A King to his Throne

by Rascal61

Chapter 1

“Elle, you are a Hedgehog. I don’t know why you are trying to pretend that you are reading a book of mine, or even how you have the thought process to even come up with the idea to pretend to read the book. But currently, we need to go to the archives again. “

Starswirl was collecting and packing his saddle bags before he found his faithful pet reading one of his books, it left him speechless and motionless for a few minutes. It was known that hedgehogs weren't particularly the smartest pet around, but his dear pet had a bit of intelligence to her, and he liked her company better than any ponies that he knew.
She was funny, or at least to him, doing quirky things like reading books and going on climbing adventures through His collection of books and knick knacks.

This time though, she was reading the book upside down, and it was an old mare tale book that had small well painted pictures throughout the pages. Starswirl used his magic to collect the item from his pet, carefully pulling it from her very small claws. She held onto the book long enough to take flight, but after just getting off the ground she let go.
Starswirl placed the book back in his bag, then continued with his packing.

The Archives was a massive collection of several libraries, filled with documents, books, and artwork, and placed entirely into one place under the Canterlot Castle. In fact, it resided down the middle through to the base of the mountain that the Castle was built from, and with the mountain being hollowed out many years ago, it was the greatest and largest collection of knowledge known to Ponykind.

Since the Archives resided within a hollowed mountain, there were several layers in which to choose your library and knowledge from. All in all, there were about 15 layers to the Archives.
The First two were open to the public, though of course, if you were just an everyday citizen, you had to abide by the opening times and what exactly you were allowed to read in those two layers.
The next five layers were for students, very young ones, for the Canterlot’s School for Young unicorns. It was a prestigious school, and you had to either be very talented or have very rich parents to get into.
And the next eight layers were reserved for scholars and high magicians. Starswirl was the youngest in both categories when compared to every other that visited the Archives, though he still wasn’t exactly the greatest or most well known in either as of yet, he was recognised as a determined learner.

“Elle, c’mon, in you get. I plan on finding the exact book that I need today and I need you with me like always.”

He had finished packing his saddle bags, and Starswirl had purposely left a space for his pet to sleep and snuggle into. The Archives didn’t allow for pets, could make a mess and such, but Starswirl had been smuggling in his companion ever since she was really small, and it had become tradition that she went wherever he did.

And his cloak did well with hiding the fact that there was a living creature in his saddle bags, in fact, Starswirl’s entire attire made him seem more mysterious as it hid an awful lot of his features, if he used it correctly.
He had a long, light blue cloak with a high brimmed collar. It hid his saddle bags, cutie mark, and pretty much hid everything from his chest backwards to any onlooker. He had a arkane, or well wizardry, hat that he wore practically everywhere also.
His hat had been given to him as a foal, and when he was young it totally dripped over his eyes so he couldn't see anything when he wore it, but as he got older the hat started to fit better on his head. It still didn't fit correctly, but he was probably at his height of growth, so the hat was probably going to be forever too big.
But it hid face quite well, and he still could see what he was doing, so the advantage was too him. And it also went well with his light grey coat and white mane, which poked out to show itself whenever he moved.

His attire made him look older than he really was, which maybe made him blend in so well with all the older ponies that visited the Archives, but it gave him another advantage when he had to get through important areas that did not let young ponies in.
Though of course, the guards and keeps of the Archives knew who he was, and so he couldn’t trick them into thinking he was an old stallion, but everywhere else in the city or even the country and he could get away with it.

So that’s what Starswirl did as he made his way through the bustling business of Canterlot. With many a pony walking about and crowding, and sellers trying to make customers buy their products, he had a swift and easy time getting to the access gate of the Archives.
The Guards recognized him like they always did when he got to the gate, so they let him pass without any sort of fuss, and the Young stallion was on his way down to the depths of the earth to read on books.

Stairs were the only option to get to each layer of the Archives, of course unless you knew how to teleport, which the Young magician did. But he prefered the steps that were carved into the stone on the inside of the mountain. Elle sure didn’t like her owner’s choice as the movement jostled her about in Starswirl’s saddle bags, but he felt more calm when actually taking the steps to his goal.

And today, his goal was to find the book that told an old legend. A legend of a kingdom that thrived in the coldness of the North, a Kingdom that held a treasure so much power over Equestria, and this book was going to be his proof that this Kingdom existed.
For if he got proof, he could convince the governing princess to send a search party out to the cold to find this lost kingdom. To reclaim the land, the treasure, and possibly the long lost dead that used to live in the Kingdom just before it was lost to Equestria.

Starswirl had heard the tale a very long time ago, his mother had told it to him as a bedtime story. The Crystal Empire, a land that was never cold and was covered in beautiful crystals in which the Empire had gotten it’s name from. The citizens of the Crystal empire had a small sparkle to their coat and mane, and were the best entertainers in all of Equestria, and brought joy to anyone they came across. And last of all, there was the Crystal Heart, a piece of Crystal that connected directly into every single living thing in Equestria, and brought the utmost happiness to all.

Those were the stories told to him by his mother, but over the years of Starswirl’s learning he had forgotten the tale, until of course he rediscovered it in a couple of very old books deep down in the Archives.
He had never believed them to be real, until he started to see more and more evidence of it’s reality in the books he kept finding.

With many legends and tales, nearly each version that you could find had something different about them. Some may have some details that were the same, but they were such small details and it basically was the only thing that tied many legends together.
But with this Tale of the Crystal Empire, Starswirl had discovered that the oldest of pieces that had the Kingdom in it all had the same details, the same descriptions, it seemed as though it was actually coming from something that used to be real.

Of course, the more modern the sources were, the more ascue the place seemed to become, and it started to look like the average high tale or Legend. But over his findings he had come to believe that the Crystal Empire was once real, and for some unknown reason had vanished from Equestria.

So he was going to spend the rest of the day looking for a very old book, one that would be able to somehow prove to the Princess and all of Equestria that the Crystal Empire was real, and that somehow it could be recovered.

Comments

[baltoist]

awesome