As Papyrus explained, for the fourth time, that he was tagging along in pursuit of humble psychological enlightenment, to be Braen's bodyguard, and for a few cheap laughs, Corsica found it impossible to focus. This usually happened when she overused her talent, but even if she was running at full capacity, she had a hunch nothing would be different.
For one, she had a strong suspicion nobody at this table was telling the truth about why they were here. Leif, at least, probably wasn't lying about what she wanted: to use that ether crystal fault plane research as a means to an end of tracking down Chrysalis. But every time Corsica tried to learn why she was looking for her, Leif masterfully changed the topic, and Corsica didn't have the mental energy to push the point.
Nehaley's excuse was perhaps the most believable: she was only here because Halcyon tossed a writ in her face. And however much Halcyon was or wasn't thinking things through, it checked out that she would spend a writ for no other reason than to keep her family close at hand. She always used to be torn, back in Icereach, by the ideas of following Corsica out into the world and sticking close to Ansel, after all.
Well, look where they were now.
Braen repeated the story she had given on their first day in Snowport: that she was here because her mother created her to wander the land, collect data and meet ponies. Potentially accurate, but she was a robot, so did she count? Corsica still had no idea what to think of her, or how equine she actually was. Mostly because she hadn't been willing to spare the effort to think about it.
Then there was Halcyon, delivering a much-more-awkward repeat of what she had told Terutomo about the pink flame in Ironridge, which Corsica knew now wasn't the full story after cornering Halcyon and dragging a little more out of her other self. That conversation was the real reason she was distracted, now, and it didn't even make her feel better.
Halcyon was... a changeling queen. Okay. She was so afraid of herself that she had developed a split personality to cover it up. Okay. She was also too ambitious to leave well enough alone... Well, duh. But what Corsica really wanted wasn't to know things, but for Halcyon to talk with her.
Maybe it should feel like a victory, getting Halcyon's older, inner self to come out and talk with her instead. But no matter how much she tried to frame it that way in her mind, it came across as Halcyon avoiding her, and making someone else do the work of explaining her actions. Why couldn't she do the talking herself? Why wouldn't she? The more excuses her other half gave, the more it felt like those excuses were empty noise, and Halcyon herself just didn't want to.
The same side of Halcyon that reached out when she needed it, obsessively and for no reason, until she dragged her out of her spiral and into a presumably-pointless research project about ether crystals that turned out to be just what Corsica needed. Back then, Halcyon had gone out of her way to talk with her, to try to connect with her, and it had been Corsica who was dragging her hooves. So what changed...?
Throughout the conversation, Corsica did her part to lie about why she was here as well: a few dutiful speeches about going to find Starlight and helping Ironridge deal with its windigo problem. No one called her out about how no one could inherently be that heroic. Maybe because they knew they re all making up their reasons, too, and they could all pretend not to acknowledge it together.
Corsica didn't say a word about how she was looking for Starlight for personal reasons, trying to track down a mare who had reportedly lived with her special talent before, so she could find out how she did it. And she especially didn't say anything about just being here to stick with Halcyon.
The meeting ended. Time to deal with the real world again, and get back out of her own head.
Standing in the train yard, accompanied by a cadre of high-ranking guards, Corsica finally got her first close-up look at Equestrian trains.
The yard was about half full, and it seemed to have three different kinds of locomotives. Some were brightly colored and whimsically decorated, made of sunny colors like red, pink and orange, with lots of curved trim and an old-timey vibe. Others were sleek, aerodynamic and painted with metallic shades of pastel colors, still too bright and whimsical to belong in industrial Ironridge, but undoubtedly designed by a more future-oriented pony. The third were relatively unremarkable, painted a dim shade of gold and lacking much artistry or flair in their design.
It was one of those golden trains that she and her draconic entourage clustered around. Only two cars were being attached to the locomotive: a plain-looking boxcar that was clearly designed to haul freight, and a car with windows that looked designed for passengers.
