Chapter 1 - A Visit to the Empire
Beneath the Surface
Chapter 1 - A Visit to the Empire
Twilight Sparkle, brimming with excitement, eagerly watched the Crystal Empire come into view through the window as the Friendship Express pulled into the station. Immediately she could tell that it was quite a bit more crowded than usual, not unlike the train she and her friends were currently riding on. It was all to be expected, however, for the first day of the annual Crystal Faire was currently taking place. Twilight, however, was more excited to see Cadance and Shining Armor, and of course Flurry Heart.
There was a hiss of steam and the train came to a halt. The doors to the car were opened, and Twilight and the others waited patiently as ponies began to exit the crowded space.
“I’m sure this year’s festival is going to be divine,” Rarity commented.
“Yeah, for sure!” Spike replied.
“I know,” Fluttershy said. “I heard they will have more animals in their petting zoo this year.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash agreed, “and we’ll have a lot more fun now that we don’t have to organize it or worry about setting up any events. We can just enjoy the festivities.”
“Speak for yourself,” Applejack told her. “I just had to bring some of my favorite apple family recipes this time ‘round. The crystal ponies will be amazed when they try this.”
“That’s nothing,” Rainbow Dash replied excitedly. “This year, Cadance is having a finale with crystal magic every night and we get front row seats! They might even ask me to do a sonic rainboom.”
“And what was that about being glad we don’t have to help with the events?” Applejack replied.
Before Rainbow could reply, Pinkie Pie bounced up in her seat, startling them both. “I can’t wait! After all the trouble that’s happened in Equestria, everypony could use a party.”
Twilight turned to Starlight, who was seated next to her. “I’m glad we’re all here together. And you’ll get to see Sunburst again.”
“It’s been a while, so it’ll be good to catch up,” Starlight said. “Plus I’ve never seen this festival before. I’m…sure it’ll be fun.”
“Aren’t you excited, Spike?” Twilight asked, peering over at the dragon, who was sitting on the seat across from her.
“Of course,” he replied. “I’ve been looking forward to it since Cadance and Shining Armor invited us. And, it’ll be good to see Thorax again. We haven’t seen each other since that whole incident with Chrysalis.”
“Well, with yet another threat gone, all the more reason for a celebration, right?” Rainbow Dash called over to him.
Spike, however, wasn’t listening, because he’d noticed that it was their turn to disembark. “Come on, everypony!” he called. Spike and Twilight stepped off of the train first, followed by the rest of their friends. Pinkie Pie appeared last, dragging a large stack of luggage through the train doors.
Rainbow Dash gave her an odd look from where she was hovering overhead. “Uh, may I ask again why you brought this much junk to the Crystal Empire? This isn’t exactly going to be a long trip.” She glanced to one of the train porters who was dragging even more suitcases toward Pinkie from another section of the train. “Sheesh, even Rarity didn’t bring so much.”
“I heard that!” Rarity called from up ahead.
Pinkie paused in her attempt to move the luggage off the train. “Well, you see, Rainbow, this year’s Crystal Faire is supposed to be even bigger and more amazing than ever! I had to help make sure that happened. So, I couldn’t just leave my cotton candy machine back in Ponyville. Or my party cannons, or my candy stash and festive hats and-”
Before she could finish, Spike interrupted. “I know Applejack was bringing some of her own food, but don’t you think the crystal ponies would already have stuff like cotton candy, considering they’ve been setting up for the faire?”
Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Well, duh. But a faire can never have enough cotton candy, can it?” She grinned at Spike widely.
“I, uh…guess not?”
Twilight looked around at the ponies crowding the station. Suddenly she spotted a face in the crowd she immediately recognized – her brother, Shining Armor – and ran over to him.
“Twily, you made it!” he cried, wrapping a leg around her shoulders in a warm brotherly embrace. “A little late, but you got here.”
“I almost didn’t see you there,” Twilight responded. “There are sure are a lot of ponies coming to visit.” She glanced back at the crowd, no longer able to see her friends because of all the ponies moving about.
“It’s all right,” Shining Armor replied. “You and your friends can come back to the castle with me. Or you could go straight to the faire. Whatever you want.”
Twilight nodded and glanced back to the others. Most of them were making their way over to her, although Spike had been caught up talking to some of the crystal ponies, which was to be expected considering his celebrity status in the empire.
