An Empire In The Snow
One week later…
“Where could they have gone…?” Queen Chrysalis snarled bitterly to herself in the middle of Ponyville, glaring around at the empty streets while her drones picked away at the village for any sign of hiding stragglers. She hadn’t been expecting the town to be evacuated so quickly, given Rainbow Dash’s reckless nature. Of course, she was less concerned with the town’s population then she was with the absence of the wielders of the Elements of Harmony, who had seemingly fled the moment Rainbow Dash and her purple friend’s rescue mission ended.
“My queen!” A drone suddenly called out, knocking Chrysalis from her ruminations. She turned and spotted him galloping up to her and then dropping into a low bow in front of her. “Reports have just come in from our scouts in the Forest. They claim to have found tracks going in and out, estimated to be less than a week old, heading north,” he recited professionally. “Based on the number of tracks, they’re estimating the group had five to eight ponies.”
“Is that right?” Chrysalis asked sweetly, the frown of confusion on her face slowly changing into a twisted and vile smirk. “Well, then, I do believe we have found the scent… Have the scouts who found those tracks follow them. I’m curious to see where our runaway princess has gone,” she ordered, giving her wings a sharp buzz.
“Of course, my queen! Right away” The drone stood up, turned, and galloped away to do as instructed. Chrysalis watched him go, then turned her eyes up to the sky, casually observing her drones as they darted back and forth across the sky. It is to be a hunt, then…? Good. She licked her fangs and her pupils dilated. I do so enjoy the rush of a good hunt…
“And you all made fun of me for packing so many scarves,” Rarity called out over the rushing howl of the blizzard, smiling from under her four or so scarves that were wrapped around her neck and face.
Applejack groaned and shot her a dirty look. “Yeah yeah, ya don’t have to rub our faces in it, Rarity!” she shouted back, shivering against the cold as another biting gust tore by, almost knocking her hat off of her head. “Gah! Anythin’ yet, you three?” she called up to the three ponies at the head of the group, Twilight, Starlight and Rainbow Dash.
They had been at this for hours, now, searching the wind-blasted tundra of the Frozen North for any signs of the spell that had made the empire vanish oh so long ago. After a whole week of trudging through open countryside, they had finally managed to get to the region that they needed to be in. Now they just had to figure out where the empire used to be in this wasteland of ice, snow and frigid boulders. Twilight and Starlight were leading the charge on this front, scanning the area carefully with magic of their own, while Rainbow kept a careful eye out for anything out of the ordinary that might help them narrow down their search.
“I’m not seeing anything,” Rainbow called back to Applejack before looking over Twilight’s shoulder at the map she was holding. She squinted for a few moments before leaning back “But we’re close. I can tell.”
As if on cue, Starlight’s horn suddenly flared up immensely with light and energy, and a small gasp escaped her lungs. “Woah, I got something!” she yelled, lowering her horn closer to the ground and sweeping it around like a bloodhound trying to find a scent.
“Where, where is it?!” Twilight asked eagerly, passing her map to Rainbow and cantering up to Starlight’s side to join her. Her horn also flared up, and her mind reeled with excitement at the sensation. They were close, alright.
“Not far,” Starlight replied before looking up a little. “Just past those rocks. Let’s go!” she then broke into a gallop with Twilight by her side and Rainbow Dash and the others following along shortly behind them. After a short time, they came over the top of a small hill that was peppered with loose rocks. Beyond the hill was an enormous natural valley that could easily hold a city even larger than Canterlot. The air was so saturated with the magical imprint that even Rarity was detecting some of it.
Twilight beamed. “I think this is it!” she shouted before looking to Starlight happily.
“Yeah, it is,” she confirmed and let the light dissipate from her horn. “Now we just have to undo the spell… any ideas?”
