Fallout Equestria: The Lost Empire

by CopperTop

Chapter Three: Old World Blues

But the days ahead are dark and tragic
No time for hope when all is strife

“Did you find what you needed?” the rag-bound ghoul rasped as he and Starlight Glimmer made their way out of the house that the pink unicorn had once shared with her long-dead husband.

“Needed?” the mare asked, her words slightly listless as she steadily composed herself for their return to the city’s center, “I suppose. I don’t know that there was ever going to be a way to do this that wasn’t going to be...difficult; but I really hadn’t expected the orbs,” she cast an idle glance back at her saddlebags and the glowing little motes of memories that they contained.

“Does it bother you, that he wanted to forget?”

“A little,” she admitted, her expression souring, “I suppose I can kind of understand. He’d just lost his wife and daughter. I’m sure it was very painful,” Starlight rolled her eyes and let out a hollow laugh, “I know it’s very painful. I’m half tempted to have a few memories extracted myself,” she might have been joking. Maybe, “but, at least this way, I have them. Who knows? Maybe this is better. I’ll be able to see ‘us’ through his eyes. How many widows can say that they ever get the chance to have that sort of insight into their husbands?”

“Not many, I expect,” the ghoul agreed as they headed outside into the perpetual storm that raged through the outer circles of the ancient crystalline city, “ready to go back?”

Starlight wasn’t certain of how serious the question was. Ready or not, it was pretty clear that the two of them needed to return sooner than later. Their encounter with the umbra ponies had hammered the point home pretty clearly of just how dangerous this city was. The unicorn mare certainly didn’t have any pressing desire to remain in it any longer than she had too. Not that it looked like she’d be leaving any time soon.

“Yeah,” she nodded, gathering her duster’s collar up around her neck to ward off the worst of the snow once again, “let’s get going.”

Her mind quickly turned from thoughts of her dead husband and what she and Archie had found in their old home to, well, the future. It was a subject that, she now realized, she had actually given surprisingly little thought to since setting out on this journey. Partially, that had probably been because, despite her desperate hope to the contrary, Starlight had never really believed that she’d learn the truth to the definitive degree that she just had. Never in her wildest fantasies had she expected it to be this easy, and wrap up so neatly.

This was supposed to have been the sort of futile quest that would take her many years, and leave her wandering the whole of Equestria without ever finding any actual closure. That was exactly how she had expected this whole endeavor to go…

...because, deep down, that was what Starlight had wanted. She had wanted―needed, even―the distraction of such an eternal search. After all, what exactly was there left for her in this world? Her husband had died centuries past. Her daughter’s soul had effectively been stripped away around that same time. She’s been witness to the final passing of her daughter’s physical form only a few months ago. Everypony that she had ever known was long dead and gone as well. For all intents and purposes, this wasn’t even her world.

She had no place here. Where she belonged was two centuries in the past; only there was no way to get back there.

Starlight was stuck in this strange, devastated, future that she was never supposed to have lived to see. Worse than that, she had been thrust into its reality through a trial by blood, and death, and fire. It was all still so very surreal for her, and she was only just beginning to process how to deal with it all.

Certainly she hadn’t put any sort of thought into building a life in it. What was she supposed to do? Where was she supposed to live?

Well, she supposed that last question had sort of answered itself, hadn’t it? According to Archie, there wasn’t any way to safely leave the Crystal Empire with the wendigos about; and she had witnessed, first hoof, how dangerous they were. So, for the foreseeable future, it looked like this pink mare from the past was going to be living among the last of the crystal ponies in their dying city. Perhaps not her first choice of post-apocalyptic settlements; but it certainly wasn’t the worst off that she had seen in her travels. Her ghoulish escort had placed the expected expiration date at a few decades in the future, which was quite an optimistic life expectancy for someplace like the Equestrian Wasteland.

And perhaps that could help Starlight with her need to figure out what to do with her time: finding a way to extend that expiration date. Part of her job, before the Great War had destroyed the world, had been to come up with new magicks that would save it. Obviously, those endeavors had failed in spectacular fashion back then; but she could certainly hope for a marginally better outcome this time around. While she didn’t know how she was going to do it, Starlight was determined to at least make a commendable effort to drive back the wendigos and stave off the ultimate destruction of the Empire and the ponies who were still living in it.

Beyond that, assuming her efforts were ultimately successful, well...Starlight couldn’t say. Without some great threat looming overhead that portented the deaths of everypony around her, the unicorn wasn’t sure what she’d do. Mostly because that was just the sort of life she’d become accustomed to by this point. The War, Arginine’s Stable, the wendigos; she wasn’t sure how she’d handle a life where her most pressing concern was whether to wash the dishes before, or after, she did the laundry.

Was she even capable of enduring that level of mediocrity?

In hindsight, given the nature of their surroundings, Starlight’s attention would probably have been better served directed at spotting potential threats instead of wool-gathering. The ghoul stallion with her might have been the resident expert on local dangers, but he was just one pony, and could only be looking in so many directions at once. It was an oversight that cost them the initiative in their next fight; but had, fortunately, not cost them their lives at the outset.

“REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE! DISINTEGRATION COMMENCING!”

A cascade of rainbow beams lanced forth from the dense flurry of falling flakes, illuminating their dim surroundings with a splash of dazzling multicolored light. Both ponies leaped out of the way as the torrent of deadly light ripped its way through the deep snowdrifts. Powdered snow and blasts of steam exploded all around them as the intense heat of the energetic bolts superheated the frozen water crystals that covered the ground. The clouds of dense steam obscured the vision of the two ponies even further, as though their attacker hadn’t already been nearly impossible to spot.

Not for the first time, Starlight Glimmer found herself wishing that she had been possessed of one of the Stable-Tec fetlock-mounted devices that would have permitted her to detect threats through just about any obstruction. Lacking such a device, all she could do was snap off a few shots in the vague direction that the beams were coming from with her shotgun as she and Archie ran for cover. Not that there was much in the way of that to be had out in the middle of the street.

“What’s firing at us?!” Starlight screamed as her magic threaded a line of fresh rounds into her weapon’s feeder port. The ghoul didn’t seem to have a ranged weapon of his own, only the diamond-forged sword. This initially struck the mare as a particularly stupid oversight on his part. Though, she was forced to admit that simple firearms certainly hadn’t proved to be all that effective against the umbra ponies. There was every possibility that such weapons wouldn’t work against whatever this was either.

“PrismaTron,” Archie yelled back at her over the sound of the flash-boiling snowdrifts, “think: UltraSentinel, but made out of gems!”

“Let me guess,” the pink mare grimaced as she fired off five more shots on the run, “immune to bullets?”

“Most kinds,” he admitted as they rounded the corner of a building. Concentrated bolts of deadly light struck the faceted surface, gouging deep divots into the structure and showering the pair with glittering dust, “armor piercing can get through. Spark rounds work too.”

Those were both varieties that Starlight did not possess in significant quantity. She let out a frustrated grunt and pulled out her spellbooks, “I get that this is the Crystal Empire, and all; but couldn’t you ponies have built at least some things out of metal like everypony else?!”

Another chunk of wall vanished in an explosion of rainbow light and they both ducked as faceted shards rained down on them, “it’s not like there’s much else to build with out here…” Archie muttered.

Starlight responded with another annoyed grunt and some mumbling as she paged through her grimoires, “Royal Canterlot Voice...an inverse Mosaic Manifestation...and…”

“Even a primer should have Saint Elmo’s Fire,” the ghoul offered, “to help with the electronic components of the PrismaTron.”

“Ooh, good call,” the pink mare nodded, turning to the appropriate page and scanning over the spell. She was severely testing the limits of what she was capable of this time. Merging spells was difficult enough, especially such simplistic ones that were never intended to be invoked in such a way by unicorns of real skill. Now, on top of that, she was going to try and actively invert one of them so that it would have the exact opposite of its intended effect. Even with simpler cantrips, that was a difficult feat under ideal circumstances.

Being shot at, in the middle of a blizzard, while merging it with two other spells was just about the furthest thing from an ‘ideal circumstance’ that Starlight could think of. She closed her eyes and focused on constructing the matrices, “I’m going to need a clear shot,” she informed the stallion through clenched teeth as she already felt the magical forces within her protesting what she was trying to do. She was taking some pretty creative liberties with their composition at the moment, and it was anypony’s guess if they’d even maintained their integrity long enough to be cast.

Best case scenario: she came out of this with a respectable headache. Worst case…

Well, that would certainly dispel her concerns regarding what she’d be doing for the rest of her life.

“One clear shot, coming up,” the ghoul sighed as he withdrew the shimmering blade from its scabbard and charged out from around their slowly disappearing cover, “hey, over here!”

As was intended, the relentless stream of brilliant energy shifted from working over the building that the pair had been huddling behind and started after the ghoul unicorn. Archie dashed through the snow, moving with far more alacrity than Starlight might have expected from somepony who looked like a corpse long overdue for burial.

Starlight didn’t take the time to admire her escort’s nimble movements. She had a much more pressing concern: casting her rather tenuously constructed spell. The pink unicorn mare stepped out from behind cover and glared in the direction that the energy bolts were coming from, sweat starting to bead along her brow. She had her spell, she had her target―ish―now she needed only a word with which to discharge it. She took a deep breath.

