PROLOGUE: A summerstorm
The sun had already gone down when the little picnic in the hills near Ponyville came to an end. Fluttershy had left first, after Rainbow Dash had caught her stifling a yawn for the fifth time and sent her oldest friend home to catch some well earned sleep. Applejack had left next, which surprised nopony, seeing as applebuck season was just around the corner and the workdays on Sweet Apple Acres were hard and started early. What HAD however surprised everypony was that Pinky Pie had been the next to go, having to work through the night to help the Cakes finish a delivery. And around midnight, after another half hour of pleasant conversation and joking, Rarity stood up, yawning and saying her goodbyes.
"Have a pleasant night, girls."
"See you tomorrow, Rares."
"Good night, Rarity."
Twilight smiled as she watched the white unicorn walk away slowly. She is going to be up and working maniacally in a few hours when the next idea strikes her, she thought to herself, when suddenly a voice cut her musings on her friend's working schedule short.
"She did look very tired, Twilight. D'ya think we should have gone with her?" Twilight turned her head to look at her last remaining friend. The cyan Pegasus was lying on her back in her typical napping position, front hooves crossed under her head, wings spread out, and looked up to the stars contemplatingly.
"I think she will be just fine without our company. It's not like she has to take an epic journey home or something. After all, her house is actually the closest out of all of us. She will probably be in her bed and dreaming about her dream prince in about 5 minutes." Rainbow Dash snickered at the mention of the fashionistas overblown romantic ambitions.
"Yeah, 'cause that worked out so well last time." Twilight couldn't help but wince at the memory of the gala and, not wanting to talk about that arrogant bag of slime called Prince Blueblood, she changed the subject.
"So. It's just us now." She frowned as a thought crossed her mind. "It seems so unlike you to sit up with me that long, seeing as we usually see you either napping or training. This seems..... Unusually sombre for you." Rainbow's face took on a slight shade of pink among her blue coat as she blushed lightly.
"Who says an awesome pony like me can't enjoy a little peace and quiet now and then?", she retorted quickly, hoping that the lavender mare hadn't noticed her blushing in the dark.
"Nopony, silly. I was just curious. It does seem a bit unlike you, that's all. But hey, I'm okay with that. It is kind of nice." Rainbow Dash huffed.
"Yeah, don't get used to it, night skies awesome enough for me are rare, so forget about it and enjoy the sky, alright? There is a storm coming on later tonight."
"Speaking of which..." Twilight motioned at the sky to the east, over the Everfree Forest, which was quickly filling up with clouds. "Looks like the storm will be a bit earlier than expected."
Immediately Rainbow was on her hooves. "Oh damn. Some rookie in Cloudsdale must have forgotten that the Everfree is between them and us. I can't believe I have to tell them that it messes with the deliveries everytime I order new clouds. Come on Twi, we better get you home before it starts...." Before the cyan mare could finish her sentence, they were hit by the first wave of what promised to be an enormous rainstorm. "...raining." Twilight finished for her. Talk about comedic timing.
They hurried through the deserted streets, trying to get back to the library, a blue wing stretched out over the head of the purple unicorn to keep her safe from the worst of the storm, when somepony called out to them.
"Hey there!"
Twilight and Rainbow Dash both jumped at the call. They had not expected to see anypony else out during the dreadful storm. A bluish-white Pegasus detached himself from the shadows of an alleyway to their side, left wing raised in front of his face for protection. Although the face was hidden, the voice sounded familiar.
"Why are you out in weather like this? You should head home quickly, the storm is going to get even worse soon." As the Pegasus approached, he raised his wing a bit to see who he was talking to. Twilight still couldn't quite remember where she knew this pony from, but Rainbow recognized him.
"You're that friend of AJ's, the new blacksmith, right? Snow.... Something?"
