Celestia and Luna traded worried looks before Celestia flies over, conversing in low tones with Flash Sentry; Shining Armor quickly joins them. Cadance seems confused, limply holding the letter in her wing, trying to follow Celestia’s coded conversation. Twilight Sparkle gulps, scrambling around as if to find some sort of reference book that lets her know what to do in this situation.
“Ah guess Ah have a couple questions,” Applejack says dubiously, reflecting the general mood of all the non-alicorns in the room. “Ah’ve never heard of this here ‘Crystal Empire’. Who, or, er, what exactly, or, where are they? And how in the hay did they make a threat against Equestria?”
Twilight Sparkle steps forward, donning her favorite lecturing hat. “The Crystal Empire is commonly believed to be located almost due north of Canterlot inside the mountains of the Frozen North. Not much is known about the reclusive Crystal Ponies, except that their ruler, King Sombra, was driven insane. In his lust for power he enslaved his own people, forcing them to mine a special black crystal that corrupted his mind. He believed it was the key to, um, something.”
Twilight Sparkle looks around the room, as the answer might be standing there staring at her. It takes a few seconds, but she eventually realizes that there are, in fact, not one but two such repositories of knowledge, beings that have firsthoof experience with the subject. Then she coughs awkwardly, motioning towards Luna. “But you know more about that than me.”
“Indeed,” Luna states, darkly motioning towards a stained glass window that just happens to have the exact situation in question. A charcoal gray unicorn, black mane and wicked red horn, stands chuckling over a horde of crystal slaves. In the next scene he lays defeated, but his horn is shining with a pure black aura, purple and green rippling around the edges. “It may be premature to consider the return of the Empire a ‘threat’. But even our knowledge of the empire is limited, and it may be wisest to consider it as such until we know of King Sombra’s fate.”
Luna’s horn flares cobalt; a purple crystal shard, about the size of her foreleg, teleports next to her. It levitates through the air before Luna’s horn flares again. Light spreads from the shard upwards and outwards, a hexagonally symmetrical and circular city shown in dull greens and grays with little houses of every color studded around. In the center stands a massive blue crystal castle, a large open area directly underneath.
Luna motions towards the castle. “The Crystal Empire contains a powerful magic.”
At that, Cadance snaps her head to the side, staring at the image. Her tongue wets her lips as she desperately tries to keep her smile from turning too maniacal. “Powerful magic, you say?”
“Indeed.” Luna points to a tiny depiction of a blue crystal heart levitating in the center. “However, one thousand years ago, a unicorn whose heart was as black as the void named King Sombra took over.” The image turns brown, with black crystals consuming everything. Even the castle turns black, and a larger than life image of King Sombra appears above the castle.
“He enslaved the population, and was ultimately overthrown.” Luna gives a telling glance to her Sister, Celestia offering a grim nod back. “However; before he was stripped of his power and banished to the icy arctic north, he placed a powerful curse upon the Empire. It vanished into thin air.”
With that, the purple shard draws all the light back inside, regaining its purple hue. “If the Empire is filled with hope and love, those things are reflected all over Equestria.” Luna’s eyes shine as a rainbow shines forth from the shard, though the colors are muted as if mixed with black.
“Love spreading through Equestria sounds delicious,” Cadance says greedily, transfixed by the image. She barely notes the other ponies giving her slightly odd looks. She exclaims, far too cheerily, “I mean, I would love love love that to happen!”
“Indeed,” Luna states dryly, her eyes narrowing slightly. “However, if hatred and fear take hold…”
Luna closes her eyes, concentrating for a few seconds, then shakes her head dejectedly. “I dare not.”
Celestia walks over, gently lifting her Sister’s head and staring into her eyes. “Fear not the darkness, Sister. It has only the hold you give it.” She beams, her smile filled with hope and light.
“Thank you,” Luna whispers, her eyes closing again. She takes a deep breath. Her whole body shudders as her wings raise from her sides, clenched in barely suppressed anger.