"Wonder what powers it?" Corsica mused, searching the engine for any telltale signs of fuel storage.
"The rails do," a wide, quadrupedal dragon with pleated spikes on his back and a tail that ended in a wrench tip answered, lumbering over. "Handy, isn't it?"
"The rails?" Corsica glanced over at him.
The dragon bobbed his triangular head. "Sure thing. They're made with alicorn magic, after all. Some say Princess Celestia uses them as a reservoir for her power, and keeps it there rather than on herself most times. You can see for yourself if you get a little closer to the tracks... Or maybe you can't? I can never quite wrap my head around how pony vision works. But as long as the trains have the princess's blessing, and they're on the tracks, the tracks will share their power with them and along they'll go."
"You don't say?" Papyrus asked, wandering closer as well.
The dragon perked up. "You a fan of trains as well?"
"A fan of hearing how goddesses store their power, actually," Papyrus mused. "You know, the Night Mother did something similar, stuffing all her excess power into a network of crystals and altars spread throughout the cities in her country, back up north. I bet there used to be whole conventions of goddesses where they'd share these tricks with each other. Train tracks, crystals... I wonder which one actually came up with this, and why it's such a good idea that they decided to share. After all, they could just keep all that power in themselves, instead..."
The dragon looked nonplussed. "Well... uhh... Fan of theology, huh? Sorry. I know more about trains than that! What I do know is, it's a great thing Princess Celestia does it how she does it, because otherwise we'd have to build all these tracks ourselves, and lug along entire cars full of fuel. Who knows what we'd even use for that." He scratched himself and stared at the trains. "Who knows how much slower they'd go, as well..."
"Hey, you!" another dragon shouted at him. "Stop slacking off and help me do a safety check on these axles!"
With a dutiful nod, he lumbered away.
Corsica glanced at Papyrus, unsure if she wanted to keep this conversation going.
"Completely apropos of nothing," Papyrus said, apparently making the decision for her. "If you were a goddess, what would you want to be the goddess of?"
"Huh?" Corsica tilted her head.
"Well, you could always be the goddess of megalomaniacally trying to rule the world," Papyrus explained. "But that's kind of standard. I've only ever met... I mean, I've only heard of one god or goddess who didn't have any territory to their name, and they didn't seem all that happy about it. But these divinities tend to have domains as well, things their power is tied to on some level us poor mortals can't understand. Things like..." He rubbed his chin. "They call old Celestia the Princess of the Sun. And it's quite believable if you've ever seen her fight. Fire magic, all over the place! You could almost burn yourself, just thinking about it..."
"Huh," Corsica repeated. "Never thought about it. Not sure I'd have a domain. What about you?"
Papyrus shrugged. "Oh, I'd probably be the god of getting on everyone's nerves. No ideas for you, eh?"
"Dunno." Corsica wasn't feeling up to this conversation, but wasn't feeling up to ending it, either, so inertia carried her along. "Would I need one?"
"Who can say?" Papyrus took a few steps toward the train. "Could be interesting fodder for conversation with the alicorns, though, assuming we get dragged before them to plead for aid for Ironridge like my gut says is inevitable."
A small suspicion started to nudge at Corsica's mind. "You've got something you want me to say to them on your behalf."
Papyrus's cheekily-innocent expression gave everything away. "Well, on the off chance that I somehow got too terrified to speak in the presence of someone who would actually do something about it if I ran my mouth the wrong way..."
Corsica stared at him.
"Look," Papyrus sighed. "I'm smart enough to read the stakes in a room. I know how to stick to running my mouth when the worst that'll happen is a few hurt feelings and maybe a punch to the face, and how to get serious when something bigger is going down. And I also know that parlaying with goddesses is about the most serious time there is. So if I happen to find myself suspiciously indisposed at the moment of truth, chalk it up to me being a team player, don't ask questions and pretend like I'm there in spirit, alright?"
Corsica hesitated. "You're unsure enough of your grip on your own tongue that you're preemptively bailing on any important meetings we're going to have, and think the royalty are going to directly take interest in our mission."
