//------------------------------//
// Fluffiest Smugglers 
// Story: Agate's Vigil 
// by Wingnut 
//------------------------------//

Shining Armor sighed, looking over the few reports on his desk. Totally unsurprisingly, the Imperial Guard was in complete shambles after the upheaval. More than a third of them seemed to have vanished altogether, even though there was absolutely no way that they died or left the city. 

From what he was able to find out through several days of poking, prodding, and questioning all sorts of ponies, it was a matter of fealty. An archaic term in Equestria, but a very real one in the Empire. Here, ponies did not sign service contracts - they swore sacred oaths to their sovereign. And when that sovereign died, that oath was dissolved immediately. The guards did not go AWOL or were shirking their jobs - according to their customs, they failed in their duty and were no longer employed by the Guard, in every legal way that mattered.

Sure, the Royal Guard still had oaths of their own, but these days, they were ceremonial, rather than the entire basis of their service. And, of course, the locals still held loyalty for their nation and people as well, which was why not everyone in the Guard disappeared. And if there was a beloved heir to the previous sovereign, they would, naturally, rally around them without fail, to the last one. But with a foreign, unfamiliar pony on the throne... 

Even while the majority of them stayed, he couldn't help but notice that only some of them swore their oaths to Cadance, while the rest proceeded to work in silence. Which probably meant that if they tripped up somehow,  there was a real chance the rest of the guards might walk away as well, with no punishment that he could threaten them with. Despite it amounting to desertion by his standards, the Empire did not work by his standards.

"Ughhh."

"It's not looking good, is it?" Cadance asked, entering the room.

"It could be much worse," He shrugged. "I mean, most of the heavy lifting is done by the Heart, anyway, and it's not like we're facing an imminent invasion. There should be plenty of time to reorganize the Guard. It's really not that bad."

"Still, it's not all that great, is it?" She smiled wanly.

"The Empire is hurt, yes. It's not just the culture shock from having been frozen for a thousand years," He nodded. "How are things on your end?"

"...Painful. Many broken hearts. Fewer than there could have been, but still. It hurts," Cadance whispered.

"We'll get through this. We'll help them get through this," He reassured his wife, nuzzling her.

"We will, yes. But the next couple of years are probably going to be quite tense. I hope there's no fights on your end, at least? How are the Royals and the Imperials getting along?" She asked, nuzzling him back and giving him a kiss.

"Well, the first thing I did was reassure them that the Royal Guard detachment is here only as reinforcements, and not as an occupying force or their replacements," Shining Armor shrugged. "There's only a couple dozen pegasi, so they seem to have believed me. Mixed reactions from the locals. Some ponies were intrigued about having pegasus air support, while others leaned into their pride and said that they didn't need them. Pretty mild overall, though. Just some scoffs and eye rolls. Both sides seem to be trying to out-discipline each other rather than get into fights, which is just fine by me."

"So they're trying to see who can do an impression of a statue better?" Cadance giggled.

"Something like that, though they're mostly just being extra formal," He said with a smile. "It's not like there's been any trouble yet, so they're all just doing regular patrols and getting used to seeing each other out and about. Once we actually lift the restrictions on-"

*Knock knock* "Permission to enter, sir?" A familiar voice outside the room said.

"Come in, Thunder Strike," Shining Armor nodded.

"Sir!" The pegasus immediately saluted.

"At ease, lieutenant. My wife and I were just talking about how great the Royal and Imperial guards are getting along. Don't tell me we jinxed it, and you're here to report trouble," He grinned.

"Not as such, sir, though it might be trouble either way. A very confusing report worked its way up the command chain to me just now, and I thought you might want to hear it," The stallion explained.

"Well, I'm technically no longer a captain any more, but I don't think I'll be able to stop sticking my nose into Guard matters any time soon. Spill," Shining Armor nodded.

"Yes, sir. A pair of guards posted to the northern gate reported that they had a group of six visitors enter the Empire. They claimed to be some kind of travelers "from the far north", here to see the Empire," The pegasus summarized.

"What... In the world?" Completely flabbergasted, Shining Armor turned to Cadance, who only shrugged helplessly. "We are in the far north, Thunder Strike. There's not a single living thing further on. This was a dead, icy waste before the Empire returned."

"Exactly why I thought you might want to hear about this, sir. Usually, no one would have even heard about this, but since they were one of the first civilian visitors to the Empire, the guards were talking about them, as well as the supposed fact of them being from some kind of people to the north. The guard that reported the encounter wanted to know whether we have any policies about northern visitors, and whether there's a border dispute with them now that the Empire is back."

