Aporia

by Oliver

Conversation 36: Moondancer

And just as their song was over, so was our walk, since we were standing next to the library building. Now that the black crystal was gone and the city returned to its original, eye-watering gloss, it was not as hard to find as I expected.

“So why exactly does a library have griffon statues for decoration?” Mary inquired.

“Because they’re cool and fierce and almost foreign,” Lyra replied, throwing the doors open with a pulse of her magic. “Knowledge needs symbolic protectors, it’s in the rules.”

We entered.

“Oh wow,” Twilight breathed out as she threw a glance across the endless shelves going both up into the floors above and deep into the ground. “I hope Trixie isn’t coming to challenge me for access to this one.”

Wow indeed!

Twilight got a a lot more harmonic since last summer. A heartsong at the wedding, the song she just finished singing with Spike… This has to be the influence of the Elements.

I never thought I would ever see the Elements activated with my own eyes.

I never expected to work alongside an alicorn princess, either.

Or to see her cry.

The stadium was packed full of trembling ponies. Some were in chains. Most were just in some kind of stupor, when we tried to talk to them, they barely even reacted. Others were weeping. I have never seen so much misery in one place at the same time, I could never imagine it were possible to pack so much so densely. Sombra clearly was one to break records of all kinds, including the record on the scale of mass industrialized oppression.

But at least they were all alive. I’m still wondering about that pile of crystal shards off to the side, because it had some suspiciously pony-shaped pieces in it, but I think I’ll leave that wondering to somepony with more intestinal fortitude.

All the ponies I saw were alive.

Most of those who weren’t drafted into the army weren’t even hurt, save for minor wounds, exhaustion, malnutrition, and general neglect, but I shudder to think what’s going on in their heads.

Months of regularly renewed mental domination spells, amnesia spells, some kind of forced labor that was back-breaking even for earth ponies. Constant, unrelenting terror for anypony who managed to resist…

Legend says, the first targeted amnesia spell was devised by Clover the Clever to suppress all those annoying memories of doing something embarrassing by mistake. The kind that make you feel you’re a terrible pony every time you remember a stupid mistake you apologized for already and nopony cared about in the first place. But for Sombra, this was the cornerstone of his power. Mental domination spells can be fought, they need to be renewed. But precede them with a spell that suppresses the memories of everything the victim holds dear, and the motivation to resist vanishes altogether.

But suppressed memories aren’t just gone. The mind registers them as missing…

What finally broke Cadance was a desperate mare, who could remember neither the name, the age, the colors, nor the cutie mark of the daughter that she was searching for, growing progressively more hysterical despite our efforts. Eventually Cadance had to cast a spell to calm her down. I tried to stay detached and just do what was needed, but for the alicorn princess of love it was not an option.

Sorting out the stadium took most of the day. Few of the crystal ponies could remember as much as their own names, but Pinkie Pie, with her omnipresent cupcakes, managed to thaw most of them far enough to at least figure out where they live. I never thought I would ever appreciate this pink menace exists, but I had to grudgingly admit that there’s a right time and place for everything, including Pinkie Pie. Our train was packed full of warm blankets, cocoa powder, sweets, army rations and medical kits precisely because this was a situation somepony expected to deal with. Midway through the day, another train came, and more Royal Guard came with it, bearing more and more boxes.

We helped out with what we could, but eventually, Shining Armor pulled us five aside, and told us to figure out a safe way to rehabilitate everypony without trying to unravel the spells lingering on them one by one. We were looking at several lifetimes worth of work otherwise, and I wasn’t feeling confident I could contribute without scrambling at least a few brains in the process.

Twilight took to the mission with enthusiasm, and so, there we were.

“So what are we looking for?” I asked the alien. I am sure we could camp in this library for nearly forever, but we have a job to do.

“I’d start with a card catalog,” she replied.

She told us earlier, that she knew exactly what we need, and it involved the Crystal Heart and some kind of celebration called the Crystal Faire. I’m still wondering just how she came by this information, because Twilight’s terse description of the ridiculous parallel world theories the humans came with left a lot to be desired.

“Card catalogs weren’t invented yet,” Lyra tossed over her back, studying the shelves.

“Well, I have no idea what kind of shelving system they might have,” I commented.

“Maybe we should have started with the Crystal Heart, instead,” Mary said.

“I’d rather reshelve this entire library than cast that spell right now. Especially right now,” Twilight said grimly. “Not after… Not after what we saw. It’s… It’s a temptation. You can’t cast it safely if you truly hate anything. Right now… there are things in this world that I really, really hate.”

“But this place is huge,” Spike complained. “This is cruelty to assistants!”

