//------------------------------// // 3 - The Crystal Ponies // Story: Polygamy is Magic // by Ravenmane //------------------------------// As Twilight continued to stare at the barrier we recently passed through, the rest of us gathered around her. I draped a wing over Twilight’s back and continued to wait alongside her. Twilight bit her lip as she looked at me. “He’s coming right?” I was on the edge of saying he was immediately just to try and keep her calm but I didn’t want to lull myself into a false sense of security that my brother-in-law was going to be fine. “He’ll come back to us,” I told her as I tugged her tighter. As Rainbow joined us, Twilight’s head dropped onto my shoulder. “He’s my brother and I don’t know what Cadance would do to me if her husband died getting us here.” Come on Shining, I thought, you’re tougher than this. After a few more minutes of silent tension, Shining came flying through the barrier. He was covered in wounds and had small crystalline shards jutting from his horn. Twilight gasped and teleported to his side, leaving my wing to snap shut in my face. Twilight helped her brother get back on his hooves. “Shining, are you okay?” “Al, you alright,” Rainbow asked at the same time. I simply replied by rubbing my snout, eager to hear my brother-in-law’s answer more than giving my own. “It’s okay Twiley,” Shining said, “I’ve been through worse. Even as he is, King Sombra still has a lot of power. Right now I should give you more of a report as we get back to the palace.” I nodded in agreement and turned my head so I could actually see the Crystal Empire in more than just a flash. The empire itself seemed to be made of crystals, truly living up to its namesake. The buildings were all like crystalline spires, even the gateway near us was made of crystals. This was a sight to behold as we trotted through a thoroughfare towards the palace at the empire’s center. ***** Shining Armor led us up staircases within the palace as he summed everything up. “With King Sombra prowling around outside our defenses, I’m hard pressed to find out anything about how to stop him.” “What about Princess Cadance,” I asked him. “Well,” he started while pushing opening a large door. On a throne of polished crystals sat Princess Cadance. The warm smile she gave us felt betrayed as I focused more on the bags under her eyes. Twilight began to pick up speed as she saw Cadance look to all of us but I unfurled a wing to block her way. “As happy as we are to see you, I don’t think you want to divert your focus too much Cadance,” I said calmly. Cadance nodded as she slowly trotted towards us. “I’m sorry Twilight,” she said wearily, “we should try to get together around doing important things in the future.” Twilight rounded my wing and hugged her former foalsitter. “What can I do to help?” Shining Armor cleared his throat. “Cadance hasn’t been sleeping, she barely eats, and with me trying to keep King Sombra at bay we haven’t been able to find a better countermeasure.” He focused on his horn, barely managing to issue a few sparks from it. “Great, and now I can’t even help her with my own magic.” “I’m fine,” Cadance said sternly. “You aren’t fine,” I said as I approached her. “How long have you been here? I mean no disrespect Cadance but without food and rest there’s no way you’re anywhere close to fine.” Cadance sighed. “It’s been about a week now. How long does it take for three ponies to get from Hayvana to the Crystal Empire anyways?” “Princess Celestia wasn’t exactly specific about what we were doing,” answered Twilight. “Why not,” Cadance snapped. “She told us this was more important than anything!” “Cadance don’t lash out at them,” said Shining nervously. “Calm down, I’ve been worried that this is getting to be too much for you.” “We’ll get working on a more permanent thing alright,” I said reassuringly. “Everyone’s here to help,” I added as I looked back to the rest of the crew from Ponyville. Twilight nodded. “So, where can we begin?” “Well with Cadance here and me out there,” Shining gave a bitter look towards the horizon, “we haven’t been able to get much information from the crystal ponies.” “Crystal ponies,” squealed Rarity, “they’re real?” “Obviously,” answered Rainbow sarcastically. “What did you think lives in the Crystal Empire Rarity? Chimeras?” “We think somepony out there has to know of a way to stop King Sombra,” clarified Cadance as she managed to get back to her throne with her husband’s assistance. Twilight gasped. “A research-” “Twilight,” I interrupted quickly, “honey, you know I love you to death but if the next word you say is ‘paper’ then I’m sure everypony here would be willing to look the other way so I could give you a big welt on the back of your noggin.” “This must be part of my test,” Twilight mumbled. At least she was courteous enough to listen and avoid the p-word. “So,” she started up again, “we gather information from the crystal ponies then relay our findings.” I rolled my eyes as Twilight started to usher everyone off to do specific things, but my eyes zeroed in on whom I wanted to talk with. “Shining, can I have a word?” Shining gave a brief glimpse towards Cadance before looking past me at the door left ajar. “Sure Alex, what’s on your mind?” I bade he come with me as I left the room. “Is something else going on Shining,” I asked him once we were alone. “Well, you know what time of the year it’s been right?” “Oh,” I gasped, “oh. It’s that right? Is she?” Shining shook his head. “I think she might have some regrets. I mean, I think she thinks I’m firing blanks or something already. