the opportunity slip. There was no way of knowing when I would be able to visit Dodge City on my own and either way, there was going to be enough time to get there and back before nightfall if I had planned my route right. And if somepony from the Academy were to find out, well, I would deal with that later. But the strange way in which the message was delivered had formed a seed of doubt in my mind and just as I turned to throw the note into the trash bin, a strange feeling swept through me. The sense that this whole mess was quite a lot more complicated than I realized. That I was stepping into the unknown and it could go horribly wrong if I slip, but that I wouldn’t be able to prepare for any of it. Instead of trying to plan my approach in Dodge and think about how I’ll get the information about the brothers’ machine I went to bed, my mind devoid of any thoughts.