Pony Fantasy V: Exodus of the Void

by GMBlackjack

XIV - Cadenza's Legacy

Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash walked into the Delta of the Desert of Shifting Sands with messy manes, bruises all over their body, and tired eyes. Pinkie was bouncing along behind them, acting completely normal.

“Woah.” Lyra said. “What happened to you guys?”

“We don’t wanna talk about it.” Applejack grunted.

“It involved a big purple bird and the sinking of the Celestia.” Pinkie added.

“Ah said we don’t wanna talk about it.” Applejack reiterated.

“Okay then miss grumpy plot.” Lyra muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Glad you girls made it back!” Twilight said, grinning. “This is the Sandwinder!” Twilight grinned the most dorky grin imaginable, gesturing towards the Sandwinder like it was the greatest thing ever invented.

“It looks like a piece of random wooden bits slapped together in a heap.” Rainbow Dash observed.

Twilight glared at the rainbow pegasus.

Pinkie Pie grinned. “I think it’s a perfect vessel for a treacherous voyage across the sands! Wheee!!!” She leapt onto the Sandwinder and grabbed one of the railings. “I’m driving!”

“That’s the back of the ship, Pinkie.” Twilight said.

“Oh.”

Applejack sighed. “Ah suppose we better get this desert crossing over with… Everypony aboard.”

Rarity gasped. “You really think we can board this crime against good taste without sprucing it up first?”

“Rarity, we all know it’s just going to get torn to shreds in the middle of the sands. So no sprucing up is going to help. Just get in…”

The mares began to crawl into the ship. Lyra scratched her chin. “Mom? Are you going to tell them?”

“Tell us what?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Oh. We saw Queen Luna.” Twilight said.

“WHAT?” The four other mares yelled.

“Yeah. She did her warp-flight magic to fly across the Shifting Sands. She’s probably at Cadenza now, waiting for us.” Twilight bit her lip. “She uh… Didn’t even talk to us when she was here. She just wordlessly left. It felt… Eerie.”

Rainbow Dash and Rarity leaned in closer to Twilight. Rarity spoke. “Dear, are you sure she said nothing? Had no messages for us?

Twilight shook her head. “I’m sorry, she didn’t say anything…”

Rarity huffed. “Well then we must pursue her! Onto the Sandwinder!” She marched into the sandship, her face set. “Come along everypony.”

The mares slowly filed in, Rainbow Dash and Applejack taking up the rear. Rainbow Dash took something out of her saddlebags and examined it - a familiar looking pendant.

“What’s that?” Applejack asked.

Rainbow Dash’s eyes lit up in fear. She quickly stashed the thing back in her bags. “Nothing! Random pendant I stole from some rich lady! Yeah!”

Applejack narrowed her eyes, before rolling them dramatically. “Okay, whatever you say Rainbow.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow said, rushing into the Sandwinder. “Let’s just get going!”

Applejack marched into the ship. “So, Twi, how does this thing work?”

“Magic.” Twilight said.

Applejack raised her eyebrow dubiously.

“Really! I turn this crank with my telekinesis and the ship moves through the sand. Rather quickly, if my calculations are right.”

Rarity blinked. “If…?”

Lyra chuckled. “Yeah, there’s always a chance for pony error in these things.”

Rarity thought about objecting, but decided against it - they needed to find her mother, and if they had to face some peril and uncouth desert sands, then so be it. “Away.”

Twilight lit her horn up with magic and cranked as fast as she could. All her effort flowed into the crank, and the corkscrew began to turn at absurd speeds. The sandship took off across the nearly-liquid sands like a speedboat. The entire thing shook and shuddered, a few wooden planks falling off in the first few seconds.

“This was a bad idea!!!” Applejack yelled, barely heard over the constant shaking.

“This is fun! Whee! Sand!” Pinkie laughed, her mouth open wide. Then she started choking as sand began to flow into her open mouth, suddenly realizing it wasn’t as fun as she previously thought.

Twilight let go of the crank, passing off shifts to Lyra, the ship slowed down slightly, but it still sped through the sands at high speed. Rainbow Dash jumped as the wall she was leaning on gave out. “You two didn’t make this very sturdy!”

“By my calculations we are about a third of the way through the desert already!” Twilight announced, taking over on crank duty once more. “Just hold on tight!”

Pinkie stuck her head out the window. “GUYS! We’re about to hit something!”

“What?” Twilight yelled.

“I SAID WE’RE ABOUT TO HIT SOMETHING!”

“We’re going to eat banana pudding?”

Pinkie sighed. “NO, WE’RE GOING TO EAT BANANA PUDDING!”

“Oh, hit something. That’s nice.” Twilight processed this. “HIT SOMETHING? THERE’S NOTHING OUT HERE!”

