Return of The Crystal Empire

Return of The Crystal Empire.

Chapter Three.
Meeting The Crystal Ponies.

The purple shield engulfed the Empire, the pony of shadows hit the shield as hard as possible, growling in the process, the shield was now fully encasing the Empire.
"Is everyone ok?" Cadence got up off the ground, everyone groaned and slowly got up, blood was dripping down the side of Spike's face, "Spike! Your bleeding!" The alicorn shouted with concern, Spike looked at her, confused. He raised a claw to his face and wiped some of the blood off, he looked at his now blood covered claw.
"That's not mine." He looked at the others, a drop of blood landed on his head. He looked up and screamed in horror, he fell to the ground and scurried away away. There, hanging above the group were ten soldiers, nine of them were impaled on towering crystal spikes while only one was disembowel and hanging by the intestines from one of the spikes.

Rarity and Fluttershy both fainted, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Twilight vomited, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Shining Armor and Cadence turned away, trying to hide the horror on their faces.
"Come on everyone, let's look around." Cadence said, her horn lit up, large blankets appeared, covering the soldiers with them.

The group left the spikes behind and trekked towards the center of the city. Fluttershy and Rarity were carried by Twilight and Applejack. Rainbow and Cadence began flying above the group, scouting and mapping out the city. Cadence was sketching out the city on a large sheet of paper, noting that the city was laid out in a snow flake pattern.
"Look! Down there!" Rainbow shouted, spotting a large, elegant palace below them, Cadence looked down and nodded, folding the paper and landing on the balcony of the building, Rainbow landed beside her. The high winds nearly knocking the two of balance as the others soon joined them.

The purple shield was casting the city in a slightly purple light. Twilight was struck in awe at the view below them, the wind was blowing through Twilight's mane and tail.
"In all the years I've lived in Canterlot, I've never seen a view like this." She said, the breeze was cold against her fur.
"I've seen view like this... once." Cadence looked at Twilight, "Back when I lived in Port Hope, back when I was a pegasus. Every December 21st, the water in the bay would freeze over and sparkle when the sun rose." The alicorn spoke out to no one in particular, the wind rushing through her feathers.
"What are you talking about?" Twilight asked, looking straight at Cadence, the unicorn raised her eyebrow.
"Nothing." Cadence replied, waving her hoof around in the air, Twilight shrugged and continued looking at the city, she noticed that the entire city was ringed with a mountain range.

Rarity and Fluttershy soon regained consciousness, Rarity was struck in awe when she saw the palace, Fluttershy tremble when she noticed how high off the ground she was. Cadence looked down at the base of the palace, something caught her eye, she took out a pair of binoculars from her saddle bag and looked through them, she saw what looked like ponies.
"Guys! I think I found something!" She shouted, the others quickly ran over and looked down at the ground, Twilight pulled out a pair of her own binoculars and looked at the at what ever it was that Cadence saw.
"I think you found the Crystal Ponies!" Twilight declared, the others were surprised, they all quickly made their way down to the base.

The group were soon back at ground level as ponies weakly began to walk around. Twilight and Cadence both noticed that the Crystal Ponies coats were all dull, there manes and tails were just as dull and drooped, the tails being dragged along the ground behind them. One of the ponies, a mare, was walking very weakly and fell over, Cadence ran to her aid and helped her up.
"Are you ok miss?" Cadence asked, the mare looked up at the alicorn and nodded slowly.
"...I...think so..." The mare said, not sure where she was, Cadence looked at Twilight with concern. The mare walked over, leaving the two alone.
"I think Sombra's curse is the reason why the their coats aren't crystally." Twilight said, Cadence watched the crystal pony slowly walk away.

Shining looked up at his shield spell, he felt a headache coming.
"How are we going to protect the Empire without the use of my magic." He asked, Twilight looked at him, "My spell would last forever." He added as he began to feel pain in his head.
"That's why we're here." Twilight replied, "Why we're all here." AJ added, looking at Twilight and smiled.
"The crystal ponies have just woken up it seems." Cadence added, walking over to her husband and her sister in-law.
"But we have to believe one of them knows how we can protect the Empire without the use of a shield spell." Shining replied, looking at his wife and her sister. Twilight got an idea.

"Why not ask them?" Twilight said, the others looked at her confused.
"How are we going to do that? Have you seen how big the Empire is!?" Rainbow shouted, startling a nearby Crystal pony.
"We split up and go to different areas off the Empire and ask as many Crystal ponies as we can. Meet back here in a few hours." Twilight explained her plan, the others nodded in agreement before trotting off. Twilight and Spike went to cover the business district, Rarity went to cover the fashion district, Applejack and Fluttershy both went to cover the farm district, Rainbow went to cover the apartment buildings, Pinkie went to cover the food district and Cadence went to look around the palace and hope to find any of the palace staff, Shining followed her.

"Are you sure? Absolutely sure?" Twilight asked a Crystal mare, the only thing that her and Spike got from the mare was that her name was Sapphire Joy.
"I'm sorry. I wish I could help you. But I... can't seem to remember anything before Emperor Sombra came to power." Sapphire said before getting a flashback of the terrors that Emperor Sombra had brought to the once peaceful Empire. "And I don't want to remember anything about the time he ruled over us." She shuddered, Twilight was concerned, "Have we really been gone a thousand years?" Sapphire replied.
"Yes." Spike answered Sapphire's question, she looked at the young dragon, this was her first time seeing a dragon up close.
"It feels like it was just yesterday." Sapphire said, looking down, knowing that her and all the other Crystal ponies had lost a thousand years.

