//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3. Return to Canterlot. 
// Story: Temor 
// by Askre 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 3
 
When Twilight Sparkle arrived in Canterlot Castle, she half-expected once again to be briefed in the throne room by Celestia, much like when she had first sent her to aid with the Crystal Empire situation. That was where she usually got briefed, so the unicorn had no reason to think otherwise.
 
Thus it caught her off guard when meeting Luna right at the entrance. The midnight blue alicorn smiled at the mare, who quickly bowed for the Princess, before beckoning her to rise. Twilight greeted her, but arched her brow when all Luna did was beckon her to follow inside.
 
“I came as quickly as I could. It’s the weekend, so there are not as many trains and I am still practicing my teleportation spells,” she explained nervously, hoping she wasn’t late. Celestia’s letter had sounded urgent.
 
“Have no fear, Twilight Sparkle, we… I mean I understand,” Luna chuckled as she corrected her speech. Considering Twilight a friend she saw no reason for speaking formally.
 
“Where is Princess Celestia?” Twilight wondered as they walked through the many halls of the castle, the unicorn soon realizing they weren’t headed to the throne room at all.
 
Luna didn’t respond, instead just kept walking as she guided the unicorn along. It didn’t take Twilight Sparkle long to realize though that she was being taken downstairs to the subsections of the castle. Now she was really curious. She had only been there a few times back when she still lived in Canterlot, but it had been awhile since the last time.
 
Finally they found themselves in a small room, Twilight recognized it immediately as Celestia’s personal laboratory. The Sun Princess would conduct her own experiments here with magic spells and magical items, though the unicorn knew she came down here less and less. By the looks of it, some of the equipment hadn’t been touched in a very long time.
 
“Princess Celestia?” Twilight noticed her mentor sitting in a corner seat and in front of her was a table that held a small stack of papers.
 
“Ah my student, thank you for coming so quickly,” Celestia said as she looked up, beckoning both ponies to come closer.
 
“I came as quickly as I could… uh, is this about this the ‘Temor’ you wrote to me about?” Twilight asked, while walking towards the table. She noted the Princess sighing sadly at the mention of the name.
 
“It is. Please, be seated,” the large alicorn gestured to the available seating.
 
Twilight arched her brow as she found herself a seat. She looked at Luna, who now almost carried an identical expression to Celestia’s. The unicorn had scoured her history book for further clues, but there was nothing save for the entry about King Sombra showing off the Prince to the populace.
 
“When I was told the Crystal Empire had reappeared, I panicked.” Celestia started and looked at both her sister and the unicorn with a hint of regret in her eyes. “My first thought was to secure it and keep King Sombra at bay,” 
 
“At the time my priority was King Sombra, the much bigger threat. I had hoped that Prince Temor was free of Sombra, much like the crystal ponies. I had thought he was just as much a slave to him as they had been,” the Princess sighed.
 
“Who is this Prince Temor?” Twilight asked with a frown.
 
“All we know really is that he is King Sombra’s adopted son,” Luna responded. “When King Sombra adopted him and why, we do not know. Most likely this happened during to the long reign of Discord. When we finally got rid of the chaos spirit, this Temor was an adult and by the looks of it,  already very corrupted by his father’s dark magic.”
 
“King Sombra reigned for almost 30 years over the Crystal Empire. We would have done something much sooner, but it was during the chaos of Discord that he used the opportunity to seize the throne. At some point during his reign, he adopted Temor,” Celestia explained.
 
“Maybe Temor died?” her student suggested, frowning slightly when the Sun Princess shook her head.
 
“When Luna and I ended Sombra’s reign, he was still alive. We know this because when Sombra attacked, the first thing he did was push Temor back into the castle and seal the entrance to the balcony with crystals,” Celestia told her. Luna nodded to confirm this.
 
“I heard the fiend shout something to Temor, but not what it was. After a lengthy battle, we used the elements to banish Sombra, but then the curse kicked in and the entire Empire vanished,” the Moon Princess added.
 
“So… Prince Temor should have been there when Cadance and Shining Armor arrived.” Twilight realized what this meant.
 
The unicorn tried to think back to when she had scoured through the crystal castle looking for the Crystal Heart with Spike. Now that she thought about it, that feeling of being watched had definitely been there. She hadn’t imagined it. She noted this to the Princesses, who both furrowed their brows in thought.
 
“That must have been Temor, but why would he hide unless he thought Twilight an enemy and why didn’t he attack if he did think so?” Luna wondered and rubbed her muzzle as she pondered this.
 
“Don’t forget, my sister, he was raised by King Sombra, who never did anything too rashly. I wouldn’t be surprised if Temor was observing Twilight, learning what he could before striking. Also, the presence of Cadance may have stayed him. He might have not thought he could match an alicorn in power,” Celestia pointed out. Her sister and Twilight nodded at this explanation.
 
