//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Prince Obsidian 
// Story: The Lives of Doctor Whooves 
// by GrandSpellcaster 
//------------------------------//

	They landed and the Doctor walked over to the door and stepped out onto the crystal road and breathed in. As the other ponies stepped out he said, "Welcome to the Crystal Empire, also known as the City of Love." 
Lecture and Tender looked at the busing crystal ponies in aw, "This is a beautiful alien world" Tender thought aloud as the sun glistened off the various crystals and buildings.
The Doctor smiled, "It's not an alien world, we're just to the north of Equestria." 
"That's impossible! The only thing north of Equestria is snow and ice." Lecture countered.
"Right, I forgot that. We're a thousand and a half years or so before you two were born." 
"What! What happened to this beautiful place to make us not even know it existed?" Tender asked.
"As of right now, something evil attacked it somehow and somepony banished it somewhere." 
"How specific." Long Lecture commented. 
"The history books are more than a bit fuzzy about the Empire." Starlight explained, "Even ours, we can't get close enough to see what happens, too much magic being amplified by the crystals and the geometry of the Empire itself."
"An unfortunate truth." The Doctor replied shaking his head.
"So what's the plan here?" Tender asked the Doctor.
"Well, I thought we'd walk around town and see why they call it the City of Love." he said plainly.
"That's your plan!? How is she supposed to learn anything about love from seeing passing strangers?" Tender asked.
"It's better than the alternative!" The Doctor replied.
"And that is?" Tender asked.
"Forcing her to fall in love only to rip her away from the lucky pony."
"Why would you have to tear the two apart. Why wouldn't they just come with us?" Tender asked poking a huge hole in his logic.
While those two were preoccupied Lecture and Starlight were approached by a pony wearing a cloak with the hood over her face. She shoved a piece of paper at Lectures chest and whispered, "The Obsidian Prince will welcome your support good stallion."
Lecture asked, "Who?" but the mare had already disappeared into the crowd. He looked down at the paper that had fallen to the road and picked it up in his magic, it read, 4678 Shard ln, 17:00. "Odd" he said turning to Starlight, "You wouldn't happen to know who the Obsidian Prince is, would you?"
"Never heard of him, maybe we should check it out." Starlight said reading the address.
"Check what out?" Tender said walking up behind them.
"Somepony called the Obsidian Prince." Lecture answered not realizing that she and the Doctor had stopped when the pony had come up to Lecture.
"Good idea." The Doctor added, "Have any idea how to find him." 
Lecture showed him the note and the Doctor looked up at the sky for a moment, "We'd better hurry, it looks to be about four." 
They nearly got lost a few times and eventually they started to ask ponies for directions. Most of the crystal ponies wouldn't talk to them, but eventually they found a blue unicorn that was willing to help them. "Follow me, it's not that far away."
"You don't have to do that." Lecture said.
"Nonsense. It is my civic duty to aid all ponies that need the help." the Unicorn insisted, "Besides, it's on my way." 
"Thank you." Starlight said more out of politeness then sincerity.
"You're quite welcome. Pardon the intrusion but where exactly are you from, I can't quite place your accent."
"Trottingham" The Doctor said reflexively. 
"'Trottingham'? Where's that at?"
"It's a small town in the north-eastern part of Equestria." The Doctor answered again.
"Oh. Well, here we are!" The Unicorn announced. 
They arrived at the address on the paper and it ended up being a pub called The Broken Horn, its sign depicted a unicorns head with a broken horn and an amber substance pouring out of the break. Their guide said his goodbyes and went into the building next door to the pub. 
The ponies entered the moderately lit pub with a wooden interior and took their seats at a table near the exit. Starlight looked a crystal on the wall that's bottom part was glowing, it seemed to be some form of rudimentary clock. There were numbers on the sides and as the darkness slowly crept down the crystal the clear line between the dark and light seemed to tell the time of day. 
"It's a quarter till" Starlight began, "Should we try to figure out who this Obsidian Prince is?" 
"Yes child, we should." The Doctor agreed, "You check out the table's, I'll scope out the bar." With that he moved through the crowded establishment to the bar before any of them could protest.
When he made it to the bar he sat on a stool in between a unicorn and a pegasus, the bartender walked over to his new customer, "Welcome mate, what's your pleasure." The bartender with the broken horn asked. 
"You wouldn't happen to have any light cider would you? It's so hard to find a place that sells any good cider." The Doctor said ready to talk.
