Chapter 1: Parasomnia

The Mysterious Vanishing Of The Celesti-O's

by Chaodiurn

Luna's shift did end hours ago and Twilight laid still in her warm, comforting bed. It was one of this lovely week-end days where she was able to lay in the bed till early noon without being harmed for laziness. Not that a saver-of-the-world-twice had to care for being lazy a day or two, but it just wasn't Twilight's nature to be a none-productive pony.
Spike however wasn't granted that pleasure. He was up as early as always, cleaning the mess Twilight had made while studying last night. It wasn't bigger than usual, but still big enough for the little baby dragon.
From time to time, when he had to put a book into the upper bookshelves and were able to get a look at his sleeping boss, he was temped to get some more sleep for himself. One more hour or two wouldn't be missed after all, and Twilight didn't seem to get up very soon. But no, the little dragon didn't want to disappoint Twilight. She loves it so much when the library is tidy and clean and all. So she shall have it that way.

Suddenly, a loud growl filled the domestic halls.
Spike put the last book in his hands into the bookshelf and went down the ladder. He looked around, several books were still lying silently around, nothing moved that he didn't want to. Not even Owlowiscious who was sleeping at his perch.

The growl repeated.

Spike looked down his little body.

Growl

Realization hit the little dragon's mind. He was the silence-killing noisemaker. Very well, then.
He turned around, facing the kitchen. Only because he didn't want to disappoint Twilight it didn't mean that he had to work hungry.

As he entered the kitchen, a little smile crossed his expression. Everything where nice and clean, Owlowiscious must have done a good job last night. That owl wasn't the best dish-cleaner with his wings after all and it was up to him, to clean up what this owl didn't manage to do during the night.

He made his way to the fridge, searching for something worth to eat. A library wasn't known for good food and so wasn't their fridge. Milk, some soda, cheese and some flowers. He did never understand why Twilight was keeping flowers in the fridge. She said it would save the aromas and make them taste even better, but that sounded just ridiculous to him. He never had to keep his gems cold, and they never lost any taste. But that was perhaps one of the entities of ponies he had to accept. He took out the milk and closed the fridge, dooming the flowers into their dark, cold prison again. Thanks to Daisy Jo and her herd Ponyville always got awesome, fresh milk. Mixing this white liquid with a bunch of Celesti-O's was one of the rare delicacies even a dragon was able to enjoy in this paper-yard.

Spike took out a bowl and a glass, making ready for this yummy start into the day.
Then, he took a chair to gain access to the cupboards where the cereals were located with several other stuff, which needed to be stored in a similar way.

Another growl filled the room.

Come to me, breakfast.

Spike opened up the cupboard which usual contained all the cereals and Owlowiscious' food.
Pushing some boxes out of his way, he got deeper and deeper inside. But no matter how many boxes he pushed away, he didn't found the wanted cereals.
Soon he began to drag the unwanted boxes out, down to the ground. Maybe he just overlooked them with all this trash inside.

Clonk. Clonk. Crush. Clonk.

Box by box felt to the ground, leaving a bit more space in the cupboard. But it was no use. With every fallen box the fatal truth came closer to his mind: The Celesti-O's were gone. Finito.

“Nooooooooo!”

He quickly took a claw at his mouth as the sleeping mare upstairs came to his mind.
Spike began to put the other cereals back to they places. While putting them back he overflew the covers, searching for something to replace the void in his breakfast-bowl. But not one of them was worth the good milk that already filled in his bowl. Disappointed, he turned to his bowl to face a full-liquid, white breakfast.
However, he didn't came that far. A sleepy pony with a pale, not too light but neither too dark grayish mulberry coat stood in the door, rubbing her forehead.

“Eww, mornin' Twi”

“Good morning, Spike. Why are you crying like a madhead?”

He waved his hands. “I was cr- wait, what is a madhead?”

Twilight stepped in, looking at the bowl and the glass, both only filled with milk.

“Never mind. Why were you crying? Saw a zombie again?”

“Z-z-z-zombies?!”

“Spike!”

“Sorry..I was crying because the Celesti-O's are missing. I searched in every corner, but nothing.”

“Oh, don't be silly Spike. They can't be missing. You know that I always have a reserve for that course.” She walked to the little cupboard that hold all the cereal stuff.

“It's just- ahhh!” She opened the cupboard, not to see the expected boxes but a wild Pinkie Pie jumping into her face. She landed dumbfounded on her flank, wearing an expression between terror and amazement.

“Twilight! You're finally awake! I need your help, fast, my Celesti-O's are missing which I wanted to eat at breakfast today as I do every day but I wasn't able to eat them because they are gone! Can I borrow some of yours please?” The pink pony seemed to be pretty excited about it, even for her standards.

Twilight's mind had its problems to manage the early amount of input and recaptured what was just thrown at her ears rather slowly. “Of, of course, Pinkie.”

“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! Where are they?”

Twilight finally managed to get back to her hooves again. “Probably somewhere between your lung and your liver. Could you please come out of my cupboard?”

“Oh, eh, right.” The pink Pony plopped out of the cupboard, unfolded her four legs and landed without a sound at the ground. To Twilight's confusion, the internals of the cupboard weren't damaged in any sort by the sudden visitor.

The Unicorn snorted and moved forward to fight through the cupboard.

“Nope, nope, nope. Nope?”

“Nope. As I said.” Spike confirmed.

“But that's just not possible, Spike. At the end of this cupboard were a reserve box of Celesti-O's since we came here. There's no logical explanation how they could have got away from there.”

“Unless someone stole them!” He said.

“Who should steal my reserve-Celesti-O's? That's pointless.”

“Maybe someone really really really needed them and searched in the next house for them! Do you thing it was a cereal-zombie?” Pinkie said, supporting the theory of Twilight's number one assistant.

“ZOMBIE?!”

Twilight pulled her head out of the cupboard to face the hyper-active pony and Spike. “There are no zombies! And even if they would exist, they would rather not eat Celesti-O's!”

“Not rather but possible?” Terror grew in Spike's expression as he slowly made his way back to the door. “I have to prepare!” He screamed as he left the two meres alone in the kitchen.

“Prepare for what?” Twilight screamed after him fruitless.

“We must contact Mare Do Well! I'm sure that she will find the thieve and get us our Celesti-O's back!”

“Pinkie,” Twilight tried to say as calm as possible, “we are Mare Do Well. Remember?”

“Oh, well. Then we have to do it!” The pink pony said, a beaming smile on her face.

“But, how are we supposed to find a thieve who probably doesn't even exist?” Deep down in her subconsciousness Twilight cursed Lauren for the lack of coffee in Equestria.

“Maybe we shall lure him with some more Celesti-O's! Then we can catch him in action!”

“And how are we supposed to lure him with stuff that we don't have anymore since it was stolen by the imaginary thieve we are hunting?” Twilight slowly realized that this day won't become the planned day at the SPA.

“Well, duh! We just go around and ask for donations! I'm sure Rarity or Rainbow do have some, too!”

“Fine,” Twilight said as she walked pass the pink pony, straight to the fridge, “just let me get something to eat first.”

Suddenly, a loud crack filled the halls of her library.

“In the meanwhile, could you please look after Spike? I really have no idea what he meant by 'preparation' but it doesn't sound good at all.”

“Okey dokey lokey!” Pinkie Pie bounced happily out of the kitchen, right in the direction where the crack came from.

The mare with the not too light but neither too dark grayish mulberry coat opened the fridge and searched for a acceptable breakfast. With still tired eyes she observed her food. Nothing of it was what she wanted now, but at least there was something to eat. And so she stood there. Nearly a whole minute past until she finally took some cooled flowers out and began to chew on them.

Sometimes, flowers just don't get the job done.

~-~-~

Twilight was on the way to the exit of her home to meet her pink friend as Spike opened the entrance-door, missing Twilight's head only by several inches. However, Twilight was rather confused as she didn't met her little, purple assistant but some larger planks which got carried inside her library by her little dragon.

“Spike, what do you need the planks for?” She asked.

The little dragon didn't give answer instantly. As he finally entered the library, carrying those planks, Twilight was able so see why. His mouth was filled with several nails of different lengths.

“SPIKE?!”

He trotted to a little desk and laid down the planks to get the nails out of his mouth.

“Preparation, Twilight, as I said,” he finally answered.

“Preparation for what?” Twilight asked while she looked outside for any signs of his further plans or Pinkie Pie.

“No time to explain, time is running out! Ah, and Pinkie is waiting for you at Sugarcube's. She had to get back for some sort of business with the Cakes or so.”

“Aha, thanks. I think I shall go and visit her then. And please, while I'm away, don't try to hurt yourself doing..whatever you are.”

The little dragon waved a claw, “nah, won't do. Have fun.”

Twilight rose a last eyebrow at him, but then she turned to the door, waving a hoof, “Won't take too long I hope, see you!”

As the door shut closed, Spike stood alone in the big library.

“Let's do this..”

–

Twilight stood on the door sill to her home. It was a nice, warm day in the middle of summer and the sun was still on its way to get atop of the mountains, which decorated the horizon in the north.
As she wanted to do her first steps, a soft breeze carried fresh air into her face.
It was one of the greatest benefits of living in a tree. Always fresh and clean air, right before the own doors.
Feeling the fresh breeze, the peaceful scenario suddenly filled her head. The fresh wind, the cheeping of the birds who nested in her tree every year, the bees summing around their hive and even the road which laid silently before her, inviting for a peaceful walk through Ponyville.
Twilight closed her eyes. This morning was far to exciting for a free weekend day. Why can't people just wait with being randomly abandoned until a day where she had to do exciting stuff anyways?
Oh, she could nearly feel the smell of the oils and perfumes, carried from the light breeze coming from the direction of the SPA. Lotus Blossom would easily get this day back into order and harmony.
Twilight decided to enjoy the first moment of peace she had this day just a little bit longer.
Who knew it could be such a bad idea to study two more hours than usual?

Several minutes past and the bookish unicorn didn't seem to do a single movement too soon.
At least not until a certain sound started to fill her ears.

