Romance and the Fate of Equestria

All right, it's been… however long it's been. Okay, no more promises about how long it'll take me to update. I'll get the chapters done when they get done. I'm doing the best I can.

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Nine

On the mountainside above Canterlot, Shining Armor ascended, dressed in his full guard captain armor and accompanied by four other guards.

"How are we doing, boys?" he called out.

The first to respond was a lanky, bearded unicorn—Radiant Heart, a member of Shining Armor's inner circle. "Bolstered by the courage in my heart, sir," he said elegantly.

"Glad to hear it. Katana?"

The bulky pegasus he was addressing jerked in surprise. Cabin Katana wore his mane in dreadlocks, and refused to wear his royal guard uniform in favor of a simple leather jerkin.

"Yo," he replied.

"Katana," Shining Armor repeated dangerously.

"Sir," he corrected.

"Status?"

"Still hate this job, sir."

"You're free to change your choice to 'prison' at anytime."

"In that case, sir, I'm all about, sir, capturing these, sir, fugitives, sir."

Shining Armor rolled his eyes. The third soldier, a heavyset unicorn with graying hair, many age lines, and several battle scars, came up to Shining Armor's side.

"Why do you keep him around?" he grumbled.

"Because he's the best soldier there is," Shining Armor murmured back. "A bit of troublesome behavior is fully worth the benefit of having him at my side. Now tell me, my dear Lord Fireshield, what do you detect?"

The elderly soldier took a deep breath, nodding calmly. "This mountain has known evil. We're getting closer."

"Good," Shining Armor said grimly. "Let's go ahead and press our luck." He turned his eyes downward, lower on the mountain. "Helm Star! Get up here."

The young pegasus, a newcomer to the in-group, hastily fluttered up to Shining Armor. "This escape from Alcatrots, how could that have happened?"

"The anti-magic shield apparently doesn't prevent the use of alchemy," Shining Armor said grimly.

"That's some bullcrap," Katana muttered.

"You remember who we're looking for, right?" Shining Armor said sharply to Helm Star.

Startled, Helm Star admitted, "Barely."

"Meh, that figures," said Shining Armor. "Of the four fugitives we're after, we only know one by name, and another, we don't even know exactly what sort of creature he is. The hijackers from the museum never gave their names or the reasons for their deeds, and we've found no prior record of them."

"And the alchemist and his familiar?" Helm Star inquired anxiously.

Shining Armor hesitated before replying. "Well… according to Princess Celestia, it was Lady Kolassa who left them here. The foreign goddess stated, and Celestia agreed, that imprisonment in Alcatrots, where they could be properly contained and not hurt anypony, would be an improvement over their legal sentence of exile."

"Princess Celestia imprisoned them unlawfully?" Helm Star said quietly.

Fireshield flung an arm around Helm Star's shoulders. "Banish those thoughts from your head, young knight, and trust in our Princess. Queen and country, right or wrong—that is the way of the royal guard."

"That's a lovely sentiment," Katana sneered. "Let me know how it works out."

"Katana," Shining Armor warned.

"Am I wrong?"

"Doesn't matter. If we're going to try and arrest Princess Celestia, that's a conversation for another day. Right now we're following our lead on these escaped guys."

Helm Star trotted to catch up with Shining Armor again. "Was this planned all along? Or did they just happen to meet up in prison?"

"…I'm sorry?" Shining Armor said in alarm.

"The four of them," Helm Star pressed. "Were they accomplices from the start?"

Shining Armor shook his head. "Can't have been. No one could have anticipated Bardic was going to end up in Alcatrots. He was from Kolassa's country, he only ended up here on a whim from Kolassa herself. No, they can't have conspired before this. It seems they just happened to decide to team up."

"My liege," Radiant Heart called out from above. "This… doesn't seem normal."

Shining Armor jogged over to Radiant Heart's position, and caught sight of what he had indicated—a perfectly circular cave in the mountainside.

"No, no it doesn't," Shining Armor agreed.

"Alchemy?" Helm Star breathed.

"Damn straight."

The five of them entered the cave, their hooves clacking against the too-smooth stone of the tunnel. The three unicorns brought the tips of their horns to a glow, the multicolored orbs of light reflecting off the stone for a time, until the cramped tunnel opened up into a massive cavern. The light hit nothing for a time, until it began reflecting off huge mounds of purple crystal.

"My prince," Fireshield said sharply. "These are the very same crystal mines that allowed Vorpal Blade access to the castle, and Queen Chrysalis before him."

Shining Armor gazed up at the crystals, observing the multiple copies of his reflection in their many facets. "Yes… yes it is…"

None of them said anything for a while.

