Of Love and Crystals

by Pnakotic


Chapter 5

The train pulled to a stop in the frozen north of Equestria, a fairly short walk away from the location of the newly returned Crystal Empire. Twilight and the others disembarked and after a few complaints on the cold climate, which they honestly should have expected, the group continued onward to meet up with Shining Armor. After a brief reunion and a few skeptical looks towards Olive Branch from Shining Armor the group continued.

The walk seemed pleasant enough until the group heard howls on the wind followed by a menacing dark fog-like creature. Panicking they ran for safety within the shielded Crystal Empire, Shining Armor fell back in a valiant attempt to buy the group more time. After passing through the shield Olive Branch noticed something strange, he felt full. Reexamining the shield he saw it for what it truly was, it was not so much a shield as it was a wall of pure love energy. ‘Whoever cast this spell must be tapping the ley lines; else it would surely have failed.’ Olive Branch thought to himself. He shuttered at the ramifications of using so much energy, the caster would have to make themself a pure conduit of energy which would wreak havoc on their body.

Olive Branch’s thought process was disrupted when Shining Armor was flung through the barrier, onto Olive Branch. “Shining Armor! Your horn, are you ok?” Twilight asked with concern. Shining Armor attempted to use his magic but only succeeded in giving himself a headache, shaking and hanging his head he indicated such.

After examining the growth out of Shining Armor’s horn Olive Branch used his knowledge of crystals to explain the problem, “The crystals have taken root in the crevices of his horn, whenever he attempts to use magic the crystals send extra energy to key parts of his horn which results in a cascade failure and magical backlash to the brain, hence the headache.”

“Can you remove the crystals?” Twilight asked hopefully.

“I’m afraid not, the process is extremely complex; it entails removing the roots of the crystals without damaging the horn itself, a very precise use of magic would be necessary else he would most likely lose use of his magic permanently. The princesses or the queen would be able to cast such an intricate spell, but I myself am unable to.” Olive Branch explained.

“It’s fine, there are more important matters to attend to at the moment,” Shining Armor said, “we need to see Cadance, she can fill you in better than I.” Without further ado the group rushed to the giant citadel in the middle of the empire.

Upon entering the throne room Twilight and Princess Cadance performed a rather unusual greeting in Olive Branch’s mind. He couldn’t take his eyes off Cadance; just looking at her with his magic senses was like looking into an energy nexus. She must be the conduit, he thought, no wonder she is so tired, the magical strain must be overwhelming, even for an alicorn.

Shining Armor whispered the identity of Olive Branch to Cadance. Turning to face Olive Branch with a death glare Cadance spoke, “Know that if the situation was not so dire and for the fact you arrived with Twilight I would throw you from the citadel this instant, parasite. But, for now I have bigger problems than a single changeling.”

Shining Armor explained how Cadance was using her magic to spread light and love throughout the empire, and how his own magic, when it was functioning, had been countered by Sombra’s. Twilight determined that if they were going to do anything about the threat they would need to gather additional information to which everypony agreed. The group headed out to ask, or interrogate in some cases, the time-lost citizens of the Crystal Empire.

Olive Branch wandered the street meeting with little success in finding any useful information. The ponies here, presumably through overexposure to the ley lines magic, had developed some sort of magical sense similar to that of a changeling. In short it meant they could see through the magical aura which made up Olive Branch’s disguise. While the citizens of the empire hadn’t been the main target of the war of ages passed they most certainly had been affected by it and thus were loath to help Olive Branch. Continuing on down the road, Olive Branch stumbled upon a building which looked similar to a library. ‘Now this is some good news at least,’ Olive Branch thought, ‘there might be some knowledge of the king or more importantly his weaknesses recorded here.’ Spying Applejack nearby Olive Branch rushed over and informed her of the library’s location so that she might relay the information to Twilight. Olive Branch probably could have told Twilight himself but he wanted a chance to search through the library beforehoof.

Browsing the shelves Olive Branch found many books which covered multiple interesting topics, most notably was a collection of spellbooks (or tablets rather) which had most likely been taken from the changeling swarm, Olive Branch made a note to investigate those later. He did not, however, find anything related to King Sombra. ‘Typical,’ he thought, the king had obviously put a censor on any knowledge related to himself. Before too long Twilight and her friends arrived and almost immediately began to nearly tear the library apart, making Olive Branch cringe.

Finally, they happened upon a book detailing a fair which was held to reinvigorate the ponies of the Crystal Empire. The ponies took this as the key they were searching for. Olive Branch, however, was skeptical, could a fair really be the means to defeating an entity as powerful as Sombra. Olive Branch thought of discouraging them from throwing a fair in hopes of a deus ex machina, but truthfully he had no better ideas at hoof so he went along with their plan.

After presenting the idea to Cadance and Shining Armor and getting approval the group quickly began preparation for the fair. Olive Branch stayed with Twilight to make the preparations, the crystal ponies still seemed wary of him and he did not want to give them any further provocation. “And finally, the fair ends with the presentation of the Crystal Heart, so I carved a heart out of some spare crystal I found to symbolize that.” Twilight said finishing her explanation.

“Um… Twilight.” Olive Branch said, he thought he remembered reading something about a Crystal Heart in the swarm’s library but he couldn’t quite recall what it was. It seemed like there was something more to the Crystal Heart than it being a symbol of love and unity. Perhaps…

“Twilight!” Rainbow Dash shot out of the sky towards them and quickly covered the makeshift crystal with a cloth, “I think we have a problem, the Crystal Heart is an actual artifact!”

“Wait how could I have missed that?” Twilight wondered reviewing the book on the Crystal Fair, “There’s a page missing!” She said, revealing the torn margin of the last page of the book.

“Ah! I remember now! The Crystal Heart is a focus for the ley lines, when placed at the bottom of the citadel it focuses energy from across all of Equestria.” Olive Branch said reciting what he’d read once.

“What does that have to do with the mood of the crystal ponies though?” Twilight asked.

“The ponies here have been partially assimilated by the surrounding magic, it affects them and most likely they affect it. Should the crystal ponies channel love through the ley lines that will be projected, the same goes for fear though.”

“So that’s the point of the fair? To make the crystal ponies happy enough to channel love instead of a darker emotion?” Twilight asked for clarification.

“Indeed, therefore we need to find the real Crystal Heart before they realize we don’t have it.”

“We don’t, I do.” Twilight proclaimed.

“What do you mean?” Olive Branch asked with a look of shock.

“Princess Celestia sent me here to solve this by myself, therefore I need to find the Crystal Heart by myself and bring it to Cadance by myself.” Twilight explained.

“That doesn’t make sense, why then would she send all of us here and not just you? At the very least take me, my senses might help to find the Heart.” Olive Branch reasoned.

“Fine,” Twilight conceded, “But you better not lift a hoof to do anything other than help look, got it?”

“Okay, fine, we’ll do it your way.” Olive Branch agreed, “We should probably look over the citadel first, it’s the most likely spot Sombra would have kept it. He probably wanted to keep a careful watch over it if it was indeed the key to his defeat.”