//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 - Unique Talents // Story: Ghosts from the Future // by Pix //------------------------------// Chapter 9 – Unique Talents As the train continued its journey towards the Crystal Empire, Applejack peered out of the car window to watch the landscape rushing past. For some reason, the more trees and hills that flew by, the more uncomfortable she felt. She did not mind train journeys normally, so she supposed it must just be because they were a sign she was getting further and further away from Ponyville. From her home. It was rare for her to be away from Sweet Apple Acres for so long. When she had told her family that she was to be heading away again, after less than a day since returning, they had been very understanding. Winona had been less happy about it, but she would completely forgive Applejack when she arrived back home. Applejack also knew they’d be fine without her. Big Mac was always aware of everything that needed doing, and would work as hard as was needed, and Applebloom was growing more and more capable herself. Nevertheless, it made her uneasy, especially since she had no idea how long she was leaving for this time. None of her friends seemed to feel so on edge, or at least they weren’t showing it if they did. Rainbow Dash was on the bench beside her, laying back asleep, snoring noisily. Fluttershy was on the other side of the sleeping pegasus, sitting calmly, also watching out the window. And across from them on the opposite side of the train car, Rarity, Twilight and Pinkie were still discussing their most recent revelation about the future. “I suppose there are other ways to become a princess,” Rarity suggested, hesitantly. “Through marriage, for example.” “Oh, good idea!” Pinkie bounced in her seat. “Maybe I should marry Prince Snooty!” “You mean Blueblood?” Rarity was horrified. “Oh no, dear, I wouldn’t wish him upon you. I wouldn’t wish him upon anypony!” “Oh okay. So… Twilight then?” she asked innocently. Applejack couldn’t help but chuckle at the expressions on the other two mares’ faces. Twilight cleared her throat. “Regardless of why that probably won’t happen,” she began, “marriage wouldn’t be enough in this case. Trixie was very clear that there were four alicorn princesses in the future.” She shook her head. “But however it happened, that doesn’t mean it will happen again. We’re trying to change the future, and if we succeed-” “When we succeed, darling.” “When we succeed,” continued Twilight, correcting herself, “then there’s no knowing if Pinkie would become a princess this time round.” “I am aware of that Twilight, but I am still interested in how it could have happened at all. Didn’t you say that your ascension was because you created a unique magical contribution to Equestria? How could an earth pony like Pinkie do that?” Rarity turned to the pink mare in question. “I mean no offense darling, but I had imagined that if anypony else were to become a princess, it would be… well…” She blushed sheepishly. “A unicorn.” Pinkie beamed back at her. “I don’t get it either. Any idea, Twilight?” Twilight sighed. “Well, to begin with, I don’t fully understand how I ascended in the first place. I talked about it quite a bit with Celestia afterwards, but even she doesn’t have a complete understanding of the requirements. She once told me that while she had always hoped I would one day become an alicorn, she had never been certain that it would happen. I thought she had decided when I was ready and triggered it herself, but apparently it wasn’t up to her at all, she had just been waiting and prepared for the eventuality. “As for the magic thing, well, that may be a part of it, but I see no reason why it would have to be unicorn magic. Cadance was a pegasus before she became an alicorn, but she was still able to demonstrate her mastery of love. Just look around this train car: Rainbow has her Sonic Rainboom, and Fluttershy has her Stare. Both of those are unique skills. And Pinkie has her Pinkie Sense, and you can’t deny that’s a unique talent.” “But they haven’t all become alicorns,” Rarity pointed out, quite unnecessarily. “No, they haven’t,” Twilight agreed. “There’s obviously more to it than just having a unique magical talent. Maybe it has to be particularly helpful to Equestria, maybe you have to demonstrate you’re suitable to be a princess in other ways…” Twilight stopped and thought for a moment. “Actually, it reminds me of a remark Luna once made.” “Oh?” “She said, ‘Equestria chooses its princesses’.” Twilight smiled sadly. “She told me that to encourage me when I was having doubts about my role. She said that Equestria must have plans for me, and that my skills would be needed for something.” Twilight looked out the window. “If she’s right, then