We'll Always Have Canterlot

by Tortfeasor

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

We’ll Always Have Canterlot

Disclaimer: Repeat after me, I’m not Hasbro, I don’t own My Little Pony

Chapter Two: Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Twilight Sparkle blinked herself awake as the light of the morning sun struck her eyes. She yawned and stretched with particular vigor since it felt like she’d slept only a few hours on solid rock. She opened her eyes and rolled over expecting to see the view of Ponyville out her window at the library. Instead as last night came crashing back to her she realized that she had only slept for a few hours on solid rock.

Finding a place to sleep in near darkness wasn’t much fun, but eventually they had located what wasn’t quite a cave. Rather it was a niche in a large rock that had enough space for two ponies and a baby dragon to sleep in relative comfort, relative being very much the most important word. She was sore all over, and her head pounded like she’d drank an entire barrel of cider in one go, but she hadn’t had any cider in weeks except for that wonderful dream she’d been having before this all started.

“You okay little sis?” Despite being a few years older than her, Shining Armor seemed to have handled the night of roughing it considerably better than she had. A fact that left her slightly jealous of him.

“Yeah,” she pushed herself to her hooves. “A long distance teleport spell for three with no preparation going into it will kind of take it out of you.”

That sounded plausible enough, and as she thought it through it did strike her as rather likely. Certainly it was a better answer than admitting that her brother was used to spending time away from civilization as a guard while she’d lived the softest of soft lives as Celestia’s apprentice.

“You definitely got the long distance part down.” Shining Armor took in the dry landscape around them. “Where exactly in Equestria are we?”

“At the very edge of Equestria. Welcome to Appleloosa big brother. It’s a small earth pony town on the frontier. My friends and I helped Applejack deliver an apple tree to some of her relatives out here, and let me tell you Canterlot is a very long way from here. Hopefully that means Cadance or whatever she’s become is a very long way from here. And if we can find them we might be able to get some help from Applejack’s family like food, water, and maybe some information.”

“Wait,” Spike waved his claws to get her attention, “you mean angry buffalo tribe Appleloosa?”

“I’ve talked to Applejack since we came back.” Twilight said. “And since they came to an agreement things have been quite peaceful between the settlers and the buffalo. Besides, I’m not planning on putting down roots here. All we need is something to keep us going for awhile and a clue to put us on the right track. And speaking of the right track, I wonder if we’re on the wrong track completely Shining Armor?”

“What do you mean?” Her brother looked quite confused.

“Well, we’ve been talking about Cadance all this time, but when you said she’d been acting like Chrysalis it got me thinking that maybe we are dealing with Chrysalis and the changelings again. I mean we know she can make ponies act pretty infatuated with her when she’s draining their love, and if she drained enough love from enough ponies she could definitely be a match for the princesses. Plus she’s got a pretty good reason to want to try to take over Equestria again.”

“I thought about all that last night.” Shining Armor looked rather uncomfortable discussing the topic. “When I escaped from Canterlot, right before I got out, Cadance caught up with me and I tried using that spell you used at the wedding to blast a changeling’s disguise off of them. Nothing, Cadance just laughed at me. I don’t know if it’s just that I’m not nearly as good at that spell as you are, and that Chrysalis is probably much better than your average Changeling at holding a disguise, or if that means it really is Cadance and she somehow turned evil without anyone noticing. I really, really hope that I’m just lousy with that spell.”

“Never thought I’d see the day where you wanted to be bad at something.” Twilight laughed a humorless laugh. “But I know what you mean. Cadance was always the nicest, most caring pony around. I can’t imagine what would make her do something like this.”

“Hey, I just thought of something.” Spike sounded as if he was being deliberately cheery in contrast to the two morose ponies around him. “Since the sun came up that means that Celestia and Luna have to be fine, and if they’re okay then I can send letters to them, so why don’t we just send them a letter asking them where they are, Twilight can teleport us there, and we’ll have their help to solve all this!”

Both Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor frantically shook their heads. “It’s a good idea but it won’t work.” Twilight spoke first. “If Cadance, or Chrysalis, or whoever she is, has taken Celestia and Luna’s place it wouldn’t be hard for her to make the letters go to her. And Celestia once told me that it wasn’t particularly hard to figure out where I was when I sent the letter. Something about being able to ride the magic connecting both points back to where it started. The point is, we might get Celestia or Luna, but if Cadance has been planning this, and I think she has, then we’d be far more likely to send a letter to Celestia and get Cadance coming down on us with half the royal guard following her.”