"Snowstream, actually. Yeah I am.” He looked her over, his gaze stopping on her multicolored mane and tail. “You are Rainbow Dash, I assume?" The unmistakable blue Pegasus grinned, nodding. However, before she could start bragging, he cut her short. "And you are Twilight Sparkle. Wow, didn't think I would meet the two most famous ponies in town like this. However, with this horrible storm, I'm afraid I have no time for cordial greetings and introductions. Now, I intend to head over to my smithy where I can almost hear a burning fire and some towels calling my name. You can come, it's just around the corner, and I'm guessing you have a bit longer to go than I do. Friend of my friend and all that."
The two friends looked at one another indecisively, when a sudden gust of cold wind and another quickening of the downpour helped them with their decision.
"We will gladly accept that offer. It is quite a way to the library and Rainbow's cloudhouse is even further."
Snowstream smiled. "Great. Always glad to help out. Come, it's this way."
Chapter 1: The Accident
"Not that I'm complaining or anything, but I wonder why he has so many blankets lying around. I can't imagine a blacksmith at work having much need for them." Wrapping one of the offending items around herself with her magic, Twilight looked around the large room she was in, which was otherwise a very typical blacksmith's workshop with a furnace that radiated pleasant heat into the room, a big anvil and multiple workbenches filled with various tools and unfinished projects.
Rainbow just sighed at her friend's unnecessary question, snuggling deeper into the mountain of questionable blankets, relishing in the warmth and comfort.
"You're right, blankets aren't really standard equipment in a smithy, but the neighbor's foals, Daffodil and Speedy, often come over to watch me work, so I keep blankets and hot chocolate around to make their stays as comfortable as is possible in a blacksmith's workshop." Snowstream came in from the back room he had disappeared into after directing his guests to the pile of blankets and pillows in the corner and telling them to make themselves at home. He turned his head, revealing a tray with three steaming mugs that he had been carrying on his back. "Speaking of which, I hope you don't mind that I made you some." He set down the tray he had been carriyng on one of the less crowded workbenches and sat down with one of the mugs. "Have a seat and a drink, girls."
Rainbow Dash zoomed out of the mountain of blankets like a multicolored missile, instantly gulping down half of the contents of her mug, before sitting down as well, sighing contentedly. Snowstream smiled amusedly. "Nice to know that you like it. It's my own recipe. Kept me warm on cold nights, when the wind came through the cracks in my cart. Thank the gods I don't have to endure that anymore."
Twilight took a sip from her mug, before directing a puzzled look at him. "It really is quite good. But what did you mean with the cart?"
"I bought this house a month ago. Before that I travelled the villages and smaller settlements between Hoofington and here with a miniature forge and an anvil in a rickety cart."
"So, what's the story with you and AJ?" Rainbow interjected. "You said you just moved here, but I'm pretty sure I saw you at AJ's at least a couple of months ago."
"As I said, I moved around, and I was at the Ponyville market a couple of times during my wandering years. I had my wagon parked next to Applejack's stand for a week or so half a year back. Since then I always visit her when I am in the area. She was the one who found me this place when I decided to settle down and open a real shop. You probably saw me when I made her brother a new plow a couple of months back. I hope you can forgive me when I now leave you two to each other, I still have a bit of work to do before I can turn in for the night."
Rainbow stared. "He works at this time of night? Who does something like that voluntarily?"
"Well I don't know a lot about metallurgy and smithing, but it probably makes sense to prepare some things, let them cool off over the night, then finish them off the following morning. It seems way more efficient than standing up hours earlier."
"Ugh, I get it, egghead. Well, I'm gonna hit the deck and get a little sleep, wake me when the storm passes. Should be around 4 or 5 in the morning." With that, Rainbow Dash flew towards the mountain of blankets once again, only to clip her wing on one of the workbenches and tumble into the wall. Rather hard, if Twilight interpreted the loud "thud" correctly.
"Oh no. Rainbow Dash, are you alright?" Twilight hurried to her friend's side, only to get her hoof tangled in one of the blankets Rainbow had strewn across the room in her mad dash for hot chocolate earlier, and joined her cyan friend in a touseled heap of pony against the wall.