She knew that sound too well. It was that sound, which gets into foreground whenever a pony wanted to enter a deeper state of concentration – or simply tried to rest, as in this case. It was a sound, so terrifying that its causer became the symbol of the highest lord of Tartarus itself. Many ponies turned into murderers under the pressure of this sound, their wills not strong enough to keep it out of consciousness.
Her ears began to twitch, as the sound became louder, moving closer to her body. It had to came from somewhere in her front. Usually, this would grand her the possibility to open her eyes and to locate the source of it. But no, this wasn't a usual case. She knew that it would be useless. This sound had to stop by itself, and if it did so, then she would be able to fight it. Nothing was invincible. The only thing she had to do for this was waiting. Silent, motionless waiting. And so she did.

It was almost ridiculous how good she knew this. It moved closer, only to get some distance again for another chance of returning. But as good as she knew it, she still had to lay down all her concentration into the control of her ears, to make them stop twitching and to give a chance of pausing to the sound itself.

Then, as she suppressed the urge for barely a half minute, the sound came closer as it done before, moving around her ear, seemingly testing her nerves to the deepest core. Not a single movement was given that day. So it came, that the sound turned away again, but only enough inches to reach a point of interest where it was able to take a little break from terrifying little ponies all day long.

Now was the time to strike back. Twilight opened finally her eyes, fixing both on a spot not too far away from them. A fat, evil fly was sitting on her nose.
The unicorn wasn't able to resist a reflex of nose-twitching. Luckily, it didn't sent her chances to Tartarus. The only response of the black insect were a step forward. A little step for a fly maybe, but a big step for Twilight. This one step was enough to give Twilight the chance to let the creature meet its fate. With a not-so-elegant blast of suddenly inhaled air, the fly was thrown off her nose, seemingly disappearing in a void between her and the road.

There you go, little terrorist.

It was a shame that it wasn't possible to erase the existence of those little creatures in towns. Celestia always told her to love every creature, but those ones made it really hard for her.
Alas, at least she was fully awake now. Twilight blink-blinked her eyes awake and threw a glance down the empty road. She shouldn't let Pinkie wait any longer.
She left her lovely house-tree behind and entered the walk down the road.
There weren't many ponies out today, so the road was nearly empty. She watched the simple-built houses of the ville pass her on both sides, here and there a pony behind closed windows. At least some ponies had a peaceful morning.

–

It didn't took too long to get the Sugarcube Corner into view range. And with that, the true reason for the empty streets was revealed to Twilight. A long line of ponies stood in front of the candy-selling house. Twilight rose a eyebrow. So that's why Pinkie needed to go.

“Could you be a dear and work faster, please? I don't have all day.”

“Calm down, I'm sure they're as fast as they can.”

“Well, in that case they should learn to work even faster.”

Very impatient waiting ponies.

As Twilight came closer, she tried to work out a reason for this.

She asked a random stallion that stood around, “hey, what's going on here?”

“Bites me,” the pony answered, “I'm waiting here now since forever!”

The pale mare rose an eyebrow, “well, I can see that. Why are you waiting?”

“I'm trying to get some breakfast, isn't it obvious? I ran out of supplies just today.”

“Oh, you too?” What a twist of faith.

“As I said. Hey, if you want something to eat too, you'll have to get back to the end of the line.” Suddenly, any sign of amusement left the stallions expression. He seemed to enjoy the new company to this moment.

Twilight shook her head in a slightly disbelieve, “if you shall need some satisfaction, I am the one to help you out. In fact, I'm here to fix this. I think.”

As fast as it fell, the expression of the stallion raised again.

“Satisfaction you say?”

“Well, yes.”

A small smile grew in the face of the stallion as he loosed the eye-contact to Twilight. His eyes wandered down her face, her neck and along her still rather unfilled stomach.

“I could indeed need some satisfaction, now that you are saying it.”

Twilight backed up only a bit. She wasn't sure what to think about this. “And what would that be?”

His eyes wandered slowly ahead and reached finally her flank, where they found rest again. As he let out a silent moan, an urge came to being in Twilight's chest. It was a tiny one, but she knew that feeling somehow.

“What was your name again?” The stallion asked.

“Ehr, Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.”

“Ah, Twilight! I knew that I know this cutie mark! You are the local librarian, right?”

Twilight nodded awkwardly. “That's correct. Why?”

“You said that you are here for my satisfaction, right? I would love to have one of those books you are holding in your library. The boredom is killing me!”

And suddenly, a certain mare gave a rather loud sigh into the air while moving to a certain candy-selling house.

“Is that a yes?”

–

Twilight passed several other stallions and meres who waited for getting some space in Sugarcube Corner. That was one of the two necessary points for ordering something, after all. The second point was to reach the bar – a rather simple task in average days. However, this wasn't an average day and the task wasn't easy. Twilight realized this just in the moment where she tried to pass the entrance-door. The whole selling-room were full with ponies! Strong and tall stallions, beautiful and slim mares, workers, teachers, aristocrats. The mare gasped as she saw in only one little look almost every kind of ponies one could find here in Ponyville. How should she get through that mess?

She could use the royal Canterlot voice to get the attention of all the ponies. Well, she could do that if she was an Alicorn. Spike mentioned here and there how awesome and helpful it would be, if the elements could turn their bearers into such mighty creatures. Twilight always tuned that idea down, as soon as Spike raised it. She told him, that it wouldn't be right. Only royals themselves should be granted with such a power. But now, facing this situation, she had to admit that Spike had a point there. It actually would be helpful sometimes. But no, that's just ridiculous. Every problem that was cased by a mortal pony could also be fixed by one of them. But how?

Twilight made a step forward. Just standing there wouldn't help anyone, anyways. With a rather determined expression, the librarian mare caught up with the impatient mass, and engaged. She placed her hoof at the flank of a stallion in front of her and pushed against it. She inhaled deeply, to fill her lounges with the usually odorless gas that surrounded her in every step, and gave her desire out for knowledge as loud as she could.

“Let me pass!”

Hooves trampled on wooden floor and sweaty shoulders made contact, as the unicorn tried to pass the wall of ponies. She pushed her body straight between the two chosen ones, almost wearing a half expectation to fulfill her will in her mind. She pressed and pressed, but there were simply no space for her.
As the stallion to her left noticed that it became rather hard to breath, he made up his mind to fix this. The stallion pranced like a bronco, and to the disapproval of his environment, the pressure was instantly released from his chest. Ah, air.
As a side-effect of which he never should get knowledge of, a Unicorn got a very close look to the battered roof. It was made of beech which was varnished in a dark tone of green. Usually it is used because the wood is hard and though. However, Twilight preferred softer lumbers from time to time.

It didn't took long until her efforts of becoming a friend of a very likeable plank got shattered. Her rushing had seemingly inspirited other ponies to take action, too. Heavy hooves came closer in all directions, and not a single one seemed to even recognize the downed mare.
Not in the mood to get trampled down today, the downed mare raised up from the hard ground with a crack of her neck. Wasn't there another mare-do-well for such things?

After she got back on her legs and recollected the last parts of her consciousness, a look around her was the next step she planned; her action didn't get her any closer to the bar. In fact, it did cause even more ponies to fill the not-so-big selling-room of Sugarcube's. Time for plan b.

Twilight turned around and fought her way to a corner that wasn't embattled by costumers. To her relief, getting backwards wasn't a big deal. Of course not. Everypony that was getting back meant one pony less wait-time. Twilight reached the corner in what felt like instant-arrival and she wasn't up to waste even more time with idling. She got a short look over the mass as good as it were possible for her, to make out the direction in which the bar were located. Then, she lowered her head and tried to focus as hard as she could on remembering the right steps for her planned spell. She really didn't want to let this fail right now.
Not that she needed to. Being the personal protege of her highly immortal princess of the sun Celestia herself and bearer of the element of magic, it wasn't something that was out of her skill-range. Probably this spell wasn't even allowed to be difficult for her. Given to the second fact, Twilight maybe was one, if not the highest, of those who where responsible for the save of Equestria itself. Right after the royals, of course.

With a sparkling flash, Mrs. Sparkle disappeared from the corner and re-materialized in a less sparkling way behind the bar.

“Always wins!” She simply couldn't resist the urge to cheer herself up a bit.

“You cheated! That doesn't count!” Resonated from the other side of the bar.

“For Faust's sake, I'm here to help, not for shopping!”

“If that's really the case, then give me my ordering, now!”

For what felt like the thousandth time this day, Twilight moaned a really annoyed sigh.

“I'm pretty sure, that either Mrs. or Mr. Cake will process your order when it's time for it. Right Mrs. Cake?”

Twilight turned her head to the right in search of approval by the probably overworked bakerness. To her confusion, she was the only pony standing behind the bar in the moment.

“Well, I am sure that she will return soon.”

“She better does so. I'm standing here since a full hour now.”

Twilight felt her mandibula drop. Don't those ponies have anything in their fridges?

“So..do you want to borrow one of my mandibular third molar forceps or are you actually going to help me now?”

–

Deciding to better not take advantage of this offer, Twilight found herself searching for Pinkie in the backrooms of Sugarcube's only a few moments later. She seemed way too upset at this morning for playing hide and seek-games now.

“Pinkie! Where are you?” An unknown part of the Unicorn's mind knew better somehow.

There was no answer that wasn't expected, but for the sake of her nerves Faust sent a little box of candies to the ground behind a door at the farther end of the room. It wasn't loud, but still enough to catch her attention. And being the scientific mare she was, Faustism was something for ponies who were too lazy for research.
Twilight stepped forward without further thoughts, heading directly to the clearly not supernatural caused noise. And since this wasn't Canterlot-Castle, it took barely ten full steps to reach it.

She placed a hoof at the wooden door to push it open, but disappointment filled her mind as a tight click told her that it was locked.

“Pinkie, are you in there?”

“Twilight, is that you? I'm glad that you came,” a muted and yet shrieking voice answered her from the other side.

“Of course I did. Could you please open the door? What are you doing?”

Rambling was everything that came back as an answer. Pinkie was probably re-organizing the inventory as she had recommenced it her so many times before.
However, as it stopped and the pink mare answered, Twilight was caught off-guard by the sound of her voice, that seemed to dance somewhere between sobbing and giggling.

“D-Don't you know that it's impolite to ask more than one question in one sentence?”

