The Elements of the Crystal Empire

by star-girl


Chapter Two: Legends, Laughter, and Honesty

Sunset was a bit in shock.

When reviewing her papers after visiting the mares for the Faire, she had found that King Sombra had named her . . . Crown Regent. If anything were to happen to him, she would take the throne until he returned or until she herself produced a heir, if he died.

She was essentially a royal, though her official title was Your Excellency, not Your Highness or Your Majesty.

Naturally, this raised a lot of questions. Sombra had had plenty of time to name her Crown Regent, so why now? Why on the eve of the eclipse that marked the thousandth year of peace?

Did it have anything to do with the prophecy?

Probably not, but there was still a chance. He had never directly answered the question, and one of the tricks of being a royal he had taught her a long time ago was to not answer the question, but give off the air of a certain answer or opinion and then turning around and surprising everyone. Being royalty in this day and age had a lot more to do with politics than you might think.

On the plus side, she got a box seat in the Great Hall, where she would have a great view of the eclipse, scheduled to happen at midnight. There were whispers that it would be even more grand this year, and Sombra had certainly seemed a lot more busy than usual these past months. For what, it was anypony's guess.

On another note, Sunset had carefully reveiwed the pros and cons of making friends with the five mares she had met earlier, but had decided that they best remained acquaintences. After all, with her new political position as a variable, they could be used against her: a great weakness. Sunset herself wasn't sure she was ready to enter the world of international espionage, with all the secrets she would be let in on.

Shoving all these thoughts out of her mind, Sunset readied herself for the eclipse. Great magical power would be expelled during it, and she wanted to see if she could harness it.

Five minutes.

She readied the matrix in her mind, at a hairline trigger.

Four minutes.

She informed the guards outside her box that something could go wrong, and if the unicorn guard noticed anything wrong on the magical plane, he was to fetch a doctor immediately.

Three minutes.

She reviewed the matrix for errors, and spied the mare sitting together in the audience. They all seemed to be good friends. She felt a pang shoot through her, then reminded herself that it was for the best.

Two minutes.

"Presenting the good, the wise, the harbringer of the sun and moon, King Sombra!"

One minute.

No one was there.

Sunset glanced up and saw the Mare in the Moon disappear.

Buck.

Blue mist coupled with fire rose onto the balcony, creating two distinct alicorn figures. One was pitch-black with a blue outline, her hair the sparkly blue mist and her eyes terrifyingly draconian. Her teeth were sharp as she smiled, wearing pastel blue armor. The other was white with an orange tint, her mane of fire writhing around her. Her eyes, too, were draconian, her teeth sharp, her armor orange and a spiky crown adorning her brow with some gold circling the ruby set in the center.

Nightmare Moon.

Daybreaker.

Buck squared, Sunset thought wryly.

"Ah, our beautiful subjects," Nightmare Moon said in what could only be described as a purr. Flame whimpered and burrowed closer to Sunset's side. She put a comforting hoof over her back.

"It has been far too long since we have seen your precious little shadow-loving faces," Daybreaker spat. She said the words like poison, and seemed far more blunt than Nightmare Moon.

There was something about them that seemed unmistakably evil.

"WHERE IS KING SOMBRA?!" Indigo Zap yelled. "WE ARE LOYAL TO OUR TRUE KING!"

Sunset winced. While she was sure that was true of all the ponies in the room, it was a very stupid thing to say.

"The king?" Nightmare Moon asked. "I don't remember a king - oh, that king!" Her face twisted maliciously. "The Alicorn of Shadows, stealer of our birthright! Tell me, what did we do with him, Day?"

"Why, Moon, we made him dissolve like salt in water into the shadows," said Daybreaker with a mock-sympathetic look. "I guess you're stuck with us now."

Buck cubed, cursed Sunset. She went through a list of possible plans in her head and settled on one, but before she could go through with it, the corrupted alicorns disappeared in a flash of fire and mist.

The Great Hall erupted.

Ponies were screaming bloody murder and trying to break down the locked doors, and some were frantically pawing at their own shadows like the could fish King Sombra out of them.

Sunset teleported herself to the podium and screamed, "PONIES, CALM DOWN!"

Everyone froze.

"And who are you with the right to tell us that?!" a panicked mare screamed right back.

"I am Sunset Shimmer, Crown Regent of the Crystal Empire! You will answer to me!"

Sugarcoat, Sunny Flare, Indigo Zap, Sour Sweet and Lemon Zest all gaped at her, while everypony else nervously calmed down.

"Now, I need someone to bring me all the books they can find on the Elements of Harmony. They may be the only force in the world that can stop Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker!"

A unicorn that could teleport procured a few books from the library. "I don't know if they will be sufficent, Your Excellency, but it seems all the other books in that section have been removed."

Sunset cursed. "Call me Sunset, we have no time for formalities right now." She flipped open the books, and quickly started taking notes in the margins, cross referencing, circling important points, and eventually narrowed down the location of the Elements to the deepest vault in the Crystal Castle. A fairly predictable place, but Sunset had wanted to be sure and the fact that it was predictable made her worried that Nightmare Moon and Daybreaker had already reached them.

"Okay," she breathed, and turned to face the crowd. "The Elements are probably in the deepest vault here. I will try to find them, and if I don't make it back, well . . . the Crystal Empire is doomed. You could go in after me, but it would be stupid and fatal and pointless and I highly recommend you don't do it. Thank you." She turned to address the guards. "Evacuate all civilians and make sure that they don't panic again. If I fall, I name . . ." her eyes landed on a pastel blue mare in the crowd. She was calm and collected, and she seemed smart enough. "You, come up."

The mare swallowed and came. "Yes, Your Excellency?"

