Since Time Immaterial [ Private]

Krix had remained attentive during Jon's recollection, giving a slight inward chuckle at his first comment. Huh, selfish as they may be, it still sounds better than the banishment I received, he thought to himself. When Jon got up though, Krix gave a nod to what he suggested, but didn't get up to assist this time. "Ponys care, others, Krix, read," he replied going back to finishing his meal. His goal to finish it and then retire to trying to read the notebook for the remainder of the trip, believing that the ponies on the train would be plenty attentive to the injured.

Thanatos paused, releasing his breath gently as the magic, lightning and constructs washed over him, not Ben scratching his scales as he considered the group for a moment. "I will... Make you a deal little pony. I am death, and thus, I know when you will die. And I will get your soul... After all, time is immaterial to me. What do I care if I get your soul now, or later. I will call my children back to me, and allow you all to leave the city, on one condition." He paused for dramatic effect, his fangs and teeth shining as he grinned. "Give me one of the Princesses. I do not care which, just one of them. Immortal souls taste some much better," he crooned, leaning forward to carress Celestia's cheek.

She batted his claw away and growled. "And if we say no Thanatos?"

"Then I kill you all, here and now. How does that sound?" He asked, clearly completely serious.

Luna limped over to her sister, leaning against her. "L- let him take me... I'm already injured..." Curiously, Pariah was completely still, watching the exchange quietly.

---

Eventually the train trip ended, with the waiter coming round to alert both Krix and Jon, before smiling as he assisted the wounded off the train. As the duo would leave the train, a mare dressed in full armour, as well as a pair of falchions strapped across her back could be seen jumping off the train, heading to the library.

A pair of guards approached the pair, smiling carefully. "Hello there. And what's your reason for your journey to the Crystal Empire?"

After adjusting his armor and grabbing up his shield, Krix only caught the fleeting image of the the armor clad mare with his one good eye as he got off the train. He'd already taken his first steps in the same direction when the guard had spoke up. Krix look over and down to where his full form was looking down at the guard before replying as plainly and non-threateningly as he could.

"More, history," he replied with a point to Jon's journal and then to the library as he began to move past the guard. Krix's reasoning for the half-truth was knowing that trying to explain in detail with his limited speech would take far too long and the guard would likely find out soon enough, especially with all the injured on board the train. "Krix, okay, ponies, injured," he continued with a point back to the other train cars. "Help, ponies," he went on before turning to proceed onward to the library.

Ician inhaled sharply. This wasn't quite a turn he'd expected the conversation to take. Sacrifice Princess Luna? How could he do such a thing?

Say no! A side of him screamed.

But we have no choice. The other side reminded him. And the Princess has already acquiesced. Her word is law.

Ician bowed to Luna. "... As you wish, Princess." He turned to Thanatos. "I... will not contest her decision on this matter."

Blade felt like everypony in the room had gone mad all of a sudden. There were so many ways they could defeat this dragon. The Sisters could have easily picked up a dragon his size and slam him across the room like a toy, Twilight picked up an Ursa with even being alicorn. Blade could possibly pick up the dragon as well though it would be rather difficult to do. The Diarchy could have teleported them out the room and allowed them to get reinforcements and defend against the dragon. After that, they could grab the elements quickly and easily, an alicorn's sensory abilites in the magic arts should have picking up on the Six Mares' magic signature easily. They could have even gotten Cadence and Shining Armor as well, who might have been able to bring the Crystal Heart.

There were so many ways they could still win and yet no one, but him was thinking of them. Luna's injuring were nothing life threatening and could have easily healed by a pony that was good with healing magic. "YOU GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING!!!" He yelled out. His anger already reaching new peaks. "YOU ACT LIKE THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION FOR US!!! YOU ACT LIKE WE ARE DEFENSLESS AGAINST THIS BEAST!!! SHOULD I DO A HEAD COUNT FOR WHAT WE HAVE AT OUR DISPOL?!! THAT YOU TWO ARE THE GODS OF THE SUN AND MOON?!!" Blade panted for a moment and turned towards the beast. "If one of you two die many ponies will lose hope. It doesnt really matter about if he kills us. He's going to do it whenever he wants and living to only wait for the moment he wants me dead is not a life worth living." He could only hope that the Princesses would listen to him now and actually think about things.