"Well, of course they are!" Papyrus waved a wing. "It's not like you're asking for the help of someone only two steps below them on the chain of command. I'd bet you Fluttershy and Celestia even have tea together from time to time! Not to mention I've got the distinct impression that even if innocent little Halcyon thinks she's only here to ask for the aid of two particular ponies, the way this is going to end involves us beseeching the military intervention of all of Equestria in the north, which would definitely involve pleading our case to the toppest of the top brass."
Corsica sighed. "You realize that out of all of us, you're the best suited to actually making that case, right?"
Papyrus looked taken aback.
"Halcyon has too many mental blocks about what she can talk about," Corsica said. "She doesn't trust anyone. Not her friends, and certainly not the authorities. I'm clinically lazy, and Leif is almost certainly up to something illegal. Nehaley doesn't care, and Braen... I dunno about Braen. You're sinister, but at least you're not afraid to put your cards on the table to get what you want. You know how this team of ours works."
Papyrus chuckled darkly. "It's cute that you feel that way about me, especially the implication that I'm not up to anything illegal. But I'm serious, I'll be keeping my head down. In fact, this might be the last you'll see of me for quite a while. But you're right about the rest of our friends, and that's why I'm expecting you'll be the one who actually takes point, here."
Corsica frowned.
"We treat Halcyon like the leader because she doesn't ask questions, doesn't get in our way and isn't smart enough to question the status quo," Papyrus whispered. "But I know your type. You're not actually lazy. You'd move continents to get what you want, and you can do it, too. You're just..." He glanced at her special talent. "Very particular in what you choose to care about."
"What of it?" Corsica narrowed her eyes.
"Just saying." Papyrus turned to leave. "Nobody else is going to steal your show, and there aren't many better opportunities to further your agenda than getting to plead your case to a goddess. Just spend some thought in advance so you know exactly what you want your agenda to be."
At last, the dragons finished their preparations and asked us to board the train.
On the way here, I had seen the passenger station where normal ponies and dragons got on and off the trains, and also the freight stations where goods were loaded and unloaded. Why unload the goods and ship them by water if the trains were so magically fast, when ridden by ponies who didn't know how far they were going? I didn't know. But there was probably a reason, somewhere.
We didn't go to either of those stations, though. The dragons took us way out into the middle of the rail yard, where we boarded a short train after a short wait, consisting only of the engine, a passenger car and a car that was undoubtedly carrying Aegis. I climbed into the passenger car via a makeshift boarding platform and beheld a wide, well-maintained array of plush benches set across from one another, so that groups of passengers could converse with each other more easily.
Several other dragons accompanied us, plus an entire entourage of guards I was sure were waiting in the other car with Aegis. The last one to board was Seigetsu.
"You're coming too?" I asked, blinking.
"Did I not say I would?" Seigetsu asked, standing as the doors closed and everyone else took a seat. "You shouldn't need a reminder of what it is we're transporting. If Abyssinia is aware of Duma's plot, as I have no doubt they are, it would be foolish not to expect them to try to interfere with our transport." She summoned her purple hammer, patted it, and dismissed it again. "Rest assured, we are ready."
I swallowed.
"I also sent word on ahead to the Crystal Empire," Seigetsu confirmed. "And they acknowledged with a response. We are trying not to make this train overly conspicuous with an immediately visible guard. Instead, the Crystal Empire's aerial forces will be stationed in the mountains to our north, observing the train from a distance and ready to intervene at the first sign of trouble."
"Hadn't realized this was a high-risk trip," I explained, suddenly nervous. "Are you sure this is... you know, wise?"
Seigetsu shook her head. "We have also prepared four visually-identical trains that will set out at substantial intervals from each other, three of which are decoys. Ours will not be the first. Should the Abyssinians spring a hasty ambush, they will find themselves foiled for want of a prize, yet set upon and vanquished by the Crystal Empire's finest either way. Rest assured that though we may be far from the front lines, we are no less experienced in how to operate safely when under threat. You will be perfectly fine."
