I bolted up in a cold sweat, gasping. My heart was pounding.
Rrrrriiing! Rrrriiing! Rrrrriiing!
My alarm clock went off. I surrounded the clock in my magical grasp and turned it off. The servants came in and did their usual morning jobs. By the time they were done, I had forgotten most of the details about my nightmare. What I did remember made little sense. With my heart still pounding, I went down to breakfast.
I barely paid attention to what I was served. Nether did i notice when my Mom walked in.
"ESMERLDA!!!" My Mom yells. I jump. "Whats got you preoccupied this morning?" She asks me.
"Sorry Mom." I mumble in reply, keeping the details of last night's troubled sleep to myself. Before my Mom could asks any questions, my Dad walks into the dining hall.
"Morning Cadence." he says as he kisses Mom before headed to his seat.
The servants come in and sets the morning meal in front of us before heading back to the kitchen. While I ate, my thoughts drifted back to the amulet and box that Neon and I found. I wondered why somepony would keep an amulet locked in such a secure box, instead of something more important.
While I thought about the amulet, my Mom and Dad were discussing the political situation over in the Minotaur and Deer kingdoms.
Hvtke Eco, the Deer Kingdom, and Ταύρος, the minotaur kingdom where going head to head over a chain of islands discovered about a hundred miles to the southeast of the kingdoms. As it was a joint merchant fleet that discovered the islands, they couldn't decide who the land belonged to.
“Heammawihio will try to find a peaceful way to settle the dispute, its Agamemnon who might go to war.” Shining Armor says.
“With them both being allies of the crystal empire, we would have to remain neutral, but Equestria will be supporting Hvtke Eco if there is war.” Cadence replies.
“Hopefully, the situation will be resolved peacefully next week when the dignitaries arrive. At any rate, I am to help Violet Bloom prepare for the guests to arrive.” Shining Armor says before he resumes eating his breakfast.
My parents conversation distracted me from my thoughts on the amulet. I had forgotten about the upcoming conference. While i have seen minotaurs before, i have never seen a deer, due to the fact that they rarely left there vally, excluding merchants. I was hoping the matter could be resolved peacefully, as i didnt wise for bloodshed.
As soon as i finished my morning meal, i headed off to today's classes.
My first lesson was with written script, a unicorn from canterlot. He taught politics and history. After a couple hours of dreary government talk and a fascinating look at the ancient mareian culture, i had arithmancy with Sir comfence, an old scholar who had seen better days. Once I was done looking over intricate diagrams over how math was used in creating new spells, i was done with my lessons for the day. Since i was a princess, I only had studys in the morning, and with the conference, i was excused from my equitie lessons as my teacher, morning sun, was needed for dinner arrangements and flower placement.
I headed over to the library to see if i could find any mention of the necklace or the box it was found in. since most of the library was over a millennia old, and only some of the library being recently updated, there was a chance i would find some trace of the artifacts and their purpose.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I closed the book with a sigh. While i found nothing about the amulet, i did find out a little about the civilization that Neon said made it. Apparently, they went to war over knowledge what knowledge was not known, but the war was brutal. One side, once they realized that they may not win, used there most powerful weapon. What said weapon was, is also not known. But the weapon is what ended this ancient nation.
I decided that i needed a break, so i decided to head over to Neon's house to see if he had better luck. As i was walking down the hallway to a side door that leaves the castle, a green pegasus stallion with blue highlights in his lime green hair stops me.
“Excuse me mam, but can you tell me where the recruitment office is? I'm a bit lost.” The Pegasus asks me, with while keeping his attention on a map he was holding.
“The recruitment office is down by the bakery in the south side of town.” I inform him.
“Thanks.” He says smiling, as he puts up his map. He lifts his eyes and freezes once they land on me. I groan, knowing what's about to happen.
“CH-CHANGELING!!!” He screams, running down the hallway. I shake my head. Tourists never seem to bother to learn that the princess of the Empire is half changeling, so i've mostly gotten used to ponies running away in terror.
I trot the rest of the way to Neon's house without further incident. I knock on the door and waited. Neons Mom was the one who answered.
“Hi Emma, Neons upstairs in his books again.” She greets me. After thanking her, i make my way into the house and up the stairs into Neons room.
Neons room was wall to wall bookshelves. The shelves themselves were covered in books, Hoofball Trophies, and items he brought home from the forest to study. At the moment, the books were scattered around the room in heaps.