MLP Adventures: Vacation With The Princesses

by Dante24

Chapter 8

Spike, Celestia, and Luna were in a boutique getting fitted for new outfits for tonight. Spike was given a crystal blue tuxedo that didn’t take that long to put together seeing as how small he was. However Celestia and Luna’s were taking a while longer than expected. They were the rulers of Equestria after all, so the seamstress wanted everything to be perfect. Spike wound up waiting in the lobby for what felt like hours when Celestia and Luna walked out in their new dresses. Celestia’s dress seemed to have different layers of an orange pink color on it, similar to that of a rising sun. The top of it was cover in suns that matches her cutie mark and had a button seamed into it in the shape of the sun. As it wrap around her neck there was another button in the shape of a star, and her shoes were yellow with a sun symbol on each on them.

Luna’s dress was somewhat similar to Celestia’s but instead of a rising sun effect she said night time effect going on hers. Going from the bottom up, the colors on her dress went from a light purple to a dark purple. The patterns on her dress had a couple stars all over it representing the night sky. On her neck she wore a necklace with a moon symbol at the end of it and her shoes were dark purple also with moon symbols on them.

Spike just sat there and stared at the two of them. They were absolutely beautiful in their new dresses. “My my Spike, you rather handsome in you new outfit.” Celestia said, snapping Spike out of his little trance and causing him to blush a bit.

“Oh...I uh...umm.” he stammered.

“Come on you, let go.” she said with a giggle.

After paying, the group went outside and hailed a cab while Celestia lowered a the sun just a bit. Along the way to the museum, Luna motioned for her sister to get a bit closer to her. “We’re being followed.” she whispered.

“It’s probably just the paparazzi.” Celestia suggested.

Luna shook her head in disagreement. “If it were them, they would have ambushed us right as we left the boutique.”

“So who is it then?”

“I don’t know, but there’s about three of them. They’ve been following us ever since we left the police station. Stay on guard.”

“Agreed. And let’s make sure that Spike is kept close.”

Luna nodded.

****************************

It took a while for the group to make it to their destination. By that point the sun was already lowered to the point of being non visible, though the light from it still lingered. Celestia, Luna, and Spike joined the crowd of ponies that were gathered in front of the building. An elderly bluish-gray stallion with a white mane and tail stepped up to the podium and gave a speech about how it this museum was founded and what it’s purpose is for. The speech went on for about an hour before a young mare came up with a pair a giant scissors and cut the large red ribbon. The crowd cheered on as the doors were opened and they all started to walk in. After passing through the lobby, the group entered a large room with many paintings and statues of StarSwirl The Bearded and his many adventures. One painting in particular caught Spike’s eye. He wandered over to it and saw that it was Starswirl standing on the edge of a cliff and staring up at a black creature.

“What is that?” Spike thought as the elderly stallion who was giving a speech before the building opened slowly walked up beside him.

“Ah, yes.” he said. “The battle against the Balrog. One of Starswirl’s greatest battles.”

The elderly stallion looked over at Spike and smiled. “Oh, pardon me. My name is Star Beard, and yours?”

“Spike.”

“Well Spike, would you like to know more about Starswirl’s battle with the Balrog?”

“Um, sure, I guess.”

“Excellent, follow me.” Spike and Star Beard began walking off to the other side of the room while Celestia and Luna were seemingly looking interested in what was around them but in actuality there looking around for anything suspicious.

About an hour later, Star Beard and Spike made their way to a room that was fill with artifacts that were either found or used by Starswirl himself. From staffs, to medallions, to ancient scrolls and books, the room was filled with all this and more. Star Beard brought Spike to a glass case with book inside of it.

“This book was written by Starswirl himself.” he explained. “It’s said to have instructions that leads to his personal journal that he hid eons ago.”

“Why did he it hide it?” Spike asked. “It’s just a journal, right?”

“Oh no, my young dragon, it much more that that.” Star Beard said. “You see, Starswirls’s journal not only contains details of his vast discoveries, but it also holds many powerful spells that even the smartest of unicorns couldn’t figure out.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Spike thought alluding to Twilight. “So I’m guessing that you’ve never found it right?”

