Sprout stood on the snowbank, waiting on Hitch to give the all clear from up in the second floor window, where he had gone in. It was still incredibly unsettling how quiet it was here, when you could see the blizzard vortex on all sides of the valley.
"Psst, hey Sprout," he heard behind him. He glanced up, and saw Hitch in the second floor window.
"It's clear, come on up," the sheriff told him. Sprout took a breath, then stepped up to the rope that Hitch had used to scale the ten feet up to the window. It had taken a bit of pushing, but it did open; with a sickening creak, but not breaking anything. He took hold of the rope, placed his back hooves on the wall, and climbed up. Hitch helped pull him in.
He landed on his hooves, and found the two of them in a bedroom.
"A house?" Sprout asked.
"I'm pretty sure one of the city guards lived here," Hitch replied, waving him forward as they stepped out into the hallway.
Sprout was surprised how furnished the bedroom had looked. The bed still had pillows and sheets, albeit frozen. Candlestick on the night stand. Books on the shelves. As they stepped out into the hallway, he saw pictures on the wall. Before heading downstairs, they stepped into the adjacent room, and sure enough, there were a pair of mannequins. One was bare, and the other had a set of steel gray armor on it. On the wall, was a rack, containing a couple spears.
"Could you imagine enforcing our littering ordinances with one of these?" Hitch asked, taking one of the weapons off the wall, and jokingly pointed it at Sprout. "Pick up that litter!" He commanded, before planting the spear on the ground, and giving his deputy a smirk.
That look of worry and concern had not left the red stallion's face.
"Sprout?" Hitch asked.
The deputy slowly looked around the room, seeing plaques, commendations, and more pictures, group photos of the platoon the occupant was a part of.
"I... I can't even imagine... Having to just... Leave everything behind and just... Abandon your home. Forever," he said, looking back to Hitch.
The sheriff gently leaned the spear against the wall, and stepped up to his deputy. He could tell something was eating at him.
"Sprout, is something wrong?" Hitched asked gently.
Hitch made an educated guess that Sprout had maybe gotten in over his head, that this sense of adventure he had started this trip on had now been replaced with a bit of homesickness, for somepony who had spent their entire life in Maretime Bay. He couldn't recall a time he or Phyllis had ever gone more than a few miles outside city limits. It wasn't too farfetched that he could be a little freaked by an iced over ghost town.
"Hitch, I have something to tell you," Sprout said, shuffling uneasy on his hooves.
"I'm all ears," Hitch immediately answered, giving Sprout his complete attention. Sprout took a deep breath, and his gaze fell to the floor in front of Hitch's hooves.
"I've... I've been thinking a lot these past few weeks. Putting together that vehicle out there was... Was so much fun. So productive. When I compared it to the last few years as a deputy... I... I didn't like what I found out. Serving as your deputy always... Always made me feel so inadequate. Nothing I ever did was good enough, and it felt like you always had to lower your expectations. Working in CanterLogic R&D made me feel so... Alive, Hitch. What I did when you were off chasing Sunny... That doesn't warrant a second chance. Half of Maretime Bay is never going to trust me again, with anything. I... I've been considering stepping down as deputy, and going to CanterLogic full time. It gets me out of public view, and lets me do something I've really started to enjoy. So... There, I said it. I've been struggling with figuring out how to tell you, because you've been putting a lot of effort into giving me this second chance," Sprout finished spilling his heart out, finally looking at Hitch in the eyes as he finished his last sentence, before his gaze immediately fell to the floor again. To avoid having to look back up at him, he turned his focus to the armor on the mannequin.
He heard Hitch take several steps towards him, perhaps expecting him to leave the room in offense, after all the concessions he had made. But the next thing he felt was his hooves wrapping around his barrel as he was pulled into a hug, which finally pulled his attention away from the armor and back to Hitch, or rather, what he could see of Hitch at the moment. Bringing a single leg up, Sprout returned the hug for a moment, before Maretime Bay's sheriff pulled away, and pulled his goggles off, looking Sprout directly in the eyes.
"Thank you for being honest with me, Sprout. I don't want you to feel like you owe me anything," Hitch began. "After magic came back, I think more of Maretime Bay's citizens were in forgiving moods than you think, but if you're not happy at the Sheriff's department, you should absolutely go after something you do enjoy doing. I want you as a friend, first and foremost, okay, pal?"
Hitch saw the corners of Sprout's mask curve up in a soft smile.
"Thanks, Hitch."
Hitch smiled at him in return.
"So," the sheriff began, turning to grab the spear. "Think we can get this suit of armor out that window and down to the Scouticus?"
Pipp had taken off her snow goggles, putting them up on her head, and slowly browsed the first aisle of shelves filled to the brim with ancient books. No doubt Sunny and Sprout would arrange another trip, or two, to get every single one of these back down south, she thought it would be a good idea to find the ones that seemed the most important, and get them ready to box up. So for now, she was on the lookout for anything that looked like it was historical or record keeping.
