The Lost World

The Lost World

Chapter 2

By: Bairiko

From the desk of Her Royal Highness Princess Celestia of Equestria,

To whomever receives this letter, you have been chosen to attend a very important meeting with Myself and my sister, Princess Luna in the capital city of Canterlot one week after Winter Wrap-up. Your presence is not required but would be greatly appreciated as the skills and experience you bring would be greatly beneficial to this meeting and what it entails. As this is a classified meeting I will not be sharing the nature of the meeting just yet.

Enclosed you will find one ticket voucher. Present this to the train conductor/airship captain for a ticket directly to Canterlot.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

Spring had just begun in the town of Ponyville. The weather pegasi were working hard to make sure the sun was shining as much as possible, warming the land for the ponies who lived there. All around you could see smiling ponies, singing birds, and blooming flowers.

Rarity adjusted her hat as she trotted down the road from her boutique, a set of saddlebags on her back and a large suitcase behind her floating in her magic. She was on her way to the town library to meet up with some of the girls before setting off to Canterlot.

"Hey Rares!" Rarity stopped and looked in the direction of the familiar voice.

Coming down the road towards her was Applejack, her trademark stetson resting on the back of her neck instead of on her head and a pair of almost empty saddlebags strapped to her back.

"Good afternoon Applejack. I see you are packing lightly." Rarity said, waiting until the farmer caught up with her before carrying on.

"Of course, we're only goin' up ta Canterlot fer a meeting aren't we?" Applejack said, giving the full saddlebags and floating suitcase of her friends an odd look.

"I do hope so but I would like to stay for the day as well. If we are only there for a meeting, that would mean we might be able to explore the city!" Rarity had stars sparkling in her eyes at this. "I hope Twilight might be willing to play tour guide again, we didn't exactly get the chance to explore the other times we were there."

"Oh no, hold it right there missy!" Applejack gave Rarity a mild glare. "Ah ain't gettin' dragged along on one of yer frou-frou shoppin' trips. If we do explore Canterlot ah want it to be something fun for all of us."

Awe. but watching you and Rainbow Dash browse high fashion would be almost too funny, Rarity thought to herself, chuckling lightly. But I digress, the trip would be a great deal more fun if we found something we all enjoy.

"Say, have you seen RD or Pinkie?" Applejack asked as they approached the town centre.

"I believe Rainbow said she was going to help Fluttershy finish a few things." Rarity said, looking towards their treehouse destination. "She also said Pinkie was busy and that they would meet us at the station."

The two mares walked side by side into the heart of Ponyville, on their way to meet up with their dear friend Twilight.

As the library got closer they saw Twilight talking with Spike at the door to the library. The young dragon seemed to be arguing with Twilight over something.

"Come on Twilight, you know you have everything already, we went through five separate checklists just to make sure the first checklist was right!" Spike huffed, glaring at the checklist floating in front of him.

"Spike, this is important! The Princess said she wants us because of our skills! I have to make sure everything is perfect for this!" Twilight was almost yelling as she checked over the brand new checklist to check to make sure the other checklists checked the first checklist right.

"Twilight darling, we got those letters almost two months ago!" Rarity said, trotting up behind the fidgeting lavender unicorn. "Please don't tell me you're panicking again?"

"Yeah, Ah don't think the library can handle much more o' yer fits." Applejack said, shuddering at the memory of the ride she and the rest of the girls had to go on when Twilight made the library jump higher than the tallest building in Ponyville.

"Oh, hey there girls. You don't have to worry about me, I'm fine!" Twilight said, a bit too fast to be believable.

"Come now Twi, the Princess did say we didn't have to go, so it cain't be all that important." Applejack said, rubbing Twilights back.

"Of course it's important AJ! The Princesses don't summon ponies for no reason whatsoever! And it's about a classified subject no less!" Twilight snapped, throwing Applejacks hoof from her back.

