~~~Canterlot, Throne Room, late Morning~~~
A bright flash of violet light erupted in the middle of the throne room making the two guards by the door jump and snap to attention wings starting to spread, only to relax slightly as the light cleared to reveal Princess Twilight, her assistant Spike, and her five friends Rarity, Rainbow Dash who landed slowly, Fluttershy who sat up with a small blush, Pinkie Pie who was bouncing in place slightly atop a pillow, and Applejack who immediately knelt dipping her head in a slow bow followed soon by the other five only for the group to blink at the sight of the mass of pillows they’d laid out spread out around them.
“Well I didn’t mean to interrupt your slumber party my little ponies” Princess Celestia commented raising an eyebrow at the sight of the pillows.
Twilight blushed her wings fluttered faintly “Um…w-w-we weren’t I teleported us here…and must have grabbed the pillows too…seems I still have a few bugs to work out with my magic” she muttered shaking her head. “But whats the worry?” she asked “what happened Princess-“
“Please how many times must we remind you, you no longer have to refer to myself and Luna as princesses, you are equal in position to both of us.” The ivory alicorn stated quietly holding a hoof up to silence her student. “As for why I’ve called you all here, this morning I received a rather shocking letter from Prince Shining Armor in the Crystal Kingdom.” Her horn glowed faintly as she levitated the scroll over towards Twilight as the mare grasped it with her own magic the glow shifting to violet as she read over it.
“Cadance…” she muttered softly “We have to go now! As soon as possible” she muttered the scroll dropping to the ground as her horn glowed brighter “I can get us there in seconds…”
A cool cobalt blue light washed over the youngest alicorn’s form stilling her shaking as her horn dimmed “Peace young Twilight Sparkle, you can leave soon enough, let us finish discussing what you shall do and make a few arrangements” A gentle voice spoke from behind her as Twilight spun.
“P-princess Luna” she yelped surprised “I-I’m sorry…I just…I’m worried…the last time Cadance vanished she was captured by the changelings…I want to hurry before something happens again…”
The Lunar Princess smiled slightly as she moved to sit next to her Sister “And that feeling is quite normal when you learn a member of your family is in danger, but do you really think we’ll be sending you in alone?”
Twilight blinked as Rainbow Dash spoke up “You two seemed plenty ready to do that any other time something’s gone wrong”
“Because normally the situation required the Elements of Harmony alone, and sending anypony else, would be dangerous as they’d be less able to defend themselves. In this situation while its just as serious,” Celestia continued her voice calm and serious “Is much less specifically tilted to you six, so its much more pragmatic to give you some help.” The sun princess continued.
Applejack nodded “That makes a lot of sense yer highness.” The apple farmer agreed “But who were ya thinkin’ of sendin’ with us?” she asked.
Celestia smiled slightly “I believe several of you know them very well” she commented waving a wing towards the door as it opened, inside trotted two Pegasus in matching blue and yellow uniforms the yellow portions lightning along their bellies.
“Soarin’ Spitfire?!” Rainbow yelled darting over to the two Wonderbolts in surprise landing before them “they managed to rope you two in on this trip?”
“Tch come on Dashie, you think we’re gonna let a trainee handle this all on her own?” the flame colored mare replied.
“As if I need any help, but I guess I can let you two tag along, ya know give the team a little extra cred” Rainbow replied with a light chuckle.
Soarin’ shook his head at the antics of the two behind him as he headed towards the rest of the group bowing his head respectfully at the sight of the three Princesses Twilight blushing slightly uncomfortable still with the treatment. “We’re here your highnesses, as you requested. I’m afraid the rest of the team is out helping with a wildfire case of the flu up in cloudsdale.”
Celestia nodded “It is quite alright Soarin’ even two Wonderbolts are a plentiful addition to ones team” she smiled “But where is the third pony I asked you to bring with you?”
“He stopped to help one of the servants with a rather large load of dishes from the dining hall he should be here any moment.” The pegasi replied quietly as footsteps headed for the throne room became audible.
Slowly a tall bulkily built red stallion with a half apple on each flank for his cutie mark walked in as Applejack’s eyes widened “Big McIntosh? What in Equestria are you doin’ here?”
“Helpin out” he replied simply.
“With what? We’re not gonna be buckin apples here!”
“Eyup” he replied in agreement
“Who knows how dangerous this’ll be…I at least have mah element to help me out.”
“Still comin’.” Her brother replied simply.
Applejack gave a low groan and facehooved “I ain’t gonna convince you tah leave am I?”