Archie screamed.

Before she knew what she was doing, Starlight whipped her head in the direction that the pained cry had come from just in time to see a golden lance of light strike the side of the ghoul and pierce cleanly through his torso, emerging from the other side. The withered stallion went rigid, his stride catching mid-gait as he tumbled into the snow, plowing a billowing white furrow in the ground as more chromatic beams washed overhead.

“No!”

Her reaction had been instinctive, precipitated by the sight of her escort being cut down by the deadly fire coming out of the darkness. It was too late to take it back though, and that single word carried with it not just her fear for the safety of the ancient Imperial pony, but her spell as well. A conical wave of visible energy emanated outward, not in the direction of the PrismaTron, but over Archie’s prone form. The potent spell that had been intended to shatter their attacker slammed into another building instead, devastating the structure that had endured two centuries of extreme cold and stormy winds; but which was no match for the magical acumen of a pink mare whose knowledge and experience had carried her high up the ranks of the Ministry of Arcane Science.

The long abandoned home trembled for a brief instant, and then it shattered into a cloud of glass. The grain-sized shards that had once been a building captured and amplified the cascade of shifting hues from the attacking robot’s energy weapons, turning the old neighborhood into something reminiscent of an Old World rave presided over by Equestria’s original DJ Pon3. Through her fear, Starlight Glimmer noticed that those shots were getting progressively less focused and accurate as the stream of fire started to drift higher and further away. Something about the cloud of refracting crystalline dust was disrupting the PrismaTron’s targeting systems.

The pink mare realized that wasn’t going to be the case for long though, as the debris was already quickly settling into the snow. She dashed out into the maelstrom of lethal light and dove for Archie’s still form, “don’t be dead don’t be dead don’t be dead…” Starlight uttered the words over and over like a desperate mantra as she automatically clutched at the ghoul’s neck for a pulse. A heartbeat later she chided herself for forgetting that ghoul ponies didn’t have a pulse. Nor did they breathe. Honestly, without the aid of a pipbuck, she wasn’t sure how exactly she was supposed to know if the stallion was alive or not. Frankly, this precise moment wasn’t an ideal time to devise a method to do so anyway.

Starlight produced a healing potion and emptied the contents into the charred hole that had been drilled through his barrel. Archie was either still alive, or he wasn’t. Regardless, remaining out in the open like this wasn’t an option. The two of them needed to be elsewhere, and quickly. The mare squinted through the thick haze of billowing flakes of the perpetual storm in the opposite direction of their robotic attacker. She focused on the furthest location that she could make out clearly enough and clutched the ghoul as tightly as she dared.

A cyan flash enveloped both of them, and a moment later they materialized at the point that she had focused on. It honestly probably wasn’t even a hundred yards from where they had just been. Indeed, Starlight could still clearly see the stream of chromatic energy flying through the air. The light show ended a second later, but her ears were able to pick up the sound of something large and heavy crunching through the thick covering of snow that coated the city. It either knew where they were, or was simply conducting a search pattern designed to find them. As close as they were, it would be on them again very soon in either case.

They needed to move again, and soon.

As much magic as she had expended recently, Starlight wasn’t confident that she could successfully teleport the both of them all the way back to the city’s center. Of course, if Archie was already dead and there wasn’t anything that could be done for him, the mare suspected that she could take herself back to the castle with little issue…

A faint moan escaped the stallion’s mottled lips.

He was alive! Honestly, a bit of a mixed blessing in Starlight’s case. While she was grateful that she wasn’t going to be known to the Empire’s residents as the mare who had gotten their beloved ghoul mentor killed on her selfish quest to hold a paltry eulogy for her long dead husband, it did still leave her with the difficult question of what the two of them were going to do to get away from their attacker. She could try her spell again and hope that it went better the second time around, but the two of them were a lot more exposed than they had been a moment ago.

Starlight’s teleportation had taken them out from the cluster of small homes and shops into the middle of what looked to be some sort of wide avenue, or perhaps even a courtyard, given the large structure nearby. If they could make it inside, they might find shelter behind the thick crystal walls though. It was a plan, at least.

The pink unicorn mare poured a second healing potion into Archie’s noticeably smaller wound for good measure before levitating the ghoul onto her back and carefully draping him across her withers. His desiccated body was a lot lighter than she would have thought, honestly. Either that, or nearly a year of hard living in the Equestrian Wasteland had done more to improve her physical fitness than she had suspected. She trotted gingerly through the thick snow, diligently finding the steps buried beneath them that would take them up to the massive reinforced doors of the large building. It was an encouraging sight, to be sure. If this place couldn’t keep them safe from the PrismaTron, then no place was safe.

She placed her hooves against the doors and pushed as hard as she could. Nothing happened. Her apprehension began to grow as her ears picked up the sounds of the robot pursuing them growing louder. She pushed again, leaning into the portal with all of her weight. Still nothing happened. She wrapped her hooves around the heavy latch and pulled, also to no avail.

“Come on, open!” she cried out in an exasperated tone, pounding against the treated lumber barred with iron. Her horn glowed as she assaulted it, first with every cantrip and minor spell that she knew of that had even a remote possibility of opening a stuck or locked door. These efforts too proved fruitless. After those options were exhausted, Starlight moved on the actual assaults with pulses of destructive magic, in an effort to cut her way through. All that resulted from those magical exertions were blackened marks and the onset of a looming migraine which promised to punish her severely for evoking so much magic in such a brief period of time.

On the bright side, if they ever managed to get in, they would surely be safe from the PrismaTron’s weapons!

Not that it seemed that getting past the doors was going to be an easy task.

“Open!” she screamed at the door, as though the inanimate construction might be inclined to take pity on their plight and allow them sanctuary if only she sounded desperate enough. It was a wasted effort, of course. The door didn’t budge, and the sound of the robot hunting them grew ever louder, likely attracted to their position by all of the commotion that she was making.

“Please!” still the door was unsympathetic to her wailing. Starlight wilted before the stubborn entrance, her stomach gripped by hopelessness, “...please…”

“YOUR COOPERATION IS APPRECIATED!” Starlight tensed at the blaring synthesized voice, wheeling around so quickly that her frantic spin very nearly dislodged the ghoul laying across her back, “YOUR DEATHS WILL BE SWIFT! ALL HAIL THE CRYSTAL PRINCESS!”

The faceted robot that had been trying to kill them was clearly visible now as it approached. It very much resembled a massive crystal pony, adorned in the traditional armor of the Crystal Empire’s knights, sitting atop a pair of snow-packed treads. Mounted on a swiveling turret bolted onto its right side was a steaming gatling magical energy cannon, its seven barrels slowly rotating. Those barrels pivoted to point directly at the pair of ponies on the stairs, and then the barrels started rotating.

Starlight threw up the most robust defensive barrier that she could muster. A cyan shell burst into existence at nearly the same moment that the cascade of searing light poured out at them. The impacts of the bolts created nearly blinding flashes as they exhausted themselves upon Starlight’s magical shield. It was only a momentary respite, of course, and the unicorn mare well knew that. No spell cast by a mere unicorn, even one as accomplished as herself, could hope to stave off the sheer volume of destruction being levied against her and the unconscious Archie for long.

She could still leave, the mare realized. She could teleport away and save herself. It would mean leaving the ghoul to die, but surely it was better that one of them should live than for them both to perish. Agate and the others would understand…

Movement off to her left and right caught the unicron’s attention. She turned her head away from the dazzling display of chromatic energy blasts splashing against her barrier, and immediately felt her heart sink. The movement was a pair of heavy machinegun turrets to either side of the doorway rising up out of their concealed positions in the ground. Their barrels already leveled inward towards the staircase and the pair of ponies there.

Then, much to her relieved surprise, those imposing barrels swiveled around and trained upon the PrismaTron. The mare winced in pain as the rolling thunder of those large caliber weapons unleashed mirrored streams of orange tracers into the chassis of the crystalline automaton. While most weapons wielded by a common pony might not have had the power to effectively punch through the thick armored shell of the robot, the heavy slugs of those two turrets encountered little effective resistance. They chewed deep furrows into the PrismaTron, sending bullets deep into its inner workings.

In a matter of seconds, the robot’s energy weapon fell silent. It’s speaker system squealed and shrieked a few times as circuits were destroyed and wiring shorted. Before Starlight was able to finish processing what had just happened, the large automated sentinel was just a pile of crystal shard and smoldering circuitry that barely even resembled the intimidating robot that it had once been. Only then did the turrets to either side of her and Archie go quiet, their glowing barrels steaming in the cold.

The pink unicorn jerked as a speaker mounted into the wall of the building near the door crackled to life, “are you two okay?”

Through the speaker’s mild distortion, Starlight could pick out the voice of a young mare. It was clear and crisp, so not that of a ghoul, either. She hadn’t suspected that there would be anypony else out here in the abandoned sections of the city. From what Archie and the others had suggested, nopony really strayed too far from the castle. There was no reason to.

She trotted up and stared at the speaker panel, “um, yes, we’re alright. Are you the one controlling the turrets?”

