Empress Flurry Heart moved through the halls, and the facility reacted.
While Rutile Quartz's presence had caused a few things to activate, and Tundra's coding had opened a few doors, everything seemed to come to life as the empress moved. Machinery beeped, panels opened, screens had new text scrolling over them, all acknowledging her authority in their own way. She cleaned up as she went, teleporting debris away to unknown places with a bit of glow and occasional pop, her magic moving with absolute precision. If the time in stasis had dulled anything, she certainly didn't show it.
She glanced to one side as Rutile and Tundra stepped closer, not missing a beat. "You want to ask me questions."
"You can read us?" Rutile asked.
"Just in your expressions." She gave a gentle smile, the kind that Rutile could easily picture on the face of a ruler overseeing their court. "The crystal ponies are my subjects, but I'm still just an alicorn, and my mark isn't for emotional magic like my mother."
It was Tundra who ventured first. "What was this place?"
"Originally?" At Tundra's nod, she looked up at the ceiling. "It was the heart of our first settlement. We built machines for construction, transport, agriculture, defense..." Her gaze lowered again with a deep sigh. "It was also where we'd shelter in emergencies. And our changeling citizens used it as a nursery for their eggs and hatchlings."
Rutile suddenly had a much better understanding of the alternate timeline she'd glimpsed, and winced. "And then you locked yourself in it?"
The empress was silent for a long moment, as Tundra glared and gave Rutile a shove. When she did speak, it was with a question of her own. "Do you know what an alicorn is?"
Rutile tilted her head. "A mix of unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony? Really powerful and ageless?"
"Technically true, but the more important part is... an alicorn is a conduit." She nodded at the ancient medallion, now around Rutile's neck like her previous one had been. "Each of us is tied to an anchor. We can tap into that anchor to give ourselves more power by acting as its Avatar and letting the magic flow through us. So long as that anchor exists, so do we."
A far-off look came to the ancient mare's eyes. "My great aunts were tied to the sun and the moon of our homeworld, so when the Cataclysm destroyed both, they started to age, and eventually died. My mother was tied to the Crystal Heart, and my aunt the Tree of Harmony, and those survived, for a while longer. But once they were uprooted from the homeworld, their magic eventually ran out, and so my mother and aunt grew old too."
"The Crystal Heart and the Tree of Harmony were real?" Tundra breathed in awe. "Everyone's assumed they were just symbols, but they existed as real artefacts?"
"Oh yes, they were very real." A sadly nostalgic smile graced her face. "Mother told me that I once broke the Heart with my crying when I was a foal. I never figured out if she was serious."
Rutile considered what she'd been told, and then asked, "So if everypony else's anchors were destroyed, what about you?"
The empress stopped, turned slightly, and lowered her head until they were practically snout-to-snout. "My anchor is the crystal ponies themselves. I was born and fated to be their ruler and Avatar both." She lifted her head again, but not before Rutile spotted a glistening of tears in her eyes. "There was a war, and then a plague. By the time that both had run their course, there was barely anyone left. I was locked in stasis to keep me from the enemy, and only a crystal would be able to open it."
"So you wouldn't die of old age if crystal ponies went extinct for a while."
"Exactly. And I practically had to be dragged kicking and screaming." Her head drooped, and her wings weren't long after. "I'd given my Council the ability to overrule me if they unanimously decided on a different course of action, and the few councilcreatures left all told me they wanted me to be there for the future instead of going out fighting against our enemies."
"So you knew we'd come back eventually?"
A slow nod. "As long as there are ponies, there will eventually be crystal ponies. Our genetics are quirky like that. What was will come around again, given enough generations." She closed her eyes. "Though I guess any others who lived in the intervening years weren't destined to find me. I hope they forgive me for not being there."
The oldest being in the galaxy was grieving, and Rutile had no idea how to comfort her. "You're here now," she said softly, and that made the empress open her eyes again. "And I'll try not to die any time soon, so you don't have to go back in the freezer after you just got out."
That earned a small smile. "How considerate of you."
Tundra snorted. "Oh sure, for her you'll be careful, but not for the doe who keeps patching you up."
Smile turned to laughter, and Empress Flurry Heart's laugh was the most beautiful Rutile had ever heard.
The doors of the vault opened, and the icy air washed over them. Empress Flurry Heart, to no surprise, seemed to share the inherent cold tolerance that Rutile and Tundra did, and the three siblings were also completely unfazed as snow swirled through their manes.
The empress looked around, and Rutile wondered how this world must have looked like under her rule, before the ice reclaimed it. She then looked at mare and doe. "You said your ship is nearby?"
Rutile nodded. "Yeah, but it's seen better days. The debris field around the planet banged it up a bit."
"That's alright. I'm sure I can get the right machines fired up to build some replacement parts if it needs it." She gestured ahead of her with a wing. "Lead the way."
And together, six trails of hoofprints made their way through the snow. One set was cloven, the other more spaced apart from longer legs, and three a bit irregular as their owners took their newly-learned walking skills to the new mediums of ice and snow and slipped and slid for the trouble. Tundra ended up letting Bizra lean on her, Thana ended up under a steadying wing from the empress, and Morga used one of her own wings to hang on to Rutile. None seemed bothered by their falls, and by the time the ship was visible, they were all laughing together.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the only ship, and Rutile would have recognized this one even if its owner weren't standing there, loaded down in warm clothing and pointing his thaum-cannon at her. The minotaur bull looked the same as the last time she'd seen him, plus two new bullet scars on his face. "You really gave us a runaround, unicorn. Going off into a near-forgotten sector almost shook us."
Everyone stopped, and Rutile let out a snort. "Wow, there's not knowing when to quit, and then there's you."
The parrot-like orthinian next to the bull tilted her head to one side as she drew her pistol. "Well it sure paid off." She gestured at Empress Flurry Heart. "Lookit this one, boss. She's got a horn and wings."
The diamond dog grinned with every last one of his pointy teeth. "What do you guys think? Will an alicorn get us more coin live, or auctioning off the bits?"
The heavily-scarred zebra in the back shook his head. "Got to be live. The only way we'll prove we bagged an alicorn is if she's whole. She'll look too much like a unicorn and a pegasus in pieces."
Rutile glanced from alicorn, to the gaggle of hunters, and back again. "This is the Crystal Empress, you know," she said, giving them the chance she knew they wouldn't take. "You might be better off bowing than shooting."
The minotaur scoffed. "The Crystal Empire is dust. And we're not ponies, so we don't bow to pony royalty." He grinned, cruelty rolling off him in waves. "But we'll make sure to put her in our fanciest chains as we drag her off to the Order."
Empress Flurry Heart slowly shook her head, and gave a deep sigh. "Mother would be so disappointed, seeing that creatures like this are still around." Then her expression hardened. "Oh well..."
Her horn lit, and the wind howled.
Then where four creatures had once stood, there were only sculptures. Projectiles suspended mid-air, capturing the moment they all opened fire on her, perfectly, in ice, for eternity.
The empress slowly walked toward the frozen bounty hunters, then past them, examining the two ships. "And oh look... it seems that there's now a starship here in need of an owner." She looked at Rutile and Tundra, smiling in the face of the shocked and awed stares. "I suppose we'll just have to put it to good use, won't we?"