Chapter 24 - Departure Problems
Chapter 24 - Departure Problems
Looking over her checklist, Twilight smiled as Sunbeam walked back into the library, Pinky bouncing in circles around her. “Ah there you are Sunbeam, we were wondering where you got to.”
Throwing a glance at Applejack, Sunbeam sat down.
“Yeah, well, I heard you lot talking and just had to run off... to get my saddlebags.”
Flying over to her, Rainbow playfully punched her shoulder. “For a minute there, we thought you didn’t want to come with us.”
Blinking several times at Rainbow, Sunbeam brought a hoof up to her chest. “Really? Whatever could have given you that idea?”
Tossing her head in a mock huff, she raised an eyebrow when she found herself looking at six guard mares, all sat silently in the middle of the library as Rarity fussed around them.
Turning back to her checklist Twilight waved a hoof at Sunbeam. “Oh, I believe that Greywing and Lieutenant Spear would like to talk to you out the back of the library.”
Shifting her weight, Sunbeam didn’t get up. “I like it here. Here is very comfortable.”
“Nonsense, it’ll be just you, Greywing, Lieutenant Spear and three of Celestia’s best guards. You’ll be as safe as if you were in Princess’s presence herself, so no need to worry”
Bringing a hoof up, pointing it at Twilight, Sunbeams response was interrupted as the library door opened, a guard mare with bulging saddlebags entered.
“I got all you asked from your shop, ma’am.”
Rarity’s correction was automatic. “Boutique please darling.”
The saddlebags were levitated off and various bottles and scissors were floated out. “Now I can get started.” Turning, she addressed to the guards in the middle of the library. “Please remove your armour.”
Without looking up, Twilight called out to the guard who and just come in.
“Oh Swift Strike, can you escort Sunbeam here to Lieutenant Spear please. She seems nervous for some reason.”
“Of course your highness.” Stepping to one side, the guard gestured to the door. “This way ma’am. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
- - - - - - - -
As Sunbeam was escorted round the back of the Library, she could hear the clang of metal on metal.
‘Sword drill? It's almost like they want to be seen… heard even. I wonder if it's part of ‘the plan'? If so I await with interest to see how it all goes wrong.’
On seeing Sunbeam, Lieutenant Spear gestured for the guard escorting her to come over and take his place against his sparring partner.
“Ah Miss Sunbeam, so glad you could join us. I see I can add ‘sneaky’ to your list of attributes, ten guards in the same room and you manage to sneak out without anypony noticing.”
Sunbeam gifted him with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“I approve of your camouflage cloak by the way, why, with that and I guess several days of supplies in those saddlebags, you could have disappeared until after we had left.” He gave her a conspiratorial wink.
Sunbeam’s smile didn’t falter.
‘Buck off and die.’
“That is why I approve of Mr Greywing’s plan. Not that you would need any incentive to stay and help, of course. However, I do suggest you do listen to the last bit Mr Greywing has to say.”
Greywing stepped forward.
“Under the provisions granted me, I am able to recruit civilians to assist in the defense of Equestria. In this case, your knowledge of the destination and the objective is most desirable to the successful completion of this mission. Of course, once recruited, civilians are subject to the laws of the guards, which includes the whole ‘desertion of duty’ thing and all the penalties that it entails.”
Lieutenant Spear whispered into Sunbeam’s ear. “Penalties include, prison, transferring to penal battalion and, if serious enough, the Princess herself will take personal interest to decide punishment. And why, I do believe that endangerment of a Princess, namely Princess Twilight, by non-assistance when required would fall under that last category.”
Sunbeam’s smile started showing teeth.
‘I’m going to geld you both while you sleep.’
Greywing stepped up close to Sunbeam and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Congratulations, Private Sunbeam, you’ve just been drafted into the guard.”
Sunbeam's head slowly turned towards him.
- - - - - - - -
The train station was filled with guards from both Canterlot and Ponyville… and lots of noise. With the enchants on the armour giving every pony the same white coat, blue tails and manes it was impossible to tell one guard from another. This meant lots of shouting by NCO’s, trying to make sure that the right guards were in the right place at the right time.
