Prologue
The sky was dark and lifeless, without a single star shining light upon the twisted spires of the city below. A lone breeze rustled the scant few blades of surviving grass, only to die down as quickly as it had arisen. The black crystal that covered every street and building presented an imposing front to those both near and far. The full moon above did little to penetrate the atmosphere of suffocating darkness.
Among the city of crystal, hoofsteps clattered in the distance, only to get closer and closer.
“Fan out! This infiltrator shall not be allowed to roam free within the Crystal Empire!”
A group of ponies, five in all, came to a halt just outside a dark alleyway.
“I’ll take the south alley. You lot, get moving! The king will not tolerate failure!”
As four of the ponies quickly split themselves among the cardinal directions and trotted off, the remaining guard slowly walked down the alleyway, his head occasionally jerking to the side as another breeze caused a low howl to echo past him.
“Infiltrator! Reveal yourself now, and you will earn a merciful death by my hooves. Do not, and the king himself will punish you when you are discovered.”
The silence was deafening to the guard’s ears.
“Bah. I guess there’s nopony here after all. Those Equestrians are far too cowardly to ever so much as risk facing the king.”
Grumbling to himself, the guard trotted out of the alleyway. When the noise of his hoofsteps finally faded into the distance, a single shadow seemed to detach itself from a wall. The outline of a small pony skulked out into the street, taking care to stay near the walls of the black crystal buildings.
The pony briefly stepped into the moonlight, revealing a young colt with a deep blue coat and a silver-gray mane. A jacket made of a simple blue fabric covered most of his torso. He glanced upwards at the full moon, breathing a small sigh before slinking back into the shadow.
“I should have known better than to attempt this foolishness,” the colt muttered to himself. “I am hardly going to gather useful information among the streets, hiding in the shadows like a common thief.” He chuckled softly to himself. “That, and the fact that Mother is going to flay me for this.”
The colt began to walk along, following the street while carefully staying in the shadows of the nearby buildings. “Still, it’s better than the alternative.” The colt’s amber eyes seemed to flash as he grumbled to himself. “‘Oh, Starry, you are being helpful with your very presence. Oh, Starry, you can just stay here where it’s safe. Oh, Starry, of course you cannot come to the Crystal Empire. It is far too dangerous for a little foal!’”
The colt scoffed. Far too dangerous, my flank. These guards could not catch a snail if it crawled right into their hooves.
As he said this, a burst of light erupted in the sky. A shining golden beacon of power, though far in the distance, seemed to brighten the entire empire. The colt could feel the power washing over him, reinvigorating him and filling him with glee.
The colt smiled to himself, the first real smile he’d allowed since entering the Crystal Empire. Well, it is about time. One would think the princesses almost intended to take that long to deal with Sombra. Two alicorns against one unicorn hardly seems like it would be a lengthy struggle.
He sighed. Well, I suppose it is time to return. I guess both Mother and I will be disappointed with my actions, now that they have yielded no results.
The sky seemed to suddenly darken. The colt was jolted out of his thoughts by a sudden rumbling of the earth beneath him. The black crystal that dominated the empire cracked underneath his hooves. All around the city, a black smoke drifted in. Growing thicker and thicker by the second, the suffocating smoke drove the colt to a sprint out of the city.
“Oh, no no no no NO!” the colt shouted as he ran through the streets, no longer caring whether he was spotted or not. Though he ran past several guard patrols, their attention was elsewhere as their armour seemed to evaporate into a dark mist, and the encroaching black smoke put many into a state of screaming panic.
Unconcerned with the fate of the crystal guards, the colt ran on. A fear had gripped his thoughts, and a scream emerged unbidden from his mouth. “MOTHER! MOTHER, HELP ME!”
As he reached the edge of the city, a whimper escaped the colt. The black smoke already encircled the entirety of the city, and was slowly drifting inwards. The colt let out a wail of frustration and panic to the heavens, only for it to be swallowed up by the smoke.
Before long, the entire empire was covered by the black smoke. Less than a minute later, when the smoke dissipated, observers would see a large, mostly flat plain of grass. No sign remained that there had ever been a city on that spot.
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1,005 years later...
