Author's Note

Sorry its been a looooong while since I've posted, but life has been busy for a good while... I'll try and do better about making time for writing... hopefully it wound be this long of a stretch before I can post another chapter... Wanted this chapter to be longer, but I have rewritten it half a dozen times... hopefully its not too disappointing. as always, likes, favs and comments are appreciated

Canterlot

The six women and one man stepped out on to the mostly empty platform of the Canterlot Train Station and observed their surroundings. The handful of people who had gotten off the train with them was hurriedly making their way from the area. The group of newcomers gathered their belongings and made towards the building’s exit. As they neared the large wooden doors at the train station’s front, the doors were pushed opened, revealing two guardsmen donning pristine medieval-looking armor, each holding a lance and having a long sword attached to their sides. Tim tensed up and stopped in his tracks as the gold and blue armored men stood at attention, holding the doors open with their backs. The women with him had stopped as well, staring at the guards wide-eyed. Tim slowly slid his right foot out and behind him, taking a defensive stance while glancing back and forth between the two men. Just as he was about to slide his pack off his shoulder, a tall woman with pink, purple and yellow hair dressed in a regal pink gown walked through the doorway, a deadpan look upon her face.

“Cadence!” Twilight exclaimed as she dropped her bag and rushed forward to hug the cotton-candy haired woman. A smile spread across the new woman’s face as she wrapped her arms around Twilight and hugged her back tightly.

“Twilight,… it’s so good to see you.” Cadence released her embrace on Twilight and held her at arm’s length, her hands resting on Twilight’s shoulders. She turned her gaze to Twilight’s companions, smiling at each of them. “I’m glad you could all come here to Canterlot. I hate that it is under such circumstances, but hopefully we can get to the bottom of what in the world is going on here.” She removed her hands from Twilight and slowly walked over and stood before Tim. Cadence smiled softly as she extended her hand to him. “I assume you must be Tim, the man Twilight had told me about. I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, also known as Princess Cadence, Ruler of the Crystal Empire. I want to personally thank you for agreeing to accompany the girls on this mission. Your help is greatly appreciated.”

Tim locked eyes with the woman as he took her hand, shaking it gently. “The pleasure is all mine, Princess. I hope I can help shine some light on whatever has happened to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.” He relaxed his stance as he released Princess Cadence’s hand from his grip and adjusted his pack on his shoulder. The Princess nodded to him slightly and smiled before turning back to the others.

“Ladies, and gentleman, please follow me,… I have a carriage out front waiting to take us to the castle. Once there, we can discuss in private about the events that led up to my aunts’ disappearances.” Cadence walked past her guards, followed by Twilight and her friends, and proceeded to exit the front of the train station to take the short ride to the center of the city.

The ride to the castle was quiet and short. Tim had chosen to ride on the outside of the carriage’s cabin, holding on to the back railing on one corner of the passenger compartment while standing on the rear bumper. Next to him riding on the opposite corner in a similar fashion was third guard who had remained outside the train station with the carriage. Neither of them spoke, much less even looked at each other, as they rode over the cobblestone streets of Canterlot. For such a large city, the streets were eerily silent. The shops and storefronts were already closed for the night, only the soft glow of security lighting emitting from inside. Looking around, Tim only noticed a few of armored guards patrolling the streets and no one else. He was about to ask the guard next to him if this was normal or if some kind of curfew was in place, but he was interrupted as the carriage was slowed to a stop in front of a large steel-banded wooden door in the middle of a white stone wall.

Looking up, Tim saw a pair of golden armored sentries standing atop the wall. They saluted down to the carriage and then signaled behind them to somewhere down inside the barricade. With a low creak, the door split down the middle and swung outwards, opening up to a beautiful and well-lit courtyard. The carriage began to roll again and as they passed through and into the walls interior, Tim couldn’t help but stare at the landscape. He was surrounded by topiaries and statues, most of them in the image of winged horses and unicorns. Inside the wall, the road had smoothed out into a gold-colored brick pathway, lined with rosebushes and various flowering hedges he couldn’t identify. Soon they pulled into a large round-about in front of a towering white, purple and gold castle. In the center of the circular path was a large fountain with a statue of two winged unicorns seemingly flying around each other- both carved out of marble, only one was of pure white and the other a deep shade of blue. They were circling a large golden sun which had a silver crescent moon on a field of blue at its center. Tim was admiring the statue with such awe he hadn’t realized the carriage had come to a complete stop and his traveling companions had already exited and were standing before the steps of the castle.

