Chapter 59 - The Crystal Empire Part 1
“Ren…what are you doing?” Kaede called.
“Playing Persona 5!” I replied with a smile as I just finished off playing the first Palace of it. Man, it took very long. I don’t mean to brag, but I could have finish this in a day or so, but what with all the bonding and grinding levels and stuff like that, it took about the entire weekend to finish the first palace level. I mean, I need to grind those levels in order to beat Kamoshida! That guy is pretty powerful.
“Wow, you sure have been playing for a while.” Kodiak commented in surprise.
“Yeah.” Carrie nodded, scratching him and Rosy by the necks. “Do you play this game back then?”
“Well yeah. I’ve played all of the Persona games, either main or spin-offs.” I nodded with a smile. “But my most favorite ones are Persona 3, 4, and 5.”
“Why those games?” Jack asked, laying on the couch with a heavy yawn. “I’m no video game nerd like ya, so what’s the big deal?”
“Mostly for the great voice-acting, bonding with characters with social links, good music, and mostly for how the main protagonists are so cool.” Also because of Johnny Yong Bosch. I mean, seriously, that guy is like the greatest voice actor because no matter what anime or visual novel game and stuff you hear, you can hear that voice of his. It’s funny, isn’t it? I mean, how does he do it?
“Meh, I still call bull on that.” Jack turned around and tried to sleep before scratching his butt. “Anyway…I’m going to sleep.”
“Come on Jack!” Kaede scolded, putting her arms on her hips with a somewhat stern look. “Can’t you just at least not go to sleep? Don’t you have that part-time job with Mason?”
“Sorry, not my problem brat.” Jack scoffed.
“But Jack…” Jamie called, looking over from reading his book while Rantaro and Nicole were sitting far aside from the battle with cappuccino beverages with them. “Don’t you think we need to continue my laps?”
“Till Mason gets back.” Jack gruffly stated. “I don’t wanna leave him behind.”
“But big brother wouldn’t mind, Jack.” Carrie pointed out.
“Whatever…” Jack scoffed. “Right now, I just my nap.”
“And that’s probably the reason why he’s so damn fat.” Rantaro snickered, causing Jack to look up and growled angrily before he shouted “Hey! You better shut the fudge up or else!”
“Jack, calm down!” Kaede assured.
“Yeah, just relax man.” Kodiak added, getting tummy rubs from Carrie. “I mean…we should just relax like how I am with these tummy rubs.”
“Mm-hmm! I hope you like it Kodi!” Carrie giggled.
“Yeah, and we can Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.” I suggested, pulling out a Nintendo Switch controller. “We can play up to 8 players, so that won’t be a problem.”
“Well I’m not good at video games, but umm…I guess I’ll try…” Jamie shrugged.
“Hmm…whatever.” Rantaro shrugged.
“Sure, I mean…I never played a Smash Bros game before, but whatever! Let’s do it!” Kaede exclaimed in excitement. “But just remember, I won’t let my guard down Ren!”
Whoa…someone’s pumped up.
KNOCK-KNOCK!
“Oh! I’ll get it!” Carrie gotten up and ran towards the door before she opened it up. The moment she did…
“Oh hi Fluttershy!” Huh? Fluttershy…here? I saved my game before walking over and seeing Fluttershy with a worried look.
“H-Hi Carrie, hi Ren…” Fluttershy greeted. “Umm…everypony, can you come with me towards the Golden Oak Library?”
“The Golden Oak Library? Why’s that?” I asked curiously. “Did something happened to Twilight and Spike?”
“Well…it’s kinda hard to explain, but Twilight seemed to take it too seriously and we’re worried about her.” Fluttershy explained.
“R-really?” Jamie ran over with a concern look. “She didn’t overslept and having a headache from all that late night reading again, right?!”
The rest of us stared at him with confused looks, causing him to timidly look down and blushed a bit as he clarified “I-I’ve seen that happened before…”
“Right…” Jack blankly replied before turning to Fluttershy, who flinched upon seeing his face. “So spill the beans, timid chick? What the hell is up with the purple bookworm?”
“Well apparently it’s about from what Princess Celestia told her about.” Huh? From what Princess Celestia told her about? What does she mean?
“Oh boy, what did your dear princess tell her about?” Rantaro asked.
“W-well…”
“It’s about some sort of test that Princess Celestia prepared, right?” Nicole guessed, bewildering us all and shocking Fluttershy before she recovered and squeaked out “Y-yes…”
“A test? What sort of test?” Kaede asked curiously.
“We’re not sure, but it seems like it’s getting Twilight extremely worried.” Fluttershy shrugged before forming a concern look. “But…it making Twilight go through a panic state of mind.”
“Really? Does she even know what the test is?” Rantaro asked in a deadpan look.
“I don’t know, but it’s making Twilight go all crazy and really worried about it. Me and the others are so worried about her that we’ve tried to calm her down, but she wouldn’t listen to us.”
Oh boy, looks like Twilight is having one of those moments.
“And you would teach her to stop being so panicky about those types of stuff.” Rantaro sighed irritably. “That little reason is what caused her to be abandoned and lose trust in her friends back then at that stupid wedding.”
“C-Can we please not go through that, please?” Jamie asked politely.
“But even so, she is really going through a panicky state through some stress.” Nicole lectured. “Most people or in their state, ponies, goes through terrible stress in stuff like this. Like for example, this ‘test’ Princess Celestia offered.”
“Well…that’s one thing, but…” Kaede had an unsure look on her face as she asked “What is this test the princess talked about?”
“Whatever.” Jack scoffed. “It’s no big deal.”
“But even so, we should go and visit her.” I offered, “I mean, just to be make sure that she’s alright.”
“Good idea Ren.” Jamie nodded. “I mean, I’m worried about her too.”
“You’re just saying that because you’re worried about your girlfriend.” Jack teased, earning a massive blush from Jamie as he flailed his arms up and down and exclaimed “We’re not even in a relationship!”
“Yeah, sure…” Jack scoffed. “Anyway…fine, might find something interesting for today.”
“It would be a waste of my time…why bother?” Rantaro asked. “I rather stay away and mind my own business?”
“Same here. I don’t like being around large crowds.” Nicole added, not wanting to go either.
“Come on you guys! Can’t you help us at least?!” Kaede begged.
“Sorry, you’re asking the wrong group of people.” Rantaro rolled his eyes.
“No.” Nicole answered bluntly.
“Jeez, why must adults like you always have to be so difficult?” Kaede asked with a sweat-drop forming on her head.
“W-well anyway…let’s go anyway.” I suggested with an awkward smile before we began to make our way towards the Golden Oak Library.
“Tch…why bother going there? She’s just having another one of those ‘Twilight’ moments or whatever you guys call it.” Rantaro shrugged.
“If you don’t wanna come, then don’t.” Jack scoffed.
“Although…I am curious about this test.” Nicole begins to take her leave while she adjusted her glasses and said “I…suppose I can make an exception.”
“You’re kidding right?” Rantaro asked with an exasperated sigh. “Well…whatever. Fine…unless I get something in return.”
“I’ll give you 50 of my bits?” I offered.
“Go higher.” Rantaro folded his arms with a small smirk.
“What about 250?” I offered.
“Go even higher.” Is he serious about that? Well…ugh…
“I’ll just give you all of my bits.” I suggested, which seemed to gotten an approval from him.
“Your whole life savings? Now we’re talking.” Rantaro smirked. “And don’t worry, I’ll pay you back…probably.”
Probably…?
“Come on you guys! This is no time! Let’s hurry to the library and see what’s up!” Kaede exclaimed, which we nodded as the rest of us began racing over to the place. Oh no, I just hope Twilight is alright! I’m already beginning to get worried about her, and I think Jamie is getting worried about her too!
Oh god, I just hope that hopefully that we can Twilight to calm down! As soon as we arrived to the library, we encountered the other girls, along with Mason, who held worried and concern looks on their faces.
“Big brother!” Carrie called, gaining his attention. “Is something wrong with Twilight?”
“You can…say that.” Mason gulped. “Right now, she’s under stress.”
“And by stress, do you mean…?” Kodi asked worriedly with a raised brow.
“Where are all my quills?! Brbrbr. No, no, no, no, no…Ugh! I need the Magical Compendium volumes 1 through 36! Where is it?!”
We all winced at the loud thudding and banging all around the library.
“…Yeah that.” Mason nodded.
“Like seriously?” Rainbow Dash asked. “She’s really going all crazy with this test.”
“You know Twilight, she takes her studies seriously, Rainbow Dash.” Rarity reminded her.
“And that’s what worries us.” Fluttershy added. “I just hope that she’s gonna be alright.”
“Hey nerd.” Jack called, causing Jamie to stiffened a bit. “You’re more closer with the bookworm than any of us, think you can talk to her?”
“I-I can try…” Jamie nodded before walking past us and inside of the library as we all gazed from the doorway and saw how much of a mess it was inside. Yeesh, this place looks like it needs cleaning.
“It’s messy.” Nicole stated bluntly.
“Thanks for stating that captain obvious.” Rainbow Dash scoffed.
“But can you blame her?” Applejack asked. “I mean, normally Twilight keeps her place tidy, but now it looks like a tornado came swarming inside and messed up the place.”
“Ain’t that the frigging truth?” Jack scoffed.
“Where is it? Where is it?!” Twilight kept looking around the place and whenever she found something like pencils, notebooks, or school stuffy, she places it in her satchel.
“Twilight…you okay?” Jamie stepped forward with a concern look.
“Not now Jamie! Right now, I really need to look for my flashcards to review what I learned so far!” Twilight exclaimed with an extremely panicked look on her face. Me, Kaede, Mason, and Carrie winced upon seeing how she’s acting like this.
“This reminds me of what happened last time.” Kaede whispered to me, which I gulped and sweat-dropped upon remembering how she tried to create a friendship problem. Yeah…definitely gonna prevent that by using Paralyze on her.
“I-I know, but can we please talk?” Jamie called. “I mean, you need to take a deep breath and relax.”
“Flash cards!” Twilight exclaimed, turning to Spike and completely ignoring Spike. “I should make some flashcards instead! Spike, Jamie, I’m gonna need you to quiz me.”
“Quiz you?!” Jamie exclaimed in shock.
“Yes, and on everything! Everything I’ve ever learned! Ever!” She grabbed his cheeks with a rather insane and frustrated look on her face before she used her magic to levitate a bunch of blank flashcards. “That isn’t going to be enough cards!”
“T-Twilight…please calm down. I think we should talk.” Jamie pleaded.
“He’s right, Twilight. Just calm down.” Spike agreed with a rather annoyed look on his face as he said “I mean, it’s just a test.”
“The squirt’s right.” Jack nodded with a light scoff. “What’s the point of it anyway?”
We all slowly widened our eyes upon hearing those two said those trigger words. Ooh…you two better run away as fast as you could, like…right now before she-
“Just a test?” Ah crap-baskets. “Just a test? Just a test?!”
“Yeah, so?” Jack scoffed as some of us kept making gestures to tell him to shut up, but he kept going on and on as he continued “It’s some boring test and I don’t give my behind that’s it all important. Besides, it seems like a waste of time.”
Suddenly, he and Spike were met with a death glare from Twilight as she slowly began to turn red and was steaming mad, even frightening Jamie as he slowly begins to back away in fear of her.
“You two!” Twilight walked up to them, pulling them closer with her magic as she loudly lectured the two of them. “Princess Celestia wants to give me some kind of examn, and you two are trying to tell me to calm down because it’s just a test?!”
Spike and Jack looked at each other before turning back to her and shrugged.
“Uh…yeah?” They both answered, only to earn a blank and upset look from her before she puts them down on the ground with an irritated scoff.
“Never mind!” Twilight hissed before she pointed a hoof on Jack’s belly as she exclaimed “And I would not want to hear anything from you at all! This is important! I can imagine the possibilites if I fail it.”
“Jeez, she’s panicking as if she’s taking an S.A.T./A.C.T. exam.” Rantaro heavily sighed while Nicole couldn’t help but slightly nodded in agreement.
“Well…I’d say she’s handling things pretty well, considering.” Applejack chuckled nervously with an awkward smile.
“Yeah…she’s totally alright.” Rantaro shrugged.
“Are you sure Ran? She looks like she’s having a sugar rush like me.” Pinkie said in a dumbfounded tone, which made Rantaro face-palmed.
“I was being sarcastic.” Rantaro grumbled. “Tch! Look at me, wasting my time and energy with you guys. Tell me again when I get my pay?”
“Just relax, dude.” I assured, nudging him a bit.
“Could anyone please tell me on how can we calm her down?” Mason questioned, hearing Twilight letting out an exasperated grunt.
“Beats me!” Jack scoffed, rubbing his gut with a snort. “That crazy purple chick is just outright terrifying. Jeez, she’s just panicking too much.”
“D-don’t worry, I’m sure I-I can try to help her.” Jamie assured with a meek grin before walking up to Twilight. “Now Twilight…can you please calm down and let us talk? Right now, you are acting too crazy and need some help! P-Please…I can help you out review your ‘test’.”
Twilight turned to him with a slightly remorseful look before sighing “Alright fine…sorry…”
Jack gaped at that while Rantaro smirked before nudging him by the shoulder and said “You were saying?”
“I rather suggest you listen to Mr. Jamie.” Nicole spoken up, causing all of us, including Twilight, to turn to her. “You heard about this test from Princess Celestia, and yet you’re acting highly unstable right now. You don’t even know what this test is even is, so you’ll surely get an explanation from her if you go and ask her?”
“Oh…g-good point.” Twilight chuckled nervously. “I panicked over for nothing then…”
“You think?!” Spike asked before letting out an exasperated grunt and walking off.
“What Nicole is trying to say Twilight, is that…you need to calm down, Twi.” Applejack explained.
“Applejack’s right.” Rarity nodded in agreement. “We’re your friends, and we’ll gladly help you out in any situation darling.”
“Same here!” Pinkie grinned happily, appearing between Rarity and Applejack, who blinked upon seeing her.
“Me too…” Fluttershy stepped up with a soft smile on her face before frowning a bit and muttered “I-If that’s alright…”
“And so do we.” I added with a soft smile. “I’ll be honest, I’m…not really good at taking tests, but we’ll surely be helpful with your test.”
“Do we have to?” Jack asked irritably, only to receive a death glare from Mason. Jack stiffened a bit before sighing “Fine…we’ll help…but don’t come crying to me when you fail it.”
“I want to help too, Twilight.” Jamie softly smiled. “I’m sure Princess Celestia is gonna explain to you this test if we ask her directly. Please…”
Twilight looked up at Jamie and the rest of us with a hopeful smile before saying “Thank you everypony.”
“No problem!” Rainbow Dash winked. “And don’t worry, we’ll handle whatever problem we can take on as long as I get to punch stuff!”
“Now you’re speaking my language!” Jack grinned, only to earn some groans from the rest of us.
“Not now, you too.” Kaede scolded. “Right now, we need to do something about this test. I mean, Twilight…do you know what Princess Celestia say about this test?”
“Actually, now that I think about it…no.” Twilight sheepishly grinned. “The moment Spike read the letter aloud to me about what it said this morning, I instantly began panicking onto what to do onto finding a way to study and prepare myself for the test.”
“Seriously?” Rantaro asked before scoffing “And that reason is why you’re too much of a book nerd like Jamie.”
That earned a whack on the head by Jack.
“Shut it!” Jack growled.
“Ow! What? I’m just saying.” Rantaro slyly grinned with a shrug.
“You’re being your sarcastic self as always. How amusing…” Nicole sighed before turning to Twilight. “So tell me…did that letter say anything else?”
“Well…I’m sure it said about meeting her up at Canterlot.” Twilight explained.
“Back to Canterlot again? Wow, we’ve been going there back there lately, huh?” I joked.
“Yeah.” Kaede chuckled. “It’s been a month since the invasion, so I think the place is either being renovated from the Changelings’ attacks or are already done.”
“Well then, shall we?” Mason smiled softly at us. “Let us make our way towards Canterlot.”
“Yay! A road trip!” Carrie exclaimed happily.
“I can’t wait!” Kodi grinned. “You excited Ren?”
“Well yeah.” I nodded with a smile. “Hopefully, the situation isn’t that dire.”
“Alright! Let’s go then!” Twilight smirked. “Oh! But first, I should probably some of my stuff just in case.”
We all let out groans as Twilight rolled her eyes and said “Oh relax, you guys. It won’t take long.”
With that, she ran straight upstairs while Jack face-palmed and grumbled “Yeah…won’t take long.”
“Yeah…” Jamie chuckled nervously with a minor sweat-drop.
“She takes longer than Rarity does…” Mason sighed, only to receive a glare from the fashionista. “Forgive me if I am comparing you to her Rarity, but it’s the truth.”
“Well…valid point indeed, Mason darling…” Rarity sighed.
Well…I think this is gonna take a while for her to get her, so let’s just cut to the chase huh?
Later
After Twilight gotten her stuff ready to go and meet up with Celeste, we all headed towards the Ponyville Train Station and boarded a train towards Canterlot. Fifteen minutes later, we all arrived to our destination, but now, the city had less guards than usual.
“Huh…there’s not that many guards around Canterlot.” Kodiak pointed out. “Wonder why?”
“Probably since the threat is over, there’s no need for that many guards to patrol around Canterlot.” Nicole guessed.
“Seems likely…” Mason hummed in thought. “Hopefully, Shining Armor is here. I need to talk to him.”
Some of us turned to him with confused look as Carrie asked “Big brother…is this about the offer he made?”
Mason turned to his sister with a bewildered look before sighing “Yes…but I’m still indecisive at the moment.”
“Well…I know you’ll make the right decision, big brother!” Carrie grinned happily, earning an amused smile from Mason.
“I know I will…I just need wait till the right moment.” Mason chuckled.
