Jane

Perhaps, for her royal vacation, this could be to her advantage. She loved the ponies of Equestria – this was an undeniable fact. But sometimes their enthusiasm stifled the Princess – she wanted someplace quiet, isolated, and beautiful. After peering over the maps of Equestria and consulting her most trusted advisor, Philomena the Phoenix, she settled on a quiet and undisturbed resort town in the north – the sleepy village of Marelia. With the Eponnine Mountains to its south, and Zherbenok Bay to its north, the village was scenic, idyllic and quiet. It was the perfect place to escape her duties for a few days, relax, spend some time with Philomena and enjoy the peace and quiet of the beautiful resort town.

Of course, in order to avoid any unwanted attention, she keeps her plans secret, and selects only a few of her most trusted guardsponies and courtiers to accompany her. She won’t keep her presence entirely unknown in the town - it is rather difficult for a Princess of her stature to travel incognito. But she does so like surprising her subjects, and would rather not be greeted with the parade and pomp she usually gets for official business. No, this was a vacation and Celestia hoped to be treated as much like any other pony as she possibly could.

After unpacking her belongings and leaving her royal regalia in a small room in the bed & breakfast where she would be staying for her the duration of her visit (much to the utter shock and awe of its proprietors – that had been good fun!), Celestia decides to go for a hike through the mountainous forests to the south of the village. With only Philomena to accompany her, she spreads her wide, white wings, takes to the sky and heads south. The view from the air is breathtaking, as she gazes at the forests and mountain peaks below.

[colour=#B774C5]“Isn’t it just beautiful, Philomena? So different from the spires and marble towers in Canterlot – I have always thought the north of Equestria was blessed with a rich, rugged beauty so often overlooked by ponies in the cities further south.”[/colour]

The phoenix chirps her agreement as the two begin descending towards a rugged hiking trail cut through the trees. As she lands gracefully on the forest floor, Celestia catches sight of a small troupe of three or four hikers approaching them on the trail. She smiles at the rather startled ponies, her amethyst eyes sparkling with mischief. [colour=#B774C5]“Well, good afternoon,”[/colour] she says to them, extending a hoof in greeting. [colour=#B774C5]“It’s so good to see I’m not the only one who enjoys an occasional walk in these beautiful woods. My name is Celestia – and you are?”[/colour]

But she and her daughter Whirligig had booked a week off from the factory were in Fillydelphia for a few days because of a wedding. A dear family friend was to be married in two days time, and Whirligig would be in the bridal party. There was nothing like a wedding for your daughter's best friend, who you'd had over for slumber parties and occasionally foalsat, to make you feel old and to make you feel single.

Speed dating had really been a silly idea, as far as Windygust was concerned, but Whirligig had found a flyer advertising the event among some of Skybright's junk mail, and suggested, in her usual manner, that Windygust attend the event.

She acknowledged the bartender with a smile and a nod as she took a quill in her mouth and set about filling out the form. She didn't put too much thought into her answers, as she could tell she was late and the event would be starting very shortly. In a matter of minutes she gave the scroll (and the quill) back to the bartender, ordered a mug of cider because why not, and was right ready to get started! She took note of her number and waited patiently for it to be called.

Date #2 -

She instead found herself face to face with a rather young and anxious-looking griffon, who gave her a rather nervous wave with his talon.

"Uh.....hi..." he said.

Sweet Celestia this was awkward. Had the form she'd filled out meant nothing? Had the dates just been randomized? Because it appeared to Windygust that the griffon before her would be more suitably matched to her daughter. Oh well, five minutes was five minutes and then the two of them could move on. If nothing else, she could at least have a pleasant conversation with the lad. Yes, that would be the polite thing to do - the mare certainly did not want to complain. She hadn't exactly come into this expecting to meet the stallion of her dreams - she'd been down that road before and it hadn't exactly worked out.

