What do you do when you discover a changeling that was encased in a crystal egg? Why, get it to tell you a story of adventure!
Crystal, a changeling that's rather unique in appearance, is discovered in a mine shaft very close to the Crystal City. After making a rather unorthodox and upsetting introduction, she begins her tale of how she arrived...
Set in Sylvian's and Witching Hours Roan era, which is a part of the Expanded Wonderverse. The story itself takes place during that time, while the introduction and small scenes take place in the current day, a few years after Calm Winds Piercing the Heavens.
“What is it?” A unicorn stallion glanced at his comrade. The unicorns were of similar colors, both having a dusty brown coat. One had a bright green mane, the other a dark purple. They were both wearing the glittery blue armor of the Crystal Empire. And the one with the green mane was also glittery, showing off his crystal fur coat.
The pair were staring at a changeling, at least what appeared to be one. The grey limbs appeared to match, and the bands around its barrel were a deep blue. It has a pair of bright red bat-like dragon wings on its back, and a matching dragon like tail that ended in a green crystal. Along its neck was a crest of a deep purple. A pair of fangs were visible from its closed mouth as it laid there, barely breathing. Finally, the shell on it's back was a milky white.
“I suspect it's a changeling. But… that's about it,” The pony with the purple mane glanced up, seeing a broken crystal that looked more like an egg then a crystal. Shards of it were strewn about the room. The guards had been called in when a few mining ponies had found this area. He turned to the other pony, “Go get Shining Armor and Princess Cadance down here, Corporal Horn.”
Horn saluted. “Sir, yes sir. Lieutenant Spire.” He turned and bolted out of the room. Leaving Glimmering Spire alone with the unusual creature. He turned his attention back to the changeling, noticing something that seemed to escape his eyes before. Was it glimmering like a crystal pony?
He shook his head and continued to look it over, his eyes falling upon its right fetlock, where a silver bracer rested. The design on it appeared to be a single dragon wrapping around it like a snake, and within its claws it grasped a deep purple gem. As Spire stared at the gem, he swore he saw a bolt of lightning, and something stare back at him. He blinked and quickly shook his head, looking about the room.
The room appeared to be carved out somewhat hastily. No designs upon its walls aside from a single line that appeared like words that he couldn't read. He shrugged and looked inside the egg, seeing a single weapon resting within. The weapon was a sword, at least he assumed it was. The hilt and handle were made of ivory and designed for someone with paws. He could make out faint images of griffins along the scabbard.
He tried to reach out with his magic to grab it, and gasped. His magic couldn't touch it! It wasn't like an anti-magic shell or ring, it just wasn't there for his magic to feel. He would have gone to grab it, but this strange creature laid in front of the egg.
He took a step, but stopped and glanced over his shoulder, just as Shining Armor came into the room. Following behind him was Princess Cadance and a snow white unicorn with a blue mane that had a stripe of purple in his mane, and a deeper blue stripe in his tail. The three of them stared in shock at the changeling.
Spire quickly straightened up with a salute. “Sir!”
“Stand down, Spire,” Shining said as he kept his eyes on the creature. “What is it, Scope?”
The snow white unicorn took a few steps towards it. “Uh, it appears like Talon. But beyond that, I don't know.” He kept looking it over. “We’re near the Crystal Heart, closer than any normal changeling should be. So it should be waking up soon, if it is one.”
“For now we should move it to the palace, put a few anti magic things on it,” Shining said, turning to Spire. “Go get them and a cart, we’ll watch over it.” Spire nodded and dashed out of the room.
Shining turned to Scope a few moments after Spire left. “Any clues, since you're the changeling expert?”
“It appears similar to me, the wings and tail anyway. And its carapace there…” He shrugged, pointing towards its back plate. “It appears to be from the Quartz hive. But they died out half a century before the last griffin-drake war.” He turned to look at Shining. “And I have yet to see a changeling with a Cutie Mark.” He pointed to the changelings flank, where a rather interestingly shaped blue, white, and brown crystal sat that looked like Earth would from orbit.
“Would moving it closer to the heart wake it up and power it up?” Shining looked at the changeling, “Because if so, the last thing we need is a changeling powered up in the middle of the Crystal City.”
“If it's anything like me, sir, I doubt it’d get more than a buzz,” Scope looked at the weapon in the egg, taking a few steps towards it, he pointed it out to Shining. “Why would a changeling need a sword?”
Shining looked up. “I don't know.”
Scope reached out with his magic, right as Cadance looked at the blade. She saw something hovering over it, like an outline of a ghost. Scopes magic actually managed to touch it unlike Spire who couldn't do anything with it
As Scope’s red aura grabbed the handle, Cadance yelled out to not touch it. The aura held it for all of a second before white lightning arced back at Scope, sending him flying into the wall. His disguise held up as he slumped down.
“Ow…” Scope shook his head, glancing up at his sizzling and scorched horn. Cadance ran over to his side and looked him over. “Well, I feel dumb now,” he said as he looked at the Princess.
“As you should be, did you not see the protective aura around it?”
Scope shook his head, looking back at the sword, “Nope. In fact I barely felt the sword there.”
Shining focused on the sword, looking it over and reaching out his magic just to touch it. He blinked when he felt it clear as day, he dare not touch it though, even if that ghostly image seemed to part for him. “Huh, that's weird.”
Cadance looked back at Shining, then to the blade and noticed the same thing, “For now, we should leave it be. We clearly can't touch it, at least with magic.” She looked at Scope. “Can you stand?”
Scope shook his head a few times, “Once the world stops spinning, yeah.”
“Are you sure we should even touch it with hooves? Who knows how it would bite then.” Shining took a few steps from the egg, keeping his eye on the weapon for a moment longer before looking at the changeling before them.
They debated back and forth for a good half hour and finally decided to leave the blade there, right as Spire returned with a cart, and the four loaded the creature onto it, after making sure the wings were tied, and a ring put upon its strangely unnotched horn.
Shining and Scope proceeded to bar up the room, and posted a pair of guards outside it to make sure no pony could disturb it. Afterwards, Scope followed the cart back to the palace, keeping a constant watch on the unconscious changeling.
“That horn is… weird. I mean, it's strange enough that it’s lacking notches, but the changeling looks to be old.” Scope shrugged as he walked, Cadance next to him.
“Maybe when it wakes up, if it isn't hostile, we can get our questions answered. We should at least put it in a semi comfortable room. Not one of the jail cells,” Cadance said softly, glancing at Scope.
“Even if said jail cells have cotton sheets and comfy beds?” Scope chuckled softly, as Cadance glared at him to make him shy away for a moment. “Sorry, your highness.”
“Just because I prefer my prisoners to at least be somewhat comfortable while they are doing their time doesn't mean anything.” Cadance said with a huff.
“Yeah, I think it’s the overpowering air freshener you have down there that keeps ponies from committing crimes. Maybe that's what Celestia should do for her dungeons,” Scope chuckled, ignoring the glare from Cadance.
“Do you want to be down there, Scope?” Cadance lowered herself, narrowing her eyes at the unicorn-disguised changeling.
“Uh, no. I'm going to shut up now, ma’am… Highness,” Scope gulped, scooting a little away.
“Good,” Cadance straightened up, as Shining merely chuckled from his position ahead of the cart. They slowed as they neared the room, and both Scope and Shining floated the creature gently into it and onto a bed.
“Well, it should be comfortable on that bed,” Scope chuckled softly as he started towards the door.
“And guess who just volunteered to watch it first,” Shining pointed at Scope, who sighed.
“Yes sir.” He moved to sit outside the door. Shining smirked and walked to Cadance’s side and they trotted off down the hallway.
“Remember, four hour watch, I’ll get somepony to replace you then,” Shining called back.
“Yes sir!” Scope said with a minor salute in his general direction, since he wasn't watching.
A pony dressed as a maid nodded to the guard ponies outside the room. They opened the door to let her in, one of the two guard ponies moving in with her to keep an eye on her. They both looked at the bed and gasped. Laying in a neat pile on a neatly made bed, was some rope and a small horn ring.
The guard quickly dashed back into the hallway. “The creature is missing!” he shouted at the other guard, before dashing down the hallway. He took a few various turns, passing by ponies until he made it to the lobby, where Shining and Cadance were, just as they were greeting a familiar purple alicorn.
He slid to a stop near Shining, panting softly. Shining turned and raised an eyebrow at him, he quickly saluted, “Sir! The creature has vanished!”
“Vanished?! HOW?” Shining turned quickly to glare at the guard who held his ground.
“Unsure!” He kept his salute.
Shining turned back to the newcomer. “Sorry for the interruption, Twily!” Shining turned and was about to take a step or two in that direction.
“You used the guest rooms, right?” Twilight asked, getting a nod from Shining. “Okay, one mass teleport coming up.”
“Wait Prin-” The guard managed to say, before the area suddenly shifted to a hallway, “-cess, urk!” The guard turned a few shades greener as he quickly looked for a potted plant. Shining was already dashing down the hallway with Cadance hot on his hooves. Twilight looked at the guard apologetically.
“Sorry.” She cringed, and quickly left the guard to share his lunch with the potted plant.
Shining had already made it to the room and inside, quickly looking around. The window was closed, no signs of visibly leaving the room at all. Cadance and Twilight soon cantered in, looking around as well.
“How…? The window is closed, it had that null-magic ring on its horn,” Shining mumbled to himself. Twilight trotted over to the bed, looking it over, just as Scope trotted into the room.
“Huh,” Twilight started, getting every ponies attention, “A teleport spell? You said it looked like a changeling?” She looked up at Shining, “I doubt even Talon could teleport out of here,” She closed her eyes, horn glowing a little, “I think I can follow it.”
“Do it!”
Twilight opened her eyes and glared at her brother “Aren't you bossy.”
“If it is a changeling, it's loose in the Crystal City! It could be going after the Heart as we speak!” Shining looked towards the doorway. “You, outside the door! Go increase the guards at the Crystal Heart!”
“I think you’re over-reacting, sir,” Scope said calmly, as the guard outside the door galloped down the hall.
“Better to overreact then be unprepared.” Shining turned to Twilight. “Can you please take us along that trail?”
“At least you said please…” Twilight trailed off, powering up her horn. With a pop, Cadance, Twilight, Shining, and Scope all vanished from the room.
The four appeared in a familiar dusty room, scaring the guards at it's doorway. They appeared in the room that was discovered in the mine shaft. The four quickly looked around, “Huh, it came here?” Shining asked no one.
“She.” All four turned to the source of the sweet and gentle voice, staring at the creature that looked back them with a gentle smile and gleaming emerald green pony eyes. She was standing near the words on the wall, and the blade that was resting in the egg was on her back, the scabbards straps across her shoulder and barrel. She watched all their shocked expressions for a moment, keeping her eyes on Twilight for a few moments longer, before she turned to the wall and rested a hoof on it, just under the words.
“What are you doing down here? How did you escape that room?” Shining started barking questions at her. She ignored him, sighing softly at the wall. “Answer me!”
“Reminiscing,” She then angled a wing to point at Twilight. “And what the owner of the Element of Magic did.”
Twilight just stared wide eyed at her, “How…?”
“My best friend used it very well.” She kept facing the wall, “Considering he was an earth pony.”
“I don't believe you,” Twilight said flatly.
“Did not figure you would.” She turned to face the crew, looking among each one and lingering upon Scope for a moment longer. “Hmm…”
Scope raised an eyebrow.“You obviously know what I am.”
“Perhaps we should talk somewhere more private” She glanced at Shining. “My name is Crystal.” She bowed gracefully, sweeping her wings out to the side as she lowered herself to Shining.
Shining growled softly. “How did you teleport out of that room?”
“Simple,” She glanced at Twilight for a second, and the five of them suddenly found themselves back in the bedroom, with Cadance standing on the bed, “Like so.”
Twilight looked around, “How did you…?” She felt herself get teleported, but it was so subtle that it was barely detected. No one else showed any signs of discomfort, and her horn barely glowed!
“So many questions for me, perhaps a meal is in order and I will explain everything.” She shrugged slightly, sitting. “And you can tie me up if it makes you feel better, Captain.”
Shining just glared at the changeling as Twilight moved over and sat next to him. “Easy Shiny, we know she means no harm.”
“Easy for you to say! How did she know you are an Element of Harmony?”
“Because I was once one.” She glanced towards the window. “What year is it?”
“Eh, the year is 1055… which is 1005 years after Princess Luna’s banishment.” Twilight shrugged slightly. “And 50 years before that was the fall of the Equus Empire.”
“The Equus Empire fell?” She quickly turned to Twilight, who winced slightly. The changeling sighed softly, “So, well over a thousand years have passed since I was sealed away.” She looked back out the window. “I wonder how much has actually changed.”
“A lot I’d suspect. why were you sealed away?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.
“That is a very long story and I should start at the beginning for that,” Crystal let out a long sigh, looking directly at Shining. “But I doubt you all want to hear it right now. You are more concerned if I am a threat, which I am not. If anything I helped save this land from a conflict all those years ago with my friends who are no longer around.”
“Before you start, how did you know I was the owner of the Element of Magic?” Twilight sat, looking over the changeling.
“Because being able to follow a teleport trail is hard enough to do for a simple unicorn. Being the Element of Magic means you can sense faint traces of magic in the air. And... I was merely suspicious before your Captain here said so.”
“And what was your element?” Cadance asked as she had settled down on the bed, watching the changeling curiously.
“You would not believe me.”
“Why’d ya leave us in the lobby, Twi’?” the orange earth pony asked as Twilight sheepishly stood before her friends.
“Sorry, something came up and I kind of teleported Cadance, Shining, Glimmering Spire, and I to the guest rooms.” Twilight rubbed the back of her neck as she looked among the other ponies present.
“I’m sure that whatever it was, was very important,” Rarity calmly spoke, just as Pinkie bounced up next to her.
“Yup, another changeling! Like him!” She pointed towards Talon, as he stood next to Rainbow Dash, “Only more like a rainbow of colors!” She grinned widely as Twilight just shook her head.
Talon just shrugged, “If you say so Pinkie. I don't know of any of my hive that had a rainbow of colors.”
“That's because she isn't from your hive,” Scope said as he trotted in, Crystal and Cadance trotted in behind him, with a softly growling Shining behind Crystal. Talon grinned at Scope for a moment, then bowed to Cadance and Shining, before turning to Crystal and looking confused.
“Huh, I agree there. You’re not Quartz, either. Are you?” Talon looked over Crystal.
“Nope, I was a member of the Emerald Hive,” Crystal shrugs slightly, looking over at the mares, “And these must be the other Element Bearers.”
“Let me guess, you can tell that too?” Twilight deadpanned.
Crystals eyes fell on Pinkie. “Laughter was owned by an interesting griffin,” She turned to Rarity. “Wouldn't suspect a dragon to be generous.” she turned and bowed to Fluttershy, making her squeak. “Kindness, a good pegasus owned that one before.” She turned to Rainbow Dash. “And my friend, Rose Wind, a loyal thestral.” Her eyes fell upon Applejack, with a faint smirk.
“Uhh…”
The changeling bowed to her like she did to Fluttershy, “You appear to be an honest and hard working pony.”
“Twi’… what does she mean by that?” Applejack looked horribly confused.
Twilight looked just as confused at the changeling, “You… mean… Your element was honesty?!”
“Ironic, no? An honest morphling?” Crystal grinned widely at Twilight. “I told you; you would not believe me.”
“What in tarnation is she talking about?” Applejack pointed at Crystal.
“She was apparently an Element of Harmony at one point, way in the past before even the fall of the Equus Empire.”
“So, you are from the Ruby Hive, Talon?” Crystal stretched out on the bed that she had been given after proving she was not a threat. She was currently sharing a room with Talon and Scope, the others had all gone to bed and left the ones who didn't really need sleep at the moment with her.
“We both are,” Talon nodded slowly. “Although I don't know of any Emerald Hive.”
“That is because it died out long before my friends and I became heroes,” she sighed. “In fact, that was one reason why I became a fighter.”
“Hive was destroyed, I’m assuming?” Talon asked quietly, getting a nod in response. “Something the Gem Hives seem to have in common.”
“Can we go for a walk or something? I do not want to be cooped up in here for the whole night.” Crystal stretched out again. “I was asleep for a very long time and would like to do something. I promise not to teleport or run off.”
Talon shrugged, glancing at Scope. “You’re the boss here. As I think you still outrank a Wonderbolt Recruit.” Talon chuckled as Scope nodded and kept his eyes on Crystal.
“I suppose we can go for a walk, however, you are to remain by my side. If you are as honest as you say, that shouldn't be a problem.” Scope stood up and stretched out, then moved over to the door.
Crystal grinned and hopped off the bed, “Thank you. I am curious where I am.”
Scope opened the door and stepped out, “Mirrormere. The Capital of the Crystal Empire.”
Crystal blinked, “That was a small quaint little town on the edge of Hope’s domain! How did it become the capital?”
“Uh. That might be better explained by Princess Twilight in the morning,” Scope said as stood beside Crystal once she was finally out of the room. Talon followed them from behind.
“Right. I guess reading a few history books would be in order.”
“I’d start with the most recent events really,” Talon started, “At least I managed to catch up with the last twenty or so years.”
Crystal stopped and glanced over her shoulder at Talon, “How did you miss that short of time?”
Talon growled lowly, “Discord.”
Crystal stared for a moment, looking confused, “Who?”
“You don't know who Discord is?” Talon blinked as they walked along.
“No, should I?”
“We can introduce her to the god of chaos later, as I am sure he is off busy with tormenting other ponies at this moment,” Scope chuckled.
“So, my question to you two,” Crystal started up as they rounded a corner. “Is why are you not disguised?” She gestured back to Talon.
“Got in a fight with some strong pony and got scared. Simple as that.”
“I have been in plenty of fights, yet I can still disguise myself.” At that, in a flare of white fire, the changeling was replaced with a snow-white unicorn. She had blue hooves and a deep golden mane and short cut tail that has streaks of platinum in them. The single bracer remained on her forearm, as she grinned softly to the pair that was escorting her.
Talon chuckled softly. “I can still do that, I just can't fully hide myself,” he held up his left forehoof. “It won't fully colorize. So there is no point in me doing it, plus I fight better this way anyway.”
“Fight? I figured being a member of the guard meant you had to. But I did not suspect harvesters to do that.” Crystal watched Talon and Scope, as they turned another corner. Seemingly just going for a walk through the palace.
Talon shook his head, “We’re soldiers. Our hive is no more, destroyed before our very eyes. Although I would very much like to hear your story.”
“It is a very long tale,” Crystal stopped for a moment to stretch out her limbs, retaking her changeling form to do so. “It would most likely take days to tell.”
“Huh,” Talon looked at Scope. “Then I bet Twilight will take notes, especially since you're a veritable relic from that time. Guess I can just read those then. Only here on patrol with Rainbow Dash.”
“That rainbow maned mare? I sensed a lot of power from her, and those other mares as well.”
“Well, they are the Element Bearers,” Scope lead them down another turn. “We should return to the room.”
“Indeed, sir.”
“So, we meet again, Crystal Heart.” Crystal stood a good yard or so from the floating relic that had a pair of guards around it. Twilight, Shining, Cadance, and a few others all watched Crystal as she just grinned at it, “You do not have to fear, Captain. The energy that Heart provides won't get touched by me.”
“And why is that?” Shining growled out softly, earning a glare from Twilight and Cadance.
“Because, as I may be a… Changeling, as you called me. I don't have to feed on emotional energy.”
“Huh?”
Crystal turned to face Twilight, “It would be better if the alicorns present scanned me. Hearing it from two ponies, rather than one you distrust, would maybe grant me a little trust.”
Twilight nodded, glancing at Cadance for a second before they looked upon the changeling before them. They both started up their scanning spells, and Twilight was the first to gasp.
“How… You register as an alicorn?” Twilight blinked, her spell still going, “And… While you can feed, you don't have to. Holy Tartarus, Your power level is close to my own!” Twilight sat, staring blankly at Crystal.
“I was given the eternal lifespan of an alicorn. It was required to seal away an evil within myself. I am thankful that whatever wave of energy happened a short time ago aided me.”
“Short time…” Twilight trailed off, “Only one I recall was banishing Sombra.”
Crystal nodded at that, “That one, then. It was powerful enough to repel evil and aid me in defeating…” She trailed off, looking down and muttering, “him.”
Twilight looked at Cadance, who was just as stunned as she was at the power level. She turned to Crystal, who had resumed looking at the heart. “Okay, now I am really curious how a changeling became a god.”
“It was not easy. I had to prove to the alicorn who gave up her power that I was willing to lay down my life for Equus. I suppose I should start that story now, huh? Your highnesses.”
“You don't need that title with me, Crystal.” Twilight stood and walked closer to the changeling.
“I am afraid I am honour bound to do that, your highness. You appear to be royalty and I must treat my superiors with respect.” Crystal turned to Twilight, bowing to her.
“I… er… Okay. If it makes you feel better.”
Crystal nodded as she stood up, “I have heard from Scope and Talon that there are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna who rule over the sun and moon now. I wonder if they are anything like Lady Aurora and Lord Nox.”
“Given that they are the lordships children, and they have ruled well for the past thousand or so years. Yes, they are everything like their parents.” The new voice startled Crystal, who turned to it. She gasped as she saw an alicorn made out of quartz grinning at her warmly. A necklace with a green glowing gem hung around its neck.
“Partner! You still live!” Crystal dashed over and hugged the construct, making Cadance and Twilight chuckle softly.
“As do you, Miss Crystal.” She hugged her back. “It is good to know that you didn't fail in your efforts.”
“Nope, I succeeded.” Crystal held Partner at arms length, grinning.
“I trust that he is just a memory now?” Crystal nodded, as Partner continued, “Then you can enjoy a normal life now.”
“Without my friends, sure.” Crystal sighed forlornly.
“One still lives, and I can let the dragon know you are alive and well.”
“Dragon?!” Shining exclaimed, drawing everyone's attention, “How in Tartarus did you befriend a dragon?”
“He was the generous one I mentioned the other day.”
“Yes, Tesla is still around from what I have heard in the dragon empire. Seems that ageless potion has done wonders for him. Too bad he still can't replicate the thing.” Partner shrugged.
