Even the Strong Need Help

Twilight was definitely feeling the urge to speak up at the moment. But each time she glanced over in Thunder's direction in preparation to try and break the ice, she found her voice failing her and the half-formed words never seeming able to get past her throat in order to be spoken out loud.

His cart full of supplies had been secured away snugly in the baggage car for transport -much to the conductor's apparent chagrin- and the two of them had found their respective seats on opposite sides of the aisle to get settled in for the trip, so at least there was that.

That'd been the good part of this whole matter. Now it was onto the weird part of, well, everything about the current situation. And a lot of that weirdness seemingly related to Thunder himself.

She'd only been in his presence for a few minutes, so she knew that it was entirely possible her initial assessments were incorrect by being based on incomplete information, but there was something about him that just felt... incredibly off.

How to codify and quantity what that "offness" would amount to in round terms, was proving to be a bit of a mystery in itself. That was just proving to make this entire matter harder to address.

Maybe it'd be best if she simply let him break the silence when he was ready to actually do so, rather than force the issue by trying to do it for him. Right now he just seemed content to just sit there silently as he looked out the train's window as the scenery went by. Not that there was anything wrong with that. Sometimes a pony just needed some quiet time to themselves in order to decompress and sort out their thoughts.

Pleasant scenery along the way certainly couldn't hurt either.

Although her thoughts were interrupted as a tingling sensation made itself known to her, as a scroll materialized just ahead and above her.

The sound of the scroll appearing seemed sufficient to snap him out of whatever his thoughts had been at the moment, with his head whipping around to look in her direction.

"Is there a problem, Ma'am? Has something happened?" he asked, his body already in the process of tensing up as if he was expecting to have to leap into action at a second's notice.

Curious, she opened the scroll and scanned over its contents, wondering herself just what'd happened during her absence.

Dear Twilight,

Have you met with the guard yet?

When you do, can you see if he has any food allergies we should know about? We still have a few hours to make some batches of Mrs. Cakes homemade chocolate covered peanut butter cookies, and I'd hate to make them for a pony who can't eat them.

Pinkie

Reading this, she relaxed. And now she at least had a legitimate reason to try talking with him.

"No, it's not a problem or anything like that. Pinkie just wanted to double check about whether or not you had any food allergies is all," she explained as she shook her head.

"... None that I'm aware of, Ma'am," he replied after a long pause in thought.

She looked back down at the note, before quickly reaching into her saddle bag to pull out a pencil to scribble out a response and sending it along its merry way back to Spike.

Now with that done, she could turn her attention to other matters. Which, in theory at least, should be made all the easier by the fact the two of them had actually spoken about something.

"You know, Lieutenant, there's really no need for you to be so formal when addressing me," she explained.

"Palace regulations specify otherwise, Ma'am. In addition to being the star pupil of Her Highness, you're sister to former-Captain Shining Armor, and technically qualify as royalty by extension of his marriage. As a Royal Guard it would be entirely inappropriate for me to address you in any other fashion that might suggest a sense of familiarity," he explained in turn.

The urge to frown was certainly there. But she resisted it, knowing that it wouldn't be appropriate right now. And sensing that she and the girls had their work cut out for them.

"Firstly, they're guidelines, not regulations," she pointed out softly. "Secondly, even if they were actual regulations and not merely guidelines, they would only apply to your conduct when you're actually on duty, or otherwise acting in an official capacity, which you currently aren't. You're under no obligation to be keeping yourself so rigid all the time."

"Understood, Ma'am."

The urge to frown could be resisted, but not the urge to sigh. Now she was starting to get an idea of what Celestia had been talking about in their letters.

"Lieutenant-" she started, but immediately stopped herself once again, and slowly shook her head. "Listen to me. I'm trying to explain that you don't have to be so formal when addressing others. And yet here I am, addressing you by your rank and not extending you the same sort of courtesy. It's incredibly rude of me, and I'm really sorry about that."

"It's not a problem, Ma-"

"Thunder," Twilight interrupted, "please don't call me "Ma'am" anymore? Can you just call me Twilight like everypony else does? Please?" she asked.

There was a pause, no immediate response from him as he just sat there, looking not exactly at her, but more off into space in her general area as if he were deep in thought and trying to make sense of something.

"I... think that I can do that," he replied slowly as he turned his attention back towards her and nodded. "... Twilight."

She smiled. It was small, but at least it was something to suggest they might actually be getting somewhere.

"Thank you. Thunder."

All too easily, though, the silence returned to the train car, with him once again turning his attention back out the windows, watching as the scenery passed by. Maybe she should try again.

