Crimson gazed upon the camp the Copper’s expedition was setting, hidden in the grass of a nearby hill. The frenetic activity was completely coordinated by Copper that, standing in the middle of the main dancehall of the palace, shouted orders to everypony that crossed his sight. The tents and canvas soon rose from the floor, efficiently set by the soldiers of Celestia’s guard. Meanwhile, several members of the academy set several tables under the biggest of the canvas, carrying inside several instruments and tools for the excavations. Also, some of the guards started to set a perimeter around the camp, starting several fires at regular distances.
Crimson turned around to see Frost Cloud that rested against a fallen column, part of what once seemed to be a shrine, covered by her own cloak, sleeping. Both were exhausted by the trip through Everfree forest. Following Coppers expedition had proven to be a harder task than they thought. In order to have enough time to surround the manticore’s territory, Crimson and Frost had to pass Copper’s expedition, something that implied that they had to spend some complete nights walking without any rest.
“Wake up Frost; it’s your turn to stand guard…”
As Crimson shook her, Frost grumbled a bit.
“Come on, I know you’re tired, but I also need to sleep.”
Frost yawned as she stretched, waking up with a painful expression.
“This column isn’t a very comfortable place to sleep… Anything new about our friends down there?”
“Nope. They keep finishing the set up, and the perimeter, that’s all. But anyway we shouldn’t lower our guard. They shall start to patrol the surroundings soon. After my sleep we should move and find a better refuge inside the palace’s ruins.”
Crimson approached the place that Frost occupied a few moments ago, trying to make himself comfortable. He took off his cloak and put it on as a blanket, preparing to sleep, closing his eyes.
“I don’t think we’ve got time for that…” Frost said, as she gazed upon the camp.
Crimson approached the top of the hill again, intrigued by her words. At the middle of the dancefloor, ten of the Celestia’s guards stood in formation in front of Copper as he gave them their orders.
“Shoot! It seems like patrols shall start right now… Get your backpack quick, we must move to the palace. Here we are too exposed” Crimson said, as he put on his own cloak and backpack again.
They couldn’t rely on camouflage for not being discovered. The low grass and the grey colour of the soil made their cloaks useless for that purpose. Crimson took a quick look on the southern wall, searching for an entrance. They could try to fly through one of the huge window holes that covered the walls of the palace, but that would make them catch the attention of the guards… No, they had to find a stealthy entrance. From what he remembered, the south side of the castle was the most damaged one, so he decided to give it a try and walk. Perhaps they could find a hole in the wall.
The guards started their patrol, flying above them slowly. Crimson pushed Frost inside a bush near the wall of the palace, hiding them both inside. After being sure the guards had flown away, Crimson turned to Frost.
“Stick to the walls of the palace, and pray for not being seen”
After walking for a while, they found a big hole on the wall. The huge blocks of granite had been melted by what should have been a really big explosion of magical energy.
“Wow, that was a big shot…” Frost said as she saw the hole on the wall
“Shot?” Crimson asked with curiosity.
“Yeah well, it’s part of something that I’m investigating. The magical crystals can be used for producing energy and automating machines, but the can also be used with military purposes. They can be built as projectiles that, with the right spell attached, can produce explosions of high temperatures. I must admit that the way we discovered this wasn’t pleasant…”
“So you are telling me that you are developing weaponry? Why would Celestia need to do that? Equestria haven’t had any conflict in a millennium…”
“I don’t know… I just know that she is encouraging us to go deeper into these investigations and financing us.”
“I wonder what she is up to… Let’s get in, we must take shelter and find a place to rest. I doubt I can stay awake for long…”
The hall was gigantic. The floor and the walls were covered by black marble with white veins, almost impossible to distinguish under the thick layer of dirt and rubble from the half-demolished vault, but visible in the places that the rain had cleaned recently. The windows where cracked and broken, but still some pieces of the blue and purple stained glass remained. Coming through them, the branches of big trees came into the hall, probably belonging to an inner garden. Though the holes it had were big, it was still possible to see that the vault was once covered by frescos that represented the starry sky of the night. At the end of the hall, now illuminated by a lonely sun ray, there was an obsidian statue with silver ornaments representing Luna, with her wings spread and looking to the skies. It was a wonderful image, majestic. The detail of the statue was amazing. Behind the statue, a big wooden door, made of almost rotten and eaten away ebony, lead to a stairway.