“Hacking the Academy’s defense systems was one of the first things I did when I got here. You don’t mess around with umbras,” the mare on the other end of the connection responded proudly, “Didn’t think I’d need them to protect anypony else but me though. What are you doing out here anyway?”

“We were looking through some of the old houses. Can you let us in? My friend’s hurt.”

“Oh, uh, sure. Just a sec,” Starlight heard the deep thrum of machinery moving within the nearby walls. A moment later, one of the doors slowly creaked inward. Through the narrow opening, Starlight could make out the faint glow of powered lights, “Come on in! I’ll meet you in the main gallery,” there was a faint crackle of static, and then the speaker went silent.

Starlight took one final, cautious, look around. Save for the smoldering remains of the PrismaTron and the steaming gun turrets, there didn’t appear to be signs of anything else dangerous nearby. She shifted Archie around on her back and slipped in through the open door.

Once inside, the pink unicorn mare found herself inside a massive rotunda that contained two stories and a high domed ceiling. Her mind flashed with veiled recognition as what she remembered about this place tried to reconcile with what she was seeing at this very moment. Like so much else in the Crystal Empire, her memory of what it had been only a short time ago, to her mind, was quite far removed from the present reality. Too much had changed so drastically in the ‘one year’ since she’d left.

When she had last been here, the main gallery had contained a single large reception desk where ponies waited to assist visitors to the Imperial Academy. Behind them had been a dozen smaller desks that held terminals which could be used to locate books and reference materials which lined the tall shelves of the old library’s publicly accessible areas. Things were quite different now.

While the massive reception desk, which had been built directly into the floor, still remained, all of the others were gone, shuffled off to one side of the circular room; and that lone remainder had apparently been converted into a soup line. Rusted and defunct stoves and pots lay just beyond it, and a couple stacks of trays and bowls had tumbled to the floor at some point in the past. A few trays were visible on those old terminal desks off to the side, suggesting where the dining area had been. Down one of the large hallways which branched off of the rotunda, Starlight spied several moldy mattresses and bedrolls.

It seemed that, at some point after the city’s protective barrier fell, this old library had been converted into a shelter of some sort. Archie had mentioned that much of the city had been demolished in order to make room for arable land. That suggested that they had needed to house the displaced residents somewhere. It looked like a fair number had been packed into this place until it was eventually abandoned. Unlike her old home though, which had been rather deliberately stripped of everything useful and left bare, this place had not been quite so thoroughly cleared out.

Starlight’s mind had only just begun to come up with plausible theories about why this place would have been treated differently when she saw the skeletons. Indeed, they were merely the first, as the unicorn didn’t need to go very far at all before she spied a great deal more. Nearly all of them were lying upon old mattresses. Nearby were bedpans and chamber pots, not all of them appearing to have been emptied and washed out after their last use.

This hadn’t been a place to house the dispossessed, the mare soon realized. It had been a makeshift hospital. Or, at the very least, it had quickly turned from the former to the latter; likely due to the overcrowding. Archie had also told her about the ‘plague years’ which had ravaged the city.

“Welcome to one the Crystal Empire’s many tombs.”

Starlight’s head whipped around in time to see a turquoise mare slowly descending a flight of stairs from the upper level. She was a crystal pony, the unicorn realized immediately, and she was dressed in the steel armor of one of their knights. A vibrant green and silver sash was slung across her chest, and a matching green crest sat atop her visored helmet. Like those sets of barding that she had seen worn in and around the castle, it seemed quite anachronistic even in the decayed surroundings of the otherwise modern library. The only contemporary alteration to the mare’s barding was the magical energy rifle mounted to her side; though even that was still quite clearly a product of crystal pony aesthetic; as it had many of the cosmetic features of an ancient jousting lance. Save for the discrete spark pack array mounted on the opposite side, anypony would have been hard pressed to identify her armament as an energy weapon.

The crystal pony paused for a brief moment as she tipped up her visor and gaped at Starlight Glimmer with her golden eyes, “...you’re not a crystal pony. Who are you? And how did you get past the wendigos?!” her tone was not so much accusatory as it was incredulous; as though she couldn’t believe that such a thing could possibly have happened.

“My name is Starlight Glimmer, and it’s a long story. I’ll tell you everything, I swear. But first, my friend…” she nodded her head at the caped ghoul who was still draped over her back.

The crystal mare’s gaze shifted slightly to regard Starlight’s burden, and then her eyes widened, “Master Archie?! Is he okay?” she must have been part unicorn, because the turquoise mare just about teleported next to Starlight, she moved so fast.

The pink unicorn mare very diligently lifted the ghoul from her back and deposited him on a nearby mattress that didn’t appear to be in as poor condition as most as gently as she could manage, the crystal mare fretting over him immediately, “he’s alive, but he took a bad hit.”

“Cast a healing spell or something!” she pleaded, noting the horn atop Starlight’s head.

“I’m not quite so good with healing magic,” the unicorn admitted. As much studying as she had done in her life, battlefield medicine had not been one of her chief concerns. Certainly it hadn’t come up much during the course of her studies before the war had broken out; and the vast majority of her magical efforts after that had centered around the development of weapons, not healing...spells…

Though perhaps that was the answer, wasn’t it? “I need one of your spark packs. Highest charged one you’ve got,” Starlight said breathlessly as she used her magic to open up the small leather pouch she carried which contained her own small supply of precious stones. Wearing a confused expression, the crystal mare pulled free one of her cartridges which was packed full of highly energized powdered gemstones and passed it to the unicorn. She took it absently in her telekinetic field even as she appraised her assorted jewels.

“What are you doing?”

Starlight made her choice, and returned all but a finely polished emerald to the pouch. She cracked open the spark pack and poured out the glittering powder onto the floor of the decrepit library. It didn’t remain in a pile for very long as she utilized her magic to spread the tiny grains around, “I’m making something that I haven’t created in a very long time,” she murmured, biting her lower lip in concentration as she worked. As the crystal mare looked on, the pile of assorted gem powder transformed into one of the most elaborate works of art that she had ever seen. Starlight’s magic was even separating out the granules of the types of gems that had been ground up, laying them out in distinctly colored lines.

“Honestly,” the pink unicorn added absently, “this is probably the first time anypony’s made one of these in nearly two hundred years, if I had to guess,” once she was satisfied with the rune that she had laid out, she carefully positioned the emerald that she had selected in the center of the pattern, “and it definitely isn’t something I could do by myself if it was any bigger…”

Before the turquoise mare could ask for further clarification, Starlight’s horn flared with sickly green light. Unlike most auras that surrounded her horn, this was not a simple glowing effect. The light flickered and danced much the same way that the flames of a fire might. The unicorn closed her eyes in concentration. She didn’t particularly care for this spell. It made her feel...icky, inside. However, it was the only thing that she knew for certain would help a ghoul like Archie to fully recover.

Her spell fired off, and the rune made out of powdered crystals began to glow that same sickly shade of green, before it too burst into flames. The licking tendrils of fire rose higher and higher into the air. The crystal pony took several steps back, her golden eyes wide with fright as she beheld the eerie sight. Then the flames began to dance and swirl around, becoming a tempest of viridian fire. The flicker surrounding Starlight’s horn grew higher and higher, until the tip of it finally made contact with the tornado rising out of the glyph she’d drawn out on the floor.

The swirling green flames flashed brighter still, speckled with streaks of yellow and orange as it started spinning faster and faster. As it’s rotation increased in magnitude, it also began to shrink down, the focus of its funnel directed on the shimmering emerald that Starlight had placed at the center of the arcane rune. In a matter of seconds, the whirlwind of green flames had vanished completely, sucked into the depths of the pristine jewel. Only it wasn’t a mere emerald anymore. It now glowed with that same foreboding light which had possessed Starlight’s horn. A light which any seasoned veteran of the Equestrian Wasteland would recognize as belonging to―

“...A balefire egg?” the crystal mare gasped, “you made a balefire egg?!”

Starlight’s hindquarters slumped to the floor as she let out an exhausted grunt, closing her eyes firmly against the pounding headache which had come upon her. Even impregnating so small a stone such as that emerald was usually something that a ritual circle of no fewer than three well-trained unicorns was supposed to do. However, there was a distinct shortage of unicorns in this city, and Starlight Glimmer knew that she was worth at least a half dozen moderately competent MAS unicorns.

“It’s really more of a balefire-cracker,” the pink mare tried for her best smile in her fatigued state, accompanied by a wistful little chuckle, “it honestly probably couldn’t even level a house…” she reached out with one of her hooves and gently slid the glowing gemstone closer to Archie’s prone form before scooting herself further away. It shouldn’t be emitting too much radiation, given its diminutive size, but a lot of that would depend on how stable the balefire matrix was; and that was a tricky thing to know when dealing with such a small container. Generally speaking, the bigger the bomb, the more stable the warhead was, since the wards that were designed to keep it from prematurely detonating could be enlarged and strengthened.

While the ‘bomb’ that she had conjured was certainly quite diminutive when compared to how powerful they tended to be when designed for the purpose of destruction, that tiny little emerald that she had used as the catalyst hadn’t given her much surface area with which to work with when it came to setting up containment wards. As long as nopony dropped it from more than a couple feet in the air, it should be fine.

