//------------------------------//
// Interlude 7 - The Crystal Empire 
// Story: My Family and Other Equestrians 
// by Blade Star 
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“Respectfully, your highness, I would argue that the defendant has no case to answer for,” I said as I sat alongside the solar princess, having been called to oversee a criminal case that morning. “The only evidence offered by Mr. Pumpkin amounts to a series of his rantings against the character of all Griffons. Aside from such evidence being inadmissible, there is simply too much reasonable doubt for this case to proceed. Furthermore, I would recommend Lemon Pumpkin be charged with wrongful arrest under the Rights of the Commoner Act of 1254.”

I finished my brief analysis as Celestia looked down at the two parties. In the defence area was a young Griffon, who had recently arrived in Equestria only to be accused of theft by a local shop owner. On the other side, Lemon Pumpkin was a longstanding citizen of Canterlot. He admitted he disliked Griffons greatly, somehow this was to him sufficient evidence to place the youngster under a citizen’s arrest and bring him before this morning’s Day Court. The unicorn was a toe rag.

Celestia, as ever remained impassive, though with some practice, I had become able to occasionally perceive her feelings on an issue. It didn’t take a genius to tell that she agreed with my recommendation and my mental assessment of Lemon Pumpkin. She cleared her throat before passing her judgement.

“I am inclined to concur with my legal advisor, Lemon Pumpkin. While it is clear that goods are missing from your store, I cannot in good conscience pass sentence against this Griffon. The idea that you would assume somepony’s guilt based on their race unsettles me, I would like to think that my little ponies know better.” At this point, the unicorn withered under her gaze, like a scolded child. “However, I will not pass sentence on you either. You will return to your shop with two of my guards, who will conduct an investigation into this matter. Case is dismissed.” With that, she pounded a hoof on the marble twice, officialising the sentence. 

The young Griffon was quickly released from his bonds and proceeded to glare daggers at his pony tormentor before bowing and departing. Said unicorn too offered a much quicker bow and retreated with two guards in tow. With court quiet, I turned to the princess.

“That was unusually lenient of you, Princess. If I may say so?” I said. Typically, in criminal cases, Celestia was a bloodhound, not stopping until the guilty party was found and justly punished.  The alicorn chuckled and ruffled her swan like wings.

“You may, Roger. But I thought in this case, Lemon needed a big carrot and a small stick.” I raised an eyebrow at her quoting of Realist theory. “He has learnt his lesson for the moment. But he also knows I shall not be as lenient a second time.” 

At that moment, a guard approached the two of us carrying an official looking scroll. It bore an unusual seal of a pink heart, something that made me wince a little inside. Even by the standards of Equestria it was girly, and that comes from a man who rides a pink train to work each morning. Celestia typically had no problem with me asking questions, and since she had opened the scroll here rather than in her private study, I felt bold enough to ask.

“It is an invitation, my loyal advisor; from Princess Cadance of the Crystal Empire.” I wracked my brain to bring forth the necessary knowledge. The Crystal Empire was a small protectorate of Equestria far in the north, only recently returned from a sort of exile whose nature I couldn’t fully understand. However, I did know that the name was closely intertwined with the character Bones had played on Nightmare Night.

“That is the empire that King Sombra enslaved isn’t it?” I asked like a hopeful schoolboy. Celestia nodded.

“Correct, the nation is still somewhat finding its feet after its return and liberation. In a few days’ time, a ceremony will be held to celebrate Sombra’s defeat. It seems I have been invited.” I guess that meant I would be assisting Princess Luna for a couple days then. It would be nice to get to know Celestia’s little sister better. However, Celestia’s next question put that idea to bed. “It seems I will be allowed to bring a guest or two. Would you care to accompany me and the delegation?” I started.

“You want me to come with you to the Crystal Empire, your highness?” I asked incredulously. Celestia nodded, smiling kindly. 

“It will only be for a day or so, Roger. Plus it would give you a chance to see another region of the world. The Crystal City is a spectacular sight to behold. Shining Armour will be joining us as well.” I considered her offer. “Besides, while Luna takes over for me, she will have little need of an advisor, she remembers making half these laws herself.” Why not?     





I got back to the house at around seven that night. Court officially ended at five, with a few hours until Night Court opened up at eight. The train ride was actually about the same length as I used to have to drive to work back on Earth actually. 

