The Wild Crystalling

by Pinkie Pie Sweets

Chapter 6: Truth of Problems

Back at the palace where the ceremony is, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy are trying to get the crystal ponies inside their homes, but so far, it's not working very well. The ponies don't want to leave. It's even harder when the three friends can't mention the heart being broken.

"We're just saying that it might not be the best idea to stay outside!" Rainbow loudly says.

"I camped out all night for this spot! I'm not about to just give it up!" A crystal mare protests while sitting in her chair.

The rest of the ponies nod their heads agreeing that they don't want to leave at all.

"Still, when you think about it, the view is just as good a little further back, like... inside your house?" Fluttershy shyly replies.

Hearing this, the crystal ponies are starting to get concern and wonder what's going on

"The Crystalling ceremony is one of our most sacred traditions! And when that foal is held before the Crystal Heart, I plan to be as close to the action as possible!" One of the stallions says, and he means it.

Along with everypony else in the empire for that matter.

Applejack looks a bit concern, and honestly says, "Honestly, I don't know if there's gonna be a Crystallin'. The truth is, the baby's an Alicorn and her magic's plum crazy, so you might not wanna be that close after all."

Hearing the news makes the ponies even more excited.

"A baby Alicorn? Wow, I can't wait to see that!" One of the mares says with excitement.

"Oh, those little wings are probably so cute!" One of the stillions complements.

"I know, right?" Another stallion agrees.

"Look, I am a hundred percent sure the Crystalling isn't happening," Rainbow loudly announces.

Just then they can hear blasting noise and bright light. The girls look up to see magical beams are shooting out of the castle. The girls can suspect it's the baby's magic surge. However the crystal ponies have a different opinion.

One of the stallion remarks, "No Crystalling, huh? Then why are they starting the fireworks show?"

All the ponies start cheering for excitement and can't wait for the baby to be shown to the empire. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy can see that it's going to be harder to get the ponies to leave, and the storm is still forming. In the castle library, Twilight and Cadence are looking for any books that can help fix the heart while Shining Armor, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Tiger Lily are busy chasing the baby around, and the little alicorn is very energetic.

Shining Armor takes deep breaths as chasing the baby, and says, "Young filly... come back here!"

"Come to your Auntie Pinkie Pie!" Pinkie explains, while chasing the baby from her end.

AS the four are chasing the baby. Candace is looking through the bookshelves and pasting them to Twilight to Twilight.

"Bridle Buck's Boat Chants, Hayhoof's Intonements, Mystic Maps and Mazes…" Twilight says in a panic, but so far none of them seem to do.

Twilight groans in frustration and puts one of the books down.

She turns to Cadence asks, "Anything up there?"

"Not yet! I'm not even sure how these are organized!" Cadence calls out looking through the shelfs.

As Cadence looks through the book on the shelf her baby teleports herself on it./ Cadence tries to carefully grab her, but the baby hiccups and pushes herself back and unleash a bright yellow beam. The baby then teleports herself to where Twilight is and circle around her and the desk. Shining Armor chase after the baby.

Cadence worriedly asks, "Shining Armor, I thought you were taking care of the baby?!"

"I'm trying!" Shining Armor screams, still chasing the baby through the library.

Shining Armor continues to chase the baby and makes a turn in the library, but the baby teleports herself away, and continues to fly in an opposite direction. The baby is happily playing and laughing as she flies around.

Rarity jumps in front of her with confidence and holding a butterfly net, and shouts, "Gotcha!"

The baby becomes surprised to see it. The baby then teleports herself from being in front to behind behind Rarity. Rarity looks behind to see that she missed.

"Oh! Or not…" Rarity bluntly replies.

The chase continues and it's becoming tiring. As the baby flies, Pinkie is chasing right behind her and heading to an intersection of the library. Shining Armor, Tiger Lily, and Rarity are able to take a different row of the library corning the baby. With that, they jump so they can grab her, but the baby teleports herself, and the four ponies crash into each other. They all get up to see the baby is still flying.

"Dealing with babies is tough work," Pinkie says feeling a bit tired.

Shining Armor turns to Tiger Lily and asks, "Did your parents had to deal with you flying and teleporting yourself all the time?"

"Apparently yes, but when I got older I didn't use teleportation spells until Twilight taught me how to properly use them. Not tom mention I never made a really loud scream like the baby did," Tiger Lily sheepishly answers.

Then Rarity asks, "Then what do we do?"

"What babies want you to do, keep playing until she tired herself out," Tiger Lily informs.

Shining Armor and the others agree to the idea, they just need to keep chasing or in the baby's case, play with her until she's tired herself out. As Tiger Lily and the others chase the baby, and Twilight and Cadence try to find a spell, Starlight and Spike comes into the library to see the chaos. Twilight is reading the books at a fast paced, Cadence is looking through the shelves and pass them to Twilight, and Tiger Lily and the others are chase a baby they don't recognize. The baby unleash the magic beam and the tow duck down.

