No Place Like Home

by Overthinker

Chaper 1: Diaspora

As the sun set over the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor walked the castle grounds, ensuring all doors were locked that were supposed to be, making sure every guard was at their posts, and his favorite part of the job, keeping an eye out for any suspicious characters or changes to the environment. In other words, he was performing a routine security inspection. As the co-ruler of the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor now had ponies to do that for him, but as a long-time Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard (a title he was not entirely sure he still held), old habits died hard. This was a different castle from the one in Canterlot, but the intent was the same: Ensure the safety of the princess.

In any case, those feelings partly contributed to his nightly rounds, a job Shining Armor undertook with Winter Vigil, the Captain of the Crystal Guard. During tonight’s survey of the castle grounds, however, Shining found his fellow guard to be unusually silent, staring off into space and doing little more than nodding in reply to Shining’s attempts at conversation.

“Hey Vigil… You okay?” Shining looked back over his shoulder as they walked down one of the more remote hallways of the castle, where they could speak in relative privacy. Vigil blinked and regained his focus, turning to Shining Armor.

“Yes sir,” Vigil replied. “I’m quite alright.”

“Well… You’ve been spending an awful lot of time staring out at nothing,” Shining said, with more than a bit of concerned skepticism. “You’ve got something on your mind. What is it?”

A moment passed as Vigil considered his words. “It’s about this Saturday, sir.”

Shining Armor smiled. “Worried about the anniversary festival?”

That day marked the passage of a full year since Sombra’s final defeat, thanks to the Crystal Heart and the efforts of Shining Armor’s friends and family. While Shining had clearly done something important after the true Crystal Heart was discovered, he preferred to downplay his role in those events. The adrenaline rush obliterated any memory he had of contributing to the victory, and secondhand accounts of his heroic actions seemed extremely unlikely (though alarmingly consistent.)

Vigil shook his head. “Not quite. We’ll have our hooves full keeping everything in order, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. Especially with Flash and the rest of the Equestrian detachment. It’s just that… Well, it’s my daughter’s birthday...”

“A daughter? I didn’t know you had a little filly.” Shining smiled. “A couple of Twiley’s friends have little sisters of their own. Maybe they could all play together.”

It took a couple seconds for Shining Armor to realize that his steps were the only sound echoing in the hall. “Vigil?” He turned around. Vigil had stopped walking. His face was a perfect stone wall betraying no emotion, but his crystal pony nature betrayed him. Vigil’s sparkling ice blue coat was now dulled, all the shine having faded in an instant, along with whatever joy he held.

A few moments passed before Vigil shook off the feeling, and a little bit of the shine returned to his coat. “I wish she could play with them, but I’m afraid that my wife and daughter left the Crystal Empire with the other refugees when Sombra started taking over.”

Shining Armor paused. “I’m sorry to hear that. I can’t imagine how much you miss them.” Vigil nodded. “Sombra’s gone, so it’s safe now. We can start looking for the refugees. I’m sure they’ll be glad to see you again too.” As soon as the words left Shining Armor’s mouth, the shine left Vigl’s coat once again, and he realized his mistake.

“With all due respect, Captain… And I mean that with the utmost sincerity… I’m afraid that’s not possible. The Crystal Empire, and everyone in it, vanished. For a thousand years. My wife, my daughter, and everyone else who was outside the Empire when Sombra laid down his curse… They’re... gone, Shining. My family is gone.”

Shining Armor felt his stomach drop as he fully comprehended Winter Vigil’s implication. “I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry, Vigil.”

Vigil shook his head. “That’s all you need to say, sir.” He paused, refocusing himself, and some of the shine returned to his coat. “I’m not so bad off. I’ve had a year to cope. Tomorrow just... reminded me. That’s all.”

“If you need the day off, you’re welcome to take it,” Shining Armor offered. “Just let me know if there’s anything I can do for you.”

“I’ll consider that day off,” Vigil replied, weighing the idea in his head. “But I was hoping you could answer a question that’s been troubling me for the past year.”

“What’s that?”

“When the refugees were evacuated, we split them into two groups,” Vigil explained. “That way, if Sombra tried to pursue, at least one would escape. We went one south to Equestria…” Vigil swallowed, almost afraid to ask. “Did they make it?”

“I… I don’t know,” Shining Armor admitted. “Until I came to the Empire, I’d never seen a crystal pony. I hadn’t even heard of you until Celestia sent me up here, either.”

“I see,” Vigil replied simply. There was no grief or outburst of sorrow in his voice. Just quiet acceptance of a possibility accepted a long time ago.

“Hey, now. I didn’t say they didn’t make it. I just don’t know,” Shining rushed to explain. “Equestria’s a big place. I’ve never seen a diamond dog, but I hear there are loads of thriving packs, and until three years ago, I’d never even heard of bat-winged ponies. Just because I haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean there aren’t whole towns full of them.” Shining gave his best reassuring grin. It worked.

