The Guard And His Sword

by Himntor

The Promises We Make And Paths We Take - Expected & Unexpected Guests

Once I had finished telling Summer the story about my sword, she noticed one of the stars on my cutie mark reappearing, the top right one. I was surprised to find that the top left star had returned too. I’d been so distracted lately that I never noticed it reappearing. It was so strange, all my stars were back now, and I had no idea why. Summer asked for the story behind that, which I reluctantly told. It was hard to believe she stayed interested the story of my sword to begin with; I got so mixed up with events while telling it.

We arrived in the Crystal Empire right as I was finishing the story of my cutie mark disappearing and reappearing, and the sun was getting close to the horizon. I hauled Summer’s gargantuan suitcase out of the train along with my own, and only a moment later half a dozen Royal Guards came to our assistance and took everything off our hooves. Summer had quickly taken out a camera from her small suitcase and begun taking pictures.

“Welcome back to the Crystal Empire, Lieutenant Shield,” one of the guards said. It was Flash Sentry. “Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor have been expecting you. Your rooms are prepared and waiting at the castle.”

“Excellent,” I said. “If you could take our things there, we’ll be over shortly.”

Flash Sentry gave a salute. “Right away, Sir!”

The guards trotted off and I walked over to Summer as she busied herself taking pictures of the buildings, tourist stands, and castle.

Summer glanced at me. “It’s more beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen before. The pictures don’t do it justice.”

I looked up at the castle, taking in its full size and extravagance. I nodded shortly. “They really don’t. It’s weird being here like this, honestly. Every time I’ve come before was either job-related or for help from Shining Armor and Cadance. Never to just relax and appreciate the place.”

Hopefully my cousin wouldn’t end up ruining that. Knowing her, though…

“Well now seems like a great time to do that,” Summer said cheerfully. “Come stand right here, I wanna get a picture of you with the castle.”

I walked to the spot she pointed out. “Should I strike a pose or something?” I straightened and made a formal salute.

Summer chuckled. “That’s perfect, hold still for a second.”

“Only a second? I could do this for an hour if you really need.”

Summer rolled her eyes and snapped a couple photos. “Alright, now let’s hurry to the castle. I can’t wait to see what it looks like inside.”

We made our way to the castle and found the Royal Guards that were transporting our suitcases. As we began to follow them, Shining Armor and Cadance appeared and stopped us.

“Hey, Swordulan!” Shining Armor said. “Glad to see you two made it.”

Cadance looked at Summer and gave a bright smile. “You must be Summer Dawn. It’s so good to meet you. I’m Cadance, and this is my husband, Shining Armor.”

Summer gave a sheepish grin. “It’s an honor to meet you.”

“It’s our pleasure. Is this your first time here?”

Summer nodded.

“That’s wonderful! Welcome. How about I show you around the castle while we get you situated?”

Summer was practically beaming. “That sounds divine!”

The two of them walked off while Shining Armor came up to me nodding slowly as he watched them disappear around a corner. “She’s quite the catch. Seems like you’ve got everything worked out.”

“Yeah,” I said slowly.

“Uh oh. I know that look, Lieutenant.”

I took half a step back from him. “Look? What look? I don’t have a look.”

“Yep, that’s the look. Same look my sister gets when nothing’s going according to plan. I know it well. Sooo, what’s going on?”

I grimaced. “I didn’t want to tell you so soon. It’s about Stonehenge.”

Shining Armor’s eyes went wide. “What? I thought he disappeared.”

I shook my head. “Apparently not. He’s somewhere here in the Empire, or so my cousin Katana says.”

“And in trouble it sounds like.”

“I’m worried sick. Katana is trying to find him and likely to end up doing something stupid. Stonehenge is tough, but I don’t know what he’s gotten himself into. Katana told me to meet her at the Crystal Horseshoe, and she doesn’t want help from anypony but me.”