“Don’t worry, Spike,” she smiled at him. “We will just look through them in order until we find enough information. I promise you we’ll leave putting them back until we have enough ponies to help us.”

Still, not a particularly enticing prospect, knowing how easily Twilight gets sidetracked. And don’t get me started about Lyra. To be fair, I’m just as bad as both of them. Actually…

I looked up at the alien. “Didn’t you say the mentions of the actual function of the Crystal Heart were censored?”

“Pages literally torn out, yes.”

“Can you imagine Sombra, that shadow monster, personally tearing pages out?” I grinned.

“I’m sure he also had a pony-sized form. The other iterations do,” the human replied thoughtfully. “But no, that doesn’t sound like a productive use of his time.”

Twilight and Lyra threw curious glances at me.

Yes, girls, I have a theory. “So he would have ordered the librarians to seek out and destroy the relevant books and pages. They would need to be themselves at the time to do it.”

“But no librarian would ever destroy books!” Twilight complained.

“Right,” I nodded. “But can you expect a normal librarian to refuse a creature like that?”

“Those that actually did are probably dead right now,” Lyra winced.

“Yes,” I nodded. “But the ones that didn’t would still hide every book they could.”

“So we’re never gonna find them,” Spike complained.

“No, Spike,” I replied, trotting up to a nearby shelf and giving it a deep sniff. “Where do you hide a tree? In a forest. Where do you hide a book?”

“In a library?” Twilight bounced in place.

“Yes!” I exclaimed. “Disguised as another book!” I pulled out a freshly rebound thesaurus, which still smelled sharply of fish glue, and flipped it open to the title page.

My very first guess turned out to be correct. “Aha!” I said, proudly presenting the book to everyone.

“I can’t read that, surprisingly,” Mary commented. I know she is literate… Oh, of course.

“It’s still Equish, that’s just the old earth pony script,” I explained. “‘History of the Crystal Empire. Stories for the little colts and fillies.’”

And then, as they huddled around me, I started reading the book aloud…

The Story of Crystal Ponies

Once upon a time, long before ponies discovered our beautiful land of Equestria, ponies did not know harmony. It was a strange and dark time, torn apart by hatred. But even in that time, in the ancestral lands, there were places where love and passion would blossom, knowing no divide between pony tribes, nor high or low birth. In the small duchy of Catria, the wise and old Duke Persano ruled peacefully over his subjects, unicorns and pegasi and earth ponies alike. He had two daughters, Sunlit Seen, an earth pony, brave and valiant, with a flame for her cutie mark, and Amore, a unicorn, too young for a cutie mark, but smart and wise in the ways of magic beyond her years. They were born out of wedlock, but recognized and accepted, and beloved by all in the land.

When the mysterious blizzards overtook the world, and the grand summit of pony leaders was assembled and came to no results, the Duke returned home with his retainers, and spoke thus to his daughters, “Our suzerains abandon us in the time of need, torn apart by petty squabbles, and we have no choice but to rely on ourselves alone. I have lived a long and happy life, and was gifted with two beautiful daughters, but I fear that my time has come to an end, for I am old and feeble of body. Steel yourself against the hatred that tore our brothers and sisters apart, take our ponies and cross the frozen seas to lands uncharted and unknown.”

And as he said, so it was. The two sisters cried for days, but there was nothing to be done. So they bid their farewells to their noble father, and set out across the ice, and with them, the earth pony farmers and artisans, the unicorn magicians and the pegasi knights, in a caravan so long, that from one end, the other could not be seen.

Long was the way and full of hardship, and as the rations started running out, many ponies did not live to see the next sunrise. Most of the unicorn magicians perished, and so did many of the pegasi knights. Even the hardier earth ponies were nearing their limits. And so, they addressed the noble sisters, saying, “Where is that land of plenty across the ocean, and is it in truth not a fable? Should we not turn back, while we’re still on our hooves?”

But Sunlit Seen told them so: “Do not despair, my ponies, for we are still alive, and there will still be a sunrise tomorrow. None may know the future, but if you believe it will come, if you have resolve, if there is hope in your heart, there will be an end to this journey, and there will be an end to the blizzard. To turn back, to stop, is to die right now, for there is nothing behind our backs but ice and snow.”

The ponies were still full of doubt, and spoke thus, “But will there be a sunrise tomorrow? The sun wobbles in the sky, like a kite in the wind. These are the end times, and we do naught but prolong our suffering.”

“And what of it?” said Sunlit Seen. “If you are strong and pure of heart, you need not fear death nor suffering, for to nobly die trying is still better than to give up and die in despair. And it is so, for a unicorn and a pegasus and an earth pony alike, for all ponies truly live and die the same. Even if the sun should ever stop in the sky, if the sunrise never comes, I do so swear on the flames of my cutie mark, that I shall light your way, whatever it takes. Those who still follow me then will live to see this journey end.”