“I guess so.” Vigil gave a sheepish grin back. “What about the northern refugees?”

Shining Armor blinked. “North?”

“North. We sent the refugee groups in opposite directions, so Sombra would have to go in opposite directions if he wanted to chase them.”

Shining Armor shook his head. “No, I meant the... Frozen North?”

“It’s no more frozen than the immediate south of the Empire,” Vigil explained. “If you go south far enough, you enter Equestria. If you go north far enough, you enter…”

“The Tribelands,” Shining Armor finished with a frown.

Vigil blinked. “Yes. I assume your relations haven’t… improved in the last thousand years?”

Shining Armor shook his head. “They don’t talk to Equestria, and Equestria doesn’t talk to them. We stay out of each others’ manes, and everything’ll be just fine.”

“So… I can assume you know nothing of what happened to the northern refugees,” Vigil responded quietly.

“Not really,” Shining admitted. “But I think this is something that concerns the entire Crystal Empire. I’ll bring the idea up to Cadance, but I think I’ve got a plan.”

“A plan, Captain?”

“Tomorrow, at the anniversary celebration, I’d like to make it official. Let’s start looking for those crystal ponies.”

---

Darkness. All that existed was darkness. An intelligence floated in the void. It was warm here, and so the mind found the darkness pleasant. It floated for an eternity in the darkness, a sensation it had enjoyed forever, and it expected to enjoy it forever in bliss.

“Seven.”

A sound, muffled and distant, rang out and rippled through the darkness. The thought-being barely noticed. It did not distress the intelligence, but the darkness began to fray at its infinitely-distant edges. Another eternity passed in warmth and contentment.

“Seven.”

The sound, though only slightly louder this time, tore through the darkness like a hurricane, and the intelligence let out a small groan. No, not just an intelligence any more. It was a pony. A mare. She attempted to retreat back to the pleasant darkness.

“Hiding under that blanket isn’t going to make it any less morning. It’s time to get up.”

The void was blasted completely away. The primal darkness was reduced to the inside of her eyelids. But at least she was still warm. “Just a little longer,” she muttered reflexively, not truly understanding her words.

“That’s right. Just a little longer until we’re there. Now come on, Seven.” She felt some of the warmth lift away, letting in horrible cold that seeped into her back hooves. “The blanket’s going up. In T-minus three…”

“Muuuh…” she vocalized.

“Two…”

She wobbled feebly in protest.

“One…”

No no no no no!

“We have liftoff!”

The warmth disintegrated completely. Cold air rushed in to fill the void, and everything good about the world was obliterated in an instant. Seven (for the pony had remembered that was what she was called) curled into a ball and blearily opened her eyes, only to almost instantly regret it. There was nothing but brilliant sunlight reflecting off pure white snow and blasting directly into her retinas.

“Oh come on, Pearl!” Seven clamped her eyes nearly shut, allowing just a bit of light through until they could adjust.

That earned Seven a soft giggle from the other pony. “I’m Garnet, not Pearl,” the other pony gently corrected her. Seven turned her head in the direction of the voice and and opened her eyes just a bit wider. Deep cherry-red coat. Cutesy wavy lavender mane. Teacup cutie mark. It was Garnet Glow, alright. Even more glowing today with all the light blasting straight through her crystal coat, lighting her up like a miniature sun to Seven’s bleary eyes.

Seven clamped her eyes shut again as she shook off the last vestiges of sleep and pulled herself up. When she heard a crunching of snow slowly approach her, she slowly opened her eyes again. Garnet was approaching her with a pair of goggles in her mouth. Seven smiled and closed her eyes. She felt the goggles press against her face and the cloth straps being adjusted behind her head before she opened them again. The world was still bright, but at least she could open her eyes fully without cringing. “Thanks, Garnet. Sorry about the mix-up. It just seemed like kind of a Pearl thing to do.”

If the identity confusion offended Garnet, she was doing a good job of hiding it. “Oh, it’s no problem. You just woke up, after all,” she said with a cheery grin plastered just underneath her own snow goggles. “Let’s get packed. We need to catch up with Amethyst and Pearl.”

“Right,” Seven moved to do just that, packing away her bedroll. “Where are they, anyway?”

“They’re just a bit ahead”, Pearl explained, pointing a hoof south to the general direction of Freedom Ridge. “Pearl figured that while you were still sleeping, she might as well use the time to get a head start on finding some more food.”

Seven raised an eyebrow at that. “We packed plenty of food. How much did you eat?”

“Um… A lot,” Garnet admitted sheepishly. “But there’s at least two weeks of food left, and the pilgrimage is half done!”

“Nearly half done,” Seven correct her, waving a blue foreleg at the ridge. “And we’re going to be camping out for a while once we get there.”

“Aheh… Sorry ‘bout that.”