"There's no one there," Shining Armor threw his hooves up in exasperation. "Mount Everhoof is in the north! And past it is probably an endless glacier. We can't have a border dispute with imaginary glacier ponies. This sounds like some kind of strange prank by someone from Equestria. Did a bunch of pegasi flew in to see the Empire?"

"Which tribe were they?" Cadance asked.

"Stocky earth ponies with the fluffiest coats I ever did see" was what the guards described them as, ma'am."

"Earth ponies could have trekked here by now, yes? It has been... Over a week since we defeated Sombra, right?" Cadance asked her husband.

"Well, I mean, yes, but why? It's not exactly a pleasant weekend trip. Maybe they stowed away on the train? Where's the schedule? The time didn't get away from us, right? There's still, what, ten days until we start allowing regular ponies to come?" He mused, digging through his papers and pulling out a list.

"Something like that, I think," Cadance confirmed.

"Well, let's see. Twilight and her friends were the first ones after us, then the Royal Guard reinforcements, emergency medical supplies, doctors, a group of scholars, Celestia's stash of mail to the relatives of the ponies that escaped the Empire..."

Shining Armor went through the items on the cargo schedule one by one, double-checking the dates. While everyone in Equestria saw the Crystal Empire's magic spread across the sky, they couldn't just immediately open the floodgates of ravenous tourists on the emotionally damaged and still-recovering city. As such, the train was locked down, reserved solely for royal use for several weeks until things settled down a little, and so they'd be able to bring in some emergency supplies and temporary staff.

The doctors came and went, Sombra's attack fortunately passing by without many serious injuries, whether magical or physical. The scholars were quietly reading through the Empire's impressive library and talking to the ponies, cataloguing stuff for the future history books. The guards were right there, doing their guard stuff. The letters Celestia preserved were both a source of immense pain and relief to the locals, a bunch of ponies quietly working their way through the Empire to track down the recipients before just as quietly gathering on the train platform to leave.

The thousand years thing still rattled the citizens, and, quiet and respectful as they tried to be, the mission of the messengers still became everything that the crystal ponies talked about for several days. And, sadly, not every pony that was expecting mail received it. 

The painful scene where Shining Armor had to tell the guards to clear the way for the messengers to leave was still raw in his mind, given that it happened just yesterday. Whether they tried to flee and died in the wilderness or simply got lost in the Equestrian population and didn't hear about Celestia's offer to keep their letters until the Empire returned, a number of ponies did not leave anything for their relatives, and those relatives were not happy about it, trying to bar the messenger's way while demanding answers.

It wasn't much. Some of the lost ponies were recluses anyway, just "a loner prospector stallion that I used to share a drink with" type of thing. Some were family ponies, though. One, apparently, was a filly, her parents crying their eyes out when the messengers shook their heads after checking the list of names that they had with them. The filly's name was not on it, apparently, and no one else knew what happened to her, or to any of the other ponies.

"Right, so, Celestia's messenger team left just yesterday, and the train's not coming back until tomorrow," Shining Armor finally concluded, putting the list down again.

"Right, and we're not getting regular ponies for a while yet. But they entered the city today," Cadance noted. 

"So, what, they somehow stowed away on the train - I'll have to bust some flanks if the guards didn't check it thoroughly enough - and then camped in the snow for a day, and circled the city to enter from the north? Or did they trek all the way here on hoof after all?" Shining Armor pondered.

"But why, though? You're still a guard in everything but name, dear. What's the motive here?" Cadance asked.

"Motive, motive," He chuckled. "Alright, well, being a guard and a detective are different things, but let's spitball some ideas here. Thunder Strike, why do ponies usually sneak into locked-down cities or countries? Smuggling?"

"That'd probably be the most likely answer, sir, if not for the fact there's literally no way for them to have any contacts here or know what illegal stuff the crystal ponies would be interested in buying, unless they have some thousand year old information, somehow. Perhaps they're thieves or con artists hoping to score some kind of ancient artifact or piece of art and sell it off for collectors in Equestria for a massive price before the Empire opens up?" The pegasus speculated.

"Yeah, though they might be carrying something illicit anyway. Trying to open up a new market," Shining Armor rolled his eyes. "Honestly, if they were pegasi, my answer would immediately be "paparazzi". Just ponies eager to be the first to get photos of the Empire. I'm sure the newspapers would pay them well, too. Them being earth ponies is what confuses me. They're just not...  The best tribe for getting away fast or doing sneaky magical shenanigans."

