The Crescent Empire. Episode 2, Part 1
Twilight gets a Puppy
Season 3
By TDR
The Crescent Empire.
Episode 2, Part 1
[Crystal Empire, Public Library]
“Wow Shining wasn't kidding, this place is a mess.” Spike muttered wiping a claw along a shelf and looking at the near inch layer of dust on his claw.
The library itself was massive, three stories, plus a double basement taking up a full city block. It easily dwarfed the Canterlot royal library in size as well as volumes, given how nearly every available wall for the full three stories was covered with shelves of books. Ornate crystal walk ways ran along the walls at every story circling the open air main area allowing those on the upper tiers to look down on the lower. Curving stairs ran up to the next floor in every corner of the building, and various wider balconies gave a place for patrons to read on the upper tiers.
The open floor space on the ground floor was wrapped around a long stone wall that ran along the middle of the structure. Various works of art or items of interest were placed atop of the stone. A few old weapons, some faded paintings, and at the very front, on a metal pedestal was a massive buffalo statue that looked as if it was carved out of black crystal. Who ever the artist was they were very detailed as each strand of fur seemed to be separate from the others.
Moon Dancer stared in awe until Sunburst came over and pushed her jaw closed, offering her a rag.” You're drooling dear.” he smirked.
“Right.. okay .. Focus... Sunburst pass out the glasses. Every one focus on finding anything we can about the empire, any sort of spell books as well. No matter how interesting something is we need to work fast, skim the books look for the info we need and move on if it's not there. If you find something, put it on that table there and Spike and I will check to see if it's relevant.”
Six ponies took glasses from Sunburst and he gave a pair to Spike. “Sorry I didn't have time to make more, these are translation lenses. We've condensed the spells needed to make anything you view through these translate to modern equestrian. It's not perfect by a long shot, and we only managed to get ten languages in them, but ancient Equestrian is one of them, or at least the best translations we could get.” Sunburst offered. “I didn't expect we would have any one other than our little team, so those of you without glasses help out those who have them in finding books.”
“Brahe, Gauss, you take the top floor. You three go with them.” Moon Dancer pointed to a pair of pegasi and a couple of earth ponies.
“Herschel, Hoyle, you two take the next tier and you four go with them.” Moon Dancer pointed at a Unicorn and earth pony mare who nodded taking along the four extra workers that had come along with them. Each group was also followed by double their number in guards.”If the Guards can help that will make things go faster.”
“I don't think the guards should help... they need to focus on their jobs.” Spike stated as he looked around the library.
“We could use the help.” Sunburst stated.
“Yeah, but somethings wrong here.” Spike frowned.
“You noticed to? Good eye drake.” Lodestone smirked.
“Noticed what?” Moon Dancer asked.
“There are no rabbits in here.” Spike stated gesturing to the silent dust covered, empty, library.
[Crystal Palace]
“What is with all these rabbits!!” Rainbow Dash cursed as she glared at one of the white bunnies that was hopping through the air in front of her, nibbling on something unseen.
“Well, they are a lot braver than the ones outside.” Rarity commented.
Twilight grumbled as one of the rabbits sat on her head. The rabbits still avoided Rahs and kept a large circle of space empty around him, but none of the others had that granted personal space and were swarmed by them. There were more rabbits in the palace than out of it. For some reason though, no pony could touch them, as they either faded out or simply were not physically there if any one tried.
Fluttershy kept trying though.
The Heart guard had taken the group to the library where they were pouring over any book they could find. Twilight was rather annoyed at how many of them seemed to be works of fiction, and Rahs was annoyed he couldn't read any of them.
The others just looked through the books to see if there were any pictures, as Twilight was the only one who could translate the ancient equestrian. It was a small library, but it was slow going.
Pinkie Pie however had a different mission. She was currently in the throne room with Cadence and Shining Armor. She had set up a coffee stand and was currently mixing something that caused steam and other strange colors of smoke to spiral into the air.
“Umm, just normal coffee is fine Pinkie it works.” Cadence stated worriedly.
“Diminishing returns.” Pinkie Pie stated matter of factly “ Also normal coffee makes you poop too much. I get you're on a throne, but I bet it's not that sort of throne.” Pinkie Pie rambled as she kept mixing.
“What exactly are you making?” Shining Armor frowned.
“It's a Pie family secret recipe for coffee. Rock farming is super dull work and we needed something to keep us awake during the tedium of pushing rocks around all the time. So my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great,... and a few more, Granny Pie, invented a drink that would help keep the farmers awake. Usually we prepare it the previous night cause it takes it a good while to percolate, but I didn't have time to make it yesterday. I was on the train to long and it doesn't do well being jostled.”
“Ummm.” Cadence blinked not being with it very well at the moment and Pinkie wasn't helping her confusion.
“You're an alicorn, you can handle it.” Pinkie smiled. “Besides if you fall asleep and vanish that's gonna make a lot of ponies sad, so don't worry your pretty fake pink head about it. Auntie Pinkie Pie will make this all better..... or at least give more time before you poof.”
“Well that ….” Shining muttered.
