Shatterstar slowly stirred awake on top of his cushy bed as the last vestiges of sleep were overwhelmed by the fierce cold that not even the walls of his home could block. He felt his body shiver as his efforts to keep out the cold only resulted in more holes emerging in his once impenetrable blanket cocoon. The open freezer that was his room attacked him from all sides, turning his hooves into icicles and further dragging him away from the once pleasant warmth of his favorite blanket.
He groaned as he looked out the bedside window to his right and saw the sky as black as it always was with several small clouds hovering overhead and peppering light snow over the streets. Shatterstar let out an annoyed sigh that anypony who could never tell what time it was would do, but with his sleep now being a thing of the past he decided there wasn’t much else to do except get up and start the night properly.
Lifting himself out of bed he stretched his cold and stiff body on the floor of his room, his aching joints all popping in approval at the well-deserved movement. He moved on to stretching his sadly underutilized wings which also popped in approval. With his body thoroughly stretched he quickly grabbed the brush on his dresser and sat down in front of his mirror. His dull red mane had no split ends or unkempt features to speak of, instead, it just laid dully on the top of his cream-colored head as it always had done. With a huff, he attempted to brush up and style it, but every attempt resulted in it falling like a wet noodle. He sighed in disappointment and slowly put down the brush, but as he saw his sad face in the reflection of the mirror he shook his head, slapped his cheeks, and forced a smile onto his face.
“Get a grip Shatterstar! Today is the day! You will make it!” He kept his forced smile up for a few minutes before dropping it and groaning, figuring that so long as he was in his house he could drop the thing for at least a little while. With that thought, he stepped away from his mirror and made his way downstairs to continue his morning routine.
As he reached the bottom of the narrow stairs and entered the small first floor of the house he quickly peered into the living room on the right where an old grandfather clock, the only clock in the house, stood against the wall. He saw that it was eight-thirty in the morning, not a bad time to wake up in his book, and nodded his head in quiet pride due to him waking up on time for once. Popping into the kitchen he quickly whipped himself up a simple cheese sandwich and devoured it as quickly as he could to not waste any time. With his hunger fully satiated he grabbed a purple scarf hanging next to the door and prepared to head outside, but before he did, he made sure to stop in front of a small crystal picture frame on the table below the hanger.
“Don’t worry mom, I’ll see you soon.” He said to the picture of his mother, Lock Heart, who was forever immortalized as a smiling young mare in front of the crystal palace. With that thought fresh on his mind a genuine smile of his own finally appeared on his face, giving him the energy he needed to step out into the cold morning air of the crystal colony.
The streets were fairly empty, save for a few crystal ponies and equestrian guards walking to and fro beneath the bright street lights. Shatterstar walked down the steps of his front door and across the snow-covered street towards the houses on the other side. He made his way between two houses and down the alley where he found a much smaller house hidden in the dark behind them. He approached the small one-story building made of magenta crystals and knocked on the door to gain the owner's attention.
“Chivalrous! Come on out here or we’ll be late!” Shatterstar heard the sounds of crashing and thuds coming from inside and instantly recognized it as the approaching carnage of his clumsy friend Chivalrous Deed. The door opened up a tiny bit and a small golden eye peered through the crack and looked at Shatterstar who just smiled in return.
“Shatterstar? What time is it? It’s still dark out.” The meek stallion said from behind his door.
“Uh, where have you been for the past five years? It’s always dark out, in fact, It’s getting close to nine in the morning.” He replied while pointing one of his wings up at the moon.
“Wait, seriously?” He asked nervously with a sharp and nervous increase in his volume. “Well just give me a minute to get ready and I’ll be right out.”
“Can do!” Shatterstar replied with a smile and an endearing salute. Chivalrous closed the door and despite not being able to see from outside, Shatter could most certainly still hear him as he crashed and stumbled through his cluttered house. As he waited for his friend to return Shatterstar looked up at the dense clouds beginning to form above him, as they did so they began to drop more and more snow at an alarming rate. Shatterstar looked around to make sure that nopony was watching and flew up towards the clouds with a feeling of glee as he busted them up into specks in mere seconds.
With the clouds now fully busted he started to slowly hover back down to the ground, but as he did so he noticed a few more clouds not too far away. Seeing as how nopony had spotted him yet, and how it would only be helping ponies out, he decided to bust just a couple more clouds while he had the chance. Pretty soon though, a couple of clouds turned into a sea of clouds as he was zipping all around the sky like a ping pong ball bouncing between bumpers, busting every cloud he could see. He took a quick break to catch his breath as he watched the clouds already starting to be reformed, and with a smile, Shatterstar got ready to start all over again. That is until he heard a door open from below.
Looking down Shatterstar saw the alabaster coat of his friend who had now returned with a blue beanie and grey scarf. He looked around for Shatterstar for a moment before immediately becoming anxious and afraid when he couldn't spot him. “Shatter? Where are you?” Shatterstar chuckled softly and was about to call out to him, but a sinister plan formed in his mind before he could. Flying to the reformed clouds he stitched a few together and hid inside of them, then under the cover of his freshly made disguise, he finally started descending closer to his skittish friend.
