One week later…
“Where could they have gone…?” Queen Chrysalis snarled bitterly to herself in the middle of Ponyville, glaring around at the empty streets while her drones picked away at the village for any sign of hiding stragglers. She hadn’t been expecting the town to be evacuated so quickly, given Rainbow Dash’s reckless nature. Of course, she was less concerned with the town’s population then she was with the absence of the wielders of the Elements of Harmony, who had seemingly fled the moment Rainbow Dash and her purple friend’s rescue mission ended.
“My queen!” A drone suddenly called out, knocking Chrysalis from her ruminations. She turned and spotted him galloping up to her and then dropping into a low bow in front of her. “Reports have just come in from our scouts in the Forest. They claim to have found tracks going in and out, estimated to be less than a week old, heading north,” he recited professionally. “Based on the number of tracks, they’re estimating the group had five to eight ponies.”
“Is that right?” Chrysalis asked sweetly, the frown of confusion on her face slowly changing into a twisted and vile smirk. “Well, then, I do believe we have found the scent… Have the scouts who found those tracks follow them. I’m curious to see where our runaway princess has gone,” she ordered, giving her wings a sharp buzz.
“Of course, my queen! Right away” The drone stood up, turned, and galloped away to do as instructed. Chrysalis watched him go, then turned her eyes up to the sky, casually observing her drones as they darted back and forth across the sky. It is to be a hunt, then…? Good. She licked her fangs and her pupils dilated. I do so enjoy the rush of a good hunt…
“And you all made fun of me for packing so many scarves,” Rarity called out over the rushing howl of the blizzard, smiling from under her four or so scarves that were wrapped around her neck and face.
Applejack groaned and shot her a dirty look. “Yeah yeah, ya don’t have to rub our faces in it, Rarity!” she shouted back, shivering against the cold as another biting gust tore by, almost knocking her hat off of her head. “Gah! Anythin’ yet, you three?” she called up to the three ponies at the head of the group, Twilight, Starlight and Rainbow Dash.
They had been at this for hours, now, searching the wind-blasted tundra of the Frozen North for any signs of the spell that had made the empire vanish oh so long ago. After a whole week of trudging through open countryside, they had finally managed to get to the region that they needed to be in. Now they just had to figure out where the empire used to be in this wasteland of ice, snow and frigid boulders. Twilight and Starlight were leading the charge on this front, scanning the area carefully with magic of their own, while Rainbow kept a careful eye out for anything out of the ordinary that might help them narrow down their search.
“I’m not seeing anything,” Rainbow called back to Applejack before looking over Twilight’s shoulder at the map she was holding. She squinted for a few moments before leaning back “But we’re close. I can tell.”
As if on cue, Starlight’s horn suddenly flared up immensely with light and energy, and a small gasp escaped her lungs. “Woah, I got something!” she yelled, lowering her horn closer to the ground and sweeping it around like a bloodhound trying to find a scent.
“Where, where is it?!” Twilight asked eagerly, passing her map to Rainbow and cantering up to Starlight’s side to join her. Her horn also flared up, and her mind reeled with excitement at the sensation. They were close, alright.
“Not far,” Starlight replied before looking up a little. “Just past those rocks. Let’s go!” she then broke into a gallop with Twilight by her side and Rainbow Dash and the others following along shortly behind them. After a short time, they came over the top of a small hill that was peppered with loose rocks. Beyond the hill was an enormous natural valley that could easily hold a city even larger than Canterlot. The air was so saturated with the magical imprint that even Rarity was detecting some of it.
Twilight beamed. “I think this is it!” she shouted before looking to Starlight happily.
“Yeah, it is,” she confirmed and let the light dissipate from her horn. “Now we just have to undo the spell… any ideas?”
