Living in the Crystal Empire

Emerald worked steadily on plowing the crystal corn fields of his boss as he continued to work his legs hard at pulling the plow. The farm hand would have normally concentrated on the job at that moment but something was off that day, something did not seem normal. The sun and moon shifted at a tremendous speed in the skies above as the fields were wrecked with constant lighting and shadow but there was something oddly wrong; the sun and the moon did not seem to fit were they shined. Day and night seemed to be mismatched as ‘day’, for how little it stood, was lit by the moon and so was the night lit by the sun. The peculiar sight of the moon somehow shining brighter than the sun was an odd phenomenon but work had to be done and there was nothing he could do about it.

Hours after Emerald first started plowing, the farmhand seemed unable to reach the end of the row he was plowing all the effort he put into the task. The Latino pony soon figured that there had to be something wrong because all his plowing seemed to not get him anywhere. Finally annoyed at the lack of progress he was apparently making, the stallion looked around to see that he had not progressed anywhere even with the back breaking work he put into the task.

”Ok, this is creeping me out” Emerald whispered, surveying his surroundings before noticing a graying wooden door behind him. The Latino pony stared at the door with a questioning look on his face for a minute before finally unbuckling his harness to inspect the mysterious door. Walking over to it to give it a closer look, Emerald walked around it to see what it looked like from behind to see where it lead but nothing else was there.

As the peachy rust coated pony continued to inspect the door, the sky finally settling with a proper moonlit night which shined even brighter as Emerald moved to touch the door.

“Do not touch that door, not yet” a thunderous female voice called from the sky startling Emerald as a Luna descended from the moon. Awestruck at the sight of the princess, Emerald simply stood there watching as Luna inspected the door for a few seconds before addressing the farm hand.

“Salutations, we hope we have not troubled thine sleep. We sensed that a nightmare troubled thee but this is a nightmare most uncommon.”

”sleep, so this is or was a nightmare? Explains why the sky was acting up and I literally couldn't get my work done” Emerald responded with a sigh of relief before looking back at the princess with questions in his eyes “soooo…with all due respect, who are you?”

“We are Princess Luna, but you can just call me Luna. Please seat as we wish to converse with thee” Luna spoke in a soft and inviting tone as she taped the ground to shape their surroundings into a room with a table and chairs.

Laughing with joy at the pleasant display of magic, Emerald sat down almost right away while beaming  with positive enthusiasm “how did you do that, amazing!”

“We have the ability to control and shape dreams for we are the Princess of Dreams and the Night” Luna explained the nature of her power before materializing tea for them.

Taking a sip of the tea, the Latino pony could not believe how real it tasted so his curiosity for the new princes continued to grow “My name is Emerald Peach y es un plaser to meet you, how can I help you?”

“Thou nightmare seemed most peculiar, care to tell us what troubles thee?”

”Me troubled…err no, no I am fine” Emerald answered in a carefree tone to try to avoid being asked hard to answer questions but Luna seemed insistent for the truth.

”Tis ok to accept the aid of a friend, aiding ponies with their inner turmoil is not only our duty, it is our pleasure”

Feeling bad to leave her hanging, Emerald gave sigh and caved in to her request “ever sense I came to the Crystal Empire, a feeling of guilt has been scratching at the back of my mind. I came from a faraway land filled with indifference and opportunism to live a better life but I left some one dear to my heart behind”

”If it troubles you so then why don’t you go back?”

“It’s complicated. I don’t know how to go back because I stumbled into Equestria for accident and even if I could, I enjoy my simple life here too much to go back” even when Emerald refrained from telling the whole truth, he remained honest “and even If I could come back and somehow bring her with me, I don’t know if she would want to…”

”thou speak of this pony dearly, who is she if thou doth mind us inquiring?” Luna’s curiosity peaked as she saw the stallion’s face to be sincerely troubled; only a true foul deviant could feign such masterful act.

”She is mi ma, I feel truly bad to leave her behind so I am conflicted between happiness and loyalty to my loved one” Emerald could no longer look at Luna in the eyes out of shame as his lips flattened and his eyes looked down at the dream tea he struggled to remember.

”We understand all too well the cost you pay for what you desire but your inner strength speaks volumes of you, pleasant Emerald Peach, for you have not forgotten what is truly valuable”

Emerald felt a bit of respite thanks to Luna’s kind words but the inner struggle kept him from being confident about the whole truth. Perhaps he could one day find the courage to stop hiding details of his life but for now he felt he needed to keep his true identity a secret.

