Chapter 12
The San Palomino was not a huge desert, but it still stretched far enough south of Los Pegasus that ponies were generally warned from trekking across it without being suitably prepared. It bordered the Mysterious South and the Arimasti territory where few Equestrians had dared to enter.
The desert was old thus it hadn’t been surprising when what looked like an ancient town was discovered there, though already some of the archeologists on site were starting to downgrade it to a trading post. Possibly Saddle Arabian in origin.
Flash Sentry was rather disappointed at what he saw when he flew over the archeological dig. When he pictured ancient ruins, he pictured big but still crumbling buildings and ancient temples. What he saw now was essentially squared off somewhat flat areas where ponies were busy either digging or carefully dusting off rocks and there were more rocks around that had marks or flags on them. He couldn’t see an ancient town at all.
There were plenty of tents though, clearly for the ponies doing the dig. Lots of supply crates and many carriages filled with even more rocks, though the Pegasus could swear he saw what looked like a broken vase.
The guard got plenty of looks as he landed and some of the ponies around whispered to one another. Flash ignored it and walked straight over to a fellow Pegasus who was working on a row of rocks that rested on a table.
“Excuse me, I’m looking for Mirage Rock and Hard Shovel,” he addressed the pony who had looked up when noticing the approaching guard.
“Oh, you want the tent over there.” The Pegasus didn’t even stop his work, carefully chipping away at the rocks, just pointed in the right direction with his wing.
“Thank you, sir.” Flash nodded, he was half tempted to ask what the pony was working on but knew he was in a hurry. He hadn’t bothered looking for the roommates in Los Pegasus, seeing that the city had so many hotels that it would be a waste of precious time. At least he knew directly where the parents were.
The guard took a swig from his water bottle he had taken with him and approached the tent. He could hear cheerful voices from the inside and as he came closer to the entrance, a black Unicorn filly with a silver gray mane and tail suddenly ran into his path forcing him to stop.
“Woah!” Flash had to back a little, the girl had stopped as well when seeing who she had almost ran into.
“Hi,” she greeted him cheerfully.
“Hello.” The guard smiled and was ready to walk around her, but she got back in his way, displaying her flank to him to show her golden heart cutie mark.
“I just got my cutie mark,” she said beaming with pride and excitement.
“Oh really, congratulations,” Flash Sentry chuckled. The filly started to jump up and down.
“Yes, I got it when in Los Pegasus with mom and Aunt Dew on vacation, I just saw all the ponies who didn’t have food and started to share my cookies with them and then one pony didn’t have a blanket, the nights actually get chilly around here even if it’s really warm during the day. So I ran into a store and got her a blanket and that’s when I got my cutie mark,” the girl told him, whether he actually wished to hear the story or not being irrelevant.
“Talent in compassion, huh that’s not bad.” The Pegasus smiled again, then he realized he recognized the name she had dropped. “Aunt Dew, as in Dew Doe?”
“Yes, you know Aunt Dew?” The filly, Flash guessed was Coal, looked more curiously at him now. “Hey you are a royal guard aren’t you?”
“Yes I am and I’m looking for your mother, your aunt and also Mirage Rock and Hard Shovel,” he told her, causing Coal’s eyes to widen a little in surprise.
“Wow, you are looking for grandma and grandpa too?” She pointed to the tent. “They are in there. Gotta go, want to show everypony my cutie mark.”
Flash Sentry couldn’t help but chuckle again when the Filly darted off and indeed stopped in front of other ponies to show off her golden heart. The guard continued to approach the tent now that his path was no longer obscured.
“I better call Coal in, can’t be good for her to be running around in that blazing heat with a black coat like hers,” he heard a male voice say. A dark tangeloish gray unicorn stallion appeared in the entrance, he wore an old worn Stetson and brown vest and was clearly approaching his elder years.
“Ah hello there, what do we have here?” the unicorn said when seeing Flash Sentry and grinned. “A royal guard? I didn’t think the Princesses were that interested in our little dig, though I wouldn’t be too surprised, they always do seem to be interested in the little things.”
“Ah actually, I come from the Crystal Empire, I’m Guard Flash Sentry…” Flash Sentry couldn’t get further as he was interrupted by the Unicorn.
“Yes, uh just a moment. COAL!” The Unicorn suddenly called when spotting the black filly further off in the camp. “Coal get in here, the sun is high up, you’ll get a heat stroke.”
