All For the Want of a Horseshoe Nail

by Amante

For Want of a Nail, the Shoe Was Lost

Why would they even post an entire platoon up here? There’s literally nothing but snow for miles in the four cardinal directions.

“Sir.” The guard saluted his officer.

As a matter of fact, besides them and the lowly train station there wasn’t a single trace of civilization in the whole region.

“At ease soldier. Is the captain in?” replied the officer.

Of course, that wasn’t really surprising. Nopony, heck nobody, would dare try and erect a settlement here, not with all the windigos flying around at least.

“Yes, sir. She's reviewing the report to be sent to Canterlot.”

Nopony actually knew why the windigos had lingered in this area. All they really had to work with were stories and rumors about some old civilization from a thousand years ago, not long after Discord was sealed. Some say that Discord’s influence in the area was just too strong, that even the Elements of Harmony weren’t able to help them. Others yet say that this particular town hadn’t exactly put aside their bigotry with the other pony races and thus were consumed by the windigos.

Of course, none of that mattered to the Lieutenant right now. As far as he was concerned, he was here to do his duty, regardless of what that might be, and so he entered the tent to give the captain his report.

The captain was, as the private had mentioned, at her desk going through a stack of papers. She was a mare of renown who'd been in the service a long time. It always puzzled him as to why she was even here. Most everyone in the guard knew that being assigned to the frozen north was actually a not-so-subtle form of punishment.

The captain lowered the report and looked at her guest.

"Lieutenant." She smiled and levitated over a tea set from a nearby table and poured herself a cup. "I take it you’re here to report in?"

"Yes, ma'am."

She took a sip. "Care for a cup?" she asked with a hint of silk in her voice.

"No thank you ma'am." She had always been like this since the day they met. He remembered that day fondly. She was a star student from the Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns and he was one of the most promising recruits at the Equestrian Military Academy. But there would be time for reminiscing later.

"Scouts have reported no change in the last 24 hours. Magical fields have likewise been inactive."

The captain observed her friend and sighed, "As per the norm I suppose. Is that all?"

"Yes ma'am."

He stood there for a moment .

"Although," the lieutenant began, "the mages did pick up a slight spike in energy."

The captain raised an eyebrow at this. "Why didn't you mention that first?"

"They said that the magic seemed temporal in nature and as such, couldn't possibly have been fabricated by anypony short of the Princesses or the arch-mage. They said it wasn't worth mentioning, but since you're also a magic scholar, I figured you might want to take look at it for yourself."

The captain sighed inwardly. Those damned self righteous scribes. And yet they wonder why they got assigned here.

"Thank you lieutenant. Dismissed."

He gave a nod and turned to exit.

"Oh, and Flash?"

Hearing his name, the lieutenant looked back.

The captain gave a playful smile. “Go to Smith and have him fix that shoe for you. I could hear you clanking from a mile away.”

He returned the smile, “Will do, Vee.”

---

The camp they were in was small. You’d even be hard pressed to call it a camp. It was basically a few military grade tents strewn about the area and fenced in by a neck-high wall. One for the Camp-Commander, a few for the guard’s bunks, one for the mess hall, one for a workshop, and one for supplies. A few latrines were a built farther from the camp. The train station was also quite a trot away.

Flash was heading for the workshop when he was stopped by another saluting guard. After they exchanged formalities, a strange, otherworldly moan echoed through the camp.

The guard scanned the horizon from where he assumed the sound had originated. “What was that?”

Flash on the other hoof was slightly less on edge that his companion. “Damn, Windigos”

“Sir, I don’t think that was a windigo.”

He gave the guard a strange look. “So what else could it be then? There isn’t exactly anything else in this entire region.”

The guard opened his mouth to answer. When nothing initially came out, he decided to go with, “I don’t know, sir.”

Flash chuckled, “Ease up colt. What’s your name?”

The guard perked up. “Bronze Plate, sir.”

“Alright Bronze Plate, tell me, what got you assigned to this cold mess of a platoon?”

Bronze blushed and look at the ground. Although since his name matched his coat, his face seemed more brown than pink. “Chasing tails, sirs”

Tails, eh Flash thought to himself. Doesn’t that sound familiar.

He smiled at the soldier. “Dismissed”

The next moment saw Flash at the door, er, flap of the workshop. He could hear quite a commotion as he entered the tent.

Inside, he saw the camp’s handypony Brown Smith scurrying about the area. One could easily trace his ancestry to Black Smith, one of the finest craftsmen Equestria had ever seen, and those after him had been similarly chromatically named. Brown followed that trend, except for the fact that he was yellow. Although that was actually because of some rare coat pigmentation disease. Ponies thought that that was the reason he was usually so short tempered and foul mouthed, but those who actually knew him knew better. His father was Scoltish, and did it ever show.

“Ah cannae believe that we’r’ out o’ that too! Cel’stiadamn bureaucrats! Ah a’ready played th’ir li’l game an’ they still don’ gimme whut Ah NEED!”

A bucket sailed over Flash’s head as he watched the stout old codger put on a show.

Smith noticed someone had entered the tent during his little tirade and immediately calmed down. Or tried to calm down at least, his breathing was still obviously heavy and a vein on his forehead was visibly throbbing.

Flash was the first to say something. “Anything wrong Smith?”

