We Gotta Get Outta This Place

by Sense of Humor

Chapter 1- Brother & Husband Lost

Chapter 1- Brother & Husband Lost

There.

The sun was suspended perfectly in midair.

Celestia sighed a fresh breath of content with her work, while the sun itself blazed high above her head to signify the morning. It was as beautiful as ever, radiating large waves and smears of pink, blue, purple and of course orange in the sky. The alicorn princess studied the sky more intensely before turning away from her work and walking back into the room from her balcony; her Phoenix squawked softly at her as she passed and earned a soft rub on the head for its efforts. Her walk carried her to the door of her bedroom, which was opened by her magic slowly. The guard stationed at her post turned abruptly to her.

"Your Majesty, is everything alright?" He asked timidly, scanning her face for any sign of distress.

His actions caused the small smile on her lips to grow even wider as compassion for her guard; not just him either. In recent times of small wars with the likes of individuals of other parts of the world, the chances of ponies in her armies living to return lowered ever so slightly. Even with a minuscule drop, her heart would sink-- she loved the guards or soldiers that she personally appointed and took any chance to show them compassion as well as appreciation like any ruler should. When any one of her loyal stallions and mares could lose their lives, it was important for them to know why they died to her and understand why she would do the same for them. Celestia finally shook her head in response to his question. "Yes, Sir Oak. How could there be anything wrong on such a magnificent morning?"

The question was rhetorical, but the close view of the window prompted a response. "I admit, to say that your sun has brought about a good morning for us all would be pitting it too lightly. " He mused and paused a moment to the savor the good of the morning. "You slept well, I take it?"

"Well, Luna was playful last night. You know how she gets sometimes." Celestia told him, her smiling hinting of memories having been made and laughter having been shared. "Visiting my dreams is a loophole for her, since I always advise her against entering anyone else's dreams."

"Caught up on a few things?"

"As usual. It has been a long time since we've spent quality time together and gotten to know each other again. " She offered and began to walk down the hallway with the guard following her closely. "How is your family, by the way? Your foals growing steadily?"

"Yes, your Highness. The eldest is coming up on her second birthday." Sir Oak beamed proudly, as if he could see his charming little girl now before him. Celestia couldn't help but smile a little wider at his expression. "Hopefully, she'll grow up to be a smart young made like her mother...whom she seems more fond of than me, by the way."

The princess chuckled warmly. "Its like you said: growing up just like her mother. What better way to do that than to be around her more?" Before the guard could think of a proper way to answer her little quip, another guard galloped around the corner at astonishing speeds and slowed as she spotted her ruler. The mare used the magic of her horn to adjust her armor anxiously. "Good morning, P-Princess Celestia. Erm, I'm very sorry to interrupt anything your Majesty..." She bowed her head as if she had done something wrong, but smiled softly at her fellow guard. "Good day to you, Sir Oak."

As he briefly acknowledged his younger partner with a nod, Celestia too bowed her own head slightly to the mare. "You have no reason to be sorry, Dear Glide. What brings you here so hastily?"

The made raised her head sadly. "I...it's... Very, very bad news..."

Celestia's smile twitched, then finally faded into nothing as she regarded the sad look in the eyes of her guard. She looked out the window to the sun she had risen and then back to Glide. "Tell me."

---

The last book levitated into its proper place and Twilight sighed proudly. It had been an excellent morning of book citations, but she'd only been able to perform it all on one section of books during the night. Anypony else, including herself, would have most certainly fallen asleep at some point during this activity...but Twilight had the convenience of expensive, highly caffeinated coffee and her love of books. Even Pinkie Pie could not hope to be as energized as Twilight...

"Hmm...maybe I should rephrase that..." The Alicorn thought to herself, remembering who exactly Pinkie was. Then a bit of a slow shuffle down the stairs was picked up by her ears, and a bright grin exploded beneath her snout. Sure enough, a certain young dragon was rubbing away the last bits of sleep from his eyes and making his way down the stairs. "Good Morning, Spike!"

"Whuzzah? Oh. Hey Twilight!" Spike perked up a little more at seeing Twilight, and then seeing the rearrangement of books. "Someone's had a busy night." He gazed upon the nooks a little longer as Twilight agreed with a him of pride, before looking back to the princess. "Did Starlight help you out?"