The actual transfer of the Element Bearers, from the protection of the Ponyville Guard into the protection of the Royal Guard escorting them back to Canterlot, went without a hitch.
Watching the train leave the platform, the commanding officer of the Ponyville guard, a unicorn mare with a red cloak draped over her back, turned and gestured for the rest of detachment to follow her.
As they marched off, a pegasus guard flew up to a unicorn guard.
“I still say you got my tail wrong, it's way more awesome than that, it was way too styled... and you used cadmium-green when it’s so obvious that it’s supposed to be dark-pastel-green.”
“Darling, in good conscience, I could only, ugh, hack that poor mare’s mane and tail so much. And when did you become so knowledgeable about colour shades.”
The pegasus guard crossed her forelegs and humphed. An earth pony guard behind her shook her head.
“Well, I jus hope that mare takes good care of ma hat.”
At the rear of the group, two guards, a unicorn mare, and a pegasus stallion marched together. The unicorn, in slightly ill-fitting armour, hung her head low and had her ears folded back against her head, while the pegasus guard marching next to her held his head high and was trying his best to look professional. He didn’t quite succeed, as even the enchants on the armour couldn’t hide his swollen black eye.
- - - - - - - -
“Sir, may I have a moment please?”
Looking up from his desk the lieutenant nodded to the corporal.
“Well sir, when you were made acting head of this office, you asked us to look for any unusual orders that passed through this office. Well, I think I found some.”
Leaning back the Lieutenant nodded at the corporal.
The corporal suppressed a twitch. ‘Don’t get too used to the major's desk lieutenant. You’re only in charge of this office temporarily.’
“Sir I have here an unsigned palace order for a detail of Lunar guard to meet some V.I.P’s at an encoded location.”
“Thanks not unusual corporal.”
“Sir, it appears six times, all six orders going to the same location but there are definitely six separate orders. I can't tell where the location actually is, but the location encoding is the exactly the same on each order. Plus each order is for an above average quantity of guard as well. In total nearly an entire squadron of Lunar guard, plus supplies, are all going to the same location, at the same time. The orders were all put in from different locations and at different times, almost as if they were trying to hide it.”
The lieutenant got up and walked to the window. Staring out for a minute, he didn’t turn round before addressing the corporal.
“Good work corporal. I think I see it, some noble is panicking about what happened at the gala and is trying to make sure he is protected. An entire squadron of Lunar Guard is a bit excessive don’t you think?”
“Sir, I have yet to relay these orders, what do you want me to do with them?”
“Dispose of them. The noble is going to have to live with his own hired guards. The Lunar Guard is needed elsewhere. Besides the Lunar Guard might even get do some real work for a change.”
With the lieutenant still looking out of the window, the corporal risked looking out of the office’s door. Just outside the office, a sergeant and a private both stood, furtively looking in. Both tapped their ears before nodding at him.
Trying to hide his relief the corporal saluted. “Of course sir. I’ll just deposit these order in the nearest bin, ah you have one in your office here, sir.”
- - - - - - - -
Laying on his stomach, Dark Cloak slowly raised his head over the crest of the hill. Pulling out a small bean bag, he placed it on the ground in front of him before placing a telescope on top of it. Focusing it, he could see the seven guards as they started to shed their armour, the tree line of the forest just behind them. A faint smile formed as he watched their natural colours began to return as the enchants from the armour faded.
“Yep, that's the bearers alright. I thought Rainbow Dash’s tail looked wrong, way too styled. Did they really think they could pull a silly little switching-places stunt like that? I’ll head back and send a report…”
A heavy weight landed on his back, he didn’t have time to make a sound before a knife was plunged into his neck.
- - - - - - - -
Sunbeam shook herself, freeing herself of the last of the armour.
“I hate this stuff. Plus I think the mare wearing this before me hadn’t washed it out since her last route march.”
Looking up Rarity nodded. “I’m afraid I must agree with Sunbeam, however, I must admit to thinking you would be the type of pony to like armour Sunbeam.”
Sunbeam gave a small shake of the head. “I prefer the armour of not-being-seen.” She kicked the armour in disgust. “This stuff makes you stand out, standing out is bad. Draws attention.”
‘Not to mention pointy objects.’
