Twilight Gets a Puppy
Season 6
By TDR
The Cyndering,
Part 2, Chapter 2
[Crystal Empire]
There was a moment of silence after the screaming where everyone in the room drew a breath. Some of them froze, not sure what to do, this was mostly Guards, and Fluttershy. Some of them continued to scream, running around in a panic as they did so, this was mostly the maids and other servants, as well as Pinkie Pie.
All the Sparkles, including those who married into the family, the Royal advisors, not counting Rhede who was still on the floor after his brush with oblivion, the scattering of nobles who hadn’t joined the screaming and the two demigods were also frozen in place as their minds raced on what to do.
Bri and Chrysalis gathered up the foals and pups before they could do anything else, though even the little ones had realized something bad had happened, and their play time was over for now.
This moment didn't last long before Moon Dancer and Starburst started shouting orders.
“CADENCE, SHINING, WE NEED A SHIELD OVER THE EMPIRE NOW!” Both bellowed at the same time as they rushed away from where Discord sat.
The chaotic creature decided that perhaps he should be somewhere else before any one blamed him for anything when it was all the actors fault, and popped out of existence with a sound like a flugal horn and an accordion had a baby.
Cadence blinked in surprise at the screamed order, but Shining Armor was used to that sort of thing and reacted immediately by raising a shield over the Crystal Empire.
The white stallion grunted in surprise as his horn flared brighter and the sound lick the cracking of an iceberg in the frozen tundra echoed around the city.
Cadence quickly put up a shield to support her husband and winced as well. ”What the heck is that?” she gasped.
“Several thousand years of built up ice and snow appearing all at once directly over the Crystal Empire. “ Moon Dancer explained as she trotted back in from the balcony, her husband still standing out side and swearing as he stared skyward.
“What? Why is that there?” Twilight demanded as she popped over to look out side at the shadowed city.
“Right Twilight did you read the book we published about the Crystal Empire last year?” Moon Dancer questioned.
“Of course I did.” Twilight scoffed.
“Right as the forward said most of that information was collected from various notes and documents as well as citizens testimony, but some of it was from books we found in hidden chambers set up by Solomon, histories he evidently didn’t want to destroy but didn’t want the public reading.” Moon Dancer started to explain. “One of the books held an account of the creation of the Crystal Heart by a earth pony mage named Karl the Terrible.”
“Karl was the daughter of a unicorn family of low birth, but she wanted to be able to cast spells like her parents. So she studied everything she could and applied to the Crystal Empire’s mage's guild, and she was approved.” Sunburst continued picking up from his wife’s words.
“Thing is they only brought her in as a joke, and they even intentionally trained her wrong so they could laugh at her and push their own egos about unicorn superiority.” Moon Dancer picked up. “Karl eventually found out about this and was pissed about it, when she confronted the head mages she was practically laughed out of the building. Karl swore revenge.”
“Granted her revenge was to create the Crystal Heart, thus beating out every unicorn mage in the empire in creating something that would protect an area the Emperor chose for the Capitol of the Empire , Constantan-opal. The heart would be recharged by the ambient magic of the citizens at a city at a festival to be held every year that would keep the frozen north at bay. It also worked to boost the citizens very well being if they were tired to it by a ritual called the Crystaling. Several other protection and maintenance spells were layered over the crystal heart, a gemstone Karl some how got from the heart of a volcano, a materiel called Magma Diamond. This stuff is supposed to be so rare and hard to come by that dragons have been known to offer entire hoards for a shard of it. It evidently forms so deep that even the dragons that can swim in lava can’t get down to it.”Sunburst finished
“This doesn't explain why there is a glacier the size of Luna's moon over the empire.” Chrysalis called growling as she stood on the balcony looking up at the massive block of ice Shin and Flurry tucked under her gossamer wings.
“It does actually.” Sunburst sighed. “She wasn't called Karl the terrible just because she used the Emperor’s favor to wipe out the college and have every mage of the guilds horn removed. She was called Karl the terrible because she SUCKED at magic. Rather than displace or melt the snow and ice that were prevented from falling on the Crystal Empire, she set it to collect in a pocket dimension figuring she would be dead and gone by the time it became an issue. A later mage named Trevor ‘the pretty good, thanks for asking’, came across Karl's spell work and fixed it, though he couldn't do anything about the pocket dimension, he simply doubled down on Karl's work and the Crystal Heart was reinforced since the draw to hold the dimension is barely four thraums.”