that could explain why Pinkie became a princess in the future.” “What do you mean?” The young princess turned back to the pink mare beside her and grinned. “Perhaps Equestria needed cheering up.” Pinkie beamed at this. “I could definitely be the princess of parties! I’d travel around Equestria with a royal party cannon, visiting each city in turn and throwing royal parties, and they’d be nothing like that stuffy gala.” She gasped. “Oh! I could even make the Grand Galloping Gala less boring! We could fill it with balloons and streamers and cakes and party games and party music, and…” She gasped again. “And we could have galas more often! The first Princess Pinkie Proclamation will be that there’s a gala every month! Or maybe every week?” Rainbow Dash must have woken up at some point, because Applejack suddenly heard the pegasus’ voice in her ear. “Bet you didn’t think you could feel even sorrier for the ponies in the future, huh?” Applejack snorted. “Well don’t get too excited yet Pinkie,” Twilight said, interrupting Pinkie’s fantasising. “Remember that none of this might happen.” “But you’re saying that that’s probably how it did happen?” Rarity asked again, not wanting to let the topic go. “Pinkie became a princess in the future because she could sense things and throw amazing parties?” Twilight shrugged. “Maybe? I just don’t know Rarity. But it’s probably something like that. I mean, you heard what Ragnar said. What other explanation could there be?” --- Cadance landed in front of the tunnel entrance with a crash. She knew that unlike her usual appearance, she was definitely not the most graceful flier. But, as an alicorn, she was certainly fast. This was why she was currently alone, despite the fact that the Crystal Mountains, and particularly the cave network beneath them, were known to be very dangerous these days. In fact she and her husband had recently announced to the ponies of the Crystal Empire that the entire mountain range should be avoided if at all possible. If it hadn’t been for Twilight’s letter she never would have considered coming, especially not by herself. Shining Armor had not been too happy either, but she had been insistent. “Twilight’s made it very clear that I need to get there quickly or I might not get to the pony in time,” she had said. “I love you honey, but you are lamentably slow.” “At least take some pegasi with you.” “You know how few skilled pegasi we have, and even they could not keep up with me. If it makes you feel better, form a guard and come and join me as soon as you can. That way, if I get into any trouble, you can arrive in the nick of time to get me out of it.” “I would hope to arrive sooner than ‘the nick of time’…” Cadance had walked up to him with a smile. “But heroes always arrive just in the nick of time.” And she had given her husband a kiss. That was why she was now entering the dark cave without any guards with her. It was unusual for her to ever get any time without guards watching her, at least recently. With the continuing reports of shadowy crystal ponies in the mountains, her personal guard had been insistent that they should never leave her side. The pink alicorn wondered whether Shining Armor had put them up to it. She could forgive him his protectiveness, ever since what had happened in Canterlot not too long ago. But despite usually wishing she could escape from their constant supervision, she now missed their presence. The tunnel she was walking through was eerily dark, and even seemed to absorb the light that she was emitting from her horn. The pink alicorn knew that she was not the most powerful princess. In fact she figured she was probably the least powerful, at least magically, but she should be able to create more light than this. Even the usually sparkling and gleaming walls, laced with multi-faceted gemstones, were looking unnaturally dull. Something was off in here. Just her luck that this was where the pony was going to appear. Or rather, a few hundred feet further into the depths was where the pony was going to appear. Cadance took another few steps, listening to the muffled echoes of her hooffalls. The walls of the tunnel seemed to be opening up and she reckoned she was entering a large cavern. She was deep enough inside the mountain now that there was no sunlight visible from the tunnel behind her. She attempted once more to create illumination, and found that if she exerted a lot of effort she could identify the cavern walls in the distance, and a stalactite covered ceiling a long way above. And a pony in front of her. Instinctively, mind filled with visions of the dark crystalline monsters her husband and Pinkie Pie had both encountered, Cadance let loose a blast of magic straight at the figure. In doing so, the illumination she had been creating faded