“Oh,” Spike went in a moment from joy at his idea to the depths of despair only utter failure can bring. “Well just forget I said anything then.”

“Hey,” Twilight grabbed him before he could turn and start moping, “just because you had an idea that didn’t work doesn’t mean it was a bad idea. And we’re all running blind about what to do here. We need all the ideas we can get if we’re going to get out of all this. Who knows, once we find Celestia and Luna a letter to Cadance might be just the thing we need to lure her into a trap.”

As the young were wont to do Spike went straight back to being as bright as the sun upon hearing that everything was going to be all right. Twilight wished she could make herself believe everything would be okay so easily. Even if they did find the princesses it was all but certain that Cadance would know almost as soon as it happened, and she’d know that any easily traceable letter that came her way was a trap. But Spike was happy again, and that was what counted. She had her hooves full, more than full actually, keeping her brother together. He might have looked fine to anyone else, but Twilight could easily see the doubt, fear, and pain gnawing away at Shining Armor from the inside.

“Come on you two.” A simple spell organized and lifted their meager belongings. “It’s a long walk to Appleloosa, and I want to have time to talk to some ponies and find out what we can before it gets dark out.”

Twilight had set them this far outside Appleloosa mostly out of the fear that she might teleport them into someone with lethal results for the poor innocent pony. She’d be lying if she said that fear of Cadance or somepony under her control waiting for them as they came out of the teleport wasn’t important in putting them in such a remote corner of Equestria. Even so, after a few hours of walking under the relentless sun Twilight was beginning to regret not putting them closer to civilization. Shining Armor had only filled a pair of canteens before fleeing Ponyville, and ground water was rare indeed in the mild west.

A quick glance around confirmed her worst fears. Both Shining Armor and Spike were taking the long walk through such trying conditions far better than her. As a royal guard her brother was in far better shape than her, and even Spike was better prepared between thick dragon scales and helping Rarity mine for gems so often. Twilight made a mental note to herself to start exercising when this was all over. With every step she took further and further into the depths of her own personal misery Twilight Sparkle became less and less charitably inclined towards her travelling companions.

“You doing okay back there Twiley?” Her brother shouted back from where he and that traitor of a dragon of hers were making this look annoyingly easy.

“Yes!” She did her best, which wasn’t very good, to sound as normal as possible. “Just keep walking; we’ve still got a long ways to go.”

“Want to take a break?” She could hear the smirk from that horrible pony who just happened to be her brother.

Twilight didn’t even bother answering the question. Instead she slumped to the ground right where she was and opened her canteen.

“Don’t drink too much.” Her brother’s shadow blocking the sun from her gained him enough good will that she would at least admit to being related to him again. “We’ve got to make the water last to Appleloosa, and you don’t want to get sick.”

Twilight grumbled several uncomplimentary things that only made that other pony chuckle and remark he’d heard far worse in the guards. She did however close her canteen and put it back in her saddlebag. Shining Armor had packed light back in Ponyville so her bags only felt like they were full of bricks instead of lead as she got back to her hooves. By that point she would have needed to be under threat of pain to admit being associated with either Spike or Shining Armor.

“Hey Twilight, you want me to carry your bags for a little while?” Oh sure, now her so-called assistant decided to assist her. Rather than choosing to help her when it might have done her some good towards not feeling utterly miserable out in this utterly forsaken corner of Equestria.

As uncharitably disposed towards the dragon travelling with her as she may have been at the moment Twilight wasted no time in transferring those accursed weights from her back to his. Pony saddlebags weren’t particularly designed to be used by dragons, whether adult or baby, and it was an awkward business settling everything. But Spike had long practice carrying such things for Twilight and in short order they were moving again towards Appleloosa.

Without her saddlebags the going was a bit easier, and Spike carrying them meant he shared enough in her misery that she might admit to knowing him, might. Even with her improved condition the sun mercilessly beat down on them as it slid towards and past noon. With the dry featureless land stretching as far around them as they could see the sun was both the only way to tell time actually passed as well as their only way to navigate.

