private The Expedition

[Shanashie 39]

The Expedition

 

 

 

Wrapping the sleepy town in an aura of placid warmth, the early morning sun crept along Ponyville’s empty streets and glinted off the windows of closed stores.  Unlike the surrounding farmland, whose diligent owners had been awake long before the cockerel crowed, the township was still cradled in Luna’s realm of dreams.  All except one young mare, who stepped through the creaking doors of ‘The Buck and Barrel’ inn and took a deep breath of morning dew.  Beneath Celestia’s iridescent sun a rich butterscotch mane shimmered like velvet, still damp with the reminisce of her refreshing shower.  Even her light pinto coat appeared almost as amber as the youthful eyes that drew in serenity of the silent town.

 

Feeling the moment pass and her senses fully roused to meet the new day, Peanut Butter adjusted her saddle bags, checked the pack was secured properly across her withers and tilted back her straw hat to set her sights on the road ahead.  As she trotted towards the yawning fields of green boarding the town’s southernmost edge, she found her mind once again dwelling on the momentous opportunity ahead of her. Only a week ago she had been running around the Mild-West, trekking for days at a time across dusty prairie in search of lost Buffalo burial sites.  

 

Whilst Peanut was not blind to insulting intention of the posting, she had always seen the frontier as an adventure and a half. Of course her opinion had gradually become less enthused by the end of the sixth month of chasing rummer and folk tales, but the stories she had come out with! Buffalo were truly fascinating, even if the crust of Canterlot showed little interest in her excitable papers on the matter.

 

Returning from such an unsavoury task, she half expected to find herself relegated to some archivist post to keep her out of the way.  Imagine the filly’s surprise then when a professor handed her an invitation to take part in the greatest scientific expedition of her generation!  She had been nominated for the team investigating the old capital of Equestria, the fabled ‘Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters’, deep in the Everfree forest.  That relic of a bygone age was practically overflowing with artifacts, lost archives and ancient architecture, all preserved by the sickly magic that had branded the surroundings a truly wild environment.  

 

It had taken almost a day for her to stop hyperventilating.

 

Now that the young field researcher’s glee had finally calmed to a minimal bubbling anticipation, she couldn't help but wonder ‘why me’?  Not that she was ungrateful for the opportunity or anything, just having her name on the team list would see her reputation improve ten fold, but there must have been a dozen more of experienced linguistics experts and cryptographers that would be a better choice than her for a mission of such historical importance.

 

 As the base camp came into view, the pinto briefly shivered at the thought that some of those very ponies would probably be in the team with her.  After years of being the ignorable thorn in the frog of the archaeology community, she’d actually be rubbing withers with some of the great names of her chosen field... hmm, maybe that wasn't such a good thing.. oh well.

 

With a barely noticeable prance in her step, Field Assistant Peanut Butter finally entered the boundary of the half packed camp, and was immediately stopped by the sight of several armoured clad ponies mingling within their own segment of the camp.  Whist she had expected some manner of protection against the forest’s less huggable fauna, this seemed a bit much considering they’d have a local guide to keep them from the most dangerous paths.  There must have been more than a dozen well equipped guards, almost half the number of researchers and far to official looking to be a simple security force.  

 

“Are you lost, Ma’am?” Asked a deep voice, its tone utterly devoid of enthusiasm or humour.

 

Snapping from her contemplative trance, Peanut turned her head to acknowledge the Earthpony guard that had spontaneously appeared behind her.  “Hmm..What? Oh, not exactly no.  Just surprised to see so many of you here.  Glad to see the government take the search for lost history seriously, given they usually treat it like a bag of live snakes.”

 

“The Crown always takes always takes matters of national security seriously Ma’am.”  Replied the guard levelly “I'm going to have to ask you to move along though, we’ll be moving out soon.  Is there anything I can do for you?”

 

Peanut blinked momentarily at the stallion’s choice of phrasing.  It sounded as though the expedition had received some royal attention, perhaps even an extended grant!

“Right, yeah.  Umm, well I am looking for lead Archivist, that's the chap in charge of the expedition.  I’m their linguist kinda' sorta' maybe.  If you could point me his way Sss-” At this she glanced at the guard’s shoulder plate, “-arrgent, I’d be very grateful.”

 

The guard gave a slow nod and pointed off towards a pile of crates, “Professor Ambigram is supervising the last of the supply check.  Or at least that’s where I saw him pacing around last.”

 

With a word of thanks the filly turned to trot off in the indicated direction, only to halt short once again as the name registered.

 

“Wait. Ambigram is here?”  She asked to the open air, not realising the guard had already gone back to organising his company.

 

Picking up the pace, Peanut rounded a dwindling stack of supplies to see a crowd of research students piling crates onto their backs.  In among the unambiguous volunteers, one unicorn stallion with a pelt the colour of desert sand cut a wide oval through the cloud of semi-organised chaos.  The perpetual frown and slight twitches in his copper tail broadcast his mood to everypony in the area: Professor Ambigram was worried.

 

This in and of itself was not unusual, the stallion being of that bookish sort not used to the great outdoors.  What was unusual was the simple fact that he was there at all.  Peanut had vaguely known that her one time lecturer was organising this little foray, but the nervous stallion was the very opposite of a ‘field operative’.   

 

Pausing to gauge the flow of traffic, the pinto mare quickly darted into the fray, muttering apologies as tales were stepped on and flanks bumped out of the way.  At last she drew up alongside Ambigram cleared her throat.

 

“Excuse me.. professor?”

 

Still staring the clipboard floating before his eyes, the distracted unicorn remained oblivious to the polite call for attention.  

 

"Professor? Professor??"

 

Keeping pace with his slow walk, Peanut tried again and was met with similar results.  Finally she hopped ahead of him and brought a hoof up to bat away the clipboard.

“Peanut Butter, Field Analyst and junior linguist.” Chirped the filly, holding out her hoof with a winning smile, “Pleased to meet you again, Professor Ambigram!”