//------------------------------//
// C22 - Back 
// Story: Trapped In Canterlot 
// by TartarusFire 
//------------------------------//

Celestia had left, telling the doctor that she was about to run out of unscheduled time before lunch, and she headed away with the packet of papers in tow. As if time was against Laceration, Nurse Patience showed up a few minutes after Celestia had left.
 
"Any why did you force Red Cross do my regular shift?" She had an ear twitching backwards in a miniscule but provocative display of anger. "I honestly don’t like you at all, but really? Are you trying to make her pass out?" They both looked toward the ward with Cross snoring lightly under light bedding.
 
"Honestly, you’d probably hate me even more if I said some pony else messed with the time sheets and sent out the appropriate notices, so I’ll just tell you that it was important and we couldn’t afford the time to switch out workers."
 
A snarl escaped Patience’s muzzle.
 
"O-oops?"
 
 
 
***
 
 
 
Twilight was having the time of her life. For the entire morning she was free from the regular schedule and had the entire time to do research into her latest idea: if ponies had magic but minotaurs and griffins had comparably less to no magic, where was the difference?
 
She had made a checklist, of course she did, which involved her steps in just the first research. Unfortunately, getting s live subject had to be skipped over as every pony was a pony in the library and there were no griffons living in Canterlot as far as she knew.
 
Therefore, she had conducted research into the body structures and how healing magic affected minotaurs and griffons. Such documentation was rare—
 
"Twilight!" Spike hissed in a half whisper. "You’ve been here all morning. Lunch is about to start."
 
"But Spike, I could be onto something that could change the course of how we view magic in living beings," she whispered back much more quietly than Spike.
 
"Well, if you miss lunch again, the Princess will be even angrier than she already is."
 
Twilight stiffened and stared at nothing in particular, "She’s angry?"
 
He scuffed his foot. "Well, I’m pretty sure she is, but—"
 
"Well we better go then!" She picked him up and tossed him onto her back. "There’s no time to lose!"
 
A loud shush emanated from the librarian’s direction. "No yelling in the library!" Twilight guessed Ms. Paperback hadn’t know it was her yelling because she would’ve been very confused at Twilight yelling at all.
 
 
They were at a good pace dashing though the guards. Even though lunch was over fifteen minutes away, the dining hall was on the second floor and they were on the first floor, meaning they had to travel through many halls and around any ponies in their way.
 
"Twi-Twili-i-i-ght!" Spike’s voice was distorted as she hit a bumpy patch of dirt in front of a doorway leading to the staircase. "I don’t think she’s mad at you though!"
 
Twilight asked breathily, "Then who do you even think she’s mad?" She entered the staircase to the second floor.
 
"Well, you know how she just gets really quiet? She was kind of like that yesterday and what I saw of her today." He had managed to hold on around a sharp corner. "Twi. Please slow down! I can’t keep holding on like this! Besides—you’re nearly there and you probably have lots of time to spare now."
 
She obliged him which all things considered was a good though. The guards looked at her when she went by and she brought some stares of other ponies too which was the usual every few days this happened.  Also, being tired slowed her down as well.
 
"Phew. I. Think you’re right." She stopped for a moment as she realized this was the last hall before the entrance to the caslte lunchroom. "I just.. I just.. catch my breath..." She wheezed hard.
 
Spike made a face. "Wait a minute. You were going to the lunchroom?"
 
"Yeah, why? —" Wheeze.
 
"Didn’t I tell you the Princess wanted to talk to you over lunch? You know, the other side of the castle?"
 
"..."
 
"You okay, Twi?"
 
"UUUUUGGGGGHHH!"
 
 
 
***
 
 
 
It was definitely shaping up into a murder mystery she had decided. Celestia had asked Strongbrows after leaving the infirmary about his missing guard. After he had confirmed that the picture in the envelope, the one belonging to Adept Tracker, was the guard who had gone missing and never reported in, she stewed the concept of a guard M-I-A and a murder happening inside the same family. Something was rotten in Canterlot, and half of the reason she already knew.
 
The steel cube she had taken from the scene was certainly involved deeply into the mess, but a better question is that if her unicorn guards, even the pegasi, were given chills from just being near it, why had the family even kept it around.. even to the point of the seeds being scattered everywhere throughout the home?
 
The catalyst was found, but what was the true motivation?
 
 
Celestia had been waiting for Twilight for a few minutes again. She hated being late. "Oh Twilight, what distracted you this time?" She murmured in thought.
 
A resounding thud of a door being opened rapidly responded. "Speak of the chaos.. There you are Twilight. I was wondering if you were going to forget to eat lunch again." Celestia stared at the upturned pony on the floor. "You look tired. Would you like something to eat?"
 
"Y-yesss, Princesss." She was wheezing even harder than before. "I wa.. was going... WRONG place!" A gasp of breath followed.
 
"But I thought I stopped by and told Spike that I invited you to a lunch today?"
 
"Hehe," his index claws tapped together. "I kind of forgot. I was distracted and we accidentally ran to the castle lunchroom, and then I remembered."
 
"No Spike—Not we, I ran!"
 
An awkward chuckle preluded an air of silence. Twilight was catching her breath upside down while the Princess looked on and stared at the pair.
 
Once she had recovered enough breath not to wheeze out any word, the Princess continued. "Well, would you like to eat? It’s what you came for after all." She rolled out a cart of food from beside her with magic. She stared as Twilight Stared back. "Mmm, this is a good apple." Still no response. "Twilight, do you have something on your mind?"
 
Twilight still didn’t speak. "Twilight. Are you okay?" Celestia stated to worry about her student’s wellbeing.
 
She coughed and rolled over onto her four hooves. Twilight moved forward a few paces and sat, grabbing a daffodil sandwich. "I’m sorry Princess. " She looked down, away from the Princess’s gaze. "But, are you mad at me?"