A Family Matter.

by Thait

Elsewhere

'Thoughts'
{Mental Speak}

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CRYSTAL EMPIRE

{Guardian...}

{Guardian...you must wake...}

{RISE!}

The voice tore through Cadance's mind, shredding dreams and thoughts by driving her into the waking world with a cry of pain. The young alicorn winced as her head throbbed with the lingering effects of a very powerful mental connection that still had some attachment to her. A quick look to her left told her that Shining Armor was still sleeping though he looked to be in some mental distress himself. Reaching for her husband she was about to touch him when she felt the same brush against her mind as before, though this time it was a weaker connection.

{Guardian, we must speak with thee.}

Cadance immediately began to cast several spells meant to track the position of the mental intruder and found that it appeared to be right outside the entrance to Crystal palace itself, though still within the boundaries of the palaces defensive spells. Such a thing should have been impossible with the amount of defensive spells the palace bore woven through it's crystalline structure, as well as the those that had been placed in the rune markings that had been added in the near year since the empires return. Yet somehow this intruder had managed to get past every defensive spell and ward that had been placed to guard the princesses home. And yet the voice almost sounded familiar, as if she had heard it somewhere else before its intrusion into her dreams. Without even a thought of what she was doing she slipped from the bed, through the room, and out into the hallway leaving a still sleeping Shining Armor behind.

Light danced from hanging lanterns as the princess moved down carpet padded hallways following the strange voice, and her spells, with the hope that this wasn't going to prove to be another problem for the still recovering empire. Since Sombra's spell was broken and Empires capital city of Phenacite had returned to the world the Empire had been working on rebuilding back to its former glory. Cadance knew a great deal of history but even she had never known of the sheer size and scope of the empire and how large an area it had covered. Unfortunately much of the empires old cities and towns had not weathered the rise of Sombra well, taking heavy losses when they attempted to strike back at the dark unicorn and retake the capital. When Sombra retaliated against them he literally wiped many from the face of the world before Equestria became involved. Since the cities return the crystal ponies had dispatched explorers into the far north in an attempt to find any of the remaining cities or towns that might have survived the loss of Phenacite and the empires Crystal Heart. Cadance didn't hold out much hope, for surely any survivors would have contacted Equestria long ago.

"Your highness?" The voice caused Cadance to jump in surprise and she shifted her focus from the whisper in her mind to the squad of guards she had nearly walked into. All of them wore worried expressions and the squad leader stepped forward. "Is there a problem your highness?"

"No, everything is fine. I am simply having difficulty sleeping and decided to take a stroll." Cadance smiled reassuringly to the guards and then stepped past them to continue on towards the whispering voice. The lower she descended into the palace the more guards she passed, until she reached the main floor and found herself walking down the Rose Hallway on her way out of the palace. The instant she stepped outside she knew where the voice came from, her eyes focused on the Crystal Heart where it glowed gently between the two spikes of crystal that had grown when the heart had been replaced in its home.

"Your Highness, is something wrong?" The voice came vaguely from her right but Cadance wasn't paying attention, the only thing that mattered to her now was the heart and the call that was coming from it. Striding past guards, several of whom began to look worried by their princess not answering, she stopped before the Crystal Heart and lowered her head touching her horn to the glowing artifact. To Cadance the world dissolved into a white mist of power and feeling. To those watching the princess she simply collapsed to the ground.

"Princess!" Several guards rushed forward to check on their ruler while a corporal spun to the nearest private. "Find the prince!"

"Rouse the arcanists, and send somepony to the academy and get me every senior caster they have!" The corporal turned back to where his princess had fallen. Sending a wary look at the Crystal Heart, which now glowed nearly four times brighter than it had before, he stepped closer to the group of guards who had rushed to the aid of the princess, only to see one of the guards suddenly knocked backwards by a flare of power from the Crystal Heart. "What happened?"

"Tried to move her sir." The injured pony winced as he shook a slightly blackened foreleg. "Would have been a heck of a lot worse if my armor hadn't absorbed most of that."

"No pony touches her until the arcanists get here." Corporal Quartz could only hope they would get good news when the magic users arrived, or he could well end up on the receiving end of far more than just a demotion at the hooves of the Prince.

