Six crystal candles

by SaltWriter the leviapony

Ch. 6

Ch. 6

Maria stirred from a deep sleep, finding the night enveloping the wagon. She stretched out, almost yawning if not for for the hoof of the driver holding it shut. He gave a brief motion to his muzzle, and she nodded, the driver coming down from the top and to the edge of a bush they had been hiding behind. Duelblood was by the edge, and Maria joined the two as she peeked through another part of the bush.

The feeling of many hooves shook the ground as she piered out, troops of fluffed claws marched past in large rows. The rumbling increased as a wheeled object rolled past, silver light flowing past the position as she looked through. Once it past, she noticed the light of the sun going through the field, and she stepped back to look at the other two.

Duelblood shook his head, then walked out of the bush to watch the army go by. Maria joined him, watching the swarm of darkness and beasts travel across the road. The army soon went around a bend and out of sight, the two heading back as the driver returned to his position.

"The sun queen had mentioned something about the moon one heading out for war. I just wasn't expecting to encounter them on our own travels."

"At least we can go into the city without as much resistance." Duelblood shook his head, heading back to the door of the carrage. Maria stepped beside him, looking over the doctors clothes.

"The city is going to war. I doubt we'll be able to slide in as ourselves, especially if the city is filled with the same nocturnal ponies we saw in the army." Duelblood stopped at the entrance, pausing before rubbing his chin.

"I may not be good with magic, but I think I can make a decent costume to use if we can find a small modeling shop around the town." Maria nodded, and stepped aside to let him back inside, inktip still sound asleep on the other seat.

Maria climbed back onto the main seat, the driver already readjusting the reigns for the slave ponies. With a quick crack they began down the trail again, with Maria explaining the detour they had in mind. The trip was rough with the fresh prints of different creatures heading out to battle.

Glassclaw looked over the city walls, waiting for word from one of the units he had sent out. His one normal eye switched between watching the artificial moon and sun travel across the field to intercept. He could hear the clamor of the slaves below, discussing how likely they were to be killed or freed should the battle reach them.

The dragons thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing of a changeling near his roost. He turned to see a quarts rimmed bug fly in with a saddlebag on his other side. He hastily landed and bowed to him, nearly falling on his face in the process. Glassclaw laughed, his tail reaching to lift the face of the bug.

"Report soilder." His words made the changeling spring into action, hastily taking out three letters and handing them to the dragon. He bowed again, before flying off in the direction he came from. Glassclaw chuckled, then looked over the letters in his hand.

The first was a general recap of the scout teams progress in the cloud kingdom. They had a easy time bringing the jewel out of the city, since few pegasi seemed to know the value of the item. The only part of difficulty was finding it, since only an obscure fan club kept it within its walls after leaving the main academy.

The second letter dealt with the oncoming threat of the sun and moon queen's. Fights had already begun from the spread of scouts and the magic tension formed from moving bodies. Despite this, it seemed the sun kingdom had a good force still available to defend the walls. Glassclaw put that one in a pocket on his cloak, keeping it to show the king later.

The last one was from Maria, telling of the success of gaining the other element and the treck to the moon kingdoms element. The changeling must have found the normal carrier and took it to deliver himself, which the dragon nodded for. This left only one element to account for, which he would work on once the scouts returned from the cloud kingdom.

Glassclaw tucked away the letters, and put on a soft smile, his crystal eye glowing a bit. It seemed to him the plan was moving along smoothly. He walked to the stairway of the wall, heading down to inform the crystal king of his findings.

The dark caves of the inner mountain seem to absorb the meager light formed from the horn of Marinettes horn, thought they still trecked on. The caves seemed magic in build, the large cavernous space seemingly able to hold a sky show. But still they tredged on, hornet giving what light his dark aura could provide. Behind them, pupter walked wearing his zebra mask, the sharp adaptive eyes watching for a sign of something.

The treck from the outer layer of the mountain had lead in a rough stone path, yet somehow finding its way to a more clean path, grooves once embedded with some large line traveling down to somewhere. They had mostly followed this path, as it seemed to have some form of life put into it from a time long ago.

Traveling down it, it seemed to show signs of a struggle, large prints roughly traveled along the path in the same direction. The claw marks and wide stance was most likely a form of dragon, thought why it traveled these tracks none could say. Still they followed, the horn light letting them avoid the rougher spots.

After heading through a short tunnel of sorts, the three stopped to look over a large casem. On the other side, sitting ajasent to the wall of stone, was the remains of the city. The lack of light left the city's size and value to be gauged, but from the small amount they could see, it seemed to be upper class area.

"This must be the part of the pre chaos ordeal. But why would it be so magically hidden?" Hornets words echoed in the silent halls, with the only response being a snort from pupter behind him.

"Considering the corruption of the sisters, I imagine it was too much of a memory source to keep around. Come on, we can get to the city before the end of today." The zebra walked past the two and down the trail, with marinette following close behind.

Hornet walked a bit behind, admiring the spires and design of the city. It was similar to the stores he had heard of the queen passed down from the last generation of the hive. Thought the story was not positive, the sight of it sent good memories of the days before the hives fall and wandering phase.

They soon found themselves in the abandoned city, with pupter putting on his fox mask. After a quick movement of his wrist the once dorment lights of the city alit with purple flames. The three traversed the gloom of the white walls and long disheveled tables. Broken glass and rotting dresses were strewn through the many shops that seemed to have been closed in a hurry.

"Out of all the places in my life, this was one I was told to someday control. But this probably wasn't what the swarm thought." Hornet kicked aside a doll, singed from a magic or flame, and looked to the castle that loomed over them.

"One of my masks lies within that castle. Let's go and get it." Pupter strode through the city without stop, with marinette still nearby with her horn aglow. Hornet frowned and flew above them, scouting a path with the least rubble to traverse.

Author's Note:

Again, sorry for the delay.