a Sudden Train Ride to Hoofington

by bearcat

delivery

Sprintpoint didn't care for the unicorns, truth be told. Their sooth sayings never seemed to carry the weight of truth, and even their day to day spells all seemed ... well, magical. Invisible. His junior partner said he could smell the magic as it faded But Spark Impulse probably had a grandparent get mixed up with a 'corn, in ways best left to the imagination.

Entering the courtroom this early meant the princess wasn't officially attending court, but she was a room or two away and the 'corns that had compiled these reports in his bags assured him it was important enough to get an elite guard to pass him through. So he trotted up the steps, to the back entrance, and tipped a single ear to the unicorn with the blood-orange eyes. "Morning, Shadow Orange. The academy's librarian-mage gave me a sealed parchment and said her majesty was awaiting delivery."

The unicorn silently tipped his gray-dyed head to the left, and if Sprintpoint squinted just so, could make out the glow of magic. Probably levitating a quill on the other side of the wooden door. After about thirty seconds of awkward silence, the door swung open and a brilliant white mare twice his height strode into view. Her ephemeral mane filled the space between them with pastel colors all across the spectrum, and even with a horn more than three hooves long between them, her eyes melted Sprintpoint's heart anew.

As the unicorn elite were doing guard duty, and he was doing courier, he felt it was right to look away, specifically, to look down as he bowed deeply, hornless forehead parallel to the stone floor. "Your majesty," he straightened. "Swirling Stars informs me you have been awaiting this report from herself and one of your mages in the castle." He nuzzled open his pack and brought out the roll of parchment sealed by the librarian's mark in the wax. He let go as he felt it being tugged away from his face by an invisible hoof, and watched as the seal broke itself and the scroll unfurled in front of Celestia.

Sprintpoint wasn't told to expect, or not-expect that the princess would have a response for him, so he held his place for a few seconds. But without looking away from the papers, the princess nodded once, saying only "Thank you, officer Sprintpoint. I think that will be" But then on page three, her eyes seemed to bug out of her royal skull, and she fell silent. "Wait, a moment please." And she turned to page four, whereupon her eyes darkened, her gaze piercing the words before her.

Turning to her unicorn guard, she said "Shadow write to the mayor of Ponyville and let them know I'll be arriving post haste. I don't expect to be more than a few hours -- hopefully twenty minutes -- but while I'm there, I should make an official call of state too." Turning to Sprintpoint, she levitated the parchment out of her line of sight of him, asking quickly "Are you in rotation to carry me? I need to travel. To Ponyville as you just heard."

Honestly his turn in that rotation had just ended yesterday, but her Highness hadn't gone anywhere in the past week and he knew one of the next two ponies up had just recovered from a nasty virus. "I think so, yes. How much of your stuff is going? I can have three others hooked to a chariot in thirty minutes."

The princess nodded, and turned back to the ante chamber, speaking with a little less haste than a moment ago, said "And can one of you let the scribe know court is canceled? All apologies, yadda yadda." Her verbal additives lost to the sound of the door slamming shut.

Shadow Orange had been busy levitating a piece of parchment and a quill, no ink visible from where Spintpoint stood. As the paper rolled itself into a scroll, the unicorn's deeper voice rolled out "I can write to the scribe too if you want to concentrate on her majesty's transportation needs." At which point he inclined his horn towards the scroll which then burned in a green fire that left no visible smoke.

Anything to get away from the overbearing unicorn guards, Sprintpoint said to himself. Floating himself aloft he agreed, and flew up and through a window at a smart pace. When he got to the guardhouse Spark Impulse would probably be upset his partner had volunteered him for an eighth day of transport duty.