Chapter 1
The sun gleamed over the Crystal Empire, glistening off the roads, buildings and ponies who lived there.
High over the ground flew a small red ball, parting the air in front of it with lightning speed.
In a field just beneath the ball, a purple filly with a violet mane and yellow hoofs arched her head to the sky. The blazing sun glared at Yellow Hoof. She lost track of the ball momentarily, forced to squint to keep it in her sights against the cloud free sky.
Yellow Hoof took three steps back, still tracking the flying ball. She tilted her gaze further back to see it and gave a brief glance over to the goal on the other side of the green pitch.
She was not far enough from the ball to make the header. She took another step back and tripped into the dirty grass, her violet crystal mane now caked in dry dirt. The ball bounced off the ground next to her head and made it’s way down the pitch.
Twisted Mane ran up to his friend.
“Are you alright?” The young colt asked lending a blue hoof to the downed filly.
“I’m fine, thanks.” She sighed and took his hoof to pulled herself up, analysing the ground beneath her. “Damn crystal shards! They get everywhere.”
“Well it’s broken now, can’t trip on it again.” His soothing voice and calming smile helped cool her frustration.
Yellow Hoof looked down at the sharp crystal shard she had tripped on. The crystalline structure was indeed broken; the small black shard had been splintered across the grass in a jagged, unpredictable manner.
“We need somewhere else to play!” Twisted Mane jeered, running in the direction of the ball. “First to kick it gets to decide the new goal positions!” He ran off. Yellow Hoof followed trotting a little faster to make up lost ground. The deep black crystal shards stayed still amongst the short grass waving in the breeze.
When nopony was around, a slither of black magic energy relieved itself from the broken shards, joining itself together in a malicious and thoughtful manner. It pointed at the two hoofball ponies then turned acrobatically in the air and made it’s way swimmingly into town.
The centre of the Empire was bustling. There was all sorts of talk about a crystalling and new parents. The slither floated silently into an ally and hid behind a wooden barrel, listening intently to the conversations of the street. There it waited for the summer sun to start setting.
At around eight-o'-clock it shot through the darkened streets to the library, hidden in plain sight by the shadows of the setting sun. The door of the library was opened for it by an obliviously kind librarian, who then walked out and kindly locked the slither inside the building.
The slither had all night in the dark library.
It shone a deep purple light and set about to scan every single book on the shelves until it found... On a low shelf on the third floor it stopped and then slipped in-between two books. One of them glowed a yellow colour which then faded away.
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In the morning bustle of the crystal market, a streak of yellow darted its way through, finding the most efficient path it could.
Spindle Hope was in a rush. He ran into the library with the urgency of a pony who was about to have their door kicked in by a bugbear. He tripped over the star speckled cape of Sunburst on his entrance.
“Oh I'm Sorry!” He yelled apologetically, rolling from the floor back to his hooves.
“Oh dear! What’s the matter? How can I help?” The old mare behind the desk urgently inquired.
“I need a book on how to choose a crystaller. Stat!” Spindle Hope managed to retort as he darted from the floor to the desk, slamming his fore-hooves onto the countertop.
“Oh my!” Was all the library pony could retort, shocked by the rushed colt's manner. His rugged yellow coat and messy brown mane only accentuated his urgency. She pushed her glasses up her nose, “let me check our inventory.” She scrambled about a few pieces of paper with grids and came up with a solution. “Try the third floor, Colts, Fillies and Foals.”
“The book most ponies read before a crystalling is 'Birth, Love and Choices'.” Sunburst called from behind Spindle Hope. Spindle Hope flicked his light brown hair out the way of his pale blue eyes and took in a few deep breaths to recover from his run.
“Thanks!” Two seconds later Spindle Hope was racing up the first set of stairs. He tripped up the second set, picked himself up, and continued up the third more cautiously, while cursing the stairs in his head - He didn’t want to appear rude in front of the reception mare behind the desk.
Sunburst looked at the reception Mare with amusement before heading back to the palace with his book of 'Crystal Foal Traditional Games'. He was staying there while Shinning Armour was out of the Empire on an assignment. He let the door swing shut behind him as he trotted towards the centre of town.
Spindle Hope nosed every book on the bottom shelf of 'Colts, Fillies and Foals'. They all ended up on the floor before he found the book he needed.
A pink book with a photo on the front of a young foal held in the air, next to which was a shinning crystal. The photo was bordered by a dark pink unglimmering, unromantically twisting crystal frame.
Then he looked at the books he had pulled out spread across the floor, then considered the consideration he had shown on the stairs. He had made a mess.
One of the books had slid right onto the edge of the platform and was perfectly balanced underneath the balcony barrier..., until it wasn’t anymore. The book toppled under the barrier, down through the chasm in the centre of the library, past the balconies until it hit the basement floor with a loud thud that echoed throughout the chambers of the library.
Spindle Hope took another quick look at the mess, remembered the crystalling happening in two hours, he darted out of the library..., darted back in, handed his library card to the receptionist, apologised, and darted back out once more. Needless to say the library mare was left shocked by the events, eyeing up the disorganised section on floor three.
