Inheritance

by Azuras

Chapter 3

The following day Twilight was up well before dawn in the Crystal Empire and was already ready to go before her faithful assistant was even up. She had her enchanted saddlebags to carry her research notes, quills, ink, books, snakes and anything else she would either possibly need.

She then pranced over to the sleeping dragon and bent down gently nudging him with her hoof “Spikey Wikey time to get uppy~” She says in a singsong voice

“Ok Rarity…” He mumbles a smile on his face as he slowly stretches and yawns giving Twilight first hoof the stretch of a dragon’s morning breath.

After Twilight finished coughing out a lung and rushing to the balcony, Spike was fully awake and Twilight would never be able to look at Spike the same way again. But today was very busy and Twilight refuse to have this set back ruin it.

“Spike! Go and brush your teeth and be in the Dinning Room in ten minuets!” Twilight shouts from her doorway unable to look Spike in the eyes after the incident.

After a minuet or two she begun to happily trot down the long hallway not stopping to view any of the portraits her goal being the kitchen and her mind filled with the thoughts of the things to come this day.

“Morning your Highness” A masculine voice says to her right causing Twilight to jump slighting in fright, her wings flaring out from the sudden surprise. As she turns to face her disturber of thought she is greeted by the bemused face of a crystal guard.

He looks like all the others having a steel grey coat which shimmers in the light, she figures it’s probably an enchantment much like the Royal and Lunar guards have on there armor. “Didn’t mean to startle you your highness” He says calmly breaking Twilights train of thought yet again.

“Oh, the fault is mine, I just got lost in thought again” She chuckles embarrassed her ears pressing down as her cheeks begin to turn crimson.

The guard smiles and nods “If you need any help Princess do ask, we are here to help after all” With that said his stance once again grows strict and he looks towards the opposite wall, still as a statue.

Twilight nods at the Guard before rounding a corner and heading into the private dinning room to find no one other then a few cleaning maids and a single bored looking cook who looks at her with eyes filled with hope.

“Hello Your Highness!” He practically shouts as he swiftly makes his way to you “I am Chief Cuisine and I shall be the one to cook for you today!” He says with a thick Itralian accent.

“Oh that’s wonderful” Twilight smiles for this chief probably doesn’t get to cook much judging from his bored state before “I’ll have some hay bacon and home fries” she says those being two of her favorite foods.

Chief Cuisine looks at her with horror, similar to as if she had just kicked a puppy “Coming right up… Your highness” He says slowly as the hope that was once in his eyes is replaced with sorrow, regret and oddly agony.

Twilight slowly nods smiling unsure of what has caused this sudden change in his mood. She decides to makes her way to the dining table taking a seat on one of the cushions before levitating a book on historical excavations out of her saddle bags and begins to read waiting for her breakfast to be made.

---

Spike slowly made his way into the dinning room just as Twilights breakfast is served to her by the heart broken Chief “Hey Twilight” he says fully awake.

Twilight to engross in her book didn’t hear a word he said or notice the Chief placing her meal down. Spike then makes his way to sit next to Twilight and begins taking bits of her fries as she continuous to read.

After Spike promptly helps himself to half of Twilights breakfast he begins to poke the lavender Alicorn. “Hey Twilight, Can I have your Hay Bacon?”

Twilight sighs and closes her book “Where were you Spike? I’ve been waiting for longer then ten minuets” She says giving the baby dragon a scolding look.

“Sitting right here Twi, Also your home fries where good by the way” He says with a toothy grin causing Twilight to look at her plate in horror, her favorite part of her meal gone.

Grinding her teeth she levitates her plate to her right and away from the greedy dragon, while putting her book back in place “No you may not have my hay bacon Spike” she finishes with a huff.

Spike chuckles at her as she begins to very un-princess like shovel the hay bacon into her mouth causing the already broken chief to faint from the atrocity of the sight. After several mouthfuls the greasy food is gone and Twilight glares at her now laughing assistant who can’t control him self.

