Equestria, Friendship Express, 03-11-05, 9:27 P.M. A.N.M. (After Nightmare Moon)
As the Friendship Express pulled into Hoofington Central Station, Rainbow Dash shook herself awake.
Ugh, that blasted dream again, the mare thought to herself. If this keeps up, I’m not gonna be able to hide it from Twilight. She’s got enough on her plate as it is; I need to do what I can to not add anything to it.
Rainbow looked at the alicorn sitting across from her. The way Twilight was holding herself was all kinds of cute, causing Rainbow to blush yet again. She did her best to hide it, not noticing that Clever Marigold had noticed it. The other mare smirked a little, deciding to keep what she was suspecting to herself.
Twilight looked up as the announcement came over the speakers. “Friendship Express has reached Hoofington Central. Boarding for Trottingham International will commence in thirty minutes. Thank you for choosing Friendship Express.”
Twilight turned to her companions. “Well, this looks like our stop. Did the princesses tell you why we’re stopping in Hoofington first?” she asked Marigold.
The mare shook her head. “All I was told is that there would be somepony that we would have to meet here; some sort of liaison between the Solar and Lunar Guard.” She shrugged her withers a bit. “I wish I’d been told more, but there’s no helping it now.”
“Well, I don’t know about either of you, but I need to get off this train; I’ve been sitting on my plot too long,” Rainbow Dash said, beginning to hover as per usual. Only Twilight noticed the flash of pegasus mana concealing her morphing wings. She did her best to hide the changes from the other unicorn.
“Well, while both of you were sleeping, I read a bit of the tome Celestia gave us,” she said at length. “Whatever it is that we’re doing, it has some connection to the Crystal Wastes, though I’m not sure what.” Twilight snorted. “Obviously we’re supposed to do this blind; the blasted tome is locked under an encryption enchantment. I’ve figured out four different keys for it, only to have it change each time. Blasted prick of a stallion; I don’t know why I ever admired him...” the rest of her statement trailed off into grumbles.
Marigold smirked. “I’ve heard my Sovereign say the same thing. I assume you’re griping about Star Swirl the Bearded, right?”
Twilight flushed. “Yes, and I should be more respectful.” She sighed. “After all, figuring out his last unfinished spell is what allowed me to ascend.” She huffed in frustration. “At least my friends treat me as they did before I became an alicorn.” She facehoofed as a family of unicorns bowed briefly to her.
“I don’t know why we wouldn’t Twi; just cause you have wings now doesn’t mean your not the same adorkable egghead you were when I first met you.” Rainbow grinned at the groan Twilight let out at that statement. Marigold giggled at the antics of the two friends.
“If you don’t mind my asking, Princess Twilight, how exactly did you two both become friends?” the unicorn asked. She blushed shyly at the look of confusion on her companion’s muzzles. “I only know a little bit about how you defeated Nightmare Moon; I was doing ‘work’ in Zebrica at the time.”
“Huh, and I thought everypony knew the story,” Rainbow said. “Well, I was already friends with the other girls, especially Fluttershy, but we all became the best of friends after we followed Twilight into the Everfree Forest when Nightmare Moon came back.”
“I had been sent there to oversee preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, which Ponyville was supposed to host that year. It happened to be the one thousandth of said celebration, and coincided with the release of Nightmare Moon.” Twilight frowned. “I’ve never really been able to determine if that was Celestia’s plan or not. She tried to get me to make friends before, but it’s never been really easy for me. Outside of my family and the Princess, I never really had many friends.” She then smiled. “Now I have five of the craziest ponies I have ever met as the best of friends.”
Rainbow smirked. “Heh, yeah, I’d say we are. Course, it’s hard to find a pony in Ponyville that isn’t a little crazy. Being so close to the Everfree Forest, we get all kinds of odd things. It was that way even before you came Twi.” She frowned at the knowing grin on Twilight’s muzzle. “What’s the grin for?”
“Oh, nothing. Just remembering what AJ did when you called me a ‘spy’ that day,” Twilight said. Rainbow groaned a little at that. Twilight then looked at Marigold. “This one has done some of the goofiest things since we first met.” She laughed. “Like the time she dressed up as a ninja to break into Ponyville Hospital to finish reading the Daring Do book that I loaned her while she was recovering from a bad crash that one time.”
