The Visiting Team -- Part II

by Lets Do This

Don't Look Back

Most problems seem more tractable on the other side of toast with jam. At least, Twilight had always found it to be so.

After a quick breakfast, most of the team had departed about their various tasks. Tempest had stationed herself just inside the audience room's door as gatekeeper, with Guard ponies outside and Grubber running errands for her. Spike was sitting on the room's worktable at Twilight's elbow, keeping careful notes as instructed. And Starlight was seated beside Twilight, helping manage the influx of reports from all over: from the Palace, from the city, and a few from elsewhere in Equestria.

Which, once they'd been put in order, formed a somewhat reassuring picture. Twilight found there was very little that needed doing, actually. The encroaching weeds seemed mostly limited to Ponyville and Canterlot. The rest of the country was troubled by the bizarre sky, and there were questions, concerns, and outright fear everywhere amongst the populace. But so far the Palace staff and the Guard had managed to keep things in order and running smoothly.

Twilight nodded, relieved. "Looks like Celestia had things pretty well organized."

"You'd think she would," Starlight agreed, "after a thousand years."

"So... what do we do next?" Twilight wondered. "Maybe we should start thinking about a defense for Ponyville?"

"If I might suggest, Highness?" said Raven. "It would be most appropriate at this point to conduct a Royal Audience, for the staff and Guard and such dignitaries as are visiting us at present."

Twilight stared at her. "An... audience?"

"It does not have to be a long one," Raven said. "Certainly not a full-day session as usual. But it would help immensely, to demonstrate that the Golden Throne is still occupied and there has been no interruption in authority in Equestria."

"The... Golden Throne?" Twilight echoed hollowly. "Me?"

"You are the Princess," Raven replied, matter-of-factly.

Twilight gulped, and looked around at her friends. She somehow managed to keep her voice from wavering. "Of course, Raven. Would you arrange it, please?"

"At once, Highness." Raven bowed deeply, then hurried from the room.

Twilight put her hooves on the table, staring ahead blankly. "If I should suddenly keel over," she whispered in terror, "it's perfectly all right. Being stunned will do that to you..."

A short time later, in the Grand Audience Hall of the Palace, there was a loud fanfare. The assembled ponies and guests fell silent, looking to the tall entrance doors at the rear of the Hall.

The doors swung open. Through them stalked Commander Tempest, in full iron-black armor, polished till it shone. Her head was held high and important. She came to a halt, then raised a hoof and brought it down, hard. Even through the red carpeting covering the central aisle, her armored shoe rang loudly in the stillness.

She stamped again, then once more.

"Her Royal Highness!" she called. "Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria!"

She stepped to the side, and Twilight walked into the Hall, doing her best to look calm and collected... while at the same time focusing very hard on not catching a hoof on the carpet.

Behind her followed Raven and Twilight's friends. Tempest smoothly fell in beside Twilight, a pace behind, and together the party proceeded up the aisle, coming at last to the immense Golden Throne.

Twilight stared up at it as they approached. The upper platform loomed far above her, like the edge of a cliff seemingly poised halfway to the vaulted ceiling. Twilight halted before the Throne, feeling extremely out of place. As fond as Celestia was of Twilight, she had never, not once, asked Twilight to sit with her upon the high seat of the Throne itself. And now Twilight had to somehow sit in her place... all on her own.

Gathering her nerve, Twilight put one hoof after another. She ascended the carpeted ramp to the high seat, then turned and sat down, her head held high and confident, as she imagined Celestia herself would have done.

The rest of the group had split up near the base of the throne, with Raven and the others moving to the one side amongst the assembled scribes and administrators, and Tempest taking up station amongst the guards on the other side, with Grubber right beside her. Seeing that Twilight was settled, Tempest once more stamped her hoof, three times. This time she'd found a stretch of bare marble and the ringing clash of hoof on stone throughout the Hall was piercingly incontrovertible.

"Long live the Princess!" she called.

"Long live the Princess!" the Guard quickly echoed.

And in response, the entire crowd gathered in the Audience Hall bowed, deeply and willingly, in respect.

Despite her terror, Twilight had to smile at the entire performance. It had been Raven's suggestion, actually. An appropriate level of pomp and ceremony, which drew attention to the occupancy of the Throne while at the same time making no direct statement about which Princess was being so honored.

Twilight gazed out upon the attentive audience, the staff and guests and guard ponies, all looking up at her curiously and expectantly. And she suddenly decided that, unlike Celestia, she didn't like sitting up there all alone.

