“The Great and Powerful Trixie shall now demonstrate how to properly clean a Kitchen!” Trixie said with some of her show pony flare. She had been at Patrol HQ for a few days and actually fit in pretty well.
Cloud Kicker gave a giggle and said, “If you insist, Trixie.”
“For this demonstration, Trixie requires a volunteer!” Trixie then dropped her flare and looked to Cloud Kicker. “That’s you, Cloud Kicker,” she said easily. Cloud Kicker gave a nervous chuckle in response. Trixie raised an eyebrow at her. “You were the one to make the massive mess…”
Cloud Kicker sighed, “I know. But hey the first cake was really good and you all liked it. I don’t know how it was the second one made this mess, especially the part in the oven.” She gave a grimace at the mess that was the oven.
“Still a mess is a mess,” Trixie said. Cloud Kicker sighed again before shaking her head at herself and getting to work with Trixie.
As the two ponies were cleaning, a small filly gave a girlish giggle. “Come on mommy… I’m not that little anymore…” Derpy was nuzzling her littlest filly and tickling her.
“Sorry Dinky... But mommies always find it hard to admit how much their little fillies have grown,” Derpy replied with a wide grin. Dinky wasn’t too upset in all honesty.
The whole patrol plus Dinky, who was there while her mom went on a quick round earlier to make sure a situation was dealt with at the moment at least, were in the common room at the HQ. It was a large room with a full kitchen and lots of tables and comfy chairs and pillows. The patrol just finished a small celebration to officially welcome Derpy into their ranks. They had a different plan at first, but Derpy told them she had to bring Dinky with her so it had to be family friendly.
Dinky was supposed to be with her father that day, but a situation came up at the store he owned in Ponyville as part of his normal life as a pony that he still had whenever he could. He had to be there to take care of the situation himself. He was going to bring Dinky with him, but she would have found being held up in his office kind of boring and bored fillies usually get into lots of trouble.
“Hmmm...” Bon Bon hummed aloud as she was contemplating her latest candy creation again. She had brought several for the patrol to try and they really liked them. Dinky especially liked the sample candies. Bon Bon however was always very careful and serious with her craft. She was still very proud to be a part of the patrol and thankful for it and happy she could still keep working at her candy shop as well.
She had been briefly tempted to join a group one of her fillyhood friends talked about called S.M.I.L.E., (Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria) but changed her mind when she and Lyra found out about the Ever-Free Forest Patrol. She was glad about this choice because she didn’t have to keep secrets from Lyra and when she looked at the two closer she realized SMILE was more about glory of the hunt and woefully uninformed about the many beasts of Equestria despite claiming otherwise. Bon Bon took a moment from her musings regarding her newest candy creation as she thought back to discussing SMILE with Naruko. It was rather enlightening.
---- Flashback Starts ----
There was a knock on the door to Naruko’s office. She still thought that was impressive in its own way that she had an actual office. She even had one in Canterlot as well from what Luna told her, but she had yet to visit it. “Come in,” Naruko said to the pony behind the door.
Bon Bon walked in the office and looked as if she was a little worried about something.
“Bon Bon, what’s on your mind?” Naruko asked.
“Well… There is something I want to talk about, but it is kind of difficult and sort of possibly secret…” she said nervously.
Naruko raised an eyebrow at her. “You do realize I have taken a much heavier and important Magical Swear than you have? There’s also the fact I’m Equestria’s Contracted Guardian. I actually have the highest level of security clearance you can get in Equestria and Princess Luna feels she shouldn’t keep much secret from me due to my duties as Grand Captain alone.”
Bon Bon gulped and nodded. “I’m also not sure how… ummm… legal it is… and I really don’t want to get any pony in trouble…”
Naruko grew a little serious as she motioned for Bon Bon to take a seat. “What is it, Bon Bon? I’ll try to help the best I can.”
“Well… you see… before Lyra and I heard about the Ever-Free Forest Patrol and decided to sign up. I was given another opportunity from an old friend of mine. Lyra doesn’t know about it and I decided it didn’t matter, but after everything here, I’m not so sure anymore,” Bon Bon said with a sigh.
“Do you want tea or anything for this discussion?” Naruko asked. Bon Bon nodded thinking the tea might help her get through this discussion.
Naruko’s horn glowed and a copy of herself appeared next to her and went off to make some tea. Bon Bon had heard about that ability the Captain had, but was still shocked to see it for real. “Wow… can other unicorns do that?” she couldn’t help but ask.
