Far Away

CHAPTER XXIII

It was dawn. Streams of red light penetrated the elegant curtains which blocked the magnificent view of Canterlot. Jack wore up gradually in his room, as the sun gently increased the luminosity in the room. Jack sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and check the grandfather clock that was sitting in the corner of the room, facing him with a giant pendulum swinging hypnotically. It was only half past five in the morning, but he felt energised for the day. Jack attempted to stand, while a bit light headed, and swayed a little.

Thick, rich carpets covered the floor which was gleaming white marble. Jack made his way to the bathroom to perform his morning rituals that he hasn’t done for a long time. Even a pony like him knew that meeting royalty was a special occasion. He brushed his teeth and had a short shower before stepping out of the bathroom and putting on his trench coat and using his knife to shave the grizzled, wavy short goatee he had. There was no need to bring a weapon with him but he took his revolver, it was a habit he had for around a year now.

He suddenly remembered his task of drawing a map of the eastern plains area. ‘I better report to my boss before he gets nervous that he just lost a cartographer,’ he thought with a smirk. He trotted over to Daring, who was sleeping peacefully on her side of the bed for once and shook her playfully.

“Huh?” she mumbled as her eyes fluttered open.

“Wake up! We have a long day ahead!” said Jack cheerfully.

“Seems like you finally got up in time for once, eh?” said Daring as she swiftly hopped out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. Jack was sure that she would know where he was if he went to wake up the other ponies in the group. They can’t be sleeping in after all, they had a breakfast to attend.

Jack rushed out of his room and knocked on the door opposite to his. He was pretty sure this was Fleetfoot’s room. A groggy light blue pegasus answered the door. “Wake up, we need to get going Fleets!” said Jack enthusiastically. He didn’t know how to explain it but he felt so good that morning. Fleetfoot groaned.

“Is there something you wanted?” she said with a shadow of a smirk.

“Dammit Fleets just get up!” Jack exclaimed as he pulled away to the door of the room next to his.

He knocked on the door and a tired looking Spitfire appeared. “What do you want?” she asked as she looked at Jack with a deadpan.

“Get up commander, its five thirty already,” Jack said.

“I swear the next time you do this to me I’ll pin you down and punch you so hard that…” Spitfire trailed off, “Wait, don’t we have breakfast with the princess? Dammit I forgot, sorry. Probably had one too many drinks last night.”

Jack chuckled at her discrepancy. That was when Twilight bust out of her room and slammed her hooves on every single door near her. “Get up!” she called, “We’re going to be late for breakfast!”

It was half an hour after everypony got ready, which took them to six o’clock which was just in time for breakfast. They trotted down the wide arcing stairs to the dining hall. As they entered they saw stacks of pancakes already laid out on the long table and Celestia was at the doorway to greet them. “Good morning my little ponies,” she said gently, “Did you sleep well?”

She was met with nods as she led them into the dining hall. “I believe that Twilight, you are going to speak to me about what happened after Jack passed out in the conflict in Ponyville?” she asked, “We can discuss the details over breakfast if you want.” A chef brought her a mug of coffee which she took a small sip out of. It was steaming hot.

“If you want any drinks, order up!” said the princess.

Everypony in the group each ordered a drink of their liking and dug in. Twilight was the first finished and explained to Celestia what happened thoroughly over a cup of hot chocolate as the rest of the group listened intently at her perception of how the events unfolded. It took a fair while to go over all the facts, more had happened than Jack realised.

“So, Luna was subdued by Dark Flames and taken prisoner?” Celestia asked disbelievingly.

Everypony nodded.

“Well, that’s a bit hard to swallow,” commented Celestia, “I shall not hold you good ponies up any longer. You may now do as you wish.” Celestia turned and trotted towards the door. “You must also alert me on how long you’re staying,” she said as she exited.

Jack agreed to Spitfire to visit their Academy that day. Jack followed Spitfire out of the dining hall with Twilight bringing up leading the rear. Since Jack is not a pegasus, they would need to use a blimp or a hot air balloon to reach the Wonderbolts Academy. Twilight cast her cloud walking spell on Jack the moment they exited Canterlot Castle. Apparently, the Wonderbolts had their private blimp which was stationed on the outskirts of Canterlot. The small group walked through the bustling city streets until the crowd became thinner and thinner as they reached the shaggier looking outer-Canterlot.

Jack immediately spotted the blimp when they turned a corner and trotted out of Canterlot’s outer walls. It had the Wonderbolts crest painted on it and was quite large for a craft capable of flight. It was tied down to a large iron post which was sticking out of the concrete landing pad. Spitfire led them onto the landing pad, then she left to the small warehouse to the right of the field and pulled out a small ladder to board the floating craft.

Jack climbed aboard and gasped as he saw the inside. There were many glass display cabinets holding a large variety of medals and trophies. On the steel walls hung pictures of the Wonderbolt captains of old. Jack found a seat on the left side of the craft and looked out of the window.

