Chapter 5: Alicornnapped
“Sister, dear, are you in there? I hope thou art decent.”
Princess Luna approached the door to her sister’s throne room. Opening it a crack, she poked her face inside.
“Celestia? Pray tell, where hath thou been all this morning?”
The moon princess stepped into the throne room only to find it empty.
“For sooth, where could she be? I hath doth searched all over thine castle and there hath yet to be a sign of her.” She gasped. “If she beith absent in the castle, then that can only mean one thing: my sister hath gone missing!”
Luna then ran back out into the hall.
“Guards! Guards! Princess Celestia is missing!”
Twilight and Rainbow walked down the overgrown path in the Everfree Forest toward Zecora’s hut. This time, instead of tying Celestia’s legs to theirs, they pulled her unconscious body in a small wagon with a tarp on top pulled by Rainbow. They finally reached the little hut.
“I sure hope she can really help us.” Rainbow said. “You don’t seem too worried about her knowing, Twilight.”
“Zecora won’t tell anypony.” Twilight replied. “She’s gotten me out of magical jams before, and she’s very trustworthy.”
The two approached the door, to which Twilight gave a knock.
“Hello! Zecora, are you home?” she called and peaked through a window on the side.
“Is she in there?” asked Rainbow.
“I don’t see her anywhere. The hut looks deserted.”
“Hey wait, there’s a note here.” Rainbow grabbed a small piece of paper that was nailed to the door and read it aloud. “‘Sorry if it is my help you seek, I am on vacation, be back in a week. –Z’” She facehoofed. “Great, just great! The Princess is a vegetable, and the only one who can cure her is at the beach.”
“Well now what do we do?”
“Let’s just bring her back to your house. Maybe we can try smelling salts or something.”
Disappointed, Twilight and Rainbow exited the forest shortly after and walked by Fluttershy’s cottage. Rainbow spotted the yellow pegasus feeding a fawn in the yard.
“There’s Fluttershy; she hasn’t seen us yet.” She whispered to Twilight. “Just keep walking and try not to draw attention from her.”
“Hi, Rainbow! Hi Twilight!”
“Son of a-”
They turned to see Fluttershy trotting to them from the yard with a soft smile on her face.
“I haven’t seen either of you too around all day.” She greeted in her usual hushed voice. “I mean, if you were busy, that’s okay.”
“Uh, hi Fluttershy. We were just in Canterlot earlier.” Twilight told her. “No special occasion, really, just a random visit. Yup, that’s all.”
“Um, if you don’t mind me asking,” said Fluttershy. “What do you have in that wagon?”
“Oh, uh, it’s nothing, just some souvenirs from Canterlot.” Rainbow smiled.
“Ooh, can I see?”
“No!” Rainbow snapped her hoof over the tarp on the wagon. “They’re, uh, they’re really fragile. Um, they can’t be exposed to sunlight.”
“Oh, um, I’m sorry.” Fluttershy retracted a bit confused.
“Well, we’d love to stay and chat, Fluttershy,” said Twilight. “But we have to get back to the library, now. So we’ll see you later.”
“Wait, Twilight.” Fluttershy stopped them. “Um, I’ve been meaning to ask for your help, if that’s okay with you. Well, you see, I found this big hole in my roof. It looked almost as if a pegasus had crashed in through it.”
Twilight gave a suspicious discerning stare to Rainbow who only pawed the ground and looked away.
“Anyway, Twilight,” continued Fluttershy. “I was wondering if you could use your magic to help patch up my roof. I mean, I don’t want to inconvenience you.”
“Of course I can help, Fluttershy.” Twilight replied. “I’ll fix that roof in a jiffy.”
“Oh thank you so much, Twilight.”
“I’ll just stay out here while you two head in.” Rainbow added.
Twilight and Fluttershy walked into the cottage leaving Rainbow outside to guard the wagon and its precious cargo. She sat on her haunches and stared up at the clouds in boredom. After a few minutes, she felt something rubbing against her hoof. Rainbow looked down to see a little white rabbit staring up at her.
“Oh, hi Angel.” She said. “Don’t mind me; I’m just waiting for Twilight.”
Angel only continued staring while twitching his nose.
“Uh, are you hungry?” asked Rainbow. “Sorry, nothing on me. Fluttershy’s inside.”
The curious little bunny then turned to the wagon and hopped up on the edge, still wrinkling his nose.
“Hey, get away from there. That’s not for you to see.” Rainbow ordered.
Ignoring her, Angel dove under the tarp picking up the mysterious scent.
“Get out of there, you nosy rabbit!” scolded Rainbow.
Immediately, Angel rose up from under the tarp slowly with a look of puzzlement on his face. He looked up at Rainbow in confusion.
“Alright, you saw. But it’s not like you’re going to tell Fluttershy on us.”
The bunny glared at Rainbow’s remark hopped off the wagon. He continued off toward his caretaker’s cottage.
“Wait, where are you going? You’re not gonna…uh oh.”
Rainbow froze in realization. The little rabbit was smarter than she had thought. With a quick swoop, she flew off after Angel and grabbed him by the ears lifting him into the air.
“What Fluttershy doesn’t know won’t hurt you.” She hissed with a devious smile.
Angel kicked furiously in the air trying to free himself from the pegasus’s clutch. But his squirming proved useless as Rainbow soared off into town leaving a multicolored streak.
Meanwhile, inside the cottage, Twilight levitated pieces of wood and thatch up to a gaping hole in the roof upstairs. With ease, she covered the hole better than any carpenter. As she repaired, Fluttershy entered the room with a dower expression.
“I’m almost done, Fluttershy.” Twilight smiled. “It’s already looking good as new.”
“Um, Twilight,” started Fluttershy quietly. “I just heard some troubling news.”
