//------------------------------//
// Chapter Four: The Pit 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: The Lost Empire 
// by CopperTop 
//------------------------------//

Whatever might have been
All the dreams that ponies share

A little over an hour―and a thorough perusing of Archie’s personal library―later, the pair of unicorns were reaching the bottom of a winding staircase which was taking them to a section of the castle that Starlight had heard of in passing but never actually been to.  Mostly because there’d never been much cause for her to be anywhere near here.  The catacombs of the Crystal Palace were rather sacred to the crystal ponies, being the tomb for past princesses and princes.  It was only ever opened up on very specific occasions, and even then only a select few ponies were allowed to enter it.
Specifically, the royal family and their guests during occasions to honor the dead.
They arrived to find Aquamarine looking fervent and pacing in front of the humble barred door.  At the sound of the approaching hoofsteps, she jerked her head up, her eyes briefly widening in fear.  Upon seeing who it was that was coming her way, the crystal mare relaxed...a little, “you’re here; finally!” she blurted breathlessly.  Then her eyes took note of their saddlebags, “you’re coming?”
The mixture of surprise and hopefulness in the mare’s voice struck Starlight as almost adorable, and she couldn’t help but smile in response, “you saved our lives,” she shrugged, “the least that we can do is keep you from getting yourself killed.”
“Assuming that we even end up going anywhere,” Archie cautioned the mares, “this is all still just a bunch of tenuous conjecture.”
“Two hundred years in the Wasteland just sort of sucks the optimism right out of you, doesn’t it?” the pink unicorn quipped, earning a grunt from the ghoul, “let’s get going, shall we?” She stepped past Aquamarine and placed her hoof on the door, giving it a hardy shove.
The sturdy wooden door didn’t budge, “what the―?”
“It’s sealed,” the crystal mare explained, “nopony’s allowed to just go in.  You need special permission,” she glanced towards the decrepit stallion, “that’s why I needed Master Archie here.”
As she spoke, the ghoul was stepping forward, his pale blue telekinesis lifting the medallion that hung around his neck and extending it towards the door.  The talisman glowed briefly with a light of its own, and then there was an audible click.  The door noisily swung open on hinges which had obviously not seen much attention over the years.
Beyond was a dark void.  Again, the ghoul stallion took the lead, his horn glowing with a bright teal light that washed over their surroundings.  Those surroundings were, unsurprisingly, sarcophaguses.  A lot of sarcophaguses.
“One hundred and seven,” Aquamarine said, appearing to note Starlight’s awed expression, “that’s how many Princesses and Princes the Crystal Empire has had since its founding.  At least,” she added with a wry smile, “since it was founded here.”
“Still just conjecture at this point,” the Prime Minister cautioned, earning a grunt from the crystal mare.
The pink unicorn mare let out an appreciative whistle as she looked around the expansive chamber, which seemed to stretch out all around them.  Crystalline pillars and shimmering crypts filled the cavernous space.  Her gaze fell to the nearest pair.  The reliefs etched into them were easily identifiable.  There wasn’t a pony in Old Equestria who wouldn’t recognize the images of Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor.
“You know, there’s one thing that I’ve always kind of wondered,” Starlight began, looking at the pair of Imperial residents, “It’s the Crystal Empire, right?” the pair nodded, “...but it’s the Crystal Princess…?” she prompted expectantly.
“Tradition,” came Archie’s anemic reply, “it’s recorded that the founder of the Empire, Princess Moonstone, was the daughter of the ruler of another nation,” his hoof rose and began to pet at his chin in thought as he glanced at his crystal companion, “though I can’t think of what that other nation was called…?”
“Dom-terrah,” Aquamarine supplied, “but that just sort of means ‘ The Homeland’,” she glanced briefly at Starlight to see if the unicorn wanted to add any additional commentary on her translation this time.  The pink mare did not, “so I don’t think it’s the name of an actual ancient country.
“But, yeah, Princess Moonstone never actually crowned herself Empress, so none of her descendents ever did either, out of respect.  Eventually, it just sort of became the tradition that the ruler of the Empire was a prince or princess.”
That information certainly lined up with everything that Starlight had come to expect from the crystal ponies, “and I assume they never bothered to change the name to the Crystal Princedom for the same reason?”
“Probably,” the former colonel shrugged.
“Fascinating.  So, where exactly is this ‘Threshold’ that we’re here to examine?”
“It should be at the far end of the catacombs, follow me!”
As Starlight pretty much had anticipated, the pair of unicorns were led to the far end of the chamber by their armored companion, past scores of crystalline crypts, until they finally arrived at what was clearly the far wall of the catacombs themselves.  There they found the carved relief that had been described, as well as the tomb of the revered First Princess of the Empire, Princess Moonstone.
Though, the unicorn did note with some surprise that, unlike all of the other sarcophagi, this one was vertical, not horizontal.  Nor were the forelegs of the mare’s carved relief crossed over her chest in soft repose, but spread out, almost welcoming.  Starlight balked at the sight before them as Aquamarine sat herself down and began to examine the carvings for clues.
“So, if this is the Threshold, then there’s got to be some sort of hint that will tell us how to get to the Tower of Fire,” the crystal mare thought out loud, “Tower of Fire...Tower of Fire…” she started looking around, “are any of these support columns unusually yellow or red maybe?  Do you guys see one that has a bunch of torch sconces or something?”
Starlight was only half paying attention to the other mare’s mumblings as she shared a look with the ghoul stallion.  Archie, in turn, let out a bored sigh, “you did say that they sounded like Daring Do book titles,” the Prime Minister pointed out as he approached the sarcophagus.
“Well, yeah, but…” Starlight shrugged, “I didn’t think that it’d be as obvious as a Daring Do book,” she said as she approached with the ghoul, “I always kind of assumed that A.K. Yearling was dumbing that stuff down for her audience.  Like, if you wanted a fun adventure, then you read Daring Do; but if you wanted actual puzzles and mysteries, you read Sherlock Hooves!  There’s no way that the solution to an actual ancient puzzle is this obvious!”
Aquamarine looked up from her muttering and regarded the pair of unicorns with a confused expression, “what are you two doing?”
“Opening the Threshold,” Starlight responded in an oddly defeated tone.  As she was speaking, Archie pressed the token of his position to the crypt’s surface.  The medallion once again pulsed briefly with light.  A few seconds later, the lid bagan to shift, slowly swinging outward, much to Aquamarine’s horror.
“What are you doing?!  You can’t disturb a body like that!  This place is sacred to...our…” her protests petered out as the interior was revealed to contain, not a body...but a descending staircase, “what.”
She continued to sit in stunned silence for several more seconds before glaring at the unicorns, “okay, seriously, who the fuck is Daring Do?!”
“She’s a character in a series of novels that apparently aren’t nearly as campy as I first thought,”  Starlight answered with a sigh as she followed Archie through the opening, “I suppose I owe them a read if any actually survived the apocalypse,” she glared at the fresco before she began descending down the stairs, “but, I swear to Celestia, the Tower of Fire better be as dramatic as it sounds!”