“Well that’s the problem, you see, when Starswirl made this book he encrypted it a weird language that we’ve never been able to decipher. Take a look.” Star Beard’s horn began glowing and he raised the case allowing Spike to take it. Spike was of course hesitant to touch the book that was once held by Starswirl himself, but with a quick nod and smile from Star Beard, Spike picked it up and opened it. He saw different pictures and weird letters all grouped up together, or at least he thought they were letters. Spike couldn’t understand what these things were. After a while of flipping through the pages, he closed the book and put back on the podium. “No matter how hard we tried, we haven’t come close to deciphering it.” Star Beard explained as he put the glass case back over the book.

****************************

With no signs of any trouble, the two sisters finally let their guards down and began to enjoy themselves as they began walking around the room looking at all the different portraits of Starswirl the Bearded. They even stopped in order to take pictures with their subjects. It would seem that this evening would end up being a peaceful evening....or so they thought.

As if on cue, the lights all went out at the same time catching everypony off guard. Star Beard quickly came into the room. “Everypony, please calm down!” he announced. “It’s probably just a small power outage! Don’t worry, we’re already on it!”

Celestia and Luna powered up their horns lighting up the room. It was at this point Luna noticed that Spike wasn’t with them. “Where’s Spike?!”

Celestia gasped and franticly began looking around until she saw him on the other side of the room standing next to Star Beard. She quickly trotted over to him and wrapped her hoof around him pulling him close to her. “Spike, don’t run off like that.” she said with a sigh of relief.

“S-sorry princess, I....”

“SISTER!” Luna yelled getting Celestia’s attention. A cloud of smoke began filling the room causing all ponies who inhaled it to fall to the ground into deep sleep. Acting quickly, Celestia wrapped herself, Spike and Star Beared in a light pink bubble in order to protect them from the smoke. Luna quickly followed suit.

“What is this stuff?” Spike asked.

“Sleeping gas.” Celestia answered. “Once inhaled, you can’t help but fall asleep.”

“Like a sleeping magic spell?”

“In a way, but unlike sleeping magic where the caster can determine how long you sleep, the gas usually knocks you out for a few minutes. Whoever is doing this clearly wants something from here.” Celestia explained as Luna approached them.

“Sister, this sleeping gas seems familiar somehow.”

“How so?”

“It was a long time ago, but I remember a group of ponies using this gas for criminal purposes. In fact, I believe we fought against them before.”

“Luna, you can’t mean......” Celestia was cut off when she noticed movement from the corner of her eye. She quickly turned in it’s direction just in time for whatever that was to slip into the next room.

“Is there anything of value in that room over there?” she asked as the looked over at Star Beard.

“There’s many valuable items in that room, but I’d have to say that the most valuable item has to be a very special book written by.........”

“Luna stay here and keep Spike safe.” Celestia interupted. Luna nodded as her sister made her way into the next room. Celestia slowly and quietly walked in; making sure that she didn’t make a sound. Whoever was in here was not going to get away. Making her way, through the room she saw three ponies wearing hooded ropes over their bodies. One of them walked up to the podium and lifed the glass case while another grabbed a large book. “That must be the book.” she thought as she moved closer.

The three mystery ponies continued looking at the book while Celestia got in range. As she was charging up her horn, one of the ponies threw what could only be described as a small metal star in her direction causing her to miss fire. “We’ve been found out, MOVE!” one of them yelled. In the blink of an eye there were gone, but not if Celestia has anything to do with it. Using her magic, she lit up the entire room revealing the three ponies. “HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!” she yelled. Instead of heeding her warning, all three ponies threw more of those metal stars at her; stopping the princess in her tracks. Celestia looked down at the metal stars and quickly examined them. “It can’t be.” she said. She fired a blast of magic at the three ponies, not to hit them, but to blow off the hooded robes they were wearing. The three ponies were all light blue earth ponies with pure white manes and tails; their eyes were a crystal blue color and there cutie mark were the same as the metal star they threw at her.

“T-The Snow Clan!?” she said. “I thought I banished you all centuries ago.”