“If you got snatched up by a yalfor, then you wouldn’t hold it against me if I go back inside, right?” Shatterstar crept closer and closer to his nervous friend until he was just above him. He waited patiently until the unattentive Chivalrous finally looked up and saw the large black cloud looming overhead. “What the?” An avalanche of snow dropped on top of him, covering his mouth and cutting him off before he could say anything else.
“Gotcha!” Shatterstar shouted in excitement as he popped out of his cloud and waited for Chivalrous' reaction. The victim, instead of getting angry or sad or…anything really, he simply stepped out of the pile of snow and began to empty his beanie.
"Good one dude, you got me," Chivalrous said quietly as he turned his beanie inside out and shook it. Shatterstar groaned in frustration before hopping out of his cloud and busting it apart.
"You're no fun." He pouted, an action that only seemed to make Chivalrous chuckle. "Oh, so I'm a joke? I'm just a big joke now?" He asked in mock offense, feeling accomplished when it succeeded in making Chivalrous laugh just a bit louder. Shatterstar laughed as well until he saw the four-foot pile of snow right outside of his friend's front door.
"Ready to go?" Chivalrous asked innocently before Shatterstar raised a hoof in protest.
"Hold on, let me get this. I'm sorry dude." He said as he started to push the snow out of the way with his bare hooves.
"Hey, don't worry. I'll get it later." Chivalrous said politely.
"Are you sure? This is my fault."
"Positive." Looking at the pile nervously, but remembering the time, Shatterstar backed away from it and began walking back to the street with his friend.
Once the two of them had made it onto the cold Crystal road they simply walked in silence, which gave Shatterstar some time to look around and admire his surroundings. Even in the dark of night, one could still see all of the beautifully crafted crystal architecture of the colony, thanks mostly to the helpful lights installed on nearly every surface of the city. Needless to say, he was glad for the inspection days, albeit only barely, since it finally allowed him some free time to appreciate everything that the Equestrians had helped them save. That wasn't to say he particularly LIKED the Equestrians, what with their demand for Crystal's and restrictive policies, but he could still acknowledge when they did some good.
On nights like these, he'd normally be hard at work down in the mines, much like many of the other crystal ponies, but on inspection day all they had to do was inspect their overall health and the rest of the day was theirs. Even if the day didn't pan out as he'd wanted, even if he wasn't ready yet, he was at least glad that he could watch those around him rejoice at the prospect of being reunited with their families.
Shatterstar smiled warmly from that last thought and turned to Chivalrous in Hope's to raise his spirits as well, but when he turned to look at Chivalrous fully expecting a smile from him he only saw an even more anxious look than he'd normally have. His hoofsteps were small and slow, and every time he glanced at their destination he'd look down at the ground just as quickly. Feeling concerned, Shatterstar slowed down his pace so that he could walk next to, and check up on, his friend.
"Hey, dude. You alright?" Shatterstar asked sympathetically as he brushed some leftover snow off of his buddy's beanie. Chivalrous snapped his head up and looked at him as if he had forgotten he was there before chuckling halfheartedly.
“Yeah! Yeah, I'm...It’s just…” He paused for a moment and looked at the crystal castle still far off in the distance, then he sighed heavily and closed his eyes. He was about to explain himself, but the moment he looked at Shatterstar he immediately cut himself off before he could. “Nevermind.” He said abruptly before walking much faster than last time, it was almost a sprint.
“Come on now I can tell when something’s bugging you. You can tell me.” Shatterstar said as he jogged over to his speedwalking friend. Chivalrous continued to look at the ground as his pace slowed back down from a brisk walk, to a trot, to a slow walk, and finally to a standstill. He looked around to see if there was any way to change the subject, but seeing none in sight he finally caved and pulled Shatterstar to the side of the street.
“It’s just that I’m...y’know…” He trailed off expecting Shatterstar to finish his sentence, but he only tilted his head curiously. With a sigh, Chivalrous finally got it off of his chest. “I’m having second thoughts about this.”
“Second thoughts? Why?” Shatterstar asked in genuine confusion. Chivalrous started pacing back and forth as he struggled to provide an answer.
“Because I just can’t see this going well. What if the detection spell goes wrong and melts my face off?” He pulled on his face for added effect, but before Shatterstar could interrupt he continued. “What if I’m not eligible? Or I’m wanted for a crime I committed and they arrest me? What if I offend a guard, or…” Chivalrous paused as he faced Shatterstar, his chest rising and falling as he hyperventilated. He looked down at the ground and rubbed his left leg with his right hoof in embarrassment and a hint of shame. "What if my family doesn't want to see me?" He said so quietly that he hoped Shatterstar hadn't heard him, but unluckily for him, that was not the case.
