I was sitting on the bed of the train car with the curtain pulled back. "Some pony had to have noticed it besides me by now." I stated, staring at the glowing orange-yellow ball in the sky.
"Yeah, well, I hope you're wrong about the princess being pony napped and all, its just, who would want to do that?" Jodi asked.
"Plenty of ponies would. There's King Sombra, Queen Chrys..." I began.
"Wait, this world, is ruled by princesses, yet there are kings and queens?"
I thought for a moment. "Yeah."
"That makes no sense." Jodi said before taking another bite from her salad.
"I just want to know, why would they? At this time, they would achieve nothing from stealing Celestia. Her student became a princess, she already appointed Cadence, and Luna is also ruler of Canterlot, so its not like whoever did it is getting supreme power of the world, only of the sun."
"Yeah, but isn't the sun like, so hot that we would melt without the atmosphere?" Jodi wondered.
"Yes, that is true, but if they do it, then they will melt too."
"But, isn't Celestia able to grant immunity from the sun?"
"GAH! This is too confusing!" I threw the curtain shut as vigorously as I could. "You have many very good points and you don't even understand the situation! But, you gotta think, who in the world would want to be alive with just them and Celestia?" I walked over to Jodi as I talked.
"I have no idea Joe! I don't know who anyone is besides Fluttershy, Twilight, and Rarity, and I don't even know what Rarity looks like!"
"Wait. I, I think I may know."
"Really? What made you think of them anyways?"
"No, it's no one pony, it's a whole army." I turned back to the bed, opened the curtain, and stared out the window. "Of course, it makes total sense!"
"What Joe, who?"
"Queen Chrysalis!"
"What and why?"
"A year or two ago, she attacked the Crystal Empire with her army of changelings. With Celestia under her complete control, she could force the princess to make her and her army invincible to the sun's rays. With her army being able to change it's shape at will, they could become pegasi and use their combined powers to delete the ozone layer, causing Equestria to heat up and for all the inhabitants to melt under the intense heat, thus destroying every pony but the queen, princess, and changelings. Then she can laugh at Celestia as revenge for ending her reign of terror! That has to be it!" I shouted. I went to the middle of the car and did a victory jump.
"Why would she go through all the trouble? Can't a changeling or whatever just like, turn into Celestia?"
"No, transforming into an alicorn takes too much energy and would kill a changeling, only Chrysalis can do it and still live, but then she couldn't grant herself immunity from the sun because she's Celestia at the time of casting, so technically Chrysalis doesn't exist. Duh."
"Oh, well, sorry for trying to poke holes in your cartoon logic with real world logic." Jodi mumbled sarcastically.
"Thank you." I said jokingly.
***
After a few more minutes of talking about random stuff, the train conductor poked his head in the room. "We have arrived at Canterlot now. Hey, you look familiar." he said. He walked into the car and walked up to the two pegasi. "Oh, good for you, still got that pretty mare!" he then left the car.
"What was that about?" Jodi asked.
"I don't know." I said. "Now grab your bag of pilfered goods from Twilight's library and lets get going. We need to tell the royal guard whats happened and that Chrysalis did it."
"Ok ok geez, don't get your panties in a knot."
***
"Yes sir, we do know that the princess is missing, we learned before the sun ran out of energy to move, and countless citizens have told us the sun has stopped, luckily they haven't made the connection yet." The guard at the door said.
"Yes, but I think I know who did it!" I said quickly
"Who then?"
"Chrysalis!"
"What makes you think that?"
"Ugg." I explained it to the guard just like I did to Jodi.
"Hmm, yes, that does seem about right. Discord is still in his stone prison, Sombra doesn't have a problem with Celestia, and no other ponies have a reason to pony nap Celestia." The guard said.
"Yes, and I know where she is."
"What? How?"
"Chrysalis, she's a changeling, and they leave a trail of mucus, its a very fine and hard to see trail, but I can see it."
"No way, I knew they left a trail, but I never suspected that it was large enough for any pony to see. How can you see it?"
"I had surgery when I was a little boy er colt after I stared at the sun too long. I was blind, so the surgery ended up enhancing my eyesight in the end. Honestly, its hard NOT to see the trail."
