Ink Blot's Unassorted Encyclopedia of Absolutely Everything

by Nevlamas


Equestrian Geography: The Crystal Empire

Far beyond the borders of northern Equestria, past the cold and unforgiving peaks of the Crystal Mountains and amidst the frozen wastelands of the arctic north lies the Crystal Empire, the long forgotten seat of an ancient culture, and of a power unlike any other in the world. Its younger history is well known to most, but everything that happened before the Empires long disappearance is as obscure to the Equestrian people as it is significant for the crystal kind. Delving into the lore of this fabled nation, a scholar will be confronted with tragedy and glory both. He will meet friends and foes that influence the world still today, and learn of a society daring enough to question the Elements of Harmony.

But all in good time.

The history of the Crystal Empire begins roughly two-and-a-half centuries after the founding of Equestria. At that time, the three alicorn rulers of the land had been in unquestioned power for more than a hundred years already. The Elements of Harmony had been discovered and turned into proof for their rightful reign, and scholars from all over the world were eagerly studying these new and exciting forces. As the alicorns were considered emissaries of the six Elements, their divine power seemed to stem from their influence; more than a few researchers were likely trying to reproduce these effects to bestow the same powers onto themselves. They all failed, however. All but one.

Little is known of Queen Chrysalis’ life before her ascension, but historians agree that she most likely served as a unicorn scholar in the aspiring young city of Canterlot. Wilful, innovative and exceedingly intelligent, Chrysalis could have been one of the leading scientist researching the Elements of Harmony, if not for her overly unconventional beliefs. When her patrons finally had their fill of her eccentric experiments, they dismissed her from her position and refused to support her work any further. Undaunted, Chrysalis continued her work on her own, backed only by her beloved mate, whose name was lost in the ages past. For years they studied, and what they found in their esoteric pursuits no one will ever know – fortunately.

Several months later, Chrysalis and her mate returned to the surface of society and immediately demanded an audience with the prince and princesses. They claimed to have discovered a seventh Element of Harmony, standing apart from the others. The Element of Love, as they had named it, represented a particular feeling that did not touch the six harmonious virtues as they were known, and had thus never been noticed by the three rulers, or so they said. Their declaration would have been written off as simple gibberish, had they not brought a very compelling token of their credibility with them: a pair of wings, sprouting from Chrysalis' back. Somehow, she had turned herself into an alicorn – a feat that most had thought impossible. Throughout history, hers was the first of only three cases of a mortal changing their species through magical means. In the massive aftershock of her declaration, the number of scholars studying the Elements did of course skyrocket, but to no avail.

Until this point, it had, as mentioned before, been a widely accepted belief that the alicorns were emissaries of the harmonious Elements, a fact backed up by the extraordinary circumstances of their births. With Chrysalis’ apotheosis, this theory was shattered. Still today, we have no clear answer for the question it left behind, which is: the power of Love has been proven, but is it truly the seventh Element? Some speculate it might be just a conjunction of the six others, like the Fires of Friendship; others speak of the influence of disharmonious powers, or suspect it to be something else entirely. And what about the alicorns? Is the favour of an Element really required to become one? Can there be only so many alicorns in the world, or is their number potentially unlimited? What exactly makes the difference between them and common mortals?

Chrysalis – who claimed to have answered all those questions – was outraged by the way Equestria reacted to her declaration. She had given them a messiah, and now they refused to accept her as such. Their mistrust infuriated her further and further, as she could not understand why they wouldn’t believe that there truly were seven Elements. When Princess Celestia denied her her crown – which she, being an alicorn, considered her good right – she had suffered enough insolence from the fools and cretins that surrounded her. Gathering the ones that had chosen to believe in her tidings of joy, she marched north. She declared the foundation of an independent empire to the north, ruled by her mate and herself. She named it after the mountain range that would separate it from the green lands of the south: the Crystal Empire.