Jon finished up with his current patient, smiling at the guards. "Well, Canterlot was more or less evacuated, so I'm here to stay with family. And look after any injured, I suppose." He took notice of the armored mare, not for any particular reason. She just felt important, somehow. Maybe he shoukd go to the library? It looked like Krix was heading to the library... with Jon's journal. Well, that was that, he needed his notebook. Jon gave the guards a last quick smile, strapped on his backpack, and headed off to the library.

Thanatos sighed and rolled his eyes quietly, before very slowly moving over to Blade, staring him calmly in the eyes. Without so much as a blink, he moved, faster than the eye can, and without any visible effort, plucked something from Celestia's chest. She gave a short gasp, and the irises of her eyes lost their colour, turning grey. He held out a small, violet and yellow orb, which flickered gently and swayed in his grasp. "This is your dear Princess' soul. I have removed it, and I could eat it, or put it back, or give it to any number of nasty creatures which lurk in the shadows that exist between this world and the next. If I drop it, it will never be able to be returned to her body, and she shall be cursed to wander this plane as a soul. Is that what you desire?" He asked calmly, before placing it gently back in her chest, upon whence she gasped in pain and stumbled back, her irises flooding with colour.

"The goddesses of the sun and the moon are powerful, I'll give you that, but there is no creature on this planet that can stop me from taking their soul." He smiled and took Luna's hoof gently, her wounds healing. "I shall take this mare then. You have half an hour to leave the city. Then my children shall take it for their own."

---

The guards blinked and waved the pair on, moving to assist the injured.

The mare trotted on quickly, the sound of her curses almost audible behind her as Krix, and later Jon, would be able to hear. She paused at the entrance and glanced around. Spotting Krix, she rolled her eyes and trotted inside the library.

Ician bowed, grimacing. It seemed that the Princesses' estimation of Thanatos' power had been as accurate as he had feared. He mixed together a few falsehoods in his mouth before spitting them out all at once in as polite a manner as he could manage. "Yes, thank you. It is heartening to see that you are a being of reason and logic, in addition to power."

He swung around to face the guards. "Alright, move, move, move! I want all of Canterlot evacuated outside the city gates before thirty minutes is up! I don't want to hear any excuses! Go!"

He turned to Princess Celestia and bowed. "Your highness, we must proceed to safety now. There can be no more wasting of time. Please, let us leave posthaste."

Krix didn't rush on his walk over to the library so Jon would have ample opportunity to catch up, and when he did, the dog would hold out the small booklet for the pony to take back. When Krix arrived at the steps leading into the library, he wouldn't hesitate to proceed up them and through the crystal doors, pausing only to briefly admire the crystal made structure. He was a diamond dog after all, and even he had to admire crystal in this level of abundance.

Moving into the building, Krix turned his one good eye up, down, to and fro on the book shelves and the dozens of books they held. Letting out a pleasant and relaxed sigh, Krix proceeded towards sections on ancient history and legends, though he did keep sneaking glances at the other heavily armored mare to see where she was going and if it'd relate to what they were searching for. Perhaps even she may be the key to reaching the books the normal populace weren't permitted to read.

Blade glared back at the dragon and resisted the urge to stab the creature in the eye with his spear before forcing it further in the soft area. The hesistation in the strike was something Blade regretted instantly as he saw a blur move and looked back at the others behind him. His instinct's told him to simply attack the beast and take the orb by force, but his mind kept him at bay.

He would have been scarred that the dragon had moved that fast and then stole the Princess' soul, but his mind was just telling him to just to kill the thing. If the monster wasnt a dragon things would be different. Blade would be like everyone else at that moment, ready to retreat. Instead he glared at the beast before shifing his anger to Ician. Blade hated how he kept sucking up to the dragon, even if he knew that he didnt mean it. It still wasnt needed though.

Blade simply left with the other guards without turning around since he knew that things would end up worse if he go another glance at the dragon. He had to simply focus on evacuting the city before the "children" came and wondered why they would be a problem. They had beaten them in the past easily, but decided against pushing their terrible luck even further.

Jon took the notebook from Krix, hurriedly stashing it into his backpack. He visibly relaxed, and started looking around at all of the architecture. He briefly wondered where they got all the crystal from. Was it ice? There was a lot of- and there was that mare again. Swearing up a storm, too. He followed Krix into the library, before parting ways with a "Be right back." He went up to the armored mare with a smile. "Hi, I'm Jonathan Kings. What can I call you?"

Thanatos watched quietly as the guard left, Celestia shooting him a glare before leaving with Ician. Soon, the room was empty except for Thanatos, Luna and Pariah. "I'm going to kill you Thanatos. You and your wife."

