//------------------------------//
// The Story of Crystal Clear and Little Light 
// Story: Bedtime Stories 
// by TacticalRainboom 
//------------------------------//

	“That story again?” Cadance rolled her eyes in mock exasperation, but she couldn’t hide her smile. “You’ve already heard that one plenty of times. Don’t you want to hear a different story?”

Little Twily crossed her forehooves forcefully and stuck out her lower lip. “I want to hear the story about Crystal Clear and Little Light!”

“Oh, fine,” Cadance said with a theatrical sigh, rearing up to rest her forelegs on the bed. “The story of Little Light and Crystal Clear, one more time.”

Twilight beamed like she’d been given a new toy as she wriggled deeper into bed, pulling the sheets up to her chin.

Princess Cadance leaned closer to Twilight, lifting one hoof and gesturing toward an imaginary fairy-tale landscape as she began to recite.

“Thousands of years ago, before the Fire of Friendship was lit, Equestria was divided into kingdoms that hated and distrusted each other. All except for a kind unicorn named Crystal Clear, and a clever pegasus named Little Light...”





Crystal Clear was born in a beautiful castle, in a beautiful city, on top of a beautiful mountain called Mount Platinum. The little filly had still not earned a cutie mark, but she had a mane the color of a bright sunny day and a coat the color of a newly spun silk sheet. Her parents, two unicorns from a great and proud family of sun-movers, loved her dearly and gave her everything that she wanted. However, they never allowed her to leave the city and see the world outside its walls.

“Mount Platinum is the perfect place,” Crystal Clear’s mother and father said whenever their daughter asked what the world outside was like. “The world below is ugly and dangerous. What do you need from outside the city? We can give you everything you want, and you never have to leave.”

Starting on Crystal Clear’s seventh birthday, her mother and father gave her a beautiful platinum pin every year. And Crystal Clear would smile as she saw how each new pin shimmered in the light. Then, she would use her magic to nest each pin in her mane and wear it with pride all year long.

“There is nothing like this pin anywhere else in the world,” Crystal Clear’s parents told her every year as she tucked another pin into her mane. “Only we, on this mountain, have such beautiful things.”

But Crystal Clear wasn’t so sure. Sometimes, when the mood took her, she would sit at her window to watch the sunset and wonder about all the things that she might find in the world outside of her perfect city.

“Aren’t there other ponies outside of the city?” Crystal Clear asked her parents from where she sat at her window. “Don’t you want to meet them?”

Her parents scolded her. “The ponies from outside the city are lazy, stupid beggars,” they said angrily. “Stay inside the city and talk to the ponies here!”

Crystal Clear nodded, and agreed never to talk to any ponies from outside the city, but still she wasn’t sure. So, on the day of her tenth birthday, she decided that she would find out for herself.

When Crystal Clear’s parents came to give their daughter a pin for her tenth birthday, Crystal Clear was nowhere to be found. Instead, she was on the slopes of of Mount Platinum, making her way down the twisting path.

After a long morning of hiking, Crystal Clear reached a place where the path led through a thick tangle of bushes, so she stopped to take a rest. The sun was just reaching the peak of midday.

Suddenly, she jumped to her hooves and hid behind a rock when she saw something hiding in a nearby bush. And the thing in the bush jumped too! And as the thing looked at Crystal Clear with wide eyes, Crystal Clear saw that it was a little pegasus in the bush, no older than herself.

“Who are you?” Crystal Clear asked.

“My name is Little Light,” the pegasus said. “Who are you?”

Crystal Clear was excited, but she was also scared. "I can't tell you my name, because my parents told me that ponies from outside the city are ugly and lazy and are always begging for things!”

“Well, my parents told me that ponies from inside the city are vain and greedy and want to steal things from everypony else!”

Crystal Clear was shocked, and more than a little bit offended. “That’s not true! My parents are very humble, and very generous, and they love me very much!”

“Well," replied Little Light, “My parents are very proud, and they work very hard, and they love me very much.”

Crystal Clear thought about that for a little while, and then she came out from behind her rock. When Little Light saw this, he came out from beneath his bush, and the two little ponies looked at each other for the first time.

“My name is Crystal Clear," said Crystal Clear, "and you're not ugly at all."

And it was true: Little Light was in fact very beautiful. His coat and mane were the color of a stormy sea at midnight, but his eyes glittered like lightning arcing across a moonless sky.