“One hoof in front of the other Twilight, just keep putting one hoof in front of the other.” Twilight wasn’t sure when she started muttering the mantra over and over again, but it kept her moving towards Appleloosa. Next time she had to do a long distance teleport she was putting herself no more than an hour outside the nearest town, and in a place with shade.

At last, just as afternoon was heading towards evening Shining Armor stuck a hoof up and pointed to a blotch on the horizon. Their canteens were nearly empty, and Twilight was ready to roll over and let someone else save Equestria this time around.

“Oh thank goodness!” Twilight Sparkle suddenly felt much more charitably disposed towards the world. “I can see Braeburn’s orchard from here. We can rest for a bit in the shade there and then head into Appleloosa and start asking around.”

“Hey Twilight,” the unicorn in question heard a grunt behind her, “you wanna take these back now?” She turned to see Spike dragging her saddlebags, clearly a bit the worse for wear.

“Sure,” Twilight chuckled nervously. She had conveniently forgotten that she’d dumped her saddlebags on Spike back in the desert.

Her saddlebags were as heavy as ever, but with the journey almost over she hardly noticed the extra weight as they made their way towards the wondrous shade the apple trees would provide. All three of them made the last leg of their journey with more energy in their step, and before long they were sheltered under a particularly large apple tree.

“Thanks Applejack.” Twilight muttered, fairly sure this was the tree they’d brought to Appleloosa.

“What was that?” Her brother, she was ready to admit that again, sounded like he was ready to fall asleep right there. Come to think of it, so was Twilight after spending her day trekking through the baking desert.

“Nothing,” she replied, “just remembering something. Now let’s get going before we fall asleep here and lose another day.”

They all struggled to their feet and hooves clearly wanting nothing more than to lay right back down and rest. The first step back into the harsh light of the sun was among the more difficult things Twilight Sparkle had done in her life, but once she had momentum on her side it was a simple task of moving down the well maintained road into town.

“I don’t want to drag this up.” Twilight spoke as they walked. “But before we get to town I’d like to know if anything happened to Cadance before she went all… well… evil. I mean if she went off on her own for awhile it would definitely be an opportunity for Chrysalis to have taken her and come back in her place.”

Her brother looked away in obvious thought for some time before answering. “When we got back from the Crystal Empire everything was great. We’d defeated Sombra, saved the crystal ponies, and we’d done it together. Once we got back to Canterlot for awhile though and settled into married life without a crisis going on though she started acting a bit weird. It wasn’t anything like now, but she wasn’t talking to me much, and when she did it was pretty obvious there was something she didn’t want to talk about. I tried to get her to open up about it, but she always evaded the topic or came up with some little thing that she totally overplayed. A few weeks later she started acting normally again so I figured that whatever it was she’d gotten over it. Things were fine after that, we were happy together, and Celestia was talking about sending us back up to the Crystal Empire to run things. Then Cadance just snapped, and you know what happened after that.”

“And you’re sure she didn’t disappear anywhere when she was acting weird the first time?”

“I didn’t see her every minute of every day, and she did say that when Chrysalis abducted her it was a pretty quick thing. But I just don’t know what happened to her Twilight.”

“Okay, okay.” Twilight cut her brother off before he could work himself up. “Let’s see if we can find anything here before we go jumping to any conclusions.”

Silently, the trio made their way into Appleloosa. The town had grown somewhat since Twilight had last been there, but it was still more than rustic enough to make Ponyville seem as urban as Canterlot by comparison. She did however note that the lack of a threat from the nearby buffalo made the atmosphere of the town much more pleasant.

They paused at an intersection so Twilight could quickly get her bearings. “Alright, let’s go find Sheriff Silverstar. I think you’ll like him Shining Armor, he’s a straight laced fellow like you. Once we’ve found out what we can, hopefully something useful, we’ll go find Braeburn and see what we can do about a decent night’s sleep before we head out to find the princesses.”

“Twilight, if this Silverstar can help us find Celestia and Luna, I don’t particularly care if he’s broken every law in Equestria.”

Twilight laughed. “When it turns out Silverstar ran away from some shady past back in Manehatten or somewhere like that I’m going to hold you to what you just said.”