As she said that, the Sandwinder hit something very solid and launched into the air, losing a large chunk of its floor. The six ponies looked down and saw an ancient pyramid standing in the middle of the shifting sands.

“Who on earth would build a pyramid out here?” Lyra exclaimed. “The amount of resources required to do so would be astronomical!”

“Who cares? We’re going to fall!” Applejack Explained. “And I don’t think the sand is soft enough to catch us!”

Twilight acted quickly. “Rarity! Lyra! Levitate the ship!”

Rarity gawked. “But it’s huge-“

“We just need to slow our speed down!” Twilight yelled, her horn lighting up with three levels of power. “Come on! It’s going to fast for me to stop on my own! Eek…”

Rarity and Lyra obliged trying their best to slow the ship down - and they scudded, but they were still heading for the ground at an impressive speed.

“WHEEEE!” Pinkie yelled in delight as they fell towards the sands.

The Sandwinder splintered into dozens of pieces upon impact.

—

Rainbow Dash sat up, spitting sand out of her mouth. She shook her head vigorously, and took a quick look around. She was on the other “delta” of the Desert of Shifting Sands, her belongings tossed around her. She made a quick check - everyone was nearby, though only Twilight and Pinkie were conscious at the moment.

Rainbow Dash picked up her saddlebags and started putting things back in them. “So, I take it that worked?” She asked.

Twilight smacked some sand out of her ears. “Well, far as I know there are only two exits out of the desert that aren’t mountain ranges, so since this isn’t where we started I think we’re pretty good.”

“You’re a horrible navigator.” Applejack grunted, standing up.

Rainbow Dash realized something horrifying at that moment - she didn’t have her pendant on her. She began to look frantically. Upon making a brief search she saw her pendant on the ground, next to Rarity. She panicked - she couldn’t let Rarity see it - rushing over to the unicorn’s prone form and stuffing the amulet into her bags. This commotion woke Rarity up. “Dear… what are you in such a hurry for?” She coughed, picking her crown up off the ground and dusting it of.

“N-Nothing!” Rainbow Dash said. “Nothing at all!” She backed away quickly. “HEY PINKS WHAT’S UP!”

“Oh I’m just about to let you come walk over to me so you can try to look less suspicious but actually look more suspicious in the process.”

Rainbow Dash blinked, then shook her head. “Never mind that, we need to get going people! Stuff to do! Things to dash! Gotta find M- Queen Luna! Yeah!”

Lyra sat up. “We’re near the Lost City? Where is it?”

Twilight pointed to the south. Just on the horizon, they could see several ruined stone buildings. “There’s our goal everypony, the Lost City, the capital of the once-powerful kingdom of Cadenza.”

Applejack frowned. “What happened to Cadenza anyway? Where’d all those ‘crystal ponies’ go?”

“Historians ask that question a lot.” Lyra said. “They used to be the most powerful of the four elemental nations, run by Queen Mi Amore Cadenza. Then they became reclusive, and nopony heard from them except on rare events… Then they just stopped contact with all the kingdoms. A few diplomats went to Cadenza, finding that all the citizens were gone. Every last one. A mystery for the ages…”

As the six mares approached the ruined town, Twilight put a hoof to her chin. “Wasn’t the capital supposed to have a tower made of crystal in it? In fact, wasn’t crystal supposed to be what most of the houses were built on? This is all just… rock and stone.”

“That is odd…” Rarity said, tearing her thoughts off of Rainbow Dash for a second. “Perhaps it has something to do with what -MOTHER?” Rarity yelled, posting at a shadowy figure atop a building. The figure moved out of sight less than a second after the mares saw them.

Twilight frowned, teleporting on top of the building. She saw nopony. “That’s odd..” She said.

“Over here!” Lyra yelled, galloping too a tree, only to see nothing behind it. “Aw…”

Pinkie smirked. “Oh so she’s playing my game is she? Heh. She won’t know what’s coming..” Pinkie leapt behind a tree and disappeared.

Everyone waited for a few seconds for her to pop out of some unexpected corner - she didn’t.

“Stick together.” Applejack warned. “Suddenly this place seems a lot more hostile…”

Twilight nodded, looking everywhere for an attacker.

Rainbow Dash gasped, pointing with a hoof. There was Queen Luna walking into a the large double doors of a building. The five mares galloped in after her, Rarity not even entertaining the thought that her mother looked slightly different.

Inside, Queen Luna’s back was turned to them, her stellar mane lighting the ruined hall with a sot, and eerie, glow.

“Mother…?” Rarity asked, stepping forward.