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Cadance stared around at the white mist around her for a moment before reaching out with her magic to try and find out what had happened. The soft glow of power from her horn began to shine for a moment only to be absorbed by the mist around her. This only added to her anxiety as her mind latched onto the concept that she might be trapped, which drug other extremely unpleasant memories back to the surface. She may have been an princess, and an alicorn, but it didn't stop the panic that began to grow as her mind marked parallels between where she was and the caverns below Canterlot where Queen Chrysalis had imprisoned her. Though even as that panic grew she felt a soothing presence fill the misty void around her and the voice that had led her spoke again.

"Do not fear." The voice no longer sounded inside her head but from all around in a deep echoing tone that vibrated and seemed to make even the mist shift and flow oddly.

"Who are you?" Cadance wasn't sure where to direct the question to so she simply spoke to the air. Around her the mists shifted seeming to flow here and there while faint ponylike shadows flitted through it.

"We are..." The voice sounded confused, as if it had not thought of the answer in a very long time. "We are..."

"The heart of the empire."

"The strength of the crystal ponies."

"The shield of the throne."

When each statement was made Cadance could hear a different voice speaking, and she could swear she felt the presence of others within the mist. "Why have you spoken now? It has been nearly a year since your restoration to your proper place before the palace."

"Time was needed to forge the connection to our Guardian." When one voice stopped another took its place. "The chains needed to be broken, the abomination could not be allowed to hold sway in the empire."

"Chains?" Cadance blinked as her vision became fuzzy, a strange pressure brushing against her mind. Even as she registered this feeling she felt a rush of warmth through her and the pressure vanished as a sound of snapping metal echoed within the mists.

"The last...it will know. You stand in the astral realm, here you can see what cannot be seen with simple magic." The voice gained strength. "Look! Look upon thyself and see the abominations work, its actions have not left thee unscarred."

Blinking in confusion Cadance shifted her wings with nervous energy only to hear a soft chiming of metal on metal. Glancing back along her form she stared in shock at the lengths of blackened metal that hung from her...chains, though broken and shattered, they still in places wrapped her in a metal embrace that she could not even feel. Looking closely she could see the chains original coloring was a strange rainbow hue that seemed to shimmer and shift along its length. The blackness that stained the links seemed to be caused by a magical backlash into the metal where it had been destroyed. Looking along the length of one of the chains she realized that it seemed to merge directly into her flesh, the skin where it entered bore a slight rainbow hue as well. In a panic she summoned her magic, faster and stronger than the mist could dissipate, and gripped the chain giving it a wrenching pull that sent waves of agony through her side even as the metal was torn from her. Stumbling backwards in pain she watched as the now bloodstained metal impacted the misty floor without a sound.

"Cease! Do not cause thyself injury. It is impossible to remove the chains that way without causing damage. They have been broken, the abomination can no longer use them."

"Who did this? What is happening!" Cadance held her wing tight to her side as her magic brushed against the wound in an attempt to heal it.

"The true power is hidden, we only know of the abomination. That which thy kind calls the Harmony Stone." The voice held both contempt and hatred for the mentioned object.

"The Harmony Stone? How could it be the cause of this, its purpose is limited to nature suppression." Cadance had only minor knowledge of the stone, not surprising since after over a thousand years of activity it was a rare thing to hear of it at all.

"Built to devour, built to control. All fall under its view, all suffer from its power." The voice changed again, this time a deep gravelly tone that sounded much like the voice of a dragon echoed around Cadance. "A shard of darkness in the heart of Harmony."

Cadance winced as she felt something wrap around her and begin to slowly tug at her essence, she was about to call upon her own magic to stop the strange feeling when the Crystal Heart spoke again.

"Stay thy magic Guardian, tis only thy loved ones seeking thy release. Go with our blessing Guardian, and let our strength shield the empire together." The voice suddenly changed again, gaining tones of desperation "let not the darkness consume the sun."

"What? What darkness? What do you mea...." Cadance didn't get to finish the sentence as she was wrenched from the white mist and placed back into a sore and aching body. The warmth from her side told her she was bleeding from the same area she had removed the chain from in the astral realm. She couldn't hold back a pained groan as she opened her eyes to see rune circles floating in the air around her as the crystal pony arcanists worked their magic to try and aid their princess. It was they that had pulled her from within the Crystal Heart, she wasn't sure whether to thank them or get irritated with them.

