Celestia streaked through the darkened sky, a comet tail of flame trailing behind her. Her eyes were wide but unfocused as she flew as rapidly as she could, barely noticing the distant ground as it streaked beneath her. Her mind was filled with a static that bordered on panic.
"Calm yourself."
The stern, yet somewhat motherly voice spoke to her from the fading static, and she stopped pushing forward. She frowned softly as her wings coasted on the currents.
"Calm," repeated the voice, less sternly this time.
She flapped her wings backwards a couple of times to slow her flight, and the flaming coma around her faded. Somewhere in the back of her mind she considered that a strange voice was something to be concerned about... but this voice was so familiar and so comforting. Every word made her feel like someone had lifted all the problems from her shoulders... it made her feel safe.
"It's just my own voice," she mused. "Just a side effect of the power transfer, I suppose."
She took deeper breaths and finally looked around herself to see where she was. She had traveled some distance from Canterlot – she could just see the mountains in the distance behind her. Ahead she could see the lights of what she presumed had to be Manehatten on the coast and this helped her get her bearings.
"You did well," commented the voice. "Nightmare Moon is all but defeated."
Celestia frowned, but she was willing to go along with it. "But what of Luna?" she asked.
"Luna is fine. You did exactly what you needed to do."
Celestia breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness." She looked around as she held her position. The voice spoke up again.
"Now you may raise the sun and put this darkness behind us all."
Celestia frowned. "No. There is still one last thing I must try to do."
The voice hesitated, as though unaccustomed to being challenged. After a moment, it did comment.
"You must still put right what you made wrong before you can face her again."
"Yes," replied Celestia, turning her head toward the north.
Celestia's mind drifted back to the fateful day in the Frozen North and the all-too-short confrontation that she and Luna had had with King Sombra. She considered, too, that she had left much of this out of her story to Sunset Shimmer.
She had told herself that it wasn't important, that it had no bearing on Sunset's education to know more about it. But now she had to admit to herself that her shame ran deep. She knew that the loss of the Crystal Empire was entirely her own fault.
She and Luna had set off to reclaim the lands with little idea of what to expect. They flew for hours, but when the city appeared on the horizon they were both awestruck. The city of the Crystal Empire was made entirely of smooth, translucent crystal, and when lit by the final rays of the setting sun the buildings shone and sparkled, beckoning them forward.
But as they drew closer, they saw long streaks of jet black crystal zig-zagging through the city. Unlike the crystal everywhere else, these black crystals sucked in the light around themselves. They were most common around the castle in the center of the city, but some streaked out all the way past the city boundaries into the snowy plains.
They advanced closer still, and then they saw the ponies. Chained to each other and walking with their heads down, they were marching into and out of deep holes which appeared to be mines. The ponies took no notice of the Princesses, even when they called out. Celestia and Luna exchanged looks, trying to decide what to do next, and then they noticed a movement on the uppermost balcony of the castle.
King Sombra wore a crown and a regal red robe, and his horn was lit with an eerie magic that leaked as much as emanated. The same magic leaked from the sides of his eyes, creating a waving violet field of magical power.
He called out to them and they swooped around to confront him. He was so sure of himself, Celestia remembered. He was completely unflinching even though he was confronted by two alicorns. It was also true that his arrogance had made Celestia's blood boil, so much that she spoke only in demands and ultimatums.
Had Luna even spoken? Celestia found she couldn't remember. She suspected not. Celestia had taken charge and she had made of all of the decisions. It was even Celestia who had decided they didn't need the Elements of Harmony and convinced Luna that they should leave them behind to 'recharge'. Celestia, who had no idea how the Elements even worked, deciding how they had to be used.
She had demanded that Sombra surrender. When Sombra refused, who had attacked first? Celestia was certain that he had, but she had responded in a fraction of a second without even a hint of hesitation. Luna had followed her lead, of course, but was Celestia that desperate for a fight?
She now wondered whether she hadn't been just as arrogant. No wonder Luna had been so upset.
Then she had to realize the horror of Sombra's curse. She and Luna had nearly panicked as they were forced to watch the painfully slow dissolve of everything, of everypony, right in front of them. Luna had begged her for an answer, and she didn't have one. It had only lasted for seconds, but it had felt like hours.
