In the annals of Equestrian history, one question has sparked countless debates among scholars and common ponies alike: what truly sets an alicorn apart from other equines?

Some argue it’s their imposing stature and vast magical prowess. Others point to the unique fusion of earth pony strength, pegasus flight, and unicorn magic within a single being. A few, more religiously inclined, might revere alicorns as shepherds of the herd, sent from beyond the heavens.

When posed this very question, Princess Luna once offered a response that sent shivers through the spines of even the most stoic ponies:

“We are unbound by the shackles of mortality,” she answered. “Our gaze pierces the veil of time, extending beyond the fleeting lifespan of a single pony. We witness the ebb and flow of centuries, millennia, eons. This foresight is both our most magnificent gift and our most harrowing curse.”

Now, dear reader, consider this: If you could see a cataclysm looming on the distant horizon, a future where the winds of fate would shroud Equestria in darkness, blood, and madness, what would you do?

To stop such a catastrophe, what lengths would you go to? What sacrifices would you deem acceptable? Whose lives would you be willing to place upon the altar of a better tomorrow?

And if, despite your best efforts, you realized that averting disaster was impossible, would you still try? Would you meekly accept your fate, or would you rise up, defiant against the earth below and the heavens above, fighting tooth and hoof for every precious second of life, for every wide-eyed filly and colt, for every stalwart mare and stallion?

This is not a tale of honor. It is not a story of unambiguous heroism or clear-cut villainy.

This is the chronicle of an impossible struggle. Of ponies rearing up against the whims of fate. Of ingenuity, desperation and above all, sacrifice.

This is the saga of the Eternity Project.

This is the birth of the Crystal Empire.

Prologue

Dr. Crystal Melody shifted her weight from one hoof to another. Her eyes raced across the stuffed laboratory which was carved deep within Canterlot Mountain. She caught a glimpse of herself in the reflection of a discarded crystal panel. Disheveled blue mane, unwashed gray coat—when had she last gone home?

Her Royal Highness, Princess Luna, had ordered an emergency meeting for all project staff. This was very unusual. Something extraordinary must have happened. The team consisted of hoofpicked scholars, engineers and scientists. Except for the soft collective humming of various devices, the room was utterly silent. The team held their breaths.

“This project has just been reranked to top priority. Any open requests for material, personnel or resources are herewith approved. Expect any future requests to be granted immediately,” the princess announced matter-of-factly.

Dr. Luminous Facet, the lead crystallographer, nodded quickly. “Yes, Your Highness. Thank you, Your Highness. If I may be so bold as to inquire. We were only the fallback project, what happened to the other efforts?”

An expert in his field, the tall green stallion had a way of sycophancy that made him almost sound insulting. Dr. Melody noticed Dr. Facet adjusting his white mane, a nervous tic she had observed countless times over their years of working together. As usual when he was uncomfortable, his eyes darted around the room, looking everywhere but at the princess.

Princess Luna fixed him with a cold gaze. “They were failures. All failures. We hope that your work will not meet the same fate, Doctor. Please, show me the crystal.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” Dr. Facet answered, as he led her to the center of the room.

There, one of his assistants gingerly placed his hooves on a protective metal cover and carefully took it off. Underneath, tucked inside thaumaturgically insulated casing, was a bright crystal. A dodecahedron roughly the size of a pony’s head. It pulsated with an inner light. Its faces were etched with intricate runic patterns, each one a carefully calculated magical circuit designed to channel and amplify emotional energy.

“Is it safe to use magic around this one?” the princess asked.

“Yes, Your Highness. We have not yet completed the final step of aligning its internal structure to resonate with thaumic wavelengths. It is still more or less inert,” Dr. Crystal Melody answered from behind them.

Dr. Melody liked to stay in the background and let Dr. Facet take the limelight, even though she had laid the theoretical groundwork for this venture with her theories on crystalline thaumo-harmonics.

Princess Luna’s horn glowed as she inspected the crystalline structure before her.

The lead crystallographer cleared his throat, never taking his eyes off the pulsating crystal.

“Your most esteemed Highness, what you’re witnessing is the culmination of years of research. We’re manipulating the crystal’s structure at a fundamental level, creating what we call ‘emotion-sensitive harmonic resonators’ within the lattice.”

