"Thanks so much for coming Twilight." Princess Cadence walked with her sister-in-law, Princess Twilight Sparkle through the catacombs beneath the Crystal Castle, which she had recently discovered.
"Exploring the catacombs beneath the castle of a civilization that's been lost for a thousand years with my sister-in-law? How could I say no!" Twilight squeed. "Although I have to admit, this place is a little creepy."
"I know." Cadence said as they turned a corner. "But we still know next to nothing about the Crystal Empire's past, and there has to be something down here that can help us to know more."
The two alicorns came across a door at the end of the passage. A gem sat on top of the door frame, illuminating the area around it.
"I wonder what's through here." Twilight pondered.
"There's only one way to find out." Cadence lit her horn and took hold of the door handle, then opened the door. Inside was a small study. It looked a lot cozier than the one belonging to King Sombra they had found a few weeks ago. The walls were the same crystalline blue that was used on the walls of the castle, and all over the city.
"Wow." Cadence gasped. "I wonder how long it's been since anypony's been in here. This certainly wasn't King Sombra's study."
"No kidding, I don't see a single bust of him anywhere. Maybe this belonged to Princess Amore." Twilight was looking through one of the books on the desk.
Cadence was focused on a strange orb placed in the center of the room. It's place on a pedestal made it look like some psychic's crystal ball. Something about it was calling her to it.
"What's that?" Twilight asked as she walked over to Cadence.
"I don't know. But I feel like it's important." The orb began to glow light blue.
"Well that's unusual." Twilight said. "It must sense us."
"It must be some sort of crystal ball. Maybe it'll show us something we want to know." Cadence looked into the orb and could make out an image. It looked like two ponies walking through the tundra. "I can see something!"
The two princesses looked into the orb as the image got clearer.
Two ponies, one a female unicorn and the other a male pegasus, were walking through the tundra near the Crystal Empire. They carried saddlebags with them and were huddled close together because of the immense cold.
"It's freezing!" The pegasus groaned. "You'd think Queen Apolla would pack us some Winter coats if she expected us to go hiking through the Northern Tundra! No wonder nopony lives out here."
"Stop complaining Blizzard, if you think it's cold now, in the middle of Summer, imagine what it'll be like when Winter hits! Besides, if what the King sensed is true, there just might be somepony crazy enough to live out here." The unicorn said. She lit her horn and suddenly a blast of warmth hit the two.
"A heat spell? You only thought of that now?" Blizzard grunted. "Really Snowflake?"
"What's got you so tense? We're out of the castle and on an adventure! Isn't that exciting?" Snowflake rolled her eyes at Blizzard's usual grouchiness. It's a wonder the King and Queen kept him around.
"Have you not been thinking about how King Artemis sensed a trace of Dark Magic out here, and yet he and the Queen are totally fine with sending us two all the way to the other side of Equestria to deal with it? This is dangerous! Couldn't they just send the Princesses?"
"You know as well as I do they're not qualified for something like this. Celestia still has years of magic training ahead of her, and Luna just got her cutie mark for raising the moon. Those fillies are Equestria's future and they can't be sent off on a dangerous mission like this." Snowflake lectured her friend.
"Isn't that what guards are for!?" Blizzard almost yelled. "We're just average ponies, Snowflake, not heroes decked out in shining armor ready to defend Equestria at all costs."
"You worry too much Blizzard." Snowflake chuckled. "Spread your wings a little, loosen up. We're gonna be out here for who knows how long. The King's senses might be a false alarm and we'll just be out here for a week or two all alone. Plenty of time to relax."
The two ponies reached the top of the hill they were climbing, and gasped at what they saw at the bottom.
"I think we might be a little off about just one pony living out here..." Blizzard said.
There, at the bottom of the hill, in the middle of what was thought to be uninhabited by any ponies, were three villages. Each had a sizeable number of ponies walking around outside like it wasn't sub-zero out.
"What the hay!?" Snowflake gasped. "I thought the Northern Tundra was uninhabited. There's no way anypony could survive out here for so long. Almost as if her own magic was trying to prove her point, her horn fizzled out and the two felt the intense cold of the tundra come back to them.
"We should go to one of those villages." Blizzard suggested. "It's so cold!"
The two began to descend the hill, and made their way towards the village in the middle.
As Blizzard and Snowflake entered the village, they were greeted by odd stares from ponies all over the place, some more sinister than others.
"Are we missing something?" Snowflake asked.
"It's almost like we're not welcome here." Blizzard looked around, some ponies were giving them some extremely dirty looks.
"Hello there!" A pony approached them, a male unicorn. "My name is Winter Harvest, I'm the mayor of this little village. What brings you here?"
"Well, we're from the South." Snowflake began. "We were sent by the King and Queen from Everfree to investigate a-" Snowflake was cut off by Winter Harvest.
"Everfree, eh? That's a long way away. I didn't think they knew about us all the way down South."
"Well uh, we haven't. We only came across these three villages about ten minutes ago." Blizzard explained.
"Well, it sure was nice of you to choose this one over the other two. I'm sure they wouldn't be as welcoming as we are?"
"Welcoming? We've been gettin st-" Blizzard was quickly shushed when Snowflake put a hoof in front of his mouth.
"What he means is, we found it a little odd that we attracted so much attention when we got here."
"Oh don't mind that." Harvest chuckled. "I guess everypony just thought you were from one of the other villages."
"What's wrong with that?" Snowflake asked. "Do you not get along?"
"That's none of your concern!" Harvest suddenly snapped.
"Oh, sorry." Snowflake stepped back. "Do you know if there's somewhere we could rest? We've been walking for hours and it's freezing out."
"Oh of course, there's a lodge just this way." Harvest smiled. "Right this way!"
"This place is weird." Blizzard whispered to Snowflake. "I think we should rest for tonight, then get a move on further North in the morning."
"I don't know, there's something really odd about this place." Snowflake looked around a bit, ponies weren't staring at them anymore, they were getting on with their day as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
This place was weird indeed.
