It didn’t matter if the bed was comfy or the room was comfortably airy. As always, Gale Force woke up before her parents did. She found the way the sunlight flooded into the room and gave it a natural glow to be pleasant. She walked up to the slightly-ajar balcony doors and pushed them open to the best of her ability. The young Pegasus then stepped out onto the balcony and looked between the bars of the railing. At that moment, she heard voices and looked down to see deer marching around the castle in well-timed steps.
They sang in a chant-like manner, “Hup, two, three, four! Keep it up! Two, three, four! Hup, two, three, four! Keep it up! Two, three, four! Hup, two, three, four!”
In a burst of excitement, Gale raced back into the room and jumped on her parents’ bed. “Mommy, Daddy, get up! It’s the deer! It’s the deer! Come on and see!”
Sky Blitz, still asleep, drowsily said, “That’s nice, honey.”
Whirl added in the same sleepy manner, “Why don’t you run along and make friends with them?”
Gale said, “Okay.” She ran out onto the balcony and flew over the railing before flapping her wings towards the deer patrol.
The leader with red armor shouted out, “Company…sound off!”
The deer sang, “Oh, the aim of our patrol…”
One deer sang, “Is a question rather droll…”
“For to march and drill over field and hill…”
After he blew his woody horn, the leader sang, “Is a military goal…”
“Is a military goal…Hup, two, three, four! Dress it up! Two, three, four! By the ranks or single file…over every country mile…Oh, we stamp and crush through the underbrush…”
After blowing his horn a second time, the leader sang, “In the military style…”
“In the military style…”
Gale flew right up to the last deer in the line and asked, “Hi there! Whatcha doing?”
The deer gently shushed her, “Shh! Drilling.”
She whispered to emulate the deer, “Can I do it, too?”
“Sure. Just do what I do. But don’t talk in ranks. It’s against regulations.”
Gale landed on the ground and marched behind him while copying the rhythmic hoofsteps he did.
The leader called out, “To the rear…march!”
When the deer in front of Gale turned around, he saw that the filly was still going forward. He nudged her gently, “Oh, the other way. Turn around.”
After Gale changed direction and now marched in front of her deer friend, the leader sang, “Hup, two, three, four! Keep it up! Two, three, four!” He called out again, “To the rear…ho!”
When the deer changed direction again, Gale didn’t seem to notice until a few moments later.
She ran the opposite direction to keep up with the deer when the leader commanded, “Company…halt!”
All of a sudden, she hit the deer’s leg and fell to the ground.
The deer asked in concern, “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, but why did you stop?”
“Because ‘halt’ means ‘stop’.”
The leader then ordered, “Company…left face!”
On cue, the deer and Gale (with a little direction) turned to their left.
“Inspection…heads!”
On the leader’s command, the deer bowed their heads. Gale was uncertain what to do for this.
Her deer friend clarified, “This is when we let the captain see our antlers. But since you don’t have antlers, maybe you can show him your wings instead.”
The filly spread her wings and asked, “Like this?”
He nodded, “That’s right.”
The captain said as he passed by each of his comrades, “Good…Good…Not bad…Could be better…Ugh! Rootstock, what did I say about banging your head against the wall?”
Rootstock answered, “I can’t help it! Being here is so frustrating! I mean, why do we have to listen to that fat cat of a king? He’s -“
“Shh! You can’t say that while we’re here! Look, I know serving Gladmane isn’t easy, but we have nowhere else to go. We can’t afford to be out in the world right now. You understand, don’t you?”
Rootstock sighed in defeat, “Yes, Captain.”
“We’ll discuss this later.”
The captain continued his inspection until he reached the last deer in the brigade. After he inspected his antlers, he heard a small voice say, “Hi!” He looked down to see a small Pegasus filly with her wings and smile widely spread out.
The leader bent down to her level and asked playfully, “And who is this? A new recruit?”
She cheerfully told him, “I’m Gale Force!”
He chuckled, “I’m Captain Blackthorn.” He shook her hoof as he said, “Pleased to meet you.”
“You like my wings?”
