New Tricks

by Will

The Meeting

The four mares trotted through the streets of Canterlot, steadily making their way through the city to Celestia's castle. Along the way, they discussed how they were to approach the matter of the changelings’ return. Nopony could guess their intentions or plans: they had disappeared for a long period after their defeat at Cadence and Shining Armour’s hooves, presumed dead for months, then unexpectedly popped up smack-dab in the centre of deserted griffon country. It was entirely possible that they had taken the griffons captive, but that didn’t explain the signs of struggle and escape that had been prominent in the area, nor the thought of the griffons - one of the most notoriously unfriendly, proud races in all of Equestria - all simultaneously fleeing the area. Yes, the changelings had attacked en masse, but that would hardly be a deterrent to a race that would rather stand up to cyclopes than part with an idol.
None of it made any sense, yet the friends were sure that if anyone was capable of answering their questions in full, or at least offer some clues that would prove helpful in unravelling the mystery, it would be the princesses. After all, they had never let them down before… except for that time at the 1000th annual Summer Sun Celebration, the whole Discord issue, the issue of the changelings’ first appearance, failing to have enough idea of former students’ plans to prevent them from almost ending reality itself once, managing to get themselves abducted by plants easily dealt with by an earth pony, failing to keep an eye on former enemies of Equestria crafty enough to turn an ordinary highschool girl into an eldritch abomination capable of total multiversal domination, failure to keep clouds at bay in a frozen environment after the destruction of an ancient artifact designed to work as an evil-and-weather shield; this despite the fact that both had enough power to raise and lower the sun, a celestial body that was so much more difficult to control or move simply due to its heat, size and mass that it was difficult to take them seriously anymore - actually, their whole career had been littered with embarrassing failures when facing problems easily dealt with by ponies in possession of considerably less power than the princesses. Pinkie thought that it almost seemed as if someone was intentionally causing for them to look bad in order to make the heroes seem even more heroic to passive observers when they completed a task that the princesses could not even begin to address.
However, while the princesses were barely capable of keeping a civilization afloat despite the fact that one of them literally had over one thousand years to practice, that didn’t mean that they couldn’t offer advice or suggestions on how to deal with the issue at hand. And it was for that reason that the ponies were making their way to Canterlot Castle at that moment, hoping to gain an audience with Celestia and Luna before either one of them was needed to address some new issue that arose in a far-off corner of their kingdom.
After about ten minutes of travel, the four friends had arrived at the entrance to the castle itself. Twilight peered upwards to look at the balcony of the uppermost room of the structure: there she spotted Celestia, staring directly into the sun through a telescope mounted onto the floor of the platform on which she stood. In a few hours, the day would be over and it would be time for Luna to take up her watch over both the physical and mental well-being of the ponies under her care, ensuring that dreams stayed pleasant and ponies remained unharmed throughout the kingdom under the dome of her brilliant cosmic displays.
Twilight approached one of the guards stationed near the entrance to the castle.
“Good day. I request an audience with the princesses; it is regarding a grave matter of the utmost urgency, requiring that I speak with them immediately.”
“Of course, your majesty,” the guard responded, moving to the side and gesturing for Twilight to enter. As he was moving back into position to block entry once again, Twilight stopped him to allow the other three access.
“They’re my friends, as well as key witnesses. I would rather they accompanied me inside.”
“As you wish,” the guard replied, allowing them all through.
