A soft collection of warmth illuminated the now darkened quarters of the library. The walls were lined with the soft glow of lit candles as they elegantly beamed through Luna's night. Dancing along to any wind that may have blew in from the outside. The blinds of the previously uncovered windows, now laid down as the glass doors themselves laid covered as well by two black, long sheets. Even the small counter where the grumpy librarian had sat not to long before now remained empty.
Carrot had fallen asleep on one of the many pile of books that she and Derpy had created. Half her body limping across one of the messy stacked books. Derpy on the other hoof, stayed completely invested in the multiple books that she had taken off the shelves and gathered next to her. Her pile of literature much bigger than the pile that her friend was now using as a bed. Derpy yawned and closed the book she was reading. She looked at the clock and with sleepy eyes, got up and trotted over to her sleepy friend.
“Hey, wake up.”
Carrot didn't move.
Derpy shook her a little.. “Hey, Carrot, it's time to get up.”
Carrot slowly begun to blink, sitting up and scratching her eyes. “Hm? What is it?”
“It's ten o'clock...pm.”
"What!?" Carrot Top jumped at the news, quickly pulling herself together. “We were here for that long?!”
“Yeah. The moon's already out.” Derpy pointed to the one uncovered window which showed the tiny glimmering stars and full moon.
“Come on, lets go then. You can spend the night again at my place.”
Carrot and Derpy gathered together the books and begun to put them back onto the appropiate shelves from whence they were taken. Making sure to not leave traces of their mess behind lest Ms. Books Smart is given reason to put them up for a trial. After double checking their area for any traces of them that may have been left behind, they made their way to the exit.
But before they could leave a certain figure stepped through the black clothed doors. It was the very princess herself smiling contently without the presence of two guards next to her.
“Are you ponies about to leave?"
“Oh yes your majesty.” Carrot answered. “We were just about to head out towards my house."
“Why leave when you can stay here for the night?”
Derpy and Carrot Top looked at each other in shock.
“Sta-stay here? For the night?” Derpy questioned. Unsure of what she was hearing.
“Of course I do." She said with a smile. "I will be sending some keepers of Canterlot castle to deliver you some blankets and pillows and any other things you may need. If you need anything just ask. Guards will be outside the doors shall anything happen.”
The young mares smiled.
"Thank you your highness." Carrot and Derpy said simultaneously. Bowing down to pay their respects.
"I will be on my way but do enjoy yourselves young ponies. There is a fire place by the way in the back. So if you get cold, do not hesitate to use it and please, just call me Celestia." with that last statement, Celestia exited out of the doors as they closed behind her.
The servants of Celestia that she said she would send, bought blankets and pillows for both of them and hot chocolate as they have requested. They wrapped the blankets around their bodies and snuggled up in front of the librarian fire which Carrot had started using one of the surrounding candles. They both enjoyed the warm glow as it shielded them from the cold summer night. Taking sips of their hot chocolate and snuggling even deeper into their thick blankets, they pleasantly enjoyed each others company.
"Derpy, did you find any books that you could read to Dinky?"
Derpy sighed. “Unfortunately no but I did find some interesting books on something historical.”
“You did? Can I see?”
"I would show you but I can't remember where I placed it....” Derpy looked up, trying to remember.
"Don't tell me you put it away."
"Well I wasn't expecting to check it out! Nonetheless spend the night here."
"True that."
"Lets see, lets see..." Derpy hooved her head as tried to recollect where she may have placed the volume. “Hold on! I think I know now!"
Carrot watched as her friend unraveled herself from her blankets and bolted behind her three bookcases down. Digging through the novel section. All the way in the dusty corner of the lined bookcases laid a beaten up book whose pages lied faded. Derpy, seeing it was the one she was looking for, took it and zipped back to her friend.
"Its a textbook..."
"Yeah, I know."
"The thing looks old and dirty, how old is that thing?"
"The publication on it says that its about three years old. It use to be a university book I suppose."
"I didn't think you were one to read boring ol' textbooks Derpy."
"I'm not but its a last resort when your curious about something."
"Alright then...then what is it that peaked your interest?"
Derpy flipped open the book. Speaking as she tried to find the page that raised her curiosity.
"Theres a passage in the book that details of a kingdom from a long time ago that ruled north of what would later be known as Equestria."
"The north? Where the Crystal Empire now stands?"
"Yeah. Here!" Derpy hooved the page that contained the beginning sects of information. "It states that a vast empire, bigger than the Crystal Empire was settled to the north of the land of what is now Equestria. So yes, it was in that exact location."
"Did it have a different name?"
"The book states that the definite name of the empire is unknown but resources claim that it went by the name of the 'Iron Empire' due to its strength. It specialized in military power and had run ins with other outside kingdoms seeking to obtain the land and wealth for themselves. This vast empire existed long before the princesses and even the Crystal Empire came into being and stretched along the entire premise of the northern lands. Engulfing both the bovine and yak kingdoms which lays in the snowy mountain regions."