Starlight exclaims with a shock, "What is going on?!"

"You want the long or the short version?" Pinkie asks, when the baby is dragging her around.

"Short?" Starlight questions answers.

"The baby's an Alicorn and she accidentally destroyed the Crystal Heart, so Twilight and Cadance are looking for a spell to put it back together and save the Crystal Empire from turning into a giant wasteland of ice and snow." Pinkie fastly explains.

Starlight and Spike shockley states hearing the news.

Then Starlight bluntly says, "Oh."

Shining Armor tries to catch the baby, but ends up missing and bumping into Pinkie Pie. They still need to chase the baby and get her to stop, but she doesn't seem that tired. AS Cadence is searching, she notice an old dark graw book with gold lining and stars on the cover.

Cadence levitates the book to Twilight, as she suggests, "What about this? Trotter's Tome of Reliquary?"

Twilight takes a close at the book and read through it, and thinks she find the spell she needs.

Twilight smiles and announces, "I think this is it!"

She then shows Cadence the spell she has found in the book.

Cadence reads the book and can see the spell can help, and says, "'Spell of Relic Reconstitution'! I can't believe we found it!"

"It's a good thing, too! Without this, I don't know what we'd do!" Twilight exclaims, sounding relieved.

As she holds the book with her magic, the baby teleports herself to the books and flies away. Pinkie jumps on the book and jumps high to the baby.

"Got you!" Pinkie shouts having the baby in her hooves.

Just then the baby unleashes a hiccup and a magic beam again. Rarity uses a mirror to reflect it, and bonuses to Shining Armor. He uses a protective shield, and bounces off. It spell comes to Tiger Lily and she uses her magic to repel it. Then lastly the magic comes to Starlight and uses her protective spell to reflect it. However, the beam hits the book and makes a large hole in the middle.

Pinkie sheepishly says, "Oops!"

Twilight looks at the busted books, and exclaims, "That spell was the only thing we found in the whole library that was even close to what we needed!"

"I'm so sorry, Twilight!" Starlight sadly apologizes.

"It's not your fault, Starlight. None of us were expecting any of this," Twilight replies looking a bit concern about this whole thing and looking at the pages of the book.

Cadence asks, "Do you think you can remember the spell?"

"I only read it through once!" Twilight exclaims.

Rarity comes over, and calmly says, "Well, if anypony can exactly remember something she read for the first time two minutes ago, it's you, Twilight."

"I'll try, but I'm not sure how long it'll take," Twilight replies reading the book with a concern look.

Just then snow falls into the library, and everypony can see that the clouds are forming faster.

Pinkie scaredly asks, "Is quickly an option?"

"I'll help if I can, but we should evacuate the city just in case! You need to lead everypony to the train station before the tracks freeze over!" Cadence announces to the others, as she levitates her baby on to her back.

"We will, but between you and Twilight, I'm sure you'll remember the spell," Shining Armor says.

After Shining Armor give his goodbye to Cadence, he along with Rarity and Pinkie hurry to the ceremony to warn the ponies about the evacuation. Twilight brings out a quill and scroll so she can write the spell.

Twilight says with concern, "I only hope this spell is the one we need,"

"Is there anything I can do?" Starlight asks.

"I don't think so. I'm just sorry about your lesson," Twilight says, feeling sorry for the whole mess.

"Oh, that doesn't matter now. Sunburst and I don't have anything in common anyway. He's a big important wizard! And I'm re-learning everything I ever thought I knew," Starlight sadly says,

Tiger Lily hugs Starlight and sadly says, "I'm sorry things didn't work out with him."

"That's okay," Starlight replies with a sad smile.

Cadence comes over and questionably suggests, "Sunburst? I don't recognize the name, but if he's an important wizard, you should bring him here. Maybe he'll know what to do if the spell fails."

Just then Starlight has an idea and happily cheers, "Of course!"

With that Starlight runs to go back to Sunburst's to get some help.

Twilight turns to Spike and informs him, "You better go with her, Spike."

Spike runs after Starlight.

Tiger Lily decides to run after her, and says, "I'm coming too."

Twilight and Cadence doesn't say anything, but accepts Tiger Lily's wish to help Starlight. They book look through the broken wall to see that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna can't hold the storm out for much longer. After a quick run, Starlight, Spike, and Tier Lily reach Sunburst's house. When the reach inside and closes the door, they can see Sunburst looking at his book.

Starlight panicky asks, "Sunburst! Haven't you looked outside?!"

Sunburst looks outside to see that snow and harsh clouds are outside, and he's really confused about it.

Sunburst says looking confused about the event outside, "Snow? That's... not right. The Crystal Heart…"

"Is gone! The baby… Shining Armor and Cadance's baby… it's an Alicorn!" Starlight says in concern.

The news shock Sunburst and makes his glasses fall off his face a bit.

Sunburst adjust his glasses and asks, "Really?"