Twilight paused, then hummed and closed her eyes while reaching out with her magic, carefully examining the intense magical signature in the area. For a minute or so, she remained silent, careful not to rush her analysis of the energy. “There is one principle in big spells like this that I think we can make use of here…” she muttered as she did this. “Big spells are typically made up of ‘pieces,’ so to speak. The more complex it is, the more moving pieces there are. The foundation of a good counterspell is always finding and breaking the weakest link quickly and efficiently… not always easy, but if we can find the weakest link of this spell…” Then she found what she was looking for; a weak point, a part of the spell’s framework that had indeed corroded and aged with time. Now she just had to break it…
The light on her horn suddenly flared up to be so bright it forced everypony to shield their eyes. She channeled as much magic as she could into breaking that link, in the hopes of unraveling the entire spell. Despite the corrosion, though, the spell was still absurdly strong and refused to break easy. A terribly painful throb shot through her skull from the base of her horn from the effort, and the rest of her body was starting to feel like it had lit on fire. Still, she could feel the link starting to buckle under her magic “I… think… I…” she groaned out through grit teeth, her legs bending slightly, sweat starting to drip down her forehead and the back of her neck in large amounts. The link may have been buckling, but there was no way she’d be able to undo it with the magic she had at her disposal.
Suddenly, though, The weight on her mind and body felt much lighter, and the resistance being put up by the link was practically cut in half. It was still strong, but now it was manageable. Curious, Twilight looked to her right to see Starlight’s horn glowing with a similar light. The two locked eyes and Starlight nodded. All at once, the two sent one last surge of magic into the weak point.
Something shattered.
The flow of their magic abruptly cut off and their heads snapped back, the perceived weight from the intensity of the spell being undone all at once. Twilight was breathless and disoriented in the aftermath. Her vision became blurred, and for a moment she lost track of everything that was happening.
Somepony caught her as she fell backward, keeping her from falling into the cold snow and holding her close. She could hear a heart beating in her ear. “You… you did it!” Rainbow’s voice said from just above her. Twilight groaned and shifted to look on at her handiwork, though her vision was still blurry, and all she could see was a bright, fuzzy light.
“It’s magnificent! Absolutely GORGEOUS!”
“Ah’ll be… ah was startin’ to think we wouldn’t find it.”
“Oh my gosh, it’s so SPARKLERIFIC!”
“It’s lovely…”
Twilight’s eyes finally refocused, and she gasped when she saw what she and Starlight had done.
Centered in the valley they had stumbled into was an enormous city made of gorgeous, sparkling crystals. The main road system bore a structure similar to that of a snowflake fractal, with hundreds upon hundreds of carefully crafted buildings dotting the streets, each one seemingly cut by a master. Even from this distance, the ponies that lived there could be seen starting to exit their homes and stumble out into the streets, probably very confused. In the middle of it all, a colossus of a tower rose into the sky. It stood on four supports that surrounded a large central plaza at the heart of the city, and those four supports each fed into the main body of the tower. The whole thing was made pale blue, almost white colored crystal that reflected the light of the sun across the landscape around it, making everything feel just a little livelier. The snow around the edges of the city had all melted, leaving fresh and health green grass blowing gently in a breeze completely removed from the blizzard. a bright light being emitted from the very top of the towering spire, like a lighthouse.
“It’s… It’s beautiful…” Twilight breathed out while being helped back to her hooves by Rainbow Dash. She was unable to take her eyes off of it, absolutely awestruck.
“It is…” Rainbow agreed simply before smiling at Twilight. She leaned over and nuzzled her affectionately on the top of her head before taking a step forward. “...We made it. Let’s go.”
Nopony said anything. The group of ponies began their descent down the hill, making their way for the empire in the snow.
As they went, Rainbow Dash thought back on the journey leading up to this point. Many little choices had led all of them to where they were now, and the consequences of many of her actions had already been felt, while still more were beginning to manifest themselves. But they had come this far, and maybe with the help of this Crystal Empire, they would be able to face those consequences, and come out on top when all was said and done.
She looked over at Twilight Sparkle, trotting closely by her side, and smiled. No matter what the future held, she knew she wasn’t alone…
P.S. For anyone interested, here is the title of story 3.
I'm waiting on the cover art, and it's probably gonna take a little while for it to be ready. In the mean time, maybe I'll go poke at The Hotel or The Fiends Trilogy again...
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You mean “said”?
Yeah, but... they lost.
They aren't supposed to lose. That's like, against the rules or something.
Just promise me that they can recover from this. That's all I need.
