//------------------------------// // The Crystal Empire // Story: The Maria Chronicles: Book 2 Origins // by Sea Pony //------------------------------// Me and Daring Do fell on the ground with a thud. I shook away the dizziness and lift myself back on all four, I gasp at what I saw around me. We were in what look like a castle made completely of crystal. When I was young I alway wanted to see the legendary cities of gold. Now I know they weren't real but this was the closest thing I could get. We were in a throne room, in the room was two glowing ponies that looked like they were made of crystals. "Cadence! Are you ready dear?" The winged mare asked, wait Cadence? Sure enough a younger looking pink filly trot in the room with a beautiful blue dress. I couldn't help but feel there was something missing about her. I gasp when I realised what it was. "She has no horn! Cadence was a Pegasus? I didn't know that." "Good thing this is not a interactive enchanted book." Daring said making me jump in surprise I had almost forgot about her. "Why is that?" I ask with a raise of a brow. "Because then we would become one of the main characters of the story and we wouldn't be able to leave t'ill we make happen the real ending of the story ourself. But since it isn't we just have to let the story play out before us." "You look amazing my daughter are you excited about the visit of your godfather Sombra?" The father asked, the young Princess nodded eagerly. "I bet he has a lot of tales about Everfree city to tell! I can't wait!" The stallion chuckled and ruffle the mane of Cadence. They are not as formal as the usual royal family. Then again this city was originally made by Earth Ponies they are not the type of ponies to worry too much about silly things like formalities but then again they do look more fancy than the commons Earth Ponies. The sound of trumpets erupt in the throne room just before the doors opened. A dark stallion with green and red eyes and a red and black horn enter the room. Yeah his appearance just scream 'good guy'. "Welcome my old friend." The king said warmly. "It's my honor King Tempo and Queen Night Song. I have a little gift from Zebrica it's a new tea. It is to die for." Yeah so subtle. For a reason that was beyond me the royal family seemed to trust that guy. They drink some tea and talk about politic and made a few racial jokes about griffins and donkeys. Unsurprisingly Tempo and Night Song began to feel under the weather and collapsed on the floor. "Mommy?! Daddy?! Wake up what is happening?" My heart felt like it was being tore seeing my oldest friend crying for her parent like this. I knew this was coming but it didn't felt less painful. The young Princess turned to her chuckling godfather with a expression of fear and betrayal. "They have drink a special poisson mortal to all non-Unicorn. Now come with me it's time the Crystal Ponies know who their new ruler is. The scene disappear before us in a puff of smoke. I look at the floor while tears drop from my eyes. "Why didn't Cadence told me about this?" "Maybe she didn't want you to pity her or maybe she wanted to forget all about it." Daring Do replied while placing a hoof on my back. "Maybe you're right." I replied flatly. A new scene appear before us. We could see three ponies with slightly burn coat laying on the ground panting while dozen of chained ponies looked at the entrance of the castle where Sombra stood with resignation. "I told you to not resist let these three fools be an example for all of you. Oh and maybe this will make you reconsider rebelling against me next time." With a flash of magic young Cadence appear. She tried to look indifferent but everypony could see her puffy red eyes and the stream of tears under her eyes. "The next time one of you try to attack me, the Princess will suffer for your errors." The few who had still determination lost their will to fight at those words. Then without warning a sound similar to a crack of thunder echoed in the city. Two furious Alicorns descend from the sky. I recognise Princess Celestia but I didn't knew who was the midnight blue one. "King Sombra your reign of tyrany over this empire is over!" Celestia shout in what I assumed was the Royal Canterlot Voice I had heard about. Sombra levitate Cadence before him and lift a knife to her throat. To her credit Cadence stood still for ten seconds before whimpering. "Don't come closer or the Princess will die!" The two Alicorns looked at each other before the younger one trot to the prisoners. "What are you doing?!" Sombra snarl tightening his grip on the knife. "Thou have said not to come closer, thou never said we shouldn't liberate the prisoners." "Don't play this game with me or my hostage will pay." "What hostage? All we see is thou holding a knife for no apparent reasons." The dark Princess responded with a smug smile. "What?!" He look down and sure enough the pink Princess was gone. That when Celestia came back. "The young Princess is safe now we can take care of this monster, sister." "What?! Celestia has a sister?! Look like the royal family like to withold information." I grumbled in irritation. The two sisters rose in the sky and shoot a magical beam down at Sombra. "No wait if you defeat me I will-!" The dark King never got to finish his phrase before he was imprison under the ice. The city began to glow and in a few seconds the buildings and the ponies disappeared as if they never exist in the first place. The scene disappeared once again. This time we saw Celestia landing near her younger sister the blizzard was still roaring. "Did you find her sister?" Celestia ask hopefully. Luna shook her head. "I didn't find her, we- I mean I suspect the Princess disappeared with her kingdom." Celestia sighed. "That what I was afraid of I think we should leave before we freeze to death I will send a squad of guards just to be sure tommorow." Luna shook her hoof in a dismissing manner. "No need to I cast a life detecting spell around the perimeter, if there anything alive out there I will know." Then numbers appeared in front of me, it said 2004 A.W then before I could question why they showed the year this was happening in the snow around us began to fall extremely fast and the sun and moon were circling around Equis fast enough to make me dizzy. When it's was over the numbers had change we were now in 2990 A.W only five years in the past and two years before