The ponies said nothing as one of them pull three small balls from his pouch and threw them to the ground. The balls exploded and a huge cloud of smoke covered the ponies. Celestia extended her wings and blew the smoke away only to discover that they were gone. Seconds later the power in the building came back on and the ponies that were knocked out by the gas slowly started to come to. Luna, Spike, and Star Beard quickly entered the room. “Sister, what happened?” asked Luna.

“Luna, it the Snow Clan.” she answered. “They’re back.”

“T-That can’t be. We’ve defeated them centuries ago.”

“Who’s the Snow Clan?” asked Spike.

“We’ll explain later Spike.” Celestia told him. “Right now we have to go after them.”

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Celestia, Luna, and Spike were flying threw the city in hopes they could find some sign of the Snow Clan. Celestia cursed the fact that it was night time seeing as how it was always difficult to track them down at that time. Spike was the first to noticed them. They were apparently running on rooftops avoiding anything that could give them away. Spike pointed them out to Celestia and she quickly flew down to meet them telling Luna to once again look after Spike. Celestia landed right in front of them. “Why are you back in Equestria and what do you want with that book?!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.” one of them said as all three stood up on their hind legs and got in some kind of martial arts position.

“If it’s a fight you want.” said Celestia as a white aura began to surround her body. “You got it!” Celestia charged at the trio who quickly dodged out of the way so fast they gave off the illusion that they disappeared. Looking up, Celestia saw one of them coming down at her with their left hind leg. Quickly, she caught it before it hit her, but that left her open to a counter attack by the other two who managed to kick her in the side sending her a couple of feet away from them. Celestia quickly got up and saw that they were gone. She looked all over but couldn’t find them. Suddenly, out of no where, Celestia was hit hard in the back of her head sending her stumbling forward. She regain her balanced, but was then hit again. Luna and Spike could hear Celestia’s groans of pain from high in the air. “They’re using the darkness to their advantage.” Luna thought. She flew down to a nearby building and let Spike off; telling him to stay there and out of sight. She flew back into the air and cast a light spell which lit up the surrounding area revealing the Snow Clan ponies.

With them in sight, Luna flew at full speed tackling one of them and ready to take on the other. “You’re not the only ones who mastered hoof to hoof combat!” she said as she rose to her hind legs. “Let’s go!”

One of the ponies charged at Luna while the other one was caught in a force field by Celestia. “You’re fight is with me!” she said as she threw the stallion over onto the roof of the next building.

Luna and the other pony were in deep hoof to hoof combat; each one blocking and dodging punches and kicks. Luna managed to deliver a kick to the face so hard the snow pony flew backwards but quickly regained his balanced. He pulled out a couple of smoke pellets and threw them on the ground in an attempt to either escape or form some kind of counter attack. Luna quickly caught wind of this tactic. “Oh no you don’t!” she yelled as she extended her wings and blew the smoke away. With his plan failed, the snow pony didn’t have enough time to react to anything because Luna charged at him full speed and gave him a strong uppercut, sending him straight into the air. She flew up after him and then hammered him straight onto the roof of the building; knocking him out cold.

Celestia and the one other snow pony who was still conscious were staring each other down. “Why have you ponies returned to Equestria?” she asked.

“The Snow Clan will rise again.” he answered as he threw a flash pellet temporally blinding Celestia while he tried to make his escape. Luna went to confront him; completely forgetting about the first snow pony she knocked out when she joined the fight. He came to and quickly rose to his hooves and charged at Luna, kicking her in the back and sending her flying into a nearby wall knocking her out. With Luna unconscious, the ball of light that hovered over them disappeared and darkness returned. Seeing this as their chance, the other two snow ponies grabbed their friend and began to make a break for it. While running away, they unknowingly ran past Spike who kept himself hidden. Spike looked on as they passed him and saw the one of them was wearing a backpack that obviously held Starswirls’s book. He looked down and saw a small round metal object. He quickly picked up, took aim, and with all his might threw it; cutting the strap allowing the bag to fall.

