//------------------------------// // Crystal Unicorn // Story: Crystal Note III What used to be home // by TalkingToMyself //------------------------------// Crystal Note followed the princess through the hallways of the crystal palace. She had no eye for the beauty of the place or the view the large windows offered, she only thought of meeting her lost friend again. The few memories she was able to recover replayed in her mind since the moment she remembered her name and she was barely able to contain her impatience. Cadance explained they would go into her personal chambers for privacy and then talked to a guard, but Crystal Note just nodded absently. Then, she heard a sound and her ears perked up. She took a few steps into another hallway and she heard the sound again. Somepony was laughing and in her mind, the same laughter echoed through her memories. Before the princess noticed what was happening, Crystal Note ran down the hallway and stormed into the next room. At the far end of the room, she saw three mares taking to each other and laughing. One of them had her back turned towards her but Crystal Note recognized that laugh and the pink mane that was bound up into a bun. "Pinky!" The mare turned around surprised and her eyes opened wide. Crystal Note laughed and ran towards her. She never realized that the hair bun made her look way older, Pinky looked more like she was in her thirties, although she knew they were the same age. She didn't care too much and just kept running and called out again "Pinky! It's me!" By now a pair of guards appeared from both sides of the room and tried to block her path but hesitated when they heard a similar call from behind them "Crissy? It can't be! How... Where have you been?" Crystal Note laughed when she heard her old nickname and slipped past the guards towards her old friend who now ran towards her as well. As she past the guards though, her blue bandana got tangled with a piece of armour and was ripped off. She didn't care and just kept running, her yellow mane now flowing behind her. Her smiled faded when she saw Rose Quartz slow down and stare at her, first surprised, then confused. After a second her face turned into a grimace of fear and she backed away, her hooves slipping over the crystal floor in panic. She screamed at the top of her voice "By all Stars! Please, no! You can't be one of them! Heavens, NO!" Crystal Note froze when she saw the fear in her friend's eyes and then noticed everypony staring at her with the same fearful expression. She frowned when she realized they stared at her horn, no longer covered by her mane. She opened her mouth and tried to explain, but a loud command from the guards drowned out her words "Seize her!" Before she could react, two guard ponies had her pressed on the floor and held her down so she could barely move. Her eyes rolled up and searched for her friend, but when she saw disgust and fear in her eyes she wished she'd never returned to the Empire at all. She didn't resist when the guards shoved her away from the mares and ripped off her saddlebags. Her body lost all energy and drive, her coat now a dark and dull grey and her brown mane partially covering her face as she sobbed. From behind her, she heard a very loud and angry voice "Guards! Release her immediately!" The ponies on top of her hesitated and one of them tried to reason with the voice "Princess, we..." "NOW!" The ponies flinched under the force of the voice and the guards stood up and let go of her "Yes your Highness." Crystal Note didn't take any chances and quickly got on her hooves and ran through the closest door. She heard yelling behind her but she just ran into whatever direction she could, the face of fear from Rose Quartz burned into her mind and haunting her. -*- Cadance fumed and glared at her guards. Two of them started to run after the crying mare and she stopped them with an angry shout "Guards!" The four stallions flinched and then stood at attention before their princess. At the side of the room she noticed Rose Quartz still shivering in fear. She stepped in front of the two guards who had thrown Crystal Note to the floor and hit them with the full force of her angry stare. The guards stood still but went pale when confronted with Cadance' fury "You two. You will follow her and make sure she's safe. Don't approach her and don't let anypony else approach her. Give her some time and space. If anything happens to her, if anypony only even throws a mean look at her, I will hold you accountable for it. Do you understand?" Both stallions nodded and grew more pale and Cadance dismissed them with another sharp glare. The other two guards were sent to fetch her husband with a similar treatment, then the princess focused on the shivering mare. Rose Quartz bowed deeply before Cadance and the alicorn's glare softened when she noticed trails