//------------------------------// // Chapter One: Introductions // Story: Shards of War, Shards of Peace // by Lord of Flies //------------------------------// Rainbow Dash couldn’t be happier. Well, she could, but then she wouldn’t have signed her platoon up for this expedition with Miss Yearling. “What is your name?” The linguist posed the question to the mare in the sarcophagus. The mare replied, just as slowly as the first time, “Azure… Jacinth…” Yearling nodded, and looked over at Dash. “Good,” she said, “good. Thank you for coming, Dash.” Dash shrugged. “Just doin’ my job, Miss Yearling. That’s all.” “And yet you of all ponies decided to sign up for this expedition. That’s bold, even for you, considering the cold this far north.” “I’ve been up here once before. You know, six years ago, when the Empire resurfaced. It was just as bad.” “I know. I’ve read the reports.” Azure asked, confused, “Resurfaced?” Yearling looked at the Crystal Pony. “Yes, about two thousand and six years ago, the Crystal Empire disappeared. The prevailing theory is that the Regent at the time, Sombra, cursed the Empire to disappear when he was defeated and banished into the wastes.” “That doesn’t… make sense…” Dash replied, “Yeah. I don’t get it either. Our records of that time are… spotty… at best. Only an alicorn could do something like that, sealing away an entire civilization. But High Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were punished severely for what they did during that war. And what they did wasn’t that.” Azure shrugged, a slight smirk on her face. “Who knows? It was years after I was sealed away… and only your alicorns know the truth…” Dash found that she didn’t like the tone of the mare’s voice. It seemed to imply that High Princess Celestia and Princess Luna might have been more involved with the disappearance of the Crystal Empire than what was known. It was true, though, that only they knew the truth. Sombra had been reduced to little more than shadowy shards that blew away in the wind, and none of the Crystal Ponies that had been talked to about the disappearance had spoken about it. Azure climbed out of the sarcophagus and walked toward a chest that nopony had seen. Pressing a hoof to it, she spoke, “What do you plan… to do with me?” Yearling spoke first. “I don’t have an idea. What about you, Dash?” “Yeah, I’ve got one. I’m not saying it out loud, though.” Yearling sighed and shook her head. The chest opened, and Azure began go through the contents, putting them in saddlebags that had been sitting next to it. “You know, whoever built these tombs made them very convenient,” Dash observed. “Aye, that they did,” replied the unicorn guard. “Sundance,” Dash said, calling the unicorn by name, “help Azure with packing her things.” Sundance gave a quick salute and headed to the mare’s side. Miss Yearling glanced at Dash, who gave a grin. After all, Dash thought, she’s trusting enough. ************ Azure noticed, out of the corner of her eye, a unicorn, one of the ponies in pewter armor, approach and ignite his magic to start levitating her things to the saddlebags. “Am I doing something wrong?” Azure shrugged. “No… You are not. There is no special order to… organizing my belongings. All of the… ones that need organizing have… already been packed.” The unicorn nodded. He then asked, “Do you know my name?” “No.” “You did not hear my lieutenant call me by name and order me to assist you?” “I did not.” “That’s selective hearing for you…” “What is your name?” “Sundance Snowblade. I’m a sergeant under Lieutenant Rainbow Dash. The other ponies in armor, Lieutenant Dash and I are Royal Guards of the Equestrian Unified Nation.” Azure nodded. “Do you know why… you are here, so far… from your homeland?” Sundance quieted his voice, so that only he and she could hear, and replied, “No, I don’t. Not a single one of us knows why. The Lieutenant knows, of course. She volunteered our platoon to be the ones guarding Miss Yearling’s expedition. But she hasn’t told us anything. Not the Crystal Ponies in our expedition. Not Miss Yearling’s crew. Not Miss Yearling. Not even us, those she trusts as much as her friends from her hometown. I don’t even think her friends or everypony else above her know, either.” Azure looked at him, stopping what she was doing, raising an eyebrow. Going back to packing her bags, she asked in him in a voice as quiet as his