Ponywatching

by ThunderTempest

Prompt #358-Research Journal, Page 301

This isn’t the first time the Crystal Empire has vanished and reappeared. It’s not even the second or third for that matter. It’s a little difficult to trace, because of the nature of these dissapearences, but from what I can see, the Crystal Empire has vanished and reappeared a grand total of six times. Old earth pony legends speak of a great fertile land to the north, lit by a diamond tower. Of course, anypony who ventured up there before the reappearance of the Empire was only ever going to find ice and snow, but that never stopped them from trying. Pegasi too had their own legend about a land in the north, this one about where the sky was always blue and wide open, and again, illuminated by a great tower of diamond. The unicorn one was a bit more obscure, but it does mention a ‘land of crystal and green, whose shards tremendously amplified the wearer’s magic when made into jewelry’. The most common thread between all of these, and other stories is not actually the Empire, but rather the palace itself.

This commonality got me thinking. What if the curse that Sombra placed on the Crystal Empire one thousand years ago wasn’t actually a curse, but rather the activation of a spell? A spell so terrifically complex, delicate and powerful that it was built into the very structure of the Crystal Palace itself? A spell that could preserve the Palace, and it’s surrounds, including the very weather, and lock them in a temporary temporal bubble, removed from reality, and only break the spell when the magic fueling it ran out, or a significantly large outside magic force disturbed it. Such a spell would be the last ditch attempt at defense, a final chance to deny any outside forces a hope of taking the Palace.

Thus, here is my theorem: The Crystal Palace, located at the heart of the Crystal Empire, which itself is centered on more than one major magical leyline, possesses in some shape or form, a spell which can trap everything within a certain radius of it, living or deceased, in a state of magical stasis, and then place them all within a state where they are unable to interact with our current world until such a time as this spell is broken by either internal or external measures.

It is also interesting to note that from the air, the layout of the Crystal Empire shows a distinct resemblance to one of many magical channeling symbols, wrought on an immense scale. It also looks like the central design of my cutie mark.
*************

Princess Cadence looked up from the letter that Celestia had given her.

“Should I be worried, Celestia?”

“Not precisely,” began the bigger alicorn, “But as I’m sure you know, once a subject grabs Twilight’s interest...”

“Yes, indeed,” mused Cadence “If such a spell were to exist, she may attempt to trigger it out of sheer curiosity, and that would not be a good thing.”

“You don’t know?” asked Celestia, and Cadence shook her head.

“Much of the Crystal Palace is a mystery to even me. As far as I can remember, the Crystal Palace has always been at the heart of the Empire. Though, Auntie...”

“Yes, Cadence?”

“There is another name for the Crystal Palace. It’s not one that crops up often, but in rediscovering the history of my own Empire, I ran across it enough times for it to stick.”

“What is it?”

“The Cleansing Light.” There was silence between the two alicorns for a moment.

“Let’s not tell Twilight about that little tidbit, Okay?”

“What tidbit, Auntie?”

“Exactly.”

Author's Note:

Written for Prompt #358-'Domino Effect'
The Prompt: the Crystal Empire falls

Comments

[Malandy]

Ohhh... man! I soo want a sequel to this! Research and magical awesome!

Also... typo: more than one major magical leyline.

Also also, why 'magical' leyline? What other kinds are there???

[FurryBrony]

5362768 Aren't there also temporal leylines?