Twilight forged forward through the pre-dawn light, Forward Ho beside (well a little bit behind) her. Even with her cold weather gear, the air was chilling, and the wind that had started rising as they approached the mysterious city wasn't making things any better. The snow on the ground reflected well enough that it was like being in moonlight, so she didn't need to form a horn light. It was just as well, she'd seen yesterday that overuse of her damaged horn could still cause mana-burn, so she was saving it for when they really needed it.
Part of her felt guilty at haring off on this expedition rather than working out the fastest route back to the caribou who were probably worried about her, but she told that part of herself that this city had a fifty percent chance of being in the right direction, and hopefully they might find additional supplies or equipment that might make the journey easier. The part that was wondering about heading in the opposite direction, back to Equestria, she kept quiet.
It took an hour of trotting to reach the border of the reappeared city, which was easily distinguished by a boundary where the snow simply stopped. On the far side was a darker surface which when examined up close looked like grass. She came to a stop and examined it, and held out a hoof to stop Forward as he came up beside her. "This is odd."
"What is?" Forward asked. "Maybe the land wasn't frozen over when it disappeared."
"Not that, you feel the wind? And the snow it's starting to blow up? Which reminds me, how is the Endure Elements spell I put on you holding up?"
"I'm okay, and yes, what about it?"
"Can't you see? Nothing's been blown over the boundary." Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof. "If there's some sort of invisible magical barrier there, I don't know what it will do when we cross it."
Forward looked around, "So we should find some sort of gateway?"
"Yes, but where would we find one?"
"How about over there." He pointed to their left and Twilight squinted in that direction. There was some sort of blocky shape barely visible in the poor light and rising flurries of snow, several hundred pony-lengths away. She could only just see it even after it was pointed out to her.
"Huh. Good eye. I'm amazed you could see it in this light." She started towards it.
"I've always had good low light vision."
As they reached the structure, which turned out to be two pillars of crystal, the projections above and below the three kite shaped diamonds that were strung between the pillars started to glow, lighting the area with a soft white light. The pillars reflected a burgundy red, and the gems purple and blue.
"Fascinating! Some sort of automatically reacting path lighting system." Twilight examined the lit gems and the area beyond the pillars. "Well, there's definitely a road leading from here. And there's writing on the end, it's in an ancient earth-pony script... 'Welcome... to.. Crystal... Empire. May... our... heart... protect... you.' Odd, that's definitely the singular form, shouldn't it be 'hearts'?"
Forward looked down at the angular, runic script, made of lines with one side bowed out. "You can read that?"
Twilight blushed. "I read a lot of old books. I can decipher most pre-classical and even pre-Founding scripts. Did you know the shapes of the letters come from the fact that they were originally made by pressing a hoof tip into wax or clay? It even informs the capital letter forms of the modern equestrian alphabet... Of course you do! You're the archeologist. You probably deciphered it before I did, but didn't need to show it off."
She looked downcast, and Forward Ho, who'd looked worried for a second, smiled at her reassuringly. "It's okay. Of course I could read it, I was just surprised you could. But don't feel ashamed about wanting to demonstrate your knowledge. You love learning and sharing what you know, and stifling that is the last thing I'd want to do."
Twilight felt a wave of affection towards her new friend for his attitude. He really was a nice guy, as wall as brave, and smart, and he wasn't put off or scared off by her being , as Rainbow put it, 'an egg head' and wanting to share it. He was quite good looking too... She blushed, where had that come from?
She gathered her scattered thoughts and focused on the task ahead. "Um... yes, well, we should be getting on!"
She stepped between the pillars and noticed a change in the air as soon as she reached the other side. It was still, for one thing, and much warmer than the air beyond the gateway. It probably wasn't any hotter than the air on a spring night in Ponyville, but after the cold outside, it was almost like a blast furnace. She took a deep breath and could smell the sweetness of morning dew on grass. A change in the quality of light made her look up, and for the first time in weeks she could see glowing stars in the night sky, though they were fading against the coming dawn.
She turned back to Forward, who was still standing there with a dazed expression on his face. "It's safe!"