[colour=#23752F]"Well hello,"[/colour] she said with a friendly smile in an attempt to put his nerves at ease, [colour=#23752F]"my name is Windygust. What's yours?"[/colour]

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[colour=#002b54]"And Q R S! And T U V! Still more - W, and X Y Z.

The whole alphabet up the - oh no!

Chicka Chicka...BOOM! BOOM!"[/colour]

At that moment there was a scramble and a clatter as the young griffon tumbled off the Princess's head - leaving a half-eaten teddy bear to fall from his beak and balance precariously on Twilight's nose before landing on the ground before her, causing her to drop the book from her telekinetic grasp and lose her place. Razor, meanwhile, bolted across the room. Twilight's attention was torn away from the book as she watched his crazy antics - he appeared to be chasing a fly. It was a rather adorable sight, but then the fly landed next to the foal, who had up until now been sitting quietly and listening to the story while chewing on the blanky.

[colour=#002b54]"Razor, STOP!"[/colour] Twilight called out, but it was in vain. The griffon, with outstretched talons and sharpened claws pounced on the fly, missed rather dramatically, and grazed the teal pony's flank instead. The sharp, piercing cry of an infant in pain filled the library as Care Package realized he was under attack.

Okay, Twilight Sparkle was really starting to think that this was a bad idea. Either way, it was time for her to take charge of the situation. She picked up the griffon using her magic and held him in the air so that he couldn't get into any more trouble while she examined Care's flank. There were three rather small nicks caused by the griffon's claws - nothing more than scrape that was to be expected from foalhood, but the pony was no doubt in a bit of pain.

[colour=#002b54]"Did that mean old griffon hurt you, Care Package?"[/colour] she asked, pulling her first aid kit over from the kitchen and applying some cream and band-aids to the poor little foal's battle wounds. [colour=#002b54]"There there, now, Princess Twilight Sparkle is here to make it all better - I'll fix you right up!"[/colour] she tried to comfort the little one as best she could.

Now that she thought about it, she was rather fortunate that this was all the foal had suffered. Griffons and ponies weren't much alike, Twilight was learning - she knew all about caring for young ponies, but if the past few minutes were anything to go on, she knew nothing of griffons. They were more aggressive and more energetic - and more dangerous. Claws and talons were sharp, and were a testament to the birds' predatory nature, while there wasn't much damage that could be done with hooves. There wasn't much that Care Package could do to retaliate.

In a huff, she plopped Razor and Care back on the ground, thrusting the toys she'd conjured earlier in their direction. Blocks and blankets and a rattle or two while she approached the book in which she'd found the initial age spell. She would only turn her back for a moment while she looked for the counter-spell, then in a few moments she would turn them back to adults and all would be forgotten and back to normal.

So where was everyone? Rook didn't much like straying too far from the group, but it appeared that most of the dogs weren't in the usual tunnels today. She was actually rather worried about it - had they discovered that these tunnels were unsafe? Maybe they were exhausted?

No, that couldn't be it. Rook had nearly filled her cart with Emeralds, Sapphires and Rubies in the past couple of hours. She did always think she worked better alone. She huffed and grunted as she tore away at the rock walls with her giant paws, freeing two more rubies and a topaz. She smiled to herself - this was turning out to be a successful expedition. It was too bad the others weren't around.

Okay, it had been a couple of hours now. Maybe she should be concerned. Positioning herself behind the overflowing cart, she began pushing at it with her claws as she made her way back towards camp.

The spider caught her attention first. A big, ugly thing that might have made a lesser dog scream. She moved away from the cart for a brief second and swatted at the thing with her tail. But when the creaking of the cart stopped, she picked up a sound. Someone was approaching her, and she couldn't tell if it was another Diamond Dog, or something else.

She stiffened, feeling the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. [colour=#FEE995]"Who go there?"[/colour] she demanded, turning towards the sound of approaching footfalls, her yellow eyes peering into the darkness beyond.[/colour]