"Cadi?" The concern in her husband's voice certainly got her attention and she struggled to her hooves as the rune circles vanished and several arcanists collapsed in exhaustion. She had barely made it upright when Shining Armor nearly knocked her over again by snatching her up into a hug.

"Don't worry Shiny, I'm fine. The Heart just needed to talk to me." Cadance winced as pressure was put on her injured side.

"You're hurt." Shining didn't even wait for her to say what had happened, lifting her onto his back with his own magic he headed towards the Palace and the doctors within. Cadance looked back once more at the Crystal Heart and tried to work out what it had meant with its last statement. As Shining Armor carried her into the palace she was almost certain that for just a moment, a fleeting few seconds when she had first seen him after awakening, that she had seen the same blackened and shattered rainbow hued chains upon her beloved that she herself had.

'What is happening? What darkness consumes the sun?' For a moment she felt something, a tiny twinge within her mind, as if a memory long forgotten was struggling to push itself forward. But the only thing she could get from it was something about her cousin Blueblood. Her mind was telling her there was something very important about him. A memory, a fleeting glimpse of eyes glowing a rainbow hue and Blueblood, fear in his voice, ordering soldiers to run. "Cadi?" And in that moment the memory slipped away, any attempt at retrieval was like trying to grasp smoke with her hooves.

"Is something wrong?" Shining Armors worry was obvious.

"No Shiny everything's fine." With a frown she looked back down the hallway towards the Crystal Heart. Everything was not fine, that much she was sure of, something was very, very wrong.

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IRON HORN

"I think you broke him." The voice sounded mirthful, as if the pain being dealt was a joke of some kind.

"Naw, he's tougher than that. You saw how he handled those minotaur's we hired, there's no way he's that badly injured after a couple little love taps like that." The other voice was older, more knowing of the world around it, and also more annoying.

Whirlwind tried to quiet the thumping pain in his head as he assessed his injuries and tried to figure up at least the beginnings of a plan for the situation he found himself in. He had to admit that the two were professionals, hiring just enough muscle for him to tire himself out fighting and then moving in to finish him off when he was too tired to see the attack coming. The fact he was here, wherever here was, simply told him that either the twins had been taken out or they were busy with their own problems. And if the two of them had been taken out he was in bigger trouble than he had thought he was. Deciding to stop pretending about being knocked out Whirlwind forced his right eye open, his left having swollen shut some time ago.

"See, I told you he was fine." The older voice belonged to a bright green stallion and he stepped forward to dominate Whirlwind's vision and keep the other pony from seeing too much of the building. "Now, like us I'm sure you desire to get this over with as quickly as possible so let's just cut to the chase and have it over with." He lowered his head so he was nearly muzzle to muzzle with Whirlwind "Where is it?"

"Not sure what it you're referring to." Whirlwind managed a smile, though pain spiked through the side of his face when he did. "After all I have lots of it or small amounts of it depending on what you're looking for." He had barely finished the sentence when the other pony struck, faster than he could respond to, and his vision flared with stars. Shaking his head Whirlwind spat blood to the side and tried to blink the stars out of his vision. Any mirth he felt at goading the stallion into action vanished in a second as he felt a nose brush against his left wing. He struggled to pull his wings in but they had been pinned to the wall his stool was sitting against by several large metal staples.

"These are some nice wings you have here." The stallion moved back into view of the pegasus, he no longer looked even mildly amused. "Let's just stop with the act now shall we? I promise that if you give me what I want I'll finish you quick and painless, this only has to get as messy as you want it to."

"Like you did with Breaker?" Whirlwind was glad his jaw wasn't broken from that last hit, at least he would be able to mock the bastards until he died. He was paying such close attention to the one before him that he almost missed the flicker of movement in the shadows near the door.

"I'm afraid your friend Breaker decided to be a bit dense and refuse to give us what we wanted." The stallion sighed theatrically before smiling "It did let me try a few new ideas I'd been meaning to get to." The stallion leaned forward again "Now are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

"Go screw yourself." Whirlwind was done playing the game, especially as he knew what was coming next, or at least thought he did. He jerked in surprise as something falling from above impacted the stallion in front of him before going straight through the floor and into the room below. The other stallion in the room, which he hadn't really gotten a good look at, was impacted by a pony from above who drove his head into the floor with enough force to crack the wood. Another pony dropped from above a second later and looked through the hole in the floor with a smirk.