“Ach! W’uld ye believe th’t we’re out o’ fire dust? How ‘re we suppos’d to sen’ ‘em the’r li’l r’port now?! Nah o’ly that laddie, but they gave me fo’r crates o’ enchan’ed rods when Ah asked for twelve!”

Flash blinked at him. “Well look on the bright side Smith!” He tried to smile at the old pony. “If we can’t use fire to send them the message, then that means somepony’s gonna have to take the train, which means that they can give your request for supplies to HQ in person!”

“Hmmm.. “ Smith calmed down and sighed. “Yer right laddie. An’ mebbe Ah’ll go, that way Ah can knock som’ o there o’er infla’ed heads together.”

The pair shared a sorely needed laugh.

“So tell me, wha’ can th’s ol’ geezer do fer ya?”

“My shoe,“ he raised his right fore hoof, “sole’s starting to fall off.”

The old pony took the shoe and examined it. “Ach! Nothin’ a simple ferrier's nail won’ fix. Wait righ’ here laddie and Ah’ll ge’ er done.”

A few minutes of Smith, rummaging around the workshop, had passed before he came back. He didn’t have nails with him ,but he did have a distinctly disgusted scowl.

“Well it looks as tho’gh ferrier's nails ar’ gonna hav’ ta be adde’ to the request form.”

Flash’s ears lowered, “Seriously? We don’t even-”

He was silenced by an extremely loud, reverberating boom. It sounded like something that would have come out of several bass cannons firing all at once and at maximum volume. It shook the ground. Things inside the tent clattered to the ground adding to the noise. But then it ended.

“Wha’ in Tartarus was-”

Only to be replaced by an extremely high pitched screech. It was like the love child of nails on chalkboard and metal on metal.

When the two had regained themselves from the auditory assault, they could hear ponies outside saying variations of ‘what the buck?’ and ‘what is that?’ They exited the tent only to have their jaws drop at what they saw.

There, piercing the sky, was a tall and sparkling citadel. It looked like it was made from pure crystal as it literally shone in the light. But the obvious question of course is, where did it come from?

“Lieutenant Sentry! Lieutenant Sentry!” called the young unicorn guard as she approached Flash and Smith.

“Soldier?” Flash noticed the filly looked exhausted, as if she just sprinted from across the camp.

“Captain Vigilant demands to see you right now. Sir” she puffed.

Well no wonder she was tired, she DID sprint across the camp. “Thank you, soldier.” He took wing and dashed back to his C.O.’s tent.

---

It didn’t take long for him to get there, and when he did arrive he noticed Vigilant staring forlornly at the newly arrived citadel.

He landed next to her and declared his appearance.

She looked to her friend. “Well, it looks like it actually happened.”

“Happened?” Flash was surprised at this. “Wait you expected this? Why didn’t anypony else know some castle was just gonna fall out of the sky?”

Vigilant looked him straight in the eyes. “Listen Flash, I know you have questions but I can’t answer them right now. All I’m going to tell you is this, the Princess expected the Crystal Empire would return, just not when. That’s why there has always been a platoon of guards set up here in the north. Now it is imperative that she find out that it has returned because she always thought that when the empire did come back… it wouldn’t be alone.

“So here,” she floated over a saddlebag and placed it around Flash, “get these reports to Canterlot immediately. They need to know. Get it to anyone on the Magic Council or better yet, to Celestia herself. Head to the train, remove the other cars, just leave the engine and fuel. You’ll need as much speed as you can get. You should be able to reach Canterlot by sundown. Good luck.”

Flash didn’t know how to react at first. “Wait, what? What’s the Crystal Empire? What are we-”

He was cut off by an angry Vigilant. “No time! Train! Canterlot! Go! That’s an order!”

Looks like he’s gonna have to settle for act now, ask later. He saluted his Captain and sped off to the train station. What bothered him the most was what he saw in Vigilant’s eyes. It was something he hadn’t seen in a long time. Fear.

---

When he got to the station the blizzard was out of control. Normally weather didn’t affect pegasi, but this? This was just too much. He couldn’t even see past his own hooves and so arriving at the train became more of a crashing into the train.

He searched for the linking mechanism that attached the fuel car to the passenger cars.

“There you are!” he shouted in triumph.

Unfortunately it was also frozen solid. “Buck!”

Since he couldn’t uncouple it, he’d just have to smash it, and since it was already frozen, that made it brittle. He raised his right fore hoof and brought it down onto the link. The link smashed to pieces, and so did his shoe.

“Oh come on! Stupid ferrier's nails!” he grumbled.

He blindly felt his way to the engine. Since he was blinded though, he didn’t notice how a piece of his shoe jammed itself into the engine’s mechanisms. Once he was inside the engine he started it up. He could feel the roar of the engine as it began to move.

And abruptly stopped as the engine crunched and crushed his shoe.

Flash was stunned. “Oh, buck me!” He facehooved.

He looked in the direction of the camp, then at his saddlebags, then in the general direction of Canterlot. The snow may have blinded him, but as a pegasus, he still had perfect grasp of north, south, east, and west.

It’s imperative they get to Canterlot, huh? he thought Then dammit these are getting to Canterlot.

He spread his wings wide and gave them a nice strong beat. Once arial he quickly advanced south. To Canterlot.

Comments

[Municipal Engines]

Looks good so far

[nogoodnamesleft]

I like it, keep up the good work

[Starlight Nova]

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