The other day...
She walked through the café door in the middle-upper district of Canterlot. Donut Joe's Joe'n Donuts. She remembered the directions easily enough. It would have been weird if she didn't, seeing as how it was where she did typically go for breakfast. One thing they didn't have much on the caravan, Midnight began to muse, was jelly filled goodness.
That's when she saw him, her contact: a pure white stallion in a brown fedora, long coat and sunglasses... in a café. Midna had a mental face hoof.Everypony thinks they're in a movie.
It wasn't really that busy, although it was still midmorning. As Midnight walked to the table where the esteemed officer sat with his coffee, the scent of powdered sugar and hazelnut assailed her senses. Even as often as she came here, it was still a very welcome sensation
She walked up to the table, opening up first. "Shining."
"Midnight," he responded stoically. "It's good to see you. Although-"
"You wish it were under better circumstances?" She smiled. "You'd be surprised at how often I hear that in my line of work." She looked at him. "Aren't you supposed to be on vacation?"
"I am," he retorted coldly. She could see the faint trace of stuble on his face and the bags under his eyes. It was painfully obvious that he hadn't slept well that last couple of days.
"I am sorry, Shining," Midnight offered.
"I should've never let her go on that stupid trip, Midna," the captain of the guard began to vent. "I could've stopped her and now-"
"Shining, stop," the brown eyed mare interrupted, knowing full well where his line of thought was headed. "You and I both know that you couldn't have stopped her even if you tried. And I'm the one who gave her the idea in the first place."
"Yeah, but..." he tried to disagree, but knew he couldn't. "Yeah."
"As always, you're a regular poet with your words, Captain Equestia," she playfully snarked, earning a smile from the beleaguering officer. "So how's everypony been doing since I left?"
"Prince Blueblood is still..." he began to perk up as she got them talking about their old circle of friends.
"Blueblood?" She guessed, knowing that, out of all of their friends, the 'honorable' Prince Blueblood was the least likely to change.
"Yeah. Blueblood is still Blueblood," he answered back, staring at his coffee. They both knew that the overly ambitious and pompous plot wasn't likely to change in the near future. They never ceased making fun of him for it.
"I guess that's fifty bits I owe Vinyl," she joked, remembering a bet she'd made with one of her friends, just before the DJ skipped town.
"Guess so," he agreed, even letting a little chuckle out, although it hardly masked how he was really feeling. "Thanks for taking this mission, Midnight. It means a lot to me."
"You're welcome," time to get down to business, she thought. "Do you have the information?"
"Yeah," he pulled a folded piece of paper out of his coat. It looked like there were water marks on it, but Midnight decided not to call attention to it. She didn't want to make her old friend feel any weaker than he already did. "It's not much, but it should point you in the right direction once you get more to work with."
So Midna opened the letter and read. She recognized it as Twilight's scribe, but just barely, like she was either tired when she wrote it or just... off.
Dear, BBBFF
Things didn't go as planned in Ponyville. Everything went badly. VERY VERY BADLY. Trixie Lulamoon, a fraud. Fake. Words not comfortable using this letter to you. No idea what to do next. I'll think of something. Don't worry. Everything will be just fine. Just fine. Always think of something.
Love, Twilie
"She had a teacher up north she was close with. If worst comes to worst, she may end up heading there," he began to explain. "I'm sorry I can't do much more."
"If there's wasn't any information in the letter," Midnight started to ask, fighting a lump in her throat. "Why show it to me?"
"Your the secret agent," he replied. "You tell me."
"Well," Midnight replied, trying to fight back a tear. She knew exactly why he did that. "Let it never be said that the great 'Captain Equestria' doesn't know how to rally his troops," she rang out in a sense of depressed sarcasm.
Her brown eyes still struggled not to get saturated with water. "Well, you're right, Shining. It's not much, but it's more than I had a minute ago."
"She always looked up to you, you know?" He really wasn't making this any easier on her. "You were there for her in ways I never could be."
"Please, Shining," she tried to deflect the compliment. "I kept her out of trouble for a year and then I left. You make it sound as if she thought of me more like a sister than a foal-sitter." The look in Shining's eyes said it all. "Oh."
"I'm glad Princess Luna assigned you to this, but please," in all the years since she'd first met Shining Armor, from their first introduction to that brief stint as a couple, she never heard or seen sound so defeated. "Bring back my sister."
"I'll bring her back, Shining," she swore. "I promise."