Honestly, I feel like this is just ended ruptly. But then it makes sense that there is another part coming up...
8841274
It does kinda end abruptly, yeah, but I'm kinda wanting to take a step back from the series for a while and recharge my batteries on it. I mean, this sucker is long by my standards and I wrote it in just a few months. I need to take a bit to just recharge, and then I can get a start on Little Consequences.
This was a really nice story, and I'm definitely sticking around for Little Consequences. Gonna be really interesting; Crystal Empire arc without Cadance.
They haven't settle things with Chrysalis and now they have to deal with Sombra? It sounds like you gonna wrap up 2 whole seasons in one arc.
This was good, there's just one problem...
If I remember correctly, there was something in the original story about the reason why the universe didn't just default to the original timeline was because it (or time, or the Tree of Harmony, or something) found this one 'acceptable'.
But it's gone past that point, Chrysalis has succeeded in essentially conquering Equestria, the government is gone, the military chain of command is completely broken, and to be honest, the Changelings have straight up better warriors than the Equestrian military, the other cities, towns, and villages will be overrun in mere weeks. This timeline doesn't fit that original standard anymore, it's more another version of the 'Chrysalis Wins' timeline than that 'Close Enough' timeline it was made out to be originally, so shouldn't whatever force decided this timeline was 'acceptable' see this and undo it? Or for that matter, shouldn't it have seen this coming and defaulted to the original to begin with?
Again I love the story, but I think that does need to be explained.
Perhaps an epilogue is in order?
8841399
'An Empire in The Snow' is the epilogue. And remember: time doesn't end here. I still have a whole other story to do. It falls within acceptable parameters still; it's just a bumpier road.
AWESOME! CANT WAIT FOR THE NEXTSTORY!
I patiently await!
8841870
If Rainbow hadn’t been affected by Discord’s mental tampering, she wouldn’t have attacked Starlight the way that she did, would not have attacked Twilight, and in fact would not have insisted that they all go to Manehattan to check on Starlight.
She should hardly be held at fault for something she was only coerced to do, but that she clearly had no control over.
I wonder if Thorax can track the crystal heart
8841271 Think of this as The Empire Strikes Back. Yeah, they were defeated, but they're very much still in the game. And I strongly suspect that Chrysalis is going to over-extend her reach and get bogged down.
8841870
I said she needed counsiling for her issues in that regard needed addressing. But her concerns were valid. The only changes from canon is that Dash's parents are dead and the girls flashes everything else is pretty much the same so this Starlight could do the exact same thing. The princess should have an agent monitor her actions just in case she did repeat.
So Glimses contains events that occurred before the start of the show; Choices contains events that happen during season 2. What will the scope of Consequences be?
Finally finished it, after not even knowing it existed so long after the first story finished. Was a good read, and glad I read it when it was complete, and not in small bites and being forced to wait between chapters.
8842153
Actually, there are other differences, and one of those was Starlight got back in touch with Sunburst long before she did in the show thanks to RD speaking with Sunburst about her briefly back in Little Glimpses. This event lead her to never start 'our town' and all of that. This, by extension, means that the Mane Six coming in and breaking up that party can no longer happen, meaning her whole reason for going back in time at all, revenge, is no longer a motivational force to drive such decision.
The mane six had no way of knowing this, of course, which was a big part of the subtle background driving force of the plot for the first thirty chapters or so.
8842359
Still season 2; we're only two or three weeks into Season 2 and one season typically seems to equate to roughly a year, so...
8842108
That nail. You hit it on the head.
It has a concussion now.
Nice work.
8842046
He'd have to know it was there, first.
8842592
But was it intially enough? The best solution was to gave agents watching her. That might have eased Dash enough to not try what she did.
8841986
That kind of excuse wouldn't work in any court.
8842789
By your reasoning, this Rainbow is still the same one who sabotaged a government facility (Terrorism) because she didn't want her pet to hibernate and injured ponies (assault & Battery) in the name of pranking. Sorry, your reasoning sucks.
If you have her watched for something another version of her in another universe does in the future, you have to do the same with all of them.
Plus, it also sounds too much like Minority Report, which is a f**ked up concept.