"I got ya mate" he said filling a mug from a barrel and handing it to the elderly grey stallion.
The Doctor took a sip and forced a smile, "Thanks, it's been so long since I had a mug of quality cider."
"How long you been living here?" The bartender asked. 
"Not long, but I got a little home sick and well." The Doctor turned around to view the rest of the establishment, "If I didn't know better I'd say we're back in Equestria" 
"Thanks mate! I try my best, it helps that the shines usually don't come in till about eight." the bartender said clearly happy to meet a like minded stallion.
The pegasus ruffled his wings, "The shines should stay out period."
"Oh shush, you’re usually long gone before the shines even think of coming here." The bartender said cleaning a mug out.
"Might I ask something of you ponies," The Doctor interjected when he saw the pegasus start to get a little mad, "Who's the Obsidian Prince?" He asked and the bartender and the ponies on either side of him just stared.
Eventually the unicorn to the Doctor's side said, "The rightful heir to the Crystal Throne" 
"Oh, then why did he have ponies rushing about, inviting ponies here of all places?" 
Before anypony else could say anything the bartender said, "He tells his story better than anypony else could, you'll just have to wait for him to tell it." 



The three ponies had separated to cover as much of the crowd as they could. Every time Lecture began to talk to a stallion they would just turn away and every time he'd talk to a mare she'd either turn away giggling at him or role her eyes and turn away before he could even get a word out.
Tender and Starlight were having an opposite problem with the stallions, the slightly drunk ones would constantly hit on them. On several occasions when they struck out with one of them they'd go right to the other. 
All in all the three ponies were as about successful as the Doctor was, and as they sat back down at another table, they heard a sharp whistle and a good portion of the ponies stopped talking. 
Then there was a stallion’s voice, "Welcome! My soft skinned brothers and sisters!" A unicorn used her magic to spotlight the stallion and the three recognized the blue unicorn that had insisted on escorting them to the pub. "You're probably wondering exactly why I've had my friends run around and invite you here." He said as he began to walk away from the door and through the tables, "Well it's simple, my father, Emperor Andalusite is dying. I know for some of you it's an unimportant fact. But consider this, my half-brother is only ten years old. That means that Empress Vermeil will be in charge of the Empire for five years. We all know how she feels about us soft skins and I fear that she'll use that power to destroy all of my father's work to fix the prejudices against our kind." He stopped here and breathed heavily, "Forgive me, some of you don't know how bad our Empress can be, I'm seeing a lot of new faces in this crowd and this next part is always hard." He paused again and took a deep, slow, breath, "I am the son of the Emperor and a member of his staff. I was raised knowing this and knowing that if the Empress did not give the Emperor a son I'd have to take the responsibility of being the Emperor. However when I had just turned five the Empress gave birth to a colt, my half-brother, Prince Heliodor. He being born from the Empress had a stronger claim to the throne then I did and would get no opposition from me at that age. However I was still born first and the Empress feared that I would try to claim the throne as my own. So in the dark of the night she had four crystal guards break into me and my mother's chamber and I saw them thrust their spears into my screaming mother" He paused and used his magic to dab a napkin to his eyes. 
"However I count myself as extremely lucky" He weaved his way through the tables as he told his story. "For a guard that I had known was patrolling that part of the palace that night and interrupted the others before they could kill me as well. He was nearly killed as I ran away from the assailants." There were gasps at the brutality of his story. "The next day my father was outraged at the guards and his wife for doing such a horrible thing. He had my mother cremated and told me that I wasn't going to be living in the palace any longer. I was given to a shamed court wizard who had singed one dress to many and was punished by having his horn repeatedly broken for the next fifteen years. I was given a modest sum for the death of my mother and have been using that money and the money it earned for me to win favor with the nobles."
He frowned, "However the game I'm playing with the nobles is taking too long, I had planned to usurp my half-brother when our father was old and grey. Rest assured, I have a backup plan, I'm going to bring the Crystal Heart back to the Empire." There were several nods and gasps amongst the crowd. "I believe I know where it was hidden during the war. I'm planning an expedition to leave in three days to go to its hiding place and retrieve it. The nobles, more or less, believe the proficiency and will side with me to become Emperor. 
He smiled as the ponies started to wisher to each other, he cleared his throat, "I can't guarantee payment, and we are heading out into the frozen waste. But if we succeed know I Don't forget my friends." 