Now that she said it, I felt like I had been jinxed. "So... how long until we set off?"
"The interval between trains is roughly two hours," Seigetsu said. "About the amount of time it takes to pass within the Crystal Empire's territory. Whether or not all goes well I will receive a report as soon as anything newsworthy reaches the city. The order in which the trains leave is being randomized and obfuscated to help foil spies, so I do not know yet which turn ours will be. I would advise settling in for a wait."
I glanced around, noticing a small bistro at the end of the car. Well, at least we were prepared to sit around for a while...
Time passed in what felt like fits and starts. Sometimes, I would look at the clock to see that only five minutes had passed; other times an entire half-hour would be gone. Eventually, a guard entered the car, passing a slip of paper to Seigetsu and departing without a word.
"The dice have spoken," Seigetsu said. "It seems our turn is nigh."
The train jolted, and I felt its engines come to life.
"No trouble with the first one, then?" Papyrus asked, swaggering over.
"No," Seigetsu said. "Nothing out of the ordinary. That is a heartening sign, as it would be the most likely one to be attacked."
I hissed under my breath. Please, please stop trying to jinx it...
"I take it you are familiar with some form of combat?" Seigetsu said as the train began to roll. "Your lack of hesitation in the stasis chamber certainly suggested as much."
"I've done my time." Papyrus shrugged. "Don't know how much I'd count on anyone else in my group, though."
"How likely actually is it that the train is going to be attacked?" I pressed. "Duma kind of made out like he wasn't expecting to find Aegis down there. Did you learn anything after we left?"
"No." Seigetsu shook her head. "He has been frustratingly tight-lipped. Or rather, all too talkative about subjects that are irrelevant. It is clear he is proficient in wasting my interrogators' time." She sighed. "The bigger worry is that we have been completely unable to find any trace of Yelvey. My soldiers breached his inner sanctum and completed an extensive search, and while we did not find the stallion himself we were able to locate an empty vial of the type of enchanted glass used to hold Formula L, but without the Convocation's proprietary watermark on the bottom. So, it seems that part of your story adds up nicely."
I glanced out the window as we left the train yard, switched onto the main tracks, and began to pick up speed. "The Order of Silence don't have any powers they could use to stop a train, do they?"
"Theoretically, yes," Seigetsu said. "But mostly things anyone else could do. Felling a tree and dragging it across the tracks, for instance. And as Yelvey is old and somewhat infirm, I don't think he presents the greatest threat in this scenario."
I settled back into my seat, uncomfortably watching the land roll by.
Ahead of us and behind, my window looked out on farmland, probably tilled by the residents of Freedom Town, or maybe some dragons who felt like walking a long way. Right now, though, it was fallow, covered in a heavy blanket of snow from the recent blizzard. The skies were clear and blue, the clouds having completely receded into the distance... In Icereach, storms arrived suddenly and then slowly trailed off. Here, maybe it was the opposite?
At one point, we passed another train running the opposite direction. It looked like a freight train, carrying car after car after car of goods. Apparently, the dragons didn't think the threat was severe enough to close down inbound traffic? Or maybe they had no way to get a message out that far in time?
If I were bent on stealing Aegis, I wouldn't waste my time on trains going the wrong way, personally. Maybe the dragons were just really, really confident in making the same assumption.
Hopefully, it was a safe one.
Again, I found myself watching the clock. By the time half an hour passed, the farmland was receding, replaced by empty, gentle hills. The track was raised just enough to see over them, to a forest in the distance and a low mountain range beyond that. I switched to the other side of the car, and saw that we were still following the mountain range that had extended south from Sires Hollow. Now, judging by the angle of the sun, it was running almost due west, with just a little south still left in its trajectory.
What was the Crystal Empire like? A valley ringed by mountains? From the external geography, that seemed like a good guess... I squinted upwards, trying to spot the guards that were supposedly watching out for us. The mountains were so tall, though, I couldn't be sure if I was seeing them, or if it was just a trick of my eyes.