She searched for an answer in her mind, but only came up with the simplest one could find,

“could you please open the door?”

She expected another rumbling noise, the sound of things being pushed out of Pinkie's way, but nothing like that happened. Only her light steps were chiming through the closed door, until the crackling sound of the rather simple lock told her that she was about to finally see her friend.
As the door granted her vision by falling open, Twilight's emotions made a big turn for the first time this day. Pinkie stood there, not being the happy and chaotic mare she was barely a hour ago. Her expression spoke of sorrow and fear and tears drew already their small and dark lines down the face.

“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted, “what happened?”

The party pony didn't seemed to be up for a greeting of any kind as she turned back into the room which was filled with nothing more than a few empty shelves at the walls and a chair that was standing in the middle of the room.

“Everything comes to an end, Twi.” Pinkie said, this time a more stable voice than before.

Twilight stepped in, coming a bit closer to her friend. This wasn't good. “What do you mean?”

“My life in Ponyville, Twilight! It's over!”

“What? Why? There's nothing that is going to end it, is it?” Dealing with other ponies never was something Twilight was good in. Dealing with an eccentric Pinkie, however, made that look rather easy.

“Didn't you see? The Celesti-O's! They are all gone Twilight. They are all gone!”

The Unicorn made another step forward, aiming for a hug or something that maybe could become in handy in that situation.

“So that’s really the reason why all those ponies are waiting outside. That’s not that bad, is it?”

Pinkie Pie shook her mind, “it is! All the ponies of this town are without their Celesti-O's. They all need another kind of food now!”

Twilight stopped in her tracks. “I'm pretty sure that the most of them will have something in their fridges. And besides, this will give a great boost to Sugarcube's, won't it? I'm sure all these new costumers will fill the cash box in no time!” Slowly, the hope that some motivating facts could get this job done raised in Twilight's chest.

“Only if there is somepony who cares about the costumers! Did you see the entrance-hall? It's a disaster! I tried to serve them all, but I can't! I'm too slow. I really, really tried my best, but there are too many of them!”

“What's with Mr. and Mrs. Cake? Shouldn't they do the main-work, anyways?”

“Usually, yes. But they went out, for vacation with they children. They gave the full responsibility of Sugarcube’s for this time to me and so I am the only one who runs this place by now! I through this would be fun but then the Celesti-O's vanished and then all these ponies entered and I wasn't able to serve them all and now I'm failing, because they all will go away because they don't get what they want and then Sugarcube's will earn no money and if that happens than the Cakes will be mad with me and they will throw me out and then I will have to go back to the rock farm again, Twilight! The rock farm!”

The bookish Unicorn stood before her friend with her mouth agape, horrified by the rush of words that passed her ears. She stood there for a briefly long time, her consciousness wrestled down by a stream of information. As the words passed faster and faster through her mind, the solution came closer to her, getting slowly into range of her consciousness. There was a solution.

“I guess I could help you,” she finally managed to say, “With my magic, we should be able to serve them all. Together, we won't fail!”

As good as it sounded to herself, the depressed party-pony only shook her head in denial, again.

“Even if we would be fast enough to serve all of them, Sugarcube isn't prepared for such a situation. There aren't enough goods around, and even if we would produce some more, it wouldn't suffice.”

It was in this moment, when Twilight's expression dropped, her head empty of any useful ideas. A state which she really, really disliked.

“And if we just serve as many as possible? I'm sure that they will understand that we wasn't able to serve everyone under this conditions.”

Another effort that was doomed to clash on the cold stone-walls of Pinkie's depression, as the response took the last bit of her hope away, “no, Twilight,” Pinkie answered dry, “everyone is getting everything he wants at Sugarcube's in record-time. That's the very basic principle of this place.”

Twilight sat down her flank on the hard floor. “So, what can we do then? There must be a way!”

Pinkie shook her head no, too hopeless for the Unicorn to watch.

“What if we return the Celesti-O's again, just as you said?”

For the first time, Pinkie looked up from her little chair. “How? We don't even know where they went.”

“But they have to come from somewhere, right? Pinkie, where does Sugarcube take them from?”

“We are getting them weekly from an solar-express. I don't know where they are produced, but we are receiving them directly from Canterlot Castle.”

“Fine then. I write to the princess that we are going to visit. I'm sure that the Cakes will be happy if the mare that had responsibility of they shop saved breakfast for a whole week!”

“Canterlot?”

Relief filled Twilight's mind as she saw this smile grow back into Pinkie's face.

“That sounds fun! Meet me at the train-station!”

And with that, a fluffy party-pony with a pink mane in an optic as it just has been extracted from a cotton-candy-machine jumped out of the nearly empty room, straight into the direction of the rear-exit.

Meanwhile, an certain Unicorn had to focus her entire will-power to deny herself from collapsing. Who showed that mare how to live?

Chapter 2: CMC – Special Agents!

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“I can't wait to get breakfast.”

“Me neither. I can't believe that we both ran out of supplies at the same time!”

“You know, Rarity disappointed me in this. She never failed to re-buy them in time. Doesn't she know that they are my favorite breakfast?”

“Yea, I’m sure she doesn't-”

“Hey, look! We're there!”

The light hoof steps of two fillies filled the empty streets of Ponyville as they charged to the breakfast-seller of their trust.

“Great! Let's just-”

“Wait! What are all those ponies are doing there?”

“Sweetie! Could you please let me finish just one sentence, too?”

“Eh, sorry. What were you saying?”

“Why is there a line of ponies standing before Sugarcube's?”

“That's what I just asked you, silly.”

“I know, but. Never mind, let's just get going, okay?”

For two fillies it had been a rather exiting start into another Saturday. Sweetie Belle was visiting her elder sibling in her boutique for the week-end as she had done it from time to time before. She really loved Rarity, and usually both of them enjoyed the time together, but this time lurked a shadow in the peaceful event. Sweetie Belle usually wasn't a filly that needed much for being happy. Only when it came to breakfast, especially Saturday-breakfasts, she wanted her Celesti-O's. In fact, she wanted them so badly that Rarity always bought a box of them before she arrived. So she did this time, too. At least she was clinging to have done it. She said that she must have lost them on her walk home or something, but Sweetie knew better. Rarity never lost something outside of her boutique.
Alas, it wasn't about to trust or not to trust her sister, this time only the result counted. Sweetie Belle was without her favorite cereals, and that was not accepted.
In reaction, she headed for the next place where she expected some of the fine cereals. She ran through half of Ponyville, to reach to estate of her dear friend Sweetie Belle, who was sitting at her breakfast as she was usually at this time. They had apples to share as they had always, and they were kind in offering since she was a close friend to Apple Bloom. But no, she wanted them.
Apple Bloom knew that Sweetie Belle's Saturdays always had to start with a cup of Celesti-O's, a glass of orange-juice and some cookies, so both of them went for a search in the rather big cellars.

But after a good thirty minutes in the dusty rooms, Sweetie Belle's hope laid shattered on the ground. They went back into daylight, up the stairs and out of the mansion. There they met Applejack, who was also searching something. Not something for breakfast, but Apple Bloom who had promised to help her get some apples down the trees right after breakfast. It was too late by now since the apples were collected in a barn right behind her already, but that wasn't the point.

Sweetie Belle wasn't in the mood to doom her friend for a problem that was only her thing. She stood for her friend, telling Applejack the story of the missed breakfast and her rush to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack, being the kind pony she was, quickly got over her heat after getting an explanation that didn't sound as a creation of young minds, only willed to get away from work. She knew Apple Bloom and her friends could get really creative when it came to that.

Seeing no point in denying help for honest fillies, Apple Jack told her that Sugarcube’s was selling them. She was surprised, however, how fast Sweetie Belle was able to run off the farm, after she had been told about a solution for her problem.
She shook her head and turned back to Apple Bloom, determined to get back to daily business again. To her disappointment, the only thing that came into view was brown dust.

“E-excuse me, sir, could you please tell me why all those ponies are waiting here?” Sweetie Belle asked a random pony that stood in line, pulling Apple Bloom’s consciousness back into reality.

“Huh?” The stallion turned around. He seemed very bored, and his flank was dirty, probably from sitting on the ground. He faced the fillies, not changing his expression much.

“Well, I think they are all waiting for getting served. Seriously, today it's like there's no servant around at all. I didn't even saw ponies coming outta there with cakes, yet.”

Suddenly, Apple Bloom's mind was at full action again. “The Cakes are having problems at serving their costumers? Hey, maybe we could help them!”

Also, Sweetie Belle cheered up at the new opportunity for possibly getting a Cutie Mark. “That sounds great! Cutie Mark Crusaders: Servants!”

The stallion, however, wasn't as pleased. “Help, huh? Well, I think I heard that somewhere today already. If you meet a purple mare with stars at her flank, please tell her that she doesn't need to bring me my book anymore. Tell her that I gave up.”

“Let's go to the back-entrance. I'm sure we'll find Pinkie there. She surely will let us enter,” Apple Bloom said.

“For what are we waiting?”

For the second time this day the stallion saw self-promoted 'helpers' charge into the direction of Sugarcube's, ignoring his words completely.

The two crusaders rushed forward the building as fast as their tiny legs allowed them to. As they ran, both passed the lines of impatient waiting ponies, the entrance-door and even the small garden that was located at its left side. They crossed the building and the voices died down. And with they last bit of strength they reached to back-door. Sweetie Belle placed a hoof at the door to push it open, but got interrupted by her companion before she could move it only a single inch.

“Wait Sweetie!”

The Unicorn-foal turned her head around, a rather displeased expression in it.“Wait, what?”

“Twi is over there.”

Sweetie turned her head in search for approval into the direction where Apple's right foreleg was pointing. Indeed the announced mare came into her view. She was walking away from them, probably back to her library, given to the direction. Her head hang down low and the rest of her body didn't seem to be filled with more energy, either. Maybe she studied the whole night again or something.

“Should we say hello? Maybe she knows something about this mass.”

“I don't know, Apple Bloom. I think the Cakes could really need our help here.”

“If she knows something important we might could help even better! And if not we can still help them, won't take too long.”