Sunset sighed. "Enough with the formalities! Call me Sunset. I name you my successor in the likely event that I fall. Do not take this responsibility lightly."

The mare's eyes widened. "Yes, Your- uh, Sunset."

"Great."

Everyone left the Great Hall, including Flame. She had put up a fight, but in the end she had agreed to go so that Sunset wouldn't worry about her.

"If you die, I'll burn those two creeps to the ground," she had said, a fierce light in her eyes.

"Wait!"

It was Indigo Zap. "We're not letting you go it alone! We want to come with you!"

Behind her, Sugarcoat, Sunny Flare, Sour Sweet, and Lemon Zest all gave nods of acknowledgement. Inside, Sunset melted. Outside, she hardened. "Girls, I appreciate the thought, but it is just too dangerous-"

"We didn't give you a choice," Sugarcoat interrupted, flashing her a smile.

Sunset cursed.


"Keep an eye out," she warned as they descended. "It's likely that the castle is booby trapped. If you guys die, it'll be your fault because you insisted to come!"

Sugarcoat rolled her eyes.

She sighed.

"Tut-tut-tut!" a voice said, like the walls themselves were talking. "Can't have you ruining our plans, can we?"

Sunset and the girls were pitched into darkness.

Sunset woke in a dark room; it was pitch-black all around her. She conjured a light, a soft turquoise glow on the end of her horn. "H-hello?" she asked, her voice shaking. "Hello?"

No one answered.

"You failed, Sunset Shimmer," a voice said.

"King Sombra?" she asked, hardly daring to hope. He materialized in front of her, and she suddenly found herself in the throne room. A bunch of ponies were watching her.

"This was a test, and you failed."

"I - what?"

"You failed. You failed to save me. You are nothing. Worthless. You are not my student anymore. A disappointment. Disgrace."

The ponies in the audience jeered.

Surrounded by laughter on one side and hardness on the other, Sunset broke down. She lay on the floor and sobbed as the pony closest to her turned his back.

Her worst fear.

"Sunset! You must laugh!"

"H-huh?" she sniffed and looked around her. "W-who are you?"

The ponies, King Sombra, the throne room itself disintegrated around her. She saw a light that was not her own.

"Laugh!" the voice urged. "You must laugh!"

Sunset sniffed again. "Why? Even if I wanted to, I can't. I am a disappointment. Disgrace."

The voice sighed. I am a disappointment to her too.

"Why did the skeleton cross the road?"

Taken off guard, Sunset asked, "Why?

"Because he had no guts!"

Sunset laughed at the sheer stupidity of it - oh, it felt so good to laugh! Suddenly, she remembered that this wasn't real. None of it was real. The darkness faded to reveal a grinning Lemon Zest. "Hey - OOF!"

Sunset barreled into her at top speed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she sobbed. After she calmed down - that was far from her normal personality - she asked, "How did you escape the illusion?"

"My philosophy is to always laugh in the face of danger. Laughing just makes you . . . feel good, know what I mean? My friend Vinyl Scratch - some ponies know her as DJ PON-3 - taught it to me."

Sunset's mouth fell open. "You're friends with DJ PON-3?! I'm a huge fan of her music!"

"It's cool, right? I met her when she was just starting out. I'll have to remember to thank her after this. Anyway, you're the first person I've managed to wake up, so let's get to work."

Sunset and Lemon slowly but surely woke up the other mares, and they moved farther down the castle, each of them casting nervous glances around every once in a while.


At the third sublevel of the castle, they stumbled upon a door. It was an ordinary door, but everyone paused in front of it. One: they had to catch their breath, and two: the door gave off a sense of foreboding.

"I'm not sure if this is a good idea," Sugarcoat said, who had so far been the most vocal of her opinions.

"Same," Sunset agreed. "Let me just perform a quick magical scan."

No . . .

Those equations made no sense.

Unless . . .

Sunset cursed loudly. The events of the past few hours seemed to have made her a bit more foul-mouthed than usual. "It's a ******* pocket dimension! Why is King Sombra keeping a pocket dimension in his basement? And why is it the only way to move forward?"

"Maybe it's a way to deem who's worthy to move onward," Sour Sweet offered.

"That could be it . . ." Sunset mused to herself. "Well, the only way to get to the Elements is to open it. Brace yourselves, girls." She opened the door.

Many, many thestrals swarmed out of the door, surrounding the mares in a heartbeat. Sunset lowered her horn, concocting an offensive matrix on the fly, but Sugarcoat put a calming hoof on her shoulder. "How may we help you, good sirs?" she asked, all dignity and grace.

Everypony else looked at her like she was crazy.

"Where is Princess Luna?" one of them hissed. The others parted way for him, so Sunset assumed that he was the leader.

Sugarcoat looked surprised, as was Sunset. Did these ponies not know what had happened? "She was corrupted by dark magic a thousand years ago. Now, she has returned, and we are on a quest to stop her."

"You lie," the thestral hissed. "And even if you were telling the truth, we are honor-bound to stop you, as servants of Her Divine Highness."

Sugarcoat didn't even bat an eye. "I am telling the truth, good sir. We do not wish to destroy her, merely subdue her and perhaps rid her of the dark forces in her soul. We wish no harm to the Princess of the Night."

The thestral regarded her. "Starshine?"

"She is telling the truth, sir," a thestral mare - Starshine - said. "At least, she believes she is."

The thestral sighed. "You may pass," he said. "It has been a long time since a pony has told me the truth, and I'm sure most of my people can attest to that. We will guide you through our dimension."

"I have so many questions for you!" Sunset burst out. "How did you come to be? How did you make a pocket dimension? How did . . ."

The thestral looked amused and resigned all at once.