Kicking the last of the armour away, Sunbeam looked up and watched Twilight pace back and forth.
“Where are they? We are supposed to have a detail of Luna guard waiting here for us, plus supplies.”
Scanning the ponies present, Twilight’s scowl slowly turned to puzzlement.
“Anypony seen Greywing?”
Everypony looked around. A series of shrugs and head shakes followed.
“Where is…”
Greywing landed with a skid and stumble.
Rainbow snorted. “I’d give that landing a two point three out of ten.”
“Sorry about that.” He gave all present a wan smile. “I, err, had a spicy bean burrito for breakfast, think that was a mistake.” He rubbed his stomach for emphasis.
Marching up to him, Twilight prodded him in the chest. “Next time let us know before you disappear…”
Try as he might, he could not focus on Twilight. He found himself staring at a point behind her, her lecture becoming a background drone.
After a while, he noted that she had stopped talking and seemed to be waiting for a response.
“I’m sorry princess, I shall keep that in mind.”
Satisfied, Twilight gave a nod and turned back to the rest of the girls.
Greywing tried to relax, wincing as he touched around his eye. ‘I can do this, I’ve been trained to do this. Ow… Sunbeam has a mean right hook, can't believe that Spear just sat there laughing at me. That’s right, everypony just carry on and ignore me and… Why is Sunbeam looking at me like that?’
Sunbeam held his gaze for a minute before turning and burying her head in her saddlebags.
Turning he sat down, staring at the direction he had come from. He found his mind churning with thoughts, but unable to focus on any specific one.
A tap on his shoulder made him jump. Spinning round he found Sunbeam, with that same odd expression, sat a few metres away. A bar of soap and a mirror hoving next to his shoulder.
Lifting her head up, she tapped under her chin and then her neck. “You have some… dried coffee stains... here and here.”
The soap and mirror floated into his hooves. Sunbeam half turned away but kept her head facing him.
“You need to be careful with coffee…”
She turned her head away and walked back to her saddlebags.
“...It can splash everywhere if you’re not careful.”
- - - - - - - -
Reflective Note lay on the bed, her first proper bed since the night before the gala. She had been led away from the main gala hall by two solar guards. Her pregnancy, now quite advanced, had slowed her down, but neither guard had rushed her.
The room she found herself in was well decorated, with five other beds well spaced out around it. Next to each bed stood a machine she could only call a spider-standing-on-its-back-legs-thingy. Being an earth pony, four of the ‘legs’ from the machine were wrapped around her hooves, but she could see unused attachments on it to fit it to wings, or horns.
‘I do believe that the nurse has done this before. At least I’ve got a comfortable bed for the time being. Oh, those nobles looked so pis… unhappy. Excuse me dad for nearly swearing.’
Watching five more ponies being lead in, Reflective note noted how each was treated with practiced ease, as wings, horns, or hooves were attached to the ‘spider’ next to their beds.
‘Hello, what's that?’ Idly she pulled a clipboard from the end of the bed. A pink butterfly was all that adorned the cover. Feeling a quiet thrill of looking at something private, she flicked through the graphs and notes. Whoever this was for, she could see that despite frequent drops whenever treatment was applied, the graph was creeping upwards overall.
“Huh, whoever did this graph got the scale all wrong.” Her talent might have been musical, but her sister was a studying to be a nurse and she had been given many a medical textbook to quiz her sister on. To the point, she was fairly certain that she could pass the entrance examinations to medical school herself. The ‘Magical Saturation Scale’ was simple. Two was normal, plus or minus one. Over ten was dangerous. Thirteen was lethal, with fifteen being instantly so.
Reflective Note shook her head. “Whoever this ‘F.S.’ is, no way do they have a magical saturation reading of forty-three.”
- - - - - - - -
Looking around, Twilight sighed.
“Look girls we are going to stay here tonight and decide the appropriate course of action in the morning. Hopefully, the escort and supplies will have turned up by then. We are just going to have to rough it tonight.”
Stepping forward, Greywing saluted. “I shall take first watch. Private Sunbeam will volunteer for the second watch.”
‘Buck you sideways with a manticore tail.’
Sunbeam deliberately saluted with the wrong foreleg, causing Greywing to wince.