“Coming grandpa,” the filly shouted and came at top speed and ran straight past the two stallions and into the tent.
“Right as I was saying,” Flash was interrupted again by the stallion who he was now guessing was Hard Shovel, the Unicorn did have a shovel as a cutie mark.
“Come into the tent why don’t you and tell us all about it there, much nicer and cooler than out there in the sun,” Hard Shovel said and pretty much pushed Pegasus into the tent.
Inside in one corner were two camp beds, there were several small tables around filled with rocks and other old looking items. There were crates and containers all over the place. A large crate was being used as a substitute coffee table by three other ponies, two Pegasi Mares and an older Unicorn mare. Coal was now sitting on one of the smaller crates nearby and the Unicorn was giving her a juice box.
“Well ladies, this here is Guard Flash Sentry all the way from the Crystal Empire.” Hard Shovel introduced him to the mares.
“That is my wife, Mirage Rock.” He gestured to the bluish gray Unicorn mare. Before turning to the Pegasi, the maroon one was bit big, stallion sized, her back and muzzle were white, so was her hoof and pastern on her left foreleg and her right hindleg down from the gaskin. The other mare was smaller than Mirage, blue with a white mane and tail, a red stripe ran across her hair giving it a bit of a candy cane appearance.
“Those two lovelies are Foxy Stripes, and Dew Doe, and the little angel over there drinking her juice is Coal,” Hard Shovel finished his introduction. The Pegasi just smiled at the compliments, clearly used to the old stallion.
“It’s very nice to meet you all,” Flash Sentry said and prepared to get right to business. However, Hard Shovel wasn’t quite done as he suddenly chuckled and continued to speak.
“You know, it’s funny to be getting an unannounced visit from a royal guard,” he said giving Flash a friendly nudge. “Mirage and I happen to have twin boys who came out dark gray when they were born. When I saw them for the first time and had in mind how many royal guards are either white or dark gray, I just couldn’t help but say, ‘did we just conceive two new royal guards for Princess Celestia?’”
This is Private’s father? Flash Sentry was starting to wonder if he would ever get a word in. The Pegasi mares just politely chuckled at the story. Mirage however smiled in clear amusement.
“Of course they didn’t become royal guards,” she said clearly intending to continue from where her husband left off. “Our boy Private followed our line of work sort of, he was always so engrossed with history, he works in the Fillydelphia history museum you know. He sometimes does minor work for us too, he is so good at identifying things. Barricade ah… was always more um… wild.”
“It’s actually Private Iceland, but should be Private Ice-Lands with a hyphen, it’s an old Gryphon word for the Frozen North. We changed it to Iceland because we felt three names was a bit too much. But Private usually prefers to only go by his first name,” Hard Shovel clarified.
“Barricade was named such because it took him so long to come out, he was born first you know, we sometimes joked he was barring the way for his brother,” Mirage chuckled.
Flash Sentry was starting to get a little uncomfortable. The older ponies seemed to be capable of chattering on forever about their sons. Fortunately, Dew Doe spotted his discomfort and came to his rescue.
“Mirage, Hard, I do think Flash Sentry came here for a reason so he probably wants to inform us why he came for a visit,” the blue Pegasus addressed them, not sharply but clear enough that the couple stopped and looked at the guard. Coal was giggling, she had witnessed this happen many times with her grandparents.
“Oh right, I’m so sorry, we can blather on can’t we?” Mirage chuckled looking slightly embarrassed.
“Yes thank you, it’s alright,” Flash Sentry assured her before quickly continuing so Hard Shovel couldn’t say anything, fearing the Unicorn stallion would have another story to tell.
“I’m actually here about your sons,” he said, catching everyone’s full attention now.
“Sons, wait both of them?” Hard Shovel looked mildly surprised, he found himself a seat next to Mirage Rock while listening to the guard.
“Yes, I’m afraid I wish I was coming with good news.” Flash Sentry nodded before proceeding to tell them everything. From the time Private was found on Little Crystal to the point the guard was sent to notify them about the situation.
All five ponies stared at the guard in both shock and alarm. Flash Sentry actually felt a little awful for ruining the previously good mood in the tent. It was clear that the Pegasi mares and Coal had decided to use the opportunity to visit the Unicorn couple since they were in close proximity of Los Pegasus. Granted it had been convenient for him to have them all in the same place, but still it was never fun to drop such grave news on anyone.
