//------------------------------//
// Exodus: Part 1 
// Story: Elements of Resonance 
// by Daemon McRae 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 6: Exodus, Part 1: Out the Gate

One thing most ponies understood about Stockpile and Stallius is that no matter how angry one seemed to become with the other, they for whatever reason had always been able to make up their differences. Another was that, at any given time, in order to find one of them, a pony simply needed to find the other. They were never more than a room or two apart anywhere in the castle, if only because most other ponies in Canterlot had the good sense not to get mixed up with them.

Not that they were bad ponies in any sense of the word. Outside of Stockpile's habit of turning cards for a quick bit or two, the pair were usually rather amicable and somewhat fun to be around. But theirs were personalities that could only be taken in small doses.

The really unfortunate part of this scenario was that theirs were personalities that they could only stand for so long in relation to each other. And yet they tended to spend quite a bit of time together, leading to a variety of conflicts over a range of grandiose-to-petty things, including who used the last napkin, to who fell asleep during guard duty. But when anypony asked either of them why the two were such good friends and spent such large quantities of time together, they would always invariably receive the same answer, as if it had been rehearsed: "What are you talking about? He follows me around."

Which left them with not a lot of options socially speaking when the majority of people who could put up with them for any amount of time more substantial than necessary to give them another task or ask them a question involving... whatever it is the two specialized in, had left to help set up a festival neither of the two had any plans to attend. Which left them with, inevitably, each other.

This became rather apparent to them their first night on duty, as they were posted outside the castle's West Gate (the farthest from the public entrance), on either side of the door. And that doesn't mean one inside, one out. They were literally standing twenty feet away from each other for nine straight hours.

It didn't take long for conversation to devolve rather quickly.

"Right," Stockpile grunted, after some thought. "So you get t' spend a night in the chambers of either Princess, whole night, no questions."

Stallius groaned. "Ok, but..."

"But," Stock continued, "If it's Celestia, you have to tell Twilight Sparkle about it the next day, every detail. And if it's Luna, you have to tell Golddusk."

The white colt breathed in sharply with a hiss. "Ooh, ouch. Oh, I don't fancy having to have that conversation with Gold. Not sure what he'd do. I'd probably go with Celestia, if only for the fact that Luna's been out of touch with... 'current affairs'," he added lightly, "for a millenia. I'd want to make sure that my... well, that the lady is educated in such matters. And besides, Twilight would be too busy writing a 'letter to the princess,'" he air quoted, "to do anything to me right away. I'd just bail after I told her. And it's not like she wouldn't let me finish."

The red-coated pony snorted at that. "Tha's true, innit? She'd probably spend the rest of the day in her room with that image in 'er 'ead, just-"

"FOCUS!" game a bark from a balcony above them. The two 'guards' snapped to attention and barked in unison, "Sir, yes sir, Rapier!"

The captain of their guard gave each of them a condescending look from on high, and went on his way. After a couple of minutes in silence, Stallius spoke up, "Ok, you get to use a Captain's BitCard for a whole day, no limits on where you can shop,"

Stockpile's ears perked, "Right, right, and?"

"But it's Halberd's, and you have to hand it back in pony when you're done."

Stock flinched. "Oh, that's not pretty. I'd rather go broke for a week than have to owe a cent to that blowhard."

Their conversation continued for a little while, until they heard another shout of "MEN! FOCUS!" and responded once again to a rather tiffed captain.

"Yes, sir," Stallius low voice didn't do much to mask his sarcasm after their captain had left. "Are they back yet?" he sighed.

"No," Stockpile groaned.

IOIOIOIOIO

"High alert! High alert!" the alarms rang out through the castle, as guards and servants ran to and fro, under a state of complete panic. "The Princess has gone missing!"

Stockpile, who had taken to a rather long and much-appreciated nap, slowly dragged himself out of bed, after having tried to suppress the commotion through his pillow for several minutes. His more than tired and slightly less than worn-down body fell to the floor with an unceremonious thunk, and he trotted as slowly as possible without not actually moving, before he nudged his barracks door open.

Halberd, who had been part of the ungodly racket for the last five minutes having spent that time knocking loudly on Stock's bedroom door, glared hard at his subordinate. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I wake you?"

Stockpile shook his head. "Nah, the ruddy alarm did. S'effective, that. Whatcha want?"

The guard captain, resisting very much the urge to beat Stock round the head and neck for insolence, simply barked at him. "We are on high alert because the Princess is missing."

"Which one?" the gambler asked sleepily.

"THE Princess. Celestia.," Halberd growled.

"Right, wake me when it's over," Stock mumbled, turning to go back to sleep. Halberd quickly moved between him and his bed.

"What the hell do you think you're doing." the captain seethed.

