Shade of A Crystal Empire

by igotastewgoing

Promises

Chapter Eight
Promises

The sound of water smashing against the walls above her head was deafening. Spray drifted down from the four small windows at the very top of the deep pit she had found herself in, which let in not only the mist of the dark, oily water that broke against the gray stone, but also the only light that allowed her to see her prison. Shallow puddles littered the hard floor all around her where the dripping water from the ceiling was most consistent, and the incessant tapping of the drops falling on the stone floor was enough to drive one to madness as they echoed madly around the tiny circular chamber. This was a place that would never be dry, pleasant, or allowing of anything other than despair. At the bottom of the prison in which she found herself, she knew that this was where hope went to die.

Twilight stared upwards as she had for what seemed like the past few days. It was impossible to tell how long it had been, as time seemed to ebb and flow around her with no pattern or reason to be found. There was no change in light to mark the passing of the sun, if the sun even existed anymore. Much like time, the sun could be a long misremembered memory or a forgotten dream down here. The only light was the sickly glow from that narrow ring of slits that quartered the walls high above.

As she gazed up at the ceiling, cold drops falling on her head and rolling back into her mane, the windows seemed to pull away as if she were sinking. Or perhaps the walls were getting taller. Vertigo clutched her stomach and threatened to make her collapse. The slices of light got smaller and smaller as they slid further away, and soon they were lost to sight completely, leaving her alone in the pit without anything to remind her of what the daylight once looked like. There was only the darkness and the eternal sound of the pounding of water all around her.

At that she finally did collapse. Laying on the cold, wet stone floor with her head in her hooves, Twilight wept. Two words kept falling from her mouth, though she did not mean to say them. With the sounds of dripping water, they echoed around her prison like bugs caught in a jar.

I'm here.

I'm here.

I'm here.

How long it was before she opened her eyes again, she couldn't say. By the time she did, her legs were stiff with the cold and the damp, and the tears from her eyes had chilled on her coat, leaving a frosty bite far more bitter than any weather.

Then from behind came a new sound. This one was familiar. It was a sound of another pony's voice, almost alien to her ears after the endless barrage of dripping water. It sounded odd. It sounded happy and full of life. Such shocking contrast scared her, but still Twilight felt compelled to seek it out.

Raising herself from the floor and turning around, she saw the wall behind her had been replaced by a barrier of solid blackness—the floor falling away into nothing beneath an arched doorway that yawned with hunger. No light pierced within that inky dead space, but still sounds came from it. They beckoned her to come towards them. They told her that it would be alright. And they promised her that they were her friends.

Whether or not they were speaking the truth, Twilight was drawn to the voices. She inched forward towards the empty void beyond that door and turned her head to listen. She felt a cool wind blowing out from it, harsh and arctic, and reeking of the stink of uncaring chaos. Afraid, she took a step backwards. It was then she thought she heard a voice on the wind, just on the edge of perception.

"Where are you?"

She couldn't place the face, but she knew that voice was familiar.

"Hello? Where are you?"

The voice overflowed with longing. And somehow Twilight knew that it was herself that the voice needed. It was looking for her. And it wanted to save her.

"I'm…here," Twilight said. Her voice was barely a whisper.

There was a pause. Then, just a little louder than before, she heard it again.

"Where are you?"

"Here," Twilight answered, her voice louder and stronger. "Here, here! I'm here!"

Through the black emptiness of the portal, a ripple in reality began forming into a blotch of faint colors. A small glob of purple in the center of the portal grew larger and larger as the voice continued calling out, all the time getting stronger.

"Where are you?!"

Twilight stepped closer towards the portal as the image before her began forming into the shape of another pony. She could make out the mane, the legs, the tail and everything else as the image cleared. The other pony was facing away from her, running in place as they floated in the blackness, yet still they drifted closer and closer.

"Here! I'm here!" she shouted. "I'm here!"

The other pony was so close. She could make out the dark purple mane and tail along with the lighter purple of her coat. And while the face was obscured by the moderately short mane, Twilight saw from the horn peeking out from it that the other pony was a unicorn.

"I'm here!" she repeated again at the top of her lungs. "I'm he—"

She stopped as a flash of pink caught her eye as the vision drew close enough to make out clearly. With a sudden chill in her veins, Twilight recognized the matching pink and lavender streaks in the other pony's tail and mane. The bobbed manecut with the pronounced bangs. The six-sided star of the cutie mark.

It's…me…

As Twilight stood frozen in shock, the image drew close enough to her to almost be able to touch. Her mirror image had stopped running, and was tilting its head to the side as if trying to hear her call. Besides the obvious, something about it just seemed wrong, and the chill wind creeping off of the portal had gotten deeper. As it stood at the entrance to the blackness, its back still to her, Twilight heard whatever it was ask her question one more time.

"Where are you?" it asked in Twilight's voice.

Swallowing hard and mustering her courage, Twilight managed a whisper.

"I'm here."

Her doppelganger's head spun around to look straight at her. To Twilight's horror, she saw that it had no face.

She gave a cry and stumbled backwards, only to find her movement violently stopped by shackles around her legs. Raising her front hooves to her face to gape in confusion at the rusty manacles that held her, she looked down to see an even stranger sight: Her coat was now a light blue, and she recognized the markings of lightweight designer horseshoes, specifically made for flying. Whipping her head around to look at her sides, she saw and then felt the wings that were shooting out from her back as they fluttered in panic. Her mane brushed past her face, a tableau of bright colors that stood out in the dull gloom like a supernova.