"Huh!" She exclaimed in disgust.
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Having studied his borrowed book for an hour, the yellow streak darted through the streets, passing the different coloured crystal houses and the large crowds of non-crystal ponies.
In front of him emerged a massive crystal pillar which arched out from two corners to connect to other crystal pillars, which formed a square base by connecting to one more crystal pillar. Resting on the crystal pillars, high above his head, stood the palace of Princess Cadence and Captain of the guard, Shining Armour.
The arches were lined with red curtains, as is the tradition for a crystalling. Spindle hope stood panting for a second, taking in the grandeur in front of him. The palace was made of blue crystal, and stood tall for ten stories. It jutted a bit after that and then in the centre, a tall spire grew to the sky three-hundred-and-ninety feet above.
He took a breath and pushed the curtain aside.
“I have a book that they recommended, what did you need?”
“He wanted to know HOW to choose a crystaller.” One of the blue guards ponies said approaching him. “He just went to the toilet, he’s extremely nervous.” The guard gave a laugh, “Prince Shining Armour did exactly the same thing. I bet what it says in the book is 'look for good omens and follow your heart.'”
A few seconds later the father returned from the toilet, a deep green unicorn with scraggly turquoise hair.
“Ah you! Did you manage to find a book!?”
“Yes here you go. It should be in there, chapter thirteen.”
The father ran across the room, delighted. He picked the book up off of Spindle and started rifling through it on the floor.
“GOT IT!” The page was almost empty. All it had was the chapter title and number in large print, then a few words printed in small font in the centre of the page. “Look for good omens and follow your heart...What does that mean!”
Spindle couldn’t help but chuckle a little, he had been contemplating that exact phrase since he had spoken to the guard.
“Maybe it means, do what is best, right now.” He said smiling, helping the strange, worried new parent up from the floor. “Don’t worry, you’ve got this, you have your friends and your wife and child, what more could you want?”
“A crystaller.” The father retorted, clawing the ground with his hoof. Spindle Hope made his way to the curtain on the far side.
“I’m heading out for the ceremony. Whoever you choose, I bet they’ll be right for the job.” Pulling the curtain open the green pony stopped Spindle with a force he hadn’t felt before. It wasn’t a bad force, it was warm and loving force.
“I want you to be my crystaller.”
Spindle hope smiled and turned back.
In the few remaining minutes they had, Spindle helped organise the crystals and the beginning of the ceremony was ready. He had to keep checking the family were sure about this. He was a stranger and being a crystaller was a big responsibility.
They were about to go on the platform. The father, joined by his friends and his wife, a light blue mare with long brown hair holding the new-born foal.
Spindle opened the heavy crimson curtain and the group made their way out into the soft breeze of late morning. The sun glistening off the crystal steps as they made their way up to the crystalling platform.
“Spindle, I can’t remember the lines we should say as we perform the crystalling...” The father pleaded quietly. However before he could worry any further, Spindle had rifled through to section fourteen of Birth, Love and Choices.
Relieved, the parents read the book together as they made their way up the steps and onto the platform. Spindle Hope followed close behind. Out the corner of his eye he thought he noticed a thin black sliver of magic float around the book. He figured he must have been imagining it.
On the platform, overlooked by a large crowed of eager crystal/not-yet-crystal ponies, the father floated the book gently to the ground. Spindle came up to him and handed over the purity crystal, a long but thin shard of blue crystal designed to capture magic and amplify it's effects. At this, the mother stepped forwards to start the ceremony as they had read.
"We're so grateful you could all make it here today. We..." Mother was stopped in mid-speech by her husband.
His horn shimmered, pulsating with dark energy and his eyes burned with darkness. A dark coil enveloped the thin blue crystal shard, raising it up to the crystal foal, suspended in the air by his own telekinesis spell.
The crystal foal started crying out, screaming in agony.
Shrouded in darkness, it's coat cracked and bled. The mother screamed from the other side of the platform. Spindle Hope charged at the father in an attempt to douse the magic of his horn.
Before either of them could do anything, the Father had fired two beams of lime green energy into both of them. They stood still and silent, transfixed. Both the mother and Spindle's eyes glowed a still green.
Lesions formed in the once lovely green coat of the foal, and dark red blood poured over the platform.
It's eyes turned red...
There were screams from the audience as the mother collapsed to the floor. Spindle collapsed soon after. The foal exploded, not with the blood of the foal but a deep dark magic which fired into the floor.
The Empire's snowflake shaped roads were left black, freezing everypony on the road or in their houses. Then the darkness hit the crystal heart and the walls of the palace glowed bright red.
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Slice Ray, a member of SMILE and the Crystal Anti-Monster Organisation stared at the blackening streets. With impending disaster unfolding before him, he grabbed a radio walkie-talkie from his belt. Radio waves were an amazing discovery by Doc. He contacted HQ and anyone else who might be listening. He was forced to stop mid sentence.