completely, and she found herself in total darkness. She heard a thud in the distance, which suggested that her spell had connected and thrown her opponent away across the cavern, and so Cadance had a few seconds to try and think of a plan. She could leave, and gallop back up the tunnel she had come down, but then it would definitely be too late to meet the pony she was coming to find. She was probably too late already, they had surely arrived by now and would not have much longer left to live. Cadance suddenly gasped, a horrible thought rearing its head. Had she just attacked the very pony she had been intending to meet? But no, that couldn’t be true. The ponies from the future were supposedly infected with a disease that made their skin blotchy and crystalline, whereas that had just looked like an ordinary earth pony mare. It had… looked like an ordinary earth pony mare. And she had attacked them. An ordinary mare. Oh Celestia. In horror, Cadance relit her horn. Whether because of a change in atmosphere, or because the sudden determination was giving her extra focus, she was able to illuminate the entire cavern this time. In doing so a few things became clear. Firstly, the cavern was even larger than she had imagined. She was only standing in the entrance, but it stretched out downwards, forwards and upwards, until she imagined it could comfortably fit the entire Crystal Palace inside. Secondly, it looked like it had been an earth pony she had blasted. A grey mare was lying a surprising distance away, wearing torn clothes and looking battered but fortunately not broken. And thirdly, she had no time to care about anything else, because a shadowy mist was seeping towards her through the cavern. There was something about the black fog that made it look malevolent. It was spilling along the ground towards her, as though it was a particularly viscous liquid, and the only thing stopping her from fleeing from it was that it would reach the other mare first, and she knew that she could not allow the poor pony to get absorbed into the foul haze. She started galloping toward the downed pony, planning as she ran. Her first thought was to create some sort of barrier around the two of them, but that would be no use if the mist would then just surround them and leave them trapped inside. She could try and carry the grey mare out herself, and give up on the pony she had been supposed to meet, but she did not want to surrender unless there truly seemed to be no other option. Instead she stepped past the mare on the ground, who looked as though she might be unconscious but was visibly breathing. Cadance then tried to use any magic she could think of to repel the fog back into the depths of the cavern, while still trying to generate enough light to see by. Although she was not able to fend off the dark mist, she did at least stop it from spilling any closer. The situation then changed dramatically though, when the mist stopped putting any pressure on her magic, as though it had stopped its approach. Cadance watched warily as the shadowy fog churned and formed itself into the outline of a pony. That confused the pink alicorn. Did it mean the fog had some sort of sentience? Perhaps it wanted to communicate with her? But rather than communicate, the shape of the pony suddenly became solid, and Cadance stepped back in shock as she identified that the mist had somehow spawned one of the monsters she had been hoping to avoid. It was as Shining Armor had described it to her: a horrific form of jagged black crystal with blazing, soulless eyes. She could identify that it had the shape of an earth pony stallion, and thought back to what Pinkie had told her about these ‘Shards’. Presumably there had once been a pony out there who looked just like this, and they had been infected and killed so that this dark mist could mimic them. It was suddenly very clear to the princess of love that she would struggle to feel any mercy towards whoever was responsible for this dark magic. The earth pony Shard wailed and started charging towards her. Cadance didn’t hesitate before sending a blast of magic forth from her horn, with far more feeling this time since she knew it to be a valid target. Unfortunately she had forgotten to keep the light spell active in her haste, and in the few seconds of darkness before she summoned illumination again, the situation had changed, very much for the worse. In front of her in the darkness, the last remnants of the mist were forming into duplicate outlines of the same earth pony. As they solidified, Cadance noticed that even the Shard she had hit with her spell had not been taken out, and was getting back to his hooves and turning impulsively towards her. It looked like it would take a lot more effort to deal with him than she