In the morning, Derpy, Emerald, and Rarity met together at the ruined railway station. “I trust you slept well?” asked Rarity, a smile on her face.
Derpy nodded, while Emerald raised a hoof and wiggled it noncommittally. “Eh… I’ve had worse, but no, it wasn’t great.”
Rarity looked her over. “Oh, dear. Is something amiss?”
Emerald shrugged. “I think it’s just because I wasn’t comfortable. Not used to sleeping on the floor. But don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” She smirked. “So then, miss Rarity. What’s our heading?”
Rarity looked at Derpy. “She’s going to be like this the whole time, isn’t she?”
“Aye ma’am!” Derpy shouted with a quick salute. “It’ll be all ‘arr’s and ‘swab the mizzenmast’s from here on out.”
Emerald chuckled. “You swab the poop deck. The mizzenmast needs raised.”
Rarity sighed. “Very well then, our ‘heading’ is that way.” She pointed down the tracks. “We’ll be getting a ride on aa zeppelin in Canterlot, which will take us into the badlands. From there it’s just a short jaunt to Klugetown, where we’ll be planning the second half of our route.”
“Alrighty. Onwards, to adventure!” Emerald shouted, thrusting a foreleg forward grandly.
“Adventure… anytime now,” Emerald muttered as she trudged through an abandoned tunnel.
“Emerald, I know you had to make your way from Ponyville to Canterlot on your last adventure too,” Rarity said. “And I don’t believe for a minute that you made better time back in the Day of Winter.”
“No, but the occasional blizzards and climbing cliffs made it feel like part of the adventure, not like a break in the action that just kept going for hours.” Emerald groaned. “Nothing’s happened the whole way! No storms, no bandits, no-”
“Do you want to have danger beset us on all sides?” Rarity asked in exasperation.
“Well… Maybe? Not too much, just enough to keep things interesting.”
“Miss Emerald, life is not one of your stories. Sometimes you can go on a trip and not have to face down horrid threats the whole way. Frankly I’m glad that we didn’t run into anything.”
“I guess.”
“If it makes you feel better, I’m sure that things won’t be this easy once we leave Equestria.”
Derpy nodded. “Yeah. This is just the part that happens out of focus!”
Rarity picked up her pace to leave her new companions alone for a bit. “I swear,” she muttered under her breath, “These may just be my strangest partners yet.”
When the sun reached its peak they all decided to stop and have lunch. Emerald just cleared the sticks off of a patch of ground and sat right down. She had expected Rarity to be the slowest, but instead that role fell to Emerald. Again. Rarity hadn’t even seemed winded until about ten minutes back. Emerald watched as Derpy expertly built a fire and Rarity lit it with her magic.
“Look,” she began, getting the other’s attention. “I know that I’m not exactly built for cross country hiking, and I knew Derpy was. But I was not expecting to be holding a fashionista back on a hike. Rarity, how are you this tough?”
“Have you ever tried dancing in a corset?”
Emerald sighed. “I trained for months, and I’m still the slowest member of the team. It’s great that you aren’t holding us back, but… I really wanted to feel like a proper adventurer, and instead I’m faced with yet another reason I shouldn’t even be here.” She folded her forelegs and laid her head on them.
Rarity set a foreleg on her back. “Dear, just because you’re not as good at endurance as us, it doesn’t make you any less important on this team.” Rarity paused for a moment. “You’re from Manehattan, correct?”
“Yeah, I… Wait. How did you know that?”
“It’s your accent, darling. It’s rather… distinct.”
Emerald snorted. “You can say ‘unrefined’,” and she made sure to enunciate the last word in a perfect Central Equestrian accent. “I can talk normal, I just don’t bother most of the time. I do my business in Manehattan, and nopony minds none there. And I ain’t gonna speak on ceremony for an adventuring companion, even if they are a fancy Canterlot type.”
Rarity stepped into her field of view and shook her head. “No, dear, and I wasn’t asking you to. It does sound a tad… uneducated, but since you’re a librarian, I figured you would likely have had a good education anyway.”
