//------------------------------// // 10 - Cadance // Story: Just Roll With It: Future Chronicles // by sunnypack //------------------------------// Chapter 10: Cadence “So why are we going to the library?” I asked. Now that I wasn’t engaged in intense conversation, I got a good look at the interior of the palace. It carried the crystal motif well. The walls, ceilings and even doors looked glazed with some clear crystal. In some places, the crystal colour was so deep that a sapphire-blue shone from its depths. I nodded in appreciation. No way any of Earth’s architecture had this sort of flair, though I do miss normal houses and apartment buildings. I wonder if this future Equestria had anything like that? “Because Princess Cadance mentioned to me that she needed to look up some of the Crystal Empire’s ancient cultures and traditions in preparation for the festival that will be held soon,” Twilight replied, glancing at me. “Hey, don’t touch that!” I hastily whipped my hand away from the vase and gave her a sheepish expression. Twilight rolled her eyes at my evident lack of propriety and jerked her head, continuing down. “The library is not connected to the palace, we’ll have to go outside to get there. Don’t do anything crazy, the populace has had a traumatic experience in the past with crazy creatures trying strange magic around here. Just… keep a low profile and listen to what I say, got it?” I shrugged deprecatingly. “I always listen to you,” I said. ———— Outside was cold and I shivered a little when I stepped outside. I was convinced that Twilight somehow enjoyed that she had all that hair in her coat to keep her warm, and I barely resisted snatching her up and hugging her to myself. Instead, I hugged my arms to myself and clenched my teeth, marching forward briskly so I didn’t freeze over. Twilight lead the way around fantastical crystal houses and shops. On the way here, I didn’t appreciate the architecture enough. There were all different crystal shapes, sizes and colours, and they were all arranged around paths that lead to the main palace in the middle of the city, like spokes radiating away from the axle. We rounded the corner and came to thick double doors. The doors were crafted with crystal, like the rest of the city, but were also embossed with intricate designs. Guarding the door were two massive crystal griffons, staring stoically ahead. Their severe expression left no doubt that trespassers would not be favourably treated. This was a serious place of learning, they seemed to say. I eyed the monuments, almost expecting one of them to spring to life. Luckily for me, they didn’t, and I followed Twilight as she pried open the door with a telekinetic push. She waved at me to get inside and I hurried on in, hearing the doors slam ominously shut behind me. Inside, the library was constructed of mainly blue-hued crystals. The turquoise glow infused the library with a heady aura of tranquil colours. The palette gave everything a sort of dramatic, but serene tone. It was hard to describe the clashing feeling I was getting from the space. It just seemed to exude a sort of royal austerity that set it apart from the palace. I could see the majestic architecture of the palace, but the library had a serious… scholarly authority to it. Twilight caught my expression and something indeterminable flashed across her face. It quickly went away, only to be replaced with familiar annoyance. “You can soak it all in later,” she commented wryly. “I don’t think the Princess will be in her section for much longer, she has other duties.” I hurried along to catch up to Twilight who had broken into a canter. I haven’t told you this, but ponies have much greater speed than we do and much greater endurance in general. I can probably catch up to them walking with my long strides, easy, but Celestia and most often Luna would complain when I lagged behind on walks. Only Discord really got me, though sometimes he’d laugh and go on all fours just for kicks. Well, the advantage of quadrupeds usually lay in their travelling, so I couldn’t really compete with that. Not that I was in the best of shape all the time. I was active, but not fit. Hopefully Twilight was the same or I’d never catch up to her. The corridors turned in mazes of bookshelves and soon I gave up on trying to remember the twists and turns that had gotten us to our current location. If I lost Twilight, I’d probably wander this place forever. Usually, libraries would have easily navigable bookshelves, with each in ordered rows and columns of the same size so that walking between them would be easy. Unfortunately, some crazy planner must have thought that was too efficient and decided that the bookshelves should all be of differing lengths. It was too confusing to keep track of, but if you’re asking me how I know of this, it’s because Twilight laid all this interesting trivia while we were walking. I had more fun reading some of the random titles we’d come across. Most were boring, like ‘A Complete Compendium of Crystal Catalogues’, others were significantly