Wow. Just... wow... It's only been about maybe half an hour since we got back to our original base, and the second that I was out of the snow, I immediately recognized what the shards were of...
The Princess is back.
Well, not the Princess, Celestia, but our Princess, Amore. Many years ago, when Sombra first rose to power, Princess Amore desperately tried to change his course, turn him to the better path. Unfortunately for her, Sombra already had other plans. Immediately, she was crystallized, and her fragments were then scattered about. But somehow, somehow, I just managed to stumble upon a rather large amount of those shards. It was as if it was simply set there, as a lure, a trap of some sort... but, I'm probably overthinking it. It's probably just a coincidence to find so many shards in one place. I'll get with the local caravans tomorrow to see if they found anything.
This morning, Jewel and I left for the caravan shack that was set up near the base. Upon arrival, I could instantly tell that there was some sort of fuss over something. I trotted up to a stallion who was sitting on a bench, and quickly asked, "Hey you, what's going on here?"
The stallion shrugged. "I really have no clue, kid, all I've heard is that some shards of the Princess have been found."
My eyes lit up. "So I'm not the only one who's found shards???"
Once again, the stallion shrugged. "Perhaps," he said, "perhaps..."
I rushed to the largest group in the room, pulling Jewel along with me. In the center of the group was a table, with various shards of all shapes and sizes. Many ponies were frantically attempting to put the shards together, like as the Princess were some sort of giant puzzle.
Suddenly, once my presence was realized, ponies began swarming all about me and Jewel, begging us to help them with the assembly. It is, after all, quite a lot easier to assemble small pieces when you can use levitation spells. I silently agreed to their request, and set to work using both the shards I found, and the shards that were already on the table.
After what seemed like hours of painstakingly assembling the pieces, and many times having to disassemble the entire Princess just to add a piece, I finally added the last piece that we had. Amazingly, the Princess looked to be near completion. She looked just like she did the moment she was petrified by Sombra, and aside from minor scratches in the crystal, looked very lifelike. Obviously, since the statue is her, it must be lifelike, anyways. But really, there's only a few small pieces left that are pissing, and hopefully, with the proper tracking spell, we could find them. Otherwise, I could always use a regeneration spell, but I've been staying my distance from those since the last time I've used them. Long story short, I ended up destroying instead of regenerating. The last option that I have is to create a mechanical counterpart to the missing pieces, but once again, it could end up going horribly wrong.
I could tell that the ponies in the room were devastated by the fact that I was so close to fully reassembling the Princess, and yet I was held back by mere inches worth of pieces. All around the room, a long, collective sigh rose from the ponies, both young and old. It's been years since we've last seen our Princess, and many of us feel like we can't take it any longer.
All I hope is that I can now find the last of the pieces.