The detection spell is coming up negative,” Twilight confirmed with the glow of her horn. “It worked. She’s gone.”
“But the spell didn’t detect her in the first place, remember?” Starlight frowned.
“I adjusted it for changeling detection,” Twilight said with her nose raised. Something about countering Starlight’s assumption gave her a sense of pride. They competed in a way to see which one of them could invent spell alterations faster.
“Yeah, right,” Starlight squinted with a smirk. “You analyzed the magical modifications I made to the tower control panel for non-pony lifeform detection. You just copied my work.”
“You accuse me of being a cheater?” Twilight puffed out her chest, the sounds of her rising voice echoing in the large power generation room.
Starlight flipped her hair with a grin. “No, you would never cheat on me. You have too difficult of a time keeping your hooves off my posterior.”
Twilight was frozen as she was for a good while before relaxing and giggling. Starlight nodded to herself and led them out onto the rusty drab street and past the teleporter. No changeling or pony was in sight. The somber reds and oranges of the sky had shifted to a more gentle purple almost dark enough to be considered a night sky. The city was still lit as it was before though, shapes easy enough to discern in a mix of natural light and low-power glow lanterns.
“Did I tell you how glad I am to have you around?” Twilight smiled as they headed towards Ruby’s location.
“Many times,” Starlight confirmed in the near-arrogance that had become so familiar to Twilight. It was a few bars below Trixie’s, though. That was probably why it was tolerable for her.
“We still need to check with Celestia,” Twilight reminded. “But we should be safe.”
“I can’t wait to get back to vacationing,” Starlight used her magic to gently caress her marefriend’s wings.
Twilight blushed but kept focused and opened the door to the building they had last traced Ruby in. “Let’s get Ruby back to Equestria, where she can be properly questioned. I’m sure I can convince either Celestia or Luna to take on the case once we get back.”
“The Saddle Arabian king will want to coordinate with them no doubt,” Starlight added.
“You’re getting a handle on royal affairs, I see,” Twilight smiled.
“Mostly yours,” Starlight winked back.
“Wow,” was all Rainbow Dash could say. She and her friends stood in the palace’s Court of the Sky. The massive courtyard was enclosed on all sides by garden walls but was open to the sky and in the middle was anchored the airship Pride of the Stars.
“Build it big or don’t build it at all, huh?” Applejack laughed. The airship was nearly a third the size of the palace itself. At least two dozen Saddle Arabians were visible working on it from beneath the massive craft and also from on top of it – held by ropes and hoists.
King Clear Sand led them proudly to the foremost tip of the strangely-shaped ship. It almost resembled the shape of an exotic beetle with the exception of two enormous cloud-shaped bulbs connected to it from the top. Everything was encased in what seemed to be a tan wood with elaborately carved engravings all over. Depictions of Saddle Arabians could be seen along with some other strange creatures none of the ponies or the dragon recognized. Occasionally, gold accented the creatures.
The part of the ship they were nearing seemed to be an entrance, as a panel opened downward to form a ramp and an Arabian stepped out. He was tall but also more muscular than many of the others, with a black coat that somehow shined almost like silver in the sun. He stepped and bowed towards the king.
“Your majesty, repairs will require more time than we anticipated. Aft propeller 2 has a damaged stabilizer. However, she can carry under propeller 1 with reduced speed,” the servant explained with head bowed.
The king puffed up his chest and looked back to his pony guests. “The Stars smile upon us, it would seem. We will take the Pride a short distance to the Brook. There we will await the fate of your princess.”
Spike couldn’t help twiddling his claws. “Twilight,” he whispered to himself with a hint of worry. He always tried to be with her in difficult times but he was absent now. Could he trust Starlight to look after her?
Rarity tried to look down at him with a smile to cheer him up but even her attempt felt weak to herself. She was, after all, as unsure as he was. She trusted Starlight just fine but the nature of the other side of the portal was unknown to her. If Starswirl had a hoof in it, then it could indeed prove a challenge even to Twilight.