had first hoped. Seeing no good alternative, Cadance started blasting spells haphazardly into the crowd. Once or twice she thought she could hear the splintering sound of a Shard being destroyed, but there were always more to take its place, and as a whole they were slowly advancing towards her. Deciding that she could not allow them to get close to the unmoving mare behind her, she charged into the fray, raising a shield around her and ramming the nearest Shards with it. As one the constructs all turned towards her and started ramming against her barrier, causing cracks to appear after mere seconds. Cadance knew it wouldn’t hold much longer, and so she launched up into the air and allowed it to drop. Then she cast a wider range spell, attempting to tear apart the ground underneath the feet of the now closely gathered Shards. She was not well-practised with offensive magic, but fortunately her opponents were earth ponies, or at least resembled earth ponies, and they would not be able to reach her in the air. Neither did they seem particularly smart, as she realised when they continued to swarm underneath her, despite no hope of being able to reach the flying alicorn. It did not take long though, before they changed tactics. One Shard on the edge of the group picked up a loose stone from the ground she had just so generously torn into pieces beneath them, and threw it at her with surprising force. She only barely dodged out of the way, and turned to witness every other Shard in the group simultaneously picking up stones of their own. Realising that she would never be able to dodge fifty stones at once, Cadance created a magical barrier once more, this time beneath her so that the rocks would not be able to reach her. An idea then occurred to her, and she used as much strength as she could muster to force the barrier down onto the monsters below, with the intention of crushing them. A few near the edges stepped out of the way, but most of them mindlessly remained immobile, and were obliterated beneath the magical wall. Cadance smiled as she saw this. They really weren’t very intelligent. In her split second of satisfaction at her success, she had taken her eye off of the Shards who had avoided her attack, and was smacked with a stone in the back of her head for her carelessness. Vision blurring for a second, Cadance lost control of both her flight and her magic, crashing into the ground of the now pitch black cavern. She had already started charging up another light spell when she considered that a better spell to cast first would have been a shield spell. And indeed, no sooner had the area around her been illuminated than she saw several Shards mere feet from her, and charging fast. It looked like they were simply going to trample her and let their serrated crystalline bodies tear her to shreds. In fact, even as she looked the jagged spikes on some of the Shards seemed to be lengthening threateningly. Without any time to think of anything clever to do, Cadance created a magical shockwave, launching everything nearby into the air, including herself. She slammed into a rock pillar a short distance away, and felt it crack ominously behind her. The persistent Shards, despite the fact that some of them were missing legs and other portions of their body, recovered far faster than she did. Before Cadance could get back to her hooves they had started charging towards her once more. There were only seven of them left now, but they were spread far enough apart that Cadance was not going to be able to take them out in one go. She refused to give up though, and sent rays of magic at the nearest Shards. They must have been severely weakened over the course of the battle, because as her beams connected it was enough to cause the constructs to disintegrate into dust. Heartened, she stood and turned to the final few Shards and was just about to repeat the action when she was caught off guard by another thrown stone that smashed into her horn. Immediately a splitting headache seared through her and all light vanished from the cave. Cadance tripped back into the pillar behind her, and the impact caused another ominous cracking sound. Within seconds the pillar seemed to have split apart and Cadance felt thuds of rocks falling as it broke into pieces. Before she could either get to her hooves or relight her horn, one of the falling rocks landed on her left wing and she let out a yell of pain. Meanwhile, even in the blackness, she could see the glowing lights of her enemies’ eyes slowly approaching. The cornered pink alicorn attempted another spell, but it fizzled out and lights started blinking in her eyes. She attempted to drag herself away, but the rock was still pinning her in place by the wing. Resigned, she closed her eyes. There was a sudden