Once they were inside Twilight led them upwards through the castle to Celestia's chamber, pausing occasionally to greet a passing guard or diplomat.
Upon reaching their desired location they were stopped by Celestia’s personal guards who used scanning spells to verify that they were in fact the Princess of Friendship and three of her friends, not impostors with superior knowledge of disguise spells or changelings attempting an invasion.
Finding their claims to be genuine, the guards opened the large double doors to allow them access into the impressive chamber, before magically sealing the entrance once again. Twilight immediately made her way to the open door that led to the observational balcony, leaving her friends to wait for her in the centre of the room. A few moments later she returned, Princess Celestia in tow. The three non-alicorns bowed to her before being asked to rise by the princess, who was curious as to their reasons for arriving on such short notice; not that she was displeased with it. Royal duties and the procedures that come with them do get boring after having to deal with them for a millennium.
Twilight chose to explain their situation.
“Princess Celestia, we have arrived at the castle today to discuss a matter of utmost urgency with you: the changelings have returned, and have presumably made off with or killed every griffon residing in the town of Griffonstone.”
Upon hearing this news, Celestia’s expression did not falter; she merely looked to Twilight’s friends for more information, silently encouraging them to add their perspectives and any useful knowledge that they may have acquired regarding the situation. Rarity was the first to recognise her cue.
“Princess Celestia, what Twilight has told you accurately reflects our views on the situation at present. While we do not wish to be alarmist, there is a possibility that they are planning to somehow infiltrate Equestria and were hoping to use the remote settlement as a covert base of operations.”
“How did you find out about this?” Princess Celestia asked.
“Ooh, I can answer that one!” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly. “I was at Sugar Cube Corner helping Mrs Cake to prepare some yummy pastries for Dr Hooves. He said that he needed them for a trip that he was taking the Cutie Mark Crusaders on. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a wild animal came charging into the bakery and knocked over all of the tables on the southern end.” At this point in her tale, Pinkie Pie was performing somersaults while dressed in a ridiculous commando outfit complete with toy rifle and baking soda grenades.
“I knew what needed to be done, so I shouted for Pumpkin and Pound to perform a bull horn maneuver, rushing him on either side as a distraction while I formulated a plan to effectively provide a direct frontal attack without putting any more innocent cakes in danger -”
“Darling, I don’t think that any of that has anything to do with our trip to Griffonstone,” Rarity said, interrupting Pinkie’s attempt at recounting the events preceding their journey. Pinkie froze in midair, her rifle extended to shoot at an imaginary target a few metres in front of her. She looked to Rarity, then to the princess, blushed and dropped to the ground while ripping off her commando outfit and gear. She was about to throw away her rifle, but thought better of it and stowed it away in her mane for safekeeping. Celestia looked thoroughly disappointed.
“Oh. I was hoping to hear more of your daring military conquests, Pinkie. They sounded rather fascinating.”
“Indeed! We wish to hear further regalement of thy undeniably incredible tales in our company, Pinkie,” Princess Luna boomed out as she alighted upon the balcony after her flight to oversee preparations of the next Nightmare Night to take place in Ponyville. “‘Twas the single most thrilling account of sugar-laden protection that we have ever heard in our long lifetime, even more so than the Siege of Lemon Dew Confections, an epic from ancient times far removed from the influences of present events and storytelling conventions.”
Princess Luna purposefully strode into the room, surveying her surroundings to make out Celestia’s unannounced companions. Upon seeing that they were four of the Elements of Harmony, she happily exclaimed, “Oh, now this is a most unexpected occasion! Princess Sparkle, what brings you and your entourage to our humble abode on such short notice?”