"Do you remember th' last time Celestia went missing?" Stock asked in a low grumble.

"Yes, I do. The Summer Sun Celebration," Halberd answered, a gruff tone still present in his voice.

"Wrong. Month and a half ago. Gone for three days. Came back without a word. Two months before that. Same thing. Gone about a week. She's been popping off on her own for days at a time ever since Luna got back, remember?"

Halberd balked at him. "Well, that's true, but..."

"An' th' only reason we panicked at the Summer Sun Celebration, which apparently we were right ta' do, was because she hadn't taken any time off at all in centuries, and was due to make a public appearance that morn', which she never misses. Just go ask Luna, she'll tell you th' same thing she does every time: 'I can't tell you were she is, she won't let me.' Bet you money," he added, moving to step past him.

Halberd nodded his head at Stock's logic, then interjected in a worried tone, "That's all well and good, except Luna's the one that reported her missing, and the sun hasn't risen."

Stockpile's eyes widened, before scrunching them closed and letting out a low hiss of "Fffffffffff-

IOIOIOIOIO

"-UCK ME," Stallius barked, charging down the stairs after the captain that had woken him, Guisarme. "Are you serious? Who the hell's gonna raise the sun now?"

"Luna's looking it up," Guisarme barked behind him, banking a hard left down a corridor. They were making tracks for the armory, as high alert meant that every guardpony able to take arms was to do so and remain at their post until the crisis was resolved.

Stallius missed a step at that and fell flank-over-teakettle down the flight of stairs he was breezing past. "Ow, ow, holy mother of OW!" he declared, rolling down a rather unforgiving set of marble steps. When he finally reached bottom, and regained enough faculty to raise his head and talk, he asked, "Looking it up? We are SO doomed."

"Get yourself together and get to the armory. The longer we keep this place at any level less than fully and completely secure is another mistake waiting to happen. We can't waste time worrying about details we don't have any control over, so MOVE YOUR FLANK," Stallius's captain yelled behind him, taking off for the armory again.

The white unicorn picked up after him,. "I knew I should've stayed in the city," he grumbled.

IOIOIOIOIO

"I knew I shoulda stayed overseas," Stockpile groaned wearily, having stood at post for a couple of hours at this point. Luna was doing some more research on how to raise the sun, but said she couldn't make any guarantees as to when.

Stock and Stallius, who had taken their post together once more, were very much on edge. "What do you think would've happened to us if we'd decided to never become guards?" Stallius mused, in a weak attempt to pass time.

"You mean aside from being awake at the most ungodly of hours? Thank Luna we're used to it being dark." Stock grumbled. "I'd be a might richer, tell you. If I'd stayed in Manehatten I'd've made bank well before now. But we're 'ere and we're guardin', so get over it."

Stallius shook his head. "You are very much not the kind of pony that takes radical changes to his sleep schedule well,."

"Says th' cheapskate who won't share his Sleepwake spell with somepony he owes money to," Stock's response came in gruff, quiet tones.

"Well," Stallius responded with a sheepish grin, "It does take rather large amounts of magic and oh look is that who I think it is?" he derailed, pointing a hoof at the sky.

Stock glared at him for a few seconds more, then raised his gaze skyward, following Stallius's gesture. Sure enough, he recognized the flying group of four ponies as his fellow night-shift workers. "Well, s'bout damn time. Maybe I can get s'more sleep when they get to guardin'."

Stallius raised a brow. "You do remember that only one of them is an actual guard, right? And he works on the opposite side of the castle from us?"

"...I hate today." Stock groaned.

IOIOIOIOIO

Luna looked wearily after Octavia as she left the room, pulling open some more books, reminding herself that she was supposed to be looking for how to raise the sun herself, despite what she'd told her night court. Heaving a much-withheld sigh before diving back into her books, she mumbled as she read. However, having not found much of anything for hours already, she gazed at the moon in contemplation.

"I do hope they'll forgive me," Luna whispered to no one in particular. "I couldn't have told them the truth. It's practically more radical than what I did tell them. They'll learn more at Twilight's, but I don't know if it will be enough. Twilight and her friends went in with very little information and pulled off a miracle. I don't think we have words for what I asked them to do."

Pulling another book off the shelf and letting it fall half-heartedly to the floor, she opened it with a nudge of magic, and muttered to herself. "Father, what did you do with it?"

IOIOIOIOIO

Stallius and Stockpile were practically overjoyed when they were told they were relieved of duty, and to go to a meeting room for different instructions. They were even happier to see their friends surrounding the conference table when they trotted in, and took their seats with sleepy grins.

Their elation didn't last very long, as they took in the various expressions of their teammates. Before they were given a chance to speak, however, Golddusk stomped a hoof down on the table. "In or out. Right now."