"Twilight, come here for a minute if you would." Rarity ushered the anxious unicorn over. "Alright Twilight, just calm down. Remember that breathing trick Cadence showed you? Breath in, breath out." Rarity helped Twilight through the motions.

"Breath in!" Twilight said, bringing her hoof to her chest. "Breath out." She stretched her hoof in front of her. "Just breath in, breath out."

After a few seconds of this, Twilight was visibly calmer. Spike took this as his chance, "So, does this mean we don't need this new checklist?"

"No Spike, we don't. And sorry girls, I don't know what got into me there." Twilight said, looking sheepishly at the mass of checklists in the dragons claws.

"Eh don't worry about it sugarcube, it's all fine." All the girls knew that Twilight could be perfectly calm and collected most of the time, but if there were ever the chance of disappointing Celestia Twilight could go almost completely insane trying to fix it.

"Are you all set to go Twilight?" Rarity asked. Twilight only had a small set of saddlebags on her, most likely filled with parchment and notes on anything she could think of that the princesses might need.

"I'll be fine, after all I used to live there, I'm sure I can still get anything else I need from my old room at the castle." Twilight started to walk away, but stopped when Spike spoke up.

"Hey Rarity! Do you need any help with your bags? I could give you a hand easy!" Spike scrambled over and tried to grab the saddlebags off Rarities back.

"Oh no you don't!" Spike was levitated off the ground before he reached Rarity and floated back towards the library. "You said you'd watch the library, and you couldn't help any customers if you're dragging bags back and forth to the train station." Twilight stated.

Spike was about to argue when a pristine white hoof shushed him. "I'm perfectly fine Spike, but thank you for being such a gentlecolt and offering." Rarity said with a smile. "Now, why don't you go back inside? I'll be sure to get you a large sapphire while we're gone."

Spike nodded once and headed back into the library. The three mares set off towards the train station once again.

The three mares were chatting about how their days had been as they approached the train station. Applejacks brother, Big Macintosh had done practically all the chores for her so she could make the train. Rarity had finished a custom suit for a well to do pony in Manehatten and had to turn down another offer due to the meeting. And Twilight had picked over practically every book in the library to make sure she had the answer to any question that popped up while in Canterlot. When they entered the station proper however a pink blur slammed into Rarity, knocking her hat off her head, where it landed on the pile of limbs below.

"Ohmygosh there you girls are! I was wondering when you would arrive but since I only got here like five minutes ago I didn't have to wonder long but now that you're all here I can finally give everyone their 'We got invited to the castle for a super important meeting' cupcakes! I baked them myself this morning which is why I couldn't come with you-" Pinkies rambling was cut off by a cyan hoof crammed in her mouth, but despite this she still continued to try and talk.

"Sheesh Pinkie, we've been here longer then you have." The owner of the hoof, Ponyvilles own Rainbow Dash, motioned towards herself and the pegasus behind her. Turning to the others she said, "What took you guys so long? Me 'n' 'Shy have been sitting here for half an hour already."

"Uh, Rainbow. We're on time, so you were here early." Applejack said, glancing at the clock while Rainbow popped her hoof out of Pinkies mouth and wiping it off on her pair of light saddlebags.

"Oh, well, it's alright Rainbow." Fluttershy, the butter-yellow pegasus said from behind her pink mane, "If you hadn't been there to help, we might have been the ones half an hour late."

"I'm sure you would have been just fine by yourself 'Shy, but does anypony here know when the train leaves anyways?" Rainbow ask while swooping back to her seat across from Fluttershy.

"We'll go ask." Twilight, Rarity and Applejack went and got in line behind a mint green unicorn mare at the ticket counter, but not before Rarity grabbed her hat from Pinkies head and stuffed it in her saddlebags.

She looks oddly familiar, Twilight thought, looking at the mares lyre cutie-mark. I swear I've seen her before.

"Lyra dear!" Rarity said, stepping in front of Twilight to talk to the unicorn. "It's so good to see you again darling. How is Bon-bon doing?" Something clicked in Twilights head at the name.