Rainbow facehoofed at that. “Yeah, not my finest moment.” She then grinned herself, remembering something Twilight had done that was similar. “Of course, that pales in comparison to what the princess here once did. Trying to break into the Star Swirl wing of the Canterlot Archives for a time-traveling spell, dressed as a ninja. With an eye-patch, and a bedraggled mane.”
Twilight frowned. “Well, at least I learned something.” She smiled ruefully. “Not one of my finest moments.”
Marigold could see that the two were really close, despite being such polar opposites. She thought about something else that had been bugging her. “Well, what about the two times that the Changelings invaded? I’d heard that you were somehow involved with that, but I didn’t get a chance to hear all of the details.”
Twilight sighed. The three were off the train at this point, waiting for their liaison. “Well, the first time was when my brother was marrying Princess Cadance.” She frowned in remembrance. “I hadn’t known that they were dating until I was told that I and my friends were in charge of organizing a wedding for the pair. And I wasn’t happy at all to learn that Celestia deliberately kept that information from me.”
“Yeah, Twi was the only one of us that saw through Chrysalis’ disguise. Course, the princess should have been able to; it was supposed to be her niece.” Rainbow looked at her friend. “Twilight wasn’t very happy with us afterwards.” The pegasus frowned. “Twi, didn’t you get into a fight or something with Luna too?”
Twilight nodded. “Well, it wasn’t a fight per-se; more like a tense discussion.” She frowned. “I understand now that there were issues she was dealing with, but it wasn’t something I was aware of at the time. Not that those reasons were an excuse to ignore a pointed threat that the changelings themselves gave us.”
“At least the princesses listened the second time,” Rainbow said. She huffed in annoyance. “The damn bug queen tried again, and in almost the same way.” She then grinned viciously. “It was fun to watch her get squished though.”
“Who killed her?” the unicorn asked, still scowling a little at the ridicule of her Sovereign.
“Celestia did. And she wasn’t squished, she was vaporized,” Twilight said, frowning at the memory of Chrysalis holding her brother in one of her pods. “And it still could have gone pear-shaped. I’m just glad the princess was able to do what needed to be done that time; it went a long way to patching things up between us.”
Further discussion was brought short by the arrival of a pegasus Guards-stallion in the uniform of a Lunar Guard lieutenant. “Your Highness, Dame Rainbow Dash, and Corporal Marigold, I am to lead you to where you will be meeting your liaison. Please follow me.”
The party made to do so, only to have Marigold stop them. “First though, lieutenant, you must present your credentials.” A flash of anger briefly crossed the muzzle of the stallion before he nodded. “Of course.” He lifted a satchel containing his badge from under his left wing and hoofed it toward the mare.
Smirking inwardly, Marigold examined the false papers, well aware that this was a double agent she knew by reputation. She gave the would-be spy back his papers, then nodded at the other mares present.
Twilight nodded in return, gesturing to Rainbow Dash to precede her. As she did so, she tapped her left hind hoof in a quick sequence. The mares followed the stallion to the waiting carriage.
As Rainbow Dash- who was in the lead -approached the carriage, she saw that the driver tensed his rear legs, triggering a trip switch along the side of the yoke. She waited until the last possible moment, then pivoted on her front hooves, delivering a powerful back kick to the head of the cabby.
Twilight took that moment to wrap the other stallion’s wings with a powerful snare spell. The would be assassin tried to use a counter imbedded in his armor, only to have it fry; the snare was far more complex than it looked.
The telltale sound of a crossbow unloading came from several directions. A dense barrier formed around the three mares, vaporizing the arrows before they could reach them. Simultaneously, Twilight fired a series of bursting flares into the air.
Within moments, a scintillating barrier formed around the train station. Unicorns teleported onto every roof in the vicinity, sealing off every building. Pegasi that had been hiding in the overhanging clouds were brought down by bolts of lightning fired from the wings of Twilight’s personal Guard.
A trio of unicorns came forward. By now, the disguise that the so called Guard-stallion had been wearing was dispelled. The Captain of the Hoofington branch of the Solar Guard looked shocked. “How in the name of Celestia did that pony find out about this?!” He then shook his head before turning to an aide-de-camp that had just trotted up. “Corporal, please secure the prisoner.” The aide-de-camp nodded.
“Corporal, wait one moment please.” Twilight bent her head towards the leading edge of one of the Nocturne pony’s wings; within moments, a band of metal surrounded the prehensile tip of the pegasus’ wing. Simultaneously, the bands around the hapless pegasus solidified, turning into bands of enchanted moonsteel. “There, now he won’t be able to channel any of his mana. It should secure him until you can get him into a holding cell.”