“Aw, don’t worry,” Pinkie Pie insisted as she leaned with her elbow propped on Fluttershy’s back. “I’m totally sure Twilight and Starlight have already taken care of the bad guy and are taking their time getting back so they can have some alone time safely on the other side of the portal where Spike won’t accidentally barge in when they are super kissy-wissy.”
Everyone gave Pinkie the “seriously” look that her random tirades often awarded her. Except for Spike. He was blushing from remembering the last time that actually happened.
“Come,” the king insisted as he lead them up the ramp into the ship.
Not wanting to insult, the ponies followed Spike behind the king. The small dragon was eager to get his mind on other things. In fact, he was almost pushed aside by a suddenly even-more-eager Rarity who wished to see the inside of the ornate ship more than the others.
“Oh my,” she exclaimed with sparkling eyes once they had climbed the ramp and walked through the corridor entrance. She had been on Canterlot yachts before but this was of an entirely new caliber. “Oh Celestia.”
The corridor sparkled with some sort of gem dust and would have been dark except for the colorful glow of a crystal that was fixed into the walls and ceiling all the way to the room they first entered. Rarity expected a variety of incredible polished marble for the floor, but it was simply wood like the rest of the ship and clacked beneath her carefully-kept hooves.
Once the king led them into the first room, they were all surprised to see far less décor than was anticipated. Instead of chandeliers and large furniture, there were only some light-looking pillows. The decorations consisted entirely of intricate patterns of the glowing crystals and the carvings in the walls and ceiling that even swept down across the floor.
King Clear Sand gestured to the cushions and pulled on a rope near the one he chose to rest upon. “Even without her full speed, she will take us to the Brook before sundown.”
“Her?” Pinkie Pie whispered the question to Fluttershy, who responded in an even quieter tone.
“He means the ship.”
“Such exquisite, if simple, design,” Rarity complimented openly as she got comfortable next to Spike.
The king smiled big. “Such as she is! The wood is of the few materials she could be made of, so I insisted upon a glorious design. If the ship carried any heavier a frame, she would not fly. Only the Roashi tree is so light and yet so strong. A gift of the desert.”
Spike asked what was on all the ponies’ minds, which was the strange creatures in the carvings. The king gave voice to legends even as the ship moved beneath them and the sensation of moderate speed became an unsettling feeling to them all. Only one small window across the room gave evidence that they were indeed reaching into the air.
“No! Let me go!” Ruby struggled against her magical grasp that enveloped her in the air.
“Calm down,” Twilight sighed. “We’re going to deal with you properly when we’re back in Canterlot.”
“No...” the red mare was practically in tears. The despair in her voice and the focus of her eyes, however, indicated there was something else entirely she didn’t want to face.
Starlight Glimmer finished the detection spell in the rocky field they had first arrived in and began forming a massive swirling portal-opening spell she had picked up from her magical analysis. If Starlight was good at anything then it was at this very sort of thing. It was why Twilight left it to her while she managed the rowdy prisoner.
Their manes and tails began to lift as the spell intensified.
“I hope you get the portal target right,” Twilight teased, fully trusting her marefriend.
Starlight rolled her eyes and stepped right up to the alicorn. “I’d prefer we be alone, but an audience won’t stop me.”
“Wha-” Twilight began to raise a brow in question but she was answered prematurely.
Starlight, with horn still ablaze and the spell reaching a climax, stepped forward again and sealed her lips to the other mare.
Twilight’s eyes widened and she tried to back up. She might have enjoyed her mare’s affection in her bedroom back at her castle, but she had never imagined displaying it with others around. Ruby Rose was, for certain, gasping in shock at the sight of what would seem to her to be very oddly-timed intimacy. In reality, Ruby was now worrying that she might plummet to the ground due to the fact that Twilight’s surprise and diverted attention made the magic around Ruby flicker.
Starlight stepped forward when Twilight stepped back and held the kiss. Her magic finally exploded and a rift in space split into the air with a hungry vacuum that sucked at the very fabric of reality. The three ponies were drawn in, shapes and colors distorted as they were magically propelled back to the place they had originated from.
“You were mistaken, Miss Pie,” Rarity deadpanned. “They did not remain on the other side of the portal for their alone time.”