“In fairness,” Archie said as the trio continued to descend along the passageway.  The stairs had ended after just a few yards, and the dutifully carved passageway had opened up into a much rougher natural tunnel, albeit one with a perilously steep incline, “this likely was a far more dramatic journey a few thousand years ago.”
“What do you mean by that?” Aquamarine asked.
“This is a lava tube.  It’s a natural tunnel formed by volcanic lava flows.  They can stretch for miles.  This one is obviously dormant now but it’s entirely possible that, thousands of years ago, it was much fresher.  Those ancient crystal pilgrims could very well have endured oppressive heat and even traces of still cooling magma while passing through it.”
“I’m still not giving it a pass,” Starlight grumbled, “I was promised fiery towers.  Instead I get the Trottingham Underground.”
“Are you seriously complaining about this being a simple walk through a tunnel?” Archie arched a brow at the mare.
“Kind of?” the pink mare’s lips curled in a wry smile, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, me from a year ago would be in awe that something like this existed beneath the Crystal Empire, and I’d be marveling that I was walking in the hoofsteps of ponies from a time before Equestria even existed.
“But after waking up in the Wasteland?
“In the last three months I’ve: fought a half dozen manticores, killed a radgator the size of an Enclave Raptor, cut my way through an army of batpony ghouls to recover Princess Luna’s Moonlight Bow from the Castle of the Two Sisters, out-magiced an alicorn―that bore a suspiciously close resemblance to the mare who used to bully me in college―got eaten by a sandworm, and killed a kodiak.  And those are just the things that stand out!
“For Celestia’s sake, I nearly died twice just walking from the Crystal Palace to my old house, and those don’t even register as blips on my radar!  It’s the Wasteland.  Crazy things happen all the time!  You’re just walking along some crumbling road, minding your own business, and then―bam!―an airship being piloted by a ropobony with the personality of Commander Firefly drops out of the sky and press-gangs you into her crew and now you’re a sky pirate for two hours!  
“That happened!  Twice!”
The pair of ponies were gaping at her in slack-jawed awe.
Aquamarine raised a hoof, “...I’m sorry; did you say eaten?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Starlight waved a dismissive hoof, her body shuddering at the memory, “ugh!”
“You were a sky pirate ‘twice’?” Archie quirked a brow.
The unicorn mare rubbed her head sheepishly, “yeah, turns out they were part of some sort of escaped amusement park attraction from Las Pegasus and after two hours they reset, drop you off, and run through the exact same routine again after ten minutes.  I kind of forgot about them and accidentally got picked up again a week later at the same spot,” she cleared her throat, “it was a fun ride, but not the kind that you do a second time, you know what I mean?  It’s a lot less exciting when you know what the routine is...
“Look, the point is that this?” she gestured around at the dimly lit dormant lava tube, “this is not what I’ve come to expect from the Wasteland.”
Archie and Aquamarine exchanged a look and the ghoul shrugged, “well, speaking as somepony who has spent the last two hundred years sitting in an old palace working as a glorified clerk, I can safely say that this is the highlight of my life and I’m having a simply marvelous time.  Marine?”
The crystal mare nodded, fighting to contain a grin, “I’m about to have my life’s work completely validated by finding the ancient homeland of the crystal ponies!  We might have just saved the Empire!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Starlight sighed, “it’s all really cool and everything,” she acknowledged, scuffing her hoof at the tunnel’s steeply inclined floor, “I just...figured it’d be harder than walking there…”
“Again, I find myself wondering why that is a complaint?”
“Because everypony was making it this big deal!  The wendigos, the dwindling Crystal Heart magic, the umbra ponies, everypony dying in their sleep in a month being the most optimistic future to hope for...and we’re going to solve all of those problems by...walking down a hill,” Starlight sighed again, “the last time I was involved in a quest to avert a genocide, there were alicorn robot swarms, tanks, and an army of genetically engineered super-soldiers!  
“I brain-washed a town!  Again!”
The teal crystal mare stared at Starlight, “...what is your life?”
“A lot weirder since the world ended, I’ll tell you that much,” she muttered.
The ghoul stallion stepped up beside her and gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder and said in a tone that wasn’t―quite―patronizing, “don’t worry, we’re not there yet.  I’m sure that we’ll meet a nice rock wyrm in here that will try to eat us before morning.”
“Here’s hopin’!” Starlight responded in a tone that wasn’t―quite―sarcastic.
Aquamarine looked between the pair, “...you’re both crazy.”