“Actually, before I join in the celebrations, I’d love to go back to the castle and see Flurry Heart,” Twilight said.
“Oh, sure thing,” Shining Armor replied. “I’m sure she’ll be excited to see you.”
“Well, if it’s all the same to you,” Rainbow Dash began, suddenly appearing over their heads, “I’d like to take a look at the festival.”
“Oh, me too!” Pinkie Pie cried, having finally gotten her luggage free. She pushed it over toward the others. “But I might need some help getting all this stuff there.”
Applejack sighed and glanced at her small compact cart containing all her apple baked goods. “I’ll help ya out. After all, I brought along my own special treats for the faire too.”
Rarity levitated a few of Pinkie’s suitcases with her magic. “We’re right here with you, darling. We’ll help you make it a Crystal Faire to remember. You go and see your niece, Twilight.”
Spike wandered through the crowd and back over to the group. He glanced around at his friends, most of which were in the process of helping Pinkie Pie, and he noticed Fluttershy struggling with a particularly heavy suitcase. “I’ll go with them,” he said. “They look like they can use my help.”
“All right, you all go look around. We’ll meet up with you later,” Shining Armor said.
“I’ll come with you to the castle,” Starlight told Twilight. “I sure hope Sunburst is happy to see me.”
“Well, let’s get going,” Shining Armor said, leading the way.
They happily followed Shining Armor as he led them through the streets toward the castle. Crystal ponies were racing back and forth, moving between the festival booths and talking excitedly among one another as they bustled about. Twilight was happy to see them so joyful. With Cadance and Shining Armor looking over the empire, they realized that things had overall been much better for the crystal ponies and they all hoped for good things to come.
Before long, they arrived at the castle and walked inside. The guards happily let them through, and they walked to the throne room, where Cadance, along with Sunburst and Flurry Heart were waiting for them.
Twilight ran up to Cadance and Flurry Heart with a big smile on her face. “It’s so good to see you! Looks like my favorite niece is just as cute as ever.” She ruffled Flurry Heart’s mane. “Thanks for inviting us, Cadance.”
“You’re always welcome here, Twilight,” Cadance said.
-ooo-
Meanwhile, Spike had met up with Thorax outside the castle after helping Pinkie Pie with all her party supplies. Thorax, who had been nervous about going by himself, had decided to wait for Spike. They left the castle and as they entered the street, Thorax’s teal eyes went wide as he took in the sights of the Crystal Faire. Ponies were enjoying various activities and games, laughing and talking with one another. He still wasn’t used to seeing any group of creatures so happy and carefree.
“Wow,” Thorax said. “The Crystal Empire does this every year?”
“Yep. Trust me, you’re going to love the Crystal Faire,” Spike told him as he gestured toward the many booths and tents lining the streets of the empire. “It’s great! They’ve got games, crafts, jousting… okay, maybe jousting isn't your thing, but you’ll probably like the crafts and games, and they do have a petting zoo!”
“Oh, that sounds great! And it’s really great to see you, Spike,” said Thorax.
“It’s nice to be back in the Crystal Empire and be able to spend more time with you, since you are my newest friend,” Spike replied, again noting the new sparkly shine on Thorax’s wings. He briefly turned his attention to the crystal heart beneath the castle. “You know, the whole point of this celebration is to help uplift the crystal ponies so they can power the crystal heart with light and love. After all Equestria has gone through, that will definitely be a good thing.”
Spike had learned that ever since making friends and sharing love in the Crystal Empire, Thorax could now have even more love than he needed. They had quickly discovered that freely given love was much stronger and sustained changelings for longer than stolen love, so he never had to go hungry.
“How are things with you here?”
“Oh, it’s great for the most part,” Thorax replied. “Some of the ponies are still nervous around me, though. Maybe it’s the way I look, or what Chrysalis and the other changelings once did, but it still doesn’t feel right to use a disguise.”
“Ah, they’ll come around,” Spike reassured him. “After all, you did help save Equestria.”
“I hope they will,” Thorax said, glancing down at the holes in one of his forelegs as a few crystal ponies passed.
Spike noticed the sudden difference in Thorax’s mood. “You know, even though they didn’t have to, it seems like my friends brought a lot of stuff to help out with the celebration. Applejack brought a bunch of her homemade apple specialties. She has pies, jams, tarts, muffins, and fritters. You’ve got to try some! I bet they don’t have anything like it in the Crystal Empire.”