“Excuse me, uh, Tim?” The awestruck man had his attention diverted from the fountain as he turned to face Princess Cadence. Noticing that she was smiling up at him, Tim stepped down from the carriage and stood before the woman, a slight look of embarrassment on his face. Seeing his expression, Cadence softly chuckled as she placed a hand on the back of his shoulder. “The others have already begun making their way to the throne room,” she said as she began to walk, guiding him along beside her. “Come on, let’s not keep them waiting. We have a lot to discuss.” With that, Tim followed the princess around the carriage and up the stairs to enter the large, purple wooden door of the castle.

Stepping through the doorway, Tim found himself surrounded by the ivory walls of a great room with purple banners trimmed in gold hanging down from the ceilings. Each banner held an emblem similar to the large statue outside, the white and blue unicorns with wings circling the sun and moon. Large, hanging bouquets of lilacs spilled down the walls in between the large stain glass windows. Following the pink-clad princess across the room, they entered a hallway with more of the banners, lilacs and windows. Taking in his surroundings, Tim noticed the scenes displayed in the massive, floor-to-ceiling windows. He saw images of a tall, regal-looking woman in a flowing white gown with a golden glow around her as the sun shone above her head at the end of her outstretched arms. Directly across from that window was another that depicted a shorter, muscular woman clad in black and blue armor with a silver-bladed lance in her hand surrounded by a blue light and a full moon rising behind her. Yet another window showed both women fighting a bizarre looking creature that looked like an assortment of fairy tale monsters all rolled into one.

They pair passed a few more windows with scenes of the same two women in various battles as they made their way to the end of the hallway. “These two women must be Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,” Tim thought to himself as he studied each window, following Princess Cadence toward yet another large, wooden door. Just as the doors were being opened by yet another set of guardsmen, Tim stopped in his tracks as he caught view of the last window just before the door. His eyes grew a bit wider as he realized exactly what he was looking at. In the center of the window was Twilight Sparkle, a large, purple starburst behind her as she appeared to be floating in the air. Surrounding her, he noticed each of his traveling companions were all floating in a similar fashion, each woman encased in an aura of a different color. The women each had a large golden necklace with a jeweled pendant resting upon their chest, all of them a different shape. His eyes were drawn to the image of Applejack and the orange glow surrounding her, noticing that her necklace had an apple shaped ruby at its center. He turned and looked through the doors to see the group of women standing before a platform sporting a pair of large golden chairs, casually talking amongst themselves.

“Well,” Tim said to himself, seeing as how Princess Cadence was now joining the group of women in the throne room. “I guess these here girls are something special,..” He glanced back up at the stained glass window as he adjusted his ball cap before turning to walk in the room and join up with the women inside.

<<<<<<<<

The seven women and one man were now seated at a long table off to one side of the throne room. Again, a map laid before them, marked with all of the recent attacks and crime outbreaks, along with their dates, in the surrounding countryside. Princess Cadence was talking to the group, mainly recapping a lot of the information Twilight had already given him. Tim had drifted his attention away from the conversation and was lost in his own thoughts, his eyes connecting the dots of each attack leading away from Canterlot along the path in which the Royal Sisters had taken. He brought his hand to his chin while squinting his eyes, beginning to develop a theory in his head. He was so occupied in his thought that he didn’t notice that Princess Cadence had asked him a question until he was kicked under the table.

“Ow, damn it!” Tim exclaimed, causing the eyes that were focused on him to widen and his use of profanity in the presence of a Princess. He raised a brow and looked around the table.

“Yes, uh, Tim,…” Cadence began, using a hand to smooth out the front of her gown. “I was asking if you had any suggestions for our course of action. I understand you have quite the background in law enforcement and investigations where you are from. I trust you have some insight that may be very helpful.”