“And when’s that?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Just…when the time is right, that’s all I gotta say.” Mason stated, bringing back his serious nature.
“M-Mason’s right, Rainbow Dash.” Rarity intervened with a soft smile. “Right now, it’s his decision and he shall accept whatever it is.”
“Thank you Rarity.” Mason smiled softly, earning a light blush from her.
“Umm…Rarity? You feeling alright?” Applejack asked.
“W-what?! Oh yes, it’s just…hot! Very hot today!” Rarity chuckled nervously.
“But…it’s 52 degrees out here.” Rainbow Dash stated.
“She’s right.” Nicole nodded. “I’m already checking the weather forecast app on my iPad.”
“Wait, it can do that?” I asked in surprise.
“I’ve updated it to match with the weather here on Equestria.” Nicole explained, taking off her glasses and cleaning the lenses off. “It was kinda hard to match up with the current weather here based upon how you guys control the weather, but I was able to do that.”
“You can do that?!” Jamie exclaimed in shock.
“I know many things other than psychology, Mr. Jamie.” Nicole stated. “I’ve taken engineering as a minor during my college classes.”
“S-Sorry…it’s just that, I never knew.” Jamie scratched the back of his neck.
“Wait, why didn’t you tell us before?!” Applejack asked.
“I didn’t feel like it.” Nicole replied bluntly.
“Oh, I see.” Pinkie grinned. “You were just super shy like Fluttershy! I mean, she would probably feel really scared and so shy that she wouldn’t tell anyone her hobbies!”
“W-well…you make a point there…” Fluttershy rubbed her hoof bashfully.
“Well yeah, I mean, we all have our hobbies, right?” I added, scratching my cheek with a nervous grin.
“Well even so, I still think you should have told us.” Kaede insisted.
“Yeah! What else are you hiding?!” Rainbow Dash demanded, earning only the silent treatment from Nicole before she sighed and replied “I don’t got to tell everything or anything about me…not yet…”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Jack asked suspiciously.
Nicole didn’t respond back as she begins to walk ahead of us towards Canterlot Castle.
“There’s something fishy going on with her.” Rainbow Dash snorted.
“Calm down, you guys. Let’s all calm down for now.” I assured, not wanting anyone to fight all over.
“Ren’s right. I think maybe we should go see Princess Celestia?” Fluttershy offered.
“I agree.” Twilight nodded. “Now let’s hurry before we’re late! Ooh, I am so gonna be late for this test!”
With that, Twilight rushes off, leaving us behind in the dust.
“T-Twilight! Wait up!” Jamie called, chasing after her.
“Come on, let’s head out.” Jack grumbled before the rest of us chased after them. You know, I don’t want to suspect my friends at all, and I want to believe in Nicole. Though, I wonder what she didn’t want to talk about. I mean, she may have not showed it, but she looked….a bit nervous. It’s hard to describe, but I think I’m slightly getting to know her better…I think?
Later
Soon after we arrived to Canterlot Castle, we were all escorted to the throne room by the two Royal Guards opened the doors for us to enter.
“I think it’s best if I head in first. After all, I need to take the test like they want me to.” Twilight said till Jamie placed a hand on her shoulder, catching her by surprise.
“Wait Twilight…allow me to join in with you, please.” Jamie offered. “I really want to help you out on the situation.” Jamie let out a soft smile and said “After all…you might panicked again.”
“Jamie…thank you.” Twilight smiled softly at him while the rest of us either held amused looks or contained our snickering. It was obvious those two are quite close, aren’t they? Ever since the Canterlot Wedding, those two have been seeing eye-to-eye a lot, haven’t they? Heck, even Jamie hasn’t been stuttering his words lately since then. He’s finally gained his confidence, but you know…I wished I knew about those two marks on his face. I mean, I think with those, he’s gotten magical powers considering that he used the force just the other day. I wonder…could that very well happen to us?
“Hey you guys, do you mind if I join in?” I asked curiously.
“What? But why?” Jamie asked.
“Umm…just wanted to say hi to Celeste and Lulu, that’s all.” I replied. “But you know…I’m just want some answers about if they knew about that smudged up letter and all that?”
“Oh…I guess.” Jamie shrugged.
“Well I have no doubt that Princess Celestia and Luna have possibly found out much about the clue that might relate on our appearances here on Equestria.” Twilight added with a smile.
“Well in the meantime, we’ll wait outside by the station.” Kaede said with a smile.
“Mm-hmm! We’ll wait till then!” Applejack added.
“And don’t forget to question about the cheeks!” Pinkie added, earning weird looks from us. “What? I mean, Jamie’s cheeky cutie-marks might be a clue.”
“Surprisingly, she makes a good point at last since the first I gotten out of here.” Rantaro whispered to Mason, who nodded in agreement.
“Well…see ya you three.” Applejack smirked before they took their leave while the three of us remained here. Kodi ran towards me before licking my face and said “You won’t take long, right Ren?”
“Don’t worry bud, it won’t take that long.” I assured with a soft smile. “Promise.”
“Pinkie Promise?” Kodiak asked curiously. I playfully rolled my eyes before doing the Pinkie Promise.
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Kodiak laughed at that, along with Twilight, Jamie, and possibly the two Royal Guard members.
“Alright! I’ll catch ya later dude!” Kodi grinned happily before licking my face and racing off to catch up with the others.
“Well…shall we?” Jamie offered, raising his hand in front of her. Twilight softly smiled and nodded before accepting his hand before the two walked in while I followed after them. As we walked inside of the throne room, we saw the princesses by the other side of the throne room, looking over a mural of me and the others defeating Discord.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go as well?” Princess Luna asked, her tone feeling curious and serious at the same time.
“Yes. Princess Cadance and Shining Armor are already there. The others will be joining them soon.” Huh? Shining and Cadance? Wonder what’s about them?
“The Empire’s magic is powerful. It cannot fall again, my sister.” Princess Luna boldly stated.
“She will succeed at her task. And when she does, we’ll know that she is that much closer to being ready.” Huh? Being ready? Is she referring…to Twilight?
“Ahem!” Twilight called, gaining the sisters’ attention.
“Trust me, little sister.” Princess Celestia assured with a soft grin, causing Luna to nodded before giving us a serious look.
“Hey Celeste! Hey Lulu!” I greeted with a soft smile.
“Greetings Sir Ren…” Luna greeted me, but instead of giving me a smile, she given me her serious look.
“Umm…sorry if we’re late.” Jamie apologized. “We had some delay, your majesty.”
“That is quite alright Jamie.” Princess Celestia smiled softly while Princess Luna began to stepped away from us as Twilight began pulling out many papers by levitating them.
“You wanted to see me? To give me a test? I brought my own quills and plenty of paper to show my work.” Twilight smiled before putting down two bags of her stuff she gotten back from the library onto the ground till a bunch of stuff popped right out of there and a scroll rolled down and landed right in front of Celestia. “Oh! Sorry! Sorry!”
“So Celeste…” I called. “How it’s hanging? You and Lulu okay?”
“We are quite alright Ren.” Princess Celestia smiled softly before she picked up the scroll by using her magic to levitate it and scroll it up. “Now, I’m sure you two are confused but this is a different test for Twilight to handle.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Jamie asked with a confused look.
Princess Celestia looks at us with a serious yet grim look before saying “The Crystal Empire has returned.”
Me and Jamie blinked in confusion before looking at each other. The…Crystal Empire….that name…Hmm…
“The Crystal Empire?” Twilight asked before levitating several books and looking all over them at once. “I’m sorry, I-I thought I’d studied. Ooh…I don’t think there’s anything in any of my books, th-”
“There wouldn’t be. Few remember it ever existed at all.” Princess Celestia stated, taking away the books away from Twilight, who looks at her in surprise.
“Really?” I asked with widened eyes. “Why’s that? Did…something happened to this Crystal Empire?”
Princess Celestia turned towards a glass capsule that was just near the thrones as she picked off a large purple crystal in the air before she fired a beam into it, showing off a hologram on the ground of the layout of the Crystal Empire.
“Whoa…” I muttered. “Cool…”
“Is this…the Crystal Empire?” Jamie questioned.
“Yes. Even my knowledge of the Empire is limited. But what I do know is that it contains a powerful magic. One thousand years ago, King Sombra, a unicorn whose heart was black as night, took over the Crystal Empire.”
The hologram began to transitioned to show many dark crystals rising from the ground, before it showed off a dark colored pony with a red horn and green eyes with a red pupil in front of us.
“Ah…!” I gasped before…
“You all don't even know the meaning of true hope. The powers you all took from me...only I can possess the power to create 'true hope'.”
“Ngh…” I winced in pain before noticing Jamie holding onto his head in pain.
“Are you two alright?” Twilight asked in worried.
“H-huh? Oh yes…” Jamie nodded meekly while Princess Celestia looked at us with a solemn look.
“Yeah…it was some strange headache, that’s all.” I added. “We’ve been getting some strange ones for a while.”
“Mm…it would seem that my sister is breaking through more of your chained memories.” Princess Celestia hummed in thought. “Now then…as I may continue, King Sombta was ultimately overthrown, turned to a shadow, and banished to the ice of the arctic north.”
The hologram showed us him enslaving strange ponies covered with crystal dust all over their bodies, but sooner or later, it showed Princess Celestia and Luna fighting him off till they combined their magic together and blasting Sombra down into the arctic glacier, sealing it up for good after he was diffused into a shadow.
“Huh…” Jamie muttered. “So you two defeated him and sealed him away?”
“Yes…” Princess Celestia nodded. “But not before he was able to put a curse upon the Empire. A curse that caused it to vanish into thin air.” The whole hologram of the Crystal Empire suddenly vanished before our eyes. “If the Empire is filled with hope and love, those things reflected across all of Equestria!”
The crystal illustrated her point by reflecting a rainbow of comforting colors.
“But if hatred and fear take hold…”
We all gasped upon seeing Celeste’s eyes turned completely green, her horn bubbling with purple mana as a bolt of black lightning struck the crystal, casting a shadow that reached out along the floor towards us.
“A-AHHH!” Jamie screamed as he began backing away, his face showed how much fear he had. Suddenly, dark crystals sprung up, ugly and repulsive.
“W-Whoa!” I exclaimed before quickly taking out my Hacking Gun. “Break!”
I shot two ‘Break’ bullets, breaking them into pieces. Princess Celestia stared at me with slight awe before nodding.
“Thank you Ren.” Princess Celestia nodded with a soft smile. “Which is why I need your help to find a way to protect it.”
“You want me to help you protect an entire empire…?” Twilight asked, slowly widening her eyes in shock.
“W-wait what?!” Jamie exclaimed in shock. “But…no offense, but how?!”
“Do not fear, I have complete faith in Twilight’s capabilities. Besides, she has all of you by her side.” Princess Celestia remarked. “It is as I said, a different kind of test. But one I am certain you will pass.”
Twilight looked towards me and Jamie, which we gave them encouraging smiles as I commented “Don’t worry Twilight. We’ll be by your side, and you can count on us.”
“Same here. I’ll…protect you and work as hard as I can.” Jamie nodded with a serious look.
“You guys…thank you.” Twilight softly smiled at us before turning to Celeste with a serious look as she asked “Where do we begin?”
“By joining Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance in the Crystal Empire.” Celestia replied.
“My brother is there?” Twilight asked, feeling more excited about it.
“I guess the honeymoon came to an end, huh?” I joked with a smile.
“It would seem, but they understood the situation.” Princess Celestia chuckled with a soft smile. “But do not fear, they are there already, and your Ponyville and human friends will join you on this quest as well.”
I nodded before noticing Princess Luna leering at us, causing me to feel a bit tense. What’s going on with her? Why…is she looking at us like that?
“I have every confidence you will succeed, and when you do I will know you are ready for the next level of your studies.” Twilight looked at Princess Celestia before glancing at Luna, who was still leering at us, mostly at me and Jamie. Twilight turned back to the Sun Princess with a doubtful look before asking “But…what if I fail?”
“You won’t.” Celestia firmly said.
“But what if-”
“Twilight, have faith in her.” Jamie assured softly. “I-I mean..you can do it, right? You’ve come this far and I know you won’t fail…”
“R-Really?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah…because I believe in you.” Jamie softly smiled as the two stared at each other while I chuckled at them, along with Princess Celestia while Princess Luna didn’t bother to respond.
“Ahem!” Princess Celestia cleared her throat, gaining the two attention as they scooted away with light blushes on their faces. “So anyway, I know that you won’t fail Twilight. But, in the end, it must be you and you alone who ultimately assists Princess Cadance and Shining Armor in doing what needs to be done to protect the Empire. Do you understand?”
“Mm-hmm!” Twilight grinned happily.
“Then go. There is no time to lose!” Princess Celestia firmly called.
“Right!” Twilight smirked before turning to the two of us. “Come on you guys! Let’s get the others to know!”
“Yeah!” I nodded in agreement as we were gonna head out of the throne room till Princess Celestia stopped us.
“Wait just a minute!” We all turned back to the princesses as Celestia asked “May I speak with you for one more moment Ren and Jamie?”
“Oh…sure.” Ren nodded.
“Yes, your majesties. I-I mean, your highness. I-I mean…” I nudged Jamie, causing him to flinch a bit while Twilight rolled her eyes before asking “Umm…is it something troubling about the mission?”
“No, it’s…very private and it concerns about their lost memories.” Princess Celestia firmly stated.
“Our…memories?” Jamie asked in surprise.
“Yes.” Princess Celestia nodded before glancing at Twilight before gesturing her to leave. Twilight gulped before giving us supporting smiles before she began taking her leave while the two of us stayed right here in front of us.
“So…what is it?” I asked curiously.
“Well…there are a few things we wished to clear up.” Princess Luna spoken up. “First off…it concerns your memories.”
“Huh? What about it?” Jamie asked worriedly. “D-Did you…find any answer?”
“Not much, but as I kept digging through your memories…” Princess Luna leered at us suspiciously. “I swore that I saw each of you around the empire.”
“The…empire?” I asked before slowly realizing what she was mentioning. “What? The Crystal Empire?”
“Yes.” Princess Celestia nodded. “At first, I was in disbelief at that, so I thought maybe you guys knew about it.”
“N-no…” Jamie shook his head. “We don’t remember anything about it.”
“And wait, that…doesn’t make any sense.” I pointed out. “Why would any of our memories show us being around the Crystal Empire? I don’t remember that…”
“Yeah, same here…” Jamie nodded in agreement.
“Well…it must relates to your memories.” Princess Luna stated. “I may have not seen much, but I saw a glimpse of each of you all at the Crystal Empire and it looked like you were running away from something or in battle…but the empire…it looked different compared to what it was like before King Sombra invaded the empire.”
“Huh?!” I asked in shock. No way…did something really happened? This doesn’t make any sense…if it’s related to our missing memories, then why did the Crystal Empire appear in our heads?…No, that’s impossible! I would never believe that!
“I sensed that you two are in denial. Well…I guess it would make sense.” Princess Luna sighed. “But you two seemed to be familiar with the name of the kingdom.”
“That is true…it felt so…familiar to me…” Jamie rubbed his chin in thought.
“Yeah…same here…weird, right?” I asked him, which Jamie nodded in agreement.
“Well…I’m sure it’s somewhat connected to your memories.” Princess Celestia assured. “But although Ren, the way you took out that dark crystal…it sounded as if you knew how to handle it.”
I looked at Princess Celestia with a shocked look. As much as I want to retort that, she did had a valuable point. How…was I able to knew that it might work? As a matter of fact, why…did I feel terrified around that crystal and those words…why did it sound so familiar to me?
“….I’m sorry Celeste and Lulu, but I still can’t remember anything other than weird stuff like seeing portraits of us being around some sort of funeral, along with weird helmets on our heads, and touching some weird stones.” I explained, shocking Jamie while seemingly getting the princesses intrigued by it.
“What? You saw all that too?” Jamie asked in shock.
“What?! So did you?!” I asked in shock.
“Y-yeah…all those things you’ve described…I can’t fully explain them, but those things you said was what I witnessed in my dreams!” No way! So he knew it too!
“So it looks like I am getting nearly everyone to remember similar events, huh?” Princess Luna hummed in thought. “But…these weird stones? Can you two try describing them?”
“Well…I’m not sure what it was to be honest.” I scratched the back of my head with an awkward smile. “I don’t remember much of my dream, but…it was the shaped of some rock and it was glowing…I think, pink?”
“Yeah…but the one I think I touched was Magenta?” Jamie guessed, which seemed to gotten the two princesses to looked at each other in confused looks. “B-But…that’s all I can try to remember…sorry.”
“It is quite alright, Jamie. You and Ren could try all your best.” Princess Celestia assured. “Though…it does raise some more questions.”
“Really?” Ren asked. “Is it about those stones?”
“Yes…” Princess Celestia nodded firmly. “We are not sure what you all could described, but…I think it might be a possibility.”
“A…possibility?!” Jamie asked. “C-can you tell us about what you came with, Princess Celestia?”
“Well…I am unsure at the moment, so sorry.” Celeste apologized.
“Hey, it’s okay. Sometimes we’re unsure about what we see in our dreams.” I chuckled, rubbing the back of my head. “But still…I’m sure we might find some answers even when we go to the Crystal Empire. I mean, if Lulu says that our memories are related to the empire, then maybe we might learn something there.”
“That is quite a good possibility there, Ren.” Princess Luna nodded. “You should prepare your Megaphone Hacking Gun in case of…enemies.”
“Yeah…” I nodded with a serious look. “You two can count on us all in to fight off this Sombra guy and the rest of his minions!”
“While we’re on the subject, we may love to discuss another factor concerning King Sombra.” Princess Celestia formed a concern look as she and her sister looked at each other while I stared at him with a confused look.
