Crystal Empire Chronicles

by Northern Course

Chapter 4 - Doctor Doctor

From the Journal of the right hand of King Sombra (page 78)

From all the years I have studied and took up discussion with king Sombra, the many ways he enjoyed to make ponies suffer, those that had wronged him and those of the great empire. There was one method of “torture” that he dare never try to recreate, and would never wish on his worst enemies.

On several occasions I have always tried to press my king further on the topic, but whenever he notices me trying to do this, he stops all forms of communication, looks right at me, and repeats two words, "Never again". Each and every time I try to seek new information.

The way my king speaks about it. I may be wrong, but there is a sense of fear in his tone when the topic is brought up. It scares me, but if this "torture" can scare even King Sombra, what am I going to find in the end?

Is it even worth the risk to find out...? I say yes.

---

It is not easy to be a guard of the Crystal Empire, but for those born with the talent it is a job of great privilege and honour. Guards are kept to a high standard that they must keep to at all times, but for the world-wide known Crystal Guards that is not a hard thing to do. They are known for their unquestionable loyalty to the ponies of their great empire.

“The princess must die” one guard mutters under his breath, over and over. His grip over his weapon tightening further after each mutter, the red in his eyes growing more and more intense with every passing hour that he stood at the princess’s door. His eye movement moving between his forefront and the guard stationed opposite the other side of the door.

They are known for their great composure, and their trained bodies made to resist the worst, and push through any pains or difficulty, without even the slightest sense of distraction or exhaust.

“Make it stop, for the love of the Alicorns make it stop” Screamed another guard covering his ears to stop the screaming as best he could. His breathing running heavy, as he continued to listen to those pained wails, and the suffering of the pony inside.

Yes, the crystal guard are some of the finest guardponies in the entire know world of ponies, and it would be a great shock, if any of that was to change anytime soon.

---

It had been a very long few weeks for Precise, after finding out the truth of Queen Sky’s illness. A curse, caused by one whose heart had turned a deep black, a black too pure for even his own name to describe it well enough. Shadow Guard. The previous king of the Crystal Empire, and Stratege’s father. Precise had decided to use her new knowledge, shut herself in her room and work to find a cure, or at the very least, find the exact curse used.

There were many varied accounts of curses, found in several scrolls, journals, and books that Precise ‘acquired’ from her dear friend’s personal library. After all, Crimson was the pony known for his talent of magical research, and his rich collection of magical knowledge from around the world made his library impossible not to ‘borrow’ from.

Information was hardly lacking. The proof of that was in fact of the fat stack of books on the subject. What was lacking was Precise’s skill of translation. All knowledge of dark magic was filtered in Equestria due to a law passed by the unicorns of past, and the crystal empire is not known for having it’s root in unicorn magic or knowledge thereof. All free knowledge of curses, as she knew or could ever possible be, was sitting next to her, in a pile large enough for her to call a free weekend, but she could hardly read any other of it.

Precise had no concept of time within her walls. Sound sealed room, food teleported in and the windows covered by even more stacks of books. For Precise, days and days went by, as she continued and struggled with her translations, and every once in a while, she felt the need to take a break, rest her head and take a five minute break like her king said, in-between all the chaos she had wrapping around her head.

---

*Knock Knock Knock

“… Huh, no, I just borrowed them I swear” Precise yelled out, raising her head from her desk in a fast motion. Her mind still not fully awake to the situation she yelled out what she found “appropriate” at the time in her mental state. Precise shook her head, trying to waken herself up.

The knocking continued. Precise rubbed her eyes “I should have soundproofed the door” she said with the feeling she could have slept another few hours.

“What is it?” she answered out, waiting for a reply. She did so for a good minute, before remembering her soundproof spell. Waving her magical horn at the door, she disabled the spell, and called out again, hoping whoever was there before, was still there.

“Doctor, there seems to be a letter for you. It comes with great urgency” said one of the voices on the other side of the door. Precise could assume that the voice was one of the guards. Which one, she had no idea.

“Come in already”, Precise demanded to whoever was knocking. Going so far as to reach out with her magic to both handles of each door to pull them open, and was a mistake that Precise regretted later.

As the door opened with her magic, two things hit her. The first being the sunlight that shined in from the windows of the hallway, lit up the entire room, giving Precise a not so friendly blinding smack to the eyes. The first Precise was able to recognize, but the second caused her to cover her ears, as she felt a high pitch ringing noise hit her ears like an alarm after a bad cider hangover.

Two guardspony stood out in the hallway. A rolled up letter in one of their mouths, the one holding it, stretching his neck out, indicating for Precise to take the letter with her magic.

The rolled up letter glowed in the magical pink glow of Precise’s magic, as she levitated the letter towards her. She unwrapped the letter using the same magic. With her eyes she could see that the letter was brief, but much of the letter’s condition was messy with large and to the point lettering.

