The Secrets of Caduceus

After being bombarded with questions, I explain what happened when I fell into the sewers. I mentioned how Shizuka pulled me out of the sewage stream, but I left out who she was.

"So that's quite the little adventure you two had. But I'm still concerned about the part with that pegasus." Ace says, sitting in the train's driver seat, resting her chin on the seat's backrest.

The train zooms through the underground tunnel, as I continue my stories.

"So… You met Blinker, I assume." Ace says, while scraping her chin.

"You know him?" I ask.

"Indirectly." She responds, "He's one of the Three Supernatural Sentries. Aura Borealis being the second."

I casually glance towards Shizuka, and notice that she's feeling more and more uncomfortable.

"Who is the third?" I ask to change the subject.

Ace closes her eyes and nods, "Nopony knows. But we do know this; the three Supernatural Sentries are made up of three, you guessed it, ponies who defy all known forms of magic and physics. First, Aura Borealis. The only earth pony to successfully produce, and successfully use magic. That strange part is that her earth pony magic is more powerful than any unicorn magic we know."

Shizuka interrupts her, and interjects into the conversation, "Second only to George and Martha."

The eyes of every mare, with the exception of Thorns who is staring out of the window uncaringly, dart towards the grey filly.

"I, uh… I meant, um…" She stutters in embarrassment.

Ace chuckles before replying, "Of course, I forgot about them for a moment."

I sigh with relief, as it seems Shizuka's cover has not been blown just yet.

Ace continues, "The second Sentry is Blinker, you've experienced him first-hoof. He is faster than light itself, or claims to be. They say that George and Martha picked him after Martha's eyes caught a glimpse of him zooming past in a race. The announcer accused him of cheating, but George defended the pegasus. When asked, the pegasus claimed he had no memories. He only had a note in his pocket that read 'Be the Fastest. Be faster than them all. Be faster than him'. After some painful surgery, at the hoof of George, they discovered that he had some sort of… Oh what was it?"

After a few moments of pondering, Shizuka finally spoke up, again, "They found unknown crystals in the flesh of his wings. They called it Quantimite, because it seemed to give him the power to transcend space itself."

After a pause of silence, Dove is the first to speak up, "So, um… Don't take this too personally. A-And I'm not trying to be suspicious of you or anything, so try not to--"

"For crying out loud. How the hell do you know all this?" Thorns finally snaps, violently.

Shizuka jumps, and the lowers her head to face her seat, "Well… I hang around White Caduceus a lot, so all the ponies mention these sorts of fairy-tale type stories."

"I… See." Ace says, acting even more suspicious.

Strings then speaks up, "Well then dear, have the ponies in White Caduceus ever mentioned the Twins of Time?"

Shizuka looks up, and tilts her head in confusion, "No, never… Wait, you don't mean--"

"Haha, good girl. It seems you've caught on." The white unicorn giggles.

Ace turns to the unicorn, "This is the first I've heard of this as well."

"It's the same situation for me as well. But I've only received this information just before we left to come and get Apollo." Strings says, while performing elaborate hoof gestures.

"Spit it out." Thorns snaps, once again.

The unicorn scoffs, "Tch. My sources in Caduceus tell me that they've seen a potential suspect for the mysterious third Sentry."

"He wouldn't happen to be… A white unicorn like you, would he?" I casually, yet suspiciously interrogate her.

She then pulls a folded piece of paper from her pocket, "The photograph is a polaroid, so it's only in black and white. But he does seem to be a unicorn, look familiar?" She says, as she turns it around to face me.

My eyes light up, and my ears perk up, "Th-that… That's…"

"THAT'S HIM!" Shizuka shouts.

Looking at the photograph, I completely recognize who is centred in the picture, "That's the punk who threw me behind bars!"

"Do you… Have a name?" Shizuka timidly asks.

Strings raises an eyebrow at both of us, as do the rest of the mares, except thorns.

The white unicorn sitting across at me sighs, and then shakes her head, "Sadly no. My source just barely escaped with his life getting this picture."

The grey filly and I sigh in unison.

It was then that I had noticed how much time had actually passed, as we had already arrived at the station. With the train coming to a casual stop, the sliding doors open and each exit the locomotive. Silently, we make our way up the stairs that lead into the secret passage in the desert.

"Amazing… From here, Caduceus looks like a tiny little town!" Shizuka points out enthusiastically.

As Ace and Dove head off to fetch the dune buggy we arrived here on, Strings and Thorns continue to keep space between each other; with the grey filly and myself between them. The tan earth pony and the green pegasus return, with a whirring motorized buggy along with them.

"Hurry up you four. I swear, you'll never hear the end of it if we get back and I find out Blizzard drank my keg of cider dry because you were too slow." Ace says, in an obviously joking manner.

We each climb into the buggy, with Shizuka and myself sitting in the tailgate. With stomp on the gas pedal, Ace begins to drive recklessly back to Asclepius.

I look up at the sky, and see the moon at its highest peak in space. Then I look forward, and see a marvellous fireworks display taking place in the town of Asclepius.