Problems of the Untainted
Pluto sighed loudly, glancing up from the book that his tutor was forcing him to read. Lucida was spinning around in circles, goggling at her newly acquired Cutie Mark. He had to admit, it did look quite impressive: An elegant tiara made from the tendrils of a red rose's bush, but he didn't think it was great enough for her to continuously stare at her butt.
His tutor, a strict lavender mare smacked him on the back of his head and growled at him to continue reading. He made a face at her while she wasn't looking and pretended to be reading about the reign of King Isaiah, barely taking in a word that had been written.
He and his sister were a year and a half and for some reason, Lucida had already gotten her Cutie Mark. He'd always thought that ponies got them around the age of three or four, why did she get hers so early? What was so special about her?
Coming from Canterlot, King Isaiah was an Alicorn gifted with knowledge and strength that served him the many years until his death. His wife, Queen Ruby began the tradition of the Crystal Fair; a tradition created to power the Crystal Heart and spread peace, love and light through the Empire and beyond.
Yeah, yeah. Who cares?
"Lucida." The tutor said sternly, glancing over at the young princess, "Please sit down and read about the origins of our Empire, it's basic knowledge that a princess must know."
At last, Lucida grudgingly sat down and opened her book. But Pluto could see her sneaking glances at her day-old mark between paragraphs.
Keeping his head down, Pluto turned the page, pretending to have finished reading it. Just half an hour longer... He thought to himself. Half an hour and then your lessons will be over for the day...
In his opinion, there was nothing in the Empire worse than his lessons.
Even though the Autumn was giving way to winter, the Empire remained warm and colourful, the crystals beneath it protecting it from the biting cold winds that surrounded it.
King Diamond Heart and Queen Rin were in their throne room, reading over important documents and making sure that they were up to date with the going-ons in their kingdom.
"The Crystal Fair is fast approaching." Rin remarked, "Should we get Holly Wreath to help organize the decorations? She did a wonderfully good job last year with it. And perhaps that young stallion could assist her, what was his name again?" She stopped talking when she realized that her husband wasn't listening.
"I sent a letter out to Canterlot." He muttered under his breath as if nopony was listening, "We need to keep peace with them, so I asked if it they had a possible bride for Pluto."
Rin sighed, "Heart, darling." She said soothingly, "Pluto and Lucida only foals. Focus on the task at hand and we'll worry about them getting married later."
"Right, right." Diamond Heart murmured, scanning a roll of paper, "So that pony that's not paying his taxes these past three years... I'll send a guard over to his house to take care of that." He clapped his hooves and a guard clad in diamond armour approached him, "Go to Slimy Sly's house and have a chat with him about his tax evasion." He ordered. The guard nodded and strode out of the room. "I'm sorry, what were you saying, dear?" He turned back to Rin.
"The Crystal Fair?"
"Ah, yes. Right. The Crystal Fair..." He paused, his pale eyes resting on the plans made for that year's fair. "The Crystal Fair..." He repeated and then added out of the blue, "We haven't had much contact with your homeland, Saddle-Arabia recently. Do you think that they've got a young prince for Lucida?"
Rin sighed and used her magic to remove all the papers from around them, "You really should stop thinking about getting the little ones married so soon." She told him gently, resting her butter-yellow hoof on his shoulder, "Who knows, they might find somepony that they really love in a few years time. But until then, we need to dwell on the present. What's happening now and the problems that we face today."
Diamond Heart exhaled a long, slow breath before resting his head against his wife's. "I just don't know when we're supposed to start with everything." He said after a brief pause. "When exactly are we supposed to make all these important choices if we shouldn't do them today? Tomorrow never comes, my dear."
"We still haven't fixed the problem about the thing in the tower, yet."
The king flinched as if she had tried to curse him, "Where did that come from?" He questioned, his eyes frantically darting from side to side in case anypony had heard him. But the only other ponies in the room were two guards by the door who were too far away to hear what they were discussing.
"Heart, you do know that we have to face the problem sooner or later." Rin insisted, "Even if we keep it up there, somepony is bound to find out eventually and then what? Locking it away has so far only been a temporary solution."
Uncomfortable with the conversation that was taking place, Diamond Heart looked down at his polished emerald horseshoes. "There are spells put in place..." He mumbled, "You cast them yourself and you're a gifted Unicorn..."
Rin shook her head, "You should stop lying to yourself, Heart." She told him, "You know that the spells won't last forever and I'll have to keep renewing them. If something happens to me-"
"Everything's going to be fine." Diamond Heart cut her off, "Remember, focus on the problems at hoof. Now, as we were saying, the Crystal Fair..."
The queen of the Crystal Empire bit back a remark and turned back to the plans for the annual celebration.
"... And that's the last of them!" Ella Care sighed, happily dropping the last of the carefully woven baskets onto the table among the many others. She sat back and closed her eyes, exhausted from the long day's work of preparing for the oncoming Crystal Fair. Each year, the entire palace's staff was busy with the preparing of food and various decorations to be put on display. Every night for the entire week, the servants would collapse into their beds, grateful for the few hours of sleep they earned at the end of the day.
Ella Care had always loved the Crystal Fair as a foal and always felt honoured to contribute in the task of setting everything up. The only thing that she felt guilty about was the fact that it gave her even less time than she already had to make the long trek to the highest tower...