Thorax smiled at him as he and Spike began walking toward one of the booths. “Oh yeah, I didn’t get much time to meet your other friends after what happened with Chrysalis.”
“Yeah, that’s right…” Spike replied, lost in thought for a moment. “You know, now that Chrysalis has been overthrown, the changelings are deciding on their new leaders. So they’re free to take what you and Starlight showed them and survive off love given to each other. This means that…if you wanted to, you could go back.”
Thorax stopped walking. “Yeah, I guess you’re right…”
“Well, what I mean is that now you get to decide where you want to live. But you don’t have to go back. You can stay here.”
Thorax looked relieved, but before he could respond, a shout interrupted them and they both looked up to see Rainbow Dash flying overhead. “Spike, there you are! You’ve gotta watch me in the jousting tournament. It’s just about to start.”
“Oh, sure,” Spike replied, before turning to Thorax. “You wanna come?”
Thorax nodded, and the two of them raced off after Dash as she flew toward the jousting arena.
-ooo-
Sunburst and Starlight left the castle to join the crowds in the street. “It’s great to be able to spend some time with you,” Sunburst said.
“Haha, yeah,” Starlight laughed nervously. “So, anyway, how do you like your job here? Now that you’re Flurry Heart’s crystaller and magic advisor “
“Oh, it’s great,” Sunburst said. “And you know, there wouldn’t be a royal family, or even an empire to serve had you not stopped Chrysalis.”
“Well, it was a team effort,” Starlight replied. “I’m just glad I could help after, well…the things I did.”
“That is true, but what you and the others did was amazing!” Sunburst said. “If there’s anyone who still doubted you, they won’t now.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Starlight said awkwardly.
“Well, let’s not worry about any of that now,” Sunburst said. “We’re here to enjoy the faire.”
“You’re right,” said Starlight. “Want to go check out the petting zoo.”
“Sure,” Sunburst replied, and they headed off through the crowd together.
-ooo-
When night had fallen, the residents of the Crystal Empire had gathered together in the streets in the center of the empire. Ponies of all ages looked up at the crystal castle, glimmering under the moonlight. Most of the food stands and games had closed for the night, but the ponies had gathered to watch their leader perform her crystal magic.
Twilight had rounded up her Ponyville friends, along with Sunburst and Thorax, to watch the final event of the first night’s celebration. Shining Armor had made sure they all had front row seats, but for whatever reason, Pinkie Pie had insisted on sitting in the row behind them.
"Welcome, everypony, to the Crystal Faire," Cadance announced. "I hope you enjoyed the first day and continue to enjoy what’s to come. Thank you for making it a wonderful event to celebrate our kingdom’s freedom and strengthen our empire. I am proud to have you all as my subjects."
Several of the watching ponies turned their attention to the crystal heart, positioned beneath the castle and held between two sharp crystals by magic. A feeling of pride washed over the ponies, knowing they all played a part in protecting the empire.
Cadance lit her horn, shooting a beam of light into the sky which created a vast aurora over the castle. It shimmered with an array of colors, lighting the night sky and reflecting off the crystal buildings. Both the crystal ponies and those visiting the empire looked at it with awe. Thorax’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in amazement. He had clearly never seen anything like it.
“I still say it would have looked better with a sonic rainboom,” Rainbow Dash whisper to Applejack.
“The Crystal Empire’s celebrations aren’t bad, huh?” Sunburst asked Starlight.
Starlight smiled back at him. Before she could reply, however, there was a loud bang behind them. Thorax and Fluttershy jumped with cries of alarm and a few of the others nearly fell out of their seats. What looked like pounds of confetti rained down on them, and they turned around to see Pinkie Pie grinning mischievously next to a large party cannon.
“Surprise!” she shouted. “Best Crystal Faire EVER!”
-ooo-
After the celebrations had concluded for the night, an exhausted Twilight finally made her way through the castle’s glittering crystal hallways and to the room she was to be staying in during her trip to the Crystal Empire. Once she reached the right door, she opened it quietly, noticing that Spike had gotten there earlier than she had and was already curled up asleep in his bed.
She was looking forward to a nice rest; the day had been fun yet tiring, and she wanted to have a good night’s sleep before another long, exciting day with her friends and family members. Careful not to wake Spike, Twilight climbed into her bed and curled up with the blankets. Within minutes, she was asleep.
