Crystal Utopia

Starlight yawned as she awoke from her sleep, “Another dull night I suppose.” She kicked the bed covers off of her and made her way to the window. She looked at the streets below and saw ponies continuing on with their preparations. The Emerald Class ponies were still at work but now they were joined once again by the other three classes. “Just as busy as always I guess.”  She left her window and made her way to the wash room and cleaned herself before making her way to the mirror. She carefully groomed her hair so that it would not get tangled up with her horn. She always wanted her horn to look at least neat and proper, like her mothers. Starlight was almost Nineteen years old but for some odd reason her mother looked almost exactly the same age that she did. She always found it curious that her mother didn’t seem to age. Star didn’t even know how old her mother was; she was too embarrassed to ask and was sure that her mother would just dodge the question. She finished combing her mane and made her way down stairs to meet her mother for breakfast.

Something was obviously not right as Starlight entered the dining hall, her mother was not there. It was usually Cadance who would be in the dining hall first and then send a servant to look for Starlight when she overslept, which happened at least once or twice a week. “Mother? Mother are you in here?” Their breakfast already seemed to be set on the table for them but upon closer inspection Star noticed that her mother’s plate seemed to be empty. There were crumbs of food on the plate, “Could mother have of already eaten?” Just as Starlight was about to leave the dining hall her personal servant Clover entered. “Your highness a thousand apologies but I was meant to inform you that your mother had a lot of business to attend to today and could simply not wait for you to arrive.” Starlight made her way towards Clover, “Please your highness if you could not tell your mother that I forgot to inform you and be generous enough to forgi…” Starlight put her hoof around Clover, “Will you please calm yourself Clover. It was just a simple mistake. Of course I can forgive you and I’m certain that my mother would too.” Clover bowed to Starlight, “Thank you! Oh thank you your highness!” Starlight made her way back to the table and sat in seat to begin her breakfast. Clover made her way to exit the dining hall but quickly turned around again, “Your highness, I almost forgot. Your mother also mentioned that she would not be joining you for lunch today either. Unfortunately a lot of work has fallen upon her regarding the empire.” Starlight paid no heed to this. With her mouth full of food she simply replied, “Okay Clover…”, as she began to make short work of her meal.

“What to do, what to do.” Starlight moved around her room thinking about something that could occupy enough time to kill off the rest of the day. “Hmmmmm…I guess I could always practice for the ceremony.” Star looked at the notecards her mother had given her to practice from. “Ummm…maybe later.” She put the note cards in a drawer, “Much later…” After realizing that there was nothing fun to do in her room she decided to go get so fresh air from her mother’s balcony. Star looked over the balcony to the entire empire before letting her gaze fall on the crystal wall. “I wonder…” Star immediately went to go look for Clover as the idea formed in her mind. She found Clover tending the inner gardens of the palace, “Clover could you please follow me? I am going to need your assistance.” Clover put down the watering can and followed Starlight back to her room. “What is it that you need your highness?” Starlight closed the door to her room and closed the curtains of her window. “Clover I am going to ask you to keep a secret, can you do that for me?” Clover nodded but was a bit wary of the conversation. “I need you to keep it secret even from my mother.” Clover looked at Starlight and then at the door. “Please your highness; don’t ask me to go against the princess.” Starlight laughed, “Don’t worry it’s not treason or anything like that. I just need you to cover for me while I sneak out of the palace to go see the crystal wall.” Clover nearly fell over on her back, “But…but…your mother has forbidden you from going to the crystal wall.” Clover was now breathing heavily. “Trust me Clover it will all be fine and my mother will never know about it.” Clover sighed and took a seat on the floor, “Very well your highness, I will cover for you.”