“Study this,” Celestia says to Twilight Sparkle, “for you will not get many chances to observe Dark Magic.” Twilight Sparkle nods, along with every unicorn in the room, their eyes shining white.
Luna’s eyes spring open, bright cyan rimmed with dark purple, her aura no longer cobalt but the light violet of Nightmare Moon. She bellows in rage as she jabs her head forward, a beam of darkened light shooting forth towards the purple shard. It turns a deep black, sending a pitched shadow rolling across the floor towards Twilight Sparkle. Dark gray crystals sprout from the ground, nearly startling the lavender alicorn as they surround her.
“We… I cannot!” shouts a terrified Luna, her horn continuing to pour dark magic into the levitating shard. Twilight Sparkle’s cage grows dangerously close to spearing her flesh and encasing her in a crystalline tomb as sharp spikes sprout forth seemingly without end.
“You can!” shouts Celestia encouragingly, her own horn remaining unlit. “You must believe in yourself, Luna! You are stronger than this!”
Luna’s face contorts in agony, head twisting to the side. Her eyes, once clenched in terror, open with a new resolve as she snorts out an enraged breath. She rises up, her horn no longer bathing the room in purple but back to a familiar cobalt. A beam blasts forth, shattering the crystals into dust and turning the shard purple once again.
“Wow,” breaths out Twilight Sparkle and Cadance simultaneously. Luna staggers, though she smiles, as Celestia steps forward to support her Sister.
“There is a lot of power there,” Twilight Sparkle observes, her excitement barely restrained as a quill and parchment teleporting next to her. She almost starts writing before a shake of Celestia’s head stills her movement.
“It is a dangerous power, Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia grimly frowns as she returns to comforting Luna. “One I would strongly caution against using, even for testing purposes.”
“Hey, it can’t be that bad,” Twilight says defensively, glancing to her Friends. “I’m sure everything would have been just fine!”
Applejack whistles to herself, Fluttershy hides behind her mane, while Rarity finds the shard oddly fascinating. Only Rainbow Dash meets her eye.
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash says dryly, “I’m getting this vibe that pretty soon you’d be chanting-” her voice draws out, as low and braindead as she can go, her forelegs mindlessly reaching forward as she shambles “-cryyyssstaaaalsss.”
“You been practicing that?” Applejack remarks, elbowing Rainbow in the side, “Or it just come natural?”
She gets a quick glare from Rainbow and a loud snort from Pinkie Pie.
“It is important to know what you are going up against, and how to defeat it.” Celestia, barely able to keep her smirk hidden, motions to Luna. “As you can see, hope and light are your most powerful defenses. Though I wouldn’t say no to a strong shield as well.” She winks at Shining Armor, hesitates, then smiles at Cadance.
“About that,” Shining Armor says, dismissing Flash Sentry, the pegasus saluting before leaving. “Logistically, this is a nightmare.” He glances towards Luna. “No offense.”
“Continue,” the cobalt alicorn states neutrally.
Shining Armor looks each alicorn in the eye, then glances over the other ten creatures in the room. “While there are the remnants of train tracks leading to the Crystal Empire, they have not been maintained. This means that any sort of large scale defense force is going to run into support issues almost immediately. It’s manageable, if barely, assuming we don’t need to keep anything in reserve. I’m talking using portals purely to ship enough food and water.”
“What of the crystal ponies?” asks Luna. “Can we count on their assistance? They should have broken free of Sombra’s rule before he cast the city away.”
“We don’t know anything as of yet. We’re waiting on advance reports, but with Sombra’s dark magic we have to be extra cautious we aren’t dealing with any sort of mind control situations, or even unwanted influence.” Shining Armor sighs, shaking his head. “We aren’t set up to deal with this sort of thing, and getting the cart rolling will take time. And I don’t want to send our heaviest hitters there until we’re sure it’s safe.”