Starlight nods her head and a panic state and says, "Really! And her magic is a little berserk, and well, I guess she destroyed the Heart, but Twilight thinks she can fix it and Princess Cadance thought you could help!"

"Me?" Sunburst asks with a shock.

"Of course! You're an important wizard in the Crystal Empire! It just makes sense!" Starlight answers.

"And maybe you know a spell that might be able to help fix the Crystal Heart and maybe help keep the baby's magic in check," Tiger Lily adds.

"Right... right... right right right. You know, I'd like to help, I-I really would. I-I just have so much, um, important wizard work to do around here," Sunburst says looking skeptic, and turns back to his books.

"Huh?!" The three friends reply with a confused look.

Tiger Lily is also getting a strange suspicion that Sunburst is not being honest about him being busy, or being a wizard.

Tiger Lily turns to Starlight and whispers, "Starlight, I don't think Sunburst is being honest about being a wizard,"

"What made you say that?" Starlight asks, whispering back.

Then Tiger Lily asks, "When you were with him and said he's a wizard, did he act nervous and doesn't like to talk about it?"

"I guess," Starlight answers.

"Did you also talk to him about your life?" Tiger Lily asks looking concerned.

Starlight sighs sadly and answers, "Not much."

Tiger Lily suggests, "Maybe you two need more help and time with communication with each other."

"How would I do that?" Starlight asks.

"You have to tell Sunburst the truth. You have to tell Sunburst what happened after he left for magic school, maybe then he can be honest with you, bt first, we need to get Sunburst to at least help us with this," Tiger Lily sadly suggests.

Starlight aods her head along with Spike agreeing that Sunburst may have an idea to help them. Back at the palace where the ceremony is, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash are still trying to get everypony to leave, but none of them are moving.

"You can't stay here!" Applejack shouts.

"Did I mention this was a Royal Crystalling? When the crystaller holds the young one aloft, all of the Empire will share their joy and light, and the Crystal Heart will beat stronger than it ever has before!" One of the stallion explains.

"It really is a moving ceremony!" the other stallions agress.

Then Fluttershy shyly says to the ponies, "I really don't think it's going to happen,"

Rainbow starts to shiver and complains, "Come on, it's freezing out here!

"Uh, this is the Crystal Empire. We've seen snow before," The crystal mare on her chair remarks.

And everypony are not leaving.

"Not like this!" Shining Armor's voice surrounds the area.

Everypony including the three friends look to see Shining Armor is on the stage.

He then announces, "We don't have time to argue! Princess Cadance has decided to evacuate the city!"

Everypony gasp hearing their prince saying the princess has order an evacuation of the empire.

"But the Crystalling...!" one of the stallions worriedly asks.

"I don't know if we'll ever have another Crystalling again! The Crystal Heart... is shattered," Shining Armor sadly announces the news to the citizens.

Hearing the tragic news everypony thinks it's not safe to be here anymore. With Shining Armor's lead, everypony begins to evacuate the city. Of course, Applejack gives the ponies the 'I told you so' remark, but follows the ponies out of the city. Back at Sunburst's house, Starlight, Tiger Lily, and Spike are trying to get Sunburst to help, but he's not having it.

Starlight comes over and says, "Sunburst, I know you're busy, but did you hear what I said?"

"Oh, I heard you, but-but like I said, when you're an important wizard, the work just piles up," Sunburst says, and sounds like he's making an excuse.

"Sunburst!" Starlight yells.

Sunburst hears Starlight and drops the books.

Sunburst sighs, turns back to Starlight, and sadly says, "Look, Starlight, I want to help. I do. But I can't. I wish I could."

"What do you mean?!" Starlight asks.

"Fixing an ancient relic? I-I can't even come close to doing something like that!" Sunburst, admits sounding upset.

"But I thought you were an important wizard!" Starlight replies in concert, and not understanding the situation.

Tiger Lily becomes angry about seeing that she shouts, "That's just it Starlight, I don't think Sunburst is a wizard at all, I think he just said that so you wouldn't know the truth just like how you wouldn't tell Sunburst the truth about what happened after he left for magic school!"

She then turns to Sunburst and firmly says, "Look Sunburst, I understand why you tried to hide that fact about you not being a wizard and worriedly what she thinks if you're not, but allowing Starlight to believe in it is not okay. You can see what it caused right now."

Hearing Tiger Lily's angry, Sunburst starts to feel bad like he has done something wrong. Starlight and Spike can see Tiger Lily anger as well as Sunburst sadness.

Starlight comes over and sadly asks, "Sunburst, is this true?"

Sunburst hangs his head feeling ashamed and answers, "I'm afraid it is."

The three can see that Sunburst feels bad about what happen. They also know that since Sunburst can't really fix the problem, there might not be a way to fix the heart and save the empire. With the snow storm getting close, and time running out, there might not be a way to save the empire.

Author's Note:

The last chance to save the empire, and things has taken an unexpected turn. Next time, Tiger Lily and the others talk about their past, and end up helping save the empire.