“See?  Now this: this is pretty cool,” Starlight said as the trio―finally―emerged from the lava tube.  They’d been walking for hours by that point and hadn’t actually reached the true end of the natural tunnel.  However, there was little doubt in the minds of any of them that they’d reached their destination intended.
If anything at all counted as a “False World”, then it had to be a caldera that wasn’t technically a “caldera”, for all that it seemed to possess just about every other criteria.  Clearly formed by a volcanic eruption at some point in the past, a lake in the middle of it, and even something of a thriving ecosystem.  Though it was far more fungus-based than Starlight was entirely comfortable with.
The weather was nice though.
That was how high the ceiling of the simply gargantuan cavern was: it had weather.  The three ponies could clearly see clouds above them.  There was even a light drizzle happening on the far side.  Where they were standing was sunny though.  Only, it wasn’t, because the light that they were standing in wasn’t being cast by the “sun”.  Not technically.
“I don’t suppose either of you brainiacs know what’s going on?” the crystal mare asked in awe.
“Sunstone,” Archie supplied with a simple frankness that seemed to bely his own amazement at where they were standing, “certainly the largest on record though…”
“That thing’s a giant glowing rock?”
“Ehh…” Starlight’s hoof wavered in the air, “sort of?  It’s a mineral formation, yeah, but I wouldn’t call it a ‘rock’.  That gives it the wrong connotation.”
The ghoul chose to elaborate upon seeing the confounded expression that the crystal mare was wearing, “that glowing is caused by bioluminescence―light from living creatures.  The specific creatures involved are a type of bacteria that secrete a silicate compound as waste.  It creates a translucent sheath around them that is a lot like a quartz crystal,” he looked up at the massive stone that must have been hundreds of feet in diameter, “as long as they have a steady supply of nitrates and a source of sulphur, they’ll glow.  Plenty of both in an old magma chamber…”
“That’s also why it smells a little like rotten eggs,” the unicorn mare added, wrinkling her nose in annoyance at the odor.  It wasn’t particularly potent, but it was very clearly omnipresent in the air.  It was as though she was perpetually walking into a recently-used little filly’s room.
“...The fuck are eggs?”
“It’s like a fart,” Starlight amended.
“A what?”
Both the living and the withered unicorn looked at Aquamarine with surprised expressions.  They exchanged glances before the pink mare asked, “are you fucking with us or do crystal ponies really not fart?”
“I don’t know,” the crystal mare shrugged, “what is it?”
“When gas comes out of your ass?”
“Eww!  That’s disgusting,” the younger mare’s lip curled in clear revulsion, “why does that happen?”
Again the two unicorns shared a look and shook their heads, “now’s not the time for a biology lesson,” Archie assured everypony, “let’s just settle on ‘it smells bad’.”
“It does?  I seriously have no idea what either of you are even talking about.  It smells fine here.  Honestly, this place smells surprisingly fresh considering it’s an underground...cave?  That word doesn’t sound nearly big enough for this place.  We could fit the whole Empire in here…”
Starlight decided to file away Aquamarine’s olfactory peculiarities for later contemplation and instead returned her attention to their surroundings.  She had to agree with the other mare on that much though.  There was room for the castle, it’s outlying buildings, and there would be plenty of land left over to set up some farms and a few herds of tiny ewes.  She’d have been willing to put bits on this place being the ancient homeland of the crystal ponies…
Except…
“We’re not there yet,” Starlight said with a slight frown, “there’s still a labyrinth to find and go through.  And I don’t see anything like that here,” she pointed out, gesturing at the scene before them.
Aquamarine looked a little torn now.  It wasn’t hard to understand why.  On the one hoof, they did seem to find a perfectly idyllic place to move the crystal ponies to that would protect them from the wendigos and the umbra ponies.  Everypony could be safe right here.  Though that did leave one question burning in the minds of everypony.  
It was the crystal mare who gave it voice, “...why didn’t our ancestors settle here?  This place looks perfect.  They didn’t have to go up to the surface,” she glanced at Archie, “especially if you’re right and that lava tube was really a lot fresher when my ancestors came through here...Why make a dangerous trip like that when they’d found a paradise like this?”
“Perhaps this place too wasn’t nearly so pleasant back then,” Archie glanced upwards and frowned, “a growth like that would certainly have needed at least a few thousand years to reach such a size,” the ghoul stallion sighed and shook his head, “for definitive answers to those questions, we would invariably have to press on and find this Labyrinth of Sorrows.  Beyond it lies the true ancient home of the crystal ponies and perhaps evidence as to why they’d have left it.”
“...we should press on,” the armored mares said in a resigned tone, earning a curious look from her mentor, “there’s a reason that my ancestors passed this place over and took a much more dangerous path instead.  I have to trust that they knew what they were doing.  There’s a reason they went to the surface.  I have to know what it was.”
“Fair enough,” the Prime Minister nodded, “however, perhaps a rest before we press forward?  It’s surely well after midnight by now.”
Funny how it wasn’t until the ghoul had mentioned that that Starlight finally began to feel fatigued.  Understandable, as she’d had quite the long day―what with the two aforementioned incidents of near-death and all.  She glanced apologetically at the crystal mare, who was looking just a little distressed at the notion of pausing their quest for something as trivial as a little sleep, “I actually could use a few winks,” she gestured at their lush surroundings, “and this is a pretty cozy spot for it.  No telling what we might run into further on.  It’s best that we’re rested for it if we do end up running into danger.”
The crystal mare sighed and nodded her head, “you’re both right.  We’ll break for a bite and some sleep.”
A fire wasn’t necessary, as Starlight doubted that it was even capable of getting dark here.  She idly wondered if that was why the crystal ponies didn’t stick around: too bright all the time.  It was certainly giving her some trouble getting to sleep, despite her best efforts.  Aquamarine seemed to have little issue though, and Archie was already snoring like a hell hound with a deviated septum.  That much Starlight could deal with, but the light…
The pink unicorn let out a defeated sigh and rolled over, turning away from the light in the hopes that it would help at least somewhat.  In the process, she inadvertently knocked over her saddlebag.  A pair of glass globes that glowed with a faint orange light rolled into view.  Starlight stared at the memory orbs for several long seconds.  She wasn’t certain how ultimately ‘restful’ a trip into a memory orb would be where dealing with her fatigue was concerned, but her aching joints should get a good reprieve at least while she was in there.
Starlight brought the first orb over and touched it to her horn, drawing the memories in with a gentle tug.
Imagine her stark surprise when she was rather violently thrown back out again.  The unicorn winced, letting out a his of pain as she was overcome with a splitting headache.  She’d not gone into a lot of memory orbs in her life, but she’d certainly never encountered anything like that before!  What Starlight had found most peculiar was that it hadn’t even felt like she was supposed to have been ejected like that.  She’d felt no trace of a security spell―and, honestly, her husband simply wouldn’t have been capable of casting one that could keep her out anyway.  No, the problem that she began to suspect after a couple more―much more tentative―probes was a far simpler one:
Sunburst had “broken” it.
At least, effectively.
Memory orbs were really only intended to contain a single memory.  Even then, the memory was supposed to be relatively short.  A few hours at most.  The day that she’d arrived in the Crystal Empire to assume her post as the Ministry of Arcane Sciences liaison with the Imperial Academy had skirted the boundaries of those limits, honestly.
Whatever was in here...it was just a jumbled mess.  It wasn’t just overly long memories, he’d shoved multiple memories into it!  Now its contents were a hopeless jumbled mess of sounds and visuals with barely a coherent thought between them.  The mare glared at the orb as though it had offended her sensibilities, and in a way it had.  Sunburst had very much abused that poor orb in much the same way she remembered his abusing that drawer in the kitchen: just stuffing whatever he wanted into it until it barely closed and there was no hope of ever finding whatever he was looking for in the future.
It made a little bit of sense, she supposed.  He’d clearly never intended to look into it ever again, so what did he care whether the contents were accessible to anypony else?  He’d just wanted the memories out of his head.
Again there was that pang of hurt at the realization of how much her husband had wanted her gone from his life.
Starlight turned her attention to the second orb.  She very much suspected that it was in the same state as the other one, but she figured that it was worth at least an attempt.  After all, the first orb that she’d used had been perfectly fine.
Though she wasn’t expecting much, the unicorn mare touched her horn to the memory orb and made a cautious attempt to access it―


	oooOOOooo


The nurse popped her head out the door, “Mister Sunburst?”
The stallion shot up like a lightning bolt had stuck him.  He hadn’t even realized that he’d gone to sleep.  He glanced at the clock on the wall.  Three in the morning?  They’d gotten here at midnight, and he knew for a fact that it’d been a lot longer than three hours since then―
Oh, right, they’d been given a room and told that it could still be a good while yet before anything more happened, but the staff didn’t want to bother sending the two of them home.  He’d just sort of puttered around all day, wandering to the cafeteria and back.  Then he’d been kicked out of the room when the contractions really kicked into high gear.
But that had been just after dinner!  Surely it hadn’t―
“Mister Sunburst?” the nurse repeated much more loudly.
Oh, right, somepony was talking to him, “y-yes?”
The mare swallowed, seeming to force a nervous smile as she regarded the disheveled stallion, “you can come in now and meet your daughter.”
“...oh,” the stallion got up onto trembling hooves.  He felt more than a little nervous, truth be told.  Two months premature wasn’t a super big deal―according to the books he’d read when the doctors first warned them that this pregnancy might be difficult.  They couldn’t give specifics, but their tests had shown that certain hormone levels weren’t where they should be.  Nothing too extreme, they’d vehemently assured, and nothing that should cause genuine alarm...but enough to be watchful.
Hence why they’d shown up at the first sign that Starlight was feeling any sort of abdominal discomfort.
Sunburst followed the nurse through the doors and down the hall.  Past the room that Starlight had initially been admitted to, the stallion noticed, feeling that lump of nerves in his gut grow a little bigger.  The nurse didn’t flinch though, apparently knowing full well where Starlight had been moved to.  He didn’t like that they were heading towards doors marked “NICU”.  He supposed that was only right, though.  It was two months early…
However, he simply couldn’t force himself to wait for any information to be volunteered, “are they alright?”
“Your wife is fine,” the nurse said.  Sunburst didn’t believe that he imagined the waiver though, “the birth was...difficult.  There were complications―minor complications,” she stressed fervently, “but she pulled through just fine.  She’s with your daughter now.”
“And Moonbeam, she’s…?”
“―alive,” the nurse swallowed, “it―your daughter is...alive.”
He didn’t find that response as comforting as he felt that he should have.  The sound of the various beeping machines that became audible as the two of them neared the door didn’t help either.  Not all of those ominous tones had to do with his new filly, of course.  There were other newborn foals who rested here beneath the watchful eyes of doctors, nurses, and fretful parents.  Sunburst didn’t care about any of them though.  His eyes passed them over without hesitation until he finally found the familiar form of his wife.
The nurse was left in his wake as he rushed over to Starlight and threw his hooves around her.  The pink unicorn started at first, but then quickly returned the embrace, burying her face into his chest.  She was mumbling something, but Sunburst couldn’t quite make it out.  He got the faint impression that the nurse was trying to tell him something too, but again those words didn’t penetrate.
He was too distracted by what lay nearby.
It was probably supposed to be a pony, but…
“―doing everything we can,” that was the nurse’s voice, the stallion thought, still only half-hearing her, “we’ve reached out to the Ministry of Peace and they’re sending over a specialist for a consultation―”
“―rry...I’m sorry...I’m sorry...” that was Starlight.
The monitors attached to the creature in the incubator nearby beeped.