“Four thraums!? How the buck did an earth pony create a pocket dimension that only used four thraums?” Twilight demanded.
“I know right!?” Moon Dancer chimed in.” The space folding alone should take seventeen, and that’s with the modern understanding of duel matrixes and mana layering.”
“Stop nerding out and how do we fix it?!” Saturnia demanded. “How did Solomon manage to keep the heart active during his time? Especially since he fucked with the heart’s spells?”
“No clue, Rahs ate all the spell lattice when he bit into the heart so no one knows how he set things up.”Moon Dancer snapped.
“Well excuse me for freeing the Empire, from a self feeding trap that was gonna eat everyone.”
“Focus. Shining, how long can you and Cadence hold the shield?” Sunset questioned.
“I dunno.. couple weeks. Maybe a month if i push it, give or take.” Shining Armor shrugged, as everyone stared at him.” I mean it's pretty heavy, but I dealt with worse than this before I had the companion spell cast on me.”
“We can probably hold it longer if we alternate and someone watches the foals.” Cadence added. "My shield isn’t as good as his, but the weight of this isn’t as bad as trying to keep a trap from snapping shut.”
Everyone continued to stare at the pair as Chrysalis cackled in pride for the pair. The ones still running around in a panic, save Pinkie Pie, slowed at this , looked at each other , and started to clean up, pretending they had not just been screaming their fool heads off a moment prior.
“Alright, I did not expect that.” Sunset sighed.
“Well it would get easier if we start chipping away at it or melting the ice and snow.” Saturnia considered.
“Awesome I can do that.” Sunset grinned heading out onto the balcony.
“Great. So all we need to do is find a super rare crystal to carve back into shape and re-lay a unknown amount of spells and bindings laid on it by a dead earth pony wizard who screwed up to get the result that happened all while a massive moon of ice is ready to crush us.” Twilight summarized.
“Yup.” Chrysalis agreed. “So have you got it worked out yet?”
Twilight glared at her before she sighed.
“Almost. Really getting the crystal is going to be the hard part, I've already figured out how to reduce the cost of the Heart’s output to three thraums by simply shunting the material rather than holding it in a pocket dimension.”
“Can I still eat it?” Chrysalis asked.
“Well given the energy received and emitted by it should still be the same, I would say yes.” Twilight considered. “Though the flavor may be different.”
“No problem there, I like everything bagel as much as the next changeling, but i'm not against a change.” Chrysalis shrugged.
Twilight trotted over to the shattered heart, her horn glowing as she scanned it. “Okay, it’s a bit more than a fancy rock. This might be more of a problem There’s traces of emotional magic on these shards. A LOT of imprints.”
Twilight looked at the crystal ponies who were cleaning up, all of them had their coats dulled like they were when she had first seen them, though they didn’t seem to be suffering like they had when they first came back.
“Hmmm. Alright. First we need a new crystal, then we need to enchant it with the same things Karl did.”Twilight muttered.
“Shouldn’t be a problem, Sunburst and I have studied the heart, the layered spells and the book and notes from Karl.” Moon Dancer offered. “We should be able to duplicate and improve it. We just need the crystal.”
“HAHAHA! Fight fire with fire!!! Ending is near!! Fight fire with fire!! Bursting with fear!” Sunset sang from the balcony, waves of heat filled the air around her as the molding of the arch started to melt.
“ Okay aside from Sunset, are there any active volcanoes around here?” Twilight asked.
well if you go straight down deep enough you make a volcano
(might meet the lava people though)
Looks like they either need a dragon whose special ability explains their name of Abby.
Abby who?
Abby Sal?
Or someone with a total disreguard for physics goes magnet fishing with the doll of a hippie?
If I recall the actual episode, this chapter and the explanation in it actually make more sense.
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I'm makeing it up as i go. I still havn't watched the episode aside from clips and a glance at the transcript
Well, seems like Sunset's gonna have a fun time going nuts with spells that basically do anything even remotely related to fire, what with probably working on melting so much ice and snow.
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Oh, please don't get me wrong. It wasn't meant as criticism. Your making it up as you go is a lot better than the actual episode. I can't wait to see what happens.
(has a seat beside Discord, offering Raisinets)
Just get rahs's girlfriend to put the crystal back together
Ah... They need a crystal... cue the new goddess of Diamond Dogs?
i did not know about the last chapter so they are both great
My favorite part of the entire chapter.