Thanatos raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "And how do you plan to do that?" He asked.

"You'll see. I'll be back Moonbutt." Pariah spun and left, grabbing Ician and Blade. "You two come with me. I have a plan." He hurried towards a train heading to the Crystal Empire.

Celestia watched them, vanishing with a flash of yellow light.

---

The mare raised an eyebrow as Jon approached her. "Oh good, you're one of the ponies my husband recruited, aren't you? My name is Silver Star... Maybe you can. Can you tell me why Pariah had me come all this way up here?"

"A plan?" Ician voiced his thoughts. "It had better..." He hesitated, then lowered his voice to a mere whisper, "It had better entail getting ahold of those swords you were talking about earlier. The way things have progressed, that may at this point be our only hope."

He flipped his swords around and slid them back into their scabbards, falling into a measured but hurried stride beside Pariah. "Do I need to come along? It would be better if I could begin preparing the Guards in the surrounding towns and cities for our inevitable counterattack."

Blade jerked himself from Pariah, immediately after he was grabbed. The stallion glared at him before snorting and headed outside of the castle. “We can head towards the Empire after we finish with the evacuations. We may have the entire guard doing this, but Canterlot is still a big place.” He said without caring whether the other two objected to this or not and simply continued to walk away from them. “Anything after will needed to be dealt with during the train ride to Ponyville and we can simply take the train to the Empire if we do decide to follow the stallion's plan.” Blade was obviously still angered by the dragon and was trying to hide it in his voice. He was never really good at doing that.

Krix's ear swiveled towards both Jon and the armor clad mare at the mention of their teacher's name, and he let out a sigh for several reasons. Where was the teacher pony? Why wasn't he here yet? Was he going to be able to get here? These and several more questions flooded the dog's mind, but he pushed them aside for now since there were more important things to worry about at the moment. With a few heavy steps, Krix worked his way over towards Jon and Silver.

Wordlessly, Krix cocked his head in thought as Silver asked her question and after a moment of thought, he once more retrieved the old map from his pack. Going over to a nearby table, Krix unrolled the almost tapestry like map onto it, figuring it could come to some use. "Hunt, artifacts, north, one," he struggled out while gesturing towards the top part of the map and hoping Jon would explain in a little more detail what he meant. It was pleasantly surprising how well the stallion seemed to understand him.

Pariah shook his head, once again grabbing Blade and dragging him to the station. "Listen you idiotic stallion, I started the evacuations a while before Thanatos' 30 minutes. You will come with me now, or so help me, I will knock you out and drag you if I must." He glared at Blade. "You will come with me, you will help me find what I am looking for..." He paused and took several deep breaths, turning to Ician. "Yes. Exactly." He gestured to the station again and tapped his hoof impatiently.

---

Silver blinked at Krix's rather simple explanation, before raising an eyebrow at Jon. "An artifact to the north? Is my husband..." She paused, her tone slowly growing angrier than before. "Is he... is he dragging me off on a hunt for ancient weapons... again?"

"Those evacuations had better be thorough." Ician snapped all of a sudden, his mood shifting rapidly. "Or else I'll... I'll..." He blinked, took a deep breath, and reassumed his neutral facial expression. "Never mind. I trust you have done what is needed. Though I still question my need to accompany you to hunt for these artifacts. I feel my talents might be better spent controlling the chaos of Thanatos' takeover."

Blade immediately jerked himself off the stallion and covered himself in a layer of a construct, something equal to a regular guard's armor and covered all of him. He wanted to tell the stallion to go ahead and try's he glared at Pariah. The stallion then looked back at the city behind them. How much time had passed? Ten, twenty, maybe thirty minutes? Simply adding thirty more would still not be enough to complete the evacuations in a long shot. There weren't going to be enough trains and that was assuming all the pegasi could all fly away. Blade's mind wandered over those that couldn't be moved and would probably die because of that.

What could two guards and a stallion with a grudge against a dragon do to help? Blade already knew the answer to it, very little. Blade could always use his constructs to help ponies evacuate, but still a great deal of ponies would freeze. He felt useless now, everything in at most the last hour had caught up to him.