	oooOOOooo


“―ervous?”
Sunburst looked away from the mirror for a brief moment and turned to face his visitor.  The smile that he flashed the older mare was bittersweet.  He loved his mother―honestly―but she could be a little...motherly.  The stallion made a conscious effort not to think about his mother in ways that were too disparaging.  She meant well.
That was what he kept telling himself anyway.
“No, Mom, I’m not nervous,” he assured the burnt orange mare.
“Your father―bless his soul―was an absolute wreck on our wedding day,” the unicorn mare continued, as though not having heard a word that he’d said, “he was sweating the whole time!”
Probably because it had only just hit him what sort of hell awaited him on the other side of that altar―
Sunburst cut the thought off quickly and forced himself to smile and take a deep breath to calm his nerves.  Though, as he had said, those nerves genuinely had nothing at all to do with the wedding that was mere minutes away from happening.  The truth was that neither him nor Starlight were nervous about it.  From a purely legal standpoint, they’d been married for nearly a year now, in fact.
The only reason for this ceremony was because it turned out that neither of them had had the spine to tell either of their parents that they’d eloped to Las Pegasus―specifically to avoid dealing with their parents on a day like this.  So when it became clear that the questions about when the two of them would finally tie the knot wouldn’t stop, they’d eventually broken down and “set a date” for the benefit of their parents; giving his mother and Starlight’s father free rein to plan everything.
Fat lot of good eloping did cowards like us, the stallion thought to himself, I’d suggest we talk to a shrink about our parent issues, but they’d kick us out after the first session to save their own sanity!
There was nothing for it but to grin and bear it at this point.  If anything, the hard part was over.  They’d both endured months of fittings, cake-tastings, color pallet choosings, venue scouting, all leading up to this moment: when the two of them could finally be free of their parents’ incessant nagging about their lives!
“―and don’t get me started on how he reacted when I brought up foals!”
Oh, she was still rambling.  How wonderful…
“Speaking of...” 
Oh no.  Nononono!
“I hope the two of you have set aside a room in that house of yours for a nursery?”
Sunburst mentally face-hoofed.  Right.  Now this could start.  Maybe he should talk to Starlight about popping out a foal as soon as possible to head this sort of talk off at the pass!  No, that wouldn’t work.  Because the moment they did have a foal, it would just turn into questions about whether their child was potty trained yet, how their counting was coming along, had he and Starlight scouted out any good colleges they were just born, Mother, I know but you need to have a plan for these sorts of things, Dear―!
The stallion took in another deep breath and made a mental note to speak with Starlight about learning that emotion-bottling spell of hers for when his mother invariably dropped by to visit.  Likely unannounced, of course.
“We’re going to be putting that sort of thing off,” he said out loud in a tone that possessed a calmness that even surprised himself.  He focused on straightening his bowtie.  His mother hadn’t approved of polka-dots but―by Celestia!―Sunburst had made that a hill he would die on.
Polka dots were cool.
It was also the only decision he’d made this whole wedding that his mother hadn’t overruled or patently ignored.
“Not too long, I hope,” Stellar Flare said, stepping up beside him a ‘restraightening’ his bowtie.  Sunburst merely smiled, reminding himself that it would all be over in an hour and then they’d be free of their parents for at least two weeks while the ‘new couple’ was on their honeymoon.  If his mother really wanted grandfoals, there was no way she was going to disturb that!
“Nothing against your lovely bride-to-be,” she continued, “but it gets a lot harder for a mare to ‘bounce back’ as she gets older.  That’s why I was smart and had you right out the gate!” she patted her son adoringly on the head.
“Thank you for that information, mother,” he wasn’t thankful, “but we’re not sure how long it’ll be.  It all depends on when the war ends.”
Stellar Flare frowned now, “don’t tell me you’re one of those ‘we can’t bring ourselves to bring an innocent life into this world full of hate!’ types?”
“No mother,” well, partially, “but Starlight and I both have very important jobs that demand a lot of our time.  We simply can’t care for a foal right now.  There’s too much to do.
“When the war’s over, Starlight’s agreed to officially transfer to the Academy and work there full time.  She won’t have to travel, and we can arrange our schedules so that somepony’s always home to take care of the baby,” he flashed his mother a―not quite―wicked grin, “it’s our plan!”
It was a wonderfully satisfying experience to watch his mother’s sensibilities go to war with one another inside her head as her desire to be a grandmare engaged in an epic struggle with her fundamental approval of well-reasoned plans for the future.  In this case, her compulsion eventually won out, “that’s...great!” barely.
“We think so,” Sunburst floated over the white boutonniere that lay on the nearby table and slid the stem into the lapel of his suit.  He ignored his mother’s magical adjustment of it and headed for the door, “ready to go, Mother?” he extended his hoof―


oooOOOooo


“This is so stupid―I love it!” Starlight’s voice called from behind the changing curtain.
Sunburst chuckled, “it is pretty great,” he agreed, “I’m honestly surprised that more ponies don’t do this,” the stallion struck a pose and examined himself in the mirror as he appraised his own choice of attire.  The flowing white beard was hanging a little loose around his chin, but there didn’t seem to be much helping that.  The plastic hooks that looped around his ears to keep it in place only came in the one length.  The hat was a size too big too.
He supposed that if they wanted to make sure that the costume fit as many ponies as possible, it made more sense to err on the larger side.  Sunburst shrugged and stepped out from behind his own divider, “well, I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.  How about you―?” his words choked off in his throat.
Obviously there was quite the discrepancy where the quality and care of attires was concerned between stallions and mares.  Where his cloak, hat, and beard were all sized up, rather simplistic, and a little frayed in places; it seemed that the costume that Starlight had received for the occasion was quite different.  In every regard.
If anything, it was a size―or three―too small.  Not that the stallion was inclined to voice any complaints, mind you!  Her own cloak was little more than a miniature cape, fluttering around her withers as she moved.  It didn’t even meet the pleated skirt that she’d―somehow―managed to shimmy into.  Her hat was essentially a pointed fez that was canted adorably to one side of her mane.
For a moment, he wondered if the owners had perhaps accidentally received a costume that had been intended for a, erm...different establishment.  There were several such places in this city―which he only knew because such things were general knowledge!  He certainly hadn’t visited any of them!
“Uhh...Starlight…?  Are you sure that’s…?”
The mare giggled and struck a pose of her own, “what’s the matter?  You didn’t think that Clover the Clever could look so sexy?  No, this isn’t one of theirs.  I picked it up special this afternoon,”  The mare strutted around the flustered stallion grinning broadly at him, “look at you, you dirty old stallion; how dare you ogle your, young, innocent, impressionable, corruptible, student like that…” each word brought the mare closer in until she was leaning with her full weight against Sunburst, “when all that I want…” she craned her head up towards his ear, “is for you to...teach me…”
Sunburst let out a flustered gasp.  He was positive that a blush had now permanently burned itself into his cheeks, “uh―I...What I mean is―um...I―er, uh―”
Starlight was laughing uproariously now at the sight of her sputtering husband-to-be, “Oh, Celestia!  The look―gasp!―on your face―!  I love it!” she rushed in and hugged the stallion, saying it a much sweeter tone, though one that was still piqued with mirth, “and I love you, Sunny-butt!
“Now let’s get to that altar so that Liberacneigh look-alike can marry us and then you can tell me what I’ll have to do to you ‘after class’ if I want a passing grade,” the unicorn mare was prancing to the door, and cast a smoldering look at her groom, “and feel free to use any of that stuff that’s in those magazines you ‘hide’ in that red horseshoe box in the closet,” her lips spread into a wide grin upon seeing the stallion blanch, “last august, page seventeen, specifically!”
His ability to perfectly recall subject’s he’d read about was something of a mixed blessing at the moment.  Sunburst rearranged his cloak, “...yes, ma’am.”
“That’s, ‘yes, you naughty little girl’ to you!  Now hurry up!  This skirt’s really tight and I want you to rip me out of it ASAP―!


