//------------------------------//
// Disturbing the Peace 
// Story: Of Scales and Riders 
// by Orthios 
//------------------------------//


(Current Day)


Summer Breeze, a still very green pegasus lieutenant of the recently assembled Crystal Empire Guard, was not having a good day. First she had to chew out Flash Sentry about inattentiveness on the job after he spilled her coffee, then she spent hours listening to her communication crystal.

She both loved and hated the three tiny crystals attached to her ear. While they couldn’t match the distance Manehattan’s cellphones could send messages, the crystals had their own positive features. Put into use by the Empire’s military just before Sombra enslaved them all, the crystals functioned as radio transceivers between troops. Even better, the wavelength used by the crystals allowed for clearer and more secure messages than the relatively new cell phones.  

So she spent the morning listening to the high pitched ringing of her boss on the other end yelling about finishing paperwork that had already been filed last week; without coffee. The only interruption to the endless cycle of being called and yelled at was just before lunch, an enormous surge of magic swept through the city rattling all of the crystalline structures, including ponies, and leaving a faint static charge that lingered for hours. As soon as she walked in the door of the mares’ barracks, after a good deal of pushing and shoving of the uncooperative door, her communication crystal rang. Again. She groaned. Actually, it turned out things could get worse after all. Another phone call, no matter who it was from, couldn't be a good thing. 

Once again, she answered the phone rather unenthusiastically. Maybe it wouldn’t be her boss this time? "Hello?"

"Lieutenant Breeze." It was Shining Armour, former captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard and current Prince of the Empire, which meant she was only a little wrong; it was her boss’s boss.

"Good afternoon, Prince," Summer forced a cheerful tone, despite her mounting annoyance. "Let me guess, you've got a difficult assignment for me that could possibly prove dangerous."

"What makes you say that?" He asked, neither confirming nor denying any suspicion.

"It’s been that kind of day," she responded with a sigh.

"Well, you're right," he said. Of course. Why couldn’t this day just end peacefully? "I take it you felt that wave of power a while ago?"

"Yes sir. Any idea what it was?"

"That's what you're going to find out for us. The power originated from somewhere in the mountains to the east. We want you to go and investigate the source."

"East? What about the guards stationed over there?" Her area of responsibility was in the Empire proper, not the borders.

"They are otherwise occupied," he responded. "Now, if you have a map, I'll give you the coordinates." It took her a moment of rummaging around to find a decent map. After Shining finished giving the coordinates he paused for a moment. "Be careful up there Breeze," he said, a softer note in his voice. “I know he’s been gone for a couple years now, but we’re still finding Sombra’s leftovers."

"And we could be trotting right into it," she finished. "Don't worry, you trained me for this."

“Good luck.  Bring your partner, and stay safe.” He disconnected.

Instead of heading out right away, Summer decided to do a little consulting on what the power could be first. She slipped out of the barracks, grabbed her armour, and began trotting away. After a moment’s thought, she returned to grab her cloak. It was cold in the palace library.

Her consultant, a particularly large diamond dog, nicknamed Tracker for his ability to find whatever obscure piece of information you needed, was currently the sole librarian for the Crystal Palace. Usually she had to poke and prod the old dog awake, but this time he was waiting for her. "I was wondering when you were going to come down here."

Summer paused, somewhat shocked at the turn of events. "Well, this is a first."

Tracker, ignoring the comment, continued speaking. "I’ll assume that we are investigating that power surge earlier, yes?"

"Pretty good guess. Prince Armour wants me to go check it out." Tracker was acting a little different than usual. He didn't have any witty banter for her and so far hadn't tried to correct her on anything or try to convince her to get him new books. “Any id-” 

"I have no idea what it is," Tracker said flatly.

That left Summer at a loss for words. Not much was known about Tracker, only that he was found three months after Sombra’s defeat with no name and no memories. It was later found that his mind had been connected to the palace library, he could remember every word of any book that ever had been or currently was shelved in the palace. Oddly it seemed that Sombra had hoarded every bit of information he could find, keeping the library very well stocked.

For Tracker to not know something meant something really strange was going on. 

"What do you mean you 'have no idea'?"

"I mean in all the hundreds of years of information from several different cultures I have in my head, I have nothing about anything like this. This is either something that hasn't been seen since before the library existed or something new entirely."

Well that was comforting. When not even Tracker could give you help on something, you knew you were getting in over your head. And Summer, being the intelligent, well brought up pony that she is, was going to go looking for it anyways.

"Why do I do this?" Summer grumbled, knowing she would regret this later.

"Because you seem to lack a sense of self-preservation when it comes to your orders?" Tracker supplied.

"Let's go with that," Summer said as she turned around to leave.

"Be careful out there, Breeze," Tracker called after her. "Nopony but you visits me. It would suck to be stuck down here for who knows how many years if you die." 


*****


Icy Wind had been partners with Summer Breeze for a year now and she was still absolutely ecstatic about the arrangement. First, they were both pegasi which made assignments easy because they could always be together. Not like that unicorn she had been paired with during training. He was a grump. Which brought her to her second reason. Summer was so much fun. And funny too. So when she came to tell Icy about their orders to go find the source of that weird pulse earlier, Icy was quite excited to go on an adventure. 

The pair stood at the very edge of the empire, just inside the barrier keeping out the harsh northern weather. She donned her armour and cloak with quick, practiced movements and put the coordinates into the locator spell on her issued compass. "Alright Icy," she grumbled to her partner, stepping through the barrier. "Time to go have a little fun."

