Crystal Fires : Part 2
‘We can’t go down there!’ Glory spluttered, ‘It’s dangerous! It’s outside of town! There are . . . There are slaves’ remains down there!’
‘I don’t understand,’ Cadence said, ‘Who’s not worth serving? Who’s Sombra? Who were these slaves?’
The three mares turned in great surprise; they looked almost shocked.
‘You don’t know?’ Sundance inquired. Cadence shook her head.
‘How can you not know!’ Glory exclaimed.
‘To tell you the truth,’ Cadence replied, a little awkwardly, ‘I only found out I was the Crystal Princess yesterday . . .’
‘I think we should show her the Crystal Tapestry,’ Sparkler said. The other two mares nodded in agreement.
‘What’s the Crystal Tapestry?’ Cadence asked.
As they were walking along, Sunsparkle turned to Cadence.
‘You’re very pretty . . .’ she told Cadence shyly.
*
‘Do you think we’ll ever find her?’ Aquila asked Dusk quietly, in a worried tone.
‘Of course we will,’ Dusk replied, ‘I am almost certain that the reason we haven’t found Cadence yet is because she’s in Crystal Town. One thing I would be interested to find out though, is how she survived that fall.’
‘She must have had a soft landing,’ Celestia responded, ‘and/or not fallen as far as we thought.’
‘It does seem like she was blown off course at least a little bit,’ Aquila added, ‘I also think she may have managed to get herself into the right position quite a few times which slowed her falling process. You don’t think The Mark could have had anything to do with her surviving that fall?’
‘Actually,’ Celestia replied thoughtfully, ‘that does seem quite likely. At least if Cadence is in Crystal Town, we know she will be well cared for.’
*
‘We would like to show Princess Cadence the Crystal Tapestry,’ Sundance told the rather old mare at the desk, ‘if it’s not too inconvenient, of course.’
The old mare looked up, a little startled, her glasses slipping down her nose slightly. She hurriedly pushed them back up again.
‘Did you say ‘Princess’?’ she asked, barely keeping the excitement out of her voice.
Cadence stepped forward nervously.
‘Your coat is so much like Lacey’s . . .’ the old mare told Cadence.
‘Whose?’ Cadence inquired.
‘Your grandmother,’ the old mare explained, ‘her name was Crystal Lace, she was a pegasus crystal pony. She had a brother named Crystal Clover. Both of them married unipegs who came to stay in the town because they were interested in us and our history.’
Cadence wondered why her mother had never told her any of this, but then, had her mother known any of this herself?
The old mare led them to the entrance and then supervised a slightly sulky Sunsparkle until they returned.
‘What is this tapestry?’ Cadence asked.
‘It shows our history,’ Sparkler explained, ‘the most central and important things that happened.’
‘We will walk along and explain to you what happened as we go,’ Sundance added.
On entering the first room, Cadence was quite shocked by what she saw. Many of the images showed ponies bound up in chains or similar attire.
‘It’s not tapestry really,’ Glory said, before noticing Cadence’s expression, ‘it’s actually embroidery . . .’
‘Are you alright, Princess?’ Sparkler asked anxiously.
Cadence didn’t reply. She just stared.
‘How did this all happen?’ Cadence inquired, struggling not to sound over emotional, ‘why were they treated so terribly!’
‘The Crystal Empire was taken over by an evil unicorn who enslaved all the ponies in it,’ Sundance began, ‘Princess Lexia was overthrown and was unable to keep the Crystal Heart out of his hooves.’
‘Who was this unicorn?’ Cadence asked, ‘and the Crystal Heart . . ?’
‘The Crystal Heart was essential to the well-being of the empire and all those under its influence,’ Sundance replied, ‘and the unicorn was, well, he called himself King Sombra at any rate.’
‘Princess Lexia was a mortal unipeg too,’ Sparkler told Cadence, ‘no-pony, as far as we know, knows what happened to her; one day she just seemed to vanish. There were rumors, of course. One thing that is known though, is that she became aware shortly beforehoof that she would be unable to prevent the empire from falling but she refused to leave, so it’s unlikely she ran away.’
‘The last time she was seen,’ Glory added hesitantly, ‘she was in a pretty bad state; battered and bruised.’
There was silence.
‘You know,’ said Sparkler thoughtfully, looking from Cadence to an image of Lexia and back again, ‘Princess Cadence does rather resemble Princess Lexia in a number of ways, you don’t think they could share some ancestry?’
‘I don’t see how she could be my ancestor,’ Cadence responded after a moment, ‘at least, not a close ancestor, with my grandfather marrying a crystal pony and the fact my grandmother on the other side hates immortal alicorns having mortal foals, plus the rarity of a mortal alicorn birth . . .’
‘A few days after the princess’s disappearance,’ Sundance continued, ‘a unipeg called Princess Luna turned up.’ Cadence jumped. ‘She seemed to have got a tip off from somewhere or somepony, anyway, Sombra managed to keep the slavery among other things from her for a time. He must’ve used a dark magical influence of some sort on her. Once she did find out what was going on, she and her sister, Princess Celestia,’ -Cadence gaped- ‘defeated him, turned him to shadow and imprisoned him.’