"I'm…I'm…"

All around her, tendrils of black crystals burst from the damp stone in a great explosion, climbing upwards towards the dim light with incredible speed. Violently they twisted around each other and the chamber like vines, grinding the walls to powdered ruin as an abyssal, hideous roar thundered in obscene rage.

The faceless Twilight in the portal leaped out to grab her with a piercing scream that shattered the collapsing world around her.

"RAINBOW DASH!!!"

* * *

Twilight Sparkle awoke with a soft gasp. The side of her face was hot and damp with having had her hoof pressed against it, and she could feel the mark that it had left. Rubbing her cheek as she caught her breath and slowed the pounding of her rapidly beating heart, she tried to pull her mind back into the real world from the realm of dreams.

The gentle swaying of the room reminded her that she was in one of the passenger cars of the train. It was very early in the morning, and the setting moon was shining bright and strong through the windows that had not had their curtains drawn. The sighs and coughs of the pistons merged with the clatter of the wheels on the tracks, along with the gentle snores of her injured brother laying on the seats that had been repurposed into a makeshift bed. It seemed like it had only been a minute since she had laid her head down at the foot of it to rest her eyes for a moment. She had been so tired, but now as the nightmare solidified in her mind, any weariness she felt before was quickly expunged.

But was it a dream?

She felt it deep in her soul. It was the same sense of dread certainty that she had felt after her dream she had seen in Canterlot before setting out on her ill-fated journey. She had seen Sombra's throne room. She had seen Rainbow Dash leave her, and had felt the lingering emptiness the vision had left. At the time she had chalked that sense of dread up to nerves and stress, but now as she sat in the darkness of the train car with the ache of her friend's vanishing still writhing inside, she understood that it had been more than a mere dream before. It had been an omen.

She had seen through Dash's eyes.

Could it be possible that…

She began unconsciously running a hoof through her mane. Soft mutterings came from under her breath as she started turning the vision over and over in her head. Pieces of a giant puzzle flew through her mind as they tried to find ways to fit together, but there were too many of them, and the edges were too blurred to make sense of. Somehow the air inside the train had become stifling, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Feeling an attack of panic setting in, she abruptly stood up and shook her head in an attempt to clear it.

Shining Armor stirred briefly as Twilight pushed down on his cot to raise herself, but he was too far under the effects of the painkilling medicines to awaken so easily. He winced slightly as his leg, bound tight and thick with fresh wrappings, jostled with his movement. The moonlight picked up the bright white of the linen bandages around his front leg, his head, both back knees and the numerous cuts and smaller wounds he had collected during his fight, highlighting them almost to the point of glowing in the darkness of the cabin. His face was still haggard and pale, but despite his grim appearance he still looked a magnitude better than when Twilight had first seen him.

Twilight looked down at him and felt another surge of anxiety rising in her stomach. The anger she had felt towards him earlier flooded back through her mind, and her heart ached with the shame of having said and thought those nasty things now that she saw him in his broken and beaten state. As all the loss and worry and guilt of the past few days made her head swim, Twilight found herself gasping for breath as she unconsciously swayed back and forth, rooted to the floor. The puzzle pieces swam around her mind like a shaken-up bottle of soda that was straining at the cap, ready to burst.

Sombra

What does it mean

The Crystal Empire

I couldn't stop him

Rainbow Dash

They were counting on me

His poor leg

The dream

Shining Armor

I couldn't

Was it a prison

Cadence

How did I miss it

She's trapped

I called him a jerk

The dream

How did we all miss it

The dream

The dream

Twilight was pulled from her daze by the sudden movement of Cadence stirring from the cot next to Shining Armor, and realized that she was loudly approaching hyperventilation. Rolling over and quietly muttering to herself, Cadence reached out her hoof to the empty space next to her where under normal, better circumstances, her husband would be laying. Finding nothing, she gave a soft whimper and curled up on herself, fidgeting as her body refused to wind down. She seemed to have aged decades in this short period of time, and though this was the first rest she'd gotten since awakening that morning to see Shining Armor off more than two days ago at this point, even while she was sleeping she still seemed frenzied.

Cadence's movement snapped Twilight from her trance like a slap, sending a burst of fireflies through her head as it floated in a crystal clear fog. A sharp ringing on the edge of perception cut through the night and tolled in her ears, putting every breath and snore and thump and rattle and clack and clink and peal of metal on the tracks into razor sharp focus and making them grow in strength as they surrounded her and attempted to crawl inside her mind until it was fit to burst.

Stumbling back from the foot of Shining Armor's cot, Twilight made her way on unsteadily legs to the door, running from the choking thickness of the atmosphere. Quickly she weaved through the rows of soldiers sleeping on the floor, oblivious to the noise her deep gasps were making in the quiet of the compartment, and headed for the exit. Magically yanking the handle, she shouldered the door open and stumbled into the chill of the open air between the cars and then closed it behind her.

She stood leaning against the guardrail, venting the episode of claustrophobia from her lungs, gasping and heaving along with the churning of the wheels and pistons. The crushing depths of the cabin slowly fell off her back, layer by layer, until she finally felt light enough to lift her head from its place hanging over the rail, and looked up into the sky. As the frosty night washed over her, she found some small solace in the gentle pinpricks of distant stars, oddly calming in their indifference.

As her mind emptied of its tangled jumble of thoughts, Twilight's eyes were drawn towards the moon, casting down light bright and eternal. It stood vast and full in the sky, looking down in apathetic permanence. Her practiced eyes traced the various crags and craters that were visible on this cloudless night, even without a telescope. Every feature was as it always was. It was a familiar friend—always there, never wavering.