"Smugglers or con artists, huh. Are you going to put out an arrest order, then?" Cadance inquired.

"I mean... We can't just go around busting ponies on pure speculation of them doing something, and there isn't an actual decree saying that you can't enter the Empire. We just temporarily locked the only reasonable route of getting here. They didn't do anything criminal - that we know of. What's your political take on this?" Shining Armor asked her.

"Well... If the Empire's first experience of modern Equestrians is some kind of crime, the crystal ponies will be very disappointed. It'd be a stain of Equestria's reputation as a den of thieves of some kind for years to come, probably," Cadance mused.

"Right. Guess it's better to be a hardflank in this case, huh? How about we just... Make use of our new royal status and invite them to an audience? Talk to them, see if we can't just scare them into giving up their shenanigans, let them off with a stern warning and send them out on the train back to Equestria if it's nothing too bad," He suggested.

"Sounds like a plan, dear," Cadance nodded with a smile. 

"Alright then. So, Thunder Strike. Tell the guards to keep an eye out for these "fluffiest earth ponies you ever did see". Tell them that they are invited to the royal castle for an audience."

"And if they refuse, sir?"

"Be insistent about it, and send a guard for me. If they don't come to us, we'll just come to them. I mean, we're still not fully sure what the threshold for the Crystal Heart to repel a pony is, but if they managed to pass through the shield, then they can't be anything worse than petty criminals, right? We'll be able to deal with them just fine. Both Cadance and I already dealt with much worse in the past," He nodded towards his wife.

"Understood, sir."


  ❅ ❆ ❅ 


"So you became one of those "guardian spirits"? What did you guard?" Obsidian Spear asked.

"Usually, it's less of a what and more of a who. Ponies stay behind to watch over their families. I was a bit of a special case, of course. A completely foreign pony from lands unknown," Agate explained.

"That sounds sweet, but also spooky," Garnet Necklace said. "So no one in the north actually stays dead? It's just ghosts everywhere?"

"Oh no, not at all. Spirits move on, some sooner, some later. And everyone's still very much dead. Being a spirit does not mean I am still alive. And, before you get any ideas, it does not mean I can be brought back to life, either. Don't even think about it, or my shamare friend will have to smack you upside the head and explain the unbreakable circle of life and death, and the madness and failure waiting for those trying to go in the opposite direction. The snowpony mystics are powerful, but there are things which are simply not possible, and it's not because no one ever tried," Agate cautioned them with a stern voice, her parents shrinking back a little.

"So much for that, I suppose," Garnet Necklace muttered sadly.

"You're more of an undead, really," Obsidian Spear pointed out. "And how does messing around with the spirits of the dead possibly fit into their view of the natural order of life and death?"

"Well, spirits are natural. Like I said, the north is full of them, both pony and all kinds of others," Agate shrugged.

"Huh. The place sounds like a mix of a whole lot of strange fairytales. Magical creatures, ghost stories..." He mused.

"So why did you stay for a thousand years? What purpose did you find? Did you do it just to spite Sombra? How did you even know how long it was going to take? Or did you just decide to stay as long as it takes?" Coal Hoof asked, studying his now-ancient granddaughter with a discerning look.

Agate gave him a long look with a neutral expression before smiling faintly, her eyes sparkling. The two ponies looked at each other like they were both in on some kind of joke, and were the only ones in the room with the punchline. The rest of the family, save for Crochet Hook, were once again reminded that Agate was no longer the small, young filly that they lost just a week ago. She was old, old enough to communicate with her grandparents on some primal level simply through their shared experiences, in ways even her parents could not.

"Well, that's a lot of questions, grandpa. Let's see... I did find a purpose, yes. Many little purposes, really. I helped ponies in all kinds of ways, though the main purpose was to wait until the Empire returned. Spiting Sombra was... Not a small part of it, though not the entire thing. As for the Empire coming back - way back when I was still young, I went to take a look at Dream Valley with another spirit. An elder mystic of the snowponies who was uniquely good at unraveling illusions. We tried to figure out what happened, but in the end, we found out by discovering a small outpost of Equestrians at the edge of the valley, who told us what happened. As for the purpose... Well, the same purpose most spirits in the north come back to their tribes and kin, instead of moving on immediately. To say goodbye," She explained.