Starlight turned to face the round table she sat at with the other ponies, "That Empress sounds horrible" She said and the other two ponies confirmed with nods.
The Prince gave all the ponies in the pub a few moments to talk it over and then said, "So who wants to help me keep the Empress off the Crystal Throne and make life better for the soft skins of the Crystal Empire!?!" He asked and several hooves shot up into the air.
To the Doctor's great dismay he saw Starlight's, Tender's, and Lecture's hooves among them. He knew this whole endeavor was a bad idea and the fact that they would willingly go on this suicide mission baffled him. But he had to admit the Empress did sound pretty bad. He was mentally kicking himself, First the Lord Regent and now Empress Vermeil, what am I becoming, he thought as he raised his hoof to join the prince's quest. 
The prince seemed happy at the amount of ponies that were willing to risk life and limb to help his cause. "Thank goodness, I thought I might have sounded like a madpony." He chuckled and others joined in, "All who wish to come on the quest meet back here tomorrow at the same time to discuss the plan." With that he disappeared out a back door and left the ponies to themselves.
The Doctor turned around to the bar and asked the bartender, "Do ponies really have it that bad here?"
"He plays it up bit ya, I think the last poll he took said something like for every two bits us soft skins make the shines make three. It's better than it used to be mate, back when I was a wizard I think we earned one bit for every two they got." 
"And the Empress would reverse that?" The Doctor inquired.
"To be honest mate, I don't think it will be that bad. But it won't be good for us."
The Pegasus added, "The Empress will probably raise the shines pay just to spite us." 
"Hmm, I see." A thought occurred to him, "These can't be the only 'soft skins' in the Empire?" the Doctor said gesturing to the rest of the pub.
"Only the ones that are good for the journey Obsidian's planning." The unicorn said then took a sip from his glass.
"I'm surprised you volunteered" the pegasus added, "jury into the frozen waste like that, at your age won't be good. Not at all."
"I can handle the cold, besides a Doctor would be useful for such a journey."
"That be right", the bartender began, "but it'll take a bit of walking to get where Obsidian's going."
"Trust me, walking won't be a problem."



Starlight was excited in a few days she'd be saving the Empire. But what really made her happy was that her grandfather was coming along and she didn't even have to try to convince him it was the right thing to do.
They were sitting at a table in the pub. The Prince was going from table to table, interviewing everypony who wanted to help in his quest.
Obsidian pulled up a seat at their table and opened with, "Hello friends, how can you aid me to make this Empire a better place for all of us?" he glanced slightly at Starlight as he finished.
The Doctor noticed where the princes eyes were and smiled, "Lecture here is one of the most gifted spellbinders I've ever met, Starlight is by far one of the most intelligent young navigators in all of Trottingham, and Tender Touch here is one of the most accomplished nurses at the Trottingham hospital."
"Good. Good. We could use a good spellbinder, a good navigator will help with not getting lost, and a good nurse should be helpful with recovery should we run into something hostile. But I have to ask, what can you do?"
"I'm may look old and feeble, but I'm still an earth pony and my legs still work just fine, and if you need somepony cleaver I'm your stallion" the Doctor said.
"A bold statement, can you back it up...uh...Pardon me I didn't catch your name.
"Colt Smith." He said deciding not ta say he was the Doctor in case it knocked Tender off the expedition. "What did you have in mind?" he asked getting back on topic.
Obsidian pulled out a piece of parchment and unrolled it, the Doctor looked at the riddle.
There are a few trees in a garden. On one of them, a pear tree, there are pears (quite logical). But after a strong wind blew, there were neither pears on the tree nor on the ground.
How come? 
"You just had this in your pocket?" Lecture asked.
The Doctor smiled slightly and said "There were only 2 pears on the tree to begin with. After the wind blew, one pear fell on the ground. So there were no pears on the tree and there were no pears on the ground."
Obsidian's red eyes were wide, "You’re the first pony in this pub who could figure that out, you’re hired. Who knows, some of the legends mention traps and riddles, and somepony that's good at that sort of thing could be very useful." 
"Glad to hear it. So are we all hired then?"
"Yes," He pulled out another piece of paper with another address on it, "It's on the edge of town, and if you need help getting there I can arrange one of my friends that are staying to guide you" He smiled and walked to another table.
"That was easy." Tender said.
