There I was, Nightmare Moon, leering down at me, even as I kissed the floor. This morning far too early if you asked me, I heard a knock at my door. It worries me that I am getting far too used to that noise. Five minutes later, and with a very antsy squire escort, I was in the single solitary room in the castle I dreaded. I now knelt in the throne room. I should have expected it after Solemn's worries from last night. My stomach churned. I was glad I hadn't eaten yet. The squire and guards by the entry had left and closed the doors to the chamber with a resounding thud. It was just me and Queen Nightmare Moon. A none too pleased queen at that.
"Your Majesty?" I asked.
She continued to stare down at me. I could feel the itch in my hind legs, the insatiable urge to bolt. I was staring into the eyes of an apex predator, fangs or not. I was still a prey animal, a herd animal. The type of beast safest in a crowd.
Nightmare finally tutted and sat back on her throne. I released a held breath and waited. Sabre hadn't even shown up. It'd been so early. I attempted a smile only to find my mirth die the second Nightmare noticed.
"Rise."
I did so, and I still felt tiny. Nightmare tutted again, and horn lit. She lifted a file that had been hidden beside her throne. I tilted my head, ears a flop as she skimmed through the contents. She kept the papers angled away, leaving me none the wiser.
"Do you know why you have been summoned, gazer of stars?"
I mustered what little focus I had and nodded. "It has to do with my absence from you glorious court, Your Highness."
"To an extent, yes. I had also wished to see the preliminary work on my stars. For the first, I am distraught. If the second hadn't been so well documented, I might have tossed you up to see my stars first hoof."
I understood the threat. That part made sense. However, for the former, the documents, I was at a loss. Yet, there she sat, flipping from page to page, not even looking in my direction. So, there I waited. The jitter in my hind legs had now entered my forelegs. I was close to performing my own rendition of the peepee dance. I'd do it, too, if it meant I could leave.
"Your lines could use a bit of work, and I found one or two stars that are angled too far to one side of the other. That aside, the work is well within expectations. It seems that the rat in the dungeons is quite the teacher. I may even send a missive to applaud him. I bet that would make his day, yes?"
It was rhetorical. Nightmare must get off on knowing she'd broken Blueblood so thoroughly. That aside, I hadn't been close to finalizing a draft. My lines were terrible at that. That could leave naught but one outcome. Did I just get rescued by Blue of all ponies? I mean, I considered him a friend of alike. I was never really sure if he felt the same. If I was right, I'd need to apologize for doubting him.
"He is quite the instructor. I must thank you, Your Highness, for introducing me. It was more grace than I deserved," I said, bowing again.
"But of course. It is a queen's duty to bring wonder and awe to every subject. Your apprenticeship under the rat has born fruit. So, to that, I applaud your effort. I expect the next draft to be without flaws. So, to that end, I relay any punishment for yesterday's transgression."
"Thank you, My Queen."
The jitters had lessened. I was about to get off scot-free. I found the tidings of a smile even as I turned to leave. Nightmare hummed again and cleared her throat. I stopped mid-turn and looked back to the alicorn, who smirked at me.
"You're quite the strange stallion. I have yet to find nary a detail of your past. To that front, have you recovered any more of your past, knave?"
Just like that, my happy feeling was gone. I paced in place as I scrounged for anything I might use to satiate the alicorn. It then hit me. I had at least one card to play.
"I have Your Highness. I had a dream, one that placed me back from wince I came. I don't know the exact location. However, I know it was far north, near the Yak lands. It is perhaps why finding my origins has been so difficult. I may have more humble beginnings than even I suspected."
"Is that so? Interesting, thou art quite the strange stallion indeed. Now, go. I believe the rat will be waiting. I also expect you at next week's court precessions. Am I clear?"
"Crystal, your Highness. I wouldn't dream of missing it."
That said, I retreated with as much grace as one can muster when they were face to face with an unstable super powerful dictator. When I exited, I found none other than my royal babysitter, to my surprise. Sabre stood against the wall facing the throne room and seemed positively dripping with good tidings.
"Morning," I said.
Sabre took a deep breath and nodded. "Sir."
I could tell I had an ear full coming in the near future. I smiled all the same and started off to the dungeons. Sabre was right behind me, glaring a hole into the back of my head. The walk was a quiet one. In fact, we made it almost the entire way to said dungeons when I turned the corner to meet a face full of fur. I reeled back and fell on my haunches with a startled yelp.
