Chapter Six
With a flash, Luna appeared in her office again, and had barely had a moment to catch her breath when she heard a knock. Inwardly groaning, she had a feeling she knew who it was, recalling how they'd reacted before...
"I do believe our meeting is done." Luna clapped her hooves. "Ladies, gentlecolts, I will see you all again."
With that, she left the room and headed into her office. She was not surprised to hear a set of hoofsteps following her, and when she finally reached her desk and turned around, she was even less surprised to find the door closed behind she and her guest, Twilight Velvet looking at her with a decidedly grim expression on her face.
"Is there any particular reason," she said quietly. "That you chose to send both of my children on such a risky mission?"
Luna nodded. "First of all, Shining Armor volunteered to take part in this," she said. "He is the Assistant Director of the Department of Security, and has long known that we would be making contact with Equestria someday. Last year, he approached me about the matter, and asked me if he could be one of those to go when the time came. I did not accept his offer right away until I was sure that he fit the requirements I felt such a first contactee would have to meet. Then and only then did I agree." She looked at Velvet, who was still looking at her rather expectantly. "When I spoke to him again earlier this year, I asked him then if he was sure that he still wished to volunteer, and he said yes."
Velvet nodded. "And Twilight?"
"I asked Twilight to be a part of this mission just earlier today," Luna said. "She asked for time to consider it. But Velvet... I do believe she is well-suited for this mission. She is intelligent, she is thorough, and quite frankly I have a great deal of faith in her." She looked at Velvet. "If she declines, I will simply have to find somepony else. But I doubt she will. And Velvet... I am taking the greatest precautions. I care for her a great deal, and if I felt there was any serious risk towards her, or your son, I would not have asked either of them to be involved."
Velvet frowned. "I still wish you'd consulted with me first," she said, before turning around and walking out.
Luna shook her head. No sense in putting it off, she thought, before saying "Come in" aloud.
Once more, Twilight Velvet walked into her office, still not looking amused. "I suppose my children are both in Equestria now," she said.
"They are," Luna acknowledged.
Velvet sighed before looking at her. "Will they be safe? Honestly, please."
Luna drooped at the simple request; it took her a moment to find her voice before she answered the mare. "I wish I could say with complete honesty that they will be but the fact of the matter is that I do not know."
"But you do know something," Velvet pushed, staring at her with strong eyes. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have sent your student, your director of security and his second to an unknown world just like that."
Luna flicked her wing before answering. "We are not tied to fate or destiny, Director Velvet but there are such things as patterns that I can see and recognize. Your children are where they need to be right now, trust me on that. If it were otherwise, I would not risk them in such a fashion."
Velvet stared at her, peering closely at her face before rubbing her eyes. "Is this one of those alicorn deals that most mortal ponies would not be suited to know?"
"If it were only that simple," Luna muttered. "Velvet, I know you're worried. I worry about them too. But I have faith that they are fully capable of handling whatever comes their way and you should as well."
"Is there anything I should expect to come out of this, anything you can tell me?" Velvet asked with Luna grinning to herself.
"Patterns exist and if this one does follow the normal sequence, then I do suspect your son might return with something." The mare looked confused and Luna simply shook her head. "Trust me, if I am correct about this, then it will mean a very happy surprise for you and your husband."
Velvet gave her a look, and sighed. "I'll let it go for now," she said. "But you had better be right about them being safe."
After she'd left, Luna shook her head. "I feel the same way, Velvet," she said to herself. "I feel the exact same way."
"So this is Canterlot?" Shining said towards Vinyl, who stared at the tall spiraled buildings and the crowd of ponies walking past them. It hadn't taken much to get inside the city; there was no national registry so when they had lied from coming from a far village, the city police had just waved them through without any background checking. "It seems nice so far."
"Watch where you are going, commoner," a rather rude and snobbish looking unicorn said as he shouldered his way past them.
"For the most part," Vinyl said, glaring at the blond stallion, huffing while fixing her scarf to keep her neck covered. "But yeah, this place seems to be pretty nice Shining." Vinyl blinked and turned her head to see her partner had disappeared. "Shining?" she called out, looking for where he had wandered off to before spotting the store off to the corner. "Of course," she rolled her eyes under her glasses and walked off to the hobby store with miniature figures lining the window. Stepping inside the store herself, she could spot Shining browsing the shelves with obvious glee, though Vinyl knew that Shining would soon remember that they didn't have an endless amount of bits on them and they would need to ration and not spend all their bits on a set.
"Though Long Play will be annoyed that I didn't snag him anythi..." she trailed off as she saw that Shining and a very pink pegasus had picked up the same package.
"Oh sorry," Shining said, blinking at the mare. "I didn't mean to take it from you."
"Oh no, it's okay," the mare giggled. "Please, take it, I was just getting it for my group." She shook her three toned mane, blinking at the obvious dork. "We had run out and I decided to head out and get some fresh air"
"I couldn't in good conscious; it's the last one," Shining said, flashing her a smile. "I think I will just look around and see if I can get another one to bring home later on."
"And where is that, if you don't mind me asking, mister...?" she trailed off, looking expectantly at him.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't introduce myself," he said, rubbing the back of his mane. "I'm Shining Armor and we're from a very distant village. We're here to see the Summer Sun Celebration, though it is a shame that we won't get to see the princess."
"We?" she asked confused and a tad disappointed.
Sighing at her friend's thickheadedness ruining his chances, Vinyl trotted over. "Yeah, he means me. My brother Long Play asked him if he could tag along to keep me safe. I'm Vinyl Scratch."
"Nice to meet you, Miss Scratch," the pegasus said, looking relieved now. "I'm Love Hearts."
"Same here, Lovey," Vinyl said, continuing to play wingmare. "Him and my bro love to play their little games, with Shining here being a fantastic painter."
"Really?" the pegasus with the crystal blue heart Cutie Mark asked with interest.
"Yeah, of my friends, I tend to have the best lines and colour blends," Shining said with a faint blush on his face.
"Hmm," she said, looking at Vinyl before back at Shining. "I would hate to interrupt your vacation but could I perhaps ask for your assistance in painting these?"
"I-" Shining back to open his mouth before Vinyl spoke for him.
"Nah, he wouldn't mind," Vinyl said to the mare, giving her a wink over her shades with the mare giving her a grateful smile. "Is there a place you'd recommend where we could meet up? We haven't got a hotel just yet."
"How about I bring him back here around sunset?" the mare offered, looking at Shining who gave a uncertain shrug.
"Sounds lovely to me, Hearts," Vinyl teased with the mare giggling and taking the pack to pay for it, strutting in front of Shining.
Shining stared as she left before turning on Vinyl. "Did you just set me up on a date?" he whispered.
"Maybe," Vinyl grinned. "But it will also give you a chance to get some in close and personal opinion of a citizen from the lower rungs and not some elitist unicorn."
Shining shook his head. "I can't tell if that was your plan from the beginning or not," he sighed before turning around as the pegasus returned, holding the package with surprising ease. "Let me get that for you." he offered, his magic reaching out to grab the bag with mare giggling and letting him carry it. With his magic, Shining opened the door and the two of them walked out in the street with Vinyl grinning wider and shaking her head.
"What a dork," she said to herself as she walked out the door.