Naruko gave a chuckle. “Maybe, but not a lot. It takes a lot of magic and concentration and isn’t too easy usually. I’ve always had more magic power than I could do with and it got even worse once I ended up becoming a Contracted Guardian. Shot my control all to hell on top of everything else. I still have to really work at it even now.”
The door opened again and the pony clone returned with some tea before then bursting into smoke and disappearing. Naruko gave Bon Bon a cup and filled it before doing the same for herself. “Now. You were going to tell me something,” she said bringing Bon Bon back to matter at present.
“Yeah. I don’t know if you are familiar with them, but there is a group of ponies that call themselves the Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria or SMILE for short,” Bon Bon said.
Naruko actually nodded to this and surprised Bon Bon. “We do know of them. Princess Luna is even keeping a close eye on them for two reasons.”
“Really?” Bon Bon couldn’t help but again ask a dumb question.
Naruko nodded. “Since you are aware of them. I’m guessing they approached you for recruitment.” The candy making Earth Pony nodded. “I don’t know how much you know about them, but they are more or less run by a group of rich and often bored ponies looking for an adrenaline rush and glory while taking pride in not being able to talk about it with other ponies.”
“That’s kind of what I think now that I’ve been here with the Ever-Free Patrol. I’ve talked a little with my friend who tried to recruit me for SMILE. Haven’t told her too much, but she was really impressed with the training we go through,” Bon Bon said.
“While they had been trying to push for becoming an official government agency, they didn’t get it. They are much more reckless and not really as dedicated as we are to protecting. No one will end up joining the Ever-Free just to feel more important and take pleasure in knowledge others don’t have like happens with a lot of the ponies in SMILE. The training and entrance tests for joining the Ever-Free take care of ponies with just that thinking. Because of this, Princess Luna is keeping a close eye on them in case they do something that we will have to clean up,” Naruko said.
“And the second reason?” Bon Bon asked. She was glad to hear the princesses knew about SMILE and were keeping an eye on the organization.
Naruko gave a smirk here. “Well despite their original intentions and the atmosphere of SMILE. There are some ponies in it that are there for the right reasons and have the right skills to really help out. When it comes to expanding the Patrol, these individuals will be approached and given a casual suggestion of looking into the Ever-Free Patrol. We won’t really force them or actively recruit them, because the Ever-Free Patrol is about volunteering to protect Equestria. There is also the fact that some of the potential ponies who are in SMILE might make the change on their own. We also need to keep in mind that each contingent of the Ever-Free Patrol does need a captain and while those things might sort themselves out it is a good idea to have ponies in mind for such a role.”
Bon Bon’s artic blue eyes widen a little hearing this. She then said, “If you want I can meet with my friend again sometime closer to the expansion phase with that causal suggestion. She’s from Hollow Shades. Well New Hollow Shades, but it is still just called Hollow Shades. I only considered joining because I knew she was in SMILE for the right reasons.”
“I see… I will keep that in mind and mention it to Princess Luna when she starts that phase. Hollow Shades is one of the priority settlements given its location,” Naruko said.
Bon Bon looked a bit bashful as she said, “Sorry if I’m stepping out of bonds with that suggestion. I won’t lie. There is a part of me that wants her to be in the Ever-Free. She’s always had mixed feelings about how things are in SMILE.”
Naruko finished sipping her tea and smiled as she said, “Thanks for telling me about this, Bon Bon. I know I already knew about what you were telling me, but it is still good you came to me with this. I want there to be a lot of trust between all of us in the Ever-Free Patrol.”
Bon Bon finished her own cup of tea. “Thanks for listening to me. I’m glad to be here in the patrol. If you don’t mind I would like to go now though. I promised to meet Lyra for supper tonight at our favorite restaurant in town.”
Naruko gave an exaggerated sigh. “Back to paperwork for me then… Appreciated the distraction.” The two ponies shared a laugh. “Go ahead, Bon Bon. Thanks again. Enjoy your dinner with Lyra.”
---- Flashback ends ----
Just as Bon Bon finished thinking back to that discussion, she heard Naruko’s thoughtful/frustrated sigh.
“What is it? Boss?” Lyra replied cheerfully. She had come to like calling Naruko Boss almost all the time. Naruko tried to get her to stop at first, but soon gave up on that deciding it was futile to get the mint green unicorn to just call her Naruko.
“I’m just wondering about what you said in your report. It was correctly filled out and everything like that, but the contents… What do you think about the timberwolves? You dealt with them,” Naruko asked.
Lyra grew serious. She and Cloud Kicker dealt with the situation. They were lucky it wasn’t too big of a problem in the end, but still it wasn’t easy. “They were quickly turned away and ran off in the end, but that could be they just weren’t sure what to make of us actually standing up to them in a way. I think they just happened to wander a little too far and that was it. They didn’t seem hungry or anything.”