8842153
They should be monitoring all the Mane 6 as well then. They'very all done a lot of F**ked up things. Sorry, but your reasoning sucks.
Here's the ironic thing. They've done more to hurt other ponies, than Starlight has ever done.
8842911
Like what?
8842911
How? At most Dash shoukd of had counseling. She didn't.
But Starlight created several bad tomelines and murdered Dash's parents and she could do so again with a much worse outcome. That is the princesses failure.
8842957
Fluttershy traumatized the entirety of the Canterlot royal garden's supply of fuzzy critters, leading to a stampede that ruined the Grand Galloping Gala and probably cost a lot of money to repair the damage.
Twilight Sparkle turned Ponyville into a warzone with the want-it need-it spell.
Applejack terrified a bushel of newborn baby bunnies, making them stress-devour much of Ponyville's flowers, setting numerous businesses back and likely harming the local economy as a result.
Pinkie Pie existed.
Rarity turned all of Ponyville into gold and jewels, ruining everyone's day and trapping several ponies inside of their own solidified homes. It's a miracle none of them were reduced to paste by such an occurrence.
Rainbow Dash blue up Cloudsdale's weather factory.
And that's just off the top of my head.
8842904
The key difference is Dash's life is considerably altered Starlight not so much which can still lead ger to making Our Town, the M6 stopping her, and her going back in time to change things with wirse results. I am not saying arrest this Starlight but monitor her in case she starts down that path. If she doesn't great she can live her life without even knowing they are there. If she does they can stop her eariler.
8843053
Murder implies she meant to do that.
She didn't.
At most one could call it maneslaughter, but that version of Starlight doesn't even exist anymore, so it's a moot point to make.
8843054
I feel like we're having different conversations. Are you confirming that all the things you've just listed are things that have happened in the Choicesverse?
More importantly, I feel like the conversations we are having, whatever they may be, are drifting off the topic of the story, which is that the good guys found pirate treasure, which kind of makes up for them losing to the bad guys.
8843113
Frankly, I kinda stopped paying attention to all of the arguments titan and admiral keep having about the morality of everything going on. They're becoming broken records.
8843156
As long as I get to read about pirate treasure, I think I'll be happy.
8843081
But Starlight overall didn't change much until she met the mane 6. She could have easily repeated what the other did. Dash's fear was legit and if Tia took care of it by having Starlighit watched this could have been avoided.
8843309
...No, she couldn't have. You're missing the point that the catalyst for Starlight's entire descent into villainy is NOT present in this new timeline. She got back in touch with Sunburst while he was still in Celestia's school, so her entire meltdown into loving equals signs was completely prevented, meaning she never became the founder of our town, which means she could have never been stopped by the mane 6 because there was nothing to stop, meaning she never would have become bent on revenge.
So no, Starlight could NOT have gone down a similar path.
I mean, unless you just don't understand the concept of cause and effect...
Jumping straight to the Crystal Empire. This will surely end well. Give Sombra my regards
8843321
I know cause and effect. Also the fact that i don't think the cast knows that. As far as Dash knew nothing changed for Starlight and likely the same for Tia. As soon as they knew time was meddled with by a Starlight Tia should of had agents monitor her just in case. And after Discord and Dash asked about it Tia coukd have told her about it and the whole incedent is avoided.
8843514
That's the problem with speculation though. Coulda shoulda woulda didn't. If you give into fear like you're describing, paranoia sets in really quick.
Besides, this isn't a predestination paradox, meticulously monitoring everything that could potentially be a threat a la Twilight is just dumb in the long run.
8843960
not everything but a known potential threat yes.
8844012
But that's the point. She's not a known potential threat. At least, not in this timeline. The fact that the timeline is changed so much really shows why you can't trust facts from another timeline to hold true to the current one. Just because something happened in one timeline doesn't mean it's necessarily going to happen in another, and trying to keep track of the potential alignments from the other timeline is bound to be more distracting than productive.
8844488
not that much changed the farther you get from the main 6 and the princesses. so again Dash's worry was legit.
8844499
That you can see. Quite a few things have changed, actually, and "closeness to the main 6 and the princesses" is highly subjective. I'm sure the difference in timing alone for many major events is enough to change things in general for the populace at large, notwithstanding the press' rumor mill regarding Dash also never happened in the original timeline and affected a large audience in (not yet known fully) ways.