"If you think of anything, even the smallest thing..." Twilight said before being interrupted by Sapphire Joy.
"Of course." Sapphire said, weakly smiling at the two as they walked away.
"Well, that was a total bust." Spike groaned, that was the fiftieth pony today who they asked and still got nothing, "I'm beginning to believe that they may of had their memories wiped by mister shadow pony." He added, Twilight chuckled at the last statement.
"Maybe the others are having better luck." Twilight sighed, walking towards the next office building.

"A way to protect the Empire! You know anything about it or what?" Rainbow Dash barked at a mare named Fleur De Verre.
"I wish I could help you. Really." Fleur replied, slowly continuing walking, Rainbow flew in front of her, starting the poor mare.
"Hold on! You gotta know something!" Rainbow shouted again, Fleur covered her ears, blocking the shout out.
"But... I don't have any information." Fleur said before walking off, Rainbow growled and kicked the ground.
"Well this isn't going well." She gritted her teeth, she kicked the ground again in anger.

Applejack and Fluttershy were walking through the shopping district, they hadn't had any luck with the farm district and were on there way back to the palace and decided to ask any ponies who were in the shopping district. Fluttershy approached two ponies who was at a table, resting their heads on it, they weakly looked at Fluttershy.
"Oh, um. Excuse me! Oh! Hello! Umm, I was just wondering." Fluttershy said, not quite sure what to say to them, she was about to slam her hoof on the table when AJ called her over, "Oh, oh, that's okay, um, you all look really busy." She said, laughing nervously and quickly walking over to AJ
"Do you know anything?" AJ asked a Crystal pony, the pony looked at her and put a hoof to its chin.

"There might be something in the library, although i'm not sure if anything remained, Emperor Sombra had most of the books burned in fear that we would use the history books to overthrow him." The pony said, weakly placing their hoof back down, A smiled, they finally got an answer, although not the answer they wanted, but it was a good start.
"Do you know where we can find the library?" Fluttershy quietly asked the pony, AJ was about to ask the same thing.
"It's in the Crystal Plaza, just next to the palace. Although i can't remember which building. Hope this helps." The pony said AJ and Fluttershy quickly ran towards the palace.

"Time to gather some intel!" Pinkie said, appearing behind a lamp post, she put on a spy outfit and quickly and quietly ran behind two Crystal ponies.
"It just feels like something is missing." The mare said, looking at the palace, it sparkled in the purple light from the shield, she looked at the stallion named Night Knight.
"I know. It looks the same, but it doesn't feel the same." Night said, he too was looking at the palace, he then looked at the mare named Elbow Grease.
"Because it isn't!" Pinkie said, hanging upside down above them, the two were started but the sudden appearance of the pink mare.
"A spy!" Elbow gasped before running away with Night in tow. The rope holding Pinkie up snapped, causing her to fall to the ground, landing on her face.
"A spy? How did they know? Ah! Must have noticed my night vision goggles." Pinkie said, putting on a pair of goggles on, "Ooh! Night vision-y!" She said before running face first into a building.

"Hm-hm-hmmm. And when you flip your mane, it simply must create a rainbow of color. Oh! Wouldn't I look just magnificent? So sparkly!" Rarity said, she was imagining herself as a Crystal pony, her sparkling mane, her shiny coat. She was playing with her make and spinning around, some of the Crystal ponies around her quickly backed away from her.

Cadence was walking out the palace, she hadn't got anything information as well, she had bumped into the mare she helped earlier, she had found out that the mare's name was Arctic Lily. Cadence was deep in thought, while she was looking for ponies, she came across a statue of a pegasus with the name 'Amore' in a gold plaque.
"Once i get some time, i see if i can find a library and research this 'Amore'." She said as she left the palace and waited for the others to return.

"I've got nothing so far!" Rainbow shouted to the group as they regathered at the base of the palace. Cadence was trying to keep her calm, but to little effect.
"Oh! Me neither." Rarity said, distracted by her mane, she was brushing it with one of her many, many mane brushes. Twilight saw Fluttershy appear, but before Twilight could ask her, Fluttershy opened up, revealing to be Pinkie Pie in a costume.
"My cover has been blown. I repeat, my cover has been blown!" Pinkie said, Twilight backed away from her. The real Fluttershy appeared with AJ.
"Sorry, Twilight. These crystal ponies seem to have some kind of collective amnesia or something. Only thing we was able to get out of them was something about a library." AJ said, Twilight's eyes widened with glee.

"A library? Well, why didn't you say so?!" Twilight said, grabbing AJ close to her, AJ's ears fell flat against her head in surprise.
"Uh... thought I just did." Was AJ's only response, Twilight was hopping around like a filly with a new toy, "One small problem, we don't know where it is." She added, Twilight stopped mid hop and looked at AJ
"Found it!" Pinkie's voice echoed from a nearby building, her head pokes out from the building's door. The group quickly ran over to the building with a large signed marked;

'Grand Imperial Library'

End of Chapter Three.