Luna made no move to turn around. The five mares stepped forward - and the ground gave out beneath them. They all screamed as some force sucked them into the ground, Rainbow Dash unable to fly out. They screamed in terror…

Queen Luna didn’t even flinch.

The mares all landed in a pile with Rarity on the bottom.

Twilight grunted, standing up. “We appear to be in some crystalline prison… Interesting…”

“Yeah.” Pinkie said from across the room. “It’s great.”

“Pinkie?” Applejack asked. “What happened?”

“Followed whoever it was here. Then these shiny ponies tied me up.” Sure enough, Pinkie was tied in a strange crystal rope.

Several strange shiny ponies walked into the room, their coats glistening. A large white stallion with a blue mane appeared to be their leader. “You are trespassing.”

“We are terribly sorry, sir.” Rarity said, crawling out of the pony pile. “We thought this place was abandoned!”

“You thought that for a reason.” He said. “That’s the whole point of this place. You aren’t supposed to even know we exist. How did you find this place?”

Pinkie smiled. “Like I said, we’re looking for the Earth Crystal!”

“The Earth Crystal isn’t here!” The stallion yelled. “I would know, I’ve lived here my entire life!”

Twilight looked around at the underground crystal lattice they were in. It was brightly lit, had dozens of tunnels crisscrossing every which way, and she could see “crystal” ponies trotting around through the translucent walls. “Where is here?”

The stallion blinked. “You really didn’t know this place existed do you?” He sighed. “This is our city… We call it the Last City.”

“So this is what happened to Cadenza! You all moved down here!” Lyra squee’d. “Ancient mysteries answered! Woohoo!”

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “Excuse me mister…”

“Shining Armor. Behind me are Sapphire Shores and Sunburst.”

“…Shining Armor, but why did you all move down here?”

Shining Armor huffed. “The surface was filled with constant bickering and war between the nations. With the death of our Queen at the hands of the Trotton kingdom, our King declared that it was time to leave the affairs of the world and live in our own society. He constructed these great caverns for us, and slowly moved most of the population here. It was a great undertaking-“

Sunburst huffed. “That he then used to start enslaving us…”

“History only remembers the victors, Sunburst, remember that. I’m sure Sombra was not the fear-mongering monster history suggests he is. He did, after all, give us all this. And you can’t tell me the council isn’t corrupt.”

“You and I are on the council, Shining.”

Shining huffed, turning back to the six mares. “Now, you six present a problem… We can’t let the rest of the world know about us, and we can’t just kill you so… We have to keep you here.”

“Well, as long as the Earth Crystal is here…” Twilight said. “We should be fine, we came here to protect it.”

Shining Armor facehooved. “The Earth Crystal is nothing but a legend.”

Rarity cocked her head. “But… We heard the Crystals! Applejack here was chosen by the Earth Crystal back at the Wind Shrine!”

Shining Armor huffed. “Just a legend. Like all the crystals.”

The mares’ jaws all hit the floor.

“But he, I, what?” Twilight blabbed, flabbergasted.

Rainbow Dash facehooved. “Dude, we’ve seen the three other Crystals. We were there when they shattered. So don’t go telling us they’re all just myths.”

Shining Armor blinked. “You’ve… seen them? Seen them shatter?”

“Yes!” Rarity exclaimed. “Something wants to destroy them! It’s why we’re here! We were told by the Fire Crystal itself that Earth was here!”

“Legends-“

Twilight glared. “Surely you’ve noticed your fires losing potence, your waters losing their vigor. The crystals are gone and we’re here to save the last one.”

Sunburst nudged Shining Armor. “She’s right, you know. Temperatures are dropping.”

Shining Armor growled. “Well the Earth Crystal isn’t here-“

“It could be below.” Sunburst suggested. “We don’t know the full extent of our city.”

Shining Armor huffed. “Fine. You can search for your Earth Crystal - but I’m coming with you to make sure you don’t run off.”

“Fine by us.” Applejack said. “We don’t want to leave the Earth Crystal’s presence anyway. We’ll probably sit by it for eternity…”

Pinkie grinned. “We’ll become permanent citizens!”

Shining Armor obviously didn’t like that idea. “Come. I know the way to the lower unknown…”

The six mares followed the stallion through the Last City - and their jaws dropped as they entered a gigantic crystal-coated cavern. Crystal pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies rushed around everywhere, going about their daily lives without a care in the world. Great buildings reached form the ceiling to the floor, from wall to wall, and literally every surface was covered in ponies.

“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!” Lyra squee’d. “An entire lost civilization, living right beneath us!”

Shining Armor gestured at the two statues in the center of the cavern. “Queen Cadence and King Shining Armor… My ancestors.” He frowned. “There used to be statues of King Sombra and Queen Flurry Heart… But those were taken down by order of the council.”

