Celestia's Past/Equestria's Future

by Crimson Feather

The beginning of the Crystal Empire's downfall

Out to the north of the Crystal Empire were massive mountains called the Crystal Mountains, they stretched throughout the Frozen north and gave a brilliant shine when the sun hit them just right and there were no snow storms. But snow wasn't the only thing that claimed the mountains as home, withing a fairly large cavern lived a Pink unicorn with a cutie mark that consisted of a square root symbol with a star inside of it, her tail and mane were two toned colored with Orange and a green tint so light it looked as if it was glowing. She wore a pair of glasses that only covered the bottom half of her Green eyes.

Using a powerful telescope she peered into the empire and took notes on everything she saw pertaining to the royal guards, she watched as they exchanged shifts and took notice of their routes and ranks.

"I'm sure Master Elgron will find this all very useful." She said to herself. "Three days in this daft cave, I can't wait for this whole thing to be over with so we can go home, or at least move somewhere a little warmer."

A figure rose from it's slumber. "I agree, sitting in the cold isn't really my idea of a nice time." The unicorn jumped from her station, startled by the sudden voice. "Don't worry my dear sweet Angelica, I'm not enjoying this place either, but with all of the information you've given me in the past few days I'm nearly ready to make my move."

The unicorn went back to her telescope and continued to write. "I'm glad that you feel that I have been a use to you, Master Elgron, especially with me being a pony and all."

"Angelica, you know I don't mind if you just called me Elgron, I've been taking care of you since you were just a scared little filly. Drop the formality sweetheart and I told you before, you're not like other ponies, you can actually be trusted." The figure walked out of the shadows and sat near Angelica.

Elgron was a wingless dragon with black scales that ran from his snout to the back of his tail, his underbelly had crimson red scales that ran from his jaw to the underside of his tail. The dragon was capable of walking on his hind legs but always preferred to walk on all fours, he mostly stood up in order to intimidate his foes, he had a slender build and his eyes were matched the same crimson red as his scales.

She looked up and meet with his eyes. "Just how much longer do we have to wait Mas...I mean Elgron, what's left of the preparations?"

"I still need you to go into the empire and look for a few books, while you are there I will be visiting a friend of mine, I'm going to need her help."

The pink unicorn looked away from her telescope and closed her notepad. "What am I looking for exactly, the history of the empire?"

Elgron smiled. "That's exactly what I want you to find, I need to know more about that Crystal Heart and King Sombra, so I need you to do what you do best, research and report."

Angelica blushed, she loved getting praises from Elgron, especially when it came to how smart she was. "Yes sir, I will do so much research on the empire that I would even be able to recite their anthem to you."

"Good, that's what I want to hear from you; now teleport your adorable little head down there and make nice with the citizens, I'll be back in four days."

Angelica nodded and with a bright pink flash she was gone. "What a talented young mare you have become Angelica," Elgrone said to himself, "I'm sure you'll give Twilight a run for her crown. Now then, it's time I got back to finding my friend, I just hope she isn't mad at me for not visiting sooner."

Elgron step out of the cave and walked off of the edge, as he fell his eyes emitted black smoke and while in midair he took off and was flying as if he had wings. He had four days to find his friend, without her the plan would become a bust and Elgron was not going to let that happen.

Angelica walked through the entrance to the Crystal Empire, if she would have teleported out of nowhere into the city the guards would have reasons to be suspicious, but coming through the entrance made her look like a tourist. "I should ask around about their library, that's the quickest way to finding out all I need to know about their history."

As she continued her way into the empire a crystal stallion walked by her, it was obvious that he was a empire native. "Excuse me sir." The stallion turned around. "Hi, I have never been here before, could you tell me where I could find the library?"

The crystal stallion looked at her and smiled. "You came to visit the Crystal empire to read? We have great restaurants and our festival is coming up in a few days."

Angelica pushed her glasses off her nose and back towards her eyes. "Festival, what festival?"

"Why our Crystal Fair of course, surely you have heard of it?" Angelica shook her head. "Oh, well allow me to be your guide, I can tell you all about it while we walk to the library and then you can read to your heart's content."

Angelica didn't waste any time thinking about the proposal, she was there to learn more about the empire and having one of the natives share their knowledge was almost as good as reading it from a book, almost.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea, my name is Angelica."

"I'm Lightning Hooves, nice to meet you, where are you from Miss?"

"Oh, well...I live far away."

"Manehattan?"

Angelica became nervous, she knew the stallion was just being friendly but she couldn't tell him that she actually lived outside of Equestria with dragons. "Yes, I'm from Manehattan, how did you know?"

The stallion smiled. "Lucky guess, a mare as beautiful as you couldn't have come from too far away."

Angelica's cheeks turned bright red, she was never told be anybody that she was beautiful, sure Elgron mentioned she was cute for a pony but never beautiful. The two ponies began their chat as they trotted through the streets towards the local library, suddenly a spinning object caught Angelica's attention, it was a heart made of a single crystal.

Lightning Hooves noticed Angelica gawking at the heart. "Beautiful isn't it? That is our pride and joy, the Crystal Heart."

Angelica fixed her eyes away from the heart and onto the stallion. "That's the Crystal Heart, the one you were telling about that's powered by everypony here?"

"That's the one, we would be lost without it, the Crystal Heart is everything to us." Lightning Hooves stared at the heart and his crystal coat began to shine. "With that heart and our royal leaders we have nothing to fear, they both bring us all hope and joy, unlike King Sombra."

Angelica's ears perked at the mention of Sombra, that was the name of the stallion Elgron wanted to know more about. "So Lightning Hooves, what can tell me about this King Sombra, he sounds interesting."

"You could say that I guess, but ask any pony around here and they would say anything but that." Lightning and Angelica continued on their walk. "He was a cruel and evil ruler, I'm glad Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor was here when we needed them, thanks to them we never have to worry about King Sombra ever again."

Angelica began to think to herself. "So the prince and princess here are powerful enough to destroy any that oppose them, that may be why Mast...I mean Elgron said he needed help from his friend. He doesn't want the other dragons getting involved, so who is he talking to and what makes her so special?"

Lightning Hooves and Angelica finally arrived to the library, inside was something that Angelica had only dreamt of, books amongst books that stacked from the ceiling to the bottom floor. There was only one other place where she saw so many books and that was outside of Equestria, Angelica couldn't remember the last time she was so happy.

Lightning Hooves smiled at how surprised Angelica looked. "Have you never seen so many book, I would have guessed that Manehattan's libraries would be bigger than this."

Angelica snapped out of her trance at the sound of the stallions voice. "Yes, I just underestimated the Crystal Empire's thirst for knowledge, or it's history." Looking back at the amount of books available to her, Angelica's voice soften. "It almost makes me sad that this wonderful empire will soon fall, perhaps I can convince Elgron to allow this wonderful building to stay."

Comments

[Legiondude]

Beginning*

[Princess of Usernames]

It's an interesting story, but you should really get an editor.