Shining Armor looked at me thoughtfully. “What are you going to do?”

Ponyfeathers, not the question I wanted. “I don’t know.” Cop-out answer, I know.

“What do you want to do?”

That was easy. “Run and hide.”

He got really loud. “Oh come on, soldier, pull yourself together!” I instinctively stood at attention. “You are a Shield, you don’t get to run and hide, you take the brunt of the blow and you do not break, no matter how much comes at you.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“You are a Shield!”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Are you a Shield?”

“Yes, Sir!”

He finally lowered his voice. “Then start acting like it. I’ll have my guards on alert for Stonehenge as well as any unusual tourists, but it’s up to you how to deal with Katana and Summer. I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to, but I warn you, if you don’t do what you know is the right thing, it will end badly.”

I took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes. “Yes, Sir.”

“I really mean that, Swordulan. Don’t get sucked into thinking you’ll be able to tactically weave your way through this without consequences. At ease.”

I relaxed and magically reached out to my sword, only to be disappointed and have a terrible, terrible feeling come over me. Vulnerability.

“I don’t have my sword,” I muttered.

“Where is it?”

“With Discord.”

Shining Armor looked at me with disbelief. “Care to explain?”

“It’s not like I wanted to leave it with him...”

*

Oh, hellooo! I must say this is unexpected, I don’t usually get many guests here within my subconscious. Certainly not uninvited guests. Well, if you must intrude like this, come on in, watch your step, and don’t track in any mud. Do make yourself at home though, it’s always pleasant to have visitors. Unfortunate that it’s such a rare occurrence…

Anyhow, you must be wondering who this is. Or if you’ve any stretch of intelligence or imagination, you’ve already guessed. I shall introduce myself nonetheless. I am Discord, Spirit of Chaos, reformed! I know, it’s quite daunting to meet me, but don’t worry, I don’t bite. At least ever since I met dearest Fluttershy.

But let’s not make this about her. You know what this is about, I know what this is about, so let’s just be absolutely clear. Waffles are superior to pancakes, in every way! They cook faster, they can be soft or deliciously crunchy, they hold an exquisite amount of syrup, and you can’t get much wrong with one. No, I won’t hear it, pancakes are no good in comparison! Why anypony would prefer them is a complete mystery.

Now, this is unimportant, but I do have something interesting to share. I’ve been studying this sword I got from Lieutenant Shield. I’m sure you’ve heard of him. It’s quite a fascinating object, and it’s not often I have the chance to say that. The thing about it is that it seems to be operating on some kind of undead magic. I shall explain.

The thing with enchantment spells is that, if the pony casting them does not fully know what they’re doing, they become completely unpredictable. Especially so for crystals as old and powerful as the ones in this sword. They’ve absorbed magic over such a long period of time that, at least the largest crystal, formed consciousness, a magical entity, deep inside its structure. Often such crystals have enough power to influence the pony who wields them, for good or evil. Usually evil. This is not something casually discussed among the unicorns, it’s quite controversial, ethically and otherwise. Not well understood either, except by yours truly of course.

Swordulan must have awoken and bound to the entity within the crystal when he cast his enchantment. Yet somehow, the entity has managed to escape, presumably from the way the crystal cracked. The aftereffect is what’s curious, because there is still some great source of power the crystals are tapping into, but it’s completely untraceable. The enchantment exists and also doesn’t exist, the crystal is empty and yet full. It’s quite a paradox, and the only accurate phrase I can think of to describe it is undead magic. Obviously there’s not supposed to be such a thing, but whatever I might do to the crystal's enchantment spell-wise, it either resists my magic or instantly reverts to its undead state.