She sighed. “Those teenaged ponies didn’t help matters either. They went a lot deeper into the forest than they should have because of a dare. We found the spot they were staying at for the dare. I doubt they will try that again, but we might need to do something about some ponies as well.”
Naruko nodded to this. Derpy sped over her eyes entirely focused on Lyra as she asked, “Amethyst wasn’t with them, was she?” The panic and concern was evident in her voice.
Lyra felt a little uneasy under the focused gaze. Derpy had quickly proven she was a pony to take seriously, even if she was probably one of the sweetest ponies you could meet. “No, she wasn’t. There were a couple of mares with the three stallions, but neither one of them were your oldest…”
Derpy sighed in relief and hugged Lyra quickly in thanks. Amethyst Star was a good pony and a very well behaved teenaged pony, but teenagers were still teenagers. She then went back over to Dinky again. The small unicorn filly looked to her mom concerned, “Big sis isn’t a bad pony is she?”
Derpy gave a smile and shook her head. “Nope. She may be a little embarrassed by mommy every now and then, but she is a good pony and she does love us deeply,” she said warmly.
“Then why would she be embarrassed by you?” Dinky asked. Her young mind was unable to comprehend such a thing. Mommy wasn’t embarrassing to her. “I mean you’re awesome, mom! You’re in the Ever-Free Patrol! You protect us. That’s not embarrassing at all. Cupid Comet’s mom is embarrassing. She’s always going on and on about beauty pageants she won when she was younger. I mean she is nice and all, but really…”
“Well, muffin. Teenagers just get embarrassed by their parents simply because their parents are their parents,” Derpy explained.
Dinky shook her head. “I’ll never be embarrassed by you. You’re cool and not embarrassing. Unlike Cupid Comet’s mom…”
“What did Cupid Comet’s mom do, Dinky?” Derpy asked. Dinky then went full speed ahead as she explained the epic tale of Cupid Comet’s mom’s embarrassing habits while she continued coloring in her coloring book.
{-} {-} {-}
Shortly after her discussion with Lyra, Naruko made a note to keep more of an eye out for Timberwolves. She was sure her and Kyuubi could make short work of them if needed, though she wasn’t sure how well the forest would survive their actions. She would keep an eye out for alternatives to this solution.
“There! See that is how the Great and Powerful cleans the kitchen,” Trixie said with a stretch. Cloud Kicker didn’t reply as she washed her hooves for yet another time. Some of the cake’s remains were refusing to wash off of her. Cloud decided next time she would be more careful when it came to baking. She wasn’t super great at it, nor was she super terrible at it, but she could definitely improve.
As the ponies were relaxing, there was a small sound as a letter floated in front of Naruko. The other ponies looked at the letter in a mix of awe and curiosity. “Princess Luna has her own means of delivering letters to ponies. No baby dragon required,” Naruko explained as she opened the letter and read it.
Her eyes narrowed and she read it again. She was in thought for a moment. She didn’t like the short notice on this one. She would barely have time to even say hello or goodbye to Twilight. Naruko teleported to her office, she could do so for short distances at least. She filed her paperwork she had just finished and went back downstairs to several pairs of worried eyes.
Naruko looked them over for a moment. “Derpy…” she said. Derpy’s gold colored eyes focused in response. “I hate to do this to you, but I have to make an immediate trip to Canterlot. It isn’t for Patrol business, but it is important. I want you to be in charge while I’m gone.”
Derpy nodded to that. “Sure thing, Captain!” she replied with a salute. The salute wasn't required but Derpy liked it and the other patrollers were slowly starting to pick up on the habit as well at times.
Naruko bade goodbye to the other ponies as well before teleporting to the library. “Twilight?” she asked. There was no response. She guessed Twilight was busy with their friends at the moment.
“Spike?” she asked. Again, there was no response.
Spike was probably with Twilight or he was hanging out with Big Mac. The two had surprisingly become good friends. Spike claimed he needed to spend sometime away from girl ponies and Big Mac was actually really good at Hoofball statistics and had a lot of what the baby dragon just said was “knowledge”. Kyuubi also joined the two at times as well.
Naruko wrote a note and hoped she would get a chance to explain it personally to Twilight soon enough, but she doubted that would be today. It was late and she was having to make a trip to Canterlot. Pegasus Chariot was fast, but it still took some time to travel. Naruko wasn’t talented enough to teleport directly to Canterlot. She wasn’t sure if even Twilight was that talented… yet. She didn’t really count the whole Twilight Teleport Express on their trip with Fluttershy. They were pretty sure that was a fluke and didn't even fully remember how it all happened.