“More like a good thing, as the last thing we need is unaging ponies.” Crystal chuckled as she stepped back and sat, looking over Partner, “So… a mare?”
“No! We are not doing this again!” Shining grumbled and turned away, getting Crystal to look at him confused, “I am finally over this thing, we don't need to bring it up again.”
Partner just chuckled, “I can explain another time when Prince Shining isn't here.”
“Prince?” She watched Shining as he huffed and left the area, “Captain of the guard here and a prince too boot? Wow. Things have changed a lot.” She turned to Twilight, “When do you want me to begin my tale?”
Twilight grinned, “I am going to be here for a few days, so any time works! Just let me get my notes ready and I shall be set!” A pen and parchment appearing by her as she sat down. “Begin!”
Crystal raised an eyebrow for a moment, then opened her mouth to speak before she got interrupted.
“Wait a minute!” Shining had returned and pointed at Crystal, “I thought I heard you say you were sealed with something evil!”
“That is true.” Crystal nodded.
“So, how do we know we aren't being deceived, huh?” Shining powered up his horn.
“Because she would not be standing here otherwise.” Partner stated calmly, “The sealing spell used was meant for her directly. If she lost the battle, then her body would remain sealed forever, fully encasing itself in unbreakable stone. If she won...well. The proof is before you.”
“And who made this spell?” Twilight asked, looking at Shining who kept his horn-powered up.
Crystal looked down, sighing, as Partner spoke up, “Grey Pilgrim, Librarian, and Dust Horn,” Partner sighed as he watched Crystal. “You will be happy to know that Dust Horn and Grey Pilgrim led a full life till they both passed on.”
She nodded slightly, looking up, “My best friend and Pilgrim… It was not easy to make that spell; knowing what it cost.”
“Pilgrims immortality, and Dust’s life long friend. The cost was too high.” Partner looked at Twilight, “Your history records lack this detail, even Librarians does, because that spell was too strong.”
“Considering I have no clue who Grey Pilgrim and Dust Horn are… I believe that fact.”
“Grey Pilgrim was the alicorn who gave up her immortality and some of her power to Crystal, in addition to making that spell. And Dust Horn was the Element of Magic,” Partner paused as Twilight’s eyes went wide.
“Isn't that the earth pony you mentioned?”
“Yes,” Crystal said quietly.
“And…”
“Yes. It was a very difficult time.” Crystal looked up at Twilight.
“For your best friend to do that… why?”
“It will all make sense when I get to that part.” Crystal looked at Shining, who had long since let his magic drop and just stared at Crystal.
“Hey! Get back down here Rose Wind!” Crystal shouted to the dark green bat pony flying above her and a dusty tan earth pony.
“Oh come on Crystal! You can easily come up here since you have wings too!” The bat pony looked down, letting the wind push his short blue and red mane aside as he grinned down at the snow-white unicorn.
“Right, and how am I supposed to catch up… to… you…” She trailed off as she felt the ground under her shift. She looked down to see a glow in a circle around her, making her skid to a stop. She looked to her left as the earth pony smirked, his hooves glowing for a second as he jammed them into the ground.
“One Crystal arrow, coming up!” He shouted, raising his hooves up quickly as Crystal suddenly felt the ground rush up against her. She flopped against the ground for a moment before getting launched skyward directly at the bat pony.
“Oh, now that's just unfair, Dust!” Rose shouted at the earth pony, having stopped and turned to face them at the mention of a Crystal arrow.
“AAAAAHHHHH!” Crystal yelled and flailed in the air until she collided with Rose, sending them both tumbling back to the ground as Dust Horn, the earth pony, cringed.
“Oops, too much force,” he mumbled as his hooves glowed again, the ground shifting to soft sand just as the pair impacted it, sending up a cloud of sand and dust into the air. Dust winced as he came up to the pair, both groaning and in a tangled pile of limbs and pony at the moment. “Sorry Crystal!”
“Ugh…” She let out a groan as she wiggled herself free, “A little more warning next time!”
“I said sorry! Sheesh.” Dust sat and rubbed a hoof on the back of his neck as he watched the pair slowly sit up. Rose sighed as he glanced back at the satchel.
“Well, I think you successfully crushed the rolls,” Rose reached back into the pack and pulled out a few, now somewhat crushed, sweet rolls and hoofed them out to his friends. Crystal took hers in an emerald green glow and took a bite out of it. “To the victors go the crushed spoils.”
“That’sh the stuff,” She mumbled as she spun partly and flopped back, grinning as the other two moved over and laid next to her, munching their own rolls. She looked to her friends, chuckling as they watched her and ate.
“So, Crystal, why didn't you try to get control there?” Rose poked gently at her side. “Ya know, take on a pegasus form or something.”
“I… er… tried,” Crystal shrugged, “I'm not as quick as you two. I’m just thankful I'm somewhat durable, though not as durable as you two.”
“Horsefeathers you aren't! I’ve seen you crash into a tree and walk away with barely a limp!” Dust boasted, nudging her in the side.
“That was once when I was learning griffin wings!” she huffed, “And I cracked my shell doing that. That's why I was limping. All those wings are different to use.”
“You would think pegasus and griffin wings would be the same.” Rose chuckled softly, rolling onto his back and staring at the sunny sky.
“While they appear similar outside, the griffin wing has more muscle to it, while the pegasus wing has more feathers to it.” Dust started rambling off, earning a groan from the other two.
“Don't go all bookish on us today Dusty,” Rose glared at the earth pony, “Today is our day off from that kind of thing!” He looked at Crystal, who was finishing up her sweet roll, “Also, I believe that was your farthest teleport yet, earlier today. I thought you morphlings couldn't go beyond a few feet?”
“Perhaps I am the exception to that rule?” Crystal shrugged, “How many earth ponies do you know that can manipulate their surroundings so well? How many thestrals do you know that can glide and control the wind as well as you?” Crystal rolled onto her side, facing the bat pony.
“Touche.” Rose chuckled softly, looking at her with a grin before looking skyward, “We are all unique in our own way, and we are the best of friends, eh?”
“And I wouldn't have it any other way,” Crystal grinned and let out a content sigh, “Nothing can happen that can tear us apart.”
“How wrong I was at that time,” Crystal sighed, looking down at the table that sat before her, Twilight, and Shining.
“Morphling?” Twilight asked during the little pause.
“We morph, do we not?” Crystal looked up at Twilight with a smirk.
“True.”
“Anyway…”
“I wonder when we should be heading back,” Crystal asks. Only a few hours have passed since the crushing and eating of the sweet roll, and they were still out on top of a grassy hill overlooking the small village they all called home.
“We got an hour or two yet. Maybe we can try and get you into the air without being slingshotted,” Rose pokes at Crystal, getting a grunt in return. “Aww come on! I’m sure you can out fly me!”
“A limp noodle can out fly you, Rose.” Dust chuckled from Crystals other side.
“Hmph, you're just jealous that I have my dashing good looks and you two don't!” Crystal glanced at Rose for a second, with a smirk, making him glare back at her, “Okay, maybe you can have my looks, but Dusty here can't.”
“Aurora forbid I ever get your good looks,” Dust chuckles, getting a glare from Rose. Dust put up his hooves defensively, “What? Just saying! I don't plan on hooking up with anypony anytime soon!”
“You stallions always say stuff like that.” Crystal shook her head.
“No, only some do most think with the head between their hind legs.” Rose just chuckled, “I think with the one up here!” He knocked a hoof against his own head.
Dust let out a few chuckles as he looked down the hill, gasping as he looked to the left of the village and seeing what looked like a small contingent of soldiers marching towards it, “Uh, guys.” He spoke up, as he pointed towards it, looking at Crystal and Rose.
“Maybe they are just on patrol? There has been trouble brewing on the border with that forest.” Crystal looked at the soldiers, as did Rose.
“Seems a bit big for a patrol there,” Dust sighed, “We should go check it out. It could be something important.”
“Yeah, let’s trot on down shall we? No sense in showing off to a bunch of armed ponies.” Crystal grinned weakly as she lead the way. It didn't take them all that long to get down the hill and into the small villages center.
The three join the crowd that has formed, mixing in a range from earth ponies to pegasi with the occasional unicorn, thestral, or changeling in its natural form mixed into this crowd. The three look up at the armoured pegasus as he looked among the crowd. Crystal looked up at the pony, sighing softly as a bracelet he has around his left fetlock glowed faintly.
“There are disguised morphlings among you, have them drop their disguises so I can make my announcement to the town of Mirror.” The stallion paused, as a few of the various ponies shifted to their natural form, including Crystal. Once the fires of change stopped, the stallion continued.
“We are here to draft ponies for added military force,” The stallion looked among the ponies as they murmured among each other, “The conflict on the edge of the Equus Empire is stretching our military thin, and we require young and able bodies to bolster our forces.”
The crowd looked among each other again, this town being near the edge meant conflict would reach it soon if there is such a thing. So far no pony had really heard of any conflict, but if they were kept in the dark, it was for a good reason.
“If none volunteer, then we will pick the strongest looking ponies to take,” The stallion lets out a soft sigh as only a few step forward. He stands up proudly, looking among the ponies before him as most of them cower. His eyes land on Dust, focusing on him for a bit, “You, earth pony. Step forward.” He points out Dust, who remains calm and steps forward as told, once far enough, he bows slightly, as the stallion continues, “What is your name?”
“Dust Horn, sir.” He straightens up, looking up at the guard.
“That is an unusual name for an earth pony.”
“My father is a unicorn, my mother was an earth pony. I inherited the best of both worlds, sir.” Dust remains stoic as the stallion looks him over.
“Hmm, then you’ll serve us well.” The stallion gestured to the others that had volunteered.
“With all due respect, sir. But why are you doing this?” Dust asks, as Crystal and Rose move up to his side.
The stallion looks at the two, his eyes falling on the changeling and remaining on her as she stands just as stoic as Dust. The stallion takes in all the features; the emerald green backplate, her draconic tail ending with a small gem at its tip, her dark red bat style wings and bands around her barrel. Her blue eyes remained staring back at the stallion with a faint white glow focused on him.
“We need ponies to stand up and take arms to defend the weak. A war is coming, Strength can feel it, and she is wanting a force ready to deal with it.”
“And what exactly is coming?”
The guard stallion kept his eyes focused on Crystal, “We are unsure, but something is. We must be prepared for it.”
“And if I am to refuse?” Dust raised an eyebrow.
“We are requiring you to serve.” His gaze finally went to Dust.
“I am going too,” Crystal spoke up, moving to stand next to Dust.
“Won't your hive miss you?” The stallion narrowed his eyes at the changeling, “And why would a harvester want to join an army anyway?”
“Dust is my best friend, and I would feel safer in joining him. And as for my hive, I have none.” Crystal stood proudly next to Dust.
“All morphlings belong to one hive or another, it is a rule you all follow.”
“Not if she was abandoned,” Rose spoke up, moving next to Dust as well, “And I am going with these two. If you don't allow one of us, then you get none of us.”
“It won't be easy,” The stallion spoke up after a short silence, almost glaring at Crystal, “Vigorous training, weapon use, and seeing what kind of magic you have will push you to your limits. You won't get much in the way of energy, either.”
“As long as my friends are beside me, sir, then I have all the energy I’ll ever need.”
The stallion snorted, “Fine, you get until dusk to say goodbye to your family, and any other friends you have,” He straightened up and turned to address the crowd once more. “If no more are wishing to join, then so be it. There is an encampment outside the forest, be there by dusk.” He turned and lead the contingent out of the village.
After that, Dust turned to his friends with a warm grin, “Thank you. I was going to refuse that order.”
Crystal moved up and pulled him into a hug, “He wouldn't let you, and you know it. I am not going to let my best friend and blood brother go off by himself.”
“And you think I am going to let you have all the fun?” Rose grinned as he sat next to the hugging pair, “Think of the mares I could meet!” He chuckled as both Dust and Crystal reached out and pushed him over, making him laugh.
“Well,” Crystal sighed, looking back at Dust and scooted back, “Suppose we should face the parents, huh?” She blinked, looking to her left, “Er, uh. Nevermind, hello Sapphire Hunter.” Crystal grinned weakly, standing up as Dust did the same.
The unicorn stallion glared down to the three, making them shrink a little. His deep blue coat glittering faintly in the setting sunlight as he looked at each one, snorting, “And why did you three just sign up for the army, huh?”
“Well, Dust here was forced to go, and… we… joined him?” Crystal grinned weakly.
“You know,” Another voice started up, making the four glance to see a midnight black bat pony standing there, brushing aside her white mane, “At least they are all going together. I was about to give that stallion a piece of my mind if he refused to let Dust here either go alone or stay.”
“You’re not helping the situation any, Midnight Gem,” Sapphire turned to her, “My son and adopted daughter are going off to a war we haven't heard anything about. You’d think if it was on the edge of Hope’s domain, we’d know about it!”
“And so what? If there is a war, do you think it's best the populace knows about it?” She walked up and poked the stallion in the chest, “Nox knows we aren't all war veterans like you Sapphy,” She smirked as the stallion pouted a little.
“You know I don't like that nickname.”
“Tough cookies,” Midnight grinned, turning to the three, “Anyway, I can let your father know that his only son was forced to go to the military. Might do you three some good anyway.”
“You were recruited, just like that?” Twilight takes a moment to ask during Crystals pause for a drink.
“Yes. Our adventure began then.” Crystal sighed, looking around at the crowd that had formed. The other mares were all sitting and listening in as well. Shining had to excuse himself at one point, which allowed the mares to actually come in, rather then listen at the door.
“And yer parents just let ya go off like that?” Applejack raised an eyebrow, watching the changeling before them.
“Well, admittedly it was not just waving and we were gone…Mostly.”
“ACK! DAD!” Rose squeaked as his father, a green earth pony squeezed the stuffing out of him.
“But my son is going off to serve in some war! He is going to see the world!” The stallion squeaked through faked tears. He cradled his son, stroking a hoof through his mane, “Going off alone! Whatever will he do?!”
Crystal chuckled softly as Rose slowly started to turn blue, “Well, he isn't going alone, Fruity Stem.”
The stallion stopped and looked at Crystal, “Oh, well.” He let his son go, letting Rose fall to the floor in a heap, “In that case, don't forget to write! Have fun storming the encampment!” he chuckled softly as Midnight walked over and sat by Fruity, chuckling softly as well.
“Think he’ll make it through the year?” She asked, glancing towards him.
“It’d take a miracle for him to return home after a week of training.” Fruity nodded sagely, chuckling as Rose sat up, pouting at him.
“I'm not that much of a loaf!” He huffed, as Fruity looked him over.
“Yeah, you’d be a bit more grainy if you were,” he snickered softly before getting lightly bopped by Midnight, “What! It was a valid point! If he was a loaf, he’d be a bit more grainy!”
“Ugh, how do I put up with your puns?” Midnight watched Fruity make bedroom eyes at her and wiggle his eyebrows, “Oh yeah, that's right,” She pointed at Rose, “Shouldn't you say something else to your son?”
“Yup!” He turned and faced him, grinning. “See you in six days, Rosey!”
Rose looked confused at his father, “What…?”
“Well, Midnight and I made a bet a while back, if you ever got drafted. She says you’ll last eight days, I say six,” He leaned over and nudged him, “So see ya in six days when I collect my five bits! Now go, I have a bet to win!” He started pushing Rose out the doorway.
“Glad my loving family has so much confidence in me,” He groaned as he slid thanks to his father pushing him along, “And what if I go nine days, huh? What if I actually last a month or more? What then?”
“Oh phooey! We haven't thought that far ahead, dear,” Fruity stopped and looked at Midnight, pouting for a moment, then gasping, “We should have a second bet! What say you, deary?”
“What? Rose Wind here lasting more than a month? The only way that would happen is if he finds a mare.”
“Okay! New bet! If he lasts for a month you get the five bits, if he doesn't, it's all mine!” Fruity cackled madly as he rubbed his hooves together, with Rose sitting in the doorway, glaring at him. Dust and Crystal laughing as they watched his family make bets on how long he’d last away.
“You’re not even going to miss me, are you?” Rose pouted as he looked at his parents, who turned back to him with a grin.
“Of course, we are! Every stallion,” Midnight started.
“Or mare,” Fruity interrupted, glancing at Crystal.
“Has to go out into the world sometimes, leave the nest and all that,” Midnight waved a hoof, “While we would prefer it to not be some crazy fluke, we can't help it when fate decides to pull you out of the nest...” she trailed off as Fruity grinned.
“And drop kick you into,” Fruity paused, inhaling for a moment, “ADVENTURE!” He grinned widely as Rose winced, then sighed.
“Alright, I get it,” Rose sighed, then stepped forward and grinned at his parents, “I'm going to miss you two so much!”
They both stepped forward and pulled him into a hug, “We’ll miss you too, write as often as you can!” They embraced for a good minute or so before they finally let up.
“And I'm serious, come back in six days so I can win that bet!” Fruity chuckled as Rose let out a soft groan.
“Aww, Dad!”
After that, they all waved, as Sapphire stayed right outside and escorted them to the edge of the village. He stopped and looked at each one, “Now, I know this is kind of pointless to say. But be careful out there.” His eyes linger on Dust and Crystal the longest.
“I will do my best to cover their plots, sir.” Rose gives a mock salute with a smirk as Sapphire looked at him, his eyes narrowing.
“I’ll hold you to that, Rose Wind,” Sapphire kept his eyes on him, and after a while lets out a soft sigh, “Promise me.”
Rose nodded, as Dust spoke up, “We’ll watch each other, okay Dad?”
“You better, I don't want to read any correspondence letters saying you three perished so soon. It's not your time yet and I honestly don't want you three to go through with this!” He sighed, looking down and slumping his shoulders, “War isn't pretty and it shouldn't be taken lightly,” He put a hoof to his forehead, just below his horn, “And in my honest to Nox opinion, you three are not ready for it.”
“With all due respect sir,” Rose started up, sounding serious as Sapphire looked at him, “Neither were you when war came to your doorstep, correct?” He paused, getting a nod in return, “Nopony is ever ready for anything until it happens. We will do our best to watch each other and you can count on us to come back safely, sir.”
Sapphire rested a hoof on Rose’s shoulder, “Please do. Our homes will be waiting when you get back.” He turned to Dust and Crystal, giving each a nod and turned to start back before he suddenly got lightly tackled by all three present. They each hugged him and he hugged in return.
They remained in that embrace for good couple minutes before they each broke off.
“We’ll come back Dad, we all promise,” Crystal grinned weakly, looking up to the stallion before her. He nodded back, pulling her into a hug again for a bit before finally turning and walking back to the village. Crystal sighed and turned back to her friends.
“We don't need to taste emotions to tell he didn't want us to go,” Dust said softly, as the three start to walk towards the forest that was a half hour down the path.
“He was very sad but also happy,” Crystal frowned, “Kind of hard to tell really. I’ve noticed that about most ponies who are guards or soldiers, can't tell their emotions all that well.”
“They become jaded after seeing so much, that nothing phases them anymore,” Rose sighed, “I hope the same doesn't happen to us, I rather like my emotions being in one piece.”
“I think your emotions are too stubborn to die,” Crystal chuckled softly, “Sapphire thinks this is just a big scare to get more soldiers anyway, I bet we train for a month before we’re sent home because nothing happened.”
The three walked along, mainly chatting about what to expect at the encampment. Which sadly as they neared it, fell short of what they were actually expecting. A pair of tents were being taken down, just as they arrived. The other two stallions already there and helping take apart the tents. The armoured stallion notices the three and canters over to them as they walk up.
“Huh, I was expecting you three to not show.” His eyes, once again, fell on Crystal as he spoke, “Especially you, morphling.”
“My name is Crystal,” She said with a huff, “And I am here because I signed up with my friends.”
“Hmph, we shall see if you maintain that courage,” He turned partly towards the forest, “A test if you will. We are going through the forest tonight, consider it a test of courage, Crystal,” he grinned faintly, looking at the three, “Our main encampment in this area is there, on the other side. That is where a good bit of your training will be decided and carried out as we wait for more to show up.”
Crystal glanced back at her friends, as they stood beside her. She looked to the two were helping take down the tents, “Do they know?”
“Yes. They are helping take down the tents, then returning home. You are welcome to do the same.”
“Ha! As if, soldier captain sir.” Rose chuckled, “I didn't just go through getting hugged so tightly and a bet being made to back out now. You’re stuck with us!” He pounded his chest, standing proud.
“You will call me Captain Quake. Is that clear?” He turned partly to face the three as they all stood at attention.
“Sir, yes sir!” They shouted as close to at once as possible, making the armoured stallion chuckle once.
“Good, first order; go help take down those tents. You also get to carry them.”
The three nod and make their way over to the tents as Quake watches the changeling. “Hmph, she is certainly strange.” He mumbled to himself.
Crystal let out a soft squeak as she walked in the center of the group of ponies. Four guards, Captain Quake, a random stallion from a nearby village, Rose, Dust, and herself all walked along a path in the darkness of the forest. The two guards in front were unicorns, and letting their magic light the way as they made it through the dark and creepy forest.
“You know,” Rose started up, sounding somewhat shaky as he spoke. “This place is a lot scarier at night.”
“Says the pony of the night,” Dust chuckled weakly, looking around. “If only I had a horn, then I could help light up the area.” He glanced at Crystal, who, despite trying to look as brave as possible, was shaking slightly with each step. “Are you okay Crystal?”
“I’d be better if you two, and him,” she made a small gesture to the mottled red and pink pegasus with them. “Weren't shaking in your horseshoes! Seriously! This is just a forest and there is nothing out there!”
“I beg to differ, Crystal,” Quake huffed, looking at the changeling. “Timberwolves roam within forests, and this forest is actually quite big. Manticores have been seen in the area too, along with a few cockatrice.”
“Are you trying to scare us?” Rose tried to glare at Quake, but only managing to do it weakly. “Because if so, its working!”
“The morphling here is the bravest among you lot? And she is only quaking in fear because of you. Just imagine if she didn't feed off the ambient emotions, she might be worthy of some form of respect then!” Quake let out a soft chortle. “Why! If she does make it through here, and lasts more than a week at training, I’ll eat one of my plated boots!”
“Boy, aren't you being a hard ass.” Dust snorted softly, “Who trained you to be one, Lord General Shiro?”