“And when I got trapped, Temor must have thought that was enough but… where is he now… wait…” Twilight cringed as she remembered what the Crystal Heart did to King Sombra. “You don’t think that the Crystal Heart blew him apart as well, do you?”
 
“That is possible,” her teacher agreed with a nod, though it was clear on her expression that she didn’t like that thought.
 
“Twilight, we think Temor is an Equestrian unicorn,” Luna said, causing Twilight to do a double take towards the Moon Princess.
 
“Why do you think that?” she asked, confused.
 
“King Sombra had no cutie mark due to being a dark pony. The crystal ponies, as you may have noticed, have very distinct cutie marks. Temor’s mark from what I remember looked very Equestrian,” Celestia told her. She activated her magic and pushed the papers towards Twilight. “These are the observations I made long ago about Prince Temor.”
 
Twilight picked up the notes carefully with her own magical aura. A quick scan over them revealed a description of what Temor looked like and what possible magic he might possess. The unicorn noted unanswered questions on the papers, asking where the stallion came from, if he was a slave or not, if Sombra really cared for him as a son and so on.
 
“What do you want me to do?” Twilight asked, thinking she knew what Celestia was going for.
 
“I want you and your friends to go back to the Crystal Empire and find out if Temor did indeed survive. If he did, I want you to find him and bring him to me and Luna,” the Sun Princess said.
 
Twilight nodded, seeing no reason to question this request. It sounded reasonable enough to her. She did note though that Celestia still carried a faint sign of regret in her face. The unicorn wondered if she should ask her teacher if she was alright, but figured it wasn’t important. She didn’t like to pry.
 
“I will do so, Princess Celestia,” she assured her and rose up from her seat. The unicorn didn’t believe it would last long though, since they had seen no further signs of Temor after Sombra’s defeat. She was starting to lean towards the theory that the Crystal Heart had taken care of him as well.
 
After saying goodbye, Twilight headed out. For some reason Luna decided to escort her, even if the unicorn knew her way back. It turned out that the Moon Princess had a few more things to say, because as soon as they were well out of earshot from the room, the alicorn glanced back before looking at her sister’s student.
 
“There is something you need to know, Twilight,” she said, her expression turned serious. “When we fought King Sombra the first time, he was distracted and I noted that he kept making sure that any attacks we made were not directed at the castle.”
 
Twilight listened, wondering what the princess was getting at. This sounded like something that could have been said earlier when they were still in the lab with Celestia.
 
“When we finally blasted him with the Elements of Harmony, he didn’t even try to evade the blast. He just suddenly stopped everything and let it happen. At first we figured it was because he knew what would happen next - his curse would activate and the Crystal Empire vanish. Now I am not as sure,” Princess Luna continued. Now the unicorn walking beside her raised an eyebrow in surprise.
 
“Twilight, if Temor lives and considering he was raised by King Sombra, there is little doubt he would know of ways to resurrect his father,” she said, causing Twilight’s eyes to widen. She shuddered at the thought, but the unicorn was shocked to hear what Luna said next.
 
“If that happens, try not to be too quick to blast them with the Elements of Harmony. I have a thought and right now it is just a thought - just keep in mind that raising a child can be a life-changing experience.” Luna’s expression turned more solemn.
 
Twilight wanted to protest the notion that if King Sombra was resurrected the first thing they shouldn’t do was blast him immediately, but for now she kept her tongue and considered what Luna had told her. Besides, right now the unicorn was pretty sure neither Sombra nor Temor lived.
 
We’ll probably be back in Ponyville this evening, Twilight thought, but at least now she had a good excuse to check the Royal Library in the Crystal Empire.
 
Twilight said goodbye to Luna at the entrance of the castle and headed into Canterlot proper. She had agreed to meet up with Spike and rest of her friends at one of their old haunts - a café in the midtown area. When hearing that Celestia had summoned Twilight back to Canterlot immediately, her friends had insisted on accompanying her again, just in case.
 
“TWILIGHT! WE ARE OVER HERE!!” Twilight heard Pinkie Pie scream at the top of her lungs about the same time she saw all five ponies and dragon sitting by an outside table.
 
The unicorn shook her head, chuckling at the varied reactions around the table. The Canterlot ponies were naturally bewildered, but the ones from Ponyville just rolled their eyes.
 
“I’m pretty sure she saw us, darling,” Rarity remarked at the grinning, pink pony.
 
“But what if she didn’t? She could have missed us and turned a corner and gotten lost and wandered forever searching for us,” Pinkie Pie reasoned, looking for a brief moment aghast at the thought. She got varied unimpressed looks from her friends, especially considering that Twilight was the only one of them who wouldn’t get lost in Canterlot. Nobody bothered to point that out, knowing it would be a futile gesture.
 
“So how did the meetin’ go with the Princess?” Applejack decided to just turn and address Twilight as the unicorn had arrived at their table.
 