Some time after she drifted off, she found herself wandering the streets of Canterlot. After a bit of time she realized that something was off; several of the buildings in this version of Canterlot sported crystal like the buildings in the Crystal Empire. And suddenly, while she had simply accepted it before, this detail clued her in to the fact that she was dreaming.
She stood still, letting the dream’s cool night breeze wash over her, ruffling her mane and feathers. As she looked around, a shape flickered across the moon, then formed into the shape of a pony. Princess Luna appeared, gliding to the ground, and Twilight felt a twinge of anxiety as she realized that Luna looked distressed and worried.
“Twilight, I’m sorry for the intrusion, but Canterlot has been attacked.”
“What?” Twilight gasped. Though she was dreaming, she knew very well that Luna, and her message, were real.
“My sister needs my help to protect Canterlot, so I don’t have much time,” Luna responded. “Earlier this night, a group strange unicorn ponies came to Canterlot.” At once, the vision of the crystallized Canterlot around Twilight faded, to be replaced with an image of strange…unicorns? They had the shape of unicorns, but their bodies were pale, almost white, and they had dark blotches on their backs. Stranger still, they had black horns that looked as if they were melting. Every one of them lacked a cutie mark, and their eyes were red with white slit pupils. As she watched the strange ponies gallop past, Luna continued. “Their magic combined was more than even I or my sister could overcome. However, we’ve managed hold them back and shield Canterlot from their attack. Our powers will be able to keep them at bay for a while, but not forever.”
Twilight noticed as the images of the strange unicorns raced by that each of them was wearing a necklace bearing a strange gemstone shaped roughly like a teardrop. She hadn’t seen an amulet quite like the ones these strange new ponies wore, and she wondered briefly if that was the source of their power.
“They were after my sister,” Luna said. “At first they tried to come peacefully to ask Celestia for help in reversing a curse that had been placed on them. No one knew of these unicorns, but as they talked with my sister, something triggered a memory and Celestia remembered who they once were. She then also remembered what they had wanted of her.”
“This happened while I was imprisoned,” Luna continued, “but my sister told me that they were once a town of ordinary unicorns that mined gems with magical properties. She told me that she later learned that something happened to threaten them, and they tried to take matters into their own hooves. They uncovered a dangerous artifact, and within weeks, the ponies who lived in the town started to become afflicted by a curse. This happened over twenty years ago, and the last thing they did before they vanished, both from the surface and the memory of everypony who once knew of them, was to ask Celestia to find a second artifact and use it to reverse their curse.”
Twilight watched Luna in silence.
“When they came to Canterlot today, they asked for Celestia’s help again. But with her newfound memory of them, she remembered that in order to do so, she would need to give up her life force to power an artifact they cannot get close to reverse their curse. When my sister refused their request, they attacked, using artifacts and magic we had never seen.”
“Why would they demand something like that? And Celestia doesn’t know-”
“We don’t know the extent of the power they have on their side, no. But before we put a magical barrier up to Canterlot, one of our guards managed to overhear some things from these intruders. Their leader, Scarlet Rose, is not with them in Canterlot. She is in the plains between the Crystal Empire and Canterlot, in a series of caves connected with the mines these ponies once used in their former home. Celestia is sure that the source of their unique power is there. The same artifact that cursed them.” An image of what Celestia had described appeared, an artifact made of crystals forming a diamond shape, with two twisted crystals in the middle.
“Is that what they want Celestia to power?” Twilight asked.
“No, there is a second artifact similar to it, and they believe that retrieving it will reverse the curse, and that only Celestia could do it. Apparently, few of the unicorns themselves can get close to the second one. But this one-” She turned her attention toward the image of the crystal artifact. “-Is what caused the curse in the first place. Celestia said that you’ll know when you’re close to it, because of its dark magic energy. If you and your friends can find it and destroy it, they will have no more magic than ordinary unicorns. The artifacts they’ve created may lose some of their power too, and if not, then at least that will be all we’d have to deal with.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes in determination. “All right. We’ll do whatever we can to help.”
“The artifact is in the caves, and will certainly be heavily guarded, so be careful.”
“I know, but…I still don’t understand just why they want this,” Twilight said. “What would Celestia have to do? Why would it destroy her?”