"Thank you," he smiled warmly at that, knowing his sister's homecoming was in capable hooves. "Well, Agent Strike?" he extended his right hoof to shake, which she accepted. "Good luck."
"Thank you, Captain Armor," she smiled. "Have fun with Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. You two make such a cute couple."
"Midnight..." he thought for a moment. "I was her personal escort for a while. That doesn't mean anything."
"Right," she began to chuckle. " Well, at any rate, it's nice to see you getting back out there again. I mean, ever since I broke your heart..."
"We agreed it was mutual," the captain retorted.
"Mutual meaning that I broke your heart," after what he just put her through emotionally, she was going to get pay back.
He sighed, the exhaustion and his ex causing his patience to grow more thin by the moment. "She's not my girlfriend, Midna. I'm still single and loving it."
"Yeah," Midnight laughed it off. "We'll see how long that lasts."
And suddenly, all emotion left the illustrious good captian's voice and face. "Get out of here, Midnight."
And so she left, knowing exactly what was at-
...
"Bit for your thoughts?" Her day dreaming interrupted, she looked up to see the bandaged head with goggles on his forehead, as opposed to the neck like when she'd met him, of the minor noble. "This seat taken?" He asked while flying in place, knowing walking would be a painful recourse.
"Um, no. Not at all," she answered, getting her mind back in the here and now. "Go ahead."
"Thanks." He took a seat across from her, looking out the window briefly, then back to her, his arm still in that cast she placed it in. "So what's on your mind?"
"Just thinking about..."
"Twilight Sparkle?" he guessed right.
"Yes," she looked down. Did I really make it that obvious?
"Yeah," he went back to looking out the window. "It sucks losing friends, doesn't it?" He asked that like he actually had an idea of how she felt. Like he could actually relate.
"Yes," she agreed half-heartedly. "It does."
"So what was it like?" He vaguely asked like she could read his mind for what he meant. "Living on the road, I mean."
"It was interesting," she asked in her trade-marked Romaneigh accent. "Different..." she had to search for the right word. "Beings, from ponies to cows and griffins, living in a single, moving town." She looked down, fondly remembering her childhood. "It was always a challenge getting enough food, though. We all had to learn a trait if we wanted to belong." She shrugged, "My father always had saying," Silver, with his love of sayings, suddenly perked up his ears. "He'd say, 'Midnight, I love you, but if you don't work then you don't eat'."
"That's it?" he sounded disappointed.
"What do you mean 'that's it'?" she asked back.
"Well, I just expected a something a little more..." he now began to search for the right words. "Intrinsic and... Romanigh...-ic." That last word was not one of them.
"Oh really?" She raised an eyebrow, taking a bit of offense to what he just said. "Well then, Star Swirl, let's here your story."
"What's to tell?" he waved his good arm. "I'm the ex-Shadow Bolt grandson of the late and great Baronet Silver Bolt. In a self-imposed exile from the Night Court of Luna and working as a freelancer. Helping our princess bring justice to a corrupt world. Yes," he sighed, then continued. "Mine is truly a tormented existence, filled with torment. A single, white knight alone, fighting injustice in an unjust nation-"
"You really are full of it," she laughed a little bit, actually grateful that this merc-no, this freelancer had come to talk to her and take her mind off of Twilight. "You are aware of that, aren't you?"
He hoofed his nose, smiling the whole time. "You shouldn't expect anything less."
"Yeah," she agreed. "So what were you doing here? Really, I mean."
"Descent kicked me out for figuring out his first name," he plainly stated. "It's Pyhric, by the way."
"Pyhric?" She recognized that word. It meant to win a battle so costly, the victory was practically for nothing. And when combined with his last name... "Wow. That's... actually very depressing."
"But not really surprising," he added. "So when do you think the train is going to Sto-"
"Everypony off the train for Ponyville," they both heard a train worker shout out as is by chance. "Off the train for Ponyville!"
"Huh... speak of the Sombra," the young noble responded. "Well, Ms. Strike?" He took on a more arrogant and stereotypical aristocratic voice. "Shall we away?"
She rolled her eyes at him as they left the train, finally on their first real stop in their quest for her old friend, Twilight Sparkle. Speaking of which. "So do you know anypony personally in Ponyville, Silver?"
He game a friendly smile. "Sure do. She's a good friend of mine. One of the only friends she had, last time I saw her, although that was before the whole Celestia-coming-back-from-the-sun thing happened." He looked back at her, "I heard she's actually gotten a lot better at keeping them. Friends, I mean."
"Oh really?" She raised an intrigued eye-brow, obviously thinking it was some kind of romantic entanglement.
