28 - The Beginning of an Age
The following afternoon, Emerald Edge found herself standing by the blacksmith’s forge by Canterlot Castle, watching as Honor Proof went to a rack at the back and retrieved a fine sword from it.
Emerald couldn’t see it from afar, but once it got closer, she noticed the sword was in a sheath. A nice sheath, at that. Compared to her old one, which was a simple leather casing, this new one gleamed with fine emeralds down its length, along with steel pieces at the start and end of it.
“And I present you your blade, Lady Emerald Edge,” the blacksmith said, putting one hand on the hilt and pulling it out of its sheath.
The guard was forged into the shape of two wings, along with yet another green gem in between them, right above the grip. The entirety of the blade was of a gleaming steel, and along the sides of it, Emerald found the name, Amore, carved into it. There was really no other sword like it in his armory, like Honor Proof had said.
“It is a truly magnificent sword, blacksmith.” Emerald accepted the weapon from him. It was shorter than her current sword, just as she had asked for, and it was lighter. Much lighter. “You are a human of talent.”
“You will find no better sword in all of Canterlot, my lady.” The blacksmith bowed. “It has been an honor to forge your sword.”
“It is I who should be thanking you, Honor Proof.” Emerald slid the sword back into its sheath. “I will use this well to defend Canterlot.”
Honor Proof nodded, then scratched at his beard. “Then you should go, my lady. The knights wait for you in the castle for your ceremony.”
“Yes, right. Another one.” Emerald laughed awkwardly. She didn’t want to have to go, but she knew it was something she had to do. “Take care, blacksmith. And keep up your magnificent work!”
Emerald fastened the sword to her side and ran along inside the castle. She spotted Spring Amber and Crystal Flare on the way in and waved. No doubt all her old friends would have heard of her meeting with herself by now.
She remembered the path she had taken with Morn to the Round Table room, following the hallways and the staircases, soon arriving at the familiar wooden door.
“This is it…” Emerald took a deep breath. “Now or never.”
First knocking on the door, Emerald pushed it open, immediately noticing that all the knights in the room were facing her. She quickly averted her eyes and blushed.
“Ah! Lady Emerald, you join us.” It was Sir Morn Dread, who was quickly by herself, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Do not fear, no one means you harm here. Might I add, your sword looks well-crafted. It fits one like you.”
“I-It does, huh?” Emerald smiled and let herself be pushed by Sir Morn as they made their way to the table.
There was an empty chair beside Sir Morn’s seat and Sir Ganeighn’s seat. Emerald was glad. At least the two of them were familiar faces.
“The hero has arrived.” Sir Lionheart stroked his moustache and grinned. “Your feat with Excalibur shall never be forgotten as long as we live.”
“Good t-to know, Sir Lionheart.” She really had been operating too out in the open since arriving here. Perhaps from here on out, she would be able to tone it down and return to the shadows.
“Welcome, Emerald Edge.” King Dawn Saber sat at his glimmering throne, standing up and resting his hands on the table when he called her name. “And I see you have acquired your sword. Like the other knights, your weapon shall be known throughout the kingdom and it will be a symbol of unity and justice for all. Now come, to our newest Knight of the Round Table.”
As one, each knight reached for his helmet on the table and placed them atop their heads. Emerald didn’t know what to do and as she didn’t have a helmet, she opted to just pull her hood up over her head, keeping it low above her eyes.
Reaching behind, the king retrieved Excalibur from its sheath, revealing its golden form to Emerald once again as he stretched it out in his arm atop the table, pointing its tip straight at Emerald from across the table. Soon, each knight pulled his sword from its sheath, each of them mimicking the king and pointing their blades in a circle around the table. Sir Morn had Clarent out now, pointing it at Sir Boercival, who had a slightly purple-tipped sword out.
Emerald did the same, retrieving Amore and pointing it out straight ahead, facing King Dawn Saber.
Arranged in a circle around the table, each knight and the king had their swords out, positioned so that their weapons all formed an inner circle over the tabletop, their swords’ gems and metal gleaming from the sunlight coming from the high windows.
“Knights of the Round Table,” King Dawn Saber said, looking back up at Emerald. “Protectors of Canterlot, it is your sworn duty to defend the land and its people. Where there is trouble, you will go, where there is injustice, there you will be. Where there is evil, you will fight. Where there is chaos, you will bring order.
And now you will be one, Lady Emerald. Do you swear to uphold the values of a Knight of the Round Table and defend this kingdom with your life?”
“Umm, I, uh…” Emerald wasn’t sure what to say.
Sir Morn Dread leaned closer, his voice echoing within his helmet. “Say I swear, my lady.”
“Oh, I swear, your majesty.” Emerald smiled and nodded her head, a silent thanks to the human she loved.
King Dawn Saber nodded firmly. “Welcome, Lady Emerald Edge, Knight of the Round Table.”