I know I've met her before, Lyra...Lyra Heatstrung? Before Twilight could think further, the mare turned around and smiled at Rarity.

"Oh! Hey Rarity! She's doing just fine thanks, but what are you doing here?" The unicorn, now identified as Lyra looked around, like she was just now noticing the other patrons.

"I've been summoned by the Princess!" Rarity gushed. "Oh this is so exciting, I mean I've met her before, but this is the first time the world wasn't in danger it seems."

Lyra looked confused. "Wait a second, you've been summoned by the Princesses as well?" She floated a very familiar looking letter from her shoulder bag. "You didn't happen to get one of these did you?"

"Why yes darling, you mean to tell me you've been summoned as well?" Rarity read over the letter, confirming it was the same as the one she and the others got as well.

Before Lyra could say anything, they were interrupted by a shout from behind them.

"Ah-ha!" Twilight exclaimed. "I remember you now! You're Lyra Heartstrings! We shared a Philosophy course back in Canterlot. You majored in Mythology and its effects on world history." By now Twilight was back in front of Rarity, talking to Lyra face to face. "I didn't know you lived in Ponyville now."

"Oh hey Twilight! Yeah, I originally came here for the Summer Sun Celebration back when Night Mare Moon was still an old ponies tale." Lyra chuckled, "But it's amazing how things change huh? I met up with a really old friend who moved here years ago. Yeah, me and Bon-bon go way back." Lyra paused with a far off look in her eyes.

Rarity and Twilight exchanged looks. "Uh, Lyra? You were summoned by the Princesses as well, right?" Rarity lightly tapped Lyra on the shoulder.

"Huh? OH!" Lyra jumped, a blush on her cheeks. "Sorry about that, but yeah it was strange. When I got this letter about a month and a half ago, I couldn't believe it!" Lyra started hopping in place, grinning hugely. "Not many other ponies can say they've been summoned by TWO separate princesses!"

"Uh, girls? We're at the end of the line ya know." Applejack had been standing there awkwardly the entire time, unsure if she should say anything until she noticed the ticket stallion glaring at them.

"Oh goodness! We are SO sorry to have kept you waiting dear sir." Rarity said, smiling nervously. "But can we get three, wait no, four tickets to Canterlot please?" Rarity presented the stallion with her ticket voucher, followed shortly by Twilight, Applejack and Lyra. "We can talk more on the train Lyra."

"Next train leaves in ten minutes ladies, just so ya know." The cream coloured stallion said, handing over the tickets and tearing up the vouchers. "Please be ready on the platform."

Fifteen minutes later all seven ponies were sitting on the train, waiting to get under way to Canterlot.

"So did anypony think to grab a snack or something or are we gonna have to buy some food from the train?" Rainbow Dash looked around at the girls.

"OH I KNOW!" Pinkie shouted before diving under Fluttershys seat, earning a terrified squeak from the timid mare.

"...uh, okay?" Before she could carry on, Pinkie reappeared from under Twilights seat with four tubs of ice cream and seven bowls. She hoofed over a bowl to everypony present and started dishing out the ice cream.

"...Okay, this works too I guess." The weather mare said before forsaking the spoon and diving right into her ice cream. "Train food is so expensive."

And with that the train pulled away from the station, steaming along the tracks towards the mountains and Canterlot at beyond. None of the girls knew what they were being summoned for but they all started talking about potential topics for the meeting. At least they were until Twilight noticed something peculiar about the bowl she was eating from.

"Uh, Pinkie, where did you get some of MY bowls from?"

Finally! A few days all to myself. Spike thought to himself as he finished cleaning up the library. Twilight had left about half an hour earlier and Spike set out to do all his chores now so he could do whatever he wanted in the meantime.

Hehe, she can't get mad at me for eating ice cream all day if she's not here now can she? Spike casually walked into the kitchen, taking all the time in the world before popping the freezer open and reaching in to grab one of the tubs of ice cream Twilight kept there.

But there wasn't any.

"OH COME ON!"