Tim turned from the map and to the princess, taking his hand from his chin. He lifted his cap with one hand and he ran the other through his hair before sighing. Standing up, he pulled his cap back down tight on his head and extended his right hand to the map, pointing at the attacks along the road Princess Celestia and Princess Luna disappeared on.

“This road, these attacks- this was a trap.” Tim waved a hand across the map over the other attack locations in the countryside. “All of these attacks all around Canterlot seem random and scattered, but look at the ones along this road. The same road is the only way to reach all of these locations, and the attacks on this path are more frequent than in the surrounding areas. If ya look at the dates these attacks occurred, it shows that they started further away from the city at first, then getting closer day by day. Everywhere else, the distance from Canterlot in relation to the date of attack is back and forth at random. Not to mention the cities and towns along that road aren’t as significant of a target as others around Canterlot unless you’re trying to draw attention to that area.” Tim tapped his finger on the map at the location the princesses were attacked and apparently kidnapped. “How many days by foot are we away from here?”

“Approximately three to four days,” Princess Cadence began, “maybe a slight bit longer depending on the size of the battalion escorting you all-“

“No troops.” Tim stated flatly. “We need as small of a party as possible to keep suspicions low. I’m willin to bet that there are eyes along that road, as well as here in the city, to see if any forces will be sent out on a search and rescue mission.” Tim looked around the table at the women surrounding him. “From what I understand, this group of gals here will be all we should need to find out what we need to.” His eyes came to a stop when they met Applejack’s emerald stare. He nodded to her and smiled, earning a smile and a tip of her hat in return. “I’m ‘bout certain these women can handle themselves should the need arise.”

Princess Cadence pursed her lips and scrunched her nose as she drummed her fingernails on the table which the map rested. She too scanned the room, looking into the faces of the six women surrounding her before she looked back to Tim. Noticing the woman’s gaze on him, Tim stood up tall and placed his hands behind his back, standing at ease. The two stared into each other’s eyes for a moment before the noble spoke up.

“Very well,” she stated, a slight smile on her lips. “I will forgo gathering troops to accompany you all on this mission. As for your suspicions of spies among us in the city, how would you suggest we address this?”

Tim pointed to Twilight. “I had already spoken with Miss Sparkle about collecting any information she could about the princesses’ schedules and all of those who work for or even close to them. I trust with her desire for lists and researching, she should be able to present us with some useful information in a few days’ time.” Twilight squirmed in her seat and smiled at the mentioning of her getting to do some extensive research on Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

“Oh yes, I should be able to collect a substantial amount of data on the daily on goings of the castle as well as all those who assist the Princesses in their duties.” Twilight said, smiling wide at Princess Cadence. The Princess was about to speak again when the sound of a long, drawn out yawn pierced the air.

All eyes turned to the pink-haired girl who was leaned back in her chair with her eyes closed and her arms stretched out far to her sides. As she leaned her chair back into its appropriate position and opened her eyes, she froze in position noticing the attention of the room was focused on her. “Sorry…” she softly said as she lowered her arms and resumed a lady-like pose in her seat. A soft chuckle from all those seated around the table followed, only to be interrupted by the chime of a large clock on the far wall of the throne room.

“Well, it appears it has gotten rather late.” Princess Cadence said, noticing it was now midnight. “I’m sure you all are requiring some rest. We can continue with this conversation in the morning. Girls, I have no doubt you recall where your rooms are here in the castle. Tim, you may follow the girls to the guest wing, they will show you to a room. I hope you all have a pleasant night’s sleep. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to send for me. I will see you all in the morning.”

The group of women all stood as Princess Cadence walked around the table, stopping to briefly hug each of them before making her way to Tim. She looked into the man’s eyes and extended a hand to him. “Thank you, Tim. It has been a pleasure meeting you, even under these grim circumstances.” Tim took the princess’ hand and shook it delicately as if he was afraid to hurt her. “The pleasure is all mine, Princess. I just hope to be of service to you and help in any way I can.” Tim smiled at the woman as she let go of his hand and then exited the room. Turning to the others, he then followed the remainder of the group out of the throne room and to their beds for the night.