“Oh, someone has the courage to be snarky to one trained by one of his generals.” Quake leaned closer down to Dust, causing him to scoot a little from him and bump into Crystal, “Yes, Lord General Shiro oversaw my training. However, I was trained by one just a step below him. And these guards were trained by me, and you lot will be trained by me as well.” He straightened up, “So consider yourselves lucky if you survive! I’ll make stallions out of you lot yet!”
“You hear that Crystal,” Dust chuckled weakly. “We get to be trained by a Captain who was trained by a general who was then trained by Lord General Shiro himself! Same training hierarchy my father had.”
Quake arched an eyebrow looking to the earth pony, “And who was your father?”
“Sapphire Hunter.” Crystal stated, calming down a little as the group slowed its stride. Quake blinked as he looked at her. He took the time to look the earth pony and changeling up and down, and before he can speak, she interrupted. “Abandoned, remember? I consider him my father.”
“Hmph, you may consider him a father, but you are not of his blood,” He looked at Dust, “However, you are. I suspect there is a lot hidden under the son of one of the best magic users we had.” Quake looked forward again, forcing the group to pick up its trot some.
“Funny, Dad never really talked about his time in the military.”
“He has seen plenty of things to turn a black pony white for years.” Quake let out a soft sigh, falling silent. The group continues on in silence for what seemed like a few hours. A few howls can be heard, making the ponies not covered in armor jump.
Crystal, being the most sensitive to those around her, squeaked at each sound that passed through the forest. Each branch that got scrapped against another, each rustle in the leaves, everything seemed to keep her and her friends on the tips of their hooves. She kept glancing about as they walked, ears perked constantly and her senses focused on the area.
Maybe that was the purpose of this? To heighten awareness of the area. Being a changeling meant she could detect emotions at probably the same distance that Rose could hear things. Glancing at Rose, she could see his ears constantly on alert, angling towards each howl that sounded. She looked to Dust next, his ears weren't as active, but his eyes seem to be going non-stop in every direction. He was looking around more than the others, especially when a howl sounded.
She looked back at the pegasus next, his eyes were almost going just as fast as Dusts, but his wings were held out a little, as if he was ready to take flight at a moment's notice. Pegasi were so flighty, but that also made her wonder why Rose didn't have his wings like that as well. His were clamped to his flanks, as if they’d been tied down.
She shook her head slightly, and took a look at their armoured escort. The two unicorns in front kept their horns glowing, lighting up the path in front of them and off to the side in a mix of blue and red auras. They were both walking calmly, their light armor clinking softly as they strode, heads held high and ears somewhat perked.
Crystal glanced back at the guards bringing up the rear, a pair of earth ponies with swords in scabbards along their back. They were walking in the same positions as the unicorns ahead of them, though their ears were more perked. She finally looked at Quake, who stood almost a head taller than the others. She could swear he was built huge for a pegasus, and wore what looked like heavy armor.
He kept a halberd held in a wing as he walked, head held high and eyes forward. Maybe she could find a way to feed off of his courage, if she could detect any kind of emotion from him, or the other four. She huffed and resumed her scan of the surrounding forest, thankful she only detected the emotions of the others.
They carried on for what seemed like another hour, before Quake glanced skywards. He nodded for a second before stopping in his tracks, the other guards following his stop a few seconds later, making the untrained ponies all squeak as they stopped too. He popped his neck as he looked around.
“Good place to make camp, don't you think?” he asked nopony in particular. “We can set those tents back up and the new blood can take them.”
“Here?” Rose spoke up, looking around nervously.
“Yes, is there a problem?” Quake narrowed his eyes at the bat pony.
“N...no…” Quake kept narrowing his eyes at Rose, who gulped, “Sir.” Quake nodded.
“Lieutenants Spark and Tendril, you can decide who takes first watch.” The unicorns turned and saluted back to him. One turned to help take the tents off of Dust and Crystal, the other moved a little and stood at one end of the small clearing they were at.
Tendril, one of the unicorns, walked up to Crystal and floated the tent off her back. She nodded and turned, helping unroll it with her magic as they laid it out and started pitching it. she sighed, glancing to the unicorn for a moment before focusing back on the tent.
“You have a question for me, don't you?” The unicorn paused for a moment, glancing to the other tent being set up by Dust, Rose, the pegasus, and one of the earth ponies in armor.
“A few, but mainly why are you in the army?”
“What? Do I seem out of place or something?” Tendril chuckled, “I joined because I wanted to. That's why most ponies join, either because they want to, have no choice, or have nothing left in life. I wanted to defend the helpless, the innocent, and the weak from harm.” He shrugged slightly, looking over the tent. “What about you?”
“Me?” Crystal looked up at him.
“Yeah, why’d you want to follow your friend? You could have easily let him go alone, but you didn't.”
“I…” She looked down, focusing on a tent stake for a moment.
“I think, deep down, you’re looking for something.” Tendril shrugged as he drove the last stake in, then glanced at the other tent, which was moving right along and almost done. “At least you aren't searching alone.”
Crystal blinked, looking at Tendril for a moment, then to her friends. She grinned softly as Rose made some not-so-witty remark and got driven into the dirt by Dust. She turned back to Tendril with a shrug, “This is going to be a rough month I bet.”
“Month?” The voice made her squeak, as she quickly turned to see the chest of Quake. She backed up and looked up at him, seeing his helmet removed and revealing a brown face, with a few scars lining his muzzle. “I plan on training you foals for a lot longer than that.” He grinned, leaning down to Crystal. “And believe me; rough is putting it lightly.”
She gulped, but didn't step back as Quake chuckled.
“Get sleep, you're going to need it.”
Crystal would have prefered the sounds of the birds chirping to rouse her from her slumber, or the sound of a light breeze, or something else that didn't sound like two solid tree trunks landing an inch from her face. She was certainly alert and up though, and on the other side of the tent, sitting on Dust Horn’s back, curled up and wide eyed as she stared at the flat expression of Quake.
That was an hour ago, and the group had taken down the tents and resumed along the path. The earth ponies were leading this time, with the unicorns bringing up the rear. Rose kept yawning as they walked, stumbling every so often as it looked like he didn't get much sleep. Of course, Crystal didn't get much sleep either, and it felt like that once she was asleep, Quake woke her up.
As she glanced at her friends, and the pegasi whom they discovered is named Wind Blast, she noticed that the only one who looked rested was Dust. She wondered how he could of slept in the tent with what all was going on outside of it. Of course, Dust had been known to sleep just about anywhere anyway.
Still, at least the walk in the forest during the day was better. They were all walking at a faster pace, since the sunlight was keeping the unarmoured ponies from walking in constant fear. Crystal glanced at Rose, who had yawned again.
“How much sleep did you get?”
“What is,” He paused to yawn. “Sleep?” He glanced at Crystal, stumbling for a moment before he got caught in her green aura. “Thanks.” He yawned again as he righted himself.
“Heh, did you and Wind Blast stay up later chatting away?” she glanced to the pegasus, who yawned widely as well.
“No,” He said calmly, looking at her. “We couldn't get to sleep. Every time we got close, something would snap or crack and we’d bolt upright.” Wind shook his head, sighing. “I can't wait till we reach that encampment, at least then we won't be in a scary forest.”
“Just a stone's throw from it, that's all.” Quake casually remarked next to them, making the four squeak softly.
“You know,” Crystal started, after calming down from the sudden scare. “It's a wonder you're so quiet with that heavy armor on.”
“Yeah, can you even fly?” Rose asked, looking back at Quake.
Quake merely let out a soft chuckle, extending his wings, which were covered in light plates, and flapped only twice to get to a hover. “This armor is actually much lighter than it looks, and still just as strong as heavy armor.” He let himself fall, returning to the ground with a very light clop. “This armor is designed by the Lord General himself. And all pegasi Generals and Colonels wear it.”
“Colonel? But I thought you said you’re a Captain.” Rose raised an eyebrow at Quake.
“That I am. Shiro saw it fit that I be a Captain, and given this armor.”
“Yeah, since you didn't want the job of Colonel.” Tendril muttered softly. Quake growled faintly and turned on him. He narrowed his eyes at him for a few moments before just sighing and turning back.
“And you can do ten laps, in heavy armor, when we get back to the camp, for that remark.” Huffed Quake.
“AWWW! I didn't mean it like that sir!” Whined the unicorn.
“Do you want 20?” Quake arched an eyebrow at the unicorn, who straightened up and shook his head quickly. “Good.” He looked at the group. “We should be arriving at the camp by mid afternoon. You will be assigned your tents and given the rest of the day to familiarize yourself with the grounds. Tomorrow, your fun begins.” Crystal could almost hear the faint evil intent in that last sentence.
The group marched on in silence after that, only the sounds of the birds and their hooves breaking up the stillness. A few hours passed before they cleared the forest and opened up into plains. The ponies stopped for a moment, looking around and seeing nothing but rolling plains.
“Uhh, Captain sir. Unless the camp is in the clouds, we don't see it.” Rose looked up, just to be sure.
“I said a stone’s throw, I didn't say where.” Quake grunted, pointing along the forest edge. “We hike on our own path now.” The earth ponies led the group along the forest edge.
“Ugh, more hiking?” Rose whined.
Quake lowered himself next to Rose with a glare, “You were the one who signed up for this. Did you think it was all sunshine and roses?” Rose squeaked softly with Quake so close. “Well it aint, get used to it. Unless you wish to fly back with your tail between your legs.” He straightened up, “And lose whatever bet was placed.”
Rose sighed heavily as he hung his head, “You're going to hold that over me, aren't you?”
“Every minute that you’re awake, colt.” Quake smirked, “Let's move out, shall we? I’m sure you're all hungry.”
They all nodded and seemed eager to start hiking, even if the pegasus and bat pony started whining ten minutes after going along the unwalked path. The group eventually made it to a hill, and upon cresting it, finally saw the encampment.
The encampment was set up as various lines of tents. There were two large tents set up next to each other, with a smaller one in between them. Another large tent sat off to the left of the lines, where a few ponies were going in and out of. Quake smirked as he let the young ponies look it all over.
“Say hello to your new home for the next few months.” Quake sweeps an arm towards the encampment.
“Well, I can say that the training at that camp was both amusing and painful. I ended up face down in the dirt more often than I care to recall.” Crystal sighed softly as she recalled her days in that training camp.
“So you're just going to skip over it?” Pinkie Pie slumped slightly in her chair. “Of course, most of it would be boring anyway, huh?”
“Yes, it would be. However, I will go into detail on the last day. It was indeed a month after we started running laps and getting tested that things went to Tartarus.”
“So you were trained how to fight?” Rainbow spoke up as she glanced to Talon by her side.
“Well, given that I had no role in a hive until I learned which hive I was a part of. Even then I still had no clue. I was taught in both magic offensive tactics, and defensive tactics, as well as deflecting magic with my hooves, claws, or wings,” Crystal listed off as she floated a cup of water up to drink. “Although the better teacher proved to be much higher up on the chain of command.”
“Shi-” Pinkie started to ask, before a white glow gently closed her mouth.
“Spoilers,” Crystal grinned. “Anyway, this pause has gone on long enough.”
Crystal grunted as she landed face first in the dirt, again. She was currently wrestling with a pegasus, namely Wind Blast, and was losing again. She groaned as she stood up and shook out her head.
“Come on Crystal!” He called out as he floated up, chuckling. “It’s only 2-5 in my favor!” Crystal grumbled as she stood low, her hooves spread and wings flared out. She watched the pegasus before her do the same. “One more go, then we can stop.”
“Fine,” Crystal grinned, charging forward and rearing back to throw a hoof. The attack was meant to be slow as Wind reared back and easily deflected the blow, as he threw his own. She was already spinning and let her wings buffet him in the face, throwing off his counter attack as she found herself to his side. She grinned and jumped a little, intending to buck him in the side. However, her hoof hit nothing but air as she felt a gust of wind over her back and side.
She instinctively ducked, a hoof sailing over her head as she glanced up to see him flying up and hovering a yard or so off the dirt. She gasped and bounced back as he came back down, missing her with a haymaker.
“You’re getting really good at dodging attacks,” Wind commented as he floated up from the ground a yard or so again.
“I’ve had plenty of practice lately with other ponies throwing things at me, shooting me, or flat out attacking me.” Crystal let out a quick sigh, before bouncing back from an attack from Wind. He landed and quickly started throwing punches as Crystal reared back and deflected them to the best of her ability.
“I don't know why, you seem pretty cool to be around.” He kept up the attack, throwing wild and loose punches. The attacks were slow and deliberate, but fast enough that she had to keep blocking them. “Although, I am curious why you aren't using your magic in this little match?”
“If this were actual combat, I would be. This is a spar and I’d rather not hurt you more then I have to,” Crystal smirked as she saw an opening. She slid to her left, narrowly dodging a punch and threw a punch to his side. He dodged it like she thought he would, going to his right. He suddenly found a wing in his face again, before he felt something hard connect with his side, knocking the wind from him as he flew a little from the impact and landed on his side.
Wind caught his breath as he held his side, looking up into the smug face of Crystal as she just stood above him. She stood there, waiting for him to catch his breath as he kept gasping for air. “What… was that?” He wheezed out eventually.
“A feint using my wings. Really, it's pretty simple since my wings are durable,” She grinned, showing off her fangs which made him blink and shiver slightly. “Sweep the wings in as well, sure in the air it’s hard to do. But while grounded? Easy.”
“Right,” The stallion slowly stood up, with her help. “And you should really be using your magic in these spars. I mean the unicorns are.” Crystal blinked, then looked over at the unicorns that were indeed fighting with various other ponies. They were using their magic, mostly in the form of small precise, yet weak beams.
However, a pair of ponies caught her eye. Dust Horn and Rose Wind were back to back and fighting a pair of unicorns who didn't seem be to holding back. Two unicorns were firing small beams of magic at the pair, and they were easily deflecting the magic harmlessly to the ground. Off to the side, she noticed Quake nodding and watching them, before she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned back to Wind Blast, who was grinning slightly.
“See, those two are something else. Anyway, we should resume practicing.” Wind took a few steps back and lowered himself, flaring out his wings. Crystal nodded and turned to face him, doing the same. They were just about to lunge at each other when a loud whistle pierced the air. They both stopped and looked towards Quake, who was lowering his hoof.
“Alright! That's enough training for now, go clean up and get lunch,” Quake shouted as he gestured to the large tent that had become known as the mess hall. Crystal turned and nodded to Blast as they turned and trotted towards the tent. They met up with Rose and Dust just as they entered the tent.
The four went inside, with Dust and Crystal grabbing part of a table for themselves while Blast and Rose went to get the trays. Crystal sat with a sigh and let her head rest on the table as Dust sat next to her.
“Another rough day?” He asked as he rested a hoof on her back, just under a wing and started to rub the area gently, massaging it with his hoof.
“How are you two so skilled?” She grumped as she glanced to Dust.
“Well, to be fair, Dad did try to work us extra hard and keep us in shape, remember?” Crystal nodded slightly at that, slowly sitting up. “Just because you didn't take well to the training, doesn't mean I didn't. Granted, having a unicorn teach me how to fight like that was a bit weird at first. But still.”
“Okay, that explains you. What about Rose?”
“We wrestled a lot?” Dust shrugged slightly and scooted back a little, just as a pair of trays slid in front of them. “For now, eat up. Who knows what comes after lunch with Quake in charge.”
“I bet 20 laps around the campgrounds again,” Rose chuckled as he sat down with his tray. “While wearing heavy armor, and MMPH!” He suddenly found his mouth closed by a soft green glow as Crystal glared at him.
“Don't give him ideas!” Crystal hissed at the grinning bat pony. After he mumbled something in response, she let him go and they started on their meal. The rest of the meal went by with little conversation, mainly talking about how Dust and Rose were picking up the magic deflection and other skills.
After the meal, Quake had informed them they had till dinner off to practice on whatever they felt like, as long as it was something related to fighting or working weights. Crystal felt like she needed to work on her fighting, and her friends were more than willing to help out.
Practice went on for another two hours, with Crystal watching and learning moves, and performing them herself. They kept this up for a while before both the bat pony and pegasus shivered. At this they stopped and finally looked around, it had gotten dark. Not nighttime dark, but like the sun was being blocked and casting an eerie shadow around.
“What's going on and where did this come from?” Rose asked as he floated up, getting a better view around. A few of the others that were out looked about confused as well. Eventually Quake stormed out of his tent and looked around.
“What in Equus?” he asked nobody in particular. Crystal shivered as the cold air hit her, and as she looked around, she could tell almost everypony that was out was looking nervous. This wasn't a normal weather pattern, as she found the pegasi and bat ponies looking confused at the sky.
Crystal suddenly detected a lot of anger in the air, and it was directed at the camp. She stood and took a defensive pose, the others glanced to her, then followed suit as she walked slowly towards Quake. By the time they neared him, the chill grew colder, some of the earth ponies and unicorns not wearing armor shivering faintly.
She stopped a few yards away from him and was about to say something when a shrill scream filled the air. Quake, some of the guards, and the bat ponies all looked one direction, with the rest soon following. The sight made them gasp.
A large group of dark colored ponies were marching towards them, blending in with the darkness of the area. The bat ponies winced and folded their ears back as they stepped away, a deep whistling starting to sound as the rest started to hear it.
The amount of ponies seemed to match the occupants of the campgrounds, at least from a first head count. A few of them being pegasi and floating through the air.
“TO ARMS!” Quake yelled out, as the unicorn guards around scrambled to a tent. Quake growled as he rushed out to the center of the campsite, continuing to yell out to attract the attention of everyone.
It wasn't long before the shadow ponies descended upon the camp. Ponies were defending themselves from shadowy versions of other ponies. All of the shadows appeared as either pegasi or unicorns, but none of the unicorns were using magic. Of course, they probably didn't need to as this camp was caught unaware.
Crystal slid to a stop just in time to dodge a shadowy unicorn flying past her. She got a good view of it as it passed by. The fur almost seemed to be smoking, and appeared as black as the night sky. The unicorn’s horn was twisted and curled upwards. It appeared to lack eyes as well, but the sockets weren't empty, just seemingly covered.
The battlefield was chaos, the veterans in the camp doing their best to fend off the mysterious ponies with blade or magic, while the fresh recruits looked around terrified. Even Dust and Rose looked around in a panic at the carnage that was going on.
One of the shadow ponies landed right in front of Crystal, making her gasp as it reared back, about to throw a punch at her. She squeaked and stepped back, just as she felt a gust of wind rush over her and knock the shadowy unicorn back. She turned around to see Quake land and glare down at her. His eyes focused into a hardened battle glare.
“On your hooves foal!” Quake seemed to glare harder at her. “This is what you’ve been training for! Are you going to let a couple of ghosts scare you?!”
“But the amount of chaos in the --” Crystal started to say, before Quake stamped a hoof towards her.
“Screw the Chaos, Crystal! Ignore that sense and focus on the fight before you!” Quake growled as he spun on the hoof, aiming to buck his hind legs directly at her! She squeaked and crouched down, just as his hooves sailed over head and collided with something. When she felt his wing beats, she glanced up and saw him hovering above her, arms crossed and looking down. “Stand firm and you shall not falter!” He turned and quickly flew off, back into the fray.
Crystal growled lowly as she straightened up, looking around as Dust and Rose came up to her sides.
“What should we do?” Rose asked, “We could run.”
“I doubt we could get very far. There are so many of those shadow ponies, I don't think we’d stand much of a chance if we fled now.” Dust spoke up, looking around.
“We take the fight to them!” Crystal flared her wings out. “Enough standing around, let’s go!” She charged at the nearest shadow pony, a pegasus, and quickly brought her hooves down on it. To her surprise the hooves connected, though it felt like she was hitting a soft pillow. The pegasus turned its head and stared at her, as she bounced back. As she looked it over, she noticed its hooves seemed to shift into blades, and as it focused on her, she took a defensive stance.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rose run up to the pony this shadow was about to attack and kneel down to check on him. Crystal focused on the pony before her, just in time to see it swipe a blade at her. She quickly brought up a shield of energy to block it and winced as she felt it connect.
A shiver ran down her spine as she felt the blade connect with her shield. It felt cold, lacking the warmth of life, and weird. She quickly shook off the feeling as she remained on the defensive, the shadow pony raining quick blows on her shield. The shadow only got in a few more hits before a tan blur knocked it away.
She shivered as she moved over to Rose, who was looking over Wind’s minor injuries. She looked over at Dust, to make sure he was alright noticed he standing, looking confused. The shadow pony was nowhere to be found. He blinked and looked up at Crystal.
“That was,” he paused a moment. “Confusing. It felt…”
“Like hitting a pillow?” Crystal finished for him.
“Yeah, weird really.” Dust stepped over to the trio and glanced past Crystal, just as she felt something land hard near her. She quickly spun around, bringing a hoof up to attack but it was stopped by an armored wing.
“I see you grew a backbone finally, Crystal,” Quake smirked as he stopped her hoof with the armored wing. “I have a mission for you four,” he looked among them. “Run from here and make your way to Roan. Warn them of what's coming!”
“But Roan is two weeks away by flight!” Wind squeaked out, making Quake glare at him.
“Then I suggest you four get moving, on the double!” Quake stamped a hoof, which made the four stand and salute him. “Now go! We will try to stall this as long as possible!” With that, Quake turned and charged back into the fray. Crystal and Rose turned to Wind.
“Which way is Roan?” they asked at the same time, making the pegasus blink before turning in a direction.
“If memory serves right, it should be this way. Let’s go!” He waved them on with a wing and started to run in that direction, Crystal, Rose, and Dust followed quickly while dodging the chaos that was going on around them. They were able to make it to the edge of camp before Crystal got tackled by one of the shadows.
Wind quickly spun around and tackled it off of her and kept it pinned to the ground. “GO!” He yelled. “Just follow the rising sun!”
“But!” Crystal took a step towards him, only to get grabbed by Rose and dragged away.
“Come on Crystal, let’s go!” Rose shouted as he forced Crystal along.
They managed to get away from the camp and ran further into the forest towards their destination before coming to a small clearing to stop. Crystal was the first to lay down on the ground, panting for breath as she shivered. Rose laid next to her with a sigh.
“I'm sorry.” He mumbled just loud enough.
