Crystalline: Her Destiny

by Ice Star


Chapter 4: Where is Twilight When You Need Her?

"Couldn’t you just use a book finding spell?” I asked him, a few seconds after he had reverted back to a pony.

“No,” he said, shifting through a few scrolls, “the only spell for finding books that I know of is arcane magic and requires an incantation I don’t know.”

“What is arcane magic and why did you almost burn my neck bare in the corridor?”

He cleared his throat as if to remind me he thought me annoying.

“Arcane Magic is one kind of pony magic; it was popularized by Starswirl the Bearded. The magic itself dates to a previous era. Secondly, the burning feeling was me… um… making sure Princess Luna didn’t try to break any spells that were put on the necklace.”

I nodded, satisfied with his answers, although he did seem a little… paranoid. I would try to get more out of him some other time…whenever that might be. He had told me that he didn't want me to ask him more questions until later, but it looks like that wasn't happening.

“Sombra, are there any Arcane users still around?”

He looked truly surprised, without a sarcastic look or anything similar. Like annoyance. Still, he wasn't exactly pleased with the fact that I ignored him.

“Yes, to my knowledge there are two.”

“Who?”

“Princess Luna is one…”

“…and Celestia the other?” I guessed.

He gave another annoyed sigh. Is this guy ever happy? So far, he just seemed smug and quite annoying, himself.

“No, I am the other.”

I was too surprised and went back to browsing old relics and books. Now I knew a pony who knew a lost art. It felt exciting.

Two hours later we had no luck finding anything, but the search wasn’t fruitless. I had found a few arctic maps that might prove to be quite helpful. I was flipping through a book titled Starwirl’s Extravagant Album of Extraordinary Spells, Endless Charms, Practical Enchantments, and Novice Curses. Compared to the magic of today it wasn't much but I decided to shove it in the saddle bag, along with Þe Witty Pupils Guide to Arcane Magic and Hexes by Starswirl the Bearded. I bet Twilight would love these. I also added From Alchemy to Zebraic Tribal Remedies which had been misplaced by another pony since it had the label of a different wing on it.

Sombra, being Sombra, decided to butt in.

“Use your magic to activate this potion I found in some boxes!” he said thrusting a purple colored potion under my muzzle with his magic.

I reeled back slightly, “Why?”

He rolled his eyes again before giving me another lecture. Gods, I bet if he rolled them one more time they might fall out.

“This is an ancient, hard to come by potion that, if activated by even slight amounts of any variation of Alicorn magic, or even yours, it will allow the user to see significant events at random from the past.

And, as you know, I have a lot of history to catch up on.”

I eyed a book near his hooves. “Is that book going to help this quest?”

“No,” he said “this book contains the spells required to review fixed dates instead of undesired and random ones. You will work faster on your own and I already cast the spell to view some of the dates, although I wish the events were listed by name.”

This translated to: ‘Have fun on your own, I'm ditching you!’

I grudgingly activated the potion and watched as it turned from purple to a pearly white. Sombra eyed it almost greedily and carried it away with his magic before vanishing among the shelves. I headed towards the art section to look among the old tapestries for a copy of a book or just any other helpful artifact. Among the old tapestries was a portrait of a unicorn mare and I decided to examine it.

Placing it on a table nearby with my magic stirred up quite the amount of dust, but when the dust settled I got a good look at.

The painting was done on a stone walkway overlooking harsh mountains covered in snow. The mare in the painting had a slim build like the Duchess of Maretonia but the similarities ended there. This mare seemed shorter and was horribly thin in a sickly way. Her mane and tail were the color of marigolds and her mane was worn in curly tresses while her tail was styled in a fancy braid with brass-and ruby braid cinches. Her coat was the color of pale washed out orchids, a stark contrast to her environment. She had big pale blue eyes that looked as sad as the world around her.

She wore old fashioned attire dominated by a massive ruffled gown. Her gown was as ridiculous as her hat; her gown was red and an unpleasant shade of indigo embroidered with gold and pearls, like it was made by a color blind pony. The ugly dress was trimmed in lace with puffy sleeves, and at the neck were more ruffles, pearls, and a pinkish ruby fastened at the neck. Her hat was conical, a solid gold base rimmed in pearls. The colors were identical to the dress. Her wavy gold forelock swept out from under it, and partly obscured her big blue eyes. At the top of her hat was a large ruby which held three pale silks, an orange, a blue, and a green; in place. She wore leather boots with a lace trim and clunky gold soles, unlike any of the current royal adornment which was made from custom metal elements that lacked a cumbersome weight.

But the belt was the worst part. I imagined it would give Rarity nightmares. The band was solid gold with yet another peal trim. The belt was fastened with an emerald green bow in the center whose middle was dominated by a rosy ruby three times the size of Applejack's younger sister. Curious, I magically flipped the painting over to its left side.

The ragged canvas was so old that the ink scrawled date had long since faded away completely. Not willing to give up hope, I turned the portrait around to its other edge. The right side of the masterpiece was torn and folded oddly and upon closer inspection stamped with a wax seal, which despite its age had managed to stay together. Once I broke this seal a small crevice was revealed bearing a dusty, aging book. A gold plaque boasted of its content:

Lore of Yore
By:
Arcane Vision

Pleased with myself, I flipped open to where the title page in a factual book would be. Instead I found a table of contents. I flipped through the page which listed countless old tales. At last I found one that looked interesting at the bottom of was a legend entitled: Lady Finola Frail-heart of Farreach and the Northbound Wraith.

With Sombra absorbed in his potions I decided to read.