“You seem bitter about that.” Applejack observed.

“They are apart of the legacy of our past as much as Cadence and her husband… But they are dismissed as evil tyrants or naive children.” He huffed. “Not that you’d understand.”

Shining Armor led them down through level after level of the Last City - the place was tremendous. Lyra and Twilight had been unsure that an entire nation could hide under the ground, but after the first half-hour of going downwards they were convince it could hold everypony on the planet if needed.

“These are the uninhabited levels” Shining Armor said. “We are close to the bottom, where the tunnels become nothing but earth…”

“Then what’s that?” Pinkie said, pointing at something shiny just beneath the crystal floor.

Shining Armor blinked, trying to make out the blurry golden shape. “I have no idea…”

Pinkie produced a shovel and started digging, though the crystal ground was far too hard for her to make much progress. Twilight was about to try and cut through the crystal when Applejack stepped overtop the thing, and it suddenly lit up. Twilight backed away, bumping into Rarity.

The four Warriors of Light began to glow, shining colored lights on the brilliant cavern, creating a rainbow effect.

“What on…” Shining Armor muttered. Lyra ran to one of the walls and studied the light pattern carefully. Twilight remained with the group.

The thing beneath the crystal suddenly roared, and the four Warriors of Light were engulfed by bright lasers. Twilight, standing right next to Rarity, was engulfed as well.

Lyra’s jaw dropped. “MOM?!?!?!?” She fell to her knees. “No…”

Shining Armor stared in disbelief. “Just… Vaporized…. Like that… Maybe the Earth Crystal really is down here…”

—

Twilight and the Warriors of Light appeared in a strange alien-looking room. Gears were constantly turning, strange bolts of electricity lined the wiry walls, and the entire area was made of a strange golden material.

But what was even stranger was that everything seemed too… tall. The doorways were twice as tall as the mares, the chairs too towering. They had to stand on their hind hooves to see the lights around them.

“Where are we?” Twilight asked.

“I have no idea!” Pinkie said, awed. “I’ve… Never seen anything like this! This is more advanced than the meteorite! Do you see these conduits? Amazing! This is all super-duper-high-tech! Woah!”

Rarity frowned. “I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse…”

“Hey look!” Rainbow Dash said, looking out a window into a large chamber. “Check it out! The Celestia!”

The mares ran to the ledge, standing so they could see. Sure enough, the fire-powered Celestia was sitting right there, completely undamaged, levitated by some strange golden devices.

“Uh… What’s that next to it?” Applejack asked.

What they saw was something metallic in design - silvery and golden, graceful and intimidating. It floated in the chamber, looking like a treasure for a king of kings. The back areas of it glowed blue, giving off alien energies. It sparkled, filling everypony looking at it with awe.

It also had two gigantic wings.

“A… flying machine!” Twilight said. “That’s… That’s amazing! I wonder how fast it goes! How high it goes!”

“Let’s steal it!” Rainbow Dash and Pinkie yelled at the same time.

Applejack facehooved while Rarity sighed. “That’s your answer to everything isn’t it?”

“Yep!” Rainbow Dash said, rubbing her hooves together. “I hope no-one’s here…”

As Rainbow Dash flew around looking for a way into the hangar, Rarity frowned, looking at her pendant. It was dirty.

I’d never let my pendant get dirty… She realized…

“Excuse me?” A new voice said. “Did I just hear you talking about taking that ship?”

The mares froze in place as a crackling ball of yellow energy appeared before them. “I’m sorry, I rather like that ship. I’m afraid I must stop you. Sorry about that.”

—

Shining Armor led a tearful Lyra back to the council chambers - perhaps they could do something, he had said. Though honestly he just expected them to grill Lyra like a prisoner… But he had to get her to come back up somehow.

The two entered the council room to be greeted with a horrible sight - Queen Luna was standing over the dead bodies of all the council members, the form of Sunburst in her hooves. She threw the bearded stallion to the ground, crushing his head with a simple kick.

Then she whirled around, her eyes flashing an alien green.

“WHERE. IS. THE. EARTH. CRYSTAL?”

Shining Armor glared at her. “I’d rather die than tell you anything, surface dweller!”

“SO YOU KNOW THEN?” She cackled. “Perfect.” She grabbed him with her magic and rammed her horn into his skull. His magical shields only stopped her for a fraction of a second. She scanned his mind as he died, grinning a horrible grin. “Found you.” She said before flying away, completely ignoring Lyra.

The poor mare just fell into a convulsing heap, crying…

She felt like everything was doomed…

Comments

[Ri2]

Holy shit

[the other sans]

It’s going to fast for me to stop on my own
picking her crown up off the ground and dusting it of

1. Too.
2. Off.