"Nah, not like that, Midna," he began to explain. "I'm just one of the only ponies she managed not to hack off to the point of completely avoiding her before she got sent here as a promotion. Heard she's made a half-decent splash here, too."
"Well, what's her name?" Asked Descent, seemingly coming out of nowhere.
"Her name is Trixie..."
...
"Lulamoon!" He shouted as he finished greeting his old friend by name. In her rather lavished but cozy small-town home, he bear hugged her with his one good arm.
"Silver?!" She didn't see it coming. "What the heck-how did you even get in here?! The door was locked!"
He hoofed his nose at her. "The fine art of breaking-and-entering is a talent passed down the Silver family for generations." He took a good look around, noticing a couple of empty bourbon bottles that she probably forgot to throw away over the last few days. "So how you been doin', Lulamoon? Saving the country? That's cool."
Her voice went from shock straight to irritation. "Don't call me that."
"Call you what? Lulamoon?" He was doing this on purpose. "Why not? It's your name, ain't it? And besides, it has such much nicer ring to it than just 'Trixie'."
"Stop it," she said flatly.
"In fact," he began to muse. "I think I fancy a round of 'skip to my Lulamoon' later on, should it tickles my fancy."
She just stared blankly at him. Him, the only pony in all of Canterlot that decided to stay friends with her. Her idiot best friend from days gone by. But really, it was kind of nice to see him again. He had been the only noble, no, one of the only ponies period that she just couldn't shake, regardless of the several times she tried, death threats included. I guess, when it came right down, he was one of the best friends I ever had. Then she thought about that for a second. Wow, I'm glad I've made a lot more of those since then.Wow, I'm glad I've made a lot more of those since then. "Why are you here?"
"Princess Luna!" His eyes began to beam with pride. "She personally hired me to investigate what happened to Ms. Twilight Sparkle."
"I don't believe you," she disagreed blandly.
"Why not?" He asked indignantly.
"Why would Princess Luna, my teacher, send you on alone to investigate what happened to Twilight?" Then she began to lay out actual reasons. "You, the biggest ham and ego-maniac this side of Los Pegasus?"
"Heh, you know?" Silver began to counter. "You could almost taste the hypocracy in the air, maybe even serve it on a sandwich with a side of soup." Then he thought for a moment. "Say, you got any soup, Trix? Maybe of the potatoes and cheese persuasion?" He trailed off. "Oh, and I'm not alone. The other two just are off investigating other places."
She sighed. "Alright, I'll tell you what you want if you leave."
He slowly sat down on her couch, minding the bruises and the cracked bones. "Alright, Lulamoon." He smiled. "Thrill me."
"Well, it was a day like any other," she began. "I was just finishing up a show and then Twilight Sparkle shows up from the audience and tells me what I'm doing isn't real magic."
"Kind'a rude. Go on."
"Right? Anyway," she continued. "We met back stage and-"
"Things got saucy?" Silver smirked.
Her eyes narrowed. It brought up lot of awkward memories when he tried to set her up with somepony. Oh wait, that's why I didn't miss him. "I hate you. With all of my hate, Silver." She picked up from where she was interrupted. "So as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, she talked to me about how I was wasting my talents. And, under no fault of my own, she vengefully and maliciously decided to-"
"Trixie..." A grey coated and silver maned bemoaned her from the nearby stare case.
Silver waited for a second to say anything, then took on his signature fox-like grin that Trixie may very well had learned under him. Or maybe the other way around? They'd known each other for so long, that it had become genuinely difficult to remember who learned what mannerisms from whom. "So who's your boyfriend?"
"Wait, what?" The grey unicorn asked.
"Pokey's my assistant, Silver," she explained, agitation creeping into her voice.
"Ah. So you hooked things up with your assistant," his gaze turned to Poney, looking him over. "Not bad, but..."
"That's not what I said at all!" She shouted indignantly.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Trix," he began to patronize. "I here a lot of that kind'a thing happens in Canterlot. I won't think any less of you for it."
She shot him a death glare. "Hey, Silver? The arm in that splint wouldn't happen to be broken, would it?"
"Oh, yeah," he looked down at his tarnished silver coat, littered with bruises and with a banged up arm. "Happened last night when a warehouse tried to kill me. It lost. Why do-OW!" The light blue mare reared back her arm after punching her old friends injured limb. After checking his arm to make sure it was alright, he looked back to Pokey. "So who are you, anyway?"
