“I really don’t like the idea of you going to that city so soon after… you know…” Panacea said to her husband, worry written on her face.
Carduus gave his wife a sympathetic look, before moving to reassure her. “Honey, I promise I’ll be fine, Princess Twilight knows Celestia and Luna; if any of us can sort this mess out, it’s her.”
“Perhaps, but what of when you first arrive? I doubt changelings are going to be thrown a party on arrival.”
‘From what the Princess tells me, one might,’ Carduus mused, slightly grinning as he remembered some of the stories Princess Twilight had told him over the last few days.
“That’s why we’re called changelings, honey. They won’t see any changelings entering, only a dashingly handsome stallion, and his less attractive friends.” He stood straight, and pulled a pose; unable to completely remove his grin.
Panacea rolled her eyes before letting a grin slip. “Well that dashingly handsome stallion better come home safe with all his limbs intact, or he’s sleeping on the sofa.”
“I better come home safe th-“
He was cut off as a black blur barreled into him, knocking him to the floor with the cutest bear hug possible.
“Daddy!” the voice came out slightly muffled, his daughter's muzzle was crushed up against him.
“Hey sweetie!” Carduus swept Iuvenes into his fore-hooves to give her an embrace of his own.
She shifted so she could look at his face. “Do you have to go?”
“Well one of us needs to make sure the princess doesn’t do another all-nighter in a library somewhere,” Carduus chuckled.
Iuvenes responded by giving him the biggest puppy eyes she could - Carduus cringed at the big glowing blue orbs looking up at him in a begging manner.
Luckily for Carduus, Panacea came to his rescue. “Hey sweetie, I’m sure your father will bring you back some of those equestrian donuts from Canterlot if you ask nicely!”
Iuvenes face lit up instantaneously. “Oh oh, please dad, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!”
“Oh I’m sure I could manage,” Carduus laughed, picking his daughter up in his green magical aura and depositing her on her mother’s back, where she promptly curled up in between her wings.
“Now, I really have to go; the others are likely already at the carriage.”
“Be safe,” Panacea said one last time, giving her husband a loving nuzzle that he returned gladly.
Carduus kissed his daughter on the forehead, picked up his sword and placed it into its scabbard, placed his helmet upon his head and after some final farewells left through the front door of his home.
“Forward onto Canterlot,” he muttered to himself.
Chrysalis’ personal carriage, a black carriage decorated with exuberant green emeralds rolled along the rocky Badlands landscape. It wasn’t the most comfortable ride in the world, but the two Changeling guards pulling it knew both the safest and most direct route to Equestria, so they were in safe hooves.
Either side of the carriage the other two of Carduus’ squad flew alongside them, wings buzzing as they looked out vigilantly for any possible threats to their princess. Within the carriage itself the rest of the entourage sat in silence. On one side sat Longshot, Vladimir and Shining Armor, who had been staring out the window so far for the entire trip. On the other side sat Carduus and Twilight, both undisguised. Twilight herself was staring at the floor, shuffling as she took in the uncomfortable sound of silence dominating the carriage interior. A silence eventually and predictably broken by Sergeant Longshot.
“So… what’s the plan exactly? You realise Canterlot won’t throw you a welcome party right?”
Carduus chuckled. “You sound like my wife.”
“Um, what?”
“Never mind, and to answer your question, I do realise this. That is why when we get to Equestria we will change into ponies.”
“Won’t the armor give you away?” Longshot pointed at the dark blue armor adorned by the changeling guard captain.
“Meh, I wouldn’t worry. Our armor is enchanted to change with us, otherwise it wouldn’t be much use to a race of creatures preferring stealth over brute force most of the time.”
“I guess Canterlot was one of those few other times?”
“Hay if you remember, the Queen did infiltrate AS Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and bring down the shield,” Carduus pointed out, before remembering Shining Armor was sharing the carriage with them.
All eyes turned towards the Solar Guard, who luckily didn’t seem to have heard a single world, and instead remained staring blankly out the window.
Longshot coughed. “Anyway, I bet if I was there things would have been different!”
Carduus cocked a non-existent eyebrow. “Oh really?”
“Yup, you only faced off against the guard. I mean, they’re good and all!” Longshot added, catching Vladimir’s glare. “But you haven’t faced off against the EUP!”
“Huh, the Changelings who captured you didn’t seem too impressed. Captain Vlad had to save your flank, before going down because you didn’t properly incapacitate one of your combatants. And then Shining Armor had to surrender because you became a hostage.”
Longshot’s eye twitched ever so slightly. “Not… one of my best moments.”
Carduus grinned in victory.
“But you haven’t seen our helicopters!”
“Your… what?”
“Big metal armoured flying machines with crossbow turrets that would tear any soldier to pieces. Not to mention they’re fast enough to outrun all but the most experienced Wonderbolts!”
