The Healer, The Thief, and the Painter. Act 1 The Healer

(30 minutes earlier)

“Hey, Crystal”, a voice whispered, “Wake up.” “Shut up Blade,” said Crystal, pulling covers over her head.

“It’s your fault that I’m so tired. Blade ripped the covers off her small form and looked at her shivering with his intense brown eyes.“Why is it my fault?” he asked. She rolled out of her bed and rested on all four legs. She looked at her battle partner and admired how incredibly handsome he still was early in the morning. His tan mane and tail were always perfectly brushed and complemented his brown body and wings perfectly. His eyes were also fantastic, brown like his body but still deep. So deep that she felt that if she stared into them long enough, she would be hypnotized. Now though his eyes were filled with a sort of laughter as she tried to explain why he was the cause for her being so tired. “The reason it’s your fault,” she said, “is because of that drug bust job at the train station we were put on. The White Muzzle members didn't even show up, all there was were some late-night passengers. But no, you wanted to stay longer, so we did until near dawn.” “I've only had about three hours of sleep until you…”

“Ok I get it!” he laughed with his deep laugh. She couldn't help but smile at her battle-partner.

Blade Fury was a free spirit, always wanting adventure, to throw himself into the heat of combat. She was his anchor however, the thing that kept him grounded firmly in the reality that if he threw himself into the heart of a battle without her, that he would die in vain. She shook the sleepiness and anger out of her eyes which she could see from her partners expression was replaced by a cool calm.

“Why did you wake me up early?” she inquired, “I usually wake up about noon.”

“Special project from the princess’ themselves for the entire police force.” “A high value target has been brought to Ponyville, but the princess’ do not know where he is. They have sent out a town-wide alert to everypony in Ponyville.” She whistled loudly,

“That is a high value pony.” She said with admiration. “You and I,” he continued,“are going to check the Everfree forest.” “Well what are we waiting for?” she said, “I will suit up and meet you outside.”

“Ok,”he replied, “be quick about it though, time is of the essence.”

“I always am.” She said. “I know.” He laughed and galloped out of her room pulling the door shut as he left. She quickly grabbed down her leather armor off a hook on the wall and made sure to keep her lime-green mane out of the buckles as she secured it. As she made the final touches, she looked under her bed and drew out her sword with her teeth secured around the hilt. It had a regular oak-wood handle and a simple blade guard, the interesting part though was the blade itself. It started off straight and curved in around the middle, which then tapered off to a deadly point, which would have been normal for any normal police force sword if it had been made of steel. Instead the blade was composed of the purest star blue crystal which reflected in the early morning sunlight creating a prism effect brighter than any sapphire.

She had obtained this sword from her father who acquired it from his father so on and so forth until it reached her great ancestor Silver Shield. He had been the only non-crystal pony to ever serve the Crystal Empire and had been given this sword by the Crystal king himself. It had protected her in many battles and was stronger than the average steel sword. Snapping back to reality, she quickly sheathed her sword and observed the untidiness of her room. “I’ll clean it afterwards.” she told herself and sped out of her room, slamming the door shut behind her. A few minutes later Crystal was blinking at the early morning light, Blade was next to her in the same leather armor that she wore. “Come on!” he said excitedly and flew off to the west of Ponyville towards the Everfree forest. “Wait up!” she called and ran after Blade. Ten minutes later, they both were standing outside the entrance to the forest. “If we don’t find him or her in fifteen minutes, we meet back here.” Blade said.

“Agreed.” she replied.

They both split up and entered into the dark depth of the forest. Crystal was basically sweating by the time she made it a couple minutes into the dense forest as she continued trotting along, she had to constantly avoid protruding roots and constantly had to flick her everywhere mane out of her eyes. As Crystal continued walking though she heard a yell come from her right. It was muffled, like the owner was gagged, also it was a deep male voice like… “Blade,” she whispered to herself, “No…” She knew that only Blade was capable of making that yell and instantly honed in on it. It had come from her right and she trotted slowly in that direction. She tried to be stealthy but her hooves kept getting caught on protruding roots and overgrown vegetation. So her attempts of sneaking were reduced to just crashing through the vegetation. She had to get to the origination of that yell however. If this high value had been able to take out Blade, Crystal knew that she was the only one to save him.

If she went for backup it would waste precious time. So she kept walking along until a sound rang out among the trees. It was a sound she had never heard before. As Crystal racked her brain to figure out what the sound could be an extreme pain erupted in her left side. There was also a tearing sensation as if her skin was being torn off the muscle on her side. Crystal felt blood run down the inside of her armor. She tried to call out for Blade if he was near, but all she could manage was a small yelp of pain. Crystal turned back to the way she came from and stumbled again through the dense forest floor. Crystal could feel the blood pooling in the bottom of her armor and her vision was tinged at the edges with red. Finally, she could take no more. She tripped over her own hooves and fell head first towards a growth of huge ferns. As her head connected with the hard-packed earth of the forest floor, the red blurriness was joined by blackness slowly overtaking her vision. “This is the end…”Crystal thought, she was going to die here, in this forest and not even being able to save her battle partner. “Goodbye Blade”, she thought as the blackness overtook her sight.