And then all the knights and the king thrust their swords further forward, prompting Emerald to do the same. Then almost as quickly, their weapons were all returning to their sheaths.
“Please, sit.” The king placed himself back on his throne.
Only then did Emerald follow the other knights and sit back in her chair.
“So, my king, what quests are we to undertake this day?” Sir Prancelot asked from beside him.
Dawn Saber unfolded a letter he had on the table and held it up to his face. “Signs of uprisings at Canterbury. Possibly the work of druids. Sir Prancelot, Sir Agramane, I task you to eliminate any unrest the town has to offer.”
“Yes, your majesty.” Sir Agrammane answered for both of them.
“Your majesty, if I may.” Sir Morn said with a raise of his hand. “Send me to face the druids. If they employ their poisonous magic, I shall be able to take them on.”
“Ah yes, I remember the report of your valiant rescue of the town’s hostages with Sir Ganeighn and Lady Emerald. Very well, three knights are better than two.”
“Sir Lionheart, a group of bandits have taken residence up in a fort close to Trottingham. I want you and Sir Ganeighn to journey there and remove them.”
“Sounds easy, your majesty.” Sir Lionheart slapped a fist to his mail. “We will see it gets done.”
“Yes, your majesty,” Sir Ganeighn answered from beside Emerald, then he leaned closer to her and whispered, “A chance to meet the skilled archer, yes?”
“Yes, Sir Ganeighn,” Emerald chuckled. “Between us, I am sure she will be looking forward to seeing you as well.”
“Oh? That is fine news, my lady.” The knight joined her in a quiet laughter. “Who would think a peasant would prove to be such a fine woman.”
King Dawn Saber looked through his letter and then folded it back up and put it down. “That is all from the reports of our scouts. The rest of you may do as you see fit. Is there anything anyone would like to bring up?”
Emerald and the knights looked among each other, but no one said anything out loud.
“Then I hereby declare this meeting over.” The king smiled and got up, taking Excalibur with him.
“You had to volunteer, didn’t you?” Emerald Edge stood with Sir Morn and the other two Knights of the Round Table at the entrance to Canterlot. The sun was already beginning its descend, painting the sky a bright and fiery orange. It reminded Emerald of how Princess Celestia would lower and raise the sun everyday; she wondered who was the one doing it in this world.
“Tis only for a short while, Lady Emerald.” Sir Morn held both her hands in his. “And then I will be back and we can spend time together.”
“I will miss you, Sir Morn.” Emerald stepped in closer.
“Oh, so will I, my lady, so will I…” Morn put a hand to the spymaster’s cheek and caressed it, at the same time, taking a deep breath. “All the more reason for me to return, yes?”
“Come, Morn, we must leave if we are to make it!” Sir Agrammane called, waving his hand atop his horse. “You may court the lady when you come back!”
“Tis time to leave.” Sir Morn tapped Emerald under the chin with one of his fingers. “Have no fear, I shall return.”
“I know you will, Sir Morn.”
Almost like they were one, both of them leaned in at the same time to share a kiss.
“I love you, Sir Morn.” Emerald leaned in into a hug after they parted lips.
“And I you, Lady Emerald. Stay safe while I am gone.” The male knight patted her back.
“Count on it.” The spymaster smirked and let Morn be on his way.
She continued to watch him as the three knights left on their horses, jesting about something, riding off towards the setting sun.
“Hey, Em.” Spectrum Song came along, spinning her lute in her hands. “Woah, is that your new sword?”
“Hello, young Spectrum.” Emerald looked down at the rainbow haired squire, then put a hand to Amore. “Yes, this is Amore, my sword as a Knight of the Round Table.”
“The craftsmanship is top notch!” The squire ran a hand along Amore’s guard. “Honor Proof makes fine weapons. I mean, so does Stone Anvil, but his are generally more… common.”
“They are both exemplary blacksmiths, Spectrum.” Emerald gave the little filly’s head a rub. “Any work assigned to you by Sir Hors today?”
“Yes, I have to clean out the stables by sundown, which is very soon. Probably won’t take me that long, but I kind of don’t want to do it. Horses. All day long. Do you have any idea how dull some horses can be?” Seeing Emerald’s eyebrows rise, Spectrum quickly backpedaled, waving her hands. “Not like, uh, you, I mean. You’re technically also a horse… hahahaha.”
Emerald shook her head, smiling. “Well, since I have no other duties today, I think I shall visit Jewel Pin. I wonder if that nobleman has stopped by her shop yet?”
“What nobleman?” Spectrum strummed her lute.
“Do you recall?” Emerald asked her. “During the tournament, I was approached by a Canterlot noble, wishing to learn where I had received my cloak.” Emerald ran a hand along her red cloak. “I directed him to Jewel Pin. I have not heard from her since.”
