Study Abroad

"Fluttershy, as you know by the letter I sent, I'm calling you here to be briefed on your next journey to study rare creatures through out Equestria."

"Oh yes, I read that in the letter princess, thank you so much for letting me go on another!" I said to the elegant princess, smiling wide. I could barely contain my excitement for another journey, the last one was so much fun, those little breezies are so adorable.

"You're very welcome Fluttershy, after your especially exceptional work with the breezies, I couldn't have asked anyone else to go on this journey." she said, smiling softly.

"Why thank you." I said, smiling then looking around the expansive room. I could never get over how amazing this castle really was, with its massive pillars, elegant designs and beautiful stained glass windows which represent many things through out pony history .

"Let's waste no time here, follow me to the briefing room."

We then headed to the military segment of the castle on the lower levels and right to what is probably the most heavily guarded hallway in all of Equestria. It's this way due to it containing the royal armory, which is akin to a massive warehouse, needing over fifty ponies just to maintain it and catalog the tremendous array of weapons and gear. Nothing uninvited could get through this hallway, not even a poor, defenseless little mouse. When we reached our destination, she opened the door with her magic and let me in first. I walked blindly into the dark room, hearing my hoofsteps echo through out. The only light in the room came from the projector which projected a white light against the wall, I could make out a few chairs around the table in the darkness but I couldn't see much else. This is much different then when she informed me about the breezies, whatever she's sending me to study must be very dangerous... But what could it be? Suddenly I heard a loud crash as the princess closed the door, causing me to jump and spin my head around, I must have been really deep in my thoughts.

"Sorry, you startled me." I said, and then laughed lightly, releasing the built up tension. Whatever I'm going to go study can't be that bad... I trust the princess, I don't think she'd send me straight to my death.

"It's quite alright, though I should apologize to you." She said, chuckling gravely and walking toward the projector.

"Have a seat." Her expression changed to deadly serious and at that moment all of my previous excitement was sucked out of me, my assumptions were correct, this isn't going to be as easy as looking at the adorable little critters I studied last time.

I pulled out a chair on the left side of the long table and sat down on the extremely comfortable cushioned seat. Princess Celestia fiddled around with the projector before it showed an image of a charred piece of paper with a drawing and an almost incomprehensible ancient language scrawled onto it.

"The creature you're going to be researching this time around is the extremely rare and possibly dangerous Rock Golem, They're massive creatures who appear to be made completely out of stone. We don't know much about them due to their incredible ability to blend in with their surroundings, in fact all we know is on this scrap of what used to be a scroll containing information about them, the rest of the document was destroyed in a fire."

"Oh my, where was it that it got burned?" I asked, slightly worried.

"It was found in the charred wreckage of one of our ships that was meant for exploration. The ship took heavy fire from pirates on the way back home before catching fire and drifting to a shore in Ib'Xian, we recently found the ship after many many centuries of looking, obviously it was a much simpler time then so it was never found."

"Where am I headed?" I asked, wondering if it was really pirates that caused this ship wreck, those exploration ships were fast enough to outrun any other that could've been made, how could pirates have attacked it that badly? Also, why would pirates just let this ship drift ashore to be eaten by time? I shuddered at the thought of ponies going around wrecking ships just for sport. I know that pirates were borderline barbaric hundreds of years ago, but I hope they weren't crazy enough to do that.

"You're going to The Majestic Islands, south west of Equestria. You'll take a plane to Manehattan and when you're there you'll get on a boat to the island, but this is extremely dangerous because most of Eternity's Crossing is brimming with pirates, it's not as bad as when the first voyage to the island took place but it's still very dangerous."

The look in her eyes when she said those last words was very sharp and grave, staring deep into me and wordlessly speaking, I couldn't mistake her meaning if I tried... I have a high chance of dying on this journey... I still believe she wouldn't send me to my death, the princess must think I can handle this or she wouldn't send me..,. I hope... She realized I understood the danger and continued on.

"I've chosen my best men and women to go along just in preparation of worse case, that obviously being an attack of some sort." She paused and took a breath. "The ship will be well rigged with weapons as well for this scenario."

"When..." I stopped for a second to take it in, looking at the floor. "When does my flight leave?" I faked confidence, I don't want her to think now that I'm not ready, even though doubts and fears were doing laps in my head.

"Your flight leaves to Manehattan in two weeks on Monday at 10:00 A.M., your crew and ship will be waiting outside the city limits at a small shipyard."

***

I have to go back to Ponyville to tell my friends about what I have to do. I don't know how long I'll be gone but I know I'm going to miss my friends, no matter how long I'm gone I wish they could've came with me, but the princess said that they can't... Should I even tell them what I'm going to go research? I looked out the train window and rested my head on my hand, looking for an answer. All I can think about is all of the dangers and the what ifs, do I even trust that Celestia made a good choice resting this responsibility on me?

