Just a couple of hours ago, the Crystal Empire was apathetically sluggish as if waking up from deep sleep, the only trickle of activity coming from methodical yet calm and unhurried relief efforts. Now, however, the entire city was startlingly awake, buzzing with activity like a disturbed hive of wasps. Outward from the city center, crowds upon crowds of crystal ponies were hurried away towards the edges and then along the circumference towards the quickly erected tent city. Rubble was lining the central streets, and sparkling dust coated everything high and low. The first street to collapse wasn’t the only one, and now the center of the Crystal Empire looked like a patchwork where ruins interspersed with perfectly intact buildings and roads. However, the destruction had spread beyond the clearly visible - there were more subtle cracks nearly everywhere, and some buildings were tilted ever so slightly. The Crystal Castle itself was visibly leaning to a side, though still standing, surprisingly for nearly everyone. Bowed, damaged, but undefeated, much like the subjects of the Empire.

Finally, the mystery of what had happened during Sombra’s brief rule was coming to light. A network of haphazardly-made tunnels was discovered underneath the city once a few of the smaller collapses were cleared. The tunnels lacked proper structural support or seemingly any plan at all, and it was by sheer luck that no one had died yet. It was also fortunate that those same tunnels had not collapsed during the fight between the Equestrian Princesses and the self-styled King Sombra, otherwise the casualties would have likely been astronomical in scale. Perhaps it was Sombra’s curse that had kept the city intact through the battle and then lost to time, but even if that was true then, now the spell was undoubtedly failing.

The center of the Crystal Empire was cleared of ponies, the streets having become desolate. Princess Luna walked alongside them, almost physically cringing at how wrong it all felt. It was not the lingering miasma of dark magic but the absence of life where one was expected, emptiness where there should have been activity.

“What a spiteful little creature,” she mumbled under her breath, cursing Sombra, “Short-sighted fool...”

She could perhaps empathize with Sombra after hearing the perspective of Chestnut Falls, but his life story did not justify his atrocities. Luna was personally aware of at least one person who had gone through worse things and yet had come out of it without any true desire to make everyone around him suffer as he did or worse. There were many ponies and non-ponies alike who had gone through hardships in life and yet would never even think of enslaving others, would never work towards destroying homes and livelihoods.

Even she, in her darkest moments, would not have subjected others to such a fate. Whether that was true or not, however, was an answer she did not intend to seek.

She remembered how hateful she had once been towards her sister, and she couldn't help but wonder if this hate would have spread-

She shut that thought down.

The Crystal Heart was missing, and the climate control spell over the Empire that protected it from the bitter colds of the Frozen North would, in time, fail. The records of the spell were removed, undoubtedly by Sombra, and there existed not a single crystal pony who knew how to maintain it or recast it if it went down. It was an intricate and complex spell, reverse-engineering which would take time, time that Luna didn’t believe the crystal ponies had.

Without the Crystal Heart, without the weather shield, the Crystal Empire would die, and it would then be buried in the ice and snow. Luna didn’t know whether Sombra was aware of what he was doing, if he knew the consequences that his actions would bring. For all that he called himself King, he didn’t seem particularly interested in doing any actual ruling beyond making orders and expecting them to be obeyed. There was no long-term strategy, no proper plan, only malevolence and spite aimed at anyone whom he disliked and hated.

Luna looked over a house topped to the side, half-collapsed into a deep ditch. A crib was visible sticking out of the window, broken in two. Thankfully, there was no blood, no bodies - the family had already made their escape, evacuating with the others. Did Sombra know he sentenced even the youngest foals to die with his foolishness? Or did he perhaps simply not care?

Sombra, for all that Luna could hate him, still retained some twisted form of consciousness even after delving deep into the dark magic. After all, he had not hurt Chestnut Falls, did not as much as insult her. Luna wondered whether the young stallion Chestnut Falls told her about was still there somewhere, locked up much like Luna was locked up behind the Nightmare.

Yet, despite all the empathy she could perhaps give him, most of all she wished for a chance to bring him back so that she could fight him again and defeat him for good, to seal him in the ice and snow for another thousand years, to bring unto him what he wanted others to suffer.

“Your majesty!” a small pegasus guard was flying towards her. Pegasi were assigned as lookouts because they were the lightest of the pony tribes and could move without disturbing the ground, “We have found ponies underground!”