"Flash, Shining, get over here now!" The guard shouted in the castle. Two guards came out immediately.
"What?" the orange pegasus asked.
"This better be good, I had a lead." the white unicorn said.
"This stallion may have our answer." the guard said.
"Seriously?" Flash asked.
"Yes, and I'm commanding you two to follow him to wherever he leads you."
"Woah, not so fast, I don't take orders from you." Shining Armor said, staring the guard in the eye.
"Unlike you, I actually do my job, I got several promotions, and you got none since Cadence became Princess, so I outrank you now."
"Ugg. Fine, I'll follow him."
"I'm going to need access to the castle though first." I said.
"You can go anywhere Shining and Flash can as long as their with you." The guard replied.
"Oh, cool." I looked down at the ground where the green trail was. "It starts off going this way." I said, following it into the castle.
***
"Are we quite done yet?" Shining asked after a few minutes of following me around the castle.
"Yes, the trail is becoming newer, I can tell Chrysalis has passed by here not long ago." I said, nose to the ground as I stalked down the trail. I picked up the pace and hit my head on a door. "She must be through here."
Shining came up and put his ear to the door, and I did the same. "What is she saying?" he asked after hearing some talking.
"Shes talking to someone, most likely another changeling, about Celestia's mare napping."
"Uhh, guys, can I listen?" Flash asked.
"Dude, you're a pegasus, just fly above us and listen."
"Oh, right." Flash did as I said and listened with us.
"So, how did you hear that? Did you have surgery on your ears too?" Shining asked.
"No, the short time I spent blind heightened my other senses, and because I didn't get my sight back from natural causes, my other senses never went back to normal." I explained. "Or something like that, I don't know, I failed biology."
"Hmm, seems legit."
"Wait, shh, they're quieter now." I listened for a couple seconds. "They know we're listening. I-" I was cut off when the door swung open and the three of us fell in the room, then it shut as quickly as it opened.
"Hah, think you can spy on us don't you?" the queen asked, then she turned to the other changeling. "Anata wa, seresutin no megami o mitsuke."
"What did she say?" Flash asked me.
"Look, just because I have enhanced senses doesn't mean I speak Japanese." I said to him. "Oh by the way, she told the changeling to locate the Celestine goddess."
"So, you do speak Japanese?"
"Yes, but not from the surgery, I watched a lot of anime."
"Aniwhat?"
"I'll explain later." I looked at Chrysalis. "Kanojo ga doko ni aru ka oshietekudasai!"
"Shirimasen." she replied.
"Yokotawaru sukamu."
"Yokotawaru sukamu? Watashi?"
"WHATS HAPPENING?" Shining asked, scared.
"Ok Chrysalis, lets just speak English again."
"I'm fine with that. I don't know anymore Japanese anyways."
"So, where is she?"
"I told you, I don't know!"
"Quit lying!"
"Silly child, no lies escape these lips."
"Chrysalis, you and I both know you took the princess."
"How can we, if I didn't?"
"Just, shut up and give me the princess! DO IT!"
She sighed. " I guess I will have to prove I didn't kidnap her."
"So you do say kidnap in Equestria."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Ok, anyways." She whistled and jerked her head in our direction. Several changelings flew from the dark corners of the room at us, there sharp fangs catching the sunlight from the single window.
"I got this." Flash jumped out from behind me and kicked a changeling in the face before landing in front of me. "You guys go find Celestia, I'll handle the changelings." He hovered a foot above the ground and got his hooves ready for a fight.
"No guard left behind." Shining said before trotting up to Flash's side. His horn glowed and he got ready to use magic to attack the changelings. "Joe, you get going, find Celestia."
"But, what if a guard kicks me out of the castle?"
"Tell them kiwi. They'll understand."
"Ok." I said. "You sure you don't want help here?"
"No, changelings are weak, and Chrysalis is to busy lying about her knowledge on Celestia to fight. NOW GO!"
I nodded then pried the door open and ran into the castle halls. I didn't know what to do. There were so many paths, and I had a time sensitive mission. Adrenaline pumped through my body as I quickly picked a path and ran down it as fast as I could, looking for any sign of the princess. I bumped into a troop of guards that were patrolling.
