Chapters Return of The Crystal Empire
Author's Note
Author's Note: While this story is part of my series that starts with My Little Pony: Origins and ending with The Purple Mare, this story can be considered as a stand along story. As this story takes place at the begins of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Season 3, Twilight is still a unicorn. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and associated characters are copyright to Hasbro & Lauren Faust.
Enjoy.
Prologue
Return of The Crystal Empire.
Prologue.
Long before the banishment of Nightmare Moon, in the frozen arctic, sat an empire. The empire was once home to The Crystal Dragons who had built the empire apon a goldmine of crystal, the dragons had died out over a millennia before the formation of Equestria, it was lost to the snow and ice until its ruins were discovered by the unicorn queen, Queen Aura Quartz and her pegasus husband, King Bloodstone and their surviving subjects just after the first Heaths Warming. They were treking across the land after losing their home during the war with the Chaos Bringers. Queen Aura and King Bloodstone found the palace in ruins amongst the snow and ice, the young couple explored the palace as their subjects explored the surrounding houses for any signs of life. There was non.
The subjects, with the help of the royal couple, rebuilt the Empire, naming it The Crystal Empire. Bloodstone carved a heart from a crystal block, Aura enchanted it with her magic and placed it at the base of the now elegant palace, the now named Crystal Ponies poured their love into the heart, it began to glow and spin, the streets began to pale blue, the ponies turned crystalline. A shock wave blasted back the snow and the clouds into a ring around the Empire. Auroras burst out the top of the palace, blasting away the snow clouds, allowing the blue sky to shine down, the resulting burst allowed grass to grow, allowing the ponies to grow crops and food. The Aurora filled the sky in a bright array of colours. Sparking the start of the first Crystal Fair.
In a far off city, their were two newly crowned young alicorns, one controlled the sun, her name was Celestia. Her younger sister controlled the moon and the night, her name was Luna. The two ruled together in peace and harmony.
The two sisters and a small expedition party ventured north, using the aurora as a guide. They were caught in a blizzard but they trekked on until they came around The Crystal Empire. The sisters and the party met Queen Aura Quartz and King Bloodstone who know dubbed themselves Empress Aura Quartz and Emperor Blood Stone, both the royals couple and the sisters signed a treaty, stating that The Crystal Empire and Equestria would remain peaceful with each other in exchange for trade of goods and knowledge.
A few years after the treaty, Aura and Bloodstone had a beautiful unicorn filly they called Aurora, she had her crystalling a few days later. The two ruled through a golden age of peace and harmony. One it was Aurora's time, she became Empress Aurora, she married an earth pony named Agrellite, they too had a daughter, a pegasus named Amore. When Amore was only a teenager, her parents died, she became the youngest Empress in history, she took on a student named Sombra and married her childhood friend, Ruby Tember. They had a pegasus daughter named Mi Amore Cadenza, they nicknamed her Cadence. When Cadence was only a few days old, Sombra started a revolution, he tried to kill Amore and Cadence but they disappeared without a trace. He killed Ruby and proclaimed himself Emperor.
He put all his subjects into slavery and killed anyone who spoke against him. He hid the Crystal Heart in the tower at the top of the palace. When the two sisters heard about what he did, they prepared an army and marched on The Crystal Empire were a war broken out. The two sisters banished Sombra to the ice. but not before he cursed the Empire, making fade away. The two sisters and their army returned to Canterlot, they had come to protect the Empire but had caused its destruction.
Return of The Crystal Empire
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Chapter #2: Gathering The Group
Return of The Crystal Empire.
Chapter Two. Gathering The Group.
"The Crystal Empire. It's returned." Sky Blade said, Celestia was shocked by this news.
Waves smashed against a beach as the summer sun was beating down on the west coast city of Los Albardas. On the beach, laying on a sunbed was a light pink alicorn, her wing tips were a light purple and she was wearing sunglasses, she was drinking an ice cold lemonade.
"Princess Cadence! Prince Shining Armor!" A royal guard shouted, running up the beach to the young couple.
"Lucas, i want you to go to our hotel room and gather all our belongings and put them in our private railway carriage at the train station." Shining ordered Lucas.
They ran through the station and towards the private railway coach just as Lucas appeared dragging the suitcases with him, Cadence's horn lit up, she grabbed the suitcases and Lucas and put them in the coach before giving in herself, Shining followed close behind. The door shut behind him just as the train began to pull out the station.
"Quills quills quills?! Where are my quills?!" A purple unicorn panicked, rummaging through drawers and raiding the cupboards of her home, the Golden Oak Library
"Twilight! How do you know that this is a test? It could be that Celestia just want us to help her plan a social event." Spike put simply, Twilight looked at him, "I know i know, 'Why would the Princess want us to help plan an event when she has ponies for that?' To be honest, the royal event planners are a bit.... incompetent." He added, Twilight couldn't help but chuckle at that remark about the incompetence of the royal event planners.
"It's a mystery to me Twilight." Spike said, picking up one of the open books of the floor, he flipped it over and looked at the page.
Spike walked over to one of the bookshelves around the library and placed the book back in the correct place, as he was about to go back upstairs, he heard a knock at the door.
"So, Spike, what does the Princess need us for?" Rarity asked, Spike shrugged.
"Twilight, do you really need all that? Isn't that a little excessive?" Rarity asked, everypony just looked at her.
It was only a short walk through town to the train station, the girls simply talked on the way, one part of the conversation was about favourite candies and cakes, another part was about which gemstone was the prettiest and favourite in their opinions.