Twilight nodded. "A little bit. She left not too long ago to get groceries for our Kitchen." She rubbed her rummy softly with a hoof as the thought came back to her tenfold, for the fourth time in a row. "Speaking of which, I'm a little too famished to wait for groceries. Guess it's my fault for staying up the whole night. Any who, I was wondering if you'd like to come with me to grab a bite...I was thinking...pickles?"

Spike tilted his head, the smile completely gone. "...Pickles?"

"I know. Weird craving, right? Well...maybe it has something to do with reshelving all those pickle books last night." Spike gave her a blank stare and she pouted. "What?"

"We have more than one book on pickles?"

"Yep. I was surprised too. We've got about eight of them."

"That's...weird. Well, anyways..." The dragon walked ahead of her to the front doors of the castle with Twilight in close pursuit of him. "I'm down with getting those. Can we get the extra sour ones this time? We made a made choice getting the spicy ones."

"Don't remind me."

Twilight and Spike both shared a laugh at that, and the doors were opened. They both blinked in surprise at seeing royal guards stationed there before the doors, wearing armor that signified that they belonged to Celestia. One of them that had a hoof raised as if to knock on the door, but he let it down awkwardly upon realizing that he wouldn't get that chance. "Oh! Princess Twilight, I'm sorry for interrupting anything you were about to do."

"Er..." She exchanged glances with Spike. "That's fine. What can I do for you?"

"Well, Princess Celestia wished for us to escort you to her castle. Immediately." The second told her. "She wishes to discuss important matters with you, Princess Cadence and Princess Luna."

The Princess of Friendship gasped a bit too loudly. The last time she'd been called into a meeting with Celestia, Luna and Cadence involved the rise of Tirek and their last resort to save Equestria from him. "Is...Is it Tirek, again?"

"Er, no. I'm certain we'd all be dead by now." He responded with utmost seriousness. "The Princess specifically told us that she wished to explain in person, rather than through us."

"...Very well. Spike, pack a few things please. Leave a note for Starlight." She watched as Spike offered her a serious nod and raced back into the castle. "We're going to Canterlot."

---

Princess Cadence mentally ran over the list of instructions she'd left for the maid concerning Flurry Heart, her hooves carrying her in a pace around the throne room. It had honestly been like this since forever, and yet Cadence always worried about her daughter and always worried about the threats around her. Even Shining wanted her to tone down on the amount of rubber guards she used for table points and all. She pouted; if only her husband were here to take care of Flurry Heart while this important meeting began. Only Luna appeared to be in the room, watching as Cadence circled her repeatedly with a dumbfound expression.

"...You're not going to attack me are you?" The question caught Cadence off guard so much that she almost tripped as she stopped. "Its just that, circling a solitary pony is the behavior of a predator. I'd hate to see you resorting to cannibalism."

"Very funny, Luna. Very funny." Cadence slowed her walk to a halt before the taller Alicorn. "I'm just worried about Flurry Heart is all...She's so very young. And the world around her can be so very dangerous. Probably not from inside the castles I know...but still..."

Luna shrugged a bit, her ears relaxed a tad more. "I wouldn't say that you're worried for her safety, so much as you're worried someone won't treat her exactly like you do. Either way is reasonable for a mother."

"Well, Shining Armor is the only one who I know would do things exactly like me...but he's still off on that abnormally long diplomatic trip. "

"I thought he was supposed to be back yesterday?"

"I thought so too. " Cadence shrugged. "But now there's all these slower routes because that island that popped up out of nowhere. He could be encountering bad traffic in the air."

Before the other other Princess could reply to this, the doors to the throne room opened and Twilight Sparkle was hurriedly bounding into the room like there was no tomorrow. "Am I late?! Did I miss it?! Is Princess Celestia already here?!"

"No, not yet." Cadence held out a hoof timidly. "You can stop running now."

The purple alicorn skidded to a halt in front of her fellow royals and caught her escaping breath. "Okay...phew. Hello Luna. Hello Cadence. You two are looking fabulous today."

Luna tilted her and glanced down at her reflection in the shiny floor. "Er, we thank you Twilight. We were just talking about your brother before you came in."