	oooOOOooo


Sunburst was leaning back in the chair staring straight ahead, and yet not really seeing anything.  He was just sort of...looking.  Meanwhile his brain was racing to process a hundred different things all at once.  It apparently took him far longer than Starlight appreciated to recognize that she expected him to articulate a response to her announcement too, “Sunburst?”
“Yeah!” the response had been automatic, but not entirely appropriate for the moment.
“‘Yeah’?  ‘Yeah’ what?” the pink unicorn asked cooly, narrowing her gaze slightly at her husband.
“I...uh...what was the question?”
“There wasn’t one,” was her terse reply.
“Right!  Right…” there hadn’t been a question.  Merely a statement of fact, “so...I guess we have some choices to make, don’t we?”
“‘Choices’?” Starlight curled in on herself slightly, almost reflexively, as though protecting herself.  No, not herself, Sunburst realized, “what do you mean?  Because I’m not going to―”
“No!  Nonono!  No that’s not what I’m saying!  I mean, you know...we need to get, like, a regular doctor, right?  The kind that mares see for this sort of thing?”
“You mean an obstetrician?”
“Yes!  That!” the stallion let out a relieved sigh, “we need an obstetrician.  And we’re also going to need to pick out a room―probably my office, honestly.  I can just move all of my stuff to the Academy―should have done that years ago anyway.  Buy some books on parenting―”
By this point, the pink unicorn had relaxed considerably, “so...you’re not upset?”
“Upset?!  Celestia, Starlight, no,” he assured the mare, “I’m not upset, angry, mad, or anything like that!  I’m just...surprised.  I think I’m allowed to be that,” he offered his wife a wan smile, “after all, we’d both decided that we’d wait until after the war―”
“I didn’t plan this!”
“I’m not saying you did!” Sunburst assured her, wondering why he felt like he was walking on eggshells.  Were these those ‘raging hormones’ that stallions were always talking about where pregnant mares were concerned?  Because he’d been under the impression that they were supposed to come into play a little bit later on in the process, “and I’m not saying it’s your fault or anything in any way!” he added, hoping to cut off another accusation, “I mean, I distinctly remember being there too, you know?
“Neither of us planned for this, but we weren’t exactly being as careful to avoid it as we apparently could have been.  But that doesn’t matter anymore.  It happened.  We’re going to deal with it―in a good way!” he hastily amended, “and we’re going to make it work.
“I’ll talk with Archibald and let him know that I’m going to be taking some paternity leave sometime in the next year.  The Empire’s pretty liberal with that sort of thing, what with the Princess of Love and all being the head of state,” he smiled at the now much more relaxed mare.  Then he thought for a moment, “though, aren’t we supposed to go to a doctor and have a real pregnancy test done to make sure?  I thought I heard that those at-home ones were only kinda reliable―”
“I found out from a doctor,” Starlight answered, sounding a little more nervous now, “today.  After they got the blood test results from my annual physical last week,” she paused for a moment, “they called me in for an ultrasound.  I’m at three months.”
“Three...months?” the stallion was back to his stunned state, “don’t mares usually know...before that…?”
She frowned now, “we’re working with a lot of untested spell matrixes at work.  Which means a lot of unknown side-effects.  Combined with the birth control I’m on...I’ve missed cycles before,” she shrugged, “I didn’t think anything of it.
“I talked to HR.  They’re pulling me off my ongoing research projects for the time being.  I’m going back to being a liaison again.”
“Oh.  Well that’s good.”
Starlight looked at her husband, still wearing a slightly wary expression, “you’re sure you’re okay with this?”
Sunburst sighed, let a smile return to his face, and leaned in to nuzzle the mare, “I’m fine; I promise!  I wanted this.  Yes, I prefered waiting until after the war when things were less…worrisome―but I did want this.
“I want all of it: holding our foal for the first time.  Hearing them say their first words.  Their first day at magic kindergarten.  Watching them cast their first incantation…all of it.
“I know it’s going to be wonderful, and I know you’ll be an amazing mother, and I know that we’ll be a great family together.”
Starlight smirked, “you mean that I’ll be amazing compared to your mother.”
“Griffons are amazing mothers compared to mine,” he snorted and then gave her another nuzzle, “you’ll be amazing compared to anypony’s mother,” he pulled back and thought for another moment, “you...said you had an ultrasound already?”
“Yes?”
“...do they know the gender?”
Starlight smiled at her husband, “we might want to pick out a book on baby names for girls―”