Dear Precise,

FOR THE LOVE OF THE ALICORNS AND SHARD OF GOODNESS YOU HAVE, PLEASE SHOW MECRY FOR ONCE IN YOUR RUTHLESS LIFE AND COME SAVE ME

With dearest regards,

CRIMSON CRYSTAL

“Has Crimson?!” Precise said, bringing herself to face towards the guards with a worried and panicked face, and in response one of the guards turning his head side to side to indicate ‘No’. Allowing Precise to give a sigh of relieve before questioning the content of the letter again.

“Then what is going on and why was I not informed of this?” Precise asked in a demanding tone, even so much to stomp one of her forward hooves to the ground.

The two guards looked at each other. Each giving the other looks, nods of the head and even slight hoof motions. At best they were telling the other to go first. One of the stallions raised his hoof in the air. The other did so as well. Each lowered their hooves and raised them three times in fast motion, and then shot there hooves out. The stallion on the right smiled, at the result, and the other gave a maddened look, before turning himself towards Precise.

The stallion on his left cleared his throat. “Under no circumstances, am I to be disturbed. Only under emergencies that classify a 9 or above on the situation scale are to be reported to me. Complete silence is necessary for research to further forward… do you want the queen’s curse lifted? Well, do you?” the guard with a little bit of condescending in those last few words.

“Oh yes, I did say that” Precise answered with a chuckle, trying almost to make those last words sound more like a joke than they actually were.

“So, we have a nine?” She asked the guards.

“Well, first it was four. Then it was seven, and then back down to 4 and a half, and then it jumped to twelve” the guard continued on his report of the situation.

“Twelve?” Precise said with a shocked look on her face. Then the thought in her head came up, that she only knew her scale to go from one to ten. Ten being a member of royalty dying.

“What’s a Twelve?!”

“The complete and utter rebellion of all the guards within the crystal palace… not as of yet, but it seems to the most valid outcome. The princess has her teeth growing in. From the wailing and screaming, it has gotten worse. Crimson Crystal said he could handle it… but as the letter states, things have gotten worse” reported the guard.

Precise stared into a blank bit of space for a good amount of time. As both guards continued through the details. As things continued on the more and more news Precise was hearing, the more panicked her face became. Until suddenly Precise leapt out the door running down the hall as fast as her hooves could carry her. All the two guards could hear after that was her panicked screams. They figured she was trying to say ‘Got to fix this’.

---

As Precise headed down the hallway, the sound that ringed throughout her ears continued. As she got further and further towards the royal quarters, it became harder and harder to concentrate. Precise had been forced at points to cast her silencing magic around herself.

She saw how the guards that patrolled the palace differed. If what the guards told her was to be believed, she could tell how long a guardspony had been at the palace and where they had been stationed. It wasn’t hard to figure out which ones the guardspony that screamed “Please, don’t make me go back there” filed under.

As Precise had turned the corner to the royal corridor, the fact occurred to her. If guards stationed near the area were ‘scarred’ by the experience, what would it be for the guards stuck at ground zero? Turning around Precise got her answer.

The first guard closest to her, she could see had his hooves fully gripped around his spear, almost as if a security blanket… a good choice. A very small thing she noticed but this guard’s attention seemed to be all over the place, his eye’s shooting from side to side as if expecting to be attacked by an enemy from any angle.

The second guard looked to be on the floor with his hooves wrapped over his ears, lying on his side, as he slowly rocked back and forth. His mouth flapping continuously, and judging by the movements, he was muttering the same thing over and over again.

As Precise reached the doors, the guards took notice of her, standing to attention as best they could. Precise looked at each of them slowly, trying to judge their condition and also working to prepare questions for them.

“Just get in there already” the two guards said as they quickly opened the door, and pushing Precise through the door with any of the hooves they could get around her. Precise was shoved into the room, and had the doors shut behind her, just as quickly as she had been forced through them.

She could see that Crimson had produced some sort of magical bubble around his head. Whether or not it worked to protect or block anything had yet to be proven. When Crimson noticed Precise, his bubble popped, and he quickly pull Precise forward. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. Please do something, she won’t stop”

Precise looked down into a crib she was pulled towards, and saw the Princess rolling around an assortment of blankets. Her face showed the confusion and pain any foal felt during teeth growth. Precise picked the Princess up slowly into her hooves.

“Please, please, we know it hurts. The pain must be really bad. Just let sweet Doctor Precise handle it” she said, each word coming out of her mouth somehow softer than the last.

“Precise, please, I’m begging you, do you have any sedatives?” Crimson said with his head and front hooves kneeling close to the ground, almost as if he was crawling on the ground in front of Precise.

“Are you insane? She’s just a foal for crying out loud” Precise yelled back at Crimson.

“Not for her. FOR ME” Crimson screamed out, almost bursting out into tears as he did it.

Precise held her in her hoof, supported by her magic. To precise the idea that such a small thing could cause the entire guard force such suffering was insane. It was as if as an entire nation of dragons had just declared war, everypony would panic and without exception.