"We each have skills that he needed," The Doctor pointed out.
"But I'm not a navigator." Starlight whispered to the other ponies at the table with concern.
"You do well enough in the Time Capsule." The Doctor said and the others nodded.
"Ya but that's four dimensional space, I've never had to navigate over a two dimensional plane before." 
"Trust me. You'll be fine."



There were a little over twenty ponies all dressed for the extreme cold of the frozen waste. Among a sum of them Starlight was working with two other ponies trying to find the best route to where the prince thought the Crystal heart was hidden. Lecture was sitting with five other ponies, their job was simple defense. Tender was taking inventory of the medical supplies, and the Doctor was running through a checklist with Obsidian.
"We seem to have everything we need" Obsidian said checking off the last thing on the list and rolling it up with his magic.
"Indeed, we're ready to go then."
The ponies all started to strap their saddle bags on over their coats and began to form up. As an 'earth pony', all be it an old one the Doctor was expected to help haul the cart that was carrying a good amount of the expedition's supplies. Since it only took two to haul the cart the earth ponies would trade off in shifts.
In front of the cart the navigators and the prince were leading the way. Most of the other ponies were in a jumble except for two pegasus that flew ahead of the expedition's caravan.
As they traveled Obsidian began move around the caravan and have little conversations with the other ponies. He started at the front and Lecture was the first member of the group he talked to. 
"So Lecture how did you end up in the Empire?" He asked trying to start a conversation.
Lecture knew he couldn't say too much, they had all come up with a plausible story, so he said “The Doctor brought me." 
"'Doctor'? You came with a doctor, I thought you were a spellbinder." As Obsidian said this lecture mentally kicked himself.
"I am, I was brought along to train Starlight informally in magic." 
"You train Starlight? Is she learning upper level spells?" 
"No, she's magically weak. So I'm helping her to improve her skill." Lecture explained.
"How did you all meet each other?" Obsidian asked.
"I used to be a teacher and Starlight was one of my students. When the Doctor realized I was one of the few ponies that could teach her he insisted that I come work for him as a tutor for her." 
"Hmm, I wish to meet this doctor." 
He got a funny look from Lecture, "You have," he gestured with his head to the grey earth pony, "Colt's the Doctor" I'll explain it to the Doctor later.
"So Colt dragged you out of Equestria to the Empire? Why?" 
"He likes traveling" Lecture said simply.
"Hmm, very interesting... What about Tender, she wasn't in your story."
"She's Starlight's nurse, more often than not Starlight during out training either me or Starlight will get hurt and Tender patched us back up."
"I see. Well it's been good getting to know you better, but I wish to meet the others." 
"Of course, goodbye for now." Lecture said as Obsidian walked away to a few of the other hired horns.
Obsidian eventually made his way to Tender and opened with, "Hello nurse," His red eyes seemed soft when he noticed the nervousness in her eyes. "Are you okay?" 
"No, because I've recently realized something. You were glad that somepony trained in medicine was willing to go on this journey. But most of the medical supplies I have are for cuts and bruises, you're expecting something will happen." 
"There are Snow Leopards and Crystal Wolves in these waste. If we run into them I want to be ready both for defending against them and keeping ponies alive afterwards." 
"So at any moment we could be attacked!" Tender said looking to waste beyond.
"Not right now, when we near the mountains though, maybe. I doubt the Crystal Wolves would attack us out here, but the Snow Leopards are a different story..." he trailed off to keep from alarming her more.
"Well I hope we aren't going to need my medical knowledge at all." Tender said.
"Me too" Obsidian said and the allowed her to walk away. 
After talking to a few more ponies Obsidian made his way to the Doctor who was hooked up to cart, "So Colt why didn't you tell me you were a Doctor?" 
The Doctor felt a little mad that Obsidian knew his real name "Because it doesn't madder. Besides Doctor Smith, no thank you. I'll stick to Colt." 
"I see, you know I never asked, what's your relationship to Starlight?"
"She's my granddaughter." He said simply.
"You must really love her to hire a private tutor to train her and a nurse to keep her healthy"
"Yes I do." The Doctor said as he exchanged the harness with one of the other earth ponies. He walked off a little way with Obsidian just far enough away that it seemed private "I do very much. I also have noticed that you skipped her, and that you've been stealing glances at her all day. I can't help but see that many mares are smitten by your looks and you're probably used to them falling all over you."
