//------------------------------//
// Crystal Fires : Part 1 
// Story: Cadence Unbridled (Sections 1 & 2) 
// by Flikaline 
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Crystal Fires : Part 1


The wind was roaring and Cadence was struggling to fly forward at all. It seemed like the closer they got, the worse the weather was. They were aiming to land close to where the edge of the empire had used to be, and then search from there, with hope that Cadence might be able to sense something. The other three alicorns were struggling too, but not nearly as much as Cadence was because they were so much bigger and much stronger flyers.

‘I think we may be close!’ Aquila shouted over the roaring wind.

‘We need to start slowly lowering ourselves to at least get a better view!’ Celestia hollered back.

This was a lot more difficult than it sounded. It was difficult enough to go forward, never mind going downwards at a slow speed while preparing to land. Cadence had never done this before in normal conditions. When she flew, she generally stayed quite close to the ground and even when she didn’t stay particularly close, she made swift landings, not gradual ones.

The wind was causing her to lose balance, and with another blast of wind, she was spun around, thrown off course, and began to plummet towards the ground. So very hard she tried to stop herself from falling and to get into the flight position. She flapped her wings violently, desperately, but the wind whipped her around too much for her to be able to maintain a useful position for more than a few seconds even though she managed to get in the right position quite a few times. 

She was going to hit the ground.

*

‘Glory! Sundance!’ shouted a flutter crystal pony, ‘You’d better come over here!’

‘What is it, Sparkler!’ came the slightly hysterical tone of Glory, a horned crystal pony, ‘Is it him! Is he . . ?’

‘Very unlikely, Glory,’ came the voice of the third crystal pony, Sundance, ‘just as unlikely as it was last time,’ she sighed, ‘and the time before.’ She turned to Sparkler, who was hovering anxiously. ‘What’s the urgency?’ she asked calmly.

‘I’m not exactly sure,’ Sparkler replied, gesturing towards a quite big mound of soft earth which had been disturbed.

Sundance went over to look for herself. Glory hung back anxiously. Sundance brushed some of the dirt off with a light hoof. She jumped back and gave a shocked gasp. Seeing what Sundance was seeing, Sparkler swiftly landed and hurried over to the pile of earth.

‘Oh, the poor thing!’ Sparkler exclaimed, ‘how long do you think she’s been here? How did she get here? And how did she get so bruised?’

‘You don’t think it was . . ?’ Glory began nervously.

‘No, Glory!’ the other two replied at once in slightly irritated tones.

‘Looks like it was a nasty fall,’ said Sundance grimly, ‘she’s lucky to be alive and lucky she had a soft landing.’

‘She is alive then?’ Glory asked hesitantly. Sparkler looked very anxious.

‘She has a pulse,’ Sundance told them, ‘but it will be a miracle if she hasn’t broken anything and even though she’s alive now, she may not be for much longer.’

‘We must take her back to Crystal Town!’ came Sparkler’s worried tone, ‘before the poor filly . . !’

‘She could be a spy though!’ Glory exclaimed, ‘we can’t just take her into the town!’ 

Sparkler ignored Glory, too worried about the filly. She began to brush off more of the dirt.

‘It’s very unlikely,’ Sundance was saying to Glory, ‘it’s most likely she was flying somewhere and got caught in those terrible winds.’

‘A unipeg!’ Sparkler gasped. 

Sundance and Glory stared at each other.

‘And,’ Sparkler continued, ‘her cutie mark! Look at her cutie mark!’

Sundance and Glory looked more closely.

‘It’s her!’ said Glory in soft amazement.

‘I don’t believe it,’ Sundance added, ‘it’s the Crystal Princess!’

*

‘I don’t know how I could have been so foalish!’ Celestia cried, ‘I was so occupied with getting there and thinking about the danger ahead that I didn’t think about the present dangers!’

‘Oh, Celestia,’ said Aquila tearfully, ‘we’re all to blame, and you were leading, I’m the most to blame if anypony is.’

‘I just let her slip through my hooves!’ Celestia exclaimed, ‘how could I!’ Aquila put a hoof on Celestia’s shoulder and turned to Dusk.

‘Can you read her mind, Dusk?’ Aquila asked quietly and sadly. Reluctantly, Dusk lit up his horn (a shade of turquoise) and closed his eyes. ‘At least we can be sure her soul’s at peace.’ Aquila told Celestia, who sobbed more violently, in a soothing tone. 