"Sir?" Sabre asked as he rounded the bend.
I did pay him much mind. I had something far more interesting on hoof. I had, it seems, run into a mare. A tall, pink mare. One draped with a shawl and hood. Our collision had knocked her hood off, though the mare seemed more impressed with the files I'd knocked from her telekinetic grip. She didn't say a word. She instead collected her things and mumbled something to herself. It was only as she went to sidestep me that I noticed a single pink feather sitting in her place. I blinked and slowly reached down and hefted the feather in my hoof.
"Sir?" Sabre asked once more, following the withdrawal of the mare as she left. She'd drawn her hood once more and was gone in an instant.
"Odd."
It took a deep breath, tucked the feather underwing, and started back to the dungeons. I had a niggling feeling I'd seen that mare before. Whatever it was, it was lost to me. So, feather secured, I decided I'd look into it later. It felt like I was missing something.
"I'm fine, just got startled," I answered Sabre.
"If you say so, sir."
It was left at that. While I was still left a tad befuddled, the rest of our walk was as nondescript as a jaunt to the old gaol can be. Blueblood, for his part, was not at his table. He was neither at his bed nor the washroom. In fact, the unicorn wasn't in his room at all. I was left befuddled again. Why does everypony keep doing that?
I leaned back out of the rooms to the nearest guard. "Excuse me, sir, not trying to be a bother, but where did Blueblood go?"
The guard yawned and grumbled something about bats under his breath. I chose to ignore it for now. "Your buddy departed a while ago. I don't know where only when."
I looked back over at Sabre, who was leering at the maps strewn about the chamber. Then I looked back to the guard, giving me a fierce stinkeye.
"Aren't you supposed to be guarding him?" I asked.
The other guard snorted.
"We guard the room, the maps, and the like. The pony living in em' can do as he pleases. That is unless he starts tearing the room apart or such."
My jaw hung wide. "You guard the room?"
The guard nodded. "Yes."
"Not the pony?"
He nodded once more. "Yes."
"Huh. Thanks, I suppose. Have a nice day."
That said, I darted back into the rooms. There was nary a note, no indication of where the crazy bastard had gone. Sabre had chosen to lean against a wall and watch me grind my teeth. Here I was ready to apologize and thank him, and he up and vanishes.
"I mean, come on. The one day, I need to see the jerk, and he finally gets over his anxiety and depression. I call hacks. He's cheating. He has to be."
"At what, sir?"
I stop and look back at Sabre. "Excuse me?" I ask.
"Cheating at what, sir?"
"At— He's— Gah!"
I fell to my haunches and waved nondescript as I fumed. I earned a Sabre smirk as he watched me sulk. One big bother, I tell you. That makes two jerks today, all one big hassle. So there I sat for several minutes. I wasn't really quite sure where to go from here. I could hunt down Solemn, but that would do little. We'd need a concrete plan, which would mean everypony having their ducks in a row.
At the point of me getting bored and fed up with sitting here doing nothing, I began to leave and let Blue work alone. That at this moment, I was face to face with said stallion. One who'd just walked back into his lodgings without a care in the world.
I say that, but judging by his face, he was not having a super night. His head hung low, and the books in his magical grip barely hovered over the floor. The poor stallion heaved a sigh and let the books plop to the ground.
"Uh, hey, Blue. You okay, there?" I asked.
Blue looked up, and blue a dangling bang out of his face. In all, he looked as if he'd been up all night, or up not infinitely but a twenty-four-hour period of the night. Time makes no sense anymore. I really hated the eternal night thing.
"I've been better."
"Well, hey there, buddy, you're alone in that?"
Blue snorted and managed to sit up like a big boy. "Is that what you call it? I suppose I am less alone than prior. I have Sabre at least to heed my woes."
I flinched. I looked back to Sabre, who shrugged.
"As is, I am actually quite grateful for your continued companionship. It has been so long since I had anypony's attention I became convinced none had any to pay me. Well-deserved poverty, tis how I found my place in these hallowed halls."
"Blue, it's a dungeon. You live in a dungeon."
"But live I do, in the depths where I belong."
"Well, that aside. I wanted to thank you for, well, keeping me from the gallows. You didn't have to fix those star charts. But, thank you all the same. I owe you for that."
I managed a smile which Blue reciprocated. It was strained, and the stallion looked ready to fall face-first into the relaxing sleep fulfilling stone below him.
"Of course I did. That is what friends do, yes. I could hardly enjoy the company of a corpse, now could I?"