"Geesh. That's way less than the Crystal Empire can hold claim to."
"Isn't it? The vast empire was ruled by a pony mare, an earth pony, who was said to have contain 'mysterious magic'."
"Mysterious magic? What did they mean by that?"
"I don't know. The book itself doesn't say much on it but...." Derpy read the text. "'Records seem to indicate that the mare's power was vastly unknown to many as the earth pony was able to use magic very much like that of a unicorn. Her magical abilities even surpassed the well known wizards of the day. This made unicorns, mostly of the gentry, show contempt for her. Seeing as an earth pony had such capabilities that should have remained exclusive to them.'"
"The gentry...I'm guessing the rich ones?"
"Guessed it right."
"So we know that the ruler was one of great talent for an earth pony and that they used magic much like unicorns. We also know that the empire was vast, great and wealthy. I'm guessing this was still during the time where ponies were largely prejudiced against others. Anything else?"
"No, not really..."
"Really? Nothing else?"
"It's not like there's nothing it's just isn't much more information to go on to go deeper into those questions. The textbook itself states that there is very little information to go on outside of sporadic reports and entries by those who visited the empire. Most of those journals were either missing information or have long since been gone from evidence. Especially after the disappearance of the kingdom."
"Wait, the empire disappeared?"
"Yeah. Its stated that the ruler had a sibling, a sister by the name of Aestiva Albus meaning 'summer white' in the kingdoms ancient language. The sister ruled alongside her sister but mostly stayed out of the spotlight. There are reports however that she was very humble and cared deeply about her subjects. Hating politics and court duties, she instead engrossed herself in making friends and getting to know her kin. The royal duties were placed on the eldest sister, the main ruler of the empire who was known as Tempest. Unfortunately, she was struck with an illness."
"An illness? What kind?"
"It...does not say. It states that the queen's sister was confined to her room for the entire few years that the disease ravished her body. Physicans, workers of magic and every doctor came to see her as per the queens request but couldn't cure her of her debilitating ailment. When they couldn't, the queen turned violent against them. Eventually, the queen turned to the use of 'forbidden magic' to try and save her sister in desperation."
"Dark magic?"
"Safe to assume so. However, she just couldn't be save and all of a sudden, the queen and her subjects went mad, seeking to destroy as many kingdoms as they could. Assembling together, the army made it's way through nations and lands. Many believe that the whole kingdom was under some type of curse from the dark magic the queen was dealing with. The princesses of the south sought to bring an end to the rampaging marches of her army and purge them of their madness but when they attempted to use the Elements of harmony to do so, the kingdom...suddenly vanished."
"Sounds like what happened to the Crystal Empire."
"Ironically so and if that wasn't good enough, it ends saying that a part of the empire was left behind. The entire ten miles of the kingdom that surrounded the crystal heart was protected."
"The empire had the crystal heart?" Carrot said with shock. "Are you sure this empire wasn't the Crystal Empire? Perhaps the Iron Empire is just reference to the the strength it had back then."
"I would like to believe that, but history being one of my favorite topics..."
"Your favorite topic is history?" Carrot raised an eyebrow. "Since when?"
"It always has! I don't just read comics all day you know!"
"Sure you do." Carrot sipped her mug while smiling. Derpy had completely forgotten about hers despite the liquid having gone cold.
"I read plenty of other books. Like Daring Do! Or The Fantastical World of Wizard Dunmore!
"Derpy, those aren't exactly history books. There historical fiction books based off of real stuff. Will at least the Dunmore one, the Daring Do one is completely made up....I think."
"It's not. Daring Do actually did those things! She admitted it herself!"
Carrot raised an eye. Such books never entertained her much anyways. "If you insist. I wanna hear more about this kingdom though. What do you think on this empire?"
"Well, before I was interrupted..."
Carrot gave a 'hmpf'.
"Crystal Empire history states that it wasn't founded until Princess Amour came into power. The ancestor of Cadance who was alive during Sombra's time. I believe that the remnant of what was left of the empire came to be what is now the Crystal Empire."
"It had the crystal heart though? Where they get it from?"
"Nopony really knows about the history behind the crystal heart. We know it contains powerful ancient, magic but where from or who crafted it is unknown."
"Got a point. The Crystal Empire probably obtained the heart from the 'Iron Empire and the Iron Empire from....I guess we'll just won't know."
Derpy stared at her book.
"Whats wrong?" Carrot questioned with slight worry.
Because there was nothing left to read in the text book to read that was interesting, I decided to dig through the rest of the historical sections and came across a book about strange artifacts and magical objects."
"Do you have the book on that with you?"
"This time yeah." Derpy grabbed the book from beside her and placed it down after pushing the textbook out of the way. "There was something that was really interesting. More so than that strange kingdom."