Stretching, the maid got to her hooves and trotted out of the hall where many other Crystal Ponies were taking banners to take down to the streets. A small group of young mares swept past her, pushing trolleys of specially prepared food for many of the stalls. Although the citizens of the Empire set up a majority of the stalls, the palace provided many with extra food and materials as the fair was made to celebrate unity and happiness.
The first thing that Ella Care did was make a beeline for the kitchens. She was still weighed down by the guilt of not being able to bring Sombra any food for the past two days. The poor foal must be feeling so lonely...
"Out of my way, please!" A mare named Holly Wreath marched passed by Ella Care, her head held high with importance, "Yes, take that down to the ground floor where the Crystal Heart is kept. It'll be used to decorate the chamber- WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? No, not you, sorry. I meant that blithering idiot over there!" She darted over to a cowering young colt and began to rant about the importance of following her orders.
Ella Care sighed. Some ponies took the Crystal Fair too seriously. It was meant to be a time to loosen up and have fun, she was always told.
The kitchens were bustling with activity and the warm, comfortable smell of cooking food made Ella's mouth water. She wandered over to one of the chefs that looked slightly less busy.
"Excuse me." She said, "Is Sweet 'n Sour around?"
The pony nodded and hurried off to fetch the head chef. Sweet 'n Sour was the only pony that Ella Care was allowed to tell about Sombra. Fortunately, he took the news relatively well. As in, he didn't panic like the king and queen had done.
"You want food for the little guy?" He asked her when he arrived. "Sorry, there's not much leftover food. Most of our resources are going into the fair, so not even the royals are eating that good." He gave her a tray with a dish of water and a half-eaten carrot that was starting to go moldy, "It's the best I can do, Ella."
"That's alright." Ella Care told him, "The Crystal Fair is only tomorrow, then everything will be back to normal again." She exited the kitchen, balancing the tray on her back.
She was about halfway up the palace when she ran into Brightspark, the prince and princess's nanny. "Hello, Ella." She said, "Who're you taking that to?"
"Oh, just one of the older maids." Ella Care lied, "She's not faring well with all this excitement in the palace."
"I'm taking this to the little rascals." Brightspark told her, indicating to the tray that was balanced on her own back. "I'm telling you, that Pluto needs to be disciplined. I caught him trying to burn one of his mathematics books. Can you believe that?" She rolled her eyes, "It's a good thing that he can't do magic for beans or we'd be in trouble."
Ella Care eyed the tray that Brightspark was carrying. It was overflowing with bottles of milk and cakes. What had Sweet 'n Sour said about the royals eating poorly again?
Brightspark must have caught Ella Care looking, because she set the tray down and dropped a few items onto her nearly empty plate. "Take them." She told her when the maid tried to put them back, "They never finish all of it, anyway."
Ella Care stared at her blankly for a little while, "Thank you." She said at last.
Brightspark smiled at her as she turned into the royal foals' playroom, "Tell the old maid that I hope she gets better soon!" She called over her shoulder as she shut the door behind her.
The rest of the trip upward was uneventful and at last, she pushed open the door to Sombra's tower. As always, the young colt was sitting at the window, a faraway look in his scarlet eyes. He turned when he heard Ella Care enter and his eyes widened in surprise when he caught sight of all the things that were laid on his tray.
"Surprise." Ella Care said cheerfully, "The ponies in the kitchen let me take a little more. With the fair approaching, they've got plenty of food."
"What fair?"
"Nothing." Said Ella Care quickly, cursing herself for accidentally letting it slip. It was bad enough that Sombra was alone all day in the tower, she didn't want him to know that tomorrow, ponies from all over the Empire would be gathering and having fun while he was, as usual, all by himself. "I think you'll need help eating all this."
Sombra laughed, "Thanks mama."
It was something that Sombra always called her. In a way, Ella Care had adopted the foal after his birth parents abandoned him.
But she always felt so guilty that she'd never been enough for him.
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4021899 What? I was just saying that the Queen and King are *^%$# and this is sad and very good. So how did what I say have anything to do with what you said?
Something bad is going to happen to Ella Care, isn't.
4022847 Ah, you'll see
4029677 Ok
4211806 Yeah, best father of the year.
A random thought. Sombra does not realize the princess is his sibling.
He will eventually be a stallion. It's only a matter of time. 
Not that I want clop. It's just that it would be reasonable. Although it would be incest, it's not serious incest. Not like AJ and Big Mac. That is different. And disgusting.
Wow. Can't wait till the next chapter! You have captivated by attention!
If only you knew.
If you intentionally capitalized autumn, then you should probably do the same to winter. If it wasn't intentional, pointing it out to you.
*Low whistle* Interesting. But anyways, pointing out the "it"
4273315 Yes, Pluto is an arrogant bastard.
Thanks, I'll correct that sometime.
4273286 Nah, this story won't have clop. I've never been to good at writing stuff like that, but I've been thinking if I write Chrysalis's story, I might include some. No idea yet.
4273007 Thank you, o great and virtuous reader-over and correcter of my mistakes. I shall humbly correct them immediately.
No really, I will. Thanks. 
4272966 Naw, thanks
4455078 4455082 4455086 4455088
I only want to see this story develop into something great and enjoyable! I eagerly await the next chapter update! 
You're welcome!
(Preparing the torture chamber for the blasphemous down-voter....)
4853911 No, I tried to look for it, but wasn't able to. From what I remember, it was a Crysimbra ship. The two meet at the dark magic school. I was turned off at the first chapter.