“Starlight. I trust my sister has informed you of the gravity of your situation?”
The throne room was empty, save for Starlight and the two sisters.
“Well, I was pretty sure about it before I came here, but yes. She told me of times in the past she has been unable to help ponies in their dreams. But there wasn’t time to get into too many details.”
“I see. Let’s get to the archives.” Celestia lit up her horn and teleported the whole party to the archives.
Luna took the lead, “Follow me. What we are looking for will be found amongst the Archaea.”
Starlight scrunched up her face. “Archaea? Really? I thought that was just history now. Isn’t it just the primitive first attempts at harnessing magic?”
Luna nodded, “Yes. But being primitive does not mean it is not powerful. Quite the opposite in fact. Because it lacked our current refined skill, these primitive spells had to be more powerful than most magics we use today.”
Starlight began considering Luna’s words, but was brought back by Celestia’s voice.
“How is Twilight doing? Is she freaking out too much?”
“Oh, heh, she’s just being Twilight. She was up all night last night working on a weird crystal in our basement. That’s when she found out that it's ley line is connected directly to me. It took a lot for me to convince her to take a nap.”
Celestia breathed a sigh of relief, “Oh good. I’m glad she has a friend like you to help her.” She smiled a moment, but it quickly turned earnest, “But that crystal of yours is quite baffling. Twilight informed me of it as soon as she noticed it. And if it has, in fact, attached itself to you we must learn its secrets quickly.”
“We are here.”
Starlight looked into the alcove. It was probably the smallest section of the Royal Archives. Just two bookshelves filled with piles of scrolls. Luna lifted a book out of one of the piles and handed it to Starlight.
“This is the catalogue of all the Archaea Scrolls. You look through and see if anything jumps out to you. My sister and I will begin scanning through the scrolls, themselves.”
Starlight took the book and began flipping through the pages. She quickly found a few things that might be useful.
“Okay, I see Mystical Properties of Crystals…”
“Got it.” Celestia’s half distracted tone was a bit strange to Starlight.
“Good. I also see Focusing Crystals and Crystal Chargers.”
A mirthful chuckle burst out of Luna’s muzzle. “Oh ho! Chargers.” This caused Starlight to jump slightly and stare at her. “Sorry, Starlight. I did not mean to startle you. It’s just…the ponies developing these spells did not truly know what they were creating. Here.” She floated two scrolls over to Starlight. “I have found them.”
Starlight took the scrolls, set them to the side, and continued looking through the book. She got through the spells and nothing else caught her eye, though the next section, Alchemy, looked intriguing. She leisurely read through the various descriptions while Celestia and Luna continued scanning scrolls. She didn’t have much experience with alchemy herself, but she enjoyed reading about it. She was nearly at the end of the book when a title caught her eye again. Celestine: a breakdown. She remembered that Maud had pointed out that the castle was made of the most common Celestine known to ponies. Starlight asked if the Princesses had seen that scroll yet.
Celestia answered, “Yes. I know where it is.” She scooped up a large pile of the scrolls and placed them back on the shelves. “It’s not here.”
“You guys finished going through all the scrolls?”
Luna tried to hide a smile behind her hoof as she scooped up her pile of scrolls and also put them back. Celestia cleared her throat and started to turn just slightly pink. Starlight looked back and forth between them. At first she was confused at how the two princesses were acting, but then it dawned on her. She gave Princess Celestia her most incredulous look. “Did you take it because it's basically named after you?”
Luna let loose a hearty guffaw, “Come, Goddess Celestine. Let us show this mortal to your personal study.” She began walking away, chuckling to herself.
Celestia gave Starlight a small sheepish smile, “I have…reasons?” She grabbed the scrolls they had set aside and began following her sister. Starlight couldn’t stop staring in disbelief as she followed Celestia.
********************
Celestia’s personal study was large. Very large. Starlight couldn’t help but feel like a nervous little filly on her first day of school in the place. Bookshelves lined three walls, going from the floor up at least three stories to the ceiling. Each shelf was full of books and knick knacks. Some looked brand new while others looked positively ancient. The footprint of the room was a little smaller than Map Room in Twilight’s castle, but still. It was massive. In the center was a large table with a stool, and the corner contained a single chaise lounge.
Celestia began unrolling the scrolls onto the table in the center of the room. After doing so, she took flight up to the highest shelves, soon coming back down with a scroll much larger than any of the others. As she descended, Starlight could tell that the scroll was actually very large. It was as long as Celestia, and nearly as tall. Starlight felt vibrations of ancient magic in the scroll and became very excited.
Celestia was straining with the weight of the scroll, and set it down with a heavy thud on the floor. Luna handed her sister some water, and began rubbing her back as she drank it down. Starlight grew concerned for Celestia and asked, “Are you alright?”
Celestia turned and smiled. “Oh, yes. This scroll is just so full of ancient magic. Even just lifting it creates a connection to its power which can be…draining. But I’m okay. It’s not the first time I’ve had to lug this thing around.”
Luna's face turned stern beside her sister, “Yes, dear sister. You are okay.” She turned to face Starlight, “But Starlight, here, has not had millenia to learn how to properly handle it. If she were to attempt to even lift this scroll, it could destroy her.”
Starlight’s mouth went dry. She tried to speak, but all she could do was open and close her mouth. She wasn’t even sure if she was breathing. Celestia chuckled and broke Starlight out of her stupor.
“Oh, Starlight, you are in no danger. While Luna is correct, she and I have had plenty of experience to know how to handle this artifact. While it is powerful, it is still exactly what it appears to be: a scroll. It is simply a depository of information. However, the way the information was written down as well as the content itself, are what poses the danger.” Celestia turned to an empty spot on the floor and conjured up an image of the Crystal Empire. “The Crystal Empire sits on top of the largest celestine deposit on the planet. This deposit has veins reaching out across all of equestria.” Celestia zoomed her image out to depict a vast network of veins densely spread throughout the whole land. Even all the way out to the Dragon Lands. “These veins carry the energy of its heart throughout our lands, blessing us with the magic we use every day.”