Only this time the rack on the wall did not take the assault sitting down. Twilight and Rainbow Dash brought up their hooves to shield their faces as small pieces of metalwork and jewelry rained down on them. As Rainbow's flailing hoof caught a falling amulet and smacked it towards Snowstream, who had just turned around to see what was causing the noise, Twilight heard a panicky voice shouting "oh no, oh no, oh no!". Just as she realized that the voice was indeed her own, the amulet, now glowing, hit the white Pegasus directly in the middle of the forehead. Then there was a flash and everything went white.
The first thing Twilight perceived as her senses started returning was Snowstream's voice, seeming slightly distressed. "Well, that's not exactly good."
"What the BUCK just happened?" Rainbow Dash piped up.
"Is everypony alright? Snowstream, do you know what just happened?", Twilight asked concernedly. Then she noticed the distinct lack of Pegasus blacksmith in the room. "Where are you?"
"Directly below you."
Ignoring Rainbow’s snickering she turned her slowly returning vision downwards, only to see...
"The amulet? What? Are you telling me....? Oh no, this has to be a joke, please tell me this is all a very elaborate prank."
"Prank? You think I would prank you with something like this? No, I'm afraid this is an actual empowered soulshard." This didn’t calm down Twilight in the slightest.
“Oh great, so we just have to worry about getting you out of there before you fade, and I don’t even know much about soulshards, and oh my god, I need to get researching…”
“Twilight.”
“What if we can’t reverse this? If we…”
“Twilight…”
“...can’t undo this, then it’s my fault when you…”
“For Pete’s sake, Twilight, would you shut it?”, Rainbow Dash interrupted her friend’s rambling. “I have no idea what you are talking about! What just happened, where is Snowstream and why are you panicking?”
“Because I have every reason to!”, the Unicorn snapped. She slid the amulet around her neck and hurried towards the door.
“I just started feeling my limbs again and you want to get into the rain? Again? Oh, come on!”, Rainbow whined. But the other pony was already out of the door, back into the storm, and with a groan she followed her (because what else could she do, really?). “So, are you going to tell me what is going on now? What the hay happened to Snowstream?”, she queried while taking up her shielding position by Twilight’s side again. The unicorn gave her a thankful smile before launching into her explanation.
“The Amulet contains a gem called a soulshard, which, if empowered with the correct spells, is capable of perfectly trapping a pony inside, basically putting them into a stasis, until they are released again. The problem is, that the power to keep the Pony alive in the absorbed state is being taken from the Pony’s soul, which means that the longer someone is trapped, the weaker they become, until they finally fade away.”
Rainbow’s reaction to this revelation was expectedly strong: “..... What? Can we get that in equish?”
At this point the subject of their worries reentered the conversation: “Basically I’m trapped in this amulet until a unicorn gets me out of it, and if they don’t do it quickly enough, I die.”
“...Ah”, Rainbow muttered. “Well, I think I get it now.”
“...Ah”, Rainbow muttered. “Well, I think I get it now. So, how long do you have?”
“I don’t know, could be anything from two days to a week. Isn’t finding things out the reason you are running to the library? So how about less talking, more trotting?”
It wasn’t long until Twilight rounded a corner and spotted the big sign announcing “Golden Oaks Library”, although it felt more like an eternity of trekking through the pelting rain.
“Oh, finally. Come on, Twi, let’s get you out of the rain.” Rainbow Dash flew forward and slammed the door open. Twilight hurried through before her home’s lobby could be completely drenched and shut the door a lot more gently than her chromatic friend had opened it. Then, she took a deep breath, looking around, and tried to recall where the books she needed were situated (because yes, she knew the location of every single book in this library by heart). Rainbow looked at her and realized nothing interesting was going to happen right away.
“Yeah, you do your egghead thing and I go and re-read some Daring Do, okay?”
“Hmmm… you do that. Now... Gentle Breeze’s “Mental Translocation”, Sapphiric’s “Rare chrystals and magical Anomalies”... and something about enchanting…”
“How about “Enchanting your jewelry” by Dusty Scrolls?”, Snowstream chimed in.
“Don’t be ridiculous, that text is a joke to any professional researcher, The author doesn’t even have a higher education when it comes to the arcane sciences.”
