As the second day came to an end, Airy had begun a simple pattern for weeks to follow.

At mornings she'd wash herself, then have breakfast with the princess and her students, talking about that day's planned experiments and whatever idle curiosity Princess Amore had about Luxendarc and its inhabitants and customs. Many things that Airy spoke of inspired awe in her, though she changed some things or removed them completely, such as airships or Ancheim's impressive factories, powered by the wind from the wind crystal.

Instead, she changed so the ships flew because of 'magic', that the king of Ancheim put people to work in the mines instead of turning the gears of the grand windmills, that many of the wonders or enemies were 'magical' instead of scientific, like the Eternian automatons being mere "golems made of rock" and so on...

To Princess Amore, it seemed awe-inspiring that in the world where they couldn't control the weather and majority of citizens had no magic, that their version of what earth ponies (without natural gifts to grow or farm things) were able to make such an advanced city in the desert, despite the weather that governed itself.

After breakfast, Airy would join Sombra and Radiant, as they tested different theories, brand new spells and even modified the crystal, while Airy read more and more on magic and its many applications, in her quest to learn how to improve the spell given to her by Grogar and how to power it.

Of course, their tasks would be interrupted by lunch, before continuing as normal. Once in a while, she'd give a token advice to them, though it wasn't like she mysteriously knew how it all worked. For all she knew, such magic was only possible in stories, like the one she was regularly quoting as 'real facts'.

At dinner, they'd join Princess Amore and her sister, Glimmer, as they discussed the daily progress, while Glimmer often repeated questions asked by her sister at breakfast. Of course, since Princess Amore didn't wish certain things to spread, she had to self-censor her lies.

Then, it would be more work, before at evening; they'd have a light snack and retire for the night, where she'd spend time watching the moon and the stars, making plans in her head. Learning the limits of magic these ponies had was essential, as while she could easily simply leave them to waste away, by helping restore a powerful, ancient relic that might be powered by magic and emotions, she was one step closer to freeing her new master, Grogar.

She wasn't sure if he knew, but the Crystal Heart would speed up her progress by decades: from what Princess Amore had described, it was clear that she won the jackpot when she ended up in this frozen hell, as she doubted there were magical artifacts of this power just lying around for anyone to take.

An irony of the statement, considering what Twilight and her friends would encounter in a thousand years from these days...

With her new routine set, it went on for nearly two weeks until the sudden visit by Princess Amore, when they had the breakthrough's; just in time, as the two students had begun to lose what little hope they had left... in retrospect, if the historians knew, they would be shocked that it was Sombra, who displayed such pure emotions needed for unrefined spell to work.

As Airy flipped the page introducing her to side effects of overusing magic and possible magical contamination by different spells, she glanced as Sombra glared at the papers in front of him, furiously trying to find what they were doing wrong while Radiant had her head down, sipping tea as her mind wondered to... something.

From what she'd learn about Sombra, it was that he was more brute force magic user, with short temper for failure and enormous ego when it came to any successes, though these flaws would disappear when he was with Radiant.

Radiant on other hand was calm, caring mare. She inspected everything carefully, while trying her very best to stay happy and helpful; apparently, the mare didn't like the fact she couldn't use her magic to heal or help others. Now, her happy nature was slowly eroding after months of being Princess Amore's student, where she had shown such promise as a future princess (a concept that Airy found strange; apparently, the modern unicorn royalty were chosen by their predecessors, not by birthright).

Radiant had explained that Princess Amore had originally intended for her to study under Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, but with matters of the Crystal Heart and of course the ongoing conflicts in Equestria, such plans were delayed until proper time.

But now, as they failed again and again to find a way to heal the Crystal Heart, Radiant's hopes and dreams were slowly shattering in front of her eyes, causing her sadness and more of Sombra's anger to rise. She could understand both of them quite well: Sombra had pride in his work and accomplishments due to his orphan past, while also hating everything that slowed down his effort to show his greatness, so because he had been bullied with Radiant as orphans, it showed in his desire to step above those who mocked them.