Another hour passed, and a track merged into ours, coming from the south through a pass in the low mountains. I could see an upcoming pass to the north, accompanied by a high elevation gain, entering the crystal mountains... Was that the moment of truth?
We approached the switch where the tracks merged with the ones heading to Cernial, in the west. I stuck my head out of the window to try and see what was ahead, and although the train blocked half of my vision, I couldn't see anything threatening. Was Seigetsu's ploy actually working? Was nothing coming to get us? The train was losing speed, preparing for the junction...
I held my breath as the train switched rails. The wheels clunked... and then we were heading north, picking up speed again, mountains closing in on either side, the tracks to Cernial receding in the background. Instead of skirting the Crystal Empire, we were heading directly into it, getting further inside its boundaries with every second. If I had been an ambusher, my window of opportunity would be shrinking fast.
We passed through a checkpoint staffed by armored ponies that seemed to glitter in the sun, and I let out a breath along with what felt like every dragon in the car.
"What did I tell you?" Seigetsu said with a smile. "It seems we won't be getting to see any action after all."
"Odd, isn't it?" Corsica asked. "You'd think if this Aegis is such a big deal to Abyssinia, and they really did know about it, they'd have tried to capture it for certain. Even if you bamboozled them with this multiple-trains thing, they'd still have attacked at least one of them."
Seigetsu shrugged. "Perhaps. Or, perhaps, Duma truly was an independent agent, or he found the Aegis by mistake, as he claims."
Tension receded further, and the Crystal Empire came into sight.
From a distance, it looked like a massive dome, with some kind of castle or tower in the center. As we got closer, I realized the dome was made of magical energy: snow drifts and glaciers bordered the tracks as we approached, but just inside it was lush grass and specks of color that had to be flowers. The dome drew closer, and I realized the tracks ran right through it moments before it was upon us. The dome passed through the train, approaching us like a wall, and then through everyone else, and through me.
It felt like... passing through thick water with no surface tension. Time didn't actually slow down as we made the jump, but the barrier seemed to catch on me and hang on, as if I wasn't quite as impermeable as everyone else. It slipped through me like snow through a compressed sieve, and as it did I heard a chorus of sparkling voices, blending together in a harmony of prayers for prosperity and peace.
Slowly, I blinked myself back to reality, feeling vaguely like I had just gazed through a kaleidoscope. Nobody else seemed to have been as heavily affected, though some of my companions were visibly checking themselves over.
"Welcome to the Crystal Empire," Seigetsu said, folding her arms behind her back.
"Nice place," Corsica said, in a tone that suggested she might legitimately be impressed. "Now what?"
"I shall act as your escort up until we encounter the royalty," Seigetsu explained. "I must report on the status of the Aegis situation myself, and have a keen interest in seeing that you get where you are going. Fortunately, it seems all this chose to happen on the day of a significant cultural event, and all the princesses are already in attendance."
"Well, that's convenient," Corsica said.
"It is not so rare as you might think," Seigetsu explained. "They seem to enjoy each other's company, which for a nation with shared rulers is much preferable to the alternative. Much preferable."
"Does Cernial often have rifts among it leadership?" Corsica asked.
"...Yes," Seigetsu admitted. "Albeit ones that are often resolved out of the public eye. Fortunately, we have not ever had one so deep as to involve questioning the value of our mission as a whole. The necessity of cooperation means that, in the end, we find a way to cooperate."
I tilted my head. "You're talking like there's an alternative?"
"Oh, there's an alternative, alright," Papyrus said. "If you want to see what it looks like, go ask the Griffon Empire."
Seigetsu nodded. "Or the Equestria of a thousand years ago."
"Remind me what that was, again?" Corsica frowned.
"Two sibling alicorns decided they no longer wanted to play pretty and share power together," Papyrus said. "One got greedy and tried to hang onto more than her fair share. The other rebelled, and it didn't go so well for her. That's the story that got told in the Griffon Empire, at least."