Seven shrugged. “Well, what’s done is done. We packed extra anyway. If every tomato were terrific, we wouldn’t have ketchup,” she said as she finished packing up the last of her gear into her hefty saddlebags. “”Let’s go catch up!”

The pair trotted through the snow at a brisk pace toward a pair of small glimmering lights in the distance: One lavender, and one iridescent.

---

“You’re late,” Winter Pearl greeted her companions as they finally arrived. The sparkling white crystal pony did her best to dramatically toss a carefully styled red forelock in annoyance, but her heart really wasn’t into it. Today was too important to care about a petty little thing like that. Much, anyway.

Garnet looked away in slight embarrassment, while her deep blue companion just gave the best roguish grin she could muster. “It’s an important day. We’ve gotta be fully rested,” Seven explained.

A tall lavender mare next to Pearl just looked Seven in the eye and raised an eyebrow.

“Come on, Amethyst. I just overslept a little.”

Amethyst frowned.

“Okay, a lot.”

Amethyst nodded.

“Yeah… Sorry about that. But the important thing is that I’m awake now, so we can finish the pilgrimage, right?”

Amethyst smiled softly and nodded, and Seven’s shoulders relaxed. Amethyst turned and continued walking up the ridge. Everyone resumed their hike.

“Hard to believe we’re nearly there,” Garnet spoke quietly.

“Well, believe it,” Pearl smirked. “Just because it’s legendary doesn’t mean it wasn’t real.”

Seven looked back. “No one’s saying the Empire never existed. Quit teasing her.”

Pearl giggled at that as Garnet’s face flushed as best it could against her dark red skin. “But it’s so fun,” Pearl grinned.

Amethyst looked back and spoke in a husky but rarely-heard voice. “This is a solemn place.”

The others quieted down, and Amethyst’s expression softened.. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry ‘bout that,” Pearl apologized. “There’s just a lot to take in, you know?” Amethyst nodded in agreement, looking ahead with anticipation in her eyes.

“It’s just so hard to imagine,” Garnet said. “An entire country of crystal ponies, you know?”

“The Enclave’s technically a country,” Pearl corrected her. Amethyst let out an exasperated sigh, but before Pearl could continue, Seven piped in.

“The Crystal Enclave is a country, but it isn’t our country,” Seven interjected. “It’s just land we’re renting out. The Empire… That was our home.”

The four continued walking in silent contemplation as the top of the ridge grew closer. “Your aunt went on the pilgrimage too, right Seven?” Pearl looked at Seven with curiosity. “What’s left of the homeland? What should we be looking out for?”

Seven thought back to her aunt’s stories. “A tremendous flat plain, just covered in snow, stretching for miles and miles. At the top of the ridge, you can see the outlines of the old roads making the six-point snowflake.”

Garnet’s eyes widened. “And all that used to be ours?”

Amethyst peered back and nodded with a smile. “Yep.”

“She said the roads were barely visible, but you could still see the central hub where the Crystal Castle used to be. If you start there and look a little to the east, then…” Seven stopped as she reached the peak. “What in…” Seven stopped dead in her tracks.

Amethyst picked up her pace, trotting up to the top. She let out a gasp.

Garnet and Pearl picked up their pace, rushing to the top. “Seven? What’s going on?” Garnet exclaimed.

“It hasn’t been desecrated, has it?” Pearl asked, with very real worry.

When they reached the top of the ridge, they too were struck speechless. Stretched out beneath them was a vast snowy plain as Seven’s aunt had described, but it could hardly be described as empty. Carved out of the snow was an enormous ring of spring and sunshine. Roads forming the six-point snowflake could be seen, and their edges were clear as day. Between the roads were the rooftops of countless buildings made of geometric forms particular to crystal pony architecture, and in the center of this massive settlement, a sparkling white tower stretching into the sky.

It was impossible, yet stretched out beneath them them stood their birthright, the ancient homeland lost to their people for a thousand years.

The Crystal Empire.

Author's Note:

Hello everyone. This is my first story. I haven't done any creative writing in years, so bear with me. I hope you all enjoy!

Comments

[Silver_Cloud123]

[Celestias Paladin]

This is a topic that I don't think anyone has anyone has thought much about. That is a good point, unless the Empire was extremely isolationist there is bound to have been refugees. I've tried to work that into my own headcanon, but even then I take the route that the Crystal Ponies who lived in Equestria were unable to breed true and died out. I look forward to seeing more, and seeing how you explain how the refugees were able to live for 1000 years

[Chiroknu]

Whatever Recollection they have..it will be an intense and amazing thing.
I look forward to this all..and I wonder how they'll react to Cadance of all ponies?

[Meridian Prime]

...

[InMyMind]

Your premise is interesting, though your prose feels to lack a bit. But that can be excused-- you say that you've not done much creative writing in years.

[an1979]

Tiny typo:
"We went one south to Equestria…"
We sent one

[Snowdrifter]

At first, you had my curiosity. Now, you have my attention.