I shrug. "Not really, unless it was reanimated, or a ghost maybe."
"Yes, well, We'll never know. As you are still quite alive, and I forbid you from dying. So, that is that."
I conceded, my smile a little less stressed. It was thus that Prince Blueblood has forbidden my untimely demise. It seems fate conspires still. Blueblood himself seemed a mite bit more alive as well. He'd managed to correct his failing bang and plant the books he'd brought to his spot on his work table.
"On the topic of maps, charts, and various schematics. I have finally confirmed my theory."
Blue waved me over. He had several sketched but incomplete map forms for the tundra land as well as northern Equestria and southern Yakyakistan. He'd taped them together and planted several of my still in progress star charts above those. Then with pins and yarm, roped off a segment in the center of the triad of maps.
"Is that what—"
"Yes, yes it is, now hush. I have more, not just estimations. I have dimensions and distinct controlled variables. I'm mapping a land forgotten by time."
"Blueblood had transformed from utter mess to gidd school filly in the blink of an eye. I took a half step back. I was scared it was contagious.
"Which means?" I asked.
Blue's leg shot out and pulled against him and, with his free hoof, pointed to the marked spot on the merged maps. "It means your dreams and the folk tales of old are the same. They are both correct. An empire that faded away. A land of crystals. It. Is. Incredible."
"Huh, that's, well, I'm not sure what that is. A place hidden in shadows. What do we even do with this info?" I asked.
"Tell me, Star, what of your prospects with Shining and his felled forces?"
I coughed into a hoof and pulled myself from Blue's grip. "That's a bit personal and a tad presumptuous, isn't it?"
"That poorly, disappointing."
"Hey, I didn't say that."
"You're leaving, yes?" Blue asked, stepping away from his table and staring me down.
"I, what?"
"One week hence, you shall be called forth to the halls of the Night. Held to a standard that even your tutor knows you aren't prepared for. You've few other choices. It is leave and risk death or stay and guarantee it."
I blanched. "There's no guarantee I'd die."
"Maybe not this week, but what of the next? Time is never on the side of those who skulk in secrets. You'll run eventually."
I stomp and scowl. Blue sits there in smug self-adulations. Sabre seems unphased, and I had half a mind to him enjoying this all the same.
"How do you even know about any of this?" I asked.
Blueblood tskd and rubbed his chest tuft. "Gossip was one of my strengths prior to Nightmare's rise. I may be a recluse, but there is little in the way of news I don't collect. So, you'll be leaving, yes?"
I growled and stomped again. "And if I do?"
"That's simple. I'll be joining you. How else will we rewrite history? We shall map out our own legacy. Imagine what we could find in the lands of shade and snow?"
"What?" I was caught entirely flat hooved here. I wasn't really sure where to go from here. One second, Blue is prying at my plans. The next, he's charting out destiny or something. On one hoof, he's right. Staying here is not a long-term option. On the other, would Shining and the rebels even be interested in a supposed lost city? Was this a new El Dorado or the dream of a pair of lost souls? I really hoped it was the former.
"I will be joining you and your gaggle of compatriots. That is settled."
Was it, though, was any of this? This went from a three pony escape to a four, where one is hopped up on some mapping high. I don't even know if Solemn would allow it. Actually, he'd have little choice, as Blueblood knows enough to make our chances even slimmer. So, four it was, and so it shall be.
"I guess it is," I said, sagging down in defeat.
"Good," Sabre said.
"Good?" I asked.
"Can't let the love birds become star-crossed loves, now can I, sir?"
I didn't even look up. "Go Screw yourself, Sabre."
"If he's so busy pairing us off, he's clearly too poorly equipped for such a feat," Blueblood said before whistling and returning to his books.
Sabre went quiet. I fell silent as well, lest the prince wields his silver tongue to destroy my ego as well. I did crack a smile and mouth several unbecoming taunts to my dutiful guard. Thus we returned to the daily trudge. That was until Blueblood fell asleep standing up. Sabre and I helped him to bed and left early. It wasn't like we had anything better to do. Solemn and Bright would need to be filled in. Oh, I can hear Solemn's wails of protest even now. The poor bat might pop a blood vessel. I think Bright would enjoy the extra company all the same.
I hoped the potential lead on a stronghold, allies, or something to the north might cushion Solenn's mad dash to lunacy. All in all, it was more productive than kissing Nightmare's big fat flanks. One week to go.