Radiant on other hand was a mare who simply wanted to please her teacher and help others. If she wasn't Princess Amore's personal student, Airy had no doubt she'd be a chief doctor in some hospital, spending her days simply helping ponies with a silly smile on her face while using her talents to heal their physical and mental wounds.

Airy went back to her book, reading about how some magical spells and concoctions could corrupt the area they were used in, if the unicorn was not careful enough. There were mentions of small ponds, corrupted by foul magic’s or twisted amalgams of lesser magic’s, though no direct names nor locations; ponies didn't like that some worsened them by tampering with them.

This book was taking longer to read; the earlier books were meant for foals, as introduction to magic: she was a grown-up, so the texts were easier to understand and faster to learn. Still, it gave her the context Grogar did not give her, a mistake on his part but hindsight was a thing....

There were also mentions on how overuse of certain types of magic could cause different conditions, from temporal to permanent. Too much mental or soul magic could render one unable to even eat without assistance, while elemental ones could cause real damage to a tired caster. There were also mentions of teleport accidents, where one could accidentally fuse themselves into an object or other ponies; A fatal mistake in both cases.

Only a briefest mention was given to corruption of mind, soul and body by dark magic, making it sound like the results could be what The Thing would look like if given magic while completely insane, even after death.

To Airy, it sounded bullshit; a way to restrict 'evil magic’s' without forbidding them directly, by making the side effects seem too horrific for practical use. Still, it would require... further studying, before she went that route, just in case it actually worked like that; she didn't know if Grogar used dark magic and remained normal or just used normal magic in twisted ways.

Of course, since mental, soul and dark magic’s were dangerous fields to explore, their access were limited. The tome only mentioned few books of such magic’s by name... though Airy was certain she had seen them already: a brief visit with Sombra and Radiant to royal vault where the most valuable magical books were being kept had given her a peak, while Radiant was searching for a book on some old magic’s of non-pony magic casters, recorded by several travelers into non-pony lands, beyond Equestria.

The vault door of course was merely a gate with enchanted iron bars (wide enough for her to slip through easily) and two guards protecting it... a tempting target for later date to do some late night private research into aforementioned topics.

Especially if she could find a way to extract pony cutie marks... or better yet, souls: the asterisks were items in bravely default, that could turn anyone into a knight or mage or anything between, though their creation was never explained: she suspected that either the progress was kept secret so the orthodoxy wouldn't regain their power... or more likely because their creation involved some real dark stuff.

But if she could find a way to harvest the souls of specific ponies or other creatures with certain skills, she could possibly find a way to put them into Asterisks of her own creation that gave the wielder powers of the original. The cutie marks were a good place to start with, it seemed... if only to learn just how they gave the ponies the skills, as there was an old reference to a disease called 'cutie pox', which gave ponies random cutie marks and forced them to perform the skills displayed.

Even if she couldn't implant cutie marks into objects, just learning how they connected to ponies would give her the knowledge she needed to connect souls to wearers of her planned Asterisks, allowing them to wield any skills they gave.

With even a handful of Asterisks, she could supply her future servants with powers normally beyond their grasp. With even one of each, she could command an entire army of loyal Asterisk wielders.... such thoughts made her heart beat with excitement. Still, she'd need to research some more, to identify the enchantments protecting the vault; getting caught red-handed was not an option.

A knock on the study door caused the three to stop whatever they were doing and look towards it, before Radiant's horn glowed to open the door, revealing Princess Amore on the other side.

"Oh, your highness" Radiant spoke, as she stepped away from the table she was working at with Sombra, walking towards the doorway as the princess stepped in. Sombra stayed where he was, silently bowing while Airy simply curtsied "What can we do for you?" Radiant asked, as Amore glanced at the Airy and Sombra, before turning back towards Radiant.

