"Ugh!" Twilight groaned as she stopped pacing. "Where exactly is everypony?!" Ever since she had received a note from Celestia earlier that day, the unicorn had been quite impatient to leave. It was a slow day at the library and her friends were busy getting ready, so she was forced to wait at the train station with nothing else to do.
Now, there were only five minutes until their train left. Didn't her friends know how important it was that they were all on time? If Twilight could do a group teleportation spell, it wouldn't have mattered all that much. She couldn't though. A spell like that took a lot of focus and was hard to do properly with one other pony. Canterlot was also far from Ponyville. Usually, Twilight could only teleport a few yards away and she had to be able to see her destination. She was getting better though.
A crash interrupted Twilight's near-mental breakdown. She instantly turned around to see a familiar rainbow mane spilling out of a box. "Rainbow Dash! What took you so long? The train will leave in four minutes!"
The cyan pony groaned, rubbing her head. "I'm fine," she said, answering a question that was never asked. "Sorry, but I had to wait for Thunder Lane and show him what Tank eats."
Twilight gave her friend a questioning look. "Exactly how long do you think we'll be gone?"
Rainbow Dash jumped to her hooves and stretched her wings. "I don't know, but we usually don't go to Canterlot for just a visit. Unlike yours, my pet needs to be fed by somepony or he'll starve. Spike just grabs himself something to eat. Besides, Tank eats champions food!"
The unicorn glared at her friend, offended for her assistant. "Excuse me, but Spike is not my pet. He's more like a little brother who's also my number one assistant. And what would 'champions food' be for a turtle?"
Rainbow was about to say something when she felt the platform tremble as hooves pounded on it. She immediantly jumped into the air and called out, "Yo, AJ! Slow down! It feels like a stampede here!"
A panting Applejack slowed down to a halt when she neared her friends. "So-sorry fer... bein'... late...." She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before attempting to speak again. "I lost... track o' time while tryin' to finish the chores.... Whew! Glad I made it in time!" She began to look around. "Now, where are the others?"
Twilight shrugged. "I dunno. But they better hurry or we won't make it to Canterlot!"
Rainbow tapped her friend on the shoulder. "Don't sweat it, Twilight. You know Rarity. She's slow, but she tries to be on time. Same with Fluttershy. And Pinkie? She'll show up at the last second from nowhere!"
The orange farmpony nodded. "Jus' relax, Twilight. They're yer friends, as well as ours. They won't be late unless it's somethin' important that slowed 'em. They know how well ya admire the princess, and they won't let ya down."
Twilight sighed. "... You're right. Sorry, girls but I've just been so stressed since I got the letter from Princess Celestia. She said that it was urgent, and I don't want anything bad to happen because we were late."
The pegasus mentally facehoofed. "If it was really THAT important, then she would've teleported us to her or she would've sent for guards to escort us. Or maybe she would've came to us instead."
The librarian could feel her face grow warm. 'She's right,' Twilight thought. 'I really shouldn't be stressing out like this. I'll die at a young age or my hair will start to fall out. Okay. Deep breaths.'
"Oh, dear. So sorry for being terribly late." A calm voice said as its owner walked up to the group of friends. "I know she said to pack only very important items but...."
Rainbow's and Applejack's jaws dropped at the sight before them. A very large bag, looking like it was about explode, was levitating behind Rarity. "What the hay is in there?! ... Oh. Hi, Fluttershy." The yellow pegasus waved.
Rarity looked at her friends as if they were crazy. "It's just my make-up, dear Rainbow. I would have brought my hats and scarves, but I restrained myself." The white unicorn smiled as she proudly said that. Her friends had to give her a pat on the back for that. "I never leave home without a little touch-up make-up."
Twilight rolled her eyes. That was her "touch-up" make-up? She knew that looking good was important to her friend, but that was a ridiculous amount of make-up. Rather than trying to lecture her though, Twilight decided to leave that be. The train was going to leave soon. "Well, it looks like we're all here then."
"Aaallll aboard!" a stallion called out, telling ponies that it was time to leave Ponyville.
Twilight took the lead as they all entered one of the passenger cars. Rarity was close behind with her make-up bag, which struggled to fit through the door. Applejack headbutted the large bag to help get it in, complaining that the unicorn could have put it in with the other bags and suitcases. Rarity shot back a reply, saying that she wanted to look her best for the princess when they arrived. The farm pony still continued to grumble.
"Sorry for almost missing the train," Fluttershy apologized as she took a seat behind Rarity. "My animals were upset because I had to leave so suddenly. I also had to break up a fight between a cat and a mouse."
"Oh, my Opal was upset because of the very same reason." Rarity used her magic to take out a compact mirror so that she could study her make-up job. "Thursdays are her brushing and special breakfast days. I do that because I feel so bad for not being able to play with her because of work."
Rainbow flew in and dived for a seat next to Applejack. "Glad I'm not a fashion designer. I hate being stuck inside when I can go outside." She shuddered. "I hated being stuck at the hospital when I hurt my wing."