The rest of the group settled down, trying to get comfortable on the ground, the three pegasi moaning about the lack of clouds to grab in the clear sky. Sunbeam levitated a compact sleeping bag and ground mat out of her bags. Knowing that letting the others see her grinning at their misfortune would result in unpleasantness, she tucked herself in, making sure she was facing away from them.
Greywing nudged her.
“You know that there is a princess over there, sleeping on the ground?”
“My preparation, my stuff, my good night's sleep!”
With her back to him, Sunbeam raised a hoof and made a ‘shoo’ gesture in his general direction.
Frowning, Greywing turned and stared off into the distance as the others settled down for the night.
“Greywing.”
Looking round he found a levitated hip flask floating next to him. Sunbeam lay on her side, now looking at him with a look of sympathy in her eyes.
“For you, for when you try to go to sleep.”
- - - - - - - -
As the sun rose, the makeshift camp was filled with a chorus of groans and winces from seven of the ponies present. Only Sunbeam, with her ground-mat and sleeping bag, had slept reasonably well.
Ignoring the glares she felt on the back of her neck, she levitated the sleeping bag and ground mat up and neatly folded them, before fitting it back into her saddlebag.
‘Should I share my breakfast? Share with six of the most powerful ponies in Equestria, six of the most powerful ponies in Equestria who might be about to mug me if I...’
“Hey girls I got breakfast here for all of us!”
- - - - - - - -
Sunbeam placed a plate of breakfast in front of Greywing.
“How did you sleep?”
Closing his eyes, Greywing’s head fell forward.
“Had some… trouble, to begin with.” He then lifted his head and smiled at Sunbeam. “Princess Luna herself came into my dream and… helped.” He scratched at the ground with a hoof. “Not that there was anything wrong of course. Here, you can have your flask back, I don't need it anymore.”
Sunbeam’s expression was carefully blank as she floated the flask back to her.
‘You get a princess to sooth your dreams!’ Sunbeams ears fell sideways a lump forming in her throat. ‘You lucky bastard. I wish...’
Abruptly turning, she walked away from Greywing.
Watching Sunbeam leave before he had a chance to say anything else, Greywing kicked himself.
‘Need to make sure I say ‘thank you’ , after all, I did need some liquid comfort last night.’
- - - - - - - -
Seven ponies watched Twilight pace back and forth. Eventually stopping, she stamped a hoof as her wings spread aggressively.
“Argh! We cannot just sit around here waiting for support that may or may not come. As we sit her the princess... I mean the princesses… I mean ponies, all get worse.” Looking up at others she took a deep breath. “I say we proceed onwards to the Tall Mountains to gather wheat-thorn before making our way back.”
“But Twilight dear, we have no supplies.” Gesturing towards Sunbeam Rarity’s tone became soft. “I do believe we ate all of Sunbeam’s supplies this morning for breakfast.”
“Then we need to gather some more. We can’t head back to Ponyville, we will lose too much time and give our deception away.” A map floated out of Twilights saddlebags and unrolled itself. “Sunbeam, can I have your opinion please? Where would be a good place to get supplies?”
Trotting over Sunbeam leaned over and examined the levitating map. “Well, there is a mining outpost here.” Sunbeam tapped a hoof on the map. “Two days away, we should be able to get supplies there.”
Twilight traced another path with a hoof. “Surely this way would be quicker? It would only be a day to get there.”
“Bad idea, that’s the way I came in. There's a…” Sunbeam covered her mouth with a hoof and mumbled.
Taking a step towards her, both of Twilight’s ears pointed towards Sunbeam.
“A what? I don’t think I heard that.”
Sunbeam repeated herself, her ears folded back. “A mountain troll.”
“A mountain troll!” Twilight screeched. “What in the buc…” Biting off the word, she took several calming breaths before looking Sunbeam in the eye as the others all looked on in confusion.
“What in the... world were you doing around a mountain troll?”
“Running away. Trying not to void by bladder in the process.”
‘At least I achieved one of those. Three damn days to get the smell outta my tail...’
Twilight’s eye twitched before shaking her head.