“What? What about him?” I asked curiously.
“Well…we couldn’t tell Twilight Sparkle because we didn’t want to ruin her confidence. Besides, this test is very important to her onto protecting the empire from Sombra’s wrath.” Princess Celestia explained. “You see…we feared that he might try to release the Umbrum Army.”
Huh? The Umbrum Army? That’s…completely new.
“The Umbrum Army? I’ve never heard of them before.” Jamie pointed out, rubbing his chin in thought before looking through his notes by checking out his notebook. “No…I haven’t even study about them from when I was getting used to my surroundings around Equestria.”
“That’s because they’re existence where hidden away along with the Crystal Empire.” Princess Celestia sighed. “Allow us to explain…you see, the Umbrum Army are beings of pure evil who wish to do nothing but manipulate others and conquer foreign kingdoms 1,000,000 years ago.”
“Whoa! That long?!” I exclaimed in shock. “Man…that’s frigging crazy!”
“Indeed.” Princess Luna nodded. “They appear to be immortal, or at least have absurd lifespans. They are very dangerous, manipulative, and cruel beings.” She formed a grim look on her face. “They are highly violent and too dangerous, devoid of any emotion.”
“No way…” Jamie gulped, his face turning pale. “I-Is that so? W-wow…I-I never knew that, Princess Luna.”
“That’s…” I gulped with a horrified look. “I mean…I’ve played a lot of video games and seen pretty much any pure evil character I can think of.”
“Well this is no game, Ren Loodan.” Princess Luna firmly said. “Right now, you and the rest of your human friends need to make sure to prevent Sombra from entering the kingdom and try to free them.”
“Luna is right.” Celeste nodded in agreement before showing us a hologram from the spiral crystal again to show the entire map of Equestria. “If Sombra succeeds onto taking back the Crystal Empire, he’ll likely release the Umbrum Army and…”
The image showed the whole map swarming around in darkness, causing me and Jamie to gasp.
“They’ll bring this world to darkness.” Princess Luna grimly stated.
“Holy cow…” I muttered before forming a determined look. “Well…even so, we’ll try our best to prevent that. Though…it’s hard to believe that they would be this evil. Were…they always evil?”
“Ren…” Princess Celestia walked over to me and placed a hoof on my shoulder with a soft smile. “I understand that you don’t believe in the evil in everyone’s heart like with Chrysalis or Discord, but…you must understand that they are too powerful, violent, and they wouldn’t even show any remorse for the terror they released a millennia ago.”
I nodded grimly before darkening my face a bit. While I may not showed it, I kept wondering from our last encounters with the last two major villains…why was Discord and Queen Chrysalis evil? While I learned why Queen Chrysalis did it in the first place, I never learned much about Discord. I just hope that he wasn’t doing this out of boredom. I mean, Princess Luna used to be evil when she was Nightmare Moon, but she became good again and reunited with her sister after escaping her prison from the moon.
“Okay…but I’ll try my best.” I nodded with a serious look. “Even if they are evil, and if there’s any chance if we fail to prevent Sombra from bringing the Umbrum Army from escaping out of their prison…I’ll try to convince at least…”
“….Very well.” Princess Celestia nodded. “I understand your reasons, Ren.”
“W-well anyway…” Jamie cleared his throat, feeling a bit scared from what we’ve been discussing. “So these Umbrum Army are terrible and we all know now that there are quite evil, but why couldn’t you tell Twilight?”
“Because we feared that it might interfere with her test…” Princess Celestia answered.
“Her main concern is to prevent King Sombra from taking back the Crystal Empire.” Princess Luna added.
“Well…we understand.” I nodded. “Besides, it’s…kinda a similar thing, right? She stops King Sombra, saves the Crystal Empire, and unintentionally saves Equestria not only from him, but also from the Umbrum Army, right?”
“Yes. That is correct.” Celeste nodded. “So promise us that you won’t tell her about this, not even your other friends.”
I held a serious look before confidently saying “Don’t worry…we promise that we won’t tell a soul.”
“S-Same here…though I’ll try not to tell her or anyone, even when someone is threatening me…” Jamie gulped before sweat-dropping before knowing someone that he could do that. “Unless it’s Jack…”
“Yeah…I promise that’ll never happen.” I assured, scratching the back of my head while the two princesses softly smiled at us.
“You two are so kind and trustworthy.” Princess Celestia softly smiled.
“I wouldn’t say that…” I chuckled before one question my head. “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Jamie might have the same powers as you guys.”
“Wait…really?” The two princesses turned to Jamie, who flinch in surprise.
“Y-yeah…I can try, but me and Twilight have been researching all day and night about it, even practicing about it.” Jamie explained, twiddling his fingers nervously. “B-but…I don’t know much about it, neither does Twilight.”
“Hmm…this must relates much about those two cutie-mark on your face.” Princess Celestia explained. “Hmm…this is quite intriguing.”
“Do you think those cutie-marks means something?” I asked curiously.
“Hmm…it would seem so.” So is that a yes or…?
“So anyway…” Jamie cleared his throat. “Umm…I don’t mean to be rude, can we move onto another topic, please? I rather not talk about the cutie-marks on my face…”
Princess Celestia and Luna looked at each other in confusion before turning to me, which made me shrugged. They blinked a few times before realizing why, which made the two princesses blush.
“I-I see your point…” Celeste muttered.
“Same here, young Jamie.” Luna nodded in agreement.
“So…what do you wish to talk about?” Celeste asked curiously.
“Well…I was wondering abut the note me and Twilight send to you guys.” Jamie brought up. “I…was wondering if you were able to decipher it?”
“Hmm….” Princess Celestia hummed in thought while me and Jamie felt the suspense. Oh come on! Come on! What is it?!
“….I am sorry, but we have no clue what it says.” Aww…epic fail. Princess Celestia gave us a nervous smile and said “The smudge seems to real hard to remove, but…we think that maybe there’s a move to remove it.”
“Huh? T-There is?” Jamie asked curiously.
“Yes.” Princess Luna nodded before using her magic to bring over that pink crystal Princess Celestia used. “There is a crystal called a Prism crystal that can help erase all of that smudge.”
The pink crystal begins to show us a vision of the Prism crystal.
“Cool…!” I exclaimed. “So this thing can help us erase the smudge?”
“While that is impossible, this is another world where apparently anything can happen.” Jamie pointed out with an embarrassed smile. “S-so…I think we can look for it.”
“I have faith that you all will succeed.” Princess Celestia smiled. “The Prism Crystal is hidden somewhere in the Crystal Empire, so you should be able to search for as long as you can.”
“I feel like this is a side quest for us to do while Twilight and the others take care of protecting the empire from King Sombra.” I thought aloud. “Hmm…I guess it wouldn’t be hard to find one.”
“Yes, we know you can.” Princess Luna softly smiled before she handed us the letter, which Jamie received. “We weren’t able to decipher what it means, but we know with the Prism Crystal that you all will be able to get rid of the smudge and fully be known to read the contents of the letter.”
“Yeah, w-we’ll do our best. Thank you.” Jamie thanked with a soft smile.
“And please make sure that King Sombra doesn’t try anything to enter the kingdom and release the Umbrum Army.” Princess Celestia reminded us.
“Don’t worry Celeste and Lulu, we won’t let you down!” I nodded before taking out my Hacking Gun and had a serious look. “I mean, with my Hacking Gun and my friends, we’ll be able to defeat King Sombra and that Umbrum Army.”
“We know you all will.” Princess Celestia smiled. “Please…be careful and good luck on your mission.”
“We won’t let you down Celeste and Lulu!” I assured before nodding with a determined look.
“Me too…” Jamie nodded, sweating a bit. “I-I’m scared of learning all of this when we’re gonna go to the Crystal Empire, but…I don’t want to let my friends down, even Twilight. I-I’m gonna try.”
“We know you will.” Princess Luna nodded before making an apologetic expression. “And…I am terribly sorry for me leering at you all earlier. I felt suspicious that you all ever since I saw a glimpse of the memory of you all around the Crystal Empire.”
“Trust us, even we feel off-guard by learning that.” I added.
“But you know, know this might be strange, but…” Princess Luna looked at us with a serious look and said “The Crystal Empire I saw…I can’t help but feel like…it didn’t feel like it was the Crystal Empire that we’ve seen.”
“What do you mean?” Jamie asked curiously.
“I’m not sure….I think maybe my eyes may have be playing tricks, but I am sure that the Crystal Empire we saw…felt different than the ones you’ve all seen earlier or even the one when Sombra took over.” Me and Jamie blinked and gasped a bit.
“R-Really? Are you sure Lulu?” I asked in concern. “I mean, I’m still doubtful that we would be anywhere in the Crystal Empire from our past lives. I mean, why would we be there in the first place?”
“I understand if you all are still doubtful of your memories. Trust me, so am I.” Princess Luna hummed. “I wished as though it would be a lot faster if we found out a faster way to unlock your memories.”
“But wait, isn’t there a memory spell that can help us?” Jamie brought up. “I think I came across one while on my late-night reading.”
“Wait…a memory spell?! Seriously?!” I exclaimed before grinning in delight. “That could totally work! Why didn’t we think of that?!”
“But…you two need to be careful upon using that.” Huh? We turned back to Princess Celestia, who held a solemn look. “The memory spell is a very old spell that was used back then 1,000 years ago in case of amnesia, but it comes with side effects. You all need to think of that rationally for our sake. We don’t want any harm to come to any of you humans.”
“I see…” Jamie hummed. “Well…I think I’ll talk with Twilight about that…”
“Oh man…why must the easy way always gotta be hard? That’s like the most common thing to ever happen to…anypony.” I sighed. “Oh well…we might as well hurry back to the Ponyville Train station where the others are waiting.”
“Take care you all.” Princess Celestia smiled.
“And good luck on your mission. We’re all counting on you.” Princess Luna added, which made look at her with a surprised look.
“Huh…” I muttered, which seemed to gotten her attention.
“Yes…is there a problem, Ren Loodan?” She asked curiously.
“Your…speaking normally. Sorry but, I couldn’t help but notice that.” I scratched my cheek in embarrassment while Luna blushed a bit with a nervous smile.
“A-Ah yes…my sister has been teaching me the proper language in this time of era. But…I’m still practicing…” Luna coughed and cleared her throat while Celestia giggled at how embarrassed she was.
“W-well anyway…we should get going, right?” Jamie reminded us.
“Ah yes…carry on you all and good luck finding the Prism Crystal.” Celestia called out. “We know that it’ll be the key finding your lost memories.”
I looked back at the Royal Sisters with a determined smirk and said “Don’t worry…we know that it’ll help us. Thank you for everything.”
With that, the two of us nodded before we made our way out of the throne room. As we walked through the hallways and out of Canterlot Castle, Jamie let out an exhausted sigh.
“This is bad…” Jamie sighed sadly. “I-I mean…from what Princess Luna told us, we…were around the Crystal Empire? Is that…even possible?”
“Well…I’m sure we’ll figure out when the rest of our memories come back. Have faith, dude.” I patted him on the back, which cheered him up a lot. Suddenly, a thought came across to me. “Hey wait, do you think the others have some of their memories back?”
“Well…it’s possible.” Jamie scratching his chin in thought. “I mean…it’s possible that we did recovered them, but maybe we all felt unsure onto telling each other of what we all remembered, it could lead to some misunderstanding or…”
Welp, here he goes with his random gibberish.
“Hey James…” I shook him while giving him a small grin. “Why not we ask them while we head out to the Crystal Empire?”
“O-Oh! R-Right! Sorry…” Jamie apologized, bowing to me.
“Nah, it’s okay. Now come on dude, let’s go.” I said as we began to head out towards the Ponyville Station. As we continued to walk by, I couldn’t help but thought of what we’ve been discussing so far with the princesses. But…is that really true? Did we really go to the Crystal Empire at one point in the past? I mean, it just seems impossible. Why would the Crystal Empire appeared in our world? It never existed at all…right? I’m just having all these doubts right now…Man, it’s making my brain hurt.
Sooner or later, we caught up with the others as Twilight began telling the others about the Crystal Empire.
“Not quite. We’re going to the Crystal Empire!” Twilight exclaimed with a smirk on her face while confusing the others.
“Huh?” Everyone asked.
“The Crystal what?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Basically, we’re gonna protect an ancient kingdom that reappeared a thousand years ago from an evil tyrant.” I explained, gaining the others’ attention.
“Ren! Jamie! You’re back!” Kaede called with a smile as Kodiak rushes over and licks our faces, causing us to chuckle.
“Kodi!” I called with a smile.
“What? I’m just excited, okay?” Kodiak pointed out. “Besides, we’re gonna go off to another adventure!”
“So another thing that the princess want us to do?” Rantaro scoffed. “This is just a waste of my time and energy. Where’s my pay anyway?”
“Come on Ran! This could be fun!” Pinkie exclaimed in excitement. “We’re already starting Season 3 and we don’t need to start it up on the wrong beat!”
“What?” He asked with a raised brow.
“Ignoring her…” Mason sighed before he folded his arms and turned to us. “So we are heading to this Crystal Empire to save it from an evil tyrant?”
“I can try explaining the details to you all, even making it specific for some of us.” Jamie glanced towards Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Jack, who raised brows of confusion at him.
“…Why is he staring at us?” Rainbow whispered to them, which made the two of them shrugging.
“Hmm…Crystal…Empire…” Nicole muttered.
“Jeez…what a lame name.” Jack scoffed, only to earn a scolding look from Twilight and Jamie.
“Jack Yamaki, watch your mouth! This is very serious!” Twilight scolded.
“Exactly! This is ancient history we’re talking here!” Jamie added, glaring at Jack. “Twilight is taking a test about protecting an empire from an evil tyrant that cursed the Crystal Empire into disappearing out of existence for 1,000 years! Only a few knows about it’s existence, so stop talking about like learning ancient history is useless!”
“Okay, okay, god…calm down nerds.” Jack raised his hands while some of us sweat-dropped with deadpanned or nervous looks.
“If you two keep acting up like this, then we won’t be able to do anything about it.” Rantaro sighed. “Besides, we’re already wasting time about going to this place. Besides…Crystal Empire…heh heh…”
“What’s so funny Rantaro?” Kaede asked curiously.
“Oh nothing…I think I can sell 500 bits for a single crystal.” Rantaro smirked.
“Rantaro!” Applejack scolded.
“This isn’t the time for your cons and dirty deals!” Twilight exclaimed, giving him a look. “Right now, we need to protect the empire!”
“Sounds like work that your beloved princess wants ya to do.” Rantaro scoffed. “Besides, I’m already wasting my time with talking any of you.”
“You bastard!” Jack exclaimed angrily.
“Jack! Calm down!” Mason held him back, trying to make sure that he doesn’t try to kill Rantaro.
“Everyone, calm down.” Nicole called, her tone acting stern. “Look…it’s best if we all board the train and head towards this Crystal Empire. Twilight, Jamie, Ren, can you three share us the detail about this place?”
“Sure thing.” I nodded in agreement.
“O-Okay.’ Jamie replied.
“Don’t worry, it won’t take that long.” Twilight grinned. “Now come on everypony, let’s get to the Crystal Empire.”
“Crystal Empire…” Carrie muttered.
“Something wrong Carrie?” Mason asked in worried.
“Oh…it’s nothing wrong big brother, but…I can’t help but feel like I’ve…heard that name…” Carrie winced in pain, which alarmed the others. “N-Ngh!”
“C-Carrie!” Mason and Rarity towards her and looked at her with great concern. “Are you okay?!”
“Y-yeah…” Carrie nodded in agreement.
“What happened, Li’l Carrie?” Rarity asked in worried.
“I-It was a headache, but…I feel as though I remember something.” We all stared at her with surprised looks. Did she…remember something? “B-But…it’s too hard and too static…Ow…”
“Hmm…” Nicole stared at her for a whole before letting out a small gasp.
“Huh? Something wrong Nicole?” I asked in concern.
“…How…does she know what it looks like?” Huh? How does…Wait, is she talking about..?!
“Wait, are you talking-”
“About the Crystal Empire, yes.” Nicole nodded. “As a matter of fact, I feel as though you and Jamie know this too, right?”
“Y-yeah…” Jamie nodded while the others grew confused. “Princess Celestia and Luna told us that the Crystal Empire is somewhat related to our lost memories, and it looks like Carrie remembered some about it.”
“Really?!” Kaede asked in shock.
“But…how? Why would she remember about the Crystal Empire?” Kodi asked curiously while Rantaro looked at each of us with a somewhat intrigued yet serious look on his face.
“More importantly, if she says that it relates to our memories…then why do we feel as though we’ve seen this Crystal Empire too?” Rantaro wondered.
“Yeah…that is strange…” Kaede nodded. “Maybe…we might learn something if we go there.”
“Well if so, then let’s go!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “We promised you guys to get you all back home and getting your memories back!”
“Me too!” Pinkie nodded in agreement. “We wanna help ya all! Besides, this missing memory is so clouded in your heads! We wanna wipe away those cloudy thoughts to get your memories back!”
“What?” Kodi asked confusedly.
“Stop talking like you’re an idiot, you pink weirdo!” Jack yelled out.
“Calm down, dude.” I called with a concern look, not wanting him to hurt anyone else. I know how he is what with attacking anyone who angers him that easily. “Anyway…we should probably head out and get to the Crystal Empire. I think it’s in the arctic north, right?”
“Arctic north?!” Kaede exclaimed. “You mean…in the cold?!”
“Oh, well I guess it’s a perfect time!” Rarity beamed in excitement.
“What? What are you talking about?” I asked in confusion.
“I packed a bunch of scarves for us all to wear in case of an emergency such as this!” Rarity beamed happily.
“Well…that’s pretty helpful.” Kaede sweat-dropped with an awkward smile.