“Really? How do I know you’re not exaggerating?”
“You’ll just have to take my word for it.”
“Uh-huh.”
Vlad rolled his eyes. “You two quite finished?”
“What?” Longshot responded. “There’s nothing wrong with a bit of competition.”
“Until you get so competitive you end up in joint last,” Twilight remarked, smiling at that particular memory.
“Sound like there’s a story in that, Twilight,” Carduus noted.
“Oh the things I could tell you about my time in Ponyville, what I have already told you isn’t even the half of it.
Longshot shuddered, remembering the story Vladimir told him of the ‘want-it-need-it’. “Oh please don’t, not right now.”
“What’s the matter Sergeant?” Vladimir grinned. “Want me to retell the story of Lesson Zero?”
Twilight blushed at that, while Longshot had a look of pure horror. “I need an adult.”
“I am an adult,” Vladimir responded.
“Moving on!” Twilight near shouted to change the subject. “In all seriousness what do we do when we get to Canterlot? I mean, meeting with the princess after all this…” Twilight trailed off.
Vlad sighed, and gave Twilight a sympathetic look. “Don’t worry Miss Sparkle, our authority can get you all into the castle as long as nopony sees you as changelings, also I would recommend you take on a different form than the usual, until we see the princess at least.”
“Why?”
“Uh, well. You see it’s not just a select few who know about you being a changeling. In fact everypony pretty much has heard by now…”
Twilight’s eye twitched. “What? Everypony… knows…”
“Hey! Vlad said it would be fine so it will be! Come on, let’s not freak out over this,” Longshot interjected.
“But…”
“Twilight I know it will be hard, but things will work out, you’ll see. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Anyway - as I was saying, once we get you into the castle we will report to Princess Celestia, and you will come with us, what happens then is really up to you,” Vladimir finished.
Much to the worry of all those present their words did little to calm the Changeling Princess, who seemed to be on the verge of an all-out panic as she began to hyperventilate. Luckily for them Twilight put a hoof to her chest and took some deep breaths, just like Cadance had taught her as a filly.
During this only Carduus noticed Shining finally look up at Twilight, brotherly concern on his face. Only when Twilight did finally calm down did he return to his personal musings looking out the window.
Life was returning to normal in the city of Canterlot, ponies of all races and pastel colours went about their lives.
Princess Celestia overlooked it all from one of the castle’s many balconies. A sense of unease surrounding her regal aura.
“Aunty?” A kind voice called from behind. Celestia looked behind her to see her niece and sister joining her at the balcony, standing either side.
“Sister what bothers thou?”
“Dialect.”
Luna gave Celestia a death glare at that little remark, only to receive an amused smirk in response, a smirk that quickly fell away as Celestia’s eyes turned back towards Canterlot.
“They should have been back by now.”
“Sister the fate of Equestria no longer rests squarely on your shoulders, you need to stop worrying constantly.”
“How can I not?” Celestia countered. “My little ponies are in danger, Twilight is in danger. And now we have heard nothing from Shining Armor’s team.”
“He will be fine aunty,” Cadance reassured, yet Celestia didn’t miss the worry she herself was trying to hide. “Shiny can watch out for himself.”
“Don’t discount my own Captain, or the EUP Sergeant with them,” Luna added. “Give them a few more days, if we hear nothing, well, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.”
From their vantage point, had the three alicorns been paying attention they might have just spotted a black and green carriage entering the city limits.
Canterlot’s ponies gawped as they witnessed a black carriage outfitted with expensive emerald decorations sped through the streets of the Equestrian capital.
Particularly noticeable was the two Pegasus stallions flying alongside it, and the two Earth-Pony stallions leading the carriage, all of them carrying swords that hung at their sides.
Private security was the first thought that entered most ponies heads. It wasn’t particularly uncommon with the many nobles living within the city. But they normally had carriages made of all sorts of gems and gold. And the security they hired were also normally outfitted to also show off that particular noble’s power. The darker décor of this carriage was new, and the swords carried by these stallions were iron with obsidian hilts. They couldn’t even see the occupants of the carriage as the curtains were drawn shut. All this certainly did little to keep the populace at ease.
Anypony watching the carriage for long enough would have seen it go all the way up to Canterlot castle, where they were met by two Solar Guards when they arrived at the front gates.
A thestral in night guard armor stepped out of the carriage, on which both Solar Guards stood to attention and saluted, after talking to them briefly the guards opened the gates and the carriage rolled on through unobstructed.
Inside a blue mare with a black mane sighed in relief, before shedding the precautionary disguise in favor of a familiar lavender one.
She peeked though the curtains, a small amount of panic returning as the castle in which she had spent a good portion of her life loomed over her.
There was no going back now.
Twilight Sparkle was back in Canterlot.
"What could possibly go wrong?"
Everything.
Including my spelling, now that you've sai that.