"I wanted to see what progress the three of you have made so far and if there was anything I could help you with" She said, as the two of them walked to the closest table, where open books and scrolls were. Radiant seemed saddened, as she shook her head "Unfortunately, while we have theorized on how to achieve the required magic, so far our spells has been unable to produce the effects..." Radiant began explaining, as she gestured to various scrolls, notes and references in the books to the princess.

Airy watched, as the two conversed, before turning to look at Sombra, who had his head bowed as he read the notes in front of him, while glancing once in a while at Radiant with gloomy expression.

'Maybe that's the problem' Airy thought to herself, as she flew from her book to hover next to Sombra, who idly glanced at her while she read the notes he had written. So far, she couldn't understand all of it, but what she did understand was quite simple: the process was to attempt to push emotions into the magic, while attempting to cast a very specific spell that Airy couldn't properly understand yet: it would take weeks of learning before she'd be able to fully understand it.

Luckily, her new body came with near-perfect memory recall: something she had already abused during her retelling of the game's lore as 'her heroic tale'. To others, it would be years as they learned things, requiring re-reading in the future to remember specifics before they'd learned whatever they were studying.

It would not be a problem for her, especially since she had been smart enough to become a doctor in her previous life... but never mind that, back to the task at hand.

The problem it seemed was that Sombra and Radiant were trying to cast very specific types of spells while trying to quantify how much 'emotion' each test was to take... even she could understand, that such tests would be tainted by their scientific process: you can't 'quantify emotion' without tainting any progress with calm, rational thinking.

Emotion was wild and untamed, coming from the heart. It wasn't something you could apply numbers and tactics to, it was pure hot flashes of anger or passion of love that...that...

Airy blinked, as the idea flashed in her mind, before glancing at Sombra, who was looking at Radiant Hope and Princess Amore, as they went through the list of failed experiments. There was something in his eyes when he looked at Radiant, a spark of sadness, not because of he failed the princess, but because... he wasn't making Radiant happy....

"Sombra" Airy spoke, snapping the stallion out of his thoughts, as he turned towards her "I have an idea, but you need to follow my instructions exactly" She said, as Sombra narrowed his eyes at her.

"And why would I do that?" he asked, suspicious of her sudden behavior. Airy ignored it as she flew from to hover next to his ear "Because I might have a solution as to get the results. I'm sure you want to show the princess that you can do it..." she said, before glancing at the other two ponies in the room and continuing in hushed tone, that Sombra barely heard "and I’m sure it would make Radiant really happy with you" she finished.

Sombra froze for a moment, eyes turning towards Radiant, who was looking sad, before he turned back to Airy "What did you have in mind?" he asked, as Airy smiled at her successful manipulation attempt.

"Well, since the hopes and prayers are merely good emotions towards something, it's possible that the crystals don't draw directly on them, but rather the good emotions instead. So..." Airy paused for a moment, as she watched as Sombra listened carefully to her words "If we focus on hope and love exclusively, we might get the results we need. Now, follow my instructions" Airy said, pausing for a second before she began speaking once more.

"First, turn towards the crystal on the table and close your eyes" Airy instructed, as confused Sombra obeyed, closing his eyes as he faced the crystal "Now, clear your mind and synchronize your breathing to the feeling of the magic around you" Airy continued, as frown appeared on Sombra's face.

"How is that -" She interrupted him with a hush, before continuing "Stop ask questions, just trust me on this. Now, focus on the times you were young, when you were happy: performing magic, playing and studying with Radiant, the first time you met her and became friends" She instructed, as Sombra's expression shifted.

It took him a moment, as his mood changed from angry to passive and finally pleased "Focus on the feeling of love and happiness you felt back then, that you feel to this day... then gather it as you gather your magic; don't cast any spells, just gather your magic in your horn while remembering those happy feelings" Airy said, as Sombra's horn began to glow, causing Radiant and Amore to look in their direction.