"Ahem," she said. "It is our pleasure that our assistant and scribe, Spike, shall attend us."

At Spike's surprised look, Twilight motioned minutely with her head towards the platform beside her.

Spike jumped, then hurried forward up the ramp and came to a halt beside her, bowing deeply. "Your Highness?"

"Spike," she said, as much to the audience as to him, "I'll want you to keep very careful notes for me. When the Princesses are returned, I want to be able to present them with a full and complete report of my actions on their behalf."

"Absolutely, Twilight! I mean, Your Highness." Spike bowed again. Then he pulled out scroll and quill and stood ready beside her.

Twilight turned to the audience, considering her next words carefully. And decided that the plain truth was probably best here.

"Princess Celestia," she said, "as well as Princess Luna and Princess Cadance, are temporarily... unavailable. Their whereabouts are unknown. I and my friends, the Heroes of Equestria, are investigating their disappearance, and will effect their safe return as soon as possible. In the meantime..."

Twilight paused uneasily, then went on. "In the meantime, I will be assuming their duties as Princess of Equestria. Rest assured, the daily business and defense of Equestria will continue as usual. And I look forward to the return of their Highnesses, at the earliest possible moment."

Twilight paused for breath, and to think frantically. How the hay did Celestia end one of these little speeches?

Then she nodded, remembering. "If there are any immediate questions, the Crown will now entertain them."

A large, expensively dressed griffon in the front row of delegates raised a claw. "Your... Highness?"

The Chief Steward, standing next to Raven, came to attention. "His Excellency Egmund!" he intoned helpfully. "The honorable ambassador from Griffonstone!"

Twilight nodded uneasily. "Er... yes?"

"Princess, ah... Twilight. You say that all the other Princesses are missing?" The ambassador looked affronted. "None of you have any idea where they've gone? Seems rather careless in my view!"

"At the moment, that's how it appears," Twilight said carefully. "My friends and I are hopeful that we'll quickly--"

"And you and these... heroes," Egmund interrupted, "are now in charge?"

"Yes... we are," Twilight said, trying not to sound weak and apologetic, and not having much luck.

"Well! I must say this is a distressing situation!" the ambassador said. "Can we truly feel confident that matters are well in claw here? Perhaps this is some kind of attempted coup? Or subterfuge of some sort, to delay our negotiations and demand new terms? How can we be certain that --"

There was a loud, peremptory clash of armor on tile, cutting off his tirade. Tempest had had enough. "Does the esteemed ambassador from Griffonstone," she growled, "challenge the rightful authority of the Princess of Equestria?"

In the face of Tempest's acid glare, and the equally vehement gaze of every single Guard pony in the Hall, the ambassador cowed, coughing uneasily. Then he harrumphed and resettled his feathers.

"My apologies, Your Highness," he finally said, bowing. "No disrespect was intended."

Tempest eyed him a brief moment longer, darkly suspicious. Then she relented and looked to Twilight.

Who let out the breath she'd been holding. "My friends and I have only two concerns right now," she said, "the safety of Equestria, and the safe return of their Highnesses. And I hope," she added, a mite testily, "that there's no doubt from anycreature here present about that!"

Tempest eyed her for a moment, then quickly turned to the other guards. "So sayeth the Crown!" she added loudly.

"So sayeth the Crown!" the Guard echoed loyally, their voices booming throughout the hall.

And the entire audience, as a group, bowed humbly and respectfully.

Twilight swallowed. She somehow found words to continue.

"Now... are there further questions?"

The Ponyville group had made their way to the meadow beyond Fluttershy's cottage, and nervously approached the unruly, vine-choked wall of the Forest itself. "Discord went this way, I'm sure," Fluttershy said. She pointed to a faint hoofpath that wound its way to the wall of green and vanished inside.

"And... we think it's a great idea to go in after him?" Rainbow asked.

Zecora answered calmly:

"Works for me," said Sunset. "Everypony stay close."

Lifting the overhanging branches, she crept inside, followed closely by Zecora. Reluctantly, the other five ponies followed as well.

It was dim and muggy within, though the path itself seemed clear, if overhung with branches and creepers. Sunset tried her horn, and found she could manage a small luminance spell before her magic became too unstable. Its fitful glow glinted from damp leaves all around them. And the further they tramped into the humid darkness, the more they felt as if they were being watched...

"Where are we headed again?" Applejack asked, rescuing her hat from a low-hanging branch that had swept it off her head.

"Not sure," Sunset said. "There must be a source of some kind for these vines. We'll know it when we see it. Maybe it's somewhere beyond your home, Zecora?"

