The Crystal Story: A Quest in the North

by Eltirions

Rating: mature
Tags: Profanity, Adventure, Violence, Death, Alternate Universe, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Equestria at War
Length: 3487

Bandits, a quest from a princess, a unicorn mage-noble and a griffon knight. What could go wrong?

The year is 987 ALB. Star Tower has been living in Everfrost, the ''capital'' of the Northern Tribes, for nearly a year. Mostly it's been quiet and peaceful, with a few nasty interruptions. Then, another interruption happens.

A semi-prequel to The Crystal Story: Flurry's Tale, describing one of the adventures of a younger Star Tower in the Northern Tribes. You do not need to read Flurry's Tale to understand this fic, but it might be handy for background information.

Important: this takes place in the Equestria At War universe. Equestria At War is a mod for the grand strategy game Hearts of Iron IV, be sure to check out their Discord and Reddit if you're not familiar with it. They also have a group on this site: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/212917/equestria-at-war

Rated M for violence, death and swearing.

Cover art: https://www.deviantart.com/watchtheskiies/art/The-World-Begins-To-Turn-III-Skyrim-803876600 (resized)

Published 2022-04-20 20:50:00 UTC
Last updated 2022-04-20 20:50:00 UTC

The Quest

2 Corn Moon 987

Everfrost really lived up to its name. That, given the usual skill ponies had for naming settlements, was admittedly not very surprising, but the consequence that said name bore was annoying Star Tower just a tad.

‘’It’s Corn Moon,’’ he muttered to himself as he shoved some snow aside to clear a path for himself. ‘’The world has no right to be this cold and this snowy already.’’

And it was only going to get colder. Of course, the average citizen of Everfrost didn’t really care, and probably considered this normal weather. But Star, for all his travels, had still been raised in Canterlot; despite being on the mountainside, snowfall was always light and pleasant, and the cold was more than manageable with a scarf and a beanie.

This was not the case in Everfrost.

It’s not all bad, Star admitted to himself. It could be actually snowing.

He glanced up at the sky for a moment, narrowing his eyes at the sun, which glared down at the world uncaringly. Or maybe it cared. Since Star didn’t follow that particular brand of Celestialism (or any brand of Celestialism, really), that meant the sun didn’t care.

Star continued to carve his way through the snow, occasionally checking if he was still going in the right direction but mainly trusting in his sense of direction and his memory to get him to the right place.

Which happened to be the centre of town. A pegasus messenger had come to his house at the break of dawn, carrying along a request for a meeting from Princess Fiana. And who was Star to refuse the ruler of the realm?

He could have teleported to the Great Hall, but there was something to be said for getting some fresh air, and there was no guarantee he wouldn’t appear on top of someone.

With another shove of telekinesis, the snow fell away to reveal the large square at the centre of town, which, as with most settlements of any kind, was surrounded by the most important buildings of the city. In this case, the Great Hall lived up to its name by being the largest, and indeed greatest, building in Everfrost. Of course Star had seen buildings that were far larger, but the Great Hall was still an impressive construction.

The square had mostly been cleared of snow, as ponies had to go about their business regardless of the weather, and indeed they were doing just that. Star recognised precisely none of them, but he did recognise-

‘’Good morning!” Ludvig called out far too cheerfully. The griffon was standing in front of the entrance of the Great Hall, smiling smugly. ‘’How are you, my friend?’’

‘’Fuck you,’’ Star offered. ‘’You and your wings.’’

‘’I have no idea what you’re talking about.’’

Admittedly, Ludvig’s poker face was impressive.

‘’Yeah yeah,’’ Star waved him off as he crossed the small distance remaining between them. ‘’Whatever you say, ass.’’

Somehow, Ludvig’s smile got more smug. ‘’I see no reason for this hostility.’’

Star didn’t deign to reply to that. ‘’I assume you were summoned as well?’’ he asked instead.