“How could we leave him? Captain Quake told the four of us to go!” She rolled over and rested her head on Rose’s side, wiggling some to get under one of his wings.
“He was willing to sacrifice himself to allow us to escape.” Dust spoke as he sat down on Crystals other side, panting softly for breath.
“We should just go home.” Crystal mumbled under the wing.
“As much as I’d like to, you know we can't. If we are still being followed by whatever those things were, we can't lead them home.” Rose sighed as he looked towards the night sky. “May Nox watch over them as we make our way to Roan.”
“Then what do we do?” Crystal asked as she peeked her head out from under his wing.
“What we were told.” Dust stood up, looking at the pair. “We have a few bits, we can make it to the next town and plan from there on how to get to Roan as cheaply as possible.”
“But isn't the next town still a few days away?” Crystal crawled out from under Rose’s wing, looking up at Dust.
“Yes, but the land does provide food. We can make it there on berries and grubs. Thankfully you don't require as much as we do.” Dust grinned warmly down to her.
“I'm scared.” Crystal looked down.
“We all are, but we’re together,” Rose stood up slowly. “Come on, we should try to get a little more distance before we stop for the night.” Crystal nodded as she stood up slowly, and the three of them kept marching into the forest in silence.
Crystal sighed and trotted closer to Dust and Rose as they walked along the path. It was nearing dusk when they spotted an unfamiliar village. They had been walking along for who knows how long since they left the camp. After fleeing into the forest to lose whatever it was that was chasing them, they decided they should head straight to Roan, no need to drag their home village into the mess if it isn't already.
Besides, a few war veterans were there and could defend the village long enough for everyone to get to safety. It was that thought, plus the thought of Sapphire Hunter basically telling them to head to Roan anyway that they avoided the town.
As they neared the village, it looked like most of the shops were closing up. By now, Crystal had retaken her favored unicorn form, so they wouldn't scare anypony. As welcome as changelings were, they could still be intimidating during the night. They did manage to make it to the food market before it closed, and after hoofing over a few bits for food, they ate the somewhat dry bread outside an alleyway.
“I don't think we have enough bits to make it to Roan,” Rose sighed as he idly munched his bread. “We’ll be lucky to make it after the next town.”
“Well, we’re lucky we don't have to sleep in an inn, otherwise we’d be real trouble.” Dust chuckled softly. “How much do we have left?”
“Maybe fifteen bits. After we refill our packs tomorrow, we could have maybe five or even less. We will have to really ration out our food then,” Rose looked at the bread, half of his few slices already eaten. He wrapped up the rest and stuffed it into his pack. “We should find somewhere hidden to sleep for the night, maybe a rooftop.”
“Yeah, I only see one problem with that. How do we get up there?” Dust looked at Rose, who grinned back at him and flapped his wings once. “Yeah, that works for you and Crystal. Not so much for me.”
“I could carry you up there?” Rose offered as he slowly stood up. Dust glared at him.
“I like my hooves firmly planted on the ground and you know it, Rose!” Dust stamped a hoof as Crystal just looked between them. She sighed, looking at the bread before her for a moment before putting it away. Being a changeling meant she didn't have to eat as much as her friends, but she still should.
“Maybe it would be best we sleep on the outskirts of town then?” Crystal spoke up, looking at the pair of stallions. They were about to speak up when a new voice was heard, making the three look over.
A black unicorn seemed to blend in with the night and stared at them with ruby eyes. His mane seemed to glow the color of a sunset, being a deep red at the base and going orange near the tips. He had a few saddlebags on his back, with books being visible inside them and sticking out slightly. He swished his matching colored and long tail back and forth as he watched the trio.
“You three shouldn't talk so loudly near this building. The owner doesn't take kindly to strangers talking outside her home, lest she think you three are about to break into it.” He spoke calmly, watching them.
“Oh, uh, thank you sir. We were about to move along anyway.” Crystal spoke up before the others could, standing as she soon ushered the others to do the same. The dark colored unicorn watched the trio quickly pack up what scraps they had.
“Where are you three from? I don't think I’ve seen you around.”
“We are from Mirror, and we are just passing through.” Rose grinned weakly. “We are just going to sleep on the edge of town and move on in the morning.”
“It does get cold, you could try sleeping at the tavern?” the unicorn offered, raising a hoof to point towards it.
“We don't have the bits for it. We’ll be fine, thanks sir.” Dust nodded as the three started to trot past time.
“Name is Dark Horizon, and while it may not be comfortable. My floor is open to you three.” Dark turned to watch the three stop to look at him.
“You’d let three random ponies into your house?” Rose raised an eyebrow as he looked the black unicorn over.
“So far you three have shown no hostile intentions. As long as that continues to hold true, yes. I can even offer you a meal.”
“We are not…” On cue, all of their stomachs growled, making each one blush slightly as they brushed a hoof along the ground. “Okay, maybe a little.” Dust finished.
“Then come along.” Dark gestured to follow as he turned around and trotted away. The three looked at each other for a moment before shrugging and following after. One night with a stranger wouldn't be bad, and they could leave in the morning before he woke up. “I never did catch your names.”
“I'm Rose Wind,” The thestral pointed to himself, then to the Earth pony. “That’s Dust Horn, and his sister Crystal.” Dark slowed himself some to look over each, letting his gaze linger on Crystal a little longer than intended, grinning faintly.
“It seems your sister got the magic,” Dark commented as he led them to a simple looking home and opened the door for them. Inside was some simple furnishings, a couch sat opposite a fireplace, and two doors leading off to seperate rooms. “Anyway, my bedroom is through that far door. I will try to find some spare sheets for you three. Feel free to get comfy.” Dark started towards the left room.
“What's in the other room? If I may ask.” Dust trotted towards the couch with Crystal right behind him.
“My library.”
“Library?!” Dust grinned widely, making Dark stop and look over his shoulder.
“Oh great, Dusty found a kindred spirit.” Rose chuckled softly as he sat on the couch.
“You are welcome to…” Dark trailed off as Dust rushed past him into it. “I just recently aquired a few new books, but feel free to look around in it.” Dark shrugged as he disappeared into his bedroom, leaving Crystal and Rose alone.
Crystal sighed softly as she sat on the floor next to the couch, making Rose look down at her. “What's wrong?” He asked softly.
“What isn't wrong right now?” Crystal let her head rest on the couch as she looked up at Rose. “We’re running, we’re low on food, we’re staying with a random pony, and who knows if those things are actually chasing us or just going straight to Roan!”
“Hey, relax,” Rose gently rested a hoof on Crystal as he grinned softly. “Take it one step at a time, that's what I'm doing.”
“But.”
“And I'm protecting both you and Dust, as I said I would to your father,” Rose leaned back, keeping his eyes on Crystal. “And I'm more scared of him then those things!”
“What things?” Dust asked as he stepped back into the room, a few thin blankets on his back as he looked at the pair. Rose was about to say something before the trio heard from Dark’s little library.
“OH SWEET FOAL NOX! A first edition print of this? Dad has been looking for this book for AGES!” Rose and Crystal looked at each other, before bursting out laughing as Dark set the blankets on the couch before trotting towards the library and vanished inside. The pair sat in silence as Rose kept an ear perked towards the room.
“Huh, Dusty’s gonna get a new book.” Rose chuckled softly as he glanced to Crystal. She nodded back to him as they waited for the pair to return. After what felt like an hour, they did and Dark cooked up a late night dinner. Afterwards was a little more chatting before they decided to go to bed for the night.
Crystal let out a long yawn as she slowly woke up. The couch had proved surprisingly comfortable after sleeping on the ground for the past month and she had fallen asleep almost instantly. She rolled over and gasped as she rolled off the couch, though she landed on something relatively soft, which grunted as she impacted it.
She opened her eyes and looked into the gaze of Rose Wind, who looked rather uncomfortable as he was lying on his back. She quickly glanced around and saw she was draped across his torso, with her head near his.
“Morning to you too, Crystal,” he grunted as he rolled over, making her move as well and they eventually separated long enough to get up. They both stretched out once they were standing. As Crystal looked around, she noticed a distinct lack of Dust, though she did hear talking in the next room. She glanced at Rose who just shook his head.
“They’ve been talking about books for the past hour. Dust thought he was quiet, but these ears can pick him up a few blocks away,” Rose chuckled as sat back down. “We should be heading out soon, don't want to impose upon Dark too much, ya know?”
“Yeah, but for now let them talk. We both know we may not get a chance until we get to Roan,” she looked down for a moment. “Speaking of, do you know how much farther it will be?”
“At the best speed, another week and a half. And that is pending we don't go around that mountain. Otherwise two weeks.” Rose sighed. “If we flew there, we could make it in a week. But one of us would be slowed down carrying Dust, and trust me. He’s heavy.”
“I am not!” Dust exclaimed as he walked back in with Dark trotting behind him. “I am a perfectly average weight for an earth pony! You’re just lazy.”
“Well I was lazy until we had training in the military,” Rose huffed with a grin. “Now I bet I could carry you.”
“Right, I doubt you could carry me all the way to Roan,” Dust shook his head slightly. Dark by now had made his way to the kitchen but stopped part way there and turned to look at the three.
“You three are headed to Roan?”
“Er, yes. We are,” Dust turned to face Dark. “And we should be going soon.”
“Well, you three won't get anywhere on an empty stomach. Why don't you let me cook up some breakfast, and you can tell me why you’re going there,” Dark grinned and turned towards the kitchen to start cooking up breakfast.
“Well, that is a bit… classified. Let us just say that's imperative we get there as soon as possible.”
“Then your best bet is getting over Mt. Cord. There are a few paths over that mountain, but your best bet is straight over. There is a village on the other side too.” Dark let out a soft sigh as he cooked, the others just listening at the moment. “What I would give to see the libraries of Roan. The magic that is held within those walls.”
The three looked at each other, grimacing slightly. “Well,” Rose started up, keeping his eyes on Dust. “We could use a guide?” He asked, Dust looked at Dark for a moment, then back to Crystal.
“What say you, Crystal?” Dust asked as he inclined his head towards Dark. Crystal looked between her friends, then at Dark. She could detect the excitement about him seeing the library of Roan, as she and Dust heard from Sapphire that was expansive. She sighed softly and nodded faintly.
“We could use a guide, but, don't you have a reason to stay here?”
Dark turned back to the group and shook his head, “The only thing that was keeping me here was a lack of motivation. It’s a long hike to Roan, and I’d rather not do it alone.” He grinned lopsidedly at them. “But if I am going with you, the trip will be a lot more pleasurable.”
Crystal could tell Dark was looking directly at her when he said it. She shrugged off the feeling she got, that love at first sight crush feeling that made Dark seem to glow. Crystal mentally debated it, on one hoof, a guide could be useful since none of them know how to get there, but then she doubted if Dark knew how to defend himself.
Well, no time like the present to ask, “If you come with us, we could be attacked. Do you know how to defend yourself?”
“I know a few stun spells, and how to make barriers. The library in Roan holds a lot more and would definitely expand my repertoire,” Dark nodded firmly. “I may not be as trained as you three, since you mentioned the military, but I can defend myself well enough. I prefer having a distance between me and my targets, as does any unicorn,” he gestured to Crystal, “So up close I may have problems, but,” he paused, his horn powering up, and a moment later he vanished with a pop to appear right next to Crystal. “I have ways to escape.”
“Well, I guess that proves that. What about this home though?” Dust asked, gesturing around to the house as Dark trotted back to the kitchen.
“I can lock it up, I'm sure I’ll be back eventually. Spend a month or so in Roan, indulging myself in the library and learning what I can before I return here,” Dark nodded as he focused back on making breakfast for everyone.
After breakfast, the three decided to discuss how they were getting over the mountain, while Dark packed up a few things, including some extra food and money for supplies in future towns.
“And to our left is a lovely view of a forest,” Dark commented as he gestured to his left. The four were trotting along on a dirt path over the mountain, with Dark leading them. It was mid afternoon a day later and the air felt warm, despite it feeling like they were high up.
“And does this forest have a name?” Dust commented, having taken a spot next to their unicorn guide.
“You know, I don't think so. But it shall remain forever free from loggers. Not sure why though, like the forest has a mind of its own.” Dark shrugged as he trotted along. “We should make it down the other side by nightfall, and can possibly stay on comfy beds there.”
“That would be nice,” Rose sighed wistfully. “The ground is only good for so long.”
“Hey, the ground is rather comfy you know!” Dust glanced over his shoulder at Rose.
“Oh you're only saying that because you have never slept on a cloud before!” Rose beamed. “Clouds are so soft and fluffy all the time! Not like the dirt we walk on! Isn't that right Crystal?”
Dark stopped and raised an eyebrow at that, as Crystal just stared at him as she detected the confusion. Crystal grinned weakly as Dark just shook his head.
“Magic spell?” He asked as he turned back around and continued on, rounding a corner.
“No, I'm a…” She trailed off as she rounded the corner as well, all four of them stopping to see five pegasi in heavy armor standing there. All of them wore what appeared to be shadowy grey armor, and kept their heads low, except one. He had a great sword leaning next to him and glared at the group.
“Crystal, Rose, Dust, salute your superior officer!” The pegasus commanded, making the three blink again.
“Quake, sir?” Crystal stepped forward.
“That's Captain Quake to you, maggot!” The pegasus stamped a hoof to step forward. “Attention! Or have you three already forgotten how to follow orders?!” He snapped at them.
“But how did you get here before us? What happened to those shadowy things?” Crystal stood at attention as she asked. Quake snarled and extended his wings as he stepped forward.
“I have wings and I'm not slowed down with an earth pony!”
At that, the trio stopped and looked over the pegasus in closer detail. Rose was the first to notice a few things; the first was a grayer pelt that almost seemed to flow like mist, the second was a lower breathing rate, and the third was how the sword seemed to float at his side.
“Sir, what happened to you?” Rose asked, and the trio stepped back as Quake stepped forward, his muzzle twisting into a manic grin.
“Why, the best thing possible!” Quake stopped to throw his head back, laughing before looking back forward at the ponies. The sight they saw made their blood run cold. Instead of the pegasus that was there before was what could only be described as a hollow creature. His eyes had remained, appearing almost black, with matching smoke flowing out from them. His mane seemed to roll off of him like a small cloak, and the shadows under him slowly expanded out towards the four.
“Power! Speed!” He stepped forward again. “It's so invigorating! And it can be yours if you come with me!”
“No!” Rose stepped forward in front of the others, making the pegasus step back, looking confused for a moment. “You gave us an order to get to Roan!”
“I'm afraid I'm going to have to change that order, Rose,” Quake sneered as he stepped closer. “You three are to stand down and follow me.”
“You are not in your right mind, Captain. I'm afraid we can't follow your orders.” Rose stated as Quake growled, the sword next to the pegasus floating up as Quake turned slightly towards it.
“Fine, if you won't come willingly, then you shall die!” He bit down on the handle of the blade before swinging it at Rose. Crystal saw the action before Rose, and teleported in front of him with a shield raised. Crystal slid back a little from the impact, as her shield held strong. Her tail bumping into Rose, knocking him from his short stupor. “Attack!” Quake yelled, slightly muffled by the sword handle.
The shadowy pegasi with him moved past him by either leaping over him or dashing around his sides as Dust quickly went on the defensive. Dark squeaked and took a few steps back as a pair growled and stepped towards him. “What are these?!”
Dust cleanly dodged a hoof as he reared back, throwing his arms up to block another swing as he barely glanced in Dark’s direction. “We haven't really had a chance to study them. All we know is they are evil, and apparently able to corrupt ponies.”
“And you let me come with you?!” Dark side stepped away from one of the pegasi, stumbling a little as he tried to dodge. He squeaked as he saw the other one leap to pounce him, only to get taken out of the air by a green blur.
“We did warn you,” Dust panted as he slid back, locking hooves with one of the pegasi. “You said you could defend yourself! So prove it!”
Dark quickly looked at the last pegasus that was stalking towards him and backed up another step. Dark watched the pegasus step towards him to lunge at him and powered up his horn. He narrowly missed being tackled as he teleported to the side, his horn remaining glowing as he shot a stun beam at the pegasus.
He took the moment to glance around, and saw Rose fending off a pair of pegasi, while Dust was defending himself against one. Crystal was dodging swings from the large sword that Quake had. Every blow she couldn't dodge, she’d bring up a shield that seemed to be getting weaker at each hit.
Crystal grunted as she felt that last swing impact her shield, making it crack as Quake pressed his blade against it. She winced and lowered herself as he kept pressing, making her squint.
“You can't keep this up forever, morphling!” Quake snarled as he pressed the blade further, more cracks appearing over her shield. He kept the pressure up for a few moments longer before pulling away and swinging one more time. She used that moment to reinforce her shield, and as the blade impacted the shield sparks flew.
Crystal winced again, her eyes quickly gazing to her friends, each one in a bind themselves. She growled lowly and as he brought his sword back to swing again, she lowered herself and the shield. He grinned as he saw the shield drop, and swung down his blade right as she brought up a hoof to deflect it.
The blade impacted the ground, getting lodged in it as Crystal swung a hoof to smack Quake upside the head. He grunted and stepped back, shaking his head as the pair failed to notice the ground start to crack. Quake reared back and thrust a hoof forward, making Crystal rear back as well to deflect it.
Each hit that Quake threw, Crystal managed to deflect or dodge. But he kept pushing her back, away from her friends. Her arms were starting to ache as she deflected the last blow, Quake taking a few steps back after throwing it.
“This ends here!” He growled as he lunged at her, she threw her hooves up and pushed back against him, feeling her hooves dig in the ground as he almost easily pushed her back. After a few moments she felt her hind legs buckle, and that was all it took for him to gain an advantage and push her back.
When she stepped back from the push, her hoof found only air. Her eyes widened as his sneer only grew before her world went all wrong. She saw the cliff side up side down before she felt herself hit it and start rolling. The last thing she heard was Rose yelling her name before she blacked out.
Everypony at the table before Crystal gasped after her last pause. The moment when she fell from the cliffside and rolled until she passed out still fresh in their mind. Pinkie Pie was the first to recover, zipping over to her side.
“Did you survive?” She asked, earning a chuckle from Crystal and a grunt of confusion from everypony else. She turned to them and pointed at the changeling, “It is a completely legit question!”
“I did indeed survive, Dame Pinkie Pie,” Crystal grinned. “In fact, I woke up to whom later became the element of kindness.”
“Oh,” Pinkie slunk back to her chair and sat down, grinning.
Crystal slowly felt the world returning to her, and a part of it was soft and comfortable. Another part hurt like hell, though. As she slowly opened an eye, she was met with the view of a cottage room. A part of her rested on a bed made of feathers, and she noticed that her left front leg was wrapped up and natural.
As her senses came back, she detected another presence in the area. She let out a soft sigh as she slowly sat up, wincing as she just how sore she was. She stopped about half way when she heard a soft voice.
“You shouldn't try to sit up so soon, morphling.”
She looked about the room, and soon found the owner of the voice. A young pegasus stallion whose almost oak brown fur made him blend in from the front. She barely noticed he was there, as his strangely silver wings were both barely noticed, and made him stand out just barely. She remained in that position for a moment, before laying back down with a grunt.
“My name is Crystal,” She grunted as she let her head rest on the pillow. “Where am I?”
“You are not far from that mountain, but I'm afraid you need to rest for a day or two. You sprained your wrist, wings, and a leg,” the stallion looked away. “I found you just a few hours ago, half buried under rocks. You were still breathing and I carefully brought you back here to my home.”
Crystal let out a groan as she looked at her hoof, seeing it wrapped up. “And who are you?”
“My name is Silverwing, and there is nopony else here if that's what you’re wondering.”
“I was with three others; a bat pony, a unicorn, and an earth pony.”
“I saw nopony else, and it looked like you fell a great distance. Your wings will take a few days to heal.” The stallion stood and made his way towards the door. Crystal watched him and managed to get a better look at him as he walked. His wings were definitely silver, which seemed really odd as almost all other pegasi she knew or had seen had wings that matched their body. His hooves were silver as well, and his mane was a deep shade of blue that faded into an almost mercury silver.
As she looked him over, her eyes fell upon his flank, where a bandage roll sat for a cutie mark. That explained why he was so knowledgeable about her wounds and how to bandage them. She looked back at her bandage again, then heard him speak up.
“Just shout out if you need anything, and try to get rest. Tomorrow I can guide you to the nearest town and maybe your friends are there.” He took another step before he heard her sigh.
“Maybe, we are on our way to Roan.” The stallion stopped and turned to look at her.
“Why?”
“We are trying to get there to deliver a message,” She looked at his hooves as he turned fully to face her. “We were attacked by… well, I'm not entirely sure. They were shadows of ponies, but not. It’s complicated.”
She glanced up as she felt confusion from the stallion, he was looking down, his eyes darting to each side as if he was thinking. After a minute of silence, he looked up at her as she felt a wave of determination wash over her. He stood and walked over to her.
“I vaguely recall seeing something like what you described. We should move quickly then. I can carry you for now and we won't be flying, but this small forest is my friend,” he knelt down towards the bed. She blinked for a moment, before grunting and moving to slide onto his back.
“Are you sure? If you become too friendly with us, you may not be able to return here,” she spoke up, as she felt him freeze for a moment. She stopped as well, looking down at him as he looked back up to her.
“That may have happened already if I found you and brought you here,” he sighed softly.
“True,” she sighed as she resumed wiggling her way onto his back and getting comfortable. Once she was comfortable, he quickly made his way out of the room and towards the door. His home was very simple, just the one bedroom and enough living space for himself. He stopped at the door, sighing softly and glancing over his shoulder. She followed his eyes towards a small saddle bag.
“Can you…” He trailed off as it was already in a deep green glow and floating over.
“You don't have to do this, you know,” She spoke softly, looking directly at him as he glanced back at her.
“And leave you to get lost in this forest? Injured and alone? I admit, you’re brave for a morphling, and that may already be rubbing off on me. But I am not about to leave you alone,” he turned to look one last time around his quant home, before focusing on the door and pushing it open. “After I return you to your friends, then I can return here.”
“Thank you, Silverwing,” she could tell he was determined to help her even before he spoke. The pair silently left the house behind and headed into the woods. After a while of trotting along at a comfortable pace, she started to look around the small forest she was in. The trees were far enough apart so she could view the mountain that she and her friends had crossed over.