Marigold levitated a needle and thrust it into the frog of the pegasus’ left forehoof just as he made an abrupt swallowing motion. The stallion convulsed before vomiting up a putrescent black substance. “Be careful, that’s toxic,” she said to the surrounding ponies. Levitating a vial over to the mouth of the bound stallion, she forced him to swallow its contents.
The stallion writhed a bit before slumping in defeat. “Make sure that he’s monitored at all times, even when using the restroom Corporal.” She handed the aide-de-camp a similar vial. “Pour two drops of this in his stool when he finishes, unless you want cleaning staff to end up in the hospital from acute magical hemlock poisoning.”
The stallion nodded before leading the shaking pegasus away to one of the police carriages.
Marigold stomped her hoof around the stain in several key places. A spider-webbing of runic lines surrounded the vomit, causing it to reach boiling point. She trapped the stain in a force bubble, then teleported a collection vial inside. “It’ll take just a few minutes for all of this to clear up,” she told Twilight, who was watching with extreme interest.
Twilight nodded. “Captain, have you secured all of those that attempted to attack us?”
“Yes, we have Princess,” the captain responded. “Once Corporal Marigold finishes decontaminating the sidewalk here, I suggest we all sojourn to the Guard-house.” He frowned. “It’s likely that they’ve got agents in every hotel in a five block radius.” He shook his head. “I thought that we got all of the conspirators.”
“These aren’t part of the crew that hired me Captain,” Marigold responded. “The idiot that just tried to poison himself is involved with an old rival.” She teleported the now sealed flask into a chest that she had nearby, then sealed the chest before stuffing it in the spare pouch of her bottomless bag. “I knew asking my Sovereign for an extra pouch would be a good idea.”
Marigold then solidified the barrier around the stain, tying it to the runes underneath. “Captain, I suggest you leave an officer detail to watch this dome for the next three days; that’s how long it’ll take for the limestone to neutralize the poison. Until that time, anypony that touches it without proper protection will suffer anaphylactic shock.”
The captain nodded at two officers, who took up a post on either side of the dome without complaint. “Princess, I suggest we leave now,” the stallion said to Twilight. She nodded.
The stallion then gestured to the rest of his troops before trotting over to his personal police carriage. His staccato hoofbeats tapped out a sequence that Twilight was expecting.
Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Marigold all entered the last carriage, which was fully enclosed. As the carriage made its way away from the station, it started to smoke.
Abruptly, the carriage blew into smithereens.
Sadly, the traitors failed yet again; they underestimated Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Several blocks away, a virtually identical police carriage made its way to the Guard House. Inside said carriage was the believed-to-be dead Princess of Friendship, the Element of Loyalty, and a newly appointed Corporal of the Lunar Guard.
Rainbow Dash was still shaking her head, trying to get the buzzing out of her ears. “Ugh, what the hay happened Twilight?” she asked her friend dizzily.
“Hold still Rainbow Dash,” the alicorn said in response. Her horn glowing, she touched her friend on the forehead just above her muzzle. A knot of portal magic had lodged itself in the nascent pathways of an as-yet unformed unicorn horn. Already?! She’s progressing further than I thought! At this rate, I’m going to have to start teaching her aura shielding spells by the end of the week! Her mana is all over the place!
Twilight eased the portal magic away gently. Rainbow sighed in relief as both her vision and her hearing cleared. “Thanks Twi,” she said, hugging her friend.
“Well, it was my fault that it happened,” Twilight said sheepishly, an embarrassed blush staining her cheeks. “Oh, you wanted an explanation, right?” She said, noticing the look of impatience on her friend’s muzzle.
Rainbow nodded impatiently. “It’s not every day that my ears start ringing and my eyes cross from going through a door.”
Twilight sighed. “This was a contingency plan I was hoping I’d never have to use.” She tapped the wall next to her. “Simply put, this isn’t the same carriage we walked into. The door had an emergency unidirectional portal tied to it.”
Marigold facehoofed. “Ugh, no wonder my coat is so itchy; those portals are notoriously messy.” She looked at the pegasus. “Is she going to be alright though? You did manage to get the clump out of her nascent node, right?”
“Yes I did-- and how did you know what I was doing?” Twilight asked in shock.