Ludvig inclined his head as the two of them began to walk into the Hall. ‘’Indeed. It seems the Princess requires our skills once again.’’

‘’Hurray us,’’ Star deadpanned. ‘’I’m so excited to go out through the snow on some quest.’’

‘’It’ll be fun,’’ Ludvig said with all the confidence of someone who had never been disappointed once in his entire life. ‘’The two of us beating up a couple of monsters and finding some long-lost heirloom, what’s not to love?’’

‘’Everything.’’

Ludvig didn’t reply to that, as they had arrived at the throne room. Court was already open, and the Princess was seated on her throne, a great seat of carven wood in which had been set several valuable gemstones and crystals. One of which had been a gift by Star Tower, taken from the gems he’d bought from a Diamond Dog trader in Rijekograd. They were meant as a memoriam for when he inevitably went back to Canterlot, but Star had no issue with giving one away to get himself into the good graces of Princess Fiana.

Ludvig and Star stopped at a respectable distance from the seat and bowed towards the Princess. ‘’Your Majesty, you summoned us?’’

‘’Indeed I did, Mage Spellweaver,’’ the Princess replied. As always, the slight nudge of her voice bounced off Star’s protections; she might have a mark for persuading beings with her voice, but Star had ensured long before he met her that he was always protected against just that, and he knew Ludvig had a similar enchantment on his clothes.

‘’May I inquire as for what reason, your Majesty?’’ Ludvig asked next.

‘’I have been informed by my soldiers that bandits are terrorising settlements along the Greenflood,’’ Princess Fiana said. ‘’With no warriors to spare, I have to ask you to take care of this threat. You will be rewarded handsomely in return.’’

That was a given. The Princess might be sceptical of outsiders - and not without good cause, Star would admit that much - but she was fair and anything but greedy when it came to payment for services rendered.

‘’What do we know about these bandits?’’ Ludvig asked.

The Princess waved her hoof, and one of the soldiers stepped forward, a pegasus stallion. ‘’Not much. There’s enough of them that they can split up in smaller groups but still raid villages; they once hit three villages on the same day! We believe they have a hideout near the mouth of the Greenflood; most of the villages they hit were around there, and they have used boats before.’’

‘’Thank you, Bright Spear,’’ the Princess dismissed the stallion, who bowed his head and then retreated into the crowed again. ‘’My lords, will you take this quest?’’

Star didn’t need to look at Ludvig to know the answer. ‘’We will,’’ he replied. ‘’When should we leave?’’

|-x-X-x-|

5 Corn Moon 987

Stoneshore was a quiet village, a day’s travel to the west of Everfrost and another day - more or less - away from the mouth of the Greenflood. And seeing as, like most villages, its warriors had gone southward to fight the Skynavians, it was a prime target for a raid by these so far nameless bandits.

Star and Ludvig had arrived two days ago along with a letter from the Princess that stated they should be granted food and lodgings. The earl of Stoneshore had been the pinnacle of courtesy and allowed the two of them to stay in his hall, feeding them at his table and giving them free reign of the building.

Star highly suspected he was hoping to set up his daughters with them. Fat chance of that, of course, and it made the hospitality they’d received seem a little less sincere, but as long as nobody was forcing him (or Ludvig) to marry one of the mares he wasn’t going to complain.

Stoneshore might be hospitable, but it sorely lacked any sort of entertainment for an intellectual. Star had of course anticipated that, but travelling light - and expecting to be in a fight sooner or later - meant that he had only brought a grand total of two books along with him, both of which he’d already read before. Incredibly entertaining.

So, he’d resorted to settling himself next to the great fireplace of the hall, watching the flames dance as he went through memories, reminiscing about everything and nothing in particular.

A reminiscence that was broken by Ludvig entering the hall. ‘’I’ve been speaking with a few of the more well-travelled people here,’’ the griffon said as he approached the fireplace, ‘’and they’ve been to a few of the villages that were raided before. None of those villages had much in the way of valuables. Nothing really worth stealing, anyway.’’

