Chapter 1
The snow ruled for the time being close to the mountainous region. The sky was dark with gray clouds that poured down more of the white cold crystalline water ice. The wind howled as it swept up the flakes, throwing them wildly around and in the process obscuring the view of anyone who was unlucky enough to be traveling in this weather.
This was a wild weather, not controlled by the ponies further south in Equestria. It wasn’t scheduled and would only stop whenever the clouds had finally passed. It was no wonder very few ponies ventured so far north, most preferred the more controlled weather environment of their homeland.
But in this cold desolation a noise began sounding that was not the howl of the icy wind. It was gradual and became louder and louder and as it grew something began materializing. On top of the thing was a blinking light that was barely enough to illuminate the dark landscape. Then as it became more solid it had an appearance of a tall blue box, with dark windows and on black surfaced sign on its roof stood in white letters “Police Box”.
The box fully materialized and the noise died down. The howling wind overtook all sounds again and already the snow started to build up on the newly arrived object. A door opened and a maroon colored pony head with a white muzzle and navy blue mane peeked out, peering her eyes when hit by the cold snow.
“Yaaaah, cold, cold, cold,” she shrieked and pulled her head back in and quickly closed the door.
It wasn’t closed for long, shortly later another pony peeked outside. This one was a stallion, brown with a dark brown mane. He shielded his face with a hoof as he peered outside, looking mildly puzzled.
The stallion ducked back inside and closed the door. Outside the box did not look big enough to contain two ponies, inside was another matter. It had a huge control room, hexagonal in shape with many lights on the edges. Up a ramp towards the middle was a hexagonal shaped control panel with many buttons, levers and screens. More screens hung above it and producing through the middle of it was a long hollow transparent tube. A doorway at one end of the room indicated a passageway towards even more space.
“Well this is definitely not the place,” the earth stallion said with a shrug as he trotted away from the door. He wore a blue vest with many pockets and on his flank was an image of an hourglass. “I daresay we are even a wee bit too far to the north.”
“You don’t say.” The maroon mare grunted where she sat close to the ramp, she was busy drying her head with a towel. She was a tall pegasus, about as tall as the stallion. Aside from her maroon color, she also had a white back. Her right hind leg was white down from the gaskin and her hoof and pastern on the left foreleg was white as well. Three suns decorated her flanks.
“Now, now just a minor hiccup, I’ll see what’s going on,” the stallion chuckled and proceeded to walk to the control panel.
“Soooo I take it we are still not back in Fillydelphia?” the second pegasus mare asked. She was smaller than the other one, blue with a white and red mane and tail. Her cutie mark was that of a heart with lightning bolts shooting out of it.
“Not exactly, I dare say we are a bit too far north of Manehattan even, that is when Manehattan will be founded,” the stallion responded as he worked on the panel, pushing buttons and looking at screens.
“Will be… we are still in the past?” the blue mare asked with a slight groan.
“Wake up Private, I’m curious to know what he knows about this period,” the brown stallion said with a mild chuckle.
The blue pegasus shrugged and turned to a shape that lay next to her. It was another stallion, a dark gray unicorn with a dirty blonde mane and tail. His hooves were dark brown and a book was on his flanks. Gently she began shaking him from his slumber.
“Wha?” The unicorn looked slowly up, he had decided to take a nap earlier and for some reason decided to do it in the control room.
“The Doctor wants you, Private,” the blue mare said with a warm smile.
The unicorn grunted and slowly rose to his feet. With a yawn the stallion walked to the ramp and approached the control panel where the earth pony was still working. The Doctor looked up when seeing him coming and immediately pointed to a screen.
“So mister sleepy-head, can you tell me what you know about this period of time?” he asked with a soft chuckle.
Private gave another might yawn before glancing at the screen. It took a second for his brain to really decipher what said there as it was still on sleep mode. He tilted his head as it more fully came to him and then his eyes opened a bit more and his brow rose a little.
“Ah… this is before Luna’s banishment… before she became Nightmare moon,” Private muttered, his voice was tired and sounded like someone who didn’t like talking too much.
“I can’t quite place the period; I think this is before Discord arrived the first time but it could be after…” he then added but then peered closer to the screen. “No wait, this is after. Ah, the year is familiar, it’s just not quite coming to me.”
