Chapters The Pony: An Unexpected Journey
Prologue: The Fall of the Crystal Empire
My dear Princess Celestia...you once asked me everything you wanted to know about my adventures before I came to Ponyville. While I can honestly say I've told you the truth...I may not have told you all of it.
It all began long ago, when a Crystal Kng overruled a kingdom built within a mountainside. It stood hundreds of feet high, and cast a shadow across the entire valley, as if it were telling the small villages which lived below it that all was well under the spell of the shadow.
Inside this colossal castle of unimaginable defense was the wealthiest kingdom in the land: the Crystal Empire, towering to the skies in everything else: from military strength to financial prosperity. All the occupants who lived within this divine empire spent their days harvesting the vast amount of minerals found within the earth, and using their talents in smithing and armory to construct the finest jewelry and armor anypony could imagine.
One day, a miner found a special jewel known as the Arkenstone, which the Crystal King displayed in pride over his throne, as a symbol of his divine power over the land.
A short while thereafter, the Crystal King began to exert a disease. His tremendous obssession with gold consumed his thoughts. He grew all the more greedy, and only time itself would be able to tell if he would ever recover from his dreadful illness.
Unfortunately, my dear Celestia, no one would ever know because...Smaug came.
The nearby town of Dale was the first target on the great beast's path of disaster. It brought Dale to its very knees, killed and incinerated many villagers, and torched the entire town to ash. With nothing standing in his way, Smaug then loomed over the great Crystal Empire, barred through the mighty gate of the stronghold, and, with little effort on his part, frightened the Crystal Ponies, and caused everyone to flee their sacred home in a flaming tongue of ember and destruction.
Upon his egress from his beloved kingdom, the King lost his hoofing on the Arkenstone, which he had so desperately tried to salvage and keep his own from the horrible beast. It fell to his hooves and disappeared in a tidal wave of wealth and gold which came hurling towards the King at a blinding speed.
With most of the Crystal Ponies out of the Crystal Mountain, the King finally saw daylight as Smaug ransacked his home. Out in the distance, over a tall cliff, the King could see the elf-ponies and their grand army watching in awe at the scene. The King hollered up to them, but their leader, King Thranduil, dismissed the King's pleas, and set forth away from the devastation, leaving the Crystal Ponies to fend for themselves, and all alone.
Smaug gained control of the Crystal Empire and the Crystal King's fortune. And he would guard his hoard until the day he dies.
The Pony: An Unexpected Journey
The Pony: An Unexpected Journey
"Hooves off!" I barked at the youthful stallion hovering over me, who was glaring at my manuscript.
"What are you writing?" he asked.
"That's none of your business," I replied, closing my materials up and putting my writing utencils away. "And it's not ready yet. And it'll never be done with you breathing down my neck. What do you want?"
"I just got back from getting the mail," he said, dismissing our previous conversation. He held out a hooful of letters. "The party invitations. Almost everypony's replied and is excited about tonight!"
"The party!?" I gasped, rising to my hooves. "Was it tonight?"
"Indeed it is, Auntie!"
"By gosh, then! We've got work to do!"
I began prowling my home: a cottage in a hillside, not much to the eyes. But it had all the comforts of home. I was happy here, and as was my newphew, Podo. I scrambled through the knickknacks and trinkets, hiding all of my silver and other shiny metals in cermaic jars and pots: out of sight, and out of mind for the guests.
"What are you doing ?" Podo inquired, lazily following behind me.
"Hiding my silverware," I answered. "From those nasty peasants who think what's mine is there's, and that when they come over for a party, they will ransack my home and nab me of my jewels, as a part of 'being a good hostess', as if that weren't the biggest pile of rubbish I ever heard."
"I-is there anything I can do?"
"Yes, my boy," I said, bending over and picking up a sign and a hammer. "Be a lad and nail this to the gate, will you?"
"Oh, yes, right away, Auntie!" Podo took the objects from my grasp, hurrying outside, with excitement in his bones.
The Pony: An Unexpected Journey
I was sitting in front of my house, on a wooden bench; which, back in the day, was still in good shape, when a tall, old-looking stallion approached me, and began conversation with me as if he had known me for decades.
"Good morning," I said, casually smoking my antiquated pipe.
"What do you imply by that?" he asked, a tall staff in his hoof. He wore a blue cape and wizard hat, bells on the rims, patterns of stars in the designs. He bore a beard which very nearly touched the earth below his hooves. "Do you mean that you want me to be good on this morning? Maybe you wish me goodness on this morning? Or perhaps that this is simply a morning to be good?" he chuckled.
"Uh...all of those, I guess," I replied, exhaling some more smoke from my nostrils. "May I ask of your purpose?"
"Twilight Sparkle," he began. "I need someone to share with me an adventure."
"An adventure?" I faked a laugh. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm a house-pony: not some flamboyant unicorn who just goes out and does whatever she wants. This is my home , you see, and I don't leave my home!"
I rose to my hooves, grabbed today's mail, and started up the pathway to my cottage. "Good morning," I said as I hurried up the steps into my home.
The strange wizard-stallion followed me. I did not see him or hear him in the act, but I had a strange feeling in my gut that he was encroaching behind me. I locked my front door, and leaned against it for a moment. I heard absolutely no noise, not even gentle hoofsteps climbing up to my doorway, as I imagined I would. Perhaps my instincts had failed me. So I took a quick peak outside to see if he was still there. Not a second later did a huge, yellow eye stare menacingly from the other side of the window where I had peaked. I scampered to a wall out of sight of the strange wizard-stallion, leaning against an inner wall of my cottage.
It was then I heard the faint sound of elderly hoofsteps as they exited my property.
What was the wizard-stallion doing there? I wondered.
It would not take long for me to find out.