"Oh, yes!" He stepped through, but still seemed a little distracted. Twilight wondered if she'd embarrassed him with her embarrassment, a sort of mutually assured embarrassment, and decided to apologise just in case. "I'm sorry if I seemed a little shocked back there. I didn't expect any-pony to encourage my tendency to lecture. I know my friends, my old friends, told me I sometimes overdo it."
He actually chuckled. "It's okay, really. It's what makes you, you."
They carried on down the road in a companionable silence. The city grew larger and more distinct as the sky grew lighter, and by the time they reached the outskirts, well spaced out buildings the right size for individual dwellings, the sky had changed to a deep blue, and the few remaining clouds were lit with the golden light of dawn. Twilight examined the buildings closely, walls, roofs, balconies, everything was made of opaque blue or red crystal, and the way it was faceted suggested they had been cut or carved from solid blocks rather than built. The doors and windows were the only conventional things about them.
They were set on wide, crystal surfaced boulevards or in pleasant, neatly trimmed lawns and occasional raised flower beds lined the pavement. There were also small fields of cultivated crystal berry bushes at certain points on the outskirts, and she saw a field were dwarf sheep with shining purple and blue wool grazed. She called out to them, but they seemed more interested in the grass beneath their hooves. She ot the feeling that they weren't more than animal level intelligence from the way they acted.
The one thing she didn't see were inhabitants. There must be some, the lights they'd seen in the night showed that some-pony lived here, but if so they weren't showing themselves. Of course it was pretty early, and they might be skittish around strangers. After all, look how Ponyville had reacted to Zecora. It seemed the only thing to do was to head towards the central crystal spire, which was now revealed to be a beautiful palace, set in a wide plaza.
"I don't like this...." Forward Ho broke the silence. "There's something... wrong about this place."
"But it looks so beautiful." Twilight replied, gesturing around her.
Forward actually shivered, despite the fact that it had warmed up to a point where Twilight was considering removing her parka. "There's a feeling of fear hanging over this place, fear and loss."
"I admit the silence is a little spooky, but I think you're overstating it. I don't feel anything." Twilight gestured ahead to the palace. "We'll go there. If it's inhabited, there should be guards we can talk to, see if we can get an audience with whoever rules this city. If not, we can look around and see if we can find out anything."
She started forward, and Forward followed, still glancing from side to side nervously. They were almost at the plaza, in a more built up area of streets solidly lined with houses when they saw their first pony, a male earth-pony with pale blue fur and a diamond cutie-mark. He was trotting across the street, head and ears down; his dark blue mane hung limply and he had a haunted expression on his face. Twilight squeed and galloped forward, then came to a screeching halt near him.
"Good morning sir. I hope we aren't interrupting anything, but we are strangers to this city and I'm wondering if we could ask you a few questions?"
He looked up with weary eyes. "I can't be of much help. I... can't seem to remember anything."
Twilight wasn't going to give up that easily. "Is this the Crystal Empire?"
"It was. But I can't remember anything from before Sombra took over." He shuddered. "And I don't want to remember what happened after that."
"Sombra?" Twilight asked. "Who is that? Your king?"
"Pray you'll never find out." The pony bustled off and into a building, closing the door behind him.
"Well that was less helpful that I'd hoped." Twilight sighed as she looked at the closed door. "If this Sombra is some sort of ruler, maybe he's at the palace."
"Um, Twilight, you heard what the guy said. Did you feel... see the fear in his eyes? This Sombra does not sound friendly. Maybe we shouldn't go to there."
"Well, I guess we can try talking to some other ponies first. If we can find some."
"How about over there?" Forward pointed to what looked like an outdoor cafe, with two female earth ponies sitting at one of the tables. Like the guy they'd talked to before, their ears were down and their expressions were gloomy. They were mechanically spooning some sort of food into their mouths from steaming bowls. Twilight walked over to them. "Pardon me ladies, but what is that you're eating?"
One of them looked up incuriously. "Crystal grain porridge. It's tasty, I think."
"So... How do we order some? We're new here and don't have any local currency."