The zebra looked grim.

"The ones we see near Ponyville," Applejack warned, "they ain't no picnic neither. Thankfully they mostly keep to the Forest. But we don't take chances," she added. "We keep the young'uns and the critters indoors after dark."

"I wish I was indoors," Rarity complained, gingerly lifting aside wet branches and thorned creepers so they wouldn't catch on her coat. "I'm going to need a shampoo bath and a hooficure once we're out of this."

"Right, Rarity," Rainbow sneered. "Like your looks are so important right now. We're trying to save Ponyville, remember?"

"There's no call to be snippish, Rainbow," she retorted.

"Urgh!" Rainbow ducked a branch, then dodged a vine hanging beyond it. "I can barely fly a length in here without crashing into something."

"Then why don't ya try the ground for once," Applejack shot back. "Works just fine for us earth ponies."

"Meh," said Pinkie Pie. "I'm with Rainbow on this one. I keep having to stop, drop, and roooollll..." She tumbled quickly under a branch that Applejack had just let go of, then bounded back to her hooves. "But these vines and low branches, they just take the spring outta my step, ya know?"

"Are you kidding me?" Rainbow growled. "Ponyville's depending on us, and you're all treating this like a picnic outing! We need to stay focused here, find whatever's behind this and take it out! Fluttershy, you're with me on this, right?"

She looked up, startled. Then lowered her head sadly.

"I just wish I was safe at home with my animals," she said quietly, trudging along the path.

Rainbow face-hoofed disgustedly, but fell silent, focusing instead on avoiding the many obstacles in her flight path.

Zecora looked at Sunset, amused.

Sunset shook her head, exasperatedly. "Not sure myself. Honestly, I'm beginning to wonder what I've gotten myself into here..."

So saying, Sunset shoved hard against the branches blocking her path. And felt them suddenly give way. She tumbled through, landing heavily in a broad, open clearing beyond.

A fallen tree had torn open a gap in the canopy overhead. Bright moonlight fell upon the massive trunk and its spider-like fan of roots, and on the heaps of moss and shoots that were already half-burying it, as the smaller plants fought each other to reach the light.

Sunset got to her hooves and caught her breath, hearing the others push their way into the clearing behind her.

"Which way now, Zecora?" she muttered.

The zebra glanced around, getting her bearings, then pointed a hoof. And Sunset took a step forwards...

... right on a twig. In the open clearing, its snap was far louder than anything that small and damp had a right to be.

Before them, what had looked like heaps of moss and broken branches draped over the trunk of the tree reared up alertly. Glowing green eyes narrowed, fanged jaws gaped.

"Oh, lordy..." Applejack whispered. "Timberwolves!"

"All right, everypony," Sunset warned. "Keep it together." She kept her gaze fixed on the massive, wolf-like shapes facing them. "We can do this. Horns at the ready. We'll blast them to kindling!"

"Uhh, Sunset..." Rainbow muttered. "Most of us aren't unicorns?"

Sunset glanced around. "Uh, right. I knew that. Okay, everypony get behind me and stick close together. Rarity, back me up here. We'll keep it simple. You focus on shields, I'll handle the rough stuff. Ready?"

"Er... shields, Sunset?" Rarity looked confused. "I'm not sure I know how to work that kind of magic."

"What?" Sunset stared at her.

"I'm a whiz with pinking shears. Does that help?"

"Uhh..."

Zecora nudged Sunset with a hoof.

Sunset nodded. "You're right, Zecora. Okay, everypony, new plan..." she called, "... RUN FOR IT!"

The others turned and shoved back through the branches, trying to regain the hoofpath. As they did so, Sunset stood her ground, charging her horn and attempting to fire a blast at the nearest timberwolf.

And nearly wound up taking the top of her head off. The magic blazed outwards from her horn, crackling and distorted, then slammed back together, striking far short of the target. The beast Sunset had aimed at snorted, briefly dazed by the flash. Then it recovered and roared angrily, preparing to spring. The others did likewise...

And they were suddenly struck right on the nose, each of them, by green pods that exploded into an obscuring cloud of pollen.

Sunset watched in amazement as Zecora plucked yet another pod from a shrub nearby and hefted it, eyeing the beasts before them. "Nice shot!" she said.

Zecora nodded acknowledgement, then jerked her head towards the shrubbery behind them. Sunset took the hint, and dove through them, hearing Zecora bellow a warlike cry behind her as she flung the pod.

And as Sunset scurried away in retreat, fast as her hooves would carry her, she grimaced angrily.

More than anything else, she hated being wrong...