To the mares’ surprise, Dusk smiled broadly and opened his eyes.

‘She’s not dead,’ Dusk told them, ‘at least, not yet. If she was, I could read her mind, but I can’t.’

*

Everything was out of focus and fuzzy. The last thing Cadence could remember was telling herself to think about Shining Armor before she hit the ground.

‘She’s waking up!’ came the whispered voice of Sundance, ‘Quick! Make yourselves look presentable!’

‘How are we supposed to do that!’ exclaimed Glory.

‘Keep your voice down!’ muttered Sparkler, ‘what’ll she think of us!’

Things were beginning to come into focus and Cadence suddenly became aware that she felt a lot cleaner but she also became aware of quite a few physical pains, particularly in her wings. As things came almost completely into focus, she looked over the side of the bed (only a few moments later did she fully realize she was in a bed) to see three mares bowing down to her. Cadence was a little shocked, not at all being used to this sort of treatment.

‘Oh, please,’ Cadence began, ‘you don’t have to do that.’ 

The mares looked up and Cadence quickly realized they were crystal ponies by their eyes.

‘Would you mind telling me how I got here?’ Cadence asked.

‘We found you . . .’ Sparkler replied nervously, ‘and we brought you here.’

‘You were in a bit of a state,’ Sundance told her, ‘and very lucky to have survived such a fall.’

‘Thank you,’ Cadence replied, ‘thank you very much for helping me.’

‘You’re very welcome,’ Sparkler said, ‘but it’s the least we could do for our princess.’

‘Could you tell me where I am?’ Cadence inquired.

‘You’re in Crystal Town, your highness.’ Glory informed her.

‘Thank you,’ Cadence responded, ‘and, forgive me, but I don’t know who you three are.’

‘I am Lady Sundance,’ Sundance replied, ‘and this is Lady Glory and Lady Sparkler. We have been looking after the town. Sparkler’s responsible for the food supply, Glory deals with most of the paper work and I supervise things and it is my job to keep everypony happy. And believe me,’ she added, ‘that is a lot harder than it sounds with these paranoid ponies about.’ 

Cadence smiled at them.

‘I hope you don’t mind Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,’ said Sparkler shyly, ‘but we gave you a bath while you were unconscious.’

‘I don’t mind at all,’ Cadence responded, ‘thank you ever so much for your kindness, call me Cadence though.’

‘Of course, Princess Cadence,’ Sundance replied, ‘I’m afraid, although it has improved a lot since yesterday, you are very bruised. We applied a remedy to fade and speed up the curing process but it will definitely give you problems for at least a few days.’

‘You won’t be able to fly for at least a couple of weeks,’ Glory added, ‘your wings were badly damaged.’

‘And don’t try to use magic for a couple of days at the very least unless it’s an emergency,’ Sparkler told her, ‘your horn is quite damaged too.’

*

After bringing Cadence breakfast in bed, and bandaging up her wings again, the mares had decided to take her on a tour of the town.

‘You’ve already done so much for me,’ Cadence was saying.

‘It’s nothing really,’ Sparkler responded.

‘Yes,’ Sundance added, ‘you’re most certainly worth serving, unlike somepony we could mention.’ The three crystal ponies shuddered.

‘What do you mean?’ Cadence asked in a confused and anxious tone. 

Their attention was diverted by the arrival of a little filly who resembled Sundance in appearance, running along in a panic.

‘It’s him!’ the foal was shouting, ‘it was really him!’ 

These words soon caused many of the other ponies to panic. Within a few seconds, Glory had left her companions and was practically leading the panicked frenzy.

‘Not this again,’ said Sundance with a sigh, before going over to try to calm the foal, her younger sister, called Sunsparkle, down.

‘Do you mind if we use you as a distraction?’ Sparkler whispered to Cadence.

‘I don’t mind,’ Cadence replied. 

The panicked crystal ponies were soon distracted, and excited by, the arrival of their princess.

‘Is she going to save us from Sombra?’ asked one.

‘Yes, yes! Of course!’ Sparkler responded, highly doubting their panic held any truth, and saying anything to keep them happy. Cadence was beginning to feel rather puzzled. Sundance and her sister came over.

‘I think,’ Sundance said, in a similar tone to that of somepony who thought they were about to throw up, ‘I think we’re going to have to go down the mines.’