“Heh heh,” Pinkie Pie giggled as she watched the two preoccupied ponies standing at the water of the brook.
Twilight and Starlight stood there with a magically tied up pony laying on the ground. The unknown pony had her naturally red face mixed with a difficult to see blush from watching the mares in their makeout session. Her attention had shifted to them once she had, quite gratefully, hit dry ground without harsh force.
“Uhhhh,” Applejack trailed and frowned while quickly looking back to King Clear Sand, who was standing behind them at the edge of the trail they had taken from the Pride’s landing spot. Applejack gulped in worry.
Fluttershy hid her tomato-red face behind the thick pink locks of her smooth mane.
Spike’s comment was an indication that his prior shock at Twilight’s relationship had finally given way to casual acceptance. “I didn’t know ponies liked to kiss with their tongues.”
“Spike!” Rarity hissed at him.
“What?” Spike shrugged. “I’m not the one getting all hot and bothered.”
Applejack’s worry about the king faded when he walked past them to the mares who were still oblivious to the group’s presence.
“I see you have restrained Ruby Rose,” he exclaimed with a proud boom of his royal voice.
The two magical mares broke abruptly from their kissing to behold the king of the land, as powerful politically as they were magically. “I-I-” Twilight stammered with a red face.
Starlight recovered more easily, her almost arrogant demeanor coming through along with her reduced concern of political conformity. “The situation has been taken care of,” she practically nodded to herself upon seeing Spike in her peripheral vision.
The large Saddle Arabian king knelt briefly before them in a show of gratitude. “You both have my apologies for allowing such an event to unfold and my eternal gratitude for protecting the sacred places of my kingdom. The Great Starswirl would be pleased, no doubt.”
Twilight was still blushing, but was put at ease by the king’s calm and thankful words. Her mind finally picked up on the diplomatic procedures she was supposed to be aware of as a princess of Equerstria. “If it would be permissible to your highness,” Twilight began, “I would like to have Ruby Rose transported to Equestria for inquiry and detainment.”
The king’s lip curled at a corner, pleasantly surprised by the alicorn mare’s ability to recover and make such an official request. “Of course,” he responded in kind while drawing back to his full height and smiling patiently down below. “Under one condition, of course.”
Starlight held back an eye roll when she glanced back to her marefriend beside her. She liked having an edge of confidence over Twilight because it meant she could get what she wanted with the pony. But even in Starlight’s self-confidence, Twilight was far more collected and orderly in a political exchange. Fitting for a princess, but annoying to the marefriend who still wanted a vacation away from it all.
“Yes, your highness?” Twilight nodded with a minute bow.
King Clear Sand chuckled heartily. “That I might have a friendly visit to the royal court of your great country and better know your people. That we may better the relationship of our nations as Princess Celestia has done so graciously in the past.”
Twilight tried to hide an amused giggle. Though she had only fully met him now, she could see why King Clear Sand was so well spoken of by diplomats, merchants, and Saddle Arabians alike. He was smooth and, judging by the smiles and nods of her friends behind him, he treated ponies as good as his word.
“I would be honored-” Twilight replied with a full bow this time but was caught it in when her small dip made her catch the color and shape of Spike, who had been obscured previously by both the king’s frame as well as that of Rarity.
The king’s brow raised and then his expression settled again into contentment when he saw Twilight dart around him and tackle the baby dragon in a tight embrace.
“Spike!” Twilight nearly cried, water at the corners of her eyes. Her tone dripped with relief even though she had convinced herself of Starlight’s assurances before. “You’re okay!”
“Of course I am,” Spike answered coolly, but hugged back happily all the same. He was relieved as well, though had held back the most terrible of worries due to his hope and trust in Starlight.
“Thank Celestia,” Twilight sighed and snuggled the dragon.
“Aw c’mon,” Spike said quietly. “You’re embarrassing me.”
“Perhaps,” King Clear Sand spoke up while two Saddle Arabian guards picked up the bound Ruby Rose, “we might all relax within the Pride and exchange our stories and concerns.”