"I wouldn't say falling all over me..."
"Am I right?" The Doctor's eyes were hard.
"A little..."
"Am I right about my observations." The Doctor asked his eyes softening.
Obsidian didn't answer right away but then he said, "Yes, I skipped her, saving the best for last."
"And what brought this on?"
"She's the first mare to not swoon for me, even Tender bats her eyelashes too much around me. Starlight doesn't even seem to care even after she found out my birthright."
The Doctor smiled but his eyes were still hard, "Good luck"
"Sir." He said thinking that meant something, "Does this mean I have your permission?" 
The Doctor's eyes softened and he said, "No, but I won't stop you...yet." 
"Do not worry sir. I will treat her with the respect she deserves." Obsidian said as he finished talking to the Doctor and moved on to the other ponies. After speaking to everypony in the caravan he walked to the front where Starlight had been the whole time and said, "So are we heading in the right direction?" 
She consulted a compass and glanced at a map, then said, "More or less." 
"Good, how long would you say till we arrive at the Crystal Caverns?" He asked not able to think of another thing to say.
Starlight looked at the sun's position in the sky and said, "Midday tomorrow".
"Good, how's the journey been on you?" he said slightly unconformable at the way Starlight didn't seem to care either way.
"Well enough, I just glad that the weather's fair. Though, I'm not curtain that we'll be able to find a safe place to sleep tonight." 
Obsidian pulled the map of the waste out of her saddlebag with his red magic and opened it up for him and Starlight to see. Then he asked, "Where do you think we'll be when night falls?" 
Starlight looked up at the sun and back at the map and through a snowball off to the side of the caravan and counted to ten as they walked along. She thought for a moment, "If we keep this pace, we'll be about there." She said pointing at a spot just outside the mountains' valley they'd have to cross through to get to the Chrystal Caverns. 
"Then we'll be safe, nothing lives in the Frozen Waste and anything that would attack us would come from the mountains. If we sleep in shifts and always keep a unicorn up then we'll be able to scare off anything that comes." Obsidian said hoping to ease any concern. 
"Well at least we'll see have forewarning if we're attacked by anything." She said then grabbed the map with her magic and placed it back into her saddlebag. "And some warning is worth something." 
"You don't think that some unicorn magic will scare any creatures that stray to close?" 
"If something comes that far out of the mountains then I doubt a little magic will scare it off." Starlight said.
"Then we won't use a little magic, and if necessary we will defend ourselves." Obsidian said.
Starlight looked up at the mountains in the distance and back to Obsidian, "Tell me about the Crystal Heart?" She asked interested in the arcane artifact that they were trying to retrieve.
Obsidian gave a slight smile and said, "It’s love made solid, the only thing that could protect us from the evils that once plagued the Empire." 
"But how was it lost?" Starlight asked wondering why these ponies would lose something so useful. 
"There was a war with the soft skins and the Crystal Heart wouldn't defend against other ponies. So to keep it away from our enemies Emperor Jasper, my great-grandfather, ordered his most trusted royal guards to return the heart to where it had originally came from." 
"The Crystal Caverns?" Starlight asked.
"Yes. The secret of its location was kept secret from even the prince at the time, my father, and Emperor Jasper was killed during the war. The secret of its location was lost, but I was able to track down one of the guards that had hidden it away. She was an old and frail crystal pony on her deathbed, with her dying breath she told me where they had hidden the Heart."
"How did you find her if the operation was kept a secret?"
"The operation wasn't kept secret, just the location. So it wasn't so hard for me to find her, though it did take some coaxing to get her to tell me where she and her squad had hidden the Heart." He said sounding a bit too maniacal.
"'Coaxing'? What kind of coaxing?" Starlight said not liking his tone and fearing the worst.
He immediately realized that he had let some of his bitterness into his voice and explained, "She wanted me to take care of her grandchildren when I became Emperor." 
"You make a lot of promises that ride on you becoming the Emperor." Starlight pointed out.
He explained his logic to her, “Yes I do, I figure that if I do become Emperor it would be easy to give away some of the gold from the coffers. If I don't get to be the Emperor, then I'm probably dead." 
They were interrupted by the snow in the ground around them beginning to pull away. "Circle up!!" Obsidian shouted and the twenty ponies huddled together around the cart. 
The snow started to pile into clumps that then began to take the shape of large cats and one of the ponies shouted, "There Snow Leopards!"