Sweetie Belle placed a hoof on her face as her sister did so often when she had to work at week-ends. If this was how she felt in such moments, then she surely should do something to help her in the future.

“Fine, let's go.”

She heard the hoofsteps of Apple Bloom before she even finished her sentence. She didn't want to waste time when a possible cutie mark was around, but wasting even more time with staying around surely won't be helpful, either. The mare shook her head free of those silly thoughts and began to gallop towards the mare of interest, too.

“Twilight, hey, Twilight,” both fillies cried out loud, almost simultaneously.

The Unicorn's ears twitched. She knew those voices and turned her head around to get a look at the charging elements of disruption. However, she inhaled deeply to calm down. No need to release the fury lying her mood on helpless fillies.

“Hey there! How can I help you?”

“Hey Twilight,” Apple Bloom began, “do you know what's the matter with all those ponies waiting before Sugarcube's? They seem very impatient, and I couldn't make out much movement in the waiting line, either.”

Twilight sighed. Somepony had to ask her this question. Of course.

“Well, they are waiting for getting served and there are quite many costumers in there today, so it takes a bit longer than usually to get what you want. I'm sure they will be fine.”

“And why are there this many today? A sellout or something?” Sweetie Belle said.

Twilight shook her head no, “it's nothing like that. In the last night, all the Celesti-O's vanished from Ponyville and now the ponies need something to replace their breakfast.”

“Wait a minute,” Sweetie said, “you mean ALL the Celesti-O's in the whole town vanished?”

“Yes,” the unicorn said, “I'm afraid they are. Pinkie and I are going to Canterlot to do some research. Maybe we can get new ones, before everypony is running completely mad.
Sweetie Belle, is everything okay with you?”

The pale foal didn't look good, indeed. Her eyes were glassy and her face looked even paler than it already were with its white mane. She opened her mouth slowly, and began to form words without speaking them at first.

“This is the worst thing. Ever.”

Twilight only raised an eyebrow as she realized that Sweetie Belle truly was the sister of her dear friend Rarity.

“In that case the Cakes could really need our help!” Apple Boom cheered a bit too motivated of the fact that other ponies were in the need of help, “that surely will achieve us our Cutie Marks!”

“I actually don't think that you can go help them now.” Twilight said.

And with that, both ponies stood back on their hooves again, fully aware of her words now.

“Why can't we help them,” both said simultaneously, “we are good servants!”

Twilight placed a hoof at her neck, “it's not that. The Cakes just aren't there.”

“What do you mean, they aren't there? Don't there stand ponies in Sugarcube's?”

“Sure, but the only pony who is serving them is Pinkie Pie and while we're in Canterlot, Sugarcube's will be closed. I'm sorry girls, but you certainly can't do something here.”

The expressions of the foals fell down at this. They were so sure to gain a Cutie Mark this time! This wasn't fair.

Twilight on the contrary wasn't pleased the inability of acting. She let out the final sigh of the day, that much she was clear about herself, and turned away from the fillies to get back to her library and Spike.

“Anyways, I gotta go now. Princess Celestia has to be informed about our soon arrival. See you, girls.”

Apple Bloom waved a demotivated good-bye to her while Sweetie was simply lying on the hard ground.

“And what are we going to do now?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Well, the fact that the Cakes aren't around doesn't mean that we aren't able to help.” Sweetie Belle said in a determined voice.

“We can't run the whole place on our own, can we? Uh, maybe this will get us our Cutie Marks!”

Sweetie Belle denied that question with a common gesture. “No, but we can help the other ponies. They all want their Celesti-O's back, right?”

“Right!” Apple Bloom cheered.

“So if we bring them back to everypony then they all are happy again!”

“Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't 'bring them back' involve 'find them'?”

Sweetie Belle shook her head a wild yes as she started to jump up and down I where she stood,

“sure thing! That's a case for the Ponyville Investigative Service!”

Apple Bloom scratched her nose in confusion as she wasn't able to follow her friend.

“Ponyville Investigative Service?” She asked very curiously. There was no such thing around that she knew, or even heard of.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders: Special Agents!” Was everything she got as an explanation before Sweetie Belle galloped back the way they came from.

“Hey, wait for me! Where are you going?”

–

“Let me get that straight. You came here four hours early and woke me up only because your cereals are missing?”

“Yes!”

Scootaloo wasn't amused. It was summer, it was week-end and it was one of these days where she was allowed to sleep in the clubhouse. Perfect conditions for a long sleep, combined with a relaxed breakfast and if the day was going to be awesome, she may have scouted Rainbow Dash perform a new move in the cool morning-skies. But no, of course it shouldn't be. Seemingly a villain stole Sweetie Belle's Celesti-O's, and all the rest of them the filly could get in Ponyville somewhere with them.

“That's lame, Sweetie. Why you don't just eat an apple like Apple Bloom?”

“You want me to eat Apple Bloom?”

“What?” Scootaloo shook her head, “no! You just should simply eat an apple like Apple Bloom.”

“But were should I find an apple that is like Apple Bloom? Apple Bloom isn't an apple, after all. You know that she isn't an apple, right?”

The Pegasus rolled her eyes, “you know what, forget it. What do you have planned to do about this, again?”

“Cutie Mark Crusaders: Special Agents!”

“Yea, I caught that already when you trampled me out of bed.,” she sighed, “what do you mean?”

It was just in that moment, when an exhausted filly arrived at the club-house.

“Sweetie,” was discernible between heavy breaths, “ah had no idea that you can run that fast.”

“Apple Bloom!” Both answered synchronous as they rushed to a window.

“Come in, the briefing is just about to start!”

“Briefing? What briefing?” Scootaloo said, still in confusion.

It was nothing special that questions remained unanswered here and there, but sometimes it really was annoying. Instead, the door opened and Apple Bloom walked in.

“You still didn't say me what you have meant,” she said as she positioned herself on one of the comforting pillows.

Sweetie Belle placed herself between her dump-founded friends to start her speech.

“Twilight can't know that they aren't still in Ponyville, right? Maybe we can find them and get our Cutie Marks!”

“So you want us to run through Ponyville in search of cereals for getting our Cutie Marks?” Scootaloo summarized more for herself then for her friends.

“Ah don't know. Wouldn't Twilight have found them already?”

“What if she was wrong? Always double-check!” Sweetie Belle said excited.

Scootaloo frowned. Maybe it was a bit early for crusading yet, but they hadn't tried that out yet. And who knew when they would get another chance for it?

“Call me in,” she said, “can't become worse than skin-diving.”

Apple Bloom wasn't disinclined either, “I'm in, too. At least until we find another Kraken.”

Sweetie Belle beamed all over her face, as she jumped into the air to announce the challenge of the day with her rather powerful voice. They will fix this, she was sure about it.

–

“So, where are we going?” Scootaloo asked.

“To the community center,” Sweetie Belle said.

“The community center? What are we supposed to do there?”

“Yea, shouldn't we go back to Sugarcube's for investigations or something?” Apple Bloom added.

Sweetie Belle nodded, “yes, but before we can do that, we have to get support. Just trust your team leader.”

“Team leader?” Scootaloo said, “Who made you the team leader?”

“Well, it was my idea, after all. You were the leader of Rainbow's fan club and we didn't bothered you for it either. It's just fair.”

The Pegasus rolled her eyes, ”fine. But don't get used to it.”

“No time for arguing now. We're there.”

–

Desk Clerk was a pale earth pony who was unbeatable when it came to reception-working. Since she was a little foal, nopony was as good in greeting ponies as she was. Everyday when the postpony came to her house, she jumped down the stairs of her home with excitement and the pure will to greet the working pony with all her cheers. Once she even has been told that her house was the most-popular for postponies in whole Canterlot, only because of her!
She was able to remember the faithful day just as it was yesterday, when she decided to leave Canterlot. Ponyville was in the need for another receptionist at the community center, and they searched for a high-skilled pony that was ready to deal with challenging tasks every day. It was what she wished to become all her life. And the payment wasn't too bad, either. But that wasn't the point. Just one day before her leaving, all the postponies of her department threw a great party for her. It was one of the best days in her life.
She remembered how they all wished her to, “see Mayor Mare, please.”

Desk Clerk startled up as a high-pitched voice interrupted his deep state of concentration.

“Did anypony say something?” He asked, as he wasn't able to see anypony standing on the other side of his highly organized desk.

“I said we have to talk to Mayor Mare immediately,” the same voice said.

Blood rushed into her head. She wasn't allowed to drift away at work, no matter of time or day.

“Where are you?”

“Down here.”

The earth pony leaned forward to get a better view on her new guests.
Three little fillies, providing one of every race, stood in the entrance-hall, right in front of her desk.

“How can I help you, my little ponies?”

“For the third time, we have to see Mayor Mare! This is really important and can't wait.”

“I am afraid that the mayor isn't available right now. We have regular meet-and-greets for such issues.”

“This isn't such a regular issue! We are from the Ponyville Investigative Service and this is part of an ongoing investigation.”

They truly didn't lie about the exacting piece of work. Even the foals sounded more serious then most the customers in her old job.

“Ponyville Investigative Service? I've never heard of that before.”

“Now you have. Please, could you announce us now?”

This was odd. They were foals, but it didn't seemed like they were here just to play games and waste time of working ponies. Her receptionist-sense told her that this was serious.

“I will. Follow me, please.”

“Thank you.”

Desk Clerk left her desk and turned to a wooden door that separated the entrance-hall from a corridor which let to several meeting-rooms.
There weren't many chances of walking around in this job, but when they came, she quite enjoyed it. After a second of stretching she started walking, leading the little agents the path, who were following her mumbling.

“Sweetie Belle, how did you-”

“As I said, just trust your leader.”

–

“Miss Mayor Mare, you have guests who claim to be important.”

“We don't claim to be important, we are important!”

“Shut it, agent Scootaloo.” Sweetie Belle said in a very serious tone.

“Come in.”

Desk Clerk opened the door with her hoof, making not a single sound while turning the door-knob. The four ponies entered Mayor Ponies personal office. Mayor Mare looked up from several sheets of requests from several local organizations, money-issues mostly.

“Ah, the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Thank you, Desk,” she said as she re

“No problem, miss.” With that, the earth pony left the room, closing the door as silently as she had opened it.