Seigetsu frowned. "Greed did not factor into it. Princess Luna grew jealous of her sister, Princess Celestia, because ponies slept during the night and were awake during the day... They are the princesses of moon and sun, respectively, if you did not know. That jealousy led her to become susceptible to a monster known as the Nightmare that corrupted her beyond recognition, forcing her sister to seal her away. Its taint has recently been purged and Princess Luna has been welcomed back as a member of the royal family, and she is by all accounts most happy to have her ordeal be over. It is an important story to be familiar with, and a difficult one to avoid hearing at some point, and I bring it up now that I might ask you not allow it to overly color your perceptions. Since returning, Princess Luna has learned from those mistakes and joined her sister in being a staunch ally of dragonkind."
"You sure about that?" Papyrus raised an eyebrow. "See, the version of the story I heard involved these magical doodads, and a few hurt feelings up north as well... But what do I know, I'm just an amateur historian with a mysterious past. I'm sure you've got much more first-hand experience than little old me."
Seigetsu gave him a look. "I am unaware of any 'magical doodads' in the tale. But if you truly think my version of the story is lacking, you could always press them for details yourself."
"Nah." Papyrus shrugged and turned tail. "I'm good."
The train rolled to a stop, pulling up at a station that for some reason was built on the distant outskirts of the city, rather than near the middle. I hurried off, wanting to watch as Aegis was unloaded.
Corsica followed me, and the rest of my entourage, and Seigetsu, and the dragons... and eventually the train started up again, moving along without the boxcar being touched at all.
"Where's it going?" I asked, my ears falling in disappointment. "Some secret storage facility?"
Seigetsu chuckled. "You think we would have told you if it was actually on that train?"
My brows scrunched in confusion. "But you said you were coming to guard it yourself!"
Seigetsu shrugged. "I came along specifically to guard you, in case our train was targeted. Every train in the convoy was told that they would be carrying the Aegis, in order to minimize the potential for information to be leaked to spies. As I said, we take this matter seriously."
My face fell. "Then how come send us in a convoy like this at all? I thought you were only following us because you wanted to keep an eye on us and the Aegis at the same time. We could have gone on a different train, one after the Abyssinians would have thought Aegis had been moved."
"To give you a taste of how we operate," Seigetsu said. "My brother was convinced you would find the experience thrilling or enlightening. Additionally, we couldn't very well send you on your way with no security whatsoever. Whether he was mistaken or not, Duma certainly pegged you for a bad actor, and thus it is a safe assumption others could make that mistake as well. Rest assured we brought more than enough firepower to protect you in the event things actually did become a conflict."
"Your brother sounds like a real piece of work." Papyrus rolled his eyes. "Train scare appreciated. Now, do my eyes deceive me, or are we stuck walking?"
"Walking is not so bad," Seigetsu said. "Besides, the gardens of the Crystal Empire are quite pleasant. The year-round weather stability granted by this shield, combined with the latent magical properties of the place, do wonders for the local flora."
I glanced at the flowers. They were plentiful, sure, and vibrant... but also looked somewhat unhealthy, as if they had just suffered a brief, violent cold snap. Maybe the earlier blizzard had affected them, somehow? I didn't see any traces of snow anywhere inside the shield...
They looked hardy, though. Enough that with a little care, they'd probably spring back good as new.
...Almost like the forest around the meteor impact site in the Aldenfold, I realized. This place didn't seem to have many trees, but its odd lushness reminded me of that grove nonetheless. Was that same kind of energy present here, too?
I looked at the town ahead of us, seemingly carved entirely from crystal. Rising above the buildings was a crystal tower, almost like the one in Ironridge... except not as high, and looking carefully crafted and sculpted rather than organic and wild. It was still tall, though, taller than any ordinary building I had ever seen, and much taller than any of its surroundings.
My heart told me it was related, somehow. I wondered if I would get to find out why.