“Wow, when you told me about the palace, you didn’t told me about this hall. It’s wonderful!”
Crimson still gazed the hall with an absent look. Apart from the statue and rubble from the vault, the room was empty.
“I never got to this part of the palace. When I started to explore the palace, I headed to the north, so this is the first time I see this part.”
“So… how big is this palace?”
“At least twice as Canterlot’s. And the buried parts may make it even bigger. This place is full of secrets. I can feel them calling me. It’s the same feeling I had the first time I came here… Let’s move to the stairway, probably there are rooms upstairs.”
The spiral staircase went through a tower, turning around a single mid pillar. Several holes in the wall revealed the wonderful vegetal vault of the Everfree forest, so huge that it got lost in the horizon. They saw some guards flying around the palace, too concentrated gazing the ground to notice their presence. After going up for a minute, they reached the door of a new floor.
“Opal, stay put, I’m going to open the door.”
Crimson stuck to the wall as he opened the door. You never knew what could be behind a closed door in this kind of places. After assuring that the path was sure, they got into the corridor.
“What is this place?”
“It’s just like Canterlot’s palace. These were the service rooms. They are placed above the great dancehalls and so they can be quickly summoned if needed. Just behind this door should be the room of the servants head of this side of the palace, usually the bigger one…”
Crimson opened the door and while he looked Frost took a step forward, just to find that there was nothing to step on. Reacting quickly, Frost caught Crimson’s cloak, pulling him inside. The open door now revealed a hole that got through several floors of the palace. Frost approached the edge of the crater. Looking up, she saw the sky. The hole went through all the floors of the palace, digging deeply inside the foundations. Breathing heavily and with his heart beating wildly, Crimson stared at Frost, unable to say a word.
“That was a close one... Next time look at the door you are opening!” Frost said.
Crimson nodded. After he laid for a while against the wall, recovering his breath.
“Ok, lets try the rooms on the other side of the corridor, if we are lucky perhaps we find some floor to step on…”
Now, taking much more care, Crimson opened the first door at the other side of the corridor. The room was a small chamber made completely of granite. An old metal candelabrum and the rusty remains of a bed was all what the room had. The rest had slowly rotten during a millennium of oversight. Still, the room was all they needed. The ceiling was complete, no noticeable cracks were visible on the walls and the light that the small window provided was more than enough.
“I think I’m taking a long nap. You should do the same Frost, we’ve got some work to do tonight and I don’t think we need to stand guards while we are here.”
Crimson laid on his mat, displayed over the granite floor. It definitively wasn’t the best bed, but at least they were safe. Meanwhile, Frost looked absently through the only small window the room had.
“Aren’t you tired?” Crimson asked
“Yes, I am. But… I can’t stop thinking about something.”
“And that is?”
“When you get the proofs you need, if you get any, how will you convince everypony that what you are telling is true?”
“Don’t worry about that now, we’ll find that out when we return to Manehattan.”
Though Frost wasn’t too satisfied with the answer, she leaned on her mat a closed her eyes. Crimson turned around and bit his lip. He wished he knew the answer to that question…
Crimson opened his eyes. For first time since the manticore’s attack he hadn’t dreamed with that pony… He turned around to the window. A single moon ray got into the room through it, hardly lighting the granite walls of the room. He then saw Frost Cloud. The moon ray struck directly onto her face, illuminating her almost white coat and making her blue mane shine. She seemed so peaceful… It was a beautiful sight. He could have spent the whole night observing her...
“Frost… Time to wake up…” Crimson said as he shook her gently
Frost turned around groaning, taking her face out of the moonlight. She slowly opened her eyes and stood up, stretching her wings wide open. Crimson opened his backpack, floating out a couple of baked beans cans.
“Ughh, this again? Is that we’ll never be able to run out of these?”
Crimson opened both cans and after approached his horn to them and started to heat the beans. At least this way they could eat hot without drawing the attention of the guards…
“Look on the bright side, at least we’ve got some hot food to eat…”
They silently ate their baked beans. Though they hadn’t eaten any other thing during the past few days, they were starving. Both savoured them as they were delicacies. After finishing her can, Frost threw it away and turned to Crimson
“Well, what’s the plan?”