Most curiously, every now and then the crystal will go supernova, causing the sword to glow as hot as the sun. Dunking it in ice water has no effect, nor any spell I cast. The effect seems to come and go as it pleases, though it hasn’t lasted longer than maybe ten seconds. When I had nothing else to do, I spent hours pacing around my realm of chaos thinking of how such a thing is possible. How could such a thing as undead magic exist without being utterly destroyed? Its mere existence seemed to deny all laws of magic. But then the lightbulb hit me; if the crystal was still bound to the entity, then perhaps the entity, wherever it was, still lent its power to the crystal. Yes, Swordulan had said that for all he knew it was in a parallel universe now. That had to be it. If the entity was still bound to the crystal, it would make sense for it to reject any other magic cast upon it. The entity would have to be destroyed.

But which parallel universe had it scurried off to? Hmm. I’ll have to discuss this with Princess Celestia. Perhaps she’ll have an idea. If there’s a powerful entity loose somewhere among the infinitesimal of the cosmos, it will need to be stopped sooner or later.

*

It was getting dark and Swordulan still hadn’t shown up. I began to wonder if he had been lying about coming here, or if he simply didn’t have the heart to help his family. What a hypocrite, spouting off nonsense about trying to fix our family. Wasn’t it clear to him that it couldn’t be fixed? At least, not with our parents. Mine hadn’t even spent one ounce of effort into finding my brother.

I gave up waiting for Swordulan to arrive at the Crystal Horseshoe and made my way around the streets, wishing I could cast some sort of night-vision spell. I’d have tried flying around to see if I could spot Stonehenge, but I didn’t want to be so obvious. Swordulan might have alerted the Royal Guard here about my presence. The conehead probably thought he could control me, hah!

Wandering randomly wasn’t getting me anywhere. There had to be some other way I could find Stonehenge, like putting up posters, maybe with a coded message only he would understand. Like… ah, ponyfeathers, I’m not smart enough for something like that. If only Swordulan had come, maybe we’d have a chance, but noooo, he’s probably doing some sort of top secret mission for Princess Celestia or whatever. Why couldn’t he just help me?

I spotted a patrol of guards and discreetly slipped into a long empty alley. I crouched and watched them as they passed, and once gone, I began to head back out when a pair of strong hooves grabbed my face and flipped me around. I was ready to flare my wings and attack, until I realized who it was.

“Shh,” Stonehenge said, his hoof still holding my mouth. “Don’t yell.”

He released me and I gaped at him for a moment, then walloped the side of his head with a hiss, though he didn’t even flinch. “Where the buck have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Stonehenge looked around cautiously. “I can’t explain, at least not where someone might be able to hear. Can’t trust anyone.”

“What are you talking about? You disappeared!”

He grit his teeth. “Quiet, Kat. Look, I don’t know why you’re here, but you have to leave, you gotta get as far away as you can. It’s not safe.”

I glanced back to see if there were any guards around. There weren’t. “You expect me to leave right after I find you? No way. Swordulan’s here too, over at the castle. If you won’t go ask for his help, you can at least let me help, or even give an explanation for what’s going on. You owe me that much.”

Stonehenge groaned. “I can’t. Honestly, I can’t tell you how good it is to see you, but this is serious. I don’t want you getting wrapped up in my trouble, or Swordulan. The only way to keep you safe is to keep you ignorant. I’m sorry.” He turned away. “I can handle this on my own. Don’t worry. Now get yourself and Swordulan out of here. Stay safe, sis.”

With that, he galloped down the alley and around the corner. I hesitated, but after a moment, sped after him. I wasn’t about to let him get away from me that easily, but when I made it out of the alley, he was nowhere in sight.

“You featherbrained idiot,” I muttered. “What am I supposed to do now?”

I looked to the castle. No, not yet. I needed help, Stone needed help, and I had to make sure he was alright, but it was late. If Swordulan was still here in the morning, I was going to make sure he began pulling some weight whether he liked it or not. So I made my way to the nearest bed and breakfast and got myself a room.

“I swear by Celestia,” I said as I went to bed, “If we ever get out of this alive, Swordulan, I’ll bash your head in and saw your horn off.”