"Excellent! I knew I could count on you Clover!” Starlight put her servant in a hug. “Umm…your highness. If I may ask, how do you plan to sneak out of the palace? You will never fool the guards; they all know your face. Your horn will give you away!” Starlight thought for a moment. She was so caught up in getting Clover to agree to the plan that it had completely slipped her mind as to how she was going to sneak out. She looked at Clover and then a new idea occurred to her. “A hat should do the trick for the horn. As for my face well…maybe I could sneak out with that cloak that you wear for when the wind is terrible.” A smile grew on Starlight’s face, “Yes I’m certain that would work.” Clover nodded her head and immediately left Starlight’s room to go and retrieve her cloak. Minutes past and Star grew more excited about the thought of finally going to the Crystal wall. Clover returned with both her cloak and a hat tucked away inside her saddle bag. “Here you are your highness, my wind cloak and a hat from my personal collection.” Star immediately began dressing. She slipped the cloak on first making sure that her face was covered enough so that she would not be recognized but was exposed enough so that the guards would see that she was from the diamond class. Next she put on the hat so that it completely covered up her horn. “Well? How do I look Clover?” Clover looked at Starlight from head to hoof, “I would be lying your highness if I didn’t say that you didn’t look like a pony straight out of the diamond nurturing facility.” Starlight pleased with herself thanked clover one more time and then made her way to the door. “Your highness, if could ask you for two favors? Please don’t have me do this again and also try to ruin that cloak; it’s one of my most favorites.” Starlight laughed, “Don’t worry my dear friend, I’ll make sure to take good care of it and I won’t be gone long.” With that she was out the door of her room and made her way to the servant’s entrance of the palace.

“Well, here goes nothing.” Starlight whispered to herself as she approached the lone guard that stood watch at servant’s entrance.  As soon as she made it obvious that her intention was to go through the door the guard stopped her. “Halt! I’ve never seen you before. What are you doing inside of the palace?” Starlight did her best to disguise her voice, “I was ummm…delivering an important package to the princess’s daughter?” The guard grew suspicious, “Then how come I didn’t see you come in?” Star started to panic a little but quickly came up with an answer. “That’s because I entered the palace when the other guard was on duty.” The guard was still not convinced, “Really now? What package were you carrying that takes over an hour and a half to deliver?” Star grew more confident now as she figured out the perfect solution. “I had to help the princess’s daughter sort out the package. If you still don’t believe me though we could always go ask her about it. Although I’m sure she would be annoyed to have to deal with a problem as insignificant as this.” Now it was the guard that started to panic, “No, no, no that’s quite alright. No need to bother her.” And with that the guard stepped aside and let Starlight out into the diamond district. “Thank you very much.”

Getting out of the palace was the hard part since it was much easier to move between districts when all you had to do was blend in with the crowd. After minutes of walking Star finally approached the entrance to the Emerald district.  She was let in with no problem at all and then pushed forward towards the wall. “There it is, I can see it! Finally I’ll get to see it up close!” As she approached the wall she couldn’t help but notice just how much larger it was up close. It was larger than all the buildings in the empire except the palace. “Wow it’s just so…so…big! I never imagined it would be this magnificent. I wonder what kind of crystal it’s made of. Maybe its…” In that moment Starlight forgot one of the most sacred rules in the entire empire, no pony besides the princess or others with her permission are allowed to touch the wall. Four diamond guards quickly came over and surrounded Star. “Halt! You are being placed under arrest for touching the crystal wall without permission!” Two guards moved to Starlight’s left and right side and held her so that she could not run. Starlight began to panic, “Wait! Where are you going to take me?” A guard moved up and made it his intention to remove Star’s hat, “You will be taken to a facility where upon arrival you will be interrogated and then you shall confess to your crimes against the Princess and the empire. After that you will be punished accordingly to your crimes.”