Maybe.

“But...how?!” the crystal mare stammered, “everypony who knew how to make those things is dead! I mean, I assumed they were…” a look of dread crossed her face as she stared at Starlight, “...please don’t tell me that the war’s still going on! It’s been two hundred years!”

Starlight shook her head and waved a tired hoof at the armored crystal pony, “no, no, there isn’t a war anymore,” she assured the teal mare, “in fact, things are getting a lot better out there. The skies are open, Taint’s vanishing, even raider activity is slacking off in most places,” she offered a wan smile, “the world’s starting to return to normal...ish. Who knows? Maybe, in a few more decades, it’ll all be back to the how I remember everything being before that stupid war.”

A pony could hope, at least, Starlight thought to herself.

The mare blinked her golden eyes, “I...what? Who...are you? Really?”

Starlight Glimmer smiled at her, “you might want to sit down. This is going to be a lot to take in…”

About an hour later, when the vast majority of the tale was finished being told, the turquoise mare―Marine, was the name she had given―was left looking completely overwhelmed, her gaze largely unfocused and staring off into space, “wow...that’s just...wow…”

“It’s pretty unbelievable, I know,” Starlight had gained back most of her strength since casting the demanding spell, but her head still ached a decent bit. She had resolved to lay off any magic more demanding than telekinesis for the next day or so for fear of burning out her horn completely. No unicorn enjoyed that!

“You can say that again,” Marine shook her head slowly, running a hoof through her silvery mane as the other played idly with the crest of her helmet, which she had removed about half way through Starlight’s story.

“You don’t believe me, do you?”

“I mean,” the crystal mare shrugged, “it’s crazy, don’t get me wrong; but I kinda figure, if you were trying to feed me a load of road geodes, you’d try to come up with something that was a lot more...well, plausible, you know?” she snorted and shook her head again, “either you’re one hundred percent delusional―and he wouldn’t be with you if you were,” she pointed at Archie, who was already looking much better thanks to the continuous exposure to the radiation emanating from the tiny little balefire bomblet pulsing next to him, “or the world’s just a slightly crazier place than I thought it was.”

Marine rolled her eyes and cast a wry smile at the nearby unicorn, “we are in a city surrounded by monsters from an old Hearth’s Warming story, after all.”

“Fair enough,” Starlight shrugged.

“Besides, I’d be a bit of a hypocrite if I just dismissed somepony who was out to learn about the past as being crazy,” this time it was the turquoise mare who earned a baffled look from the unicorn, which was a refreshing change of pace, in her opinion, “I’m on a bit of a fact-finding mission myself. It’s why I’m here,” she waved at their surroundings.

“I’ve been meaning to ask. Not that I’m not grateful or anything―I am―but why are you here? I thought all of the crystal ponies stayed near the castle?”

“Because, for a colonel, she’s very bad at following orders.”

Both mare’s whipped their heads in the direction of the mattress upon which the old ghoul was lying. He had rolled over and was looking at the two of them now. His glowing horn was slowly twirling the pulsing emerald, “is this what I think it is?”

“Yeah. Don’t drop it,” Starlight cautioned, “or shake it too hard. Or sneeze near it,” she thought for a brief moment and cringed, “maybe avoid loud noises too…”

Archie recoiled from the balefire egg slightly and very slowly started floating it far away from the three of them. He’d only just placed it on a distant cushion before he was aggressively glomped by a very excited crystal mare, “Master Archie, you’re okay!” the stallion initially stiffened upon being embraced, but eventually relaxed and offered her a reassuring pat on the back.

“It’s good to see you too, Colonel Aquamarine.”

“Master…” the armored mare groaned as she pulled away, “you know I hate that. Please just call me ‘Marine’. At least while Agate’s not around,” she amended, rolling her eyes, “and you know why I disobeyed him and came here anyway.”

“It wasn’t just the regent that you disobeyed,” Archie said, fixing the turquoise mare with his gaze.

Marine bowed her head and looked away, an expression of pained regret on her face, “I know, and I’m sorry about that, Master.”

“We were sure that you had been killed,” the withered stallion went on in a quiet tone, “there was a ceremony. Your mother wept,” every successive sentence evoked a wince from the mare, who still couldn’t bring herself to meet the ghoul’s intent gaze.

“Somepony had to do something,” Marine finally managed to croak out, “we can’t just wait around to die, Master,” she faced him now, her features anxious as she sought either forgiveness or understanding; Starlight couldn’t be certain, “you showed me the numbers! The inbreeding is already setting in. Every new generation sees fewer births than the one before it. It’s like the wendigos and our own narrowing gene pool are racing to see which one will wipe us out first.

“We can’t just keep sitting around waiting to die!” she waved her hoof around at the library, “I’m here looking for answers. I know it’s a long shot, but at least I’m willing to take it at all. Please, Master Archie, you have to see that what I’m trying to do is important; don’t you?”

The ghoul offered a slight nod, “I do. I just wish that you’d said something before you left, and that you hadn’t come alone.”

“Agate would have forbidden me from coming,” the mare snorted derisively. It was clear that she didn’t have the highest opinion of the city’s nominal ruler, “every time I brought it up all he did was remind me that I had an obligation as a ‘dutiful daughter of the Empire’ to help save our city by popping out as many foals as I could while I was still young to keep our numbers from dwindling any further,” another eye roll.

“The regent is doing the best that he can.”

“He’s doing nothing!” Marine spat, bitterly, “he wakes up every morning, puts on a pair of blinders, and pretends that everything is just fine; but it’s not. It won’t be until we can figure out some answers.”

“You’re talking about beating the wendigos, aren’t you?” Starlight felt that she had finally happened upon a moment to bring herself back into the conversation, “you think that the Academy might have a book that talks about a way to defeat them.”

“Destroying them might not be an option for us.” the turquoise mare shrugged, tapping her bare forehead, “I think, however, that we might be able to escape them.”

“How? I thought that the city was completely surrounded?” she looked to Archie for confirmation and the ghoul nodded.

“Venturing out into the Wasteland isn’t an option,” he confirmed, “the wendigos would be on us in minutes; hours at the best.”

“If I’m right, we won’t need to go into the Wasteland,” the armored mare said, “we can get somewhere safe directly from the city.”

“How do you mean?”

The crystal pony frowned, “I’m still trying to figure that part out,” she admitted, “the records that I’ve found are...spotty, at best. What I do know right now is that crystal ponies didn’t always live in the Empire. We came here from somewhere else a long time ago. I’m pretty sure that it was a very different place too, from the way it was described.”

“Do you mean ‘very different’ in the sense of a far away continent, like Zebrica? Or are you thinking something along the lines of a different plane of existence?” While Starlight Glimmer was a little dubious of the latter possibility, she did know that such places existed. Tartarus was one such pocket dimension; and the demon, Discord, had presumably come from another.

“I think it was a physical place,” Marine offered, “but I don’t get the impression that they had to cross any oceans or really even go very far,” the mare thought for a moment, “maybe it’s better if I show you. Come with me,” she waved for the two unicorns to follow her as she headed towards the rear of the library.

Starlight recognized that they were being led to the basement, which was where much of the older literary works were kept, as it was easier to keep the temperature and humidity at levels that were the most agreeable for the ancient vellum rolls that resided there. The pink unicorn shuddered to think of what condition some of the more delicate volumes would be in by this point.

She had spent a considerable amount of time on this level of the library while doing her research, so she was familiar with the layout. Almost immediately she recognized that they were being taken to the section reserved for Imperial historical records. Most of those were dedicated to cataloging family lineages and royal affairs of state―marriages, deaths, proclamations, and the like. There was also a small section that was supposed to chronicle the history of the Crystal Empire and its founding. However, Starlight had learned that many of those records were incomplete.

As though the turquoise mare had been reading the unicorn’s thoughts, she said, “a lot of our records were destroyed when King Sombra came to power. He wanted to erase any reference to the Crystal Princess or the Crystal Heart especially.”

“He was afraid of somepony finding the Heart and using it to stop him,” Starlight said. It was hard for anypony to spend years living in the Empire and not pick up a fair bit of the nation’s history. Besides, she had studied many of these works personally in her search for references to powerful magicks and artifacts.

“Exactly,” Marine sounded impressed by the other mare’s knowledge, “what little we do have was what was preserved by a few small resistance cells. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of trained scholars among them, so they didn’t really know what it was they were preserving. All they knew was that Sombra wanted a lot of important scrolls and books destroyed, and they wanted to keep him from doing that.

“As a result, what survived is pretty fragmented and incomplete. Ponies just grabbed whatever they could get and hid it away. Sometimes those ponies were captured and executed before they could share the hiding places with anypony else; meaning that a lot of what they ‘saved’ was still lost in the end; buried in some hidden cache somewhere, never to be found.”

That had been a source of significant frustration during Starlight’s tenure here. Frequently, she would come across references to other significant works that promised to hold powerful sources of magic, only for those specific tomes to be nowhere to be found; as they had either been destroyed by King Sombra, or sequestered away in a hiding spot that nopony remembered the location of. It had stymied more than a few of her efforts over the years.