more interesting. ‘Crystal Crafting, Cracking the Crystal Codex to Create Crystal Cellos’. I probably forgot to mention that we were in the C section of the library. Crystals were everywhere in this place! Finally, after what seemed like hours of searching, we eventually rounded a corner and abruptly came to a clearing in the crystal library. Laying down on a pile of cushions was Cadance, reading a thick tome that easily matches the Compendium of Crystal Catalogues. And that volume was thicker than my arm. Cadance was humming an unknown tune, which Twilight got really excited about. “I didn’t know you knew Star Swirl’s repast!” Twilight babbled happily, gliding closer to Cadance. Princess Cadance twitched as if she suddenly noticed we were there. “Oh, phewey, I was so absorbed in this, that I didn’t noticed you standing there. Hello, Twilight, hello…” She held up a hoof to stop me from saying anything. “Hang on, I got, I know I have… Harmony, right?” I nodded. “Yep, not many with that name, right?” Cadance grinned. “Ah well,” she said. “Not in this part of the world, at least. That role has been taken up by a force of nature.” Twilight blushed as Cadance wiggled her eyebrows in her direction. “So,” Cadance continued, “what brings the two of you here?” Twilight gestured in my direction with the toss of her head. “Harmony wanted to meet you again,” she explained. I jerked forward, patting my tunic. A familiar lump brushed against my palm. “Ah,” I said, drawing out the thick crystal with a hand. “Here it is.” Twilight cocked her head, studying the crystal suspiciously. “What is that?” she asked. I carefully placed the crystal in front of Cadance. “I worked on it last night. I figured you could use it.” Cadance stared at the crystal, speechless. Twilight looked back and forth between us, not comprehending. “…What is it?” she repeated impatiently. “It’s a Clear as Crystal,” Cadance whispered, leaning forward with eyes the size of dinner plates. “I’ve never heard of it, though the term sounds familiar,” Twilight said with a frown. “What does it do?” Cadance reached out with a nervous hoof and touched the crystal, as if afraid the illusion would be broken if she held it. “Legend has it, the Clear as Crystal contained the complete knowledge of the Crystal Empire.” “So this crystal…?” “No,” I said. “It’s just a replica.” Cadance blinked at me. “But that’s impossible, even if it’s a replica, it couldn’t possibly have this kind of aura.” “Well it’s a copy of the original,” I explained. “It’s not a physical replica, it’s more like a copy, but without anything written into it. I found it kind of strange that my crystal magic seemed a bit further along the line than this Empire’s.” I caught something flickering in Cadance’s eyes, before she dismissed the concern with a flick of her tail. “The Empire’s been in slumber for so long,” she said. “Crystal technology had been used, abused and suppressed for a very long time.” She gazed intensely at the crystal before her frown burst into a grin. “But with this, we can save a lot of the culture!” The alicorn bounded forward, surprising me with a hug. “Thank you!” she cried. I patted her back awkwardly. “That’s okay, I’m glad you can use it.” I put a hand on my head. “Well, I see you have a lot more to go through.” I pointed at the thick tome. “So I’ll leave you to it.” Cadance grinned at me once more. She gently cradled the crystal and touched it with the tip of her horn. It glowed softly as she read the tome. The crystal was starting to be filled with knowledge lost over a thousand years. I quietly shuffled away, Twilight at my side. “I don’t get it,” she said. “If you can create these, why didn’t you teach Cadance how to make more?” I rubbed a shoulder self-consciously. “Two reasons. First, the crystal required to make one is mentioned pretty much in the spell itself. The crystal has to be ‘clear’, the purity of the crystal is so high it’s said that only one in one billion crystals mined would match the purity for that spell. Obtaining the crystal alone would probably cost millions of pieces of gold.” There was a pause as Twilight glanced at me sidelong. “And the second reason?” “I didn’t make the spell, Clover did. I never learned it.” “So you mean you gave something of almost incalculable value to somepony in the future, without them even remembering who you were, even though you met in some temporal accident, to which you only met again in another temporal accident?! How did you know she even needed it?” “Well when you put it that way, it sounds kind of dumb,” I said. “Then… why?” “I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “It just felt…” I waved my arms around while I tried to search for the words to describe what I was feeling. I shrugged. “It just felt right.” Twilight smiled in a way that I found very irritating. “You might be insufferable, rude, obnoxious and arrogant,” she declared, as I glared at her. “But deep down you’re a good pony.” “Person,” I growled, then rolled my eyes at her confused expression. “Pers— you know what? Never mind.”