//------------------------------// // Ch2. On a Mission from Celestia pt-2 // Story: Cadance Gets the Band Back Together // by Insp Jen-Itol //------------------------------// The land flew like a waterfall, rocks, trees, country farms, towns, cities, whole forests and mountains blurred together beneath the human’s flight. Evan however was much to busy to truly appreciate this fact as he zoomed and glided around the various shapes of cloud, darting between each fluffy white formation and straight boosting through the more substantial masses. His non-existent lungs where a chorus of ‘yahoo!’ and ‘wheeeee!’ reverberating around his now titanium laced skull with each new maneuver, teleport, and barrel role. This was the most exalted, pure, highest, feeling of Freedom he had ever felt before in his life. While Archwing had been at best a glorified taxi service and at worst a frustratingly restrictive game type before, here it was extraordinary! The wind! The air! The mountains! The sea! Blinking and accelerating around the sky like an immortal Icarus, he soured high beyond the clouds until the onboard systems screamed at him to turn around or face the fires of out of atmospheric transition. Then dipped at frightening speed, enough to snap the neck of any other mortal creature, to bring himself near level with the writhing blue beneath him. his hand hovering above the water just so, until finally cutting into it with all the delicacy of a preschooler, laughing as he admired the light of the planets false sun dancing between the droplets of spraying wet. Before long that mesmerizing play of light and matter ceased, as the manufactured day gave itself to the shroud of night lit only by a lesser but same fabrication. All around him now was dark sky above a darker infinite sea. The distant lights of a foreign harbour twinkled in the distance, drawing in the former humans most simple of instincts for warmth and company, but he fought these urges. Whatever grade of telescopes the harbour masters possess was probably not advanced enough to discern him at this distance, yet. He stopped his acceleration and afforded himself a moment of quiet reflection, they would be expecting him he reasoned. Or at least some kind of response from the Equestrian nation in the form of a boat of troops or delegates, they didn’t know about him yet. He began to drift to the side guiding himself along the waters surface, keeping the light of the griffon capital always in his sight, gliding to somewhere along a quieter section of shore to make his infiltration without spoiling the surprise. The motion was slow going, Evan’s mind drifting in its own dark sea of thought, ‘So here I am, alone. A not-human, under a not-moon staring at the lights of a none-too-safe harbour.’ His “mouth” made an announcement of something resembling a long heavy sigh. ‘I still don’t know what exactly this planet even is, hell! It might be flat for all I know!’ the systems maintained a steady course as their users gaze drifted to the distant stars, his sensors marking them as irrelevant distractions and nothing more. ‘I don’t know where the hell I am, or if I even can get home from here. This dimension, this future, this whateverthefuckidontgiveashitfeverdream!’ He writhed uselessly in his flight harness, like a fussing infant trying to escape the protection of its parents’ carrier. Until finally he stopped, the harbour lights now hidden behind the rock of a cove that he had drifted into, he was too tired to thrash and wallow anymore. The trees swallowed the sky and silenced the light and worry of distant worlds. Evan reminded himself of his errand, why he was there. ‘this was my fault.’ he thought privately, Ordis left utterly unaware of his master’s inner turmoil. ‘my actions put these natives in danger, while I cannot repair whatever great cosmic error has led me here, I can fix this.’ He released the Archwing from his back, falling to the soft sand coated shore as the mechanism faded back to its voidspace holding. “Operator are you alright?” Ordis materialized suddenly, his once cheery glow now muted in worry as he ran scan after scan to explain the tenno’s earlier fit. ‘fine Ordis’ Evan lied, ‘pre mission jitters is all, lets get going.’ There was still much to plan and prepare. The mechanized humanoid puffed out its chest, resolute, marching to the nearby woods and began to make his way towards the city. *** “Eeep!” the Princess of love winced in pain, setting her just-a-bit-too-hot-for-now tea to her side the pink alicorn returned her attention to the evening paper before her. It hadn’t even been a full day since her wedding anniversary was made to pull double duty as the same anniversary of the day canterlot was invaded/became a slaughtering house for that same invading army, and she was already behind on the news. Naturally she had a reasonable excuse this time, she was consummating her marriage after all, and what with the very recent threat to their lives sending their biological imperatives into overdrive the newly wedded couple hadn’t really seen any reason to… detach any time soon that morning. Cadance might not have let shining get up to attend his morning duties at all if her dear husband hadn’t bucked her brains out of her