When War is Close by

Spike was worried not only because another urgent letter from the commander just had arrived but because Twilight hadn't been at the west gate to meet him as they had agreed. He had waited. 10 minutes had passed then 20 and he had gotten impatient so he had asked the guards stationed at the gate if any of them had see Twilight but none of them had.

He decided to pick up the list of arrivals and departures for the west gate and head for the hospital to look of Twilight there. He didn't find her at the hospital but when he was about to leave he bumped into Lyra.

With the light green unicorn being the of talkish sort they began to chat for a little while. But when Spike asked if she had seen Twilight anywhere she had looked back at him with a worried frown and told him about what she had seen from across the park and that a rather tired and burdened looking Twilight that hadn't responded to her call out had left the park not too long ago. And so Spike had hurried on back to the west gate only to not find her there.

He was now on his way across the town plaza back to the library to see if she had returned home but when he was about to make a left turn into one of the side streets leaving the plaza the purple silhouette of somepony sitting at a table with her head hanging over a cup, grabbed his attention and made the purple dragon stop to look at the tables outside Sugar Cube Corner.

There weren’t too many guests as the lunch rush had passed not too long ago but there Twilight was... Seemingly breathing the fumes of whatever was in the cup her head hanging low. He hurried over to her side.

“Twilight? Are you alright-- ”, he began as his strong dragon nose picked up the particular smell of Twilights drink. “-- is that coffee?”. He ended rather shocked he only remembered Twilight resorting to coffee during extreme exhaustion.

“I'll be fine, Spike”, she replied with a mushy tone not looking up from her coffee cup. “You don't sound fine”, he said with a worried frown as he had placed the scrolls he were carrying on the table and sat down next to her. “What happened at the hospital?”

And so Twilight told him everything that had happened. About how she had met Gold Plate and what knowledge and opinions he had shared with her. About how Gold Plate had lashed out and she had tried to stop him without success. About how Bulk Biceps had saved the fillies and held Gold Plate in place while a doctor had given the rampant stallion a strong sedative that had calmed him to an almost blissful state to put him on a stretcher and have him carried away into the hospital for a full bandage change.

While Twilight spoke and sometimes sipped of the dark bitter coffee that made her grimace in disapproval and dislike every time Spike rubbed Twilights back and neck listening closely to her only saying something when Twilight asked or when he felt it appropriate to give an encouraging response.

When she had finished Twilight looked over her shoulder up at the purple dragon who was still kindly rubbing her back with a lightened up expression. “I see you got the copy of west gates departure and arrivals list for me as well... thanks Spike.”

“Oh, it was nothing.” He beamed back at her with a wide, white smile. “It is, after all, what I, your number one assistant, am here for!” They both laughed at his remark.

When the short laughed had settled Twilight downed the last of her coffee making another disapproving grimace then she and Spike began to go over the departure and arrivals lists looking for irregularities and names of strangers they didn't know.

Two hours of solid work passed parring departure names with arrival names and the other way around crossing out ponies they were sure couldn't have any relations with the half dragon army. The massive scrolls had been reduced to a small list of mere four ponies.

After Twilight had put her circlet back on she and Spike ventured out to find the first one on the list, Fancy Pants, who had visited Ponyville twice in the past weeks time already which was rather often considering that he is of the upper class and Ponyville being seen as a small backwater town by the upper class made it rather suspicious. He happened to be in town today as well.

They met him on the street by luck and managed to confront him in a friendly manner finding out that he was actually visiting a friend, a Captain that was newly ascended into the rank of General, currently stationed under Twilight, without revealing their suspicions about him.

A quick but polite visit to the General that Fancy Pants mentioned confirmed, without the General questioning why it had to be confirmed, that he and Fancy Pants actually were friends, scheduled to meet for dinner and after noon tea, later today and so Spike and Twilight left for the next name on the list.

Hairy Steve lived in a rather large house squeezed in between other buildings with it's entrance in a small back ally. Twilight and Spike was rather surprised meeting this oversized and hairy individual as he had flung the double doors to his home open greeting them with a healthy laugh and invited them in for a spot of afternoon tea.

Having talked with Steve and discovering that he was a business man - ehh - pony who, together with his companion and friend, a small clever fella called Nelson, who also happened to be on Twilights list, had been doing business with Canterlot Royalty for over a decade and that it was Celestia herself that had recommended Ponyville as a place for them to live. They made their way back towards the town square.

“I'm certain that Steve is some sort of dog”, Spike began, “and that Nelson is a cat!” Twilight cut him off with annoyance bending her voice.

“And for the eighth time, yes I agree that both Steve and Nelson look strange for ponies--”, as they walked she summoned their list to check off both Nelson and Steve as visited, “--but you saw that scroll Celestia had given them. Royal acknowledgement and 'friendship' can't get more official than that.”

The purple dragon let out a heavy sigh finally giving up on the matter of Steve’s and Nelson's odd appearances and turned to look at his friend walking next to him who was studying the last name on the scroll.