“But, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t found anything,” Marine went on. She walked over to a table which had several unfurled scrolls already laying upon it. Immediately, Starlight recognized how old they were. They might well be some of the oldest volumes in the entire library. It was a miracle they hadn’t simply withered away to dust by now, though some of them did look as though they were quite close to reaching that state, “specifically, I keep coming across one word: ‘geodessa’.”

There was the faintest spark of recognition in Starlight’s mind, but it was fleeting. She recognized the word, but she couldn’t recall any of the context in which she had come across it during her research, “is that a place, or an artifact, or what?” she asked, stepping around the table to scan the nearest opened scroll.

“That’s the thing, I’m not sure,” Marine admitted with a note of frustration, “the context keeps changing,” she tapped her hoof on one of the scrolls, “here, it talks about receiving some kind of guidance from ‘geodessa’, like they were a pony,” the crystal mare tapped another piece of parchment, “but here it says the geodessa was being moved somewhere; which suggests it was an object.”

Starlight quickly read through the various excerpts, and her memory of their contents refreshed themselves in her mind, “I asked about these scrolls when I worked here. Nopony could give me an answer then either. I just sort of assumed it was some sort of mystical artifact that was used to divine answers. Some of the other races have similar objects in their histories. The griffons had the Pinion of Damiclaws that supposedly helped them choose worthy warlords.”

“The thing is, when I came out here, I was under the impression that ‘geodessa’ was actually a place,” Marine nudged a third scroll; this one in noticeably better condition than all of the others. She started reading from it, “...and lo, we sought refuge within Geodessa; and she threw up her walls, grand in both size and might, and the Horror was sundered upon her walls, and we were saved. No force can pierce our bastion that is Geodessa!

“See? It sounds like they’re talking about a fortress or something like that surrounded by huge walls,” the turquoise mare tapped the paper, “and since the Crystal Empire doesn’t have anything like that, I assume this had to be talking about some other place; I think wherever it is we originally came from.”

Starlight Glimmer leaned over and peered at the writing on the parchment. This excerpt, she did not recognize. However, it was Archie who asked the question that was fermenting at the front of her mind, “where did you find this one? It’s in much better condition than anything else in this room…”

“That’s because I found this back in the castle a couple months ago,” the crystal mare replied, “it’s why I came out here: I wanted to see if I could find other records that could help me piece the location of our previous home together,” she shrugged, “but all I found were even more questions.”

The pink unicorn mare wasn’t listening to Marine’s reply though; her gaze was fixed intently on the writing. Like most of the older works in the Crystal Empire, it was not written in Modern Equestrian. The language was that of an outdated crystal pony dialect that had fallen out of common usage even by the time the northern-dwelling pony race made contact with their other equine neighbors over a thousand years ago. It was not completely gone from living memory though; as it popped up in certain ceremonies; marriages, oaths of fealty, even some foal’s tales were still told in that ancient language.

Starlight had been forced to learn it as a consequence of her studies down here; as she couldn’t really justify monopolizing one of the few crystal pony scholars that they had just to help her translate all day. She’d made every effort to become as fluent as possible, as well, so that she wouldn’t miss any of the nuances of the wording that could fundamentally alter the details of anything important she might find.

Which was why she was able to catch the slight―error?―mistranslation, in how Marine had read the passage. She waved over the crystal mare, “I don’t think this word is ‘wall’. Der’la tess’ka means ‘circle of crystal’, which was how they said ‘wall’ back then. This says, tess’la der’ka.”

The other mare shrugged, “it’s a synonym. ‘crystal circle’.”

“Not quite,” Starlight corrected. Marine didn’t appear to be too pleased at the thought of an Equestrian pony telling her about the nuances of her own ancestor’s language, but she waited patiently for the unicorn to finish, “der’la tess’ka literally, means: ‘crystal, made; circle, like’. Because a wall back then was something that was made out of crystal, and would be erected around whatever it was supposed to protect, which wasn’t always in the shape of a perfect circle, of course.

“Tess’la der’ka means: ‘circle, made; crystal, like’. This is referring to something that was like crystal, which had a circular shape.”

“So a stone wall then. We don’t like building things out of that stuff normally, but that doesn’t mean we never did.”

Starlight nodded, “that’s possible; there wasn’t a word for ‘stone’ until about the time of Princess Zirconia the False. After that point, there was a clear divide between der for ‘crystal’ and zerca for ‘stone’; ‘false crystal’. But I’ve actually encountered that exact wording―tess’la der’ka―in one other place; which is how I know it’s not talking about a physical wall,” she trotted out of the room and pulled a book from a shelf in a nearby alcove. She returned and carefully opened the tome’s crackling pages, using her magic to very delicately turn to the page she was looking for.

“Here it is: ‘The Ballad of Belladonna’. It’s the story of how Princess Belladonna protected the Crystal Empire from a Yeti attack,” she skimmed down the page until her hoof came to rest on the verse that she’d been looking for, “‘and Our Great Princess raised the city’s tess’la der’ka by invoking the Royal Spirit.’”

“The Royal Spirit?” Marine quirked her brow.

Starlight Glimmer sat down, staring at the page, “it was an old name for the Crystal Heart,” she said under her breath. Her eyes moved back to the parchment that the crystal mare had brought here, “I think that means that the records you found are talking about the same thing. ‘Geodessa’ must be an even older name for it.”

“It makes sense,” Archie chimed in, “if the crystal ponies really did come here from some other place, they’d certainly want to bring their most prized possession with them. As far as the name change, that’s fairly common over long periods of time. The Castle of the Two Pony Sisters used to have a different name too, for example.”

“You sure seem to know a lot about the Crystal Heart,” Aquamarine noted, looking at the unicorn.

“It was the focus of much of mine and my husband’s research,” Starlight informed her, “the source of its power, the strength of its barrier, it’s broader influence over the rest of Equestria, all of those things were of great interest to the Ministry of Arcane Science. Being able to replicate its properties for wider distribution could have guaranteed Equestrian victory in the war. Unfortunately, we were never able to,” she muttered. That fact was still a rather bitter pill even after all this time. She’d spent years on that project before finally having to give up and shift her attention onto other avenues of research. Even Twilight Sparkle hadn’t liked having to write off all of that wasted time and energy as a loss.

“We couldn’t even figure out what kind of crystal the damn thing was made out of!” the pink unicorn continued, letting long suppressed exasperation regarding this topic come to the surface once more, “we compared it to every variety of stone and gem known to ponykind and none of it was a match. Then there was the matter of how it drew power from feelings of love! I’ve charged thousands of jewels with magical energy, and it’s never been as simple as just thinking good thoughts at it. Imbuing matter with magical energy requires more than that, it’s a scientific fact.

“But that was never the case with the Crystal Heart. In fact, it actually rejected attempts that I made to try and charge it with traditional methods. Don’t even get me started on that physical impossibility!”

Finally Starlight Glimmer realized that the other two ponies were staring at her and she cleared her throat and recomposed herself, “sorry. From my perspective, all of this was just a year ago for me; and was one of my greatest failures.”

“Alright,” Archie said, bringing their conversation back around to the topic at hoof, “so now that we know what Colonel Aquamarine was chasing was the Crystal Heart, and it was destroyed two centuries ago,” he cast a knowing look in the direction of the turquoise mare, “that means that we can call this mystery ‘solved’ and get back to the castle.”

The armored mare’s amber eyes widened, “what? No!” she rapped her hoof on the table with the records, “knowing that these records are talking about the Heart means that now we have proof that crystal ponies came here from somewhere else! If we study them and find the right clues, maybe we can retrace their hoofsteps.”

The ghoul sighed and shook his head, “even assuming that’s possible; and assuming that path doesn’t just take us through the wendigos anyway,” he leveled his stern gaze at the mare, “have you considered that, maybe, there was a reason that your ancestors left to come here?

“There might not even be anywhere left to go back to.”

Marine took a deep breath and nodded soberly, “I’ve thought about that,” she looked up at Archie with a determined expression on her face, “and I’m willing to take that risk. I’ll go alone, and make sure it’s safe. That way I'm not putting anypony else at risk. If I find something, I’ll come back and let everypony know.”

“And if you find nothing?”

“...then I’ll just keep looking for someplace else that’s safe,” the mare replied quietly, “I won’t come back until I’ve found us a home.”

Because, if her search takes too long, she knows that there could very well be nothing left for her to come back to, Starlight realized. The crystal officer was either effectively exiling herself, or running away; depending on how somepony might choose to look at it. The pink unicorn suspected that her decision wouldn’t go over very well with the others back at the castle.

“Where would you even start looking?” Starlight asked.

“I’m going to retrace the path described in the last chapter of this volume,” she tapped the scroll that she’d brought to Academy, “it doesn’t go into a whole lot of detail,” she admitted with a wry shrug, “but it’s something to go on,” she stepped around and unfurled the velum, scanning over the writing, “our ancestors certainly had a flare for the dramatic, but I’m hoping I’ll recognize the landmarks that they do mention when I see them.”

“And those landmarks are...?” the ghoul prompted.

“The Labyrinth of Sorrows,” Marine began, already cringing slightly upon seeing the reaction of the other two ponies as she read off the short list of names, “the False World, the Tower of Fire, and the Threshold to the Future.”