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Have to watch out for the Lava People. They're a bit nasty.
Great barbecue chefs, though.
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Do you think they want to jinx it? If it's done the hard way it's character building.
Fucking love that!
ALL HAIL THE GODDESS OF FIRE!
I don't think Chrysalis can eat the Heart, can't she?
i so love Sunset . this chapter is awesome.
I wonder where Celestia is right now, because I'm sure her 'sun laser' thing could do a number on the glacier.
This time around i say the problem is surprisingly workable. Love a Earthpony trashed Unicorns for what they did to her
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They should Jynx it
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Well, at least it's not Abby Normal....
Sunset Shimmer having a legitimate reason to go all mad cackling while burning stuff. She might be overdoing it... But at least she is having fun.
Also Twilight figured out the solution already! Ha!
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Seriously, the dumbest part of the episode was that despite the presence of 4 alicorns and a powerful shield specialist, their solution to keep the weather at bay was for Celestia and Luna to LITTERALLY go fight it instead of putting up a shield around the city, something we know Shining and Cadance could do, thus presumably so could Celestia, Luna and Twilight.
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I think she means the love the heart gives out
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And yet, it's still better than the actual episode
FIIRREEEEEEE
Just get Mad About Everything
Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire.
Blue probably knows.
So when am I going to need to cue Thru The Fire and The Flames?
Where’s the “local” Petrologist/Mineralogist when you need her. Que the pinkie express
...doesn't Jynx have Gemstones in her portfolio, or am I going crazy... crazier?
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*Discord eats the air inside the box before handing it back.
... Please lets someone else go " why don't you use an restoration spell on the old heart, after all we live in the world were a 'simple' temper tantrum can knock over buildings? surely there is a spell to fix what was broken faster and cheaper then replacing it?"
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Twilight: would work on the physical heart but could cause irreparable damage to the matrixes and the ability to repair/replace them
Awww she's so happy!
Wait she's an earth pony? I thought she was a unicorn
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Karl is a earth pony mare yes.
Is Karl of any relation to Bloody Stupid Johnson?
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a happy Sunset is a good sunset using her pyromania for good
I was curious as to how much that amount of snow would effect the water tables so I started to do some research and math to figure out exactly how much snow was accumulated in those 7000 years and oh boy. let us say for a second that the Empire is roughly 100 square miles and the average snow fall per year is around 27 feet (based off of the 30 year average snow fall for Valdez Alaska, the snowiest place in America) then we multiply that by 7000 to give us about 189,000 feet or 35.8 miles. Are you with me so far? Then we have to think about how snow compresses greatly under its own weight. Let us say a little over half at 15 miles with the bottom 10 being solid ice, and the top 5 miles getting increasingly softer. Now we get to the fun part. 1 cubic foot of water weighs 62.43 lbs and 1 mile is 5280 feet so we multiply the two together to get 329,630.4 lbs or 164.81 tons per square mile which we then multiply by 100 (give or take) for the guesstimated size of the Empire to give us 16,481 and 1 half tons of water/ice per square mile and with the solid ice being at least 10 miles high we have 164,815 tons, and we will add another 500 tons for the 5 additional loosely packed miles to give us a final tally of 165,315 Tons of water/ice that Shining Armor and Cadance held up with their shield.
Oh how silly of me I forgot the original question of how much water that is. Given that water is approximately a pint to the pound, 165,315 Tons of water would give us 330,630,000 pints and where there are 8 pints to the Gallon that gives us 41,328,750 Gallons of water/ice that Sunset is Happily melting away, which is roughly the size of a moderately sized lake.
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I have a feeling sunset will run out mana before empire runs out of ice and snow
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Figured it would be at least THREE TIMES that but at least it isn't ice 7
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It likely is. An acquaintance in a Discord server suggests that the Empire is much bigger. Which would make the water table that much higher
look at the pretty fire so many pretty colors
Hello, Jynx…
'Rules of nature' from Metal Gear Solid Rising, seem to fit rather well.
Sunset is quickly becoming my favorite character
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You mean she wasn't when she pulled a Monstrous Nightmare and lit herself on fire while trying to fight all of Ponyville that one time?
Wait... that might explain why the weather needs to be manually maintained, if that much water is missing
When Karl with a wrong education archivment was more successful than a proper educated mage, perhaps the wrong teaching method is superior?
Most certainly did that Earthpony deserved to be remembered.
White by any chance don't allow her to be visited in the past to improve the future?