The group stepped out on the platform used for Canterlot bound traffic, the station was empty, not uncommon for this time of year but still unsettling.
Twilight pulled out a book from her saddlebag and flicked through the pages.
"Are you sure you don't want me to go with them my sister?" Asked a blue alicorn, her name was Luna, she looked at a stained glass window in the throne room.
"Your highness! Twilight Sparkle and her friends are here!" General Sky Blade announced, "Shall i send them in?" He asked.
"You wanted to see us princess?" Twilight said, bowing before Princess Celestia.
"You may be wondering why i called you all here. Well there is no easy way to say this, but.... The Crystal Empire has returned!" Celestia said, the room fell quiet Twilight's jaw dropped.
"One thousand years ago, Sombra, a unicorn, whose heart was as black as night, took over The Crystal Empire." As Celestia said this, the palace at the center began to become black and burnt, "He forced the citizen to be his slaves and mine crystals for him. He was ultimately defeat by me and Luna, using the Elements of Harmony. He was striped of his physical body and turned to shadow and banished to the ice of the Arctic North. Unfortunately, he placed a powerful curse on the empire that caused it and all the empire’s inhabitants to be lost to limbo - a space between worlds where time stands still." Celestia finished up with the hologram retreating back into the crystal which she levitated above her.
"If the Empire is filled with hope and love." She said, pointing her horn at the crystal and thinking of happy memories, it began to spark and reflect bright colours around the room. "Then these feelings are reflected across Equestria and beyond." Her eyes began to emit purple mist and began to glow green, her yellow hue of magic turned black, "It hatred and fear take hold." She said as the crystal turned black, a shadow grew across the floor, more black crystal appeared that in turn made more shadows that also turned to black crystals which encaged the group. Celestia quickly though of a happy memory and used it to destroy the crystals, "This is why i need your help in finding a way to protect the Empire." Celestia added, placing the crystal back beside her throne
"But what if we fail?" Cadence responded, the grouped nodded and her question, Celestia smiled.
"Twilight, what i'm about to tell you doesn't leave this room, i'm i clear?" The princess asked, looking at her prized pupil.
"You are one step closer my dear Twilight." Celestia whispered before looking around before her horn lit up, in a flash, a statue appeared, it was draconequus, frozen in terror. Her horn lit up again and the statue cracked open.
It took some time, but the group finally made it to the Arctic North, they boarded a work train at Snow Lake and used it to get to the Empire.
A roar was heard behind them, they turned to see a pony of shadows charging at them.
End of Chapter Two.
Return of The Crystal Empire
Chapter #3: Meeting The Crystal Ponies
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Shining looked up at his shield spell, he felt a headache coming.
"Why not ask them?" Twilight said, the others looked at her confused.
"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.
"If you think of anything, even the smallest thing..." Twilight said before being interrupted by Sapphire Joy.
"A way to protect the Empire! You know anything about it or what?" Rainbow Dash barked at a mare named Fleur De Verre.
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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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.
'Grand Imperial Library'
End of Chapter Three.
Return of The Crystal Empire
Chapter #4: The Grand Imperial Library
Return of The Crystal Empire.
Chapter Four. The Grand Imperial Library.
The group ran up to the door, despite the fact that Pinkie was able to open the doors with no effort, the others found the doors to be stiff. Cadence and AJ forced the doors open. Dust felled the air as the doors swung open, Cadence and Rainbow landed on the floor in a heap, the alicorn and pegasus chuckled as they stood back up. They quickly stopped and gasped at the sight before them.
The once grand library of an even grander empire was now decaying, dust and cobwebs filled the shelves. Twilight stepped forward, broken glass cracked under the unicorn's hooves. Fallen statue rested at against the floor, the ends that had hit the floor were crushed and shattered. A crystal chandelier had broken free from the ceiling and had crashed to the floor, crushing a table under its weight, the chain that held it to the ceiling was resting on the floor a few meters away, the link was clearly snapped. The candles once on the chandelier had broken free and rested around it, some were clustered together, others were alone. Twilight was left speechless.
Rainbow flew to one of the highest shelves and swept through the remaining books on the shelf, she picked up a book and looked at the title.
AJ lifted up one of the shelves and pushed it to one side, she knelt down and looked at the few books on the floor.
Pinkie hopped from shelve to shelve, bouncing on her tall to get to the higher shelves, seemingly defying the laws of gravity, she looked at a book and read its title.
Fluttershy slowly made her way through the piles of rubble on the floor, finding a book while being scared of flying was hard to the butter yellow mare.
Rarity trotted through one of the wings of the building, she looked at the shelves along her right side, most of the books had lost the covers and were covered in dust.
Cadence walked through the library, she was looking for not only a history book, but a book about Empress Amore, if there was any that survived the purge. She continued the search, she came across a boarded up doorway, her horn lit up as she pulled the boards off the door. Cadence looked at the door and approached it, twisting the door handle, causing the door to creak open. Air rushed in through the door as it slowly opened, the rush of air caused a chill to run into Cadence's core as if she had been out in a blizzard. She slowly walked through the open door and down some steps. The door slowly closed behind her without a sound.
Twilight and Spike slowly walked through the crumbling library, a buckled shelf rested on the floor, broken down the middle, the lower half was on the floor, the upper half was at an angle and resting against the wall, Twilight climbed up onto the overturned shelf, pulling Spike up, the lavender unicorn sighed.
Twilight dug through the books, most of them were biology books or fairy tales.
'History of The Crystal Empire.'
End of Chapter Four.
Author's Note
Sorry for the delay, i had writers block with this