Shatterstar wordlessly stepped towards Chivalrous who began to back up in fear as his friend closed the gap. Before any other actions could take place Shatterstar lunged at him and gave him the biggest hug he could manage, wings included.
"Why in Amore's name would you ever think that?" He asked as he continued to hug his skittish friend.
"I...I don't know. It's just that they haven't written to me, and my brother didn't say anything and…" Chivalrous started to choke up as he struggled to put his thoughts into words, but thankfully he didn't have to try anymore as Shatterstar broke the hug and took control of the conversation.
"Snap out of it! Of course, your family wants to see you! If they don't then I'll personally walk up to each of them and give them some of this!" He jumped a few feet into the air and started punching and kicking in such a ridiculous way that Chivalrous couldn't help but smile. Once Shatterstar had landed he didn't let up and continued to try and raise his spirits. "And even if they don't, you still have me, buddy! Just think," He grabbed onto Chivalrous and waved his hoof in front of their faces as if he were painting an image on the night sky. "No more snow!" Chivalrous perked up a tiny bit. "No more hard work in the mines!" Chivalrous began to smile at the thought. "A brand new colony with so many new ponies to meet!" Chivalrous' smile deflated with that last one, but quickly Shatterstar managed to recover. "I mean plenty of new books for you to discover!" Chivalrous had a thoughtful look for a moment before smiling warmly and nodding in agreement.
"You're right, that does sound nice." He said warmly.
"I'm right? Of course, I'm right!" Shatterstar proclaimed loudly. "However," Shatterstar turned his back to his friend in an exaggerated manner to make it look like he was skeptical before turning ever so slightly to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "I still don't believe you, you might just have to say it again."
"I-I said you're right." Chivalrous started in a meek voice.
"I'm sorry what was that?" Shatterstar asked as he brought a hoof up to his ear.
"I said you're right." Chivalrous repeated, this time a bit louder.
"I'm sorry, for a second I thought I heard a mouse trying to speak." Shatterstar looked at his friend who had now planted his hooves into the ground and narrowed his eyes.
"You're right!!" Chivalrous yelled with passion as he leaned forward on his front hooves.
"Yes! That's the spirit my boy!" Shatterstar shouted gleefully with an accompanying flap of his wings, doing a small flip and trotting in place excitedly upon landing. "Now come on let's hurry up and get out of here!" Shatterstar said as he waved his friend over in the direction of the palace. Chivalrous took a few steps forward before stopping and looking at the castle in the distance curiously. Soon, a devilish smile appeared on his face, and with a cheeky look at his friend, Chivalrous bolted down the street.
"Race you!" He laughed as he took the lead with an unfair head start.
"Hey, no fair!" Shatterstar yelled in annoyance, but despite his tone sounding aggravated, in reality, he couldn't have been happier. This was a race that for once he hoped he'd lose.
Both Chivalrous and Shatterstar stood side by side near the end of one of the many long lines beneath the castle. At the end of the line was a large group of examination booths with green curtain entrances, and in each one was an Equestrian doctor ready to scan the crystal ponies for entry into the castle. For the past three years, both of their attempted migrations to the second crystal colony had been halted right then and there. Each attempt led to them being told that their physical aptitude didn't meet the harsh standards for transport, meaning that they had to wait for quite some time for their next chance. Luckily for them though, the inspections were becoming much more frequent than before. This time it had only been three months in between inspections, and Shatterstar knew that there was no way they could fail.
The line continued to move slowly, and in the two hours they had spent waiting they had seen so many ponies run away crying back to their homes, and ponies cheering as they headed inside of the castle. This year there seemed to be far more ponies who were turned away, and it did not give either of the young stallions much confidence in their results.
"Hey, uh...Shatter?" Chivalrous started, gaining his friend's attention. "I think I forgot my saddlebags back at home. I should go get them!" Chivalrous said as he attempted to beat a hasty retreat, but he was quickly thwarted as his tail became snagged by Shatterstar's mouth. Shatter yanked his nervous friend back towards his spot in line and tossed him to the ground, eliciting a whine of pain from the white pony.
"Listen here Chivalrous. You've made it this far already, so don't let all this waiting go to waste!" The white stallion gulped as he looked towards the booth behind him, the last pony in front of them finally stepping out with a look of sad resignation on his face. "Now pick yourself up, get in there, and don't take no for an answer!" Shatterstar said as he picked up his friend, dusted him off, and pushed him towards the booth. The doctor inside shouted for the next pony to enter from within his small examination booth, and with one last gulp of fear, Chivalrous nodded and slowly entered through the curtain.
Shatterstar watched his friend disappear into the booth, and despite his outward confidence, he couldn't help but feel a little nervous himself. The minutes passed as the crowd of ponies continued conversing around him, and suddenly a thought crept into his mind. What if he didn’t make it? Why was it taking so long? Could he be turned away yet again? All of his thoughts were interrupted as the loudest cheering he’d heard all day echoed all around the bottom courtyard of the castle.