Emerald sighed. “Ponies call me that sometimes, but I keep telling them that they’ve got it all wrong. I run a bookstore, not a library. Now that I’m apparently a hero of the realm, I expect them to get it right.”
“Ah. I’ll be sure to let the right ponies know.”
“Wait, did the official sources really get that wrong?”
“Well…” Derpy interjected. “We really weren’t here very long. How many people did you tell?”
Emerald felt her cheeks redden. “Well, if you count Fluttershy being in the room… two.”
“Yes,” Rarity continued. “And you were telling Pinkie. I may have only known her for a little while, but I can already tell you not to trust her to relay an idea without some warping.”
And they kept talking the whole time that Derpy cooked their beans.
As they exited a railway tunnel they saw Canterlot rising up ahead of them. Emerald paused to take in the view, and the others stopped beside her.
“It does look rather fetching, the way it catches the evening light, doesn’t it?” Rarity asked.
“Did you know this is the exact place that we stopped to prepare for the infiltration of Canterlot?”
“Really?” Rarity asked, looking at her.
Emerald grinned. Time for a story of their exploits! This was an adventure-y thing she was sure she could do. “We had just trekked through miles of blizzards and swarms of changelings in our pursuit of the heart of their power.” She thrust a hoof out to encompass the nearby city. “Canterlot!”
“Miles of blizzards? I thought the blizzards were rather more scattered than that?” Rarity asked.
“How many changelings are in a swarm?” Derpy added. “I don’t think we saw more than a few dozen. Those seem like kind of small swarms.”
Emerald raised an eyebrow at them. “It’s an adventurer’s tale. It’s supposed to be exaggerated.”
“Oh. Okay then!” Derpy cheerfully shot back.
“Very well then. I shall try to suspend my disbelief until you finish your tale. It does sound interesting.”
Emerald continued her tale, complete with hoof gestures. “As we surveyed our goal, we saw how thick their patrols were, and we saw their great shield blotting out the sky! But just as we thought all hope was lost, our brilliant leader revealed her clever plan. Starlight had perfected a race change spell! Thanks to her spell, and Perfect Timing’s knowledge of spy work and changelings she picked up from Inky, we were able to safely infiltrate the city.” Emerald tapped a hoof on the ground. She needed to look into learning a simple illusion like the ones that old fashioned bards used to illustrate their stories.
“And, of course, the fact that several of their nearby settlements had been attacked by Daring Do and her companions,” Rarity reminded her.
“Of course. How remiss of me to neglect our brave allies who volunteered as the smokescreen for our scheme,” Emerald said with a bow. “How could I forget? Both my idol and our current quest giver were there.” She grinned. “But that is in the past. Today we march on Canterlot, not as spies, but as heroes!” She thrust a foreleg forward in what she hoped was an epic pose. “Tonight we board the ship that will bear us into the great unknown!”
Derpy stepped in front of her and gave her a hoofbump on the outstretched limb. Rarity just shook her head and chuckled.
When they reached the city all three of them were surprised to find that there did not appear to be any form of perimeter security. Rarity had known that Shining Armor had moved to Manehattan, along with the rest of the royal guards, but she had expected the changelings to maintain a guard at the main entrance. Now they didn’t just have a few scattered ponies who hated them but were unlikely to be foolish enough to attack. They also had the Hive Loyalists to contend with. And yet the security was lowered not just from the occupation, but also lower than it had been under pony rule in peacetime. It made no sense!
As they walked further into Canterlot, Rarity noticed that there didn’t seem to be any patrols either. “I can’t believe it,” she said, stopping to stomp her hoof in consternation.
“Believe what?”
“What’s that?”
“They don’t have any security in Canterlot. I see a lot of changelings, and a hoof-full of what appear to be ponies, but not a single guard.”
“Yeah, I don’t believe that for a moment, either,” Emerald said.
Derpy tilted her head up to the sky and looked as though she were working out a particularly difficult problem.
“Whatever do you mean?” Rarity asked.