	oooOOOooo


Her eyes fluttered open slowly.  Even so, she was still unprepared for the amount of light that assaulted her.  It was completely unchanged from how it had been when she’d gone into the memory orb.  Which made it decidedly difficult to determine how long she’d been in there.  For all she knew, it had been anywhere from a few minutes to a few days.  Judging by how hungry she felt, it had been at least a decent hoofful of hours.
This guess was bolstered by the fact that neither Archie nor Marine were where they’d been sleeping before.  Honestly, they weren’t anywhere in sight.  This was both a little worrying and a bit of a relief, if the mare was being honest.  Waking up alone in a strange place was hardly an ideal situation under any circumstance.  However, it at least meant that she was able recompose herself in peace.
There’d been...dozens of memories that had been coherent enough for her to experience at least parts of.  However, they’d all come at her without warning, and bringing with them a flurry of emotions that she could barely process.  There was also her own brain’s attempts to reconcile the various incongruities between how she had viewed those events compared to Sunburt’s recollection.
Had she really looked that good wearing that ‘Sexy Clover’ Nightmare Night costume that she’d bought for their Las Pegasus wedding?  Sunburst had definitely looked a lot more like the real Starswirl than he’d thought, she remembered that much.  The beard had looked fine.
It was at least nice to know that he really hadn’t been upset about her getting pregnant like that.  She’d always kind of wondered if he’d been saying the ‘right’ things because he felt like he’d had to.
The unicorn mare wiped her eyes and nose and looked around herself again more thoroughly.  While her companions were gone, their packs remained.  Which meant that they likely hadn’t gone very far at least.  This was confirmed minutes later when she saw them approaching.
“Well, look who’s decided to finally come back to the present,” the turquoise mare chided, smirking at Starlight, “how was your trip?”  Archie’s expression was more concerned.  As a unicorn, he was likely more aware of how unusual it was for a memory orb to last as long as it must have.
“It was fine,” the pink unicorn said simply as she repacked her bag and got back to her hooves.
“Uh huh.  Well, we decided that we’d get a little searching in until you woke up.  We think we found something.  Follow us; you can eat on the way.  We’ve lost enough time already.”
Starlight frowned but said nothing as she fell into step behind the pair.  She was still trying to process those recent experiences when the trio apparently arrived at their destination: an apparent cave-in along the wall.  
Archie explained how a cursory investigation had convinced him that it hadn’t been a natural event, “it started too low,” he said, using his magic to illustrate the areas of the vaulting rocky walls where the stone had apparently fallen from.  It was barely ten feet above the surface, “and the breaks are far too uniform.  Somepony was deliberately knocking down stones here.”
Starlight stepped up now and began to examine the collection of fallen rocks, probing at them with her own magic, “it’s hollow beyond them,” she confirmed, “everypony stand back,” she and the other two ponies each backed away gingerly.  A brilliant blast of cyan energy from her horn proved sufficient to pulverize the obstructing stones, revealing in their wake another tunnel.
This was no lava tube though, “this was mined out,” Archie noted.  Starlight and Aquamarine were forced to agree with the ghoul’s conclusion.  The sides were too smooth, and the dimensions were far too uniform to be a natural formation.  It was also a nearly perfect size for a pony to comfortably walk through.
“Not much of a labyrinth,” the pink unicorn said as she poked her head into the single passageway.
“Maybe it just leads to it,” her crystal companion suggested.
“Only one way to find out for sure,” the stallion said as he stepped to the front of the group, pulling out his sword and heading inside, “stay close,” he cautioned.
They’d yet to encounter anything that could be considered a threat on this journey, but the close confines of the tunnel that they were about to travel into meant that they’d be at considerably more risk than at any other point thus far.  The ghoul’s caution was likely appropriate, Starlight thought.  She elected to take up the rear position, giving their group the ability to generate magical light both ahead and behind them in the event that they needed to backtrack if they ever did find their way to this labyrinth.
A couple hundred feet later, they reached their first intersection.  However, Starlight couldn’t help but feel that it was a little obvious which way they were supposed to go, “one tunnel leading into three,” she noted, and their group was standing at the mouth of one of the three, given the way that the passageways seemed to curve.
“We’re coming at the labyrinth from the opposite way,” Archie concluded, “we’re going from the exit towards the entrance.  This was designed to confuse ponies going the other way.”
“Everything about this trip has been so underwhelming,” Starlight sighed, “worst. Adventure. Ever.”
“In fairness, we don’t know that for sure,” Aquamarine pointed out, “we shouldn’t just assume that in a place like this.”
“That’s a fair point,” the ghoul agreed.  He gestured towards one of the other tunnels, “you two check down that way and see if it dead-ends.  I’ll stay here,” he looked at Starlight, “you grabbed Cavalcade’s Cantrips, right?  There should be an arcane tethering spell on page two hundred and fourteen.  I’ll serve as the anchor point.  That way you two won’t get lost.”
“Good idea,” the pink mare floated out the appropriate grimoire and flipped it to the indicated page, finding the spell easily―much to her own surprise.  Though she supposed that when one had a few hundred years to do so, memorizing spellbook contents was probably a pretty simple feat even if you weren’t a prodigy like her husband had been.  She closed her eyes and deftly connected the magical tether between herself and Archie.  A wispy blue tendril of energy now existed between them, floating delicately in the air.
She looked to the crystal mare and nodded towards the tunnel ,”let’s go,” as she started walking, the line connecting her to the unicorn ghoul grew in length, following her precise path like a magical trail of breadcrumbs.
The pair of mares advanced cautiously down the tunnel, Starlight lighting the way for them.  It possessed the same dimensions as the passageway that they’d entered through.  However, it did not seem to extend nearly as long.  It only took them a couple of minutes to reach its end, as they had mostly expected they would.
What they had not expected was the skeleton.
The light from starlight’s horn washed over the collection of bones and barding that had once been a pony.  The slight shimmer that they possessed confirmed that it had indeed been a crystal pony as well.  A pickaxe and a sword lay mingled with the remains.  They stared at the body for several seconds in silence.
“No sign of what killed them,” Aquamarine said, after leaning in close to examine the skeleton, “nothing broken at least.  The armor’s undamaged, so it wasn’t a cave-in or a monster of some sort.”
“They didn’t get lost down here either,” Starlight mused, “it looks like they were actually making this tunnel when they died.  If anypony should know their way through this place, it should be the ponies building it.”
“Do you have a spell that can tell us what happened?”
“Ponies don’t do necromancy,” was Starlight’s terse reply, “you’ll need a zebra for that,” that wasn’t strictly true, if the rumors about some of the MAS’s more...questionable research projects were to be believed; but Starlight had not been involved in those.  She was interested in researching new magicks, yes, but there existed some lines that even she wouldn’t cross.
Her eyes looked to the sword.  A diamond-forged blade, just like Archie’s.  Much older though.  Only the blade seemed to be in any sort of serviceable condition.  The pommel and hilt were all but eroded away.  Which honestly made little difference to a unicorn, since she could wield the cutting edge with her magic just as effectively either way.  She collected the blade in her telekinesis and tucked it into her barding.
“Let’s go back.”
The second tunnel that they were rather certain was a dead end proved to indeed be one as well.  It too ended in an armored corpse.  Starlight suspected that all of them would, and she didn’t particularly like those implications.
Labyrinth of ‘Sorrows’ indeed.  Labyrinth of Death was more like it.  How many ponies had been sacrificed to build this place, and to what purpose?  Had the builders been murdered to keep the solution a secret?  It’s not like it was even that difficult of a maze.  None of the ‘false’ passages they tested out seemed to go on for very long, and none of them branched off into any additional false leads.  Every intersection they came to was more of the same: a clear point of origin that led into several options, of which they always emerged from one.  The others all ended in a body after a few hundred feet.