"I... don't know. I must have gotten it from somewhere. Maybe someone inside knows." She returned to eating the porridge as if that answered everything.
Twilight turned to the other mare. "I'm surprised you're taking this so calmly. We have to be the first outsiders here in a long time. You're entire city has been gone for centuries."
"Has it? I don't remember. I don't remember you, but then I don't remember her either." She pointed to the mare across from her.
"Well, is there anyone who does remember?"
"I don't know." The ponies brow furrowed. "I feel like there's something missing, something important. But I can't remember what it is."
As she spoke, she glanced towards the palace, or rather the base of the palace. For the first time her voice was raised from it's low hopeless tone to actual emotion. "Everything looks right, but it doesn't feel right."
"Is this because of Sombra?"
Both ponies winced at the name. "Please don't say that name! Bad things happened to all of us because of him. Don't make us remember that time..."
"Okay, I'm sorry." Twilight backed up a step. "Is there anywhere I could find out information? Anywhere at all."
"You could try the library."
"You have a library?" Twilight bounced up and down on her hooves. "Where is it?"
"... I don't remember."
Twilight stopped bouncing and sagged. "Of course. Thank you anyway."
As she walked back to Forward Ho, she said, "It seems like all the ponies here have some sort of amnesia. It's more than that though, it's as if their curiosity, their will, their joy has been taken away."
"I noticed it too. Whatever this Sombra is, they fear him greatly. Maybe he had something to do with it." Forward Ho shrugged.
"You think he put a curse or spell on every-pony that made them like this?" Twilight mused. "Then maybe we can help break it. You're a skilled archeologist, experienced in uncovering ancient mysteries, and I'm really good at research, and highly knowledgeable about magic. Together we should be able to work out something, if it can be worked out."
Forward Ho straightened up as he sensed her determination. "So, what do we do first?"
"Look for this library, or failing that, some-pony who can tell us where it is."
&&&
After a number of frustrating conversations that confirmed that the ponies of the Crystal Empire had the collective enthusiasm and joie de vivre of a stunned haddock, the two explorers finally arrived at a large crystal building with two carved griffon statues guarding a wide set of stairs. If that wasn't a dead giveaway, the carving of an open book on the lintel over the double doors and the word 'Crystal Empire Library' in the same old earth-pony script they'd found on the pillars clinched the deal.
Twilight did a happy little hoofy dance, her hooves tip tapping on the crystal flagstones. Her cold weather gear, including her hoof boots, had finally gone back in her saddle bags. "Ohhhh! This is so exciting! A whole library of knowledge, lost for a thousand years! No, focus, Twilight, we're not here for fun, we need history books, information about the Crystal Empire, information about this Sombra."
She hoofed it up the stairs and in through the double doors, to come to a stop at the threshold as she looked around in wonder, her eyes sparkling. There were multiple floors, lined with rows of bookshelves, reached by stairs leading up and down from the foyer. The smell of ink and paper carefully preserved was omnipresent. There didn't seem to be a front desk, or a card catalogue, but there was an old mare with an open scroll cutie-mark wearing pince-nez glasses and her hair tied up in a bun.
"Can I help you?"
"Oh, I do hope so!" Twilight exclaimed. "We need to find history books, recent history if possible, rulers and important events."
"Yes, of course..." The mare rubbed her chin with her hoof as she pondered. "History books... ah, yes..."
Twilight's ears perked up. "You know where they are?"
"I... can't seem to remember." Twilight's ears went back down. "I'm not even sure I actually work here."
"That's alright ma'am."Twilight sighed. "You don't mind if we look for ourselves?"
"Please, go ahead. I hope you find what you're looking for." The mare wandered off.
Twilight turned to Forward, who'd watched the whole conversation with a bemused expression, and said. "Okay, no problem, we'll do this systematically. You check all the books on the left, I'll check the ones on the right. The History section should be labelled, or if nothing else the titles of the books should give us a clue."