***

I arrived at the train station the next at around four thirty-five. I stepped off the train into a surprisingly empty station for this hour, there were only about twenty ponies greeting family members coming home from vacation or other such events. I grabbed my phone out from my satchel which was situated around my shoulders and looked at a message from Twilight. 'Hey! You should come by the castle when you come back from Canterlot. Even though you were only gone a few days, me and the girls miss you!' I'm happy that I get to see all of them again before my trip, I would hate to have left on such a sour note. The night before I left to see the princess, I had a small argument with Pinkie Pie over something stupid, anyway, I should probably start making my way to Twilight's castle before it gets too late. I then started off towards the parking garage to pick up my car, when I got to the red Coltswagen Beetle and slid the key into the its slot on the door and turned it. I pulled open the door and sat in the car before closing the door and putting the key in the ignition, putting the car in reverse and backing up.

***

I pulled into the driveway of the massive crystal tree house that was Twilight's castle and turned off the engine, then I sat back in the seat and buried myself in thoughts. What do I say to my friends? I can't tell them about the rock golems or where I'm really going.... But what can I tell them instead? maybe I can say that I'm studying a cockatrice instead... No that wouldn't work, we have those in the Everfree Forest. I let out a frustrated grunt before before opening the door and stepping out of the vehicle, suddenly a strong wind blew started blowing, sending leaves and other small debris askew. probably the sign of a storm coming. I held my hair from my face and headed for the elegant crystal stairs, which were glistening and refracting brilliantly in the light of the sunset, just then I felt a presence behind me.

"Oh how splendid it is that Celestia is sending you on another one of your... adventures." I jumped at the sudden voice and spun around to be faced with the mismatched face of a draconequus, Discord.

"Oh my, you startled me Discord. But how did you hear about it? I thought you couldn't teleport to the inside of the castle."

"You are quite right my dear Fluttershy, Celestia told me about the whole thing."

"What? Why?" No way the princess told him about this, she doesn't even trust my friends with the secret of these creatures.

"Well the princess told me so that I could help you along with this journey, sadly I had to refuse due to my incredibly full schedule." He made a calendar appear, every single day except for the Sundays were full of stickers with little pictures of him on them that said 'Me Time'.

"I just wanted to congratulate you for this splendid occasion!" He gathered me in a terribly tight embrace.

"Uh... Thank... Ow... You Discord." I strained out of my almost crushed lungs. He then let me go and said. "Well toodle-oo my sweet Fluttershy." Then he vanished into the night, it always makes me uncomfortable when he calls me that but I never have the heart to tell him. I turned around and hurried up the stairs, I have no time to ponder why she asked him, I've kept the girls waiting long enough.

***

"Surprise!" Said all of my friends in unison as I walked into the banquet hall of the castle, I would've jumped if I hadn't remembered that twenty-two years ago today I was brought into this world by my mother. I smiled at everypony warmly as they ran up to me and embraced me, this one being far more pleasant than my previous one with Discord a few minutes ago.

"Thank you so much girls! This means so much to me, you know, that you all remembered." It was just my friends at the party, and gladly, I would not be able to be around people at the current moment with all the pressure of keeping this secret on my mind.

"No way we could forget your birthday Fluttershy!" Said Twilight Sparkle, her wings fluttering slightly because she was happy.

"Okay, since she's here, let's dig into that cake!" Said the light yellow pegasus, licking her lips. Verbal consent was given from everypony and they all headed towards the table to slice the extremely tall cake, no doubt baked by Pinkie Pie. Oh yeah, I never got the time apologize about what I said before I left, I then grabbed Pinkie's arm lightly as a signal for her to stay back a moment.

"Hey, about what I said before..." She the looked me in the eyes very seriously.

"It's fine, forget about it, no need to stay mad over something so silly."

"Are you su-" "Look, we're friends so their is no need to hold pointless grudges." She interrupted, smiling and then walking away towards the table to claim her slice of cake which was already on a ceramic plate with a fork beside it. I followed shortly after, picking up my plate and standing next Rainbowdash who was making a strange face of disgust and then began enjoying the cake.

"Mmm... Nice job Pinkie! this cake came out... delicious." I said, upon placing the small bite of what I could only hope was vanilla cake into my mouth and chewing.

"Thank you, it's actually a new recipe that Maud gave me! She told me to replace all of the flower with dirt and ground up rocks!" With that comment, a residual groan of disgust went through the five of us as we spit out the concoction.

"Aww, c'mon! I was looking forward to that cake!" Said Rainbowdash with utter disappointment in her face and voice.

"What? It's good!" said the pink earth pony, her voice muffled due to her shoveling the cake into her mouth

***

The two weeks flew by and now here I am, at the Ponyville airport, bags in hand waiting for my flight with my friends.

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