Unchanging.

Constant.

Unable to tear her gaze away from the moon, she felt her heart surge up into her throat. How could she live when such a terrible sacrifice had been made for her? She hadn't asked for it. If she had had a choice, she wouldn't have agreed. What made her so worthy? Why was she here and not Rainbow Dash?

Friend in the sky.

Forever.

Loyalty.

Loyalty to the promise. Loyalty to her friends. The essence of Rainbow Dash. Even though the act of loyalty itself forced her to break her oath, in a way breaking that promise had been the most pure act of loyalty she could have done. And now she was gone.

But that vision. Could it mean more than being just a dream? And could Twilight stand by idly if that was the case? Could she live with herself if she did anything other than assume that her friend was still there, somewhere? Would she have done anything less?

"You couldn't find anything on the ground or in the sky to take me away from you, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight felt warmness breaking and running down her cheeks. All around her the night was blurred from the tears in her eyes, but somehow the moon stayed perfectly in focus as she looked on unblinking. It was there, standing on that cold, windy platform on the train as it crested a rise bringing into sight the distant mountains where upon the great city of Canterlot was perched, that Twilight Sparkle made a promise on the moon, the sun, herself, her friends, all of Equestria, and everything that lived and breathed underneath the light of those distant stars.

"I swear to you," she whispered into the sky. "No matter what I have to do. No matter where I have to go. No matter the cost. I will find you."

The weakening beams of moonlight swelled as they bore witness. In the east, behind the wall of climbing mountains on the horizon, the first rays of the approaching sun caught the clouds around the summits. The distant spires of Canterlot faintly glimmered golden against the reddening sky and violet peaks.

"I will bring you back."

* * *

The city of Canterlot was a flurry of frantic activity. Celestia's Royal guards, resplendent but haggard in their golden armor, were briskly hurrying to and fro as they led various refugees to their respective assigned lodgings in an endless cycle of faces and slapdash orders, directions and negotiations. There was only the barest hint of structure to be found, as the sudden influx of hundreds of outcasts was not something anypony had anticipated having to deal with. Given the limited amount of horsepower available, seeing as many had yet to return from their deployment to the North, it was a minor miracle that this admitted disaster wasn't going worse than it was already. At least not yet.

But it wouldn't be long until whatever miracle had occurred was all used up. Canterlot, despite being the seat of royal power and the shining jewel of Equestria, had never been intended to be a majorly populated city. There simply wasn't enough room on the cliff-side to accommodate this many ponies, and most of its infrastructure was for aesthetic value as opposed to housing or shelter purposes. But it was the first stop for the train on the only direction it could now travel, which meant that everypony was going to wind up there before they were going anywhere else.

From the castle spires, they looked like a landslide of bodies running through the city. They were packing the streets until nothing could get through the cobblestone pathways even if they wanted to. Carts had been abandoned were they had stopped, and many had been repurposed as an impromptu shelter. The marketplace around the station was stuffed so fully that only brief hints of the beautiful stone mosaics decorating the ground could be seen. Tents and lean-tos had sprung up all around the square like mushrooms, and all of the stands had been crudely transformed into a sad mockery of housing. Fifteen ponies had crammed themselves into what remained of "Colonel Candy's Sweets and Puppet Show" stand, using the inside of its tall, pointed roof to make quadruple bunk-beds for some of the young ones. Colonel Candy himself was nowhere to be seen. There were ponies huddled underneath blankets on the curbs, ponies carving out niches in the doorways of shops, and ponies resting while they used a mailbox for a pillow. Those that were unlucky enough to not be able to find a place to lay down or sit simply tried sleeping while they stood. Their weariness had taken the fight out of some of their number, but the deteriorating situation was beginning to make tensions run high, and tempers were growing short.

It quickly had reached the point where for every pony that gratefully accepted the meager accommodations, there were three others that balked at the crowded conditions and lack of definitive answers to the growing problems. The food was diminishing rapidly, there wasn't enough shelter to be found, an official headcount had still not been completed, the question of Sombra still remained hanging over their heads, medical supplies for the injured were running low, and nopony, let alone the over-burdened guards had the solutions to any of it. Even they had been booted out of their own barracks to make way for the wounded pegasi from Cadence's battle with the monsters of shadow they had reported fighting, another issue that kept being brought up as unresolved. Most of the soldiers slept in the halls of the castle, but some were forced outside among the throng of refugees. Those unlucky ones were made to suffer the constant barrage of questions that they had no answers for, and were often the direct receivers of any complaints leveled at the monarchy.

Despite the unfairness of blaming the guards, common consensus considered the refugees well within their rights to be concerned. The masses making quick work of filling the city to bursting were only the ponies who had been lucky or important enough to be on the first train ride out. There were still hundreds back at the field where the Crystal Empire had once been, waiting in their make-shift shelters for the next train and hoping their number would get called so that they could leave the cold wasteland which used to be their home. Every day the crowd got bigger. And by the time they all arrived, things were going to have become much, much more desperate.

It only took three days for the first open display of mutiny to occur. In a one of the corners of the square, right by the spot where the produce stands used to be before they had been scraped to make tent supports, a teenaged stallion was attracting a crowd with his rants declaring inequality of lodgings and ineptitude of leadership, condemning the disaster that had befallen their home again and reinforcing the fear of Sombra's continued reign of terror. He was attempting to whip them into a frenzy with chants of "No more Crystal Empires!" but was finding his support lacking, although a hoof-full of ponies were nodding in agreement, a few taking up his mantra. Most were watching with weary curiosity.

