Was this naughty, what I was doing?
Maybe. But in the good way, I hoped. The fun way!
Certainly, I hadn’t sneaked around so much in a long time. Difficult for me to take a train covertly, but I’d managed it. Slipped passed all my subjects with none the wiser. Quite exciting, actually. I can be subtle when I need to be.
And it wasn’t as though I was avoiding my duties. I had fully informed Luna of what I was intending to do and while she wasn’t exactly thrilled she hadn’t objected. It was only for a day, after all, or as close to a day as could be managed.
The Crystal Empire was hardly next door. But the train was fast. It was only going to be a day.
Was it rude, though? Interrupting Twilight and John? And Cadence too, I suppose. I know this was supposed to be just a friendly holiday for the two of them - Twilight to see family, John just to be shown around - but they wouldn’t mine me popping in, would they?
Since it had now turned into an extended holiday for them - apparently, given how they hadn’t returned yet - I didn’t feel so bad about appearing. It was only for a day, just to say hello.
No it would be fine, I was sure.
I imagine that the look on John’s face will make it all worth it anyway…
The train arrived and I slipped off, still drawing no attention - very fun, just slipping through. Been so long since I’d had to do that! Nice to know I’m not too out of practise. Some ponies look, but none look twice.
Not often I have the opportunity to wander the streets - any streets - without guards and without drawing attention to myself. It’s not really the done thing, for a princess, and there’s not often call for it. I’d forgotten how pleasant it was. Can take things at my own pace. Very nice.
Maybe I should do this with John sometime? I’m sure I could extend the effect. Would that hurt him though? Hmm. Maybe best not risk it. Not yet at least.
Passed the guards easily enough, too, heh. That’s probably a security floor. I’ll point that out to Shining when I see him. For now though, let’s see if I can track down John. He’s hardly difficult to spot…
So I wandered. Didn’t see any sign of John though, or Cadence, or anypony, really.
I did, eventually, spot a certain little purple princess, much to my delight. She too was wandering though slower than I was, and apparently talking to herself. If it hadn’t already been easy enough to sneak up on her this just pushed into the effortless. Creeping up behind I extended a wing to tap one shoulder and then moved around the other side as she turned to look at nothing.
It’s an oldie but it’s a goodie.
She saw me on her second turn and her eyes widened and she nearly fell over! Gratifying.
“C-Celestia?!”
“Hello! Hope you don’t mind but I thought it might be fun to come up and surprise J- you and John! Having fun, you two?”
Twilight gaped for a moment and couldn’t say anything. I must really have surprised her!
I looked up and down the length of the corridor but saw nopony - or no-one - else. Same as before, though with Twilight here maybe a touch more unusual.
“Where is John?” I asked.
I wouldn’t expect him to be too far away from Twilight. I know he has a soft spot for her, and besides - he doesn’t like being on his own, not for too long anyway. I looked though and I could not see him.
Hmm. Maybe he was doing something?
Twilight appeared more and more nervous by the moment. And, now that I looked at her, she didn’t look to be in a particularly good state to start with. Circles under the eyes, which were bloodshot, mane a mess, looking back over her shoulder…
Something was wrong. Call it the voice of experience.
“Twilight,” I said, keeping my voice level and injecting what I knew to be a good level of calm into it, immediately getting her attention back onto me. “What’s happened?”
“Happened? Heh, nothing’s h-happened it’s just - things are going great! They’re - I don’t know what you mean everything’s fine I don’t-” She sputters, avoiding eye-contact, fidgeting. I cut across this before she gets lost in it.
“Twilight. Where is John?”
Twilight has a very ‘pinned in place’ look about her now.
“John is, uh, ah, well he has been - or is - well...missing.”
I wait for this to be a joke. Time passes.
It is not a joke.
Nothing shows on the outside. Inside is another story entirely.
“What do you mean ‘missing’?” I ask, perfectly calmly, reasonably.
The corridor gets perceptibly warmer and brighter. Not a whole lot, but enough I noticed and enough for me to tell some of my control may be slipping.
I normalise it and keep looking down at Twilight. Perfectly calm.
I can hear Twilight swallow before she speaks.
“He’s...missing…”
Still calm. So calm on the outside. Have to be, really, and I have a lot of practise.
Inside is another story.
“Missing can mean several different things, Twilight. Did he get on the wrong train and end up in the wrong place? Has he wandered off into the city? Has he wandered off into the snow? Has he locked himself in a room somewhere? Fallen down between cushions? Is he hiding? ‘Missing’ does not really do much to explain the situation.”
It’s only when Twilight bumps back into the wall that I realise I’ve been advancing on her, and only then it fully sinks in for me just how distraught the poor girl obviously is. She looks about two steps away from a complete meltdown. I can only imagine what she must have been going through.
I haven’t exactly been helping. I’ve just been making it worse! Selfish, awful. Look at the poor girl! Look at what you’ve done!
“Oh Twilight,” I say, bending down to wrap her up in a full hug, wings and all. She immediately burst into tears, clinging to me.
In the bawling and sobbing that follows I pick out some details. He was on the right train, and it was while disembarking that Twilight lost track of him - after which he went missing. This narrowed down the window at least, but still left a lot up in the air.
But I could worry about that soon. For now, I had to worry about Twilight.
“I s-s-shouldn’t have left him on his own! It’s my fault!”
“Shh, it really isn’t. You didn’t do anything wrong, Twilight, it’s okay. I’m sure he’s fine. You know how he is. He’s robust. He’ll show up.”
I did not blame Twilight. It wasn’t even clear if there was any reason for anyone to be blamed, but certainly not Twilight. She’s not his keeper, she’s his friend.
“But I - “
The hug loosened enough so I could look her in the face.
“No buts, it’s not your fault, okay? We’ll find him. I take it Cadence is also helping you?”
Twilight sniffled and nodded, wiping her nose on her leg. As opposed to on my coat, where her muzzle had been before.
I think we’d both need showers after this…
“There you go then. Now you have me, too! That’s three princesses all looking for him. I don’t even think John could work his way around that, could he?”
“No…”
“It’ll be alright, Twilight. Trust me. I’m sure he’s fine.”
I did not know this, obviously, but I chose to believe it. The alternatives were too many and all unacceptable.
At the sound of approaching hooves my ears pricked up.
“Twilight? Did you come this way?”
That would be Cadence. Good timing.
My niece rounded a corner at a fair clip and was already halfway towards us but not looking at it, which meant she was halfway towards us when she actually noticed us. She stopped so suddenly she even skidded. John probably would have thought that was pretty funny. He would have been right, too.
“Ah! Aunt! I - uh - we weren’t expecting you!” She said, breathlessly, going for casual.
“It is a surprise visit,” I said. This much should have been obvious, what with all the surprise.
Cadence’s eyes flicked from me to Twilight and back again, taking in the scene and coming to the only really available conclusion.
“So you heard about…?” She asked.
“Yes.”
No need to dwell on that.
“Right. Uh…”
The impression I was getting was that, since I was now here, it was being assumed by both Cadence and presumably Twilight that I was de facto in charge. This was not why I had come here and not what I had expected, but I can hardly say I was surprised.
I broke the hug properly after giving Twilight one final, supportive squeeze and then stepped back so I could look at the both of them.
“First, let’s all just refresh ourselves - I think we’d all feel better after a quick wash, yes? Then tea, I think, and while we’re enjoy that we can start talking about how we are going to find John.”
No arguments. Good.