‘Unfortunately,’ said Glory, ‘Sombra put some kind of spell on the empire before he was completely defeated, which caused it to disappear.’
‘Our ancestors,’ Sparkler explained, ‘were either among the lucky few who happened to be away from the empire at the time Sombra came to power, somehow managed to escape on their own, or among the group Princess Luna helped escape once she found out about the way the crystal ponies were being treated. Our ancestors were making their own plans to free the empire when it disappeared.’
‘A terrible time it was after that. So many would never see their loved ones again, and, at the same time, were unable to let go, knowing that, in reality, they were still alive,’ Sundance said. ‘Even though he had been gone for so long, many ponies here are prone to extreme panic about the possibility of him returning, although in actual fact . . .’
‘Had!’ Glory spluttered, ‘what do you mean ‘had’?’
‘It’s debatable,’ Sundance began hesitantly, ‘Sunsparkle reckons she saw something, and she’s one of the least prone to panic ponies here. She said she thought it might have been her imagination but she was certain enough that we must go and have a look for ourselves.’
‘We’re going down the mines to see if King Sombra’s down there or not!’ Glory exclaimed.
‘Basically,’ Sundance replied.
‘I’m sorry we can’t give a more detailed history right now, Princess,’ said Sparkler to Cadence, ‘once we three return . . .’
‘If we return,’ Glory murmured in a panicked tone.
‘Hold your horseshoes!’ Cadence told them, ‘I’m coming with you!’
The three mares were horrified by the idea.
‘You can’t!’ Glory shouted in a terrified tone.
‘Cadence, dear,’ said Sparkler gently, ‘while I admire your courage, you appear to have forgotten that you are completely unable to use your wings and horn.’
Cadence had forgotten about these details, but it didn’t change her decision.
‘It’ll be very dangerous,’ Sundance told her, ‘well, it will be if it is what we think.’
‘I’m not afraid,’ Cadence replied, despite the fact the opposite was true. ‘In any case,’ Cadence continued, ‘I’m always in danger anyway because of The Mark.’
‘As in, The Mark of the Unipeg?’ Glory asked.
Cadence was surprised, but nodded. A moment after saying it, she had expected to be asked what it was.
‘It’s really real?’ Sundance inquired, attempting to keep the excitement out of her voice. Cadence nodded. ‘But that would mean you would be in a lot more danger than us!’ Sundance exclaimed.
‘Oh, you poor thing!’ came Sparkler’s empathetic tone, ‘losing your mother and then attracting so much trouble!’
She put a foreleg around Cadence’s shoulder.
‘Well,’ said Sundance with a sigh, after a few moments of consideration, ‘it’s ultimately your decision, Princess . . .’
‘It’s ultimately my responsibility to keep everypony in this town safe from harm,’ Cadence responded, ‘besides, there are three ponies out there looking for me who will probably never find me if I don’t leave the town.’
*
‘Remember,’ Sundance was saying to Sparkler and Glory, ‘if we trot into trouble, our main priority is to protect the princess.’
‘You must be really brave to go down those mines!’ Sunsparkle told Cadence as they walked along.
‘Thank you,’ Cadence replied, ‘but it’s something that I must do more than anything else.’
‘You won’t try to follow us, will you, Sunsparkle?’ Sundance asked her sister a little sternly.
‘I wouldn’t have the courage even if I wanted to,’ Sunsparkle responded.
*
‘Say, Sundance,’ said Glory, through fake cheeriness, ‘why don’t you go first?’
‘But I think Sparkler should go first,’ Sundance replied with a worried look on her face.
‘Why don’t you go first, Glory?’ Sparkler asked with a nervous smile.
They had arrived at the entrance to the mines and none of them were particularly keen to proceed.
‘I’ll go first,’ Cadence said.
‘No!’ the three mares yelled at once.
‘We’ll all go in at the same time then,’ Cadence suggested.
*
‘So none of you have been down here before?’ Cadence asked nervously as they walked along, barely able to see what was in front of them.
‘Of course not!’ shouted Glory, ‘who would come down here voluntarily!’
Cadence gave a shudder, partly from how incredibly cold it was and partly from fear.
‘Many crystal ponies were forced to work down here in terrible conditions,’ Sundance explained, ‘if he is here, let’s hope we find him, before he finds us.’
‘And that we don’t find any pony remains. How could he have got out anyway?’ came Glory’s slightly shrill tone, ‘what was that?’
‘It’s just water dripping, Glory,’ Sundance told her, ‘the sooner we get out of here the better.’
Cadence was almost completely unable to control her shivering.
‘Stand closer to me, Cadence, and everything will be alright,’ came Sparkler’s reassuring tone.
‘We must stick together as much as possible,’ Sundance stated. ‘Glory, stop lagging behind. Glory?’
A moment later, a yell was heard, and then, Glory was galloping towards them at a high speed.
‘It’s him! It’s him!’ Glory shrieked, ‘I really mean it this time! Run! Run! RUN!’