From her vantage point, she could barely see the section of cliff near the top that had collapsed. She seriously fell down almost all of the mountain, and it was a wonder she only had the minor injuries she did as she looked back down at herself. She snorted, then blinked as the stallion carrying her glanced over his shoulder at her.
“Sorry, just thinking.”
“Wondering if your friends are alright?” He paused for a moment and felt her nod before speaking up again. “If they are anything like you, I am sure they are just fine.”
“I am sure two of them are. Dark Horizon, I don't know…” She trailed off a little bit, looking off to the side as he trotted along. The path taking them by a stream and she could see her natural self on his back. “Why are you being so kind?”
Silverwing seemed to slow down a little in his trotting for a moment, as he looked down. It was short, but she detected guilt for a few seconds. He looked up at the path ahead, “It was how I was raised. My mother had raised me to be kind to everypony, morphling, drake, griffin, alicorn, or you name it.”
“And something happened, huh?”
“While I was kind to them, they weren't to me. The villagers of a village far from here teased me because of my wings. Any normal pegasus or even a bat pony have wings that match their body. But mine, once I came of age, took on this silver sheen the same time I got my mark. After that I got teased.”
“Did you change your name when it happened?” Crystal raised an eyebrow as she looked over one of the wings.
“I had silver tips in my wings before, like my mane and tail. Now my wings are fully silver.” He let out a long sigh, then glanced over his shoulder at her. “What's your story?”
“Me and two of my friends, the earth pony and bat pony, were recruited to prepare for some kind of war. After a month of training, everything seemed to go to Tartarus in a handbasket as those shadowy things attacked. Us three were told to run, because they wouldn't chase foals.” She grumbled something after that, before shaking her head and continuing. “We ran to a village, met up with Dark Horizon and he wanted to join us in going to Roan. It has a huge library, according to him.”
“And what are your friends names?”
“Rose Wind is the bat pony, and Dust Horn is the other.” Crystal squeaked softly as Silverwing stopped and looked back at her.
“That sounds like a unicorn name.”
“Everypony seems to think that, but his father is a unicorn, while his mother was an earth pony. He inherited the best of both worlds.” Crystal chuckled weakly as she looked back at the stream.
“I can't wait to meet them.”
The rest of the trip through the forest was quiet, with the occasional story to pass the time. But it gave Crystal plenty of time to take in the forested view. The trees were alive with various birds, some of which even came down to visit the pair. After stopping to enjoy the birds and eat, they kept going and soon found a path.
Along the path, Crystal was able to walk on her own for a while. It was nearing the evening when their path had taken them by a clearing where shouting was taking place. They both stopped and looked at each for a moment before sneaking towards the clearing. The sight made both of them gasp.
They saw a familiar looking bat pony, earth pony, and unicorn defending a young looking blue dragon against a random crew of ponies that were all brandishing weapons. Also in the melee was a weird looking griffin. He had white feathers on his raven front half that blended into a strange grass green feline body, with a long thin tail ending in a bright neon pink tail tuft. His wings also seemed to be striped pink, and ended in green tips. He seemed to be dancing around the armed ponies with the greatest of ease while laughing and taunting them.
The blue dragon, who maybe looked to be about 50 in dragon years, had a simple pack by his side that was torn open and its contents of vials were spilled out. He was also holding his arm, a small amount of blood visible under his paw as he watched the melee around him.
Crystal growled as she watched her friends fighting, and it wasn't long before she saw one of the armed ponies about to get a sneak attack on the bat pony. Her horn flared up and a shield appeared behind the pony, distracting the armed earth pony long enough for the bat pony to spin around and kick him aside.
The bat pony blinked, looking at the green shield his leg was currently partly through, which soon faded. He looked around as he saw Crystal leap out from the bushes, another pegasus visible for a moment as Crystal quickly rushed towards him. Crystal slid to a stop as she looked at each of the bandits, who now seeing the numbers have turned out of their favor, turned tail and started to run.
“Ahh, well, there is your morphling Rosey!” Crystal heard from her left side as she suddenly felt fur and feathers brush against her chitin. She blinked and looked at the griffin, looking confused. “Told you we’d find her!”
“And who is this?” Crystal asked, keeping her eye trained on the overly weird griffin. He quickly moved in front of her and bowed slightly.
“Name’s Peter, and I’m more than overly weird!” He grinned as he straightened up, earning yet another confused look from the changeling. “And your friend there, that pegasus who helped you, he is…?”
The pegasus slowly stepped out, looking at everyone present as Dust went over to the dragon and looked over the wound. As he got closer, he was able to get a better view of the wound and the makeshift job Dust was doing to clean it up. He hurried over and almost pushed Dust out the way. “Name is Silverwing, and let me bandage this up.”
Dust blinked, then shrugged and took a few steps back from the dragon. “Are you okay, sir dragon?”
The dragon nodded slightly, looking at the pony fussing over his arm. “Yes, I am,” He spoke equestrian very well, with barely an accent to it. “Just a minor cut, it should heal in a day or two,” he seemed to speak with an air of expertise and age beyond what he looked like. “My name is Tesla, by the way.”
“I'm Dust Horn,” he gestured to himself, “And that's Crystal, Rose Wind, Dark Horizon, and Peter,” he pointed to each as he listed off. “And the one tending to your wound is Silverwing, it seems. What were you doing out here?”
“Collecting herbs, I am an alchemist,” he stated calmly as he pointed to the torn up bag. “I have been trying to recreate something for the past 300 years,” the dragon blinked as all eyes suddenly turned to him. He looked at Rose and Crystal who were in the middle of a hug, then to Dust who just stared at him with his jaw hanging, as did Dark, Silverwing seemed unaffected, and Peter was just chuckling. “Er, I appear young, I am aware. I drank something almost 500 years ago that I have been unable to remake.”
“Uh huh,” Dust said slowly with a nod. “Well, we found Crystal,” he turned to the griffin. “So we don't really need you with us anymore.”
“Oh heck no! You guys are loads of fun!” Peter exclaimed happily, moving over and picking up Dark and hugging him. “Besides, you still need to go to Roan, dontcha? We can all go there together!”
“Right, and why should I go to Roan, especially with a griffin?” Tesla arched an eye ridge at the griffin, who quickly dropped Dark and sped up to his side, resting against him.
“Because we’ll be the best of buddies!” The griffin grinned widely. “We can tell stories, fight off bandits and who knows what else, and make waffles!”
“What are waffles?” Dark asked as he picked himself up, looking confused at the griffin.
“Waffles, ya know. Pancakes but crispier! They are really good, and I know this place in Roan that makes the best! Owned by a Mr Rustic Kettle! Best earth pony chef ever! Well, at least for the time. But he will be the first among a grand line spanning a thousand and five hundred years!”
“Are you spouting nonsense again?” Rose asked as he trotted over, Crystal walking up behind him. Dark leveled his eyes on the morphling for a moment, looking her up and down.
“Of course I'm not Rosey!” Peter grinned, side stepping away. “It’s never nonsense to those who know it!”
“Huh, so it is true,” Dark sat, looking at Crystal. “You are a morphling,” Crystal nodded slightly, her eyes never leaving the griffin.
“I hope that doesn't change anything?” Crystal asked gently, as she turned to watch the unicorn before her. He sighed, looking her over again, then shook his head.
“Nope.”
“Good, though can you answer me a question? Where did this griffin come from?”
“Well, when two griffins love each very much…” Peter started as Rose walked over to him and thrust a hoof onto his beak.
“We found him at the base of the mountain earlier today, and…” Rose started up, before he suddenly found his own hoof in his mouth.
“Nope, not doing the flashback within a flashback thing,” Peter said quickly as he held Rose’s fetlock. “Can save it for the bonus chapter!” He tugged the hoof out of Rose’s mouth while grinning at the bat pony. “So, shall we start going to Roan?”
Crystal looked confused at Peter for a moment, before looking at Silverwing, who was just now tying off the bandage around the dragon’s arm. “Are you joining us?”
Silverwing looked at everyone present, then back to the dragon. “Somepony has to put you lot back together,” he looked up at Crystal. “And I should chide you for what you did, but it was for a friend. Besides, I'm sure Tesla here knows some good healing balms, and I can certainly use those!”
Dust looked up at the darkening sky and sighed softly. “I suppose we should set up a small camp here first though. We can move out first thing in the morning.”
Twilight squeaked softly as Crystal poked her side gently. “What is that?” The unicorn disguised changeling asked softly.
“It is a train. It’s a form of transportation because walking to Canterlot would take weeks.” Twilight looked at Crystal. “Equestria has become huge since you last saw it.”
“I understand that, but why do we not just travel by carriage?”
“Because this is the fastest form of travel. A carriage would still take a week,” Twilight sighed as she watched her friends go inside.
“Okay, can you and Princess Cadance not just teleport us?” Crystal raised an eyebrow as she stepped, warily, onto the train.
“She isn't as powerful as Celestia or Luna, and I can really only teleport myself with maybe one or two other ponies. And even then I can't go very far.” Twilight shrugged softly as she followed the changeling. “Besides, to take your mind off of the train, we can all hear more of your story!”
“If you insist.”
“Oh, Celestia and Luna will know of your arrival. As I sent a letter to them a few days ago.” Twilight grinned widely as Crystal blinked, looking at her.
“And how did you send it? I saw no dragons around.”
“Good old fashioned postal service! It arrived two days after I sent it!” Twilight stopped a moment to look at Crystal. “Wait, did dragons really do all the mail services back then?”
“Only a few, the ones able to that is. Jin was most certainly capable of it but he did not like to do it. Instead, Scorch was the one to do it for the virtues of that time.” Crystal shrugged slightly as she hopped onto one of the benches and made herself comfortable, sitting next to a window. “It was mostly a one way service, and would require letters to be sent to them.”
“Crystal!” Rose shouted as he watched his friend tumble over the cliff side and vanish down it. He grunted as he batted aside one of the shadowy pegasi before turning and slamming the other that was on him into the ground by grabbing its head. He turned and took a step towards the cliff side, just to run into Quake who was sneering down at him.
“You’re next, colt.” Quake sneered around the sword in his mouth before bringing it down. Rose quickly hopped to the side to dodge the blade.
"Quake! This isn't you!” Rose growled as he stepped back, extending his wings out to the sides to ready himself into the air. The shadowy pegasus before him flinched for a second at the mention of his name before turning and lunging at Rose.
Rose reared up and brought an angled hoof forward, deflecting the blade off to the side as he brought his other around, smacking Quake upside the head with it. Quake stumbled a little from the blow, dropping the sword and holding his head as he turned to glare at the bat pony who was standing on his hind legs, wings spread out and arms forward, a focused glare on his features.
Quake snarled and lunged forward again, only to get deflected as Rose bounced to his right and slapped his hoof down. Quake used the momentum of the deflection to spin around, bringing a hoof up to try and smack Rose across the face, only for it to be blocked for a forearm.
“You seemed to have forgotten something, sir. The best offense is a sound defense!” Rose growled as he ducked another wild swing, and brought a hoof up quickly under Quakes jaw, sending the shadowy pegasus flying away and landing with a resounding thud. The bat pony kept his eyes on Quake, watching as he slowly rolled onto his hooves, turning and growling at Rose.
Rose blinked as he watched Quake step back, lowering his ears as Quake seemed to look past the bat pony. Two sets of hooves landed to either side of Rose, making him spare a glance to see Dust and Dark standing there, both looking somewhat beat up. Rose refocused on Quake, just in time to see him turn around and take to the air, heading in the direction the group had been walking from.
Rose sighed and let himself drop, before gasping and running over to the edge. His keen eyes scanned the cliff side, seeing plenty of rubble from a pony or two going over the edge, but no sign of Crystal. Rose flapped his wings, getting into a hover. “Crystal!” He shouted out, and managed to move a little bit before feeling a tug on a hind leg. He growled and looked over his shoulder, seeing Dark’s horn glowing, and Dust shaking his head.
“She could be hurt! We have to…”
“And how will two earth bound ponies make their way down a near straight drop, eh, Rose?” Dust hung his head, ears flat against his head.
“But I can…”
“Think Rose! We are better off together, and I'm sure that she is a far more durable unicorn then she let on!” Dark shouted, making Rose float over and land by him.
“She is a morphling! She could be hurt or worse!”
“She’ll be fine Rose!” Dust shouted, stepping up to the panicked bat pony.
“BUT -” Is as far as Rose got before suddenly finding himself on the ground, his jaw in searing pain. There was an eerie silence between the three, as Rose held his jaw and looked up at Dust. Dust was looking down, eyes closed with little tears starting to form.
“Look,” Dust started up, opening his eyes and gazing down at Rose. “I'm worried about her too, but we can't split up to look for her, our best bet is to head down the mountain and curl back around. Maybe we can find somepony local to help us look. I know she is alive, I can just feel it, and if you were calm, you can too.”
Rose closed his eyes, nodding slightly. “You’re right. I'm sorry…” He trailed off with a sigh, before gasping and looking directly at Dust. “DAMN THAT HURT!” He rubbed his jaw.
“Earth pony strength,” Dust chuckled weakly as he extended a hoof and helped the bat pony to his hooves. “Hopefully Dark knows a numbing spell, and it’s going to hurt in the morning.”
“It hurts now! Sweet Nox, you have a mean right hook!”
“Sorry, but you needed some sense knocked into you. You were still kind of riding the adrenaline of fighting Quake.”
“Seriously, where did you learn to fight like that?” Dark stepped up finally, his horn glowing as Rose felt the tingling in his jaw lessen a considerable amount.
“From Quake, actually. I admit I already has some basics of defending myself, thanks to his father,” He gestured to Dust, who nodded in response. “But most of the formal training came from Quake.”
“If I'm to keep traveling with you, I think I may need a lesson on how to defend myself.” Dark mused as he stepped back. “Also, maybe you can explain everything that is going on while we walk?”
Rose nodded and took two steps further on the path before glancing over his shoulder to where Crystal had fallen. “Soon.” He muttered before resuming. Dust had already started Dark about how this all had started.
The story telling brought the trio to the edge of a very small village at the bottom on the other side, just as Dark had said. Though instead of a village, one could consider this an outpost. It had a single large building that resembled an Inn, a farm a small trot away, and a tower. A pair of ponies were talking to a griffin by the tower.
The trio watched those three talking for a bit before they moved towards Inn. They had just taken a few steps when a loud squawk drew their attention. They looked over at the commotion to see the griffin backing up slowly.
“Aww, come on! I was only joking!” The griffin spoke, holding his wings in front defensively.
“No random griffins are allowed in the watchtower.” One of the ponies spoke.
“But the view from up there is great, you can see the whole mountain just about!” The griffin grinned.
“And you have wings you can use to get a much better view.”
“Well, yes, I do. But it gets tiring hovering!” The griffin sighed dramatically. “I'm just looking for adventure! You can't indulge a simple griff for just a moment?”
By now, Rose and others had wondered over, keeping off to the side as they watched the exchange. One of the guard ponies glanced over and sighed. “Great, more want to see our tower.”
“Actually,” Dust started up. “We were curious what is going..erk!” Dust blinked as the griffin was suddenly at his side, leaning on him.
“Well, thank you guards, it seems adventure has found me!” The griffin grinned as he looked down to Dust. “Name’s Peter! Where are we going?”
Dust sidestepped away, trying to get away from the griffin only for him to appear glued to his side. Rose chuckled softly as he watched. “Me, Dust Horn, and Dark Horizon are actually looking for a guide. We lost a friend down the mountain side and…” Rose trailed off as the griffin zipped over to his side.
“Oh? I think I know my around and we can go find your morphling friend!” The griffin grinned widely.
“But we never said…”
Rose Wind and Peter. Art by Foxenawolf
“Didn't have to! I could tell! I mean, a unicorn, a thestral, and an earth pony. Aside from sounding like the start of a bad joke, it just screams a solid adventure! All we need is a really old dragon, a multi colored pegasus, and your morphling friend and the collection will be complete!”
“You’re really… random, mister…” Rose trailed off, letting the white and green griffin rest on his side.
“Oh, my apologies!” The griffin backed up and bowed. “I am Peter.”
Rose and Dust raised an eyebrow. “Just… Peter?” The bat pony asked, getting a nod in response. “That's…”
“A completely normal name, yup.” He grinned and leaned on the bat pony. “Anyway, I believe you were wanting food first, then we can go out looking for your marefriend.” Both Rose and Dark blinked, staring at the grinning griffin as a very faint blush teased their cheeks.
“R...right.” Rose stammered as he looked around. “I assume that is an Inn?” He looked at the pair of guards, who had just stared at the griffin.
“Yes, they will be closing up the dining room soon. So you may want to go get food now.” The other guard finally spoke up.
“Right! Onwards to pancakes!” Peter grinned and lead the trio towards the Inn who reluctantly followed. They shuffled their way in and saw four small bags set out on the counter, a red bat pony behind it turned away from the door and cleaning a mug.
“Heard ye lot outside, I can't offer ye pancakes but consider this trail mix on the house.” The bat pony pointed towards the bags with a wing.
“Thanks,” Rose trotted up and grabbed them with a wing before turning and looking at the others. “We can eat on the way, let’s go.”
“Come on Rose, can't we rest for a little while?” Dark whined. Rose turned on him with a glare.
“Crystal is out there, injured, and alone. You can sit on your flank if you want but I'm going out there to find her.” Rose turned and started towards the door, only to feel a tug on his tail. He groaned and looked over his shoulder to see Dust staring at him, tail in his mouth. Rose and Dust stared at each other for a minute before Rose sighed and turned towards a table and trotted towards it with a huff.
He grumpily sat at a table and started to eat the trail mix, as everyone else silently sat as well. Dust sighed softly as he looked at Dark. “Ten minutes or so, then we can go out.”
“Alright.” Dark nodded slowly as he started on his mix. “I'm just not used to so much trotting.”
“Nor I, Dark, but a short break would help. We can plan how we want to comb the area.” Dust looked towards Rose. “So, how should we do it?”
“We’ll have to find the section of mountain she fell from, and spread out from there,” Rose sighed as he looked down. “And I'm sorry I'm so adamant about finding her, it’s just…”
“You’re worried, we both are.” Dark looked away. “But we should think about trying to find her rationally. If we go headfirst without thinking, we could pass her by. She knows we are here, so she could be trying to make her way now.”
“Or she could have been saved by a random pegasus,” Peter shrugged slightly as the three stared at him. “What?”
“While that is possible, there were no other ponies around,” Rose shook his head. “Still, we will have to get back out there and find her, then we can continue on.”
“To where?” Peter asked, looking at Rose.
“To Roan.”
“Oh, fun place,” Peter grinned as he looked at everypony present. “But anyway, where did she fall?”
“Are you… being serious?” Rose blinked. “By a cliff side, north part of the path I believe.” He looked to Dark for confirmation, and got a nod in response. “So we shall start there. At least we have two sets of keen hunter eyes to look out.” He let out a soft sigh. “As soon as we are done with this break, we can go.” Rose turned slightly to watch the door.
“Would you stop hovering Rose.” Dust groaned as he looked up and to his left. Rose Wind was currently leading the small pack along the forest floor, only he was leading them by the air. Floating along slowly ahead of the pack, his ears alert and eyes darting to and fro.
“Just keeping an eye and ear out for her, that's all.”
“You can't do that if you’re hovering and flapping your loud wings,” Dark grumbled while he trotted along, stepping around a fallen tree branch.
“I can hear everything just fine Dark.” Rose grumbled as he landed. “But fine, to please you both I’ll stay grounded.”
“Thank you, though I am curious why our guide is currently behind us and not leading us,” Dark looked over his shoulder at the griffin, who just grinned in response.
“Better view from back here.” Peter smirked as Dark stopped and turned to face him.
“And what does that mean, eh?”
“Oh look, a convenient clearing.” Peter causally pointed over Darks shoulder. They all turned and looked towards it. Once the quiet overtook them, they could hear yelling. They slowly crept to the edge and peered in and saw a few ponies all around a young blue dragon.
The blue dragon was holding his arm, just below his shoulder, his tail curled around himself as he stared up at the unicorn that was holding a halberd at him in a dark blue glow. A pair of pegasi were off to his sides, and an earth pony behind him, while another was rummaging through a torn satchel.
“Now listen here dragon, we know you have a stash of gold somewhere. Tell us where and you may yet leave with your wings attached.” The unicorn demanded, hovering the halberd closer.
“But I don't have one! I don't even have a cave of my own!” The dragon squeaked.
“Lies! Every Dragon has one!” The halberd inched ever closer to the dragon’s neck. Back in the bushes, Rose growled lowly as he watched. He stepped forward, as Dark put a hoof on his shoulder.
“What are you doing?” The unicorn whispered.
“Going out there and stopping that.”
“Are you nuts?!” Dark gasped.
“Not as much as him.” Rose gestured to the clearing, the others ponies looked and saw Peter casually strolling out. The other pegasi turned and lowered their weapons towards the griffin.
“Who are you and what are you doing here griffin?” One of the two spoke, both of them pointing spears at him.
“Why, I could ask you the same thing! Five ponies picking on a poor defenseless dragon. What are you all in need of? Scales, gold, fangs? I could point you all to an old wyrm about a weeks travel from here.” Peter gestured over his shoulder fearlessly while he kept up a smirk as the two pegasi stared at him dumbfounded.
Rose watched them from the bushes, tensing up and spreading his wings. “Dust, can you give me a boost?” He whispered. He didn't have to hear anything as he felt the ground under his hooves shift slightly, angling them. “Know when to fire?” He just heard a hum in response and lowered himself, spreading his wings a little more.
Peter took a step to his left rearing back just in time to dodge a swing from a spear. The pegasus stepped forward, before the sound of crumbling rock came from the bushes. He was barely able to glance in that direction before a hoof collided with his face and sent him back. Rose used the momentum to land in front of the unicorn, deflecting the halberd away as he stood tall.
The unicorn stepped back, glancing to the halberd for a moment before focusing on the thestral before him. “Huh, what's this? The dragon has a knight in armor?”
Peter watched the pegasus land with a soft thud from the blow before looking up at Rose who was standing in front of the dragon. Rose glared at the unicorn before him. “I believe he said he had no gold to his name.”