“Woohoo!” Chivalrous yelled as he galloped out of the station and hug-tackled Shatterstar. “I made it, I made it, I made it!” His vice grip cut off Shatterstar's air supply and by extension his ability to speak. As he lifted the poor pegasus many of the other crystal ponies began to look in their direction until Shatterstar finally wheezed out a sentence.
“Geez Chivalrous, I’m glad you made it but that’s no reason to come here and play strangle the pony bird.” Shatterstar stammered as he felt his bones scraping together, and his wings desperately trying to flap their way out of the grip. Quickly Chivalrous dropped him, allowing Shatterstar a chance to breathe and rub his bruised rib cage.
“Sorry, I’m just so excited! You were right, and I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m so glad I was wrong.” Shatterstar smiled at his normally quiet and reserved friend's sudden shift in mood.
“So what are you doing out here instead of going inside?”
“Oh, there are still a few things I want to take with me. I can’t just drop everything I own like some of these other ponies.” Chivalrous started back down the street before turning around. “Good luck Shatterstar!” Shatterstar returned the wave and nodded his head with pride for his friend.
“Next!” The doctor called from within the station. Shatterstar turned back towards the station and, with a determined smile on his face, made his way inside. Once he stepped through he was greeted by two simple wooden stools facing each other, in the chair to his left was a smiling brown unicorn in a doctor's coat waiting patiently. “Hello sir, name please?” He asked as a clipboard encased in orange magic floated in front of him. Shatterstar took a seat and cleared his throat.
“Ahem, Shatterstar sir.” The doctor searched the clipboard for his name and let out an ah sound once he’d located it.
“Well, well, well Mr. Shatterstar, how does the saying go again? The tenth time's the charm?” He said with a hearty laugh, obviously finding his joke quite funny even if it was kind of at the expense of the pony sitting in front of him. Shatterstar shoved down his urge to say something he’d regret and just continued smiling at the doctor who was preparing his scan. "Well, no need to delay any further, let's see if you made the cut huh?" With a wide smile, the doctor's horn conjured up a dim orange light that washed over Shatterstar, revealing various vessels and bones within his body like an x-ray scan. The doctor shut his eyes and made several noises of contemplation as the scan came to an end.
Picking up the clipboard he scribbled something down and handed a familiar pink slip to Shatterstar. “Well, this one goes to eleven I suppose. Terribly sorry by the way. NEXT!" Shatterstar was stunned and speechless as the doctor pushed him out of the station and accepted the next crystal pony. Everything had happened so fast that he didn't even have a chance to respond, he was just sitting there with the pink slip in his hooves.
"W-w-wait, there must be some kind of mistake." He said slowly as he tried to reenter the booth. However, after he had taken a single step he was immediately halted by a large earth pony equestrian guard who jumped in front of him.
"You have failed inspection, vacate the premises or you will be dealt with." His threatening voice was ignored as Shatterstar mindlessly continued towards the booth behind the guard.
"Mom...Chivalrous...I need to be there." At this point, he had been walking forward into the guard who had already been blocking him from moving any further. With a grunt of frustration, the guard grabbed Shatterstar with ease and carried him away from the bottom castle courtyard. Once they had reached the end of the long lines he tossed Shatterstar onto the ground.
"Come back when we have another inspection, until then wait at your home for the next block of instructions." The guard said before turning around and walking away. Shatterstar, however, wasn't done yet.
"I need to make it!" He yelled as he picked himself up and quickly took flight. Almost immediately he was beginning to soar over the lines of ponies until he heard a strange boom come from the ground. Following the sound, he saw the earth pony guard jump up several feet into the air to meet him before winding his hoof back and smacking him downwards with one mighty swing. Shatterstar plummeted to the ground at a blinding speed, where he sunk several feet into the layer of thick snow until he hit the hard crystal road beneath it, jamming his left hoof in the process. The guard landed back onto the ground without a sound and planted his armored hoof on Shatterstar's head, pinning him there.
"Don't test me crystal! I swatted you down like a fly, and I could crush you just as easily as one." He pushed down on Shatterstar's head for a moment to emphasize his point before growling to himself and turning away to leave. Slowly the pegasus lifted himself and rubbed his aching hoof, as well as his head which now had a massive migraine. Looking down, defeated, Shatterstar shakily stood up and started his limp of shame down the street where he came from.
He didn't know what to do, or what to feel at this point, he was just so confused. After so many attempts and so many failures he was sure that this would be the time, but now all he wanted to do was crawl into bed and never come out. He didn't plan for this to happen again, and now he was going to be here all alone while his last family member would go off to bigger and better things. How was he even going to tell Chivalrous that he wasn't coming? Shatterstar continued his slow walk back home until he heard the sounds of hoofsteps in the distance, and as he looked up he then realized that he was going to get his answer much sooner than he wanted.
“Hey, Shatter!” Chivalrous called as he ran back up the street towards the castle with his saddlebags on. Shatterstar lifted his head and put on his best smile, even if there was only a small chance it would fool Chivalrous he still had to try and hide his pain, both physical and emotional.