of tears on her cheeks. She ordered her to stand up again with a touch of her hoof and motioned her to follow, though she couldn't fully hide the edge in her voice "You have a lot to explain to me." -*- Princess Cadance entered her personal study with Rose Quartz following right behind her, all dull and gloom already. The crystal pony froze in fear when she saw the glow around her princess' horn and flinched as the door was slammed shut by magic. The princess stared at her with anger and an expression she hadn't seen on her before. Disappointment maybe? Rose sunk on her haunches and lowered her head "Princess, I'm sorry..." The words were interrupted by the stomp of a hoof on the crystal floor "It's not me you should be apologizing to. What's gotten into you back there? That pony was your fillyhood friend." Rose didn't dare looking up at her princess and mumbled "I didn't remember." She still felt the princess stare at her and heard the annoyance in her voice "Sombra's curse was broken by the crystal heart. Everypony's memory was restored, or so you told me. Why didn't you mention there were still things missing from your past?" Rose closed her eyes and remained silent. The princess waited for a minute for an answer. When she didn't get one, she went for another question "Why hasn't anypony ever mentioned crystal unicorns to me?" Again, the crystal pony wouldn't answer. "Rose, please look at me." Rose Quartz opened her eyes when she heard the softness in her princess' voice. She looked up and found a now familiar set of eyes, kind and compassionate "Rose, I'm sorry I got so angry. I promised I would protect the Crystal Empire and every pony living here. But how can I do this when I don't know from what I need to protect you? Please, Rose Quartz. Please tell me what's happening." The crystal pony sighed deeply "Princess, I know you weren't aware of it, but you led a monster into your palace and you even defended her. I know you mean well, but whatever she is, she's a great danger for everyone." Cadance sat down on her haunches and took a deep breath "Rose, do you trust me?" The pony looked up at her princess and after only a second of thinking nodded "Yes Princess Cadance. You freed us from Sombra and you showed nothing but kindness ever since. I trust you with my life." The pink alicorn smiled and bowed her head deeply in a gesture of gratitude "Thank you Rose. It means a lot to me. But I must ask you to trust me now as well. Please tell me what I need to know and trust that I will make the right decision for the Empire and the ponies." Crystal Rose stared into those eyes for a few minutes, trying to find the right words. The princess waited patiently and kept her attention on the mare in front of her as she started talking in a shaky voice "Crystal unicorns are not natural. All that I know of them is from what I saw during... before we all fell asleep. I think I buried those memories so deeply into my mind because I didn't ever want to remember. But as soon as I saw her... it all came back." She shivered at the cruelty of those memories, but she continued when her princess reached out and gently touched her hoof. "King Sombra was obsessed to find ways to take over all of Equestria. He saw his armies at a great disadvantage against the soldiers of Canterlot who could not only attack from the air, but also cast spells. Being a unicorn himself, he decided to do something about the latter. You know he had ways to enslave ponies, to mess with their minds so they'd follow every of his unholy commands. A few unfortunate ponies however, the ones he saw potential in, had to suffer an even more terrible fate." Rose Quartz shivered violently by now and her voice broke into painful sob. Cadance sat down next to her and gently embraced her. Rose sobbed again and continued, afraid she'd loose the courage to do so if she stopped now "King Sombra used them for experiments and tried to infuse magic into them so they could fight like the unicorns of Canterlot. For months, we noticed ponies being summoned to the palace and never returning, but one day the King presented his first crystal unicorn. The stallion had burn marks and wounds all over his body and a black crystal was impaled into his head. His eyes were completely void of all emotion. And then, at the King's command, he shot a bolt of black magic into the crowd. He incinerated a pony in the blink of an eye. That day we learned to fear the crystal unicorns as much as King Sombra himself." Cadance held her tightly in the embrace and Rose buried her face against her. The princess allowed this and waited for her to continue. After a couple of minutes, she felt like she could "Soon there was a least two dozen on them, leading the other soldiers through the city, capturing new slaves or simply spreading fear so we'd never even think of fighting back. At some point