The Coldness Of Crystal
A MLP:FIM fanfiction
Written by Quillo Manar
Prepare your Kleenex
Crystal... unbreakable, everlasting, and beautiful... but cold, so very cold.
The sun was setting in the distance, the glorious orb casting its brilliant rays of orange and yellow across the sky. The sunlight bathed the setting below, spreading the last of it's cathartic warmth and life giving light down upon the crystalline rows full of relics anew and memories of ancient old. The winds danced the snow off the tall spires and aided the flight of a frostbird as it merrily sung its way home to its chicks. The bird spied a lone pony as she stood among the crystals, she was as still as the statues surrounding, but engrossed with infinitely more life. Eyes shut, the pony breathed in the sun's sinking warmth, filling her with the sensation like that of a mother's embrace. She soon released her bliss with a long and drawn out sigh, content, the ends of her lips formed a satisfied grin. She looked and nodded to her aunt's sun as if to wish it safe journey into another night.
The frostbird, having flown its way for long and tiring out enough, wished to land, if only for a while. Having spied the triple coloured interweaving locks in the pony's mane, it deemed this as suitable temporary lodgings. A flutter of wings later and the laden creature found purchase and sanctuary in the mane of the meditative pony.
The Crystal Empire and Equestria Memorial Garden, was the name of the site built into the outer parklands of the Crystal Empire, as a gift from Equestria. While not as lush as the Canterlot version, it is ever as beautiful. The sunsetting light flooded through the air, reflecting perfectly off the statues that were methodically placed around in a spiral like formation. Each statue baring the likeness of the pony they represented and each one encrusted with a plaque that dictated a sample of the life of said immortalised pony. The Garden was set up so that the spiral of ponies would reflect the chronological deaths of these important souls, starting from the centre and spiralling outwards.
The centre is where we find the meditative pony, her seeming trance shattered by the frostbird landing in her hair. She gestured her head slightly upwards, not exactly knowing what had landed on her cranium. She relaxed after feeling the soothing cold seeping through her mane and relaxing her as the sunset turned into moonrise. The pegasus side of this pony enabling her to not feel the chill, but rather a pleasant cooling sensation that seeps into her very soul. While both parties would have liked to stay like this for a while longer, the frostbird cannot stay, she had chicks that she needed to get back to. So with a calming nuzzle into the princess' mane to bid her farewell, she took off and flew into the night going to a place only she knew of.
The Princess sighed at the departure of the frozen creature. The frostbird is a magnificent race, it is basically the polar opposite to a phoenix, a firebird. While the phoenix refreshes itself by shedding all of it's feathers and bursting into flames, the frostbird simply remains, for as long as it can stay frozen. If one were to melt in the cruel heat of the sun, the water would split and fall. Only to freeze again under the night and become another frostbird, sometimes two or three. These chicks would not survive on their own, and instead call out to the frozen tundra to any adult frostbird in the area, if they were heard the bird would come down and become the chicks' new mother.
Beautiful is the circle of life, but such a thing can only be a slight in the princess' mind. For where she stood was not the circle of life, but instead the continuously growing spiral of death and memories. She shook the dark thought out of her mind and instead began her yearly payment of respect to those fallen and remembered. She approached the centrepiece of the garden, a grand alicorn cut out of the clearest diamond, her ruby mane fell to below her neck and her tail fell down to her pedestal to begin the spiral. Her wings her out and up, as if in a constant show of her divinity. She faced north, with her ever watching sapphire eyes pointed directly north. The colour of her wings changed their hue slightly with the time of day, a bright and lively blue for the sun rise and afternoon, a sombre and warm orange for the evening, and a slight dark blue for the entire night.
It was said that in the events that the ponies of the world would feel great anguish and sorrow a tear made of the purest blue diamond would grow and drop out of the god statue's eyes. If one was to look hard enough, they would be able to see just the tiniest bit of blue edging on her eyes, a sign of what would be to come. Nopony knows what these tears really mean or how it happens, but it just does. The pink ruler walked up and read the inscription on the plaque.
Here awaits Mother Faust
From the very start to the very end
Creator of our world and of our selves
May you watch over us all
She nodded in respect to the crystalline representation of everypony's god and the mother of the Alicorns, and passed by down behind the eternal goddess to her tail where the spiral began and stepped onto the ruby path as it began it's trail off to the left. If one was to inspect the tail, as the princess has done many times, there is an inscription that is drawn out from the beginning of the tail, it is written,
So ever past are the days of ponies, so present are the days of recording.
Uncountable ponies will remain unknown and unrecognised, but where we start is our beginning.
A world in silence for those lost to time.
It was a near few steps before she reached the first statue. A mare of pure white fire opal, with an almost ribbon like mane of flawless amethyst. The texture detail of jewels crafted by ponies of jewel is unmatched and unrivalled throughout the land. No one creature can manipulate crystal like the crystal ponies of the Empire to the North. The way the statue was design reflected the mare's regality as much the sun refracted through the clear stone. The mare's eyes in question, a fiery topaz hitched perfectly inside the statue's eye compartment. These statues bore no cloth, for the pony will not be remembered by what they wore, rather by what they did. The sunset-pink hued princess nodded in respect to the plaque etched into the pedestal.