Crimson stared at her. Slowly he finished his canned food while Frost waited impatiently.
“First, we must discover where we are. I can’t do nothing if we don’t arrive to the library. After that, I shall use the herbs to get in.”
They got out of the room, Crimson’s horn shone as a lantern, illuminating the corridor. It was a dead end, and if they wanted to go to another section of the castle, they would have to go downstairs again. They followed the staircase, arriving to the same hall they got in through. The rubble blocked their way downstairs anyway, so they had to return to the Luna’s hall again. Under the moonlight the room was completely different. The white veins of the black marble now shone with a spectral glow, illuminating the whole room. Crimson turned off the glow of his horn, allowing them to see a wonderful display. The frescos on the vault now shone with their own light, perfectly emulating the wonderful sky of the night, which, combined with the glow of the floor and the walls, gave the feeling of being floating among the stars.
“This is… amazing!” Frost said, breaking the absolute silence that reigned in the room.
“It is like the marble and the vault fresco’s reacted to the moonlight…”
Both admired the now ruined hall, impressed by the magical display.
“What we do now? The way down is blocked and the only way to head to the north is going out of the palace…” Frost said, being able to slip away from the reverie of the fairytale hall. Crimson still observed the hall, meditative.
“Crimson, is there anypony in there?!”
Crimson nodded and looked Frost in the eyes.
“Perhaps there is no need to get out of the palace…” Crimson murmured.
Frost looked at him intrigued while he approached one of the windows. Breaking the few pieces of stained crystal that where left, Crimson leaned out. There, a floor below them, was an inner garden. A thousand years of uncontrolled growth had allowed the trees to break through the windows of the hall, granting a way down.
“Now I regret not bringing a rope…”
Crimson hanged himself from one of the biggest branches, slowly climbing until he was on it. He approached the tree’s trunk. It was so wide that Crimson couldn’t encircle it. Slowly, he started to let himself down, jumping from one branch to another. Meanwhile, Frost stared at him, flipping her wings, floating still in the air. She had smile on her face.
“You know… You could help or something…” Crimson hinted.
“See this as a little revenge for the soporific spell.”
“Fine…” Crimson grumbled as he kept descending.
When he arrived to the bottom, he found what he expected. The square garden was once some kind of patio, surrounded by a dark corridor, barely lighted by the moon rays that came in through the arches that separated it from the garden. The tiled floor was covered in dried up leafs, piled up during a millennium of carelessness. The roots of the gigantic trees broke the floor around them, making the blue and white tiles emerge from the layer of leafs. In the centre of the garden was a fountain, now silent. On top of it, a white marble statue with golden armour represented a Celestia’s guard. The armour covered the body of the stallion almost completely and, though it seemed different to the standard Canterlot’s guard armour, it was still recognizable. The stallion stood on his hinderlegs with his wings extended. On his right hoof he held a golden spear while the other hoof pointed forward. Though the statue was just life-size, its presence was imposing.
In the opposite corner of the patio Crimson saw a pile of rubble, tall enough to reach one of the first floor’s broken windows. It covered almost completely one of the trees. That was their way up.
He turned around as he heard Frost smoothly landing on the layer of leafs.
“Follow me; I think I know where we are. We haven’t distanced ourselves too much from my original route. Perhaps I can remember the path I followed…”
Slowly both climbed the enormous pile of rubble and dust. When they arrived to its top, they found another broken window. This time the crystals were not stained. If Crimson was right, the hall they would find would be the typical training hall for the palace’s guards. The hall was pitch dark.
“Let us see if can light this a bit”
Crimson’s horn started to glow intensely. The white light emanated by his revealed the hall. It was made fully of granite. From the old walls hanged rusty iron bars, holding yet the tore pieces of some old flags and tapestries. In the middle of the room, a barely deep pit was the place where the training took place. Gazing over it, stood the statue of a stallion standing on his hinderlegs, holding an enormous sword. If Crimson remembered right, at the other side of the room would be the path they had to follow to arrive the library’s location.
“This palace makes no sense… Who would anypony put a place like this in front of a dancehall? It simply makes no sense…” Frost remarked.
Crimson just started to walk to the central pit, finally lighting the other side of the room. There was the door he looked for. As he approached the door, a faint light appeared under it. Crimson quickly turned off the light of his horned and turned to Frost.