“Show me,” Luna ordered, hurrying after the guard. They led her to a different collapsed building, one that went an entire floor down. A small team of unicorns were still clearing it up, and three bodies were loaded on stretchers. Luna’s breath caught in her throat, but then she noticed how the pegasi carrying the stretchers hurried - they would not have been this way if those bodies were only corpses. Luna prayed they would survive.

Another trio of ponies were lying nearby on medical cots, overseen by a couple of doctors. They were scraped, bruised, dusty, but alive and alert.

“Princess Luna!” a young voice greeted her, and her heart skipped a beat. They were perhaps eleven, a young unicorn with both tail and mane roughly sheared short.

“I am here,” she spoke, “What happened?”

“The bastard fucker kept us slaving away underground digging shit, that’s what,” another one spoke up, their head bandaged, their neck tinged with red. Head wounds, even light ones, tended to bleed a lot, but they were entirely survivable, “There’s a bunch more of us down there.”

Finally, she had direct confirmation - Sombra was digging for something... but what? That question, while important, could wait. Her priority now was finding all the surviving ponies and bringing them back to the surface as soon as possible.

“How many?” she asked.

“I’ve no idea,” the pony shook their head angrily, “Shit, must be hundreds. Kinda hard to count when you can barely see shit.”

“It’s really bad down there,” the young unicorn shivered, “It’s like, um, a wet furnace. And it stinks so bad.”

“Yeah, Sombra, the fucker, liked us all miserable-like,” the other pony spat, “Digging and digging and fucking digging. Any rewards? No. Just dig until you collapse, then someone replaces you, you get just a bit of rest, and then it’s back to digging. Couldn’t even get a break for shitting, so yes, it stunk.”

Luna had so far managed to ignore the stench coming from the three, but now at least she had an explanation for it.

“We’ll be working as fast as we can to get everyone out,” Luna promised, “Do you know how long everyone has left in terms of food and water?”

“Well, lemme think...” the pony tapped their chin thoughtfully, “Ah, alright, there’s like this tiny stream, remains of some underground river or something? Yeah, there’s some water, dunno how much. No food though.”

“Alright, and where is the main entrance?”

“Hell if I know,” they spat again, “Sombra’s mad as fuck, but he was smart. Got us all in line, chained together, and walking. Who even knows where. One moment, you walk on the surface, then darkness. Like, absolute and total. And it’s silent... almost,” they shivered, “Dunno what I heard, but it was creepy shit. So, you can only walk, and then bam, you’re in those stinking mines and tunnels and shit.”

“So, what happened to your group?”

“We heard the fighting and we went to see if we could get out,” they explained, “Next thing I know, I’m lying on the ground inhaling dust and everything is trembling.”

Luna had gotten few details past that, so she quickly issued a number of orders to the Royal Guard and the Disaster Assistance and Relief Office. A hasty instant letter was written, asking her sister to send powerful unicorns with a skill in earth magic.

This was going to be a very long day.

***

The outpouring of volunteers was like a tide that swept Equestria as well as some neighboring countries who had had friendly relationships with the Crystal Empire before its disappearance. Resources were pooled, aid was sent, everyone seeing the opportunity for what it truly was - helping the Crystal Empire now would bring serious boons in the future for whichever countries hesitated the least before providing assistance. Equestria, naturally, would benefit the most - they were the closest to the Crystal Empire not only geographically but also culturally and nationality-wise. They also had the last descendant of the latest Princess of the Crystal Empire.

Some of the more politically astute wondered why an empire had a princess and not an empress. Everyone knew that Equestria had princesses because Celestia and Luna did not want to be named queens, as that would possibly imply marriage. Some would have approved of the move to make it a marriage, but then people who cared too much about the purity of blood, so much so that they were willing to marry close family members, were not liked overly much across the world.

Nevertheless, it was clear that the majority of the future Crystal Empire’s political might will be closely aligned with Equestria’s line.

None of those large-scale politics, however, truly mattered down on the ground among the many volunteers. For them, it was clear - ponies needed assistance, and ponies cared for their own, even those that had not been seen for over a thousand years.

However, being a volunteer was not an easy task, which Wild was finding out when he went to apply as one.

“First, you must follow orders from the officials of DARO,” an officious-looking pony was telling the crowd, among which was Wild, “They are trained professionals who have been doing it for many years, they know what they’re in for.”