And so the long walk across the frozen ocean continued, and while more ponies died, they kept pushing forward to lands unknown and pastures unseen.

And there did come a time when the sun did not rise at all, as the Unicorn Conclave failed to raise it for the first time of many, and despair overtook the caravan, for in the frozen darkness, they could not see their way. True to her word, Sunlit Seen tore her chest apart with her hooves and pulled her heart out, and it burned with the holy light of hope and love. She took it into her teeth and went ahead, and the ponies followed, as the very ice under their hooves was melting in the blaze, revealing the earth underneath.

So they walked for many more days, leaving a trail of melted snow, until finally, in the valley in the Crystal Mountains, in sight of the Mount Everhoof, Sunlit Seen could walk no more and let out her last breath. She died, and yet, her heart still burned, lit the land and warmed the earth. Thus, the ponies found their new home, in a land of precious crystal and strong magic, fertile ground buried beneath ancient ice.

And Amore, the younger sister, spoke so to the surviving ponies, “We have come here, and here we shall stay, but our journey is not yet truly done. We shall build ourselves a city, an Empire. We shall summon crystal out of the ground with earth pony magic and shield our new home from the cold, while my sister’s heart still burns and her hope is still alive.”

And so they did. As the earth ponies spun the crystals out of the earth, the unicorns built mighty spells into them, and the pegasi infused them with magics of the air to keep the cold weather out. The city grew overnight like a snowflake, and the wise Amore designed a spell into the very streets. Should the day come when the sun fails to rise again, it will shift itself and all the ponies within out of the world, out of the very space and time, to await the moment when it may return.

With that, Amore received her cutie mark of a snowflake, and the happy ponies crowned her the first Crystal Princess, to rule over them in peace and harmony, and so she rules us to this day.

To ensure that Sunlit Seen’s heart will never, ever die, that the holy light will burn forever, the order of the Crystal Ponies was founded, charged with keeping the heart alive. In the ceremony of crystalling, a pony is bound to the Heart through a linkage crystal, contributing their love and hope to a greater whole, so that as long as there are Crystal Ponies, the Heart remains.

First, only the able bodied adults were inducted into the Crystal Ponies, but many more ponies wanted to join. The elders followed, and then, the children. Soon, all the ponies of the Crystal Empire were Crystal Ponies, and so, the tradition of the Crystalling began, where every newly born foal is presented to friends and family and joins them among the ranks of the Crystal Ponies.

All mortal things have their limits, and not a scrap of the original heart of Sunlit Seen remains, all spent and burned away, and yet, her Crystal Heart is still alive, and so it will forever be – for as long as the sun rises, and beyond.

When I finished, the library was coated in stunned silence.

“That was a lot more informative than I expected,” Mary commented.

Lyra ignored her. “She’s real!” she exclaimed, grinning ear to ear, and dancing around us in a circle.

“Wait, so you knew about that?” Twilight asked. “Rika predicted it almost word for word, ‘in a moment of great despair, she tore her own heart out…’” She shuddered. “I can’t imagine telling a story like that to little fillies.”

“Pony Folklore From The Ancient Times, volume VI, Rainbow Falls collection.” Lyra stopped dancing and suddenly embraced both me and Twilight, pulling us in together. “It had the start, but not the ending, that story ended with them arriving to the mountains!” she exclaimed. “I never hoped I’d find out what happened next, I thought I would have to invent the whole thing!”

“Strange,” Mary said, looking at us with a blank face. “There’s a very similar story in my world, but it’s rather more depressing.”

“Just how can that be any more depressing?” Twilight asked.

“Survivors, now safe, destroy the heart.”

“Why?!” me and Twilight chorused. I couldn’t believe my ears. How could anything do that?

“Just in case,” Mary shrugged. “They were scared of it.”

I shuddered and felt Twilight shudder with me. “Never mind,” Twilight mumbled. “Does this book have anything more specific to the Crystal Faire itself?”

“I’ll find out as soon as Lyra stops trying to break my neck,” I mumbled right back.

“Sorry, girls,” Lyra grinned and let us go.

It did not take me a lot of page flipping to find a story mentioning the Crystal Faire…

The First Crystal Faire

Once upon a time, news arrived from the south to the Crystal Empire, that the other pony leaders had reconciled, and found friendship and harmony between them in the new land. Soon, the Empire joined Equestria Accords under the Alicorn Sisters, united with the other pony tribes and kingdoms under their protection.

