Knights of Ice and Crystal

by Leila Drake

Chapter 14: New Chances and Ancient History

Darren wiped his mouth with a napkin, leaned back and asked for the bill. That breakfast had been more extensive than he had expected. He had to reprioritize if he did not want to run out of money too soon. The pony waitress gave him a long receipt and he payed, adding roughly fifteen percent. He had no idea how tips worked in Equestria but the only thing it should hurt was his own wallet. In order to avoid a bad reputation he better erred on the side of caution. The waitress's eyes widened and she smiled at him. After wishing him a nice day, she took away the first batch of plates. When she left, Darren heard a gasp escape her. He turned around and saw the waitress staring at a jug of milk that was floating away from one of her tables.

"A thief!" she called, staring at the jug. She twitched, obviously angry she was not fast enough to instantly put down all the plates. The green magic field around the jug faded. It shattered on the ground, spilling its contents on the pavement.

Darren jumped up. His chair fell over with a clang. Ponies gasped and backed away, confused by the commotion. The waitress frowned at him, frozen on the spot. He scanned the area: there was movement in the bushes right next to the inn.

He dashed towards the shrubbery and saw the shade of a stallion running away. Darren smirked and tilted his head. It had been some time since his last chase.

---

Sombra gallopped into the park as fast as he could, looking back in panic. The knight had spotted him! This could hardly get any worse. What would he do to him? Deciding that he did not want to find out, Sombra skidded to a halt, almost tripping over a tree root, and changed direction. He was running across a paved path when the human tackled him, pinning him to the ground with his sheer weight.

"Oof!" The air was pressed from his lungs as his barrel hit the dirt. The knight sat on his back and held his neck in a firm grip of interlocking arms, forcing his chin up.

"Hello again," said Darren into his ear with a dark smile. "Nice of you to drop by." He raised his voice. "I got him!"

Sombra angrily hit the ground with his hoof.

---

"Mister Shard." Detective Blaze sat down opposite to Sombra, giving the unicorn a broad smile. He stretched the fake name like honey pulled from a jar: Shaaard. Then, the guard immediately grew serious. "That was really quick. I would have expected you to be across the border by now."

Sombra lowered his head and said nothing.

"I hear that you and Mr Houndslayer had a little race. Wanna tell me what that was all about?"

"Don't you already know that?" Sombra looked up at him defiantly.

Blaze spread his forelegs. "I wanna hear it from you. Humour me."

"I didn't do anything."

"Then why would Houndslayer chase after you? He said he caught you red-handed, stealing food. His words."

Sombra groaned.

"Yes." Blaze leaned forward, putting his hooves on the table. "Listen up. We have about a dozen eyewitnesses placing you at the inn. So there's no use denying it."

"I was hungry. I didn't take more than I needed to survive." Sombra's voice was flat, tired.

Blaze sighed and rubbed his eyes, leaning back again. "Then why didn't you go to a shelter?"

Sombra gave him a deadpan look. "I'm pretty sure you can figure this one out by yourself, Detective."

There was a knock at the door and a white earth pony stuck his head inside the interrogation room. "Got a minute?"

Blaze stood up, casting a look at Sombra, and left. He closed the door and turned to the Captain.

"He stole milk. That's petty theft. And kinda pathetic, too."

"I know," muttered Coral Spark. "He'll have to pay a small fee and that's it. As long as we can't pin anything on him, he gets to walk."

Blaze frowned. "Can't we make sure that he stays off the streets? If the inn guests were any indication we need to be careful there won't be a panic."

"If he steals food maybe he really has no money and nowhere to go," said Spark, rubbing his chin. "If he can't pay the fee until after next month we'll have to take him in anyway. It's kinda ridiculous if you think about what he used to do."

Blaze raised his eyebrows. "Yeah."

Spark heaved a sigh, making a decision. "Let him go. Tell him to go to a shelter if he gets hungry. Nopony in this city has to starve, for the stars' sake. Keep him under surveillance. One guard, but at a distance. We'll have to wait and see how this plays out."

"Yes, Sir."

---

Darren's reward for catching Sombra was a figurative pat on the back from the City Guard and an actual one-week coupon for free breakfast from the inn. The latter was more helpful than the former, Darren decided. That had been a good start of the day.