And by fun she meant wandering around for several hours following the spelled compass. She still didn't understand why a guard based closer to the immediate area wasn't assigned to this. There was no way every single guard east of the Empire was busy.

Either way, she was here now after forcing her way through the tundra. Summer had come to realize something: she did not like the cold. She was immensely thankful for whatever extra warmth the insulation in the armour provided, though she knew it wasn't much.

The glow of the compass faded, signaling they had reached the coordinates.

"Finally. Let's get this over with before I freeze to death," she grumbled to Icy. Summer looked over at her partner and immediately felt annoyed. Icy was rolling around in the snow, almost like she was trying to make a snow angel. The cold didn't seem to bother her at all, which Summer found to be completely unfair.

"Hey!" she said, getting Icy's attention. "Can we get a move on?" Icy looked up at her sheepishly before looking around curiously. 

“Uh Summer? I think we’re here.”

That was the moment she became aware of the presence of the power. The snow had stopped, leaving the air feeling charged and smelling faintly of ozone. It was definitely coming from something in the area but she wasn’t adept enough with energy flow to tell where. Icy, on the other hand, seemed to be doing just fine. She trotted forwards a few steps, and stopped to look back at Summer. “Hey, are you coming?” Then she continued on. 

Drawing her cloak a little closer, Summer followed.

For all her faults and annoying personality, this was why Summer had brought Icy along. She was more sensitive to energy patterns in the environment than Summer was. Summer supposed it had to do with her talent for sensing storms and winds. Icy could predict storm patterns, proving invaluable as she easily navigated through the harsh blizzards on the way here. If Summer were alone in the mountains, she would probably be wandering around for days, grounded by the frequent storms, and trying to find the source of this power. With Icy, it hopefully shouldn't take more than a few hours.

Thankfully, the spell proved to be in the right area. They hadn't been walking for more than twenty minutes when Icy picked up the trail leading the pair straight to a cave. It was a natural cave, as were most in this area, but this one seemed oddly new. There were loose rocks and boulders littered around the entrance of the cave and none had been there long enough to pick up snow. Some sat so precariously that a simple gust of wind would probably topple it off its perch. Summer looked up as she heard several small rocks dislodge from the cliff face and tumble to the ground.

The entrance to the cave was partially blocked by the fallen boulders but they were fairly easy to fly over. Once they reached the mouth of the cave Icy took out her spear and Summer readied her sword; there was no telling what they would find in the cave. Looking in, Summer realized it was pitch black and they wouldn't be able to see a thing. Deciding that Icy’s spear would have to be enough, Summer tucked sheathed her sword and pulled a lantern out from her bag. After a small effort with a match, the lantern lit the dark enough to see without walking into the walls.

Apparently this cave was larger than it appeared because as far as Summer could see the cave just stretched on and on. "Are you sure it's in here?" she asked Icy.

Icy looked at Summer, gave a huge grin, and continued trotting further into the cave. “Of course I’m sure. I’ve never been surer. Come on~” Her sing-song voice echoed off the walls of the cave. With a sigh, Summer followed her again.

As they walked, they could feel the presence of the power getting stronger. It was nothing like the explosion of power earlier in the Empire, but it was definitely from the same source. Summer listened as carefully as she could, preparing for something, anything to happen.

The tunnel abruptly opened up into a massive cave. What little light was coming from the lantern wasn't strong enough to reach the other side of the cave or the roof. A little fiddling with a knob increased the flame inside, making the light shine brighter, and found what Summer assumed to be the source of the power.

In the center of the cave was a massive sapphire-blue and black crystal structure. It started on the ground with a sapphire sphere, then from the right side black crystals poured over the surface of the sphere like a wave. The black crystals looked uncomfortably familiar, but lacked the malignant power of Sombra’s magic. 

Something strange about the structure caught Summer’s attention. She had to crane her neck to see it properly, but it seemed as if there was something within the crystal.

Icy was the one to point out the cracks running all across the sapphire. More cracks appeared as she looked on. It was almost like something was trying to break out.

“Uh, Summer? I have a bad feeling about this. Like, we shouldn’t be here right now.” Icy crouched behind her partner.

With a deafening explosion, the crystal orb suddenly shattered, sending jagged shards flying through the air. Summer quickly ducked down and brought up her armoured wings in a shield, protecting herself and Icy from the pieces of flying death soaring through the air. Something landed heavily on the ground somewhere in the cave, causing the ground to shake.

After the dust had settled and crystals had once again settled, Summer lowered her wings to take a look around. She hadn't known what to expect, but it definitely wasn't this. In the center of the cave, where the monolith had been, was an unfamiliar shape. A young minotaur perhaps? It couldn’t be, its face was the wrong shape and there weren’t any horns. Its ears were wrong too, small and coming to points nearly hidden in the dark hair. It was dressed in a light chain jacket and had a sword at its hip. She also noticed that it was quite heavily dressed, the clothing was torn and bloodied. There was blood caked to the side of its face and on nearly every visible patch of skin.

“Summer we have a problem. A really, really big problem.”

Icy dragged Summer’s attention away from the creature by placing her hooves on Summer’s helmet and physically moving her head to face the much larger problem. 

Behind the much smaller creature lay a giant blue beast, the same color as the orb that had held them both. It didn't move and in the dim light it was hard to see anything in clear detail, but Summer could see enough to make out what it was. She could see bright blue scales, a long neck and tail, massive wings and ivory spikes and horns.

They never came this far north. Their greed would destroy the Empire.

It was a dragon.