I was ordered into the palace to serve as a maid for the King. I was young and weak and malnourished, my parents had died and I only had what I could find on the streets. I was no use in the mines or forges, so I was to become a servant. One day, I saw the transformation with my own eyes. A stallion was held in place by two crystal unicorns and he begged and pleaded for mercy to the King. I saw how King Sombra levitated a sharp black crystal and then sent it towards the pony. I couldn't watch it, but I heard the cry. I opened my eyes again and King Sombra shot a beam of magic into the crystal and made it glow red. The pony was released and the now three crystal unicorns just stood there with empty eyes. They were merely expansions of King Sombra's will, puppets of his mind. They weren't ponies anymore. They were just weapons. Monsters. And when I saw her horn, I... I..." Rose Quartz voice broke down in a flood of sobs and clung in the princess. -*- Cadance held her advisor and friend against her body, her wings spreading out to cover as much as she could of the shivering mare. Tears burnt in her eyes, of anger and of sadness about the words she just heard. She didn't allow either to take hold of her right now, she had to stay strong for Rose Quartz. She needed her, as a friend and as a princess. Cadance felt the mare relax against her body and stop shivering, the sobbing slowing down to the point she dared to address her friend again "Rose, I'm so sorry you had to endure this. If there is anything I can do..." The mare pulled back and looked up at her, tears still gleaming in her eyes "What will you do about... her?" Cadance couldn't fight back a faint smile. One reason why she chose Rose Quartz to be one of her advisors was her ability to get to the point fast, especially when the princess couldn't do so herself. She thought about the question for a moment, then asked herself "What would you want me to do?" Rose shook her head "You're the princess and I trust your decision." Cadance nodded and closed her eyes. She waited another minute before she answered "My heart tells me she's not a monster. And that I want to help her." The crystal pony sat back up and gently pulled out of the embrace. Cadance put her forehooves back on the floor as well, but her wings remained wrapped softly around her friend. "I've spent most of the morning with her. She's so sad and lost. I didn't feel any anger in her, nor rage or hatred. Nothing that resembled Sombra. She sung a prayer at the memorial of the four tribes. She cried when she saw her old home abandoned." Rose nodded as she stared through the princess, lost in her thoughts "That sounds like the mare I remember." "And she cried at her parent's graves, after she tended to it." With a blink of confusion, Rose Quartz' eyes refocused on the princess "Her parent's graves? But her father's body was never found after the first assault from the armies of Canterlot." Cadance' own confusion reached her eyes now "And what about her mother?" Rose Quartz shook her head "She never came to the Crystal Empire with them. I think she passed away in Canterlot right after Crissy's birth." Cadance softly pulled back her wings "She was born in Canterlot? I didn't know crystal ponies lived outside of the Empire back then." "They did not." Cadance blinked confused and waited for an explanation from Rose Quartz "Her father was a unicorn from Canterlot who had turned against the Princesses and decided to serve King Sombra instead. And Crissy had been an earth pony filly back then." Cadance shook her head, once, twice, again "How is this even possible?" Rose Quartz face darkened in fear "King Sombra. It's the only explanation. He must have done something to her." Cadance shook her head almost furiously "I'm telling you Rose, I didn't feel any trace of Sombra's magic in her. And she doesn't have a black crystal as a horn either. She's behaving like a normal pony, she's not a mindless weapon." Now it was Rose's turn to shake her head and her eyes pressed close to hold back tears "Whatever that thing is, it can't be my friend. She's too young. Crissy and I were of the same age, but now she's barely adult and I'm... old." "Between changing species and gaining magic, that's the thing that worries you?" "She also looks completely different." "Yet, when she called your name you immediately recognized her." At that, Rose Quartz fell silent again. Cadance waited for a minute, then sighed deeply and asked "Why is it so hard for you think it's really her?" Rose just shook her head once more "Princess, with all respect, but you couldn't understand." "Then you should try explaining it to us." Both ponies looked up and Cadance gave a relieved smile to see Shining Armor closing the door behind him. Rose Quartz looked between the princess and her consort, then took a deep breath and started talking.