was, “What are you… going to do about it?” Sundance smiled. “Not a thing. Not a damn thing. It’s not my place to question my lieutenant. None of us under her command would question her unless the orders given are extremely immoral or evil.” Azure nodded. “I know that feeling,” she replied. “I understand.” A smile, a genuine one, came to Sundance’s face. “And we are done with packing your things, right?” Azure gave a quick nod. “Yes, we are.” Sundance stood up and looked at his lieutenant, the rainbow haired mare in silver-edge armor. “Lieutenant, we’re done over here. We’ll need more ponies to carry all of it, though. Lady Azure has quite a lot of things.” Lieutenant Dash nodded and began directing her subordinates to start picking up all of the things removed from the chest and packed into bags. The pegasus with a light gold coat stepped forward. She looked at the lieutenant, and said, “Well, Dash, I think we should introduce ourselves, right?” Dash shrugged, and replied, “The two of them exchanged a few words. I heard my name come up. I don’t need to introduce myself. But I can if you really want me to.” There was a sigh from the light gold mare. “No. No, that won’t be necessary, Dash.” She looked at Azure. “I am Amber Kangxi Yearling, head of Canterlot University’s Equinology Department.” “You study what has come before? If I am associating… what you are saying with the… right word from your… modern tongue?” “Yes. Relating to the Equine races of our world, more specifically.” Azure tilted her head slightly, and asked, “Why come here, then?” Yearling smiled. “Your kind, the Crystal Ponies, is steeped in mystery. What we know is very little compared to other pony races. But a six thousand year disappearance from history? That doesn’t help with unraveling these mysteries. It deepens them!” “You are a very odd pony.” “I get that a lot.” She looked at Dash. “Dash, we should leave. We’ve got what we came for. Herpy is probably getting worried.” “Where did you leave him?” “Back in Aventide. Why?” Dash stared at Yearling for a moment. Then shook her head. “Fine,” she stated, “let’s go.” She looked around at the other ponies. “It will be a two hour walk back to the train station from here,” Dash continued. “After that, we take the train to Aventide. We will transfer over to the Military Transit Line and head back to Ponyville.” She glanced at Yearling. “And you, Miss Yearling?” “My team and I will head to back to the University to assist in study of the artifacts, of course." The Lieutenant nodded. “Very well,” she declared. “We shall return to Equestria!” Azure looked confused. “What is a… train?” Dash grinned. “You’ll see.” ************ The train ride was currently being uneventful. Dash looked at Azure. The large mare was sleeping, mainly to conserve her energy. Dash couldn’t blame her. What magic that she had absorbed from the mana crystal was a very small amount compared to what had been released, according to her. With as sluggish as she had been, Dash was surprised she could walk all the way to the train station at the pace that the rest of the party had been moving. “It’s probably a Crystal Pony thing,” Dash murmured. “Making the best use of their energy, even for what you could call a forced march.” Sundance was busily writing away in his notebook, probably his thoughts and notes on the behavior of Crystal Ponies based on what Azure had acted. The stallion had notes on how magic interacted with many things, from metal and wood to griffons and dragons. “That book of his is probably going to save us from something one day,” Dash noted. “But, it’ll be a spur-of-the-moment thing most likely.” She grinned. A nap sounded nice, and she’d take it under any normal circumstance. But there was that stallion in the trench coat and wide-brimmed hat that was trying to be inconspicuous with the glances he was making at Azure. Dash was going to keep an eye on him, and wait for him to do something. Hopefully he wouldn’t try anything, as only Sundance and the other unicorns of her platoon could take him down. She probably could, if she was fast enough. For now, though, Dash decided to watch and wait. And ponder, too. That stallion had an odd resemblance to the ponies of House Sparkle. What could that mean, then? Who was this stallion? Why was he on this train, keeping an eye on Azure? Dash didn’t know. And the answers would come in time, hopefully.