“Ready to lift off?” shouted Spitfire as she marched upstairs to the controls.

“Yep!” answered Twilight as the last passenger boarded. She levitated the ladder back into the warehouse with her magic and found a seat herself and pulled out a book from her saddlebags.

The blimp lifted off the ground slowly. The soft hum of the external engines started as they propelled forwards. The view was excellent from the blimp. Jack could see the whole of Canterlot before long and the lands that were lying low under the mountain. The land was a patchwork quilt, different coloured farmlands and forests littered the ground. Brilliant blue rivers carved through the land, flowing into the faraway ocean.

Twenty minutes later, Jack started to see what looked like rings of clouds, no not rings, it was a whole training course. They must have reached the Wonderbolts Academy! The academy itself was set on the top of a very tall mountain, with sides of sheer cliff. There was a compound sitting on top of the mountain with a runway that was marked intricately with lines that meant nothing to Jack.

“Coming in for landing!” shouted Spitfire from upstairs.

The blimp came down fast on the runway and landed with a rough screech of iron against bitumen. The craft came to an abrupt stop. It was a day off for most of the Wonderbolts and cadets at the Academy so the compound and training facilities were mostly abandoned. A small group of Wonderbolts, the third squad did actually come up to meet them. Spitfire came out of the control room and lead the group out of the blimp.

“Hello Silver!” she waved as she flew down from the slightly elevated door on the side of the craft.

“Morning commander, and may I question why you took the blimp up here? I would be greatly comforted to hear that the commander could actually fly properly,” Silver said sarcastically.

“Is he always like this?” Jack whispered to Spitfire.

“Yeah, his always just an old sack of misery,” she chuckled.

“Oh. I see now, it’s one of those walking types. What’s he here for?” questioned Silver.

“We’re just taking a look through the archives for the amulet he and his friend over here has been searching for,” replied Spitfire.

“Ah. The amulet,” Silver finally gained a very serious pose, “Well, sonny – he shook Jack’s hoof vigorously – My name is Silver Lining. I’m the director of the archives around here and I know what you’re looking for, but what are you planning to it eh? Why do you want it?”

“Well, first of all, my name is Jackson Wanderer, call me Jack and here’s my friend, Daring Do and we just want it for safekeeping, alright?”

“That’s what everypony says,” he grunted, giving them a look of suspicion, “Well, come on then, we’ve got a lot of records to look through.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Silver Lining led Jack, Daring and Twilight through the long halls of the compound which was pained a dark navy blue, with the floor being a shade lighter. Golden stripes accented the walls of the building with photos of old Wonderbolts wearing many medals on the flight suites they wore. They turned many corners, the place was like a giant maze! The lighting slowly began to dim as they walked into the more deserted parts of the compound.

“Well, here we are,” said Silver as he led them down a flight of stairs. He opened a large steel door into a room full of shelves and one dingy desk in the far wall. Many scruffily filed folders lay on the shelves with a thick layer of dust sitting stagnantly atop them. “So what did you say you were looking for?” Silver asked as he wandered through the shelves absentmindedly, then finding a seat at the unkempt desk.

“The amulet,” replied Jack.

“Ah… yes,” he muttered as he walked through many shelves of papers. He stopped at the third one to the left and rummaged through the files. After minutes of searching, and Jack fidgeting, he found the folder he was looking for and carried over to the desk. “This is the one,” he said as he blew the thick layer of dust off the file, he flipped through the pages and pulled a few out, “Here, these are the ones you want to be looking at, mind you these are up to half a decade old.

Jack looked closely at the small writing. It was written in an old style, with pristine curves in the letters which joined them together fluently. The first one was of a scouting mission over the Whitetail Forest. He was not interested in that one because it was filed five years ago. He pulled out the second piece of paper which was written in a modern style, this time not by hoof. It had the block letters and blackish ink of a typewriter. Jack read through it thoroughly. The report was about another scouting mission, this time over the Everfree one year ago. They reported sighting of a green compound with what looked like anti-air weapons, the latter part of the report also told of chatter about a certain amulet. It said something about a brother in Stalliongrad, this was all recounted by one pony; Iron Skies, former elite Wonderbolt and master of espionage.

“We, squad two have reported many recent conversations about an ‘amulet.’ We are very sure that this item is currently in possession by a ‘brother’ living in Stalliongrad. We have not yet tracked this pony down, nor heard more than a whisper of him...”

“… never acted like this. Then we found a compound painted leaf green in the Everfree. We do not know what this structure is, nor do we wish to approach it as it is heavily armed…”

Jack looked sadly at the page, staring at the photographs dotting the report. One was a bird’s eye view of the compound that was stationed in the Everfree. Jack was surprised they didn’t take action against the compound back then. Equestria did have the military power but maybe everything else was just not going as planned. Even a wanderer like Jack knew of the recent happenings in Equestria. The lands they held in possession were coveted by many other leaders who eyed these lands greedily. The Draconian Empire especially held a grudge when their land was taken by the Griffin Kingdom a few years back. Equestria had been working closely with the griffins for the past few decades already. The Draco’s were enraged and had positioned at least three million troops on Equestria and the Griffin Kingdom’s borders, ready to strike.

