Across The Pond

Spike paced back and forth across the Canterlot royal library. He couldn't think of anywhere else to be. Celestia was attending to the days royal duties despite her worry. Luna, as usual, rested during most of the day so she could stay awake during her watch over the night. When they weren't busy Shining Armor and his wife Princess Cadence would keep the young dragon company; though being a captain for the royal guard and a princess they had many matters to attend to.

Spike was alone in the library now, and even with so many ponies who worried for his friends he was still alone. Despite everypony else caring for Twilight's safety just as much as he did, they all had something to keep their minds preoccupied. Spike on the other hand, had spent his time being Twilight's number one assistant and with her gone he didn't have much to do.

Normally Spike would relish the time to relax but all it did now was allow his mind to roam about the possibilities.

Twilight teleported and appeared in Canterlot. She had missed the royal palace by a few blocks but it wasn't too far of a walk. Twilight began to navigate the streets of Canterlot. It was still early morning and the streets were empty. Twilight was glad for the lack of ponies though, it gave some peace to the air.

Then suddenly that peace was broken by twenty ninja ponies falling out of every shadow in site. Twilight's eye's narrowed.

"So I see Poison Mane has sent his league of ninjas, are you sure you want to do this?" Twilight asked.

The ninjas all just stared. Then they ran up and attacked. Twilight incapacitated a few of them but numbers can overwhelm.

Twilight found herself being taken to a strange land she had never heard of, and when the boat finally stopped, the ninjas took Twilight to a large island off the shore of a foreign land mass. The ninja ponies brought Twilight to the head ninja, Poison Mane who, despite his mouth behind a mask, managed to show a smile at their arrival. Twilight glared daggers at the masked ninja.

"What do you want?" Twilight asked.

The head ninja nodded towards a broom. Twilight looked over at the broom and then noticed the condition of the ninjas secret lair. It was a mess. Boxes and dust everywhere, all sorts of crumbs on the floor. Apparently these ninjas were very messy.

"You want me to clean?!" Twilight asked incredulously.

The masked ninja nodded in confirmation. Twilight didn't want to clean for these ninjas but they had bested her in combat once and she knew they could do it again. She moved over to the broom to begin her life as a maid to the league of ninjas.

"I wonder if my friends know how to fight ninjas? Maybe Rainbow Dash knows kung fu?" Spike mussed.

The baby dragon then shook his head to clear it. "If Twilight was being targeted by a league of ninjas then she would have told me" Spike said to himself to ease his mind. All this worrying wasn't going to bring Twilight back any sooner. A voice came from the door before his mind could betray him again.

"Are we interrupting?" asked a familiar voice from the door of the grand library.

"Oh, hi Princess Luna. You're up a bit early, problems sleeping?" asked Spike.

"We have had issues sleeping soundly since we first heard Twilight Sparkle was in the land of Tamriel" Luna told Spike.

"Could you tell me about this land? I mean Princess Celestia said it was dangerous but my brain has been going crazy since I heard Twilight was someplace dangerous" Spike asked.

"We suppose that explains why thou asked if Rainbow Dash knew kung fu. We think" Luna said, very unsure of the strange behavior of the dragon but wrote it off as the worry getting the better of him. "We do not know much but we will tell you what we do know."

"Thank you, but uh, Princess. Most ponies say I now, remember?" Spike told Luna.

Luna blushed a little but was grateful for the correct. She had to remember that times were different and changing her speech pattern was something she had been attempting to fix. Though it wasn't as though she wasn't making progress. She had recently stopped using the Royal Canterlot Voice, a fact that many of the guards were grateful for.

"Oh, sorry. We- I mean I forgot" Luna said with a small smile.

"At any rate the land of Tamriel is inhabited by strange creatures who like violence" Luna said.

There was a moment of silence before Spike finally said "that's it?"

"I said I didn't know as much about it as my sister" Luna told Spike.

Spike sighed in frustration. Luna walked over and put a hoof on his shoulder and said "Celestia has sent Philomena in an attempt to contact them, everything is going to be alright little one."

Spike looked at her and said "I hope so."

Luna picked up the baby dragon and hugged him. "we all do Spike, we all do" Luna said softly.

Shining Armor sat outside the throne room. He had requested an audience with Princess Celestia so he could discuss exactly what kind of danger his sister was in. Shining Armor had been waiting for about two minutes before Celestia called him in. The fact that he was a captain of the royal guard didn't exempt him from the process, but it certainly helped to sped it up.

Shining Armor walked into the throne room and looked to Celestia as he gave her a bow before sitting back.

Celestia spoke first "I think it is fair to assume that you are here to find out more about what Twilight seems to have gotten herself into."

Shining Armor looked at Celestia and didn't bother answering her question, she knew the answer. Instead he simply said "nopony ever told me that grief felt so much like fear."

"You fear for your sister's safety, it is only natural. I too worry for her but there is a search party getting her now. I cannot say what she has been through since she has been there but that is why I sent Philomena" Celestia told Shining Armor.

Having answered most of his questions Shining Armor had one more left unanswered. "Why wasn't I chosen to lead the mission? I volunteered and would have been happy to go."

Celestia sighed before answering his question. "This kind of thing is a very delicate manner. I had you stay simply because I thought if you had gone you would fight anypony who got in your way, which isn't a bad thing if I may add. What I mean to say is that your mind would be clouded and you might do something you'd regret while you were there. Being unable to focus on anything until she is back and that could get the both of you hurt very badly."

"What do you mean? Are the ponies of this land really that unreasonable?" Shining Armor asked, more curious than angry. He knew that when Celestia made decisions they were in the best interest of everypony. If Celestia thought Twilight would be safer with him staying behind then who was he to argue, no matter how much he wished he could have gone.

"Unfortunately yes. The reasons I allowed her friends to go is simply because, as the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, I believe they might be able to Make peace a little easier than and angry older brother just trying to get his sister back" Celestia said with a slight smile at Shining Armor. "And just between you and me, that is the reason I stayed behind as well. If somepony there had hurt her I might do something I would regret. And between the search team and Twilight I'm sure they are getting noticed and measures must be taken to secure relations with this place and fighting wouldn't exactly help."

Shining Armor nodded at Princess Celestia's words. It seemed they were enough to satisfy him, at least for now.