Naruko stepped outside and looked up just as a pegasus chariot landed in front of her. She stepped on board and got ready for the ride. “Thanks for the lift guys,” she said.
“No problem. The Princesses ask us to give you a ride to Canterlot. We give you a ride to Canterlot,” the white pegasus on the left said to her as they took off into the sky.
{-} {-} {-}
Naruko donned the disguise of Little Missy Sunshine as they drew closer to the pony capital and landed. She made her way up to the secret entrance to the castle. The guards, who were expecting her, let her in without too much fuss. Naruko sighed as she made her way to the Princesses’ private study and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Luna replied.
Naruko stepped inside and closed the door while removing her disguise. “What was so urgent?” she asked.
“We’ve found another temple’s location thanks to Twilight’s hard work. We would have invited her as well, but we figured she would rather spend time with the other elements. She won’t be going on this mission with you either,” Princess Celestia said.
Naruko frowned to this. “You know she won’t let you keep sidelining her like this for much longer, right?”
Celestia sighed and nodded in response. “It isn’t that we want to exclude her from this mission. It’s just that she wouldn’t be needed and would only increase your party even more. There is still the fact that she is busy working on figuring out more temples as well. She’s made a lot of progress there, but she isn’t finished. It is still surprising how much she has discovered for us on that front.” Celestia couldn’t hide the pride she felt in her bookworm of a student at that moment.
Luna looked to Naruko and continued. “I’m guessing you’ve been following Twilight’s current investigations?” Naruko nodded to this. “Good. Then it shouldn’t surprise you too much learn the next artifact is in this ancient Temple of Music.”
Naruko’s eyes widened a little in curiosity. It was strange hearing even the princesses say a temple was ancient.
Luna seemed to nod to Naruko. “Yes, this temple of music is actually from well before Tia and I were born.” Naruko couldn’t help but gasp at that. Princess Luna couldn’t help but giggle a little at the blonde unicorn’s response. “I know it seems Tia and I have been around for all of eternity to all of you ponies, but that is hardly the case.”
Naruko gave a nervous laugh. “Sorry. It is hard to wrap my mind around that. I mean… How did ponies raise the sun and moon before you two existed?”
“Actually, they did. It took a lot of unicorns to do so, but they did. The unicorns who raised and lowered the Sun were held in high regard among other unicorns,” Celestia explained. The teacher part of her managed to slip out and give a little lesson to Naruko. Naruko gave a thoughtful expression to that for a minute.
“Regardless of that, the truth is you will need help with this temple. We aren’t sure what dangers await inside it, if any, but we want you there in case something does happen,” Celestia said getting back to business.
“Where am I going? And who am I taking with me?” Naruko asked. There were a number of ponies with music skills, even in Ponyville alone. Heck there were ponies who could sing and much more who didn’t even have a cutie mark for music.
“The temple is locked away in the mountains west of the forest by Baltimare. That forest should be easy to trek through. It isn’t like the Ever-Free Forest,” Luna explained.
“As for who is going on this quest with you?” Celestia started. “We wanted to pick ponies you were familiar with already and who were living in Ponyville. Lyra was a contender. In the end, we thought it would be a bad idea to take away not only the Captain of the Patrol, but also a second patroller, since it is still small. For this mission, you will be going with Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Melody.”
“Really?” Naruko said in a mix of surprise and happiness.
“Yes, really. Octavia is very good at many different forms of music and instruments. Vinyl does create dj mixes for her choice of career, but she has a very deep understanding of music that is rather amazing. That is partly why she has been so successful,” Luna replied.
“Plus…” Celestia started with a snicker. “The two do know how to fight, even if one is a brawler and the other very refined, so that could help.” Naruko didn’t bother to ask the sun princess which one was which. It was rather obvious in a way to her.
“We want you to have a little time to prep for this mission and to meet with Octavia and Vinyl. I am hoping you will be able to make preparations for the Patrol while you are absent,” Luna said.
“I have some ideas on that already, Princess Luna. All of the patrollers are capable, but there are a couple who have stood out a little more than the others. I am thinking of making a second in command soon. I was meaning to ask you if there would be any formal rank advancement in the patrol or not,” Naruko said.
Princess Luna gave a hum in thought. There was an old way to it, but it was a different time now and the land was in a much different situation. “That is something I will work on while you are on this mission,” Princess Luna said.
