//------------------------------// // Chapter Five- Dragon Corporation // Story: Gems I: The Sun Princess // by Pen Dragon //------------------------------// Chapter Five- Dragon Corporation A board meeting was being held in a hi-rise deep in Baltimare city, the 30th floor room adjacent to the windows facing the east side. The room was a large, open area with wooden panel walls, a long cherry wood table set with multiple information packets, some of them untouched, and some of them opened by the dozen and a half of ponies in business suits seated at the table. It was raining hard outside, the water hitting the glass and sliding hundreds of feet down to the concrete floor far below. It was here that Pen Dragon was giving a speech about the proposal to build his new power source using help from the Order’s students. But he had to get all of his biggest investors on board, inviting his own ponies would have led to a lot of flank kissing to get promotions, so he had to ask his paying customers for their honest opinion. As he stared out the windows looking into the urban abyss below, he figured there would be a bit of browbeating involved to get them to agree. But they were going to have to, anyways. “Ladies and Gentlecolts,” he said, turning around from the rainy window, “I’ve called you here today because you all own at least five percent of the company. This is a very big announcement I wanted to make concerning a change of course in our company’s short-term objectives, and it’ll be a very difficult plan to go along with, but the rewards in profits will be quite nice if you’re willing.” “Well you can always promise us more money like every CEO is going to do,” chuckled the richest investor in the room, an earth pony mare with a fancy sun hat and elegant purple colored dress, “what we’re looking for is more value for our shares, a way to grow.” “Ha, you want growth?” retorted Pen Dragon, smirking, “I can give you that. This is a brand new chapter for Dragon Co. Supplies, the field of energy.” Half of the board room erupted into laughter, with the smaller investors giving angry, glaring looks at the ones with more money in the business. Pen Dragon smiled haughtily, he knew from the cross looks of the smaller partners that he had their support merely on the ground that they were not jerks, and the other investors were. The larger investors were like the top of a pyramid, they may hold a larger percentage, but they would not be able to get their returns without the others in the room also contributing, along with the countless holders of small numbers of shares currently not present. Some of the smaller owners in the room even held meetings with the “invisibles” to get their advice before attending gatherings like this one. All was going according to plan. Once the laughter had died down, Pen continued to speak, “Yes, yes, I know it’s weird. After the huge success of the Hybrid Directed Energy Weapon, or HDEW, it sounds really stupid I’m standing here telling you I want to take us into energy sources. But hear me out here, hear me out, and I think you might just be interested.” “Go on,” said one of the lesser contributors. “Thank you,” he answered, “recently I’ve discovered that there is an incredible amount of untapped power in crystalline materials originating from the northern territories. Many of those, of course, are out of reach right now, but we have our own mineable supply. The problem has always been ‘closing the gap’ between crystals from the north, and crystals from around here.” “So you’ve found a substitute?” “No,” he answered honestly, “I’ve found a way to get around the issue entirely. We’ll use the help of unicorns with ‘special talents’ to go around the need for power crystals and develop our own energy source with an artificial crystal solid.” “Meaning?” asked the mare in the purple dress. “Meaning…” continued the CEO, “I am going to recruit a few members of the Order who have been overlooked by their betters. The Order has made mistakes in their ways of choosing their top students. So I’ll hire them to create crystals for us in order to build the new crystal power plant we need.” “And how will they be making these crystals?” asked one of the other investors. Here was the hard part. Pen Dragon had to convince the majority of the ponies in the room that what he was about to suggest was not something horrible. “They’ll make our new power source… using dark magic.” The board room erupted into a mixture of gasps and incredulous looks, some of the investors looking around and pretending they hadn’t heard what the CEO had said. “Mr. Pen… if what you just said happens to get out of this board room, the share price for this company will drop hard!” said one of them. Pen Dragon was losing his support fast, so he quickly tried to make his point, “Look, I know that sounds bad, but… a lot of this dark magic the students use at the academy is accidental, or random. I’m not suggesting we get criminals to make the power source, these are misguided stallions and mares who just need a good outlet for a magical art most ponies don’t like.” The mare in purple retorted, “Even if your program gave work to them, the implications of this.” “... are perfectly fine!” countered Pen Dragon calmly, “look, dark magic is the only way to make this new type of crystal, and the power output is four hundred times what a regular Crystal Empire power source provides.” The board room fell silent again, before one voice spoke up, “Four… hundred times?” “Yes, and I’ve got proof. Our battle glider project is powered by a dark crystal reactor. If we get it working, we’ll have unlimited, clean, and cheap energy, without corrupting the minds of the students.” He declared as his patience was beginning to falter. It was a difficult decision for the board to make with only his word and the glider project has failed on multiple occasions. “I’m sorry sir… but your glider