She galloped off to the nearest book case, while Forward went to the right. Twilight spent the next couple of hours winnowing through the books she found at a great rate, forcing herself not to sit down and start reading some of the more interesting titles. Stories, botany, geography, she worked through them all until she found...
"Ha! 'A history of the Crystal Empire', this should help! Forward? I've got something!"
She picked up the book and trotted down to the lowest level, where there was a long table, suitable for reading. She sat on her haunches and started reading, so engrossed that she didn't notice Forward hadn't answered her call. It wasn't until she smelled something hot and savory that she came out of her reading trance. Her stomach growled in response. She looked up to see Forward there, with a tray containing a bowl and mug balanced on his back. "Oh, Forward, where have you been?"
"You were going through you side of the library far more quickly than I was mine, and I realised you hadn't eaten since you woke up, so I want back to that cafe and got you some food. Crystal grain porridge with crystal berry jam, and crystal berry leaf tea. You know, I'm starting to see a theme here." He grinned as he slid the tray onto the table next to her.
"And they just gave it to you?" Twilight picked up the mug and tried the tea. It was refreshing, with a fruity flavour.
"Yes. I just asked for some simple food. It was like they were going through the motions, but didn't know why."
Twilight took a mouthful of porridge, then did the frantic puffing and blowing that everyone who takes a mouthful of hot food did.
"Mmmm..." She swallowed, "It's good. Didn't you get any for yourself?"
"Oh, uh, I already ate. Didn't know if I could balance everything, yes, didn't want to risk it."
Twilight had another mouthful of the porridge, blowing on it this time, then spoke. "Well, I found a history book, one of the few I could find. It's like some-pony removed them. I know how the Crystal Empire started at least. Back during the time of the three tribes, there was a group of earth-ponies, miners mostly, who discovered how to focus earth pony magic through the crystals they'd mined to do things no other earth pony could, even emulate some aspects of unicorn magic. Not wanting the unicorns to try and take it away from them, they kept the secret even from the other earth pony clans.
"When Fumblewinter came, they retreated into their mines, using their magic focused through the crystals to provide heat and light to grow crops. While they were there, the most skilled crystal mage, an earth pony called Amore, discovered an exceptionally pure crystal. She used all her skill to craft it into a great crystal heart, generating enough power to sustain the entire cave system by itself. Apparently, the thaumic feedback from the Crystal Heart transformed Amore into an alicorn, and she became their defacto ruler.
"It was just as well they had the Heart, as they found something terrible when they dug down further. They called it the Umbrum, a living shadow, or race of shadow creatures, the book isn't clear, but with the magic of the Crystal Heart and Amore's powers they sealed off the way down so that it could never escape. However, they no longer felt safe in their caverns and decided to return to the surface. With the Crystal Heart, they could push back the cold and live safely."
"They emerged after the Exodus to Equestria, and decided to take ownership of the abandoned land. They used the Heart and their crystal magic to create this city and shield it from the cold. They salvaged things left behind, both from earth pony and unicorn settlements, and even bred new species of plants adapted to flourish under the Crystal Heart. It was placed in the plaza at the centre of the city, and the Crystal Palace raised over it acted as an giant projector, spreading the power of the heart far and wide. The whole network of roads forms a giant magic circle, amplifying the effect. It also explains that inscription between the pillars, it was referring to the Crystal Heart.
"There's references to the influence of the Heart changing them, so they were almost a new race, the crystal ponies. While they weren't hostile to Equestria, they were pretty much self sufficient, so they didn't have much interaction. Princess Amore ruled, and the order of Crystal Mages and Crystal Guard served her and the ponies of the Empire. There's also mention of a Crystal Fayre, an event that they held regularly, with a very detailed description of what was involved, but it doesn't say why. Someone removed the last page!"
She huffed, furious at such desecration. "It also doesn't say what happened here. There's no mention of a Sombra, and the Crystal Heart is not in it's normal place under the palace. It must be somewhere near, that's probably all that's keeping the weather shield up, but where I don't know. If my old friends were here, I'd get them to arrange a Crystal Fayre, see if that would break whatever effect is sucking away the crystal ponies' spirits. But without the Crystal Heart in it's proper place, I don't know how much good it will do."