It went downhill after that. The first job Darren tried to get was as a bouncer at a nightclub. He was denied because the owner was worried nopony of the invited guests would even try to enter the club if a strange bipedal creature with glowing eyes stood at the entrance. He did not use those exact words, though. Most of the other vacancies had been filled mysteriously overnight, shrinking Darren's list down like ice cream in the Tanaris desert sun. At least some of the ponies had the decency to give him a proper reason for not employing him, such as the job requiring certain experience.

The first successful interview was at a grocery store close to the train station. Darren was surprised to find the owner, an earth pony called Peppermint, completely relaxed when he asked about the vacancy.

"Yeah, we've had minotaurs and griffins as customers," explained Peppermint. "So it's not that big of a deal to see you around. But I need some identification. You've got any insurance, a bank account?"

That was a problem. Darren did not own any documents proving that he existed, legally speaking. He asked Peppermint to give him two days. They bumped hoof and fist. Darren went back to the inn with mixed feelings of success and failure.

Back at his room, he rummaged in his backpack until he found the mirror Jonathan had given him. Knowing royalty did have its advantages.

---

The Compassionate Heart Centre had always been the most popular place in the Crystal Empire when it came to getting free food and, if you were lucky, a place to spend the night. At the chaotic return of the Empire, many ponies had lost their homes to the destructive power of King Sombra; others had lost their families to the mines. As time passed, those without a home had gotten a new one and those without family moved into smaller homes or quietly packed their things and left the city. Thus, the Centres had emptied. However, there were still those who somehow never managed to get their things in order. To prevent them from falling through the cracks, the Compassionate Heart Centre remained open.

A short line of ponies waited at the improvised line of tables that cut the small hall into two halves. In the other half of the hall, two ponies carried a large pot of soup inside. They set it down on a thick towel. There was also a basket with freshly baked bread. The line began to move.

Sombra eyed the three ponies before him. The first one was very old. His mane and coat had paled over the years and he used a crooked stick to support himself. The old stallion waited until the pony after him had gotten her fill. She was as old and wrinkled as him but she was a unicorn. After muttering a thanks to the cook, the ancient couple wobbled to a free table, two bowls in the mare's faint magic.

The third pony was chatty. He had talked while he was waiting in line: about his day, about the weather and how much it cost to just rent a room for one lousy week. It did not seem to matter to him that nopony listened. When he received his bowl, he told the cook, "Thank you, and might I add that soup of yours is a great as always, keep up the good work, laddie, I'll see ya tomorrow, won't I. There's gonna be cheese, there's always cheese on Fridays, dont'chanow," and he sat down at a table in the far corner of the hall.

Now it was Sombra's turn and he stretched out his hoof to get his own bowl. His hood slipped a bit and he quickly adjusted it so it would hide his wrapped horn.

"Thanks," he muttered like the old ponies had. He turned away and let his eyes wander around the room. Where should he sit? A tiny voice in his head suggested to leave the Centre and take the bowl with him. He forced it back and sighed.

"Excuse me, Sir!" Sombra twitched and almost dropped his soup when a hoof touched his shoulder.

"Y-yeah?"

"You forgot your bread. It's free. Here you go." The cook smiled at him, pointing at the basket.

Sombra nervously smiled back, making sure to keep his mouth closed. "Right." He took a piece of bread into his green magic and trotted over to a table next to the old couple.

The soup was hot and tasty. There was a large amount of carrots and tomatoes and just a hint of basil. Sombra decided to visit the Centre again tomorrow.

---

Coelistine trotted down the school corridor when he almost bumped into a student.

"Oops, sorry, Mister Coelistine!" That bright orange coat... wasn't she Eclipse's sister? Peridot?

"No harm done." He smiled. "Say, is your brother still around?"

"Uh, I think so, he wanted to play near the stairs."

"Thank you."

Peridot ran past him, towards the toilets.

"Hey, no running, young lady," Coelistine called after her.

She slowed from her gallop to a fast canter, grinning apologetically.

He still had five minutes until the end of the break. Coelistine left the building and let his eyes wander across the schoolyard. There he was. When Eclipse looked in his general direction, Coelistine waved for him to come over. The colt gallopped to him and skidded to a halt.

"Hi," he panted. "What's up, I mean, can I help you, Sir?"

Coelistine grinned. "I found something out about the knights. If you want to know more I can share it with you after class."

"Cool!" Eclipse beamed. "Can Peridot join us?"

"Of course." Coelistine nodded. "See you later, then. Room 1-0-2, at Three."

"Right." Slightly surprised that the conversation was already over, Eclipse returned to the stairs where two other colts were waiting for him. Coelistine noticed that he seemed embarrassed when they asked him something. He frowned and returned to the staff room to get his books.