Spike ran from his hiding place, grabbed the bag and ran back to his hiding spot before the snow ponies could even notice him. It would seem that they didn't even realize they had lost what they had came for seeing as how they continued moving. Spike remained in his hiding spot until he could no longer see them. Once it was safe he returned to Celestia and Luna who were recovering from the fight.

“Hey look, I got it!” he announced.

“Spike, good job!” Luna said as she hugged him. Celestia just continued staring in the direction the snow ponies went with a serious look on her face.

“The Snow Clan.” she thought.

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Celestia, Luna, and Spike returned to the museum just as everypony was leaving, ignoring the fact that they were all staring at how the princesses were wearing torn up dresses. Once inside they reunited with Star Beard and proceeded to return the book to him.

“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you.” he said. “I can’t thank you enough for returning the book.”

“What’s so special about this book?” Luna asked.

“It was written by Starswirl The Bearded.” he explained to the princess. “In it is supposed to directions that leads to his personal journal. Unfortunately, he wrote in a weird language and we haven’t been able to decipher it.”

“May I take a look?” she asked.

“Sure.” he said with hope that maybe, just maybe one of the princesses of Equestria could understand it.

Luna levitated the book close to her and took a look inside. The language was one she could understand. It wasn’t Saddie Arabian and it sure wasn’t Equestrian. “It’s strange. I’ve never seen this language before.”

Star Beard let out a disappointed sigh. “Oh well, maybe we weren’t meant to ever decipher it.”

“Hold on.” Spike jumped in. “I know somepony who might be able to decipher it.”

“Really, who?!”

“Her name’s Twilight Sparkle. She’s the smartest pony I know; if anypony can decipher it, she can.”

Star Beared thought about it for a while and decided to let Spike take the book to Twilight for deciphering, if she could anyway. Luna couldn’t believe that even after all the things that was done to him, Spike still spoke highly of Twilight, however Celestia’s mind was on something else entirely. The Snow Clan returning after all these centuries? Why? Why now after all this time? What do they want? What do they hope to gain from Starswirl’s Journal?

These questions ran threw her mind over and over again until Luna got her attention. After a while, the group decided to head back to the cabin with Spike promising to update Star Beard on anything they find out.

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Spike and the princesses were flying through the night sky on their way back to the cabin when it suddenly occurred to Spike that this was their last day on vacation. Just like that before he knew it, one week came and went. In the morning they would soon return home. The princesses back to Canterlot, and Spike back to Ponyville. However, Spike didn’t really want to go back. For the first time he had his own little adventure along side the two rulers of Equestria. He saved two fillies from a broken ride, saved the mayor of this city from a group of ponynappers and somewhat helped in the fight against a group called the........

“Oh yeah, you’ve never told me.” he said. “Who are the Snow Clan?”

Celestia had a lot on her mind after tonight’s event, so Luna began to explain. “To put it in simpler terms Spike, they’re ninjas. Earth pony ninjas that used to live in the frozen south of Equestria; before they were banished. Their skills in combat are nothing to take lightly."

"So what did they do to get banished?"

“500 years before my banishment, the Slow Clan attempted to overthrow us and take over Equestria.”

“But why?”

“To show the world how strong they are. All the battles we’ve had in the past were nothing compared to the Snow Clan. Even though the battle against them lasted three days, it felt like three hundred years.”

Spike couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was the Snow Clan really that powerful? Were they really gonna come back? And if they do, will they try to take over Equestria again?”

Seeing that this conversation was starting to upset Spike, Celestia levitated him onto her back and reassured him that this time the royal guards are well trained and will be more than ready if and when the Snow Clan attack. Hearing this put Spike’s mind at ease. However, Celestia still couldn’t help but wonder, why after all this time would the Snow Clan return. Her thoughts on the matter were once again interrupted when she saw Spike yawning loudly.

Both sisters chuckled and decided that it would be best to get back to the cabin and get Spike into bed. It’s been a very long day.

Author's Note:

Next Chapter: Celestia and Luna confront the mane 6

Comments

[DARKPHANTOM13]

This is pretty good stuff. Hope to see more soon.

[Ekhidna]

YAY!

[Dante24]

7306852

[OmniFox]

Vacation whining down.