As expected from their silent exchange, Coal Hoof was not surprised by her answer, just nodding slowly with a small, bittersweet smile. Crochet Hook sighed, but she didn't seem all that surprised, either. However, the rest of the family were not so accepting of the answer. The mood in the room dipped considerably, even Obsidian Spear casting his eyes downwards with a frown.

"Agate, my sweet silly filly, you... You didn't have to do that for me. For us," Radiant Cut shook his head, wiping moisture from his eyes. "You could have moved on. A thousand years just to... For a single word? Goodbye?"

"Yes," Agate nodded without hesitation. "Tell me, dad, what exactly were you doing before I arrived?"

Seeing that Radiant Cut wasn't going to answer and Garnet Necklace was too pained to speak, Obsidian Spear did his thing again, his voice tinged with faint amusement at the irony of what happened. "Moping around in absolute denial that you were gone and delusions that you were just going to trot through the door."

"Well. They weren't entirely deluded," Agate smirked.

"Right, though according to pretty much everything that we knew about how the world works just this morning, they were," He shrugged.

"Right. There you go, then. I knew that... Meeting again would be painful. For all of us. But it's still less painful than not getting to say goodbye. I, uh... I said goodbye to my mother once already, and I can't imagine how painful it would have been if I didn't get to do that. It was... Nice," She trailed off, her voice losing confidence for the first time since she entered the room.

"...What?" Garnet Necklace succinctly summed up what the rest of the family were feeling.

"I... Was adopted. By a very nice mare. She..."

"They adopt dead ponies over there? You folks have some curious customs," Crochet Hook noted, glancing at the snowponies.

For their part, the adventurers were aggressively relaxing. After the furious, almost non-stop march from the north, they were entirely content to sit down and nibble on some exotic snacks without being part of the conversation, and those that still had the energy for curiosity had plenty of ways to indulge it without talking. Examining the interior of the crystal home alone was something that occupied no small amount of time for them, and that was before they even started looking out the windows. 

"Haha! Well, they usually don't, but I was something of a special case," Agate chuckled. "Anyway, maybe it's time to wrap this up for today. I can see that you're all getting tired, and this bunch is practically asleep already," She nodded at the adventurers.

And she was right. Though Agate arrived early in the afternoon, she didn't really get to tell her story fully in order. Agate's family obviously wanted to be polite and know who her companions were, which set off a bunch of long introductions, translations, charades as the snowponies spoke in a strange mix of old and new ponish, the adventurers telling them a bit about themselves (which sounded unbelievable, though Agate firmly insisted that it was all true), their journey there, and so on. When all of that was done, there wasn't all that much time for Agate to keep telling her tale before darkness fell.

"Well, I suppose..." Radiant Cut sighed. "But, hm... We don't have enough space for six ponies..." 

"We'll take some of them with us," Coal Hoof raised his hoof, Crochet Hook nodding.

"And I don't need a bed. Someone can take my room," Agate shrugged.

"Do you even sleep any more?" Obsidian Spear asked.

"Yeah. I don't have a sense of touch any more, though. I can literally sleep inside a fireplace. With a fire. I did that a few times."

"Weird," He shook his head at hearing yet another strange spirit fact, not for the first, and definitely not for the last time.

Agate chuckled, turning around and gently poking a couple snowponies that were snoozing already. As she talked to them, they nodded, glancing at the others. With a bit of back and forth, the adventurers were divided between the various members of Agate's family. 

Goat Hop, Spring Hoof and Freezing Point decided to go with Agate's grandparents. As they went by a window, Freezing Point's eyes went wide, the mystic pointing at a swift form passing by above the street outside. "Oooh, bird pony!"

"Pe-ga-sus," Agate slowly enunciated with a smile. 

"Yeah, the Equestrians brought some with them," Obsidian Spear nodded. "Anyway, let's go, big guy."

The stallion Agate introduced as Shatterhoof nodded, entirely happy with Obsidian's description of his spare bed as "hard enough to straighten your back out in a single night, and sufficiently flat enough to sleep on without sliding off." He certainly didn't look like a soft pony, and Obsidian Spear could respect that, not that the rest of the group looked remotely weak. Lastly, the mare he met first, Ice Elation, and the stallion named Trailblazer decided to stay with Agate's parents.

"Meet up here as soon as we're all awake? I'm sure we're all eager to hear more of Agate's story," Radiant Cut asked.

"Of course. You couldn't keep me from something like this even if Agate wasn't family," Obsidian Spear nodded.


  ❅ ❆ ❅