"My name is Pokey Pierce, official assistant and secretary to Representative Trixie Lulamoon," he said proudly. "And I think you'll find soon enough that I prefer to stab through all of the beurocratic work to get the job done. And you must be the private investigator the princess sent to investigate what happened the other day." He then turned to his employer. "I left that file on your desk yesterday. Or were out with Monsieur Bourbon again?"
"I will neither confirm nor deny that," she looked away.
"Anyway," he turned back to the pegasus. "I'm glad that somepony has finally showed up to pierce through the fog and into the heart of this mystery."
That's when Silver noticed Lulamoon roll her eyes. "You know, Pokey, I gotta say, you seem to be a cut above the rest of most of all the other secretaries I've ever met," Pokey Pierce took on a rather robust smile as Silver placed his good arm on his shoulder. "I'd say that this one has a point about how great the princess was to send me on this mission."
Trixie moaned in her misery. "Oh, stars. It's like idiot in stereo."
"You know?" Pokey began to reply. "I wasn't really sure what I thought about you when I first saw you a few minutes ago, but I gotta say, your personality is positively sterling. In fact, you seem like a shining example of the kind of pony the Princess should send."
"And you too, Pokey, seem to be a cut above the re-"
"KNOCK IT OFF!" Trixie shouted, tired of the veritable tornado of puns that she's placed right in the middle of.
They both stared at her, apparently defeated by the Night Court representative's abrasive shout. Apparently, while dealing with Pokey on a regular basis was a task easily enough accomplished, having to deal with both her assistant and the unholy amalgam of him and, though she hated to admit it, herself at the same time was almost enough to make her want to betray everything she'd ever learned about friendship... ever.
Silver just shrugged it off. "Well, it's not like it matters anyway," he began again, nonchalantly. "I mean, I've read the reports on what happened already. From the damage to town to the ursa teleporting."
"Everything?" Representative Lulamoon asked, fishing for a sign that her didn't know as much as he thought.
"Well, yeah," he answered. "I mean, she showed up in Ponyville and, after meeting you, she obviously wanted to either test you or impress you, thus came the ill-conceived plot of her going to mind-slave an ursa minor. Thing is, she never really showed any inclination to this kind of outburst before she came here," His face became more serious. "Trixie, what did you do?" He asked calmly, like joking time was over.
"You think that I was the reason she-" his face of stone was unyielding. "But why would you think that it was-" it was piercing through her, the gaze of the one pony that still wanted something to do with her Canterlot. "Fine. Yes, It was my fault. She disrupted my show and said what I was doing wasn't real magic, so I made her look like a tribalist." She looked down somberly for a split second. "Long story short, it's my fault that she's on the run like she is."
"Alright," Silver simply responded making his way to her library, like she said nothing important.
"'Alright'?" She parroted, irritated at how she just made herself all emotionally vulnerable to just hear him say 'alright'.
"Yeah, I mean I did READ the report, Trixie," he explained. "I KNOW what happened. Heck, my team mates are scowering the town for clues right now." He smiled warmly from the bookshelf. "I just wanted to see how much you've learned since you got here." He turned back to her. "It's nice to see you've grown a conscience, Lulamoon."
"I...you... ugh" she only sighed, not knowing what to do. Finally, words came. "I hate when you pull that 'Starswirl the Bearded' stuff on me."
He continued to search for books with Twilight's style of writing. "Well, as Grandaddy Bolt once said, 'If I claim to be a wise-colt, it surely means that I don't know'." He then took on a curious look on his face. "You ARE going to return these books back once we bring her home, right?"
"Um... yes?" She inquired.
"Why do say that like a question?"
"Because?" She inquired yet again.
He only smiled as he continued his search through the rather extensive library, no small feat considering he only one good arm and he mostly needed his wings to get around. "You haven't changed." Deep down, though, he knew that she had. She was still the off-blue, obnoxiously ambitious bag of snark he'd known for years, but now there was something else there, too. Not contentment, though. It was something more subtle. Belonging?
"Whatever," she shot. "Just find out what you need and get out. It's starting to smell like a philosophy in here."
And as he got to his job of bringing the rogue mare back home, he couldn't really help but wonder what his companions were doing and where they went. Then he shrugged it off, knowing that he had his own job to do.
Then, as the silvery coated colt continued to one-arm a library, Pokey Pierce felt himself swelling up with a new sense of hero worship "There goes the greatest stallion I never knew."
Trixie just glared at him, not really caring that her face may very well freeze like that at this point. "Shut up, Pokey."