Walking in through the front door, the smell of pork chops quickly hit my sniffer. It was nice that we were still able to get meat here in Ponyville. Okay, eggs were good for breakfast and fish and chips on Friday were a welcome continuity, but we both really needed meat. Though personally, having walked in on Bones discussing a George Orwell book with some of the cows on Sweet Apple Acres had resulted in me giving up beef. Lizzie of course didn’t mind, though dear Flutters had offered to cook meat for her, she’d flat out refused, instead sticking with fish which pegasi can eat and a generally more vegan diet.

“I’m back!” I called as I closed the front door behind me. It had gotten quite warm in here; the oven must be on already.

“Okay, dear. Dinner should be ready in a minute or so. How was your day?” my wife replied from the kitchen. Even after ending up in what may well be another dimension for all I know, the two of us still kept our little routines.  

“Had a criminal case for a change. Some jackass tried to send an honest Griffon down the river for shoplifting. Got it into his head that the horseapples he called his opinion counted for evidence.” My wife laughed from the kitchen.

“So what did the Princess of the Sun make of that one then?” she asked. I smiled remembering the incident.

“She gave him a verbal and sent him on his way with a couple guards for company. Case was kicked inside five minutes.” I was now in our dining room, which had a decent table with four chairs. The house had been intended to house a family, so we had a couple rooms to spare and plenty of space. It did feel strange without the kids though, but we were getting used to that. My wife brought dinner through and we promptly sat down to eat.





We continued to chat for a while as we ate; just random little things really. What was happening at work, what shopping needed doing, money, whether or not Bones was ever going to come out of his shell and admit that he liked Applejack, all sorts. Finally though, I pitched the idea of going with Celestia’s delegation to the wife.

“It’s just for the one day,” I said hopefully. “No different than any of those Law Society shindigs I used to go to.” My wife pondered the idea whilst she cut into her last pork chop

“I thought you were just supposed to advise her on all the nitty gritty bits of the law, not go gallivanting off to some far off empire,” she said.

“I’ll be there as her legal advisor. She’s taking a few council members with her too. There’s supposed to be some kind of celebration there; something to do with the empire’s liberation. It’s literally a day; we go there tomorrow, attend the ceremony and get back to Canterlot for tea time.” I kept my eyes hopeful, doing my best to give her ‘the look’. Even after twenty five years she can’t resist it.

“Fine,” she said. “But bring me back a souvenir or something, okay?” I smiled and nodded. After dinner, I popped over to see Twilight and had Spike send a letter to the princess for me. A reply quickly came back, a chariot would pick me up at half past eight tomorrow. 





We’d been on the go for a couple of hours now. Celestia was travelling in her custom chariot, whilst I and the rest of Equestria’s envoy were travelling in more traditional models. I figured we had to be about two thousand feet up; not high enough to risk hypoxia but high enough that it was bloody freezing. The wind-chill factor didn’t help either, nor did the fact that we were heading ever further north. 

Still, at least it wasn’t me who was suffering, I noticed even Shining was starting to shiver a little from the cold. Celestia of course, was entirely unaffected; being an alicorn who also happens to control the main source of warmth for an entire world had its perks I suppose. 

There were five of us accompanying the princess, me, Shining, who also wanted to see his wife again and would act as Celestia’s bodyguard, two members of the Equestrian beauracracy and a representative of the cultural committee who would be staying for an extended period. 

As we continued north, the weather became worse and worse, to the point where Shining had to cast a shield spell to keep the snow out. Quite suddenly though, the climate changed; the temperature increased and the snow and clouds vanished. Beneath us was a huge grassy plain and in the distance, you could just make out the great city of the empire. It was quite different from Canterlot, its palace was quite reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and it had a general look of being well planned, having an almost uniform road layout. Maybe it was a planned city; could this be Equestria’s answer to Milton Keynes? We quickly began to descend; we’d land at the palace to meet up with the princess, one Mi Amore Cadenza, along with her representatives and however many crystal ponies turned up. 

The entire convoy of chariots made a dummy pass over the castle to ensure no one was plotting anything before circling round and landing smoothly on the ground just outside the entrance to the palace. I chuckled to myself as I realised that this was a literal crystal palace.

When we touched down, Shining was the first out; as Celestia’s guard and second-in-command of this empire it was his right and duty. Celestia followed suit, with the rest of us trailing behind her. 

