//------------------------------//
// Chapter 48: The Crystal Faire 
// Story: Quest For Equestria 
// by Skyguy626 
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And so the heroes made there way towards the Crystal Capital, most of them were still in shock by the attack from Sombra, which had left Shining Armor unable to preform magic. Kinda like what happened to Twilight during Evil Zebra Reaction Squad, only not nearly as funny.
"Messiah, There is something I wanted to tell you." Phoenix said, gaining the attention from Skywalker, who was still carrying Shining Armor on his back. "Ever since I met you I wanted to say... You kinda look like Vanitas from Kingdom Hearts.", this came completely out of nowhere. It was sometimes difficult to understand Phoenix thought progress, sometimes he's a evil genius equal to the likes of Sutakira or Twilight and sometimes he's even more childish than Pinkie Pie.

So anyway, the heroes arrived at the Crystal Castle, which as the name suggested was made out of crystal, they I still stand by my opinion that it looks like the castle from Cinderella... the cartoon version, I haven't seen the live-action version yet.
"It's gorgeous! Absolutely gorgeous! There are no words!" Rarity said, appreciating her surroundings. "Eh, I don't see what the big deal is. Just looks like another old castle to me. And it's not like we have seen those before.", McGrath said dismissively making his girlfriend speechless. Rarity started to sputter a counter argument but both McGrath and Rainbow started to snicker, as she was the but of a joke. "Very funny." she said as her snark knight whispered a soft, "I love you too.".

After a short walk up the stair, the gang and Shining Armor arrived in the throne room where the found the princess of love slouching on her throne, though she wasn't looking so hot.
"Hi, Cadance. Man, you look horrible!" Skywalker said bluntly, not noticing the unamused look the stallion on his back was giving him, as he placed him back on his hooves. "I know. One of these days we need to get together when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance." Cadance admitted with a weak smile which turned into a tired sigh, making Twilight worried.
Shining Armor walked over to his hot wife, giving her some support, "Cadance has been able to use her magic to spread love and light. That seems to be what is protecting it. But she hasn't slept, barely eats. I want to help her, but my protection spell has been countered by King Sombra.", he started to explain gaining different reactions from the gang. Most of the guys where impressed at Cadance constitution, not getting any sleep or nourishment while holding of the Smoke monster is impressive to say the least.
"It's alright Shining Armor, I'm fine." she tried to reassure her significant other but nobody was buying it. "No, your not!" Shining said giving her a worried expression, "You can't go on like this forever, and if her magic were to fade...", he didn't need to finish that sentence. They already had seen what is waiting for them if Cadance's magic fails.
"That's why we're here." Skywalker declared as his friends nodded, "Cadance keep putting all your strength into keeping your spell going, Shining try to keep an eye on signs of trouble in the arctic, we'll find a way to protect the Empire without having to use Cadance's magic." he commanded as everybody nodded, following him back into the city.

The gang decided to split up and interrogate the Crystal ponies, trying to gather as much information within the hour before meeting back up to discuss the case. And that goes as well as you would expect...
"Hi, Skywalker." Twilight said as she walked up to her friend, she hoped he had more success than her but noticing his look, she figured he hadn't much luck either. "None of them can remember anything before Sombra came to power." Skywalker said as they observed the town folk. "King Sombra's spell must be why their coats aren't... crystally.", she added and Skywalker couldn't help but agree. "Maybe the others are having better luck.", she said trying to rise his spirit but Skywalker gave her a deep sigh, "Do you really think so yourself?".

Meanwhile, over at Pinkie's who was dressed in either a spy suit or her S&M suit... Its hard to tell which one. "It just feels like something is missing." she overheard a crystal pony say to another who agreed, "I know. It looks the same, but it doesn't feel the same.".
"Because it isn't!" Pinkie interrupted them startling the two, as they fled they shouted something about a spy. "A spy? How did they know? Ah! Must have noticed my night vision goggles." Pinkie noted to herself before noticing her favorite brunette human interrogating a crystal pony, okay she only knows one brunette human.

"Where are you from?" McGrath asked the crystal pony, he had no idea why he would ask him that so he replied with a "What?".
"That's not an country I ever heard of! Do they speak English in what?" McGrath said, suddenly becoming angry, startling the poor pony even more who replied with another what. "English motherneuker! Do you speak it!?" McGrath shouted as he slammed his fist on the table, making a large dent in it. "Yes, I speak English!" the crystal pony admitted, terrified of this with hairless ape with the crazy look in his eyes. "Tell me the history of the Crystal Empire!" McGrath demanded, gaining another startled "what" from the crystal pony.
McGrath lost his patience as he pulled out a hand gun pointing it to the Crystal Ponies head... wait what? "Say what one more time! I dare you motherneuker, I dubble dare you! Say what one more time!" McGrath shouted, but before he could do anything else, a upside down Pinkie got in his face, at this the crystal pony decided to make his escape.
"Hi, McGrath!" Pinkie said in her cheerful tone, though she always sounded more cheerful when she looked into those emerald eyes. "Oh, hi Pinkie. How's your investigation going?" McGrath asked completely calm, as if he didn't just put a freaking gun on another living beings head!
"Oh, pretty good." she admitted before she got a dreamy expression on her face, gaining a questioning look from McGrath. "You look cute from this angle." she admitted, forcing a blush on his cheeks, she liked doing this because no matter how much he would deny it, his pale complexion made it obvious when he was blushing.