“Hmmm... I am certain that I have never seen this name before.” She said thoughtfully. “But for some reason I just get the feeling that it's someone we have met before.” She turned the scroll floating it over to him so he could read the last name. “What do you make of it?”

“Miss... Lulamoon?" He paused with a thoughtful expression. “Doesn’t ring a bell to me”, he finally said with a shrug.

“Yes exactly yet I have this weird déjà vu kind of feeling”, she said as they reached the town square. “And the description on the arrival and departures list. It isn't much to go on either”, she looked towards Sugar Cube Corner.

“So what are we looking for?” The dragon asked as they walked towards the café with it's gingerbread-like appearance.

“A mare wearing a rare ebony black travelling cloak with dark red lining. She is also wearing a silver brooch featuring the letters 'BM'”.

It didn't take long for Spike to spot the black cloak and it's bearer with the cloaks hood pulled up around her head sitting at one of the café tables farthest from the café and in the shade of the building.
Spike pointed Twilight in the direction of the cloaked mare and they approached her from the side. Twilight noticed a quite peculiar staff with a flat half moon shaped head lying across the table in front of the cloaked mare.

“Excuse me, Miss... Lulamoon?”, Twilight began. The cloaked mare jump in surprise almost dropping a cup from her magical grip that she had been sipping from with her sky blue muzzle.

“Y-yes?” the mare stuttered turning her head revealing only a few tresses of a pale blue mane but keeping the rest of her face hidden with the shade from the hood.

“I hope you wouldn't mind if we had a little talk?”, Twilight continued as she and her dragon companion sat down at the table the cloaked mare was at.

“Ehh.. I the great an--”, the cloaked mare began nervously but biting off her own sentence. “--I mean... I'd rather not talk... r-right now.” The mare looked left and right as if to secure a way out, her face still hidden.

Twilight lifted an eyebrow. There was something about the way the first part of the cloaked mares sentence was formed that made the stranger in front of her feel even more familiar.

“Have we... met before?” She asked the cloaked mare whose face snapped to looking at her. Twilight still couldn't see her face but she was sure that the strangers expression was that of shock.

“N-no, I'm sure we have never-met-before-now.” The cloaked mare stutters out with a feverish tone getting up and slowly backing away from the table.

Seeing Miss Lulamoon slowly backing out Twilight switched subject. “That's an interesting artefact you have with you”, pointing with a hoof at the staff lying across the table.

“Y-yes, it is...” The mare paused only to sweep up the staff with the half moon shaped head in her magic and letting it slip in place on binding on her cloaks back made for that purpose as she backed further away. “Um, if you'll excuse me, I have an important meeting I can't miss”, she said before turning tail and running away across the town square.

As soon as the cloaked stranger had turned around Twilight jumped on to her hooves. “After her!”, she commanded and Spike followed as quickly as he could.

Twilight thundered across the town square and into a less crowed alleyway in pursuit of the black cloaked stranger. At the end of the alleyway she spotted the black cloak and it's red lining make a turn left and she followed quickly only to spot the cloak again making another turn at the next comer but Twilight didn't give in and continued her almost restless pursuit believing that the cloaked mare was if not the spy then somepony who might have ties to the one who was.

For each comer Twilgiht made she got closer and closer to the cloaked stranger until she could finally fully see her, while the cloak still covered her face and back, more of the long, flowing pale blue mane had popped out from it's hiding under the black hood.

As she made another turn to the left following the cloaked stranger she noticed the street name written on a sign on the house wall, Starswirl's Long Stretch Street, and Twilight knew that this might be her last chance if she were to ever catch the stranger she was pursuing.

During Ponyvilles reconstruction phase the designers had worked hard to make the small town as maintainable, easy to navigate and still having fairly large roads and regular intersections so that it wouldn't feel too cramped traversing the town while still having attractive living spaces for the regular population and the extra soldiers.

But a small flaw in the design caused by the extra space the East gate barracks needed to be a proper barracks and the need to fit everyone into this new smaller town had resulted in “Starswirl's Long Stretch Street”, a long street that connected the main street from one of the towns four corners with no house exits or intersections meaning that if you travelled in one direction you'd have to travel it's full length to get anywhere else.

Twilight smiled, almost maniacally with glee, she was so close now. She upped her pace even more as she began to charge up for a spell. One of the few spells she had decided to learn from the book of combat spells the princess had given her.

Her magic formed a small but thick purple glass pentagon floating next to her and with a small flick of her horn the pentagon twisted into a square. 'Now for some size', she thought to herself as she diverted more attention towards the spell and the square began to grow in size.

Clonk.
Twilight felt stone scratch and tuck against her left hoof pulling her head first into a fall as her rump and back hooves swung up into the air only to add more weight to her fall.

Thump.

Even if she had fallen flat on her face she quickly jolted to half a stand while trying the catch her breath only to give up with a disappointed sigh and sat instead as she saw the black cloaked Miss Lulamoon make a left turn at the far away end of the street and into a passing crowd on the main street.