“Hey! What the…” Frost tried to say, as Crimson put his hand over her mouth and dragged her behind the statue.
Just at that moment the door opened. Crimson could hear the hoofsteps of a couple of ponies getting inside the room. Now the room was lighted by the lantern the intruders.
“Come on, just stop being paranoid dude. See? There is no light here! I don’t even know why we are doing patrols around here. This place is completely abandoned!”
Crimson stuck out his head a little, being able to see the two unknown ponies. They were both suited up with the Celestia’s guard armour. Crimson was unable to see the faces below the helmets, but he felt the look of one of the guards right in his direction.
“I swear I saw a light coming from this room…”
“You and your imagination… Let’s return to the camp. I thought I got rid with this kind of stupid patrols and expeditions when I got into the Celestia’s personal guard and…” His voice started to fade in the distance as the room suddenly darkened.
Crimson released Frost, who struggled a bit as she stood up.
“There was no need for that!” She protested.
“Don’t be that sensitive. I could avoid doing things like that if you just kept an eye on what’s around you…”
She opened her mouth, trying to reply Crimson, but he swiftly interrupted her.
“Let’s move on. We’re almost there, and I don’t want to waste time arguing about stupidities, overall when patrols are around.”
Frost seemed annoyed by the comment, but understood. She kept silent as Crimson opened the door slowly. Once sure the guards had left, they followed the corridor. At its end, they found a new hall. The ceiling had collapsed completely, creating a pit, surrounded by the halls that rose on the superior floors. Crimson slowly approached the middle of the hall and breathed slowly. They had arrived.
“This is the place Frost… Finally I’m back”
“Even being as ruined as it is, this palace is wonderful…” She said looking at the few visible parts of the walls where wonderful geometric patterns made of colourful tiles finally got lost under piles of rubble.
“Frost, now its time we separate…” Crimson said, his voice fading off as he looked the expression in her face.
“Wait, what you mean by separate?! You are leaving me here!”
“I can’t teleport us both into the library. The last time I came here, I was barely able to teleport myself that far, even though I was under the effect of the Zebra herbs. I’m sorry, but you must stay here.”
“Getting this far and not being able to see that place by myself… It’s horseshit…”
“I’m sorry Frost. But I still need your help.” Crimson said, as he put his hoof on her friends shoulder. “I need you to keep an eye on Copper’s camp. Just try to see if they do anything unusual. At the slightest sign of trouble come back here and wait hidden. I will come back in some hours.”
She was disappointed, but she knew there was nothing she could do about staying behind. She turned around, looking for a place to sit down.
“If I’m left behind, at least I want to be with you until you disappear.”
Crimson nodded and untied his backpack. He opened it and took out all the food cans left and the cloak. Crimson knew he would need as much space as possible inside his backpack, so he had to get rid of anything that wasn’t indispensable. He kept a couple of cans, the logbook, the Zebra’s explorer guide, the pipe, the herbs and tobacco bags and the knife.
Crimson floated the pipe and little bit of the herbs outside the backpack and started to smoke. With each drag, he felt his magic being enhanced. After a while he finished the herbs inside the pipe and dropped the ashes to the floor before he put the pipe away. He was ready. With a slight glow of his horn he started to use his prospecting spell. Being able to visualize the layers of different materials, he started to search deeper, until he found what he sought. Under some layers of rubble and dirt, there was the library.
“Got you… Frost, get inside your backpack as much canned food as you can. If there’s anything left, hide it. See you in a couple of hours.” Crimson said swiftly.
His horn started to glow intensely as he concentrated. The great amount of magic made his mane start to float unnaturally and his coat stand on end. After an intense flash of white light, no pony stood in the middle of the hall.
“Crimson, please be careful.”
“Ughhhh…” Crimson grumbled.
Crimson laid on the library’s floor, stunned. He opened his eyes slowly. He did not remember what happened. The last thing he remembered was a flash of light and nothing else…
He had a terrible headache. He tried to stand up, but he was too dizzy. Falling on his hinderlegs, he laid himself on the floor again. He looked around, trying to discover where he was. Everything he could distinguish in the darkness was a blood stain. He touched his head. He was bleeding…
Crimson stood up slowly, leaning on the wall. He felt the effect of the zebra herbs fading away. He must have been unconscious for a while. He started to remember now that he had miscalculated and appeared a couple of meters over the floor. His head hit a statue on his way down, knocking him out.
