//------------------------------// // Changes, part1 [26] // Story: Stories in Stone, Lost Empire // by TDR //------------------------------// Stories in Stone Lost Empire By TDR Changes [ Long before Equestria existed. During the Three Tribes War ] Blood dripped down her face, the crimson droplets staining the vision in her remaining eye, making the world look tinged in blood red. Her monocular gaze swept the field of battle, seeing little but bodies covering the snow swept field. The white flakes drifting from the sky and slowly starting to cover the corpses, gave the strangely quiet scene an other worldly property that her blurred vision pushed straight into surreal. The Pegs often changed the weather to screw with those fighting on the ground. Even if the Feather dusters were not in a given conflict they seemed to enjoy making life miserable for everyone else and usually had a few of their ilk gather weather for storms or snow or even to send a tornado to send through the ranks, at every major battle. Not as if the Mud ponies didn't have ways to take out the airborne threats, catapults and a newly made device called a balista that fired a massive bolt in the air that split into smaller and smaller fragments as it rose to fill the air with shrapnel. Snow and rain barely bothered the dirt diggers any way. Unicorn magic was perhaps the best of the lot, it could knock the chickens out of the air and crush the dust sucking filth easily. No..... that wasn't true. Earth Ponies had an easy time dealing with unicorns too as they could shrug off all but the strongest spells. The Unicorns made short work of most pegasi simply due to shields and ranged attacks against the fliers made their weather manipulation abilities moot. And the pegasi could easily dodge the best of what the Earth ponies threw at them. Despite their hearty nature the earth ponies had a hard time dealing with the speed and the more severe weather the pegasi could make. Each side had a way to begin to counter the other, but without preparation time, or back up it was a loop of death. She was tired of it, all this conflict and nothing had been gained. She had grown up in this madness, been brought into the conflict with tales of the atrocities committed by the other tribes against unicorns, though she had borne witness to the unicorns war crimes against the others as well. She had even committed a number of them herself under orders, with no reservations at all. Now she was here. Barely in her fifteenth season, in the middle of a battle field filled with bodies of all three of the tribes. In truth she wasn't even sure what happened, it had been a pitched battle between all the tribes for this desolate snow covered plain. Countless spells had been fired, lightning and rocks filled the air and then there were some sort of monsters, some beasts that one side or another had employed perhaps, though they clearly turned on their masters as they fell on all three of the tribes. She wasn't sure how she was still alive, but one of the monsters had started flinging spells and she had been hit. She staggered a little, glancing down to see an unrecognizable pony body. It was little more than a torso in mangled armor of some kind, the only thing visible was it's flank, and the lack of a cutie mark on it. She turned away numbly, her eye looking over the field as she sought any one remaining. At best she managed a few more steps across the field before she collapsed, the weight of her armor pulling her onto her back as she fell. She lay still, breathing heavily her gaze focused on the cloudy sky, her vision finally clearing as the blood from her broken horn ran up over her head instead of into her eye. Far above she could see a pair of forms circling, vultures come to feast, she found herself surprised there were only the two, Perhaps the smell of blood was limited by the snow. As they drew closer they seemed to get larger, griffons perhaps, not much different than vultures, though the greedy birds would pick clean your coin purse as well as your bones. She blinked narrowing her eye as they drew closer, seeming to circle her. They were not griffons, she could see the gray and bright green of the pair of them. Pegasi, so much for escaping fate, if she lived it would be as a prisoner, tortured and used as as lave until her death, better they simply killed her. Still....they were rather large for pegasi.... they were closer now, she........ were those horns? Flying unicorns? Had she already died? Were they messengers of the stars come to guide her to her next life? She couldn't think properly as her eye closed, she was tired. So tired..... There was the crunch of hooves on the snow, a thud she felt though the ground she was