“Hmm. Maybe this nobleman is a killer, and Jewel Pin is his latest victim?”
“Spectrum!” Emerald said, shocked. “What a thing to think!”
“Hey, it’s just something I read in a book once.”
“You can read?” Emerald cocked an eyebrow playfully.
“I can!” Spectrum protested. “As a squire, it is my duty to read for the knights.”
“Is that what Sir Hors told you?” Emerald looked at her amusedly.
“Well, yes. Squires have to know how to read. It’s one of the things they ask your family before you get picked. My pa gave me a good edgimucation, too!”
“Mhm. That sounds right.” Emerald left it at that. “I am off to Canterlot Fabrics. I’ll come back to check on you later, huh, Spectrum?”
Leaving the young squire to her duties, Emerald left the town entrance, headed in the direction of Jewel Pin’s shop. The sun was almost to the mountain line now, and birds twittered in the sky above her. All felt right in the world, and Emerald was soon within sight of her destination.
The bell above Canterlot Fabrics’ main door tinkled merrily as Emerald entered.
“Hello, welcome to- Emerald, dear, you have come back!” Jewel Pin put down a yellow bolt of fabric she was holding and swooped over, giving the spymaster a warm hug. “How have you been?”
“Oh, everything’s just swell. I’ve been knighted!”
“Why, yes! I heard that you were rewarded for your role in rescuing that young girl from the clutches of those awful druids. But you say you were knighted? By the king himself?”
Emerald nodded. “I am a Knight of the Round Table now.”
“Why, darling, that’s stupendous news! I had a feeling you were something special the moment you first walked into my shop. And with all the customers you have been bringing me, oh, you are special indeed, Emerald Edge. Oh, I mean, Lady Emerald Edge.”
“Oh, you don’t need the titles with me, Jewel Pin.” Emerald waved her hand, hoping it hid her embarrassed face. She still wasn’t as used to attention and praise as she would’ve liked. “I knew you before I was a Knight of the Round Table. You can just stick to Emerald, or even just Em, as Spectrum Song and the others have decided to call me.”
“If that is what you wish, Emerald, then I shall forgo the titles,” Jewel Pin said happily. “After all, you have brought me much business with that beautiful cloak of yours.”
“Ah, that is what I wanted to ask you about.” The spymaster leaned against the table. “A nobleman stopped to ask me about this fine cloak you made me. Umm, I do not recall his name, but it sounded like High… High something.”
“Oh, you mean High Rise?” Jewel Pin suddenly spun around on the spot and clasped her hands together against her face. “Oh, High Rise… Such a nice man, he is. Why didn’t I meet him sooner?”
“So you’ve met?” Emerald flipped the store sign to ‘closed’ as Jewel Pin began to clean up after work.
“Oh, we have, we certainly have, dear.” Jewel Pin began sweeping the floor happily. “I think I am in love, Emerald. High Rise has stolen my heart.”
Emerald gave her friend an amused smile. “What, so quickly? He must be a real charmer.”
“He is…” Jewel Pin began giggling uncontrollably, tipping a few bolts off her table. “He saw your cloak, Emerald, and he came by to purchase plenty of my goods. And my, he is so dashing! Just thinking about him is making me lightheaded…
“Oh, but he is of noble blood, while I am just some commoner from Trottingham. I wonder if he has even noticed my attraction to him. Oh, High Rise…” Jewel Pin picked up one of her fallen bolts and held it to her chest. “My heart flutters just by thoughts of him.”
“I’m sure he likes you, Jewel Pin,” Emerald chuckled at her friend. “You are the most generous human I’ve met! Hay, I’m sure he would have noticed that in you already.”
“Well, he has commissioned me to create his outfits for him.” Jewel Pin put a hand to her mouth. “Do you really think so, Emerald? Do you think he feels the same way about me?”
“Well…” Emerald didn’t know how to tell her that it wasn’t normal for people to fall in love so quickly, and how it definitely wasn’t normal for both parties to fall in love immediately. From what she knew, that only happens in fairytales. “P-Perhaps…? I have no way of knowing for sure.”
“Oh but I am absolutely delighted!” Jewel Pin spun around in circles, still holding her bolt of fabric. “And I am glad you stopped by, Emerald. It has been some time since I saw you. You have been fine, yes?”
“Yes, I haven’t had to worry about anything since that druid attack. Poor Honeygold. That little filly had to go through such an ordeal.”
“Umm, yes, I know how the little one feels, Emerald.” Jewel Pin hugged her shoulders and shuddered. “If not for you, I do not know if I will still be here selling clothes.”
“I don’t see why they have to do what they do, sacrificing humans…” Emerald sighed and examined her hidden blade casing, running her fingers along its surface. “Your world’s magic is nothing like the magic from mine. Such disgusting methods, and the outcome is far from perfect.”