“They firmly believe the only way to reverse the curse is through that second ancient artifact,” Luna responded. “However, from what my sister knew about them in the brief time before they vanished, the few unicorns that have been able to go near it have tried to activate it, and lost their lives doing so. They believe Celestia is the only one who could power it, but we are worried that she would meet the same fate. Celestia believes it is too dangerous to risk it, and it may not even work. But these ponies will not take no for an answer. They don’t care if Celestia lives or dies and would simply use the magic she poured into the artifact to raise the sun themselves.”
Twilight thought to herself. It seemed strange that they would just be arriving at Canterlot now, twenty years after the first attempt. She wondered why they hadn’t asked Celestia for help again sooner. There seemed to be a lot missing from the story, and from the look on Luna’s face, she didn’t have the answers either. However, whatever was going on, she was determined to find out and help her mentor.
The images of the cursed unicorns slowly faded around Twilight, and a hazy image of Canterlot replaced them. “We’re counting on you,” Luna said. “We’ll hold them off at Canterlot as long as we can. I will contact you again soon.” Luna and the rest of the scenery around her faded away.
Twilight woke with a start.
Stats
Page generated in 0.031 seconds
Total duration
1,073 users online
1,688,108 hits today, 2,364,530 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Hot damn this is interesting.
So I'm curious on how exactly the season six finale played out if the changelings didn't, well, change and Thorax didn't become the leader. What little you've given implies it played out pretty much the same as before, just sans those details, but in my mind that still leaves a few blanks that need filling, and overall leaves it feeling vague.
I mean, it's not that key to the story, or anything, I guess I'm just uncertain on why Thorax felt obligated to go back to the Crystal Empire instead of stick around at the changeling hive and give them pointers (as surely they'd need some no matter how you cut it), leader or no.
Other than that, it all seems promising.
9518595
Personally, I find Thorax's story more interesting when he's with the ponies than with the hive, so I wanted to focus that on my story. Also, I didn't want to put too many details of my To Where and Back Again alternate ending, because I didn't want people to argue or get angry at me about it.
But in my AU basically the changelings are working with other ponies to try and make peace between them. Thorax does want to help teach the other changelings at some point (this will come up later in the story).
Thorax didn't go back to the Crystal Empire out of any obligation; instead he chose to. The in-universe reasons for this are A) He wanted to stay and learn more about friendship (partly so that he can help teach the other changelings later on because they are still learning to be good), B) His life in the changeling hive was a bad experience, and C) He wanted to stay with his first ever friends.
Thank you!
9518485
Thank you!
9521496
All perfectly valid reasons, actually. And I don't have a problem with it. I've come to like the changedlings, but I too kind of wish the show had spent more time on Thorax being Thorax before all of that, especially on that friendship between him and Spike.
And I can understand your fear of critics over the matter, but if I may, I think you're fretting over it a bit too much. The fic's acknowledged as an AU, and a pretty conservative one at that, and in my experience, readers are more likely to roll with that than you might think. It's really only when you do something on the more "extreme" end of an AU that you're more prone to get objectors, and this fic certainly isn't that as far as I can see.
Besides, I think these are details that would be good to be given in the story itself, if only to ensure the reader understands clearly just what makes the fic an AU in the first place...otherwise you're probably going to have more readers asking you for clarifications over it like I did as the story goes on. And sometimes, regardless of how you fear your audience might react, you just have to commit to it and lay down the line and say straight up that this is how it's going to be, take it or leave it. One of the advantages of that is that it shows you're confident in your own work and its chances for success.
And if you still have concerns about reader reaction, you can always explain your reasons in the author's note or in the comments like you just did with me.
9522043
Thank you so much for this comment!
I think I was just kind of paranoid since I don't know this fandom well, I didn't know how people would react. But I will definitely try to be more confident about this!
I will explain these things more in the story. I can include some of this in Chapter 2 to make it clearer to the readers, and if I need to, I can put more details in the author's notes if it's something that will come up in the story later.
9522043
Same here. Changedlings are great, but Thorax should have gotten more development before he became a king and all that.
Well then of course Pinkie Pie shut off the party Cannon off lol 😆
Ok so the celebration of the crystalling celebration is starting and it's so cool to see how thorax has been doing lately so this is takes place after the season 6 finale but with a Different Twist i wonder who's going to take over the hive his brother pharynx or someone not sure but after the celebration Luna visit Twilight into the dream warning her about the danger of the three unknown unicorns attacking Canterlot but who are those unknown ponies I guess we'll find out
10534603
As of now there's no real official leader but it won't be Thorax. And thanks, you'll see!