Expeditionary – the Crystal Conundrum
Shining Armor strode into Princess Celestia’s private study. He was weary from the long boat ride, and the early hour, but he still drew himself up at attention and saluted. “Captain Shining Armor, reporting for duty, Your Highness.”
Chuckling, the princess floated a pair of reading glasses off her muzzle and rose from the chair. “At ease, Captain. Have a seat. Is there any refreshment you need, while you give me the highlights?” She motioned him to a nearby stuffed chair, pretending not to hear his satisfied groan as he sank into the cushions. “No doubt you’ve already compiled an exhaustive report on the matter.”
He cracked his eyes open, smiling. “Of course, Princess. Twily’s not the only one who can write a report. The really short version is that we found the Zebrican extremists, and everything was resolved satisfactorily.” His report, easily larger than the last Daring Do novel, floated out of a pocket of his uniform and rested in her inbox. “Ah, Princess?”
She raised an eyebrow and waved a hoof for him to continue. “Well, Your Highness, I think I need to turn over Captain of the Guard to somepony else. With Cadence being regent in the Crystal Empire, and all the other duties involved with being Captain on top of these special missions, we hardly get to see each other these days.” His eyes remained fixed on the papers covering her desk. “Aside from the night when I came back from Griffonia, I haven’t seen her in nearly two months.”
“As it happens,” Celestia said, levitating out a scroll with a broken heart-shaped seal, “just last week Cadence wrote to me to complain about much the same thing.” She dropped the letter back onto the desk, leaning forward to finally meet his rising gaze. “So, I agree. Not right away, of course. Even if your lieutenants have been doing a good job running everything in your absence, there’s still things you’ll need to teach them. But for now, I have a carriage standing by. Go home to your wife, take a week off, and then come back to pick your replacement.”
Celestia rose from her chair, stepping forward to wrap one wing around Shining in a hug. He leaned into it gratefully before straightening up. With another salute, he stepped out of the study, nearly bowling over the castle’s other alicorn. “Princess Luna! My apologies, I didn’t see you there.”
“It is not thy fault, Captain,” Luna said. “You return now to the Crystal Empire?” She stumbled a little over the modern phrasing.
He nodded, smiling. “Yes, home to spend a week with Cadence. Then I’ll come back here to pick a replacement for Captain of the Guard.”
“Well. We will miss you here in the castle. Thou are a brave and stalwart pony, and an example to the rest of the Guard,” Luna said. When he saluted her, she returned it just as crisply, before nudging the door back open to Celestia’s study. Their greetings faded away as Shining descended out to the courtyard landing pad where his carriage waited.
Four pegasi in Guard uniforms saluted, opening the carriage for him. “Captain, I’m Sergeant Fleetwing,” said one of them, extending a wing with a scroll on it. “Here’s a copy of our orders. We’re to escort you to the Crystal Empire, and spend the week doing training exercises with the Crystal Guard until you’re ready to return.”
Shining unrolled the scroll, skimming the text quickly before handing it back. “Sounds good. If you don’t mind, I’m going to take a short nap until the sun actually comes up.”
“It’s your carriage, sir. Long as you don’t jump out of it, do whatever you want,” Fleetwing said. In minutes they were airborne, flying north as the moon dipped closer to the horizon.
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Sunset was darkening the sky as they finally dropped towards the glittering city below. The light of the Crystal Heart lit up the castle with its own glow as the sun vanished under the horizon, a crescent moon taking its place surrounded by twinkling stars. Magical torches lit up the landing area near the castle, and two of the Crystal Guard met them as Shining climbed gratefully out of the carriage.
“Sir! Welcome back!” one of the guards said, his salute and voice full of way too much fervor.
“At ease,” Shining said. “That means relax, really,” he said, as the guard continued standing rigidly at attention. After several seconds with no change, Shining just signed and turned to the other guard. “Corporal, these four pegasi are here to cross-train with the Crystal Guard. Sergeant Fleetwing has their orders, so help them get billeted and show them around a little bit, alright?”
The corporal saluted, far more easily than the private still standing almost vibrating, and started chatting amiably with the pegasi as Shining cantered into the castle. With the start of the night, Cadence should be done with her afternoon Court. Which probably meant she was in one of the dining halls. The real question was whether she was in the smaller, private one, or in the big public one with guests.
The smaller one was closer, but sadly empty, the lamps off and the fireplace cold. Sighing again, Shining put on his best “mandatory happiness event” face and trotted down the hall. Sure enough, light was leaking out from the large dining hall, and a quiet buzz of conversation could be heard. Pulling the door open, he stepped inside with a smile.
Conversation stalled, and he had a brief moment to see several ponies of all four kinds, and a pair of vaguely familiar griffons. Then his vision was filled with bright pink. So was his mouth, for that matter, and he tried not to moan too openly as wings wrapped around him, pulling him close as he leaned into the kiss.