So a hour past and the gang had gathered at the entrance of the Crystal Castle, and as Skywalker suspected none of them had much success.
"These crystal ponies seem to have some kinda collective amnesia or something." Phoenix said as he leaned against a wall. "Only thing I was able to get out of 'em was somethin' about a library." Applejack added. As she said that they heard a loud gasp from mom and dad. "A library? Well, why didn't you say so!?" Twilight said as Skywalker declared, "To the library!" as they charged, the others quickly following them.
"So... Sunshine." Phoenix said as he floated next to Fluttershy, gaining her attention. "This thing you and Skywalker have going?" he asked but this confused.  "What? What kind of question is that?" she asked him, honestly confused by his sudden question. "Yeah, I'm THAT blind." Phoenix said sarcastically as he rolled his purple eyes, "I so totally did not see you ogling him." he replied with the same sarcasm. 
"I... just mind your own business. How inappropriate!" Fluttershy said as Phoenix let out a small chuckle.

A few minutes later they arrived at the Crystal Library, does everything here needs to have 'crystal' in its name!? Sweet Celestia, I think the only Pokemon game you can get here is 'Pokemon Crystal'... Anyways, its seems its time for more Disney rip off as apparently Sombra was a fan of Beauty and The Beast's library.
"I just... I don't even know what to..." Twilight said trying to find the right words, but she was interrupted by the local librarian and to the disappointment of the guys, she wasn't a hot librarian... not like Twilight unfortunately. They explained to her that they were looking for a book... well technically two books but they doubted that Sombra would have hidden the Libernomundi in the public library... Though that would be the last place they would look for an ancient artifact.
"We have plenty of those." the librarian told them and Twilight couldn't help but agree. "I think she's cute when she is so adorkable." Skywalkr admitted snapping the lavender unicorn right out of her trance, "Wait, what?", she asked confused. "We're looking for a history book. Something that might tell us how the Empire might have protected itself from danger back in the day." Skywalker explained, the librarian nodded before shooting their hopes right into the ground, "I... I can't seem to remember. I'm not sure I actually work here." she said as she left. "We'll just take a look around. I'm sure we can find it on our own." Twilight said hopefully as the others prepared for some hard work.

A little while later, after searching through hundreds, hundreds and hundreds of books, they still hadn't a single clue as to how to protect the crystal empire.
"Uh, anyone else startin' to think this is a lost cause?" Big Mac asked as some of the rest of the gang groaned, "No, no, no, no, no..." Twilight said frantically before shouting in triumph, "Yes! 'History of the Crystal Empire'.", she held up a thick book as the rest of the gang rushed over to her. "Good job, Twily! I could kiss you!" Skywalker shouted making the lavender unicorn blush. "T-Thank you. Just doing my job. I just hope it has the answers we need." she admitted as she started to read out loud.
"The Crystal Faire. Was established by the first queen and became the most important tradition. The Faire is held every year to 'renew the spirit of love and unity in the empire so they could protect it from harm'." she read, seeing as they had no other options they took the book to Cadance and Shining Armor and explained their idea.

And so the Crystal Faire was on its way, the Crystal ponies seem to be having fun. So it shouldn't be long now before there is enough power to protect the Crystal Empire from Sombra.
"We totally nailed it, right? Must be feeling a lot of love and unity about now!" Phoenix asked a crystal pony who nodded happily as another walked up to Rainbow. "The Crystal Heart! Do you think they really have it?" he asked as Rainbow nodded confidently. "Of course we have it! Can't have a Crystal Faire without the Crystal Heart, right?" Rainbow said, they didn't had the real thing of course, but Twilight made one from a large chunk of, you guessed it Crystal.
"Of course you can't. The whole purpose of the Crystal Faire is to lift the spirits of the Crystal Ponies, so the light within them can power the Crystal Heart, so that the Empire can be protected!" the librarian pony explained gaining a 'oh crap' face from Rainbow and Phoenix.

And so Skywalker and Twilight found them selves back in the throne room sharing this new bad news with Cadance and Shining Armor. "I didn't know it was an actual relic! The book didn't mention anything about the Crystal Ponies powering the Heart! There was a page missing... How did I not notice!?" Twilight explained but Cadance reassured her that it was alright. As Skywalker started to ponder what their next step should be, the stress finally got to Cadance as she lost conscious. Shining quickly caught her before she hit the ground as Twilight noted, "That isn't good..." and indeed a familiar roar was heard in the background as the barriers broke down and the form of Sombra started to advance. Skywalker took a deep breath before letting out a loud, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...".