“What can I do for you?” She asked kindly.

“We need your help, Mayor Mare. Someone stole the Celesti-O's from Sugarcube's Corner!”

The political pony shook her head in a slightly disbelieve. “Are you sure about this? There hasn't been any crime for more than five years in Ponyville by now.”

“Well,” Sweetie said, “we aren’t, but also there aren't many alternatives to this theory. We would have asked Pinkie Pie about it, but she was out of town before we even got knowledge about it.”

“And for what do you need my help?”

“When we spoke to Twilight, she didn't say anything about clues. Maybe we can find out what happened if we take a look at their stock.”

“If you want to do so, you should ask the Cakes to let you in, instead of me, don't you think?” Mayor Mare said. She wasn't quite sure what to think about this.

“That's the point. They aren't in Ponyville, so nopony is at Sugarcube's right now. However, we can't get inside, because a bunch of ponies is blocking the entrance-doors because they want their breakfast. We need you to get them away from there, so we can start our crusa- I mean investigations. They won't listen to us, but since you are the mayor of Ponyville, they surely will obey, I mean listen, to you. Please?”

Mayor Mare felt her jaw fell open. Did just a pony that still went to school asked her to help with criminal investigations without failing to keep at the point and making sense?

“I-I don't,” she wasn't sure what to say at all.

“Please! If you need more motivation, than you should know that the ponies don't seem to be satisfied at all. If we don't fix this quickly, only Faust knows what could happen. Maybe they even will lay down their work because no good breakfast is around! Think what this could mean for the reputation of Ponyville!”

While the whole room felt completely quiet to her words, Sweetie Belle deeply hoped that it made any sense what she just had said. Beside all those fancy fashion-books, crime novels where the only other kind of books one could find in Rarity's Carousel Boutique and as far as she remembered, this was how the agents got they bosses to sign they plans. Or wasn't it?

“Alright,” Mayor Mare said hesitantly, “we should go and get this cleaned up as fast as possible. I will take care of the ponies, and you will go and do your investigations. I don't think that Pinkie Pie should have something against it, as long as you don't crush anything.”

It was! “We won't,” she said as calm as possible.

The mayor of Ponyville stood up, giving a last look at the grayish mouse opossum she had received from Princess Celestia herself for being such a careful representative of the little town.

“I think he will be fine, mayor. It won't take long.”

“I think you're right. Well, then.”

The mare and the three fillies left the office and made they way to the local bakery.

“Did you understood anything she said, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo whispered her other friend.

“Nope, but ah think we're going to Sugarcube's now.”

–

“Please pay attention, everypony,” Mayor Mare said with her leader voice, what was basically like the royal voice, just a little bit less powerful, “Sugarcube's Corner will be closed for an unknown duration due to renovations. Please go home and enjoy your week-end. Thank you.”

A wave of “what” summarized the general reaction to this announcement pretty well, but after the mayor-mare made herself clear another three times, the ponies started to leave the place behind. Stallions and mares alike left the place of sweet temptations, and with every pony that left the view on the entrance-door became clearer, until it finally stood closed in front of an empty place, ready to grant admission to every pony who was in need of a fresh cake. Or three freshly graduated special agents, minus the graduated.

“That was great Mayor Mare! I didn't know that you can do that!” Scootaloo said.

The earth-mare blushed, “I don't have to use it often, and to be honest, I don't really like it either.”

“Alright,” Sweetie Belle said, “let's get in there.”

“But remember, my little ponies, don't crush something.”

“As I said, we won't. Right girls?”

“Right!” Both of her friends responded cheerful.

–

The Cutie Mark Crusaders entered the house of Mr. and Mrs. Cake. With they first step, they were greeted by cakes and candies of all shapes and colors. They laid silently behind their glasses, waiting for a hungry customer.
However, Scootaloo wasn't pleased by this. How often had she dreamed of a free run through Sugarcube's, eating everything and as much as she wants? Sure, she was here to find something out about thieves who stolen cereals, but would the Cakes really miss that little strawberry-pie? There were so many..

“Scoots, are you coming or what?”

“Ye ye, right behind you!” Let's just pretend that this was a yes.

“Why are you so addicted to those cereals, any ways?” It was hardly believable with all those yummy things around. The banana-splits, with they black chocolate..

“Did you every tried them?” Sweetie Belle said.

“Well, no. Why should I?”

“Because they are the most delicious thing a tongue could taste in the early morning, silly!”

“Right after a fresh apple, of course,” Apple Bloom corrected.

“No!”

“What do you mean 'no'? How could they be better then a sweet, tasty, juicy apple?”

“Simply by being more tasty then them! I admit that your apples are the best, Apple Bloom, but they are what they are. Apples. The Celesti-O's on the other hand are a sweet composition of fruits, carefully picked by Princess Celestia herself, and then mixed up with harvests of highest quality, to form little rings which are sparkling in every color when they meet fresh milk. It's like putting all the cakes in this room together into one giant cake.”

“You mean, like a sonic rainboom of taste?” Scootaloo said curiously.

“Exactly!” Sweetie Belle confirmed.

Scootaloo began to regret that she never tasted them., “okay, where is this storeroom again?”

“That's the spirit! Follow me!”

–

“That's the crime scene?” Scootaloo asked disappointed.

“I guess it is,” Sweetie Belle said.

Apple Bloom was the first to enter the empty room “It looks.. nice.”

Scootaloo followed her, “are crime scenes supposed to look nice?”

“I don't think so. Hey, before we enter the crime-scene we have to put on our socks!”

“Socks?” Scootaloo said, “but I never wear socks. Why should I now?”

“It's rule number two of being a special agent, Scoots. Always wear socks at a crime-scene.”

“That's a stupid rule! And what's rule number one then?”

Rule number one. Sweetie Belle always had her problems with remembering first things first. She scratched her chin with a hoof, trying to stimulate memory-strings.

“I guess rule number one is to never let suspects stay together.”

“What? Where have you picked up such nonsense? Did Rarity crochet them on a pillow or something?”

“No!”

“How about some help, then?” Apple Bloom said, interrupting the sharp dispute of her friends.

After Sweetie Belle entered the room, all three Cutie Mark Crusaders stood in the dusty storeroom. Shelves stood empty at the walls, collecting dust in the pathetic try to escape the eternal void of their being; to fight the restless burning in they planks. The very basic meaning of they existence was taken away from them.
They were empty. Not a single box stood in them.
The rest of the wasn't more interesting in a single point. A single chair stood in the middle of the room, seemingly as tortured as the shelves since nopony would ever sit down in this position.

“Chair!” Scootaloo screamed, as she spotted the lonely fitment.

“Don't you dare to sit on that chair!” Sweetie Belle said, determined to hold her back.

“But-but, can't you hear how he's screaming for me?” She begged.

“I don't care for his emotions,” Sweetie Belle said, “with his placement in this room, he became an evidence, and an evidence is supposed to stay unharmed until the case is closed.”

Scootaloo crossed her front-legs in denial and sat down on the hard, cold floor.

Her eyes crossed down the chair and over the ground. Suddenly, she forgot about the denied meeting with this beautiful chair, as something unusual caught her attention.

“Hey, look, there are water-drops on the ground.”

“Water-drops?” “Sweetie Belle asked.

“Do you thing that there are holes in the ceiling?” Apple Bloom said.

“Either that, or our thieve worked in a rainy night. Good job, Scoots.”

Apple Bloom went back to her wall. While the other two were arguing as always, she had examined already nearly half of the room. It was dusty and seemed rarely used. However, she found the imprints of some heavier boxes on some of the shelves. The rest of the room didn't seem very suspicious at all. There were no secret doors in the walls, and only some hoofprints on the ground.

“This is a dead end,” she said after searching under the shelves themselves, unsuccessful.

“It can't be! If there happened something, it must have changed something. The water-drops can't be our only find.”

Apple Bloom kicked the chair, to let out her frustration. If you lived at a farm with Apple Jack and Big Macintosh, you learned fast that kicking things was the most productive way to get rid of bad emotions.

“We will never get our Cutie Marks that way.”

However, Scootaloo didn't care much about this problem right now. “Is that chair supposed to be doing what it is?”

“What? Why should I care for,” she cut herself off, as she gave a stare at the chair. It stood still in the oddest angle a stair could.

Suddenly, the door felt close and one of the shelves began to move. All of the three fillies moved away from the chair instinctively, but it was too late. One shelf moved itself into the wall and began to creep along it, only to reveal a small room behind it, which was lightened up with several candles. It wasn't big, but every inch of it was well used – boxes in every size filled it to the ceiling.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo stood both stunned in front of the sudden revelation, while Apple Bloom felt the rush of adrenaline in her blood.

“I found them, I found them!” She cheered, while jumping around the chair. Maybe this time they crusading wasn't doomed with a dead end, after all.

Chapter 3: Spring Sanctuary

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“Hey, look! There's Canterlot!”

Twilight was barely able to understand her friend. The winds were blowing through her mane at full speed as she sat in one of the royal express shuttles that was on its fastest way to Canterlot.

“Yes, I can see it!” Twilight shouted, “we will reach it soon!”

After she sent Princess Celestia a short report of the newest happenings in Ponyville, she got instantly responded by her mentor. Twilight was rather surprised to see a response at such a pointless writing, but seeing the excitement in Celestia's answer truly caught her off-guard. Being the librarian of Ponyville and personal protege of Princess Celestia herself, reading hand-written stuff was one of the basic routines in her days. Celestia had a very stoic writing in usual matters, but this time, however, it seemed rushed. some words were even hard to read because the princess of the sun used too much ink on her quill. Twilight wasn't quite sure if she wanted to see them immediately because of the cereals or because she was in concern about the unstable bearer of the element of laughter. Either way, she didn't want to let her mentor wait any second longer than necessary.

“As soon as we will arrive at Canterlot we head to the royal palace! The princess is waiting for us.” She said.

The unicorn always enjoyed the rides in the shuttles. The vision over Equestria was stunning while flying only several meters under the cloud ceiling, and the chilling winds in her mane were acting more on her soul than her skin. Somehow, it made her feel kinda jealous that she hadn’t wings.