I arrived in Equestria. Cadence appeared out of thin air the poor filly looked around in confusion. "Where is the city and where is the Princesses?! They didn't abandon me did they?" The pink Pegasus waited a few minutes when it was clear there was no rescue party she flap her little wings and began to follow the train tracks since it was her only way to be sure she would find civilisation at a point or another if she followed that direction. But soon she was knocked by a violent gust of wind and land painfully on her right wing. "I guess flying is out of the question for now." She state with a wince. Slowly she began to trot still following the tracks, the scene transitioned to what I assumed were hours later. The filly barely manage to make three steps further before collapsing in exhaustion. "I won't make it I through I could make it before I die of hypotermia but I was wrong." Cadence told herself. "She can't die like this can she?" I asked to Daring Do worriedly. She shook her head. "I don't know but she will come back if she die unless there a finisher hidden somewhere around here which is very unlikely beside we know she's okay in the present so we shouldn't worry too much." Cadence, much to my distress drew her last breath as the snow covered her cold body. The next thing we knew we were standing in a strange place remnisciant of the Veil but the stars seem closer and the world around us was blue instead of purple. The pink Pegasus looked around her in confusion. "Where am I?" "You are in a plane between Equis and the Elysium Fields." Cadence's ear twitched at the voice and her eyes widden as she saw who was talking to her. "Mom?! What are you doing here? Am I dead? But I through we reincarnated when we died?" Night Song shook her head. "Only your body died but I made your soul come here because I needed to talk to you. And I am not your mother I am the soul of the Tree of Harmony I only choose the form you were the most comfortable with." The Princess ears lowered as she realised it wasn't her mother. "What would the strongest being in Equis want with me?" The filly asked suspiciously. "As a being who main purpose is to maintain harmony I am very good at see different outcomes and seeing the potential of ponies. I was interested in you the last survivor of the real royal family of the Crystal Empire and I have decided you are worthy of bearing the touch of harmony." "What is that suppose to mean?" Instead of responding to her question the spirit of the Tree of Harmony envelopped Cadence in a magical light that nearly blind me and Daring before we appeared in what looked like a cavern. There in the cavern was a large tree made of crystal. I can't sense magic like some Unicorns can but just looking at it I knew it was radiating with magic energy. A light descent on the floor a few meters away from us and when it's vanished we could see the unconscious form of Cadence with a new horn on her forehead. I turned to Daring Do with a confused frown. "I didn't ask this earlier but what the hay is the Tree of Harmony?" Daring Do shrugged. "I don't know but by the name of it I would say it would have something to do with the elements of harmony which were suppose to be artefacts that could beat any evils if it was wielded by the right ponies." I wonder if it's have any connections with the Elder God of the same name. Then we got speed up images of what happened to Cadence after that. I didn't understand everything but I got the gist of it. Apparently Celestia found Cadence easily due to the powerful magic that lingered on her. After recognising the filly and realising how she became an Alicorn Celestia adopted her as her niece, how can anypony adopt somepony as a niece instead of as a daughter I didn't know but it's what she did. . When time stop to speed up we were in Canterlot castle, Cadence was there with Celestia. "I don't feel like I deserve it I was useless before I will not be of more use like this." Cadence said dejectedly. "I'm sure you deserved to be a Alicorn Cadence, the Tree of Harmony wouldn't have transform just anypony like this. You just didn't find your destiny yet." Replied Celestia. "My destiny was to rule the Crystal Empire that why I have the crystal heart as my cutie mark. That destiny was stolen away from me, I have no purpose anymore." "You will find a purpose believe me, the destiny of a pony cannot simply be taken away, you just have to find your calling in life." The ruler of the day tried to reassure the young Princess. "Unless we can make a second Crystal Empire I don't think I will find a purpose." Cadence replied sadly before walking out of the room. She walked like this for a while before she could hear voices down in the hallway. Curiously she trot in direction of them. "I just don't know if we can go on like this my parents think I'm a disgrace and your embarassing jokes don't help either!" A feminine voice loudly exclaimed. "Yeah? Well maybe I shouldn't have tried to date a Canterlot noble, that horn of your go all the way to your rump!" A male voice replied. Cadence turn the corner and saw a green Unicorn mare arguing with a donkey. "Ah! and you have the nerves to call my family bigots. You are just like them you hypocrite!" The donkey was about to reply but was cut off by a pink Alicorn putting herself between him and his fillyfriend. "Stop fighting! Love is too important to waste it like this just because some ponies don't like it. If my mother would have listened to her family and marry another noble instead of the commoner she loved she would have been miserable and I wouldn't even be born! And I know you two will be miserable if you break up because of a stupid dispute. Think of all the good times you had together is it really worth losing it because of a stuffy family?" The couple look at each other with ashamed expressions. "...I guess you're right." The donkey replied. The Unicorn nodded, "I shouldn't let my family tell me what I should do. Thank you young Princess." Unknown to the pink filly her cutie mark glowed for a second before returning to normal. A magic hole appear a few inches away from us and suck us out of the book. When my sight return we were back in the small store. "Oh hello Maria, fancy seeing you here. You will be perfect for getting revenge on Princess Lovebutt," a creepy voice said behind us. I turn around to see who it was and was surprised to find... "Chrysalis?!"