She had not been wrong, those names certainly sounded as though they had been crafted more for dramatic effect than for the purpose of accurately describing the locations they belonged to, “those sound like the titles of Daring Do novels,” the pink mare muttered, earning a confused look from Marine and an amused snort from Archie, “how exactly do you expect to make any progress with a list like that?”

“Well, as it happens, I think I have an idea where to begin,” the turquoise mare earned a pair of surprised looks from the other ponies present, “I don’t know about any ‘Threshold to the Future’, but there is a place called the ‘Threshold of the Empire’.”

Archie frowned, “that’s not a place, it’s an art piece,” at Starlight’s questioning look, the ghoul elaborated, “it’s the title of a relief in the castle catacombs, purportedly depicting the first Crystal Princess founding the Empire. She is entombed in a sarcophagus in front of it.”

That certainly sounded like a tenuous connection, at best. But Aquamarine didn't seem like she was going to let herself be dissuaded from her journey before even starting it, “it's a start, Master Archie. It's a chance!

“Maybe you're right,” the mare admitted ruefully, “maybe I won't find anything and this will have all been a huge waste of time,” she's gestured at the collection of tomes and scrolls before fixing the ghoul stallion with a determined glare, “but what if it's not?”

Silence hung between the three ponies for what felt like nearly a full minute before Archie finally answered, “I will...speak with the regent,” he relented with a heavy sigh, his tone remaining reluctant even as the crystal mare’s face broke out into a broad grin, “and recommend allowing you to investigate the catacombs.”

“Oh, thank you, Master Archie!” Aquamarine very nearly squealed as she threw her legs around the ghoul in a very undignified hug, earning an exasperated roll of his milky blue eyes.

“But!” the stallion continued, though it appeared that the younger mare would not let her spirits be dragged down even by his cautionary tone, “if you find nothing, this will be the end of it, agreed? You will return to your normal duties. No more of these wild ewe chases.”

Finally, Aquamarine managed to, somewhat, school her features into something approaching what could be considered in keeping with ‘proper military decorum’ and gave the stallion a solemn-looking nod, “yes, Master. I understand.”

Her lips, however, still continued to twitch as they fought valiantly to contain a smile. It finally broke through once more as the stallion turned away from her to head for the exit. Starlight even caught sight of the young officer doing a brief dance on the tips of her hooves. Then she appeared to suddenly remember that there was a third pony present and turned her blushing face towards the unicorn mare, shrinking away with a sheepish little smile. Starlight only smirked and followed the two Imperial residents out of the library's basement.

The unexpected return of a trio of ponies, where only two had left that morning, caused quite a stirring within the castle grounds. The most profound reaction was from an older, chartreuse-colored, mare who very nearly tackled Colonel Aquamarine to the ground and immediately began bawling her eyes out. The turquoise mare lasted only a few more seconds after that before years began to flow from her own eyes amid a string of cracking apologies.

Agate and the standard bearer approached as well. Starlight could see from the hard look that the older stallion flashed the pair of sobbing mares that he'd have liked to severely reprimand the formerly AWOL officer, but seemed willing enough to postpone such a matter until after the tearful reunion. He instead approached the ghoulish Prime Minister, a look of relief clear on his face, “we’re grateful for your safe return,” then he shifted his attention to Straight, “was your search...um, successful?”

The pink mare appreciated the stallion’s hesitance at referring to confirming a loved one's cause of death as ‘successful’. She shook her head, “not really, no,” Starlight admitted, “I don't think I'll ever learn what happened to him. Someday I'll even be able to admit to myself that that's okay,” she shrugged, attempting to muster up even a wan smile.

“I'm sorry for your loss,” the red-hued regent offered, “I really am,” to the stallion’s credit, Starlight thought that he did sound genuinely sincere, “we will, of course, avail all of our records to you, if you'd like to look through them for clues. Those from the period immediately after the war are not as complete as we'd like, but…” he gave a resigned shrug.

“Thank you,” Starlight Glimmer said, bowing her head slightly, “I really appreciate the offer,” and she did, “but I should probably focus on grieving, instead of obsessing. After all,” she added, managing a mirthless smirk, “all this trip has done for me so far is nearly get me killed by wendigos, crystal ghoul ponies, and a giant robopony. And that was just the last twenty-four hours!

“I'm not sure I'd last another week if I kept looking.”

“I understand,” Agate said, offering his own wan smile in return, “we are all here to help, should you need anything. Just let us know how we can make your stay with us more pleasant,” his features brightened hopefully, “and having a second unicorn in our community will certainly be something worth celebrating at the festival we're putting together tomorrow night. You said you would attend?”

Starlight only barely caught Archie’s eye roll as she responded to the regent, “I don't exactly have anywhere else to be,” in retrospect, she hoped that hasn't sounded as sarcastic as she feared it might have.

In any case, Agate’s smile broadened, “excellent! Now, we've discussed where we can house you for the time being and―”

“Miss Glimmer will stay in my quarters,” the ghoulish stallion cut in, bringing the regent to a surprised halt. When it looked like the crystal pony was about to protest, he doubled-down, “if she finds herself with any more questions about the Empire’s history, who better to answer than somepony who can provide her with a first-hoof account?”

The regent closed his mouth with an audible click and bowed his head, “of course,” he responded, somewhat reluctantly, “that will be perfectly acceptable. For the meantime,” Starlight quirked an eyebrow at that last, cryptic statement, but said nothing, “it is late. We'll speak more in the morning, Master Archie, at Court. Until then, good night to both of you.”

The crystal stallion bowed once more, as did the standard bearer, and then left. As he once more passed Marine, Starlight Glimmer heard him address her in a low tone, “welcome home, Colonel. I look forward to hearing your after-action report tomorrow. General Malachite will be by in the morning to collect it, and you, to deliver it,” then his eyes darted briefly to her mother before returning to the turquoise mare, “enjoy this night with your family.”

Judging by the mare’s expression, she seemed torn between feeling grateful at being granted leave to reconnect with her family, and more than a little nervousness at what the morning had in store for her. Starlight noted as much to Archie as he gestured for her to follow him up to his quarters in the castle, “at some point, she'll need to face the consequence of her actions,” the ghoul sighed, “she has placed Agate in a difficult position.”

“How so?”

“The colonel defied orders, abandoned her post, and was absent for nearly a month. Those acts constitute desertion. As no formal armistice was ever actually signed between the Zebra Confederation and the Crystal Empire, a state of war still technicality exists. During times of war, desertion is punishable by death.”

Starlight felt her breath catch in her throat, aghast at the thought, “they wouldn't actually kill her, would they? That's crazy! It’s been two hundred years! Fuck the paperwork; the war’s over!”

“And yet, the protocol still stands,” the stallion said tersely, returning the mare’s outraged look with a defiant one of his own, “the only thing that has kept us from completely succumbing to despair has been that rigid adherence to tradition and protocol. We obey the laws that have ruled the Empire since long before even the rise of Nightmare Moon, because those laws define the crystal ponies.

“They will not be abandoned for the sake of convenience where a single pony is concerned,” he insisted. That hadn’t been enough to soothe Starlight’s concerns though. However, before the pink unicorn could renew her objection, Archie continued in a much more palliative tone, “no,” the ghoul assured her, “the death penalty will not be considered. There are too few of us as it is. I am simply illustrating the seriousness of her transgression,” the pink mare let out a relieved sigh, “nor,” Archie continued, “can the Empire afford to waste the resources it would take to imprison her for any significant length of time.”

Starlight could see how the lack of an ability to place somepony in jail could be limiting. Similarly, the unicorn doubted that a fine would be of any use either. She wasn't sure the ponies here even bothered with money anymore, “so, some sort of community service then?”

“Colonel Aquamarine’s normal assigned duties are already to service the continuity,” Archie said, flashing the mare beside him a wry smirk that very quickly melted back into a frown, “though, there is one ‘duty’ that the Colonel has been putting off for some time now.”

“What’s that?”

The ghoul looked at Starlight, as though he was a little reluctant to answer her, “our gene pool is tenuously shallow, and our numbers dwindle with each generation,” he began.

“You mentioned that this morning,” then realization dawned on the unicorn, “wait, are you saying they'd…?”

The stallion avoided giving her a straight answer, “Parliament has, in the last few decades, voted on imposing a new law, mandating a minimum family size. The measure has failed each time, but the margin gets narrower with each successive vote. If it doesn't pass during the next upcoming vote, then it certainly will the one after.

“Most mares Colonel Aquamarine’s age have already foaled at least once,” the stallion’s tone was grim, “and the ‘socially acceptable’ minimum number for an Imperial mare these days is three, though two is still somewhat common as well.

“I think it's very likely that the Colonel will be directed to have four or more foals within the decade,” the ghoul finished with a heavy sigh.

“What?! That's crazy!” Starlight was fuming at such a notion, “how would they even enforce that kind of thing?” a moment later, as the thought of one such method crossed her mind, the pink unicorn’s face paled, “they wouldn't!”

“No, they would not,” Archie assured her with a firm shake of his head, “she would have a say in her partner. Or partners,” then he averted his eyes from her, “as long as it appeared she was on track to comply with her sentence. If not…” he didn't continue.