Crystal Clear hung her head. “I’ve never met a pony from outside the city before. I’m sorry for saying those things about you.”

“And I’m sorry for saying those things about you,” Little Light replied. “And I’ve always wanted to meet a pony from the city on the mountain.”

“Really?” Crystal Clear cautiously edged closer to Little Light. “What’s it like where you come from? Tell me everything.”

“I’ll tell you everything.” Little Light smiled. “Just as long as you tell me everything about what it’s like inside the city.”

They spent all day telling each other about their separate worlds. Crystal Clear told Little Light about Mount Platinum’s enchanted walls and mighty towers, and Little Light told Crystal Clear about what it was like to harness the wind and swim through the clouds. Soon it was night, and the two little ponies knew that it was time for them to return to their own homes.

“Wait,” said Little Light, before Crystal Clear could leave. “I have something for you. To help you remember.” In Little Light’s hooves was a crystal, and trapped inside the crystal was a single dancing wisp of light.

Crystal Clear’s eyes widened as she admired the tiny shard of sky. She had never seen anything like it in her life. "What is it? It's beautiful.”

“It’s a frozen drop of rainbow,” Little Light said. “The ponies where I live are the best in the world at making them.”

In return, Crystal Clear gave Little Light the only thing she could think of: one of the platinum pins from her mane. It was polished so brightly that it glinted white even by starlight.

“It’s made of purest platinum,” Crystal Clear said. “My parents told me that only Mount Platinum has metal like this.”

“Will you ever come back to see me again?” Little Light asked sadly as he held the little pin to his chest.

“Of course I will! I will, as soon as I can, I promise!”

And they agreed to greet each other with a little rhyme the next time they met, to show that they remembered their promise:

Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake
Clap your hooves and do a little shake!

With that, the little unicorn and the little pegasus parted ways and headed home. When Crystal Clear’s mother and father saw their daughter entering the city, they immediately whisked her away, back to the castle.

“Where have you been?” they demanded.

Crystal Clear told her parents all about Little Light, and about how beautiful and generous he was. Then Crystal Clear started to tell her parents the wonderful things that Little Light had said about harnessing the wind and swimming through the clouds.

But hearing about Little Light only made Crystal Clear’s parents angry. “The ponies from outside the city are cold and uncaring!” they said. “Stay inside the city and make friends here!”

Crystal Clear nodded, and agreed never to befriend any ponies from outside the city. But Crystal Clear’s mother and father were still angry, so they forbade their daughter from leaving the castle for an entire year.

But sometimes, when nopony else was around, Crystal Clear sat at her window and held her little shard of sky up to the sun or the moon. She would see the way the little wisp of sunlight danced inside its crystal prison, and she would think about about Little Light.

A year passed. On Crystal Clear’s eleventh birthday, Crystal Clear’s parents came to her room to give her a pin, only to find that Crystal Clear was gone.

Near the base of the mountain, Crystal Clear found the place where she first met Little Light, but Little Light was nowhere to be found.

“Maybe it’s true,” Crystal Clear said sadly. “Maybe Little Light really doesn’t care about me.”

Crystal Clear stayed a little longer, hoping that her pegasus friend would find her. As the sun crawled across the sky, Crystal Clear worried more and more that Little Light had forgotten about her. The thought made her sad, and she began to wish that she had never left her city.

Finally, as the sun was nearing the horizon, Crystal Clear walked out to the middle of the path and said:

Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake...

Before Crystal Clear could finish the rhyme, she heard a little voice reply:

Clap your hooves and do a little shake!

And sure enough, out came a little pegasus from the bush. Little Light’s eyes were wet with tears, just like Crystal Clear’s eyes were.

“Why are you crying?” Crystal Clear asked.

“Because I kept coming here every day for an entire year,” Little Light said, “and I never saw you. I thought you had forgotten me. My parents told me not to trust you, because ponies from inside the city are liars who never keep promises.”

“My parents kept me from coming to see you,” Crystal Clear said. “They told me not to be friends with you, because ponies from outside the city never care about anypony else.”

“I care about you,” said Little Light.

“I know,” replied Crystal Clear.

“And you kept your promise,” said Little Light.

“I did,” replied Crystal Clear.

And the two friends were happy, and they told each other more stories about the places where they lived, but soon the sun began to set, and it was time for them to return to their own homes.