“But she is still the world’s greatest enchantress, even if she doesn’t go screaming it from the rooftops. Trust me, we need her stuff for this,” came the voice from the amulet again. “And since I am the one trapped in here, maybe you should give this a little consideration, would you?”
Twilight sighed and mumbled, hesitantly: “Fine, I’ll have a look at it. But I still dislike the idea.”
“Well, since it is only my life on the line, I am insanely grateful that you consider actually listening to me”, Snowstream drawled, his voice dripping with unprecedented sarcasm.
"This can't be true!"
"I think it is. And that is just all kinds of inconvenient.” Rainbow startled at the sudden outburst and found her book tented over her muzzle and a faint glow coming through the windows.
Huh? Must have dozed off. She thought to herself, removing the book and turning her attention to the desk where Twilight was sitting among opened books and hastily scribbled notes. "What's wrong, Twi? You found anything yet?" When her friend turned around, Rainbow Dash instantly knew from her frazzled look that the research wasn’t going well.
"Yes, but we’ve got a problem.”
“Only the unicorn that empowered the soulshard can retrieve the trapped soul”, Snowstream chimed in.
“And that could be anyone… I don’t even know where he got that.”
“Or you could just ask me, not that that seems to be high on your list of options to just talk to the afflicted party. And before you ask, I know who empowered the amulet and I even know where she lives.”
Rainbow decided to stay out of the conversation for now, it was obvious to her that those two were smarter than her (smarter, not more awesome!) and that she would only make things more difficult by butting in. So she instead settled for enjoying Twilight’s sheepish look as the unicorn noticed that she had indeed left out the ‘afflicted party’ all along.
“I … I am sorry. please, continue. I want to fix this”, Twilight assured hastily, embarrassed about having somehow completely forgotten that Snowstream might have something to say in that matter. “I mean, we are kind of at fault for this after all, so I need to fix it, so please tell me who enchanted the amulet?”
“Why, thank you”, Snowstream continued. “Now, we are looking for a mare named Diamondshine, she has settled down in Langenmare some time ago. I need a map of Equestria. As current as possible please." Twilight's horn lit up as she levitated a bundle of scrolls out of a shelf above her and began to search the map that would be the most useful to them. After a while, she selected a very new-looking scroll and unrolled it in the table, holding it down with her magic. Levitating the amulet above the table so that Snowstream could inspect the map, Twilight waited impatiently for the pegasus' instructions. "Yes, this is perfect. Now, if you follow the rail line to Appleloosa and then go about half a hoof's width to the left. See it?" Twilight and Rainbow Dash, who had by now joined them at the table, nodded.
"So we take the train to Appleloosa and hoof it from there. I hope we make it in time, this will be quite the trip." Twilight slipped the amulet around her neck again and floated her saddlebags from by the door and started to roll up the map and locate other essential supplies for the journey. While her magic brought items from all over the house to her, she turned to her friend. "When Spike wakes up, please tell him what happened and where I have gone. Oh, and tell the girls too, okay?" She was about to turn away when Rainbow Dash’s snort caught her attention again..
"Yeah, not happening. First, I'm not gonna let you go all that way by yourself, and second, I can just fly him there from Appleloosa and save lots of time."
“No, no, no”, Snowstream piped up before Twilight had a chance to answer. "No flying. Gods, please don't do that to me! Please, just... Get me there on hoof,” he pleaded.
“Wait,” the pegasus now interjected, “so this is about your life and your time, but you’re scared of a little flying? I don’t see how that -”
“No!”, Snowstream interrupted. “Just no. I am not. Going. To. Fly. End of the story. No flying.”
“But it would be so much faster!”
“No flying!”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“No, it’s self-preservation.”
“You -”
“Stop it, both of you!”, Twilight snapped and effectively brought an end to the argument. Rainbow huffed and shook her wings before folding them at her sides again.
"Fine. You're still not going alone. Write a letter or something. When's the next train coming?"
Twilight looked at the clock on the wall.
"In half an hour. I suggest you go home to get what you need and we meet at the station."
"Sounds good, see you there!"