“That’s…” Starlight struggled to find suitably abhorrent ways to describe what Archie was suggesting, but the stallion cut her off.

“A very unpleasant alternative,” he finished, “and, in a kinder, gentler, world, a notion that could only acceptably be called: ‘monstrous’. But we do not live in that world, Starlight. We live in this one.

“And this world makes monsters of us all...eventually,” the stallion paused outside the door to his office and examined his withered, leathery, hoof. He set it down and once more looked at Starlight, “Colonel Aquamarine’s actions, as well-intentioned as they may have been, broke very serious laws. To let her go without punishment would set a very dangerous precedent. It is very unfortunate that there are not more options for that punishment available to us.”

The stallion took a deep breath, “I am not saying it is an ideal option,” he said to the still obviously irate mare, “but nothing about the Empire is ‘ideal’ at the moment.”

“And that makes it okay?”

“No. But I have no say in the matter, ultimately. The issue of Colonel Aquamarine’s punishment will be handled by the Regent and the Chief Justice,” the stallion shrugged and offered his unicorn companion a hopeful smile, “but, if she does manage to succeed in finding this ancient crystal pony homeland, then I suspect her sentence will be commuted anyway.”

More quietly, and with a more wan expression, he added, “and if she does not, I doubt that we'll live long enough for her to give birth even once.”

Well, that was certainly some dubious ‘optimism’, Starlight thought. Archie opened up his office and gestured for the mare to precede him. He shucked his cloak and returned his sword and scabbard to the stand he'd retrieved them from when they'd left, leaving enough room for Starlight to add her own duster and weapons.

Then the stallion walked over to a couch that was set against one wall of the office and began rearranging the cushions, “I've never needed a proper bed,” Archie said aloud as he worked, “since ghouls don't sleep and all. So I hope this will be fine.”

“I've been sleeping in snow drifts for the past week,” Starlight pointed out, “as far as I'm concerned, this is a Hayatt!”

The stallion snorted, “well, I'm afraid there's no room service,” he glanced out the window, “and they're done serving dinner. I'll go and see if I can find something in the castle kitchens.”

“I'll take a double hayburger with a large strawberry smoothie, daisy falafels, and a chocolate cupcake for dessert please!”

“With extra sprinkles,” the ghoul snorted absently as he headed for the door, “and a small thistle nuggets. I'll see what I can do…”

Starlight chuckled to herself as the door closed, leaving her alone in the office. She'd actually forgotten that she usually got a small order of thistle nuggets with her hayburgers. It was nice to be able to use that joke with a pony who actually got the references to the long-extinct fast food options.

The pink unicorn set about fussing with her new bed for the first several minutes until she was satisfied with the arrangement of its cushions. Then she shed the last of her barding and gear, setting it nearby. Without much else to occupy her, the mare found distraction by slowly walking around the spacious office and taking it in. What there was to it anyway.

Aside from the picture commemorating the opening of the Academy, there were other framed articles as well. Most of them looked to be clippings that extolled the Empire’s contributions to the war effort; featuring the Academy heavily. That wasn't surprising, Starlight supposed, as it had been a highly publicized point for public consumption in the Empire. Princess Cadance, understandably, had not been overly fond of the war with the zebras. She never made any public statements that could have been viewed as ‘critical’ of the war, of course. Solidarity among the nation’s alicorn trinity had been essential for morale. But it didn't take a genius to comprehend that the ‘Princess of Love’ took a dim view of killing others, regardless of the context.

The Empire at large, too, had still been feeling weary from it's recent―for them―revolt against King Sombra. So, for the benefit of her subjects’ peace of mind, Cadance had emphasized non-violent contributions, and the Empire’s news outlets had fallen eagerly into step, focusing on stories that had to do with the Empire’s more passive measures of helping wider Equestria.

There were other photos on the wall as well, featuring the royal couple, Archie, and other ponies of note from either the Empire or beyond it. Starlight recognized most of the events, those memories bringing a sad smile to her lips. Welcoming the Academy’s first inductees. The presentation of their first research breakthrough―spark batteries―to Twilight Sparkle.

Starlight Glimmer saw a number of diplomas too. A masters degree in political science, a bachelors in economics, and another in communications. A few Writs of Thanks caught the unicorn’s eye as she let her gaze drift to a set of shelves. These were commonly presented to members of a community by the local leadership―mayors or governors and the like―as a way of recognizing private citizens for their contributions. The pink mare quickly realized that these writs were not endorsed by any mere city mayor, however. One of them bore the flowing signature of Princess Celestia herself, commending Archibald Magnate for ‘exemplary service to the Crown’. It seemed that he’d once served in a ministerial posting in Canterlot before the war broke out.

From a holder of a low-level cabinet position, rising to the Prime Minister of the Crystal Empire. Starlight had to admit that represented quite the promotion. He’d certainly impressed somepony. If a few of the other, smaller pictures on the shelves were any indication, the unicorn suspected that it had been Cadance herself. She idly wondered if Shining Armor might not have had some competition for the alicorn’s affections back in the day. Starlight shrugged and moved her attention to the office’s desk.

The surface was markedly barren. Presumably the Prime Minister of such a diminutive ‘Empire’ didn’t have many administrative duties to attend to on a regular basis. She wondered if the drawers were equally empty. Not that she expected to find anything of any particular interest; she was just curious what the Prime Minister of the Crystal Empire kept in his office.

Nothing that she found in the first one that she opened was of any particular surprise, of course. Quills and other writing materials, a few filed reports on the state of the Empire, though most of those were dated to be well over a century old.

One drawer, however, refused to open. Considering that absolutely nothing else in the office seemed to have been secured in any way, the pink unicorn mare found this quite curious. In the event that it might simply have been stuck, she tried tugging on it a little harder, but still the offending drawer wouldn’t budge. Starlight took a step back, considering the desk for a long moment, and debating exactly how important satisfying her curiosity was to her.

Her eyes darted briefly to the door. Of course, what Archie didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt him, would it?

The mare narrowed her eyes at the little lock on the drawer and set her horn to glow. As she suspected, it was far more of a magical lock than a physical one. While Starlight was certain that the Prime Minister was a completely competent user of magic in his own right, he was far out of her own league. It took her only a few seconds to unravel the matrix of the spell, at which point the drawer slid obediently outward. Honestly, she’d encountered more complex locks used by unicorn fillies on their diaries. Though, it wasn’t like a spell of any real complexity would have been needed to keep a magically mundane crystal pony from getting at the drawer’s contents.

Starlight leaned in and examined the bounty that she’d uncovered.

The first thing she noticed were the trio of picture frames. Curious, Starlight peaked at the faded images they held. One was a headshot of an admittedly lovely young earth pony mare. The alluring expression she wore in the photo made it quite clear that this image had been taken explicitly for her husband to look at. Starlight had commissioned a similar picture for Sunburst soon after their relationship shifted from professional to romantic, for him to keep in his own office at the Academy.

A second, smaller, frame contained the wide, grinning, face of a little unicorn filly who did not seem at all shy about the garish braces mounted to her teeth. The pink mare had to take a moment to suppress the nearly involuntary thought as to whether her own Moonbeam would have needed braces had she been allowed to grow up naturally. Those feelings grew into a tightness of her throat as she saw the third and final picture: a family portrait featuring the same beaming filly sitting between her parents as they nuzzled up against one another, seemingly oblivious to the camera that was taking their picture.

It was a photo that she and Sunburst had not been given the opportunity to take.

Starlight wiped her eyes, and shook herself in an effort to pull her thoughts back from that rather unpleasant path. Instead, she set the momentos carefully to the side and distracted her thoughts with the rest of the drawer’s contents.

She found a small stack of papers which bore what Starlight recognized immediately to be arcane diagrams and some associated notations. She picked them up in her telekinetic grasp and began to look them over. Most of the contents were written in short-hoof; specifically, it was a notation system that the Academy had developed internally as a pseudo-cypher to help keep their notes secure from zebra agents. As one of the ponies who’d devised the coded language, however, she had little issue translating it.

She very quickly realized that the contents concerned arcane resonance amplitudes and matrix decay rates. Somepony―presumably Archie himself―had been taking very careful measurements of an enchantment over a period of many decades, and had used those measurements to calculate the date of the spell’s inevitable failure. It wasn’t hard to figure out that the enchantment in question was the residual protection offered by the Crystal Heart’s magic that was still clinging to the structure of the ancient castle. She recalled the Prime Minister mentioning that precise reality that morning.

Starlight also remembered that he’d alluded to the Empire still having a good number of years yet left before the magic failed completely and the wendigos descended upon the survivors. However, ‘years’ wasn’t what these meticulously measured notes indicated remained for the ponies living in and around the castle. It took the unicorn a moment to do some quick conversions of the Imperial date used in the notes over to the common Equestrian calendar model that she was used to.

They didn’t have years; these crystal ponies had only―!

The shock was so overwhelming that her magic failed her, and the papers fluttered to the floor. Starlight shook with a start and quickly set about collecting the scattered notes, organizing them back into their proper order and preparing to return them to the drawer that she had found them in. That was when she noticed that something else had been hidden beneath the papers.