The guard placed his hoof on Star’s hat but just as he was about to take it off a rock smacked him right on the side of the face. The guard fell over reeling in pain as three more rocks found their mark on the other guards. With the guards who were restraining her now on the ground Star quickly moved away. She heard a whistle and quickly turned around to see a Ruby class pony waving at her to follow him. With  the guards now getting off the ground Starlight had to time to react or think. She simply ran towards the Ruby pony as the guards called after them , “STOP!! TRAITORS!” Star followed the Ruby pony down several alley ways as  the four guards quickly pursued them. “Quick in here!” The Ruby pony pointed towards a small cellar in one of the buildings. Starlight went down the dark steps first as the ruby pony closed the cellar doors above them. “Who are yo…” A hoof was quickly put over her mouth, “Shush, stay quite.” Both of them listened closely for any signs of the guards. They heard the hooves of the guards come closer and then fade away as they passed the cellar. Starlight removed the Ruby pony’s hoof from her mouth. Star could sense that the Ruby pony was moving towards one of the walls of the dark room. He lit one of the candles and then went around lighting others in the small room. Star looked at the ruby pony, “Well? I’m waiting!” her companion looked at her with a confused look on his face, “Waiting? Waiting for what?” Star sighed, “Isn’t it obvious? For you to tell me your name of course!” The ruby pony laughed, “You know usually you begin by first telling the other your name before asking for theirs. Also would a little appreciation kill you? I mean I practically just saved your life by putting mine at risk.”

Starlight scoffed at this, “Oh I didn’t need your help. I would have had everything under control.” Star got a bit annoyed when her companion started laughing, “Under control? Well then excuse me but unless you were the Princess, her daughter, advisor, or Lord Shining Armor come back from the dead there was no way you were going to get yourself out of  that mess.” Starlight blushed at this a little. “Well…” The ruby pony interrupted her, “Well what? Look I don’t know what I was thinking when I decided to save you. A diamond class pony such as yourself probably would of just been fine on her own.” Star’s anger started to grow., “You know what? I’m starting to think that maybe I should just go find those guards and have them arrest a brute Ruby Stallion such as yourself!” The object of her hatred laughed more at this, “Go ahead! Have them arrest me, what makes you think that you’ll get off any easier? Last time I checked touching the crystal wall without permission is a higher crime than assaulting a guard. Heck maybe we’ll share the same jail cell. Either way it won’t end well the both of us.” Starlight’s anger now boiled. “You think I won’t do it? Please obviously you don’t know me.” The ruby pony interjected, “Obviously.” Star shot him a mean look, “Well, I guess we’ll see who gets the worst punishment!” Starlight made her way up the steps to the cellar door in a mad dash. The ruby pony was caught off guard by this, “Hey WAIT! YOU”RE ACTUALLY GOING TO DO IT?!” Starlight opened the cellar doors and turned back to look at the stallion, “Obviously.” The stallion quickly darted to her and wrapped his hooves around her. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing? Get your hooves off of me!” Her plea was ignored as the stallion literally pulled her back down the steps and both crashed on the floor.

“You brute! I’m trying to mess this cloak up! It belongs to a friend of mine!” Star lifted herself and waited for a witty retort from the ruby pony but it never came. Confused she looked over in his direction and saw that he was staring at her with his eyes wide open. “What? What are you staring at?” It took the stallion a few moments before he walked over towards Starlight, picked her hat from off the ground, and placed it on his head. “Gee, I thought your hat would fit me real good…your highness.” It took Starlight a few moments to comprehend what just happened. She quickly put one of her hooves to her head in an effort to hide her horn. The stallion laughed, “No point in hiding it now your highness. Though if I could ask that you forget all of this as favor for saving you.” Star’s panic started to grow, “Why do you want me to forget all of this?”  More laughter followed, “Well because I’m pretty sure that grabbing the princess’s daughter and tossing her to the floor is a higher crime than assaulting guards.” Starlight giggled a little, “Well I suppose that as a favor I could possible forget your face and all these events.” The stallion took the hat of his head and handed it back towards Star. Starlight’s curiosity about the ruby stallion grew even more now, “Well I don’t suppose I’m actually ready to leave just yet. Now you obviously know who I am bit I still haven’t learned your name.” The ruby pony laughed a bit before answering, “I suppose I haven’t told you my name yet but then again why should I?” Starlight shot him a nasty stare again “Okay, okay I’ll tell you.” The ruby stallion walked up to Starlight until they were face to face and then extended his hoof, “Hello, my name is Zander. Pleasure to make your acquaintance Starlight Sparkle.”