As soon as Dawning Song was out of the castle the senior palace staff leapt into motion. Tight Schedule ran about the palace barking orders to the other ponies.
“Come along, come along ponies. We have at most an hour and a half before Mistress Song returns from her shopping trip with Mistress Sapphire. Her Majesty wants this packaged and ready for collection within the hour.” He called as he galloped throughout the corridors towards the Tower of the Heart. There he found a dozen members of the Palace guard unicorns and Prince Consort Shining Armor. “The packaging is prepared sir. We simply need to carry it there and magically sterilise before it is ready for transportation.” Tight Schedule said, bowing to Shining Armor. Shining Armor nodded in response before leading the guards up the stairs into the tower, stepping over the splinters left of the door after Dawning Song’s last attempt to reach the Heart.
The Chamber of the Heart sat atop the the tallest tower in the entire empire. it was a circular room that was totally empty save for the stairs leading up to the chamber and the round marble pedestal on which the Crystal Heart was perched. Although there were no torches or other lights in the room it was always bright, illuminated by the magical light from the Heart. Shining Armor eyed it warily. What's you're game? He thought, What's your interest in my daughter? Why is she affected differently to the others? You won't hurt her, nothing will as long as I'm around to protect her.
“Assemble around it. We’re going to lift it and carry it downstairs. For no reason is anybody to touch it, at all.” Shining Armor ordered the guards. Twelve streams of magical energy struck The Heart and it rose, slowly, from the pedestal. “Now, carefully stallions. Be wary for any spikes in magical energy. How are we doing Range?” Shining Armor asked the one guard not levitating. Outta Range fired a thin beam of scarlet energy from his horn into its and quickly released the magic.
“Nothing out of the ordinary. All magic levels stable. Looks as if The Heart is not reacting to our magic.” He informed the prince.
“Keep checking. I don’t trust this thing one bit. There’s definitely something dark going on here. The sooner we get it to Equestria the better.” Shining Armor said as he began backing down the stairs. As the guards crept down the tower Outta Range continuingly checked the magic levels in the Crystal Heart. He was unable to comprehend the sheer power held within the crystal but if there was any spike in power he would instantly know about it.
“Sir, if you don’t mind me asking. Why do we need to relinquish The Heart to the Equestrians? Surely it would be better to leave it under the protection of our own ponies and researchers. It is our greatest defense after all,” Outta Range blurted out as they reached the foot of the stairs. Shining Armor sighed and stopped in the door frame. We don't have time for this. The other guards paused as well but none of them ended their streams of magic.
“It's manipulative and dangerous. We are not sure of how it works, but it seems to affect crystal ponies—natural crystal ponies. You twelve came here with me along with the rest of our unit, none of us are affected by this thing like the other crystal ponies. We may be crystal now but we will never be naturally like this, it’s merely because of the magic of the Empire that we are like this. We attempted to have one of our own researchers, Studious Nature, look at it before we decided upon sending it to Equestria. Do you know him?” Shining Armor asked, his eyes fixed upon Outta Range, rage burning in them.
Outta Range nodded. “I brought him up to look at the heart after Her Imperial Majesty discussed the issue with a group of rulers from across the world. Studious Nature is catatonic. All he did was tap it with his horn and he almost shattered, shattered.” Outta Range gulped as Shining Armor took a step towards him.
“Dawning Song,” he continued, “your future empress, a unicorn with the potential to lead this world into a new age of harmony between all races—” Shining Armor normally would never make claims of that magnitude about Dawning Song, he and Cadance wanted her to be her own mare, with nopony deciding who she had to be. Just this once, We need to get this thing out of here. “—She stepped near this thing and something happened. We don’t know what but she nearly died. You have a choice Range: You can accept that your empress has made the right choice by entrusting this dangerous artifact with the two oldest, wisest and most powerful ponies in the world along with my sister and the Elements of Harmony; Or you deem them untrustworthy and risk my daughter and, more importantly, your future sovereign. Your choice.” By this point Shining Armor’s muzzle was almost pressing against Range’s. Go on, act smart Range.. “So what’ll it be Range?” I dare you. Instantly Outta Range saluted Shining Armor and began apologising profusely. Shining Armor softened and moved back towards the door. “Any more questions stallions?” The other eleven guards saluted Shining Armor and shook their heads. “Then let’s get this thing out of our nation before it does more harm.”