He concentrated as much as possible to get a weak glow from his horn, enough to light the shelves around him. It was time to start walking… Overcoming his dizziness, Crimson followed the endless lines of books looking for the center of the library. He vaguely remembered following the same path the last time he came here. Suddenly, the shelves stop appearing into Crimson’s sight, but instead turned into a plain wall. He focused, and made his horn glow a bit more. There was the fresco one of the frescos he first saw. It was a gigantic image of Nightmare Moon, gazing imperturbable upon all kinds of ponies. Under the image, with golden letters, a short slogan caught Crimson’s sight.
“For peace and knowledge…”
Crimson finally got to the center of the library. He made a final effort, getting all the light he could from his horn. The room was amazing. He hadn’t realised before, but the enormous bookcases were displayed radially around the center of the library. On the side of each bookcase, enormous tapestries represented scenes from Equestria’s early days. In the middle of the hall, surrounded by some tables, was the pedestal where the logbook floated last time. The floor around the pedestal was an enormous mosaic representing the day and night cycle, controlled by Celestia and Luna.
Suddenly, Crimson turned around. Did he just hear some hoofsteps? He kept looking around slowly, illuminating with his horn the hall. There was nopony there… He stood silent near the pedestal, trying to hear anything. He heard the sound of hoofsteps fading away in the distance, almost imperceptible. Someone was here…
Crimson slowly reduced the glow of his horn until it disappeared and hid behind one of the chairs of the surrounding tables. The glow of some crystals still illuminated the room slightly, charged by the exposure to Crimson’s magic.
“You think that will hide you from me?” Asked a mysterious voice that seemed to come from everywhere.
Crimson looked around, but saw nopony. He slowly floated the knife out from his backpack. Its polished steel blade reflected the light emanating from the gemstones all around. Its handle glowed in white, firmly gripped by Crimson’s magic.
“Reveal yourself, corward! Its easy to be threatening from the shadows…” Crimson shouted defiant. He wanted to see what he was facing before doing anything stupid, and provoking his invisible enemy was the only way to make him .
Crimson froze still, as he felt something at the back of his head.
“As you wish…” The mysterious voice said at his ear. How could have approached Crimson so silently? Crimson turned around, slashing the air with the knife. He didn’t hit his objective, but he saw the shadow of a pony fading in the darkness.
Crimson heard hoofsteps coming from every direction, but he saw no pony. His enemy was toying with him. Suddenly, he heard some hoofsteps approaching. His right hinderleg started to burn in pain. He saw a shadow and a sword levitating by its side, fading into the darkness again. He was bleeding.
“Fight, you coward!”
He appeared among the shadows, like emerging from a thick fog. He was black coated unicorn with a white mane, equipped with silver light armour. By his side floated a long dark steel sword, stained with blood. As he approached, Crimson prepared to strike. Now that he saw his enemy was his turn to hit back.
Crimson started to trot, accelerating toward the tall stallion. The mysterious pony stood still as he saw Crimson charging. When he was close enough, Crimson jumped, heading the knife towards him. With a graceful movement of his sword, he disarmed Crimson, and with a slight glow of his horn, imprisoned Crimson with invisible chains.
“Pathetic…”
Trapped, Crimson struggled uselessly against the magic of his enemy. The tall stallion approached him slowly, enjoying the terrorized expression on his face. Crimson could feel his end was close. He could perfectly picture that enormous sword stabbing through him.
The black unicorn took his helmet off revealing his face. His dark blue eyes stared at Crimson, who felt as if he was made of glass, unable to hide anything from his enemies gaze. He approached his head slowly to Crimsons ear.
“Don’t fear me. I’m not going to kill you… Not jet at least…”
His horn started to glow in white again.
“Now sleep, I’ve got some issues pending. Well chat later, I promise…”
The black unicorn touched slightly Crimson’s head and laughed. As Crimsons vision clouded, he could only wonder if he would see Frost again…
Crimson’s head buzzed. Slowly, he opened his eyes just to close them swiftly harmed by the brightness that surrounded him. After a few seconds he tried again, forcing himself to keep his eyes open. He was inside one of the tents the expedition had brought.