‘’Hmm…’’ Star hummed. ‘’So what did they take?’’

Ludvig shrugged as he seated himself next to Star. ‘’Those valuables that were there, of course. A bit of food as well, but not a lot.’’

‘’And nothing expensive.’’

‘’Precisely.’’

Wasn’t that interesting? Food and a few minor valuables. If there was a pattern or reason to it, Star wasn’t seeing it.

‘’They could be stocking up for the winter,’’ Ludvig mused. ‘’Waiting it out and then coming out to raid again in spring.’’

‘’Raid what?’’

‘’Fuck if I know.’’

‘’Good answer.’’

‘’I have them from time to time.’’

‘’Their incidental nature makes me appreciate them more.’’

‘’I hadn’t noticed.’’

‘’You are lacking in observational skills.’’

‘’That might be, but I can still observe that you are-’’

‘’My lords!’’

A stallion sprinted into the hall, clearly harried. ‘’The bandits are attacking!’’

Do I ever hate coincidences.

Ludvig leapt up in a smooth movement. ‘’Lead the way to them then, my good stallion!’’

Star followed suit. Pulling his sword to his side and fastening it to his robe with telekinesis, he galloped after Ludvig and the unnamed (well, he probably had a name, Star just didn’t know it) stallion.

Emerging out of the hall, it immediately became obvious where the fight was occurring. The sounds of violence, as well as the screams and shouts, made it clear to anyone with a working set of ears and the sufficient brainpower to match that the fight was happening on the shoreline.

‘’Do you know how many of them there are?’’ Ludvig inquired as he spread his wings. Star didn’t spot any pegasi or griffons, but he didn’t have clear vision of the battlefield, so that wasn’t exactly a guarantee.

‘’They outnumbered us, that’s all I know,’’ the stallion replied.

‘’And how many were with you?’

‘’Uhh…’’

‘’Forget it,’’ Star decided, ‘’we’ll just see when we get there.’’

‘’Agreed,’’ Ludvig said, and they rushed forward through the village.

The bandits were attacking from the shore; Star spotted a small boat that had evidently ferried them here.

The docks were chaotic. Ponies were fighting both other ponies and griffons, and given that there were no griffons in Stoneshore, that meant it was easy to identify who was on whose side.

Ludvig charged forward with his sword drawn, like the knight he was, followed by the stallion that had warned them of the attack. Star drew his sword as well, but kept it back for now. Instead, he blasted the nearest griffon with a fireball that hit him straight in the wing, followed up by a powerful energy bolt that reduced said wing to broken bones and scorched feathers.

‘’You’re gonna regret that!’’ another griffon yelled.

Star did not regret it, and for presuming so he blasted the griffon with another energy bolt, straight in the beak. The griffon’s head, predictably, gained a new hole.

Star looked left just in time to see Ludvig decapitate a pony with a strike with a speed that was honestly impressive and a little imposing to watch. Then he was assailed by two ponies, unicorns with the most pathetic electromancy he had ever witnessed.

‘’Really?’’ he said flatly. ‘’Really.’’

Then he swept both of them aside with a single spell, tossing them off the docks into the water.

Someone died screaming, Star utterly destroyed an earth pony that tried to charge at him with an overpowered explosion spell, and then he saw Ludvig cut off a pegasus’ wing.

The guards had finished off the remaining bandits, and for a moment, silence fell over the docks.

Star let out a breath, then sheathed his sword. ‘’Anyone wounded?’’ he asked.

‘’I’ve got a cut in my left foreleg,’’ one of the guards answered back, ‘’and Shining here’s bleeding something fierce in his side.’’

‘’I’m fine, Grand!’’ the unicorn in question snapped back. ‘’It’s just a flesh wound.’’

‘’I’ll cast a healing spell on you both and then it’s off to the doctors for you,’’ Star cut off the argument that was surely going to occur otherwise. ‘’Now, check if any of the buggers are still alive.’’

