Twilight Gets a Puppy
Season 6
By TDR
The Cyndering,
Part 2, Chapter 2
[Crystal Empire]
There was a moment of silence after the screaming where everyone in the room drew a breath. Some of them froze, not sure what to do, this was mostly Guards, and Fluttershy. Some of them continued to scream, running around in a panic as they did so, this was mostly the maids and other servants, as well as Pinkie Pie.
All the Sparkles, including those who married into the family, the Royal advisors, not counting Rhede who was still on the floor after his brush with oblivion, the scattering of nobles who hadn’t joined the screaming and the two demigods were also frozen in place as their minds raced on what to do.
Bri and Chrysalis gathered up the foals and pups before they could do anything else, though even the little ones had realized something bad had happened, and their play time was over for now.
This moment didn't last long before Moon Dancer and Starburst started shouting orders.
“CADENCE, SHINING, WE NEED A SHIELD OVER THE EMPIRE NOW!” Both bellowed at the same time as they rushed away from where Discord sat.
The chaotic creature decided that perhaps he should be somewhere else before any one blamed him for anything when it was all the actors fault, and popped out of existence with a sound like a flugal horn and an accordion had a baby.
Cadence blinked in surprise at the screamed order, but Shining Armor was used to that sort of thing and reacted immediately by raising a shield over the Crystal Empire.
The white stallion grunted in surprise as his horn flared brighter and the sound lick the cracking of an iceberg in the frozen tundra echoed around the city.
Cadence quickly put up a shield to support her husband and winced as well. ”What the heck is that?” she gasped.
“Several thousand years of built up ice and snow appearing all at once directly over the Crystal Empire. “ Moon Dancer explained as she trotted back in from the balcony, her husband still standing out side and swearing as he stared skyward.
“What? Why is that there?” Twilight demanded as she popped over to look out side at the shadowed city.
“Right Twilight did you read the book we published about the Crystal Empire last year?” Moon Dancer questioned.
“Of course I did.” Twilight scoffed.
“Right as the forward said most of that information was collected from various notes and documents as well as citizens testimony, but some of it was from books we found in hidden chambers set up by Solomon, histories he evidently didn’t want to destroy but didn’t want the public reading.” Moon Dancer started to explain. “One of the books held an account of the creation of the Crystal Heart by a earth pony mage named Karl the Terrible.”
“Karl was the daughter of a unicorn family of low birth, but she wanted to be able to cast spells like her parents. So she studied everything she could and applied to the Crystal Empire’s mage's guild, and she was approved.” Sunburst continued picking up from his wife’s words.
“Thing is they only brought her in as a joke, and they even intentionally trained her wrong so they could laugh at her and push their own egos about unicorn superiority.” Moon Dancer picked up. “Karl eventually found out about this and was pissed about it, when she confronted the head mages she was practically laughed out of the building. Karl swore revenge.”
“Granted her revenge was to create the Crystal Heart, thus beating out every unicorn mage in the empire in creating something that would protect an area the Emperor chose for the Capitol of the Empire , Constantan-opal. The heart would be recharged by the ambient magic of the citizens at a city at a festival to be held every year that would keep the frozen north at bay. It also worked to boost the citizens very well being if they were tired to it by a ritual called the Crystaling. Several other protection and maintenance spells were layered over the crystal heart, a gemstone Karl some how got from the heart of a volcano, a materiel called Magma Diamond. This stuff is supposed to be so rare and hard to come by that dragons have been known to offer entire hoards for a shard of it. It evidently forms so deep that even the dragons that can swim in lava can’t get down to it.”Sunburst finished
“This doesn't explain why there is a glacier the size of Luna's moon over the empire.” Chrysalis called growling as she stood on the balcony looking up at the massive block of ice Shin and Flurry tucked under her gossamer wings.
