The sinners dealt with, Antarc and Phos continued their regular winter chores: more reorganising and more snow to clear. Their life during this period was full of nothing. The occasional sinners were the only thing to break their everyday life. The Princess’ freakout when the sinners appeared surprised Phos more and more, one second the alicorn was her usual self, the next she was on the ground, frozen by fear. Once, she even tried to go to the sinners, and it took Phos and Antarc’s combined strength to drag her inside the basement. That last time especially had marked the cyan earth pony.

Phos and Antarc didn’t sleep at all during winter, the Princess’ spell keeping them awake. The purple alicorn did sleep, however, leaving the gems alone during the nights. If they could feel temperature, the cold of it would have frozen them without a doubt. Phos knew that Antarc liked to pretend he slept during the night, as they didn’t do any chores between “sunset” and “-rise”. The truth was that neither was directly noticeable through the cloud cover. However, the Princess gave them fair warning as to when she raised or lowered the sun and the moons, so they could take their well-deserved break.

Phos didn’t like not doing anything, at least not when he was fully awake. And so, he mostly spent his night wandering around the island, without the Lunarians as a threat, he could go out alone and just enjoy the night’s silence. No light came from the sky, for the cloud cover blocked the stars and Moons’. The ocean, frozen, didn’t offer the best of views either. Phos then tried to look for Cinnabar’s hibernation spot. Since he didn’t sleep with the others he must have been somewhere on the island, but after almost a month and a half of searching, the green gem didn’t find anything.

One night, Phos went up to the eastern’s ravine entrance, the place where he first met—and was saved by—Cinnabar. “Where could he even be? I can’t see anything with this darkness…” Complained Phos to himself.

As if the sky could hear him, the clouds parted above himself, showering the island with the Moons’ light. Phos took in the unfamiliar view. Six moons of different sizes punctured the ceiling above, surrounded by thousands of little dots: the stars. The gems couldn’t see the night, and its beauty was unknown to them for they cannot live without the sun.

From the entrance of the ravine, Phos followed the light of the moons, illuminating the forbidden bottom of the crevasse. Something— no, somegem was shining deep inside it from the moonlight. Phos had to see what it was, and decided—against the rules—to trot inside the ravine.

Deep. That was the only word that could describe the place. The open ceiling provided the much needed natural lighting guiding Phos. As he trotted for an unknown amount of time, he remembered the lessons from the Princess. This place is where the gems were born, only she herself was allowed there. The Princess said it was a dangerous place somehow. Phos didn’t see any danger. It was winter and nighttime. There was simply no way the Lunarians would show up.

As the shine grew more intense, signaling Phos he approached it, he noted how it came from inside some sort of cavern at the bottom of the ravine. He carefully approached it, afraid of making noise, as if anyone were outside during this time. Phos briefly thought of Cinnabar, he was outside, but did he really sleep there? That seemed like a stretch.

Finally arriving at the bottom, he saw the entrance of the strange cavern clearly. It was completely made of crystal. The whole cavern reflected the outside light like a beacon. The rocky floor of the ravine quickly disappeared to make place to a smooth crystal floor inside the cavern as Phos entered. The walls were carved with depiction of battles between ponies, the entrance of the cavern was filled with attacking ones and as Phos continued along the walls, he could see some defending some sort of tree.

Before Phos could see anything else though, he bumped into a gem and fell on his hind legs. “Hey! Watch where you’re—” he started before noticing who he bumped against. It was a pony made of crystal, not unlike the sinners in the ice, but they were perfect. The pegasus, as he noted, was holding a shield and a spear also made of crystal, he even had something that surprised Phos: a cutie mark! Damn, am I really the only one without one? Thought Phos to himself. A thunderbolt inside a shield tho? Yeah I’d rather have something cooler as a cutie mark.

The rest of his thoughts got lost as he finally looked in front of him. Hundreds of ponies were standing in the hallway leading to a bigger room. Some were armed and defending it and some just seemed to flee the entrance of the cavern from where Phos came. He made his way to the bigger room and his jaw dropped at what he saw. A tall crystal tree with five branches just like the one in the carving. Two crystal alicorns stood near the tree, supporting it with their bodies.

The sight was breathtaking, from the defender outside the room to the tree, all of it planted so many questions inside Phos’ head. Who were they? Were they alive? What happened there? Is this really where the gems are born? Why was Cinnabar sleeping with a golden flank? Wait. Phos didn’t notice him at first but here he was indeed there, sleeping next to the tree alongside what looked like a piece of Heliodor. So they didn’t get to take all of him. Phos sadly thought to himself.

Phos observed the room again, it felt somewhat familiar in a sense. The tree especially, with its five branches. The more he looked at them, the more they seemed to call out to him.

“What are you doing here?” Asked the familiar—albeit even angrier than usual—voice of Antarcticite from the room’s entrance.

Phos turned immediately, startled by the sudden arrival of the white alicorn. He had the most angry expression he’d ever seen, even Bort, who always looked angry, had never made this face.

“Oh, hello Antarc, what are you doing here? It’s a nice evening isn’t it?” Innocently asked Phos, desperate to change the conversation’s topic.

This didn’t help the frown on Antarc’s face. “You’re not supposed to be here, Three-Point-Five. It’s already day outside. Sunny day. The Lunarians might come and we didn’t know where you were,” he explained, anger still present in his voice. “Twilight will be very disappointed to hear you were here.”