“I don’t think it will ever be safe,” Celestia says. “After all, this is King Sombra we are talking about. His methods are insidious and corrupting; none should be considered immune to his efforts.”
“Which is why it is all the more important that we move there as swiftly as possible and restore the protection of the city.” Shining Armor glances to Cadance, offering a half-hearted smile. “I hope you’re ready for this, Love.”
“I have the feeling I’m missing something,” Cadance states. She looks around the room, all the ponies staring at her. “Why are you all looking at me like that?”
“Thou hast not realized your connection?” Luna asks, bewildered.
Cadance fumes. “We don’t have all day, right!? Just spill it out!”
“It is there, written plainly on your flank.” Luna points to Cadance’s cutie mark.
“My?” Cadance turns, staring at her flank as if she is looking at her cutie mark for the first time. “A crystal heart?”
“No. Not a crystal heart. The Crystal Heart.” Luna motions towards the purple shard. “With it, and through it, shines the light of the Crystal Empire.”
“Oh.” Cadance grimaces. “Really.”
“You seem unhappy with this,” Rarity says, confused. “Is everything alright?”
“No! I’d just love to have the chance to help out the crystal ponies!” Cadance searches for a second, then finds the thick book of wedding plans. “I was just thinking about my wedding! I mean, our wedding and how this will ruin everything!”
“I’m sure everything will be just fine,” Twilight Sparkle says, trying to be as reassuring as possible.
“Has thinking like that ever worked out for you?” spits out Cadance.
“More often than not,” Twilight Sparkle says with a smile. “It hasn’t been easy, but staying optimistic hasn’t failed me yet!” She motions with her hooves, quickly gathering her five Friends. “And together, there’s nothing we can’t do!”
All six of them beam proudly, rays of light shining on Cadance.
Cadance sighs, rolling her eyes. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything important, but we have to get ready for-” her voice briefly stops as she sees her letter on the table. She quickly motions to the purple shard, trying to cover her tracks. “This.” She returns her gaze to Shining Armor, smiling broadly.
Rainbow Dash follows Cadance’s eyes to the letter, dashing forward to snatch it up. “Hey, what’s this?”
“Give that back!” Cadance shouts, swiping at the cerulean pegasus. “That’s mine!”
Rainbow Dash rips open the letter with a smirk on her face, reading aloud with a sing-song voice. “I regret to inform you-” her voice drops, losing the silliness and becoming serious. “That a threat has been made against Canterlot.” She waves the letter at Cadance. “Canterlot. Not Equestria.” Her eyes narrow. “And you had this before Flash Sentry came in here.”
“It’s… I was…” Cadance sniffs back a tear, gulping as Rainbow Dash advances. “A guard gave it to me! I was going to tell all of you, but then Flash Sentry came in and I forgot about it! Why are you doing this to me?!”
“It’s okay, Rainbow. She ain’t lying or nothing. It’d be a trying time for anypony.” Applejack nuzzles Cadance, drawing a startled reaction from the alicorn and a disgruntled glare from Rainbow Dash.
“But with a threat made against Canterlot?” Luna glances to Celestia, a worried look on her face. “If it is as we feared?”
“The Council will not move against us. No matter their fevered ramblings.” Celestia levitates the letter, quickly reading through the blocky script. A frown quickly crosses her muzzle. “But who else would levy a threat against us? For what purpose?”
Luna shakes her head, then focuses on Twilight Sparkle and her Friends. “Should it be one of them working alone? We fear we must heed this warning, regardless of its likelihood.”
Celestia turns to Twilight Sparkle. “Then it will come down to you, Twilight Sparkle. We will need your help, in a test unlike any other you have ever taken.”
Twilight Sparkle stands, though reluctantly. “You want me to protect Equestria?”
Celestia nods forebodingly. “I’m afraid Equestria will be relying on you and your Friends, in addition to Shining Armor and Cadance. I have every confidence that you will succeed.”
Twilight and her Friends nod, though only Pinkie Pie smiles optimistically. The rest have looks of grim determination.