There wasn't an overly large reaction from the situation at all until a squad of guards approached him, at which point the young protester began adding allegations of subjugation to his list of grievances. They attempted to quiet him down, and when that didn't work they tried to lead him away somewhere else, at which point the firebrand found himself flanked by supporters coming to his aid. A shouting match quickly swelled up over the din of the square, and the eyes of every pony there were drawn to the confrontation. A hoof on the shoulder turned into a shove which in turn became a small scuffle, and like the snap of a twig the situation threatened to become violent.

It was then that another squad of guards arrived, led by a large, muscular pony wearing the blue and white plumed helm of a captain. The commander stepped in between the protestor and the guard he was tussling with, and with practiced diplomatic skill and physical presence was able to calm him down enough to exchange some quiet words. Eventually the demonstrator was led away towards the castle without further struggle, looking reasonably validated but a bit nervous all the same.

Twilight had watched the entire thing transpire from a second story window of the hospital. She gave a sigh of relief as the protestor and his escort passed underneath the arched doorway into the barracks, and shook her head as she returned to the book she had been reading before the shouting had started. Garbage like that was the last thing they needed. Canterlot was in bad enough shape without a rebellion being stirred up right outside the castle.

Ever since she had gotten off the train, Twilight had felt like a piece of paper to be processed and filed away. She was a face in an vast ocean of faces, and nopony had paid her much mind after her name had been checked off the list of survivors. She and her friends had been placed in the same suite as they had been before they had left, only now instead of two rooms they were sharing a single one with a dozen other ponies, who were mostly relocated palace servants. And while the accommodations for many of those ponies was a step up from their normal quarters, none seemed too pleased with the arrangement, and were unwelcomingly frosty. The room's atmosphere of perpetual annoyed silence fit right alongside the tone of the rest of the castle.

For that reason, she spent as little time as possible there. She would walk the covered bridges between the towers and look down on the streets as they overflowed with the homeless. She read books in the vast castle library when she found the energy. Every once in a great while she found her way to the kitchens to get something to eat when she remembered to. Sometimes she would find the rare empty corner and have a quick cry when nopony was looking.

But most of the time she stayed in the hospital with her brother and Cadence. Shining Armor had been in and out of consciousness since their arrival, but it was common consensus that the worst was behind him. While his leg was the main thing that kept him in a perpetual haze of pain-killing medicines, the cause of most of his irritation was his jaw, which had taken a rather hard hit and had yet to see the swelling go down. This made talking painful, relegating his spoken conversations to fragmented two or three word sentences. Sometimes he chose to write using a quill and his magic, but often the medicine would overwhelm him and he'd be unable to write for long before drifting off to sleep again, the quill usually adding to the growing collection of ink stains on his sheets as it fell.

That's how Twilight had left him a few hours ago. Cadence had been relaying the current situation to him as best as she could, and Shining Armor had tried his best to focus, but she had only gotten as far as the latest updates from the scouts still searching for traces of Sombra's mysteriously disappeared army before his eyes rolled back in his head and he was again passed out. Cadence had heaved a deep sigh and sat back down at his bedside, gently brushing his disheveled mane out of his eyes. Twilight had left them alone and went back to her book.

Reading was proving difficult. Her perch in the corner of a small kitchen on the second floor was cozy and relatively neglected by everypony else, but the constant noise coming from outside the window overlooking the square teeming with refugees was making it impossible for her to concentrate. That was without taking the smell into consideration, a factor that demanded the window always be shut.

It was a boring, ponderous tome in any case. On her best day she'd be hard pressed to easily digest it, but with everything that had happened, her approaching meeting with Celestia, and that incessant racket outside, it was impossible for her to bring herself to care about A Thoroughly Thorough Treatise on Trances, Volume IX: Dreams (Nighttime). She had thought that perhaps the book could have offered some insight into the nightmare she had on the train, but the language was surprisingly technical and seemed to have been written with the intention of needing a decoder key to understand the lengthy, overly-dense language. It was like reading a philosophy book written by an exceptionally boring rocket scientist who had a tendency to ramble.

After reading the same paragraph-long sentence for the sixth time and still not comprehending what it meant, she grunted and brusquely flipped the book closed with her hoof. She had had quite enough. Any more would just make her frustrated, and she didn't want to be in a foul mood before seeing Celestia.

Twilight hadn't spoken with the princess since leaving the former site of the Crystal Empire. It had been late in the afternoon the next day by the time everypony had seen the brilliant golden armor of her pegasi soldiers as they caught the light of the low hanging sun, heralding her arrival. Cadence had been back some time by then, having heard the unfathomable news her scouts had brought back to her, and was overseeing the sheltering of her subjects as best she could given the shock. When Celestia had gotten there, she had pulled Cadence into the vast snowfield to speak to her away from everypony else. They had been far enough away so that Twilight had not been privy to their conversation, but even from that distance its frantic and heated nature had been clear. Celestia had stormed away at the end, leaving Cadence silently fuming in the field of snow that used to be her kingdom. Their relationship after that had been icy.

Celestia had been livid from then on, and had not spoken much. Being the regal presence that she was, she never allowed her anger to manifest itself to the point of screaming or rudeness. All the same there was a fierce conflagration in her eyes that would not leave. Oftentimes she could be found looking out over the desolation left by Sombra's curse, her face a mask of untainted loathing. One would think that her old nemesis would be the subject of her rage, but her slumped, defeated posture suggested to everypony else that it wasn't just him who was the focus of her disgust. She seemed repulsed by her own skin.

