„Such a beautiful day,“ Celestia thought as she wandered through the royal gardens. The birds are singing, the first flowers started blooming and the rays of her sun are tickling her skin. Too bad that she had to return to the throne in a few minutes. She loves every one of her little ponies, but sometimes, a few managed to really annoy her. Not that she would say that out loud, but sadly, that is the truth. In moments like this, she always prays for a little miracle that would mean for her she wouldn’t have to go back. Sometimes that miracle would be a letter from Twilight, Cadance visiting from the Crystal Empire or even her nephew inviting her to meet some new friend he made. Blueblood could be such a dear, if he is taking his medicine.
Her prayers aren’t always granted of course, but today was a day where she was granted such a small miracle. The sound of foals reached her ears. Celestia loves foals. Foals are so cute, adorable and just a pure source of joy. The little stories they tell sometimes are to die for. Two sticks would transform in mighty swords with magic powers while they would battle against a mighty foe of terrible evil. She loved those stories. But her favorites are the ones where, would be a parent present, they would try to shut their foal up to save their faces. Often too late.
She remembers one story very fondly and clear, like it had happened just yesterday. She had been present for the auditions for her school and that year, she chose to ask the foals if they had seen anything funny or mysterious in the last weeks. It had been a small test to see how good their storytelling was, because it needs skill to tell a story just right. Foals often mix up the timeline in a story or names. It was a little test how much a foal could concentrate. “Well, I saw my parents wrestling yesterday, when I went to get a glass of milk because I couldn’t sleep.” The panic in the eyes of said parents had nearly been too much for Celestia at the time and she really had to hold back to not start giggling.
“And, who was winning?” She had managed to ask.
“I think mom. She screamed at dad to finally give up or so. She must have him in a headlock or something because all he answered was weird mumbling or groaning.” Celestia had to giggle at the memory. Fancy Pants had been such a cute foal and she longed for the day when he and Fleur finally would have some offspring of their own. Well, if the fine gentlecolt ever manages to confess his feeling to his bodyguard.
Celestias musing ended as she rounded the corner to the statue garden. There they were, around twenty or so foals, following an older mare, who had to be the caretaker, who was herself following the designated guard to play tour guide today. Her eyes scanned the small crowd and instantly the princess noticed two foals in the back of the group. A brown earth pony colt with a blonde mane and a white unicorn filly with a pink mane were arguing. It was obvious, even without understanding a word, with their snouts and foreheads pressed together.
While the other foals and the caretaker listened to what the guide hat to say about the statue of Clover the Clever, Celestia sneaked up on the two arguing foals. “What seems to be the problem”, she asked, bowing down her head to theirs.
“Smart Flank here says that unicorns fart rainbows, and I say that the just fart like any pony else.” It was crude, it was honest and it was so damn cute.
“Not true. Every book I read on unicorns say they fart rainbows!” The filly argued and back and glared at the colt.
“Proof it!” The filly looked shocked for a moment, but then made a step back and closed her eyes in concentration. Celestia really wanted to see how this would turn out, but a gasp tore her eyes away. The rest of the group has noticed her and looked in her direction with wide eyed wonder. The only one not reacting that way was, of course, the guide, who had to be Estoc, if Celestia remembered the voice correctly. Enchanted Armor could be a pain in the flank from time to time.
“Your Majesty”, the tour guide said and briefly bowed his head.
“Karst?”, the old mare asked after she rose from her bow. “What is going on here?”
The colt looked to the old mare and pointed with a hoof at the filly. “Smart Flank here said unicorns are farting rainbows.” The eyes of the mare widened as she looked from the foal back to the princess, who took that as her cure to cut in:
“Well, with the right spell…” She mused, the smile never leaving her face. The foals started to giggle as the mare shocked expression shifted to a slightly angry one. This was also the moment the efforts of the filly bore fruit. A lout rumble could be heard and a moment later her pink tail waved in self-produced wind.
“So that’s how you do it princess?” Celestia lost it. The old mare imitated a gold fish as she started to giggle. Of course she raised a hoof to hide it, as it was polite, but she couldn’t help it any longer. And while she giggled, the foals crackled with laughter.
“No…” Celestia tried to say, but had to stop again and clear her throat. “No, not like that”, she finally answered the colt who had asked the question from the middle of his peers. “If it would be that easy to get a mane and tail like mine, I think Canterlot would be filled with more hot air than even I can handle.” Of course, the joke was lost on most of the foals, but some still giggled. With that, she dropped her head down to the little filly who had made her day. “Would you mind to tell me your name my little pony?” After all, Celestia liked to have a name when she would tell Luna about this.
The filly, who had been frozen until now, just shook her head and then buried her face under her front hooves. The princess waited a little moment, but nothing came from the white filly and so she looked for the presumed teacher for help. “Ehm…” The older mare said, also looking at the filly. “I don’t think she is one of mine, actually.”
“Oh”, was all Celestia managed to say. She looked to Estoc, who just nodded and run of. Somewhere, some parents were most likely to miss their foal after all.
With enough force to rattle every platter on the cafeteria table, Robin slammed down a newspaper. "You guys have to watch this." She said to Talia and Sandra, who sat together over a book on Magic Princess Twilight had sent them last week. "This is totally a case for us."
"Ugh, seriously Robin", Rebecca complained as she started to wipe up some of her spilled coffee. "Would it hurt to act with a little more grace?"
Both, Talia and Sandra looked up from their book and read the headline. "Girl vanished in forest after inexplicable lightshow", Talia read aloud. Getting curious, she picked up the newspaper and flicked through the article. Which in her case meant that she read it three times in a time normal would need for the first paragraph.
"How often do I have to tell you Robin, we don't take cases. We have the police already breathing down our necks and we don't want even more attention to ourselves." Sandra sighted. "In case you forgot; I'm an alien and you six are powerful wizards in training. If it weren't for Principal Calida and Vice-Principal Selena we would be already sitting in an police office and talking about our future carriers as government property." Sandra said and took the paper from Talia, crumpled it into a ball and threw it in the trashcan at the end of their table.
"So you're telling me that we have this awesome powers, that you're trying to teach us how to use, so we don't use them?" Robin argued back.
"Becca", Sunset pleaded. "Please be the voice of reason."
"Well..." The girl sighted and looked at her hand stitched napkin, which was drowning in coffee. "You both are right."
"See Robin, I told... What?"
"Rebecca is right", Talia agreed with her friend. "You teach us how to control our powers, but for what purpose." On cue, the crumbled paper floated back out of the trashcan with in a lavender hue and right into Talias hand. "Also, this really looks like something we should look at. Read the last part", she added and gave Sandra the paper. She unfolded it to the best of her abilities and started to read:
And this isn't by far the first missing person who vanished inside the nearby forest. Over the last twentyone years twenty five cases were reported where a person vanished in these woods. So far, not one of them was found. The local orphanage is doing daily tracks to look for their missing friend, but the moral is low.
Sandra looked at the taken picture for the article. At first glance, it could be a picture of just any forest in the world. The only indication that it was the sign towards the city. But that wasn't what made her hold her breath. There, in the bottom left corner was a flower. A flower with blue petals. Sandra was pretty sure that this earth had no poison joke. "OK, maybe this something we should look it."
"Yes!" Robin cried out, high fiving an unprepared Talia.
"While the missing girl is tragic, that not why I agree." Sandra laid the paper down and pointed at the flower. "That is something that doesn't belong here at all."