“Hey, dude. What’s good?” He asked in a bit of a tired voice that immediately caused Chivalrous to raise his eyebrow in suspicion.
“What happened? You look awful,” He looked closer at Shatterstar, inspecting his bruises and even his hoof that he was trying his best to stand on. “What could have done this?" He asked full of concern.
“What!? Nothing! Nothing happened to me. I was just... uh, so excited that I passed the scan that I started flying. You know how reckless I can be so I had a...bit of a rough landing?" He looked at Chivalrous hoping that he would buy the story, and while he did look skeptical he still seemed to believe him.
"Well, at least you made it! That's great news, but we should probably get you to a doctor." Shatterstar waved off the notion, wincing a little as he did so, and continued to walk down the road while attempting and failing to hide his limp.
"No, no I'm fine. I just need to get MY saddlebags, then I'll meet you there, haha!" He said with a forced triumphant laugh that quickly turned into a pained chuckle.
"What? Shatterstar you're crazy I'm not just gonna-" He was cut off as Shatterstar began to run down the street as fast as he could away from his friend.
"Too late already getting them, can't hear you, see you there!" Once he was out of Chivalrous' sight he ducked into a nearby alley and fell to the ground clutching his hoof. "Ahhhhhhhhh!" He hissed in pain as he tried to massage it away, but every time he even touched the tip of his hoof the pain only multiplied. He sat up and leaned against a dumpster in the alley as he continued to take deep calming breaths.
"What am I thinking? Why did I just lie about all of that?!" He continued to whisper quite loudly and looked around the dumpster to see if he had been followed. "Okay, just think about this. What do you want?" He thought about it for a moment and couldn't get an image to appear. He continued to breathe and calmed his heart rate back down. His hoof started aching, and his pain started fading as he imagined the smiling faces of his family greeting him in a sunny yard in front of a house. The sky was blue, just like he remembered it, and everypony he loved was there. They were happy, he was happy, and they never had to worry about being told how to live their lives. This, this was what he wanted.
"Then why don't you go get it?" He said to himself with a pained smile as he looked up at the swirling black storm clouds above him pumping copious amounts of snow into the air. He continued to stare at them in sadness until a thought popped into his head, a memory of this morning. Slowly, he picked himself up off of the ground, and hope began to well up inside of his heart, so much so that his smile of pain turned into a smile of determination. The clouds were swirling and thick, massive and cold, and above all else they were perfect.
“Just wait a little bit longer guys, I will make it!” He triumphantly shouted to himself as he rocketed into the low-hanging clouds that completely obscured his form. On any normal night, he would never dream of flying straight into the center of a full-on snowstorm, but right now every fiber of his being was filled with a fiery determination that would not be swayed. Acting fast, and temporarily forgetting the pain in his hoof, he began grabbing several pieces of cloud, stitching them together into a disguise just as he did before with the prank. After a couple of minutes, he was now hiding in a portable cloud that fully obscured his location within the storm before quickly making his way back to the castle.
From afar it would be hard to tell whether or not the castle had any windows, but up close it was much easier to see. The windows seemed to be made of a reflective material that made each one look identical to the outer walls of the castle. Unsurprisingly, many of the windows he found were locked or just weren’t meant to be opened, but it didn’t stop him from trying to pull on every single one as hard as he could. Eventually, his perseverance paid off as a window leading into what seemed to be a really old and dusty office room pulled up and allowed him entry.
The cloud disguise burst as he forced himself through the incredibly small opening in the window, after which he tumbled to the ground and hit one of the many stacks of boxes filling the dusty room. Shatterstar, now upside down on the floor, was being attacked from all sides by built-up dust that rushed into his airways, making him gag and sputter uncontrollably. He righted himself as best as he could once the irritation began to slow down and finally got a good look at the no longer spinning room. Everywhere he looked there were stacks of papers and piles of boxes, and from what he could see all of the boxes were filled to the brim with papers and documents. Carefully, Shatter stood back up to avoid disturbing the thin layer of dust that was on every conceivable object inside of the office, for fear of getting another coughing and sneezing fit as a reward.
As he looked over the stacked boxes he got a better look at the rest of the room. There was a desk up against the wall to his right that again had some boxes on top of it, and mounted on a wall above the desk was a very ornate sword with intricate designs, obviously meant for decoration and not combat. On the plaque the sword was on, just beneath the blade, he could make out a name engraved on the wood that said Chairman Grotto . Shatterstar couldn't help but find that name familiar, but seeing how it was currently not the priority he moved on to the right side of the room. There was a line of filing cabinets to the left, the last of which looked less like a cabinet and more like an impenetrable safe with a padlock and key lock built into it.