Her brother responded with a scowl, but rather than one of anger at her it was one that said he was disappointed with himself for walking into such an obvious rejoinder. With a bit of effort Twilight fought down the smirk that wanted to take its place on her face and they continued in silence through Appleloosa.

“Hey Twilight,” Spike was busy taking in the few sights of Appleloosa, “do you think we can go visit the buffalo tribe while we’re out here. Once you got to know them they were a lot of fun.”

“I doubt it.” Twilight said, and then immediately regretted it as Spike looked rather crestfallen. “But if we still have time after talking to Sheriff Silverstar, and they’re close enough, we’ll see if we can head out there for a little while.”

Being such a small town Appleloosa was quite easy to get around in. Twilight had briefly worried that Spike might attract the attention of the locals, but she supposed that after Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the Changeling invasion of Canterlot a well behaved baby dragon wasn’t worth noting unless he started burning things down.

They were heading down the last street to the sheriff’s office when Twilight heard her name called from what could generously be called an alley between two buildings.

More curious than anything she stepped over to the small space and looked in. What she saw was quite a surprise. “Braeburn! What in Equestria are you doing in an alley?”

“In here, quick!” It was a tight squeeze to fit three ponies and a baby dragon into the small alley, and Twilight thought they were much more conspicuous like this, but at Braeburn’s insistence they somehow all crammed themselves in. “Am I glad to see you around here Twilight Sparkle. Things have been mighty strange around here the last little while, and a pony like you sure is a welcome sight.”

“Strange around here?” Twilight said more to the wall in front of her since turning her head would have been quite a feat in the cramped quarters. “The rest of Equestria has gone crazy. That’s why we came here. We were hoping to figure out what’s going on and how we can deal with it. We were going to go see if Sheriff Silverstar has heard anything.”

“Sheriff Silverstar is what’s weird around here.” Twilight was only able to see Braeburn’s face out of the corner of her eye.

“Wait,” Shining Armor had been silent up till now. “I thought you said that this Sheriff Silverstar guy was really straight laced.”

“He was,” Braeburn answered while Twilight was still fumbling her thoughts, “and I guess he still is. Look, this isn’t the place to have this conversation. Let’s go back to my place and we can talk.”

Getting the four of them out of the alley was just as complicated as getting them into the alley had been. And, Twilight thought rather smugly, as they made their way back out of Appleloosa nopony seemed to pay them any mind.

“Okay, so what’s going on here?” Twilight said as the last few houses of Appleloosa passed them by and the road ahead led only to Braeburn’s ranch.

“Like I said, things are weird here in Appleloosa.” Braeburn was setting a remarkably fast pace out of town. “Sheriff Silverstar has been… well, off. I can’t put my hoof on it exactly, but he isn’t himself. It isn’t like he’s pushing down little old mares in the street or anything, but he’s not the same. And it isn’t just getting used to being out on the frontier like this. The weirdest thing is that it just happened. One day he was his normal old self, and the next day he wasn’t. I mean there was that… well; it should wait till we’re at the ranch.”

“That sounds like it could be Chrysalis.” Twilight thought out loud. “Until she was trying to drain him of all his love at once she left Shining Armor pretty normal.”

“What’s she doing all the way out here though?” Shining Armor’s voice dripped with the hope that they’d found the cause of his woes. “I’m sure the ponies out here are good and caring, but there aren’t enough of them for her to drain a decent meals love from.”

“I don’t know anything about that.” Braeburn said. “But there’s someone at the ranch you’re gonna want to talk to.”

Twilight inquired several times who might be at the ranch she would want to talk to, but each and every time Braeburn evaded the question. Finally she simply gave up and trotted along in the increasing darkness. The sun had slipped behind the horizon by the time Braeburn’s ranch came into view. The main house was considerably smaller than Sweet Apple Acres. Though Twilight figured that made sense since it was made to house one, and was considerably newer than the Apple family’s home back in Ponyville.

“Look,” Braeburn pointed to the house, “she remembered to leave a light on. She’s new to this so I was worried she’d forget.”

Still wondering who this ‘she’ was, Twilight walked up the path to the house itself. Again it wasn’t so well maintained as Sweet Apple Acres, but with only one pony to do the upkeep she supposed it was to be expected.

“Little Strongeheart!” That answered Twilight’s question. “I’m back, and I’ve brought help!”