"And that is...?"
"In the section describing strange objects, there's a description describing a strange door thats been appearing every hundred years in random locations all over Equestria."
"Wait, who in the world would live that long to know?"
"Celestia and Luna."
"Welp, that explains it."
"Apparently, before they themselves knew, a report of a strange door had came in within fifty years of their early reign . When they first heard about it, it was from a a pony who came across it while in the Everfree forest. At this time, the Princesses resided in their old castle. Celestia, Luna and Star swirl apperently went to go check the door out, but was unable to do anything about it. They couldn't open it using their magic nor could Starswirl."
"So what did they do? Just leave it?"
"Well not until they knew it was a lost cause. They instead got an average unicorn to open the strange door and it work. However, when Celestia, Luna and Starswirl tried to enter through the door they couldn't."
"Did they send the unicorn in?"
"No. Celestia and Luna stated they didn't want to risk the life of one of their subordinates as they didn't know where the door led to. They tried to cast a spell on it but it didn't work either. It seemed immune to nearly everything they did."
"How about destroying it?"
"They tried that too but the magic just deflected it back at them. Strange enough, it didn't work for Starswirl either..."
"It worked for the other unicorn."
"Yeah, I don't know whats up with that. Eventually, unable to do anything else, they left it be. They eventually came back to the door the next day to try something new, but saw that it was gone. Only to appear again in random locations. All other information surrounding the door is a blatant mystery. All that is known is that it appeared fifty years after the disappearing of the empire. It seems to have a set time as well, about a hundred years as described by Celestia and Luna who came across the door more than once. All of this information was from the journal of Gallopio, the famous pony adventurer who came across the door and chatted with the princesses on what it was."
"So like you said, that door is still around?"
"Yeah."
"That must suck, not knowing what to do with a strange and mysterious door that appears all over your kingdom. Who would have known." Carrot took another sip of her mug. Letting out a nice endowed sigh before paying her attention back over to Derpy who was focused on the book intently .
"Is there something wrong?"
Derpy merely looked at her.
Carrot raised an eyebrow. "Are you okay Derpy?"
Derpy's face contorted into a wide grin.
"Derpy, your freaking me out."
"I was wondering...."
"No."
"Oh, c'mon Carrot! You didn't even give me a chance to speak!"
"Knowing you, it's probably one of your crazy ideas."
"Well...I wouldn't call it particularly crazy...
"Derpy." she stretched.
"Since were reading about this magical door...." Derpy's eyes grew large with sparkles. "How about we go out and see it for ourselves!"
Carrot let a small frown show across her face. "Derpy...how do we even know the door will be there when we show up? How do we know it's been a hundred years or whatever?”
"We won't know unless we try! Think about! Maybe it leads to a new world or something! It could be awesome!"
"And where are we even going to start? What, are we going to travel all around Equestria hoping we find it every year?"
"No..... we can start in Everfree!"
"In the Everfree Forest? It's not safe!"
"There hasn't been any recent reporting of ponies getting hurt! Besides, its more unsafe at night anyway. We'll just go during the day!"
"Either way, we shouldn't take the chance." Carrot took another sip out of her mug only to get a look at Derpy's sulking face and wide puppy eyes. She sighed putting down the mug before opening her eyes to take a look into it.
"Derpy, this is ridicoulous. We can't take that chance. Everfree may be home to Zecora but it's also home to a Faust knows what a variety of beasts. Cockatrices being one."
"Oh for pete's sake!"
"Whose pete?"
"Fluttershy handled that a long time ago!"
"Derpy! We still have other dangers to worry about! Have you forgotten manticores? hydra's maybe? Timberwolves? We can't play lightly with those things! Your asking to go find a door that we have the possibility of three percent to find!"
Derpy stood defeated. She looked down sadly at the book that had so ignited a curious spark. "Well...it wouldn't hurt to at least look I guess but all well. It's alright! I'll go by myself!"
Carrot stood in unbelief. Did she not just hear me? "Derpy, what did I just-"
"And besides! Theres no need to worry! I can just fly away super fast if anything happens!"
"Derpy..."
"All I wanna do is go and see if there is some truth to the tale. I'll tell you what! I'll go to Everfree, see if theres a door and if there isn't one, go straight back to Ponyville and let you know! Deal?"
".....whatever you say muffin."
Derpy smiled.
Carrot sat down the mug and pulled her blankets over on top of her. "I'm going to bed now. I'm tired."
"Oh alright."
"Plan on leaving early tomorrow huh?"
"Y-yeah. I promise to keep my word."
"As long as you know the dangers there isn't anything else I can do. Just be careful alright?"
"Yeah. Thanks."
"No problem. Goodnight."
"Night."
And with that nearly solemn approach, Derpy continued gazing at her book. Eventually succumbing to her body's need and fell asleep quietly next to her friend. As the fire cracked in the background she held the book close as she drifted off.