“You noticed that too huh?” the Doctor said, that caused the other three ponies to look at him quizzically.
“I keep staring at that date, I know something is supposed to happen around this date, but no matter how much I try and think about it, nothing. Nothing at all, it’s like the date is memory locked. It looks so familiar but for some reason, nothing comes up,” he continued.
“Why would a date be memory locked? Because somepony doesn’t want it to be remembered,” the Doctor then both asked and answered himself.
“And let me guess, we are going out to investigate?” The maroon mare raised an eyebrow, not looking too impressed, neither did the blue one. Private however was showing mild intrigue on his face.
“Of course, Foxy, why not? We’ve arrived at this curious mystery and I for one am just eager to crack it, something happened around this time, maybe not today but in the next few days, that somepony doesn’t want others to remember,” the Doctor said joyfully as he rushed down the ramp and towards the door leading out.
“I’ll tell you why, I have a young daughter waiting back home that I would like to get back to. Sure mom is watching her but… you’re not listening.” Foxy the maroon pegasus groaned and looked at the blue one. “Dew, can I hurt him?”
“Oh you know how he is, drawn to mysteries,” Dew shook her head with a small chuckle.
They heard the door open and then howling from the wind outside, the door quickly closed again and the Doctor came walking back towards the ramp, his whole front covered in snow. The joyful expression was gone and he looked mildly embarrassed and slightly irritated.
“I think, we better wait for the weather to calm down first,” he grunted and rolled his eyes when the other three ponies giggled.
It was hours later when the weather finally calmed down. The dark clouds slowly drifted away and revealed the night sky. The blue box opened, letting some snow in as it was almost half buried by now. The Doctor leaped out and showed no care as he began trudging forward with an eager grin on his muzzle.
Private came next and produced light from his horn so that they would have some illumination. The unicorn simply followed the trail the earth pony was making in his haste to explore. The two Pegasi mare flew out soon after, Dew being mindful to close the door behind them.
All four ponies were wearing warm clothes, their fur not quite adapted to the chilling weather yet. At the moment three of them just followed the fourth. The Doctor seemed to be heading towards a high point, possibly to see if they could spot some sign of civilization from a good vantage point.
The Doctor was not a true earth pony; he was actually a special breed of ponies called time ponies. Unlike the regular Equestrian ponies, time ponies could regenerate into a new form, sometimes one was a pegasus and when that body failed it might regenerate into an earth pony or even a unicorn.
The box he travelled in was a special ship the time ponies had created to travel through both time and space, called a TARDIS. It would usually take form of whatever helped it blend into its surroundings, thus obscuring it from view. For some reason the Doctor’s ship was stuck as a blue police box, he never gave a straight answer to why that was. Then again he was a bit unusual among the time ponies.
The three ponies that now followed him were regular Equestrian ponies, they had met the Doctor a few years ago and started traveling with him after he saved them on few occasions. Foxy started travelling less after having her daughter, this was one of those rare times she had relented to come along for a trip. A trip the Doctor had promised would just be a short run around the block.
“I think we’re reaching the top of a small hill,” the Doctor called to the others as he continued to plow through the snow. “Dew, Foxy, do you see anything?”
The Pegasi mares ascended higher up into the sky and started to look around. It was difficult to see as the snow blended the landscape rather well. Then Foxy thought she spotted light in the distance and pointed it to Dew who figured it might be a settlement.
“I think we see a city to the east,” the blue pegasus called down to the stallions.
“Yes, I see it.” The Doctor was now on top of the hill scanning the distant horizon. Out of a pocket on his vest he produced advanced looking binoculars that should not have fitted in there at all and put them before his eyes.
Private finally caught up with the time pony who still scanned the horizon with his binoculars. The unicorn dimmed his magic light a bit, figuring the glare from it might interrupt the Doctor. They stood there for a long while before the brown pony made any movement, Dew and Foxy finally landed curious as to what was taking him so long.
“I…” The Doctor lowered the binoculars, he was frowning a bit. “I think it’s a city, a city this far north…”
“There are no cities this far north, or were even as far as I know.” Private frowned. History was his passion and he was sometimes a bit notorious for knowing obscure facts that weren’t always in common history books.