Dr. Melody observed Luna’s eyes narrowing as the princess focused on the crystal. The glow from Princess Luna’s horn intensified, and she leaned in closer. Crystal Melody suppressed some envy, seeing how the princess was able to study the crystal without the assistance of any equipment. She knew what the alicorn was seeing. The crystal’s lattice was a three-dimensional maze of surfaces, each one precisely positioned to form a network capable of resonating with subtle emotional energies.

Dr. Facet paused, adjusting his mane slightly before continuing. “Your Highness, this crystal acts as a receiver for the emotional energy emitted by ponies. When calibrated correctly, the energy causes the crystal lattice to vibrate in a specific pattern, creating a thaumic harmony. As the crystal reaches its internal capacity to hold the energy, it will start emitting light, heat, and an amplified version of the original input emotional frequencies.”

“In other words,” Luna cut in, “the crystal takes in emotions from the ponies around it, amplifies them, and radiates them out?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Dr. Melody answered before the lead crystallographer could say anything. “We are making the crystals sing.”

The princess eyed her for a moment, slightly tilting her head. “How very poetic, Dr. Melody. But how do we transmit across all of Equestria?”

Dr. Melody stepped forward to the desk and put a paperclip on it. This was her chance to shine.

“As you rightly said, Your Highness, the crystal doesn’t just receive and emit. It amplifies. Imagine what would happen if we didn’t have just one crystal.”

With this, she added a hooffull of additional paperclips to the tabletop and continued.

“In a group, they would receive each other’s emissions and resonate until they achieve a unified, perfect harmony. Each crystal would need to be precisely crafted and aligned to create this cascading effect.”

As Dr. Melody was talking, she carefully arranged the paperclips in a circle.

“Given that the output energies reach a threshold magnitude, they can overwrite Equestria’s emotional background frequency in perpetuity. It will create a self-sustaining thaumic field that will blanket all of Equestria.”

The princess pointed her hoof at the arrangement of paperclips on the table.

“How many crystals would be needed to reach this threshold magnitude?”

Just as Dr. Melody started to respond, Dr. Facet loudly cleared his throat and cut in. Typical.

“Now, now, Dr. Melody. You don’t want to peddle these half-baked theories to Her Highness.”

The alicorn answered him only with an irritated glare before focusing back on Dr. Melody.

“We believe that we have asked this mare a question.”

“Well, we weren’t able to complete any experiments yet, but according to my theoretical calculations, the structures would need to be massive, Your Highness. This crystal might work alright on its own. However, in order to guarantee proper function over an indefinite amount of time, several additional types of crystals will be needed, which we haven’t designed yet. Thaumic heat sinks. Emotional batteries. These are just two examples, there are many more necessary components we currently don’t know how to build. I can provide Your Highness with a list, if required,” Dr. Melody explained.

The princess nodded. “How long will you need?”

Dr. Melody noticed beads of sweat on Dr. Facet’s forehead as he interrupted once more. “Please, Your Highness. You must understand. What Dr. Melody is proposing is not even yet a hypothesis. It’s… it’s a fantasy. We haven’t tested as much as one crystal yet to act as an amplifier in a stable configuration, let alone combining them in an interconnected arrangement. What my colleague is proposing is a complex system of different crystals, which haven’t been invented yet, working together in perfect harmony. We have no inkling if this is possible, let alone the knowledge to build it.”

“Be still!”

The princess’s hiss was magically amplified and made the whole laboratory shake.

The other members of the team were suddenly very busy looking small and fiddling with various pieces of equipment, conveniently located towards the edges of the room.

“We have asked your colleague a question,” Luna continued in a more measured tone.

Dr. Melody let her head hang and sighed.

“Dr. Facet is right, Your Highness. I believe my design is theoretically sound, but as you can see, we weren’t able to test any of the components yet. Even in isolation. As you know, these crystals are extremely finicky. If there is even a miniscule amount of feedback, or if the lattices are misconfigured in only a tiny way, the results could be catastrophic. A chaotic, instantaneous discharge of distorted emotional energy—a magical explosion, in other words. At this point, there is no telling if we can do it, let alone predict when all components will be ready.”

The princess replied in a comforting voice, “You said the next step will be to test this amplifier in isolation. When will you be able to do this?”

Dr. Melody stepped towards the crystal.