As it turned out, there was one still alive, and after a quick round of questioning under very tight scrutiny (and a few very inventive threats by Ludvig - Star had no idea you could do that with a hammer), they had a location and names.

‘’So, these ‘River Robbers’, as they’re calling themselves,’’ Star explained to the earl of Stoneshore, doing his very best not to snicker at the name, ‘’are holed up in a cove on the coast called Blackwater Grotto. Does that sound familiar to you?’’

‘’I’m afraid not,’’ the earl replied with a shake of his head. ‘’You could try asking some of the sailors.’’

‘’We will have to do that anyway,’’ Ludvig said. ‘’If we want to get there, the quickest route is going to be by boat. And neither of us are sailors.’’

‘’Talk to Wavewalker,’’ the earl suggested. ‘’He’s experienced, and maybe he’ll know where your grotto is.’’

One conversation with a middle-aged unicorn later, and they’d secured themselves a boat ride to Blackwater Grotto, which Wavewalker knew the location of, somehow. Star decided not to question it; if the best stallion wanted to smuggle, that was his problem, not Star’s.

It took a few hours to arrive at Blackwater Grotto, or as close to it as Wavewalker would go. From there, it was a short distance’s walk to the grotto.

‘’Well,’’ Star said dryly, ‘’I can see why they can strike multiple towns at once.’’

There were probably between fifty and one-hundred bandits in the grotto, which contained wooden structures that made it look like a small settlement. Several ships similar to the one the bandits that had attacked Stoneshore had used were present.

‘’We each take half?’’ Ludvig jokingly suggested. Star almost felt like taking him up on it.

‘’We need a plan,’’ he replied instead. ‘’They outnumber us quite significantly.’’

‘’Oh really,’’ Ludvig deadpanned. ‘’I hadn’t noticed.’’

‘’I could send some fireballs down,’’ Star mused. ‘’They’re clearly not expecting an attack.’’

‘’Sucks to be them.’’

‘’Quite. See that platform there?’’

‘’Yeah?’’

‘’I’m going to teleport there and start casting flame spells. You mind flying down here and starting a fight?’’

Ludvig had taken his armour with him, and put it on after they had disembarked. The bandits’ weapons had little chance of getting through the enchanted plate, so with any luck, Ludvig would get out unscathed.

The griffon smirked as best his beak allowed. ‘’It’d be my pleasure.’’

Star smirked as well, then drew his sword. ‘’Don’t die.’’

‘’You neither.’’

With that said, Star turned away, looked at the platform, and teleported.

Immediately upon appearing, he was spotted; teleportation was hardly an inconspicuous thing, of course. But the shouts of surprise turned to shouts of fear as Star sent firebolts flying in every direction, and with the amount of wood that was present, things almost immediately started burning.

He leapt down from the platform onto the ground, using a Feather spell to break his fall, and sent a shockwave out that caught two of the bandits who were already charging at him, launching them backwards. Energy gathered around Star’s horn, and magical missiles leapt out of it, headed for the nearest enemies.

As the fires started in earnest, Star made his way through the ramshackle village. In the process of doing this, he killed several bandits who were unfortunate enough to go after him. They were lightly armoured and their weapons were short range and crude; as far as Star could tell, none of the unicorns were inclined towards magic beyond the most basic of skills, and their weapons were too slow and cumbersome to be able to block his sword.

He finally emerged out of the wood onto the docks, to see one ship was already partially aflame, evidently hit by one of his fireballs. To his right he saw Ludvig cutting down bandits left and right: if they were no match for Star in his robes, they were certainly no match for a fully-armoured and armed griffon knight.

A quite powerful energy bolt landed right next to Star. Well, this just turned interesting.

Three unicorns stood on the docks; two were trying to douse the flames through a combination of aquamancy and telekinesis, and one was glaring at him with a glowing horn.

‘’Oh finally, a challenge,’’ Star taunted as he strode forward. ‘’Ladies first,’’ he tipped his head towards the frontmost mare.