“Who’s Twilight?” Thought Phos out-loud.

“The Princess!” Explained Antarc, even more angry. “Come on, you’ve broken enough rules already.”

“B-but wait! What have I done wrong?” Pleaded Phos.

“This ravine is forbidden to gems like you, you know that.”

“W-what?” Phos stumbled and took a step back. “Why is that? What are you and the Princess hiding from us?”

“This is none of your concern!” Shouted Antarc. “Phosphophyllite, you will come this instant or I swear to the Sun I’ll make you,” he warned.

“Why are you doing this? What’s so important about this place?” Continued to press Phos.

The situation was getting out of hoof. Antarc took steps toward Phos, a menacing look in his eyes. Phos was scared and kept taking steps backward to the base of the tree.

“Come now Phos. Don’t make this harder than it has to be. Come with me and it’s all gonna be over soon,” Antarc proposed, a little bit calmer. “Nothing here is for you, nothing here is worth your time. Just walk out with me and you’ll forget it all. Then you can go back to your simple life where all of this,” he gestured to the tree, then to the crystal ponies with a hoof before pointing it at Phos. “doesn’t concern you.”

Phos had enough of it all, the secrets, the Princess’ constant lies. The memory he lost, and now the memory he may have been forced to forget. Who could he really trust?

No one, whispered a voice in his head. They’ll try to make you forget again, stop it now while you still can. You have the power to do it, you’ve always had it, and they fear it. Continued the voice. It felt as if it came from the tree. No, from the alicorns at its base maybe? Phos didn’t bother with it too much. He stood his ground and challenged Antarc with his stare.

“Fine, I’m sorry we have to do it this way,” apologized Antarcticite before spreading his metal-covered wings and dashing his way to Phos.

The cyan earth pony felt a surge of confidence take him over. His mind was sure he couldn’t fight Antarc yet his body seemed sure of his victory. Antarc closed the distance and plunged his wing inside Phos…

No impact came. Phos could feel something he hadn’t felt since the ocean. Magic.

Antarc was stopped dead in his tracks, surrounded by the cyan magic of Phos. His eyes full of anger were now full of fear at his opponent.

“No... It can’t be. You weren’t supposed to be able to do it…” he squeezed with difficulty as Phos’ magic kept him in place.

It was Phos’ turn to be angry. With a shout of rage, he crushed antarc in his telekinesis, reducing the white alicorn into small shards.

It was all over in an instant. The pile of antarcticite on the ground didn’t look anywhere near a pony. Phos calmed himself and looked around. Cinnabar was still sleeping, there wasn’t any sunlight inside the cave fortunately. He noticed his remaining non-bone hoof was glowing, along with all of his body. He had just used magic without a horn.

He thought about it for a second; a horn was the only part of the body that had leylines, how could he do it without one? He cast that thought aside. More importantly… what would he do now? He had just crushed Antarc like it was nothing. No one has that kind of magical power. The Princess, no, Twilight, would kill him, or make him forget again, if she finds out. He decided he had to clear the evidence.

Using his newly regained magic, Phos managed to levitate the pile of shards that used to be Antarc outside. Phos noted that the sun was up and moons down. It was indeed a sunny day. Phos remembered Jade’s plan, how the Lunarians would certainly attack on the few sunny days. He could get rid of Antarc like that.

Arriving just at the entrance of the Ravine, Phos’ prayers were answered. A sunspot was forming in the sky. He put down the shards of Antarc and waited a bit. Hopefully the Princess wouldn’t see the fight that was about to happen.

The Lunarian platform emerges along with the music. Phos could have probably crushed them all. He certainly felt like he could. The Lunarians seemed to smile more than usual at the sight of Phos. Not that Phos minded, he just wanted to leave Antarc there and go anyway.

The Lunarians quickly started spellcasting. Some didn’t waste time, immediately descending to the earth with bowls in their magic when they noticed Antarcticite. Phos took some steps back and went a little further to let them work as they took the pieces. All the while he evaded or deflected the incoming bolts of magic. He didn’t know half the spells he used. He could just feel them as he needed them. Once most of the pieces were taken, the Lunarians started to flee, Phos could at least try to make it seem like he tried saving him and so he stole back one single piece of Antarc.

Phos watched as another sunspot appeared, this time engulfing the Lunarian platform. Once gone, Phos sighed and looked at the last piece of Antarc, his right flank, with his cutie mark: that crystal tree. He did doubt himself, was he right to do this? Yes, he would have erased you if you hadn’t erased him anyway. A voice told him inside his head. Who knows what Twilight would have done to you. The voice was right, reasoned Phos. If he didn’t do it, he would have been done for. Who knew what else Twilight was hiding from him. He decided then and there that he would find out the truth about all the strangeness around him.

No matter how bad it would hurt.

Phos trotted back to the Great Oak, with Antarc’s last piece, when he finally noticed something wasn’t right on his flank. It wasn’t the usual white of the powder, he had something more on it. A crystal star with six broken rays.

Phos looked at his flank, dumbfounded for some time.

“When the buck did I get it?” He asked to himself, full of excitement.

Author's Note

Things are moving once again.

Alternative title: Cutie Mark.