Twilight had to rise her eyes only a bit to gain view over the working soldiers. The solar-guards who carried the duty of those special flies on their shoulders weren't what the society would call unappealing, what wasn’t a point against this method of travelling, too.
Raising her eyes over the strong stallions, she was able to get the most stunning view of Canterlot one could get without being a Pegasus.
Canterlot laid beautiful in the sun, carved into the big mountain that reached into the sky with all its majesty.
True, one could see it at the horizon from Ponyville. But seeing it from this altitude was a complete different experience. She had to work at that wing-spell when she was back later.

“Okie dokie lokie!” managed to reach her purple ears right before her mind drifted away in the vivid view.

Soon they reached the landing stages of Canterlot. With a blunt knock, the wheels set back down on ground again. The stallions began to use the weight and strength of they muscles to bring the shuttle to a stop. It was a fast procedure what was trained over and over again. The life as a soldier maybe was healthy, but since there were no wars around Equestria since a full millennium by now, there really wasn't much to do.

Twilight and Pinkie jumped out of the shuttle, one slightly cheerfuller then the other, and they made ready to leave for the royal palace.

“Thank you very much, guys,” Twilight said as she stepped closer to them. Sure, they were paid and stuff, but a bit of kindness couldn’t hurt. From her old days in Canterlot she knew, that all the chancellors who used to make use of those exclusive means of transportation weren't all smiles and graces at all.

The stallions responded with an affirming pose.

With that, the two mares trotted away. Princess Celestia called for them and there was nothing what could interrupt them from getting to her as soon as possible.
Determined, Twilight and Pinkie walked through the glorious streets of Canterlot. They passed shops, cafes and houses of any kind. It was a sophisticated city, but for a pony who lived in the capital of Equestria for several years, it became rather normal to see the upper classes of several nations make they fancy talks in the fancy cafes in they fancy suits.

“Hey, look! There's Vladimir!”

Pinkie again, never lived in Canterlot nor was a pony of great focusing abilities.

“Who is Vladimir?”

It was too late. Pinkie already was charging a white-coated pony with a golden mane and golden tail. It was a stallion unicorn with a rather long horn, and he wore a incredibly expensive-looking suit that engulfed his body. Twilight only could hope that she wasn't going to do something stupid.

“Vladii, hey there!”

The pink mare charged at him at full-speed, and just in the last moment before she would have crashed into the confused-looking aristocrat, Pinkie kicked her body with the power of her back legs into the air, flying right to the neck of her target. The two ponies seemed to melt into one bizarre mass of organic life, rolling several barrels at the ground, before they finally came to a stop.
Twilight could see a cloud of dust vanish behind her pink friend who were lying on top of her prey now.

Like that.

“Vladimir! How are you? Didn't see you for far too long!”

Her prey, however, didn't seem to be as pleased of the reunion. “What do you want? Go away from me, harlequin!”

“But Vlad! Don't you recognize me anymore? It's me, Pinkie Pie! You were dating my friend at the grand galloping gala!”

Twilight's brilliant sense for ponies told her, that the stallion must wanted to become free of the sudden company, but becoming downed in the streets of Canterlot at the brightest day was just too shocking.

“Get away from me! My name is Prince Blueblood and I never dated any pony that is related to you anyhow, for sure!”

“But I saw you two-oo!” Her words faded as she was pulled away from her prey. Twilight had no time for this.

“I am most certainly sorry for my friend, dear snob, but we have an audience to reach and have to go now. See you later.”

In a small part of her mind, Twilight was thinking about the possibility that leaving confused stallions behind could be bad for her karma, but she quickly vanished that thought. Only another system for innocent ponies.

It wasn't hard to find a way to the royal palace in Canterlot; Canterlot was a rather little city given to the fact that both rulers of Equestria chosen it for providing their palace. Not that nopony wanted to live there. It's just quite expensive to live in a house that had to be carved out of the stone of this mountain.

Soon, they arrived at the gates of the palace. They laid closed and silent in the heavy stone, guarding whatever was happening inside this fabulous place. The guards stood all over the place, guarding the guarding gate with their spears and their courage. She remembered that Shining Armor called this the perfect circle of defense. The palace guarded the princesses, the gates the palace. Guards guarded the gate and their armor guarded the guards. The spears guarded the armors and the soldier beside you guarded you. A perfect system, working regardless whether it was week-end, sun-celebration, a millennium of peace, or not. She knew that her brother was doing a great job as captain of the solar-guards, but every time when she visited Princess Celestia and got followed by at least one pair of eyes in every step, she felt awe for his passion.

Twilight and Pinkie were heading for the big gate, as two guards stopped them, just as it was the order for every guard that had duty at the gate.

“Name your intentions,” one guard asked stoic.

“I am Twilight Sparkle,” the mare said, “mentee of her highness Princess Celestia and sister to the captain of the royal guards, Shining Armor. Princess Celestia called me and my companion to an audience of high priority.”

“Enter,” was everything she got as a response. Somehow, she liked the way how the guards acted. Fast, precise and always to the point, just like a good reference book.

After the two mares got inside, a new problem made it to the surface. Where should they find the princess? The palace were big. Many corridors existed here, and even more chambers seemed to spread around them. If they were lucky, the throne-room would be her whereabouts. They should head there at first.

“Alright Pinkie, I think we should head to the- Pinkie?”

Of all possible companions you could have for a visit at the royal palace, Pinkie Pie probably was the worst. For a reason. Where was that silly filly?

“Pinkie!” She shouted, “come here! Now!”

Nothing happened. Twilight sighed and stepped forward. Maybe it was better that way, remembering Pinkie's behaviour when they were called to the Princess due to Discord's reappearance in the past.

–

She walked through several corridors, turning left only to turn right again after some hoofsteps. On her way, she saw incredibly gorgeous looking vases of all kinds. Bud vases and alabaster vases were sharing the space with ming and crystal vases. Celestia always had a penchant for them.
The gray walls themselves were decorated with tapestries so majestic that even Rarity wouldn't find the words to describe them, and if royal hooves should ever find themselves in the need to visit the forsaken corridors which the poor mare had reached by now, they never would have to touch cold stone, since finest velvet carpets covered the whole floor in a beautiful dark red.

However, one of the bad habits big palaces were used to have was that they were, well, big. Even if Twilight has been guest to Celestia before, she still wasn't aware of anything that one could call orientation. Yes, there were a different count of doors and windows in every corridor, but she could swear that they all looked exactly the same, only to pretend thieves of getting to the exit easily.

Twilight shook her head to clean her thoughts. There was no need to be worried about getting lost when you followed the may most important rule of visiting big buildings:

Never ever use stairs until you really have to.

Right?

–

Princess Celestia stretched her wings. It was a beautiful day, one of those where the highest leader of a nation had some time for herself and wasn't bound to a rather uncomfortable throne. After Luna returned from her exile, she allowed her to take her pick of an new one. Looking back, it was a silly way to give responsibility to her sister, since it never was her duty to represent the kingdom on it, being the princess of the night she was. But in these days it sounded quite good. Give her some kind of responsibility, switch something that remembered her on the past days and also give her a little gift, all of this with only one little change. Oh, if she only knew about Luna's bad taste of thrones earlier.

The solar goddess turned her face into the sky, allowing her orb to spend its warmth to her face. No cloud dared to weaken this powerful band. Only a chilling wind and the high-pitched voice of a bird were distracting her senses from her masterpiece.

“Princess! Come out wherever you a-are!”

Her ears twitched. She truly loved her subjects, but sometimes they really weren't necessary for her happiness. She turned away from the warming rays and faced the big door, which led to her personal terrace. The voice was one she remembered, but the name of its bearer laid outside of her mind's range. There was no choice to be done here; as a eternal ruler you didn't simply take a day for you own joy.

Celestia moved back inside, preparing mentally for fixing another urgent problem.

As the passed the door, the voice became louder.

“Princess Celestia, I know that you are here! Come out!”

The goddess rose an eyebrow. Usually, she was called in a pleading tone and the sentences contained at least one please for every third word. This, however, was a playful voice, and there wasn't a single please sent out, at all.

“I am here, my beloved subject,” she responded in her soft voice.

She faced the door, curious of which pony was it, that needed her help at such a lovely day. There weren't many ponies around with such an behaviour, what narrowed down the choice more than slightly.

It didn't took long to let the door swing open in a blast, reveling a pink-maned pony standing behind it.

“Princess! There you are!” she said.

“Pinkie Pie! How glad to see you, it's been a while.” Celestia spoke as a greeting. She didn't talk to the bearers of the elements of harmony for a while now, and any chance to do so was very welcome.
However, she didn't fail to make also notice of a certain, missing unicorn.

“Pinkie Pie, my dear, didn-”

“All the Celesti-O's in Ponyville are missing, Princess! All of them!”

For the first time since months, Celestia was interrupted by the words of another pony. Even Luna had stopped this for a while.

“Yes, I know. Twilight informed me in her letter. Speaking of her, whe-”

“What are we going to do? Ponyville needs its Celesti-O's!”

“I don't know. I-”

“You don't know? But you are the princess! You must rescue us! How are we supposed to keep peace up in Ponyville without the Celesti-O's?”

Celestia shook her head in a slight disbelieve.

“Don't be so jumpy my dear,” Celestia said while pushing a hoof on the mouth of her subject, just to allow herself a word in edgewise, “you may want to inform me of the exact happenings.”

The Princess released her hoof, causing the pink mare to start speaking again instantly, “Ponyville is going to descent into anarchy! All of the Celesti-O's vanished last night and the first disturbances are already spreading!”

“What kind of disturbances?” Celestia asked.

“As I came to Sugarcube's Corner to start working this morning, a wild crowd appeared. They claimed they daily portion of Celesti-O's, but I wasn't able to serve them, because they were all missing! You have to send us new ones as soon as possible!” Then, she inhaled.

Sometimes it just was hard to be a ruler. “We should begin with a regroup. Go and find Twilight Sparkle, then we shall meet again for farther plannings.”

Even Celestia couldn't deny a little thought of approval as the pink mare jump-jumped out of the room before the goddess could even say a further word of where to meet.

“Meet me in the throne-room!” She screamed after her, using some powers of her royal voice.