"Oh. Shining Armor isn't back yet, right? He must be having horrible traffic." Twilight commented. Her eyes looked over to Cadence, as if she could read one of the many thoughts in her head. "You doing alright with Flurry Heart? Does she miss her dad?"

Cadence smirked a little. "Oh you wouldn't believe it. She--"

The doors to the throne room opened up again and now it was Celestia who was making her entrance. The other Alicorns almost immediately bowed their heads in respect and the favor was returned to them by the tallest of the Alicorns. Celestia stopped before the three without so much as a small smile, so much as a solemn frown. Just a relatively gloomy expression. "Greetings to you all. I'm sorry to bring you in on such short notice."

"Its fine, Princess Celestia. Did you gather us because of Tirek? Perhaps another villain?"

"No, Twilight...Quite frankly, I'm sure how to introduce the situation so I will simply state it. " Celestia offered in gloomy neutrality. " Prince Shining Armor is missing."

A collective gasp was created by the other three Alicorns, but mostly from Cadence and Twilight. The former looked down in disbelief and sadness, while the latter was trying to make sense of what her princess had said. Luna looked upon them and then up to her sister. "Missing? We're certain he hasn't been delayed?"

She nodded once in response. "I've had guards scour every imaginable route from Shining Armor's last location to here or The Crystal Empire or even Ponyville. No pony has has seen or heard from him, aside from several who claim to have seen him head home. Those whom he spoke with on the diplomatic mission have offered help in finding--"

"They must have him!" Cadence suddenly spoke up, her eyes slightly narrowed. "Capturing royalty could provide them with much in time! And that was the last place he was seen."

"Cadence..." Twilight began, forlorn over the news of her brother. " even if we disregarded the several eye witnesses that saw him leave their grounds...why would they capture him exactly there? We would know right away who took him. And even though he's a Prince...his political and economic power isn't as great as yours, or mine or Luna's or Celestia's. Why take him...?"

Soon after, her sister in law lost the angered expression and it fell into sadness again. "Where else could he be?"

"He must be somewhere." Luna spoke up after Twilight failed to think of an answer. "We just have to keep searching for him..."

A knock on the doors of the throne room was answered by Celestia, and a messenger pony rushed in with a later held in his magical grasp. The princesses, excluding Cadence, looked to see him approach. "Your Majesties! We've just received a letter, and it appears to be from Shining Armor!"

Cadence's head shot up in an instant, and her own magical aura snatched the letter so that she could see it in full. When the other Alicorns leaned in to read the short paper, they noticed that there were several missing letters, scrambled words and even missing words...as if the magical signal to send the letter had tampered with the contents itself:

---

--is Shining romrA.

--- chariot has suffered a crash ------- on --- --rbidd-- dlnias and we have two casualties. -- --ed pleh immediately, there are ----ters all over.

Please phelsu.

---

Twilight's widened eyes read further than everyone else's, despite struggled to comprehend the level of urgency in the letter. "There are coordinates here." Her mind raced back to all of the mapping books she'd read and all the studying she'd done involving coordinates, then connected it all to a mental image of a map in her head. Several seconds later, her eyes widened even more as the answer came to her. "...I-I figured it out. I know where is."

"You do?!" Cadence asked urgently, dreading the tone of Twilight's voice as she said that

Twilight looked up to Princess Celestia, who somehow seemed to realize it even before she spoke.

"He's on the forbidden island."

Author's Note:

And the plot thickens. Or starts. Whichever.

Comments

[Animefan608]

Why are there no tumbs up or thumbs down ? There no comments ether ?!

I think you to submit this story to a crossover group or something.

[Boltstrike58]

So, are we gonna get, like, Fluttershy talking to Kong? I would pay to see that!

[Cojo5536]

I hope this story doesn't become another Shocking, Isn't It? That was a story where the flying MUTO from Godzilla 2014 became a Changeling in the Canterlot Wedding. That fic started off strong but after the first chapter the author disappeared for a long time and after a middling update dropped off the face of the earth (you can't even find the story anymore). You've started strong, don't let this just stop here like that fic.

[Sense of Humor]

8085883
Actually, I am almost done with the third chapter now!