Turning back to the piled-on cardboard boxes, Shatterstar reached into the one on the desk and curiously pulled out a paper in an attempt to read it, but to his surprise, the entire thing seemed to be written in some sort of gibberish language that he could only assume was Equestrian. Tossing the paper aside Shatterstar shuffled past the boxes and towards the door of the office, but as he grew closer to it he heard two sets of hooves approaching from the hall outside as well as muffled chit-chat. With little time to react Shatterstar dove behind the desk just as the two mystery ponies entered.
They closed the door gently and walked to the center of the room, both of them cutting off their conversation in unison as they walked inside. Shatterstar’s heart was pounding, somepony must have seen him come in through here, and now there was no way out. His fears only intensified when they shut the window that was likely never even used until he came along only a minute prior.
“Huh, that was weird.” One of the guards, a stallion, said while the other one simply remained quiet. The two continued shuffling around the room as they moved boxes to and fro, and while one seemed to be grunting from the effort of moving them the other merely produced the sound of magic. Keeping the mental notes in his mind that there was a unicorn and an earth pony/pegasus he continued listening for anything more out of the two.
“Okay, we don’t have much time. Let’s crack this thing and get out of here.” The stallion said before the sound of the padlock slowly turning filled the silent office. Time moved agonizingly slow as Shatterstar waited in his uncomfortable position beneath the desk. He wanted to leave so badly, but he knew that if either of them even glanced behind the desk they’d surely spot him, so the sooner they found what they wanted, the sooner he’d be safe.
A series of noises emanated from the safe until a very loud and distinguishable click was heard. The stallion cheered in excitement then grunted as he attempted to pull open the door of the safe. After the struggle, the guard caught his breath and made a confused noise.
“Oh, there’s a key too? Stone can you check the desk for a key?” Shatterstar’s heart dropped into his stomach as he heard the other guards' hoofsteps get closer to his hiding spot. With no other options Shatterstar curled into a ball and tried to make himself look as nonthreatening as possible, and before he knew it he was face to face with a grey mare in silver guard armor. Shatterstar flinched in surprise as he saw her, a unicorn with lime green eyes and a short dark grey mane that worked nicely with her light grey coat. Her basic appearance wasn’t why he flinched though, it was her expression that caught him off guard.
She didn’t look surprised to see him hiding there, she didn’t look angry at his attempt at trespassing, she didn’t even seem mildly confused by his presence. She just looked blank, as if all of her emotion was gone or muted. She looked at him with half-lidded eyes that seemed to stare into his soul and tilted her head, giving him the only indication that she was confused. The two stared at each other for what seemed like forever until the stallion spoke up.
“Stone? You find anything?” Shatterstar watched in terror as she lifted her head and nodded yes at the stallion across the room. He thought that he was done for until her horn glowed a deep magenta and pulled out a key that seemed to be stuck to the bottom of the desk right next to him. She gave him one last look before leaving his line of sight for good.
Shatterstar's jaw dropped as he was yet again left speechless at the turn of events he had found himself in. He didn’t know what to make of the situation, but in the end, he wasn’t even sure he’d be able to no matter how much time he had to think about it. As he continued to struggle with the meaning of his life, the sound of turning gears filled the room as the two guards had succeeded in their task to open the safe. He heard the sound of papers being shuffled followed by a horrified gasp.
“We...we need to get this to the spears, right now!” Was the last thing the stallion said as the two finally left the room, and Shatterstar, in peace. The crystal pony in question let out a huge breath that he hadn’t even realized he was holding and flopped onto his back, letting out a pathetic whine as a swirl of emotions attacked him.
He took a few moments to recover and freak out into his hooves, but eventually, he had calmed down enough to slowly reorganize his thoughts onto the entire reason he came here in the first place. Slapping his cheeks with his hooves, he got back up and swiftly made his way out the door and into the hallway outside. He could see multiple doors lining the hallway from left to right with decorative plants next to each door and tapestries still hanging from the roof. With no guards in sight, he carefully walked down the hall to the right in search of where the crystal ponies were supposed to go.
As he walked he made sure to step on any carpeted surface he could see to produce the least amount of noise possible, since every single step on the crystal floor would echo down the halls and make him freeze in place like a cat. He cautiously continued to walk down the hallway until he saw the entrance to a spiral staircase in the distance. He trotted his way over, but instead of walking down the steps, he hovered a few inches off the ground to reduce the noise.
He continued to search the innards of the castle, switching between walking and flying whenever he needed to, and for some reason, he hadn't encountered very many guards. Every so often he would spot a doctor of all things, but aside from the guards in the office, the castle seemed to be barren. Shatterstar kept wandering aimlessly until the sounds of celebration echoed from down a narrow hallway to his left. He galloped down the hallway as fast as he could, following the sounds through the twists and turns of the maze-like palace.
As the guiding sounds got to their highest possible volume Shatterstar rounded the final corner and came face to face with two guards standing just outside of the ballroom doors. He stopped for a moment as the two equestrians eyed him curiously, but neither made any attempt to stop him or detain him. Shatterstar gave them a nervous smile and wave that the guards awkwardly reciprocated as he walked past them and into the ballroom.