“This place was a waste of time,” Starlight grumbled, “nopony could actually get lost down here.  Not really.  Inconvenienced maybe.  Delayed.  But so what?  What was the point?”
“Maybe that was the point,” Archie pointed out, “to delay somepony.  Or something.  They blocked off the exit too, remember?  Even if we’d come at this thing from the ‘right’ way, we’d have run into nothing but dead ends no matter what path we took.  It would have looked like there wasn’t a solution.
“This wasn’t a puzzle that was meant to be solved.”
“I think Master Archie’s right,” the crystal mare said, “each of those soldiers had their weapons drawn.  They went down fighting.  Their job was to create false paths and delay whatever followed them down them.”
The ghoul nodded, “meanwhile, the main body of the group would continue down the real path until they reached the end and then seal it off,” he thought for a moment, “I have to wonder if this had not originally been just a single tunnel and those off-shoots made long afterwards while they were trying to escape...whatever it was that was chasing them.”
Starlight was forced to acknowledge that the idea was rather likely.  Honestly, it was the only conclusion that made sense, given what they knew.  The crystal ponies being led by Princess Moonstone had gone to the surface for a reason―had barred the way behind them for a reason.  That reason was very likely: they were trying to escape from something.  It likely hadn’t been some sort of natural disaster either.  Natural events didn’t chase you down.
The pink mare was wondering now if they should be so determined to seek out a place that the crystal ponies had been so keen to run from.  Granted, a few thousand years was a long time.  Time enough, certainly, for whatever threat might have existed to have vanished by now.
Idly, she wondered if, in another few thousand years, the crystal ponies might have to leave here and go back to the surface to escape some sort of danger.  An eon-spanning shuttle run of some sort.  Starlight found a bit of macabre amusement in that thought.
As the trio expected, they found the end―or rather, the beginning―of the ‘labyrinth’ with little actual issue once they ceased to explore the obvious dead-ends.  Once again, it came time for the small group to wonder at the marvel of what they were seeing.  It was not as fantastical as the False World had been, at least, not in terms of its cheer scope and size, but it was still very impressive in its own right.
There was little doubt that they’d found the home of the crystal ponies.
The sides of the fractal cavern glistened and sparkled with crystalline spires.  Indeed, Starlight was relatively certain that they’re emerged into the middle of a massive geod of some sort.  These spires which adhered to the walls of the cavern were themselves dotted with openings and additions―windows, doors, balconies, staircases.  Each massive hexagonal crystal spire was like unto an apartment building.  Pathways formed of a mosaic of precious stones wound and twisted their way along the ground before them.  Up ahead, Starlight could even make out a central column of crystals that had been carved out into a structure that was distinctly reminiscent of the Crystal Palace.
“Huh.”
Starlight glanced down at their crystalline companion, “that’s all you’ve got to say?  ‘Huh’?  Isn’t this what you’ve been searching for?”
“I thought it’d be...harder,” Aquamarine said sheepishly.
The pink unicorn flashed a grin at the ghoul stallion standing beside them, “see?  She gets it!”
“I hate to play Discord’s advocate,” the stallion said with a wry smirk of his own, “but I don’t think we should turn back just yet.  The crystal ponies left for a reason.  At the very least, we should see if we can’t learn what that reason was and see if it still poses a risk.”
He had a point.  It did nopony any good to bring the Empire’s remaining citizens down here only to have them get wiped out by...something, “so where should we start looking then?”
Archie pointed to the central column, “I nominate the palace.  The ponies in charge would surely have kept a record of any threats that they faced.”
The mares nodded in agreement and they began to make their way through the city towards it’s center.  Slowing on occasion to examine a nearby structure or feature.  Starlight couldn’t help but notice how different the ruins in this place felt from the ruins on the surface.  She didn’t just mean the lack of physical devastation either―though that certainly stood out.
On the surface, the destruction of the world had largely come as a surprise―Starlight herself had been under the impression that the alert was merely another drill.  Nopony had had much time to prepare, and what she saw of the devastation suggested that relatively few managed to escape at all.  Bodies lined the ravaged streets and crumblings buildings of the Old World.  Homes and businesses looked like everything had just sort of...stopped...mid-action.  A cosmic force had paused Equestria, and then everypony had died where they stood.
Here?
There were no bodies―save for those that had been in the labyrinth.  No shops had their wares on display.  No homes had set tables or cluttered living rooms.  What possessions there were―and Starlight felt like there were far fewer than there should have been―had been neatly packed away in cupboards and dressers and desks.  This evacuation had been organized, orderly, and planned well in advance.  The ponies here had known that they were leaving, and when.
That suggested a well known, and a well understood, threat.
A threat that they’d understood well enough to know that it couldn’t be defeated either.
That concerned Starlight.
The pulled up short just before reaching the palace, in front of an obelisk that bore a carved message.  Starlight and Aquamarine recognized the old crystal dialect easily, as it was identical to that contained in the Empire's oldest records.  The contents of the carved message did little to assuage Starlight’s worries.
“‘Be it known…’” the crystal mare read from the relief, “‘that this...monument?  Serves to announce the the memories of our―serves as a memorial’,” the mare corrected herself, “‘to our loved ones; who died fighting the…’” she faltered now, narrowing her eyes as she peered at the elusive word, “‘fear and danger’?”
Starlight leaned in and looked over the words, “‘The Horror’,” she supplied, “it’s mentioned a few times in the old records.  They never say exactly what ‘The Horror’ is though.  Everypony back then just seemed to take it for granted that the reader would know exactly what they were talking about.
“I assume it’s a monster of some sort.”
“Ah,” Aquamarine nodded and then continued to read the message, “‘...died fighting The Horror.  Their sacrifice shall never be forgotten.  May their...essence―spirits live forever in this city, which we leave in their care.’”
“They declared this place to be an actual ghost town,” Archie noted with a smirk as he looked around, “fascinating.”
“Well, we finally know what happened―kind of,” the pink mare frowned, “The Horror chased the crystal ponies away from their home.  If we ever find out what ‘The Horror’ were then we’ll know if it's safe to come back or not.”
“I still have hope that there will be more detailed records in the palace,” the ghoul said, “even if they never give a description, finding a record of where The Horror came from or what they do should go a long way.”
That much Starlight had to agree with.  She wouldn’t deny that she was frustrated with the vagueness of the description, but she supposed that it was no different than seeing a sign that said: “Beware: Hydras”  Anypony who never seen or heard about a hydra before would have no idea what one looked like, could do, or how much of a threat they posed.  Only a few books ever really went into a lot of detail about those sorts of things.  Most mentions of dangerous monsters just took it for granted that ponies had been taught by somepony else at some point that those monsters were dangerous and why they were dangerous.
The unicorn was sure that, thousands of years ago, every crystal pony was taught nearly from birth what The Horror was and why it should be avoided.  There was simply no reason for every mention of it to be paired with a long dissertation that described it in minute detail for an uninformed pony.  Though, as with hydras and manticores and other dangerous monsters that existed on the surface, there surely did exist some sort of definitive work on The Horror somewhere that had been written by scholars who’d studied them.
Hopefully a copy was located either in the palace or whatever building might pass for the library or archives in this place.  They just had to find it.