Airy smiled as she spoke in hushed tone "Now, focus all your magic and emotion... and push it into the crystal, as raw, pure and powerful as you are feeling it now" She finished, as a beam of magic left Sombra's horn and struck the crystal, causing it to glow.

"More, don't stop now: More!" Airy encouraged, as Sombra began sweating, pushing his magic and feelings into the crystal, causing it to glow more and more. Radiant and Amore looked at the display with wide eyes, before gasping aloud as Sombra ceased his magic, panting heavily as he opened his eyes, his vision focusing on the crystal.

And for the briefest of moments, he saw it reflect a sense of happiness and love, as colors of rainbow left the crystal, before it went stopped glowing. Sombra gazed at the empty crystal with widened eyes of wonder, as his breathing returned to normal... only for him to take his eyes off it as Radiant tightly hugged him.

"You did it!" Radiant yelled out aloud, smile on her face as she hugged her best friend "Impressive display. I do believe we might yet succeed in revitalizing the Crystal Heart" Princess Amore said; walking to the table her students were at, smile on her face.

And for a brief moment, Sombra let a smile spread on his face as he returned Radiant's hug "Yeah... I did it" he said to himself, never noticing the wicked glee in Airy's eyes as she looked at him...

"And then the crystal glowed like a rainbow! It was so beautiful, I could feel the happiness radiate from it a brief moment" Radiant explained to Glimmer, who looked at the two unicorn students with wide eyes "So, you figured it out? That's amazing!" Glimmer spoke with joy, only for Sombra to shake his head "Not exactly. We did confirm that what Airy spoke of might be possible, but we still have no idea how to properly utilize it, nor if it's feasible to use it for the Crystal Heart" he explained.

"Oh... Still, it's still something, right?" Glimmer asked excitedly, as Princess Amore chuckled at her younger sister "Yes, sister. It certainly is a spark of hope, after so many failed attempts. Even if we couldn't use it to repair the heart, it's still a discovery that will have many implications for magic as whole" she explained, before turning towards Airy, who was snacking on the whipped cream on top of an apple slice "But all of it wouldn't be possible, without the guidance of our new friend, Airy" Amore said, as Airy turned towards her.

"Well, I didn't do much: all I did was tell you it was possible from where I come from. It's Sombra and Radiant who figured it out" Airy tried to deflect in 'modesty', only for Sombra to object "On the contrary, it was your encouragement and instructions that made it possible for me to cast it in the first place" he said, before taking a bite from his toast.

Thunder Shield looked curiously at the small fairy, who was using her hand to take another piece of whipped cream to snack upon "How did you know it would work? From what they explained, it sounded like you knew exactly what was wrong" he asked, trying not to show his suspicion as he looked at Airy.

Airy thought about it a moment, as she finished cleaning the whipped cream from her hand "Well, when the vestals pray upon the crystals, they synchronize their breathing to the Crystals as they prayed with all of their faith... I just thought to suggest that instead of treating it like an experiment, Sombra should imitate what the Vestals do. I didn't know if it would work" She explained.

In truth, she really didn't know if it would work. She had seen it in the games, when Agnes performs the awakening with each crystal in all those worlds, but that didn't tell her if it would work in the real world. Her magical understanding was almost completely non-existent, beyond what she read from the books and what Grogar had given her.

She had so much to learn...

"But enough about that: Glimmer, you said you're the minister of agriculture, right? How is your work going?" Airy asked, moving on from the topic of their success as she finally asked questions from Glimmer, rather than other way around.

Apparently, that was a wrong thing to ask, if you considered the gloomy look that spread on Glimmer's face, as she spoke in saddened tone "Sadly, my work isn't going so well. Between the increasingly smaller fields and the temperature changes, the farms have suffered greatly: We've even had to start using the fallow lands to raise crops this year, which will surely affect the following years... if there are any for the crystal empire, that is." She finished as she bowed her head with sad look.