Regardless, the author has written and has read your comments on the matter. You don't have to convince anyone that different choices and actions could have been made. But then, that wouldn't be this story, would it?
8844518
Take a random mare in a random city. How much would Dash being a princess affect her life on comparison to Twilight?
8844709
Random mare in random city has been affected random amount.
You're committing so many fallacies I don't even want to respond, so consider this my last on the subject. Side note, how's the next chapter of Love.... SERIOUSLY!? coming along?
I seem to have fallen off a cliff. I managed to grab onto the ledge before falling, but I can't pull myself up. I'm just hanging on a cliff here.
Also, is Rainbow Dash gonna become the crystal princess in this timeline?
8844990
And one of random numbers is ZERO. Unless she meets the mane 6 her life goes on unchanged.
As for love seriously, waiting for parts for my tablet before can work on it
Wonder what she and King 'IReallyLikeStairs' will make of each other.
Well, they were slaves five minutes ago from their perspective.
You know...Chrysalis may not be willing to personally chase out into the tundra, and Thorax would be miserable in his natural form. Few insects do well with extreme cold.
8877162
Well, to be frank, I've never been a huge fan of the sort of "evasive writing" that seems to be quite prevalent with her character. It sticks out needlessly because none of the others seem to have this specific problem. I realize that the term I just coined isn't the most eloquent but I dislike (perhaps without good reason) when characters are written in such a way that they actively and consciously avoid the conflict and drama that's going on within the timeline of the story itself. This can be done correctly to escalate the drama and "raise the stakes" but to be completely and brutally honest most of the time it just comes off as an annoying pace breaker (if it's a constant occurrence) and often only exists to give a character their "super-saiyan -payoff moment" later in the plot, but most of the time it just comes off as a bit cheap and underwhelming.
Now, I don't want you to misunderstand me; no conflict should ever be resolved instantly - if that were the case, then writing a story would have no point to it - but that doesn't mean that artificially extending the dramatic payoff is the right way to go, either. Especially with a hard-assed pre-established character like Rainbow Dash. So far, every scene with Twilight and Rainbow Dash (heck, even the rest of the gang, as long as RD is involved) has left me feeling like they have been talking, yes, but saying very little because Rainbow Dash keeps "walking out" of every situation, instantly defusing all of the drama. I find it tedious because Rainbow has sort of devolved into the damaged child of the prequel story, but at least in that story there was (more/better) context for her to be acting in such a matter, especially towards Celestia.
I understand I haven't finished the story yet. I intend to, though. I just heavily dislike overly reactionary characters because the second they lack something substantial to "react to" they very easily fall victim to evasive writing which in turn causes scene after scene of pointless meandering and "leave me alone, no one understands me" -dialogue that causes their character to go absolutely nowhere.
Don't get me wrong, however. I like the story. The plot itself is quite clever and I'm especially partial to how well you handled the conflict with Luna. Rainbow Dash's character just hasn't gone anywhere while literally everyone else has, and it's a damn shame, because she's quite clearly the main character.
8877278
I was kind of aiming for her and Twilight to share main character status, actually, though Rainbow definitely took the front seat in this one. While I can't say I fully agree with your assessment of Rainbow's character, I am not going to try and refute you on each point, mainly because you presented your opinion clearly and with good reasoning, even if I don't necessarily agree with said reasoning. Plus, I am the one who wrote this story, so I have a bit of a natural bias that, try as I might, I won't be able to shake for a long time after the fact.
Plus, I don't want to spoil the taste of the story for you by sparking an argument or debate. You're enjoying it, and that's enough for me. :P
8877293
Hey, man, I've been in the trenches of the Internet for so long this sort of pleasant conversation you and I have going would never even come close to souring my taste. You asked me to elaborate, and so I did. You don't need to agree with me to earn my respect, it doesn't work that way, at least for me. Real growth comes from challenging your ideas, pitting one against the other, and if you can look at what I said and say "I disagree but understand where he's coming from", that's more than enough for me, and it seems like it's more than enough for you, too.
So, thanks.