"What about you? We thought you could handle something like this?" Precise asked, he was no medical pony, but having the role of royal foal-sitter, he must have known something.

"Well when I was foal-sitting back home, we had plenty of the two most wonderful words in the Equestrian dictionary. Unicorn Doctors" Crimson said with the motion of his hooves.

The princess stopped for a moment, and in that moment Crimson threw himself to the floor and covered both is ears, yelling something, that to Precise ears sounded like “Get down. Here it comes again”

The crying screeches produced by the princess at close proximity to Precise, caused her to both shake her entire body, and fold both of her ears over with her magic. Precise had now experienced what Crimson and the entire guard force on this side of the castle had been dealing with, and it was by no means ever been over estimated.

As the headache that had begun slowly working its way through her head like a magical drill started to grow more painful, Precise quickly started the glowing of her horn, and as the glow of his horn became more and more intense, a pink like mist started to conjure around her horn.

As Precise began to rock her slowly back and forth, the mist engulfed the princess, and every second with the mist’s intensity growing ever thicker and larger, the screeching grew quieter and quieter. And as the screeching stopped all together the mist faded, to reveal the princess sleeping softly. Precise quietly held her for a moment; the only other time she had held her like this was at her birth. That was not the best of memories. Not many ponies had seen their new princess, and she doubted after this incident, many ponies in the castle wouldn’t mind avoiding such a meeting. Precise learnt that the quiet moments we have are at the times we are most thoughtful, in mind and in soul. When she was assured that her magic had taken its direct effect on the princess, she lifted her slowly back down into her crib, and tucked her in tightly for a nice, magic pain free induced sleep.

"Thank you” Precise heard from across the room. Crimson was making from what sounded like a very heart felt message.

“Well, it was nothing. I’m sorry I couldn't get here sooner…”

“Not you” Crimson yelled back.

Precise turned around towards the door to see Crimson faced towards the two guardponys that were in the centre of the room. “You two, have been with me through all of this. I don’t know if I could have survived without the both of you there with me. Knowing you were outside doing your job, made things bearable enough for me, I know I am truly grateful”

With Crimson’s message given, the guards took back up their positions and closed the doors behind them.

"I don't even..." Precise worriedly said… “Wait, do you still not know their names?”

“That doesn’t matter right now” Crimson said changing the topic, as Precise lifted an eyebrow.

"Precise, I have been to Tartatus and back before, but even Tartatus would ask me to just leave if I brought that screaming foal down there” Crimson continued “That by no means is an easy thing to do”

Crimson stopped what he was sure was going to be a rant when he looked over Precise. “You look just as bad as I feel”

“Do… do you remember Shadow Guard?” Precise said, the question sounded strange coming out of her mouth. To her it was almost asking if he knew of the Alicorns. Whether it’s the god or the great villain of story books, you don’t ever forget when you’ve lived that story.

“Shadow?” Crimson said. Crimson took a moment to think, and for some reason it seemed incredibly difficult. The very act of Crimson even trying, gave him a horrible headache ontop of the one he already had.

“The old King… yes I remember. It’s a hard thing to forget if you were there. Was a nice king… you know, until he went mad” Crimson said, the act of cycling through his memories causing his headache to throb even worse.

“Eight years ago, he cast a curse on Sky. I don’t know the exact details of the spell work, and curses aren’t in my field” Precise explained, and stopped, thinking carefully about her next words. These words would be very important.

“Eight Years?” Crimson said rubbing the back of his head with his left forehoof. “Has it really been that long?”

“It’s been a much longer time since I’ve even researched that sort of magic. Hasn’t it?” Crimson responded, his knowledge of such things reaching him like a hazy memory.

“Crimson, in your travels, you must have met some ponies who knew things about curses. Could you get in contact with those ponies for me? We need them”

“Some ponies, yeah I met some who’d know about curses. Most of them not even ponies, and some of them I met, we didn’t end on the best of terms”

“I’ll tell you where you can find them… but just how you’ll get in contact with them…?”

“Don’t worry about that, we have our own methods. Send them my message once you have them” Precise reassured, as she moved to leave, knowing she had all the information she needed. Before Precise left through the door, Crimson called out to her and said “Thanks. Know I mean that”

“It’s a doctor’s joy to hear such things from a patient” Precise stated, turning her head around to give Crimson a weak but thankful smile.

“Tell the truth. I would be a terrible patient” Crimson said with a laugh.

“Well Crimson, if she starts again, you know who to call, right?”

“You, the greatest of all medical unicorns”

“Don’t make me blush” Precise said as she finally moved her way to the door taking her leave. Those being her final words she left to Crimson. When she closed the door behind her, she could not help but lean herself against the door in exhaust. She saw both guards staring back to her.

“He is, you know” Precise remarked to both guards as she picked herself up and started moving slowly back down the hall. Back to her duties, back to her room, and back to lonely silence, in hopes of finding a cure.