When she came back to one of the ground floor's central reading tables, it seemed that Zipp had already found a book that she found captivating.
"What have you got there?" Pipp asked.
"A recipe for Crystal Empire Nectar," her sister answered, half-closing the book to show Pipp the cover.
Food and Flavors of the Crystal Empire
"A cookbook? Seriously? You don't think history books would be more important to collect?" Pipp asked as she set her stack down on the table.
Zipp looked mildly annoyed.
"What, you don't think there are some chefs down south who wouldn't be totally awestruck by this? Recipes of what they ate and drank back in ancient times? It's not just about official historical records, Pipp. It's books like these that give you a more complete picture, fills in the smaller holes, gives you an idea of everyday life back then."
Pipp took this as an acceptable answer. Even if they kept search to just historical records, it was quite obvious that they weren't going to get through everything before the Scouticus' fuel levels would necessitate a return home. It had taken five ponies several days to explore the ruins of a single castle. Expand that to an entire city, and it would take weeks, if they had a full time team here at all times. With just them, and just the Scouticus, completely searching this city would likely take over a year. These first looks were fun and exciting, but Sunny would likely be better off employing a team of archaeologists, like their mom had done for uncovering the structure next to the castle ruins.
"Fine, I'll broaden my search," Pipp said, turning to trot back into the aisle. "So, what's in Crystal Empire Nectar?"
Izzy's magic was doing absolute wonders to their timetable, as the snow around the northwestern pillar was quickly being shoveled aside, steadily revealing a door built into it.
"It has to be a staircase of some kind," Sunny reasoned. "It's not big enough to be anything else than a way up."
Izzy's shovels were just a few pegs down from 'snowblower', as soon as one had come up with a pile of snow, one of the other two immediately took it's place, and with Sunny's aid, they were digging out this pillar four times as fast as one or two ponies would be able to.
The pair of friends were also aware that it wasn't going to be as simple as just digging down to the door; they also had to plow away enough snow to ensure it wouldn't cave back in and prevent the door from opening. They weren't 100% certain there was access to that balcony yet, and thus had to be absolutely sure they could get out the way they came in.
As they dug, they saw Hitch and Sprout come out of their chosen building with... Pony armor?, and bring it to the back of the Scouticus. Pipp had come over the radio and said that figuring out which books to take and which to leave behind for now would likely take the entire duration of their stay here. So for now, Sunny left them to their chosen tasks, and focused on getting into another castle.
After about 45 minutes of magic-assisted digging, they had carved out a sufficiently sized hole. She rested her shovel against the pillar, and began to pull at the door handle. The earth mare strained as she heard the creaking of the ice keeping the entryway sealed. With Izzy coming over to help, there was a sharp cracking sound, followed by something similar to glass shattering, and the door came free, sending the two mares sliding back on the ice cold ground, coming to a stop against the pile of snow they had dug through.
Sunny peered at the open doorway, and was proven correct; it was a set of stairs not even four feet into the pillar, that curved and sharply rose up through the pillar to the floor dozens of feet above.
Sunny dug through her saddlebag and put on the LED lights on her snow cap, tapping them on, with Izzy casting her familiar illumination spell, resulting in an orb of glowing light at the tip of her horn.
"Come on, let's see what's inside."
The unicorn followed her friend, the flashlight and magic illuminating their way. They very slowly made their way up the staircase, unsure of their footing on the steep crystal steps. The spiraling climb was about forty of fifty feet, before they came to another door, and Sunny was really hoping this one wouldn't be as hard to open, as they didn't have the room to pull without risking a very painful tumble down the stairs they had just climbed.
Luckily, it appeared this one wasn't as frozen. Ice veins still popped out of the crevices in the door jamb, but it would likely be easier to open. She took hold of the handle, and pushed, forcefully but carefully. It didn't give, so she did it again, with a little more weight behind her push. She heard the ice start to crack, so threw her whole body weight behind her third push, and the door finally broke free and rotated on the hinges, sending Sunny sliding into the next room.
It was cavernous; this must have been the main room that lead to the balcony up above. There was a single pillar in the center of the room, but... But not quite. Either the center broke off and was removed, or it was like that by design, like a stalagmite and stalactite in a cavern that had not quite met yet.
There were two more sets of double doors in the far corners, as well as a wide staircase that led to another part of the northern section of this floor. The curtains that led to the balcony stood perfectly still, frozen solid by untold centuries of icy wind.
Sunny got to her hooves as she slowly surveyed the room. This place easily dwarfed Princess Twilight's castle in the forest. She looked in at the center of the room, and saw at the base of the pillar, was a dull gray... Rock?
She stepped up to it, and saw that it was in the shape of a heart.
"The... The Crystal Heart...?" She asked, remembering how brilliant it had looked in the few places it had appeared in the memory gems. She slowly bent down to touch it with her right hoof.
"Why does it look like tha—"
Her hoof touched the flat, gray facet of the Heart, and there was an explosion of light, that made her step back and shield her eyes. She heard Izzy's concerned voice behind her.
"Sunny!"