---

When Eclipse entered the classroom Mister Coelistine had told him to go to, he found that Peridot was not the only additional guest. Two more students and one teacher were there, too. He nervously greeted Miss Petal, his history teacher. She was a rather old pony and known for being strict and straightforward. He did not know the other students; they were at least two years ahead of him.

Peridot grinned at him and patted the chair next to her. He sat down and expectantly looked at his teacher, as was everyone else.

"Hello, everypony," said Mister Coelistine. "You're here because, like me, you're interested in ancient history of the Crystal Empire. Eclipse here was the most recent pony to ask me about knights and I decided to do some research of my own about them. I want to share my findings with you because I think a discussion about them might turn out helpful for our understanding of the Empire's past. I asked your parents before I asked you, by the way, so you can tell them about anything we discuss here."

Miss Petal nodded gravely, the other students just waited, feeling slightly intimidated by the big announcement.

Mister Coelistine lit his horn and his desk opened. He levitated a pile of brown and yellow-greyish books out and put them on the desk. A cloud of dust rose from the ancient tomes and Eclipse sneezed. Two old scrolls joined the books. Coelistine cleared his throat.

"So, there really used to be knights in the Old Empire, we know that much already. These books are from the Crystal Archives so I'm afraid I can't let you kids touch them. They contain journals of knights from that time. I even found a map..." he unrolled one of the scrolls, "...that depicts the dwelling of said knights. As you can see, they had their own fortress outside the city borders, in the area that was not protected by the Barrier. As if that wasn't unusual enough, they also had a garden and wheat fields inside the fortress." He pointed at a pale green square on the map. "See, there's some symbols for trees and agriculture."

"Are you saying that they grew their own food outside the city?" asked Miss Petal.

Coelistine nodded. "Exactly. They must have found a way to create their own barrier against the ice and snow."

"Or maybe," muttered Eclipse, "their plants grew despite the cold. Like super-tough snow trees or something."

"What were the knights called?" asked one of the older students. "Did they belong to an order?"

"According to these journals, they called themselves Knights of Ice and Crystal," said Mister Coelistine slowly. "And most ponies did not seem to like them much. There are reports of trouble keeping the peace in the city when they were around. The knights were the ones to fight enemies outside of the Empire."

"So they weren't in the city very often," concluded Peridot.

"Why didn't the city ponies like them?" asked Eclipse. "Shouldn't they show respect for the protectors of the Empire?"

Coelistine sighed and let go of the scroll. He took one of the books. Some of the pages were marked with snippets of paper.

"I should warn you; what I'm about to show you might be a shock." He opened it and turned it around so the class could see the pages.

The picture was a coloured woodcut. The colours were still vibrant and clear even though the book was very old. Somepony must have cast a spell to preserve the image so well.

A stallion, a slate grey unicorn in dark armour, stood tall on the edge of a cliff. His horn was straight but he still reminded Eclipse of Sombra. But the pony's eyes were grey and his short, curly mane was brown. He was casting a spell: green, black and violet sparks surrounded his horn. There was a determined look on his face, mixed with anger and joy. On the opposite page, the image continued. The beams from the knight's horn widened, hitting a large group of white wolves and bears. The attackers were thrown back by the beam. Some were lying on the snow with various expressions of pain and fear. Black crystals grew on their coats. One of the wolves was impaled by a black crystal that grew from the ground. Eclipse was glad that the picture was not too detailed. He shuddered.

"They used dark magic?" whispered Miss Petal.

"Yes." Coelistine closed the book. The slapping noise made Eclipse and Peridot jump.

"The Knights of Ice and Crystal were dark sorcerers. They conjured crystals and used Fear Magic to fight. But their magic grew unstable and out of control. There are reports of voices in their heads and terrible mind spells. It consumed them. They turned into shadow ponies and were eventually banished from the Empire and sealed away. The Princess and Prince from that time decided never to allow teaching Crystal and Fear Magic again. Shortly afterwards, the City Guard was founded. They and the Royal Guard are now the peacekeepers of the land. And that's why we don't have any knights in the Empire." He looked at his class expectantly. "Questions or comments?"

Five hooves shot into the air.

Comments

[DDDDDDDDD23]

So when will priest realize that he used to be a paladin

[Two_Madmans]

But their magic grew unstable and out of control. There are reports of voices in their heads and terrible mind spells.

Sounds like Void, hehe.