Before the two parted ways, Little Light reached into his bags. “Here. I brought you another gift.” He was holding another tiny shard of sky.

In return, Crystal Clear gave Little Light a second pin, leaving her with only one pin still in her mane.

Little Light started to head back into the bushes, but Crystal Clear stopped him. “Wait. I have something else to give you.”

Little Light turned around, and Crystal Clear kissed him.

“To help you remember,” she said. And then the two little ponies parted ways.

This time, before Crystal Clear even reached the city walls, her mother and father came galloping down the path to catch her and whisk her away back to the castle.

“Why did you leave the city?” they demanded.

Crystal Clear told her parents about Little Light, and about how honest he was. She told them about how he had come looking for her every day for an entire year, and she even told them about how she had given him a kiss in exchange for his loyalty.

This time, hearing about Little Light made Crystal Clear’s parents furious. “Stop being foolish! The ponies from outside the city are our enemies, and being near them is dangerous! Now stay inside the city, and do not try to leave again!”

Crystal Clear nodded, and agreed to stay far away from anypony from outside the city. This time, Crystal Clear’s mother and father were so angry that they told the city’s guards to stop their daughter if she ever tried to leave the city again.

That very night, Crystal Clear ran away, and soon, a guard came running to the castle to tell Crystal Clear’s parents that their daughter had slipped through the gates and started her way down the mountain.

As soon as Crystal Clear found the meeting place, she ran to the bush and shouted:

Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake
Clap your hooves and do a little shake!

When Little Light came out of the bushes this time, he ran forward and embraced Crystal Clear as tightly as he could. Crystal Clear saw that her friend was already crying.

“My parents said such terrible things! They told me that city ponies are evil tricksters who kidnap innocent foals!”

Crystal Clear hung her head sadly. “My parents said terrible things too. They told me that the ponies from outside are our enemies, and that they would all be out to get me.”

Little Light reached into his bag and found the shard of sky that he had brought with him. “Here. Take this.” Poor Little Light’s hooves shook and he started to cry as he held his gift out for Crystal Clear to take. “To help you remember, in case it’s a long time before we see each other again.”

Crystal Clear shook her head. “What if we show our parents that they’re wrong? Don’t you think we should try to show them what good friends we are?”

And so Crystal Clear and Little Light came up with a plan to show their parents the truth.

Soon, two unicorns from the city found Crystal Clear and Little Light’s meeting-place, the place where the dense bush crossed the path. But instead of their daughter, all they found was one of the platinum pins from her mane.

After picking up the pin, they searched until they found another one, some distance away. When they found the third pin, they suddenly heard a little colt’s voice calling from somewhere very nearby.

“Is anypony out there?” the voice cried. “Help me, I’m lost!”

Crystal Clear’s mother and father hurried over to where the voice had come from.

“Where are you, little colt? Let us take you back to the path so that you can find your way home!”

But the colt ran away and tried to hide instead of coming with them. “Stay away from me! I bet you’re mean ponies who like to kidnap little foals!”

“Why do you think that?” the two unicorns said. “We’re not mean, and we don’t want to hurt you.”

The little pegasus still refused to come any closer. “You wouldn’t really help me, because you only care about yourselves!”

“That’s ridiculous,” the two unicorns said. “We came to find you, didn’t we?”

“Well, I bet you only want to get my parents to give you something in return!”

“Stop being silly!” The two unicorns lit their horns like torches and started to search for the little colt. “Just come with us, and we will help you find your way home.”

Crystal Clear’s mother and father found where the little colt was hiding, and to their surprise, they found a little pegasus with a coat the color of a stormy sea at midnight and eyes that glittered like lightning arcing across a moonless sky.

“Where is our daughter? Why do you have her pins?” Crystal Clear’s parents asked suspiciously.

“I know where to find her,” Little Light said. “If you take me back to the path, I can show you where she and I agreed to meet each other if we ever got lost.”

Crystal Clear’s parents were still suspicious, but they agreed to follow the little pegasus.

Little Light walked with Crystal Clear’s mother and father as they went back the way they came, until they found the path again. And who did they find but Crystal Clear, standing between two pegasi from outside the city!

“Get away from our daughter!” the two unicorns growled.

“Get away from our son!” the two pegasi growled back.

Just when it looked like the four ponies were about to start fighting, a filly’s voice cried out:

“Wait!”