Twilight became concerned. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, I don’t know how else to say this but…Princess Celestia is missing.”
A stunned look overcame Twilight’s face as she dropped the thatch from her magic. Her eye began to twitch a bit.
“Oh, I’m sorry you have to hear this, Twilight. I just found out from a royal guard who just came into town. He was posting search warrants for the Princess. It seems pretty serious. Oh I hope she’s okay.”
“…uh…uh…uh…uh…uh…”
“Twilight, you don’t look so good. Your face is turning green. I can go get you some medicine from downstairs if you’re feeling sick.”
Twilight snapped back. “Oh, uh, no that’s fine, Fluttershy. I feel alright.”
“Are you sure? You’re shaking in your knees.”
“Uh, I’m just a little tired.” She then levitated the rest of the building material and stuck it haphazardly into the hole in the roof leaving an awkward lump. “Well, I don’t want to keep Rainbow waiting. I should probably go and help her with the body.”
“The what?”
“Ah! I mean, the booooooooooooooks. Books. Yup, time to get back to work at the library, yes sir. Well, I’m glad I could help, Fluttershy. I’ll catch up with you later. Bye!”
With that, the neurotic unicorn sped out of the cottage before Fluttershy could respond. The pegasus scratched her head.
“Hmm, that was strange.” She said to herself. “As soon as I mentioned that Princess Celestia is missing, Twilight started acting nervous. She also said she was in Canterlot earlier today. Maybe the Princess went missing just after she left. But what was under that wagon? …Oh well, I’m sure everything will turn out alright. Ooh, feeding time. Angel, time for supper! Where are you, silly bunny? Angel?”
Twilight rushed out of the cottage to the wagon. She gasped when she noticed that Rainbow was not there next to it. But then an oncoming streak appeared in the corner of her vision. Sure enough, Rainbow flew toward her and landed by the wagon.
“Rainbow, where were you?” asked Twilight.
“Don’t worry about it.” Rainbow responded. “Look, I think we should probably leave right now.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more. Fluttershy just told me that Princess Celestia’s turned up missing. And now her guards are searching for her.”
“Oh crabapples! Twilight, we can’t keep hiding in your house. If the royal guards are searching for the Princess, we can’t stay in Ponyville. We’ve got to get out of town.”
“But what do we do about the council tomorrow? If we go through with that, it’ll seem suspicious that the Princess shows up unexpected.”
“Forget about the council, Twilight. This just went from bad to worse. It’s no use making her seem awake anymore. What we have to do is leave her body back at the castle for somepony to find her. When she wakes up, she probably won’t remember a thing and we might be in the clear.”
“That seems incredibly risky. But we’ve made it this far without getting caught…except for Spike, of course. You’re right, Rainbow, we just have to play amnesia. But now that the guards are sniffing around Ponyville, we’ll have to leave right now.”
“Then let’s get going. All we have to do is get by Sweet Apple Acres and we’re home free for Canterlot.”
“Angel? Angel, where are you?” came Fluttershy’s voice from inside the cottage.
Twilight looked at Rainbow again accusingly.
“Rainbow, do you know what happened to Angel?”
“Uh, nope, not a clue. Let’s get a move on!”
Before they could be flagged down by Fluttershy again, the pair took off down the road pulling Celestia in the wagon. Already, the sun was setting over the horizon and nighttime was upon them. Along the way, as they began to pass Sweet Apple Acres, Twilight and Rainbow saw one of the townsponies galloping down the road toward them. It was Daisy who had a look of fright across her face. She screeched to a halt in front of the two.
“Twilight, Rainbow, where are you two going?” she asked panting.
“Um…camping?” shrugged Rainbow with her best excuse.
“Haven’t you heard?” continued Daisy. “Princess Celestia is missing. And the royal guards have raised security.”
“What do you mean, Daisy?” asked Twilight.
“I mean they’re sealing off all roads out of Ponyville! Nopony is allowed to leave for the rest of the night.”
“Are you kidding?” Rainbow gasped.
“Does this face look like I’m kidding?!” shot back Daisy pointing to her frantic expression. “This is an emergency! I mean what are we going to do if nopony finds the Princess? There’ll be a breakdown in leadership of Equestria! There’s going to anarchy, I tell you! Anarchy!”
Without another word, Daisy charged down the road past Twilight and Rainbow.
“Wow, that seemed a bit…melodramatic.” Twilight said.
“It’s just Daisy; she’s always paranoid.” Rainbow replied. “Well, I guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to get out of here.”
“I know, why don’t we hide out in the Apples’ barn? Applejack and her family are probably done with farm work by now.”
“Good thinking. We should get some shuteye there.”
As darkness swelled in the sky, Twilight and Rainbow sneaked over the fence and through the yard outside Applejack’s farmhouse. They entered the barn, quietly opening the door and shutting it. Rainbow wheeled the wagon over behind one of the large piles of hay.
“Alright, we should be fine until morning.” She said.
“We’ll have to leave as soon as we’re allowed to leave town.” Twilight added. “We can’t risk letting the Apples find us in here.”
With a tired groan, Rainbow plopped herself down on the hay pile and yawned. “For now, let’s just get some sleep. This day has really drained all my energy; and that’s saying something.”
“Yeah, I’m getting pretty tired too.” Twilight lay down next to her as she watched the night sky completely manifest. “I can’t wait to just get this whole mess over with. Well, goodnight, Rainbow.”
“Goodnight, Twilight.”
The two lied on the hay pile and closed their eyes trying to sleep off the stress of the entire day. But then Rainbow spoke again.
“Hey Twi, I just thought of something.”
“What is it?”
“…Who’s going to raise the sun?”
“……Oh buck me.”