Marigold smiled shyly. “Like I’ve said before; I’m a devotee of both Gaia and Selene. And part of that is an almost instinctive ability in detecting mana fields.” She frowned briefly. “Normally it wouldn’t matter, as I have to actively cast a detection spell.”
Marigold levitated her Lunar Guard badge from the pouch she kept it in. “Ever since I Swore myself to the Night Princess, I’ve noticed that I now have the ability to perceive mana flows without actively casting a detection spell.” She pointed her hoof at the pegasus sitting across from her. “I wasn’t sure earlier, but sitting in the same train car with you has made me uniquely familiar with your mana flows. I don’t know a great deal about how it works, but even I know that a pegasus’ mana normally doesn’t flare unless they’re actively using it. That only happens when they’re manipulating storm clouds.”
Marigold smiled at the shocked look on her companion’s muzzles. “I took an educated guess, and realized that the only thing it could be was a meta-mana transference.” She smiled another bashful smile, then noticed the look of real fear on Rainbow Dash’s muzzle.
Marigold pulled the other mare’s hooves forward, pulling her into a brief hug. “I can hardly imagine what you’re going through Miss Dash, but as a friend, I’ll do everything I can to help you.” She smiled again. “And since it involves something that my Sovereign knows nothing about, I can keep your secret.”
Rainbow sighed. “Thanks May; you have no idea what that means to me.” She looked thoughtful as she and Marigold broke off the quick hug. “Actually, I’m starting to think that it wouldn’t be so bad for Princess Luna to know.” She grinned. “She’s just ornery enough to keep something like this a secret from her sister just to see her squirm when she finds out.”
The other mares giggled at this. “At least I don’t have to hide this from you. That would have been totally impossible anyway,” Rainbow said. The others nodded.
A brief yet quick series of taps on the door heralded their arrival at the Guard House. Twilight opened the door, and they all moved out, Marigold levitating their belongings behind them without complaint. Another aide-de-camp of the Guard Captain was waiting along the side.
“Your Highness, Captain Merit is waiting for you in the Briefing Room,” the stallion said.
“Thank you Corporal,” Twilight said in response. “Marigold, set our belongings down so I can teleport them to where we’ll be staying.” The unicorn nodded, lowering all but her own saddle bags, which were still on her back. Concentrating briefly, Twilight teleported them to the Governor's Manor. “Let’s get this briefing started; it’s late, and I’m hungry.”
The stallion nodded, leading the way.
Equestria, Hoofington, 03-11-05, 10:42 P.M. A.N.M. (After Nightmare Moon)
An irritated Captain was waiting for the party as they made their way to the Briefing Room. “When is all of this going to stop?” He gestured to the wall, which had a map of the greater Hoofington area displayed. “First we find out that one of our preeminent companies was engaging in an illegal conspiracy. Then we find out that the President of said company and a number of its top board members were under demonic influence.”
Royal Merit shuddered. “Ordinary criminals I can handle; hay, I’ve been doing that for over two decades now. But demons?! How the hay am I supposed to train my soldiers to fight demons?!” He shook his head, then turned in slight apology towards Twilight. “My apologies your highness; you shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of my frustrations.”
Twilight smiled. “It’s all right Captain; you’re only equine.” She approached the table, where coffee and donuts were sitting. Twilight took a croissant and bit into it hungrily. “Pardon me Captain, but it’s been several hours since we’ve all eaten.”
The captain shrugged. “That’s what they’re there for; we get regular shipments of some of the best coffee and donuts outside of Pony Joe’s.” He gestured to the other two mares present. “Help yourselves ladies, and I’ll go over what we’ve had the time to figure out.”
While the mares made inroads on the donuts and coffee, Captain Merit took the time to organize the papers before him. Clearing his throat, the captain bent his stern gaze on Marigold. “Corporal Marigold, I wish to thank you for your quick decontamination work.” He pulled out one of the folders before him, which contained a dossier. “Not only did you prevent the death of one of the key members of a very dangerous gang, you also saved the lives of hundreds of innocent ponies.” He frowned. “It bears examination as to how you knew what to do in both cases though.”
Marigold finished her third donut before responding. Levitating the dossier over to her, she looked it over quickly. Nodding, she sent it back to her fellow unicorn. “It’s simple Captain; they were once rivals.” She pointed at the map. “The gang isn’t actually based in Hoofington; this is just one of their command posts. They’re really from Neigh Orleans.”