“Ugh, nevermind, priorities. Right, we need to gather supplies first. Sunbeam, can you go with Rainbow and gather food from the woods. AJ, go with Greywing and do the same, use my saddlebags. Rarity, Fluttershy, see if you can make something to help carry any extra supplies in, as I doubt two sets of saddlebags is going to hold everything we need. Pinky and myself will see what other supplies we can gather.”
Rainbow flew up and saluted. “Yes ma’am. Com’on Sunbeam, we got food to gather. Hey AJ, bet we gather more than you.”
Twilight brought a hoof up to her face.
“Let's all meet back here in, say, two hours.”
Twilight watched as Sunbeam headed off into the woods, Rainbow flying lazy circles around her.
‘What am I going to do with you Sunbeam? I’ve been trying to ignore it, but it’s too obvious now... You came in from over the border. You are not a citizen of Equestria are you!’
- - - - - - - -
“Berries.” Sunbeam pointed a hoof at some berries in a tree.
“Got it.” Rainbow flew up to one tree and started picking them as Sunbeam magically picked some off another tree.
“Hey Rainbow, how’s Scoots getting on?” Sunbeam called up.
“She’s getting better thanks. Had a chance to talk to her now, tell her I was going to be away for a bit. Told her that she had to be awesome for me and be strong while I was away.”
Sunbeam nodded, before turning her head to look at her bulging saddlebags.
“Hey I think we’re not going to get much more in, I wonder how AJ and Greywing are getting on?”
Shrugging Rainbow flew down with a foreleg-full of berries and started placing them into Sunbeam’s saddlebags.
“Yeah, not going to get any more in there without crushing other stuff. I say it's time we started heading back.”
As they walked back, Rainbow started humming. One of Sunbeam’s ears twisted towards her.
“I know the tune, but not the words,” Sunbeam commented.
Rainbows smile spread from ear to ear. “Then let me teach you the Wonderbolt version. It’s totally awesome. It's called ‘Blood on the Feathers’.” Rainbow cleared her throat.
“He was just a rookie wonderbolt, and he surely shook with pride,”
“He checked off his flight suit and made sure his goggles were tied.”
“He had to sit and listen to that awful sergeant roar…”
Both of Sunbeam’s ears were now focused on Rainbow.
- - - - - - - -
Twilight and the others looked up as Sunbeam and Rainbow came back into the campsite, both singing loudly.
“...they found his wings three meters from the crash,”
“and he ain’t gonna fly no more.”
“Gory, gory what a heck of a way to…”
Both spluttered into silence as they noticed all the others staring at them. Fortunately, Rainbow had been in a situation like this before and knew exactly how to deal with it. Flying forward, she saluted Twilight.
“Supply gathering mission successful ma’am.”
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Stupid pencil pusher, cancelling orders that he really should have confirmed first
Ah, the wonders of bureaucracy, when the response to one threat hinders the response to another threat rather than actually hindering any threats. Such is government. Such is life.
Also, Greywing should now be at least a little suspicious of the mare who's obviously killed ponies before. At least, he will when he stops having nightmares and drinking himself to sleep.
This is fine as it is for now, but if this is going to be a major point in the future the reasoning behind why this in particular is a big issue needs to be elaborated upon when it's brought back up. Is Equestria xenophobic, and Twilight's a bit scared of her? Is it a legal issue, and Twilight's scared for her? Is it just that she lied about it? Just something to think about for the next chapter.
Only problem I found is that you're missing a "may" when saying "may or may not" and "As we sit her" should be "As we sit here"
I agree with pretty much all of what GreyNoise says. A common citizen shouldn't really know, and be so used to, killing and death without being suspicious.
Sunbeam is getting very close to familiar territory in both physical presence and in use of skill set. This is going to be a huge give away for someone who overly analyzes everything like Twilight Sparkle. Here's hoping everything goes well for Sunbeam. (Not a chance in hell with Murphy around
)
Great work, keep it up,
really enjoying this story!
3666629
Thank you for your PM'd corrections. Now all applied.
Sunbeam...
You should let go.
3666392
I thought maybe he was a spy who knew what was going on and did that deliberately
Sunbeam, run away from there. Run as fast as you can. Why didn't you run away sooner? At the smell of trouble? I will sincerely hope for now that she doesn't get into more trouble...