“Technically, we are ready for the test, but we are still struggling with the safety measures. The team will need to be present to precisely measure the frequencies and observe how the lattices hold up. Your Highness, there is no practical way of doing that while behind a thaumic barrier.”

Luna’s eyes glistened dangerously.

“Safety concerns aside, do you have all the necessary equipment for this experiment here in the laboratory right now?”

Crystal Melody exchanged a nervous glance with Facet.

“Yes… Your Highness,” he finally answered lamely.

“Well then, we will perform the experiment now. We will provide the necessary safety,” the princess commanded. Her tone allowed no disagreement.

Studying the room carefully, Dr. Crystal Melody saw shocked faces. She felt the tension as everypony seemed to be waiting for somepony else to make the first move. Well, she wasn’t going to tell the princess “no.”

Finally, the lead crystallographer answered, his ears pressed tightly against his head. “Yes, of course, Your Highness. Everypony, prepare for the attunement cycle.”

Apparently, neither was he.

Only very slowly, the team started to move. Equipment was prepared, goggles were put on, notes were made.
After every aspect of the setup was checked, double-checked and triple-checked, Dr. Crystal Melody looked around the room, seeing nervous but determined ponies.

Again, it was Dr. Facet who broke the silence.

“Your Highness, the preparations are complete. We will now align the final parts of the crystal’s internal structure. I must remind everyone that after this step has been completed, absolutely no magic in this room. That applies to earth ponies and pegasi too, I don’t even want to see the flick of a wing,” Dr. Facet warned, his eyes wandering to a twitchy yellow pegasus stallion, who guiltily looked at his hooves.

Princess Luna only nodded.

The command given, all ponies of Project Eternity went to work. It didn’t take much to complete the final adjustments on the crystal. Only the last step of the internal alignment hadn’t been completed, so that there could be no dangerous buildup of thaumic resonance when it reacted to the present emotional inputs. However, this last step was still critical. Any mistake here could spell disaster.

Dr. Facet’s voice dropped to a mumble. “We will now apply our collective magic to ready the crystal.”

Dr. Melody saw him glancing between the unicorns of the alignment team as he adjusted his mane with a shaky hoof. “Since there are three of us, any irregularities in our thaumic frequencies should be flattened out.”

“What do you hope will happen, once you are done with these final adjustments?” Princess Luna asked.

“Ideally, the crystal will begin to attune to our collective emotional emissions, Your Highness. Its structure will resonate until a harmonic frequency is achieved. Once the crystal is at capacity, as mentioned before, it will radiate these harmonics outwards. The crystal is fairly small and configured to a low magnitude. We should only feel a minor emotional effect,” Dr. Melody explained, trying her best to sound casual.

“Thank you, Doctor, please start the experiment,” Luna commanded with a tap of her hoof.

Dr. Facet’s horn lit up first in a soft glow. After a moment, two of his unicorn colleagues joined in. As their collective magic auras flowed around the crystal, a soft hum could be heard in the laboratory. Each of the crystallographers had sweat dripping down their muzzles, completely concentrated on the task before them.

Dr. Melody knew that the unicorns were carefully shifting and aligning microscopic pieces of crystal with each other. Looked at from a different perspective, what was only a piece of shiny rock to most ponies hosted an entire world inside. Complex crystalline pathways, interconnected with each other like the most sophisticated of rail networks. They began to sing to her.

She felt the crystal like it was a part of her. Tiny vibrations were being echoed through the structure. The repeating symmetries of the crystal lattice reinforced and relayed them. Different regions with slightly different frequencies. Talking to each other. Exchanging information. Finding harmony.

Nopony made a sound. Dr. Melody was completely entranced by the crystal. After what felt like an hour, but had only been minutes, the horns of the three crystallographers whiffed out and the magical glow ceased.

“The crystal is now internally aligned and should start reacting to our emotional auras any second.”

Dr Facet’s voice had dropped to a whisper, as if speaking too loudly could endanger the experiment. Still, it was enough to bring Dr. Melody back to reality. Dr. Facet finally stepped back from the crystal, eyeing it like it was a dangerous predator, ready to pounce on him.

“Remember, absolutely no magic from here on out. And try to think… happy thoughts,” he added encouragingly, daring a quick smile at the end. It did not look very convincing.