In Equestria, the princesses decided not to mingle into her affairs. Individual freedom was one of the many virtues of Harmony: as long as she wouldn’t rise against them, they would have no quarrel. That decision turned out to be a wise one: the two young realms would profit from their good trading relations for centuries.

In the meantime, high in the north, Chrysalis, who now styled herself queen of the Crystal Empire, was gathering her people for a great ritual. Those who had survived the long and perilous journey were hungry, cold and in dire need of shelter. Determined not to fail their trust, she intended to demonstrate the power of Love in a very direct way. All those needs they suffered from, she promised Love would heal.

The next day, she brought forth a heart-shaped gemstone and made them flock around it. Details of the ritual remain as mysterious as every event surrounding the crystal queen, but the results spoke for themselves: her people were indeed never plagued by the cold again, nor did they feel hunger or exhaustion the way they did before. Time did not touch them anymore. The crystal kind had been born.

Whatever spell was cast that day, its power stretched to the land as well. Around the heart, the ice was melting. A sizable area was freed from the arctic snow, and would stay so for as long as the Empire remained. So began the nation that we know today. The crystal kind built their city around the heart, and erected a great palace to hold it in place.

Chrysalis’ rule over the young nation was destined to be a long and glorious one. When her beloved died of old age, she mourned for a decade before taking a new mate. When he too had passed, she sought another. Honouring the Element of Love, she would always find one dear to her and her long line of consorts was never interrupted. Her people flourished with her, proud and faithful.

Until her heart chose to love on that did not deserve it. A unicorn who answered to the name of Sombra.

Historians would have us believe that his time as the crystal king was filled with bad omens from the very beginning, but in truth quite the opposite was the case: throughout the centuries, Queen Chrysalis had given birth to many children from many lovers, all of them mortal and common in their ways. Sombra gifted her with a child in his early years as well, but this one was special. Even as a babe, the pegasus child would enchant the eyes of her parents and anyone else lucky enough to catch a glimpse of her. Innocent, charming and breathtakingly beautiful, the young princess would soon become the pride of the Crystal Empire. Her parents felt that such a happy child deserved an equally joyous namesake and named her after Melody, the Equestrian prince of Laughter and Magic: Princess Cadence.

But as we know, the bright future that the crystal kind saw in Sombra never came. Early reports of his reign all call him a graceful king and dedicated lover, but in later years, those reports turn dark and darker still. We cannot spy into the black one’s mind and find out what truly happened to him, but fact is that he turned into something evil. A common theory names greed for the power of Love the reason, another speculates that it was envy for his immortal wife and yet another claims that Sombra hadn’t changed at all, that he had simply hid away his black heart until then. Whatever the truth may be: his hunger for Love would soon grow far beyond anything natural.

In the end, desiring for his Queen to love him more than anyone before, he created the most potent love poison known to this world and made her drink it – a mistake that would go down in history. For the longest time, the nearer circumstances of the Empire’s downfall were unknown. There is a popular fairy tale that appears to be based on those events, although it names the lovers prince and princess instead of king and queen, and states that their realm was destroyed because they couldn’t stop looking into each others eyes. Fair enough, this is the effect the potion would have on a common mortal recipient; on the crystal alicorn, it was worse by far.

The recent resurfacing of the Crystal Empire has led to the discovery of a truth much less pleasant than any story. As it would seem, the unique connection between Queen Chrysalis and the Element of Love would turn to her undoing, as Sombra misused her as a link to that unlimited force. Only through her could he reach it, and only with it could he quench his thirst for power. Abusing the boundless adoration that she now felt for him, he persuaded her to use the Crystal Heart for his own schemes and she obeyed, mad with the desire to please her beloved. All the power of the crystal kind went on to him, all the light and passion in the hearts of their people and of Chrysalis herself. When it was done, there was no love left inside of her, not the tiniest bit of warmth in her stone-cold heart. Only then did the potion wear off.