Equestria’s political situation in the known world has deteriorated. The powerful enemies of the west have formed a coalition, while the Draconian Empire has stationed troops along the border. Politics was something Jack had tried to never be involved in, because it was something when you got stuck in, you would be looked and regarded differently by other ponies. He felt his legs going a bit stiff when Daring poked him gently.

“Uhh… Jack, you’ve been looking at that for at least twenty minutes now. What is so interesting on that page?” she asked.

“Nothing,” mumbled Jack as he walked up to Silver.

“Silver,” Jack asked, “Can I keep this, or at least a copy?”

“No, sorry kid,” said Silver apologetically, “These things are highly confidential and the only reason we’re showing this to you if because you are the Canterlot cartographer.”

“Oh, and did I mention that another reason was because you’re basically a husband to Daring? You two are such a good match,” Silver said as he chuckled and walked out of the archives.

Daring tried to hide her laughter as Jack fumed silently, cheeks blazing red. “I’m going to get you one day, you old bastard!” yelled Jack as he started trotting after Silver, out of the archives.

“I bet you will,” Silver said, keeping a straight face, turning around, then stopping dead in his tracks, which caused Jack to face plant in his chest. “Boo!” he chuckled.

Jack face-hoofed and kept walking down the hallway, now following Daring. She doesn’t stop dead in her tracks, does she? Wrong! They could hear Spitfire’s voice suddenly over the P.A. system. (You know how the Draconian Empire I mentioned has its forces on the border? I think that happened. No, it has happened. Maybe. I am author. I get to do what I want). Daring stopped suddenly when she heard Spitfire’s voice carry through the halls. Jack stared at the ground as he walked So as a result, he crashed into Daring and tripped over her, crumpled “Oh for Celestia’s sake, can you stop stopping in the middle of nowhere?” grunted Jack as he struggled back to his hooves.

“Shut up!” commanded Daring as she listened to the broadcast.

“Attention all personnel! Recent news from Princess Celestia confirms our suspicions. The Draconian Kingdom has declared war. Please stay calm and relocate to out barracks in Manehattan. You shall await further orders from there. Get moving!”

Jack tensed. War hasn’t been waged in Equestria for more than a millennium! Why now? He grabbed Daring roughly by her wing and tugged her into a deserted room that looked like a class, where the cadets learned formations. Daring winced in pain as he roughly pulled her in.

“Listen to me,” Jack said to Daring, making sure she doesn’t miss a word, “I have lived in Equestria for four decades, nothing is going to change my decision, ok? Go to Stalliongrad, then get information on the amulet, it might be there according to some archive documents, ok?”

“No,” remarked Daring hesitantly, but with an air of determination.

“Celestia, you are hard sometimes!” Jack threw his hooves up into the air, “Haven’t you head what I said? There is going to be a war. Go get the amulet.”

“No, that can wait,” she said confidently, “I’m coming with you.”

“Look, this could affect the outcome of the war. The amulet has great power, remember?”

“Yes, only when used in the right way,” replied Daring.

Jack completely failed. He wanted to go to war, to defend his country. It was in his blood. One thing he lacked though was the skill of manipulating words to work in his favour. He shook his head slightly and headed for where the Wonderbolt elites stayed while in the compound. Outside the door was a steady stream of the one hundred or so Wonderbolts who were currently in service. It was like trying to swim up a waterfall when barging the opposite ways of the crowd, but eventually made it to the stairs. He did not even notice Daring following him closely. He jumped up the stairs with slight annoyance that Daring didn’t listen to him.

He walked down the hall, trying to find a door with the name ‘Spitfire’ engraved into a copper plate, then drilled in with screws. He galloped the last few metres when he spotted her name on the third door to the end. The golden mare suddenly burst out of the door, in a hurry and crashed into Jack as he was galloping at full speed. They tumbled onto the floor.

“Really? Watch where you’re going Jack and aren’t you supposed to be outside already?” yelled Spitfire into his ear.

Jack winced. “I just... uhh… need some more information please, on this subject, and also, how am I getting down?”

“You’re jumping off the edge of the cliff,” said Spitfire looking absolutely serious.

“Hmm… I would’ve considered that offer if I had magic or wings, but what the hay, I’m going to try it,” said Jack with sarcasm dripping in his tone of voice.

“Well, how do ya think?”

“Blimp?”

“Correct.”

Jack stood up and turned, planning on walking over back to the stairs but he crashed right into Daring.

“Why do you do this to me, guys?” Jack whined.

“Awareness,” said Spitfire and Daring together with a wink.

“I should’ve known you were twins who were loony,” Jack fumed as he galloped away from the mares who were in hot pursuit.

Let’s just say it didn’t work out too well for Jack and he had to be carried to the blimp. And Luna, well… Let’s say she will show up…