The brown fabric of the tent was covered with maps and notes. He tried to stand up, only to fall again on a smooth blue carpet. His legs were tied together, and his right hinderleg started to hurt again. Had Copper captured him? He had never seen any royal guard armoured like that, and less using those kind of swords or magic. It seemed like he fused with the shadows, moving stealthily among them. That wasn’t their stile.
Crimson struggled a bit, trying to loosen the ropes but it was useless, they were too tight. He looked around, searching for something he could use to cut the ropes. Suddenly, the piece of fabric that served as door for the tent opened and a hooded figure got inside the tent. As he took away his cloak, Crimson saw the black unicorn again. This time he didn’t wore the silver armour, allowing Crimson to see his cutiemark, a book pierced by a dragon claw. Beside him floated the logbook…
“Who are you?” Crimson asked. He wanted to know at least who was going to be his executioner. He knew that, after discovering the logbook inside his backpack, he would probably be sentenced to death or something worse.
“Don’t you think that I should be the one asking the questions here, boy?” The black unicorn said, staring Crimson with his piercing look. Crimson held his gaze looking at him defiantly. After a few seconds he nodded.
“Fine. Who are you boy, and how did you got this book? Be sincere in your answers, I don’t like liars.”
“My name is Crimson Zephyr. I’m native from Manehattan, though I have spent the last six years in Canterlot working for the Academy as an explorer and archaeologist. And I got that book in the library where you found me and almost cut off my right hinderleg!” Crimson answered aggressively.
The black unicorn laughed.
“So you came here with the expedition and wandered alone inside the palace, suddenly discovering a library buried by tons of rocks, all by yourself, without any previous information? Seems legit, boy…”
Crimson shook his head confused. He assumed that Crimson was part of the expedition. That could only mean one thing…
“You aren’t part of the expedition right?” Crimson asked.
“No, I’m not. And taking into account your question seems like you aren’t part of the expedition either…” The unicorn said. He looked at him puzzled. “But if you didn’t come with the expedition, what are you doing here? And how did you discover the library?”
Crimson bit his lip. Should he tell the mysterious unicorn how he got the book? Should he tell him why is he here trying to protect old books from being destroyed?
“I’m here because I want to protect the truth.”
“Don’t you think that the truth behind the book would be protected better if it was left where you found it?”
Crimson looked at him puzzled.
“Before you ask, I read it also.” The unicorn cleared.
“If you read it, then you must understand. Ponies deserve to know!”
“Yes they do, but you think they want to? And most important, do you think Celestia will allow you to do it?”
Crimson was caught with his guard lowered. This was something he had tried not to think about.
“Well, I thought that if I could gather some proofs before the expedition got to the library, I could convince…”
“You are such an idealist, boy. The only way to convince ponies that the things told here are true is that they stopped regarding Celestia as a goddess and started seeing her as the dictator she is. And for that to happen many things must happen first.”
Crimson looked at the logbook as it floated to the desk near the entrance of the tent. Then he started to feel the ropes how the ropes were untied. He was free.
“Answering to your question, boy… I’ve got many names, but you can call me Black Claw.”
Crimson stood up and looked at the black coated unicorn.
“I’m confused. Why do set me free? I tried to stab you before.”
“I suppose you though I was one of the royal guards coming with the expedition. I don’t blame you. Regarding your situation, I would have attacked also. You were lucky anyway, a royal guard would have stabbed you first and asked later.”
Suddenly, another cloaked figure got inside the tent carrying a white coated mare with him. It was Frost. She had her wings and legs tied and her mouth shut with tape.
“Hi Gren.” Black Claw said to the visitor. As soon as he uncovered his head, Crimson saw a griffon. His feathers were of a golden colour, except for the ones of his head, that where white. As the griffon put Frost on the floor, she started to struggle, looking around in all directions, until she found Crimson. Then her looked turned confused. Her eyes were red, as she probably had been crying.
“She didn’t stop shouting so I had to shut her up. Who is the newcomer?” The griffon asked.
Crimson couldn’t stop looking at him. He hadn’t seen personally a griffon. The majestic figure took the cloak off. From his right hinderleg hanged a strange device that Crimson had only seem in books. Its name was crossbow. It worked similarly to a bow, but it shoot far more precisely. From the other leg hanged a sword stained in blood.