head for a good few hours. A slight smile graced her lips at that thought, ‘husband’ she repeated in her mind. They were together now, forever and always, and nothing would ever threaten that union again so help her! The alicorns eyes drifted across the alchemist’s section, some drivel about the ecological sector getting pissy about their continued denial of access to the changeling husks for "research purposes". Though for what she couldn’t’ imagine, something about the chemical composition of changeling goo or sap or something, she wasn’t really paying attention. Something was missing. Shining was still finishing up his duties, handing over control of the entire palace guard to its new captain, but he would be joining her soon enough. That wasn’t it. Twilight was apparently still chewing out her friends for doubting her, if the sporadic increases of volume from across the palace where anything to go by. She wasn’t lonely, had nothing to worry about now that the threat had… deceased. It was something in the air she realized the millisecond of hesitation in the servant’s movements when he had brought and poured her tea. Glancing around the corner of an open door the pink bride watched a maid over fluff a pillow and readjust its position for what must have been the millionth time, before finally moving on to repeat the process on some other menial chore. The staff was uncharacteristically restless, something in the air was wrong. She picked up her tea again, blowing on it this time to make sure the temperature was suitable, stopping just short of bringing the fruity warm deliciousness to her lips at long last, when it hit her. “Wait…” she said to nopony in particular, “where’s Excalibur?” The doors on the far end of the room gracefully, almost mechanically, swung wide. In stepped no other than the highest pony of the land, if not the whole world, her hands searching across her heavens shaped body adjusting a dress older than most definitions of fashion into just the perfect arrangement so as not to uncomfortably pull at her fur. It was a militaristic style ballgown of sorts, the colors of the equestrian flag danced in exquisite lines down the double buttoned top down into the flowing curtain of fabric around her legs, a tiny mostly indiscernible seem around the head of the flowing flourish to indicate it was removable and quickly if necessary. A pair of more combat suitable pants no doubt waiting beneath. But of course, being pretty wasn’t its only function, gold tassels on the shoulders each containing a minute gold charm laced thick with protective magic swayed lazily in the air with her every movement. It wasn’t just a pretty dress no, like usual, everything Celestia did had some hidden double meaning or purpose. This was a statement. One of military prowess and strength. It worried Cadance. “um… auntie are we at war?” The eldest diarchy’s response was as casual as it was foreboding, “Not yet.” She mumbled, almost absentmindedly, before her eyes widened and she turned to the pink alicorn with a notice in her eye of what she had just so errantly implied, “its just for show niece. I must speak with our neighboring nations, in pony, and assure them that we are not all currently enslaved beneath a ludicrous deception of Chrysalis’s dark weaving.” “Oh.” A pang of guilt leapt into Cadance’s chest, sure the bug queen had endangered HER shining, and assaulted HER wedding, but… to lose her entire hive, possibly her whole race, in that action… it was hard for the compassionate princess of affection to not feel some measure of sympathy for one who had suffered so. Even if she was her enemy. but while her heart sat heavy with the weight of that consequence it led her back to her original thought before her aunt’s appearance. “say Auntie,” she asked, “have you seen Excalibur? I haven’t seen him since the wedding.” “He’s away.” Celestia answered, much too slowly for Cadances taste, “On something of an errand for me, some ambassadors went missing just around the time of the invasion and he suspected there might be more changelings somewhere behind this, so I gave him permission to investigate.” She answered, “Oh… that makes sense.” “oh and It probably goes without saying but don’t bother shining too much today, I’ve placed him in charge of the excavation of the alien craft, and I think our helpful guest would be most pleased to return with his fully restored vessel as a little thank you.” She glanced at the clock, “I must be going farewell niece.” The white alicorn left the pink one where she sat a stew in her thoughts. Something was not right with Celestia just now, she felt. ‘and why would an alien take an interest in some random ambassadors, and why suspect more changelings afoot?’ Cadance thought to herself, unconvinced of the explanation given. Something was not right at all, and just as sure as she had been to sense the feelings from one uncommunicative love bird to another, she knew there lay a pit of unspoken something in Celestia’s words that said far more than was actually spoke, an unsaid motive, but why? Celestia, High Princess of her race, Diarch of the nation, Goddess of the sun, Immortal warrior, kind, gentle, loving, accepting, awesome and powerful, Celestia… was lying to her.