"Sorry we are late, we..." "Got held up outside." What one pony started the other finished.

"I was wondering if the two of you were going to show up." Whirlwind didn't bother to hide his relief at seeing the twins as they moved to pull the staples from the wall and free his wings.

"We did a bit of digging, these...""Are some very bad ponies." The two ponies gripped the staples in their teeth and then pulled the metal from the wall.

Looking at the two no pony would have expected them to be as good as they were at what they did. A couple of simple brown earth ponies with red manes, the only way to tell the two mares apart was that one's cutie mark was a pair of interlocked padlocks and the others was a pair of crossed skeleton keys. The two were combat specialists and came highly recommended by Pokey himself when it came to situations like this. They were quite fast as well, which Whirlwind found out a second later when he tried to stand and nearly fell into the hole that had been made by the object the twins had dropped on the stallion who had been questioning him. Key grabbed him before he could join the unfortunate questioner, though it gave him a good view of what had been dropped.

"Is that a safe?" He glanced to Lock, who was trying to look innocent. "You dropped a safe on him? That's so cliché I'm surprised it actually worked." Whirlwind winced as he put his weight on his back legs and felt pain from bruises that likely weren't going to go away for some time. "We need to get out of here before they decide to send somepony more competent that these two."

"Already on it boss...""We've secured the area with the help of a few friends." The two had barely finished speaking when a head poked through the doorway on the other side of the room. Whirlwind recognized the dark brown and black feathers, as well as the slightly different shape of the head, as marking the griffon as a member of the Shadow Valley clans.

"You two done in there yet?" Noticing the pony they were supporting the griffon entered the room entirely, though she looked wary. "Local guards are starting to move into the area, we made too much noise."

"You can take your friends...""And go now, we have everything under control." Lock and Key helped Whirlwind to the door and out into the street outside. The only problem after that was getting back to the hotel they had been using, which was going to prove problematic considering that they were going to have to deal with the minotaur guards. The mere fact that three ponies were traveling through this part of town was going to get the guards to detain them for hours if they got caught. Which was why the twins quickly dragged the injured pegasus into the nearest sewer access and down into the tunnels under the city.

"You know I never spent much time thinking of the magic that goes into cleaning up the waste in Equestria's sewer systems." Whirlwind shuddered as he glanced at the stream of...something that flowed through the bottom of the tunnel. "But the more I travel and the more I see the more I appreciate unicorn magic." He grimaced at the smell "I don't know about you two but I'm going to take a four hour bath after this, I'm not going to trust my hooves being clean for days."

"And mother always said...""We were squeamish." Lock shifted her hold on Whirlwind as they reached another turn in the tunnel. "We should...""Be getting out soon."

"Do you two know how creepy that is?" Whirlwind winced at the pain in his ribs when Key bumped up against him when the small rock path they were on narrowed. "Aren't you capable of talking by yourselves."

"Of course we are." Lock looked at the number on the wall nearby to figure out which tunnel exit they were near.

"But we enjoy our other way much better." Key shook her head when Lock glanced at her to see if they were where they needed to exit. "In truth we don't even know how we do it."

"Mother even took us to several unicorn specialists to see if they could figure out how we know exactly what the other is going to say but they couldn't figure it out either." Lock looked up at the next tunnel exit and nodded. "This is the one."

Exiting into the street near where they had been staying since entering the city the three ponies got to see the burning remains of the building while minotaurs dashed here and there trying to put out the blazing fire before it could spread to some other building and set the entire district ablaze. Lock tugged Whirlwind into the shadows of an alley where they could rest in peace for a moment while watching the firefighters.

"You know I'm beginning to really dislike these ponies." Whirlwind looked to the nearby rooftops to see if there was anypony watching them where they were sheltered. "We need to move, they wouldn't have found anything in there but it won't take them long to decide to try and check in with their friends back at the warehouse."

"Where would we go...""We have no safe houses within this city." The twins stayed close to the alley entrance to try and keep an eye out for threats.