“Oh, I don’t consider them an entourage, Princess Luna. They’re my friends, through and through,” Twilight hastily responded.
“I see,” Luna said quietly. She seemed to be deliberating on whether or not to pose a question that she very clearly was hoping to ask. After a short pause, she decided to come out right and say it.
“Twilight Sparkle, where are your other two friends?”
At this, Celestia seemed to perk up, as if she too had been hoping to obtain an answer to the same question but had decided against being the one to insert it into the conversation.
“Oh, why they’re…” Twilight seemed to struggle with her words, as if formulating an answer were physically painful for her. “Um, Rarity, if you would tell the princess of their, uh, whereabouts.”
“Oh, why of course, darling,” Rarity replied with a flick of her purple mane. “Princess Luna, Applejack and Fluttershy are… they are… that is, to say… um, Pinkie?”
“Oh, they’re singing a song about the virtues of invention,” Pinkie replied happily.
Twilight and Rarity took a moment to frown at their hyperactive friend, sure that whatever Applejack and Fluttershy were doing at the time, it wasn’t that.
“Really, Pinkie?” Rarity asked sceptically.
“Nope. Rainbow Dash?”
At this Rainbow Dash jumped, seemingly unaware of the fact that she was standing in Canterlot Castle. Up until that point she had been blindly following her friends from location to location and copying them movement for movement; thus, being called upon so unexpectedly meant that she had no idea of the current topic of conversation, and as a result could only reply,”What? What happened? Did I do something wrong? Or awesome?”
Rarity quickly filled Rainbow Dash in on their discussion.
“Rainbow Dash, Pinkie was just asking you to explain to the princess exactly where Applejack and Fluttershy are, and what it is that they may be doing.”
“How am I supposed to know? They didn’t tell me that they were gonna leave us right after the trip. Fluttershy’s probably just back at her cottage, and I’d bet ten bits that Applejack’s busy at Sweet Apple Acres, happily bucking away at her trees right now.”
“Right. Princess, we have absolutely no idea where they are,” Twilight said to Princess Luna.
“Oh; how strange. I am accustomed to observing all of you moving as a well-trained military unit: together,” Luna replied with the last statement she would issue to Twilight for the night. “Sister, I will go outside and take up watch over the night sky. You continue to pursue this interesting topic in my abscence.”
With that, Luna made her way onto the balcony and began to survey the night sky through the small telescope.
Celestia turned back to the friends, a gentle smile upon her face.
“Well, it was a most pleasant surprise, having you all stop by today. However, you should be getting home; it has gotten rather late, after all. And don’t worry about the changelings. We have defences in place to ensure that they can never infiltrate this kingdom in the same manner as before. Go and rest easy, my little ponies.”
With that, she disabled the binding spell applied to the door and opened it, indicating to the friends that it was time for them to leave. However, before all of them were out the door she called out, “Oh, but please do stay, Twilight. There is something that I must discuss with you privately.”
Twilight nervously looked to her three other friends for encouragement and stepped back through the doorway, making her way back to Celestia as the exit was barred yet again. She stopped when she was standing under the princess, waiting for her to initiate the conversation.
Celestia’s smile fell, her face taking on an expression that Twilight had only seen a handful of times before. It was not one of anger; if it were, Twilight would have been fearful, but at least sure of the outcome. This was a different expression entirely, borne out of a millennium of watching the deaths of the mortal ponies she was sworn to rule and protect as a benevolent leader; a thousand years of impossible choices and backbreaking moral burdens that would have swallowed a lesser pony alive, summed up in one look.
She stared down at Twilight imposingly and asked a simple question of her, yet the princess’s tone caused for it to sound as if it demanded a satisfactory answer, or else the outcome would be less than pleasant.
“Twilight,” Celestia said softly. “Where are your friends?”