Who did not reply verbally, but instead conjured more energy bolts which went flying forwards. Star dodged two, batted one aside with his sword and caught one on a quickly-cast shield.

‘’And now my turn.’’

A thunderbolt shot out of Star’s horn, powerful enough to cut through solid stone. The mare cast a shield, which rattled and shattered a moment after the spell impacted upon it. Star took advantage of this and followed up with another thunderbolt, but now the other mages were pulling back their attention from the ships - a lost cause - to refocus on him.

Star shifted his stance. Play time was over.

Nobody expects telekinesis.

Star tore off pieces of burning wood from the surroundings and tossed them at the trio of unicorns. Two shielded and the middle one, which he’d already traded spells with, destroyed the piece headed for her with a well-placed energy bolt.

Before Star could cast again, the three of them began to cast. Orbs of water and high-powered energy bolts flew at him, and he retaliated with a flurry of firebolts and lightning. Once those had either missed or impacted on shields, he teleported to just in front of them.

Taking advantage of their confusion, Star cut down the middle unicorn with his sword before the other two could even move. The stallion on the right made a noise that died in his throat as Star blew his head off at point-blank range and the mare on the left tried to cast a spell but failed when Star planted the blade in her neck.

As she fell to the floor, Star took a moment to pause and look around. Everything was burning, he was surrounded by dead people, and where the Tartarus was Ludvig?

He looked at where he’d last seen the griffon, and was relieved to see him standing over a group of griffon and pony corpses.

‘’Coming!’’ he called out over the burning inferno, and teleported.

‘’That worked out nicely,’’ Ludvig said once Star had appeared next to him. ‘’I caught the last part of your duel with those mages. That was nice work.’’

‘’I saw you cut down a bunch of these fools as I came out of the village,’’ Star replied. ‘’Good work too.’’

‘’Thanks.’’ Ludvig glanced around. ‘’Say, shall we get out of here?’’

‘’It is getting a tad heated in here,’’ Star agreed. ‘’You mind if I teleport us both?’’

‘’Be my guest.’’

|-x-X-x-|

6 Corn Moon 987

There had been a feast held in their honour once they’d returned to Stoneshore, and now they were the guests of honour at another one in Everfrost.

‘’To our heroes, the vanquishers of the River Robbers!’’ Princess Fiana had declared at the start of the feast.

‘’Hail!’’ the crowd had cheered as one.

As guests of honour, Ludvig and Star got the prime spots right next to the Princess. After some haggling, they’d agreed that Star would sit next to the Princess, and Ludvig would sit next to him. An arrangement Star was quite content with; unlike yesterday evening, nobody was trying to set him up with the Princess.

‘’Can I ask you a question, Mage Spellweaver?’’ the Princess asked once the feast was well underway.

‘’Certainly, your majesty.’’

‘’How was the battle? You haven’t said much about it yet, and I’d love to hear the story?’’

Star weighed his options. Between talking about the battle - which was more a slaughter than a battle anyway - or the consequences of refusing the Princess of Everfrost, he’d rather have option A.

‘’It was… it was a battle,’’ Star decided to say. ‘’The bandits outnumbered us, but they were surprised by us. I think that, and the fact they weren’t grouped together, is what ensured our victory. I don’t think we could have beaten them in a fair fight.’’

Though it wouldn’t have been easy for them.

The Princess nodded. ‘’Of course, but the battle wasn’t fair, was it? And you won. And bandits rarely fight fair.’’

‘’That is true, your Majesty.’’

‘’There’s no such thing as fighting fair,’’ Ludvig chimed in. ‘’Fight to win instead.’’

Star found he couldn’t really disagree with that.

Author's Note

So I wrote this thing in an afternoon/evening to get in the mood for working on the actual longfic again. Rest assured I am not dead, but simply busy.

This exists. Idk. Could be better, could be worse. Do with it as you please.