“Okay.” Nicole shrugged. “Let’s go then.”
“Very well, let us go and see this Crystal Empire.” Mason smiled a bit.
“Yeah!” We all cheered with determined looks. Well, it looks like we’re heading to our next stop: The Crystal Empire. Hopefully, we can search for the answers to our lost memories. Hopefully…and…I was hoping to talk with a certain someone. It’s concerning about the last memory just before we came here to Canterlot and I didn’t find the opportunity to talk to her about it, but hopefully she can at least give me a decent conversation with me.
Later
And so, we began to trip towards the arctic north A.K.A. the Crystal Empire. During our train ride, me, Jamie, and Twilight tried our best to tell them as much about the Crystal Empire and what Twilight’s test had to be. The others were shocked but overjoyed to hear this, encouraging Twilight that she’ll do great.
However, me and Jamie didn’t tell them about the Umbrum Army because we made a promise to the princesses about this. I mean, we don’t want to stress Twilight even more. Though, Jamie hated to lie to Twilight about not knowing much. Though…I can’t help but feel if those two saw through my lies. What? Oh…I’m talking about Rantaro and Nicole. Those two can easily see our lies and know that we’re hiding something. Hopefully that they don’t see through us.
Soon, we finally arrived to our destination: the Arctic North. Boy…they weren’t kidding around. I can hardly believe that there would be a train station around in the middle of nowhere!
“Brr! What the hell?!” Jack exclaimed in anger. “Why the hell is it so cold out here?!”
“Because we’re in the middle of the arctic, duh.” Rantaro rolled his eyes.
“M-Man…it’s so c-c-cold!” Kaede yelled out.
“You can say that again…” Kodi nodded before letting out a ‘Brr’ sound. “I have a fur coat and yet I can still feel the cold.”
“B-Big brother!” Carrie whined, causing Mason to take off his sweater and wrapped it around her as a coat.
“Don’t worry Carrie, you’ll be alright.” Mason assured with a soft smile.
“Big brother…but what about you?” Carrie asked in worried.
“Do not worry, I’m one step-ahead of you all.” Rarity walked over and places a scarf for each of us to wear. She made a smug grin and said “Ha! And you all made fun of me for packing so many scarves.”
“Ugh, I didn’t even say a word!” We all turned around and saw Spike carrying a bunch of suitcases filled with scarves.
“Oh please, allow me Spike.” Mason offered, walking over and carrying them for him. “Trust me, I’ve dealt stuff like this.”
“Ha ha, thanks Mason!” Spike grinned, earning a smile from him.
“Hmm…it’s pretty cold.” Nicole stated. “I’ve never seen this kind of blizzard before.”
“Well welcome to the 21st century.” Rantaro rolled his eyes.
“I know what snow is, Rantaro.” Nicole retorted sternly. “I mean that this storm…for some reason, it’s messing up my iPad.”
“Huh? What do you mean Nikki?” Kodi asked in concern.
“I mean that for some reason, it’s making the reception look bad on here.” Nicole showed us her iPad and saw that it was making a lot of static.
“Huh…that is weird.” I thought aloud.
“W-well anyway…maybe we should all get out of here, right?” Jamie suggested. “Where do you think it is?”
“Good question.” Twilight muttered, looking over at the frozen wasteland with a concern look. But before any of us could do anything…
“Twilight!” Huh? We all turned around and saw a figure walking towards us. Twilight squinted her eyes before calling “Shining Armor?”
Soon, the figure revealed itself a pony wearing a black scarf, protective snow goggles covering his eyes until he levitated them to rest on his horn.
“Twily, you made it!” Shining smiled happily, which seemed to gotten Twilight happy too as she rushed over to him and hugged him.
“Shiny!” Twilight hugged her brother while the rest of us smiled upon seeing him. Once their hug ended, she looked at him with a concern look and asked “Are you okay?”
“What? You kidding? I’m perfectly fine.” Shining chuckled before noticing the rest of us. “Oh, you’re all here.”
“Hello Mr. Shining.” Jamie greeted shyly.
“Hey Jamie!” Shining grinned before shaking his hand. “I take it you and my sister have been getting along, right?”
“Y-yes sir. The two of us have been doing so well. In fact, we’ve been getting along very well.” Jamie blushed a bit, along with Twilight. Shining Armor looked between them before nodding.
“I see…” Shining made a teasing smile at them and said “You two sure are getting along, love-birds.”
“Shining!” Twilight shouted with a massive blush while Jamie covered his face with his notebook with an embarrassed look on his face. The rest of us chuckled as Mason made his way and bowed at Shining Armor before saying “We meet again, Captain Armour.”
“Mason, you don’t have to call me that.” Shining chuckled. “We’re friends, so call me Shining Armour.”
“True, but it feels wrong that I don’t address you as that.” Mason stated with a soft smile.
“Ah…I take it that you thought about the offer, eh?” Shining guessed, which made Mason tensed up a bit before he slightly nodded and replied “Yes…but I think it’s best if I told you when all of this is over.”
“I see…” Shining Armour nodded before forming a solemn look at the rest of us. “Now come on everypony. We’d better get moving. There are things out here we really don’t want to run into after dark.”
Fluttershy gulped in fear as she held against my arm and asked “What…kind of things?”
“Let’s just say the Empire…isn’t the only thing that’s returned.” What? Is he referring to…Oh no, so…he’s really back. Oh dammit…this is so not good. I just hope my Hacking Gun is strong enough against him.
“Eh? What is he talking about?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know…but it’s giving me the shivers.” Kodi whimpered till I petted him on the head and gave him an assuring smile.
“Don’t worry dude, I promise that we’ll be alright.” I assured confidently. “We just…need to be careful.”
“R-Ren’s right…we’ll be alright…right?” Fluttershy asked, holding onto me in fear. I nodded in agreement while I noticed Nicole looking at me curiously, much to my confusion. What’s up with her? Speaking of which, what’s up with everyone always looking at me strangely? First Princess Luna, and now her? Is there something on my face or…?
…Never mind. Anyway, how about we move on, right? Okay.
So, we all began to head out through the frozen wasteland as we tried to surpass the frozen wasteland. Spike, Rarity, Mason, and Carrie trekked through the snow what with our friend carrying those suitcases with the other three walking behind him, possibly protection.
“Something keeps trying to get in! We think it’s the unicorn king who originally cursed the place.” Shining yelled out as the blizzard roared through our faces.
“W-wait…you mean King Sombra?!” Jamie exclaimed in shock.
“But Princess Celestia said I was being sent here to find a way to protect the Empire!” Twilight called out. “If King Sombra can’t get in, then it must already be protected.”
“It would seem so, but how? I thought that the empire’s defenses were down since it somehow magically reappeared from out of nowhere!” Jamie added.
“How about you both shut the hell up so that we can figure it out?!” Jack screamed, causing the two of them to glare at him. But before those two could argue back…
…We heard a howl. We all froze in shock as Fluttershy held onto my arm as she was shaking with fear and asked “Th-That’s one of the things, isn’t it?”
Kodi growled a bit before turning around and saw some sort of giant dark shadow heading our way.
“Guh! We have to get to the Crystal Empire! Now!” Shining Armor yelled out.
The giant dark shadow erupted from the snow and from the darkness did appear a very familiar pair of frightening eyes!
“I-I-It’s him!” Jamie exclaimed in shock and horror.
“This is bad! We need to get out of here!” Kaede yelled out.
“Who cares?! Let’s get the heck out of here!” Kodi yelled out.
“GO! GO!” Twilight screamed before the rest of us begins to run away in fear as the giant shadow started chasing us. Mason abandoned all of Rarity suitcases and grabbed her, Spike, and Carrie by the arms as he began running ahead from us, catching up with Shining Armor while the rest of us continued to run away.
“Jeez, what? Did this guy woke up from the wrong side of the bed?!” Rantaro asked, holding onto his hat while Gizmo hanged on tight on his shoulder.
“Hang on! Let me try shooting him down!” I suggested, pulling out my Hacking Gun and pointing it towards him. “Burn!”
I shot multiple ‘Burn’ bullets towards him, but it was past him.
“What?! It…went through him?!” I exclaimed in shock.
“Who cares about that?!” Rainbow Dash yelled out. “If it ain’t working, then we need to gallop as fast as we could!”
“I agree!” Jamie nodded, panting as he kept up with us. “Right now, we need to find a safe place to hide!”
“Don’t worry! We’re almost there!” Shining Armor shouted, pointing over to let us see a shiny blue dome. I stared at it with a surprised look. Whoa…is that the Crystal Empire? It looks like it’s being protected, but by who?
“W-Whoa!” I turned back and saw Kodi falling on the side and tried to get up, but he winced upon seeing his paw badly bruised up.
“Kodiak!” I screamed before running back and helping him up. “Hang on bud!”
“R-Ren…go on without me!” Kodiak begged, but I shook my head and replied “No…I ain’t gonna leave ya pal.”
“Ren…” Kodi looked at me with a surprised look before softly smiling. Suddenly, our little moment ended as we heard growling as we looked up and saw King Sombra roaring at us. I quickly grabbed my Hacking Gun and set it with Knock-Back before shooting it at him, but it had no effect to him.
“It’s not working!” I gulped, sweating nervously before holding onto Kodiak. Suddenly, we were pushed aside as we looked over and saw Shining Armor and Mason standing in front of us.
“Ren! Get out of here and go!” Mason yelled out.
“We’ll handle this! Get Kodi towards the dome and stay there! We’ll buy you guys more time!” Shining added, giving me a stern look.
“But-”
“Just go!” They both shouted, causing me and Kodi to wince before nodding as I picked up Kodiak as we immediately ran back, but till I heard some shouting.
“Bring it on! You don’t fear us!” I stopped before looking back and saw the dark shadow slowly surrounding them. I turned a bit pale before biting my upper lip and looked away.
“I’m sorry you guys…” I muttered before running towards the dome. No, I have to believe that Mason and Shining Armor can beat that thing. Hopefully that they can succeed.
With that, we entered through the dome as we saw the others catching their breaths.
“Phew…that was too close…” Kaede sighed in relief.
“It would seem that we were able to surpass that mysterious fog.” Nicole stated, which made Jack scoffed.
“Way to state the obvious, Captain Obvious.” Jack scoffed.
“Wait…where’s Shining?” Twilight looks around and noticed that he wasn’t around.
“And big brother?” Carrie asked in worried.
“He put us inside before following after Shining Armour to…” Rarity let out a gasp before looking back behind me and Kodiak. “No…he didn’t…”
“Oh no…” Applejack muttered.
“We have to go back!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“Crap! What was that idiot thinking?!” Jack exclaimed in anger. “That idiot…!”
“Wait, hold on you guys!” I stopped them with a serious look. “They’ll come back! I know they will!”
“You seemed pretty confident.” Rantaro pointed out.
“True, but you look pretty worried, concern, scared, but you’re placing your faith in them.” Nicole added, looking at me curiously.
“Well…” I looked back at the dome wall with a concern look before forming a small smile. “I’m scared and worried for them, but I gotta keep believing in my friends like them for example.”
“Ren’s right.” Carrie nodded, pouting a bit. “I want to believe in big brother and my friends.”
“Well…but still…” Jamie walked over and held Twilight’s hoof and looked at her with a soft smile.
“D-don’t worry…I-I know that they can do it. They’re both brave, after all.” Jamie grinned softly yet nervously, which seemed to gotten Twilight to smile back at him.
“O-Okay…I’ll believe in them…” Twilight sighed.
“Ow…my paw…” Kodi groaned, slowly shaking his right paw till wincing in pain. Fluttershy gasped in shock before flying over and examining his paw.
“Oh dear! It looks pretty injured! We gotta help tend it!” Fluttershy cried out.
“I know…he accidentally tripped and gotten his paw hurt.” I explained worriedly.
“Poor Kodi…” Kaede muttered till Rosy appeared out of her bag and jumped out of there before running over and looking at Kodiak with an extremely worried look. Fluttershy picked up and showed her in front of Kodi, who smiled softly before he licked at her, which made her happy and feel relax before she nuzzled him on the cheek.
“H-hey…! Stop that! That tickles!” Kodi laughed, which made some of us laughed. What? It was a cute moment and…we needed to calm down right after getting chased by a demon. It reminds me of that chase scene from Deltarune. Only except that the enemy isn’t attacking you with card symbols.
“AHH!”
“OOF!”
Huh? What the heck?! We all turned and saw two familiar figures falling out through the dome’s shield.
“Oh, no! Shining Armor!” Twilight let go of Jamie’s hand as the two rushed over to his and Mason’s side.
“Big brother!”
“Mason!” Carrie and Rarity rushed over to Mason’s side as he coughed violently and looked at them with a painful look, but held a soft smile.
“D-Don’t worry you guys…we’re alright.” Mason assured, only to get hugged tightly by the two. “W-whoa…Rarity? Carrie?”
“Mason Hunter! What were you thinking?! You and Shining could’ve been killed!” Rarity cried out. “Do you know how worried you gotten Carrie? Even me!?”
Before any of us could say anything, she slapped Mason hard on the right cheek, causing him to wince in pain.
“O-Ow!” Mason hissed before looking at Rarity while rubbing his cheek. “Ugh…that isn’t gonna get old, isn’t it?”
“Of course not! You worried us! Even your own sister! You and Shining could have been killed!” Rarity screamed out.
We all stared at Rarity with shocked look, seeing tears forming around her eyes. Mason looked at her with a regretful look before sighing “I’m sorry Miss Rarity…I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, and neither did you Carrie.”
“It’s okay big brother. At least you and Shining are alright.” Carrie sighed in relief.
“Same here. What the hell happened back there?” Jack asked before noticing something off on Shining Armor. “And what the hell happened to your horn?”
“Huh?” Shining looked up and gasped a bit upon seeing black crystals formed around on the tip of the horn.
“Shining Armor, your horn!” Twilight gasped.
Shining began concentrated as hard as he can…only to groan as he got a headache before rubbing his head.
“Ugh…it’s no use.” Shining sighed. “Guess I won’t be using any spells or magic for a while.”
“I-I’m sorry about your horn, Shining Armor.” Jamie apologized sadly. “I should have stayed behind and help you.”
“Don’t be like that Jamie.” Shining Armor assured with a soft smile. “You watched over my sister and her friends, that’s all.”
“He’s right. You did well, Jamie.” I added with a soft smile, which earned a blush from him as he was being overwhelmed by the compliments.
“T-Thank you everyone…” Jamie muttered.
“So what happened back there?” Jack asked.
“I’m not sure, but we were saved by some cloaked pony.” We all blinked and stared at Mason with a confused look. He held a serious look before looking back at the dome as he began telling us his story. “It was right after we gotten both Ren and Kodiak to head towards the dome…”
Flashback
Ren runs through the dome with Kodiak in his hands as Mason took out his bamboo pole while Shining Armor’s horn glowed as they gazed towards the dark shadow as they heard an evil laugh emanating out of it.
“I take it that this shadow is that evil tyrant that enslaved the Crystal Empire back then?” Mason asked.
“Yeah, and I gotta say…” Shining formed a cocky grin. “He sure looks pretty ugly for a king, eh?”
“For sure.” Mason nodded solemnly, but not till he formed a small smile. “But even so, it was pretty stupid of you to come all this way and fight it all by yourself.”
“And what? You don’t realize that you came with me too?” Shining asked cockily. Mason chuckled before replying “Good point, Shining.”
The shadow let out a roar before it began speaking.
“You human…you are one of the seeds…the seeds…of hope…” Mason stared at the mysterious dark shadow with a confused look. “Well…Father was not kidding…it would seem that you have its power…”
“Void? What are you going on about?” Mason demanded.
“That is for me to know, and for you two…” The eyes glowed more dark green than usual as he charged towards them and roared “…TO DIE!”
“Not on my watch!” Mason huffed before leaping back, dodging the shadow before using its bamboo pole in hopes of slicing it, but it had no effect. “What?”
“It’s just a shadow, Mason! We can’t even damage it!” Shining hissed angrily before shooting a magic beam at it, causing it to dodge that before growling towards Shining Armor.
“You insubordinate little cretin! You shall pay for nearly shooting the great King Sombra down!” The cloud began forming before it began shooting dark green beams towards him. Mason managed to push him aside to avoid the hit as the two landed harshly on the snowy field. Shining shook his head violently to get rid some of the snow on his head before grinning softly at Mason.
“Thanks for the save, Mason.” Shining thanked.
“Don’t mention it.” Mason nodded before glaring at the dark shadow cloud. “This ends here, King Sombra. You stay away from the Crystal Empire and everything!”
“Tch! You dare tell me what to do?! Prepare to die!” King Sombra roared before firing another dark beam towards him. Mason charged before leaping upwards, dodging the attack and slicing him with his bamboo pole, but the cloud went through it and recreated it.
“What?!” Mason hissed. “Nothing is even fazing this…thing.”
“Hmph! Is that the best you got, human?” King Sombra laughed maniacally as Mason growled and glared at him before feeling a headache on his head as he saw some sort of static of himself around a giant crystal-like palace in his head, but the memory was flashing for him to even remember what it was. King Sombra leered at Mason before firing a dark green beam at him.
“Mason! Watch out!” Shining pushed Mason away before taking the hit himself, straight at the horn, which made some bits of black crystal to block off the tip of his horn before he fell onto the snowy floor.
“Shining Armor!” Mason cried out before rushing over and picking him up in his arms.
“MWAHAHAHAHAHA! Do you all truly believe that you can defeat me?! The Unicorn Whose Heart Was Black As Night? King Sombra!?” King Sombra laughed, earning a cold and dark look from Mason.
“You are truly a monster…you will pay for this!” Mason hissed angrily. King Sombra stared at him for a while with narrowed eyes.