”If it’s all the same to you, I would like to change the subject to something more cheerful” Emerald’s deep thinking demeanor quickly turned cheerful at the thought that just popped into his head “And I know of an amazing topic that has interested me ever since I first came to Equestria. Thing is, for some odd peculiar reason, I dint have a cutie mark before my arrival but it appeared in my flank once I got here. I hope you did not mind me looking but I have to say that the moon cutie mark fits you fantastically!” Emerald boldly commented before taking a sip of his tea.

Blushing at such a bold comment, Luna had never been addressed so personally and did not exactly know how to respond “subjects normally would have greater respect for princesses….but I guess you come from a land that do not hold such respect, that Is no exception to adapting.”

”Point taken, sorry my princess” Emerald bowed down to her out of sincere respect.

Appreciating the instant act of respect, she did enjoy the idea of educating the earth pony and perhaps knowing about his cutie mark might give her a clue to who he is “we do appreciate thy idea and enjoy the complement outside of formalities. We are sure you have read the basics of what a cutie mark is, the symbol of our destiny realized and what we are born to do. Our cutie mark is the moon so our great magic and responsibility is to rule over the night just as my older sister rules over the day.”

”So my cutie mark is a reflection de mi ser. If the moon signifies your magical dominion of the night then what do you think my peach cutie mark describes about me?” Emerald asked Luna as he looked at his heart shaped green peach cutie mark adorned by a silver horseshoe.

”So thou don’t know why you got thy mark? It’s impossible to get one’s cutie mark until one realizes what their special talent is….unless thou knoweth what thou special talent is”

”What do you mean Princess Luna, what those a peach and a horseshoe have to do with this?”

”Think deeply about what thou hath achieved in the past, what thou enjoys and excels at. Perhaps it is these things that encompass thy destiny” Luna spoke as she gently motioned towards his cutie mark as if asking him to reflect on the mark.

Thinking deeply about what he has done, his farm hand job was the very first thing that came to his mind “I do enjoy farming for old man Polish, its hard but honest work and it’s much more simple then the job I had back in my land. It’s just simple work for pay and no surprises. I am especially good with my…hooves and hard labor” Emerald realized.

”pray tell, Emerald Peach, what else thou have done?”

looking back to parts of his former life, he remembered his life with his mother who at times suffered from stress and muscle cramps “mi ma, she always said I was such noble and empathetic soul full of love and a set of magical hooves. With a strong upper body strength came precision and a gentle touch, I used to give her really amazing massages for her aching muscles. Whoever I helped relax with my hooves commented on how much of an amazing masseur I was and somehow my hoof work extended even to bakery and labor” Emerald’s voice began to trail off with the coming of a new epiphany.

”We deduct that thou mystery has now been solved, quite an impressive array of balanced skills thou possess. Progress has been accomplished!” Luna declared enthusiastically before noticing Emerald in deep thought.

”No wait, I believe there is one more thing. Something I have felt for quite a bit, something that has been calling my heart and my very being ever sense I set eyes on her. It was an odd bottle because the illustration was not in the other bottles but there was this…girl in the bottle for the faintest moment. Ever sense then, ever sense I came to this land and the Empire, something or someone has been calling me over as if my whole destiny depended on looking for her. I can’t explain it very well but I just have to go and, as some say, follow my heart to where it is literally leading me once I have enough money to travel”

Luna simply smiled at the idea of such a romantic quest for the truth being tied to a cutie mark, it reminded her of a trio of cute little foals in Ponyville “We guess this to be yet another mystery to the grand puzzle of life. Perhaps one day we shall put thou worries and regrets to rest once and for all pleasant Emerald but till then, I must bid thee farewell. Night will soon end and so we must continue our conversation another night”

”Thank you for everything my princess, you have been so much help and I cannot think how I can repay you. For now I have to hold on to my shame but I hope you can help me find my path” Emerald bowed down with complete respect and appreciation but he felt an ounce of guilt that he could not open up to her and tell her the whole truth.

Luna soon began to soar into the night sky and towards the moon before fading from his dream with a content smile on her face. It seemed that their new visitor might be fit to live in Equestria permanently with such friendliness but for now she would continue to visit him in his dreams.

Emerald soon drifted back into his dream after Princess Luna was gone as any trace of the nightmare seemed to have vanished. Feeling his mind to be at peace, the farm hand stood there for a few seconds in deep thought before moving to try again at the plow. As if the talk with the princess somehow lifted an invisible obstacle in his way, Emerald soon saw that he could now progress in earnest with his dream. It was as if the nightmare signified that he had been lost and confused only to find the way to move on forward with Luna’s counsel. It was at that point when the Latino pony chose to heed the advice of his new princess and put his hooves to use in spreading empathy and healing. Still being a foreigner and new to the Empire, he could not start as a masseur so there was only one other thing left to do and it was time he worked with the food he harvested every day. It was time he got a new job as the Empire’s new baker.