The group marched through the corridors of the palace excruciatingly slowly. The main staff had been sent clear of the guards for fear of the natural crystal ponies reacting to proximity with the Heart. Cadance was more worried about what the reaction would be if the move was public knowledge. They would likely react in a similar way to Outta Range, with bitterness and suspicion, but on a much wider scale. Eventually they reached the palace gardens where Tight Schedule was waiting, a pocket watch on a chain hung from his wing.
“Sir, there is a slight problem. A huge fire has sprung up across a large range of mountains in Equestria and Their Celestial Highnesses and Her Harmonious Highness have been called out to investigate the disaster.” The chamberlain informed the soldiers. “Nevertheless I recommend that we begin the sterilisation process and package the artefact.” Shining Armor agreed and released his magic holding up The Heart. Nine of the soldiers followed suit leaving Shining Armor’s chief lieutenants Burning Sword and Shieldbearer it up. Outta Range, Shining Armor and the remaining guards fired pulses of magic directly into it and slowly a thin film of iridescent energy built up around the crystal. The film built up until there was an inch and a half of shining light separating the Heart from the outside world. Once this was finished it was slowly lowered into a lead lined lockbox which was sealed by Shining Armor with an enchantment tied to his blood, meaning Twilight would be able to unseal it when it arrived in Equestria. Blood magic was painful to cast but in terms of security enchantments there was nothing more secure.
“Send word to Vigilant to prepare a train and get a squad together, no naturals in any circumstance. I’d say I can get to the station with this weighing me down by about midnight. I’ll take the squad with me to drop off this thing with Celestia. I’ll come back as soon as I’m sure it is safely locked down. I’d say a fortnight to make sure they do a proper job. Schedule, inform Cadance for me. While I’m gone Burning Sword and Shieldbearer are in charge of the armed forces. If anything major happens you two are to contact me via scrying, but only if it’s worth the magic.” Shining Armor ordered as the lockbox was placed onto a chariot and Shining Armor clasped the harness onto himself. The soldiers saluted him and Tight Schedule bowed as Shining Armor began to run through the palace grounds towards the rear exit. His muscles rippled under his crystal fur as he accelerated with the heavy box in tow.
At the same time as Shining Armor escorted the Heart to Canterlot, hundreds of groups of figures shambled towards it. Their clothes reduced to burnt rags and their fur long, shaggy and matted, the dogs began to move towards The Crystal Empire. They settled as beggars in every city and town in the empire, all needing a place to stay. They all had nothing to their names. The crystal ponies viewed their visitors with suspicion but they respected their empress’ wishes that they were to be allowed to live as refugees until the end of winter. The Equestrian Princesses had vowed to make dwellings in mountains near to the ones the dogs had come from—the very mountains that had been engulfed by the flames that had mysteriously sprung up in the diamond dog dens. Nonetheless the ponies were wary of the creatures with strange accents and gods living in their streets. It was unknown why they had all chosen to move to The Crystal Empire and not Griffonia or Zebrica or their native land of Equestria. Even Cadance had been unable to find out what had befallen the Diamond Dogs, she had spoken to plenty of them but they each seemed to have a different tale to tell. Some blamed the dragons, others Celestia, the majority just appeared to be confused as to what happened and simply followed the crowds. The confusion did nothing to stop the rumours and conspiracy theories did nothing but add to the apprehension the crystal ponies had towards their visitors. The crystal empire was by no means harmonious after Shining Armor left Cristamera.