Rainbow Dash zoomed out the nearest window and flew off toward her cloudhouse while Twilight returned to her magical packing. “...Ah”, Rainbow muttered. “Well, I think I get it now. So, how long do you have?”
“I don’t know, could be anything from two days to a week. Isn’t finding things out the reason you are running to the library? So how about less talking, more trotting?”
It wasn’t long until Twilight rounded a corner and spotted the big sign announcing “Golden Oaks Library”, although it felt more like an eternity of trekking through the pelting rain.
“Oh, finally. Come on, Twi, let’s get you out of the rain.” Rainbow Dash flew forward and slammed the door open. Twilight hurried through before her home’s lobby could be completely drenched and shut the door a lot more gently than her chromatic friend had opened it. Then, she took a deep breath, looking around, and tried to recall where the books she needed were situated (because yes, she knew the location of every single book in this library by heart). Rainbow looked at her and realized nothing interesting was going to happen right away.
“Yeah, you do your egghead thing and I go and re-read some Daring Do, okay?”
“Hmmm… you do that. Now... Gentle Breeze’s “Mental Translocation”, Sapphiric’s “Rare chrystals and magical Anomalies”... and something about enchanting…”
“How about “Enchanting your jewelry” by Dusty Scrolls?”, Snowstream chimed in.
“Don’t be ridiculous, that text is a joke to any professional researcher, The author doesn’t even have a higher education when it comes to the arcane sciences.”
“But she is still the world’s greatest enchantress, even if she doesn’t go screaming it from the rooftops. Trust me, we need her stuff for this,” came the voice from the amulet again. “And since I am the one trapped in here, maybe you should give this a little consideration, would you?”
Twilight sighed and mumbled, hesitantly: “Fine, I’ll have a look at it. But I still dislike the idea.”
“Well, since it is only my life on the line, I am insanely grateful that you consider actually listening to me”, Snowstream drawled, his voice dripping with unprecedented sarcasm.
"This can't be true!"
"I think it is. And that is just all kinds of inconvenient.” Rainbow startled at the sudden outburst and found her book tented over her muzzle and a faint glow coming through the windows.
"Huh? Must have dozed off," She thought to herself, removing the book and turning her attention to the desk where Twilight was sitting among opened books and hastily scribbled notes. "What's wrong, Twi? You found anything yet?" When her friend turned around, Rainbow Dash instantly knew from her frazzled look that the research wasn’t going well.
"Yes, but we’ve got a problem.”
“Only the unicorn that empowered the soulshard can retrieve the trapped soul”, Snowstream chimed in.
“And that could be anyone… I don’t even know where he got that.”
“Or you could just ask me, not that that seems to be high on your list of options to just talk to the afflicted party. And before you ask, I know who empowered the amulet and I even know where she lives.”
Rainbow decided to stay out of the conversation for now, it was obvious to her that those two were smarter than her (smarter, not more awesome!) and that she would only make things more difficult by butting in. So she instead settled for enjoying Twilight’s sheepish look as the unicorn noticed that she had indeed left out the ‘afflicted party’ all along.
“I … I am sorry. please, continue. I want to fix this”, Twilight assured hastily, embarrassed about having somehow completely forgotten that Snowstream might have something to say in that matter. “I mean, we are kind of at fault for this after all, so I need to fix it, so please tell me who enchanted the amulet?”
“Why, thank you”, Snowstream continued. “Now, we are looking for a mare named Diamondshine, she has settled down in Langenmare some time ago. I need a map of Equestria. As current as possible please." Twilight's horn lit up as she levitated a bundle of scrolls out of a shelf above her and began to search the map that would be the most useful to them. After a while, she selected a very new-looking scroll and unrolled it in the table, holding it down with her magic. Levitating the amulet above the table so that Snowstream could inspect the map, Twilight waited impatiently for the pegasus' instructions. "Yes, this is perfect. Now, if you follow the rail line to Appleloosa and then go about half a hoof's width to the left. See it?" Twilight and Rainbow Dash, who had by now joined them at the table, nodded.