“Rest assured, we are doing everything we can to find them again,” Flash told them in a gentle tone. He could see that Coal was becoming very upset, her mother was the quickest to shake off her own shock and went over to her daughter and draped a wing over her in a hug.
“I…” Hard Shovel finally found his voice again. “I don’t suppose we can come over to the empire? I mean there is probably nothing we can do to help with the search but…”
“I’m sure the Royal couple will welcome you, in fact I am pretty sure I was supposed to bring you over,” Flash Sentry assured him, he didn’t recall any order about it but figured that was pretty much implied with the order to go tell them of the situation. Naturally they would want to head straight to the Crystal Empire.
“I have just one question, why weren’t we told sooner?” Dew Doe spoke up, sounding a bit angry. Mirage Rock went over to her almost as if she was ready to hold the younger mare back.
“Miss Doe, Private wasn’t very cooperative with us, it was by pure coincidence that we actually figured out his name and where he lived. We went to Barricade because you and Miss Stripes were in Los Pegasus and their parents were here in San Palomino. We didn’t in fact know he was possessed until yesterday,” Flash carefully explained, maintaining a calm tone in his voice, knowing the mare was just upset and worried about her friend.
“Don’t worry about it, you were just doing your job.” Hard Shovel went up to him and patted him on the back. “Now we better get our gear, tell Dig that she’s in charge and head over with you to the Crystal Empire.”
The mood hadn’t improved too much once aboard the train. They had not spoken a lot on the way to Los Pegasus except quietly with each other, Flash wasn’t one to pry into their private conversations so he didn’t listen in. Back in the city they found the hotel the Pegasi mares and Coal were staying in. The guard and the Unicorns helped them pack before checking out.
Flash still felt a little bad for having had to ruin their vacation, especially since Coal had attained her cutie mark during it and had been so happy and excited. Now the filly looked sad and worried where she sat next to her mother.
“So um… that town you were digging; I have to admit I couldn’t see much of a town,” he said hoping to lighten the mood a little.
“Ah, that is the common misconception so many ponies have with archeology, they just think we are burrowing into still standing cities and grabbing valuable artifacts,” Mirage Rock chuckled.
“Granted, we have sometimes had the opportunity to investigate ruins in more presentable state. But most of the time, for the untrained eye, a hill is just a hill and a sand dune is just unremarkable pile of sand. It takes a lot of digging and careful work to reveal the real treasures. That town, or trade post really, is mostly buried by now in the sand. Our tent was actually in the middle where we believe the center of the post was,” Hard Shovel told him.
“A lot of the rocks you saw were old parts of buildings, trust me when we first came there, most ponies had dismissed this spot as just plain old rock outcroppings,” his wife added in.
Flash nodded, having very little knowledge of archelogy he could only take their words for it. He glanced at the others, Dew Doe just stared out of the window deep in thought. Foxy had a wing around her daughter and seemed to be trying to cheer her up. Then it suddenly occurred to Flash that he hadn’t heard how Coal was related to the Unicorn couple, she had clearly called them her grandparents. Then he recalled the neighbour in Fillydelphia telling who Coal's father was..
“Say ah, I hope I’m not asking a too personal question, but if Coal is your granddaughter, does that mean one of your sons is her father?” he asked mostly to confirm what he had heard, that caused everyone to look at him.
“Yes,” it was Foxy who responded, her tone a bit dry. “I was in a relationship with Barricade. He’s Coal’s father.”
“He was mean to mommy, Uncle Private, Aunt Dew, Aunt Derpy and Uncle Time Turner, I don’t wanna talk with him,” Coal snorted and folded her little legs.
“And you don’t have to,” her mother told her reassuringly, hugging her closer with her wing.
“Yes, I’m aware there is some bitterness with Barricade.” Flash nodded, hoping he hadn’t just made the mood worse.
“Yeah, Barricade always been a bit wild. Followed his own rules, could be so selfish.” Mirage sighed and shook her head.
“Don’t get us wrong, Flash Sentry, if Barricade would just wise up, apologize for his actions and grow up, we would be more tolerant towards him. He’s hurting himself far more than us, he’s chosen to isolate himself with that gang of thugs in Manehattan. Frankly I’m surprised he even went to the Crystal Empire to be with his brother,” Hard Shovel stated with a strangely uncharacteristic frown, he had so far always had a rather mild cheerful expression.