She had sworn to protect these ponies, and just like that, they were gone. They were gone and there was nothing she could do about it…
"I can fix it now," added Celestia. "I can save them..." Celestia's eyes began to fill with tears. "Then Luna might forgive me."
Celestia shook away the tears and frowned, wheeling midair and stretching her wings out wide. She leaned into the north wind and gave her wings a powerful sweep, igniting her flames again as she raced towards the Frozen North.
As the winds grew colder Celestia tightened her jaw, planning as she watched the ground streak past underneath. Ahead she saw the jagged peaks of the Crystal Mountain range, and she altered her course towards where she felt that the Empire's plateau must have been.
"At this rate, I should be in the vicinity within an hour or so... this is at least twice as fast as I've ever flown before. But then what? I will need to locate the former city, and I am not sure how to do that. Even if I do, what will I draw from?"
The voice answered her again... it always seemed to have an answer to any question that troubled her. And the answer was always the same.
"I know where to draw from."
Again, Celestia answered aloud, barely recognizing that she was speaking. "But there was no trace left behind..."
"All magic leaves a trace," assured the calming voice. "We need only amplify it enough. We need only to find the loose thread and pull it up."
Celestia nodded and raced onward. The ground beneath her grew colder and rose into sharp peaks. Flashes of white snow began to appear which brightly reflected the moonlight. Gradually the patches grew more frequent, and then they consolidated into a solid sheet, soon stretching across the horizon. The winds grew stronger and fiercer, and Celestia found them buffeting her body as she cut through them. She had reached the large plateau where the Crystal Empire had been emtombed.
She strengthened her resolve and added magic to the flaming coma that surrounded her body, fighting back against the icy winds. To her satisfaction, this succeeded in giving her sufficient warmth for the moment. She looked down to the ground and began scanning left and right, trying to locate herself.
"It must have been somewhere near here..." she mused. Celestia slowed her flight, and then flapped a few times to hold her position. The fire surrounding her body flamed high above her without the forward motion to stream it backwards, but her attention was on the white plains below. She scanned across the snow fields carefully, looking for any sign she recognized. It seemed impossible however - the snow was unbroken in every direction and cast into dunes by the constant winds.
"How will I find it?" Celestia wondered aloud. "There are no landmarks, and even if I were right on top of the city I was not able to sense it after it vanished. It has been over a thousand years since that time, there can hardly be a trace remaining."
Again, her voice answered, and yet it was not her voice. Again, a wave of calm washed over her as it spoke answers. "A thousand years will weaken any spell," noted the voice. "Even the perfect banishment spell that we cast. Most certainly a dark spell of revenge cast by a renegade unicorn will be very weak now. He could not have destroyed the empire – it must be there somewhere. Just reach out."
Celestia frowned and then nodded. "I've come this far," she noted. "With this much power I have to be able to find something." She closed her eyes and lifted her head, lighting her horn as she channeled magic into a sensing spell. Energy spread from her horn in a perfect sphere, spreading wide around her body and sinking into the ground below.
"I can't feel anything," she said after a moment, turning her head to look around.
"Search deeper," advised the voice.
She closed her eyes and tilted her head upwards. Her horn brightened and a tighter sphere of energy formed around it, casting laser-fine feelers in all directions. She stretched out her senses, feeling through the snow and along the ground, trying to pick up any sense of magic. After several minutes her eyes opened again.
"This isn't working," she complained, frowning in frustration.
"Tighten your magic so that you can reach deeper. It's down there somewhere."
"It will take a lot longer to search with a narrow beam..." Celestia mused, studying the plain beneath her.
"How much time is Luna worth?"
Celestia blinked and looked back in the direction of Canterlot. Then her horn lit again and she aimed a search beam directly beneath herself. She moved slowly, carrying the beam with her. The magic blasted snow side to side as it struck, sparking as it struck rocks from time to time.
"She's worth the rest of my life," Celestia whispered.
Time lost all meaning to Celestia as she slowly cleared the snow below, her energy reaching deep beneath the ground. But it was not the physical earth that she was searching; her spell expanded into other realms and sent tiny feelers through the cracks of reality itself. The need for so much physical energy was just a side-effect, as with most manifestations of strong magic in this world.
