Crystal Empire Gates, Crystal Empire
Stygian trotted over to the gates, and craned his neck to look up to the towering height of it. It was made entirely out of crystal, and the very thought of crystal architecture excited his Scholar Senses ™️. He put that thought away for later, as he had to visit his friend and fellow Pillar, Mistmane. The mare had an affinity for decoration, and making her the royal gardener and landscaper seemed to be the best option. The grass was covered in tiny purple crystal flowers, each in different colour groups for the different directions of the path. Small crystal statues were placed in the grass to give it a magical feel.
Finding the path with the blue flowers, Stygian cantred towards the gardens, not wasting any time. On the way there though, a used book fair caught his eye...
Sensing a bargain, Stygian galloped towards the fair, his book bag swinging. Picking the nearest stall, he found some amazing books on seaponies / hypogriffs, and even caught a rare find of snippets of dragon lore and history. Searching for more tomes to fill up his collection at home, his eyes darted around looking for a book.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a book on Sirens! Although those pesky sisters were defeated, they still refused to let Princess Twilight know of their origins and such. And no creature EVER said no to the princess. It got her into a blind fury and she had fumed for several dayd before Discord threw a bucket of ice water on her to cool her down. Literally! He had screamed " ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE DONE!! " , before teleporting off to Faust knows where.
Grabbing the book with his magic, Stygian felt a pull of anothers magic against his. It was so strong that both Stygian and the mystery unicorn got blasted by the rebounding magic blast. The stallkeeper muttered curses under his breath and covered his face in his hooves.
Both of them helped levitate the books back to the stand, for which the stallkeeper was deeply greatful for. The mystery unicorn had an orange coat, reddish orange hair and dappled white spot on his coat. His mane was tangled badly, and his circular glasses was lopsided. Stygian, realising that this stallion wanted the book, offered it to him. After all, maybe Stygian could (possibly) find another copy of the book. Right? Stygian was not so sure.
The other stallion shook his head , and explained,
“You see, I think you need it more. I could always find another copy, and it seems you have a great eye.” Stygian then replied the stallion with, “Yes, actually I am trying to do some research on them, as the Sirens themselves are proving a hard time for the Princess, and when the Pillars were fighting them, it wasn’t exactly enough time for research.” The stallion eyes lit up. “Oh! Twilight told me about you. You’re Stygian, aren’t you? You should come and see my house, I need help decoding some of the Old Ponish, but dont tell Starlight and-“ He cut off, as he was short of breath. Stygian nodded vigorously, and boight the book before following the stallion to wherever he was going, though if he was personal friends with Twilight, it must be good right?
The stallion suddenly turned around and looked apologetically at Stygian before saying:
“Oops! Im sorry, I totally forgot to introduce myself. Im Sunburst by the way.”
“I’m Stygian, as you know.”
“Anyways, Isn’t Stygian the name related to the myths of the river Styx of the Underworld, or is it its actual meaning, shadow, or-“
Sunburst continued talking all the way to his house, with Stygian pondering about his existence in the world in every way.