project has failed multiple times and have cost your company millions. We suppose that if these unicorns from the Order can come up with an unlimited power supply then we shall see.” The mare in purple answered as with everypony nodding in response. Pen was relieved that his board would allow it, but he was going to go through with it either way. “Thank you… I believe that will conclude our meeting for today. Do send for Miss Stencil. I have to know when our candidates will be arriving.” Pen asked, smiling towards one of the female guards who nodded in response. Back at the Library Watcher wished he was dead right now, teaching Tia everything about modern Equestria was like teaching a rock how to swim and that was impossible. He spent nearly two hours trying to teach her about Equestrian Order to hopefully jog some memories from this delusional mare, but failed in the process. “So you mean to tell me that none of this rings a bell?” He asked while Tia laughed sheepishly. “Uh… Hehehe I didn’t quite understand what you said… Could you maybe repeat it again?” She asked as a bead of sweat dripped from the side of her face as she laughed sheepishly again, causing the stallion to groan in response. “I’VE EXPLAINED IT TO YOU TWENTY TIMES ALREADY!!!” Watcher shouted in anger as literally began to chomp on his clipboard. “You know what? I think we’re done for today. I’m going to sleep for the rest of the day.” “But you said, we’d be studying modern Equestrian history with the founding of the Order?” She asked hopping of her chair to pursue the stallion as he ignored her. “I’m trying my best to understand all of this material Watcher! It isn’t easy when you’ve been gone for two thousand years.” “Yeah, but I think we could use a bit of a break and a good nap sounds pretty good right about now.” Watcher said, entering the bedroom before collapsing on his bed. “But… What should I do?” She asked. “You’re in a library you know? Just read a book or practice your magic.” Watcher groaned as he closed his eyes and tried to sleep the day way. ‘How rude of him, I suppose I should relearn some of those spells I’ve forgotten.’ After making sure Watcher was fast asleep though, and having gotten bored with casting cantrips, Celestia got the idea that she should try to figure out her own past a bit more. That would mean breaking into the forbidden section of the library against her “gracious host’s” wishes. Yet the risk had to be taken, and it made no sense to keep around books anyways if they were going to be off-limits to absolutely anyone. The unicorn crept away from the sleeping form of Watcher and began to cast an old teleportation spell she had learned a long time ago. To her chagrin, the teleport spell fizzled, and bright pink sparks floated down to the floor shamefully. A piece of the unicorn’s hair drifted into her eyes, and she blew it out of the way before shaking her head and deciding to give the teleport spell another go. This time, she managed to vanish in a flash of light, moving a grand total of four inches to the right, which made her even more angry than the completely failed teleport. “This is no good,” she muttered, “I need more space to practice.” She walked down to the ground floor, and picked a sizeable alleyway between two of the larger bookcases. Now, with the silence of the library around her and nobody but the books to judge her, she was able to focus more on her teleportation. After a quick rub of her hooves and a short dance in place to build up focus, she stared intently at the space in front of her, energy accumulating at the tip of her horn quickly. Next thing she knew, she had flashed down the entire length of the bookshelves, sending a flurry of dust and papers around her where she had appeared. “Yes! Much better!” Looking up, the mare noticed that she was in front of the gated-off area Watcher had led her to before. “The forbidden volumes,” whispered the unicorn intently, “why have them at all if they are so strictly forbidden? Why not lock them away in a vault where nopony can lay eyes upon them?” A short pause happened as she decided to break the rules and go inside. After messing with the lock for a while, she grew impatient with the physical tumblers and decided to steal the key from Watcher while he slept. One trip back upstairs later, and with Watcher sleeping as heavily as a brick, she had the key floating in front of her, and into the lock it went. Soon “Celestia” was inside, the piles of forbidden knowledge around her calling out to be read. “Perhaps I should use this opportunity to learn more about my predicament,” hummed the sneaky unicorn, “Watcher is so uncooperative I have to take matters into my own hooves!” She searched over the messy piles of ancient tomes that hadn’t been handled in perhaps decades, centuries even, until she came across a very peculiar brown book, heavy and bound at the spine in red, with a golden sun on the cover embossed into the front. “The Tale of the Sun Princess” It was definitely her old cutie mark, just like she remembered it, and the book certainly looked and felt dusty enough to have been written in her time… but was it truly her story? She felt an odd connection to the elder piece of literature, and slowly opened the book with curiosity in her eyes. “Long ago, there were four Princesses who ruled Equestria in Harmony for centuries...” The former princess could not believe she was reading about herself and the former life she had once led. The beautiful palaces in Canterlot, Ponyville, the Empire… all territory she and the others had sworn to protect. How each day they would strive to make the lives of their subjects more meaningful, and the praise and admiration that they had received, the true love of their subjects poured upon them each and every day. She remembered the nights her sister would raise the moon, and how each morning she would raise the sun, sometimes staying on that