splintering sound, and an explosion of crystalline fragments falling to the ground. Cadance reopened her eyes to see the glowing eyes being extinguished one by one, the sound of devastation continuing around her. When the last light had gone out, and the foul presence of Shards had gone from the cavern, a sudden flare of light appeared in front of her and she blinked in surprise as, for a brief moment, her entire world was filled with flame. After a few seconds her vision returned to her and she identified that the flame had simply come from a recently lit lantern, which was now hanging around the neck of the same earth pony she had so regrettably attacked earlier. The grey mare was standing over her, the light from the lantern illuminating her violet mane, which hung meticulously straight despite the rest of her seeming battered and bruised. Cadance saw the fragments of her recent tormentors on the ground around the mare’s hooves and put two and two together. “Did you just destroy them?” “Yes.” “How did you do that?” “I punched them,” came the straightforward reply. Cadance tried to pull herself upright once more, and in an instant the battered mare was at her side, pulling the rock off of her wing. Cadance raised an eyebrow as she saw just how easily the earth pony was able to move such a big rock. “Is your wing okay?” The mare asked. Cadance flexed it experimentally, wincing a little. “It’ll be fine.” She looked back over at the earth pony in front of her. “Listen,” she began. “I’m really sorry about earlier. That was unforgivable of me.” The mare simply tilted her head. “When I attacked you,” Cadance prompted, waiting for a reaction. “I blasted you with my magic?” Still no response. Cadance frowned. “Maybe you didn’t notice me do it, but I’m still really sorry.” “I noticed. It’s okay though. You didn’t mean it.” “But I seriously injured you!” Cadance motioned at the bruises that covered the mare’s side and the tears in her clothes. As she did so however, she realised that the pony did not seem to be bothered by the cuts and scrapes, and was moving around just fine. She was clearly very resilient. “I already had most of these injuries. They were from other black crystal pony fights like this one.” “You’ve been attacked by Shards before?” Cadance winced in sympathy. “Oh, my dear, how long have you been stuck down here?” “I’m not stuck down here.” “I know a way out, we can… Wait, you’re not?” “No.” “Oh.” Cadance waited for an explanation but it seemed none was forthcoming. “Why are you down here then?” she asked. “I’m researching the rocks here.” “You’re what!?” Cadance was stunned. “But why here? There are rocks everywhere, why go here when it’s so dangerous?” “There are rocks here that can’t be found anywhere else.” “But you just said there are Shards constantly attacking you down here. Surely you’d be better off somewhere else?” “But nowhere else has these rocks,” the mare repeated, as though the presence of demonic monsters was merely an afterthought. “Huh.” There was silence for a few seconds. “Those ponies that attacked us are called Shards?” the mare eventually asked. “Uh, yes.” “Shards are okay. I can deal with Shards.” “They seemed pretty tough to deal with to me.” “These were just Deep Miner. He’s hardy, but slow and predictable. Azure Prism is faster, but less resilient. White Beacon is a unicorn. He’s more dangerous. There are sometimes others.” Cadance gaped. “You know all these ponies?” “They were my research team.” “So they got infected? And they all died?” The mare nodded. “That’s awful,” Cadance said sympathetically. “Are you okay? You’ll have to tell me how it all happened.” A flicker of the flame in the lantern around the mare’s neck caused Cadance to suddenly remember where she was and what she was supposed to be doing here. “You can tell me another time, I was actually here for a different reason.” It was likely that she was too late to meet the pony she had been here to find, but it was possible that this mare had seen them. “Have you, by any chance, seen a strange pony in the caves near here? They would have appeared out of nowhere, and been infected by a debilitating illness.” The mare blinked, her face impassive, but Cadance got the impression that she was thinking. She hadn’t shown much emotion since they had first started talking, but the princess was beginning to be able to pick up on the more subtle cues. “I know who you mean. I am looking after him in my tent.” “You do? You found him?” Cadance paused. “You have a tent?” The mare started walking off, and Cadance realised she was supposed to follow. She certainly wasn’t being treated the way she, as a princess, was usually treated. She found it strangely refreshing. As they walked, she noticed the mare’s cutie mark, which appeared to be a rock cut