It was a simple black case, of the sort that might contain a set of reading glasses or a personalized pen. The mare set the papers off to the side in the drawer and levitated the case out, placing it upon the desk’s surface. When she opened it, her surprise was only further compounded. It contained, of all things, a memory orb.

Starlight’s gaze went automatically to her saddlebags near the couch, which contained the trio of orbs that her husband had sequestered away in the chest at their old home. She wondered now if the Prime Minister had undertaken a similar endeavour to rid himself of unpleasant memories. He’d lost his family too, after all. That notion was quickly dismissed of course, as it would have made little sense for him to have expunged memories of his dead wife and daughter while simultaneously keeping their framed photos. Though, admittedly, those images weren’t exactly easily visible.

Perhaps he’d only been able to bring himself to take a half-measure and sequester just the most potent and painful of his memories.

“I’d forgotten I even had a family…”

The pink mare’s brow furrowed as she recalled what the ghoul had said while sitting before the graves earlier that day. Then she once more looked at the photos. How could he have forgotten them with their photos so close at hoof? The calculations on those papers had to have been done using reading collected over many decades too, so the drawer couldn’t possibly have been sealed for the last two centuries. Archie had to have been in it at least within the last few years if he expected to be as accurate with his prediction for the failure of the city’s protective aura as those papers claimed to be.

She reached tentatively for the orb, contemplating delving into it in order to see what memories were contained within.

Then the door opened, revealing a withered rear end backing into the room. The pink mare’s blue eyes went wide with panic. Her horn flared as her magic worked to frantically accomplish several tasks at once. In a single, swift motion, she simultaneously closed the black case and hurled it at her saddlebags. The tiny little missile sailed through the air, slipping just beneath the flap of one of the bags, the force of its insertion knocking the satchel over. As the case underwent its maiden flight, Starlight also returned the contents and closed the drawer, replacing the crude little locking spell upon it. Another drawer was pulled open and the mare snatched out the first object that she could grasp with her magic.

The ancient Prime Minister stallion whipped his head back and forth, trying in vain to track the various sounds that he’d just heard coming from opposite sides of his office. Finally, his gaze fell onto Starlight, who was standing just behind the desk, smiling broadly in his direction in an effort to look as innocent as she could. The unicorn ghoul quirked a brow at the mare.

A little flustered, Starlight cleared her throat, “sorry, I was just over here looking for a―” she held up what she’d withdrawn from the desk drawer and glanced at it. Her mind blanked as she finally caught sight of it. She genuinely had no idea what she was holding, “...um...this.”

Archie quirked a brow, “...you need to remove staples from something?”

“What? No―wait,” the mare examined the odd, pen-like, device that she was holding, “I thought you removed staples with those snake-teeth things?”

“You do,” the ghoul nodded, finally stepping the rest of the way into the office and closing the door behind him. A small tray of food floated nearby, held aloft by his magic, “but you also remove staples with one of those. It’s a ‘push’ staple remover,” he walked over and set the tray down in front of her on the desk, “you were snooping, weren’t you?”

“Only a little,” the mare mumbled under her breath, bashfully opening the drawer back up and replacing the odd little device that she very clearly had no need of, “sorry.”

The Prime Minister shrugged and waved away her apology, “it’s fine. I got to see where you lived, after all. Besides, it’s not like I have anything to hide.”

Starlight had been looking over the tray and its contents―a small loaf of bread and crystal berry jam with a bottle of Sparkle Cola―but the stallion’s last statement prompted her to look him in the eye once more. She glared at the stallion critically for several long seconds, “you don’t? Are you saying that you’ve been perfectly honest with me about everything; with everypony?”

The stallion stared at her with a blank expression, blinking in stunned surprise for several long seconds. Then, realization dawned upon him, and he sighed, “you’re a pretty thorough snooper, aren’t you?”

“I saw the papers.”

Archie was already nodding though, not appearing to be the least bit abashed by her statement. He gestured at the tray, “eat,” meanwhile, he walked over towards the couch and eased himself slowly down onto the cushions. The ghoul let out a tired sigh, “besides you and me, only two other ponies know the truth: Regent Agate, and General Malachite.

“I wasn’t out there by accident when I found you,” Archie continued, “I was...testing the waters. Seeing how far I could get before the wendigos found me, and how easily I could repel them. It was a ‘trial run’, of sorts, to gauge how likely we’d be able to make it to safety if we tried to leave.

“As you saw, I didn’t get far from the city at all, and it was all that I could do to even turn away one of those monsters. If we went out there and a group of them swarmed us…” the stallion shook his head.

“The magic of the Crystal Heart will be completely gone in two months,” Starlight announced, as though Archie wasn’t aware of the calculations that he’d done himself.

“And it will be too weak to repel the wendigos in half that time,” he amended, “when that happens...everypony here will die. With luck, it’ll happen during the night…”

Starlight was shaking her head now, “I did not come all this way just to get killed in my sleep by a phantom from a foal’s tale!”

“If you doubt my calculations, feel free to review all my notes and even take some measurements of your own while you’re here,” the ghoul pony offered, “but even my most recent examinations of the enchantment’s integrity have fallen perfectly in line with the predicted decline I devised over two decades ago. The margin of error is no more than ten hours either way.”

“I refuse to accept that,” the pink unicorn said, “I’m going to fix it. I don’t know how yet, but I’m going to; and you’re going to help me!”

“Me?” the stallion sounded genuinely surprised.

“Yes, you!” Starlight reiterated, “even I’m not powerful enough to cast a spell that can save an entire empire,” that counted as humility, right? “And, yeah, I’ll admit that just two unicorns isn’t much of a ‘ritual circle’, but if we find enough amplifiers or something―”

“You think that the Crystal Empire, of all places, has LAmPs lying around here in the numbers it would take for a couple of unicorns to affect an entire nation? Or even just a single city?” the ghoul fixed her with a highly dubious expression, “are you sure you didn’t leave anything behind in that memory orb you were in?”

“If there aren’t any Leyline Amplification Pylons,” the mare amended through gritted teeth, feeling herself becoming frustrated by the ghoul pony’s persistent pessimism, “then we’ll figure something else out,” she insisted, “I did not survive the end of the world and claw my way back here just to die in my sleep!”

“Well, I’m afraid that’s exactly what’s going to happen, unless you actually have a worthwhile idea to try out? Because a month doesn’t leave a lot of room for error.”

Starlight Glimmer was about to issue another rebuke to the stallion when both of them found their attention drawn to a hesitant knock against the open door. Standing in the hall corridor beyond was Aquamarine, no longer attired in her barding from earlier, but instead in a simple pale yellow robe. Her eyes, which were visibly glistening in the firelight, were locked on the pair of unicorns, “I have an idea.”

“Marine?” Starlight said in mild surprise, her blue eyes wandering over the crystal mare, “what’s wrong?”

“I’ve been relieved of my duties,” the mare cleared her throat and swallowed, “and urged to pursue more...domestic,” she let the bitter word slide out from between grinding teeth like it left a rancid taste in her mouth, “ambitions. But if I’m not going to live long enough to foal anyway, then I can at least die with my dignity intact,” she insisted, “we all can.

“Master Archie, I want you to take me to the catacombs.”

“I haven’t had the chance to speak with the regent about―”

“With all due respect,” Starlight noted that the crystal mare’s tone was anything but respectful, dripping with vitriol, “fuck the regent,” she paused for a moment, then, “he knows, doesn’t he? About how long we all have?”

“He knows,” the ghoul stallion admitted in a quiet tone.

“Of course he does,” the mare seethed, “and yet he still insisted I should―,” she clamped her lips shut against the rest of the thought and took a deep breath, affixing the pair of unicorns with a determined expression, “I’ll be at the entrance to the catacombs in one hour.

“Be there. Please.”

Archie said nothing in response. After several long seconds, he issued a reluctant nod, and Aquamarine vanished down the hall. The withered prime minister shook his head and headed over to one of the nearby bookcases, his horn’s magic enveloping one of the tomes. He floated it over to Starlight, who glanced at the grimoire in confusion as she accepted it and glanced at the title.

“Anthology of Arcana Volume Three?”

“If it turns out that there’s something to this whole ‘Threshold of the Empire’ thing, it’ll be nice to have something a little more comprehensive than a couple of magic kindergarten primers,” he flashed her a wry smirk and a wink.

He wasn’t wrong, “I don’t suppose that there’s a copy of Astra’s Ancient Analects around here somewhere?”

Archie smiled, “the annotated edition!”

Author's Note:

Thank you so much for reading! As always, a thumbs up and comment are always greatly appreciated

I've set up a Cover Art Fund if you're interested and have any bits lying around!

Comments

[ickda]

With extra sprinkles,” the ghoul snorted absently as he headed for the door, “and a small thistle nuggets. I'll see what I can do…”

I get it, the ghoul is her husbend, i figured it at chapter one.

I don't know the angle but i get it, its so obvious.
More so after that chest.

Edit;

should be an arcane tethering spell on page two hundred and fourteen

I was growing small amount of doubt to my assumption. This has reformed my belief that this is her husbend.

oh and is compleat lack of magical use but his vast knowledge of magical theory. Honestly grimmer is dumb for not even suspecting.

Why so many spell books if all he cast is levitate?