“Ain’t that one hell of a welcome,” came a familiar voice, and Shining, ever so reluctantly, broke off the kiss.
He peered over one wing at the table. “Stormfeather? What are you doing here?”
The canny old griffon shrugged. “Actually, I’m here as a bodyguard. With that whole incident in Port Talon, the brass decided I needed to be doing something else. So I’m helping Baron Ruth here make some connections.” The other griffon, feathers a clearly dyed iridescent black, sent a narrowed gaze his direction, but nodded respectfully.
Walking over with Cadence by his side, Shining shook hooves – well, claws – with both griffons. “Nice to meet you, Baron, and nice to see you again, Stormfeather. So, I guess they cleared you after all?”
“Heh. Technically, I’m ‘temporarily assigned new duties until the investigation has been concluded.’” Stormfeather picked up his goblet, dipping his beak into the wine and slurping up a beakful. “But that’s just politics for ‘get out of the way until everyone forgets about it,’ and I can’t complain about the change in scenery.”
“This castle is an architectural marvel,” Ruth said, his voice a much higher tenor than Shining expected.
“Baron Ruth is involved in quarrying building stone,” Cadence explained. “They actually just arrived yesterday. He’s hoping to cut a deal with the stonemason’s guild to export building quartz.” She led him over to a seat, one of her advisors hastily moving to an empty seat further down the table. “How long are you going to be here this time?”
He could see how thin her smile was at that. Ever since the Crystal Empire reappeared, it had been like this, with Shining only able to visit for short periods, called away by his duty. “Well, next week I have to train my replacement as Captain of the Guard, but I think after that my schedule will be fairly free.” He winked at her as he put one hoof to his chin. “I’m not sure, I might need to check with your scheduling advisor.”
Down the table, the crystal pony who had moved pulled out a scroll and seriously consulted it. “Hmm, well, the Princess has half an hour free tomorrow, but after that her schedule is all booked.”
“Glass?” Cadence said.
“Yes, Princess?”
“Clear my schedule for the next two days.” Stormfeather hooted, and most of the ponies chuckled as Hourglass gave a long-suffering sigh.
“Aye, Your Highness,” she said, flinging the scroll into the fire.
The rest of dinner passed in amicable conversation, even if Stormfeather’s slightly-more-gruesome-than-Shining-remembered-it description of the pirate takedown put a minor damper on dessert. Still, the various Crystal nobles present seemed like good folk, and it reassured Shining that he’d find a good place so far from his home city.
After dinner, as they were almost to the royal chambers, the door to Cadence’s study popped open. “Princess? Sorry to bother you, but – oh, Shining! Sir!” The bow-and-arrow cutie marked soldier saluted quickly. “I’m sure you’re in the mood to reschedule this meeting, Princess, but I really do need to go over these crop reports with you as soon as possible.”
They both stepped towards the doorway. “What’s wrong with the crops, Bullseye? I thought the crop rotation proposed would have solved last year’s harvest issues,” Cadence said.
“It’s, well,” he swallowed heavily. “The ones that are still growing are doing fabulously. But a growing numbers of fields are dying, and there doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason to why a particular field is failing while the one next to it thrives.”
The princess sighed, looking at her husband with an unhappy expression. “I’ll deal with this as quickly as I can. But if Bullseye can’t find the cause, then something’s very wrong.”
Shining smiled, and planted a soft kiss on her cheek. “It’s alright, love. I understand duty. Just join me as quick as you can.”
“I promise, we won’t be more than an hour,” Bullseye said, crossing a hoof over his chest.
Shining turned away, then paused and looked back. “Do you have a map of which fields are failing? Set aside a copy for me, I’ll look it over when another piece of emergency business takes up my wife’s time.”
Bullseye shrugged. “Sure thing, sir. I’ll have someone copy it first thing in the morning for you.”
“Good. I’ll be waiting in our room. All by myself. In that large bed,” Shining said, walking slowly away. A glance over his shoulder gave him the smoldering look on his wife’s face, and the very embarrassed Bullseye vanishing into the study. “I wonder what I can do to entertain myself for an hour. All by myself.”
He grinned as her magic swatted his tail right before he turned the corner, and he took a minute to find where he’d stashed the key to their room. Guards were well and good, of course, but unlike Celestia and Luna, he didn’t like having soldiers posted outside his door every hour of the day. At least, not after their first night in the castle, when the guards couldn’t meet their eyes in the morning. They had been quite enthusiastic after Sombra’s destruction, and the walls weren’t that thick.
Maybe we’ll do that again, he thought cheerfully, finally getting the right key into the lock. Right as the door opened, somepony slammed into his flank. Shining went tumbling to the floor, rolling twice before coming back up on his hooves. Down the hall, one of the servants shrieked as the mystery assailant bowled her over on his mad dash around the next corner and out of sight.
Damnit, I am not in the mood for this, Shining thought darkly. The servant was still lying on the floor, blinking away her daze, the tray of dishes she’d been carrying shattered around her.