"I have some friends in the city, one in particular, that I believe we can trust not to be involved with our enemies." Whirlwind looked to the rooftops again before turning back to the twins. "We need to head to district four."

"That is one of the...""Richest areas in the city."

"Trust me." Whirlwind gave one last cursory glance around for danger and then limped away down the alley.

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With a loud creak the mansions double doors swung open to reveal a well dressed female minotaur that looked somewhat imperiously at the three dirty ponies standing on the steps of her employers home. "Can I help you?" An attempt at a superior sniff ended up with the minotaur nearly gagging from the stench the three ponies were putting out.

"You can tell your employer that Whirlwind is here to see him." Whirlwind noted the immediate change in the females demeanor.

"I'm sorry mister Whirlwind, had I known it was you I would have allowed you entry immediately." The minotaur stepped aside to allow the ponies in. "Please try not to track...whatever it is you have on you into the rest of the house." She turned and strode up the rooms central stairs to the second floor.

"Didn't recognize you...""Why exactly?" The twins sent a confused look to Whirlwind, who simply chuckled.

"Sorry ladies but I have to have my secrets." He sent a look to both of them. "Just as you do."

"We have never...""Said any differently." The two looked up to the second floor as a door thumped shut and a large male minotaur strode down the steps to the first floor.

"Iron Will must admit that it is surprising to see you here Whirlwind." Iron Will looked closely at the pegasus noting the altered coat, mane, tail and eye color from what he was used to, though the cutie mark of a dust devil was still the same.

"Things have gotten out of hoof." Whirlwind looked ashamedly at the floor. "Breaker is dead."

"What!" The minotaur took a step forward anger flashing in his eyes. "What happened?"

"It has to do with my current objectives here in the city." Whirlwind own anger was more directed at himself than at the ponies who had gotten to Breaker. "I should have been more careful, but I thought I lost the bastards back in the Hornmount, and again in the Golden Pillars. In fact I know I lost the ones who were following me there." He frowned as he went over every moment from the last month and yet could think of no point in which he had made any mistake. "Something big is going on, something so massive that we've got Nova guard infiltrators sitting in easy reach of the rulers of several lands."

"Nova guard? What would they be doing here?" While Iron Will was happy to do his motivational speaking and assertiveness training while traveling, his true mission was often to gather Intel from planted agents and return it to the ruling senate of his home city. The knowledge that there were Nova guard forces within his home city was something that he had never uncovered in any of his reports.

"That's the thing, I left well enough alone about them until I stumbled onto a few memos from home. Since then I've done a little digging and yet nearly all I can find out is a reference to something called Contingency 83 and something called Operation Starfall."

"Starfall?" The minotaur pondered the name while filing away the new information that would have to be handed off to his superiors.

"I've done everything I can to dig up info on it and I've come up empty. The most I've got is it has something to do with the Nova guard." Whirlwind pondered the information while trying to figure out why the memo had also mentioned the Praetorian guard, there hadn't been a Praetorian guard for nearly two thousand years. It had also made passing reference to the Elements of Harmony and something marked EoH C-1B, an abbreviation he knew meant Elements of Harmony, Contingency 1 Beta. That was information he hadn't sent to Pokey, though he was starting to wonder if he should.

"There is...""Movement outside." Key pointed out the window she was near and Whirlwind looked out the nearest window to see Minotaurs and Diamond Dogs moving towards the house, all of them being followed by a dark red unicorn who casually began to stride through the group and approach the mansions entrance.

"We need to get out of here now!" Whirlwind spun towards Iron Will only to be blown through the air as the entire front of the mansion smashed inwards under the large telekinetic impact from outside. The pegasus impacted the floor skidding to a stop near the stairs that lead to the second floor. He had barely begun to recover when he felt pressure clamp down on him and lift him into the air as the unicorn entered the mansion. He was turned to face the blasted entrance while the unicorn crossed the rubble strewn floor.

"Now was any of this really necessary? Had you simply told us what we desired we wouldn't need to resort to this kind of action." The unicorn smiled coldly as the pressure on Whirlwind increased. "And your friend Iron Will wouldn't have had to get involved either." The clatter of rubble caught the ponies attention and both looked to see Iron Will shrugging off some of the front of his house while pushing himself upright. Spotting the unicorn holding Whirlwind the minotaur didn't even hesitate, grabbing a chunk of stone larger than a ponies head he lobbed it at the unicorn and charged in after it. It was a futile effort, the unicorn casually deflected the stone and then focused on Iron Will sending the minotaur to the floor clutching at his chest with pained cry.

