//------------------------------// // Royal Assignment. // Story: Chronicles of the Planeswalkers // by Eagle Heart //------------------------------// "So the princess wants to see us? What for?" asks Redik. "I don't know, she didn't say why. All due, maybe it has something to do with the letter I send to her." says Twilight. "A letter?" says Aquila. "Yes, after our little adventure I decided to write to the Princess and tell her all about it." says Twilight. "Oh this is great! Maybe she is going to punish us for putting them in danger!" says Redik with anger and disappointment. "Relax Redik, I doubt that's the reason she is calling us for." says Aquila. "It is also stated that me, you, and the Dr. must go." says Twilight. "Oh my, really?" asks the Dr. taking the letter from Twilight and reading it himself. "Well I'll say, what would the Princess want with us?" "No clue, but as you can see she is requesting the presence of the three and has already send chariots to take you there." replies Twilight. "Well if she is doing all this to see us it must be important. Lets just go Redik." says Aquila. "Okay okay, but, you better be right about this not being a punishment or something of that sort." says Redik. After having a quick meal the chariots had already arrive and our group departs to Canterlot to meet with the princess. Once in Canterlot our heroes and their equine friends head to meet the princess in her court room. When they arrive the are received by non other than Celestia, but there seems to be someone else next to her, an other pony almost as tall as her with very dark blue coat and a mane which resembles the night sky "Welcome my little ponies. Oh, and humans of course. Is very nice to see you all well." says Celestia. "Thank you Princess, is nice to see you too." says Twilight Sparkle. "I'm glad that you are fine Twilight, when I read your letter I got very worried, even if you said that you were fine." says Celestia. "Oh yes don't worry, Aquila and Redik here made sure to keep us safe in that horrific world." says Twilight. "Princess Celestia." says Aquila interrupting them. "As pleasurable as it may be to chat with one an other I have to ask you to please tell us why have you summoned our presence?" asks Aquila. "Yeah, and who is nighty over there." says Redik as both Twilight and the DR. Whooves face-hoof to Redik's remark "Nighty?" asks the dark blue mare, standing next to Celestia. "Yeah nighty, you know, with all that dark blue fur and starry sky mane. You have all that night theme goin' on." replies Redik. "All due I do not detect malice in your words, it would do you good to refrain from future attempts of nicknaming me. You would do good to show some respect to royalty human." says Nighty with a stern look. "Excuse my friend here, he generally is well behaved... well some times." says Aquila as Redik looks at him with daggers in his eyes. "If I have to guess, you must be the other monarch of this land." says Aquila. "Yes, this is my sister Princess Luna." says Celestia. "Is nice to meet you both, planeswalkers, is not often that we see your kind in this world." says Luna. "Well yeah, this is pretty new for us though." says Redik. "Anyway princess?" says Twilight as she looks to Celestia. "Oh yes, well you see. After reading Twilight's letter about your great and dangerous adventure to that violent world and hearing about how you both have started training in your powers and magic with the Dr. here. I have come to the conclusion that I have to ask you both some questions." says Celestia. "Questions?" asks Redik. "Yes, I would like to know first, what are your intentions right now. Are you both staying here in Equestria for good or would you be leaving us when your training with the doctor here is complete?" says Celestia. To this words Aquila and Redik both look at each other with knowing glances and after a few seconds both of our heroes direct their gazes at Celestia and say. "We are staying." they both say in unison. "This place is very cool and it has a lot of potential for me to make a name for myself." says Redik. "Yeah, it is nice, very quite and beautiful with nice peop- ponies living here." says Aquila. "So both of you wish to stay and do not harbor any feelings of returning to your original planes of existence?" asks Celestia. "Well, I might consider returning to my world. But that would only be to finish a job I left pending. After all I am a man of honor." says Aquila. "In my case I might want to go back and give some idiots a payback for what they did to my guild, besides I don't know what has become of them." says Redik. "I see..." says Celestia as she starts lingering in thought. "So since you both are going to stay here anyway you'll need to become citizens of Equestria, and as every normal citizens