Flash just nodded, already getting the impression that Barricade was a sensitive subject. He looked over to Coal again who seemed more miffed now, clearly going into the subject of her father had not sat well with the filly.
“So you like your Uncle Private?” he asked and smiled a little when the girl brightened up instantly, the guard had clearly hit on the right topic this time around.
“Yes, he is the best. He always takes me out to play or buy ice cream and he even sometimes takes me to Ponyville to meet my sisters Dinky, Tootsie and Sparkler, though Sparkler is getting old so it’s mostly just Dinky and Tootsie,” Coal told him and was now all smiles. Flash decided not to ask about the relations, figuring Barricade had to have been involved in that.
“He doesn’t always like to talk, but he can be funny, like when we have pancakes for breakfast, or when mommy and Aunt Dew try to get him to take a shower finally or brush his mane or last Nightmare Night when he saw Aunt Dew in that nurse costume…” Coal started to count up but it became muffled as Foxy quickly put a hoof over her daughter’s mouth but was desperately trying not to laugh. Dew Doe was blushing hard and used her wings to conceal her face.
The guard had to contain his own chuckles, the grandparents where both smiling and Flash was pretty sure that Hard Shovel looked rather proud at Coal’s ability to ramble on. The filly’s mouth was soon unconcealed but she didn’t seem to have minded much and just giggled and remarked about silly mommy.
“Derpy Hooves is a friend of ours, she like Foxy had been in relationship with Barriacde and had a daughter named Dinky with him. Tootsie and Sparkler are her foster daughters,” Dew Doe clarified the unasked question about the relation Coal had with the Ponyville girls. Flash just nodded his thanks.
“Speaking of, you’re going to have to remember to invite them to your cute-ceañera when we get a chance to hold it,” Foxy reminded her, the filly eagerly nodded.
“Mister Sentry, do you know how my poor boy got possessed by that monster?” Mirage Rock looked at Flash, the discussion of Private had obviously reminded her of the current situation. Flash had of course only minimal information how everything had happened,
“I’m sorry Mrs. Rock, I wish I could tell you how and even the why, but I’m afraid the royal couple will have to tell you, they were present when the possession was made known, I only really saw the aftermath when King Sombra escaped with your sons,” he told her but smiled reassuringly. “But like I said, we are working on getting your sons back and freeing Private from him.”
“We have to show some patience, Mir, I’m sure they will give us the answers when we come there.” Hard Shovel gently put a leg around his wife for support.
“Wait, Royal couple? We are going to see the Princess?” Coal gasped in surprise.
“Princess Cadance yes, she rules the Crystal Empire along with her husband Prince Shining Armor,” Flash Sentry confirmed, Coal’s eyes widened even more at hearing that.
“I’M GONNA SEE A PRINCESS!!” The filly shouted at the top of her lungs before jumping down from the bench and started running across the car, shouting the same line.
Dew Doe, Hard Shovel and Mirage Rock were all chuckling at the girl’s antic, while Foxy was in the process of making her coat color an even darker shade of red. Finally, Dew nudged her playfully.
“Shouldn’t you go collect your daughter?” she asked with a wide grin.
“I’ve never seen that kid in my life,” Foxy grumbled but when Coal made her third pass by them, she reluctantly dropped from the bench and went after her.
“Dare I ask how you fit in this joyful madhouse?” Flash chuckled and looked at Dew Doe. Coal had called her aunt, but it wasn’t uncommon for kids to call adults they knew well uncle or aunt even if they weren’t related so he didn’t want to assume anything.
“I’m Foxy’s sister,” Dew told him with a shrug. The guard had to admit being a little surprised hearing that, considering how different they looked.
Foxy returned carrying Coal on her back, the filly was grinning wide while her mother was just smiling and shaking her head. The girl was unceremoniously dumped to the bench, but Coal just sat right up and stuck her tongue out at her mother who actually returned the favor.
“Haven’t I told you two? It’s rude to stick your tongues out at ponies,” Dew remarked with a stern glance.
“She started it,” Foxy claimed as she sat down, Coal put on her most innocent face as if she had no idea what her mother was talking about.
“Behave you two, we still have a long ride,” the blue Pegasus snorted.
“But at least not a dull one,” Flash Sentry shot in, earning chuckles from the Unicorns, grin from Foxy and Coal and a resigned sigh from Dew Doe.
End Chapter 12