“….Hmph! It doesn’t matter…it’s time for you two to accept my judgement!” Before King Sombra could attack, a powerful beam of light hit him from behind, causing him to hiss before looking back and saw a hooded figure wearing a red hoodie. “What?!”
“Stop this! You will not harm them!” The figure shouted, surprising Mason. The red cloaked figure turned to them and pointed at the dome. “You need to get him towards the dome right away! I’ll hold him off!”
“W-who are you?” Mason demanded. “You can’t take him on! Let me-”
“His safety is more important than fighting off Sombra! Now hurry!” The figure demanded, which Mason seemed to understand before nodding as he carried Shining Armor towards the dome.
“No! You shall not escape my judgement!” King Sombra roared angrily as he tried chasing after them, but the red cloaked figure fired another beam of crystallized light at him, causing him to wince in pain before dissolving and in moments later, started reforming itself. Mason kept panting and ran as fast as he could while holding onto Shining Armor till he looked back and saw King Sombra surrounding the red cloaked figure before he jumped through the dome as the two landed hard on the ground.
Flashback Ended
“Whoa! So someone else helped you guys out?!” I asked in shock. “That’s pretty bold for them.”
“I agree!” Fluttershy agreed. “Do you think that mysterious pony is gonna be alright?”
“I wish so…” Mason looks back with a worried look. “I want to go back, but right now…all of your safety is my priority.”
“Don’t take it too hard, Mason.” Shining slowly got back up with a soft smile. “You didn’t mean for this to happen, and you were just trying to help out, that’s all.”
“I know…” Mason sighed till he felt Carrie holding onto his hand with a big grin on her face.
“Don’t worry big brother! I know that you tried your best! Even Shining Armor!” Carrie assured with a soft smile.
“Carrie…” Mason muttered before smiling softly at her and nodded.
“And I believe this belongs to you.” Rarity used her magic to give Mason his sweater. She looks at him with a soft smile, but I noticed a small blush on her face. “Y-you know…you were pretty cold out, so I-I thought you were needed it and…sorry for slapping you.”
Mason looked at her with a surprised look before smiling and nodding at her before putting his sweater back on.
“How can this guy have that much muscle?” Rainbow Dash whispered to Jack, who shrugged and replied “I don’t frigging know…”
“You guys! Look!” We all turned to Pinkie, who was staring at something that was far off from us. We all stared at her with confused looks before looking at her direction and let out gasps.
“Ah…!” I gasped as I held my mouth in a jaw-dropping expression as I slowly walked over and kept gasping, along with the others upon seeing the place. We all stared at the gorgeous crystals that was far off from us, and over there…was the Crystal Empire. Everything just from this distance…was awe-inspiring! It’s like you’re seeing a new destination that gets you so excited like from the start of a Persona game, or in a Final Fantasy game.
I mean, look at this place! The entire town is made out of crystals! Even the building and that giant sky-scraper looking castle!
“Sparkleriffic!” Pinkie mused herself with an excited grin.
“Whoa…” Kodi muttered in awe. “This place looks awesome!”
“Well…they sure know how to make a place look all that crystallizing.” Rantaro chuckled before picking up a small crystal-like flower from the ground. “Like seriously…is this possible?”
“Amazing! An entire kingdom made out of any type of crystal!” Jamie exclaimed, his eyes sparkling in excitement. “I mean…how is that even possible?!”
“I have no idea.” Twilight replied, her tone filled with excitement as well.
I looked over and saw the others looking at the place with amazement and awe. Oh man…If I had my phone, I would totally tweet this on Twitter or even at Instagram! Nah…I think maybe Facebook.
Heck, even Nicole is staring at the place with a shocked look.
“Amazing…I….never seen this structure before…” Nicole muttered in awe. “Hm? Oh…the service on my iPad is back online…”
She looked through her iPad and softly smiled.
“Astonishing…I need to analyze my surroundings…” Nicole muttered.
“Analyze?” Applejack asked.
“Well I need to know much about this place…” Nicole replied. “Now let’s go…”
With that, she began to take her leave while Rantaro began catching up with her while the rest of us began following after them and headed towards the small town.
“Heh, you sound pretty excited.” Rantaro gave Nicole an amused look while she kept gazing at her iPad as she replied “I…wasn’t really.”
“No need to hide your emotions away.” He placed a hand around her shoulder with a cocky grin. “Keeping them lock away is just make the others feel suspicious of you. I mean, what with your talent on advanced, and Analytical psychology and studying the human emotions, you seemed pretty airtight…”
“…Are you mocking my talent?” Nicole asked, her tone feeling a bit irked.
“What? I’m just saying.” Rantaro shrugged before sighing “But man…I guess maybe this whole little trip wasn’t a waste of my time. I can’t wait to see what this place has in store for me…”
I let out a sigh and sweat-dropped. This guy can’t be serious, right? Oh well…at least he’s feeling happy, at least…right?
“It’s gorgeous! Absolutely gorgeous!” Rarity begins mumbling incoherently at the sight of the crystallized town. “There are no words!”
“Miss Rarity, please calm down.” Mason sighed, folding his arms with a solemn look. “We need to keep calm.”
“Well it’s understandable why she’s acting like this.” Kaede chuckled nervously. “I mean, this place is filled with crystals and she’s known for her love for crystals.” Kaede scratched her cheek with an awkward smile and added “I mean, she even has a gem-finding spell.”
“That is true, I’ll admit.” Mason nodded, which made me chuckle.
Well it’s true.
Sooner or later, we arrived to that sky-scraper like castle as we were underneath it. Man…it makes me feel like I was at some baseball stadium. Hmm…Dang it, where’s a phone when you need one?
Rarity looks around in awe, nearly at the verge of breaking down upon seeing the place. Jack came over and gave her an intimidating look and said “Hey, focus loon. We’re here to help the purple chick, not admire the scenery like you’re some stupid tourist.”
“Eh, I don’t see the big deal is. Just looks like another old castle to me.” Rainbow Dash shrugged.
“A–p–guh! Another old…! Have you lost your mind?!” Rarity yelled out. “Look at the magni-”
“Did you hear that?” Jack asked both Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Five seconds passed and he made a smug grin and said “That’s right…nothing.”
Applejack and Rainbow Dash laughed, earning a sigh from the fashionista as she muttered “Very funny.”
“Astonishing…this castle looks very beautiful. As expected from an ancient kingdom such as this, right?” Jamie asked, writing some facts down on his notebook.
“Yeah!” Twilight grinned before we walked inside through the doors and headed inside, finding the inside of the castle look pretty fancy looking compared to the one at Canterlot Castle.
“Thanks for holding onto me, Ren…” Kodi thanked as I continued to hold onto him.
“Don’t worry bud, I’m sure once we find a place to relax, Fluttershy can help you out.” I assured. “And I’ll help you out.”
“But…I don’t think you’re good with bandaging wounds and bruises or even cuts.” Kodiak pointed out.
“Well I have to do something. I am your owner/best friend after all.” I reminded him.
Kodi thought that for a while before smiling at me.
“Well…you make a good point.” Kodi nodded.
I chuckled before looking at the others before…
“Huh…?” What the? D-did…my eyes just play tricks on me or did Mason’s shadow…just moved around a bit? Huh…that was pretty weird. I guess…I’m just seeing things. Hmm…and suddenly, I’m getting creepy vibes like I once had when I regretted playing Five Nights At Freddy’s…
Sooner or later, we all arrived to the throne room, where we saw another familiar friend of ours.
“Cadance!” Twilight shouted with an excited grin.
“Twilight!” Cadance weakly smiled at her before running off of the throne. The moment the two came across each other, they began their little theme song.
“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”
We all stared at them with nervous grins while Rantaro rolled his eyes and scoffed “Do we really have time for that?”
“Of course we do. We have time for everything.” Twilight retorted.
“Ha ha ha!” Princess Cadance chuckled, but her tone of voice felt weak. “One of these days we need to get together when the fate of Equestria isn’t hanging in the balance.”
She let out a sigh as I took noticed of her eyes, which made widened my eyes in shock.
“Are you okay?” I asked in concern.
“Cadance has been able to use her magic to spread love and light.” Shining explained. “That seems to be what is protecting it. But she hasn’t slept, barely eats.”
“Oh no…” Jamie muttered. “T-that’s bad…but if she doesn’t sleep or eats well, her mana could increasingly drain down.”
“I know, and I want to help her, but…” Shining kept trying to use his magic, but the tip of his horn kept flickering due to those small black crystal fragments were blocking his magic. “…My protection spell has been countered by King Sombra.”
Princess Cadance began breathing deeply before we noticed outside was starting to look rather different before she began making her horn glow and the blue sky looked normal again.
“It’s alright Shining Armor, I’m fine.” Cadance assured.
“Whoa…is this her doing?” I asked in surprise.
“I see…so it’s her protection spell.” Nicole said. “And it keeps draining your energy?”
“D-Don’t worry everypony…I’m fine…” Cadance took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh. “I’m…just…so tired…”
“She’s not fine.” Shining stated. “She can’t go on like this forever, and if her magic were to fade…Well, you saw what’s out there waiting for that to happen.”
“Y-yeah…I don’t need to remember that.” Jamie sighed.
“And that’s why we’re here.” Twilight said, realizing the situation.
“No, why we’re all here.” I corrected her with a smile. “We need to protect the kingdom from the wrath of King Sombra, and it’ll be a piece of cake, am I right?”
“Heh, need you have to say, kid?” Jack joked, crossing his arms with a cocky grin. “I’m in.”
“Me too!” Carrie called.
“Same here. Right now, we need to focus and find a way in order to protect the Crystal Empire before Princess Cadance could get too exhausted to work up on her protection spell.” Mason stated, crossing his arms.
“Yeah! Let’s do this together!” Kaede exclaimed.
“Well, with Cadance putting all her strength into keeping her spell going, and me trying to keep an eye on signs of trouble in the arctic, we haven’t been able to gather much information from the Crystal Ponies.” Shining explained.
“Crystal Ponies?!” Rarity asked in shock before giggling uncontrollably. “Hahahaha, there are Crystal Ponies?!”
“Miss Rarity…” Mason called, his tone feeling concern. “Are you alright? You seemed to be acting a little off.”
“Yeah, like your character was a bit-off there.” I added.
“Um, ahem.” Rarity blushed and cleared her throat. “Please continue.”
“But we have to believe one of them knows how we can protect the Empire without having to use Cadance’s magic.” Shining said, looking at Cadance with a concern look.
“Well..that is a problem.” Kodi whimpered. “What can we do?”
We all looked at each other, wondering if any of us has an idea.
That was when those two shouted out a solution for us to handle.
“A research paper!” Jamie and Twilight shouted in unison, startling the others, even Shining.
“H-huh?” Shining asked in confusion.
“How the hell can something like that help us?” Jack questioned.
“Jack…” Kaede scolded. “How about we listen to what they say? Maybe they know something.”
“That must be part of my test!” Twilight exclaimed. “To gather information from the Crystal Ponies and deliver it to you!”
“Maybe so!” Jamie nodded, feeling excited as much as Twilight. “I mean, we can learn as much about the Crystal Ponies and see what this place has, and what was use as a means of defense and protection from enemy forces back then. This could be it.”
“So basically, we’re gonna be doing homework?” Rantaro asked before scoffing “Yeah…right. Count me out.”
With that, Rantaro began taking his leave till he was stopped by Rainbow Dash.
“Now hold on! We’re doing this together! We have to save the Crystal Empire!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“I rather not waste my time. Besides, your princess will be fine…for now.” Rantaro replied with a bored look, but that seemed to upset Shining Armor as he walked towards Rantaro with a stern look and confronted him face-to-face.
“This isn’t a game where you can sit around and do nothing! She’s suffering from exhaustion from using too much of her energy and could end up lose all of her energy to keep the protection spell on check!” Shining yelled out, which seemed to gotten Rantaro to give him a bored look.
“So? It’s not my problem, captain.” Rantaro scoffed. “If you knew that would happen, then why didn’t you do something about it?”
“W-what?” Shining asked.
“If you knew that might happen, you should have used the protection spell on yourself like you did last time or does it bring you flashbacks on when you abandoned your sister when siding with that bug queen?” Rantaro smirked, earning anger looks from the others while some of us felt as if this was going nowhere.
Why would Rantaro bring that up? I know it happened a month ago, but there’s no need to talk about it.
“Why you-!” Shining’s face grew steaming mad as he was about to punch Rantaro till Mason stopped him. “Let me at him! He’s gonna need pay!”
“It’s no use, Shining!” Mason exclaimed. “You need to calm down! You’re scaring the others!”
“He’s right!” I nodded in agreement. “I mean, we can’t all fight around like this! If we’re gonna save the Crystal Empire, we all need to work together as a team! So come on, no fighting!”
“I’m just pointing something out.” Rantaro shrugged. “It’s the cold, hard truth that everyone needs to face.”
“And I suppose you don’t take the truth, huh?” Applejack asked suspiciously. Rantaro glanced away in thought, his face turning a bit…dull?
“I will, I always love taking any insult people give to me. When I’ll be able to learn that the lie that I thought about years ago is truly a lie, then I’ll learn the truth.” Rantaro stated, earning confused looks from us.
“R-Rantaro?” Jamie called.
“Tch! It’s none of your business. Now see ya, I’ll be searching out on my own.” Rantaro took his leave while the rest of us looked at each other while Mason managed to calm Shining down.
“Shining…” Mason gave him a solemn yet worried look. “I understand how you feel about him, but right now, just ignore what he says. We need to focus on what we need to do and find out much about the Crystal Empire. If we manage to find a source of energy other than Princess Cadance’s protection spell, then she’ll be able to rest.”
Shining Armor looked at him for a while before sighing and smiling softly at him.
“Yeah…okay.” Shining replied.
“You okay Shining?” Twilight asked as she and Cadance walked over to him.
“Yeah…I think so.” Shining nodded, gulping a bit. “Sorry if I scared some of you.”
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.” Fluttershy assured.
“Fluttershy’s right.” Carrie nodded in agreement as she held Rarity’s hoof. “I mean…we don’t need to fight against each other like last time, right?”
“Carrie, don’t say that.” I said with a soft smile. “We’re all pretty tensed up due to trying to save the Crystal Empire, but we’ll be able to make up our mistakes if we all not fight against each other and instead, work together.”
“Well said Ren!” Applejack grinned. “Just ignore what that hobo Rantaro says, we don’t need him.”
“Yeah, but he got off lucky this time…” Jack scoffed.
“Umm…guys?” Kaede called. “Where did Nicole go?”
“Oh, she’s right over here!” Pinkie pointed her hoof right to where she stood, but to her surprise, she wasn’t around. “Huh? No wait…maybe over there? Oh no, she’s gone! Did she disappeared like a ghost?!”
“I don’t think that’s what happened, Pinkie…” Kaede sweat-dropped.
“Yeah, she…probably either went off on her own like Rantaro or is following after him?” I suggested.
“Oh, of course she had the last person to disappear right from our eyes.” Rainbow Dash sighed exasperatedly.
“Well either way, we should focus on our mission.” Twilight said with a serious look. “Right now, we have some research to do.”
“You’re right!” Jamie grinned. “I-I can already feel pretty excited about this.”
“Me too Jamie! This is gonna be great! I love research papers!” Twilight grinned excitedly.
“Yeah, who doesn’t?” Jack scoffed.
“Oh-oh-oh! Lemme guess!” Pinkie raised her hoof in the air before pointing over one of us. “Is it Spike? Nono, Fluttershy! Rarity? Rennie? Ran? Kay? Kodi?”
“Uhh…” Kaede and I sweat-dropped while Kodi raised a brow at her.
“Well anyway, we should get to work.” I suggested. “I mean, there’s gotta be somepony that will help us, right?”
“Ren’s right. I mean, they’ve been through a lot, so maybe they could help.” Jamie nodded.
“Are you all sure you can do this?” Shining asked.
“Don’t worry, big brother. I am really good at this sort of thing.” Twilight assured with a confident look on her face.
“Hell yeah!” Jack yelled out, cracking his knuckles. “If anypony is hiding something, they won’t escape from my wrath!”
“I rather not…” Jamie muttered, flinching away from him.
“Well then! Come on everypony! Let’s go!” Rainbow Dash yelled out.
“Wait! While we’re at it, I think it’s best if I gotten Kodiak to get his paw treated.” I reminded everypony.
“Don’t worry, there’s a guest room where he can rest.” Shining offered.
“I can come with you Ren. I am an animal caretaker and I have many experiences with stuff like this.” Fluttershy offered.
“Thanks Flutters.” I chuckled with a soft smile. “We’ll meet you all up at town. Till then, we’ll see you later.”
“Good luck you guys.” Twilight smiled softly at me, Fluttershy, and Kodi before she and the others began taking their leave.
“Actually, it’s best if I stay too.” Mason offered. “I…wish to speak with Shining Armor right at the moment.”
“Well…maybe.” Shining shrugged.
“Well Mason darling, you might as well deserved some rest after what you’ve been through.” Rarity smiled.
“Yeah! Don’t worry big brother! We’re gonna go and help them out!” Carrie assured with a smirk. “Don’t worry about me! I got Rarity and the rest of my friends by my side!”
“I see…very well then.” Mason nodded as the others began taking their leave. But as they were about to leave the throne room, Carrie immediately runs back to her and hugs her brother, catching him off-guard before he smiled back at her and hugged her back.
With that, she went off and went to catch up with the others while those of us that stayed behind went to stay and help out Kodiak.
Later
Mason’s POV
“There we go…” Soon after the others left, Ren and Fluttershy took Kodiak to the guest room before she managed to wrapped the bandage around his wounded paw, causing him to whimper painfully while Ren scratched him underneath the chin, which may have calm him down a bit. I was busy watching this from outside of the guest room seeing them helping their dog friend.
