The Friendship Express, on the way to the Crystal Empire, Compartment B
Stygian hummed as he read the Daring Do novel in his hands. The brilliantly written adventure novel was surprisingly hand-picked by Rainbow Dash of all ponies, considering the number of times she told Twilight she was a book-horse. Then again, the Princess could be very persistent when she wanted her way. Especially in the context of books. Her crystal castle had a large, cavernous library stocked with many books, all arranged neatly by size, colour and subject. If the Princess was running out of books, she didn’t show it. Every day it seemed more and more books were delivered to her castle. Recently, she was quite interested in the subject of law, and had ordered a huge mountain of books on the subject. Stygian knew that Spike had fainted when he had seen the hoard of books, and that Twilight had to bring him to the hospital for a check-up just in case he was prone to heart-attacks and the like. This memory faded away as Stygian went back to the present.
The compartment was quite empty, with no other ponies with the exception of an elderly grandmare called Granny Smith. She was the famous pony who first started the legendary Apple Family Farm.
She mostly ignored him, as she was browsing through a magazine with a picture of a Cure-All tonic advertisement pasted on the front. As she flipped through every page, she muttered conspiratorally under her breath every few seconds. "Those cow dung brothers are up to it again." Stygian had absolutely no clue what she was muttering about, but suddenly, Granny Smith got a crazed look in her eye and grabbed Stygian by his newly made cloak. "What in Faust-" he was terribly confused. "DONT ever buy from those money-stealing brothers. EVER! You got that sonny?" She whispered hoarsely. She went back to her seat and acted as though nothing had happened.
"NEXT STOP, CRYSTAL EMPIRE!" The conductor yelled, and the bell rang. A few minutes went by, and soon a shimmering mass of buildings could be seen. They were all made of shining crystal in all colours. It was breathtaking. Stygian made a promise to visit Mistmane as soon as he arrived there.
Crystal Empire Gates, Crystal Empire
Stygian trotted over to the gates, and craned his neck to look up to the towering height of it. It was made entirely out of crystal, and the very thought of crystal architecture excited his Scholar Senses ™️. He put that thought away for later, as he had to visit his friend and fellow Pillar, Mistmane. The mare had an affinity for decoration, and making her the royal gardener and landscaper seemed to be the best option. The grass was covered in tiny purple crystal flowers, each in different colour groups for the different directions of the path. Small crystal statues were placed in the grass to give it a magical feel.
Finding the path with the blue flowers, Stygian cantred towards the gardens, not wasting any time. On the way there though, a used book fair caught his eye...
Sensing a bargain, Stygian galloped towards the fair, his book bag swinging. Picking the nearest stall, he found some amazing books on seaponies / hypogriffs, and even caught a rare find of snippets of dragon lore and history. Searching for more tomes to fill up his collection at home, his eyes darted around looking for a book.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a book on Sirens! Although those pesky sisters were defeated, they still refused to let Princess Twilight know of their origins and such. And no creature EVER said no to the princess. It got her into a blind fury and she had fumed for several dayd before Discord threw a bucket of ice water on her to cool her down. Literally! He had screamed " ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE DONE!! " , before teleporting off to Faust knows where.
Grabbing the book with his magic, Stygian felt a pull of anothers magic against his. It was so strong that both Stygian and the mystery unicorn got blasted by the rebounding magic blast. The stallkeeper muttered curses under his breath and covered his face in his hooves.
Both of them helped levitate the books back to the stand, for which the stallkeeper was deeply greatful for. The mystery unicorn had an orange coat, reddish orange hair and dappled white spot on his coat. His mane was tangled badly, and his circular glasses was lopsided. Stygian, realising that this stallion wanted the book, offered it to him. After all, maybe Stygian could (possibly) find another copy of the book. Right? Stygian was not so sure.
The other stallion shook his head , and explained,
“You see, I think you need it more. I could always find another copy, and it seems you have a great eye.” Stygian then replied the stallion with, “Yes, actually I am trying to do some research on them, as the Sirens themselves are proving a hard time for the Princess, and when the Pillars were fighting them, it wasn’t exactly enough time for research.” The stallion eyes lit up. “Oh! Twilight told me about you. You’re Stygian, aren’t you? You should come and see my house, I need help decoding some of the Old Ponish, but dont tell Starlight and-“ He cut off, as he was short of breath. Stygian nodded vigorously, and boight the book before following the stallion to wherever he was going, though if he was personal friends with Twilight, it must be good right?
The stallion suddenly turned around and looked apologetically at Stygian before saying:
“Oops! Im sorry, I totally forgot to introduce myself. Im Sunburst by the way.”
“I’m Stygian, as you know.”
“Anyways, Isn’t Stygian the name related to the myths of the river Styx of the Underworld, or is it its actual meaning, shadow, or-“
Sunburst continued talking all the way to his house, with Stygian pondering about his existence in the world in every way.
Author's Note
Well, Sunburst will always be Sunburst. He makes you question you very existence over and over again.
Crystal Empire, Sunburst’s 1/3 house, 2/3 library
“Okay, so this might be the meaning centaur, but the picture shows a manticore... ARGH I DON’T UNDERSTAND” “Well, I’m not quite sure either... ah Faust I don’t get it at ALL!”
Exasperated sighs and exclamations could be heard from Sunburst’s house. If the Crystal Ponies strolling around were bothered by the sounds, they didn’t show it. A year of Sunburst had hardened their ‘ Sunburst Filter ‘ and they had learnt to ignore the frustrated yelling issuing from the Crystaller’s house.
In the house itself, it was a mess, with maps strewn haphazardly across the floor, books marked with multiple dog-ears ( Sunburst had given up on bookmarks years ago ) , scrolls with half-written runes, you name it. Sunburst usually excelled in organising ( supposedly ), meaning he got his cutie mark by levitating! But these days Sunburst was either researching, taking care of Flurry Heart, researching and eating, with just a small amount of sleep squeezed in.
Of course, not that Stygian minded. His ( now long-gone ) study had been quite similar to Sunburst’s what with his sister Hestia running around with her wooden sword. She used to pretend she was fighting dragons like the Pegasi Protectors, and during her ‘fights’ she often ruffled up all of Stygian’s papers, inkwells and generally left destruction in her wake. After a while, Stygian got used to it, and ignored every single time he had to re-write his notes because Hestia spilled his inkwell on his notebooks.
So, it was safe to say that both Stygian and Sunburst were quite happy and contented screaming and tearing their manes out over difficult theories on inter-dimensional travel laws and indecipherable treaties written in Old Ponish.
In fact, they didn’t realise that the sun had set, spreading orange-pink strands of light across the inky purple sky. Stygian had yet to visit Mistmane, and he had not found a place of lodging thanks to his detour with Sunburst on the dragon-pony treaty of Year 100 BC ( Before Celestia ). Stygian looked up, and sighed as he realised he had nowhere to stay for the night as he had been so engrossed in the research.
“Hey, umm, Sunburst? I think, I mean, can I sleep here for the night, I think I forgot to find a place of lodging. I mean- if it doesn’t bother you of course-“ Stygian mumbled to Sunburst. Sunburst nodded vigorously.
“Why, of course! I was so excited that I forgot to find you a place to stay! You can stay here for your whole stay if you want, I don’t mind.”
“Thanks!”