The large ballroom was filled with music and the sounds of crystal ponies talking and laughing with each other. He could see a group of ponies dancing while another group of ponies was sitting down and consoling each other, most likely for anything they may have left behind. While all of that was fine it wasn’t it still wasn't his main objective, so Shatterstar traveled deeper into the crowd of ponies to find his friend.
“Excuse me.” He called out to a nearby crystal pony who was minding his own business. “Have you seen a dull white crystal pony with a dull blonde mane and saddlebags?" The pony nodded his head and pointed towards the back of the room. Shatterstar followed his direction and almost immediately saw Chivalrous talking with somepony obscured from his current angle. Shatterstar smiled widely as he attempted to sneak in close and surprise him, that is until he saw exactly who Chivalrous was talking to.
The brown unicorn doctor that had turned him away was smiling happily as he sat and chatted with Chivalrous, giving Shatterstar a mini freak out as he desperately searched for anything or anyone to hide behind. At first, he thought he’d found the perfect place to hide, that is until the mare he was hiding behind so rudely yanked her legs away and shot him a dirty look. Quickly changing tactics, Shatterstar then moved behind a nearby chair to continue watching their conversation, wishing desperately that he could hear it from where he was, but with all of the rowdy ponies in the room that was not a possibility
Shatter chanted prayers to himself, hoping to get rid of the doctor sooner, until finally the doctor stood up and shook Chivalrous’ hoof before finally walking away into the crowd. Shatterstar wanted to call out to him but he didn’t want to risk getting the doc's attention, so he quickly picked up a small piece of crystal on the ground and tossed it at his head. His aim was true as the launched projectile hit its mark and got the desired reaction out of his friend, making Chivalrous turn to look for the source of the projectile.
“Shatter! You’re here!” Chivalrous exclaimed before running up to Shatterstar and giving him a quick hug. “How did you get here? The doctor told me you weren’t ready."
“Shhh!” Shatterstar pulled his shouting friend aside and away from all of the nosy ponies nearby. “Listen, I got in through...other means. Long story short I’m here now and we’re doing it together!” Shatterstar whispered as he hoof bumped him. Chivalrous gave him an uneasy expression, clearly unsure of how to feel about the situation, but he quickly shook his head and dropped them as he opted to instead enjoy the moment.
“Attention! May I have your attention please!?” Shouted a very familiar voice from the back of the room. Everypony’s murmurs and conversations ceased as the brown doctor from before stood on a stage in front of all of the crystal ponies. Moving quickly, Shatterstar hid with Chivalrous deep in the crowd of a hundred or so ponies in hopes that he wouldn’t be recognized.
“My name is Dr. Geiger, and I want to congratulate you all! Today is the day that you will all begin your new lives!” The crowd of ponies all stomped in cheer at his proclamation, even Shatterstar despite the pain in his hooves slowly returning. “Now you may be wondering where you’ll all be going.” The room went dark as he continued talking, and shortly after a projected image of a large city hanging off the side of a mountain was shown behind him.
“This is Canterlot, the place where hopefully all of you will be going.” Shatterstar felt a sense of unease at the doctor's use of the word hopefully, but otherwise, he ignored the stallion's words and focused on the projected images. There were large buildings with huge shopping centers as well as ponies of all shapes and sizes smiling and interacting with each other. The images didn’t seem to have color in them but it still got the point across that Canterlot was the place to be.
“Canterlot is not only a metropolitan paradise but also the center of all of the Equestrian scientific discoveries. Dare I say that it's the greatest city of science not just in Equestria, but in all of the world!” A few more images popped up of scientist ponies in a lab wearing lab coats and gloves as they looked at beakers filled with nondescript liquid. “Canterlot castle, in its emptiness, was repurposed for all things science. From technological advancement,” An image of several ponies working on some strange contraption that looked a lot like a giant coffin flashed on the wall. “to military advancement,” There was another picture of ponies watching an explosion contained in a room. “and most importantly, alternative power sources.” The doctor said with a shift in his voice tone, sending a shiver down Shatterstars spine. With one final click, the projector stopped, and all of the lights in the room returned.
Once the light had been returned, everypony present noticed a newly revealed army of unicorn guards all with their horns charged in a multitude of colors. Some of the crystal ponies gasped, but before any of them had a chance to react all of the unicorns discharged their spells at the crowd, and once a pony was hit they immediately fell to the ground in complete paralysis. It only took a few seconds for the entire crowd to be pacified, all except for Shatterstar who was left standing, shocked and horrified at the sudden turn of events. He looked down at the panicked and pain-filled expression of his friend Chivalrous as he lay motionless on the floor, his eyes darting all around in fear.