“Ow…” Kodi moaned. “How long till my paw heals?”
“I think till the end of the day, it doesn’t look too serious.” Fluttershy stated.
“Well that’s a relief.” Ren sighed in relief before smiling at him. “You’re lucky that I managed to see you fall down like that.”
“Thanks again Ren.” Kodi smiled before licking his and Fluttershy’s face, causing the two to laugh. I smiled over by the door as I heard Fluttershy speaking.
“You know, I’m happy that you have an owner like Ren.” Fluttershy praised, earning a minor blush on Ren’s face.
“C-Come on…I’m not that good, Flutters. I’m just some doing what anyone might do to love their pets/friends.” Ren replied.
“But still, you helped me out and were even trying to help both Mason and Shining Armor back there.” Kodiak pointed out. “I say that you’re really a kind guy.”
“Not really.” Ren chuckled.
“Well I think so too.” Kodiak smiled softly. “You’re…willing to protect anyone. I mean, you’re even helping us all save the Crystal Empire along with the Crystal Ponies.”
“Hey, it’s what I do.” Ren smiled while I couldn’t help but smile at them. Those two get along so well…
“Hey Mason…” Huh? I looked back and saw Shining walking towards me. “Just wanted to let you know our sisters and the rest of your friends are still searching out for info.”
“I see. Thank you for letting me know.” I smiled softly. “And what about Cadance?”
“She’s doing fairly well, but still exhausted.” Shining sighed. “Great…and I could have helped out if my horn wasn’t…you know.”
He pointed his hoof at the tip of his horn while I gave him a soft smile and said “Don’t feel bad Shining. What’s important is that you’re still here and safe and sound.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Shining sighed before smiling at me. “But maybe enough sad stories, how about we talk?”
“I think that’s perfect.” I nodded with a smile before we began to walk around the halls. “You know, I was meaning to talk to you about something.”
“I take it it’s the offer that we’ve talked about last month?” Shining guessed with a smile. “So…have you been thinking about it?”
“Well…about that…” I looked down with a somewhat darkened look on my face. “I…just worried if I was abandoning my friends.”
“Hm? What do you mean?” Shining asked.
“It’s just that…if I do, then I’ll have no choice but to leave the others and go to the Royal Guard Academy for six whole months.” I explained. “But if I refuse, then I’ll likely disappoint everyone…I just…feel so lost…”
“I see…feeling indecisive, eh?” Shining gave me an awkward grin. “Yeah…I had a feeling that you would say something like that.”
“Huh? Really?” I asked, looking at him with a surprised look. Shining let out a heavy sigh before stopping and looking at me with a gentle, friendly smile as he placed a hoof on my shoulder.
“I understand that feeling. Back when I wanted to join the Royal Guard, I felt nervous about leaving my sister behind. But…she encouraged me to go and says that she’ll accept whatever decision I choose. Besides, even if you do go, your sister will support you on, along with your other friends. I know they’ll do that and you aren’t technically gonna go away for good?”
“When you put it like that, but you make a very good point.” Mason sighed as his pet squirrels popped out of his scarf and nuzzled him in concern. Mason softly smiled at them before scratching them each by their ears. After he was done, he turned back to Shining Armor with a soft smile and said “Well…maybe just give me more time to think about that. Besides…I believe in them, and I guess you are right that they’ll accept in what decision I make. Thank you for your piece of advice, Shining Armor.”
“Don’t mention it!” Shining Armor grinned before punching his shoulder. “Now enough acting all mushy. As men, we need to be brave for our sisters and the ladies.”
“Mm…agreed.” I chuckled before he noticed a distinct shadow moving into Shining Armor’s shadow. I blinked in confusion and saw that Shining Armor’s shadow was acting all normal. Weird….didn’t I just saw…? Never mind…
“Something up?” Shining asked with a raised brow.
“N-nothing…now come on and let’s go check up with the others.” I suggested, which he nodded before we headed out. While we walked, I couldn’t but feel as though on what we just saw. That shadow…I could have sworn that my eyes wasn’t playing tricks on me.
Rantaro’s POV
Heheheheheheh….Eh? What’s this? Oh…it’s just you right there. Nothing much, just looking around the castle and maybe or maybe not taking some items because they could be valuable.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Of frigging course someone had to come. I turned back and saw Li’l miss Psychologist giving me a stern look. “Well…? Why do you have all of those items?”
“It’s none of your business.” I answered.
“Stealing is wrong.” I turned away from her with a light scoff and asked “So? It’s not like anyone can stop me nor even owns this castle, so it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“As always….you never cease to amaze my expectations. You really are greedy.” Nicole sighed. “So I just came and looked for you. The others began their information gathering around the Crystal Empire by asking some of the locals.”
“Really? I haven’t noticed.” I rolled my eyes. “Like I really care what they’re doing. All I care is just seeing what valuables I can find in a place like this.”
“…..” Nicole didn’t respond as she glanced away before replying “Well either way, I just came to check on you.”
“If it’s about our little friend, then I kept my word after you paid me.” I sighed.
“Not that…did you noticed anything odd?” Mm? Anything odd? I turned to her and asked “What?”
“I see…well I noticed something dark roaming around the empire.” Huh…so something sinister is hiding from our sights. “And…I am unsure what it was, but it felt as though it was similar to King Sombra.”
“Really? How weird considering both Mason and Shining faced him off before those two headed back in here.” I pointed out before something hit me. “Huh…then again, maybe he done something to them without them realizing.”
“So I take it you’re suspicious about this, huh?” Nicole asked.
“So? that’s none of your business.” I scoffed. “Although…it doesn’t matter to me. What matters is just those guys can solve it themselves.”
“Then I won’t stop you then.” Nicole sighed. “You love do this kind of stuff to make things interesting in your own way, right?”
“Heh, you know me so well.” I smirked cockily before adding “Although, I guess I should keep my eye out on something like that. You know…for some amusement.”
“Do you keep like to not be helpful to make the others accept that as the truth?” Nicole questioned, earning me a confused look. “I mean, you were lying about not interested about the Crystal Empire but, you really do want to find out what secrets are here.”
“….So?” I asked. “I’ve been wasting my time staying around in this place. Do you know how much I make in a week? Or even a month?”
“Seeing you act up like this is somewhat relieving to me.” Nicole said bluntly.
“Whatever.” I shrugged with a cocky smirk before grabbing a crystal-like vase.
“You know stealing is wrong.” Nicole pointed out, causing me to let out an irritated sigh.
“If that captain of the Royal Guard was gonna stop me, that wouldn’t bother me. He doesn’t even own this castle at all, so not my problem.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “But besides that, I’ll take my leave.”
With that, I began taking my leave while Nicole sighed and decided to follow me, irritating me a lot.
“Do you ever heard of the term ‘personal space’?” I asked.
“You know, you’re very distrusting and someone needs to keep an eye out for you.” Really? Me? Distrusting?
“Really? I’m distrusting? You’re suspicious yourself too.” I pointed out. “You’re keeping secrets about hiding a Changeling.”
“So?” Nicole asked, causing me to face-palm. Jeez, this woman…
“Whatever…you’re not my problem. Now excuse me, I’m gonna go and-Mm?” I looked over and the others entering through a door. With a raised brow, I began walking towards it till something else peeked my interest.
“What’s this?” I asked upon seeing a portrait in front of me. It was a picture of a pony. She had brilliant amber eyes, the mane was a gradient of brilliant raspberry to moderate cobalt blue, and her coat had a slight hint of a very pale vermilion. Hmm…
“This looks like a painting of somepony, but she looks quite similar to one pony we know.” Nicole adjusted her glasses before going through her iPad. “You know who I’m talking about, right?”
“It’s that Princess Mi Amore whatever pony.” God, her name sounds a bit like Spanish. “So what? This is probably some relative of her.”
“But…why would her picture be hanged here?” Nicole wondered.
“Oh…” Hm? We turned back and saw a random pony whose mane looked aqua blue and very pale purple coat as they slowly walked up towards the portrait. “T-This…!”
“What? Do you know this pony?” I asked.
“This is…Princess…Amore…” The pony said before gasping in surprise. “I remember now…Ugh.”
“Hm?” Nicole stared at him with a slight concern look. “Are you alright sir?”
“Y-yeah…” He nodded. “Sorry…but I remember a bit, but this was Princess Amore, the previous ruler of the Crystal Empire.”
“Hm?” I raised a brow of confusion. The previous ruler? Actually…
“Hey, you.” I called, causing him to turn to me. “You know anything about her?”
“Y-yes…she was our ruler. She was so kind, and always protect us from monsters.” The Crystal Pony explained to us. “Then…one day…Ngh!”
His eyes widened in fear and started panting heavily.
“Eh? What’s up with you?” I asked with a raised brow.
“….S-Sorry…I-I….I need to go!” He rushed away while me and Nicole looked at each other in confusion.
“That was strange.” Nicole said bluntly. “But it’s understandable, he did had some PTSD.”
“Hm? PTSD?” I asked.
“Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.” Nicole answered. “A condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or severe psychological shock, typically involving disturbance of sleep and constant vivid recall of the experience, with dulled responses to others and to the outside world.”
“I know what that is, I meant that he has it?” I remarked with an annoyed look. “Are you talking about that he has some sort of fear because of that whole enslavement with King Sombra?”
“Seems so. It makes no surprise because that pony seemed to hurt these innocent ponies for his selfish desires.” Nicole gazed at the painting of Princess Amore. “But this does raise a question, what happened to her?”
“Probably long dead all I care.” I rolled my eyes before gazing at it. “Hmm…well…”
“What are you doing?” Nicole asked sternly.
“So? I’m taking this with me.” I grinned cockily, but the moment I made contact with it…I felt the world swirling around as I let out a wincing sound and gotten my hand away from it. “Ngh!”
“What? What happened?” Nicole asked in concern.
“W-what was that?” I asked, waving my hand off before looking over at the picture. “This painting…or…was it…?”
Huh? Why am I hearing? I hear some chattering…but I can’t make out with it.
Suddenly, I noticed Gizmo popping right out of my head and nuzzling me out of concern. I let out a sigh and replied “I’m fine…just some wild headache.”
Nicole looked at me for a while before gazing back at the picture.
“…Actually, there’s something off with this painting.” Nicole stated. “I think it’s best if we took it.”
“Oh…interested in earning money?” I asked dryly.
“Not funny.” Nicole replied, her brows furrowing into a glare.
“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes before turning to the portrait. With a sigh, I walked over and managed to get the portrait down while dropping many of the crystal-like objects I gotten around the place on the ground. “Meh…I’ll come back for them later.”
However, the moment I touched the portrait, the wall surrounding it started moving back before it revealed…
“What the? A secret passage?” That caught me a little off-guard while Gizmo became shocked as he nearly fell off from my shoulder.
“Interesting…” Nicole muttered before she slowly walked in and looks around it. “Hmm…looks very suspicious.”
“No duh.” I shrugged before covering my mouth and went into deep thought. So a secret passageway, eh? Did that Sombra guy or whatever they called him made this? Hmm…when there’s a secret passageway, there’s something hidden in it. Obviously not treasure because only a moron would fall for that. But then again…there’s gotta be something down here.
“You’re gonna go down there, aren’t you?” My thoughts went off the moment Nicole spoke as she gave me a curious glance. “If so…then let me come too. There could be traps or anything down there.”
“Whatever, just don’t get in my way.” I scoffed.
“I won’t even stop you from stealing those stuff around the castle.” Now she’s talking my language. Oh well, let’s head out.
“Good answer.” I chuckled with a smug look on my face before the two of us headed downstairs through the secret passageway as we continued to walk down.
We kept walking straight forward as it was notably getting more darker along the way.
“Ugh, it’s too damn dark.” I complained till we saw a flash of light appear right in front of us before we saw Gizmo flashing a light while he sat on my head. I gave him a grin before saying “Heh…thanks old pal.”
Gizmo cooed in thanks as we continued to walk through the tunnel.
“You seem very close with him, aren’t ya?” Nicole asked curiously.
“So?” I asked.
“Does this relate on your past?” I rolled my eyes as I realized that she would keep bothering me if I don’t answer her.
“….Yeah. Found him as a baby with no one to take care of him, not even his parents.” I explained. “He was my only friend that I could trust. Taught him any trick I could think of, just like how my old man taught me.”
Old man….Heh, just thinking about me really bugs me.
“Are you referring to your father? Was he like you?” Nicole asked curiously.
“Yeah…He was a broker, and he would make really great deals with anyone. We used to live around with my mother, but she moved away because we were broke and couldn’t pay the bills back then.” I sighed, tilting my hat a bit. “Course, that’s when he started doing the black market and managed to get a lot of money. I was with him till he…”
“He left you that one day, right?” I glanced at Nicole, who was staring at me, a bit sorrowfully. “I am sorry if I am making you emotional.”
“Me? Emotional? Yeah right.” I rolled my eyes. “I don’t really care about him. He left me when I was young for reasons unknown and so I was able to take care of myself off the streets, and soon later…well you know the rest.”
“Yes….but don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll see him.” Nicole assured, much to my confusion. “And if you do, then how about I give you a therapy session?”
“Good luck with that. He’s quite tricky and loves to lie to others just like me.” I shrugged. “…Look at me, wasting my time and energy with you. Great…”
Nicole stared at me, letting out a sigh till she noticed something that caught his eye. I looked at her direction and saw a door right in front of us. With narrow eyes, I walked slowly towards the door with Gizmo shining the flashlight right in front of my way and Nicole behind me as we walked through it, finding an old dusty room filled with many dark looking crystals and some furniture. Judging by how the place looks, it almost looked like a lab.
“What is this place?” Nicole wondered aloud.
“Beats me.” I shrugged nonchalantly while we walked around to investigate the place. “Jeez, whoever owned this place really knew what they were doing. Jeez, some crystal-loving freak.”
“Hmm…these crystals…” Nicole wondered. “….Strange…”
“You can say that again.” I rolled my eyes before hearing Gizmo calling us over by the desk and showed something that he had in his hands. “Ooh, hello, what’s this?”
“It’s a book, a journal to be precise.” Nicole hummed in thought before grabbing the book as she began to read it over. “This…looks someone’s diary, but it’s pretty old.”
“Huh…” I walked over to her as the two of us began to read it over together.
Day 1X, Year XXXX
I…don’t know where to start with this. I don’t know where to begin with this story, but I guess I can begin that I grew up through my entire life without my parents ever since I was a foal. I lived by the Chestnut Falls’ Crystal Heart Foal Center. It was then I came across a young black unicorn pony. It was pretty strange since he was a unicorn just like me. Apparently, most ponies here in the Crystal Empire are all Earth Ponies, and the kids always picked on him because of their mutual ostracism or whatever ponies called it.
That day, we became good friends and soon after, I find him pretty strange. When he first came to the orphanage, he would always keep saying the one word ‘Sombra’ for some reason. I never knew why, but I helped him learn about other words. But even so, the adults who works at the orphanage gave him the name ‘Sombra’.
“Huh? Sombra?” I asked. “Does she mean…?”
“King Sombra.” Nicole answered. “So…he was an orphan and whoever wrote this was apparently a childhood friend with him.”
“Heh…so he used to live here as an orphan, eh?” I wondered, rubbing my chin. “Then I guess about the reason why he took over seemed to be ostracism. I guess even in this weird world, stuff that we have back on our own can’t seem to escape even here.”
“I suppose that would be considered a motive for his reasons to take over the Crystal Empire, but let’s not jump to conclusions.” Nicole shook her head before she began reading it over.
Day 2X, Year XXXX
Sombra is quite a nice pony, but I feel as though something is wrong with him and it connects with the Crystal Faire. Every year whenever we go there and see the Crystal Heart, we visit the heart and we see our visions of what we would see in the future. My future is seeing myself as a beautiful princess. I was so in awed and was so excited to hear that. I don’t know how, but I’ll keep believing in myself to do this.
But…something was wrong with Sombra. Every time we go to the Crystal Heart and whenever he sees his future, he always fallen ill. So, I always stay by his bedside whenever he fallen ill. That’s when it happened….when he gotten really sick, he started to somehow break apart! I was so scared and I thought that he was gonna die! That’s when I managed to use my magic to heal him completely, and that’s when I earn my Cutie-Mark. It was so amazing! It was the best day ever! Though…I was still worried about him. I wanted to learn about where Sombra came from and…why he was so different to everypony compared to me.
Then one day, I was visited by the princesses of Equestria! They invited me over to their school because of my special talent of healing. I was so happy and Sombra encouraged me to go. I was really sadden that we had to part ways, but we promise that we’ll see each other again someday…but before I could head to Canterlot…the day where all of our hopes and the light that shined into the kingdom…fallen into the deepest depths of the darkness and our hopes were turned into despair.
“Hmm…this diary is obviously mentioning Sombra’s take over.” I muttered. “So I take it that this pony knew what their friend was doing.”
“It would seem so, but I guess the pony who wrote felt heartbroken when they learned that the friend they made for the rest of their life became evil.” Nicole stated before she continued to read what’s left of it.
Day 3X, Year XXXX
I….I don’t want to believe it. I never will believe it! Sombra…he’s so different! The friend I grew so close too…turned Princess Amore into stone and destroyed it! He even hid away the Crystal Heart for his own dark desires! I…I was forced to watch all of this…his descent to darkness, and everything. I asked him why…why would he do this? And you know what his reply was like? ‘Because it was destiny’….or so he says it…he completely abandoned everything like he forgotten who he was. I…I thought we had something, and even the Crystal Ponies are forced to do what he tells them to do, losing their high spirits.
I guess you may say this is an act of revenge against those who hurt him, and even me. I…I don’t want to believe this. I want to help him…and I will…and to do that, I’m gonna find a way to save him and bring back the Sombra I knew…
“Hm?” Nicole looked through the pages before finding a small photo in it, but it just revealed a small black pony while the rest of it was covered in some black smudge.