you'll both need jobs and places to stay." says Luna "I totally didn't think about that." says Redik. "What a surprise..." responds Aquila. "As my sister had said, you will both become our subjects then, I expect to be no problem with this?" says Celestia. "None your highness." says Aquila. "Nope." responds Redik. "Good then, from now on you will both become citizens of Equestria." says Celestia "Oh man now I need to get a job." says a depress Redik. "Even if you hadn't become a citizen you would still have to look for one. After all, we cannot live from Twilights generosity forever you know?" says Aquila. "I know I know. Aaaah but what could I work in? I'm a soldier and I don't think I'm good in anything else." says Redik. "And I'm an Assassin, a job not well careed for here, as far as I can see." says Aquila. "About that." says Celestia "Me and my sister discussed this and we think we have something for you both." "Reeeeeeallyyyyyyy?" says Redik with shinny eyes and a face full of hope. "Yes really, hehehe, Luna" says Celestia as she then chuckles at Redik's remark. "Dr. Whooves? Based on your opinion, how are they doing on their training and do they seem to have any talent or latent potential?" asks Luna to the Dr. "Oh yes, yes, quite a lot of raw potential I see in this two fine sirs over here. And about their training they have become quite proficient in magic, all due, I might add that for Redik wasn't that much of a challenge in the first place of course." says the Dr. "And you Twilight Sparkle?, What is your opinion on this two. Are they trust worthy of us?" asks Luna. Twilight raises her hoof to her chin and starts thinking, she then looks at both of our heroes to the ayes and after meeting both their gazes she simply smiles and looks back to the princesses and says. "After spending this little time with them, all do it may not be much I must say that I trust them with my life. That is the honest truth." Both royal pony princesses look at each other with smiles, then both turning their eyes to out heroes and Celestia speaks "Then I think we may have ourselves our new special task unit." says Celestia. "Special task unit?" asks Aquila. "Yes. You see, some time ago we received reports of strange dissapearences occuring in the little town of Wood Hooves near one of the borders of the Everfree forest." says Celestia. "We sent a small group of royal guards to investigate this but..." says Luna. "They never reported back did they?" says Aquila with certainty in his voice. "Yes..." says Luna "We were thinking about sending a bigger force to look for the missing unit and to find out what is going on there. But since we don't know whats going on, it might be too risky." says Celestia "we even considered going ourselves to investigate in this matter." says Luna. "But then, I received Twilight's letter. When I read about what you both did I thought that I might have found what we where looking for. You two are very skilled wizard warriors with your own particular set of traits that might come in handy for different kinds of missions. This being from direct approach situations, to undercover missions." says Celestia. "So what do you say? Will you both work for us in this Special task force. We promise that the pay will be very generous." says Luna. Both our heroes look at each other with wide smiles. "We are in!" reply our heroes. Celestia stands from her seat and after walking some steps forward towards Aquila and Redik she then says. "Good then, it is official. From now on we the Royal Pony Princesses form the Special task unit code name 'Planeswalkers'. Your first mission will be to go to the village of Wood Hoofs and investigate the dissapearences and the faith of the royal guards that were sent there, may this be your first royal assignment." They all say their goodbyes and left the palace. They were all flying back to Ponyville on their chariots, this time Aquila was in the same one as Redik. Aquila has been in deep thought the entire ride, he finally says to Redik, “Redik, I've been going over the possibilities of what could happened. With what I keep coming up with, I'm slightly worried.” Redik chuckles, “I'm sure it's nothing, after all, this is the most peaceful place I’ve ever been to.” Aquila just rubs his chin as he thinks about the situation, “I'm not so sure...” They arrive in Ponyville. Landing near Twilight's home, they depart from their chariots. Aquila thanks the guards that pulled them on behalf of everyone else, and the guards left to return to Canterlot. “When should we begin?” Redik asks. “Well perhaps as soon as possible. Twilight, do you have any books on the law of Equestria?” Aquila turns to Twilight as he asks this. She brings a hoof to her chin for a second as he thinks and says, “I do think I have one