Once it did, the Queen found that she had been robbed of all that she had ever been. Immortality meant nothing to her without the light of her beloved. Hunger overcame her like it had claimed King Sombra before, and from that day on, she would stop at nothing to sate it. Stalking the palace, she would hunt her own guards and servants, draining them of their love, turning them into hollow images of herself. Yet nothing she did made the emptiness leave. It wasn’t long until her dark deeds began to take their toll on her body.

Alicorns are the purest incarnations of the Elements of Harmony. Their connection to the world is stronger than anyone else’s, and their magic heavily resonates with what their hearts resemble. As Chrysalis lied, deceived and hunted her own loved ones, her form was twisted and reshaped into a monster better fitting her soul: she became the first of the Changelings. Soon, the people she had drained of their own feelings would follow her, their flesh turning black and their hands to claws. Finding no food in the devastated, love-forsaken wasteland that the Crystal Empire had become, the Changeling Queen and her children then fled from the realm and were not heard from for a thousand years – not until their recent attack on Canterlot.

All the while, Sombra continued in his rampage. He enthralled his people, clad them in chains and tried to force them into feeding him power. He did not understand that love cannot be taken, merely given. Instead, the Crystal Heart soon resonated with hatred and fear. The Black King drank that essence and gorged himself on pain and confusion until his own heart was as dark as the crystal one had become. The beautiful landscape of the Empire turned to pitch-black, fissured stone. Its radiance soon faded.

Only a single crystal woman possessed the inner strength to resist Sombra’s dark influence long enough to counteract it. Cadence’s wet nurse, who would later claim that the infant princess had lent her strength somehow, managed to send a warning to Equestria before it was too late. Although the black king cornered and captured her shortly after, the damage had been done: the message had reached the alicorns in their far-off palace.

Sombra knew that the three siblings were a mighty foe, but with the power of the Crystal Heart at his back, he was confident that he could defeat them. While his daughter was thrown into the deepest dungeons beneath the castle, he readied his defences for the storm to come.

They did not even bother to bring the Elements of Harmony with them.

Leaving the affairs of their own realm to their brother Melody, Luna and Celestia dealt with Sombra like a minor annoyance. With a single spell they overwhelmed him and cast him down to shadow. They destroyed his body, his identity and most of his mind. Only his hunger remained, too strong for them to vanquish. He was turned into a phantom, more shadow than man, barely capable of conscious thought aside from his never ending wish to feed. The sisters took what remained of the black king and banished him to the furthest northern reaches of the world, sealing him beneath the arctic ice.

But even as they did, Sombra cursed the Empire that had failed him so direly. It vanished from the surface of the world, with not a single trace of where it went. For a millennium, the crystal kind would cease existing. Luna and Celestia could only return to Equestria and tell their people of what had happened in the north. The long silence followed.

It was broken only two decades ago, when Princess Celestia introduced a new protégé of hers to the society of Canterlot: Cadence. The crystal princess had reappeared on Equestria roughly adecade earlier, but had only now caught the alicorn’s attention. Raised by Earth Walkers in the north, she had faced and defeated a powerful sorceress threatening her home town. There, the Element of Love had revealed itself to her. Just like her mother so many years before, Cadence had ascended to alicornhood.

All the while, Celestia herself was brooding over this change of events. She hadn’t told Cadence the truth about her past, nothing of her kingdom or her people. Modern Equestria had forgotten there had ever been a Crystal Empire, and she saw no need to remind them just now. The day would come when destiny would reveal itself, but until then she would do what she had always done: watch and bide her time.

Years later, a unicorn called Twilight Sparkle would catch her attention. From the very beginning, Celestia felt something special in the little girl and decided to take her under her wing. Cadence would become her babysitter and the two of them would share a deep connection of mutual love and caring. Neither of them would ever know of the little detail that had led Celestia to that particular decision: the day of Cadence’s appearance in Cantlerot had also been the day of Twilight Sparkle’s birth. The Elements, Celestia knew, were weaving their net. It was no mere coincidence that her two pupils had appeared on the stage just then. In her golden heart grew the cautious hope that the Crystal Empire’s redemption was finally at hand.

The rest is history.