A short little set-up chapter? HOW DARE YOU!
6847670 damn it, they invoked murphewys law. Now we have to make sure that something goes terribly wrong.
Congratulations, you have now invoked Murphy. May Celestia have mercy on your soul.
This chapter needs quite a bit of editing. One thing I can point out offhand is you used apostrophes in a lot of plurals. (Changeling's, head's, sword's, Guard's.)
now the waiting game
You Idiots...I swear this is probably going to end horribly...more so than usual.
Aaaaaand just like that, you just jinxed it, Longshot. (Or whoever said it.)
Congrats on that.
Nice chapter. Can't wait to see the reunion. Looking forward to the next chapter.
Haha!
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Carduus is going to get killed off isn't he?
6847696 20 bits says that something involves Blueblood and/or Pinkie
Dear oh dear.
6847705 More like 'May Murphy have mercy on Celestia's soul'
Now THAT is a mouthful...
What could possibly go wrong?
Just don't say that...Too late I guess.
And now for the part we've all been waiting for. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
Good Chapter waiting for the next. . . Still waiting . . . Still waiting. . _______ FATALITY
6847981 HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA aaaa HE he he HEHEHEHEHE he
COMEDY GOLD
Waitwaitwait! You made the whole journey. To last half a chapter!? I expected it to be a 2-3 chapter escapade with rich enviromental stuff, not this! I mean I'm happy for Twi to finally move some story forward but the quick jump to Canterlot Castle was... stupidly quick!
6848043 120 bits that he will die taking a shot meant for Twilight. As in he will sheld her in a heroic fashion.
And a sidepoll of 40 orens that Longshot will break a limb until the end of the story.
Semi-colon should be after the word "go".
Changelings
celestia is revising its protected and hope shining armor is riavvicini sister even if he is a changeling her friends make a nice HOLIDAY welcome back .
I can not wait to read the next chapter see not take too long to write it.
6848518 I'll take that action
6848576 static.ylilauta.org/files/p7/orig/dt918gt5/Shut%20up%20and%20take%20my%20orens.png
6848506 They used Fast Travel. Didn't want to bother with those pesky random encounters, you see. After all, the description of that carriage sounds expensive, so getting scratches all over it (or losing half of it to something big) would be murder on their bills.
On the flipside, absolutely nothing could happen as well, and spending a chapter staring at tumbleweeds and counting needles on the occasional cactus (if there are any) doesn't sound appealing.
I love you so much for making this reference.
Stop teasing! Larger chapters!
>sword's
>Changeling's
>Changeling's
>Changeling's
>Changeling's
>head's
>Solar Guard's
>bother's
Heeeeere come's an "s"!
Scabbard.
Carriages.
Welp, time for the uncomfortable reunion! How bad could it possibly be, really?
Oh no.
There's no way that this will end well.
6848733 ...Unless it could be something intresting, like Ponyville was on the way. Or Cloudsdale is a moving city, it could stand on the way and it's defence forces could encounter the chariot and go out from there. There were a few descent options for the way, you have to admit that.
Them DBZA references.
The only way Carduus could be more doomed is if he mentioned being two weeks from retirement.
Cya
Raziel-chan
Longshot....
You just had to jinx it.....
Lol twilight make a reference to dragon ball. Also one of the guards make a reference to the time Twilight went crazy. lol
I had a joke, but forgot it...
6849648 Fixed
I can't wait for the next chapter. Please make it soon I can't stand it. You're really good at this.
After asking that question? Anything and everything.
Nice chapter, good work.
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Someling is going to die isn't he?
Something that has been bugging me about this series... Where the *F-Bomb* is Spike?!? I mean, other than sitting in a corner breathing into a paper bag for a week.
6855120 He'll be in the next chapter.
6855308 Good. Now write the next chapter, and we'll talk.
Seriously. I want the next chapter.
It's funny, after I read the last pair of chapters I was planning on waiting for at least two more before continuing on with the story. Then I read this chapter before remembering... Now I want to see how happy Celestia is at the safe return of her student. Or who knows? Suspicion is likely as well.
Anywhey, I'll see you at the next chapter.
Carduus... cardus. .. ... as in cardus weed!?
6857679 Carduus is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae, and the tribe Cynareae, the thistles. It is one of two genera considered to be "true thistles", the other being Cirsium.
6858302 Thank you for the clarification, I had been reading some of the Inheritance cycle earlier this week and that hit me like a truck.
It looks like it's time to enforce the law. Who am I? The name's Murphy. And it's my job to enforce the law whenever a statement that tempts fate is uttered aloud.
Wonder how everyone's gonna react...
i love it when people say that becausescontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/l/t1.0-9/12654379_987335421356658_3818115149288002131_n.jpg?oh=6eb32885f074354409d06fdcd007becd&oe=5779FAEF
THEY ARE BLIND I TELL YOU BLIND