During that time the only words she had exchanged with Twilight was a customary "Are you alright" followed by cursory questions about what had happened. When told of Rainbow Dash's fate, she had flinched somewhat and then shook her head. Looking up at her, Twilight had seen the twinge of pain racking her face, threatening to split it asunder.

"I am so sorry, Twilight," she had said.

For minutes they had stood unmoving in silence. There had been nothing else to say. After that Twilight had only seen her a hoofful of times more, and it had always been in passing from a distance. Celestia had been doing a admirable job of organizing the recovery efforts, but she never stayed in one place for more than a few minutes. She seemed to teleport around the camp, always appearing when something had gone wrong, but never there unless there was a problem. Even at night she had been nowhere to be found, and nopony ever knew where it was that she had gone. Her makeshift bed remained unused for the duration of her stay.

When the train arrived in the late morning of the second day, Celestia had overseen the process of magically levitating and flipping the train around on the tracks to go back south, which was a necessity since the turn-around was further on down the tracks, past the newly made gap. Once that was done she had again disappeared. That afternoon as the train began its first of many trips back to Canterlot, Celestia had not been aboard. As the train started rolling, Twilight had glanced out the window for one last look at the scene of the disaster. Way off in the distance, near the tree line on the opposite side and barely visible against the snow, Twilight had seen a lone figure gazing out at the empty field, radiating sorrow even from that distance. Before she was lost to sight as the train rounded a bend, she spread her great white wings and taken flight. Twilight had followed her until she had been lost in the blinding rays of the sinking sun.

That had been a week ago, and the last she'd seen of Celestia. But today she had an appointment to see her mentor again for the first time since arriving in Canterlot. Oddly enough it had been Celestia herself who had summoned Twilight, although the purpose of the meeting was still a mystery. Twilight was a tad apprehensive considering their last abbreviated conversation, but never the less she was glad to be seeing her. Her brainstorming had approached something of an impasse, and Celestia's insight would be unquestionably useful. A collaboration with the princess might be just the thing she needed to figure out this riddle. That and she could certainly stand to see a friendly face. There had been so few of those around lately.

At least she hoped it was friendly.

Looking at the clock on the wall, she realized that the afternoon had slipped away from her, and that it was almost time. Getting to her hooves and stretching the stiffness out of her limbs, Twilight took a deep breath, steeling herself and saying "I'm ready" to nopony in particular before heading out the door towards the main hub of the castle. She left the book behind on the table, and didn't even bother to mark her place. That was a lost cause.

She was in the middle of contemplating her dream again and had just had the notion to ask Princess Luna about the vision when she noticed that she was already at the doorway at the foot of Celestia's tower. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she had gone on autopilot the whole way there. One of the guards checked a list he had in front of him and nodded to the other one who proceeded to open the door for her.

"There's one party ahead of you," the guard with the list said as she passed. "Just go up the stairs and take a seat. Princess Celestia will see you when she's ready."

Twilight walked up the winding staircase and through the light of the sun filtering through the stained glass windows that encased the tower, throwing brilliant beams of colors all around as they ricocheted off the gleaming white marble. Craning her neck up to look at the great light from above, Twilight marveled at the great crystalline sun that graced the ceiling. Shaped like a three dimensional representation of Celestia's cutie mark, It almost shone like the real thing as carefully placed windows and mirrors from all around the tower funneled light to it from outside, lighting it and the rest of the tower up at all times of the day no matter where the sun was in the sky. Celestia's Tower of the Sun was truly worthy of its title.

Passing the breathtaking crystal star, Twilight reached the hallway to Celestia's suite at the top of the tower. There the motif changed to a more modest design of dark wooden paneling, its many carvings depicting great deeds of the past, and the ancient history of Equestria. Twisting columns of black and white were interspaced throughout, all of them baring images of the sun in the white and the moon in black. The entire wall at the end of the hallway was a great stained glass window: a mosaic depicting a map of the entirety of Equestria in countless thousands of tiny shards of brightly colored glass, so intricately put together that until one approached closely, it appeared as a glowing painting. Twilight couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the beauty.

She took a seat on a cushioned bench outside the great double doors that led to Celestia's chambers. It was comfortable but oddly rigid and monarchical, and she couldn't feel at ease sitting there. It was as if it had been made with the intention of making sure that whoever was sitting there knew they were in trouble, and about to deal with the consequences. Of course she could have been imagining that, but still she found herself unable to sit, and instead stood up to began slowly pacing back and forth.

Twilight hadn't been waiting for long when the doors opened. Immediately a raised voice burst through the open doorway, echoing past Twilight and down the hall. Two of Celestia's personal guard flanked a young stallion as they led him out of Celestia's chambers, and he was making quite the scene. Twilight recognized him as the protester from the square she had seen earlier. As the guards firmly guided him away with hooves on his shoulders, he shouted back over his shoulder at the open door.

"You can't keep us here forever!" he yelled. "You don't have the right! Your reign is over! We're sick of it! No more Crystal Empires! No more Crystal Empires! Tyrant!"

His cries of dissent faded away as he was led down the stairs until they were meaningless noise. She caught the echoes coming up from below until the doors at the foot of the tower closed with a faint boom. Then there was only silence until a gentle voice from inside the room called out to her.

"Twilight?" it said. "Come in, please."