Here lies Princess Platinum
.
30BE-50AE
One of six who calm the winter storms of the Windigoes and founded Equestria.
Died at the age of 80, 50 years after Equestria's founding, she ruled over the land with aid of Commander Hurricane, Chancellor Pudding Head, Lady Smart Cookie, Former Captain Pansy and Clover the Clever.
"The beauty of heart lies with the intent of soul."
May her rest be peaceful.
She passed by the statue of the old pony Ruler. She remembers the story well, as her aunt told her, the ponies that the six saved wanted Platinum to be the Queen to lead the nation just so that her charisma could be shone through the ages, but it was she who felt the title of 'Queen' was too overbearing and would raise jealousy between the nations even after all they've been through. So she made the executive declaration to step down from the title and be known as a Princess. This tactic seemed to work as all of her new found friends seemed to appreciate her step, and the relationship between the tribes only grew from there.
She repeated the motions of paying respects to the ponies of the olden times until she reached the path that begun to deviate, twist and wind. Faust's ruby tail began to warp and was changed to a confusing checkered mix of rainbow tourmaline and opal, designed to make the light that reflects off of them refract all different kinds of colours. The Princess instinctively knew where she was now, even if she had befallen the same respectful trance-like motions. She had begun the 'chaos strip'. There was a strange wooden and stone material forged into an arch, and upon it grew strange coloured illogical flowers. The arch had an inscription on it that read as follows,
Not much is known about the times of Chaos, but Discord cites it as such,
"An unusually cruel time of disease, famine, drought, disorder and perfect chaos. I made sure that everypony suffered and that I would always have my enjoyment, I let no pony die."
This section of path is dedicated to how our planet faired during the chaotic reign of Discord.
The princess sighed and shook her head at the notion that Discord once ruled and chaos flourished. She was, however, ever grateful that Discord has now been reformed and turned into a good friend, if a bit chaotic and random, yet nevertheless a good friend. Discord helped out with the construction of this section of the spiral, the path coiled and twisted unnaturally, and the light refracted strangely as a pony would walk through it. The path would move as you trotted on them, causing one to feel quite motion sick. The strangest thing about this part of the spiral is that no pony would go through it at the same speed. Two ponies could enter at the same time, but one would reach the end first and have to wait until nightfall for their friend to make it through, it was really the depiction of chaos and disharmony that the crystal princess was glad had passed.
Exactly 5.97 seconds later, against all forms of normalcy, she stepped out of the chaotic road and returned to her mother's ruby tail. She's done it multiple times before though, so, ironically, such a thing is normal to her. A few more statues passed by, earning her respects. One in particular caught her attention, as it has done every time she has been here. It was a stallion made of the yellowest tiger's eye jewel, he had a short mane and tail made out of the darkest onyx that the empire mined, his eyes was of pure sapphire, but it wasn't the pony himself that caught her eye, it was the pedestal. It had a formation of channels and slides that changed every time she's been there, and each time they were arranged perfectly so that the snow that collected on his head would melt in the evening sun and run down them. Her shoe clacked as she put her hoof on the plaque and read the inscription.
Here lies Sir Rushing Rivers
125AD-199AD
The reviver of nature's rivers after the drought of Discord passed.
He passed in peace on his deathbed before the new century.
"The streams of the past make the oceans of the future."
May your slumber continue to be peaceful.
Questions flew through the mind of the Princess of Love, she wondered how ponies lived in the olden days, and what their lives were like. It took a century and a quarter to revitalise Equestria's water supply after Discord's cruel rule, so did the ponies live in thirst for a hundred years? How did they? What would life be like if Sir Rivers didn't exist? Who would have to step up to fix the land? A dripping sound crept into the back of the pensive princess' mind and invaded her thoughts, the snow was melting from the pony's head, and the water flowed down his mane, passed the contraption, and into the little reservoir. The princess smiled, no matter the suffering those ponies endured all those years ago, their toil and struggles brought forth the dawn of the new era of equestrian life, oceans of the future indeed.
She continued down the spiral of memories…
A couple decades of time passed before she was snapped out of her routine, the setting sun pierced into her eye when she passed by the looming pink diamond statue, carved to make this pony look as if she is taking a bow. The jewel used to form her messy mane is a dark blue diamond. The light refracted through the pink and blue jewels and into her eye. She shook her head of the metaphysical cobwebs and read the description on the plaque of this statue.
Here lies General Firefly.
279AD - 29 ANM
The founder of the Wonderbolts after the first year of Nightmare Moon’s banishment.
Died at the age of 50, after she sacrificed herself to save Canterlot from a wyvern attack.
"Speed, Endurance and Strength mean nothing unless you have the heart to wield them."
May your slumber be peaceful.