"So we take the train to Appleloosa and hoof it from there. I hope we make it in time, this will be quite the trip." Twilight slipped the amulet around her neck again and floated her saddlebags from by the door and started to roll up the map and locate other essential supplies for the journey. While her magic brought items from all over the house to her, she turned to her friend. "When Spike wakes up, please tell him what happened and where I have gone. Oh, and tell the girls too, okay?" She was about to turn away when Rainbow Dash’s snort caught her attention again..
"Yeah, not happening. First, I'm not gonna let you go all that way by yourself, and second, I can just fly him there from Appleloosa and save lots of time."
“No, no, no”, Snowstream piped up before Twilight had a chance to answer. "No flying. Gods, please don't do that to me! Please, just... Get me there on hoof,” he pleaded.
“Wait,” the pegasus now interjected, “so this is about your life and your time, but you’re scared of a little flying? I don’t see how that -”
“No!”, Snowstream interrupted. “Just no. I am not. Going. To. Fly. End of the story. No flying.”
“But it would be so much faster!”
“No flying!”
“That’s ridiculous!”
“No, it’s self-preservation.”
“You -”
“Stop it, both of you!”, Twilight snapped and effectively brought an end to the argument. Rainbow huffed and shook her wings before folding them at her sides again.
"Fine. You're still not going alone. Write a letter or something. When's the next train coming?"
Twilight looked at the clock on the wall.
"In half an hour. I suggest you go home to get what you need and we meet at the station."
"Sounds good, see you there!"
Rainbow Dash zoomed out the nearest window and flew off toward her cloudhouse while Twilight returned to her magical packing.
Chapter 2: The Journey Begins
Chapter 2: The Journey Begins
The rain had long died down when Twilight arrived at the train station, but a little bit of a drizzle was still going on. Her multi-coloured friend was already waiting, saddle bags flung over her back and a grumpy expression on her face. Together with her mane that stuck to her in heavy, wet strands it almost looked cute - not that Twilight would ever voice that thought. The day where Rainbow accepted being called ‘cute’ had yet to dawn. Everything short of ‘awesome’ was equal to an insult. The unicorn chuckled quietly.
“I seriously don’t get you”, Rainbow moaned. “How can you giggle when the weather sucks like this? I see like literally nothing funny around here.”
“I was just… thinking”, Twilight replied and ignored the muttered ‘egghead’ from her friend. As the pegasus stepped up to her side though and stretched her wing out again, she positively screeched and jumped backwards. “Dash, your wing is dripping wet! Off of my head with that thing!”
“Oops”, the other pony said, grinning. “Must have slipped my notice.” She shook the water out of her fur (not that it made that much of a difference, as there was still enough water falling from the skies) and seemed to take extra care that as much as possible of it landed on Twilight who just glared at her. Not amused. Rainbow giggled and was about to say something when a sound in the distance announced the incoming train. Giving the cheeky Pegasus an annoyed huff worthy of Rarity, Twilight turned around and double checked the contents of her bags again (for what Rainbow assumed was the 10th time in the last 30 minutes), while trying her best to ignore the increasing volume of her friend’s laughter. Content that everything was where it was supposed to be, she entered the nearest traincar and started looking for a seat. Thankfully the train was empty due to the early hour and nopony had to endure Rainbow Dash's now slowly ebbing guffaws.
"Are you quite done yet? Honestly, what was so funny about that?"
Rainbow managed to finally subdue her mirth enough to talk.
"You are just so damn cute when you try to look annoyed. And then you sounded like Rarity, which was even more hilarious."
A small blush creeped it's way onto Twilight's cheeks, mercyfully hidden under her purple coat.
"I did not sound like Rarity! And if I did it was not hilarious!" she huffed, sitting down in one of the aisles with Rainbke across from her. Eager to steer the conversation somewhere else she laid the amulet down onto the small table between the seats.
"So, Snowstream. Why don't you tell us something about yourself? If we're going to be travelling halfway across Equestria together, we might as well get to know one another." Rainbow Dash perked up at that and directed her attention to the amulet as well.