“Can you use magic, Emerald?” Jewel Pin put her bolts back in her shelf. “How does it work there?”
“Oh, I cannot use magic, no, not exactly.” Emerald shook her head. “Only the unicorns may use magic freely. Do you know of them?”
“Unicorn?” Jewel Pin tapped her chin. “I cannot say I do. Tell me, what is a unicorn?”
“Oh, um, unicorns are… Well, we are all ponies in my world. A unicorn is a pony with a horn on their head.” Emerald traced the center of her forehead and up into the air. “Right here. The horn allows them to cast magic. Our magic is more… direct. Let’s say we need light. With a spell, we have light. Other kinds of ponies have magic too, but the unicorns are the most prominent example of magic.”
“You were a, um… I forgot the word, a flying pony, yes?”
Emerald chuckled. It seems not everyone here was well versed in other species. “I was a pegasus, yes. I had wings. I must say, I do miss having them. It is a bother to have to walk everywhere.”
Jewel Pin shrugged good-naturedly. “Most of us here are used to using our feet to get from place to place. What I’d give for a pair of wings though… perhaps a pair of marvelous butterfly wings.”
“Butterfly wings are fragile, Jewel Pin.” Emerald folded her arms and leaned against the seamstress’ table. “Just imagine if they’re clipped while you are flying.”
“Feathered wings can be hurt too.”
“But they’re harder to hurt.”
“Butterflies are such beautiful and elegant creatures though.” Jewel Pin looked at her colored cloths hanging from her ceiling. “Just like how I would like to make my clothes. But, I can only dream. After all, even you do not have wings in our world, yes?”
“Mhm.” Emerald looked behind herself, hoping that if she looked hard enough, a pair of wings would sprout from her back, but then again, she had lost one in her fight with Sombra. Maybe it was better if she had neither than that.
“So what did you do again, Emerald?” Jewel Pin walked over to the side and picked up a broom. “You were a spymaster for your princess. So you… spy on others?”
“Mainly, yes,” the former pegasus chuckled and watched the seamstress begin to sweep her floor. “I have been through missions to gather intel, to forge intel, to mislead, to spy, and one I am not so proud of, to assassinate threats.”
“What’s not to be proud of?” Jewel Pin raised one eyebrow. “You protected your home by killing others? I see no wrong with that. You were simply doing your duty.”
“I can never be proud by killing others, Jewel Pin.” Emerald shook her head and sighed. “Taking a life is no simple matter, but at times, yes, it has to be done. But it doesn’t make it any easier to accept.”
“I suppose it can’t be easy to simply take someone’s life.” Jewel Pin looked at one of her hands. “And mine was almost taken by the druids, and it would have been if you had not come along, Emerald. How dreadful. Now, pardon my words, but they are a people I would not mind seeing you assassinate.”
“If I didn’t have to, I would rather not, Jewel Pin. I’m sorry. But be assured, if they do threaten Canterlot again, I will do what I must. No one innocent should have to die at the hands of such barbaric humans.”
“That I believe you, Emerald.” Jewel Pin walked over and put a hand on the spymaster’s shoulder. “You are one of the Knights of the Round Table now. I know there is much good you will do in your time here.”
“And I will.” Emerald nodded to her friend. “There is much ahead that I look to. And the artifacts… I will find one of them and I will return home to save my home. I am Emerald Edge, royal spymaster to Princess Amore of the Crystal Empire, Knight of the Round Table to King Dawn Saber of Canterlot, and I will do this.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.032 seconds
Total duration
737 users online
761,904 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Sounds like Emerald's here to stay! If I were her, I would take advantage of the king's resources and manpower to help locate more artifacts, so that when the time comes, she can be ready to go back and fight Sombra. I know it won't happen since I've read your other stories, but it's nice to imagine.
Act 1’s done???
what are we going to expect next!!!!
Act 1 Cleared, SYNCRONIZATION: 100%
Earned: Spymaster's Oath [Chestplace]
Knight's Sword
"There is no Endings in a story. Only new beginnings" -
Oh, I'm intreaged.
Wait a second, in the intro by Cinders, there is one ancestor that looks like a belly dancer of sorts.
Pinkie's ancestor!
8766075
That could very well be the case, yes. I kind of forgot about the video.
Interesting Arc. It introduces all the characters while having Emerald adapt to this whole new world.
Though I wish you show more of what the Dazzlings and Changelings are up to behind the scenes in the next arc.
Also, I don't know why but part of me feels that Wallflower Blush could be another descendant of Emerald. The human one perhaps. Considering the whole hidden in plain sight aspect
9953213
You're in luck! The next few arcs will, without spoiling too much, involve the sirens and the changelings in their plotlines. Thanks for dropping a comment!
Very good starting act. What an interesting world. Things went just swell this time, I'm guessing that won't hold out forever though. I can't wait to see more of the Sirens and Changelings!