“Yeah, what was so important that you had to come back immediately to Canterlot?” Rainbow Dash wondered.
 
“Is everything alright?” Fluttershy cringed, worried that another disaster was looming over them.
 
Twilight got seated while she was bombarded with questions by her friends. She waited for a chance to speak and once that came, she started to explain what had happened. The other ponies and Spike listened intently as the purple unicorn told them everything - from the meeting with Celestia and when Luna escorted her back out. She wasn’t surprised to see their confusion.
 
“Well, Ah’m certain we saw no Prince over there, save for Shining Armor.” Applejack furrowed her brow.
 
“We think that most likely Temor viewed us as enemies and hid away, not wanting to directly engage us until he knew more,” Twilight told them. She dismissed a waiter when he arrived since the unicorn knew they wouldn’t be staying.
 
“Well, I for one don’t mind another trip to the Crystal Empire,” Rarity said sighing dreamily.
 
“You were there like yesterday,” Rainbow Dash remarked with a snort.
 
“Yes, what’s your point?” the fashionista asked dismissively.
 
Rainbow hoofed her face, but said nothing more. The rainbow pony wondered though why all of them had to go. She, like Twilight, was pretty sure the Crystal Heart took care of the prince much like it had done with the king.
 
The rest were pretty much on the same train of thought. However, Princess Celestia had asked that all of them go and they couldn’t think of a reason to question it. So once they had finished their drinks, the six ponies and dragon rose up and headed to the train station.
 
“Spike, if you want to go back to Ponyville, you can. I mean, we’ll probably be back in the evening,” Twilight told her assistant as they entered the station.
 
Spike actually perked up this time at the notion to be allowed to go home and skip this trip. Frankly he was dreading going back to the Crystal Empire because all he could see in it was boring talk, maybe scouring through books and more boring talk. Much like the mares, he was sure this Prince Temor was no more and there was nothing to worry about.
 
“Well if you don’t think you need me,” Spike said innocently, trying to hide that he really didn’t mind being sent back home. He could catch up on few things he had wanted to do for ages.
 
“I think we’ll manage,” Twilight chuckled. She offered the same to her friends as well, however, the mares decided to tag along. They didn’t mind.
 
The unicorn thus bought six tickets to the Crystal Empire and one for Ponyville, then they headed out to the platform. Spike’s train was first to arrive, and after saying goodbye, the dragon jumped aboard and was soon gone.
 
“Ah don’t suppose there were other reasons ya sent Spike home?” Applejack asked and nudged Twilight.
 
“Oh, I just happened to know he’s been dying for some alone time to sort out his hoofball card collection,” the unicorn giggled, the other five mares joining her.
 
“Yeah, it’s not like we are going to be on a long, weary chase after some meanie Prince who is trying to resurrect his father that was blown apart,” Pinkie said with a wide grin. This just caused her friends to laugh some more.
 
The train to the Crystal Empire arrived and the six friends filed into it. As the mares found their seats, Twilight kept wondering about Luna’s words. The unicorn still wasn’t sure what the princess had meant or what it had to do with this trip. There didn’t seem to be any connection as far as she could tell.

Out her saddlebag, Twilight produced Celestia’s notes and started to go through them. She wondered when her teacher had managed to do these observations. Had they tried first to reason with Sombra through talks before attacking? That was the only way she could see.

“He is very deferential to King Sombra. He stands proud, but never looks directly at him, usually inclining his head downwards,” she read on one note.

“I could have sworn I saw pride in Sombra’s eyes when Temor was dismissed during our talks and we watched him leave- Unimportant. Temor looks fairly quiet, though when he speaks, he does so with confidence. However, he seems to prefer hanging back and deferring the talks to his father.” Twilight raised an eyebrow at the sentence that had a strike-through. The talks must have been heavy on her mind when she was writing down her observations.

“What’cha doing?” Pinkie Pie suddenly sat right next to Twilight, grabbing some of the notes and started shuffling through them.

“Pinkie!” Twilight grunted, but let it slide for now. “Just going through few notes Celestia made on Prince Temor.”

“Oooh neat,” the pink pony said as she continued to blaze through the papers. This caught the attention of the other mares and soon enough they were all going through them, though there wasn’t that much. Half of the notes were unanswered questions.

“Sounds like the princess was very concerned about this Temor fellow,” Applejack remarked as she finished and gave some notes back to Twilight.

“Yes, she does,” the purple unicorn frowned as she realized that.

Maybe Celestia felt she failed to protect one of her own citizens. They did say they thought he was an Equestrian, she thought and started to put the notes away as they were delivered back to her. The only one who hadn’t really read much was Rainbow, who had just skimmed some that had been passed to her.

Well that’s a question for another time, she thought and looked out the train window and the passing landscape. 
 
End chapter 3