The door opened, and while Twilight couldn’t see her face with the light behind it the silhouette was definitely that of a buffalo.

“Twilight Sparkle!” Little Stronheart raced out of the house to the ponies approaching her. “I’m so glad to see you. Braeburn has told you what happened to the sheriff?” At Twilight’s nod she went on. “The same has happened to my father I’m afraid. He appears himself, but underneath is something that is not him. He is so respected among the others that they refuse to see it, and so I fled here until I could find a way to make them see.”

“Did they both start acting like this at the same time?” Twilight asked both Braeburn and Little Strongheart.

“She’s the one who saw it.” Braeburn pointed towards the buffalo.

“A few nights ago a figure in a black cloak appeared in our camp. I would swear it was out of nowhere, but it was dark out so I cannot be sure. I know only that it had the shape of a pony, and from the way its cloak stuck out it had a horn.”

“Did you see anything that might make you think it had wings?” Shining Armor interrupted.

“I’m sorry,” Little Strongheart shook her head, “but if the creature had wings it gave no sign. It went into a tepee with my father, and since then he has not been himself. The figure walked off into the dark, and when I went to follow the tracks simply stopped with no sign of where it might have gone. I do not know if this means it has wings and flew off. When I returned and saw how strange my father was I went into Appleloosa to ask the sheriff to help me. I arrived just in time to see the same figure leaving the sheriff’s office. It disappeared down a small street, and again its trail simply vanished.”

“Chrysalis can fly.” Shining Armor said to Twilight.

“And teleport.” Twilight agreed. The Changeling Queen certainly had a vendetta against Equestria, and the means to pull it off like this. The only question remaining was what was she doing out here on the frontier, and where were Celestia, Luna, and Cadance.

“There was one other thing.” Little Strongheart broke into the conversation. “Last night I returned to the camp to see if my father had returned to himself. I saw several ponies in gold armor, Braeburn says they are your leader’s guards, carrying a large bundle. They left it with my father and departed. I left immediately and did not see more. I am sorry.”

“That’s it!” Twilight exclaimed. “I think I know what Chrysalis is doing out here.”

“What?” Her brother’s voice nearly quivered with eagerness.

“If she did replace Cadance again and absorb enough love from ponies to beat the princesses then she’d only have to worry about the Elements of Harmony and you finding the real Cadance and using the power of your love to beat her again. She must have sent Changelings disguised as guards to Ponyville to capture me and my friends. We wouldn’t be much of a threat to her in cocoons having our love drained.”

“But what’s she doing out here?” Her brother was clearly at the end of his rope.

“What better place to hide a captive princess?” Twilight answered. “If we hadn’t come here for our own reasons I would have never thought to look for them here, much less with the buffalo tribe. She could have had us running all over Equestria while she drained it of love, made her swarm unstoppable, and we never would have thought to look all the way out here.”

“We’ve got to save her.” Shining Armor sounded ready to storm the buffalo camp by himself right then. “Whether it’s Cadance, Luna, or Celestia. “Any one of them would be a huge help against Chrysalis.”

“We will,” Twilight immediately started trying to bring him back to his senses, “but we aren’t going to go to war against a completely innocent buffalo tribe to do it, and not tonight, we’re so exhausted we can barely stand. Braeburn, Little Strongheart, we need to get what’s in that bundle. And we need to do it preferably without anyone knowing we were ever there. Think you can help us?”

“Shoot,” Braeburn said, “if it’s for the Princesses, just tell me when and where.”

“Will this help restore my father to himself?”

“Not right away, and not in and of itself.” Twilight admitted. “But it will help us find and beat the one who made him like he is now.”

“Then I will do whatever I can.”

Comments

[Razzy]

Like it so far, though I think it all being caused by Chryssie would be too convenient.

Cya
Raziel-chan

[Estella Star]

A quick glance around confirmed her worst fears. Both Shining Armor and Spike were taking the long walk through such trying conditions far better than her. As a royal guard her brother was in far better shape than her, and even Spike was better prepared between thick dragon scales and helping Rarity mine for gems so often. Twilight made a mental note to herself to start exercising when this was all over. With every step she took further and further into the depths of her own personal misery Twilight Sparkle became less and less charitably inclined towards her travelling companions.

I think you meant tiring here

Great chapter though