balcony for hours after just to enjoy the feeling of the rays on her body. How could anything like that come to such a terrible end? “But all good is matched with evil of equal force… one who hated Equestria rose to challenge the princesses. He was… The Demon King.” Celestia remembered. The dark blue form, scaled and tall, who went by so many names. The Shaded Death, The Evil One, The Last Dragon. Every city that he found, destroyed without a trace of life remaining for miles, even the worms in the ground dead for meters into the soil. Each township destroyed left in shadow and misery, and the occasion where any individual managed to return was left a shell of themselves until the day they died, a mute scream still visible on their lips. At least, that is how bad the unicorn remembered what his rampage brought upon her world. “The Sun Princess and the others battled valiantly, but...” She read on into the volume about the struggle, and then, unlike the first two parts of the book, her awe and memories vanished into a confused, indignant burst of emotion. “This… this ending is not true,” she said slowly, “that isn’t how things happened at all!” A scream came from her at the top of her lungs, “WHO DARED TO WRITE IT THIS WAY?” Suddenly she covered up her mouth, remembering the other unicorn asleep upstairs, and quickly hoped he hadn’t have woken up. Celestia slammed the cover of the book shut, and got out of the forbidden section quickly, locking it up and leaving no evidence behind that she had gotten there. The key was soon safely returned to Watcher’s nightstand, and she stared with a blank look at the sleeping bookkeeper, shaking her head at his laziness. “Why couldn’t you have just helped me?” she sighed. She didn’t know why this was happening to her, but if she was around than her sister is most likely alive as well, wondering this new world that they were in. It may be the same soil that she has walked upon a thousand years ago, but her country was split in two as one claimed power over her land. “I’ll find out what really happened to my ponies in my absence…” She paused before looking towards Watcher “And you're going to help me Watcher.” Three Hours Later Time had passed for Watcher as a began to stretch his limbs and let out a loud yawn. He soon looked to see Tia sleeping in a pile of blankets and books scattered all over the place. She maybe charming, but he seriously doubt a princess would drool over her pillows. He didn’t know what to think of this strange mare that had recently entered his life, but one thing he did know was that she needed help, mentally of course. “What am I going to do with you?” He asked himself before sighing, he was about to wake her up until her heard the sounds of knocking at the front door. With a loud groan he began to make his way downstairs to the front entrance to greet whoever was there. “I’m coming, I’m coming!” With a flicker from his horn, his magic wrapped around the doorknob and began to twist it, opening it to find a unicorn with a grayish coat and a pair of glasses on while holding a clipboard. He had to admit that regardless of her likely age (all that mattered was that she was older than him), she was still gorgeous. “Oh… hello,” she said, “are you… Watcher? I think this is you here on my clipboard.” “Y… yeah that’s me,” he answered, stuttering as he let out a yawn. “Don’t want to sound rude, but why are you here?” “I’m here to make you a job offer, actually,” answered the mare, pulling down her glasses slightly and staring at him with her big light blue eyes, “how would you like to get out of this dusty old library and do something important with your life?” Watcher thought she was messing with him, who on campus was going to hire him after his accident? “Wait, what? What kind of a job?” Stencil Guide asked him to step outside, which he did in order to have a more private conversation with Watcher. She didn’t want anyone else to hear about the offer, lest word spread that Pen Dragon, master weapons developer, was hiring. The stack of resumes would blot out the sun if she wasn’t able to keep to just the unicorns on her list. “I have a special assignment you can take on if you’re willing, you’ll be working on a new project involving crystals and magic interactions between them,” said the mare quietly, “it pays much better than what you are doing here, and you can even get back to this from time to time so that no one suspects you’ve quit!” “What’s the pay? ” Watcher asked, as Stencil began to write down notes. She raised an eyebrow in a teasing manner, “What are you making now?” “Not enough,” he responded, chuckling, “Make me an offer.” Stencil took out a pen and scribbled a figure down on a sheet of paper from her clipboard, making a few motions with the writing utensil before ripping out the sheet. She passed it casually to Watcher, who accepted it without much emotion until he actually saw what he was being offered. The mare in front of him struggled not to laugh when she saw his eyes widen at the salary offer. “So I take it that’s a yes then?” “I… I want to accept this,” he said, “but I don’t really know much about science. I might not be too good at this at first.” “Keep in mind we don’t expect you to do absolutely everything,” she explained, “in fact, there’s budget for you to bring one assistant with you if you want. Since you’re on my list here, I trust you’ll pick somepony with excellent qualifications.” She said, smiling at the unicorn as he gave her the paper with his signature on it. “Perfect, I’ll have you and your companion starting tomorrow night at Dragon Corporation. See you then Mr. Watcher.” After that the mare soon headed back towards her limousine as Watcher gawked at her. He could only wonder why a rich pony would request a reject librarian like him in the first place? But there was also one small issue with this problem. ‘What am I going to do with that insane mare?’