All four adult ponies looked down at Crystal Clear as she ran out into the middle of the road and scolded her parents:

“Why are you angry? These two ponies found me when I was lost, and they helped me to find the path again, and you should thank them for being so kind to me!”

Crystal Clear’s parents looked at their daughter, and then at the two pegasi standing next to her. Then they looked down at Little Light, who looked back up at them.

“And,” Crystal Clear continued, “they are very trustworthy, very caring ponies who were there to help me when I needed it!”

What happened next took Crystal Clear completely by surprise. When she finished her speech, Little Light ran out from between the two unicorns to join her. Then he took a deep breath, and then, right in front of everypony, Little Light kissed Crystal Clear.

And then something very strange indeed happened.

When they saw the little pegasus colt kissing their daughter, Crystal Clear’s mother and father broke into smiles and started laughing! They looked at Little Light’s mother and father, and saw that the two pegasi were laughing too.

The six ponies, old and young, unicorn and pegasus, stayed and talked to each other all night long. They told stories, they told jokes, and they laughed together like good friends, until the sun was nearly ready to rise.

“We should take Little Light back home,” the two pegasi said.

“And we should take Crystal Clear back home,” the two unicorns said.

It was time to leave, but all six ponies were smiling. That was when Crystal Clear felt something strange happening to her.

“Look!” said Little Light. “Your cutie mark!”

Crystal Clear gasped. “Yours too!”

Crystal Clear’s cutie mark was a pair of pegasus wings the color of a stormy sea at midnight, and Little Light’s cutie mark was a unicorn horn the color of a newly spun silk sheet.

“It was our destiny!” Little Light exclaimed. “Our destiny was to be friends, and to show everypony else that they can be friends too!”

Before Crystal Clear and Little Light returned to their homes, they took each other by the hooves and sang:

Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake
Clap your hooves and do a little shake!

And they--the little unicorn filly, the little pegasus colt, their parents, and their entire kingdoms--all of them lived happily ever after, forever and ever, until this very day.





“...The end.” And Princess Cadance giggled. “Again.”

“Has it really been that long?” mused Twilight. She straightened her cushion, then rolled onto her side and stretched out her legs.

Cadance snorted in response. “Believe me, it feels like it was just yesterday. Every single night. You refused to let me tell you any other story.” She slid her empty glass of crystalcider--now just a glass of crystalice cubes--to one side.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Well, now that I’ve heard my bedtime story, I guess I’d better be off to bed.”

Then her smile turned wistful, and she broke eye contact to look out her window for the twenty-seventh time that night. Twilight’s temporary home in the Crystal Empire had a breathtaking view of the city, but to Twilight, only one of the glinting buildings below mattered.

“When you get to the hospital, will you tell Shining Armor that I said hello?”

At that, Cadance laughed. “You’ll be able to tell him for yourself,” she said brightly. “The effects of King Sombra’s magic wore off after only two days. They practically had to strap your brother to the bed to keep him from coming to see you this whole time.”

Twilight put both hooves to her mouth. “Oh my gosh! I’ll be sure to come and see him first thing in the morning!”

“Then you’d better get some sleep.” With a yawn, Cadance stood. “Good night, Twilight. It was wonderful to see you, as always.”

Twilight stood, and reared up to throw her hooves around the back of Cadance’s neck. “You too, Cadance.”

Cadance hugged back warmly. When the two separated, the door’s handle glowed violet, but it didn’t turn just yet.

“I just have a question. Maybe it’s a silly one, but...”

Cadance cocked her head.

“...Where did you hear that story, exactly? Nopony else ever recognizes that old rhyme.”

A pause. “Do you know,” Cadance said, her gaze becoming distant, “I can’t remember.”

Another breath of silence.

“Well, that’s all right. Thanks for coming over.” Twilight opened the door and gave her former foalsitter one last nuzzle before walking her to the door and seeing her out.

Not long after, Twilight went to bed, but every time she tried to fall asleep, she imagined she could see Crystal Clear with her silken white coat, and Little Light with his glittering eyes. For the first time, the story kept her awake instead of lulling her to sleep, and she knew why: Because of the tiny voice in the back of her mind telling her that there had to be more to the the tale of Crystal Clear and Little Light. A historical origin, a hidden meaning, a part that wasn't appropriate for foals, something. And if Cadance didn't know or didn't remember, well, that meant that Twily was going to have to be the one to find the truth of the story.