Even if it was almost blasphemy how the pink mare acted in the attendance of a goddess, she knew that Pinkie Pie had reasons for that acting. After Luna returned from her prison and found ouy about Celestia's new invention, she warned her, that the usage of such a weapon could cause terrible troubles. Of course it wasn't a weapon in its original meaning, but still. It was powerful and risky, and now it seemed that she maybe had to carry the consequences of her experiment.

Celestia suddenly felt a need for fresh air. She never was good at thinking in closed locations where the sun wasn't able to shine in. Especially not when it came to such important things. Alas, why was being a good goddess so hard?

Time was a rare resource these days, so her highness Princess Celestia found herself standing in the royal gardens in no time, thanks to her teleportation-skills.

In warm summers like this, the garden bloomed in the maximum amount of colors it could bring up. She preferred the growing beauty of spring, but she hardly could deny the amount of beauty in this.

Celestia walked through her garden. Flowers and hedges spread across the paths, beautifully groomed by her gardeners. However, the only thing she could pay attention to were the sun rays, the live-spending resource of the golden orb that colored the sun day for day, saved by her powers and paid with her own blood so many times. They alone were able to keep her soul clean in every situation that a life with mortal beings could bring, filling her chest every day with nothing more than pure joy and satisfaction. So it came that she lost herself in their warmth one more time this day, before her thoughts got back to the main-issue of the day.

One of her very basic piers of keeping absolute peace up disappeared without any logical explanation from one of her cities. Only few ponies knew about the exact ingredients of her cereals, and even fewer knew about the little feature of it which grew in a small greenhouse of the garden.
She even could see it from her position, right now. Little plants, really intensive in taste, yet hard to define.
But what was so important about them wasn't the taste. It were to a greater degree its effect on the central nervous system of her subjects. It didn't matter how good a leader was; ponies would always find something to fight about.

Once she fought back Nightmare Moon in past days, a complete empire was waiting for a millennium without a second princess. She knew that it wouldn't be easy, and given to her emotional disequilibrium of these days, she gave the task of finding a way to suppress aggressions and other disharmonious feelings of ponies into the hooves of her personal protege of these days, Starswirl the Bearded. She expected some kind of temporary spell, maybe one that would have had to be recasted every twenty-four hours, but coming back with a little plant that had a very characteristic form, Starswirl really caught his mentor off-guard. He said it would get the job done, if she managed to build up a constant system of supplying into every corner of her kingdom.
She trusted him, and so a product called 'Celesti-O's' entered the market. From the first day, it sold like free candy. Maybe because it's what it was, but money wasn't the point of it, after all. In a record time, every corner of Equestria consumed the legendary-cereals-to-be. All it needed was a little gene-manipulating spell every year to suppress the adjusting immune systems of her subjects and to make a millennium of peace and joy possible.

–

In her trance, the princess had walked several steps since her sudden appearance in the garden. Coming back to consciousness for her environment she realized that she just entered the sculpture part of it.
Starswirl the Bearded stood as proud as always in his stone-body, remembering on all the good, sometimes really[i/] good, times. Oh, Twilight Sparkle surely isn't a bad or even unworthy follow-up, it's just that, well, she simply isn't able to keep up with him in certain things.

Digresses..a problem that another statue surely had even more often than her, at least when he was not busy being petrified or such a thing. Not far from Starswirl the Bearded stood Discord, feared draconequus and god of chaos and disharmony. Another immortal, as old as Celestia herself if not older.
It was no great secret, that this villain once ruled over her kingdom. What was a great secret however, is that she still feared the influences from this ancient time in her leadership.
Celestia stepped closer to the statue. She didn't came here often, but when she did it was in times of unexplainable problems, just as this one.

The chilling wind blew through her eternal mane as she stood in front of the petrified immortal, exchanging glances with literally stoned pupils.

“What have you planned this time, Discord?”

It was almost pathetic to ask. Even if the events would stand under his influences, and even if he would want to tell her about it, what isn't very unlikely by the way, he wouldn't be able to.

But against all likelihoods, a deep moan filled her royal ears.

“What tugs at my consciousness at this time of day?”

Celestia stopped her breath. Sure, she came here time to time, but never had the petrified god made even the tiniest sign of being active. She didn't know how, but she clearly had to stop him from getting any closer to his target, whatever it was.

“Discord, what have you done this time?!” Celestia asked.

“What have I done? Why, I have done what I can do best, of course.”

The voice of her eternal enemy sounded less sharp than she remembered it. Also, it seemed to be a bit deeper, but that's probably because his vocal folds weren't able to swing in an optimal way while being petrified. It made him only sound even more challenging.

“Stop kidding me!” The princess said in a not-so-royal tone, “where are the Celesti-O's?”

“They are where they belong to, nothing to worry about.”

Celestia almost could feel the raise of hatred in her chest. Even if she had petrified him two times by now, Discord didn't show any regrets. And what was even worse, he didn't show any signs of being exhausted in his doing.

“Quit your games. You took them this morning, didn't you?“

“Indeed I did. They are giving me strength for the day.”

“As the princess of the sun I can't allow you to-”

“Princess! Princess I found her, where are you?” The words weren't loud, but the voice itself was enough to interrupt Celestia's warning.

“Seems like royal duties are calling,” the almost tired voice said.

“Yes, they do. This isn't over, you won't success, as you didn't the last time.” With that, the solar princess walked away from the statue, back to the gates of her castle and to the voice that begged for her attention. Sadly, she wasn't able to hear a rather confused voice say his last words, before falling back into an deep sleep.

“Success? With what? Ah, never mind, until later my queen.”

–

Back in the castle, it didn't took long to unite the task-force. In fact it was so fast, that Princess Celestia barely had time to prepare her mind for the meeting, as she got greeted by an big pink smile at her first step inside.

“Pinkie Pie! I am glad that you found Twilight,” she said instinctively.

“Me too! You have no idea in which corridors I had to search to find her! I mean, how is it possible to get this far away from the throne-room? It isn't possible is it? But she did!”

“Pinkie!” The rescued unicorn interrupted her friend, “I am sorry Princess. Orientation is large buildings isn't one of my strengths.”

Celestia chuckled, “I see. No problem, at least you are here now. But how did you found me? Didn't we want to regroup in the throne-room? That's on the other side of the palace, Pinkie Pie.”

“I know Princess! But my Pinkie Sense told me that you aren't there, so I followed it to your direction.”

“You have a Pinkie Sense for detecting royals, too?” Twilight asked in big disbelieve.

“Of course I have! Every time I'm coming close to one, my liver starts twitching.”

The unicorn only was able to show her thoughts with a shaking head. “You really should visit a doctor for this. Wait, your liver-”

“Oh, I was!” Pinkie said, increasing her new interruption-combo-high-score. “I visited Doctor Hooves some months ago and he suggested a time therapy, going back into the time on the rock-farm and denying that certain accident. But the statutory health insurance doesn't pay for such things and do you even know what prices they are taking for time-traveling these days?”

As the princess saw the left eye of her mentee start twitching dangerously, she saw herself in the position to come up to a new point now. Celestia cleared her through,

“We didn't meet for discussing health policy, did we? There is something more important that needs our attention.”

“More important than health policy?” Twilight said, “the Celesti-O's sure taste good, but I hardly can imagine that they are this important.”

“If they were normal cereals I would agree with you Twilight. But since they are produced by a exclusive royal fabricant, things around them turned out to become rather hot in the last time.“

Keeping the adrenaline-level of your subjects low. One of the very basic rules for leading a nation successfully.

“What does that mean? Are we in trouble?”

“Not yet,” she said while trying to avoid any kind of critical information, “but an old enemy of the kingdom is trying to use them to make his revolution more effective.”

Who? Where? When? Why? Twilight was ready to launch a battery of questions on her mentor, but right before the signal of speaking reached her mouth, she remembered the words of her friend earlier this day.

“But why the Celesti-O's? I can't see how that could help at overthrowing your kingdom.”The unicorn decided to ask.

Celestia sighed, “The Celesti-O's are known for their high quality and permanent availability all over Equestria since we got out the first packages hundred of years ago. An sudden lack of it in a whole region could set the folks into mistrust.”

Rule number two of leading a nation successfully. Keep your subjects feeling informed and save. The truth was, that she hadn't a slightly idea of how Discord was making use of this. Barely a pony outside of Ponyville would share interest with the sudden disappearance, but draconequean warfare was something unpredictable. And unpredictable enemies weren't good for keeping a kingdom quiet and stable.

Twilight looked obviously confused, “so he wants the ponies to think that if a kingdom isn't able to keep something that is small like that stable, it's not able to hold the important stuff up, any ways?”

“Exactly. Revolutions need time to grow. It's nothing that you start with a volunteer-list.”

If you watched close, or even spent attention to Pinkie Pie at all, you would have been able to see hot steam coming out of the pink party-ears. She wanted her beloved cereals, not a fancy political intrigue that was going to doom Equestria.

“So,” Pinkie began, “what are we going to do about the Celesti-O's now? Sent new ones? Sending guards to Ponyville? Reinstating the death penalty?”

“Pinkie, I don't think that-” Twilight tried to say.

“But we have to do something! This sort of chaos isn't coming with chocolate rain and we have to stop it as soon as possible!”

“Could you please stop interrupting me all the time? This is getting on my nerves!”

Once again Princess Celestia saw herself in the situation to press this meeting one step further.

“Please, my faithful subjects, calm down. I know that Ponyville faces an unpleasant state of affairs, but it's important to keep our heads cool. Sending guards to a small ville will only increase the problems and the interest of other cities. Not to speak of death penalty. How do you even know about this? There was no speech about it for more than hundred years now.”

“Focus, Princess. I am not important here. There must be something we can do about this! Where are they produced? I'm sure we can get some Celesti-O's there and take them to Ponyville.”

As self-confident the party-pony sounded, Princess Celestia had to shake her head a no one more time. “The Celesti-O's are produced in one single factory, which is in property of the royal bloodline itself. Since it has to provide all of Equestria on its own, we can't simply take resources away from it. It's an precise working system, that provides every town exactly one time per week. So the next possible delivery date is in five days.”

“But we haven't five days! Why is there no other fabric that produces them? That's ridiculous.”