Twilight turned in her seat to look at her friends. "I still can't believe they sicced a... mentally unstable pony on you for stealing a book," she commented. "Sure, stealing is wrong and I do love books, but that seems a bit harsh."
The train gave a loud whistle before lurching forward. The sound of the departing train filled the air as they began to leave Ponyville behind. Applejack waved furiously as they passed by Big Macintosh with a cart hitched up to him. "Now, I wonder why we were called t' Canterlot."
Rainbow yawned. "She probably wants to tell us how awesome we are in person!"
The lavender unicorn shook her head. "Who knows? Anyways, where's Pinkie?"
Before any of them could answer, the door leading to a different car swung open. "Here I am!" the pink mare exclaimed behind a pile of candy. "I was here the whole time!" She dumped the sweets in an empty seat. "Well, not here, in this car, but I was still on the train. And I bought snacks from the snack car!"
"This train has a snack car?" Rarity asked.
Pinkie hopped over to Fluttershy with a lollipop with a pink marshmellow butterfly attached to it. "Here! Oh! I also saw a royal guard on my way here."
"You did?" Twilight asked. "That's weird. Well, maybe he was visiting some friends or relatives on his vacation? And he's on his way back to Canterlot?"
"Silly! He's a pegasus! I'm sure he would've flown back! I mean, sure it's far from here, but its not that far! Pegasi have pulled the carriages when the princesses came to visit us after all."
"Pinkie dear.... Have you ever thought that maybe he wanted a rest from flying such a long way? I know I would if I could teleport back and forth. Long-range teleportation spells do take a great deal out of you."
"But you know what's weird?"
Twilight sighed. "No, Pinkie. We don't." Already, she was wishing that the conversation could take on a different route.
"There was another one! But this one was a unicorn!"
"Maybe he's in the same boat with the other one?" Applejack asked inbetween bites of her caramel apple. She scratched her head. "But ya know what? I don't remember seein' two new ponies in Ponyville. An' I'm sure that Pinkie woulda thrown them a party."
"I tried, but they would run away whenever I saw them! They wouldn't even come to their own welcome party!"
Rarity lit up with surprise again. "That was what that party was for? I heard that it was a welcome party, but nopony knew who you were welcoming!"
Rainbow grabbed a blue cupcake, which was filled with a cherry filling. "Sweet!" she squealed, squirming in her seat. "Anyways, maybe they're on some secret mission. I mean, if they really were sneaking about Ponyville, then it's because of a secret mission.... Maybe they were checking out the Rich family and their friends the... whatever-their-name-is family."
A groan came from her earth pony friend. "Rainbow, the Rich and Silver family ain't part of some grand conspiracy."
"What conspiracy?" Fluttershy asked hesitantly.
Rarity rolled her eyes. "Believe me, Darling. You do not want to know. Let's keep you innocent for a little while longer." She looked out the window. "Tunnel up ahead, girls!"
"Oooh! I love tunnels!" Pinkie squealed as they passed through the dark tunnel. "That means that we're almost there! Then we'll be in Canterlot and see the princesses and see what they want from us! Maybe they want us to throw a HUGE party for them! But it's weird that we got to the tunnel already. Maybe they want to speed this up?"
"I don't think that the train is going that much faster. Anyways," Twilight shook her head, trying to get back on track. "The Princess said that this was urgent. You know. It's important. Sure, a party may be important to you, but a party isn't that important for the Princess to send for us. Unless it is for Princess Luna, but her birthday was about two months ago...."
"An' a party, a good 'un, fer royalty takes lots of preperation. She'd have told us t' pack 'bout fer a weeks stay at the most. Princess Celestia might be sendin' us somewhere else to do somethin' similar to that dragon quest when we had t' get it t' stop smokin' up Ponyville. That's why we were told t' pack lightly."
Smiling, Twilight looked out the window. Light blinded her eyes as their car exited the tunnel. Sitting in the mountains was Canterlot, the center of Equestria. The palace where the princesses lived could be seen from miles and miles away. It was easily the tallest structure in all of Equestria. The palace from the Crystal Empire was the only thing that was bigger than the Canterlot palace. Or maybe it just seemed like it because a lot of it was hidden underground.
'Applejack's right,' she thought. 'It's probably another dragon thing. Or something similar to that. It's nothing that we can't handle as long as we work together.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Princess!" Twilight exclaimed as she galloped towards her mentor. "What do you need us for?"
Celestia, who she had expected to smile upon seeing her and her friends, looked down at them with a serious expression on her face. The smiles melted off of their faces, except for Pinkie Pie, who continued to smile.
After a long uncomfortable silence, the sound of hoofsteps gained the princesses attention. She looked up and gave a small forced smile and nodded. Twilight followed her teacher's gaze to see two royal guards; one a unicorn, the other a pegasus.
"Oh, I do not need anything from you six.... I want you to be careful." She sighed, feeling her heart starting to act up. "I will not sugar coat this," which seemed more like a command to herself rather than to the small band of ponies. "... We have discovered that somepony is out to take your lives."