Shatterstar couldn’t take his eyes off of him, his terrified expression forever being ingrained into his mind. It was then that a beam of magic hit him square in the chest and dispersed all over his body. Shatterstar closed his eyes and waited for the darkness to take him, but quickly he noticed that there had been no negative effects. Slowly he opened his eyes and saw all of the guards, plus the doctor, staring at him as if he had four wings. A few more of the unicorns fired the spell in an attempt to paralyze him, but each one had the same lack of effect, causing many of the guards to start panicking until the doctor started shouting again.
“He’s not ready! The spell won’t work! Get him!” He barked as he pointed accusingly at the last crystal pony standing. Shatterstar looked down at his friend's fearful expression as the incoming guards rushed toward them. He didn’t want to leave Chivalrous here with these guards to be a part of whatever it was they were planning, but the look in his paralyzed friend's eyes told him everything he needed to know.
‘Run.’
With great reluctance Shatterstar forced himself to turn tail and run out of the ballroom doors as fast as he could. The guards were hot on his tail but Shatterstar could already hear them panting heavily. He figured that using those spells had taken a lot out of them, and despite the stabbing pain in his hoof he figured that for now, he’d have the advantage.
“He can’t be allowed to escape!” One of the guards behind him shouted. Shatterstar looked behind him as the guards continued to grow in number and saw more fresh guards joining the chase, including some pegasi with crossbows. How he missed all of them as he scoured the entirety of this floor earlier he would never understand. Already Shatterstars legs and lungs were starting to burn from the extra effort he had been using to dodge crossbow bolts, and eventually not even his adrenaline could keep him on his hooves for much longer. He twisted around a corner to his right, but with a crack, he fell on his broken left hoof and crashed into a table holding a large flower pot. It fell on top of him, shattering into pieces and cutting up his body, but before he had a chance to register the pain he got back up and took flight, just narrowly dodging a volley of crossbows in the process.
Shatterstar continued to fly as fast as he could despite not having any idea where he was going, coupling this with the looping castle walls only made the idea more disheartening. Feeling the pressure, he ducked into a nearby room with very large doors and slammed them shut, and once inside he noticed that the doors had a large crystal brace that he quickly knocked down to lock himself inside. He backed away from the door and silence filled the room, the walls seemingly being designed to cut off all of the sounds from outside. The moment of respite was interrupted by a large force crashing against the door and shaking the entire room. Shatterstar began to shiver in fear as he realized that the army of guards outside was attempting to bust down the door all with the sole purpose of killing him.
The booms grew louder and louder, and without much time to think Shatterstar frantically looked around the room for anything that could help him out of this, and as he did he noticed that he had indeed found his way into the throne room. The room looked like it had windows, but none of them were operable and all of them were too thick to break. He looked for any areas to hide but in this room, there was only one object, the throne, and hiding behind there would be like hiding under a bed. He looked at the door and saw that a large crack had appeared in the brace, so with his time running out he looked up at the high ceiling and saw a chandelier hanging at the very top. With the door only moments away from being opened he decided to take his chances and rush towards the ceiling to hide on top of the massive chandelier.
As soon as he found a reasonable position to wait, he looked down and watched the doors burst open, followed by the massive horde of guards that rushed into the room one after the other for a total of fifty, all of which were searching frantically for him. Almost immediately some of them checked behind the throne and near the windows, but to their shock, they couldn't find any trace of him. He watched from above as the guards continued to search for him everywhere until he noticed one guard acting much differently from the rest. She was kneeling and looking at her crossbow the entire time while the others searched, and suddenly she snapped her head in his direction and fired. Shatterstar dodged the bolt she had aimed for his head, but when he did the bolt hit the chain connecting the chandelier to the ceiling instead, sending both it and him downwards.
Time seemed to slow down as Shatterstar jumped off of the chandelier and spread his wings, but as he spread them another bolt fired in anticipation hit him directly on his right wing. Shatterstar screamed in pain as he fell from the immensely high ceiling directly onto the destroyed chandelier and onto the glass-covered ground. He rolled across the floor covered in broken glass and blood and when he stopped he began instinctively wheezing and gasping for air.
Shatterstar tried to move, but nearly every part of his body was broken and aching. He tried to scream in pain, but all he managed to do was gurgle blood as his lungs were punctured by his shattered ribs. His body trembled from the pain, and all he could see was the pooling blood beneath him as he lay face down on the ground. He let out a pathetic whine as he felt a hoof turn him over onto his back, once he was there he saw the blurry figures of the guards all staring down at him.
It all hurt so much, and as Shatterstar began to feel colder and colder his thoughts turned to his mom. He never got the chance to see her again, and now he’d never get the chance to see Chivalrous. What would happen to his friend? Shatterstar began to cry as these final thoughts invaded his last moments of consciousness.
"Well...let's finish this guy off." The female guard said with a hint of pity in her voice as she loaded another bolt into her crossbow. Before she could follow through with her plan though, the ground felt like it had disappeared beneath him. He felt like he was falling down a pit with the guards watching him as he fell. The walls became black and the light grew dimmer and dimmer until only darkness remained.
‘I'm sorry, buddy.' Shatterstar thought to himself as he closed his eyes for the last time.