Stepping through the door, Twilight walked into Celestia's study. The princess was sitting on a cushioned daybed beside the balcony, overlooking the vast landscape sprawled out below. A gentle breeze was drifting through the open space, along with the buzz from the crowded city outside the window. Papers were strewn throughout the room, a large pile of them on the table in the corner. Most of them bore the seal of royal correspondence, and judging by the numerous spent quills littering the table and the empty jars of ink, it was clear that Celestia had been writing a tremendous amount of letters.

Sitting by the window, the ruler of Equestria looked much older than she normally appeared. Lines of sorrow had been etched deep into her lovely face, there were heavy bags under her eyes, and her mane was unkempt and limp, lacking the inner radiance that made it gently float as if caught in a magical draft. Celestia was thousands of years old, kept ostensibly immortal by alicorn magic, which was common knowledge, but this was the first time Twilight had ever seen her start to look her age.

With a tired smile, Celestia turned and beckoned her inside. Twilight returned the smile and gave a bow of respect. As she rose, she gestured with her head over her shoulder.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

Celestia's small smile faded, replaced with an exhausted frown. She turned to face out the window again.

"There are some who believe," she said softly, "That they would be better off if I was not their ruler anymore."

"Oh," Twilight said. For an awkwardly long moment that's all she could bring herself to say. Finally she managed to follow it up with "Well, they seem pretty stupid."

Celestia lightly scoffed. "They may be right," she said. "But that's not the point. I'm trying to take care of hundreds of refugees. I won't allow open rebellion. Not now. They can wait until I've relocated everypony. Then they can protest all they want. I can't say as I'd blame them."

Twilight did not know how to respond to that. Celestia had never said such debasing things about herself in front of her before. This was side of the princess that Twilight didn't even know existed. After sitting some more in silence, listening to the droning murmurs of the ponies below, Celestia turned back to her prodigy.

"Hello, Twilight," she said.

"Princess Celestia," Twilight replied with another bow.

Celestia drew herself up to sit higher on the couch. Gesturing with her hoof, she motioned for her to take a seat across from her on a comfortable looking chair.

"I called you here because I wanted to apologize," she said. "I've been ignoring you."

"I understand," said Twilight as she sat down. "You've been busy."

"Yes," Celestia replied, a small smirk crossing her face. "That's very true."

Silence again. The smirk left Celestia's face.

"How are you?" she eventually asked.

"I'm…fine."

Celesita shook her head. "I'm sorry," she said. "That's an absurd question. Of course you're not fine. None of us are."

"It's been…hard," Twilight said. "A big part of me just wants to go home."

Celestia nodded. "Soon enough," she said. "We have to wait for the train to finish bringing ponies back from up north. Then we'll be clear to start moving them around. Ponyville will be one of the first stops. You'll probably be the first ones home."

"I don't know what I'm going to say to everypony back home," Twilight said, chewing her lip. "How am I going to face them? After what happened?"

"There's nothing for you to feel responsible for, Twilight," Celestia replied, her voice balanced on the edge of gentle and firm. "You couldn't have guessed Sombra's plan. If anything, I blame myself. I should have realized it was more than it seemed. But Sombra's power once again confounded me. It's so insidious that I couldn't even comprehend it. I feel blind upon looking at his wickedness."

"You mean you can't understand him?"

"It comes from living in the light," Celestia said, each word carefully weighed. "My powers are of the realm of creation and love. Not darkness and destruction. It is…difficult for me to predict the powers of evil."

"I never knew that," Twilight said. "Why can't you predict them?"

"It's like going from outside on a sunny day into a basement with the lights off," she explained. "It takes some time for eyes to adjust. I can fight it as best I can after it has attacked, and once I delve into the darkness it is easier for me to understand it. And the powers of love are always stronger than those of hate. So that is on our side. But I don't live in the darkness, so it is difficult for me to see what it's doing, just as I'm sure a creature such as Sombra would find the light of day blinding after emerging from his pit. He would not be able to easily comprehend kindness nor selflessness. We are at an equal disadvantage in that. However, the powers of darkness are conniving and are quick to exploit weakness."

"I see. I had no idea."

"It is not something I like to admit," Celestia said. "But you deserve to know."

"I understand," said Twilight. "That could be a useful bit of information. Hopefully it will help."

"Help?" Celestia asked. "With what?"

Twilight took a deep breath and sat up straight. Exhaling, she steadied herself, ready to commit fully to the path she had laid out before herself.

"I want you to know that I'm ready," she said. "Whatever you need me to do. I'll do it."

Celestia stared at Twilight as if seeing her for the first time.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, I've been thinking a lot," Twilight began. "There's two ways I see of going about this. The first is to try and find the Crystal Empire. If it still exists on this plane of reality, then maybe a locating spell would be a good start. But that's pretty unlikely. If it was in fact relocated it was probably to another dimension or the like. If that's the case then we need to start working on something to travel between those realms."

"Twilight…"

"I know," she interrupted. "That's way beyond my skill level at this point. That's mostly theoretical anyway. I read about some experiments supposedly done in Fillydelphia, but there's no concrete evidence that even happened. It's mostly conspiracy theories. So that may be a dead end. Anyway, I'm not convinced that method would be the best choice."

"Twilight, I don't—"

"What I do think the better choice is," Twilight said before pausing for a deep breath as if she were diving off a cliff, "Is to go back in time and stop this whole thing before it ever happened."

She let those last words hang in the air. At first there was only the sound of the papers on the desk rustling in the breeze. Celestia did nothing except to sit in stunned silence, blinking while shaking her head minutely. She swallowed hard once before speaking.