"Well, let's proceed," said Shining Armor. "Just… scout it out. Come on, men."

Still walking side by side, they went deeper into the mines.

"Anypony else getting the feeling this is a bit… beyond us?" Helm Star said nervously. "I mean, the last two enemies that made use of this location defeated Celestia and Luna…"

"It's just a location, son," Shining Armor said calmly.

"And is this powerful alchemy just a location?" Helm Star challenged. "These mines seem to attract a higher class of bad guy."

Radiant Heart shrugged. "We were there, boy. When Luna was defeated, so were we. We lived."

"Getting knocked out is all part of the job, kid," Katana said with satisfaction. "Best to learn to face it now."

"Well… is there any chance we can do our jobs without getting knocked out?" Helm Star said meekly.

"That is the goal, yes," Shining Armor said dryly.

"AUGH!" Radiant Heart suddenly screamed, leaping backward.

He had stepped into a sizzling puddle of blue-green liquid, which had left his front hooves smoking.

"You all right?" said Shining Armor.

"Fine, fine," Radiant Heart muttered, stamping his hooves. "I can walk."

"What was that?" Helm Star demanded.

"Looks like some kind of acid," said Shining Armor.

They all stared at the puddle in silence for a time; craning their necks to cast their light over it, they could see it took up a good twenty square feet of the cave floor.

"Why do ponies always say that?" Katana said casually. "You see it all the time in books and movies. Whenever there's acid, somepony always says it's 'some kind of acid'. Why can't they just say it's acid?"

The others shot him a dirty look and didn't bother to reply for a moment. When the moment had passed, Radiant Heart supplied, "They do that with force fields, too. It's always 'some kind of force field'."

"Heh. True. What's up with that?"

All of a sudden, the acid churned and bubbled, swirling like a whirlpool and forming into a massive cube that floated in the air.

"Uh-oh," Shining Armor remarked.

The cube rushed at them. Katana responded instantly, producing two wingblades on his primary feathers, and clacking them together to deflect the cube away from them. As the beast drifted away, Katana leapt at it, slicing it with his wingblades, as Helm Star pursued and hacked with his bladed gauntlets.

A tentacle-like protrusion erupted from the cube, whacking at the pair of them and knocking them to the ground with two solid strikes, while a third strike hit Fireshield in the back, flattening him.

Screaming, Shining Armor and Radiant Heart shot continuous beams of light from their horns, burning away at the body of the acid creature. It reached out to them slowly, trying to grasp at their necks.

Helm Star helped Fireshield get back on his hooves. "Are you all right, sir?" he said softly.

"I'm fine, fine," Fireshield muttered, stretching his back. "Step aside."

Fireshield stepped forward and added a burst of flame to the two beams of light. Katana flew forward, weaving his way through the beams, cutting off the tentacles before they reached his comrades. The cube began to scream and continue to struggle as the soldiers began to reduce it to a smaller and smaller size.

Soon, it was reduced to a shapeless lump, only about half the size of a normal pony. Helm Star jumped at it, slamming the spikes of his gauntlets into it, and it dissolved into nothingness.

"Alchemy," said Helm Star. This time, it was a curse.

"Damn straight," Shining Armor repeated. "Well… we probably shouldn't go any further than this. The risks… would be large. Let's do it anyway."

Turning elegantly on his heel, he proceeded deeper into the cave. The four guards quickly moved to follow him.

"My dear prince, you do know how to give orders that make sense," Radiant Heart said in amusement.

Shining Armor chuckled appreciatively, then stopped in his tracks. "Wuh-oh. Hold up!"

They all proceeded only far enough to join him at his sides, and looked down. Shining Armor had stumbled upon another unnatural, perfectly circular hole, this one in the floor.

Lord Fireshield tapped the rim of the pit. "This is very recent," he reported gravely. "Let's see…"

He conjured up another orb of light, which floated down to the center of the hole and abruptly began to plummet.

Helm Star whistled. "That's, uh… that's deep."

"Well, better get to it then," said Katana. He spread his wings, and Helm Star hastily imitated him.

"Hold on."

The four soldiers turned to their prince silently.

"We need to bring the big guns in on this one, boys," Shining Armor said solemnly. "This is bigger than… any soldier."

"What, now?" Katana demanded. "You're saying this now?"

"Eh, call it apprehension at splitting up the squad," the prince said casually. "We can't all go down that deep together."

"What do we do then, my liege?" Radiant Heart said quietly.

Shining Armor winked. "I think we should call in my sister and her crew. This is a matter for the Elements of Harmony."