Author Note
I did a few lines here and there to this story, but nothing that changed my co-authors hard work.
Planeswalker Gothic 2
Crystal Empire 2
To make matters worse he appeared to be unaware of our position and remained straddling me while his terrified eyes focused off in the distance. Also his rapid breathing kept sending a waves motion through his ENTIRE body!
I was normally homophobic like this, but this was taking things too far. Plus it was a really bad time to be having a, My Life Flashed Before My Eyes moment. It made me realise that I needed to get a life. Maybe a marefriend. Some pony who understood that I didn't understand how romantic relationships worked here.
Luckily none of the mares here, who all knew me, seemed to notice our position.
"Get . . . Off . . . Me." I harshly whispered to him; as I hoped that the mares would continue to remain oblivious to us.
Shining Armor, comes out of his dazed stupor that was due to colliding with me and our rolling tumble through the portal, and quickly realised what this would look like to any other pony. And being a married pony, this was even worse for him. Although we should both be grateful he hadn't mounted me like a horse would.
He applied a bit too much force with his hooves into my stomach getting off me. After having all the air forced out my lungs I rolled over gasping for new air while he managed to stand up, looking every where but at me.
While taking in gasps of sweet, sweet oxygen, I slowly managed to get all four of my hooves under me and unsteadily stand up. "
We will never speak of this again, in fact when I get back to Canterlot I am going to check the Archive for memory wipe spell" I said.
It wasn't mind rape if you do it to yourself.
"Agreed...Oh if you find the spell, could you come back and use it on me too." he spoke, completing our contract while never looking at me.
It wasn't mind rape if you had consent either.
"Done deal" I said.
From behind us came a barely audible shuddering gasp, if had been anywhere else it would have gone completely unnoticed from the background noise of bird calls, wind blowing, or ponies chatting. However the area we had entered lacked any of the background noise I was used to.
Turning around around, we discovered Fluttershy practically burying her head in her mane with one wide eye staring out through a gap in her mane. Her wings, that she usually kept so close to her body, that one could confuse her for a Earth Pony instead of a Pegasus; stood extend to their full length out from her body with all of her feathers on display.
I had no idea if female ponies could become aroused by stallion on stallion action, and I really didn't want to. Still Fluttershy's reaction hinted that was. That or she was trying not to burst out laughing at us about how silly this all was.
"Use the spell to wipe her memory too?" Shining suggested
That would be mind rape, or at mind coping a feel without permission.
"No, it is Fluttershy, she wont tell anyone . . . any pony about what she saw." I responded, reassuring him that we had no reason to fear her, before stepping closer to the shy mare "Will you Fluttershy?"
She attempted to curl up further into herself and whimpered something that I took for an agreement.
Then turning around and I finally got my first look at the Crystal Empire. Even from afar I could see that it certainly lived up to it's name as each and every single structure appeared to be made from a building sized gemstone with the center piece being a towering obelisk of diamond glowing or reflecting the sun into a blinding aura around it.
"Cool" was all I had to say about that.
(Line Break)
Crystal Empire. Approaching the Crystal Castle.
Being inside the city itself, instead of outer fields of the city. I had to swiftly revaluate my previous position on the Crystal Empire, not just the buildings were gemstones, but EVERYTHING in the city was a gem or crystal. Houses, sidewalk, light posts, statues, even the road itself appeared to be some form of gemstone; it was polished enough that I could see my own reflection clear enough to use it as a mirror.
Surprisingly Pinkie Pie hasn't taken advantage of this feature to make faces at herself as we walk toward the diamond obelisk I saw, that is actually the Crystal Castle. Which was odd because even I was tempted to do that.
Poor designing on the castle, I noted, the obelisk shaped castle rather than a solid base from the ground up, stood on four sharp points that went up several stories before coming together to form the base of the castle. Someone or something would only have to take out one of the supports and the entire castle would topple over. Unless they had some magic as a backup, acting as an invisible support, which was possible.
Looking down at my Mox Diamonds I watched in shock as White Mana actually forced out the Blue Mana from a Mox Diamonds to take its place. I had previously thought that Canterlot was the largest source of White Mana I had come across so far, it had nothing on the Crystal Empire. It filled my Mox Diamonds rapidly, filling my reserves to the max limits I could hold, and still the White Mana in of the Crystal Empire seemed almost eager to flood me with me more.
This entire city is the pony equivalent of the legendary city El Dorado, City of Gold, yet the only mare that was sharing my amazement at the city was Rarity. Given that her cutie mark is three gemstone grouped together, meant we understood better than any of other ponies with us; how impossible this entire city had to be.
"Its gorgeous! Absolutely gorgeous!" Rarity marvelled with her head swivelling about looking at every crystal structure around us.
I glanced at her to agree only to find that either the gems were reflecting into her eyes or her eyes had stars in them. Unicorn magic could do strange thing when unicorns got too excited, so it could be either.
"You could excavate every gems, in all of Equestria, and still not have a fraction of the crystal/gems before us now" she then added.
I found temporary companionship with the mare that could actually understand the full impact of this city existing. Once we saved the Crystal Empire I am sure that both of us would be spending time together learning from the Crystal Ponies about how they could grow the crystals/gems this huge. If nothing else the ability to grow crystal/gems to even close this size would be invaluable on other worlds when I decided to leave. Hopefully the locals would freely hoof over this knowledge.