somewhere, would you like me to go see if I can find it?” Aquila nods and Twilight goes into her library to go search for the book. “Why would you need a book on Equestrian law?” Redik asks. Aquila turns to him and says, “Because, I don't want to break any for this investigation, and if my suspicions are correct, it will help us a lot if we knew how the laws work around here. Plus, if we are to become citizens, shouldn't we knows the laws of the land we live in?” Redik shrugs, “I guess so, but I'm still one-hundred percent sure that this is just something a little weird and nothing serious. After all this place is like a paradise.” Aquila shakes his head, “All lands have some form of corruption, no matter how peaceful they may seem.” Redik opens and closes his hand symbolizing talking, “You and your silly guru sayings.” Aquila facepalms, before he can say anything else, Twilight comes up from behind him levitating a yellow book in front of her. “Here you go Aquila, Equestrian law.” Twilight says as she approaches “La ringrazio molto, Twilight.” Aquila says as he takes the book in his hand. She looks at him like he just spoke gibberish. Aquila facepalms, “Sorry, I said, 'Thank you very much, Twilight.' I'm not used to speaking so much English at once.” Twilight replies to him, “It's okay, I'm actually very interested in learning that strange language, perhaps you could start teaching me after your investigation?” Aquila nods he then turns to the Doctor. “And Doctor, thank you for your help, I'm eager to continue training when we return.” The Doctor nods, “Your welcome, I hope it goes well. I must be returning to my work now, I'm sure Derpy is wondering where I am.” Aquila and Redik wave goodbye as he walks off. “I guess we must be going too, Twilight. Addio, Twilight Sparkle.” Aquila says as he begins to walk in the direction of Wood Hooves. “Uhhh yeah, see you later Twilight!” Redik says as he runs to catch up to Aquila. Twilight waves goodbye and returns to her studies. For about two hours they walk, following along the edge of the Everfree Forest. Aquila has been reading the book the entire time, almost finished with it already. Redik of course was trying to interrupt him and get his attention the entire time, seeming to be very bored. Redik taps the book one last time making it move and making Aquila loose his place. Finally Aquila snapped and raised his voice, “Dannazione arresto Redik! Permettetemi di leggere questo libro in pace prima che lo alimentano a voi in un muso (Damn it Redik stop! Let me read this book in peace before I feed it to you in a muzzle)!” After he finishes, he stares at Redik with daggers in his eyes. Redik took a step away from his companion, realizing he pissed Aquila off. He walks a couple feet away from Aquila, letting him read in peace. They finally reach the small town of Wood Hooves. Literally, it was right next to the Everfree Forest. Aquila had finished his book and stopped being annoyed by Redik. “Alright, here's the plan. Redik, I want you to look around the town for anything suspicious. If you find anything, come find me, do not investigate further. I am going to ask around town and see if I can find any information about the disappearances.” Aquila tells Redik. Redik sighs, feeling like he got the unimportant job, “Ugh fine.” He walks off into town and begins looks around for clues to the disappearances. Aquila walks into town but another part of it, asking around for information on what happened. Listen to this for added epicness. After another couple hours of investigating, Aquila finally overhears something. He sits down on a bench and keeps his head down, secretly listening to the conversation between two ponies. One of them having a black coat and brown mane, he is clearly a earth pony. The other has a red coat and green mane, a unicorn. “Do you have them?” says the red one. “They should arrive soon. I assure you, these are quality organs.” replies the black one. Aquila wants to get right up and interrogate them now. But that would ruin things, so he keeps listening. Selling organs is illegal and is punishable by banishment. “Good, I've spent too many bits on this already, at least I can finally finish my research.” the red one says. “Yes, and remember...this conversation never happened.” the black one replies. Then he walks off. So does the red one. Aquila smirks, “I have a lead.” he says to himself, he quickly stands up and follows the black one. Waiting until they are secluded. The black earth pony walks into an alleyway in between buildings. Aquila follows, but he climbs onto the rooftops. Once the pony is far enough in the alley, he jumps down and grabs him. Aquila forces him up against the wall with his left arm, and he extends his hidden blade, holding it to the pony's neck. “Alright