Twilight paused, then hummed and closed her eyes while reaching out with her magic, carefully examining the intense magical signature in the area. For a minute or so, she remained silent, careful not to rush her analysis of the energy. “There is one principle in big spells like this that I think we can make use of here…” she muttered as she did this. “Big spells are typically made up of ‘pieces,’ so to speak. The more complex it is, the more moving pieces there are. The foundation of a good counterspell is always finding and breaking the weakest link quickly and efficiently… not always easy, but if we can find the weakest link of this spell…” Then she found what she was looking for; a weak point, a part of the spell’s framework that had indeed corroded and aged with time. Now she just had to break it…
The light on her horn suddenly flared up to be so bright it forced everypony to shield their eyes. She channeled as much magic as she could into breaking that link, in the hopes of unraveling the entire spell. Despite the corrosion, though, the spell was still absurdly strong and refused to break easy. A terribly painful throb shot through her skull from the base of her horn from the effort, and the rest of her body was starting to feel like it had lit on fire. Still, she could feel the link starting to buckle under her magic “I… think… I…” she groaned out through grit teeth, her legs bending slightly, sweat starting to drip down her forehead and the back of her neck in large amounts. The link may have been buckling, but there was no way she’d be able to undo it with the magic she had at her disposal.
Suddenly, though, The weight on her mind and body felt much lighter, and the resistance being put up by the link was practically cut in half. It was still strong, but now it was manageable. Curious, Twilight looked to her right to see Starlight’s horn glowing with a similar light. The two locked eyes and Starlight nodded. All at once, the two sent one last surge of magic into the weak point.
Something shattered.
The flow of their magic abruptly cut off and their heads snapped back, the perceived weight from the intensity of the spell being undone all at once. Twilight was breathless and disoriented in the aftermath. Her vision became blurred, and for a moment she lost track of everything that was happening.
Somepony caught her as she fell backward, keeping her from falling into the cold snow and holding her close. She could hear a heart beating in her ear. “You… you did it!” Rainbow’s voice said from just above her. Twilight groaned and shifted to look on at her handiwork, though her vision was still blurry, and all she could see was a bright, fuzzy light.
“It’s magnificent! Absolutely GORGEOUS!”
“Ah’ll be… ah was startin’ to think we wouldn’t find it.”
“Oh my gosh, it’s so SPARKLERIFIC!”
“It’s lovely…”
Twilight’s eyes finally refocused, and she gasped when she saw what she and Starlight had done.
Centered in the valley they had stumbled into was an enormous city made of gorgeous, sparkling crystals. The main road system bore a structure similar to that of a snowflake fractal, with hundreds upon hundreds of carefully crafted buildings dotting the streets, each one seemingly cut by a master. Even from this distance, the ponies that lived there could be seen starting to exit their homes and stumble out into the streets, probably very confused. In the middle of it all, a colossus of a tower rose into the sky. It stood on four supports that surrounded a large central plaza at the heart of the city, and those four supports each fed into the main body of the tower. The whole thing was made pale blue, almost white colored crystal that reflected the light of the sun across the landscape around it, making everything feel just a little livelier. The snow around the edges of the city had all melted, leaving fresh and health green grass blowing gently in a breeze completely removed from the blizzard. a bright light being emitted from the very top of the towering spire, like a lighthouse.
“It’s… It’s beautiful…” Twilight breathed out while being helped back to her hooves by Rainbow Dash. She was unable to take her eyes off of it, absolutely awestruck.
“It is…” Rainbow agreed simply before smiling at Twilight. She leaned over and nuzzled her affectionately on the top of her head before taking a step forward. “...We made it. Let’s go.”
Nopony said anything. The group of ponies began their descent down the hill, making their way for the empire in the snow.
As they went, Rainbow Dash thought back on the journey leading up to this point. Many little choices had led all of them to where they were now, and the consequences of many of her actions had already been felt, while still more were beginning to manifest themselves. But they had come this far, and maybe with the help of this Crystal Empire, they would be able to face those consequences, and come out on top when all was said and done.
She looked over at Twilight Sparkle, trotting closely by her side, and smiled. No matter what the future held, she knew she wasn’t alone…