Stock and Stallius both raised eyebrows, in and almost comical mirror of one another, before Stallius asked, "What?"

"We've been given a mission by Princess Luna. I need to know that we can include you in, and trust you to stay through the entire thing. You also can't tell anyone the truth of what we're doing for her," Gold answered simply.

Stallius heaved a sigh and Stockpile facehoofed. "Are you serious," Stallius groaned, "Now you're taking it upon yourself to do missions for her? You've got to-"

"Luna herself asked us," Octavia interjected, matter-of-factly.

"-be... I... oh. Well, then," the white colt trailed off sheepishly. "Well, whatever it is, I can't imagine it being any better than guard duty, so I'll pass for now."

Octavia's eyes went wide. "You've got to be kid-" she cut herself off, seeing Golddusk raise a hoof to interrupt her.

"She said we should only take ponies we can trust to stay with us for the entire mission. If he can't make a commitment now, I seriously doubt he'd be able to go however far we'd need him to," Gold explained.

"Now wait just a minute!" Stallius objected. "I never! Fine. If you need help, then I'm more than capable of seeing a mission start to finish! Count me in!"

Octavia blinked a few times at this, and turned her head, ready to ask the black pegasus a question, when she noticed a hint of a smile on his face. She started to say something, but let him continue.

"Stockpile, in or out. Right now," he repeated.

The red-coated colt thought for a second, then grinned. "Right, right, you got me. Like I can stay away when you put it like that. So, what're we doing?"

"Well, to be honest," Golddusk smiled, one the two guards hadn't seen before, "Twilight's going to tell us."

Stock and Stallius glanced between each other, then back to Gold. "What?"

IOIOIOIOIO

Ponyville was at quite possibly the highest level of silent tension it had seen since Twilight left the morning of the Summer Sun Celebration. Twilight and her friends were currently waiting quietly in the library, after the purple unicorn had received a package and instructions from Princess Luna. "Oh, aren't they supposed to be here yet?" Twilight asked anxiously.

"Oh, don't go getting' yer mane in a twist, Twi," Applejack assured her, resting a hoof on her shoulder. "They'll be here soon enough. It's not gonna help any if you worry yourself silly before you can tell them all that stuff they have to do."

"But that's just it!" Twi exclaimed, running back to the small scroll the Princess had written her, reading it's instructions yet again. "I barely know that much! She expects me to be some kind of authority on the Elements, but I barely know how they work! We've only gotten them to work once ever, and even then I only knew some really basic stuff."

Rarity raised her eyebrows in concern. "But of course you did research on them afterward, right?"

The librarian pony nodded. "Of course. Tons. Princess Celestia handed me a bunch of stuff on it. But I only really understood the technical stuff. Nothing in any of that could have prepared me for a completely different set of Elements that, if I'm reading this correctly, work entirely differently than what we were using!"

Pinkie Pie hopped across the room to read over Twilight's shoulder. "So why did we only use the Elements once, huh?"

"Apparently the Elements of Harmony were originally powers from Princess Celestia herself. SO after we used them to take down Nightmare Moon, she took them over again. According to her, they needed some kind of catalyst to work the way we needed them to without her around," the purple pony ranted.

"So of course she can probably use them whenever she wants," Rainbow muttered.

"Actually, apparently she's been using them ever since she banished Nightmare Moon those thousand years ago. I don't know the details, which just makes it harder to understand this Elements of Resonance thing!"

"Um... Twilight?" Fluttershy mumbled.

"Not right now, Fluttershy. Look, according to the material Princess Celestia sent me, the Elements of Harmony can only be used by those outside of the royal family when six ponies of specific predispositions having natural magical energies that can work in tune with each other are working together on emotional levels that compliment one another," Twilight's barrel of exposition was still quite full.

Applejack shook her head. "But only two of us can use magic."

Twilight sighed, and smiled lightly. "Actually, everypony can use magic. But Unicorns are the only ones who can use it in more than one way. How do you think Rainbow Dash generates rainbows when she flies fast enough? Or how Fluttershy can talk to animals naturally when there are other ponies who work with them that spend years learning to do just that? We all have magic. But because unicorns have learned over the years special ways of manipulating it to do more than one thing, we're seen as the ones who can quote unquote use it."

"Um... Twilight," Fluttershy said again, a little louder.

"Yes, Fluttershy?" Twi asked, somewhat exasperatedly.

"They're here," she answered, pointing a hoof to the now open door, full of ponies.

"What?" Twilight exclaimed, and Fluttershy jumped with a soft squeak. Why didn't you say some- oh," she finished sheepishly.

Golddusk took a step into the room, and asked simply. "So, Captain. Orders?"