cagna! (bitch!) I want you to tell me who and where your supplier is of those organs you are selling!” Aquila growls to him. “AH! Okay okay! I'll talk! I don't know his name! He only goes by 'Surgeon'! He isn't very far into the Everfree and he often hides out in a cellar there! That's all I know! Don't kill me, please!” the pony says with tears coming out of his eyes. Aquila retracts the blade and throws the pony to the side, “Il piacere fare affari con voi ... uscire e non tornare più indietro. (Pleasure doing business with you... leave and never come back.)” The pony didn't know what just Aquila said, but he ran. Fast. Meanwhile, Redik finally found the edge of the Everfree forest in his search of the town. He sees a small trail of blood going into the forest and he raises his hands in the air about to cheer at his success, but he decided not to attract attention to himself. He runs back into town to go find Aquila, only to smash into him. Aquila fell back but quickly rolled and got back to his feet, brushing himself off. “Bah! Guarda dove stai andando la prossima volta, ragazzo.(Bah! Watch where you're going next time, boy.) Anyways, my suspicions were right.” Redik stands up and gets the dirt off his robe. “What?” Aquila nods in confirmation. “It is someone, known as the 'Surgeon'. I'm not entirely sure, but he's our best bet.” “Yeah, and I found a trail of blood leading into the forest here.” He points into the dark forest. “Then we'd better go before he gets anymore ponies.” Aquila says, running into the forest. Redik follows along, making sure his robe doesn't get torn by any branches. Aquila doesn't seem to care if his gets torn. After a few minutes of searching, they finally see a cellar door on the ground. Aquila notices a padlock on the handles, so he extends a hidden blade and sticks it into the keyhole, fortunately he was able to pick the lock with it. He opens up the doors with them each letting out loud squeaks and rusty noises. Aquila walks in and there are torches lit along a long corridor, but how long it is, is impossible to tell. Redik grabs a torch off the wall and follows Aquila as he begins walking through. Aquila holds his hand out for Redik to stop. “What? What is it?” Redik asks. Aquila doesn't say anything and he looks around. Redik shrugs and takes a step forward. “No Redik!” Aquila lets out, he puts his hand on Redik's face and pushes him back. Aquila then leans back and two giant blades swing from the walls and just barely pass in front of Aquila, a tiny piece of the cloth from his hood falls in front of him. The blades to do not return and Aquila glares angrily at Redik. “Next time you should listen.” “Whatever” Redik stands up and makes sure not to step on what appears to be a pressure plate. Aquila helps Redik along the way not to step on any pressure plates, and watching out for himself. They continue on and eventually reach a large wooden door. Aquila opens it and it lets out a foul smell, one of decay and rotten flesh. Redik quickly covers his mouth and holds his stomach, his face turns green, he looks very sick from just the smell alone. “MMPF!” He lets out, trying not to throw up. Aquila opens the door all the way and walks inside, what he saw almost made him turn green too... Dead ponies everywhere, laying in piles, hanging off the ceiling, chained to a wall. All the suspended ones had been cut open and had organs removed. Redik walks in with his eyes closed, “What do you see?” he asks Aquila. But, before Aquila could respond, Redik bumps into something. He feels something wet and squishy on his face and opens his eyes, his head was resting on the stomach of a suspended pony. “AAAAAHHHHHH-” he yells out. Aquila covers Redik's mouth before too much noise could be let out. He does this because he notices a pony in the distance, it must be the Surgeon, because he seems to be working on something on the table. “Redik, if you don't want to continue, you can wait here.” Aquila tells him. Redik just nods and quickly runs out the door and shuts it. He goes to the side of the corridor and throws up. He sits down and rests, trying to clear his mind of what he just saw, trying not to pass out Aquila continues on and listens to the crazy pony talking to himself. “Okay let's see here, I need to get some of these out for today's order and one liver.” the crazy pony says as he works inside the body of one of the dead ponies. Aquila breathes in for a moment and jumps from the shadows, surprising the Surgeon. He grabs the pony and extends his hidden blade, driving it into the Surgeon's neck, causing it to turn red with blood. He gently lays the now dead pony down on the stone, cold, and bloody floor. “Requiescat in pace, Chirurgo (Rest in peace, Surgeon.)” he says as he stands over the insane pony's dead body.