Dr. Melody could feel that within the crystal, the process had already begun. Vibrations bounced on the lattices. Fear. Hope. Anticipation. Pride. Shame. All these emotions and many more were fighting for dominance. Each in their own unique pattern. Slowly averaging each other out, the crystal began to vibrate in one, unified melody, which was inaudible to all but her.

Beautiful.

“The crystal is now charging up. There, can you see these multicolor lights dancing on the surface? This means that it has almost reached full capacity,” Dr. Facet continued in an awed whisper.

Everypony in the room was busy monitoring some kind of device, making notes or sketching out the visible changes in the crystal, sometimes exchanging hopeful glances with each other. Fine thermometers measured each fluctuation within the crystal’s temperature, while different kinds of spectrometers recorded any flicker of light passing over its surface.

Indeed, Dr. Melody could feel that the microscopic vibrations in the lattice structure had almost reached their maximum strength. Yet she could hear tiny imperfections. They were warping the complex network in chaotic ways. Discordant. The overall structure tried to compensate for these flaws, offloading vibrations to other areas, overstretching these in turn. The internal structure of the crystal was straining. Bending. Failing.

Dr. Facet whispered excitedly to the princess, “Your Highness, we have now reached maximum capacity. This is the most critical stage. Either we will see a stabilization and even emission, or—”

“Something is wrong!” Dr. Melody interrupted with an alarmed yelp, already dashing towards the crystal.

As if to emphasize her point, a hairline crack appeared on one of the crystal’s faces. A collective gasp went through the room.

Suddenly, geometric artifacts appeared to float in Dr. Melody’s vision. Yellow triangles. Pink circles. Altogether strange and indescribable forms seemed to leak from a reality beyond, carrying colors that were unfamiliar to pony eyes, yet were so logical once she saw them. Ghostly movements in the corners of her eyes. Hooves. Wings. Tails. Swishing by and gone forever. Soft whispers played around her ears, barely audible. Words nearly understood, but never quite. A language that was almost Equish.

Before anypony else could react, Dr. Melody had already picked up the metal cover in her hooves and slammed it on top of the crystal. In an instant, the strange effects vanished.

Everypony froze. Princess Luna took up a position in front of the experiment, spreading out her wings protectively. The scientists took cover behind her tall body.

For several tense minutes, nopony did anything. The only sound was the high-pitched whine of magic and the low hum of the crystal as the emitted emotional energy was absorbed by the protective casing.

Finally, the sounds ceased. Luna exhaled slowly, her stance relaxing almost imperceptibly. She walked up to the experiment and carefully removed the protective cover with her hooves. It revealed a dull, smoky crystal underneath. Silent. Dead.

A cheer went up from the team, but Luna’s expression remained grave.

“Was this experiment not a failure?” she asked with a disappointed huff, poking the dead crystal with her hoof.

Dr. Melody saw Facet take a few calming breaths, then he faced the princess again.

“Failure, Your Highness? While I would not dare to disagree with—” he started, but Dr. Melody decided to have pity on him.

“Your Highness, with these measurements, we can refine our method. I assume some of the structural alignment failed, but it did not detonate. This is a significant step forward for our research. A success,” she said confidently.

The princess furrowed her brows but did not reply.

As it became clear that the crystal was not a threat anymore, everypony else rushed to their respective stations and started fiddling with various instruments.

“We have a thaumic resonance within ten percent of the expected band!” one assistant shouted across the room.

“Look at these light signatures! Amazing, simply amazing!” another pony yelled.

“Does anypony have readings on the thermal fluctuations?” yet another scientist asked, waving a stack of papers through the air with his wings.

“Sweet Celestia—” one assistant started, completely focused on a small device in front of him, but immediately stopped, as he noticed the angry glares from the ponies around him.

“I mean… uhm… sweet… Luna…? Sorry…” he tried, a deep crimson hue entering his cheeks.

Stealing a quick glance, Dr. Melody only noted a barely perceivable twitch of Luna’s left eyebrow. The rest of her body gave no visible reaction.

The princess waited while the team discussed preliminary results, exchanged measurements and compared calculations. The ponies around her were like honeybees in a hive that had been disturbed. Buzzing around Luna in excitement, the princess was the singular fixed point in the team’s galaxy. Patient. Perfectly still.