“Well, his hide will fetch me some pretty gold.” The unicorn sneered as his halberd floated back up.
“Hmph, you wish to skin him? Get through me first.” Rose growled, lowering himself and flaring his wings out. The unicorn glared at him.
“You wish to protect a random dragon?” The unicorn raised an eyebrow. “So be it! Bat wings are good for fabric!” The unicorn lunged forward with the halberd. Rose smirked and reared back, smacking the blade down with a wing to make him rear back. He smirked and held himself up, wings splayed out.
Rose kept focused on the unicorn who stepped back and swing the halberd out with it held in his magic. Rose leapt up into the air to dodge the swing and hovered, taking a quick sweep of the area. He saw Peter was already dancing around one of the pegasi, and Dark and Dust were charging out of the bushes.
“Should keep your eyes on me bat!” The unicorn growled as his horn glowed. Rose turned his glare to the pony, just as a beam of magic shot off and Rose barely raised a wing in time to deflect the shot.
“That is the best insult you have for me? Bat? Seriously, Horn head, you can do far better than that!” Rose sneered as he let his wings spread out, watching the unicorn as he held the halberd and glared.
The unicorn lunged forward, thrusting the halberd as he did. Rose spun in the air, dodging the blade easily as it went past. He brought a hind hoof around, and connected with the unicorns face to send him sprawling away. Rose landed with a grin, then blinked and looked over his shoulder, seeing an earth pony charging at him. He wasn't able to bring his hooves up in time to spin to protect himself.
But he didn't need to, a green wall formed in front of him as his leg passed through it, while the earth pony slowed down just enough to get hit. Rose blinked and looked at the shield, then upwards as he heard the bushes rustle. He grinned widely when a familiar changeling leapt out of the bushes and rushed towards them. Though she had a few injuries and bandages.
“If it isn't a cliff side, it’s a dark forest. Why can't it be a plain of cute fuzzy bunnies?” Rose Wind whined as he trotted along at the head of the pack. Peter smirked and slid up to his side.
“Well, It can't be all sunshine and rainbows, yet. Give it several hundred years and sisters rebelling before the sun can truly shine!”
“You’re doing it again Peter,” Dust sighed as he dragged a hoof down his face. The group was trotting along a dirt path in a somewhat well lit forest area. Rose Wind and Peter were at the front while Tesla was at the back.
“So, Peter, why don't you tell us about yourself a little?” Crystal started up, making the white and green griffin almost slither up to her with a wide grin on his beak.
“Well, I could. But do you really want a flashback within a flashback?” He hovered next to Crystal, getting a confused look from her.
“Uh…”
“You’ll understand when you’re older,” Peter leaned on Crystal for a moment before bouncing back towards the front of the group. “But really, I'm just a simple griffin out here in this cruel world to make others laugh. My past isn't important.” He stopped for a moment looking towards Tesla. “Unlike a certain dragon, anyway.”
At that, everypony turned to look at Tesla, stopping in their tracks to do so. Tesla blinked as he looked among each of them, and sighed. “I already told you; I drank something five hundred years ago and stopped aging.”
“That seems weird,” Dark started up as he put a hoof to his chin. “I’ve never heard of a potion that can stop aging.”
“I don't recall where I found it, but it was near a pool of water. Sadly I can't seem to find that pool either.” Tesla shrugged as he looked up at the sky. “We can set up camp here, and resume marching in the morning.”
They each looked up at the setting sun and sighed. Crystal nodded and turned to face everyone. “Yeah, we should set up camp and we can resume early in the morning. We should be in Roan after that forest.”
Rose sighed as he moved over to help unpack the tents and set them up. “And hopefully whatever has been chasing us hasn’t reached them yet. Or if it has, they have a good defense.”
“Considering we can't seem to hurt them, only my magic seems to,” Dark grumbled as he helped set up a tent, aiding with his own magic. “And even then.” Dark trailed off with a huff.
“What we need is a rare and powerful magic!” Peter grinned as he leaned on Dust. “One that changes with the seasons! I bet it could help us!”
Dust looked over at the griffin with a raised eyebrow, “Like what?”
“I don't know! You and Dark are the book ponies! Surely, you two have heard of something!”
“Well,” Dark started with a shrug. “Maybe an alicorn’s magic can harm them.”
“Well, it’s a good thing there are a few in Roan right now, right?” Rose looked over at the unicorn. “Captain Quake said there are a few there already. I don't exactly recall who though.”
“He never said,” Crystal spoke up as she drove a tent stake into the ground with a hoof. “Just that a few of the higher ranking alicorns would be there.”
“I do wonder why us mortals always go to the gods for everything?” Peter mused, looking around at his compatriots.
“Because they seem to always have the right answers,” Tesla sighed as he set up the campfire. “For as long as I have been around, the alicorns seem to know everything about one aspect or another. Shiro is the god of war and because of that, he knows almost everything about war.”
“You seem to know a lot for just being 500.” Dust commented as he sat down by the fire, letting Silverwing and Rose finish setting up the tent.
“I have kept up on various news events, while also trying to stay out of sight. You try explaining to gods how you’re suddenly ageless and have no real clue how or why aside from drinking some random water,” Tesla shrugged with a sigh. “Honestly, I'm not looking forward to meeting any of them.”
“But what's wrong with meeting alicorns?” Peter slid up next to the dragon with a huge grin on his beak. “They wield power a normal unicorn wishes they could! They are immortal! Unaging and undying!”
“That last part is actually untrue, Peter,” Dark spoke up as he sat by the small camp fire. “I have heard of one dying, in a battle a few hundred years ago.”
“But that was in a story!” Peter moved over to Dark, making him lean away from the griffin. “The alicorns are all that and a bag of chips!”
“...What?” Tesla raised an eyebrow at the griffin.
“I never understood that saying either.” Peter shrugged as he sat back down by the dragon.
“We should reach Roan by midday, day after tomorrow,” Rose brought up as he sat next to Crystal. “If we fly anyway.”
“Right, and who is going to carry the ground based ponies?” Dark looked over at Rose.
“I suspect I can carry you, Dark,” Tesla looked the dark colored unicorn over. “And Peter here should have no problems with Dust. The sooner we get to Roan, the better.”
“Right, so we should all get sleep,” Crystal nodded. “I’ll take first watch."
“You were so close to your destination, weren't you Crystal?” Twilight asked during the pause Crystal had taken to sip some water.
“We were actually about three days away. But that was not the problem.” She looked up at Twilight. “We made it over the forest blocking our way with no problems. Tesla carried Dark, and Peter carried Dust. We made it near the end the second day, and that is when things went dark.” Crystal sighed, looking down.
“What happened darling?” Rarity asked, concern in her voice. Most of the girls had actually been on the edge of their seats for most of the story.
“He showed up again,” Crystal looked away. “They attacked just as we made it near a ravine. The attack was so sudden, we barely had time to get out of the sky. In fact, Silverwing nearly lost a wing.”
Crystal grunted as she held a shield above the fallen pegasus. She glared back at the pair of shadowy unicorns that was pelting her barrier with magic bolts. Unable to do anything except protect her friend that had landed in a rather painful way. Silverwing lay unconscious over a few rocks, his wing bent in a few places and spread out over a rock. He was breathing at least, but to Crystal, his energy felt faint.
Off in the distance, she noticed Peter and Tesla were also guarding a prone form. From what she tell, it was an earth pony who was slowly stirring to life. Dust Horn slowly sat up, shaking his head as the pair kept around him, shielding him from a few shadowy pegasi. Crystal wasn't able to look around for Rose, as she kept her attention focused on the pair of unicorns before her.
Each hit on her shield was starting to take its toll, as she felt each one make her shield shrink. She watched the unicorns, and the moment they both paused, she made her move. She charged out of her shield, her horn still aglow as she shrank the shield to just be around Silverwing while at the same time running in low to catch the unicorns off guard.
She ran in low, managing to get under one of them and head butting it from beneath. The other turned towards her, changing its hoof to a blade. Just as she turned and readied to block the swipe, a green and black blur landed on it. She blinked as stood there a moment, before looking down. Once the smoke cleared from the sudden impact, she saw Rose holding a great sword just a few inches away from his face.
Both of his hooves were on the blade, holding it up and away from slicing him in two. The owner of the blade, a black pegasus, growled as he tried to force the blade down. “A little help Crystal!” Rose squeaked out, as the blade slowly got closer. Crystal grunted as she leapt up and swung around brought a hind hoof into the stallions armored face. The attack worked, catching him squarely and sending him off of Rose. But the stallion rolled onto the ground and was back on his hooves, standing and glaring at Crystal.
Rose grunted as he slowly rolled to his hooves, while Crystal stood in front of him an glared at the stallion. “Quake! Snap out of it!” Crystal shouted at the stallion, making the shadowy pegasus flinch slightly. She was about to say something else before Quake charged her. Her focus on the shield around Silverwing faltered, making it fade as she brought one up in front of her to stop the sword Quake was bringing down. “Rose! Watch Silverwing!” She ordered as she moved to the side, getting Quake to follow and swing again at her.
Crystal leapt back, dodging the swing from the sword as the pegasus before her started to swing wildly. His attacks were slow, easy to predict, but that didn't mean she still barely had time to dodge and back up as she moved him away from Silverwing and Rose. She kept backing up with each swing, unable to find a chance to get to strike back.
She smirked as she felt her hind hoof find a cliff side, and didn't have to look to figure out where she was. “Fine Quake, charge me!” She ordered, making the stallion flinch again before thrusting his blade forward. She lowered herself just enough to let the blade slide dangerously close over her back, making Quake stumble forward just enough to be above her.
At that moment she stood up, and reared back, sending the pegasus tumbling into the ravine behind her as she kept her wings fluttering to keep her from joining him. She only glanced over her shoulder a moment, to see Quake bounce along the canyon wall, before she turned forward and dashed over to Silverwing and Rose.
By the time she got over to them; Dust, Tesla, and Peter were all around him. Peter was looking around worriedly when Crystal stepped up.
“We need to find somewhere to hide.” Crystal stopped to look around. “And where is Dark?”
“I don't know!” Peter suddenly grabbed Crystal. “He was at my back, we got attacked, and… I DON'T KNOW SOMETHING!” Crystal just stared at him for a moment.
“I hope he is fine where-” She blinked and quickly turned around, raising a shield up just in time to stop a sword. She cringed as the sword impacted her shield, held in the grasp of a familiar pegasus.
“Did you really think that could stop me-erk!” Quake growled out, before a deep red blast of magic knocked him away.
“Oh, there he is.” Peter commented casually as everyone looked over to see Dark standing there. His horn glowing the same deep red as he growled lowly, three out of four hooves firmly planted, his left front held up. “Anyway,” Peter started up after a short pause. “I saw a cave down in that ravine, we should head in there.”
“If we go in there, we could be trapped!” Tesla looked at Crystal with worry.
“Would you rather get outnumbered out in the open or be able to funnel them in one way?” Crystal asked as she turned towards Silverwing. “Peter, help me carry Silverwing!” She started to gently float his wing up in her magic, as Peter merely saluted and moved to shimmy under him gently.
Dark hobbled over to them, avoiding putting weight on his fore leg as Tesla watched him. He let out a soft sigh and moved over to Dark, as Rose moved to offer protection to the two. Tesla lowered himself. “Climb on Dark, we can move faster if we all aren't slowed down.” Dark merely nodded and allowed himself to be carried by the dragon.
Dust managed to get on Rose’s back and they made their way down to the cave, thankful that they weren't attacked on the way down. Once they made it to the cave’s entrance is when they heard a shout from above. Crystal hurried inside and forced everyone else in quickly.
“Hopefully, they didn't see us,” She spoke softly before looking around the inside of the cave. The inside looked a little dusty, but strangely well crafted out. Like tunnellers or miners had been inside. The area just beyond the mouth of the cave was also large enough for them to freely move around.
“Come on, let’s try to get a little deeper in here.” Crystal led the way in deeper, her horn keeping light going as the group hobbled its way in. As they rounded a bend, they found another big open space, where a few glowing crystals sat in its center. Crystal slowed her pace a little, staring at the crystals.
“Crystal?” The changeling quickly shook her head and looked towards Rose, each of them were looking back at her worried.
“We can hide here, rest up and see what we can do about the injured.” Crystal gestured around the crystals that sat in a semicircle of stones. Rose nodded and led Dust over, while Crystal and Peter went towards one of the larger slabs of stone. Tesla moved over to one and let Dark crawl onto it.
Tesla sighed as he looked over Dark’s hoof. “From what I can tell, it's just sprained.” He reached back into one of his saddle bags to pull out a vial and some cloth.
“What's that?” Dark eyed the vial warily as Tesla poured some onto the rag.
“Something that will numb your hoof long enough to walk. I wouldn't do any running though,” Tesla chuckled weakly as he applied the cloth to Dark’s hoof, making him wince faintly. After a few moments, Dark looked at his hoof curiously as Tesla looked him over. “Anything else?”
“No, just the hoof. That kind of tingles, actually.” Dark stared at his hoof and the cloth. Tesla grinned and moved over to Dust next, looking the earth pony over as he went. Dust glanced at Tesla and shook his head, as he pointed to Silverwing. Tesla nodded and turned to look at the pegasus, cringing at the sight of the wing.
“Don't suppose you have any potions in there for a wing, do you?” Crystal asked as she looked at Tesla who shook his head.
“Uh, well. I have a numbing oil for dragons.” He held it up, before sitting and looking in his bag again. “Nothing really for mending wings. But I can make it numb as hell for a while.”
“Well, that will have to work. What can we use as a splint for this?” Crystal looked around as Tesla moved around to one side of Silverwing and started to apply the salve. After a bit of searching, she managed to find something that could work for a splint. As Crystal and Tesla worked over Silverwing, Peter took the time to explore the cave. Rose stood by the entrance as Dust and Dark remained silent.
After a half hour or so, Silverwing finally started to stir and awaken. He started to panic when he noticed the state of his wing. After a little bit of being told to remain calm and being held down by Tesla, they were able fix it up to be comfortable. Silverwing sighed as he stared at his wing.
“Well, this greatly slows us down.” Crystal looked among her friends, Tesla was looking over and applying bandages to Dust next, Rose stood by the entrance still, Dark had hobbled over to sit next to Silverwing. She blinked when she realized a certain griffin was missing.
“Uh, has anypony seen Peter?” The others stopped what they were doing and looked at her for a moment before looking around. A set of ‘no’, ‘I haven't seen him’, and ‘I thought he was near you.’ greeted her back. She sighed and started to stand up before his voice echoed from further in the cave.
“Hey guys, I think you should come see this.” All of them turned to see him pointing further in the cave. They slowly hobbled over to him as he led them deeper in. The light in the cave seemed to dim as they went in, but just as Crystal was about conjure up some light, they noticed a silvery glow.
As they filed into the next room, they looked around it. At its center sat a large tree made out of crystal with the branches growing into the cave walls and its roots spread out along the cave floor. The group stared in awe at the tree until Peter squeaked. “I found a tree!”
“Yes, it’s a crystal tree.” Tesla spoke up, looking at Peter. “What's so special about it?”
“Look!” Peter floated by one of its branches, pointing to what appeared to be a bottle etched into a leaf. “There are more like this!” He floated over to another leaf, that had a picture of books etched into it. “All of these leaves have various pictures!”
“And?” Crystal walked up to the tree, giving it a once over. “Don't most crystal trees have something like that?”
“I don't know, this is the first crystal tree I’ve seen.” Tesla remarked. Peter landed by them with a sigh.
“Well, this is the first I’ve seen as well. But we can hide out by this.”
“Crystal trees are a thing to behold,” Dark started up. “They are often said to provide protection. We should be safe next to-” Dark got interrupted as he heard something heavy slam down behind him. The group turned around just in time to see Quake and a few shadowy unicorns standing at the entrance to the room.
They took a step in, making the injured group step back from them. It was at that moment that Crystal felt a surge of energy pass over her, that started at her tail and flowed over her as she saw what could only be described as a wall of glass extend out from her. She watched it crash into the shadowy ponies, sending the unicorns and Quake into the wall. The unicorns quickly evaporated and Quake was left smoking.
Another wave passed over her and crashed into the pegasus, making him hiss and scurry out of the cave. Crystal turned back to the tree, and noticed it seemed to glow a rainbow hue. Certain leaves on it glowing brighter than others. The group started to slowly back towards the entrance of the room, watching the glowing leaves as they broke off and started to float around the tree.
“What is…” Crystal asked as she stopped, one of the leaves floating down to her, the leaf glowing as it went. Once it stopped in front of her, the leaf had reshaped itself what appeared to be a bracer, the image of a hoof resting over the outline of a heart etched onto the side opposite of the straps. She looked down at it, then to her friends, as five similar colored orbs floated in front of them.
Each one of them got a bracer, except for Dust and Dark. An orb floated down between them and seemed to hover there for a while as if deciding. The orb soon took a shape, looking like a small purple ring that could fit over a horn, with a leather strapped attached to it. Dark’s eyes lit up as he looked it over, before the object floated over to Dust, making him go cross eyed as it attached itself to his forehead.
“What?!” Dark growled as he watched Dust stare at it as best he could. Meanwhile everyone else was looking over the bracers that had attached themselves to their wrists.
“What are these?” Tesla asked, looking up at Crystal, who had her eyes closed and a hoof resting on the tree.
“How is your wing?” Tesla asked as he looked over Silverwing. It had been about a half hour since they had been given the bracers. Dark was sitting on the opposite side of Silverwing, looking over his own hoof. Silverwing was flexing both of his wings, with both him and Tesla staring at the one that had been damaged.
“It feels like new,” Silverwing said slowly. “I swore I wasn't going to fly for a few weeks, but I feel like I could fly a marathon right now.”
“Likewise,” Dark remarked. “Except for the whole flying a marathon thing. But my hoof is healed.”
“I think it was that wave that passed over us,” Rose spoke up, looking at the pair. “I felt rejuvenated after it.”
“That would make more sense then after getting the Elements,” Dark almost growled as he huffed and looked away from everyone.
“What has you so upset?” Rose sat next to the brooding unicorn.
“Everypony knows the legend of them, how there are six things that make up harmony and peace. Kindness towards others, being generous and sharing laughs, being honest with those around you, and finally remaining loyal to those you’ve befriended. That makes up the Magic of Harmony.”
“Uh huh, and there are seven of us.”
“So why did an earth pony get Magic?” Dark turned to face Rose while he pointed at Dust, who was sitting next to Crystal. “Why not a unicorn? Who can actually USE magic!”
“Hey! Dust is very skilled with his own magic!” Rose stood to face Dark. “We all are, so it could have fallen to any of us!”
“I wouldn't say I'm skilled with magic.” Tesla casually remarked he looked at the bracer on Silverwings arm. The simple item with the image of a hoof shaking with a griffin paw on it. Tesla looked down to his, a few coins in the center of it on his. “But these symbols. I don't understand them.”
“Kindness for our pegasus,” Dark started up, a faint growl still audible at the back of his throat. “And Generosity for you, dear dragon,” He gestured to Rose. “Rose here is our Loyal guardian, our morphling is Honest from what I saw. Leaving Dust as Magic.”
“You forgot me!” Peter shouted, making Dark turn to face him. The moment he did, Dark had to close his eyes as a cream pie splattered all over his face. He flattened his ears as he heard faint laughter from those around.
“Oh yes, Laughter. From our wonderful griffin.” Dark muttered as Peter merely laughed.
“Where did… nevermind.” Dark heard Rose start to ask as he wiped the cream from his face.
Meanwhile, Dust had been sitting next to Crystal who still had a hoof on the tree and her eyes closed. “Crystal?” He asked quietly. Crystal slowly opened her eyes and looked at Dust, gazing at the ring on his forehead for a moment then looking back at him.
“Yes?” She asked slowly.
“So, we found a rare tree, and it gave us relics. What do we do now?” Dust watched Crystal look down at her bracer.
“I don't know. I think for now we shouldn't show these off. We don't even know what all these can do.” Crystal sat and looked up at Dust. “The library in Roan may have a clue or two. So hopefully we can figure something out then.”
“So what should we do?”
“For now, we should rest. I find it strange that our wounds have healed, but I don't want to risk it just yet. We are still safe near the tree for now and we can head out tomorrow.” Crystal turned and took a few steps before she got stopped.
“Are you okay?” Dust looked at Crystal, worry evident in his eyes. Crystal sighed and looked down.
“No. My friends are in danger, our homes are in danger, all of Equus could be in danger for all we know and this tree gives us all something we have no clue how to use,” She sighed, her wings sagging. “I'm tired, I want to rest, and most importantly, I want answers and food.”
Dust nodded and turned to stand but stopped short as he noticed his pack floating in front of him in an deep brown glow. Both he and Crystal stared at it few a few moments before Dust screamed and back pedaled away from it. The bag fell to the ground with a soft plop as Crystal looked to her adoptive brother, and noticed a similar brown glow from the ring fade.
His scream drew the attention of the others, who looked in his direction. He sat and stared at the bag that lay at Crystals hooves. “Wha… how…” He mumbled and stuttered.
Crystal stared at the pack for a moment, before floating it up in her magic and moving it to Dust. She set it down and gestured to her horn with a faint grin. “I think you may have picked up a trick. Try to pick it up again.” Dust nodded and went to pick it up with his mouth, only to hit a green bubble. “With your mind.”
“But Dad always told me how complicated it was to learn magic! To form those disconnects and…” He trailed off as Crystal just glared softly at him. He let out a soft sigh as he focused on the bag. Crystal watched her older brother as the ring soon started to glow, a long, slightly curved, and transparent brown horn formed through the ring. A few moments later the bag was soon in a similar glow and started to float up.
“Oh great! So now he’s a faux unicorn?” Dark exclaimed as he, and everyone else, watched. The sudden sound broke his concentration, and the bag fell back to the ground as Dust panted, opening his eyes to look down at the bag.
“Well, that was certainly interesting,” Crystal commented with a chuckle. “Seems when you did that, your little ring there conjured up a horn. I think you can finally live up to your name now.”
Dust rolled his eyes in response as he put a hoof to the band. “As long as I have this, sure.”