"At least you know what questions to ask now." Forward said. "Eat up, you need your strength."
Twilight set to the cooling porridge with a will, thinking how thoughtful Forward was. Like Spike, he was taking care of her when she got so lost in her research that she forgot the more mundane things in life. He and Spike would probably be great friends... She put that thought away, she still wasn't ready to deal with the emotional fallout of returning to Equestria. She had to return at some point, now she knew it was possible, even if it meant taking whatever lumps came with her actions at the wedding.
"A bit for your thoughts?" Forward asked.
"I don't think they're worth even that much." Twilight sighed. Best burn that bridge went she came to it, there was a more immediate problem.
"You shouldn't be eating in the library." It was the old mare. Not the problem Twilight had been thinking of, but maybe...
"I'm sorry, we missed breakfast. I've kept it well away from the books. I'm a librarian myself, part time. You wouldn't happen to know where the Crystal Heart is?"
"The Crystal Heart? The Crystal Heart!" The old mare's coat suddenly glowed and took on a crystaline sheen, and she perked up. "Of course, the Crystal Heart takes the hope and joy of the crystal ponies and uses it to protect the Empire... or did until King Sombra stole it. He said he's hidden it away where we'd never see it again."
Her coat went dull again and the animation went out of her.
"Then we'll just have to prove him wrong!" Twilight declaimed. "If we restored the Heart, would it help you remember who you are?"
"Maybe. For a moment I remembered good things, things from before Sombra. I can't remember them any more, but I remember remembering them... I'm sorry, it's gone. " She paused for a moment, and Twilight waited to see if she'd remember anything else. "I'll just take that bowl and mug away, shall I?"
As she shuffled off, Twilight mused. "If only we had more information on this Sombra, and what he did, maybe we could deduce what he did with the Heart."
"It's a pity you don't have a magic spell that would find the information for you." Forward Ho said.
"Yes, it's... Wait a second, that's it! Forward, you're a genius!" Twilight turned and hugged him. Then she dashed off after the mare, leaving him standing there, dazed. He was still there in a semi-trance when she came back with a sheaf of paper along with a quill and ink bottle a couple of minutes later.
"Normally, creating a new spell takes months of careful work and arithmantic equations to develop, and even then it can be iffy. That's why it's always a good idea to go see if someone else already wrote a spell that does what you want. But, I know Northern Star's food finding spell, and I've studied my friend Rarity's gem finding spell."
She started writing on a sheet of paper, covering it with complex equations and strings of runes. "If I perform a thaumic deconvolution with the reified arithmantic decompositions of the two spells as factors, I should be able to reduce them to a set of comonalities that will describe a generalised finding spell. Then - and this is the clever bit! - I use Haycart's method to describe the contents of a book as a physical space that can be searched. By including a Haymiltonian transformation to define the terms we're searching for in a Haycartesian co-ordinate system, we should be able use the spell to search for any book with references to what we want."
Her quill scribbled frantically over the sheets of paper, which were quickly filled, and sometimes crumpled and tossed aside as she muttered to herself in the arcane jargon of thaumo-babble. Few other unicorns could have done it, but this was the pony who could build a stable dimensional portal out of a box of scraps and the arcane equivalent of a cell phone. Her horn might be damaged, but her knowledge was intact and proved equal to the task. After a solid hour and a half of figuring, she triumphantly held up a single sheet of paper.
"Ha! This should do it..." She dropped the paper and pressed a hoof to her forehead at the base of her horn. " Ahhh! Horncramp!"
"Are you hurt?" Forward Ho asked in a worried tone.
"It's okay, it's not mana-burn, telekinesis uses very little power, at least when moving a quill." Twilight had her eyes closed and both hooves to her head. She continued quietly. "Directing all that fine movement caused feedback in my horn. It's analogous to stressing a muscle, hence the term 'cramp'. It wouldn't normally be a problem, but I guess my cornual dexterity hasn't fully recovered either. I just need to rest it for a moment."