"What?"

"Go back in time," Twilight repeated. "I know it's really extreme, but there's got to be a way to do it, right?"

"Time travel." It was more of a statement than a question.

"I mean, I've done it before," Twilight went on, getting louder and more excited as she spoke. "There's that spell in the Star Swirl the Bearded section of the library. I'm not sure if I ever told you about that, actually. That was that one Tuesday morning when you found me in the library with the weird mane-cut and an eye-patch. Anyway, it only sent me back a few days, and only for a few seconds, and I couldn't actually change anything because myself from the past was stupid and wouldn't let myself from the future talk when I tried to tell myself from the past what to do, well, technically what not to do, but you probably already guessed that. It doesn't last long enough to do much, and it's unclear whether or not it could actually work anyway because of the whole looping paradox thing, and it doesn't really even matter because it only works once, so I can't do it again. But still that validates the concept, right? That particular spell might not work but it might be possible for a more powerful one to do so. And if we were to harness some kind of really—"

"Twilight, stop. You need to listen to me." Celestia's voice had become harder.

"I know, I know! It's crazy, but I swear I can figure this out! I just need a chance!"

"It can't be done," she said. "It's not a matter of me giving you a chance." Her tone dripped with finality.

Twilight felt the floor go out from under her. "What are you saying?" she asked.

Celestia's face twinged. She looked like she was fiercely holding back a sob. She raised herself off the couch to walk over to the window and faced north, gazing out to the distant horizon. In a hushed whisper that broke with emotion, she spoke again, barely able to force the words out.

"You have to understand, Twilight," she said. "I am very sorry for everything that has happened. More than you know. Rainbow Dash can never be replaced. Nor can everypony else who was lost. And I blame myself for that. I can only beg forgiveness for what I've done to you and your friends. I was responsible. I should have seen through Sombra's plot, but I failed. But they're gone now, and there's nothing we can do to change that."

Twilight was shell-shocked. The princess giving up was such an absurd concept that she couldn't wrap her head around it. This was the same princess who had seen them through countless troubles. Who had told them to believe in themselves. To never give up. To be loyal and true to their friends. She had taught Twilight that the magic of friendship could see them through any obstacle. Was this same teacher now telling her to abandon one of her best friends?

"Do you mean to tell me you're giving up?" Twilight asked, voice on the verge of insubordinate incredulity.

"Twilight," Celestia said, turning back around, her eyes pregnant with sorrow, "I've already seen the lives of hundreds of my subjects destroyed. Subjects for whom I was responsible. That weight is forever on my shoulders, and I'll have to live with that. But please, don't ask me to watch you go down this path. Not you."

"What path is that?"

"The one of false hope. I can't do it, Twilight. I won't do it. You're too precious to me. I won't watch you become consumed by obsession over this. In other matters, your tenacity is a virtue, but in this…you must trust me. It will only lead to sorrow."

Her tears finally broke and ran down her regal visage. Her strength poured out from her eyes. She seemed barely able to stand—little more than a withered flower dried out from the sun and battered from the wind, ready to crumble and fly off into nothingness. Twilight couldn't stand to look at the pathetic sight. Betrayal boiled down deep inside her stomach, and anger rose into her throat and out of her mouth.

"So that's it, then?" Twilight said, staring at the floor. "Just give up? Let Rainbow Dash sit in there with King Sombra for a thousand years? And when she gets out, if she gets out, she'll be alone. Everything and everypony she knows will be gone. Maybe she'll get a good view of Sombra's army as he takes over Equestria. Maybe he'll make her his pet. Or maybe he'll just kill her. Is that what you want me to do? Let all that happen?!"

"That's not a choice for you to make. It's the way it is."

"You don't care!" she screamed, her words ricocheting around the marble walls and buffeting Celestia with their venom. "You don't care at all! You're too scared to go up against him, aren't you?! You'd rather just leave all of them to rot! ALL of the Crystal Empire AND my friend! Maybe they're right about you! Maybe we do need a new ruler! YOU DON'T CARE!!!"

Her final piercing denigration rang out down the hallway, echoing with the accusations of a hundred Twilights. As they faded into nothingness, Celestia stood stock still on the balcony, her face a fortress of steel with all gentleness gone. A twitch in the corner of her mouth betrayed her calm exterior. Her eyes were razors. Twilight had never seen Celestia give that look before. Even in her red hot rage, she could tell that she had crossed a line, and felt the chill of the looming consequence of her words crawling up her spine.

"Do you know what a thousand years feels like, Twilight?" Celestia spoke, voice as cold as her expression. "Of course you don't. You are young. And right now you feel sorrow. And you may very well carry that for the rest of your life. And it will hurt. But it will never approach the pain of a thousand years of guilt. A thousand years of knowing you failed as a ruler. A thousand years of broken promises hanging over your head like the weight of the ocean. Time does not heal all wounds, Twilight, but you only have one lifetime to suffer that pain. I've felt it for longer than your mind can fathom. And now I have to do it all over again."

Twilight had the good graces to lower her eyes to the floor, the shame of her undue cruelty quickly taking the fight out of her. Still Celestia continued, walking closer as she did until see was hovering over her student, voice raising up to the high arched ceiling until she was nearly yelling through the choking tears that were threatening a return.