“So he became a unicorn?” Twilight asked when Crystal had made another pause to take a bite out of a cupcake. She nodded in response.
“In a sense, yes. He never grew the horn, as far as I am aware. But every time he did magic like a unicorn would, that horn would appear. And every time it did, Dark got upset.” Crystal looked over the cupcake in her white glow. “Also, how much sugar is in this?”
“Far too much for my tastes,” Talon made a face, before a cupcake suddenly hit him in the face and knocked him out of the chair. The mares laughed as Applejack turned to Crystal.
“But y’all just found the elements, just like that?” Crystal nodded as Applejack continued. “We got them as necklaces, except for Twilight here. Her’s was a crown.”
“As Peter said, they change with the seasons. At that time, I did not understand it. But seeing all of you, it all makes sense.” Crystal looked out the window of the train, watching the rolling countryside go by. “As I think back on it, a lot of things he said make sense now.”
“So Dust was able to use the magic right away?” Twilight arched an eyebrow. “I know it takes unicorns a long time to learn how to use magic.”
“Hey, Soarin picked it up fairly quickly.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Crystal chuckled softly as she turned to Rainbow Dash. “And he’s a pegasus!”
“His father was a unicorn. He taught him various methods of meditation and how to harness the magic of the land around him. His power only grew after getting imbued with the Element of Magic.” Crystal sighed as she went back to looking out the window.
The group waited as Crystal fell silent. After a few minutes Twilight coughed softly into a hoof. “What happened next?”
Crystal looked over at her, “We slept and rested for the rest of that evening. The next day we decided to venture out. The shadows were waiting for us and attacked the moment we left the cave, forcing us back in. They followed us in and it became another free for all. The Elements were proving useful, though, but it seemed the shadows were never ending.” She looked out the window again.
“Can we go one day without a fight?” Rose groaned as he deflected a black beam of magic to the ground. He was back to back with Tesla, who was failing to deflect the magic. The shadowy unicorns had managed to get them trapped within the entrance of the cave. Dark and Dust had also been forced back to back against a pair of unicorns, while Peter was defending Silverwing from a shadowy pegasus.
“That would be nice!” Crystal shouted back, as she narrowly dodged a heavy blade. She was facing off against Quake, again. The pegasus growled as he kept swinging his sword.
“At least these things are helping!” Peter commented as he held down a pegasus. Where he was holding was sizzling, like the fur was being cooked. Peter’s paws were glowing a faint dark pink as well. Everyone else seemed to be holding their own, including Dark who was dodging and attempting to fire off beams of magic.
Crystal, however, didn't seem to be doing so well as she kept narrowly dodging Quake’s blade. She reared up onto her hind legs as she brought an arm up to block a swing, conjuring up a little shield to aid in it. She grunted as the blade impacted, making her slide a little. She kept her wings spread out to provide balance as Quake reared up, sword held strongly in his mouth.
She moved to her left, dodging a downward swing. “Quake! Stop!” She shouted, making the pegasus flinch before swinging the blade towards her. She raised up another small shield in time to stop it from connecting with her barrel.
“That magic won't save you, Crystal!” Quake growled as he stepped back, tossed his blade up slightly to clap his hooves around it, and bring it in a sideways swing. Crystal quickly jumped back and brought her hooves up defensively as Quake quickly turned the swing into a thrust.
She thrust her hoof out, deflecting the blade to the side. “It can and it will Quake!” Crystal growled as she watched Quake rear back, his wings spread out and the sword’s hilt seemingly stuck to his hoof as he took a stance. In the din of battle around them, the pair seemed focused on each other, waiting only a few moments before Quake lunged forward.
Crystal dodged to her left to avoid the sword, then bounced to her right to dodge another thrust. She turned and quickly threw up a shield to block a third thrust. Quake used the momentum of that deflection to turn, spinning around to bring the blade towards her. She ducked the first swing and bounced up as he kept spinning to avoid the second, but as she landed she could only bring up a shield to save her from getting sliced in two.
As the sword hit her shield, she wasn't firmly planted on the ground, and it sent her flying away into and through a cave wall. She groaned as she laid there, barely feeling her hoof brushing against something that wasn't stone. She looked down at her hoof through squinting eyes to see it slowly engulf in her green fire.
Rose swept his hoof down to deflect a beam of magic, after he watched his lifelong friend get slammed into a wall. Quake was already stomping towards him as Rose focused on the unicorn that had been pelting him and Tesla with magic. Another beam shot towards him from the unicorn and this time he managed to deflect it back to hit the unicorn, he turned just in time to see Quake get ready to leap into the air, only for a loud screech to fill the air and silence almost everything going on.
Quake stopped and turned back to the hole, where a silver and black griffin stood on its hind legs. Its white eyes glaring at Quake as it held a brightly hued sword of some rainbow colored metal that Rose couldn't identify. Quake snarled and leapt at the griffin instead, whom brought the blade up block the swing.
Rose watched as Quake brought his sword down, the griffin blocked it with its own blade. Quake snarled and bounced back, holding his blade in front of himself with it glued to his hoof, a wisp of mist swirling around it. Quake started his attack, swinging the blade in a side sweep. The griffin blocked it easily and seemed to only be on the defensive at Quake unleashed various swings and thrusts.
Quake growled as each swing was blocked and soon started to swing wildly. The moment he leapt up and brought the blade down with both hooves, it was over. The griffin sidestepped him and leapt up, bringing the blade up with the uppercut. Rose yelled out a “NO!” a moment to late as the blade cut through the shadowy pegasus.
However, instead of slicing him in two, a shadowy copy of the pegasus seemed to appear just before it shattered. The blade did however leave a nice sized scar up Quakes side. The griffin landed and turned towards another one of the shadowy figures. Its form engulfed in fire, revealing a familiar unicorn for all of a few seconds before it disappeared, only to reappear next to a shadowy unicorn attacking Peter.
“Crystal?” Rose mumbled as he watched her sweep her away across the various shadows. Each one she sliced didn't leave behind a body, though, and instead screeched in fear or horror.
She cut her away among the shadows, and soon made her towards the one that was fighting Dark. Dark turned and watched as the shadow got sliced down, only for the griffin-disguised changeling to turn on him.
“Wait! I'm good!” Dark screeched out, as Tesla and Rose shouted.
“Crystal! Wait!” The griffin stopped the blade an inch from Dark’s horn. The griffin blinked, the white of her eyes getting replaced with green eyes. She blinked again, looking at the sword, then to Dark, gasped and quickly stepped back, dropping the sword to the side.
A muted metallic rainbow colored blade laid out on the table in front of the girls and Crystal as she fell silent and stared at it. She had withdrawn the blade and sat it down as she got to that point in her story.
“When I first laid my eyes on this, I was scared. But I am getting ahead of myself,” Crystal looked up at Twilight. “I paused to withdraw this blade, because this is when I became terrified of myself.”
“Why is that?” Twilight asked, her eyes never leaving the blade.
“That last part, Rose Wind had told me what I had done. He barely recognized me when I emerged from the wall, but the way Quake focused on me, and with where I had gone and come from. He put two and two together, as it were.” Crystal sighed, looking out the window of the train car again. “After that, we rested for an hour or so to lick our wounds before we headed out. Dust insisted that I keep the blade, even if he carried it until we camped for the night.”
Crystal stared into the campfire as the group sat in silence. It had been a full day and they had made good progress towards Roan. However the entire trip was silent, even Peter kept quiet as the air around Crystal and Dark were both dark. Dust was sitting next to Crystal, holding the blade and scabbard up and looking it over.
“Well, we at least know how this works, mostly.” He commented, looking up at the group. Tesla and Silverwing were currently looking over and making sure Quake was comfortable and his ‘wound’ was clean. Tesla nodded in response, as Silverwing spoke up.
“Cleanses the body of possession, but…” He trailed off as he looked over the wound. It looked clean, but would leave a scar, a large scar. “I don't know when he is going to wake up, or if he even will.”
“I'm sure he will, but he has been possessed for a while, at least a week.” Dust sighed, looking at Quake. “In the meantime, we shall continue to carry him back to Roan with us.”
“Oh yeah, it totally won't look bad with us carrying in their top captain,” Rose commented sarcastically as he gestured to Quake. “I mean, I'm sure we’ll be labeled as heroes! And totally not thrown in jail!”
“Hey! It would still be better than just leaving him in that cave!” Silverwing snapped at Rose, making the bat pony flatten his ears and lower himself. “Look, we are all on edge right now,” Silverwing gestured around at the group and continued, “I suggest we just get rest. We will be in Roan tomorrow and together as a group we can deal with whatever happens.”
“You didn't stare down a blade and watch your life flash before your eyes.” Dark muttered darkly, casting a glance to Crystal who only shrank more.
“And,” Dust started up. “As for that, Dark, I suspect it's because of your dark coloration that you got targeted. She wasn't herself and she has forgiven you for it. Perhaps it's time you do the same to her?”
Dark sighed and looked down, keeping quiet for a short moment before looking up at Crystal. “You’re right Dust. It was a hectic moment and we were nearly defeated if not for Crystal here soundly beating this pegasus that we are carrying,” He grinned weakly towards her. “So I am sorry for holding a grudge against being nearly sliced in two.”
“Thank you, Dark.” Crystal grinned towards the stallion, before looking around. “So, who wants first watch?”
Tesla raised a paw, “I’ll take first watch. I am still applying some of my healing oils to…” he trailed off as he glanced at Quake. “I believe you called him Quake?”
“Yes,” Rose sighed as he trotted over and sat at Quake’s back, looking down at him. “The one who oversaw our training before everything went to Tartarus.”
“Well, everypony should get rest. I’ll stay up and keep applying more of what I know.” Tesla looked up at Rose for a moment, before looking at everyone else. Everyone soon nestled down to sleep, Peter stayed up to help Tesla out as best he could while Crystal sought comfort with Dust and Rose. Dark slept near the little campfire they had going, keeping his back to Crystal as he slept.
The night progressed on without interruption, and the next day proved to be bright and sunny early on. After eating some local berries and other nutritious things, they decided to move out. It only took them a few hours to arrive on the outskirts of Roan, where the sight of the impressive city took their breath away.
The large wall that surrounds the city, with various towers along it. Beyond the walls are what appear to be homes, all lined up neatly and well kept. In the center of it lies a grand castle, outlined by a large and well crafted garden. While from a distance, the city looked small, but it acted as one of many capitals in this domain.
As all eyes scanned the city, they all eventually landed on the gate, where a pair of guards stood tall. Tesla was the first to let out a sigh and start down the path. “Shall we get this over with?”
“Hey! We need a positive attitude about this!” Peter grinned as he glided to catch up with the dragon. “We won't be immediately thrown in jail!” Everyone looked at him confused. “They have to escort us there first!”
“As depressing as it is to admit the griffin is right, he does have a point,” Dark pointed out as Peter fluffed his feathers up and grinned. “How many of us have been to this city before? As far as I know, none.” He paused to look at Tesla. “Unless…”
“I’ve avoided the big cities, remember?”
“Right, okay so none of us have…” Dark trailed off as he noticed Silverwing hover up a little.
“Huh, that garden is still there.” The pegasus mumbled.
“You’ve been here before?!” Dark exclaimed as he looked up at the pegasus who looked down at him and shrugged.
“I was born here. My parents are probably still running that hospital. Although I don't think we will be going there,” Silverwing sighed as he landed to trot beside the dragon. “Quake here will probably be taken to the medical wing inside the castle.”
“Why didn't you mention you’re from here?” Dust asked as he cantered to catch up to the pegasus.
“Nopony asked,” Silverwing chuckled as he heard a collective sigh of annoyance. “Besides, I left here almost a decade ago, been on my own since.”
Crystal was about to ask something else before the guards caught their attention. “Halt! Who goes there?”
Dust stepped forward, with Crystal beside him. They both saluted the guards as Dust started up. “I am Dust Horn, and we are here from the training camp that was located near the forest close to Mirror.”
The guards blinked at the pair, before looking over the group. “We have heard of that camp, but we lost… contact...” The stallion trailed off as his eyes fell upon Quake, currently draped across the dragon’s back. “What happened?” Both guards quickly took a defensive stance. The group was about to say something else before the sound of a polearms blunt end hit the cobblestone behind them.
The group looked beyond the guards to see a white alicorn adorned in heavy dark red armor that looked to be made of a combination of iron plates with leather beneath. Turning slightly, they get a good look at the long, almost quilted, barding adorning his sides, as well as the telltale scratches and repaired holes from many battles.
The guards looked over their shoulder at the stallion, before stepping aside to let him out the doors. His red eyes scanned the group, falling upon Quake for a moment before looking down at the guards. “One of you shall escort these seven to the medical wing in the castle. Afterwards see they are placed in one of the visiting dignitaries room. We do have some exotic guests after all.” The alicorn finished as his eyes fell upon Tesla.
“Yes, Lord Shiro.” The guards saluted him. One of the guards then led the group away, as Shiro watched them.
“Hmmm.” He let his eyes linger on the changeling, and the blade on her back as they walked away.
Shining Armor turned slightly at his desk, looking up from his paperwork to look at Scope. The unicorn looked calm, but the two guards beside him looked worried. Shining grinned slightly. “Report Scope.”
“There is a dragon outside the Crystal Empire. He wishes to speak with you and Princess Cadance.” Scope answered calmly, making Shining blink.
“Uh, okay. Why?”
“I do not know why. I was only informed from the two here that a dragon was asking for you two. Shall we go see him?”
“Sure, go inform Cadance to meet me in the lobby.” Shining turned back to his paperwork. “I could use a break from this anyway.”
“Yes sir,” Scope and the two guards beside him saluted, then cantered off to retrieve her. It only took about 20 or so minutes for them to be gathered in the lobby. Scope and Shining were already waiting when Cadance trotted in.
“Which entrance is he waiting at?” Cadance asked as Scope saluted her.
“Currently the train station guards are keeping an eye on him.” Scope lowered his hoof. Cadance nodded slowly.
“Shall we?” The stallions nodded in response before the lobby shifted to that of the train station. The guards at the station turned and saluted the trio, before focusing back on a young blue dragon. The dragon was just calmly sitting, a satchel next to him as he had conversed with the guards. Once the trio showed up, he straightened up and saluted them as well.
“Prince Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” The dragon bowed before the pair, then looked at Scope and grinned, and saluted him as he straightened up. “And Scope, we meet again.”
“Tesla! I wasn't expecting to see you here.” Scope grinned as he gestured for the guards to relax. Shining looked at Scope confused while Cadance winced slightly at her full name.
“You know this dragon?” Shining gestured to the dragon as he kept an eye on Scope.
“We met during my vacation to Griffinstone. He brought one more to the family reunion.” Scope turned to Shining, as Cadance stepped up to the dragon.
“Tesla… Crystal mentioned you,” Cadance sized the young looking dragon up and grinned. Tesla blinked and focused on Cadance.
“You mean, Princess…” He trailed off, a grin starting to sweep across his muzzle. She nodded slightly, then squeaked as the dragon picked her up in a tight hug. Shining quickly looked towards his wife and gasped, as Tesla set her back down gently. “Sorry, Your Highness, it’s just….”
“It has been more than 1500 years since you last saw her. Yes. She is not here though,” Cadance looked away for a moment, before looking at the train station. “She is on her way to Canterlot. We could provide…”
“No thanks, I can fly myself there,” Tesla grinned as he stood up and bowed. “Thank you for that news, Your Highness.”
“Please, call me Cadance.” She returned the bow to him.
“Okay, Cadance. You continue to take care of this domain, along with your husband,” Tesla looked at Shining, who had trotted up to his wife’s side. “And Scope, tell Topaz I say hello.”
“I will, you take care of yourself, Tesla.” Scope saluted the dragon. The dragon returned the salute, before turning, grabbing his satchel, and taking to the skies in the direction of Canterlot.
“Should we tell Princess Celestia that she is about to have company?” Scope asked, looking at the pair of royalty before him. Cadance shook her head and giggled.
“He’ll take a few days to get there, besides, she could use the gentle surprise.”
Crystal stepped off the train in the Canterlot station and looked around. She silently took in all the large sights as Twilight stepped up to her side.
“We can sight see on the way to the castle, I'm sure you want to meet the Princesses.” Twilight grinned as she started forward, the girls following her to the doors. Talon stepped up to Crystal next.
“It’s a lot to take in, I know.”
“Ponies make everything big.” Crystal spoke softly as she started to follow the crew. Talon grinned and followed after her. Once outside, Rainbow Dash and Talon hovered a little from the group.
“We have to check in at the Wonderbolt Compound. Try to not get too lost in the history lesson girls!” Rainbow Dash chuckled as she waved, before zooming off with Talon following as best he could. The girls managed to walk a few blocks towards the castle before Crystal stopped and looked at it. The girls had been traveling slowly, to let her look around and at the sights, with Rarity pointing out all the shops they could visit later.
Crystal took a few steps towards it before another sight caught her attention, making her smirk. Twilight stopped and stared at the sight before her with confusion.
A tall white alicorn stallion was doing his best attempt at trying to capture what looked like a little lizard. The little gold serpent like quad-winged lizard was darting to and fro at each of the stores down this cobblestone street.
“Jin! Get back here, you’re scaring ponies!” The stallion yelled as he chased the little dragon around.
“What's this?” The little dragon almost sang as he zipped around before finally getting caught in a red glow and floated over to the white alicorn. “Aww, did some god finally remember he had magic?”
“Yes…” The stallion growled lowly as he looked at Jin. The dragon only grinned in response before some giggles caught their attention. The pair looked over and saw Pinkie Pie bouncing their way, humming a tune. Behind her trotted Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy.
“Put him down Shiro,” Twilight commanded softly, making the white alicorn look back at the dragon.
“But he…” He started, before another voice caressed his ears.
“I see the little lizard is still your sense of humor.” Shiro and Jin quickly turned to see Crystal step out from behind Twilight. Jin was the first to speak up after a few moments of silence.
“Well! I see somepony finally got over being stoned! Erk!” He grunted as he got unceremoniously dropped as Shiro turned to fully face Crystal, his eyes narrowing into a glare. Twilight blinked and took a step away as Shiro stomped up to Crystal, his glare only getting returned by hers.
Shiro stopped a yard or so away and leaned down slightly towards Crystal, who kept glaring back at him. They remained silent for a few long moments as all the ponies around them watched, waiting. “How do I know you’re Crystal?” The unicorn and alicorn glared at each other until the unicorn was engulfed in flames to reveal the changeling beneath.
“You are a blunt bag of bones whose jokes are as sharp as the stones you tread upon, sir.” Crystal calmly stated. “The only thing sharp about you was your knowledge on how many ways to kill a pony.”
Shiro’s eyes narrowed further into the glare, “And how many was that?”
“One: decapitation. Because even if stabbed through the heart, you could still be healed with magic.” Crystal stated matter-of-factly, getting blank stares from everypony present, including Pinkie Pie. The silence that followed seemed to stretch on for what felt like hours until finally Shiro grinned and pulled Crystal into a hug.
“Uh oh,” Jin started up, floating up and landing on Twilight’s head. “He’s smiling. I suggest we run for the hills.”
“It is good to see another familiar face, sir.” Crystal sniffled as she hugged Shiro back.
“How long has it been since you last saw me?” Shiro asked softly as he let Crystal go after the short embrace.
“For me, two weeks. For you, fifteen hundred years. Give or take a decade.” Crystal sighed softly, looking away for a moment. Soon after a little gold drake filled her vision, making her look towards it.
“Far too long, if you ask me Cryssy,” Jin grinned as he hugged her snout. “Welcome back, we have a whole new city to show you!”
“All in due time, Lord Jin. I have to meet with the Princesses first.” Crystal took a few steps around Shiro, before Twilight cleared her throat.
“Actually, Crystal, we are kind of early. We can explore the town first,” Twilight grinned widely as Rarity practically bounced up.
“Yes darling! We can go get you a dress and…”
“Soldier mares don't wear dresses.” Shiro grumped as he turned to start back towards the castle.
“They do, just to annoy you.” Crystal stuck out her tongue in Shiro’s direction, making him turn sharply and glare. “I can still take you, you know.”
The mares looked back and forth as Jin just sighed. “As much as I’d like to see the god of grumpiness get his plot kicked, Canterlot isn't going to become another battlezone.”
“She hasn’t beaten me!” Shiro growled lowly at Jin.
“I recall her beating you at least twice, once before her rise, and once after. You considered it cheating because ‘she is a changeling.’ Or something like that.” Jin stuck out his tongue at Shiro, who only glared harder.
“She caught me off guard!” Shiro stamped a hoof down.
“That isn't what I saw when I watched. She actually beat you, with your own weapon of choice too.” Jin smirked as Shiro growled lowly. Crystal shrugged gently.
“I am sure he would win now, unless he has been sitting on his plot the last fifteen hundred years,” Crystal smirked slightly. “I mean, I do see he has gained a little bit of weight to his flank.” Shiro growled a little louder as Crystal kept jeering. “I would not suggest we fight here, last time we spared after my rise, we leveled the courtyard.”
“And gave Strength a new window to boot!” Jin laughed as Shiro reluctantly sighed. Twilight blinked as she looked down at Jin.
“So, who won?” She asked, drawing the attention of Shiro and Crystal.
“Well,” Jin starts up with a soft grin. “Shiro will say it was him, Crystal will say it was her, but really… Strength ordered them to stop otherwise there wouldn't be a castle to rule from, ya know?”
“So, when you say after your rise, you mean…?” Twilight trailed off as she looked over Crystal.
“I will get to that part in due time, Your Highness.”
“Oh?” Jin floated up and looked at Crystal. “Are you regaling the young Princess with a story?”
“Yes Lord Jin, I am currently telling these ponies a story of how I came to be the mare I am now.” Crystal calmly watched Jin float onto her back.
“I promise to behave if I can add commentary.”
“HA!” Shiro guffawed once as he pointed at Jin. “You can't behave for more than a minute at best!”
“I can too! I had to, to keep your boring old flank entertained while we stayed in those dusty ruins!” Jin merely grinned widely at Shiro who huffed and looked away. “So, what was the last part you mentioned?”
“I had just been introduced to Lord Shiro, when we brought in Quake’s body and explained the situation.” Crystal explained, making Jin chuckle and get comfortable on Crystal.