in the shape of a diamond. She was not surprised. “He says he is from the future. I believe him.” “Oh, well, yes. He is.” Cadance knew that in theory it would be better if word didn’t spread too far about what was happening. The ponies of the Crystal Empire were an easily panicked bunch after all. But somehow Cadance knew that this mare would be unlikely to speak out. “He is going to die soon. I can’t help him much longer.” “Yes, the disease he has is incurable,” Cadance muttered glumly. “I was just hoping I would be able to talk to him before he went. What has he said to you?” “Strange things. Is it true that a Shard army attacked the Crystal Empire?” Cadance stopped walking in shock. “No.” She shivered. “Or not yet, anyway. It would be really good to talk to him, is it much further?” “No.” Cadance continued in silence, but then some of the things her curt companion had said jumped out at her. “Did you… did you say you’ve been helping him? Looking after him?” “Yes.” “For how long?” “Only a few hours.” It was strange just how many times Cadance could be dumbfounded by this mare’s monotonic words. “A few… a few hours?” “I think three hours.” “And he’s been talking to you all this time?” “No. When I tried to help him he fell asleep. He wakes up occasionally, but I think he’s very tired.” “Huh.” They continued walking, and Cadance noticed they were approaching a small alcove in the side of the large cavern. There was the sound of dripping water nearby, which went some way to explaining how anypony could survive down here. Presumably she must have some way of getting food too. “So how have you been helping him?” Cadance asked, trying once more to understand the situation. “I can show you. We’re here.” Cadance looked up in shock and saw that they had indeed arrived at a small tent, pitched next to a pool of water. The grey mare stepped inside and Cadance followed, having to duck significantly to fit her regal frame through the entrance. Somehow Cadance knew that the tent would be sparsely decorated inside, and in fact there was little more than a camp bed, which was currently occupied by what she assumed to be the time-displaced stallion in question. He was not a pretty sight, as Cadance had expected. His legs and most of his torso looked exactly like those of a Shard. He had wings that seemed fused to his sides, clearly rendering them unusable. More of a surprise though, was his head, which seemed completely clear of the Infection, retaining his natural dark blue colouration. “He says he is called Star Hunter.” Cadance’s guide stepped over towards the pegasus stallion. “I can wake him up, but I think he will only have minutes left. Maybe three minutes.” “Uh, okay.” Cadance’s mind whirred. This was nothing like the situation she had expected to be in when she met her target, but she still needed to get useful information. The grey earth pony bent down and tapped the pegasus on the side of the head. Immediately his eyes popped open and he twisted his head around in shock. “Aaargh! Where am I?” He blinked wildly, but then seemed to settle down. “Oh yes, I remember. I’m still with you, huh? Thought for sure I’d be gone by now.” He suddenly seemed to notice Cadance. “Ah, you brought a friend here?” He squinted. “Oh, not a friend; family!” “Actually, we’re not related.” Cadance said, before turning aside and whispering, “Does he not know who I am?” “He thought I was somepony else too. I think he’s confused.” Cadance nodded at this. There was no telling what the Infection did to pony’s minds, she just hoped they could trust the rest of the information he could give them in the time they had. In fact, even as she looked she could see the corruption spreading up his neck, making her realise just how little time it probably would be. It seemed that she was not the only one to notice however, because the mare beside her reached forwards and pressed a hoof to his chest. Immediately the spread of the Infection seemed to slow, allowing the stallion some breathing room. “How did you do that?” asked Cadance, stunned once more. “Like this,” the mare replied, repeating the action. “No, I mean, what are you doing?” “Touching his chest.” Cadance groaned and shook her head. Questions for the mare: later. Questions for the stallion: now. “Star Hunter, can you hear me?” “Yes, but I don’t think I will for much longer. I’m going to die, you know.” His voice was very croaky. “I do, and I am so sorry. You would be doing Equestria a great service if you could answer a few questions before that happens though.” “Of course, that’s why I’m here!” The pink alicorn smiled at his enthusiasm. It made it easier to accept that he was going to die if he knew and was ready for it himself. “Okay, first question: I understand the Crystal Empire will be attacked by