"Yeah, what's going on with you? I mean if AJ likes you you gotta be cool."
There was a quiet laugh from Snowstream before he answered: “There are quite some stories I could tell. I travelled a lot, after all. What would you like to hear?”
“Well, I would first be interested to know why a pegasus would take to smithing. It is usually more something I see earth ponies doing.”
“We do have workshops up in the clouds, you know. My dad got his Cutie Mark as a blacksmithing. I got mine when I helped him in his workshop, so that was pretty much that. Boring one.”
“Yep, I’m definitely more awesome”, Rainbow declared smugly, earning herself a nasty glare from Twilight. “What? Just stating the facts here! Also, I want to know what the deal with th flying is. Seriously, what pegasus doesn’t fly?”
“I don’t”, Snowstream responded, his voice taking a more determined and cold tone. “And it’s none of your business.”
"Woah man, what's your problem? No need to get all aggressive and junk. I was just asking."
"Then ask something else, please." his voice regained a bit of it's warmth, but now there was an undertone to his voice that Twilight couldn't really place.
"Why did you have that Soulshard anyway? They're quite rare, and very expensive."
“From Diamond Shine of course. we all had them when I was with the Haystack, and they gave it to me when I left.”
“The Haystack? You all?” Twilight’s eyes lit up at the hope of learning things about their new friend. Maybe she could even get a friendship report out of this.
“And the Haystack is… what exactly?”, Rainbow chimed in.
Snowstream sounded slightly annoyed when he answered: “A group of six ponies who helped out on the frontier, you know, when the settler rush was still in full swing. We kept the tracks safe and did whatever needed doing around the place. As far as I know, they even teach you that in school by now.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean that I know it”, the pegasus responded cheekily and there was a huff from the amulet that strongly suggested there was an eye-roll accompanying it.
“Fair point. anything else you want to know right now, or can I go back to meditating to preserve my sanity?”
“Someone is in a bad mood”, Rainbow sing-songed.
“Now why could that be?!”, Snowstream snapped and although there was no way she could be harmed by an amulet, the pegasus flinched at his sharp voice. “If someone hadn’t knocked over these shelves, i would not have to be in a ‘bad mood’ right now, so I don’t think you’re one to talk!” For a few seconds, there was a stunned silence filling the wagon, broken by a soft sigh from the amulet before the trapped pony, much calmer now, spoke up again: “I am sorry, I shouldn’t let myself go like that, but I’m really not in the mood for more questions right now.”
“Rainbow, I think it’s best if we let him rest for a while. He was right when he was talking about preserving his sanity, being inside a soulshard puts an incredible strain on a pony’s mind. All emtions are amplified by a huge scale and the more it drains him, the higher becomes the likeliness of him losing his mind.”
Rainbow's eyes went huge as she processed the information.
"So these things trap ponies, eat their souls and make them go insane?! What the hell is the point of them? Why would anyone want to own or use something like that?!"
“Well, from what i know, the guard used them for some time for emergency medical transports, since they can essentially keep a patient in the exact same condition for a day or so, and for transporting dangerous prisoners.”
“Yeah, I can get that.” Rainbow nodded. “But he isn’t a guardspony.”
“They weren’t exclusively used by the guard, and they aren’t banned, so civilians owning or even using them isn’t unheard of. But because the spells needed to empower a soulshard and all the extra enchantments one can put on a stone, like the limited psychic projection spell that allow Snowstream to speak to us are quite complex and very specific in their conditions, like the fact that only the enchanter can retrieve the trapped soul, that is quite rare. The guard stopped using them for the same reasons about 30 years ago. Since so few people used them anyway it’s quite rare to see them these days. I wonder where this Diamond Shine got six of them.”
Rainbow Dash nodded along to the explanation, not even trying to understand, just letting the lecture wash over her like a soothing lullaby.
Before she knew it, she had dozed off again. She didn’t hear Twilight breaking off her lecture to smile at her sleeping friend. She didn’t see the small blush that crept onto her face, and she definitely didn’t hear Twilight think:
It’s really rare to see you so peaceful Rainbow. And really nice.