"So... Thunder, what're you looking forward to most about your vacation?"

He didn't immediately respond as he turned back towards her, once again looking like he was deep in thought, trying to figure out what the best response would be.

"Returning to the palace and a sense of normalcy," he eventually replied. "Something that I'm actually familiar with."

"... I actually had a similar feeling myself. Back when Princess Celestia sent me to Ponyville under the guise of overseeing preparation for the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration," she admitted. "In a way it's kind of funny. I spent so much time fretting about being away from Canterlot where I thought I could do the most good, be of the most use... and when I finally have the option of returning, I don't want to because of the friends I'd made along the way, who helped me see there was so much more to life than I'd initially assumed."

"... Did you have any contingency plans in mind, in the event that something went wrong?"

The question had caught her off guard. Primarily because it'd been asked of her in such an unprompted fashion. To her, it almost looked like he was actually taking an interest in the conversation.

"I can't say that I did," she confessed, "I was just a simple scholar, without the resources on hoof that'd be needed for a situation of that magnitude. There really wasn't much that I could do on my own; which was why it was so important that I tried to make Princess Celestia understand just how serious the matter was. Little did I know at the time that she did understand, and had prepared accordingly.

"Looking back on it all, sometimes I feel like an idiot for thinking the way I did about everything, and believing she was dismissing my concerns out of hoof as if I were a rambling lunatic. I was... really arrogant in my beliefs at the time."

She'd expected him to offer up some sort of response, but was met with just silence and an expressionless sort of look. As much a blank and non-judgemental look as if she'd just whispered something embarrassing to one of Rarity's ponnequins.

"What about you? Did the royal guards have any sort of, er, contingency plans in place, in the event that something went wrong?"

He shook his head in response. "Officially the Royal Guard took no actions that would run counter to our orders from Her Highness on how she wished to proceed."

"And... unofficially?" she asked. "I know it's not any of my business, and I'll certainly understand if you don't want to discuss it. But I just don't think you would've brought the matter up out of the blue for no reason."

He looked back at her, but then looked elsewhere throughout the car, glancing at the few other passengers and where they presently were, in a manner that suggested unease and suspicion, as if whatever he had to say was a matter of national security itself.

"I can't speak on behalf of anypony else on the matter. Only for myself," he spoke, his voice soft and low to the point that she almost had to strain to hear him. "In the weeks leading up to Nightmare Moon's return, after my shifts were over for the day, I studied Old Ponish in the palace library at night."

"You learned how to speak Old Ponish?" she asked.

He nodded. "Die königliche Garde ist nichts anderes als höflich und zuvorkommend zu anderen. Und was könnte höflicher und zuvorkommender sein, als jemanden in einer Sprache zu begrüßen, die er ohne weiteres versteht?"

Twilight was quite certain her mouth was hanging open as she heard the obviously ancient language being spoken so fluently. The way he spoke made it sound like he took to studying languages, like she did to matter of advanced quantum thaumatic theory.

"So... that was your plan if things didn't work out? To greet Nightmare Moon in the Old Ponish language?" she asked.

"It was the only idea I could come up with," he admitted. "A thousand years ago, Old Ponish was a fairly common and widespread dialect. Today it's a dead language that almost nopony speaks. Whatever transpired, Princess Luna was going to be returning to an Equestria that was vastly different, with only one pony she could actually speak with. I knew that I could never fight an alicorn if the matter arose, but I could at least be somepony else she could converse with."

There was a lot to unpack in that statement, and she didn't know just where to begin with the unpacking process.

Maybe it'd be best to focus on that later, after she'd had time to process everything. For now there were other -possibly less deep- matters that could be better addressed in the time they had.

"Right... um... leaving that matter aside for the moment, is there anything you're looking forward to that doesn't involve getting back to work? Maybe something you've wanted to do, but never had the time or opportunity to actually do it before?"

Again, there was no immediate answer. He just looked like he was deep in thought on the matter, trying to figure out how best to respond to the question.

"The greatest distance I've ever been able to teleport has been between the two furthest points to be found in the palace. It's not really something that I've been able to expand and improve on. Maybe that's something I could focus on."

Yes! Teleportation, something that she was readily familiar with, and could easily assist him with. Now they really were getting somewhere.

"I really don't see why you couldn't," she replied and smiled.

Finally, now she could put her books on the subject to good use by sharing them with somepony else. Somepony who apparently not only had an interest in the subject, but also a talent for the skill of teleporting between points A and B.

This was already looking like it was going to be so much fun!