lieing on as they landed on either side of her. She could hear the echo of voices, barely making out what they said. “She is still alive, but barely Mobius. You need to heal her.” “For what purpose? To fight and die again? Better her story ends here Starswirl.” “If she dies we shall not find out what happened. Look around there is nothing left here, no sign of what magic we felt. The Dragonflies guided us here to her among all the other bodies Mobius, there must be a reason why.” “So you say. And it is a waste to lose one still so young.” At that moment it all faded to black. =========================================== The mare woke with a scream sitting up suddenly and violently, and just as quickly blacking out and collapsing back against the bed. A reddish brown Earth Pony mare yelps as the black mare sits up with a scream. She falls back out of her chair near the bed with a crash. Three legs flail in the air as she struggles briefly to right herself, grumbling at the screaming pony and working to pull her red mane back out of her face. Glaring at the black furred and green maned unicorn in the bed the earth pony sighs righting the chair and setting back down in it. After another few moments the heavily bandaged unicorn wakes up, though a little more carefully this time. Her unbandaged eye locks onto the earth pony next to the bed before narrowing, the green orb staring angrily at the seated mare. “Good you're awake finally. No more random shrieking I hope, doubt my heart could take that again. We were starting to worry they had brought back another undead one. Try not to exert yourself, you're not exactly in any shape to do so.” the mare states looking down at her. “Great, caught by the mud hooves.” the bandaged mare grumbles from the bed. “If I’m not killed I’ll never live this down.” “Wow really? First thing out of your mouth is a racial slur? No, 'thanks for not killing me in my sleep Ginger' or ' thanks Ginger for changing my bandages when I was bleeding like a stuck Orc', or 'hey super nice of you Ginger to change my bed pan and wipe my flank while I’ve been unconscious for a week.' Nope you go straight to the slurs like every other pinhead that comes in here.” “GINGER!” shouts another voice. “Akk! She started it!” Ginger complains looking over to the other side of the dark mare's bed. “And she just got here, what's your excuse?” another mare hisses walking up from the bandaged unicorn's blind side. The unicorn turns her head looking over to her left away from the three legged earth pony mare. Her gaze fell on a short white mare with a close cropped golden mane and tail, with a large gray cloak covering her back and flank. The mares golden eyes met her one good one and she could swear there was a brief flash of anger before it faded. “ Let me explain a few things before you try and make a daring escape. First off you're not a prisoner. Two, you're going to be asked a bunch of questions, but answering them might help every pony in the long run, not just one faction or another. Three, Ginger's idiocy aside, racial slurs, violence, and trying to harm others is not tolerated here at all. Trust me , you don't want to get on the bad side of Slate Quake. Four, once you're healed up you're free to go or stay as you want, though very few choose to leave.” “Why would I believe a couple of my captors? I've seen plenty of what you dirt crawlers do to prisoners. Mind games wouldn't be anything new.” the bandaged mare mutters. “See, I told you, the fluff brain started it, Sunray!” Ginger states. The white mare rubs her face with her hoof after slapping it. “Ginger, Fluff brain is a pegasus slur.” Sunray sighs. “Really? I thought it was a unicorn one, cause of all the magic in their heads is so much fluff and sparkles...” “It's a play on the fact pegasi manipulate clouds..... same as airhead.” “Oooh, so what's another unicorn one I can use?” “I am not adding to your repertoire of insults Ginger. You’ve been warned countless times any way.” Sunray snaps then ignores the other mare. “You are not a captive of the Earth Ponies.” The white mare reaches back gripping her cloak with her teeth and pulling it up, showing her back. The mare's cutie mark was a dark cloud with a ray of sunlight beaming through it. The pristine white fur of her sides stopped a few inches under the edge of where her cloak had covered and was replaced with ugly red and black burn scar tissue that ran from her flank all the way up to the back of her neck. In the middle of the mess of scars were two raised mounds of flesh, barely an apple tall in height wiggled a little as the mare shifted. “That's a balefire wound.....” the bandaged mare mutters staring at the marred mare. “Yeah, one of your kind fried