Pony Veracity (the Crystal Empire)

by keithsterling

Chapter 3

It has been one year at the partially excavated dig site in the former Crystal Empire's snow field; that year, the Silverlight Antiquities and Heritage Research team erected their standard, prefabricated dig sites campsite. To combat the raging snow storms that kick up unexpectedly in the snow fields, Justice called in a specialist in fortification Countess Susan Shimmering Diamond Silverlight, his own mother and grandmother to the Royal foals.

Walking through the piled-up snow toward one of the outer walls to check, it was an imposing-looking, 6ft 10in dark blue Imperial Alicorn mare with a crimson red mane and tail. Her athletic equine figure was encased in a white sub-zero condition cold-weather gear. On her bare feet were black insulated sub-zero winter boots. Resting against her back were her ice-covered gold bio-mechanical feather bird wings. This Imperial Alicorn mare is Countess Susan Shimmering Diamond Silverlight Justice's own mother and a Galactic Structural Engineer of the highest calibre.

She reaches under her fur-lined hood and presses a button on the optics headband she wore on her head; behind her horn, a small red crystal eyepiece forms over her eyes. On the eyepiece, several mathematic formulas appear that Susan quickly deciphers.

‘It looks like the reinforced concrete walls will hold; there is not enough pushing pressure from the built-up snow to cause critical failure. I'll have the small crystal-powered bulldozers push away the snow from the walls next week.' Susan thought as she returned to the largest building in the dig sites campsite. In this main hangar, the dig team has been excavating the Imperial Alicorn-designed shuttlecraft from the permafrost.

Susan walks up to a small door on the side of the main hangar; she enters a numeric code onto the numeric keyboard; a moment later, they're a low hiss as the door slide open. As she passes through the outer door, it slides closed behind her, and she finds herself standing in a small room with a second sliding door in front.

A second later, the room flashes red, a strong gust of air blows through the room, and the door in front of her opens up. She walks through the second door and enters a large locker room with numerous lockers along one side of the room. She walked up to one of the lockers and opened the locker; inside the locker were insulated coveralls and work boots.

She began to remove her white sub-zero condition cold-weather gear and black insulated sub-zero winter boots. The floor beneath her luxurious, beautifully, and sensuous refined long, rounded dark blue bare feet remain warm as she changes into the fluorescent yellow-green coveralls. Once the coveralls are on, she sits on the long wooden bench and pulls on a pair of socks before putting on the black work boots.

To finish the outfit, she places an orange hard hat on top of her head behind her horn that says 'Engineer' on the front. Once dressed, she walks past a metal cabinet with computerized clipboards inside and grabs one out of the cabinet.

She enters her passcode onto the computerized clipboard activating the device. She again passes through an airlock before walking into the central part of the main hangar. The main part of the hangar is a beehive of activity with many small crystal-powered construction vehicles doing their assigned jobs and personnel. High above the ceiling, three tracks crisscross the roof with small manned-cranes moving about to designate locations in the main hangar.

Susan's heels click-clack over the diamond plate of the cat-walks surrounding a two hundred four-foot-long imperial Alicorn-designed assault shuttle partially free from the permafrost of the snow field. The camera panned around the main hangar running the overhead cranes: Somnus Silverlight, Aurora Silverlight and Flurry Heart Sparkle. Luna Borealis ran the construction vehicles crews, and Celestia Silverlight supervised the excavation

Cadence Sparkle, Lara Borealis, and Sweetie bell Android were studying the two hundred-four-foot-long imperial Alicorn-designed assault shuttle documenting the damage to the ship. Why in a separate room with a window that overlooks the whole dig site monitoring the medical systems was Blueberry Swirl Silverlight; she has been authorized to pull out personnel.

If their body temperature drops below average as the main hangar must stay cold to keep the ice from melting too fast and send them to the warming room to recover. Justice Silverlight was overseeing the whole dig site; as his mother passed in front of him, he smiled, and she made her way over to her station. Susan shimmering diamond Silverlight runs the Remote Operated Vehicles systems that are slowly melting the ice and propping up the free sections of the assault shuttle to be studied by Cadence, Lara and Sweetie bell.

As the melting remote-operated vehicles (ROV) free with looks like antenna assembly with a small radar dish on top of the assault shuttle inside the cockpit, a control board becomes active. The finger of the mummified Imperial Alicorn pilot is holding down a single button on the control board.

Once the radar dish is free of its icy prison, the dish repositions itself before releasing a laser pulse into space that Sweetie bell quickly senses and quickly alerts Justice of the laser pulse. Justice quickly orders Sunny Starscout to operate the construction vehicles with the claws to force open the cargo hatch on the underside of the assault shuttle. She hops into the construction vehicle and uses the claws to force open the hatch; at the same time, Cadence quickly slips oxygen tanks onto her back. Sunny could only force open the cargo hatch big enough for a small Terran Alicorn to slip into the ship.

As Cadence slips through the opening, she is forced to crawl on all fours on top of the cargo pods that fill the cargo bay, following her uncle's directions in the pitch darkness of the cargo bay. When she reached the location, she reached for the flashlight on her utility belt and turned it on.

‘By my aunt’s light! That looks like a snowflake pattern!’ Cadence thought shocked, as the light beam shines onto the side of the cargo pod. On the pod's side was a snowflake pattern that reminded Cadence of the flag of the Crystal Empire.

“Niece! Did you make it to the location?” Justice asked through the earwig inside Cadence’s ear, snapping her out of her train of thought.

"Huh? I did, uncle." Cadence said, hesitant as Justice pick-up the change in his beloved niece's voice.