“So that must be Sombra when he was young.” I took out the photo and looked at it. “Huh…”
“He looked so young and innocent. What changed a pony like him into the dark side?” Nicole thought aloud.
“Beats me.” I shrugged till I heard another cry from Gizmo. We looked back and saw him playing around with a glass like crystal. “Hello, what you got there?”
“It looks like…a prism crystal.” Nicole walked over and scratched Gizmo by the ear before he happily cooed in delight. He handed her the crystal as she looked at it. “Hmm…I’ve seen prism crystals before online, but never in real life.”
“I have.” I stated. “I had some business with some guy once and I sold him a dozen packages filled with prism crystals.”
“Any particular reason why?” Nicole asked.
“Sorry, don’t wanna spoil my business partner.” I grinned arrogantly, causing her to sigh before examining it. I rolled my eyes and examined the photo…Hmm, this black smudge…it’s kinda similar to that smudged up letter…wonder what’s up with that?
As I was in thought, I saw a bright light going through the crystal Nicole was holding as it send out a beam of light straight towards the photo I held as it slowly begins to melt off the black smudge.
“Huh?!” I asked, blinking in surprise. Well that was quite something I never expected that to happen.
“What was that…?” Nicole asked, also surprised by that. We looked back and saw Gizmo holding the flashlight in his hands before hiding it behind his back. I shook my head and face-palmed a bit. Oh you…
….Huh? What the heck? I gazed at the photo in my hands and saw something that caught my eye. Apparently, it didn’t just have Sombra in the photo, but a young pony alongside him. She looked like one of those Crystal Ponies, but…something about her felt different compared to one of those traumatizing losers.
Hmm…
“Did you find something peculiar about it?” Nicole asked, walking over to me and looked at the photo. “Huh…so it seemed that the black smudge was wiped off, huh? Did you do that?”
“No, that weird light from that crystal you were looking gotten rid of it.” I explained. Nicole looked at me and saw that I wasn’t lying before looking at the prism crystal.
“Huh…” Nicole muttered. “Interesting…”
“But to the more important matter, who the hell is this?” I wondered.
“I don’t know…but maybe one of those ponies know.” Nicole guessed.
“Yeah, probably if they managed to talk. I can bet that the others are probably having a wonderful time gathering information.” I shrugged with a dry look on my face. “But yeah…let’s head out and go check up on those losers.”
Nicole slightly nodded before we heard a minor sound off the distance, which made the both of us tensed up.
“W-what? Who’s there?” I called, but no one replied back. “Huh…”
Well, looks like we aren’t the only ones around here. But…we can’t let this book nor that photo fall to the wrong hands…we need to give this to the others and let them do all the hard work. They seemed to know what to do…
“Alright, let’s head out and give it to them. Twilight might know something.” I turned to Nicole with a raised brow before asking “So…I take it that you know what I thought?”
“Your expression says it all.” Nicole stated before she began to walk away. “Now come on, let’s go.”
“Mm…” I shrugged before allowing Gizmo to rest inside of my fedora before giving him the book and photo as we began taking our leave. However, as I was beginning to leave the creepy room and into the hallway, I began thinking about that pony.
Hmm…it can’t be a coincidence that photo of that pony along with Sombra was in that book. Besides, do you really think that a tyrant like what the others say about him could write this? No…it had to be-
“AH!” What the?! I looked upwards and saw Nicole falling onto the ground and wasn’t moving an inch.
“Nicole!” I called, running towards till something behind hit me from the back, causing my whole to slowly feel like it can’t feel anything. I slowly fell on my back and leaned against the wall, dropping my hat in the process, along with Gizmo and the stuff we gotten.
Gizmo got back up and looked at me and Nicole with a worried look.
“D-Don’t worry about me…just go…” I told him, barely saying anything else as Gizmo didn’t hesitate and grabbed the stuff we obtained from the room and immediately tailed out of the hallway and presumably out of the hall.
I glanced towards Nicole and saw her twitching, meaning that she was acting up like me…but who…?
Suddenly, I saw a shadow over-looming me as I glanced up and saw a red cloaked pony looking down at me. Huh? Wait a minute…the face…
“Y-you….you’re…” I grunted before my vision slowly began to turn into a blur…
God…damn…it….
Jamie’s POV
Wow, everything is working out perfectly. Oh, sorry if we missed out on a lot. You see, our information gathering didn’t go well as we expected. All of the Crystal Ponies looked so terrified and whenever we asked them about if they knew anything about the Crystal Empire, but they don’t seemed to remember. So we decided to take a break till Applejack told us about a library inside of the castle, so we decided to go there and search for anything related to the history of the Crystal Empire.
But the moment we entered the library, I couldn’t help but let out an excited gasp, and Twilight couldn’t even hold back her amazement upon seeing the Crystal Empire’s library.
“I just…I don’t even know to…There are no words.” Twilight muttered.
“I’ll give one word: Extraordinary.” I replied with a grin.
“This place looks so big!” Carrie exclaimed.
“Yeah, just look at all of these books.” Kaede stared at the books in awe. “I wouldn’t be surprise if Twilight and Jamie read every single book of this place in a week.”
“W-well…” I blushed a bit and looked away in embarrassment, along with Twilight.
“Ahem.” Huh? We all looked to our lefts and saw an older looking Crystal Pony wearing small reading glasses by the counter staring at us with a small smile on her face. “May I help you?”
“Yes.” Twilight smiled. “We’re looking for a book.”
“We have plenty of those.” She answered, much to our joy.
“You do. You really do!” Twilight exclaimed in awe.
“Yeah! A million of them!” I added.
“Hey, we’re looking for a book, not a bunch of them for you nerds to read over.” Jack scoffed, causing the two of us to glare at him. “What? I’m just saying.”
Applejack stepped forward and ignored Jack as she told the library the reason why we came here.
“We’re looking for a history book. Something that might tell us how the Empire might’ve protected itself from danger back in the day.”
“Yes. Of course. History, history…” She rubbed her chin in thought before letting out a small gasp. “Ah, yes.”
We all squeal in joy and sighed in relief till we realized that she didn’t even say anything else.
“Which is where, exactly?” Twilight spoken up, still having a hopeful smile on her face.
However, the librarian’s face turned into a frown and replied “I…I can’t seem to remember. I’m not sure I actually work here.”
We all frowned and/or groaned loudly. Rainbow Dash face-palmed while Jack growled irritably.
“Great…thanks.” Jack scoffed. “That means we need to look through every single of these damn books.”
“Come on, you guys. I’m sure we’ll find it in no time.” Kaede assured with a nervous grin.
“Kaede’s right.” Twilight nodded in agreement. “We’ll just take a look around. I’m sure we can find it on our own.”
With that, we began our search and split up in pairs. That book has to be around here. We can’t just give up so easily. We need to do our best in order to find it! For Cadance’s sake! For the Crystal Empire! We won’t give up!
“Let me know if you find anything!” The librarian called, waving her hoof at us.
“I like her!” Pinkie grinned.
“Yeah, I don’t.” Jack huffed. “Now hurry your butts to find the damn book.”
“Yeah, yeah. Cool your jets, fatty.” Rainbow waved it off, which made Jack scoffed before we all began our search.
We searched from every suspicious nook and cranny from every single part of the library, but no matter where we look, we seemed to not find what we came looking for.
“Uh, anyone else starting to think this is a lost cause?” Applejack called over from the other side of the library.
“No, no, no, no, no…” Twilight looked through every book, not finding a single book that relates to the history of the Crystal Empire. While she kept searching, I noticed one book on top of the shelf, but I couldn’t seem to reach it and there wasn’t a ladder around.
Uh…how can I get it? I mean, it could be the book but, I won’t know till I see it. It’s very common for characters not to look at the out-of-places areas when looking for something. But how can I reach for it? It’s not like I can magically make it come to me….
Oh….Oh….right. Well, I haven’t practiced much due to all of that late night reading, but it’s worth a shot.
I slowly extended my hand as I noticed my cheeks glowing a bit and the book was wrapped in a light blue aura as it started shaking a bit before slowly making its way out of the shelf before slowly making its way towards me. I smiled softly as it was working well onto getting it, but not till Rainbow Dash came flying and accidentally bumped into the book, causing her to let out a scream before flying straight through the wall and slowly fell off the wall with the book on her face.
I winced in pale with a sweat-drop before yelling out “S-Sorry!”
“O-Ow…what the hay was that?” Rainbow Dash wondered, getting the book off her face before rubbing her head in pain.
“Jeez, what happened to ya? Did something caught your eye and crashed straight in the wall?” Jack grinned teasingly, causing her to glare at him as she flew straight to his face and exclaimed “Hey! It’s not my fault that something got in my way!”
“Really? Doesn’t sound like to me.” Jack rolled his eyes.
“Shut it fatty!”
“Whatever you say, Skittles.”
The two glared at each other while the others shook their heads. I’m very worried for these two, and I want to tell them but maybe’s not the time.
“Wait a minute…” Twilight walked over to the book that fell off of Rainbow Dash before picking it up with her magic as she read over it before letting out a gasp. “Yes! The History of the Crystal Empire! I just hope it has the answers we need!”
“That’s great!” Kaede grinned happily.
“Guys?” Huh? We looked back and saw Ren, Mason, Fluttershy, and Kodiak walking in.
“I thought we find ya here.” Ren grinned softly before asking “What’s the rush?”
“You’re not gonna believe it! We find the book that might help us learn about defending the kingdom!” Kaede explained.
“That’s great!” Fluttershy grinned happily.
“That’s wonderful news.” Mason smiled softly. “I’m glad to hear that you guys did it.”
“Yep! I guess we were lucky to find it.” Carrie chuckled while I blushed a bit and remained silent. If only they knew…well, I think only Ren, Fluttershy, Twilight and Kodi knows about it.
“Here we go!” Twilight shouted, placing the book on the table as the rest of us rushed over and began hearing her out. “A ‘Crystal Faire’. According to this book, it was established by their first queen and became their most important tradition. The Faire was held every year to ‘renew the spirit of love and unity in the empire so they could protect it from harm’. My friends and I could put it together. Everything we need to know is in the book!”
“That sounds pretty promising.” Ren said.
“And it’s perfect. I’ll go inform both Shining Armor and Princess Cadance about it.” Mason smiled before running out of the library.
“We’ll get started right away!” Twilight grinned excitedly before turning to me and Spike. “C’mon, Spike, Jame, we’ve got a Crystal Faire to put together!”
Spike let out a heavy sigh while I smiled softly and nodded.
“You got it.” I nodded.
“Mind if we pitch in to help?” Ren offered. “I mean, I know you guys can’t do this alone.”
“Do you even need to ask Ren? Of course we can! We can all do this as a team!” Twilight smiled while the others grinned determinedly and held excited looks as we all begin to plan out the Crystal Faire.
As soon as we came outside and began working on the preparations for the Crystal Faire and with Mason coming back and helping us after he told Shining and Princess Cadance of the new about the Crystal Faire, we began hearing some music playing in the background and if I had to guess, that would mean it was time for another song to sing. Oh well, let’s do this.
(Twilight Sparkle):
Princess Cadance needs our help
Her magic will not last forever
I think we can do it
But we need to work together
(Jamie):
We have to get this right
Yes, we have to make them see
We can save the Crystal Ponies with their history
(Rainbow Dash and Jack):
It says that they liked jousting
(Rarity, Mason, and Carrie):
They flew a flag of many hues
(Applejack and Jack):
Made sweets of crystal berries
(Fluttershy, Ren, and Kodi):
They had a petting zoo with tiny ewes
(All):
Oh, we have to get this right
Yes, we have to make them see
We can save the Crystal Ponies with their history
(Pinkie Pie):
There was a crystal flugelhorn
That every pony liked to play
(Mason):
Pinkie Pie!
(Pinkie Pie):
What?
(Twilight Sparkle)
And the Crystal Kingdom anthem
Can you learn it in a day?
(All):
Oh, we have to get this right
Yes, we have to make them see
We can save the Crystal Ponies with their history
Phew…okay. After all that singing, we finally completed the preparations for the Crystal Faire. You know, it looked like a normal carnival fair, but I only read them from books or seen images of them.
“Look at it! We did it!” Carrie giggled.
“This place looks epic!” Kodi barked happily.
“Whoa, that’s awesome! It’s just like the county fair!” Ren grinned.
“That or a Culture Festival!” Kaede insisted.
“Mm! Hell yeah it is!” Jack laughed, rubbing his gut. “And I can already smell the food that AJ and Pinkie prepared!”
“Of course you would think of food…” Mason sighed.
“Shut it you bastard!” Jack yelled out.
“Guys, calm down…” Ren intervened with a soft smile.
“Ren’s right…there’s no need to fight over each other.” Fluttershy reminded.
“…Fine.” Mason and Jack huffed while some of the Crystal Ponies came over and looked at the place in awe and curiosity.
“It looks amazing! I don’t know how I could’ve done this without you all!” Twilight exclaimed happily, looking through the book we obtained from the Crystal Empire’s Castle Library.
“Yeah, and hopefully this will raise the rest of the Crystal Ponies’ spirits. After all, we need to bring their spirits back up.” I pointed out, looking through my notebook to check up on my notes. “Now all they need to do is to make sure that everything’s in place, and the the festivities can begin.”
“What’s this thing for?” Applejack asked, looking at the mysterious heart-shaped object on top of the pedestal.
“Oh yes, I think it was from the book, right Twilight?” I asked curiously. “I think it was called…the Crystal Heart, right?”
“That’s right Jamie.” Twilight nodded. “The last page of the book mentioned a Crystal Heart as the faire's centerpiece, so I used my magic to cut one out of a crystal block.”
“Whoa, that’s so cool.” Ren commented. “I mean, it’s just like the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic.”
“I don’t have no clue what that is, but I’m glad you guys like it.” Twilight smiled.
“Nice work, Twi. Think we're ready to get this faire up and running.” Applejack smirked.
“And don’t worry, we’ll be able to make the others come and enjoy it!” Ren assured with a confident grin till we heard someone blowing through a flugelhorn, which was apparently a familiar pink pony friend of ours.
“FLUGELHORN!” Pinkie yells out.
“And that’s our cue…” Ren sweat-dropped. “We better stop her.”
“Good idea.” Applejack nodded in agreement before she and the others walked over and tried to get the flugelhorn away from her.
“Well…this is it…” Twilight let out a heavy sigh before looking at me. “Do you think I did the right thing?”
“Well…I think so.” I nodded before gulping a bit upon seeing the crowd of Crystal Ponies looking at us. “B-but…I-I’m right here with you, s-so…no worries.”
“That nervousness is making me nervous, you know.” I turned pale and sweat-dropped upon hearing that blunt comment. W-well…when you put it like that…you make a good point.
“W-well…I’ll still be by your side.” I assured with a small yet nervous grin.
“Well then, let’s begin.” Twilight cleared her throat before turning to the group of Crystal Ponies. “Hear ye, hear-”
“FLUGELHORN!” Jeez, she’s really loud, isn’t she? We all looked back and saw Mason swiping away the flugelhorn away from her before giving it to Jack, who broke it with his bare hands. I couldn’t help but gulped and sweat nervously upon seeing that. Ooh…this is another reason why I shouldn’t get him upset by me…
“Ahem.” Twilight cleared her throat before smiling at the crowd. “Hear ye, hear ye! Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor do cordially invite you to attend the Crystal Faire!”
“Hell yeah!” Jack yelled, scaring some of the Crystal Ponies. “Now come down here and enjoy the rides!”
“Come on in, you all! Got food and drinks that away, games and crafts, Crystal Heart to the back near the Princess.” Applejack added, standing near a booth alongside Jack.
The moment she mentioned about the Crystal Heart, the others all widened their eyes and looked over at the Crystal Heart Twilight made with awed looks.
“Did she say…Crystal Heart…?” One of them asked as the others as they all looked at each other in awe, and in just five seconds, they were surrounded in a strange aura and in just three seconds, they changed into crystal-like versions.
“Whoa…” I muttered, quickly grabbing my notebook and writing down some new facts. “I see now, whenever they’re feeling positive emotions, their whole body are quickly crystallized. But…not literally crystal…”
“This is amazing.” Twilight grinned excitedly before turning to me. “You gotta put a lot of info into your notebook.”
“I’m way ahead of you, Twilight.” I nodded as I continued to copy down the notes. You know, this is quite great news. I could possibly publish a new book to add new info about the Crystal Empire like an autobiography. Heh heh, this is just great! I can’t wait for the others to read about it! I even have so many new ideas for my new books…Huh?
Was that just me…did I just saw a shadow moving? Huh…well I haven’t been sleeping well that much, so I guess my eyes are just playing tricks…right?
“Jamie! Focus!” I stiffened upon hearing Twilight calling me before I continued to write down more faster as I exclaimed “Y-Yes ma’am!”
Oh man…this is so embarrassing…
Ren’s POV
Okay, so far the Crystal Faire is going so awesome! In fact, why bother running some booths when you can enjoy it and get the others to enjoy it alongside with us.
Me, Mason, Kodi, Fluttershy and Carrie were shooting down cans down from the shooting booth. I aimed my Hacking Gun and shot two ‘Break’ bullets at the cans, shooting down from the count.
“Ooh!” Carrie said in awe.
“Amazing.” Fluttershy said in awe.
“Nice shooting Ren!” Kodi grinned as I put the Hacking Gun behind my back and said “Well…it’s nothing. I just got lucky, that’s all.”
“But even so, your shooting range is getting better.” Mason pointed out before taking out the toy gun that’s used in the booth. “Though I am not good with guns, just swords and Katanas.”
“Really? But all I see you use is that bamboo pole.” I pointed out.