me. Burned off my wings and grounded me forever.” Sunray points to the reddish mare Ginger.” One of my kind dropped Ginger from cloud level. Shattered her leg so badly it had to be removed. Given what I heard about where you were found, you were fighting Ginger's kind, one of them is probably who shattered your horn.” “My horn?.....” the bandaged mare blinks lifting her hoof up to her head to touch her horn, finding that it wasn't where she expected it to be, her hoof lowers enough to touch the bandage over it the wrapped nub almost flush with her head. She blinks once before her eye rolls back in her head and she blacks out again. “Sunray your bedside manner sucks.” Ginger states flatly glaring at the pegasus. “Me? What the buck did I do?” the white mare yelps. =========================================== Another jerk into wakefulness ,as an explosion caused the ground to shudder. All around her unicorns were scrambling about screaming orders, or just screaming as another boom of thunder and a secondary muffled explosion shook the building. The black coated mare rose quickly nearly on instinct, grabbing her armor and charging for the door only to be blown back as it explodes before her, sending screaming ponies running away from the impact. She groans rolling over onto her side with a wince as she struggles to clear the ringing from her head. She had gotten lucky others had not judging by the scent of burning flesh filling the air, she could almost taste it on her tongue, it...... strawberries? “I find that burnt flesh tends to leave a bad taste in your mouth, not that I’m partial to well cooked flesh either,and definitely not raw flesh, though I don't mind the occasional fish. I did have rabbit once when sharing a meal with a griffon. It didn't agree with me at all, but it was indeed an experience.” Everything froze, though the scent of strawberries lingered in the air. She couldn't recall the last time she had a strawberry, with the war going on even the partially rotted ones were worth five times their weight in bits. Unicorns didn't have the touch for growing them like the earth ponies did. “I was going to try for cherries to be honest ,but I find that works best with stallions for some reason. Mares seem to prefer strawberries. I wonder if it's a gender thing or a cultural thing. I may have to look that up at some point.” the voice seems to ponder. The dark mare turns looking around her eye going wide at the sight of the a gray stallion sitting on one of the beds eating something from a bucket. A bucket that looked to be filled with strawberries. “Not that I mind strawberries. Though I prefer them covered in sugar, now that's a rare resource in these years. Luckily there are a number of decent gardeners here.” the stallion states reaching up with a wing to stroke a ridiculously long white beard, a large blue hat sat on his head though it did little to hide his long clockwise spiraled horn. “Who... who are you?” the mare asks glancing around as the bunks and the building faded along with her armor. Granted his bucket of strawberries didn't fade, nor did the bed he was sitting on although the floor did fade out bringing a brief shriek from the mare as she expected to fall. “Oh dear, I suppose I may have sped this up a bit much for your mind to realize you are dreaming. Do calm down nothing is going to hurt you here. My name is Starswirl, Jelly baby?” He offers lifting the bucket of strawberries. “Oh right sorry, old habits, I mean, Strawberry?” “Starswirl? Any relation to Starswirl the Bearded?” she asks looking at the strawberries though she was still wary of this all. This was madness. Her gaze shifts over the blackness around them, noting countless points of light filling the void. “Oh of course, that's me. Been a bit since I went by that full title. I should have figured a unicorn would remember me.” “This makes no sense, Starswirl died over two thousand years ago at the start of the war when the earth ponies attacked Unicoian.” “Oh I’ve been around a lot longer than that actually. I argued against the war and left in disgust when I was ignored. I'm sure the nobles thought up some outlandish story as to why I left. I'm would bet my last bit they couldn't tell the truth, after all if a unicorn that invented most of the spells that the kingdom uses was against the war and left, they must have thought others would follow.” Starswirl eats another strawberry. “Whole thing started as a stupid misunderstanding regarding food supply between the Pegasi and Earth Ponies any way, and yet it was the Unicorns that fired the first shot fearing they would be a target too.” “Why should I believe you.... What are you any way?” “Oh. You mean the wings and the horn?” Bit of a