After she'd rested, and the two of them had cleared up the waste paper, she finally stood ready to cast the spell. Her horn sparked as she formed the spell matrix, but she cast it successfully. There was no reaction from the shelves around them, but at the far end of the basement floor, half hidden in what looked at first to be an ornamental alcove, she saw a halo surrounding a flat object. She trotted up to it and examined the back of the alcove, which held a mosaic of a snowflake design crafted from gems.
The glow was showing like an x-ray view from behind the mosaic, so there had to be some sort of secret door or comparment, but determined prodding by both Twilight and Forward failed to reveal any gems which pushed in or panels with cracks around the edge. Finally Twilight, more in desperation than anything else, cast a spell at it, a simple magic detection spell that would show the absence or presence of magic, and give some idea of it's nature. The aura she saw in return showed abjuration magic, a ward, but of a pattern she'd never seen before. However, as soon as the magic hit the mosaic, it sparkled, and the entire alcove rotated through half a circle, spinning them round with it.
The room it revealed was not huge, but it had once been lined with walls of books, a private library of some sort. However, the only thing left on the shelves were burned out covers and ashes. Someone had systematically looted the place of over half the books, from the number of empty spaces, and destroyed everything else. The smell of charred wood and burned paper filled their nostrils. Standing in the middle of the room was a crudely shaped statue of a unicorn pony, made of faceted dark crystal and rearing on it's hind hooves as if in mid-stomp.
Twilight stood horrified at the desecration. Some of the covers or spines had survived, enough to tell that this was a library of magic books, particularly magic relating to crystals. Was this some remnant of the Crystal mages? The thought of all that priceless knowledge destroyed almost made her weep. "No! This is horrible...Who would do such a thing?! Our last chance to finds out what happened, gone!"
"Um... If all the books were destroyed, why did you get a response to your spell?"
Twilight stopped bemoaning the loss to ask herself the same question. She cast the search spell again, and one particular book glowed, beneath the hooves of the statue. It looked like all the others, just a battered, scorched set of covers with some pitiful scraps of charred paper between them, and it's title was 'Lives of Crystal Mages Past Volume 4'. But when she picked it up, it didn't feel destroyed. The pages started to flutter and reform, and the appearance of damage fell away as she watched. It turned itself back to the now undamaged dedication page, which read, 'Travellers from the outside world, this book was meant for you. Read on and be enlightened.'
Twilight didn't need any further invitation and turned the page. As soon as she did, the book glowed and she felt herself being pulled towards it. Before she could react she was dragged into the book; she felt Forward grabbing onto her rear hooves and trying to pull her back out. All that happened for his pains was that he was dragged in after her.
They untangled themselves, and picked themselves off the floor; they were still in the same room, or appeared to be. But now it was restored to it's full glory, filled with intact books. A bench at the far end held a number of crystals and gem cutters tools. More importantly there was an elderly crystal pony standing there watching them with a surprised, yet clearly joyful expression on his face.
His light blue coat shone as if it were made of polished crystal, as the old mare's had when she remembered the Crystal Heart. His mane and spade beard were white, and cutie mark was of a quill with a gemstone nib. At first glance he looked like a unicorn pony. The horn on his head was not a spiral of alicorn, but a spike of milky crystal, held in place by a gleaming, platinum diadem.
"Greetings, travellers from beyond the Empire. I am Garnet Nib, archivist for and last member of the Order of Crystal Mages. Or rather, an echo of who I once was. I placed this impression of myself and what knowledge I could inside this book to aid those who could one day free the Crystal Empire from it's curse and destroy King Sombra once and for all. If you are here, you may be those ponies."
"I hope so." Twilight said. "Since we arrived, we've been trying to find out what happened here, and how we could help."
The old pony smiled knowingly. "While I exist within this book, my mortal self arranged that I would have a certain amount of awareness of what occured outside. I might not have been the most powerful of the order, but I knew a lot about scrying techniques, and bound certain gems on the cover to crystals set around the Empire. Rest awhile, and I will tell you of our plight."
The two ponies sat back upon padded stools that had suddenly appeared from nowhere beneath them and listened.