“Good, after you get introduced to the Princesses, we can resume!”
Twilight and Rarity led Crystal and Jin around, taking a scenic route through the town and even browsing through a few shops. Shiro reluctantly followed along, lagging behind the group and sitting outside the shops that he didn't want to go in. After a couple hours, they shared a meal at a local shop before making their way to the castle.
Crystal stopped to gaze up at the castle, looking over its pristine white towers. The castle had a few small scorch marks still, and it looked like some pegasi were painting those white to get rid of them. Crystal raised an eyebrow and looked to Twilight.
“What happened? I had seen some damage along the streets, was there a war?”
Twilight stopped in her tracks and sighed, she looked over her shoulder at the changeling with a frown. “There was, a few years ago. Most of the damage is gone by now, but some scars still remain.”
“Oh, I will not pry any further.” Crystal followed Twilight and the other girls through the courtyard up to the main doors. Crystal took her time to look around, the inside certainly looked better than the outside. Everything was neat, prefect, and white. She was eventually led to the throne room doors, where a pair of guards stood at attention.
Crystals eyes lingered on one, as they both saluted Twilight. “Lode? What are you doing guarding the doors?” The young princess asked the guards.
“I, er… showed up one of the unicorns during combat practice.” Lode grinned sheepishly as he relaxed a little, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Showed up? You deflected his magic into Commander Dusk Chaser’s face!” The other guard spoke up as she turned slightly to face Lode.
“I said I was sorry! I even offered to apply a little numbing spell to it!” Lode sat and raised his hooves defensively.
“Right, I’ll have to hear this another time. Is Day Court done?” Twilight asked calmly, earning a nod from the pair. Lode looked over the others, before stopping on Crystal and tilting his head, as he raised an eyebrow. “She’s with me, Lode.” Twilight spoke before Lode could say anything. He merely nodded and stepped back, allowing the mares, along with Shiro and Jin, entry.
Crystal slowly entered the long throne room, each of the pristine windows catching her eye. Each one of past events, mostly about the Element Bearers, but a few were of other ponies. Like Cadance and Shining Armor together, and a new one that looked like a Wonderbolt, standing heroically on a cloud with what looked like a training compound under him, though clouds were under that.
The compound looked like it had small propellers attached to it, and it drew her attention the longest as she slowly trotted past it. She had never seen anything like it, though she also hadn’t seen a train before. Equus certainly changed a lot in 1500 years. Her attention was brought to the thrones as she detected large quantities of curiosity, and the two alicorn mares transmitting it like beacons.
One was white as snow with a tri-colored mane of green, pink, and blue, that flowed as if on a breeze. The other was as dark as the night, with a matching mane that twinkled like the night sky full of stars. Crystal looked between the pair as she stepped up and bowed formally.
“Rise, erm,” The white mare started, before scrunching her face slightly. “I suppose I can't call you my little pony, huh?”
“She does hold the same rank we do, sister.” The darker one chuckled softly as Twilight stepped up next to Crystal.
“Allow me to introduce Crystal,” Twilight grinned, before turning slightly and pointing at the white mare. “Crystal, that is Princess Celestia, and that,” she moved her hoof to point towards the darker one. “Is Princess Luna.”
“A pleasure to meet you both, Your Highnesses.” Crystal remained bowing for a few moments longer before straightening up. She looked over each one as they grinned and bowed slightly back to her. “You both certainly look like your parents.”
“You remember our parents?” Celestia blinked, looking confused for a moment.
“I only met them on a few short occassions, though I did become familiar with Lord Nox after my rise.”
“Your rise, as in when you became part alicorn?” Celestia questioned as she looked the still disguised changeling over.
“Yes. He helped me to learn to control some of the power, along with Grey Pilgrim. But that is a story for a later time. Twilight should get you two caught up, if you are interested in hearing it,” Crystal gestured to the purple mare beside her. “She has taken extensive notes on my story thus far.”
“Oh yes, we are!” Luna grinned widely as she bounced in her seat. “We always like a bit of history.”
“Then, perhaps, tomorrow I can resume my story. It is getting late and I would like to retire for the night,” She paused to look around. “If you have a spare room for me, that is.”
Twilight nodded and started back out the throne room, “Yes we do! We have quite a few guest rooms open. You’re welcome to stay in one of those.” Crystal followed her out, along with the other mares. Once they were out of earshot, Celestia leaned over to Shiro.
“Does she always speak that formally?” Shiro nodded with a soft sigh.
“Ever since her rise, I think she took on too much of the alicorn that offered,” Shiro looked down the throne room towards the door. “I still see a part of her within that changeling.”
“What happened?” Celestia straightened up, looking at Shiro.
Crystal let out a low sigh as she watched Dust sitting in a corner, his legs crossed as he looked relaxed. His body glowed a faint dusty brown, matching his fur, while his fake horn shone through. A few pebbles near him were glowing, with only one floating up around him. Crystal looked about the room they were in.
They were in what appeared to be a living room of sorts. Dark laid across a couch, facing away from Dust and Crystal, as he read through a book. Tesla was currently being annoyed by Peter, with Silverwing watching the pair. And finally Rose was looking out a window, gazing at the soft sunrise.
She stood, walked over to him, and sat beside him. Rose glanced at her for a moment before looking back out the window. They just sat in silence for a while, before the door opening caught their attention. All eyes fell upon the door, and the white alicorn stallion standing there, glaring at each of them.
He stood proudly, like a warrior before a battlefield. The end of his muzzle, and his hooves were red, matching his eyes as he looked each of them over. Before he even spoke, Rose and Crystal snapped to attention, earning a short eyebrow raise as he focused on those two. He snorted loudly, “You seven are to follow me, we have questions that you all must answer.” He opened the door further and stepped back, sweeping a wing to gesture down the hall.
“Yes sir,” Crystal and Rose said with a salute. Crystal trotted over to Dust to get him out of his meditation, as everyone else got up and followed along. The group trotted along in silence, being lead by the white alicorn, and tailed by four guards. They passed various rooms until they made it to a very large hallway.
Sitting at one end were a pair of alicorns. One was a stallion that sits proudly, his coat as dark as the night, with his mane looking like a purplish night sky. His deep blue eyes scanned the young group as they all trot up and bow. Sitting beside him is a mare, whose coat is as white as snow, with it fading to an amber sun at her hooves and wing tips. Her mane is a brillant amber, fading into a royal purple.
In front of them are various creatures, a pegasus, an earth pony, a griffin, a changeling, and a single unicorn. The griffin wore a set of dark green lacquered leather armor, covering his earth brown frame, while the others wore a simple colored sash. The pegasus wore an indigo sash, the unicorn had on a white sash with gold trim, while the earth pony had on a blue sash that matched the blue and silver bracelets he wore. The changeling wore a simple purple sash. Each one had a symbol on it, but from the distance Crystal couldn't make it out.
The seven walked up and bowed before the group of five, as the white alicorn that led them here moved over to sit next to the armored griffin. “Rise, and state your names for us.” He commanded. His tone had a hint of warmth to it, but still made Dust, Rose, and Crystal straighten up quicker than the others.
“I am Dust Horn,” Dust started off, gesturing to himself before he gestured to the others. “Rose Wind is the thestral, Silverwing is the pegasus, Crystal is the morphling, Dark Horizon is the unicorn, Peter is the griffin, and Tesla is the dragon.”
“Ahh yes,” another voice started up, making the group look to their left just as a small gold drake landed on Tesla’s snout. The larger dragon stared down at the smaller, making the gold giggle and his two pairs of wings flutter. “I’m Jin, and you aren't very stealthy, Tesla.” That made the larger dragon gulp nervously.
“Aww, don't worry big guy, we won't lock you up or anything. Just expect us to be good friends and you can count on us for anything!” Jin grinned widely as he floated up and away.
“If you are done, Lord Jin.” Shiro spoke with a faint growl.
“Yes, Lord Shiro of grumpton.” Jin grinned back at him.
The griffin snorted softly, shaking his head. “As you seven are aware, we are the Virtues. I am Strength, the pegasus beside me is Compassion, the unicorn is Life, then we have Hope, and finally Love,” He gestured to each as he spoke. “And we are wondering why you brought in an unconscious Captain Quake, and what in Tartarus is going on!”
Dust nodded and stepped forward and begin the tale of how this all started. Crystal and Rose also added in some commentary, as the Virtues and others just listened in. Storytime continued on for what felt like an hour, catching them up to current events. Just as Dust finished his story, there was a faint knock on the door. Shiro stood and went to it, opening it partially and glancing out.
After a moment, Shiro stepped back and the door opened further. In stepped a deep blue alicorn mare, her coat seemed to sparkle like fresh snow, and her short purple mane flowed like it was in a breeze. Faint little glimmers could be seen in the mane as she strode by the group, her eyes looking over each member and lingering longer on Dust, before looking slightly below him. She walked up to the virtues and bowed slightly.
“Forgive me for being late. Something took hold of my attention far longer than I had planned,” she straightened up and took her spot behind the unicorn. Crystal glanced to Dust, who hadn’t taken his eyes off of her and glanced just below him.
She leaned closer to him and poked his side, “Your horn is showing.” She whispered. He squeaked and instantly looked up as she giggled. “The other one.” Dust’s cheeks turned a bright red as he lowered himself down. By the time he had fully lowered himself, his face was glowing and Crystal was sure he wished he had wings to hide behind.
The new alicorn watched the earth pony lower himself, smirking faintly as she looked over the group again. “Are these the ones that brought in Captain Quake?”
Crystal stepped forward with a nod, “Yes, ma’am.” The alicorn turned her gaze to the changeling next, raising an eyebrow.
“You must be far from your hive.” The alicorn then looked at the group in closer detail. “And a dragon working with a griffin, this is certainly an odd surprise.”
“Yes, Grey Pilgrim, this five hundred year old dragon working with a young griffin!” Jin commented as he floated up to the alicorn and landed on her back, pulling her mane around him gently. “This group is full of surprises! I wonder what else is in store!”
“I don't belong to a hive, ma’am.” Crystal commented once the drake was done speaking. All eyes fell on her, making her blink and step back, lowering herself slightly.
“All morphlings belong to one!” Shiro stepped towards the group. He blinked as Crystal stepped up towards him, almost glaring.
“Not if I'm abandoned.”
“But that's…” Shiro started before another voice cut him off.
“Irrelevant, Lord Shiro,” Grey Pilgrim pulled the stallion back with a soft purple glow. “They have brought to our attention what the threat is, and have returned to us Captain Quake,” She looked among the group again. “And six of them are Element bearers.”
Shiro turned to face her, ears perked. “But you just walked in, how can you tell?” The mare raised a hoof to point at Crystal, but she wasn't pointing directly at her. Instead she was pointing at the bronze bracer that was clearly visible against the grey chitin.
“Each one, except the earth pony and unicorn, has a bracer that glows a different color to me. The earth pony’s aura is a mix of colors. Ranging from brown to purple,” She moved to her hoof to point at Dust as she spoke, making him blink and look up at her. “For a war general, you certainly are blind to the obvious, Lord Shiro.”
Shiro narrowed his eyes into a glare at the alicorn, who wore a smug grin. He opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off, again. “I will win.”
Strength just sighed as he dragged a paw down his face. “If the gods are done bickering like foals, we still have the present matter to discuss.”
“Yes, what do we do about the encroaching darkness?” Life spoke up. “And what we do with these ponies, right?”
“Yes,” Strength focused on each of the group. “Lord Shiro, what kind of training can you provide for these seven?” Shiro blinked and looked down at the griffin who looked back up at him. After a moment of locked eyes, he looked back at the group.
“Even the unicorn?”
“Even him.”
Shiro let out a long sigh that mixed with a groan, “I suppose I can put something together, but it won't be as effective in such a short time.”
“Aww, but Shiro! They were trained by Quake! There shouldn't be much of a problem with them! And they have been fighting those things on their way.” Jin grinned as he floated over to land on Shiro.
“Three of them were trained by him. Rose, Dust, and Crystal. The rest don't have the same training,” Shiro looked at Jin as he pointed to the group. “The dragon and griffin can at least old their own, I don't know about the unicorn and pegasus.”
“Lord Shiro,” Grey started up, her eyes focused on the group. “I will help train them too as they could use knowledge in the Elements that six of them bare.”
Shiro sighed as he looked at the group. “Fine, I suggest we get them a meal, while Grey and I come up some form of training regime on such a short notice.”
“Lord Jin, care to escort them to the mess hall? If any of the guards have questions, just explain the situation.” Strength gently commanded as he stood up. Jin nodded and floated up and over to the group, landing on Tesla again.
“Alrighty, I shall get these guys to there. Where to after that?”
“Back to the room, I suspect Lord Shiro and I will not have the training regime ready by then. Also, I wish to speak with them in closer detail.” Grey stood up, looking over the group again before focusing on the door. Her horn lighting up and opening the door for them.
Jin nodded and gestured towards the door. “Okay, let’s go get some food!” They each nodded, bowed before the group, and left the large room. The march towards the mess hall was silent, at least until the first turn when Jin let out a sigh. “You know, we aren't going to torment you… Shiro might with his training, but the rest of us won't.”
“Forgive us, Lord Jin,” Tesla started up. “Being in the presence of the Virtues, along with so many alicorns at once is a bit…”
“Intimidating.” Crystal finished. Jin blinked, looking at each of them as they all basically nodded their agreement.
“Huh, I guess that is true.” Jin stroked his chin as he looked deep in thought. “Also, with me, you don't need that stuffy title. Jin is just fine, Shiro and Grey Pilgrim, however…” Jin sighed, slumping his shoulders. “They love their titles.”
Crystal slowed to Dust’s side, as the rest pulled ahead. Crystal looked him over, taking note that he still had a faint blush and was looking down. Crystal let out a soft sigh and gently nudged his side, making him squeak and look up at her quickly.
“What's wrong?” Crystal inquired just loud enough for him to hear. He looked down again and sighed.
“Her…”
“Grey Pilgrim?”
“Yes,” Dust muttered, his blush growing a little brighter. “She is so much more than I originally thought. But…” He trailed off, slowing in his stride.
“But what?” Crystal watched Dust.
“There is no chance of it ever happening.” Dust whined softly.
“Well, you could always ask.” Jins voice came from above the earth pony, making him squeak loudly and flail his limbs about as he fell over. Crystal also bounced back and looked up at the floating drake hovering above the earth pony and chuckling.
“Do you delight in giving ponies heart attacks?!” Crystal screeched once she caught her breath. The drake merely shrugged as he grinned.
“You two were lagging behind, I was curious why. But to find out the little earth pony here has a crush on one of the most powerful alicorns?” The more Jin talked, the more Dust’s blush grew. “I find it cute, though none have gotten a smirk out of her with standing at attention that fast.”
“Lord Jin!” Crystal barked, making the drake look at her for a moment before he burst out laughing.
“I told you, you don't need a title with me,” He chortled as he floated over to Crystal and poked her nose. “Now come on, we should get to the mess hall before there is no food. I can give your friend dating tips.”
“I think you’re the last drake to give good dating advice,” Peter stepped up behind Jin, making him glance over his shoulder.
“I’ll have you know, Mr griffin, that I have been around for a very very long time. I'm an expert!” Jin huffed and crossed his arms.
“Well, I suppose that is true. You’ve been on Shiro’s shoulder for how long?” A grin swept across Peter’s beak as Jin just stared at him. “You two have been together for ages, and will continue to do so, forever.”
Crystal coughed fakely to draw their attention. “Don't mind Peter, he’s… random. Onto food?” Jin looked back at Peter, who was nodding quickly. Jin raised an eyebrow, then just shook his head and floated back to lead the pack to the mess hall.
The trip to the mess hall went by with little interruption, along with getting food for everyone. Jin took the time to introduce everyone present, as based on what was going to happen, the group would get very familiar with the staff. After lunch, Jin escorted the group back to their room, where Grey and Shiro were already waiting for them.
Crystal was the first to enter and noticed them after taking a few steps in. She stepped off to the side and saluted, the others starting to do the same once they saw why. Shrio glanced up at them and gestured them to relax.
“At ease,” He commented. “At least some of you know to salute a superior officer.” Shiro gestured to the seats. “Grey and I have decided that we need to get better information about each of you before we can come up with a plan of action.”
“Indeed,” Grey started up, looking over the various clipboards held up in her sky blue magic. “The only ones we know about are Crystal, Rose Wind, and Dust Horn. So Shiro will be talking with Crystal and Rose, while I will talk with Dust. After that we will talk to the others and adjust our current ideas accordingly.”
After that, Dust let out a soft squeak as he stared at Grey, a faint pink tint starting to appear on his cheeks. Crystal glanced at Dust for a moment, then back to Grey. “Is it safe to assume you’re going to talk to Dark next after that?”
“Given that he is also a magic user, and strong as well in that regard,” Grey focused her eyes on Dark next. “Yes. Afterwards, I will speak to Tesla, with the aid of Lord Jin,” Once she finished, She and Shiro stood and started towards different rooms that Crystal had earlier discovered were bedrooms. Shiro stopped at the door to it and looked directly at Crystal.
“Crystal,” He spoke her name firmly, making her stand at attention and start to follow. Dust had already started towards the other room. She followed the alicorn into the room and stood at attention once he closed the door. He watched her for a moment, before gesturing to the couch. “You can sit there.” She nodded and moved to sit, never letting her eyes fall off the alicorn.
“You’ve never been before an alicorn before today, have you?” Shiro raised an eyebrow as Crystal shook her head. “Hmm, you have been trained by one I consider a higher rank than what he actually is. Why were you in a military camp anyway? Morphlings belong to a hive, and are one of the few races exempt from being a part of the military.”
“I am aware, sir. But I joined to be with my brother, Dust Horn.”
“Your brother?” Crystal watched as a puzzled look crossed Shiro’s features as he tried to process that information.
“I am aware that isn't my biological brother, sir. But, by all rights I consider him one. I even consider Rose Wind one, even though he isn't related to Dust Horn.” Crystal kept her attention focused on Shiro as she spoke. “So yes, it is strange that a morphling, who has no hive to call her own, is throwing her life into mortal danger for the ones she considers family.”
“I… see.” Shiro said slowly, now looking the changeling over in greater detail. “I can see why that blade choose you to be its wielder.” Crystal blinked and looked at the blade she had all but forgotten on her back. “I remember when that blade was crafted, using the Elements before from a different time.” Crystal looked back at Shiro before looking down.
“You’re scared of what that blade can do, aren't you?” Shiro asked at almost a whisper, and when he got a short nod as a response, he chuckled softly.
“I nearly killed Dark.”
“You wouldn't have,” The firm statement made Crystal look up sharply. “While it is an actual blade and will cut flesh. It will purge the darkness first before it kills anypony.”
“I was in a red haze,” Crystal looked away again. “I saw black shapes among multicolored ones. It took Rose yelling my name to make me stop. And… My blade was an inch or so away from Dark when I did.”
“When did you get the blade?”
“After getting the Elements,” Crystal looked towards Shiro, focusing on his hooves at the moment. “When we were attacked and forced back inside the cave. I was thrown through a wall and I felt my hoof touch its handle. After that, I noticed my hoof become a paw, and next thing I knew, I was an inch from Dark.”
“Your rage may have mistaken him for the shadows, because of his dark coloration.”
“Y-yeah, that's what me and Dust suspected.” Crystal looked away, which made Shiro sigh.
“So confident one moment, yet so meek the next.” Shiro narrowed his eyes are the changeling before him as she looked up at him again. “You are unlike any morphling I have met before.”
“I doubt that, you’re an alicorn. You’re ageless.” Crystal looked away with a soft snort. “I'm sure you’ve encountered many morphlings like me.”
“None that held the Edge of Elements.” Shiro deadpanned as he watched Crystal look sharply at him. “In fact, only three others before you have wielded that blade. Myself, Lord Nox when he was younger, and a griffin.” Crystal blinked at the mention of the griffin. “He was a young and valiant soul, but he went missing with the blade.”
“Why did he have it?” Crystal tilted her head, ears perked as she listened in.
“He was training to be the next captain of the guard,” Shiro let out a soft sigh. “That was about two hundred years ago. But that is a story for another time.” Shiro looked past Crystal, at the blade on her back and smirked. After a moment, she noticed his horn glowing before the blade floated into her view.
She gasped and started to reach for it, but found her hooves stuck to the ground. She looked down then back up just as he spoke. The blades handle was held in a deep red glow as Shiro was looking across the blade.
“Still as sharp as the day it was made,” Shiro grinned as he looked along it, pointing it towards her. “Griffins made this blade, you know. Forged in Dragon fire, and imbued with a part of the Elements of Harmony.”
Crystal raised an eyebrow, “Imbued with a part of the Elements? How?”
“A long complex procedure that Grey Pilgrim probably remembers. If not, Librarian has it in his Library, under heavy guard and rocks.” Shiro floated the blade back to Crystal, who looked at the blade for a moment before putting it away.
As she put it away, she glanced at Shiro. “Do you remember his color?”
“Hm?” Shiro raised an eyebrow. “Whose?”
“That griffin who had this sword before me.”
“Silver eagle with a strong black lion rear,” Shiro said slowly, eyeing the changeling before him. “Why do you ask?”
“I took on a griffin form when I held the blade, and I vaguely recall seeing silver.” Crystal looked up into the shocked expression of Shiro. “Maybe his final act was to help me protect my friends.” She shrugged slightly.
“Maybe, you’re dismissed for now Crystal. Send in Rose Wind.” Shiro commanded softly as he sat back up. Crystal saluted him and trotted back. Once outside the bedroom she looked around found Rose back at the window. She trotted up and went to tap his shoulder but a wing blocked her. He glanced over his shoulder at her.
“I heard he wants me next,” Crystal blinked. “He said it kind of loud, plus the others have been silent,” He slowly stood up. “Wish me luck, Crystal.” She nodded and took his spot as he trotted in.
“I do not know how his questioning went,” Crystal explained as she watched Shiro. “Or any of the others for that matter. They were rather quiet about it, except for Dust. He was talking about Grey Pilgrim for a long time afterwards.”
“Didn't they go for a walk that night too?” Jin grinned as Crystal looked at him quickly. “Hey! I keep an eye on my fellow gods!” Crystal shook her head with a grin.