“It does actually.” Sunburst sighed. “She wasn't called Karl the terrible just because she used the Emperor’s favor to wipe out the college and have every mage of the guilds horn removed. She was called Karl the terrible because she SUCKED at magic. Rather than displace or melt the snow and ice that were prevented from falling on the Crystal Empire, she set it to collect in a pocket dimension figuring she would be dead and gone by the time it became an issue. A later mage named Trevor ‘the pretty good, thanks for asking’, came across Karl's spell work and fixed it, though he couldn't do anything about the pocket dimension, he simply doubled down on Karl's work and the Crystal Heart was reinforced since the draw to hold the dimension is barely four thraums.”
“Four thraums!? How the buck did an earth pony create a pocket dimension that only used four thraums?” Twilight demanded.
“I know right!?” Moon Dancer chimed in.” The space folding alone should take seventeen, and that’s with the modern understanding of duel matrixes and mana layering.”
“Stop nerding out and how do we fix it?!” Saturnia demanded. “How did Solomon manage to keep the heart active during his time? Especially since he fucked with the heart’s spells?”
“No clue, Rahs ate all the spell lattice when he bit into the heart so no one knows how he set things up.”Moon Dancer snapped.
“Well excuse me for freeing the Empire, from a self feeding trap that was gonna eat everyone.”
“Focus. Shining, how long can you and Cadence hold the shield?” Sunset questioned.
“I dunno.. couple weeks. Maybe a month if i push it, give or take.” Shining Armor shrugged, as everyone stared at him.” I mean it's pretty heavy, but I dealt with worse than this before I had the companion spell cast on me.”
“We can probably hold it longer if we alternate and someone watches the foals.” Cadence added. "My shield isn’t as good as his, but the weight of this isn’t as bad as trying to keep a trap from snapping shut.”
Everyone continued to stare at the pair as Chrysalis cackled in pride for the pair. The ones still running around in a panic, save Pinkie Pie, slowed at this , looked at each other , and started to clean up, pretending they had not just been screaming their fool heads off a moment prior.
“Alright, I did not expect that.” Sunset sighed.
“Well it would get easier if we start chipping away at it or melting the ice and snow.” Saturnia considered.
“Awesome I can do that.” Sunset grinned heading out onto the balcony.
“Great. So all we need to do is find a super rare crystal to carve back into shape and re-lay a unknown amount of spells and bindings laid on it by a dead earth pony wizard who screwed up to get the result that happened all while a massive moon of ice is ready to crush us.” Twilight summarized.
“Yup.” Chrysalis agreed. “So have you got it worked out yet?”
Twilight glared at her before she sighed.
“Almost. Really getting the crystal is going to be the hard part, I've already figured out how to reduce the cost of the Heart’s output to three thraums by simply shunting the material rather than holding it in a pocket dimension.”
“Can I still eat it?” Chrysalis asked.
“Well given the energy received and emitted by it should still be the same, I would say yes.” Twilight considered. “Though the flavor may be different.”
“No problem there, I like everything bagel as much as the next changeling, but i'm not against a change.” Chrysalis shrugged.
Twilight trotted over to the shattered heart, her horn glowing as she scanned it. “Okay, it’s a bit more than a fancy rock. This might be more of a problem There’s traces of emotional magic on these shards. A LOT of imprints.”
Twilight looked at the crystal ponies who were cleaning up, all of them had their coats dulled like they were when she had first seen them, though they didn’t seem to be suffering like they had when they first came back.
“Hmmm. Alright. First we need a new crystal, then we need to enchant it with the same things Karl did.”Twilight muttered.
“Shouldn’t be a problem, Sunburst and I have studied the heart, the layered spells and the book and notes from Karl.” Moon Dancer offered. “We should be able to duplicate and improve it. We just need the crystal.”
“HAHAHA! Fight fire with fire!!! Ending is near!! Fight fire with fire!! Bursting with fear!” Sunset sang from the balcony, waves of heat filled the air around her as the molding of the arch started to melt.
“ Okay aside from Sunset, are there any active volcanoes around here?” Twilight asked.