"It's alright, Glimmer: I know you're doing the best you can, considering the circumstances" Princess Amore consoled her sister, as Thunder gave his wife a one-hoof hug. Airy however thought about what Glimmer said for a moment, before speaking "I'm sorry, but what are 'fallow lands'?" she asked, not familiar with agricultural terms.

Glimmer raised her head to look at Airy, as she answered "it's a piece of land that is left without plants for a year, while the other half is used to raise crops that year. We switch between them each year, yet due to the barrier shrinking, we've had to use all of the fields this year, to feed the ponies and farm animals" Glimmer explained, as Airy frowned.

She wasn't an expert, but even she knew that was so inefficient. It was almost medieval... oh, right: they still used quills and most of the commoners were illiterate: of course they wouldn't have proper techniques that were developed in her days. Now, what did her Ex-bf's little sister's bf talk about that one time... something about three and four-crop rotations?

"Well, that's a stupid idea" Airy said, shocking Glimmer at her tone "I might not be an expert, but even I know that there's better crop rotation than that, like the three-field one, where only one field is empty while other two have different crops... or the four-field one, where all fields have crops that rotate each year" she said in matter-of-fact tone, as Glimmer looked shocked at her explanation.

Thunder didn't look happy at the implication that she had called his wife stupid "I though you said you weren't all-knowing" he said, before looking at her suspiciously "And weren't the vestals priests? How would you know about farming?" he asked, as Airy huffed at him.

"I'll have you know, just because the vestals didn't know this stuff, doesn't mean I don't" she said, before flying to hover in front of Thunder and Glimmer "As for the matter of fact, one of the vestal's companions was a shepherd, who grew up on a farm and tended the flock. He once explained about farming to vestal, talking about this stuff" she explained, as she lied smoothly to their face.

She wasn't going to explain that she was a reincarnated person from a world so much more advanced, it might as well been magic to these farm animals... speaking of, she'd have to make sure she didn't speak about certain things: they'd be horrified to hear that in her world, ponies and horses were animals used as transportation, entertainment, farm equipment or food.

Glimmer pushed Thunder's hoof off her shoulder as she leaned towards Airy, her eyes now shining with interest "Oh, how do those work? Can you tell me what crops they used? How do they prevent the crops from failing?" She asked in quick succession, her depression forgotten.

Airy was unprepared for the sudden mood change "W-well, I don't remember what he explained exactly, as they were kind of flirting, but..." she paused, as she tried to remember half-forgotten lessons and what she had been told "I think the three-field rotation used wheat in the fall and ... oats in the spring for one field, while the other field had peas or beans. They changed so one field would be empty every 3 years" she explained, as Glimmer listened with interest.

"As for the four-field rotation, I'm not that sure. I think it was wheat, turnips... maybe clovers and....barley? I'm not sure, I don't even know if your world even has the same crops: you'd have to discover the proper rotations yourself" Airy said, as Glimmer wrote down everything she said; it was already a new habit for her to bring a paper and quill for dinner with her, as she liked Airy's stories about 'her world'.

"There was also other things the shepherd explained, but since he and the vestal were forming a romance, I didn't stay around them that much" she finished, barely stopping herself from telling too much as she remembered the hype of indoor farms that had been going on in her original world. Food grown in warehouses, stacked on shelves and under careful machine care with artificial light pulps. She didn't know how those worked either, just that people said it might be a solution to world food shortage.

However, she did not voice those ideas. To tell them now would rob her of an advantage of being beneficial being, who helped the people grow and invent new things. Why did she hold them secret? That's very simple: this world was basically at development that was equal to her medieval world or less... not counting the advantages magic brought in.

That meant any 'modern' idea she brought into this world would be centuries ahead of its time... a great way to gather funds, to raise an army and everything else she'd need for Lord Grogar... or maybe herself: Original Airy was betrayed by Ouroboros, so she'd need to start making plans to prevent such a thing from happening to her.