She could feel the flow of power moving as a cooling stream through her body, up along her neck and into her horn, where she focused and directed it. It was more than she typically channeled and yet she felt no strain or discomfort. Although she was focusing on the sensing spell, she found herself wondering again in the corner of her mind.
"What did Sunset do to me? How do I have such reserves?"
Yet again that calming voice responded, putting any hint of a concern at ease. "She healed us. We took advantage of a surge, and now we put Nightmare Moon's dark magic to good use. That is all, all will be fine."
"Nightmare Moon's magic?" asked Celestia. She paused her search while she listened for an answer. It didn't take long.
"Feeding the Nightmare magic back into this way lets us bring balance back, to counter the evil that Luna did. The more of her magic we use for good, the easier that she may be re-accepted by Equestria."
Celestia started. "Luna is no longer landed?" she asked.
"This is why you must succeed," assured her voice.
Celestia frowned and refocused her attention on the search spell, flaring her horn and digging even deeper. The path she cleared in the snow was easily ten feet across, but it was still slow going.
"At least the snow makes for a good marker of where I've looked," she mused. She paused again and lifted her head to look across the vast fields of snow.
"Is this even possible?" she asked the voice. "What if I am in the wrong area altogether? It all looks the same."
"There is a way to search a greater area…" offered the voice. "It would improve our odds greatly if we drew power directly from the land."
Celestia frowned. "That is not usually a good idea, and I have so much magic already."
"It will be fed directly back, after all. With a continuous flow of magic, we can maintain this surge and search from a greater altitude, covering a much wider area. You would only need to pull for a few hours."
Celestia considered for a moment. "I am not sure I can channel a large surge for that long... it may burn me out."
"You have the Nightmare magic to protect you, and you need this to make things right with Luna. You are strong enough."
Celestia considered, looking around. "I suppose there isn't a lot to damage here at the moment… and I cannot afford to fail. I am strong enough."
"Very well," she agreed aloud. She closed her eyes and arched her head, pulling from the land itself. At first nothing appeared to happen and she wondered if she was asking for too much, if the land had refused. But then she felt the first tendrils of magic responding to her pull.
She seized these tendrils mentally and pulled them upwards, widening each narrow thread into a thicker trunk. The magic began to flow into her body at a greater rate, and she became so bright that the fields below shone as if in daylight.
"Well done," complimented the voice, but Celestia was no longer listening for it. She flapped her wings several times and rose higher in the sky. The thick trunks of magic from the ground formed grand arches as they reached up to her, and after a moment Celestia sent a probing beam back to the earth.
This time it struck with enough force to blast not only snow but rock and dirt as well, clearing three times the area it did previously. Celestia's mind was focused on the massive amount of sensory information coming back from the search spell, such that she was barely aware of anything else.
It felt like forever and it felt like no time had passed, but she somehow knew that it must have been hours before she finally felt something. Her heart jumped through her growing fatigue, and she let the magic wrap around it, trying to determine form.
"I have something," she whispered.
"Pull," suggested the voice. "Bring it to the surface."
Celestia strained for a moment, and then shook her head, panting. "I can't," she whined. "Even with all this power, I can't move it."
The voice was quiet for a moment, and Celestia began to wonder if it had left her again. All at once, it spoke to her again.
"You can," it stated. "The land has grown its own magic back around the artifact. Destroy the bonds that have grown around it, and all will be freed."
Celestia pondered. It made sense that much as the physical land would fill in around an object, so would the magic of Equestria. If she had found what she was looking for, it would need to be dug out.
"Yes," confirmed the voice. "Put everything you have into it."
Celestia frowned, and then took a deep breath. All at once the thick trunks of magic feeding her from the earth changed to a brilliant crimson flame, and her search beam went white-hot, blasting into the earth. Rocks flew but it was not the land she attacked: it was the magic of the land. She drew the power into herself, transformed it, and used it to shatter the bonds of the land itself.
She could feel the shape of the magical landscape beneath her changing, but the flow through her body was searing. Tears began to flow as she gritted her teeth against the physical pain.
"Harder!" insisted the voice.
Celestia's focus continued. She could feel the strength of the magical flow and she knew that to lose control now would destroy her, but all the same she could feel the edges of her control burning away.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, a more reasoned voice raised an objection. "It's too old and too strong!" the new voice insisted. Celestia could feel her strength bleeding away. "You have to stop!"
But Celestia wouldn't stop.