Waiting for us were our opposite numbers from the imperial government, and standing at their head was what I assumed to be the princess. Though as this is an empire, shouldn’t that be empress? She was smaller than Celestia or me, more about Luna’s height. In fact, proportionally speaking, they were remarkably similar, as if she was just the night princess painted pink. She wasn’t as pink as Pinkie Pie, but it was close. Her mane didn’t flow like the other princesses either, hanging limp, though it was styled quite heavily, with tones of blue and yellow in the tips. She quickly trotted over to greet her adoptive aunt.  

“Auntie!” she exclaimed, with far more emotion than you’d expect from a government official. “It’s so wonderful to see you again.” Celestia briefly hugged the smaller alicorn in return.

“And it is a pleasure to see you again too, Cadance,” she answered. This little greeting was quickly pushed aside though when Shining broke through to his wife. 

I like to think that the wife and I have an almost perfect marriage. We rarely fight or argue and even crossing to another world has not been able to separate us. But Cadance and Shining blew it clean out of the water. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two people so deeply in love and so clearly meant for each other. It certainly explains what happened at their somewhat eventful wedding. They eventually parted and Celestia began to introduce us all, she saved me for last.

“And this is Mr. Owen, my new legal advisor. You remember I told you about the unusual rift that formed in the Everfree Forest; he along with his wife and two children were the result.” I promptly bowed to the Princess of Love, who kindly returned my gesture. 

With that we all headed inside the crystal palace where the discussions were to take place. As we walked past some of the assembled crystal ponies, I contentedly whistled ‘Do you hear the People Sing?’ a tune that had been stuck in my head for months. It turned out they were listening.





Several hours later, the talks were coming to their logical conclusion. The job Celestia had, as did we, was really to aid our opposite numbers in the empire with getting up to date. Remove an entire nation from the face of the world and then reintroduce it a thousand years later, and you were bound to have problems. Celestia had it fairly easy, since Cadance and Shining were from this time and knew a fair bit about running a state. The problem was bringing everything up to date quickly. 

In my case, there were a whole slew of laws and statutes that were completely incompatible with Equestrian law. For example, within the borders of the empire, it was illegal to celebrate Hearth’s Warming, a leftover from Equestria’s version of the Puritans. This had to be immediately repealed to comply with various Equine Rights laws. 

Then there were issues with technology and magic, both of which had advanced a great deal in the last millennium. Schools in the empire still taught that the world was flat and that it revolved around the sun (the world on which Equestria sits is actually at the centre of the rotation, with moon and sun revolving around the planet).

Even worse, financially the empire was struggling. Many crystal ponies had left to see the ‘new world’ for themselves limiting the workforce and reducing the population even more. This meant many businesses operated at less than capacity and due to limited technology were struggling to compete with other groups. I couldn’t help but be fascinated at the sheer scale of what had to be done, to effectively rebuild a nation. 

We had now taken a halt for lunch and I was standing out on one of the balconies. I regretted the fact that Spike was not here. In addition to the fact that the crystal ponies seem to revere him as something of a god, which confused me no end, he would have also undoubtedly loved the chance to sample some of the high value gems the empire had to offer.  As I was debating bringing him back a few gems as a treat, I was approached by Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. 

“You seem to be lost in thought, Mr. Owen,” she said. I promptly snapped out of my reprieve and turned to face her.

“Not at all, your highness,” I replied. “I was merely taking the sights; you have quite a view from up here.” I gestured to the spectacular vista. With effort, you could see the borders of the city. The princess chuckled and trotted to my side. Like Princess Luna she was a couple inches shorter than me, although the medium sized dagger on her forehead kept me reminded of her authority. 

“Please, I hate using formality at these events; feel free to just call me Cadance.” I returned her smile at that.

“In that case, you might as well call me Roger as Celestia does.”

We quickly got into conversation with each other. She was quite informal for a princess, particularly when you consider her husband, who is the most duty obsessed person I’ve ever met. As her talent was focussed on love, she quickly caught on to the fact that I was married. Even she was surprised at how well my wife and I had endured the events of last year. I merely replied that that was the ‘power of love’. 

As we continued to chat, my thoughts turned to my son. On Christmas night, the lad had had his first kiss, and from what I saw, he seemed to like it. But I knew the silly idiot was still dithering, no doubt spewing that nonsense about not being interested in love. Any fool could see he liked Applejack; he just didn’t have the cojones to admit it. And here I was chatting to the ultimate agony aunt. 