The Doctor didn’t respond, he was raking his mind and vast knowledge for any reference to a city this far north, surrounded by snow and ice. The other ponies could do little but wait. The time pony used the binoculars again for a second before lowering them.
“We need to go,” he said in a dead serious tone, his face a bit pale. It was almost as if life had been drained out of him.
“What?” Private and the mares looked at him confused, it was rare to see their friend like this. He was usually so eager to explore new places, a mysterious city this far north would usually have had him giddy with excitement as far as they knew.
“We need to leave, now!” the Doctor repeated and started to usher them back down the hill.
They decided not to argue even though this behavior was very odd to them. Foxy didn’t complain as she had wanted to leave anyway before they went out. The four ponies headed back towards the TARDIS and to the end of an unusually short exploration.
How could I have been so stupid? The frozen northlands, a date that looks so familiar yet can’t think of anything that happened, the Doctor berated himself. A shriek from Dew caused him to jerk his head back up.
The blue pegasus had jumped to the air when suddenly out of the ground sprouted a large dark crystal, it had nearly impaled her. Foxy and Private stopped dead in their tracks, staring at it in surprise then looked startled around as more crystals began producing out of the ground.
“Oh no, no, no, no.” The Doctor cringed and side stepped just as a crystal popped up from the ground right next to him. “Run! Fly! Just get out of here, get to the TARDIS. NOW!”
“Doctor, what is going on?” Dew called as she and Foxy started flying off towards the blue box.
“Very, very, very bad things,” he simply answered and had to dodge a large chunk of crystal that nearly knocked him over.
The crystals already producing out from the ground began trembling as if some unknown force was shaking them. Suddenly they began shattering revealing ponies with dim crystal like coats and wearing dark armor. Their eyes were sickly green with red irises, from the corners produced faint purple mist.
“Get the spies!” one of the ponies growled, the others obeyed immediately and began chasing after the fleeing travelers.
“Doctor, the TARDIS!” Dew called, she and Foxy had started a dive towards the ship but it was already being surrounded by dark crystals.
“Oh this is bad, I should have realized… Foxy, Dew, never mind us, you fly south, NOW!” the Doctor yelled when seeing that the crystals were beginning to encase the blue box.
“Fly south? What?” Foxy exclaimed but then yelped as something suddenly wrapped around her wings. Unable to fly now, she crashed to the ground. Groaning the pony looked at her feathery limbs only to see bolas wrapped tightly around them.
“Foxy!” Dew turned around in her flight intending to land and help the other mare but more bolas came careening from the air, wrapped around her wings and she fell down as well.
Private and the Doctor came running where the two mares lay disoriented after the fall. The unicorn’s horn began glowing as he intended to use his magic to untangle the wings, but he was momentarily distracted when the time pony suddenly fell down. The chasing armored ponies were still throwing bolas and now the brown stallion’s legs were wrapped up and entangled.
“Never mind me, free them, get them to fly south,” the Doctor snapped at the unicorn as he started to try and remove the entangling ropes off himself.
Private hesitated for a second before turning to where Foxy lay in the snow. The mare was already trying to rise up, though she still felt a bit light headed. The stallion hurried to her, his horn glowing as he prepared to take hold on the ropes that now bound her wings. But something rammed into him, throwing him to the side. Yet another crystal had produced out of the ground, hitting him.
“Private!” Dew cried when the unicorn crashed to the ground, spots of blood were on the snow around him and an ugly gash on his side where the crystal had struck him.
The crystal shattered revealing yet another armored pony. His helmet looked a bit more stylish, indicating a high rank. His sickly green and red eyes glared down at the unicorn, then at the now captured ponies around him the other soldiers were gathering up.
“Private.” Dew started to crawl towards the fallen unicorn but was intercepted by two ponies. Before she could even give another sound they had already produced chains and began binding her legs, they also removed the bolas and put some sort of restraints on her wings.
The same process was being done on Foxy and the Doctor, though his set of chains looked heavier as if they were made with the sturdy body of an earth pony in mind. The captain of the soldiers still stood over Private, watching the proceedings. Once the conscious prisoners had been gathered, he pointed at the unicorn.