The stallion finally sighed and shook his head. "So, why the hell are we needed if it's your find? It's not like there aren't ponies that are more qualified and not apart of the guard. The guard is to protect and serve not go finding things. Have the Elements do that, it's something they do regularly. I think they would be happy to if they thought it would save the Princess and get rid of the dragon." He said in annoyed tone as he trotted over to the train, having a spike shoot off his construct if Pariah tried to touch him again. It was foalish, but the fact the stallion thought he could just grab them and drag them to the Empire was stupid. They needed a explanation from the stallion for whatever reason they were headed there.

"Because last time I checked Blade, I cannot wield a blade, let alone the three in the legend. Why am I bringing you Ician? Because you're smart. And you could be a blade wielder, so could you Blade. I need all the chances I can get if I wish to save this world. If we wish to save this world, I should say." Pariah gestured to the train. "I'll give you a choice. Assist with the evac, and probably die. Or come with me and live, and maybe even save the world."

---

Thanatos yawned as he looked at his cards again. "Got any threes?"

Luna shook her head. "Go fish." Thanatos growled and picked up another card, a half an hour having long since passed, but he was far too engrossed in the game to notice.

Ician snorted. "I suppose they hid the swords of legend behind doors that would require me to beat a guardian in a game of chess. No, Pariah, I don't think my intelligence is going to help us. And... going by that logic, we should bring everypony along. Any of them could be a blade wielder."

He sighed. "But this isn't for me to decide, is it? I can only suggest, if we are going to hunt for these blades, that we take a few guards along with us. A contingent or so. I'll take command of them. Captain Shining Armour can command the rest of the Guard here and restore order in the meantime."

Blade sighed and wondered why the stallion simply hadn't tried to learn how to wield a blade while looking for these legendary blades. He shook his head as he facehoofed to the choices that the substitute teacher gave. There was no way the possibility of death was going to be that high. They could get a few trips from the trains before they were frozen over, it was also the fact that most ponies were rich enough to have their own transport out. "Well, I guess if you put that way I got no choice." He said in a sarcastic tone as he rolled his eyes. The stallion briefly listened to what Ician had to say and nodded.

"Let's wait for a bit before we bring anymore ponies with us. It sounds like this stallion still doesn't know where the blade is. I would be pointless to send that many ponies to only find out its not the right place. Heck, we don't know if the blades are still as strong as they used to be." Blade shook his head. They were spending too much time standing there talking about objects that could simply turned into dust from age. "Right now lets just get on the chain and see if its there. We might get luckily and we might end up being the only ones needed."

Jon smiled at the armored mare. "Good to meet you, Silver. And Pariah sort of recruited me and I sort of had to leave Canterlot. My apartment was destroyed, after all." A lie, but a harmless one. He didn't think he even knew how to buy an apartment. Then Krix spoke, then Silver seemed to be getting mad. Jon took a tentative step back. He was significantly weaker than this armored mare, and she was angry. Best to put a bit of distance. "Does he tend to search for a lot of ancient weapons?"

Pariah paused, then shook his head. "I have a feeling about you, and Blade. And the other two I sent ahead for that matter. I feel like your chosen for something." He grinned and trotted towards the train. "The other guards woukd probably just die..."

He considered Blade's words. "I see someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." He rolled his eyes. "I have a name you know."

---

She calmed down as he stepped back. "Sorry, sorry. No, not all the time, but he has few friends, and he just up and leaves on rumours. We haven't even kissed properly in months. I love him, but he's a bit useless sometimes. I suppose I could help you. What are we looking for this time?"

Ician rolled his eyes. "Feelings are terrible things to rely on when considering a course of action. What we should be relying on are facts, informed predictions, and tactics. Not... simple feelings." For a brief moment, his eyes clouded over, and his head drooped slightly. "If I were following my feelings... I'd stay with the refugees. There are things I want to do, but they aren't things I need to do. What we need to do is get ahold of those swords, at all costs."

He strode towards the train. "I'll trust your judgement, Pariah, only because I know you're more well-informed about this than I am. But... don't rely on feelings, please. When you do that..." For a moment, Ician seemed to briefly be elsewhere, a distant look in his eyes. "... Never mind. Let's just go." Without another word, he boarded the train.

I hope they're alright.

Krix watched the exchange calmly with his one good eye. He shifted his attention back to the map though before they were finished. Studying it some more in hopes that he might find likely locations on at least one of the artifacts hiding places. "Artiface, old," he replied simply, but stretching the context of his vocabulary. He hoped Jon could elaborate more for Silver while he continued his scanning. Even going so far as to take out another paper and begin marking down coordinates for likely locations.