Cadance The Crystal Princess

Klugetown

Princess Twilight Sparkle was shaking.

The Princess of Friendship was scared, nervous and excited at the same time. There were so many emotions running through her body as Capper had got up to pay the owner of the new restaurant, Talon’s Tavern, leaving her and her husband alone.

The group had just finished eating an exquisite lunch prepared by Talon, a young but skilful parrot chef, who had decided to open his restaurant after the Storm King's death. The restaurant, like the other buildings, was too rebuilt with brand new materials that gave the restaurant a new look. Several small chandeliers hung above the tables, and the tables themselves were decorated with several silver candle holders on top of each a green and yellow tables' cloths.

Spike and Tempest did not attended lunch with them, instead they opted to visit Captain Celaeno and her crew who happened to arrive at the harbour after they had done sending trades to one of Equestria's city. Silver Quill had left the restaurant to check on the next place they were going to tour from the carriages. Flash Sentry had finished his lunch, but Twilight Sparkle still haven't finished hers.

The cat paused his walk before he turned to the couple with a smile. "Don't worry about paying the lunch, it's on me. I insisted." He winked at them.

Both the lieutenant and the Princess of Friendship smiled and nodded thanks to Capper before he headed to the counter to pay.

Twilight couldn't stopped herself from sighing in relief as the cat moved toward the counter. Now it was just her and Flash left together. If there was ever a time to reveal the ‘small’ fact that she was pregnant with his child, now was the time to do so.

“You can tell me now.” The lieutenant chuckled.

The Princess of Friendship blinked at her husband. “I’m sorry?”

“You’re fighting, going slow with your food. You want to tell me something and wanted us to be alone to say it. I assume it has to do with what you tried to tell me yesterday at the train station?” Flash asked.

“Y-yeah” Twilight lowered her half eaten hayburger next to her hayfries. “There is something I have wanted to tell you. I went to the doctors just before we left Ponyville, I had a test done.”

The lieutenant adopted a concerned expression. “Test? Is something wrong, you’re not ill are you?”

“No! No!” The Princess of Friendship said quickly while waving her forehooves. “Nothing is wrong, the complete opposite in fact!”

Now that Twilight had her husband's undivided attention, and with nothing stopping her, it was time. She breathed deeply in and out a few times to calm her growing nerves, and then opened her mouth.

“Flashy, something wonderful has-" The Princess of Friendship started.

Obviously, some cruel outside force just loved messing with them, the doors to the restaurant opened and the ambassador strolled with a warm smile. "Princess Twilight, I have found a perfect place for our next stop."

Twilight's right eye twitched in frustration before she slammed her face into the table from sheer exasperation.

Flash looked at her, wide-eyed. "Twily?"

"Your highness, is everything alright?" Silver asked in concern before the Princess of Friendship lifted her face and breathed out a sigh.

"Every-everything is alright. Just a little stressed, that's all." Twilight assured the ambassador, looking at him with a smile.

"Are you sure, your highness?" Silver asked again.

"Yeah. you were going to say something before the ambassador interrupted." The lieutenant stated with an arched eyebrow.

The Princess of Friendship looked down at her food before glancing up at her husband. "I-I will tell you eventually, but this isn't a good time. At least not yet."

Flash stared at his wife for a good while before sighing. "All right, if you say so."

The ambassador straightened his tie. "Well then, in that case, I will wait in the carriages for you two to finish up." With that, he bowed down before walking back to the carriages and closing the door behind him.

Once the door closed behind Silver, Twilight slumped in her seat, the moment lost once again just as Capper came back from paying at the counter.

The cat glanced at both the Princess of Friendship and the lieutenant and the door where the ambassador left with an arched eyebrow. "What did I just missed?"

Twilight looked at Capper with unamused look. "You have no idea."

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Crystal Empire

Radiant Hope slowly made her way toward the Crystal Empire's street after she walked through the shield.

'All I got to do is get to the Crystal Palace, evade all guards and grab the Crystal Heart and bring it to Sombra to cure his darkness.' The crystal unicorn thought, her heart heavy with both determination and doubt.

Lost in her thoughts, Hope didn’t notice the figure approaching her until she collided with him, falling back onto the street with a dazed expression.

"Miss! Are you alright?" A male voice called out to the crystal unicorn and she looked up. What she saw made her froze.

The figure was a stallion unicorn, dressed in Crystal Imperial armor. His coat was crystal gray, his mane and tail being blue and light blue stripes and his eyes being cyan and his cutie mark being a sword and a épée crossed together. But the most notable one that caused Hope to freeze was the guard's horn being a shiny light blue shaded from the tip to cyan.

The crystal unicorn stared at the guard, frozen in place. The unicorn shifted nervously under her gaze. “Uh, miss? Do you need help?” The guard asked again, his voice laced with concern.

Hope quickly gathered herself, shaking her head. “N-no, I’m fine. Thank you.” She forced a smile, but her heart pounded as she realized just how close she’d come to blowing her cover.

Before the guard could asked the crystal unicorn again, a voice called out. "Glacier Lance! Is everything alright here?"

Both Hope and the guard, now identified as Glacier Lance, turned to see a crystal griffon dressed in Crystal Imperial armor flying down from the sky before landing a distance in front of them, folding his wings to his sides as he walked toward them.

"Fine. Everything's fine here, Icelight Feather." Lance assured the crystal griffon, now identified as Icelight Feather.

The crystal unicorn's jaw dropped once she got a good look of the crystal griffon.

Icelight Feather has a coat of crystal dark blue with cyan, his head feather being lightish cyan to brilliant white, a pair of dark blue eyes and the most notable one to her was a pair of white with trailing edges of the feathers being pale blue wings.