“I think they’re very nice. What brings you out here?”
“I saw the parade and wanteded to join.”
Suddenly, Skyla’s voice echoed through the arched walkway serving as an entrance to the palace, “Gale!”
The filly turned around to see Skyla trotting up to her.
“There you are! What are you doing out here?”
“Like I said, I saw the parade and wanteded to join.”
Skyla looked up to see Blackthorn all stiff with his wide eyes denoting…fear? Then again, it could’ve been the shyness Gladmane had mentioned.
The unicorn nervously apologized, “I’m so sorry she interrupted…whatever it was you were doing. Come on, Gale. We’re going to have breakfast now.”
As the ponies entered the arched walkway, Gale waved to the deer, “Bye, Captain Blackthorn!”
Skyla hardly touched her food at all. She kept thinking about Blackthorn and how some part of her was strangely attracted to him. Could it have been his lean frame? The red armor on his body? Or was it perhaps his brilliant gamboge eyes, regardless of how shrunken they were the moment he saw her?
Seam asked in concern, “Hey, Skyla? Are you okay? You hardly touched your breakfast.”
Skyla nodded, “Oh, yeah. I’m fine. I was just thinking about -“
Gladmane interrupted, “The kids again? Y’all must be worried sick over them.”
Starling assured him, “We really have nothing to fear. As long as the Guardians are up on Paraddock, I’m sure the kids will be all right.”
The king nodded, “Of course, of course! When the Guardians are on the job, you can guarantee they’ll have Grade-A success.”
Discord spoke up, “I’m sure they will. Oh, by the way, you never told me where you got your necklace.”
Gladmane chuckled, “Are you sure y’all wanna hear it? It’s pretty long.”
Gemstone said, “Now that I think about it, I would like to know who made your beautiful necklace. Perhaps I can wear a piece like it for a ball. Oh! Maybe even the one you’re hosting tomorrow night!”
The Earth stallion smiled, “All right. Since there’s no way outta this, I’ll tell ya. Besides, this baby’s how I got my kingdom in the first place. This gem right here was the key to my success.” He cleared his throat and began to relate the story, “Ya see, a long, long time ago, Las Pegasus was just your ordinary little village. It wasn’t all big and fancy and there were no amusement parks in sight. It was a lowly old town, really quiet, and it relied on trade for business.
“I came from a long line of tradesponies and was training to be one myself. But I wasn’t like my family, no. I had dreams. Big dreams. I wanted to become rich and famous and in charge of my own business.
“One day, I went to the flea market to barter some items. And that’s when I saw it: a golden necklace with a large ruby. I knew that it was perfect for my mama, so I traded my bottle of Appleloosan apple cider for it. Of course, Mama wasn’t pleased with it so much because it was huge. But luckily for me, I kept the necklace just in case.
“Just a day or two after I got the necklace, this kingdom appeared out of nowhere. When we explored the city, we found it was empty. No king, no ponies, nothin’! So, the town decided to have a contest: whoever had the shiniest and most priceless object would be ruler of the kingdom. Of course, I won by a landslide with this baby. I was declared king and the rest is history. So, whaddya think?”
Everyone was silent until Fire Spark spoke up, “Well, that’s really something.”
“I know. That’s why I keep my necklace with me at all times. A) it’s a reminder of my life-changing decision, and B) it’s something of a good-luck charm to me. I doubt you’d ever find a piece of jewelry like this.”
Discord couldn’t help but feel that there was something more going on here. Did Gladmane know that something was living in his amulet or not? The spirit of chaos was tempted to ask about the silhouette in the necklace, but decided against it in case the king knew more than he was letting on. Besides, if Discord was going to solve this mystery, then he needed to do the drastic: steal it.
The Guardians, children, and Silver Tongue left the chateau after breakfast and followed the badger until they reached a grove of trees that were either sickly or barely growing wishing stars.
Nova asked, “Is this the grove you were talking about last night?”
Silver nodded, “Yep. This is the one.”
Cuff pointed to one of the few wishing stars that reached maturity, “That one’s pretty! Can I have it?”