Marigold pointed to several key locations on the map. “I was always one to study the skillset of potential rivals whenever I was involved in an operation.” She huffed in anger. “I didn’t get the chance to this time. Those locations are all I had any information on, and they’ve likely moved on at this point.”
“This was an opportunistic attack, and likely had little direct connection with the events in Ponyville,” the mare continued. “Captain, I can tell you that I was only hired on as a spy to help further the company’s efforts to get the rich gem deposits under that city. I wasn’t aware of any other involvement until after my arrest.” She grinned at the scowl of understanding on the captain’s muzzle. “I can give you the particulars though, as I have all of the information that I had earlier gathered on this gang.” She pulled a lockbox out of her bag and set it on the table, then handed the key she manifested to the captain.
Marigold sighed as the captain opened a box that contained mementos from her former life. “I never thought that I’d be a spook working for the Equestrian government, Sworn to a Princess that was only a memory up until five years ago,” she said.
The captain stared in disbelief at some of the documents. “These are fingering some of the most prominent citizens of Las Pegasus, Trottingham, Neigh Orleans, Manehattan, Mareago, San Prancisco…” he trailed off in shock. “How deep does this go? And why wasn’t I informed that they were operating in MY city?!”
“I wasn’t given a chance to debrief my Sovereign on all of this; in any case, most of it she was already aware,” Marigold replied. “It’s likely that this plan was one of the original efforts that many of said ‘high standing ponies’ had in place to do away with Princess Twilight.” She snorted at the look of shock on the stallion’s muzzle. “Oh, don’t look so surprised Captain. Outside of a very few families, most of Equestria’s nobles and moneyed lot can’t be trusted as far as I can throw them without using my magic.” She huffed. “Ask anypony who’s lived on the street and they’ll tell you; you can’t trust the rich or the ennobled. Why do you think we have a meritocracy government anyway?”
The captain looked at all the papers. “Well, this will at least help to prove the connections we had already established.” He sighed in frustration. “WHY in Celestia’s name would they take such a risk? They had to know how ineffective something like that would have been, right?”
“Actually, I’m not at all surprised that they tried,” Twilight responded. She then sighed. “Princess Celestia is not going to be pleased at this,” she said, pulling a few of the documents forward. “Many of these ponies have seats on the General Assembly; none prominent, thankfully, but all in positions to further the aims of those that don’t like the current system.”
“But this is why Princess Luna and myself made the plans we did. Ever since wind of the conspiracy to level Ponyville came to us, I was expecting the malevolent supremacists to try something.” Twilight looked at the others surrounding the table, one of which was still eating. “There has been a strong undercurrent of ponies that want Equestria to go back to unicorn rule. Which makes no sense, as it was never ruled by unicorns in the first place.”
Rainbow swallowed the last of the donut she was eating, which was her sixth. “Captain, why’d you say that they had to know how ineffective such an effort would have been? I thought ponies understood just how hard it is to kill an alicorn.”
“That’s just it Miss Dash,” Marigold said. “The common noble only half believes what they’ve been told. Everypony else sees an alicorn, and knows the truth. All these greedy ponies see is a jumped-up pegacorn that is standing in the way of the rightful rulers of this land.” She huffed. “As if pegacorns are somehow crippled; anypony with any sense of history can tell you that we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the pegacorns.”
“Some idiot ponies have even tried to kill Celestia in times past. And no matter what you might have heard, that’s literally impossible; you’d have to destroy a star before you could destroy the Solar Princess.” Twilight looked down briefly. “The only reason I used a portal rather than shielding myself is because I wasn’t alone.” Her expression hardened. “I’m just glad that Rainbow Dash wasn’t hurt; losing one of my friends is about the only thing that would drive me to murder. If they had died against Tirek, he would have been one headless Centaur instead of just another prisoner in Tartarus.” Nopony except Rainbow noticed the slight darkening of Twilight’s coat as she said that; the effect dissipated before Rainbow could comment on it.
Marigold looked shocked at that. “From what history tells us, Tirek is one of the greatest threats that Equestria has ever faced.” Rainbow snorted in disbelief at that statement.
“All Tirek is is a giant mana battery. He only had one skill; sucking ponies dry of their magic. And if he had managed to suck all of Equestria dry, the Dragon Queen would have turned him into chow.” Rainbow grinned fiercely at the shocked expressions of the two unicorns present. “Oh, you believed the hype that some of the fearful idiots pandered about Tirek?” She snorted. “The only reason we used the Power of Harmony against him was because it was there.”