"Are you sure? That mare looks like she’s seen a ghost." The crystal griffon stated, pointing a talon at Hope's shock position.

The crystal mare unicorn quickly recovered and got up, but the encounter had shaken her more than she cared to admit.

"Why does your horn and your wings look different to your coats?" Hope decided to ask both the Crystal Imperial guards.

The two guards exchanged a curious glance before Glacier Lance responded. "As for my horn and Icelight's wings, we were exploring and got lost in the Frozen North when we stumbled upon one of the Crystal Imperial guards. They were looking for Princess Amore's scattered fragments, so we decided to help them."

Icelight then took over the explanation. "Over time, as we continued to help find Amore's pieces and help, both my wings and his horn gradually shifted to mirror the colors of the Crystal Empire as a symbol of solidarity and collaboration. After we, the Crystal Imperial guards and other species found and managed to rebuild Princess Amore's statue for five years, we decided to stay and integrated into the Crystal Imperial's ranks."

The crystal unicorn mare’s mind spun. "Prin-Princess Amore is alive?"

The crystal unicorn stallion arched an eyebrow. "Yeah, she is still alive, though you missed her as she, Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor had left to attend the summit at Mount Aris and Seaquestria to finalise the alliances between Equestria & Crystal Empire and Mount Aris & Seauqestria."

Hope’s heart raced. 'Amore is alive?' She thought as she realised this complicated her mission far more than she had anticipated.

"I'm surprised that you haven't heard that Princess Amore is alive. Where were you when the news of Princess Amore is alive came out two and a half years ago?" The crystal griffon asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously and causing the crystal unicorn mare to sweat as she struggled to find a good explanation.

Hope’s heart raced as she searched for an answer, but she didn’t need to. A booming voice interrupted them. “Icelight! Lance!”

Both Icelight and Lance turned to see a crystal yak trotting toward them while the crystal unicorn mare stood frozen at the sight of the yak, or the yak's shiny light blue shaded from the tip to cyan horns.

"What are two doing? Clover pony will have be angry when she found out we three are not doing the patrol around the empire." The crystal yak stated.

Both the Crystal Imperial guards looked back to Hope. "Sorry, miss. But we have a patrol to do."

The three Crystal Imperial guards immediately turned and returned to patrolling the empire, leaving the crystal unicorn mare alone.

Hope continued to stare at the three guards before a shadow loomed past her, prompting her to look up and gasped again as she saw a crystal changeling stallion flying past with a spear on his back. And like Glacier Lance, his horn was a shiny light blue shaded from the tip to cyan.

The crystal unicorn mare stared at the changeling before her eyes fell in front. Most of the citizens and the Crystal Imperial guards patrolling the empire were made of unicorns, pegasi, kirins, changelings, bat ponies, yaks, hippogriffs and griffons.

Hope's jaws dropped. 'What happened here?' She thought as she absorbed the scene in front of her.

The crystal unicorn mare was so distracted with the scene that she didn't noticed a crystal hippogriff guard walk up to her behind.

"Excuse me, miss." The guard called out.

Hope half-screamed in surprised as she jumped twenty cm into the air.

"Don’t do that!" The crystal unicorn mare protested. "You scared me half to death!"

The crystal hippogriff gave Hope a deadpan look. "Forgive me for doing that, miss. But you loitering here is making the citizens nervous."

The crystal unicorn mare looked to see some of the citizens were looking at her with their faces mixed with a bit of nervous and worry.

"Oh… right. Sorry I’ll… just go..." Hope quickly walked briskly in the other direction, her mind still racing with the revelations.

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King Sombra sat behind the rock that was just in front of the shield the Crystal Heart made, waiting for his best friend to come back with the artifact.

'Once I have the Crystal Heart, not only the Crystal Empire will be mine, Equestria will be ruled by me and my army of umbrum.' The umbrum pony thought menacing as wind caused his cloak to wave everywhere.

As Sombra thought, sounds of hoofsteps coming from his left caught his attention, causing him to ignite his horn as he readied himself from an attack.

Soon, the sounds of hoofsteps grew closer before Hope came into the umbrum pony's view, prompting him to lower his defenses and his horn to dim down.

"Hope? What are you doing here? I thought you said you will come back with the Crystal Heart in your hooves." Sombra asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I was, but something happened from two and a half years ago that changed my plan a bit." The crystal unicorn admitted as she sat beside her best friend.

"Oh?" The umbrum pony looked confused. "What is it that happened two and a half years ago that changed your plan a bit?"

Hope hesitated for a moment before sighing. "Princess Amore is alive. Apparently, after the empire returned from a thousand years banishment you cursed on, the Crystal Imperial guards and other species who wandered into the Frozen North spent five years looking Princess Amore's scattered fragments and rebuilding her."

Sombra’s eyes widened, a rare flicker of uncertainty crossing his face. "Amore... alive?" He muttered as he realised this revelation complicated his plans in ways he had not foreseen.

"What's more, other species like changelings, bat ponies, yaks, hippogriffs and griffons were among the populations either as citizens of the empire as Crystal Imperial guards." The crystal unicorn continued before sighing again.

The umbrum pony scowled but nodded. "I see. But don’t give up. You’ve come too far to turn back now. Remember, the Crystal Heart can cure me of my darkness and restore me."

Hope stood back up, determination flickering in her eyes once more. “I won’t. I’ll find a way.”

With that, the crystal unicorn turned and made her way back to the Empire, knowing this time she needed to be even more careful—for her best friend's sake.