“His name is Crimson Zephyr. Where did you found this one?”
“Well, she was near to where you disappeared saying that you had to do something important, hiding behind…”
Crimson cleared his throat, interrupting the griffon.
“Would you mind to set her free? She came with me.”
Gren turned to Black Claw, who nodded slightly, and started to untie the ropes that tied her legs together. He finally took the tape of her mouth.
“Crimson, run! They’ve killed them all!” Frost said hysterically
Crimson looked at her friend as she pushed the griffon aside and scaped to the outside, running as fast as she could. Confused, Crimson started to run with her outside the tent, but stopped immediately. The image was horrid. The camp had been completely destroyed. Some of the tents had been burned completely, the fires still active. On the floor, in the middle of the camp, laid, organised in rows, the bodies of several dead expeditionary ponies. In front of them, one hooded figure with a sword stabbed the bodies, assuring the where dead. Crimson retched.
Behind him, Black Claw and Gren stepped outside the tent. Gren looked at the black unicorn again, expecting an order. After a simple nod, the griffon started to fly as fast as lightning chasing Frost, who ran erratically between the destroyed tents. Crimson turned around, trying to assume the situation.
“Why?” Crimson asked Black Claw.
“Because, as you, I couldn’t allow them to sully this place. And also because I wanted to send a message to Celestia. You are a pony who probably has never seen the poverty and who has never been hungry. You probably have lived happily under the rule of Celestia, unaware that other ponies struggled for the freedom to express themselves , at least until now.”
Crimson stood thoughtful.
“The way Celestia acts makes useless any other way apart from violence. She will not hear the plea of the ponies that want her to make a fairer society. Diplomacy turns useless when the ruler of a country just ignores the will of his subjects.”
Crimson forced himself to see the corpses lying on the floor. In the distance he saw Gren dragging Frost from her mane, while she struggled.
“You brute! Stop it!” Frost yelled at the griffon that simply ignored her.
Crimson just stood in place, trying to think objectively about anything he could do. He could not run and leave Frost here. He couldn’t fight them both either. They had weapons and Crimson was still weak from the soporific spell. He had no choice but keeping his conversation with Black Claw up, hoping they were released.
“Were their deaths necessary?” Crimson asked, pointing the corpses.
“Every conflict has collateral damages, and this may prove to be a long one. They are victims of the stubbornness of Celestia…” Black Claw said as he turned to the approaching griffon. “By the way, you should try to calm your friend, Gren’s patience is little.”
The emotionless way in which the black unicorn described the atrocity he just committed made Crimson shiver. He had to leave this place, and he couldn’t think with Frost struggling against the griffon. With his horn glowing slightly, Crimson approached Frost, who still yelled at the griffon.
“I’m sorry Frost, trust me, I’ll take us out of this” Crimson whispered to her ear, and after touched her with his horn, anesthetizing her.
“Finally she shuts up!” Gren said while he laid her on the floor.
Crimson approached his friend, who laid stunned on the floor. He didn’t want her asleep, but he needed her relaxed.
“What will happen to us now?” Crimson asked.
Black Star got inside the tent, and after a minute got outside, floating Crimson’s and backpack, his knife and the logbook. After staring Crimson for a second, he threw them to the floor in front of him.
“You are free ponies. I respect the decision you made coming here. Is just a coincidence you were here at this moment… I will let you conserve the logbook, but you must know that the answers to some questions aren’t contained in the chronicles of old glorious days.”
Crimson started to load everything he could on his backpack and put it on. With care he made Frost stand up and put her foreleg around his neck.
“Gather the others, we are leaving.”
As soon as the unicorn said this to Gren, the griffon dashed off into the sky. After that, Black Claw turned around to Crimson with a mocking smile on his face.
“If someday you want to know the truth, just follow the stripes.” The unicorn said mysteriously as his horn started to get brighter. After a couple of seconds, a big flash blinded Crimson. The unicorn had left.
Slowly, Crimson left Frost on the floor and started to approach the corpses that laid in the middle of the camp. He gazed upon the faces of about twenty ponies looking for a well known face. With a smile on his face he turned around. Copper had always been smart enough to know when to disappear.
He approached Frost and laid her on his back. It was time to go home.