Sparkling Wine and Good Vintage sat together just as had did every day since their return to the world. They always went to the same coffee shop; Roasted Bean’s was off of the main thoroughfare through Cristamera but was still close enough to their homes that it was only a short walk. They went at two o’clock, and stayed until around four o’clock. They always sat at the one table on Roasted Bean’s balcony where they were able to see the hustle and bustle going on everyday in the market at the other end of the sidestreet. They also both had a large black coffee, no sugar, with one biscuit. They would sit at their table and discuss whatever came to mind. They were lucky to have remembered their past life as vintners, it was a hobby of theirs to pedantically pester any who referred to them as anything as common as a winemaker, when looking at a wine list in a restaurant months ago. Recently though, their main conversation topic had changed to the diamond dogs that had settled in their city. There were five of them that were visible from the old ponies’ table and they would often discuss them as they drank their coffee.
Good Vintage took a sip of his coffee while he looked at the den the dogs had made for themselves, “I spoke to Doddery about them yesterday; the dogs. He thinks he knows, poor old pony, he just told me the theory we thought of weeks ago. It is plain to see that they are here merely for our riches.”
“Well more and more of us are realising it you know, it’s not just us olden ponies anymore. Finally the youngsters are beginning to open their eyes!”
“They’re planning something,” Good Vintage told his friend“something big. They’re too shifty-looking not to be. Especially the thin wiry one, not the scrawny one that always scrabbles for the paper and reads it first, the one that always brings food. What did you say he said his name was?” Good Vintage asked. Sparkling Wine took a sip of his coffee before rubbing his wings on his temples, trying to remember.
“Sebastian!” He suddenly called out triumphantly. Immediately he covered his mouth with his hoof. The two ponies slowly turned to see if any of the dogs were in their den, they weren’t so the two sighed in relief. “Oh he’s definitely the thief of the group, or at least the best thief. And the other one you mentioned, the scrawny one, that’s Lucian. I bet they use him as a lookout and that’s why he’s always at their den. Not sure why he’s not there today now that I mention it. What do you think?” He pondered. Good Vintage tutted before replying.
“He is probably out being a lookout for the others as they take from generous ponies that already give all they can. Why are they even here? What do they contribute to the empire? Nothing! The big one… Mark, now he would be a good worker. Think how many barrels of grape the beast could squash compared to us. You may be strong for an earth pony my friend but look at the size of him. He towers over the others. One thing I have noticed though, all of them, including the female, look up to Oscar. In any situation they do what he says, it is almost as if the beasts have some kind of government.” Sparkling Wine raised an eyebrow after his friend said this. “No, no I know it sounds ridiculous but bear with me old pony. We always assume every day that they go to steal from the honest hard working ponies, such being their way after all. The issue is that we never see what they take. What we do see however, is them going off and reporting to Oscar, even Nadia, the girl, seems to report to him. On top of this Oscar is only at the den three, maybe four, days a week. Maybe he has a supervisor he reports to. I mean theres no way these street rats are anywhere near the top of the pyramid but somewhere there is a central authority, a leader. He is the one telling the mongrels to steal from us. Other dogs are the thieves but these are just as bad. They are the ones who are telling the thieves where to go.” Good Vintage looked proudly at his friend who sat across from him, wide eyed, trying to work his head around Good Vintage’s theory.
“Well then,” Sparkling Wine began. “This lot must be stealing too because we never see other dogs here and they must be getting food somewhere. They must be stealing our food, maybe from our houses, they’re not that far. They probably follow us home and wait until we come here and take our things. Maybe they steal from Roasted Bean too. Oh the cheek of these mongrels, these beasts! I bet they’ve all come because Shining Armor left. If he were here we wouldn’t have this problem. A proper general is what we need and he fits the ticket more than anybody.” The ponies finished their coffees quickly, left exact change for them, and stomped out of the coffee shop to go home and check that all of their things were where they left them.
As they left they failed to see the two pairs of eyes buried deep within the den, hidden from the olden ponies’ view from their table. Nadia opened her eyes and refocused on the den, having finished reciting every word the old ponies had said. Lucien underlined his last sentence read the transcript back to himself. He rolled it up as Nadia prepared a vial of dragonfire and a disk with a ‘Ω’ symbol. She passed them to Lucien who sent the transcript off in a puff of black smoke.