... Maybe she could even usurp Grogar's power: he was sealed in a dimension he couldn't escape, without his bell. What was to prevent her from freeing him and then striking him in the back, once she had everything she wanted from him? After all, he did explain that those who died ended back in the realm of darkness, just without a body or consciousness... like a string puppet without a puppeteer, just sitting there until something happened.

Something to consider…

Glimmer decided to once more start asking questions, much to Airy's (hidden) annoyance "Well, what about dealing with shifting weather? How did they prevent it from ruining the crops?" she asked, as she finished writing down everything Airy had explained. To Glimmer, this information was invaluable: even if she couldn't utilize it in the crystal empire, she might be able to revolutionize the agricultural fields.

"Well, since the earth ponies and pegasi can control the weather and the plants much better than anything I know, I'm afraid I have nothing more to suggest" Airy said, before a quick idea came to her mind "But you can research all that stuff I mentioned: Imagine all the discoveries you could make to help you grow food for the ponies in need" she finished, as Glimmer's eyes widened in understanding.

Airy barely suppressed the glee she felt from showing, as Glimmer quickly gathered her things, stuffing her face with her remaining food before standing up from her seat "I have to research this!" she exclaimed, as she ran out the door, leaving others looking after her with astonished looks.

Amore gave a short laugh, before others chuckled at the display Glimmer had made "Oh, that's just like her: if it's related to plants, she'll jump at the change to learn or help. Thank you Airy, for helping Glimmer be more like herself: she'd been feeling sad for weeks by her own inability to use magic to help with the crystal heart, while her efforts to help the farms have been less than successful, as the cold weather during the nights wreaks havoc on the crops" she spoke with a smile on her face.

Thunder nodded in agreement "It will keep her busy enough, so she doesn't worry too much about things at night" he said, as Airy idly returned to her snack, sticking her hand into whipped cream once more...

"Good night, mister Glint" Airy said in 'pleasant' tone as the door of her room closed, leaving her alone. Letting out a sigh, she flew to the window sill, sitting down as she gazed down at the city, watching as the street lamps came on one by one, as last of the ponies retired for the evening, leaving only the guards to patrol the city in their padded armors.

As her eyes wandered over the different buildings, she felt that it was time to explore the city: sure, she had chosen to stay inside the castle since she arrived, travelling between her room, the dining room and the study of Radiant and Sombra, but that was because she felt the need to learn magic, as well as to observe them work; she might not fully understand everything they'd done, but their knowledge of magic was useful.

Still, it felt like a waste, to spend all her time between three locations, while meeting only a handful of ponies and reading all day... it was time to correct that.

As she gazed at the shops on the street, she decided that it was a time to take a break and explore the city, maybe learn more about the people... ponies instead of endlessly staying inside, just reading and watching two students fail at something... knowing the city infrastructure and what the development level was would be valuable information: She could find things to improve and raise her public image, while appearing as benevolent and kind friend to these... peasants.

They had magic yet no proper plumbing. Rome had sewers 2500 years before her modern day and they didn't have magic to help them. it made her wonder what else she could start improving upon... though now that she thought about it, these ponies probably didn't have lakes, rivers or even wells in this frozen hell: most of the water was probably melted snow and ice from outside...

Airy turned her gaze towards the night sky, once more enjoying the stars and the moon that she rarely got to see in her previous life: a disadvantage of modern society. As she finally grew tired, Airy flew to her bed, once more stripping down to bare skin before crawling under the sheets, letting the land of dreams take her.

Tomorrow, it would be time to explore and plan...

Author's Note

Au note: in her original world, MLP doesn't exist, so don't expect any prior knowledge of the show from Airy.

Btw, just curious: Should I add spice to this with few lewd scenes here and there? it's not mandatory to the story, just curious if you (the audience) wanna see some spice. I can always write a side story with non-canon ones, but I wanted to ask if you want canon ones for this story.

Note: the lewd would not include Airy, other than minor self-pleasure. Since It's kinda early into the story, so If I write any, it won't be for quite a while. Also, chapters 4 and 5 have now been edited to mention that Airy sleeps nude.