Silver looked unsure, but then Mischief used his magic to pluck the star off the tree. The antlered colt said, “Here you go.”
Cuff cheered, “Yay!”
Turquoise fussed, “That’s not fair! How come he gets to have one?”
Gabby explained, “Because he asked nicely.”
Roller added, “We would pluck more off for you all, but there’s not that many left.”
Silver huffed, “Indeed. The faster we can restore Paraddock, the sooner the wishing stars will grow back on the trees.”
Flurry said to the kids, “And that means you all get to have one.”
In an instant, the kids zipped off as they cried, “Let’s go!”
The adults raced behind them as they called out, “Hold on!”
Silver panted, “My, are these children lightning fast when they’re determined?”
Skater answered, “Crazy, I know, but it happens.”
Meanwhile, the children were racing each other through the woods.
Oddball said, “Betcha can’t catch me!”
Ruff said as he trotted faster to keep up, “I can so!”
The mix-matched colt scoffed, “Ha! I have wings! I can fly!” He then took to the air.
Turquoise said, “Hey! I can fly, too!” She also took to the air and flew hard to keep up with Oddball. “Not so fast, Oddball! I can’t keep up!”
Oddball taunted, “You hafta go faster, then!”
“Well, I don’t have crazy magic to help me out!”
She then heard voices behind her telling her to slow down. She glanced behind her to see the other kids disappearing behind the trees. When she turned her head to the front again, she gasped as she realized she was going to hit a tree! She took a sharp turn to the right to dodge it and yelped as she dodged branch after branch until she abruptly splashed into a river hovering above the dirt bed. She gasped for air as she frantically bobbed up and down the moving water.
She called out at the top of her lungs, “HELP ME! HELP!”
A few moments later, Flurry cried, “Turquoise!”
Roller said as he trotted towards the flying river, “Keep your head up, Turquoise! Here I come!”
Skater shouted, “Wait, Roller -!”
Splash!
Roller was now gasping for air while trying to swim to the hybrid filly.
Skater muttered, “Idiot’s gonna get himself killed!”
As Roller navigated the tumultuous liquid loops and bends to get to Turquoise, Silver asked in irritation, “Can’t any of you use your magic to teleport them out of the river?”
Blaze answered, “FYI, the river is making it hard for us to focus on them since they’re moving in and out of sight!”
Suddenly, a huge swell of water took Roller and Turquoise further up the river.
Nova Rose cried, “Hurry! We can’t lose them!”
As the group began running alongside the crazy river, Apple Butter asked, “Wait, where’s Zealot?”
In a mere second, her question was answered by his voice shouting, “Mischief!”
The group looked up to see Zealot standing on top of a rock formation slightly higher than the trees in the forest.
Again, he shouted, “Mischief, up here!”
Mischief immediately teleported to where Zealot was. He looked down to see the floating river halfway between them and the ground.
Zealot said, “I think from this angle, you can use your magic to levitate Turquoise and Roller up here.”
Mischief asked, “But what if the river decides to act crazy again?” Suddenly, an idea came into his head. “So why not fight crazy with crazy? Thanks, Zealot!”
When Roller and Turquoise were coming up to the rock formation, Mischief concentrated very hard on materializing a boxing glove. To his delight, a super-sized version of the item appeared out of thin air and Mischief used it to punch the river. The water carrying the two in distress suddenly spurt them into the air. Almost immediately, Mischief enveloped them in a green aura and grunted as he set them beside Zealot and him. As Turquoise and Roller coughed up the water from their lungs, the others raced up the rock to join the four of them.
Ruff said, “Gee, Turquoise. Why’ja hafta fall in the river?”
Flurry said in a firm tone, “It’s lucky she didn’t get really hurt. Now, no more races in a place you’ve never been in before. We don’t want any more accidents like this.”
The kids nodded solemnly, “Yes, Flurry Heart.”
Silver said, “Now that the matter is settled, let’s resume our journey. We’re wasting valuable time here.”
As the prim and proper pony began to make his way down the rock formation, Blaze muttered under his breath, “Eesh! In a hurry, aren’t we?”