And there came a day when the crystal ponies had to call on the Accords, as a giant dragon invaded the Crystal Empire, taking the happy ponies by surprise, slaying many, and stole the Crystal Heart. Cold and despair overtook the ponies of the Empire.

Soon, the Alicorn Sisters, our suzerains, arrived with their host, with the mighty pegasi army, the great wizard Star Swirl the Bearded, and their griffon allies, and Princess Celestia addressed the great dragon, saying thus: “You have taken from my little ponies something that is precious and irreplaceable. What was your reason? Speak true, for much depends on your answer.”

And so the dragon replied: “I have merely recovered stolen property, for every crystal melded into this heart comes from the Crystalline Mountain, which is part of my hoard by ancient rights. There is nothing in that heart which is not mine.”

So Princess Celestia said, “Every crystal pony has given of themselves in friendship and love to make this relic, and it keeps alive the holy light of hope, the light of a pony who gave everything for her tribe. Surely that does not belong to you, even if every single crystal in it does. Ask for whatever tribute you wish in compensation, but return the Heart and bother my little ponies no more.”

The dragon laughed. “What is the value of that friendship and light and hope? Ashes in the wind, transient and worthless, an illusion of true value. Crystals are forever. I have no need of this heart, for it mangles and distorts their worth. But if I do not protect my property, if I do not enforce my rights, it is as if I don’t have them at all, so I shall not surrender this worthless bauble for anything. Leave me, and do not return.”

Princess Celestia replied, in fury not seen before or since, “I was ready to deal with you, for peace for my little ponies and harmony in Equestria are worth it, but that, I cannot abide. There is nothing more precious than friendship and love and hope, and all your crystals are nothing before them. If you cannot see that, there is no place in Equestria for you! Begone, heathen, and do not return, for if you do, your life is forfeit.”

And so the dragon replied: “Make me.”

And there was a mighty battle, and the great dragon was forced out of Equestria altogether, losing all his hoard and barely escaping with his life.

The Crystal Heart was returned to its rightful place in the Crystal Empire, and the crystal ponies rejoiced, as cold was expelled and joy returned to their hearts. A grand celebration followed, blessing all of Equestria with the holy light of the Crystal Heart.

Since then, every year under Celestia’s sun, the day of its return is celebrated with the Crystal Faire, and the magic of love and hope is released to bathe every kingdom of ponies in the holy light, and thus it will forever be – for as long as the sun rises, and beyond.

“Now we know how the Dragon War started,” Lyra commented. “That dragon clearly had some pull in the dragon society.”

“That’s… frighteningly possible,” Twilight agreed. She reached into her messenger bag for the forged journal and flipped it open on the bookmarked page. “What was his, was his, and dragons don’t share…” she read aloud.

Spike puffed his cheeks out in a show of indignation, but didn’t say anything.

“It does seem to be mostly factually correct, but with lots of pieces missing,” I nodded. “Like somepony was recording half-remembered stories and plastering over memory holes.”

“Half-remembered stories they’re very unlikely to have heard in the first place,” Twilight pointed out. “Princess Luna made me suspect that when she mentioned how she became friends with Princess Platinum, but that’s a solid confirmation. I take it that’s the first time you hear this one, Lyra?”

“That’s not in any of the ten volumes of Pony Folklore From The Ancient Times,” Lyra confirmed. “Or any of the other collections I’ve read. Most of the information we have about the Dragon War at all comes from griffon lore.”

“Still doesn’t bring us much closer, does it,” I said.

“We’re getting sidetracked,” Twilight interrupted, stomping a hoof and stuffing the journal back into her bag. “Now we know the why of the Crystal Faire, which is important, but we still don’t know the how. We need to know how to host one ourselves, that’s what we came here for! Our personal curiosity can wait, there are ponies still suffering. The sooner we can figure this out, the better!”

“Let’s see if I can save us some time,” Mary commented. She stood in front of the shelves and closed her eyes.

“What are you doing?” I wondered.

“S-sh,” Spike hissed at me. “Watch.”

Her eyes still closed, Mary made a few steps to the right, and stretched her hand out, touching the spine of some kind of encyclopedia. “This one.”

Suspiciously thin for an encyclopedia. I reached out with my magic and pulled the book open.

The title page read: “Crystal Faire Volunteer’s Manual.”

“You could have done this right when we came in, couldn’t you,” I accused.

“Maybe,” she replied, somehow looking at me with her eyes still closed. “Maybe not,” she added, opening them, and I found both the mismatched eyes staring right at me, the micro-gems in her dress punctuating that stare with their eerie shine. “This is still not my story, you see. Not really.”

I feel like I will need a lot more brain picking sessions with her before I can understand what she actually meant.