"Is something wrong? Niece?" Justice asked as Cadence felt around on the Cargo bay ceiling, looking for the hatch to gain access to the central part of the shuttle.

"No! Uncle," Cadence said hesitantly as she shined the light onto the hatch, looking for the numeric keypad that her uncle described.

"The code please, uncle?" Cadence said, insisting as her gloved hand trembled as she had trouble inputting the numeric code onto the keypad. She quickly grabs hold of her shaking hand with her other hand, trying to settle the trembling.

‘By my aunt’s light? Please stop shaking?’ Cadence thought anxiously as she was finally able to stop her hand from shaking and inputted numeric code into the keypad. There was a very slight hissing sound from the hatch. But the hatch was frozen shut, so Cadence brought her legs up and kicked the hatch open using all of her earth pony strength.

“I am in! Uncle!” Cadence said excitedly as she climbed through the hatch and found herself standing in darken metal corridor. As she shined the flashlight about the passage, she saw four doors on the left side of the passage leading to most likely small staterooms and a hatch leading outside on the right, but it was frozen shut. Behind her was a door that most likely led to the engine room, and in front of her was the entrance to the cockpit.

"What in Equestria!?" Cadence exclaimed, shocked as her beam shined on the walls of the corridor with a painting of crystalline plant life that reminded her of the crystal flower garden in the crystal empire.

“Niece! What do you see!?” Justice asked, concerned as hearing her uncle's voice snaps her out of her train of thought.

"Oh, uncle…the corridor I am in has framed paintings on the wall. I see a hatch outside. The air here is stagnant, and I can see the door to the cockpit." Cadence explains as she makes her way to the cockpit, stumbling on a second mummified imperial Alicorn just in front of the outside hatch.

"Uncle, I found another mummified imperial Alicorn…It looks to be female. And what you told me, uncle, their large number of mares like here in Equestria." Cadence explains as she uses her light to scan the mummified imperial Alicorn mare body for clues.

"That is right, niece." Justice answers

“What is she wearing? Look for any kind of mark on the clothing.” Justice asked as Cadence scanned the mare with her light.

"She is wearing yukata kimono…not as nice as the one you gave me, uncle. She all so wearing a simple obi. On her feet are tabi socks and Zori sandals. Wait a minute, their? What looks like a pick axe is on kimono!” Cadence said, informed and surprised as the light shone on a picture on the kimono.

“A pick axe! Then she is a power crystal miner!” Justice exclaimed

“What is a power crystal miner, uncle?” Cadence asked

“A power crystal miner is imperial Alicorn that mines for our power crystals on large crystal asteroids in one of many mining star sectors in imperial Alicorn space. But what is a power crystal miner doing on the planet of Equus?" Justice commented as Cadence continued down the corridor to the cockpit.

Several hours later, Justice makes his way from his housing unit in dig camp to the housing unit of his nieces after being called by Flurry Heart because her mother has locked herself in her bedroom.

"Hello, Flurry heart; what's wrong with your mother?" Justice asked as he hugged Flurry's heart; she let him into the housing unit.

"I don't know, uncle? After opening up the assault shuttle, my mother went straight to her room. I asked her if she was hungry, and she told me no. And to leave her alone." Flurry heart explains as Justice walks up to Cadence's bedroom door and knocks on it.

"Please, Flurry heart? Leave me alone!" Cadence calls, confused.

"Cadence, it is me, Justice!" Justice called back as he heard the door unlock, and he was able to enter Cadence's bedroom. Before walking into the bedroom, Justice gestures for Flurry heart to go back into the living room of the housing unit.

Once through the door, Justice is standing in a twelve by twelve-foot square room; on the bed was distressed Cadence Sparkle in her Alicorn form, which is attired in a sweater top and jeans. Her slenderly gracefully rounded, gorgeous-shaped pair of light pink bare feet were bare. And sitting on the nightstand was her crystal empire crown. Justice walked over to the bed and sat down next to Cadence on the bed.

"I must go home, uncle," Cadence said, afraid as she accepted the hug from her uncle.

"To the Crystal Empire, niece," Justice said as Cadence nodded her head yes.

"You want to see if you are an Imperial Alicorn, and Crystal Empire is the only place you can find the answer," Justice explained as Cadence's light purple eyes were haunted by some inner anxiety as she nodded her head again.

"Since I first met you, Miss Sparkle, I have always sensed their more to you. Then you know? I didn't want to give you more anxiety. You had enough being the ruler of the Crystal Empire." Justice explains as a tear runs down Cadence's cheek.

"You love me (Justice nodded his head). That why, you didn't tell me, uncle (Justice nodded his head again) Went did you know uncle that I might be Imperial Alicorn?" Cadence asked as Justice sighed softly.

“I didn’t know that you might be an Imperial Alicorn? Until Luna and Somnus sent word that they might have found the wreck of the imperial Alicorn assault shuttle in the snow field. I told Lara we both knew it might be that missing shuttle from the Southern Star Sector. After the red giant at the center of the Southern star sector went supernova. The assault shuttle disappeared…most Imperial Alicorns believe it attempted a wormhole jump, but the shockwave knocked it off course." Justice explains as Cadence's stomach knots.

“What makes you think I am Imperial Alicorn, uncle?" Cadence said, her voice edged with tension, hoping it was not valid.

"The name of the ruler of Southern star sector was Queen Filomena Amore Aperture," Justice said as Cadence gasps.

"Princess Amore: the first ruler of the Crystal Empire," Cadence exclaims.

"Before the supernova, Queen Aperture was caring for her foal," Justice said as Cadence's face grew haggard with worry.