surprise when this came about. Long story short, I made a few friends, fought an evil goat necromancer. and next thing I know these two winged unicorns come down say I did good and one of them gives me his wings. So here I am an alicorn, pony god and all. It's how I’m in your dream at the moment, fantastic stuff this dream walking.” “What do you want with me?” “Just to ask some questions, though I doubt you will know all I want to ask.” Starswirl admits. “Why the dream?” “Given your physical state while awake we've opted to keep you under a bit while we work on how best to treat your injuries. Particularly your horn, it's cracked all the way to the base of your skull and even that is splitting a little. Here I can keep you some what calm by revealing this information while we work on it, but I’m afraid there isn't much to save.” “Soooo......that means...” “Indeed. I am afraid your spell slinging days may be behind you. I say may because I have been fiddling with various crystals but attuning properly is the issue and while I’m really not ready for live trials Miss..... I am sorry I completely forgot to ask for your name.” “Crystal.” “Yes, there are a number of them up here that have very good resonance with magic.....” “No, no... that's my name... Crystal.” Starswirl looked over the mare for some sign of shock at the loss of her horn, though unless it hadn't sunk in yet she seemed dead calm and her name...... he shook his head a bit noting the single pink six pointed crystal adorning her flank. “Well Crystal... I am surprised at how calm you seem to be with that revelation.”Starswirl sighs. “ I've had to give this speech before and often times I’ve had to stop the unicorns from trying to kill themselves rather than live without a horn. Same with a few pegasi and their wings....” “All I've ever used it for was fighting, probably be better without it any way. Might be nice to retire...” “A bit young for retirement.... although that's still not a healthy outlook, it's better than some. I suppose if I may focus a bit. I do have some important questions concerning what happened on the battle field, please try to remember as best you can any little detail might help.” =============================================== Starswirl shifts a little pushing his hat up from over his eyes, slipping his horn back though the hole in the brim. A soft slurp drew his attention to the forest green alicorn stallion across from him and the steaming cup of tea before him on a tray. “ You know Mobius it is rather unnerving when you watch me sleep.” Starswirl mutters dropping a few sugar cubes into the tea. “You fell asleep on your books at the table again. I figured you were checking on our new guest. Besides you are cute when you are asleep.” Mobius grins. “That does not make it any less creepy, in fact that makes it creepier, and please stop flirting with me, it is distracting.” Starswirl mutters. “Still after all this time, you're going to reject trying new things?” Mobius chuckles. “Stop it. What would your mate say?” Starswirl snorts. “Oh, I'm sure she'd love another alicorn stud riding her. She quite big enough for both of us you know.” Mobius chuckles. “Sorry I am not into stallions or dragons, so that's a double negative for you.” Starswirl snaps. “ Don't two negatives make a positive?” Mobius chuckles. “This is not multiplication!”Starswirl rants. “It would be if you joined us...” “GAH, NO!! Why is it you are so serious most of the time and then a complete pervert other times?” “I wielded Laughter Starry, seems it's a bit of a emotional swing trait regarding that Element.” “I don't see how Laughter brings us to....… what it is you do....” “Laughter brings Joy.. and I've brought an awful lot of joy to a awful lot of creatures......”Mobius winks at the gray alicorn. “Nope, that's it I’m done with this line of conversation.” Starswirl states rising from the table.” I'm out of here....” “Did she know anything?” Mobius asks over the rim of his cup, his tone suddenly serious. Starswirl sighs and sits back down, every time with this stallion, every time Starswirl reached his limit with him, Mobius got him to stay. “No, not much. She saw two creatures, but thought they were summons, an explosion took her out before they got her, probably why she still has her mark. They likely thought she was dead and left her alone. She saw a number of bodies without cutie marks before we found her.” “That's still more than we knew. Two of them.... Did she have a description?” “She didn't see them long enough to recall them, but her minds eye was easy to read. One looked like a cross between a diamond dog and a maticore, the other had the lower half of a pony and the upper half of a minotaur. The latter seems