As the moon fell and the sun rose, welcoming a new day to Equestria, a white-coated, blue-maned unicorn gazed out into the sunrise with a sigh.
Shining Armor was irritated.
He’d been irritated for a while now. After a prestigious promotion to captain, followed by a royal wedding that put him in the even more prestigious station of a prince, one would think that his guard duties would either be infrequent or very important.
The guard detail he was assigned over now was certainly neither of these things, at least in his eyes. After all, it was hardly a national issue to be watching over an empty plain on the outskirts of Equestria.
The freezing cold and near-endless snowfall didn’t help.
“Anything happen yet?” Shining Armor turned away from the sunrise and called out to one of the guards under his command.
“Nothing yet, sir,” came the same reply he had heard every single time he asked in the week he and his guards had been stationed there.
Shining Armor gave the guard a swift nod, and turned back around to gaze once more into the horizon.
“Sir, are you certain that this is the place we need to be watching?”
The question caught Shining Armor off guard. This was the first time any of the guards had so much as questioned what they were doing there. With a chuckle, Shining Armour turned to face the guard.
“You’re not asking anything I haven’t been thinking myself. Still, I’ve double-checked the co-ordinated myself, and even sent a message to the princess. This is definitely where we’re supposed to be.”
“But, sir, there’s nothing here! What in Equestria could the princesses possibly need an entire guard detail out here for? For crying out loud, it’s the middle of nowhere!”
Shining Armor’s smile started to slip. “Whatever your personal feelings on the matter, this is where we’ve been assigned. There’s no more debate to be had about it.”
“But, sir-”
Shining Armor cut the guard off, his smile now gone entirely. “There will be no more debate. We are here, and we will stay here until something occurs, or we are recalled. Understood?”
The guard sighed and lowered his head. “Understood, sir.”
Shining Armor’s smile returned. “Hey, believe it or not, I don’t like it any more than you do. Still, there’s no point complaining about it. It’s not about to change anytime soon.”
The guard nodded, and briskly trotted off. Left alone with his thoughts, Shining Armor found his mind going down the same route it had travelled many times before in this past week.
What exactly are we doing here? ‘Watch for the return of the Crystal Empire.’ That’s hardly the most informative of descriptions. I’ve never even heard of this ‘Crystal Empire’! If they’re some nation Celestia thinks is going to be coming through here, why aren’t we watching other areas? Surely no commander would be so inept as to march through the open like this, especially when there are so many other routes that are much more enclosed. Besides, if it’s an invasion force, you’d think we’d need more than-
Shining Armor was startled out of his thoughts by a sudden rumbling. Nearly knocked off his hooves, he quickly steadied himself and looked behind him, now fully alert. Seeing nothing, Shining Armour returned to his previous position as the rumbling ceased, only to once again nearly fall over in shock at what lay before him.
Where previously there’d been an empty, snowy plain that seemed to stretch on forever, there was now a great city of shimmering crystal staring back at him. In addition to that, there was what seemed like a giant ring of space around the city where there was no snow, instead displaying the perfect image of a clear and sunny day.
Shining Armor blinked, then rubbed his eyes in disbelief. “Huh?”
Hoofsteps came from behind him at a rather frantic pace as the guard he’d been previously talking to came running back towards him.
“Sir! Sir! There’s been a… there’s a… a…”
The guard’s voice trailed off as Shining Armor looked back at him and cocked an eyebrow.
“Thank you. I am, in fact, aware. Is that all?”
The guard looked sheepish. “Ah… yes, sir, I suppose it is. Would you like me to take a message to the princess?”
Shining Armor grinned widely. Finally, some reprieve from this endless waiting.
“Yes. Tell her…”
Shining Armor stopped, and looked thoughtful.
“Sir?” The guard took a step forward.
“Tell Princess Celestia… ‘It has returned.’ In those exact words.”
Shining Armour chuckled. That ought to be vague enough to frustrate her. It’s only fair, really.
The guard gave a hasty salute, and trotted off into the snow.
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Within the Crystal Empire, the crystal ponies began to awake. None of them had any memory of their lives before, or what had happened to them.
Among them was a small blue colt.