“Mmmnope.” He replied with a small smirk.
“Ugh well at least it’ll be nice to have some family along fer once on one of these nutty adventures.”
Pinkie giggled from nearby bouncing on one of the pillows “WOO you two are soooo silly” she giggled “I mean the more the merrieeeeee!” she squealed and yelped as she hit the stone floor of the throne room hard Rarity having taken the time to yank the pillow out from under her when she jumped staking the mess up to neaten it the best she could.
“Really Pinkie Pie, you could be a bit more refined we ARE in the presence of Royalty after all.” She sniffed slightly.
Pinkie bounced up and glanced at Rarity “But Rarity, we’re in the presence of royalty every day and you don’t get on my case when I bounce and joke around TwiTwi!” she teased bouncing over to hug the purple mare who blushed and chuckled.
“Ah…thanks I think Pinkie, I just…you know I’m not super pushy about stuff like that…its just not me.” Even as she spoke Twilight’s horn glowed as she lifted Pinkie off of her hopping back onto her hooves with a click “Anyway this…is all well and good but we really should get going to the Crystal Kingdom” she stated simply “I’ll return to Ponyville and start getting things prepared back there the rest of you catch up when you can, I can’t teleport all of us yet.”
Rarity stepped up next to her the pillows floating next to her “if you can take me along Twilight I’ll start packing myself and finish cleaning up this horrid mess we made of the throne room.”
Applejack rolled her eyes “Alright, what do we gotta do then?” she asked glancing up at the two Alicorns above them.
Twilight nodded as her horn glowed the gentle violet light washing out to encompass herself, Rarity, and the three piles of slightly dusty and grass stained pillows she’d become far to acquainted with lately as in a flash of light and a crack of sound they vanished back to Ponyville.
~~~~Ponyville, Early Afternoon~~~~
Twilight flew from where they’d arrived towards Sweet Apple Acres landing with a small thump and a plume of dust outside the barn as she glanced around “Applebloom, Granny Smith?” she called trotting towards the front doors “Its Twilight Sparkle, I have a request for you.”
A small mare with a bright red bow bounced out into view “Heya Miss Twilight, what can we do for ya’?” she asked curiously.
“Hello there Applebloom, I need a favor, I need you to start gathering up food for at least a month for….” She paused mentally adding up the team, herself and her five friends, and Spike made seven, with Big Mac, Soarin’ and Spitfire added in it was ten. “Ten Ponies for a long trip?”
Applebloom blinked “that’s a mighty big order you sure you’re gonna be able to carry it all?” she asked raising an eyebrow.
Twilight chuckled “I’m sure between my magic, and Applejack and Big McIntosh’s help we will” she replied lightly.
Applebloom nodded “oh? They’re going to…can I help?”
“you can help hold the fort down here okay? You and the rest of the Crusaders got it?”
Applebloom saluted “I’ve got it, you can count on us Miss Twilight!” she declared as she ran off to grab a couple of the hired hooves to help her gather the food as requested.
Twilight smiled as she spread her wings and took off a bit awkwardly towards her house to continue preparing.
~~~Ponyville, two hours later, Train station~~~~
Twilight glanced around “Hey Rarity, where’d you put the elements at?” Twilight asked, glancing over at the unicorn.
“Darling, I didn’t grab the elements.” Rarity said, “I thought you were going to.”
“I tried.” Twilight said, “But when I stopped by the library they were gone, so I figured you stopped by and got them.” Rarity shook her head.
“So wait a minute, if Rarity doesn’t have the elements,” Rainbow asked, “Then who does?” The six ponies glanced at each other.
“This is bad, really really bad.” Fluttershy whimpered.
“Now just stop for a moment.” AppleJack said, “Who could’ve grab ‘em? The only ones we sent back to Ponyville were Rarity and Twilight.” Fluttershy whimpered again, as Rarity and Twilight glanced at each other.
“Spike, send a letter to Princess Celestia.” Twilight said, turning to face the baby dragon, “Ask her to send down a guard to check out the library and see if there is any sign of whom may have gotten the elements.” Spike nodded and wrote the letter quickly before sending it off in a burst of flames.
“Are things always this…strange with you guys?” Spitfire asked glancing at the others.
“Most of the time.” Rarity said.
“Usually.” Applejack responded at the same time.
Twilight sighed “We’ve gotta get going, hopefully the Princess will find some evidence soon” she muttered as she trotted up onto the train as the rest of the group slowly followed after.