Once the excitement had visibly died down and more and more heads turned towards her again, she nodded kindly.

“Thank you for your great efforts, everypony. Your contributions to Equestria are already monumental. Now, would you please give the room to Dr. Crystal Melody and ourselves?” Luna asked in a friendly tone, which however had some steel underneath.

Dr. Facet raised a hesitant hoof.

“Your Highness, as the lead crystallographer, I—“

A glare from the princess cut him off.

Muttering and whispering amongst themselves, the scientists picked up papers, suitcases and small instruments. Dr. Melody saw relief in their faces as they headed for the exit, Dr. Facet among them. She felt bad for him, seeing him slink out of the lab with his tail between his legs. It was his work too, after all.

Once they were alone in the laboratory, Luna asked, not turning her head away from the crystal, “What is it about you? What is it that you can see that they cannot?”

Dr. Melody took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Memories of times long past rushed through her mind.

“Ever since I was a filly. I could hear them. I could hear the crystals sing, Your Highness.”

Dr. Melody pointed at her cutie mark. It was a crystalline quarter note.

“I can hear when they are in harmony. Healthy. But also, when they are deficient and struggling. In pain. By all rights, ponies should not be able to perceive these frequencies in such a way, but some of us do.”

“Fascinating. Dr. Melody, we recognize your special talent, but also your ability to see the big picture. Your ambition to create something incredible. Please, share with us your opinion on where we stand with our efforts and what your outlook on Project Eternity is. We trust that you will neither embellish nor downplay the facts,” Luna requested.

“Your Highness, today has been a great success. I believe that with these results, we will be able to construct the first crystal to act as a stable emotional receiver, amplifier and emitter within three months,” Dr. Melody answered.

“What will that mean for the project in general? Please, do drop the formalities, we are utterly bored of them.”

“I can see no reason why our venture should be impossible. The theoretical foundations are sound. Once we have created all the necessary components, we can start testing them in symphony. I believe Project Eternity can succeed,” Dr. Melody replied.

After so many years in the background, this could be her breakthrough. Dr. Melody felt pride and ambition flare up inside her. Seeing Princess Luna’s smirk, she knew that these emotions were not hidden to the alicorn. The princess wasted no time pouring water on that particular fire.

“Things are not quite as optimistic as you think. You only have but a shadow of our knowledge. Right now, ponykind is galloping towards certain destruction.”

Dr. Melody’s pride was quickly washed away by a familiar fear. She knew that Project Eternity was a very drastic measure, but were things really this bad?

“When ponies arrived in these lands, you were prey to the griffons and dragons. You were subjects to the creatures and nature that surrounded you. Look at you now. You have tamed the land. The warlike species pride themselves on strength on ferocity, yet they barely dare put a hoof or claw in Equestria.”

“Surely that is because of the protection of you and your sister, Princess,” Dr. Melody responded in a respectful tone.

“For now, yes. Yet we are anticipating something you don’t see. While other empires rise and fall, shortly flare up and crumble to ashes, you ponies continue to thrive. You stubbornly develop. The progress of science and technology in Equestria is accelerating. Do you understand our conclusion?” the princess asked.

The pieces of the puzzle fell into place all at once.

“Yes, I do. If the current trends hold, before long, our neighbors will be at our complete mercy. Our development will outpace them by magnitudes.”

Dr. Melody could not suppress a frown settling on her muzzle.

“But why is that a problem? Ponies are creatures of peace and harmony. We would never hurt our neighbors!”

In a heartbeat, Luna’s eyes snapped wide open. With a manic grin, she lunged towards Dr. Melody. Without thinking, Crystal Melody took a few hasty steps back. Her rear bumped into some laboratory equipment, which would have fallen over had the princess not quickly caught it in her magic.

“Wouldn’t you?” Luna hissed, that grin still on her face. “You retain your ancient instincts still. You forget that ponies are also creatures of fear, creatures of flight. If another race is stupid enough to scare you? To really scare you? There’s no telling what you will do.”

Melody’s thoughts swam through her head like jelly. She could only muster a confused glare.

Mercifully, the princess took a step back. That grin vanished and she resumed a cold, stately posture as she continued. “Your ability to harness magical and mundane energy will increase exponentially. With time, your technology will be at a most terrifying level. That day is far away, but trust me, little pony. It will come.”