Starlight spoke with not a little trepidation in her voice, “So, you’re saying…all of Equestria’s magic comes from this one giant crystal?”
Luna spoke up, causing Starlight to whip her head around, “You sense the gravity of the situation. This is good.” She walked a slow path around her sister’s image. “You see, Starlight, not only is this crystal the source of our magic, but it is also entirely connected. Look.” Luna pointed a hoof at Ponyville. “Twilight’s castle was grown directly from the main vein in Ponyville, much the same as the Crystal Kingdom was grown from the heart. If something is going wrong, we may need to cut it out so that it doesn’t begin to affect the whole system.”
Starlight stared at the small image of Twilight’s castle, blinking. It was a lot to take in. And suddenly, she was angry.
“Are you telling me that our entire nation is reliant on this giant system of crystal magic under the ground and NOPONY KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT IT?!”
Starlight snorted and glared at the two sisters. They, in turn, could only manage weak giggles and awkward looks at each other. After about a minute of waffling, Celestia finally spoke up. “Well, we do teach our graduates about this. It's just…well…we swear them to secrecy afterward.”
“Isn’t that a little dangerous? What if somepony decides to dig a hole and reaches a vein? What if somepony is down in a cave and they run into the vein? What if they decide it’s pretty and break off a piece to take home? Have you thought about any of these things?”
“Any hole a pony may need to dig shouldn’t go deep enough to hit the vein. And if they were to find it and break a piece off, the crystal would simply grow and repair itself.” Luna’s matter-of-fact tone, again, worked and calmed Starlight’s mind. “We tell anypony that needs to know and have the crystal under constant watch. We’ve been studying this crystal system ever since the Crystal Kingdom returned. In fact, you should thank your friend, Maud. If it wasn’t for her studies to earn her Rocktorate, we wouldn’t have a complete map of the system, as we do now.”
Starlight’s demeanor softened at the mention of her friend’s name, “Really? She helped figure this thing out? That’s really cool.”
“It is, indeed, Starlight.” Luna wrapped her wing around Starlight, “Now, let us see to solving this problem of yours.” Starlight gave her a small, hopeful smile.
Celestia dropped the image she was projecting and turned back towards the large, audibly buzzing scroll. “Now after hearing all that, I’m sure you’re wondering why we need to research this. But I assure you, we do. This scroll is full of all the information we have about our celestine system running through our lands. All you need to do is touch the scroll to learn what you wish to learn. But caution is absolutely necessary. If one were to touch the scroll without knowing specifically what information they required, the scroll would attempt to provide all the information it contains. More than one mind has been broken by this.”
All Starlight could do was slowly shake her head at the rush of information. It was so much to process. Finding out that the world you know and love is held up by a single object. Finding out that your friend was more helpful than she would ever in a million years admit.
Starlight started to chuckle, soon morphing to mirthful laughter, and finally turning to mildly crazy cackling. The princesses only looked to each other with quizzical expressions. A few minutes passed and Starlight was able to calm herself.
“I’m sorry,” still softly chuckling and wiping her eyes, “I just realized that Maud was totally right when she told me the castle was made of the most common crystal in all of Equestria. And that she is definitely more amazing than anyone will ever truly know.”
Luna nodded her agreement as Celestia stepped over to embrace Starlight. “Starlight, you are the only one that can do this right now, as my sister and I have not seen this crystal. You need to read through these scrolls. You need to formulate clear questions. When you are ready to ask your question, simply touch the Celestine scroll. You will be given all information relevant to your question. Keep in mind, the scroll will not make any conclusions about the information it provides. You must figure out what it all means on your own.”
“On my own?”
“Celestia, why do you play with everypony like that? Can’t you see this poor little pony has been through Tartarus? Gods!” turning to Starlight, she continued, “What my sister means is that you will have vast amounts of information in your head that you will need to contend with. Nopony actually expects you to do it on your own. Write it down. Share it with friends. With us. Then we can all,” She turned to Celestia as she emphasized the word drawing an annoyed huff from the white mare, “work on it together.”
With a gentle sigh, Celestia conceded, “Yes. We will be available to help you put the pieces together. I apologize, Starlight. I’ve developed some…not so good habits over the past millennium or so.”
Starlight began laughing again. “You princesses are too much, ha ha. You should make a play about your daily life or something. It would sell out every night.”
The two princesses shared a moment of embarrassment before joining Starlight in her mirth.
********************
The three ponies had spent all day studying the scrolls. Celestia had, on occasion, stepped away to handle some business, and Luna had taken a couple naps, but they had all worked together up to the point of needing to lower the sun and raise the moon. Now they all sat there fairly dumbstruck at how little information that they had actually found.
Starlight jumped up and began yelling at nopony in particular, “Crystal Chargers tells us that we can charge a crystal to make a portal. Big Whoop! Focusing Crystals tells us that we can use a crystal to absorb and amplify our spells. I DO THAT EVERY DAY! And Mystical freaking Properties of Crystals is oh so helpful by adding, guess what, NOTHING! What the hay did we waste all this time for?”
She turned and glared at the giant pulsating scroll. The two princesses stood slowly, not wanting to provoke any further outburst. “Starlight..” Celestia began but was quickly cut off, as Starlight unleashed her next volley of vitriol.
“And I bet YOU are only gonna tell me how big you are and where you come from and how you grow and any and everything else that won’t HELP ME!”
She charged and bucked the scroll as hard as she could. The last thing she saw were the looks of complete horror on her princesses faces.