Shards? When and how does this happen?” “I don’t remember when, sorry. It was very sudden, and was before most ponies knew anything was even going on.” “Is there anything at all you could tell me?” “It was a huge battle. There were thousands of Shards, supposedly. I think you were taken by surprise.” Cadance frowned uneasily. That was a preposterous number. “Well rest assured, we will not allow ourselves to be surprised this time.” She wished her voice sounded as certain as her words. The stallion smiled, but then flinched. One of his ears had just crystallised. It seemed that, despite the mare’s best efforts, the Infection was close to overwhelming him. “Okay, second question,” Cadance continued, her voice slightly more rushed now. “What is the original cause of the Infection?” “Nopony knows.” Cadance’s heart sunk. “Really?” “Well either that or you found out but kept it a secret.” He suddenly winced again and Cadance wondered whether he had just attempted to shrug. “Either way, again I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.” Cadance was somewhat flustered now. Surely after all this she could get something useful from him. She racked her brain for the best thing to ask. “Uh, do you have any advice on dealing with Shards?” “They’re really dumb if you get them in small groups. In big groups they seem smarter somehow, not sure why. Raiding parties were always the most successful at taking them out. Maybe you should train ponies to hunt Shards in the mountains as soon as possible.” “And how would you recommend fighting them?” “I was never part of the force, but from what I understand, it’s all about hitting them with power and they’ll break apart. Get earth ponies to buck hard, pegasi to fly fast, and unicorns to launch projectiles.” He started choking, and Cadance noticed that the Infection was up to his face. “And don’t allow them to... to cover you in their mist, or they’ll… they’ll infect you too.” Cadance smiled as warmly as she could. “Thank you, Star Hunter.” He smiled, closed his eyes, and shattered. Cadance had known it was coming, but she still found that she had to blink away tears. Her companion meanwhile, was just staring with interest at the newly formed pile of fragments. Cadance took a deep breath, and then another. She could not afford to get hung up on what she had just witnessed. It sounded like she, and the Crystal Empire, had a lot of work to do. “Thanks for all your help,” she said heartily. “Without you I never could have talked to him. And also,” she added, thinking back. “You quite possibly saved my life. I don’t think I ever thanked you for that either.” The mare nodded impassively. “I should also apologise,” the princess continued, “for never asking your name. I must admit I have not been thinking clearly for the last hour, and was most surprised to meet anypony down here, but that is no excuse for being rude.” “My name is Maud Pie,” the grey earth pony replied, simply. “Who are you?” “Who… Who am I?” Cadance gaped at the mare for what seemed like the twentieth time. “Well, officially I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but you can call me Cadance.” She frowned. “I am sorry, I assumed you would know me.” “I have heard of you.” “Huh.” Cadance frowned again, but after a few seconds she was giggling, and she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps the tension she had been feeling for the last hour was finally wearing off. Whatever the reason, she felt good to let it out, and was receiving a bemused look for her troubles. It was probably the most extreme expression she’d seen on Maud’s face the whole time they had been together, which only made her laugh harder. As she slowly recovered, she thought back to something Celestia had been suggesting to her for a while now. She liked this laconic mare for some reason. A rock in the shape of a diamond indeed. Perhaps it was time. “Maud Pie,” she began, trying to work out the best way of phrasing her request. “I can see that you are… content… here, but I have a proposition for you.” The mare listened patiently. “I would like to know everything you have seen down here. It would be good to know all you can tell me about the Shards and the Infection. But more than that, whatever you did to help that pony, it was something nopony else even knew was possible. I don’t know what it was, but it’s a skill that will be invaluable in the future if we are trying to avoid the events Star Hunter, and others like him, have mentioned. “Maud, would you be willing to return to the Crystal Empire with me? To let me help you develop your talents, and work together to eliminate the Shards, and the Infection that stole your friends from you?” The grey mare stood silently for a few moments, and then almost imperceptibly nodded her head. “Sure.”