Wild was not all that big on following orders, but he could see the logic, and his distaste for orders honestly made little sense in this scenario, and he knew it. He wasn’t applying for membership in the military or anything of that sort - he was a volunteer who wanted to help the most amount of people possible.

“Second, first aid. There will be doctors on the scene, but bad things can happen,” the pony continued, “Each and every single one of you will have to go through a short first aid course that you will hopefully never need, but if you do end up needing it, your chance of saving lives will be higher.”

Wild knew very little about first aid, and the little that he did know was about human first aid. Like closing the nose of an unconscious person and breathe into their mouth, then there was something about chest compressions that he felt was important - the force applied could be hard enough to break ribs, that much he remembered. Of course, he could bandage someone probably decently well, and he knew that if an artery was damaged and bleeding then a belt or some medical alternative for it needed to be applied higher than the wound site to stop the bleeding.

A few more less important things were said, and finally everything began to move. Wild made his way where he and a bunch of other unicorns were directed. They were greeted by Nurse Electric, who was a volunteer in her own right, though obviously ranked far higher due to her experience in healthcare. Her talent mark was a pair of defibrillators.

“Alright, listen up!” she said, her horn sparking briefly, “I will teach you all a number of basic diagnostic spells as well as how to deal with the most common wounds. You will learn how to bandage, how to apply a tourniquet, how to apply a splint, and how to put someone on a stretcher and carry them. You will not use any of the healing magic that you may or may not know, you will leave it to those with experience in casting them and being certified. None of you are certified, and so you cannot, legally or morally, even try any of the healing spells on anyone unless there is absolutely no other option. Got it?”

Wild had read a few things about healing spells, and one common unpleasant side-effect of improper casting was cancer. While ponies could relatively easily deal with it, it still often took months of effort, so he would definitely stay away from it. Even trying to fix a bone break can induce bone cancer, which was probably the most painful kind of cancer, and Wild certainly did not want to inflict it on anyone.

The next few hours passed in a blur as a bunch of knowledge was crammed inside his head. He now knew how to diagnose bruises, cuts, lacerations, all the way down to internal bleeding, and how to work fast and efficient with others to make sure that whoever was wounded would be carried swiftly to those who could heal them. He could, in truth, carry a pony all on his own using his magic.

“Impressive,” Nurse Electric commented when she saw him effortlessly lift a dummy, “But you need to remember how to properly support a body. What if they had a broken back? A slight shift in their spine and they may become paralyzed. Let’s see if you can learn how to prevent that.”

On the account of his magical strength, he was taught how to do the heavy duties as well like moving crates of equipment or debris left over from a building collapse. He could also, if he concentrated, move multiple ponies at the same time, though not with the same amount of precision and care as he could just one.

At the end of the day, all of the volunteers were told to return to their homes and rest. First thing in the morning, they were to assemble at the train station and board a specific train, which would carry them straight to the Crystal Empire. Food, water, and shelter will be provided on their arrival.

Wild did not feel particularly tired, but once he saw Artful, who had his mane stick to his head with sweat, he understood that others had to do a lot of physical work aside from a basic fitness test that they had also all had to go through before they were accepted. Wild, naturally, passed that one with flying colors.

“Carrying ponies... is not easy,” Artful huffed, shaking himself to get rid of the sweat, splashing some of it on Wild, “Oh, sorry.”

Wild shook his head with a small chuckle. He then looked over Artful - his wings were drooping slightly, and there was some shaking in his legs. It appeared that he was seriously put through his paces.

“Want me to carry you?” Wild proposed.

“Oh, please, thank you!” Artful replied with a sigh of relief. Wild lowered himself to the ground, allowing Artful to climb on. Wild then got up, barely feeling the weight, and took off at a steady trot back to the Royal Orphanage.

Tomorrow, he would ship off to the Crystal Empire and see what he could do to help as many ponies as he could there. He had wanted to avoid trouble, that much was true, but this was not something he could or wanted to ignore. He had strength, he had power, and it was time he used them to improve the world whenever and wherever he could.

Author's Note

I'm changing some things from how everything went down in the Crystal Empire in canon. I honestly think a deeper exploration of Sombra's rise and its consequences would be a nice thing to see. Someone - aside from me, that is - should write more of it in a separate story.