Bringing a napkin to her mouth she gets up and head off levitating the laughing dragon behind her “Its rude to laugh at others Spike, I thought I taught you better”

After a few moments of laughing Spike settles down enough to speak “And I think using a fork as a shovel doesn’t count as good table manners” He finishes with another grin.

“Humph” Twilight retorts knowing that she would have done no such thing, she’s a princess after all and princess do not eat with shovels.

The sound of armored hooves break Twilight out of her thought and she looks behind her to see a crystal guard looking like all the others running towards her. ”Princess! Princcess Sparkle” The guard shouts out as he comes to a pinpoint stop in front of her, his breathing rapid as if he just ran a marathon and sweat on his brow. Not that she noticed of course.

“Yes Guard?”

“Your…” pant “Highnesses” pant “Escorts” pant “are” pant “ready” pant “for your” pant “Journey to” pant “the site” The guard finishing his broken speech begins to breath in and out trying to catch his breath. Spike meanwhile looks at the guard with skepticism and Twilight looks with confusion.

“Why do I need an Escort?”

After a few moments the guard responds “The Prince requested it since the area hasn’t been fully explored and those who first found it heard something moving down there. Nothing has happened but the Prince said to form a small escort of guards”

After letting the information sink in for a bit she begins to respond but gets cut off by Spike “And how many guards are there?”

“Five in total”

“Are you one of them?” Twilight asks quickly

“No, I’m just the messenger and the one to lead you to the site entrance where you’ll meet your personal escort”

“Oh. Then lead the way” she says smiling. The stallion nods his head and walks past her and Spike at a quick walk his armor clanking every so often as they walk.

After a few minutes the three emerge outside the palace and towards the legendary Cathedral, dedicated to some unknown deity which has been lost to the past. Twilight sighs sadly thinking off all the knowledge lost during Sombra’s rain of terror over the Crystal Empire.

As the three walk into the massive building Twilight can’t help but notice how different the building looks. It seems to be made in a different manner then the rest of the city and seems far older. During her last viste to the Empire she never got to exsplore much so she takes the time she now has.

The ceiling is vaulted and made with a combination of Crystals and silver giving it an elegant look. The roof is held up with massive pillars of crystal all engraved with words to faded to make out. The building was clearly made to bring the eyes towards the very end of the grand hall being a massive stain glass window depicting a bolt of lighting striking the earth. The window is surrounded by silver lining much like the rest of the building.

Twilight feels the urge to explore the Cathedral even more, in hopes of finding is hidden secretes but she pushes those thoughts aside as the group make a left. They pass under an arch and head down a bland hallway towards a set of closed crystal doors.

“Alright Princess here we are” The guard who lead her says as he pushes open the door a bright light filling the hallway. Temporary blinding Twilight and Spike as they step into the room the sounds of idle chit chat taking place.

When her vision clears Twilight takes in the sight of the large circular room she stands in with a stair case leading down in the center. Multiple groups of ponies mingle in the room near Mana Lights and tables, five ponies stand near the center of the room wearing different versions of Crystal Armor.

She figures there her escorts and notices that only one is an earth pony ponies. Two others are pegesi and the last two are unicorns, one of which is clearly a mare. And none of them appear to have an enchantment on them all having there natural colors.

“Ah, Princess Sparkle, we are so glad you could make it” A dry snobbish voice says breaking her thought. She turns and is greeted by an older brown unicorn stallion wearing a simple brown coat which resembles leather. His cuitemark is a chisel and hammer over a hieroglyphic.

Author's Note:

Woot. Two Chapters in one week. Sorry this one is mostly useless filler information but I thought it was needed for me to build personality more. Also I hope I'm being descriptive enough when explaining the Cathedral and other things.

Again sorry for spelling and grammar mistakes, I'm terrible at it and I don't want to find an editor yet just incase I get writers block again. But hopefully this chapter was still enjoyable and next chapter the Plot Shall Thicken!

EDIT! Updated this to include a little more information and to fix several errors as well as one crucial error involving Twilights Escorts.