---

Apple Bloom stared out of her window, impatiently waiting for Applejack to arrive at the gates to Sweet Apple Acres, walk up the stairs and wish her a good night. It was an unspoken agreement: there wasn’t a mother in the house, and with Granny Smith it was impossible to tell if she was acting crazy or genuinely off her rocker, so the role of acting as the family mother fell to Applejack.
Apple Bloom sighed as she adjusted her pose to allow blood access into her right foreleg again. With her head resting on her left hoof, she stared out at the city of Ponyville, awaiting Applejack’s return from Griffonstone.
Shortly after the Cutie Mark Crusaders had returned from an alternate past version of Gallopfrey in which The Doctor had never found his destiny and had decided to stay on the planet to watch the Time War rip the fabric of reality asunder, she had galloped full speed to the Castle of Friendship to tell her sister of her adventure, hoping that she would be proud of having a little sister who had helped to save an entire universe from an untimely demise.
Instead, she had found Applejack galloping at full speed back out, stopping to tell Apple Bloom that the Map had summoned all six Elements of Harmony to Griffonstone for a friendship emergency. She had assured her little sister of her return in a few days’ time, and had told her that she loved her before sprinting off.
Well, it had been a few days. Apple Bloom had been a good little filly in her sister’s absence, and was sure that she should have been back to congratulate her on her exemplary behaviour by now. After all, her friends had returned. Most of them, anyway. Apple Bloom knew that Fluttershy was missing, though she knew not the reason for her absence. How she knew was a secret that she had not yet discussed with her fellow Crusaders, or any individual besides herself.
It was strange; ever since receiving her cutie mark, Apple Bloom and her friends had been extraordinarily gifted at helping other ponies to discover their latent talents or reevaluate the ones that they already possessed. At first, this could be blamed on a combination of good fortune and destiny, but eventually Apple Bloom had noticed something odd about their missions: she was able to tell which ponies needed help before meeting them. The weirdest part for her was that the more they went on missions to help other ponies, the more acute her perception of cutie marks was becoming.
At first, she could only tell what her eyes and brain told her: pony without cutie mark. Help. Then, she had started to become aware of a pony’s possession or lack of a cutie mark without laying eyes on their flank. After that, she could tell which ponies had which cutie marks without seeing the two at once. Now, she could track ponies according to their cutie marks or lack thereof, matching their identities to their stamped flanks without ever seeing them at all. Of course, this ability had a radius of a few kilometres, but it was amazing to her that she had a virtual radar that operated at one-hundred percent accuracy at all times within her head, letting her know who had what kind of problem, leading her there and letting her solve it without the fuss of locating the pony first.
Of course, there was a good reason that she kept her ability a secret: she was an earth pony. Tracking was a unicorn thing. They were able to utilize spells to do that easier than any earth pony ever could, meaning that Sweetie Belle should have been the one in possession of this ability, not her. She felt like an affront to the natural order of things, and was not eager to draw attention to herself for possessing a skill that, by all indications, was impossible. Who knew what might happen: she might be taken away to be studied by teams of researchers and scientists as an oddity, she could be run out of town for being a freak, or she may suffer the same fate as… yeah, she wasn’t eager to tell someone she wasn’t absolutely sure could be trusted.
But, there were upsides to her natural radar; for example, she could tell that Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Rainbow Dash had entered the boundaries of Ponyville a few hours earlier, which was part of the reason that she was waiting for her sister to arrive. If they were here, she couldn’t be far behind.
After all, she had promised to be back.
Applejack never broke a promise.

Author's Note:

Third chapter up. Applejack and Fluttershy are gone, who knows what that means for everyone else, and there are a whole lot of talking heads who seem as if they might as well be discussing the philosophical implications of tissue paper for all of the value that they add to this story at present. Let's see: I've killed comedy until it died in the second chapter, so I had to get rid of that tag. Now it seems like I may need to rid the story of the adventure tag altogether and add a new one to the site just so that it can be applied to this entry: boring. Or nonsensical. You know, whichever one fits best.

Just kidding. I'm actually really enjoying putting finger to screen and just typing out the insane thoughts scurrying about on the inside of my skull. I've had ideas like this screaming for the past five years to get out, so it feels good to just set up something like this and watch what it does. Sort of like dropping a snail onto someone's head from the second storey of a building and watching as they frantically run around; it's as if they're attempting to imitate someone who heard the shrill whirring noise of an air raid siren but can't find any cover.

Comments

[The Iced Lance]

Yeah, I'm seeing blaze-of-glory return from the two missing element bearers. Keep up the good work.

[Will]

7530332 Glad to see that you believe in the power of a promise from the Element of Honesty. I'm not going to give anything away right now, but their playground is slightly bigger than a standard backyard.

Gosh, that is the most useless clue that I've ever given anyone. But, good on you if you understand what I'm trying to say, even though it seems like I need to brush up on my definitions; apparently, I am unable to tell the difference between vagueness and confusion.

[The Iced Lance]

7530380
Is a clue nonetheless.

[KorenCZ11]

mmm... The plot thickens...
Other notes, this feels more and more natural as I read it. Either I'm getting used to you, or you've found a groove to write in. All the same, improvement is definitely apparent. On to the next one!