“And because it was the safest way we could. The only reason he’s in Tartarus is because he’s the closest thing to being immortal that a non-alicorn can be. And because Celestia is too prideful to do the right thing.” Twilight said the last part in an irritated tone. She saw the scowl on Merit’s muzzle. “Oh, you didn’t like me criticizing her, huh? Well, this isn’t just my belief. My parents, several members of the Eight, Princess Luna, and Shining Armor all think that putting him in Tartarus is only going to encourage him to try to escape yet again. It’s only thanks to Harmony that we won’t have to worry about him any more.”
“Just about every single Sealed-Evil-In-A-Can we’ve faced over the past five years has been something that us Elements has had to face,” Rainbow said, a frown on her muzzle. “And what has the Princess done? Sat on her plot and held Court, that’s what. Instead of doing her job of protecting Equestria, she’s hoofed the task over to a bunch of mares barely into their twenties to do it for her.” Rainbow stomped the table with her hoof. “And only two of us have any kind of formal war training.”
“We’ve been truly fortunate up until now that everything we’ve dealt with has either been stupid, or a mere shadow of its former power. Against whatever it is we’re facing now, we no longer have that luxury.” Twilight took a moment to organize her thoughts before continuing. “No matter how it may seem, I’m finding the fact that they attacked now to be suspect, coming so close to what had happened in Ponyville. Especially since it seems to want to directly target myself and Rainbow Dash.”
Twilight teleported a scroll from her saddlebags. Writing in a code that was now second nature to her, she wrote a quick summary of the events that so far had occurred before sealing the scroll with a midnight blue ribbon. She then lit the ribbon of fire. A flash of blue flame went off as the scroll was consumed by the magic imbued in the ribbon. “I just sent a preliminary report along with an order to increase the guard around the other Elements. I just hope that’s enough; I’d rather not have to declare martial law. Rarity would be really annoyed with me if I did something like that without consulting her first.”
Twilight turned towards the captain. “Captain Merit, I’m giving you full jurisdiction over every Guards-pony in both the Lesser and Greater Hoofington area. That is excepting the detachment of my own Dusk Guard that will continue to escort myself, Dame Rainbow Dash, and Corporal Marigold out of the city, once I’m assured that the present crisis has been dealt with. It shouldn’t take too long for us to gather whatever evidence we need for our own journey.”
The unicorn stallion nodded. “Of course your highness.” He turned towards his aide-de-camp, still a little irritated at the criticism of the Solar Princess. To be fair to them, they didn’t say that they hated her for what she has or hasn’t done, just that they’re angry at the way she’s handled the crisis points of the last few years.”Please escort the Princess and her entourage to the carriage that is waiting to take them to the Governor’s Mansion Corporal.” The aide-de-camp nodded. The mares followed him to the door, Rainbow Dash grabbing another donut as they left. The captain smirked at that.
As they were led to the waiting carriage, Twilight thought she caught a quick expression of disgust on the unicorn’s muzzle. Inwardly frowning, she noticed that he looked familiar to her. She mentally facehoofed, as he was one of the ones that Luna suspected might have supremacist leanings.
As they entered the carriage, Twilight tapped her hoof in a quick sequence. She noticed that Marigold’s muzzle bore a brief disgusted look before she nodded. They all entered the carriage as the stallions who were to pull it began to move towards the manor.
Around fifteen minutes later, the carriage carrying the four ponies stopped in front of a large, opulent manor house. The Guards-stallion next to the gate opened the door, nodding to the three mares as they exited. “Your Highness, the Governor extends her apologies in not being able to attend this evening. Commander Ironside has requested her presence concerning the attack on your royal person.”
The alicorn nodded. Unnoticed by all except Rainbow Dash, Twilight used her magic to ‘tag’ the captain’s aide-de-camp as the stallion directed his fellows to take the carriage back to the Guard House.
The three mares followed the Guards-stallion to the manor’s front entrance. A unicorn butler was waiting for them as they entered. Twilight’s horn glowed as she ‘tagged’ both the Guards-stallion and the butler as they all made their way into the house.
Several minutes passed before an abrupt explosion destroyed the entire manor. The Guards-ponies still at the gate stared in horror as pieces of wood and masonry fell around them. One of them fired a signal flare used for emergencies, hoping that the captain or Commander Ironside would receive the message that something terrible had just happened.