ground bound but the former could fly. You think it is Orbsah?” “Maybe, a new book was created just before you ascended. I could feel it, but not identify it. This energy feels similar to that.” “Who else knows about this attack?”Starswirl sighs. “At least three of the races suspect. The zebra's are probably too busy with their slavery and oppression to even notice, pity we could use their odd magics. The Harpies and Minotaur have sent representatives to us however asking about the situation..... and.....” “And? And what?” “The Griffons, they sent one of their gods.” “Oh bother. Which one? Please don't let it be Dee. I cannot stand her flirting with me either.” “It's not Chickadee, though the flirting is your own fault for having such a sexy beard.....” “Mobius....” “Fine..Prude... It's Storm Front.” “A little young for him to be representing his race in this matter....” Starswirl considers. “I expect they feel he is the most expendable. They must know more than we do to send him. I have a meeting with him later to share information. Hopefully he will explain things his race has learned.........” “You are going to go into your speech about how we should reveal ourselves and stop this war aren’t you... It worked for the Griffons it should work for us right?” “Yes and then you will argue with the same stone carved rules that your predecessor drilled into your head when you ascended about guiding them from the shadows rather than directly , blah blah blah, yada yada yada.” “He made a good point or forty in favor of it Mobius.” “Times change Starswirl. We may be ageless and immortal, but we have to adapt with them or become useless.” ========================================== [ Three days after arrival] “Well nice to see you're up and about finally, Crystal.” “If you want to call me doing my best not to hurl, 'nice'.”Crystal mutters as she stands some what shakily next to her bed. “That's just the after effects of the spell they used to knock you out. Most of your wounds were light though your horn was a complete loss sorry. We thought you lost the eye too, but seems that was an old wound.” Ginger says watching the black mare slowly move around her bed. The brownish mare hops a little closer, raising up on her back legs to walk forward. Crystal watches curiously as the three legged earth pony moves around on just her back legs. “What?”Ginger asks. “Sorry, I just find that a bit odd.” Crystal mentions motioning with a hoof to the fact the other mare was walking on her back hooves. “What was that an apology? Wow, only a few days here since you first woke up and you're already not throwing out racial slurs like a sea pony sailor.” Ginger chuckles. “Given that I’ve had an alicorn in my head and by my bed for that whole time, I'm a little calmer. Still a bit freaked out, but calmer” Crystal looks over at the brown maned mare. “How do you know so much about my injuries?” “Duh cause I’m the best surgeon ever of course.” “An earth pony surgeon......?” Crystal asks, a bit dumbfounded at the very thought.. “Field medic mostly, while she is, or was, skilled, the loss of her foreleg has made it near impossible for her to properly treat any one in some time.” the white pegasus states trotting up from Crystal's blind side. “Yes thank you so much for that Sunray. Don't let me build any rep at all before yanking it all out from under me.” Ginger growls noting the white mare's smirk. “Some one has to keep your ego in check, otherwise I’m sure you'd try to convince all the new ponies you cured every one of them.” Sunray explains moving over to Crystal. “So how are you feeling?” “A bit queezy though that's fading.” “Likely just the after effects of the sleep magic...” Sunray comments ignoring Gingers attempt at a rude gesture with just one foreleg. “They used a resin to seal and bind your fractured horn to keep the split from getting worse. Everything seems fine and there was no hint of infection despite the damage. We're supposed to keep you a a medication to numb your magic so you don't accidentally try and use it. But given the extent of the damage you won't be able to cast anything again any way.” Crystal sighs, green eye looking away from the pegasus. “ I never expect I was going to become a mud....... Earth pony..” “Neither did I .” Sunray responds with a nod. “Pfft please. You both were already Earth Ponies with extra bits stuck on. All you did was lose the bits that made you think you were better than us.