“Mend his wounds then wake him up, the king wants them alive!” he growled.
Two soldiers started to work on Private’s side wound, bandaging it up. Then they shackled his legs and also put a shackle on his horn. Once that was done they produced something smelly from a flask and put it under his nose, the unicorn’s face scrunched up and he blinked awake making a face at the nasty smell.
“Sweet Celestia, what died!” he complained and was promptly slapped hard by the captain.
“Do not speak that name here!” the heavily armored pony snapped. “Get up and go to the others!”
Private saw stars after the hit so it took him a second to actually comply with the order. He winced when stressing his wound and glanced to his bandaged up side. Then without a word stumbled over to his friends.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…” the Doctor whispered when the unicorn joined the chained up group.
“Who are these ponies?” Dew asked glancing nervously at the soldiers who were now forming a circle around them.
“Border guards most likely, keeping a watch on the edges, ensuring no spies or other unwanted ponies come unannounced,” the brown stallion told them.
“Come to what?” Foxy looked at the armored ponies, their coats didn’t look quite right, at least what she could see of their coats since the armor covered most of their bodies.
The Doctor didn’t have a chance to respond, the captain arrived in the circle. The green in the soldiers’ eyes began glowing more and suddenly the whole group was enveloped in crystal and sunk quickly into the ground. This happened so fast that before he and the other prisoners knew it they were suddenly deep in a city made of crystal.
Three of the prisoners, opened their eyes wide in shock and wonder. The whole city, every single house was made of some sort of crystal and at the center stood high a huge dark tower and sickly green fire burned on big torches around it. The sky was in an ominous sickly yellowish glow. The Doctor looked sad, almost as if he remembered this place differently.
There were other ponies around. They looked like they had once been colorful but now looked drab and depressed, their crystal like eyes were sad and the ears were downcast as they slowly made their way around the streets. The soldiers marched the prisoners towards the tower and some of the sad looking ponies looked up at the group. Nobody said anything, they just stared with pity in their eyes.
As they approached the large building, they saw more of the depressed looking citizens but these were chained up with shackles on their legs and necks. Those were being marched off by soldiers to somewhere. They looked tired and ragged as if they had been toiling endlessly without any rest.
“Doctor… where are we?” Foxy whispered and cringed when a pony stumbled on his march. The soldiers began berating the poor stallion and one started whipping him and didn’t let off until the slave finally forced himself to rise up and start walking again.
“They… they can’t do that!” Dew protested, having seen the same thing but the Doctor immediately shushed her.
“Dew Doe, we are prisoners, those are slaves, right now we are not in any position to do anything,” he whispered sharply. Fortunately, the soldiers ignored their talk since they were still walking forward.
“But…” The blue pegasus looked back but could no longer see the marching line of slaves, soldiers now blocked her view.
“I know it’s hard, but you must stay strong, we will get out of this,” the brown pony said and smiled a little. “I promise.”
“You haven’t answered my question,” Foxy pointed out.
“We are in the Crystal Empire, Foxy.” The Doctor looked at her and sighed a bit. His three friends all looked at him confused.
“Crystal Empire?” Private blinked, not even he had heard of that one, yet something was nagging at his mind, he just couldn’t quite make out what it was that was bothering him.
The prisoners were led into the large crystal tower that served also as the palace. They went through a long dark colored hallway that lead to the throne room. Private was starting to tire of this walk, his wound stung and it didn’t make it easier to move. The unicorn also noticed that as they approached the Doctor was starting to look grimmer.
The soldiers lined up the prisoners right in front of the dark crystal throne before taking a deep bow to the one occupying it. Foxy, Dew and Private blinked when seeing the tall unicorn stallion sitting on it. The mane was black and almost lion like and the horn was curved like a blade and was red. He looked down at them, a sadistic grin crossed his muzzle, revealing sharp fangs. His red eyes peered down at them. Yet he looked so regal with a red cape lined with white fur, the silver armor and hoof guards and the crown sitting on top of his head.
“Hello, Doctor,” the king greeted, the voice was dark and ominous.
“King Sombra.” The Doctor narrowed his eyes on the dark unicorn who grinned even wider.
End Chapter 1