“Alicorns can't die right ? I mean not unless their whole reason for being poofs right? I mean, I still love cupcakes so you're safe there I think.” Pinkie Pie hummed to herself as she tapped her chin with a hoof. “Yeah, you should be fine.”
“Ahh, yeah, what is this drink called any way Pinkie?” Shining asked watching the table with worry as something started to spark on it.
“Oh, Granny called it Shoggoth's milk.”
[ Crystal Library, a little under an hour later]
“I found something” Gauss called out, the pegasus hopping over the railing and drifting down carrying a large book.
“That was fast.” Moon Dancer smiled.
“I looked for the largest books, standard fiction tends to be smaller, with the larger tomes needing the size for maps or illustrations.” Gauss smirked.
“History of the Crystal Empire....” Spike nodded as he looked at the cover through the glasses. “ Hope this has something.”
[ The Palace, a bit later still]
“A faire?” Rainbow Dash questioned.
“I'm up fer some fun as much as tha next pony, but how is a faire gonna help anything?” Applejack muttered.
“Moon Dancer thinks it's a ritual spell. Ritual magic was widely practiced in olden pony times.” Twilight muttered. “Spike sent a note out to Princess Luna and she mentioned that while she didn't recall it exactly, Solomon did have a festival of some sort every year. It could be the source of why the empire vanished if Sombra didn't do the ritual. Moon Dancer sent over a list of things we need to know to get the faire going. She warned me that there's a page missing however so there might be something we're not seeing with this. Her teams checking on it now.”
“Well, it's a start, we ken set this shindig up while you keep looking. Beats standing around watching yah read this gobldy gook.” Applejack commented.
“Maybe it might help some of the ponies here remember too. Familiar settings and surroundings can trigger memories for those who lost them.” Fluttershy added having looked into a few things after her failure to cure Twilight from Discord.
“Alright, Rahs and I will stay here and keep looking everything over, you girls be careful out there, this was an enemy city and so far we haven't seen anything but a smoke monster that's trapped outside.“ Twilight frowned giving the instructions to the others. “There's got to be more than that here.
“ We'll keep an eye out ma'am.” One of the Guards nodded as a troop followed the Bearers out of the small library leaving Comet Trail, and four other guards with the Sparkles.
Rahs wasn't looking at the books but he was watching the rabbits rather carefully.
“Woof.”
“What?”
“Woof.” Rahs stated again pointing at the rabbits.
“The rabbits don't have any smell?” Twilight considered. “Curiouser and curiouser.”
The unicorn mare quickly went back to her book though the pegasus guard patrolling the room stopped in front of a book case and stared at it a moment before he motioned to Comet Trail to come over. The rest of the ponies in the room tensed at the change of pattern and major Comet Trail moved over to where the Pegasus had spread his wings, his feathers brushing along the book case. Rahs watched with some interest as Comet Trail spread his dragon like wing as well , his tufted ears perking up curiously.
“Miss Sparkle, I think we found something.” Comet Trail stated.
“What?” Twilight asked as she looked back. The Major had the earth pony team member come over to give the shelf a quick shove to see if it opened like a secret door.
It didn't.
The the wall and the shelf both groaned in protest as a loud crack echoed in the library and the whole section crumbled to dust as the wall gave way and took the shelf with it.
“Ooops.” The earth pony guard muttered.
“A hidden room?” Comet Trail frowned looking inside the hole, one wing spread out to keep Twilight back.
Twilight pushed the draconic wing out of her face and looked into the chamber herself. There were a few rabbits inside and a small door at the far end that likely led to the store room next door to the library. On the other side of the room was a crystal pedestal that the rabbits were avoiding, with a black book resting on top of it
“Well that screams trap.” the pegasi who found the room muttered.
“It's covered with almost as many wards and spells as golden oak library.” Twilight frowned as she cast a scanning spell. She looked back at the table behind her.”This is going to take me some time to break through. That is a lot of spells. I need parchment and a....”
FOOOOM!!!
Twilight whirled back around to see Rahs standing next to the pedestal holding the book and chewing on something, the air around him was filled with flickering and broken spell work that her scanning spell picked up. There was a bit of magical smoke in the air as well, and the light of some kind of fire flickered between her brothers jaws as he chewed up the spell like it was taffy.
Another chomp in the air from the moon dog and the residual spell work collapsed in on it self with a faint pop, the trap destroyed. Rahs calmly walked back out of the hole in the wall and dropped the book on the table with a small burp.
“......Or I can just let my idiot brother deal with it.” Twilight sighed.
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Ummm........Is there something you want to tell us about your families practices, Pinkie? Maybe some off-the-record things?
media.giphy.com/media/LoGh1t5iGxFOE/200.gif
Rahs is basically the magical equivalent of a honey badger. I love it.
FU*&!. Oh boy, I DID read that correctly. This be interesting
Also, IF those rabbits were time displaced as well
1) it WOULD explain why there are so many
2) it would ALSO explain why no one can understand their dialect considering the language shift that would have happened in that 1000 years
3)There could very well also been a bit of a genetic shift as well considering adaptation to their time displaced environment.Which, of course, brings up MANY questions about all spells and what not that caused the displacement in the first place considering those are TIME rabbits
That's probably not a statue
Well that's concerning
She's still mad about Cadance being pink
... well Cadance, time to put that immortality to the test
Well, to be fair it was a lot faster
I just googled "shoggoth" and now I am wondering what the hell Granny Pie did as a hobby...
