Ghost of the Crystal Empire

The Doctor returned to the Golden Oaks Library to pick up Shining Armor.

Luckily, Rarity’s legendary streak of generosity hadn’t been exaggerated as she had allowed him to take the suits for free as sort of an incentive to shop at the boutique at the future, but warned him that she’d have to charge him the next time (she still had a business to run, after all).

He knocked on the library door with one hoof while he held onto his brown suit with the other.

“Hello?”

A small purple baby dragon with green spikes answered the door while rubbing grit out of his eye-giving him the impression that he’d just woken up.

“Yes, um…is Shining Armor up?” he tried looking in over his shoulder “Or Twilight by any chance?”

“And…you are?” Spike asked groggily.

“Oh, that’s right-you were sleeping the last time I was here; I’m The Doctor.”

“Who?” hooted Owlicious.

“Just ‘The Doctor’,” he replied, before looking inside once more.

“Is that an owl?” he asked.

“Yeah, that’s Owlicious…he’s Twilight’s pet.”

“Does he deliver letters?” he asked, half-jokingly.

“No,” he yawned. “That’s my job-I’m Spike, her number one assistant.”

“Oh.”

“Shining Armor!” he called upstairs before releasing another colossal yawn. “There’s some kind of Doctor here to see you about something…” he muttered.

A familiar Unicorn stallion with a white coat and blue mane trotted down the stairs.

“Oh, hey Doc!” he called down. “I didn’t think you’d be here this early…I was just catching up with Twily during breakfast.”

“Well I thought we’d probably get going as soon as possible.” He replied. “And it’s ‘Doctor’.” He added under his breath.

“Well, I’ve already said goodbye to Twily, Rainbow Dash, and Scootaloo…”

“What about Spike?”

“Uh,” he glanced over at the basket Spike was curled up in where he had resumed his early morning nap.

“No, but I think he’d understand…” he followed The Doctor back the TARDIS.

“Hey Doc, can I ask you something?”

“It’s ‘Doctor’,” he repeated irritably. “And yes, what is it?”

Shining Armor looked around nervously before spotting a few ponies casually going about their business at the beginning of the day.

“Can we talk about it inside…in private?” he pressed.

“Sure,” The Doctor led him inside the TARDIS.

“Thanks, it’s just that…well, do you remember what Chrysalis said back in the caves?” he asked, “About me and her?”

“Actually, now that you mention it I do remember her mentioning something about the two of you having…intimate relations?”

“Yeah,” he sighed, hanging his head.

“Before the wedding, before we realized she was an imposter-I was really stressed out about not being able to help ‘Cadance’ out with the important wedding decisions, since I had to focus on control of the Royal Guard and maintaining the barrier to protect Canterlot from any outside attacks.”

“And?” prompted The Doctor.

“And we almost had a moment before I hesitated and she asked me what was wrong, I told her how guilty I felt leaving her with all of the tough decisions…that’s when she began going off on me for wearing my favorite uncle’s uniform and then…and then…Twily showed up, but Chrysalis scared her off before she could warn me-I think, it’s all still a little blurry to me from that weird mind-control spell she kept casting on me…”

“Well, it seems to me like your sister prevented you from making a great mistake-possibly a fatal one based on what I’ve heard of Changelings.” He replied.

“Yeah…but, I can’t stop thinking about what would have happened if she didn’t show up.”

“You mean how you almost died?” The Doctor pressed.

He shook his head.

“No, I can’t believe I was stupid enough to believe that she was the real Cadance…we’ve known each other at least since Twily was a filly…and I almost did…that.”

“You were under a lot of stress and at the time, you thought that so was she.” The Doctor reasoned.

“Besides, you said it yourself-you were under a spell that she cast.”

He narrowed his gaze.

“You haven’t told Cadance about this, have you?”

“No,” Shining Armor sighed. “Twily and Rainbow Dash asked me about it and since I figured I had no choice since they already knew about it…there was no point in hiding it from them.”

“And what did they think?”

“Twily was supportive, of course…and so was Rainbow Dash-they said I should tell Cadance how I feel, but if I can’t even forgive myself for being so stupid…then, how could she?”

“Alright,” The Doctor conceded. “But, why tell me?”

“Because…I needed an expert, outsider opinion on what I should do.” He admitted.

“Well, I’m certainly no expert when it comes to romance…but, I agree with your sister and Rainbow Dash-this is obviously tearing you up inside and has been for some time-do you really think Cadance wouldn’t understand or still care about you…even if you did…”

He cleared his throat.

“Ahem, you know.”

“You really think that would work?” he asked hopefully.

“There’s only one way to find out.”

He pulled a lever as the TARDIS came to life.

“Even if she doesn’t understand-which I highly doubt-I’ll help you explain it to her!” he shouted over the rumble of the TARDIS.

“Doc, I…I have no idea how to thank you!” Shining Armor shouted back joyfully.

“You can start by calling me by the right name! It’s DOCTOR!”

There was a resounding THUMP as the TARDIS materialized at its destination.

The door creaked open as the duo exited what appeared to the Crystal Ponies to be just a wooden blue box that somehow was able to bear the strain of having two full-grown stallions crammed inside it.

The ground before them held the insignia of a large crystalline snowflake with a pedestal protruding from its center holding what appeared to be some sort of magically charged Crystal Heart, which Shining Armor was relieved to see had still been held in place the whole time he was gone.

The Doctor craned his neck and spun around, completely mesmerized by the structures around them.

“The Crystal Empire!” he exclaimed, “And it’s actually made of crystal! Ha! That’s brilliant!”

“Doctor, with all due respect-you can sightsee later, right now I’d really like to talk to my wife.”

“Right and she is…”

“At the palace,” Shining Armor corrected. “Do you know which building that is?”

The Doctor looked up at the gleaming, pristine structures once again seeing them in different colors and formations.

“Kind of…sort of….no idea.” He sighed in defeat.

“It’s okay,” Shining laughed. “Cadance and I’d get lost all the time without escorts the first months we lived here. It’s beautiful, but still really confusing at times…it’s straight ahead, the largest structure in the empire.”

“Straight ahead?”

“That’s it.”

As they began down the path to castle, they noticed something strange-all of the Crystal Ponies eyes were either bloodshot or had bags under them as if they hadn’t slept in days, they also kept looking over their shoulders as if they expected someone to be watching or following them.

“Are the empire’s citizens always this…skittish?” inquired The Doctor.

“No, something must have happened while I was gone…I haven’t seen them like this since…”

All of a sudden he rushed ahead, breaking into a full gallop as The Doctor followed suit.

“What’s wrong?” he called up to him. “Why are we running?”

“The last time I saw the Crystal Ponies this scared was when Cadance and I first arrived here, their former leader-a tyrant-King Sombra reappeared with the empire and wanted to make them his slaves once again.” Shining Armor called back to him.

“But, I thought he died.”

“He should be,” Shining Armor growled. “With the combined power of Cadance and the Crystal Heart he was killed…well, maybe not so much ‘killed’ as ‘having his body erased’….something’s up.”