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe-” The rest of his fretting was silenced by my hoof across his face. “You call yourself a soldier?” “What are you getting at Alex?” “You’re still a bit too relaxed while important things are going on.” “What’s it to you how I act?” “You’re in a powerful position; you’re married to a princess and a commanding officer in the Canterlot Royal Guard for pony’s sake. You’re going to have to pony up and do your job at one hundred and ten percent.” I sighed. “That said, I hope Cadance recovers from her current vibe so she doesn’t bite your head off if everything goes sideways. I’d probably understand your fears about coming up empty if the three of us were focusing on foals right now. After taking care of this, we’re going to focus on stabilizing our lives and maybe we’ll talk about kids in theory for now, but that’s all we’ll do.” “You’ve got a few good points in there, good to know I’ve got another guy up here, even if he keeps his cool about this stuff.” I snickered. “Who’s keeping cool? I just have a wife that would kill me if I lost it and another that loses it all the time. I’ll never be able to keep my cool,” I added before diving out of a window and soaring along a thoroughfare just above the rooftops. ***** I had the familiar feeling that I initially had in Ponyville when trying to get the crystal ponies to talk to me. They steered clear or slammed their doors shut. Despite this, I had one prevailing thought: for being called crystal ponies, they weren’t very crystal looking. Perhaps if they shined they would look the part, but they lacked a vibrancy that would give the semi-reflective tone of their coats what I was looking for. “What are you staring at,” spoke a dull voice behind me. I spun around and saw a very bleak looking mare looking at me behind a very passive expression. “Why don’t any of you look more uh crystal-y,” I answered. She shrugged. “Are you with the other ponies?” “Yes, we’re looking for a way to keep the empire safe. Can you help at all?” “Well, you could probably find something in the library. That is, if he didn’t destroy it.” “Where is this library?” She reached over and tilted my head so I could see the building across the street. Even among the other impressive buildings of the empire, the library stood out as an important building. With griffon statues flanking the massive doors, it was a wonder I didn’t really notice it. I blame Ponyville’s thatched roofs and the tropical sun from my honeymoon. “Oh,” I said dully. “Thanks, if you see any of my friends then tell them where I went okay?” “I saw a couple of them going in there already,” she told me with a weak smile. I hoped that smile was a sign of her showing a positive attitude. I rushed towards the library and creaked open the doors. “Twilight,” I called out. “We’re looking for a history book,” echoed her voice from somewhere in the library. I took to wing and soared around the library, examining bookshelves left and right. After my twentieth bookshelf, I groaned and knocked an entire shelf onto the floor. “Oopsie,” I said meekly before looking through the titles. Strange topics like keeping your coat glossy and using reflective surfaces to your advantage adorned some books while there were manuals about jousting and military training littered in as well. “Maybe they did this to hide some information from King Sombra,” I mumbled. As a desperate groan echoed from a floor beneath me I went to a lower shelf and saw a thick volume. The closest book to this one, Formal Manestyles Through the Ages, was perhaps half as thick as this one. My frustration gave way to curiosity as I pulled the tome from its resting place. “History of,” I trailed off as a wide grin grew on my face. “I found something!” Without any further explanation, I flew down to Twilight with the book. “How about this one,” I showed her a book titled History of the Crystal Empire. “I hope so,” she said worryingly. “Let’s see…” ***** Twilight insisted on speaking with Cadance and Shining Armor in private, in case we couldn’t do what she found. That didn’t stop us from waiting outside the throne room with our ears to the door though. “I don’t know Twiley,” said Shining. I heard Twilight give him a swift smack. “It says here that ‘the Crystal Faire was used to renew the unity and love in the empire so they could protect it from harm.’” “But-” “We can put it all together, you two just focus on keeping everypony safe until we can help the crystal ponies take over.” “Where-” “Everything’s in the book.” “Then get started right away,” rang the weary voice of Princess Cadance. It was practically my cue to back away from the door; everyone was quick to follow my lead. “We’d better get ready for her to hoof out assignments,” I told them. ***** “Princess Cadance can’t last much longer,” Twilight said as she set the history book down before us. “We’ll have to try to get this Faire down as best as we can.” Everyone nodded and looked to the book as Twilight flipped through the pages with her magic. My eyes caught one picture in particular. “I’ll get to work on setting some jousting up,” I said with a brief smile towards Rainbow. “Okay,” said Twilight, “Rainbow can join you later on to give you an opponent.” “Just don’t expect me to go easy on ya,” Dashie added. “I’ll handle the flags and such,” commented Rarity. “I’ll need references of course.” “No problem,” said Twilight, “there are plenty of references here.” “Don’t you fret about the food,” added Applejack. “Ah’ll just need Pinkie to lend me a hoof gatherin’ ingredients.” “We can get some recipes if you need them,” replied Twilight. “I’ll get them on our way,” chirped Pinkie. “Um, what do you want me to do,” asked Fluttershy. Twilight looked through the book a while longer. “How about you handle a petting zoo Fluttershy? It says here that they had one with crystal ewes.” “Crystal ewes,” she repeated. “Ah’m sure you can find some of them,” said Applejack. “Once we get things started we’ll get their interest,” added Twilight. “Ooh! It says here that there’s this flugelhorn that they liked to play,” said Pinkie, her nose deep in the book. “Can I play it?” “Well, you’ll have to learn to play the anthem if you want to do that. Rainbow, how about you help me with some of the festival stands and decorations. Everypony can help once they get things together.” “No sweat Twi,” Rainbow said confidently. “We’ll just use the book to save to crystal ponies right?” “I’ll try to keep instructions down to a minimum,” said Twilight. “That just means I want you all to do your part and then some. We don’t have enough ponies to keep things going all over the place. Work as a team and we should be good to go.” Everyone gave a collective nod before darting off to work on our respective tasks.