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Well the Pies do love crafts......
Oh god no Cadence no matter you do don't drink for all that is holy
9667561 BOO! BOO! BAD JOKE! BAD PUN! Best pun
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* bows*
9667577
You, Sans, and Yang should get together. SOMETHING has to happen with that many puns.
Almost? Hey, Sombra, somepony think she is doing a better job at protecting books than you.
This wasn't on featured, BLASPHEMY.
Having such a powerful and ravenous spell breaker at disposal certainly helps a lot.
That explains much.
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Well, the family moto is 'Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!'
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::THWAP::
Honestly Rahs eating the spell trap was probably the safest and smartest thing. There are probably all kinds of countermeasures in the work for people to try to unravel it magically, there isn't anybody that would expect a magic eater to this chomp down on it though. Sometimes the most clever way to outsmart a genius is to do something dumb.
This explains a few things
Smart.
Twi, when you live with a magic eater, go for the easy solution.
This sick style meter is hype as hell!
Sick Style!
I wouldn't be surprised if the Pies were cultists at one point.
9668211 I wouldn't even be surprised if the Pies were either elder god or Discord worshippers at one point.
9668123
Pff...cultists? With Pinkie and Maud gaving displayed the abilities that they have, I would expect there is something eldritch hanging out in the family tree. And I mean in canon. Here it's appearing even more likely.
Gives twilight some rahas grade antacids * you just know that dark magic gonna give him heart burn last thing we need is a cranky moondog
9668497
That would explain why chuthulu set up a ward saying enter at own risk pinkie pie and Maud love here in elder God
9668497 Not too farfetched, but yeah- they've prolly been worshipping a deity that predates Discord.
9668496 Celly, Luna and Cadence to a degree have worshippers, so Discord having his own isn't too out of place.
This speed is incredible thank you. I hope you are not burning yourself out doing this though.
Cadence.. you should be RUNNING! WHY ARN'T YOU RUNNING?!
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Because she can't leave the barrier, meaning she is stuck with Pinkie.
I for one appreciate your sacrifice, thank you
I finally caught up! I picked up the story finally and I gotta say, you have me lose it on a number of occasions.
This is a great start to season 3! I cant wait to see how you deal with things later on.
I have to say I have liked the portrayal of most of the characters set here, original and canon based.
I'm still eh on some, but that's understandable. There will always be characters like that, and it's up to you if you'll do more with them in the future.
But those that I do like most of all is Twilight and her group and what entails, Trixie because I feel like she was given a rather lackluster goal and the way you had her first introduction set was perfect, and I agreed whole heartedly on the Snips and Snails dilemma.
One thing that I am really annoyed at though, and this is because it throws me off in reading it, is the Brooklin accent for Zecora. It just throws me off in phrasing. Just stating that as you probably get a lot complaints to fix it.
All in all, I have enjoyed the story a lot. Thanks for the chapter and these stories as a whole!
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Unthinkable things, unholy things. Things that isn't for the weak mind, body, and/or soul
Heheheh. Heh.
WHY DIDN'T YOU THINK OF THAT?!?!?
I don't think he is the idiot for knowing that he can just eat the spells, twilight you can be the dumbest smart person(I refuse to replace that with pony as person doesn't specifically mean human) ever
Oh sweet Faust no
So, good thing Twilight didn't come here, she'd be freaking out too much to focus?
Hmmmm, no rabbits.... well, they are clearly time based, so can see them avoiding a library, given how it warps the time space continuum just by existing. They probably don't want to risk getting lost in L-Space. Speaking of, the group did bring bananas right?
Wait, how could the rabbits be unable to be touched, and yet also have one sitting on her head?
Well, true on the diminishing returns bit, but the other.....
"Fake pink" still on that?
Shoggoth's Milk.............. I am not sure if I am more terrified, or excited by this.
The Faire is to power The Heart, why would a dark king want to do that? Or was he okay enough, but Sombra was too evil smoke monster too deal with it?
Had to sneak that in there....
Well done story, well done.
RAAAAAAAAHSSROOOOYYYYYY! SPAAAAARKLLLLLLE! Good job Rahs.
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I'm also wondering if any of their relatives might be names 'Slepnir' or something to that extent.
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Its less insult and more annoyance. At least to me anyway
What dose shoggoth's milk do
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pinkie pie grew up on it most likely. so that pretty much is what im guessing
Honestly? I'd be more careful what type of magic I would put in my mouth. Being magically connected to three other people would make me careful of what I consume.
Creative outside thinking by eating the traps
Rahs can be quite the Macguffin himself
Why does that still fill me with terror? I don't even know who Shoggoth is
*one google search later* So it's basically a brew to keep workers working endlessly, mindlessly?
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Trust me you don't want to I did the research
Alright, who dragged Alice in?!
Stay you pinkie...
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKK WTF pinkie that is something only a cult worshiper would drink
Got to love Rahs practical solutions