"Did you really expect to accomplish anything by that?" The unicorn shook his head and let out a snort of mirth. "All it would require is just a tiny bit more pressure and I could crush your heart and lungs, this entire thi..." The pony was cut off by a crash that ended in several strung out musical notes as strings vibrated.

Whirlwind, managing to land on his hooves, could only stare at the piano that had just crushed the unicorn, followed a second later by Lock and Key landing on top said broken piano with wide smiles. "A piano?" Whirlwind stared up at a ceiling that bore no rafters or other easy means to transport anything, much less a piano, to the needed spot to drop it. "Where did that even come from?"

"We have...""Other problems." The twins pointed out at the stunned Minotaurs and Diamond Dogs that were currently staring at the piano that had smashed their employer. They had been brought along on the chance that their targets had a unicorn with them that their boss would need to fight. Without a unicorn for them to worry about they had been perfectly willing to let the pony who paid them take care of everything, except he had just been crushed. The thugs, being thugs, had no real loyalty to their employer but there was also the chance, considering the durability of the average pony, that the pony who had yet to pay them was simply unconscious. Thus the grouping of thugs felt at least some loyalty to their pancaked hirer, or at least loyalty to his money. Two of the minotaurs were the first through the broken entrance, and were promptly ejected by a dresser on a rope that swung down and slammed into them. The twins high hoofed and then leapt towards the still stunned group of enemies, before the two had even cleared the front of the mansion there was a loud groan from the front wall as the damage it had taken from the telekinetic blast finally gave in to the inevitable and heavily damaged supports began to give way.

Lock and Key skidded to a stop and reversed course to head back into the safety of the house as the front of the building began to lean dangerously outward. The thugs decided that any kind of payment wasn't worth this kind of trouble and bolted before they could get caught under the collapse of wood and stone. With the thugs running and Iron Will back on his hooves, and at least looking like he wasn't going to collapse any moment, the four rushed for the back of the building and out into the city.

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"Okay we've been running and hiding for nearly three hours, are you going to tell Iron Will where we are going?" The minotaur was looking distinctly irritated.

"The museum." Whirlwind's legs still ached from his original fight and interrogation but he was getting along a lot better now than before. "These ponies are after a particular item and we need to retrieve it and leave the city before they can get their hooves on it." Scanning the rooftops while the twins watched the street level Whirlwind tried to put a lid on his anger. "Pokey's going to owe me big time for this."

Attention caught by the museum up ahead Whirlwind focused on the next steps of his plan while trying to factor Iron Will into it now. He couldn't leave his friend behind to be attacked by the insane ponies that were following him which meant he would have to bring the minotaur along. While that wouldn't be much of a problem normally he found himself wondering how Captain Rose would take that particular twist in the plan considering that Iron Will wouldn't be a paying passenger. In the end though Whirlwind knew that Rose would simply have to deal with it as she was being paid by Pokey, just like Whirlwind, and thus couldn't really complain.

"The museums just up ahead, let's go." The only thing he could hope for was that they had lost those who had been following them long enough for him to retrieve the item and get picked up by the captain. About to move out into the open Whirlwind could only stare as a large airship swung into position over the museum followed by ropes being flung over the side allowing Diamond Dogs and Minotaurs to rappel down onto the roof of the building. Though the ship was obviously one of the city's own Air Guard vessels it now sported a flag of a dragon skull with gem filled eye sockets set over crossed swords. "What in Tartarus does she think she's doing!" Whirlwind broke into a gallop for the entrance of the museum.

Approaching the entrance to the museum Whirlwind could see a small grouping of museum guards outside and noticed that they had sent a runner for the nearest guard post, which meant that everyone was on short time now. He didn't even slow down as he darted past several internal security guards who were trying to get control of a somewhat panicking crowd of museum goers as several loud bangs were heard from deeper into the building. Skidding around several corners and smashing through several exhibits Whirlwind reached the entrance to the crystal exhibits in time to see a group of diamond dogs gathering up a large obsidian box that was sealed with multiple silver locks.