“ Ginger snaps. The pair of them look over at the red maned mare who simply grins. “I have no idea what to make of that theory.” Crystal comments. “Not exactly a theory given the Alicorns. Ginger has taken it into her head to study them as closely as they will allow. Starswirl humors her, though Mobius seems to prefer flirting to answering any real questions.” Sunray remarks. “You up for a tour? It's a bit of a walk, but nothing was wrong with your legs.” “Your bedside manner still sucks Sunray.” Ginger states though she grins as well. “I'll come with you two, some one needs to carry Sunray's weak flank back when she get exhausted from a little walk.” “That was once, when I first got here. I was used to flying not walking!” Sunray grumbles. “Whatever Dodo.” Ginger laughs. “Oh stuff it tripod, at least I don't flash every one when I walk!” “Hey if you have it flaunt it, and let me tell you my flank has it!” Ginger grins wiggling her rump, flashing a cutie mark that looked like some sort of orange root to Crystal. The pair move to either side of Crystal in case she stumbled, the pegasus again taking Crystals blind right side, though the bickering continued even after Ginger rose up on her back legs to walk. Crystal understood some of Sunray's annoyance with the mare's method of movement ,as her crotch was pretty much at eye level when she walked like that. There didn't seem to be much to the building they were in. It was a large stone structure with multiple rooms and at least two floors for medical personal and other studies. There was an impressive library that Crystal only got a glimpse of, Sunray commented that Starswirl kept a much larger one in his lab, one that he didn't allow any one to borrow from. A number of scribes were in another room working, she spotted one of two other unicorns, including one that seemed to have lost all of his legs, but retained his horn. Crystal briefly wondered if that was preferable to her own plight. The other issue was nearly all the large bay rooms were filled with occupied beds, all ponies and they all seemed to be sleeping heavily with a nurse or doctor moving around to look over them. She wasn't sure what was wrong with them, only that there seemed to be a lot of them. Neither Sunray nor Ginger mentioned them however, and she wasn't sure she should ask just yet.. “.......so then, that's the hospital if you want to call it that. Now for the big reveal!” Ginger shouts. “Are you going to call it that stupid name again?” Sunray sighs. “It's not stupid and it fits.” Ginger defends. “What are you two talking about?” Crystal asks. “The settlement, it doesn't have a name yet, aside from what Ginger insists it's to be called. It's only been here about a year at best anyway.” Sunray explains as the trio walk towards a door next to the stairwell leading down. Sunray pushes open the door and Crystal flinches as she's blinded by the sudden glare of sunlight. She squints noticing a railing a few steps ahead of he and stops at that to let her eye adjust to the bright light. A warm breeze blew over her fur ruffling the bandages covering her. Her ears perked hearing a soft, but constant buzzing and what seemed to be a hum of some kind. As her vision cleared she looked out over the balcony, her eye widening. The view was only from the side of the two story hospital building, though given there was only one building as tall it, one that seemed to be the town hall, her view was unobstructed. The town itself seemed to be made of the local materials and she could smell the fires of a blacksmith forge even if she couldn't hear the hammering. There only seemed to be ten or twelve buildings in the center of a valley surrounded by mountains. She could see a sparkling lake in the distance with a path leading to it. None of that was what had her in awe. Jutting from the unploughed fields surround the town were what looked like thousands upon thousands of sparkling motes of light reflecting the sun in a myriad of colors, towering crystals that rose even higher than the building, one looking as if it was scraping the bottom of the clouds. The lake shimmered with them as did all the buildings and the gravel path, crystals had gone into their make up leaving the whole town a sparkling mass of colors. Massive dragonflies flitted around the place, their wings buzzing in tune with the hum seeming to come from the massive crystals. Everything sparkled and glimmered like the treasure horde of an ancient dragon god and yet aside from the town it seemed as if this valley was a natural formation. Like the earth had split open and shown it was little more than a giant geode. Crystal felt a hoof pushing her jaw up to close her mouth, she shakes her head slightly glaring briefly at Sunray who rolled her eyes as she let go of the dark mares jaw. “What... what is this place?” Crystal asks. “Welcome Crystal... oh that's kinda funny with your name now that I think about it... “ Ginger comments before grinning wide. “ Welcome to the Crystal Empire.”