“Well, I only know one changeling very well, but they are a law enforcement officer, rather than a soldier or a civilian, so let’s start with them. When Inky took over the obvious sheriff’s badge sign for the sheriff’s office had just been taken down. The obvious thing to do would have been to replace it with a similar sign, but instead she painted ‘Sheriff's Office’ on the doorframe so that you had to walk up to the building to discover its true purpose. Under her leadership neither she nor her deputy wear their badges on obvious display. And she wears disguises for stakeouts so that her marks don’t see the same pony watching them for more than one day in a row, nor does that pony bear the appearance of the sheriff.
“And they work in Ponyville. Not the national capital. So no, I don’t believe that this city is devoid of guards. They probably just pretend to be regular ponies. Or, well, whatever you call changelings.”
“Lings,” answered the changeling who had been sleeping on the bench near where they had stopped, a book open on his lap and a sun hat covering his eyes. “These theoretical guards you propose exist, would be pretending to be regular ponies and lings.”
“You’re one of them, aren’t you?” Emerald asked.
“Maybe. Or maybe I was just relaxing until you started talking right next to me. And I’d probably say the same thing either way.”
“Oh, you’re good,” Emerald said, backing away and lowering her eyes as she grinned.
The trio continued walking until they reached the center of town, where Rarity noticed that Emerald seemed to be heading for the castle. “Dear, the docks are this way,” she pointed out.
“Oh, are we heading straight for the docks?” Emerald asked. “I thought that we’d do some exploring and sightseeing first. See how things have changed.”
Rarity pondered her suggestion. She needed to head straight to the docks to reserve them a spot, but the others didn’t need to join her. Besides, she had an errand of her own that she wanted to do privately anyway. “I’ll go set things up at the docks, you two look around town and meet me at the docks at sunset.”
“Okay!” Derpy called back cheerfully, already cantering off towards the castle.
“I wonder what she’s so excited about?” Emerald muttered, rubbing her chin with a foreleg. As Rarity set off for the docks, Emerald shook her head and followed Derpy’s trail.
When Rarity got to the docks she beheld the largest zeppelin she had ever seen, being loaded with supplies by a crew of changelings and earth ponies, with pegasi and unicorns notably absent. The changelings were dressed in the same armor as the elite soldiers of the Old Hive, but they had painted it a dull yellow. The earth ponies were wearing standard E.U.P. armor, and one of them walked up to meet her before she reached the ship.
“I’m sorry ma’am, but this is a delicate operation, and there are no civilians allowed on this pier.”
“Has Miss Fleur spoken with you about the possibility of taking on three additional passengers to the ba-”
The guard shook his head tightly and leaned in. “Yes, but keep your voice down,” he hissed. “You never know who’s listening.” He leaned back. “Yes, we can take the three of you as far as the Crystal Empire, but you’ll have to make it to Yakyakistan on your own. Tight schedule, and all that.”
Rarity nodded. “Of course. And could my friends and I stay onboard tonight? I have a feeling that both of them would be thrilled to stay aboard a royal ship.”
“As long as they don’t wander around, or make a racket, they can come on board anytime from sunset to dawn.”
“You’re a remarkably quick learner, given that you aren’t a specialist in illusions or magic, Miss Emerald,” said the instructor, a gray stallion with a black mane.
“Well, I never could have learned so much in an hour by myself,” Emerald answered, somewhere between proud and embarrassed from the praise.
“True, but neither can I just teach any random unicorn off the street this much in an hour. You will need to keep practicing, but I have full confidence that you’ll master this spell within the month, if your dedication does not waver.”
“And my schedule permits,” Emerald added. “I’ll make sure to practice at least an hour a week, though!”
“Hmph. An hour a day would be best, or every other day, if you truly cannot spare the time.” He sighed. “But I suppose, since this is merely your hobby,” he seemed to spit the word out like he couldn’t stand its taste, “once a week might do.”
Emerald forced a smile and began backing away. “Well, thanks for all your help. I’d better be off, I’ve got a busy day tomorrow.”
“Yes, quite,” the instructor replied with a tight frown.
Emerald left–nay, fled–from the house, heading to the docks with as much haste as she could while trying to be inconspicuous.