"Whirlwind!" Looking upwards the pegasus saw a large diamond dog standing at the railing of the ship floating above the museum. Leaping over the railing the diamond dog slid down a rope to land nearby. A patch over one eye, a black vest, a silver collar studded with rubies and a giant sword slung onto her back left the female looking the perfect image of a sky pirate. "Saw the hotel, figured you were dead when you didn't check in." Sending a glance to Whirlwinds allies behind him she shook her head. "Should have known better with those two with you." Sending a sharp toothed smile at the twins she stepped past Whirlwind. "My offer is still open, I'd love to hire you two."

"We are already...""Employed." The twins looked at each other for a moment and then smiled. "You also...""Couldn't afford us."

"Rose, I can't believe you'd hit this place." The pegasus watched as several ponies, guarded by a couple diamond dogs, trotted in from a different wing sporting a thick scroll case nearly as long as Iron Will was tall. "You have the map and the gem?"

"Aye, we have both of them." The captain laughed. "Don't worry about it, we had a Plan B in place the instant Pokey told us to work with you. Hurry now, we have what we want and it's best we get to leaving."

Before any other conversation could be made a pegasus so swathed in cloth that Whirlwind couldn't even tell the pony's color glided down into the room to land near Rose. "We have incoming defense airships Captain, we need to move."

"Cap'n, got guards comin front." A large minotaur moved from the exhibit entrance to the nearest rope even as the chest began to be lifted to the ship.

With a sigh Rose glanced at the gems around her that she was now being forced to abandon due to time constraints. "Pokey's going to owe me big for this." Gripping one of the ropes to allow herself to be pulled up onto the ship she scrambled onto the deck next to the minotaur Whirlwind had had with him. Said minotaur looked like he not only had no idea how he had gotten involved in all this but also had no idea about what was happening. "Shove off! We need to get this scrapheap the minotaurs call an airship into cover and get back to our own."

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Remnants of the last Journal of Destiny Lulamoon

Begin spell.

Have to...Lost everything in the fire.

(Unable to translate sound.)

Came...came from the east...save...No, not save. Take! He takes from us! Steals our power, steals all power!

(Unable to translate sound.)

Can't remember, hard to...Andromeda! Remember...names ...power. Tried to make his disappear, tried to wipe it from history.

(Unable to translate sound.)

The...stone, we have to...to

(Unable to translate sound.)

(Unable to translate sound.)

(Unable to translate sound.)

Spell power diminishing, spell ending.

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Pokey's Classified Info

Rarity: Element of Generosity

Birthplace: Ponyville

Education: Ponyville Public School

Power Level: Medium. Not high on the unicorn scale but powerful enough, as well as being smart enough to know how to use her power to the fullest.

Parents: Hondo Flanks and Cookie Crumbles. Seemingly retired.

Addendum to parents: Surprisingly normal, and this time I'm serious. There isn't anything really interesting about these two except a few friends they have that are linked to some of the Intel agencies.

Addition to parents: I'm writing this a half month later. I saw a very interesting painting in the Golden Pillars and so I've hired a good friend to do some digging for me. Something about that family doesn't add up. Did you know that the Solar Court sponsored the creation of the Carousel Boutique? The bank that was going to loan out the money for Rarity to start her business had originally refused to do so, until they got a letter from the Court demanding they allow the loan to go through. Something is wrong. I remember investigating this family before, back in my days in the EIA, but I can't remember what I found out which is odd in and of itself with my memory. I'll get back to you.

Siblings: Sweetie Belle

Author's Note:

I tried to write Lock and Key sort of like combat versions of Pinkie Pie, though not nearly as powerful of Pinkie is. They will play no major role in the story and are, and only will be, Whirlwind's bodyguards.

Comments

[NandN]

Could I please have an update on when the next chapter could come out.It's been about one and a half years.

[NandN]

It's me again. Just checking up on this story. I would love to take it off my dead or on hiatus list. Please, don't be like the other one hundred stories on that list.

[Quiznak]

I'm getting the feeling there is this big evil entity that has control of legions of 'convinced' soldiers and a sort of resistance that have been fighting each other for a long time....that's what I'm getting...

[NandN]

Checking in once again.