"What are you doing here?" the lead one asked.
"Umm, uhh, KIWI!" I shouted.
"Nice try, that was last weeks passcode." He said, then he used his magic to pick me up and throw me out the nearest window.
"AHHHH!" I screamed as I plummeted. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? I'M GONNA D-oh yeah." I spread my wings and slowed my descent enough so that when I hit the ground, it only knocked the wind out of me instead of killing me. "Phew." I said when I regained my breath. "That was close."
"JOE! Oh my God, are you all right?" Jodi asked when she saw me.
"Yeah, just a bit bruised." I said. "Also, kizutsukeru shinseina tawagoto." I said before rubbing my stomach.
"What?"
"Nevermind, anyways, we need to go back in the castle."
"Why, what happened?"
"Flash and Shining fought changelings. They saved me, I wanted to stay and help them, but I had a greater mission that would save millions of lives. Celestia is in there somewhere. We have to get to her before Chrysalis does again. I was kicked out when guards saw me without an escort. But, I have an idea."
"What?"
I walked up to Jodi's side where her saddlebag was and I dug around in it.
"What are you doing?" she asked, a tinge of worry in her voice.
"Looking for stuff I put in here, also, some of the things you added, I need to talk to you about. Ah, here they are!" I pulled out two black pieces of fabric.
"What are those?" Jodi asked. "Socks?" she giggled as a slight blush reached her cheeks.
"No, it's magically enhanced fabric that will automatically form to our bodies."
"So..."
"They're ninja suits pretty much, used to conceal our identity."
"Now why do we have these?"
"Well, I sent Luna a piece of mail explicitly telling her to cover the sun with the moon, blocking its light and creating the illusion of night. This will make our suits blend in. We're going to sneak around the castle and look for Celestia that way."
"Wait, if you could send Luna mail, why can't you just tell her to grant you permission to wander the castle?"
"She asked the same thing, the answer is because this is more fun."
"Oh my God, you're impossible." Jodi said. She reluctantly pulled her suit on after several minutes of convincing. The moon rose and blocked the sun just as I said. I threw my suit on.
"Let's go!" I said, adjusting the headpiece so my eyes could see clearly.
"All right, whatever."
Together we ran to the castle and slipped in, unnoticed. We ran down several hallways, passing a few guards, but not one noticed us, excluding one that resembled me strangely accurately.
"Ok, this is the dangerous part." I whispered in her ear.
"What?"
"We're helping Flash and Shining." I said simply then shoved the door open. I ran in and kicked a changeling off of Flash's body. "You guys ok?" I asked the two guards, stretching my wings around them as best as I could to protect them from any attacking changelings.
"Yeah." Shining coughed. "But there were too many. We took a lot down, but they kept coming. Eventually Chrysalis called them off. Only that one stayed." he explained.
"Jodi, get him." I said, nodding towards the hissing changeling.
"What? Me? But, I'm a pacifist!"
"Ugg, fine, you help these guys." I jumped over the two grounded guards and tackled the changeling. "Why did you stay?" I asked the changeling beneath me.
"I was going to tell you the truth about what happened!" he hissed at me. At least, I assume it was a he. "Chrysalis невиновен, Сеlestia был украден королевской гвардии!"
"What? Why are you speaking Russian?"
"A curse was placed on me, whenever I give vital information, it always comes out Russian."
"Thank God my grandpa was a Communist and the family speaks Russian fluently."
"Joe, is there ANYTHING normal about you?" Jodi asked me.
"If there is, I haven't found it." I replied.
"So, what did he say?" Jodi asked.
"It was a royal guard that stole Celestia."
"Aww really? So, we were way off huh?"
"Yup. And also, I think that Chrysalis was trying to help, for once." I said.
"Well, what should we do?"
"We have to find the splinter cell inside the royal guard."
"How?"
"I." There was a creepy piano chord that came from nowhere. "Have." The same piano cord played again. "No." Seriously, where was this chord coming from? "Clue." Then the signature part of Beethoven's fifth played.