“Do you think we missed the party yet?” Starlight asked as she drew out another book and flipped through the pages.  The palace’s royal library was frustratingly both expansive and unhelpful.  It appeared that crystal ponies had a propensity for coming up with flourishing titles for both their reference guides and their fictional works.  At least, Starlight assumed that the various tales about ‘Pesky Pyrite’ and the colt’s nonsensical misadventures were intended to entertain the reader rather than document what would have surely been an extraordinary life for a pony of such a young age.
The tome she’d withdrawn this time appeared to cover the finer points of dining etiquette given the expansive number of forks it depicted of slightly varying size and tong count.  She put it back and moved on.  If she was being honest, she was not holding out much hope that they’d find anything helpful.  As had been apparent by the state of the rest of the city that they’d seen, the evacuation had been thorough and methodical.  Whatever logistical constraints had existed in order to be sure that their timetables could be met obviously meant that not everything could be taken, but the broad gaps on the shelves suggested that they’d made an effort to take what books they believed would be most useful to them in whatever new lands they settled.
Starlight was beginning to think that she references that they needed most had been taken to the surface and that they were either on the Academy's shelves, or had been lost during the reign of Sombra.  All that they were likely to find here was drivel.
“Hmm?” Archie looked over from his own shelf, “oh!  You mean Agate’s little ‘festival’ where he planned to pair you off with somepony?  Hard to say.  I didn’t think to bring a way of tracking time with me.  It might be that late by now,” he glanced outside a nearby window, not that it did him much good.  
While this city might have lacked the singular massive sunstone that the False World had, it was clear that such growths had been a mainstay for lighting in the past.  The walls and ceilings were dotted with them.  Starlight found herself doubting that most of them were where they’d been placed originally, as they lacked the elegance and order that the arrangement of the rooms and furniture suggested that the early crystal ponies had, but the effect was maintained: every room was at least moderately well lit at all times.
The unicorn mare found herself wondering if crystal ponies actually naturally did ‘night time’...
“Do you think they’re looking for us?”
“Probably not,” Archie answered, elaborating at the mare’s raised brow, “I left a note.”
“You left a note?”
“Sort of.  I told them that I was taking you back to the Academy for the day,” he shrugged, “though, in my defense, I didn’t think we’d actually find anything in the catacombs and that we’d be back in the castle propper by lunch.”
“That’s fair.  I didn’t think that we’d find the lost homeland of the crystal ponies either,” the two shared a chuckle.  There was silence for a moment, then, “are you worried you’ll get in trouble?”
“Trouble?  You mean will Agate punish me?” the pink mare nodded, “no.  He won’t do anything,” the ghoul thought for a moment, “well, I mean, he’ll complain about me being gone for so long and beg me not to do it again; but I won’t be punished in any way.”
“You sound pretty sure of that.  Doesn’t a regent have all the power and authority of the Princess?  Couldn’t he remove you as Prime Minister.”
“Of course he could,” Archie agreed, “but he won’t.  I helped educate every pony in that city.  I helped raise more than a few of them. ‘Master Archie’ has been the Prime Minister for as long as they’ve been alive―as long as their grandparents were alive,” he flashed the mare a smile, “it’s now ‘tradition’ for Master Archie to be the Prime Minister,” he said with a wink.
“That’s the level of tenure that every college professor dreams of,” Starlight grinned as the two shared another small laugh and resumed browsing through books for a brief time.  After another few minutes though, “will I get a Court position?”
“Hmm?”
“Court position.  Do I get one too?  You said the other day―or yesterday, whenever―that most ponies had one, even if it was just ceremonial.  I was just curious if I’d end up getting some nifty title.  Countess Starlight Glimmer has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
The ghoul smiled, “I don’t think there are any titles of nobility left to be passed out,” he said after a moment’s thought, “but I don’t see why we can’t find you something appropriate.  You’re obviously good with magic.  The position of Archmage might suit you.”
Starlight’s expression faltered.  Sunburst’s old position.  She wasn’t sure how she felt about stepping into that particular role.  He’d still only been dead for less than a year as far as she was concerned.  She’d only just started to mourn―and not even properly yet, “no...not that one.  Not yet.”
The ghoul regarded her for several long seconds with a curious expression, “...as you wish.  I suppose there’s no hurry if you want to get you hooves under you first,” as though another thought occurred to him he shrugged, “I suppose a mare like you could make it more than just an ‘honorary’ position, now that I think about it.  It’ll be a novel concept having a genuinely capable unicorn holding that title for once―”
“He was plenty capable!” Starlight snapped, startling the ghoul almost as much as she’d surprised herself.  The two looked at each other in stark silence until the mare cleared her throat and turned her attention back to the shelf in front of her, “sorry.  I’m just―...sorry.
“...We should focus on looking for a reference guide,” the withered stallion nodded slowly and went back to his own search.
Several hours later, it was Aquamarine who turned up with the answer to their question.  While the unicorns had perused the royal library, she’d chosen to search through the barracks.  Her reasoning had been sound enough: if The Horror was a monster, then the guards would have doubtlessly been trained on how to combat it, and those training materials might still be there.
She returned bearing a book, and a decidedly resigned expression, “wendigos.  The Horror are wendigos,” she announced unhappily as she tossed a well used book to the two unicorns.
“What?” both said with simultaneous surprise.  Starlight picked up the book with her magic and began to quickly flip through the pages, hoping that the crystal pony had simply made another translation error.
She had not, “‘born from Death itself’,” Starlight read, “‘The Horror appear as spectral ponies.  They have no tangible form, and they bring with them a cold that defies all efforts to keep it at bay.  They are without mercy.  Without compassion.  They cannot be reasoned with.  They fear no blade.  If you encounter The Horror…’” she looked up from the depressingly meger entry and swallowed, “‘...run.’”
“Wendigos?” Archie said breathlessly, “the crystal ponies were running from wendigos?  How is that possible?”
“...the old Hearth's Warming stories never said where they came from,” Starlight reminded him, looking to the ghoul, “they just showed up one day and brought a winter that neither earth pony, unicorn, or pegasus could stop,” she looked once more to the entry―an excerpt is what it was honestly, “maybe this was it: they came from here.”
“Did they though, or did they show up here at the same time?” Aquamarine asked.
Archie shook his head, “the Crystal Empire predates The Great Migration by many centuries.  The wendigos were here long before they chased our ancestors to Equestria,” he took the book from Starlight and scanned the text himself, “granted, it doesn’t say specifically whether they’re natives to this place either,” he noted.
“Something tells me that this city doesn’t exactly see a lot of invasive species,” the crystal mare pointed out.
“Fair enough.”
“...so where does that leave us then?” Starlight asked, “if the wendigos were here once, they can come here again.  This place isn’t safe from then either,” she noted Aquamarine’s decidedly unhappy expression as she reluctantly nodded her agreement.
“Perhaps not indefinitely,” Archie said, “but we might escape them long enough to find another solution.  Between the Academy and this library,” he gestured around him, “there should be knowledge enough for you to make a decent go of finding a magical solution,” his gaze went to Aquamarine again, “and down here we may last longer than just a month.
“It must have taken the wendigos time to track down your ancestors when they left, otherwise they would not have settled where they did for as long as they did.  We might buy ourselves years―decades even,” then, under his breath he added, “where the wendigos are concerned anyway…”
None of this would address the issue of the crystal ponies’ ever-dwindling gene pool, but that was not the most immediate concern.  If returning below ground did end up buying them time away from the wendigos and the umbra ponies, and Starlight did end up finding a way to ultimately deal with those threats, then they could return to the surface again and try to make contact with the rest of the world.
Idly, Starlight wondered if there even would be a ‘rest of the world’ if it took her long enough to deal with the wendigos.  Presumably they were only still here to deal with the last of the crystal ponies.  Without those targets within their reach anymore, would they venture south into Equestria?  They’d gone there before, according to the Hearth's Warming stories.
All the more reason for her to work quickly to devise a solution, the mare supposed.
“You’re right,” the crystal mare nodded, mustering up something akin to a confident expression, “we can buy everypony time.  That’s not nothing.
“Though, just to be sure, I think we should take a good look around before we head back.  Make sure there aren’t any threats that moved in here while we were away.”
“That’s a good idea,” Archie nodded, standing up from where he’d been reading, “I’ll come with you while Starlight stays here,” the pink unicorn was about to protest when he cut her off, “keep looking through the library for any other information that might help us.  The wendigos had to have come from somewhere.  Maybe the crystal ponies have a record of their first encounter with The Horror.”
“...alright,” that was actually a good idea, and the stallion had a point.  They’d found what poonies were taught in order to combat them―or, rather, to not combat them―but it hadn’t mentioned anything else beyond that.  There did have to be some mention of the first time a wendigo was spotted and especially where that location had been, “I’ll keep looking.  You two stay safe.”
“We will,” the ghoul smiled.  He checked his sword and then motioned for Aquamarine to follow him, “Colonel, shall we?”
Starlight turned her attention back to the shelf and looked into the next book.