Princess Celestia looked to Princess Luna for a moment. She then turned to Naruko and said, “Sadly, there isn’t really much else we can tell you about this mission of yours. We don’t even have an accurate account of the artifact in question. We just know there is a guardian protecting it. Well... Good luck, Naruko.” Celestia then gave Naruko a hug with her wings.
“I do hope you, Octavia, and Vinyl make it through this challenge perfectly fine. I believe in you, Naruko, my Grand Captain,” Luna said with a warm smile as she gave Naruko a tight hug. Naruko felt warm in the hug. She enjoyed hugs, but there was something about Luna’s hugs that really seemed to reach Naruko.
Once they broke their hug, Naruko sniffed a little and smiled as she said, “I won’t let myself fail, you better believe it.” Princess Luna and Princess Celestia smiled to that. They wished there was more they could do to help with this mission, but they didn’t know much about this temple or the artifact.
“Feel free to use your old room tonight, Naruko. It is late," Celestia said with a mighty yawn.
Luna gave a chuckle and said, “What? Tired already? Where did that ever burning energy of yours go? Where is the Tia who had to be dragged out of pubs at 3 AM some nights?”
Celestia blushed as Luna chuckled. Celestia then gave a mischievous smile that ended Luna’s laughter. She then said, “Oh? Who’s to say I don’t simply get my partying done earlier? After all, 5pm is the traditional start of drinking and partying. Plus, Day Court sessions end at 4pm. Sadly, someone here keeps insisting on sleeping until 8 or sometimes even 9pm.”
Luna looked a little indignant to Celestia’s words as the older sister laughed in amusement. Luna then grinned as she said, “Then I guess we will just have to start our tradition of evening cocktails on Saturday again.” Celestia actually smiled brightly at this. She loved that tradition of theirs.
Friday night was the usual pony party/drinking night and so it could easily end up being a busy night for Luna. However, that meant Saturday most ponies were rather sluggish and usually spent most of the day recovering from the night before. This meant Saturdays were usually very boring and monotonous for Celestia and Saturday nights were usually the same for Luna. This being the case the two sisters used to share drinks with each other Saturday evenings. Luna would get up earlier for this fun and Celestia would usually stay up a little later as well. Fortunately, being Alicorns they didn’t usually suffer hangovers and so Celestia would be up and ready to go come Sunday as usual. Luna would recover before the night was too late and usually her escapades wouldn’t do too much more than give the astrology ponies a rather odd but exciting Saturday night occasionally.
Naruko gave a laugh to the sisters’ words and asked, “Do you two ever end up dancing in fountains claiming your love for Equestria?” The princesses laughed to that for a bit before Naruko bade them goodnight and went to her room, which was like a sizable apartment to her. The meeting with the princesses had taken some time and there was no way she was going to make the trip back to Ponyville tonight.
{-} {-} {-}
“Ugh…” Vinyl moaned as she nursed a slight hangover from the night before. She was off for a good while now, but last night easily made up for the time off she would be having in the coming weeks. She was hoping her and Octavia would get a chance to do some more work on their new concert they were planning together. It was going to be something Equestria had never experienced before and they both knew it would be amazing. It might attract a different crowd from their usual, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Still, “Ugh….” Vinyl moaned again.
Octavia snickered. “Rough time last night?” she asked with a smirk.
Vinyl looked to her with unimpressed eyes and slowly nodded. She then gave a laugh. “It still wasn’t as crazy as that night I went out with Naruko, Twilight and Fluttershy.”
Octavia gave an enchanting laugh to that. “I doubt you will ever have a night that compares to that one again. Unless Naruko is again involved.” Octavia was a little disappointed she didn’t get to have fun that night with them all, but she got over it. She still would have loved to see Fluttershy in such a mood. Now that she thought about it, Fluttershy was actually a bit more outgoing than she used to be, but she still somehow managed to have that Fluttershy charm she was known for by many ponies.
As the two musical ponies enjoyed breakfast together, they heard a knock on their door. “Were you expecting anyone?” Vinyl asked.
“No,” Octavia answered shaking her head. She didn’t need to ask if Vinyl was expecting anyone. Everypony knew you didn’t really bother visiting Vinyl in the morning after she had a show. It was just common knowledge and it wasn’t hard to know if Vinyl had a gig the night before or not, because she had a large following.
There was a second knock and the two looked to each other in question before they went to the door. Octavia was the one to answer it. She couldn’t help but think, “Speak of the devil…” Naruko wasn’t really a devil, but the saying worked well for her at times.
Naruko was grinning as she said, “Do you two want to go on an adventure to ancient temple dedicated to music?”
“Huh?!” was the response both musical ponies gave her.