"So do not speak to me of caring!" she cried. "You've spent a few days brainstorming and reading books. I spent hundreds of years trying to bring the Crystal Empire back! I tried everything in my power and beyond, and it always failed. For hundreds of years, Twilight! It took me that long to finally understand that there was nothing I could do. But I suffered every day that I tried. And there was nopony there to tell me that I had to move on. To accept what reality was. To tell me that I needed to forgive myself for what had happened. There was nopony there to tell me, and so that impossible task consumed my life until the day I realized the truth! It can't be done!"

Twilight kept her head bowed as she took her punishment. She felt the overwhelming presence of Celestia directly above her, powerful and terrible in its majesty and fury. She dared not look up for fear of combusting under the fire of her eyes.

Then her posture softened, and the cloud of anger around her abated as she gave a deflating sigh. Twilight felt a hoof on her shoulder. It was a gentle touch that was free of anger, but firm and matronly. When Celestia spoke again, it was with tenderness and the tone of a mentor and friend.

"I have many years to waste being miserable, Twilight, if I so choose. But you have only one life. And I'm not going to watch you throw it away doing the same. You're too important to me and everypony else. So I'm going to tell you what nopony told me, and I hope that you will listen: You can't bring them back. Not from this thing. And you need to let them go."

Twilight had never openly defied Celestia before. But this time she felt something different. For the first time since meeting her and becoming her prize student, she felt that Celestia was absolutely wrong. With her heart threatening to lodge itself in her throat, Twilight made her choice, and prepared herself to truly go it alone for the first time.

"She wouldn't," she said.

She craned her neck up to look her princess in the eye. Celestia did not move her hoof from Twilight's shoulder, but something in her expression died, leaving an emptiness that couldn't be seen, but all the same was palpable.

"She made a promise to me, not too long ago," Twilight continued. "She said she'd never leave me, no matter what. I believed her, because that's what kind of a friend she is. She's the kind of friend who would always be there, and do anything for you, even if it meant something bad happening to herself. For all I know she died for me. But I don't think that's true. I think she's still alive. I saw it in a vision, but more importantly I feel it in my heart. She's out there. She's waiting to be rescued. And if she were here right now instead of me, I know to the very depths of my soul that even if it is stupid, even if it is impossible, even if it couldn't be figured out in a thousand years, there's nothing in Equestria that would stop her from bringing me back, even if it took another millennia. That's who Rainbow Dash is. And I'm going to save her, with or without your help."

Celestia lowered her hoof. Moments passed in bitter silence before she slowly turned around to walk back to the balcony. Staring out to the north again, she stood unmoving, a silent sentinel guarding what was left of her broken heart.

"I think you should leave, Twilight," she finally said.

Twilight left quietly without another word. By the time she was past the doors and outside the Tower of The Sun once again, Celestia had still not moved or looked back.

The trip back to the hospital was a quick one. She had to be fast about it, lest she break down in the middle of the palace hallways. She passed guards, all of whom were so familiar with her presence that they didn't even stop her when she climbed the stairs up to the second floor where Shining Armor was. Passing his room, she headed straight to the kitchen where she had been reading earlier. Entering and quickly closing the door behind her, she saw her book was still there, undisturbed.

She threw herself down in the corner between the sink and the table. There she stayed until long after it had turned dark outside. She didn't know for how long she sat there.

The time wasn't important. What was important were the puzzle pieces flying around in her head. She saw them start to form into recognizable shapes, and her mind furiously worked on fitting them together.

Soon she starting seeing a picture. It wasn't much—a mere smudge of paint on an empty canvas—but even little smudges were the beginnings of something.

* * *

It was the middle of the night. High above Canterlot, perched atop the spired monoliths of marble and crystal, they overlooked the sleeping city. Their lowered voices were oddly dead among the heights, dropping off the edge to dissipate in the windless air. They had been up there most of the night, and had watched the moon rise. It was full but hidden behind weighty clouds, only letting occasional beams through like searchlights in the darkness.

"I can't do it. I can't watch her destroy herself. I know her too well."

"You're too much alike, you mean."

"That's what scares me."

There was a pause as the smaller one mused on an idea.

"Perhaps…"

"What?"

"Perhaps it doesn't have to be a bad thing."

"What are you saying?"

"You said she has the most potential of anypony you've ever seen."

"Yes."

"'Took to magic quicker than Star Swirl himself,' I believe were your exact words."

"Yes."

"Able to see things in spells in a way nopony else could. Even yourself."

"Yes."

"So, maybe she's just what you didn't have before."

"What's that? Talent?"

"A fresh perspective."

The larger one now took a turn to ponder for a moment. Her voice was full of cautious hope.

"You're saying she could figure it out?"

"I'm saying there's not much choice. The Elements of Harmony are useless now. The Crystal Heart is gone. We are without our greatest defenses. What harm could letting her try do?"

"It could consume her life."

"You know she'll do it anyway."

"Yes."

"So let's give her the best chance of succeeding."

A great sigh was followed by a thoughtful nod.

"You're saying give her the book?"

"You spent hundreds of years staring at that thing. Maybe it's time that somepony else took a look at it."

There was a soft chuckle as the bigger one shook her head.

"You know, one of these days we're going to have to just go ahead and make her official."

"Well, if she manages to pull this off, I don't think we'd have much of an excuse not to."

"If she succeeds, we'll never know about it."

"We can only hope."

The clouds had broken up. Down below them, the city was awash with pale radiance of the lunar light. Far into the night they sat unmoving, two dark silhouettes keeping watch.

Comments

[Europa]

I wonder how this will work. After all, 'Those who win never quit, and those who quit never win, but those who never win and never quit are fools'.