Rarity and I had tried, on several occasions to bring to light the fact that Applejack liked him more than a friend. But every single time he’d dismissed it, or feigned ignorance or just ignored the issue entirely. Since Christmas though, he’s had to face facts, and still he won’t budge. 

I talked with Cadance for a good long while about Bones’ self-imposed predicament. I was surprised to learn that Equestria had its own version of Valentine’s Day, which was called ‘Hearts and Hooves Day’. From what I could gather, aside from not having a counterpart to Cupid, it was the same holiday. I may not be the most romantic sort, but it was just torture to watch this nonsense go on any longer. So, I enlisted the assistance of Cadance to get them together. With Rarity’s help, this would be sure to work. I mean, how hard can it be? 





We were still chatting when a guard came through. Like every other pony in this empire, his coat sparkled and shone. I swear that if I lived here long term, my eyes would pack up before long. 

“Your highness, it is time for the ceremony,” he said, in a typical gruff and gravelly voice that most guards seemed to possess. Honestly, I sometimes wonder if Celestia and Luna just feed them gravel every day instead of food. Cadance thanked the guard and dismissed him.

“Well, it seems duty calls, Roger.” We quickly met up with Celestia and the other delegates and proceeded out onto the main balcony of the crystal palace. 

And what a sight it was let me tell you. It looked as if the entire population had turned out for this remembrance event. To be fair though, the events in question had befallen these very ponies. The ceremony would be something of a double-edged sword; a celebration of the empire’s ultimate liberation and return, as well as a source of mourning all of those that perished one thousand years ago. Together Cadance and Shining Armour stepped out to address the crowd. 

“Citizens of the Crystal Empire!” she began as the crowd quietened. “It was on this great day a mere year ago, that King Sombra was cast out at last, and this wondrous empire returned to its rightful place. Today we celebrate, and today we remember, the day the empire liberated itself!” Again a great cheer went up from the crowd. Cadance changed her tone to emphasise her sorrow “But today, we also remember those who did not live to see this day. The victims of the monster that wrongly took this nation from us. I ask you to join me, in a moment of silence.” 

With that, a hush descended over the empire. Nothing to be heard but the calm breeze and magical energy given off by the Crystal Heart; the nation’s ultimate defence. It was a beautiful thing to look at, roughly the size of my head (I happen to have a big head, okay?). It steadily revolved between two huge crystal spikes, as if held by magnets. It made me smile; a nation that defended and protected itself not with weapons, but with love, something true and pure, similar in a vein to those Elements of Harmony. I almost wished I had been there when King Sombra met his match. Cadance now prepared to speak again, but much to the amazement of everypony concerned, she found herself interrupted, and by song no less. 

Now, I’ll be honest; the fact that this show had singing in it had put me off and left me worried for a while. Particularly when those songs get in your head so easily. Still, one of the many things my son had told me was to expect these every now and again, and to just go with them. Hence why as the few ponies in the back began to quietly sing, I couldn’t help but join in. 





As the first verse began, the singing claimed Shining too; Cadance simply remained surprised and perhaps a little confused. Out amongst the crowd, Crystal Empire flags began to appear and wave with the song. When the second chorus rolled around, the entirety of the crowd was at it. Even the usually stoic Crystal Guard pitched in for the second verse. Finally, everypony joined in for the final chorus. Like the version I’d heard, it was a mixture of pride and anger. Pride in themselves and each other, and rage and their former ruler, who dared not ignore them now. I hope Sombra, wherever he now was heard them, because while this nation may be struggling a bit now, they were not going to go down twice, they would not be slaves again, not with that heart of theirs. 

The song finished in a great climax of voices which gave way to cheering, amongst which I paradoxically picked out ‘Vive la Prance’. Cadance remained absolutely dumbfounded. Celestia on the other hand, had her typical smug smirk on her face, as she often did in situations like this. 





With the celebrations giving way to a full blown fiesta, the Equestrian delegation prepared to leave. Shining, with Celestia’s permission, was going to remain in the empire for a few days, since due to the conflicting nature of their jobs, he and Cadance hadn’t had much time to be with each other. The rest of us though climbed back aboard the chariots and headed back through the cold to Equestria. Celestia kindly diverted the delegation convoy again for me, dropping me of in Ponyville rather than Canterlot with the rest of them. I couldn’t help but laugh at the picture of my wife standing on our doorstep as the chariot maintained a hover over our front lawn. I suppose it was the closest to having a Chinook touch down that I’ll ever have, it left her speechless at any rate.