“Pinkie!”

“It's okay, Twilight Sparkle. She has her reasons, so nothing to blame her for. And to answer your question, we do have only this one factory to provide the maximum of quality we can reach. There are many sensitive ingredients needed for this, and they all have to be supervised carefully.”

With that, she caught the full attention of Twilight back. “What kind of ingredients?”

“Various plants and fruits. The main ingredient is maize, for keeping the substance stable. You may know something about how hard it is to work with true grasses, don't you?”

A big smile grew in Twilight's face. “Of course I do! Apple Jack told me once about it.

The farmers must always store their crop dry. To be exact, it has to have a water content below fourteen percent. This is needed to pretend the crop from fungal infestations.
Fusarics, a kind of fungal which can generate mycotoxins as secondary, microbial metabolic products are a big problem for the farmers.
But mainly, the Fusarium monofiliforme is what they fear. It creates fumonisins as microbial metabolic product, a very special sort of the mycotoxins that can infest us with equine leukoencephalomalacia, an illness that brings necrotic changes to our white brain substance.”

Celestia gave her number one student a confirming smile. Once more, she successfully proofed her qualities as a student and mentee.
Then she faced Pinkie Pie to check her reaction. A slight relief came into her mind as she saw the subject of interest standing still where she was, her head almost smoking from the effort to process what just entered her ears. She shook her head several times in every direction, before her lips slowly began to form words.

“So you are making this because you don't want the ponies to get sick?”

“Exactly,” she said as serious as she was able to.

If your argumentation is going to fail, make your arguments at least sound powerful. This wasn't exactly a rule for leading a kingdom, but it was definitely helpful if you had a stubborn sister.

“And what if we go and help out the factory to produce an additional load?”

Celestia shook her head, “I'm afraid that I can't allow that.”

“And how about collecting the needed resources?”

The solar goddess shook her head ones more in denial.

“But-but, there must be something, anything, that we can do!”

“There is something you can do, indeed. Go back to Ponyville and try to keep everything as calm as possible. I will personally take care of the next delivery. It shall arrive with the first sun rays of the fifth day from now on, and not a single second later.”

“Thank you Princess, we will do our best,” Twilight said. She knew her mentor good enough to spot the points where she wanted to quit a discussion. This was one of them.

“Come on, Pinkie. Let's get back home,” she spoke it in a soft voice. Pinkie didn't often set up her mind to something, but when she did, disappointment was something that really could hurt her.

“Okay, let's get going,” the pink mare answered dryly, “but I still have this feeling that this is going to end bad.”

“That's the matter with revolutions, Pinkie.” It was a hopeless endeavor to cheer up the number one cheer-upper, but cheering up a friend never was.

“True,” Pinkie said as a little smile sneaked into her face.

–

With a rather loud moan, the sleep-circle of an royal gardener found its end for the third time this day. After he worked at perfectionizing a flowerbed for the past days, he allowed himself a day of laziness at his most favorite place of whole Canterlot: the green and soft grass of the royal gardens, covered by the shadow of an statue that represented some villain of ancient times.
Something with chaos or such a thing. He never was good at those fancy knowledge-things, but he knew to appreciate a solid shadow-maker.
Usually, he would feel energized by now, jumping back to work in no time. But today, sadly, his day of laziness wore a shadow itself. Why had royal rulers always to be so loud when raging about something? And why was she so angry at him for eating Celesti-O's? Immortals..

__________ _ _ _ __________
Author's Notes

Time to get off some acknowledgements!

First off, thanks to Inferno demon Dash for giving birth to the very basic idea of this story: All hail the Celesti-O's!
Then, thanks to ASP for making such great and inspiring music!
And last but not least, big cheers to my proofreader called Eagle Heart! He's awesome!
Also, a big thanks to everyone who invested his worthful time into reading my work.

BONUS Chapter: Meanwhile in Fillydelphia..

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Meanwhile, somewhere at the wide beaches of Fillydelphia

The sun shown down from above, filling the endless, blue sky with its live-spending warmth. The waves of the ocean whooshed softly against the bright sandy beach. One could find the finest sand of the whole west-coast a food could stand on at this place. Not many did know about it, and so it came that only few happy families were feeling the salty breeze, carried by the smoothest winds into their manes.

“My love, could you please be a sweetheart and put some of this suncream onto my neck? I really won't like to have a sunburn today,” a certain mare asked. She was lying currently on her back, the belly pointing lazily to the warm sun and collecting all its warmth.

“But of course, my dear! Just turn around and I will start immediately,” a certain stallion said in a kind and yet soft voice, lying in the very same position to the left of his wife.

With a little moan, the mare turned herself. Her sensitive belly made contact with the fine sand and without big efforts she laid in a natural bed, clinging perfectly to her new downside.

She closed her eyes as the strong hooves of her husband made first contact with her neck. They soon began to spread the cool paste over her. He did it with all the carefulness he could give to a pony, spreading it while letting his hooves do little circles. She visited many SPAs now, but not a single one provided a masseur with his skills when it came to finding the perfect pressure. He didn't even had to search for it anymore – he just laid his hooves down on her body and got it already.
A little moan escaped her, as the hooves slid down slightly to spread the cool paste further.
He massaged her back, wiling more moans out of the mare, before he let slid his hooves away to both sides of her belly. They moved slowly upwards to her front-legs. There they paused, to support the stallion a bow over his husband.

He placed his head over hers and the mouth that proofed its knowledge in taste so many times before, touched the rear side of her right ear without more pressure than the weight of a quill, giving light kisses to it. Her tail began to twitch slightly, not forced by will but freely moving with her subconsciousness. His lips danced around her ear, giving only the lightest pressure to it. He only stopped to open his mouth. Not to breath or even wide enough to say something, but wide enough to make it possible for some words to escape his lips. They hadn't to be loud. This ear was the only thing in the world what was supposed to hear them.

“Never alone.”

it wasn't much. It wasn't loud. But it meant the world for Mrs. Cake. When other ponies were around they had to replace it with the more common “I love you”. Not that there was something wrong about it, it just wasn't what she wanted to hear. She never said it, but she hadn't to anyways.

It also needed only those two words to make two resting hooves moving again. Down the front-legs, down her ribs and to the side of her stomach. He only had to rub at a well-known spot there, and the mare would –

“Mommy, daddy!” Two little foals were engaging the love-drunken pair.

Ah, right. It was the first time for the married couple to be here with their children. In earlier days they were too young for such a long travel, or simply weren't born yet. Well, there aren't many things staying unchanged forever.

Regardless of the fact that their father was bowing awkwardly over their mother, Pound Cake rushed at full-speed into his dad, throwing him backwards over. Pumpkin, however, managed to get into a still positioning only view inches early.

“Mommy, daddy,” Pumpkin began in an exited tone, “you gotta see this!”

Mr. Cake was still stunned from the sudden charge and hardly able to understand the urge of his children. “See what?”

“Did you finished the sand castle?” The brain of the mother on the other hand was able to restore from an almost-stunning charge and a really stunning husband.

“No, no! Better! Come, we have to show you! Get up, get up!” Pound said, running around the oh-so-lovely place where the parents enjoyed the gorgeous weather only few moments before.

Carrot's brain began to reboot slowly, “wait a minute. What? And where?”

Pound jumped wildly up and down, throwing some of the fine sand into every direction with every landing. “At the water! A ship with black sails! Come!”

A ship, huh. There aren't many ships around here usually.

“Very well. We are right behind you!” Mrs. Cake said.

Mr. Cake nodded in approval.
But being the over-energized kids they are, his plan to follow the kids in a chilled walk at the beach wasn't of long lifetime as both children disengaged just as fast as they came.

“I think we should better get going,” Mrs. Cake said with a chuckle, “we don't want to get charged again, do we?”

Mr. Carrot Cake stood up, still a little dizzy from the crash. “Sure not.”

After a short walk the two parents arrived at the top of a small torr, where their foals were waiting.

“See, over there!” Pound shouted.

His father nodded with a slightly opened mouth as he saw the announced ship, carried through the wide seas by black sails. What was this ship doing in this direction, and more important: why did it have black sails? Pirates? There weren't many things to catch here, besides of the lives of his family, of course.

“What are they?” Pumpkin asked.

“I'm not sure,” Mrs. Cup Cake began as Mr. Cake remained silent, “but I only heard of one black-sailed ship up until now.”

“You did?” The three-voiced chorus of wonderment asked.

“Yes, back when I was a little filly. A good friend of my grandmother, an old zebra, told me the story of a ship with black sails over and over again. She mentioned often that I have to remember it whenever it could become important, but I always thought that it was the only tale she knew.”

Mr. Cake lowered his head. This was odd. “So, what do you think they are?”

“She said that they were sailors of ancient seas, back when Celestia herself was still a young mare. Sailors of the whole world knew their names for the unbelievable courage of the crew. No matter what happened, not a single man on this ship made a single footstep backwards. And when our royal sisters were getting into trouble, it was just this crew that set sails into the directions of a different world, minds set to the rescue of our two rulers.

If that is true, and they did sail into another world, then they succeed. In that case they are heroes, world-traveling guardians for those, who are lost in the seas.”

Pound was jumping happily in a way, that was oddly equal to Twilight Sparkle's happy-dance.

“Does that mean that we are facing true heroes? Awesome!”

His mother nodded with a slight smile in her face, “maybe, yes.”

“Hey, Pumpkin! Let's search for others and make a crew!”

Hearing of that plan, Mr. Cake wasn't too pleased. “Wait. I don't think tha-”

They were already gone. Obviously. “What am I trying. Hey, honey, is that true what you just said?”

The mare turned to her husband, a really pleased smile in her face.

“Well, parts of it. My grandma actually had an old zebra as a friend, but she never told me stories. I did read it in a book. But hey, it was quiet believable for the children, wasn't it?”

“Not only for them..” a head-shaking stallion said.

“What do you think it really is?”

Mrs. Cake faced Mr. Cake with a rather serious expression. “Are you saying that you really don't know what this ship is?”

“Ehm, no?”

–

And if the winds stood good in this moment, the crew of a lunaric trade ship would have been able to hear the meeting of a forehoof with an face, taking place not far away from them.