Released from the princess’s stare, Melody’s mind resumed its regular function. The world around her suddenly seemed exceptionally grim.

“And at that point, a single mistake could warp reality to such a degree that we may not be able to repair it. With so much power, one slip-up would be enough. Time magic, global weather control, manipulations of nature...” she said.

“Precisely so,” the princess agreed sombrely. “Playing with forces such as these, the world tends not to forgive.”

“But surely, you and your sister are able to stop this!” Dr. Melody protested.

“What do you think we are doing right now, Dr. Melody?” the princess replied with a slight smile.

“Project Eternity. You want to use it to mellow out the worst instincts of ponykind, right? Its purpose is to keep us in check, keep us from destroying anyone else and ourselves?” Dr. Melody was looking at her hooves intently, her eyes twitching uncontrollably. “But… over a long enough time horizon… even if we can make it work… it will be almost useless.”

Princess Luna closed her eyes for a moment. The smile vanished from her muzzle and she took a deep breath.

“What we must do also is contain the progress of technology in Equestria,” she stated calmly.

Dr. Melody’s breath caught in her lungs. Her heart and mind raced. Of course. This was the logical conclusion.

“Y-you are going to prohibit science?” Dr. Melody stammered. She just so managed to press out the words.

The princess put a hoof on her shoulder. The touch felt alien, yet strangely comforting.

“No, no. Nothing so crude. Our rule is one of consent, and prohibitions are such a forceful and brittle thing. To effectively contain ponykind’s technological development and disarm it across such an impossibly long amount of time, they are worthless.”

The alicorn tapped her hoof for emphasis and went on.

“What we must do is create an environment in which science cannot succeed. Using our present knowledge, we need to create an illusory world of ghosts and shadows, of wonders and miracles. A world that seemingly cannot be explained by reason and science. That means, among many other measures, once Project Eternity is completed, we need to cleanse all knowledge of it.”

The princess concluded with finality. “History will not remember you, Dr. Melody. However, maybe you will be able to save history.”

Dr. Melody’s eyes darted from left to right. Where was the exit again?

“Does… does Princess Celestia approve of this plan?”

The princess’s eye started to twitch. Her dark fur seemed to absorb the cold, artificial light. Melody took a slow step back from the alicorn and glanced towards the door.

Luna’s face snapped towards her.

“The firstborn”—the princess almost spit the second word—“is well aware of our efforts. She may not wholly agree with our methods, but her support for this project is unshaken.”

Just as suddenly as it had come, Princess Luna seemed to snap out of her irritation. She took a few deep breaths. Dr. Melody was stunned at this moment. For just a second, the princess had vanished and a regular pony had taken her place. As Luna visibly relaxed, so did she.

“Tell me one more thing, little pony,” Princess Luna continued in a calmer tone. “Would it be possible to build Project Eternity in such a way that it is not only able to receive, amplify and transmit emotional energies, but also magical energies? Could it be built to be a spell amplifier?”

For a few seconds, the two ponies, blue and gray, princess and scientist, studied each other. A renewed shock rose up in Dr. Melody. Still, there was something else as well. Such a magnificent challenge. Such an awesome device. She broke the silence first.

“Well… hypothetically… thaumic and emotional frequencies are remarkably similar. This is the same reason why we cannot safely use magic around an aligned crystal. It stands to reason that the system could be constructed to be dual in use, yes. But why would that be necessary? Who would have the will and the power to transmit a spell across all of Equestria?”

“Think of it as an insurance policy, should the other plan fail,” Luna whispered. Dr. Melody barely caught the words, but something in the alicorn’s voice made a chill run down her spine.

“Why are you discussing these details with me? Surely this plan works better the fewer ponies know about it,” Dr. Melody challenged.

“It is often wise to discuss ideas with clever ponies you trust. And I do trust you, Crystal Melody. After all, I have seen your dreams.”

Author's Note

Comments and feedback are always appreciated.

You'll read this a lot in the oncoming chapters, but super special thanks to mellon for editing & proofreading. This story wouldn't be what it is without them.

I'm looking for additional proofreaders. If you are interested, feel free to hit me up.

Some credit goes to iisaw for inspiring the way crystal interact with magic and music. Go read their stories if you haven't, they are great.