“True since I do not like putting violence to any of my foes…” Mason stated.
Oh…well that’s nice to know about.
Mason shot down a couple of cans while some of the Crystal Ponies were amazed before rushing over to the booth while the gloomy ones fully became crystallized.
“This is so amazing!”
“Can I try?”
I chuckled while taking out my Gun and used ‘Move’ to levitate a nearby toy gun and handed it to a small filly.
“Ooh! Thanks mister!” The filly thanked me, which made me softly smiled and patted him on the head.
“Anytime.” I nodded before noticing Pinkie in a jester outfit and playing with…another flugelhorn?! What in the world?! How…Wait, this is Pinkie Pie. So…yeah, it’s obvious. She probably got it out of her ‘hyperspace’.
Some of the Crystal Ponies were playing over by the booths and some of them were eating some of the Apple Family’s traditional foods and the Crystal Empire’s cuisines.
Meanwhile, the others were having fun on their way. Rarity were asking some of the Crystal Ponies for fashion tips and how could they be so ‘crystallized’ or whatever. Though, I am quite curious about why would they be so…crystal-like.
Applejack was operating the food booth and presented some delicious snacks for them with Kaede helping out by giving out some kids with the food while giving out small designs for others to have that she said that she made for her spare free time.
As for Jack and Rainbow Dash…well….
Let’s just say that they’re having a food-eating contest, with Jack obviously winning while Rainbow tried to and wasn’t giving out, no matter how stuffed she is. Just shows how those two are so stubborn.
“Give up yet Skittles?” Jack asked in a teasing manner, his mouth filled with many apple pies in his mouth.
“S-Shut…up…fatty…” Rainbow groaned before covering her mouth as her cheeks puffed out before swallowing it back up. “Ooh…I am not going to be having a good night’s rest.”
“Ha ha ha ha ha!” Jack laughed while some of the Crystal Ponies cheered for him.
“That guy is so amazing!”
“How does he do it?”
“Whatever he is, he managed to beat that Pegasus with ease!”
Looks like the crowd is liking Jack, heh. He sure knows how to gain other’s respect other than his rude attitude.
“It looks like everyone is enjoying themselves.” Fluttershy softly smiled before sighing sadly. “If only Rantaro or Nicole would enjoy this.”
“Yeah, I wanted them to come but I doubt the others would enjoy either of their company.” Well…maybe Nicole, but Rantaro is so difficult. I want to believe in him, but he’s so mysterious and antisocial that he always wants to be left alone. Just…what’s his problem? Including what he said about a while ago?
I mean…I know the others can’t handle what he says, but I can tell that how he wants to be friends. Even if he doesn’t want to admit…I just wished that we can try to hang out together and maybe make a social link like we do in the Persona series.
Hmm…
“Ren? Are you feeling alright?” I turned to Fluttershy and Kodiak, who looked at me in concern.
“Oh…sorry. I was just wondering about how we can get Rantaro and Nikki here to come and have fun with us.” I explained. “I haven’t seen those guys for a while.”
“Me too…I just hope they’re alright.” Fluttershy wondered.
“Maybe they’re here in the Crystal Faire?” Kodi suggested.
“Hmm…I guess.” I shrugged.
“Yo!” Hm? We looked over and saw Jack and Rainbow Dash walking over with Rainbow groaning from all that food she ate. “Heh, so did you guys witness our food eating contest? Guess who won?”
“I think it’s kinda obvious that you won it, dude.” I chuckled. Jack grinned before patting me on the shoulder, but it felt so hard that it made my shoulder ache in pain.
“Ha ha ha! Good eye kid! Guess Skittles didn’t even think twice about fighting me!” Jack laughed while Rainbow Dash glared at him.
“Obviously why.” Rainbow grumbled.
“Rainbow Dash, are you going to be alright?” Fluttershy asked in concern.
“W-well…I-I’ll be fine. Nothing that I can’t handle.” Rainbow laughed nervously.
“But you know, I can’t believe this actually worked!” Jack laughed. “Guess we totally nailed it, right?”
“Yeah, they’re really feeling a lot of love and unity about now.” I added.
“It’s nice. I feel awfully bad for them to get enslaved by King Sombra…” Fluttershy sighed. “Why would somepony would do this?”
“Well…I don’t know, but was he always evil?” I blurted that out, which made the others looked at me like I was crazy. “I mean, do you really believe that evil is always born from the day they came from when they existed? I mean, I know this King Sombra guy is scary, but…was he always evil? It doesn’t make any sense…”
“Hey, don’t get any crappy idea! The guy’s a villain, so?” Jack scoffed.
“I know, but…do you really truly think that he was bad?” I retorted. “I mean, remember Chrysalis? She did all those things because her species were being threatened and ridicule by other ponies. I don’t want to believe that some villains that we encountered are evil. I mean, when I first came here and confronted Nightmare Moon, I realize that she was created by Lulu after she escaped from the moon. She was a manifestation of the jealousy and envy from her sister, Celeste. I mean…pure evil characters aren’t that sympathetic and kinda boring in the category. I mean, nearly anyone can agree.”
I mean really? Nobody loves pure evil characters. I mean, I have to agree because we try to make them feel sympathetic, but they’re too crazy to handle. That kind of ordeal…
“I guess you make a point there, Ren…” Fluttershy nodded in agreement.
“To be honest, the bad guys we came across are all insane and don’t seem to care what they do.” Kodi pointed out.
“Obviously cause they’re the bad guys!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“But still, I know they do bad things but I want to help them because I believe they have their reasons onto why they do this stuff.” I retorted with a soft smile. “I believe that.”
“Say what you want, but that obviously won’t change anything.” Jack snorted while I rolled my eyes. Of course, you won’t say that…
“Speaking of which…what’s up with some of these Crystal Ponies?” Rainbow Dash wondered, noticing some ponies were holding their heads in pain.
“Maybe they have headaches?” Kodi asked curiously.
“Well I did see some of them drinking slushies, so maybe a brain freeze?” I suggested with a light shrug.
“Seeing all of this, I feel like I’m starting to remember.” Huh? Oh hey, it’s that librarian mare from…well, obviously the library. “Remember things from before the king.”
“Me too.” Another pony nodded in agreement before the two let out a shocking gasp as they both exclaimed “The Crystal Heart!”
“Yeah, what about it? We got it.” Jack stated, crossing his arms with a smug look. “Of course you can thank all of us for getting it.”
“Really? Do you guys really have it?” I nodded at one of their questions as I answered “Of course we have it. I mean, it’s very important to you guys, right?”
“Of course it is. It’s the very item that our previous ruler used to protect our kingdom from blizzards and enemy attacks.” The librarian explained.
“Previous ruler? You’re talking about Sombra?” Fluttershy asked, but the librarian shook her head and replied “No, I meant Princess Amore.”
“Princess who?” Rainbow asked.
“She was our previous ruler of the Crystal Empire till he turned her into stone and destroyed her into pieces, taking siege of the kingdom where we…you know.” So…King Sombra killed one of the original rulers of this place?! That’s…insane. I can’t believe he did that…but why take over this place? I don’t wanna believe that he did this for power. Because that’ll be too stupid, right? There’s gotta be another reason how…
“Damn…that’s messed up.” Jack sighed.
“I’m sorry about that.” Kodi apologized. “You must’ve really loved your ruler so much, huh?”
“Yeah, she loved us all and even protected the Crystal Heart for many generations.” The librarian adjusted her reading glasses with a soft smile. “Though I’m glad you all strange fellows managed to find the Crystal Heart.”
“Of course we do! Can’t have have a Crystal Faire without the…” Rainbow stopped herself before hearing her what she said. “Wait…what did you just say? Did you say ‘find’ it?”
“Well yes. You see, the whole purpose of the Crystal Faire is to life the spirits of the Crystal Ponies, so the light within them can power the Crystal Heart, so that the Empire can be protected!” The librarian let out a gasp to catch her breath before adding “I do work at the library!”
“W-what’s this about ‘powering the heart’?” I asked in confusion.
“I just can't believe you found it. King Sombra said he'd hidden it away where we would never see it again! I only hope it will still be as powerful after all these years...!” Uhh…what?! I’m sorry what?! Hidden away? B-but then…that means…
“Mm, funnel cake!” As the librarian and the other Crystal Pony walked off, we all jaw-dropped and turned pale upon learning this new information.
“W-what?” Fluttershy squeaked in horror.
“No frigging way…does she mean…?” Jack slowly turned to me while I stood there in shock and pale.
“It’s…real…? Oh no….!” I exclaimed. “We need to warn the others about this!”
Before we move out, Rainbow Dash flew past us and went off where Twilight and Jamie where as we immediately ran towards them and find the two of them checking out the book till Rainbow Dash immediately covered the ‘Crystal Heart’ as we presumed, with a blanket to hide it from view.
“Rainbow Dash! What are you doing?” Jamie asked in confusion. “Why did you-”
Rainbow covered his mouth with a shushing gesture as the rest of us raced over with panic looks on our faces.
“Twilight! Jamie…I think we may have a problem…” I said, furthering their confusion.
“What? Why? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.
“This whole thing is a hoax! We gotten the wrong deal! It’s real!” Jack yelled out, causing some of the Crystal Ponies to come over and look at us in confusion till Rainbow Dash flew over and punched him by the right cheek, causing him to grown. “What the hell was that for?!”
“Keep your mouth shut or else they might hear us!” Rainbow shushed him.
“What? What’s real?” Jamie asked.
“It’s…the Crystal Heart…it’s real.” Kodi explained.
“W-what?” Twilight widened her eyes. “B-but…are you saying that-”
“Yep…apparently, it wasn’t something to create. It was an item that protected the kingdom back then till King Sombra hid it away or so they say.” I explained, still shocked by learning this. “We need the real thing!”
“W-w-w-w-w-what?!” Jamie’s face turned pale upon learning this news, along with Twilight as she dropped the book in the process.
“Did you think they took the news well?” Fluttershy whispered to me, flying up to my ear.
“…That’s a no-no…” I whispered back, sweat-dropping in the process. This is so not good…and just when things were going so well. Our hopeful way to bring the joy to all of the Crystal Ponies was clouded with the despair that soaked us all…
Later
As soon as we told the others, we rounded ourselves up at the balcony of the Crystal Empire’s castle where everyone was assembled as Twilight and Jamie was looking through the book with extremely frantic looks on their faces.
“This can’t be! We didn’t even know about it! How can we be so stupid?!” Jamie cried out.
“I didn't know it was an actual relic! The book didn't mention anything about the Crystal Ponies powering the Heart!” Twilight exclaimed before letting out a small gasp.
“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Kaede asked in concern. Twilight and Jamie slowly turned around and showed us at the end of the book, showing us a small ripped on it.
“There was a page missing... How did we not notice?!” Twilight cried out.
“What?!” Mason gasped.
“Great! Now look at you two did! We’re in deep crap because of ya!” Jack yelled out, causing Jamie to wince before rubbing his arm bashfully with a sadden look before saying “S-Sorry…”
“Don’t apologize Jamie, it’s not your fault.” Twilight sighed sadly. “It’s my fault…if I would have just noticed that missing ripped-up page, then I would noticed it.”
“It’s alright, Twilight…” Cadance assured before coughing weakly.
“Wait, where’s Rantaro and Nicole?” Pinkie wondered.
“Yeah, they should have been here.” Kodi looks around in concern.
“I’m sure they’re somewhere around the Crystal Empire…hopefully.” Mason sighed. “This is terrible…how could everything gone to waste?”
“Big brother…” Carrie looked at her brother with a worried look till we heard groaning as we turned around and saw Cadance kept coughing before falling down till Shining managed to save her and saw her horn flickering, causing the shield to slowly crack.
“Twily…” Shining muttered in worried and concern. Soon, we all watched the shield cracked and destroyed into many pieces as we all stared upon seeing many black clouds and that beneath that black cloud revealed…
“Sombra…” I muttered, looking at the clouds.
“R-Ren…” Fluttershy held my arm with a scared look and tears forming down in her eyes.
“I know…” I gulped as we watched Sombra’s face forming beneath the clouds before letting out a massive roar as he slowly makes his way towards us.
Rantaro…Nicole…where are you two? More importantly…what’s going to happen now?
To Be Continued
I've decided to have a new intro to my fanfic, and it's one of my favorite new songs that I've started to listened to. I hope you guys enjoy this and sorry so much. I've been working on my other fanfics on Quotev. But I shall be working on two fanfics at the same time to try and catch up.
Also, that little info from when Ren said about not liking pure evil characters is kinda true from my opinion. I mean, if you're gonna have villains, at least make some of them sympathetic and understandable to relate and probably take their sides and understands their motives, otherwise pure evil characters will be hard to sympathize because of obvious reasons. Sorry, this is just my opinion. I hope I didn't offend any of you.
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Awesome! Can't wait for part 2. It won't take as long as to publish this one will it?
9584039
Don't know, but we'll see.
9584052
Okay. Here's what I have for the new chapter so far.
One night, outside of Ponyville, three ponies in dark cloaks appeared on the horizon. "Is this the place?" one asked in a feminine voice.
"No, Rose. This is the right place. This will be our new feeding ground." the second cloaked pony stated.
"Guys, are you sure we should do this?" the third cloaked pony asked in a soft voice.
"Yes, Scarlet. If you want to be one of us, you're going through with this." the leader of the cloaked ponies said. "Soon, this whole town will be all ours, hehehe." The three cloaked ponies then vanished into thin air.
I was just waking up in large bed with Riolu, Rockruff, Mareep, Dratini and my three dragon friends by my side. "Morning, you guys." I greeted. My dragon warbled and nuzzled me and my pokemon, except for Dratini, replied with, "Good morning, Mama."
BOOM!
"Sarah! Sarah, we need you!" a voice called in desperation.
"Ren?" I hopped out of bed, put on my clothes and then teleported to the throne room, where I found Ren, Jamie, Jack, Kaede, Rantaro, Nicole, Kaede, Mason and Carrie, all looking a bit shaken. "What happened?" I asked.
"It's Twilight and Fluttershy, they're hurt." Carrie cried.
"Where?"
"Follow us." Ren and the other dashed out the door followed by me, the dragons and my pokemon. We all rushed to the home-ship where we found Twilight and Fluttershy on the couch. They both looked paler than usual. "Ow, ow, ow, ow!" Twilight groaned.
"Easy Twi." Applejack said. She looked up and saw us. "Sarah, you gotta help them please."
"Okay, first what happened?" I asked incredulous.
"We were all walking back to the home ship last night... "Ren explained
Flashback
Ren's POV
"I can't wait to turn in for the night." I yawned.
"Me too." Jack agreed.
Rustle.
Fluttershy froze in her tracks. "What was that?"
Ren and the others looked around and saw nothing there. "It's probably nothing, Flutters." I reassured.
We all continued walking to the home-ship when we heard the rustle again and this time it was followed by two screams. "Girls?!" I cried.
We turned around and saw two cloaked ponies biting Twilight and Fluttershy on their right front legs. "Hey! Get off of Flutters!" I snarled. The two ponies hissed and let go of the girls then they vanished into the dark. "Are you girls okay?" Jamie asked. They both had small puncture, tooth wounds on their legs. "W-we're alright." Twilight stammered.
"Come on, let's get moving before they come back." I suggested.
Everyone nodded and we all quickly walked to the home-ship
POV Ends
Flashback Ends
"Then the next morning, they were both like this." Ren finished.
I walked over to them and lit my horn. I placed it near the wounds but the wounds sparked and shocked me. "OW!"
"Sarah?"
"I'm alright, but the wounds seem to have some kind of magic shield around them. My magic can't penetrate it to heal them."
"Oh great." Rainbow said. "Now what?"
"Um... maybe I can help." a soft voice came. Everyone turned and saw another clocked pony in the room. Jack and Ren stood in front of everyone to protect them. "What are you doing here, you vampire." Jack snarled.
"I.. I'm sorry." the cloaked pony bowed her head, surprising us. "Sorry, for what?" Kaede asked.
"For what my friends did to your two friends." the clocked pony said. She let down her hood, revealing that she was a unicorn with a blood red, mane and her fur was rosa pink.
"I-I can heal your friends, I you would let me." The pony acted a lot like Fluttershy. "My name is Scarlet."
"Not a chance, after what you and your friends did-" Jack snarled.
"I didn't want to be a apart of the attack." Scarlet cut off. "I'm not like my friends. I don't want to drink blood from ponies, but my other friends said if I do then I'll be a real vampony."
"Real Vampony?" Jamie asked. "What's tha-?"
"Ask questions later, right now we have two sick friends that need healing." Applejack pointed out.
Scarlet walked over to the two ponies and lit her horn. A red aura appeared and she touched the puncture wounds with her horn and they disappeared and Fluttershy and Twilight returned to their normal color. "Ugh..." Twilight said as Scarlet backed away.
Scarlet rubbed her other leg, nervously. "I'm sorry about my friends."
We could see that she was really sorry about the incident. I walked over to her and she squealed in fear, "No, no, it's alright." I cooed. "I'm not gonna hurt you."
"Y-You're not?"
"No. Actually, I want to be friends."
"Really?"
"Really?" The others asked.
"Yes, really." I replied. Scarlet looked at me, surprised and she smiled. She raised her hoof and placed it in my hand, "Thank you." she said.
"Sooo... the vampony who bit our friends is now our friends? .... Seriously?" Rainbow deadpanned.
"Yeah, I agree with Skittles. Bad move." Jack said.
"Oh come on you two, she's nice and sweet." Pinkie chirped.
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Don't show it here! Just on the message! You're gonna spoil the whole plot of the chapter!
Nice job
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I see u combining the mlp comic with mlp show and making it part of the lore very interesting I cant wait to see were you going with this and I cant wait to read you other fanfiction story keep up the great work
Kaede can't sing 😁