That thought brought me up short; I hadn't since entering this city seen any the supposed inhabitants, the Crystal Ponies. My mane and fur on the back of my neck stood up as I stopped with that sobering realisation and really looked around the area.
Despite the brightness of the day and all the colourful crystal slanted houses, that no two are the same shape, with multiple floors; the entire city suddenly seemed colder and duller. I knew of some horror movies and video games that started with mysteriously empty cities.
Shouldn't there at least be some of them curious about the visitors to their city? Looking up and down the rows of house, I couldn't find a single window with curtains pulled opened for any ponies to be spying on us as we made our way to the castle.
Yet my short time in Ponyville and Canterlot showed that Unicorn, Pegasus, and Earth Ponies could be just as curious as human beings.
So why hadn't a single of the Crystal Ponies come to investigate us?
"Hey Gothic! Come along you slowpoke, you're going to get left behind if you keep standing there!" someone yelled.
Rainbow Dash loudly taunting voice cut through my thoughts, blinking, I looked up to find her hovering just in front of me.
"See you at the Castle!" she delivered as a parting shot before zipping away, leaving a rainbow trail of light burned into my eyes.
Galloping after her I managed to make it into the throne room just in time to catch the tail end of a conversation between Twilight, her brother and sister-in-law.
"She's not fine. She can't go on like this forever. And if her magic were to fade . . . . well, you saw what's out there, just waiting for that to happen" a male voice was saying.
Shining appeared to be explaining Cadence's condition, which I could tell from a single glance, she actually managed to look worse than she did when Twilight and I found her in the caverns underneath Canterlot.
Heavy bags had formed under eyes, her meticulously maintained mane hadn't seen a brush in days. I could forming stray hairs and split ends, her entire body seemed to sag in place and she looked ready to collapse at any moment even as she sat in place, and her head moved, nodding off with her eyes slowly closing before jerking awake.
Her horn, constantly glowing blue, faltered for a moment, and since I was close to the door I could see that outside the eternal spring day of sunny blue skies with a few clouds, flicker to the dark cloudy blizzard that was beyond the shield, before changing back.
Before I could start to panic, Shining Armor leaned over and touch his glowing pink horn to hers, his magic aura quickly dimmed to nothing while Cadence's brightened.
Watching Shining and Cadence, show love and affection to one another, even under the circumstances. Remind me that it hadn't even been a month since the wedding.
The expression: When it rains, it fucking pours seemed to be as true here as on Earth
"If I ever get married I am not letting Princess Celestia plan the honeymoon, cause this, is actually worse than the wedding" I commented.
My voice apparently carried further than I thought or pony hearing worked better than I thought as Cadence and Shining manage to flush in embarrassment, while Twilight looked at me in horrified shock. The rest of the Mares and Spike went through various expressions in reaction to my implied insult against Celestia.
Normally I wouldn't insult either Princess, because that would be stupid and wrong for so many reasons, but this time I didn't feel bad about it.
Cadence manage to recover first from my out burst despite the most worn down.
"Gothic. Shining and I have already had our Honeymoon. We had just returned to Canterlot, when the Crystal Empire returned, ready to do our duties to Equestria." She said, attempting to alleviate the full implications of my insult against one of the ruling Diarchs of Equestria.
I however was not so easily soothed.
"Has it been more than a month since your Wedding?" I challenged, not yet willing to let this issue go yet.
When I got married and went on my Honeymoon, the most complexity that should occur would be trying to decided whether to dine in or go out.
"No" Shining Armor flatly stated.
I smiled a little, feeling smug.
"Then this is still your Honeymoon and an awful one at that; despite the chance to inherit an entire empire there is still the problem of tall, dark, and smoggy outside" I said "It is only a matter of time before the barrier fails and he gets in."
They all winced as I laid out the flat truth of the situation, we weren't in Equestria anymore and Celestia had denied the use of the Elements of Harmony, their go to MacGuffin for restoring peace, happiness and hugs from puppies.
"Luckily I can help buy us some more time" I informed everyone.
Lighting up my horn, my deck flew up before my eyes as I quickly cycled through the cards until I found one that could be applied to the situation. I focused on Cadence and used up to two Mox Diamonds to cast: Healing Hands.
A wave of white energy streamed from the card and flowed over her body. I watched in seconds as her body recovered what would have probably taken a few days to a week to fully recover from the stress and fatigue she had been under. The last of the healing energy circled around her horn like water flowing down the drain before being sucked in and her horn released a blinding flash of energy.
(Line Break)
Arctic Wasteland. Growing Storm of Darkness.
Within the ever encroaching Darkness, that surrounded and pressed down on the shield that protected the Crystal Empire, an intelligence over a thousand years old stirred as the shield that it had been slowly wearing down over the past few days suddenly renewed itself; becoming even stronger than when it first appeared.
More focus would be require to overcome this obstacle, before the defence of it's Empire were turned against it. It became he as the Darkness pulled back and focused on becoming one instead of a wide spread corruption. The Darkness compressed itself smaller and smaller until reformed into the original host.
For the first time in over a thousand years Sombra took a breath of fresh air that had been denied to him during his banishment into the dark of the Abyss. The moment of serenity passed all too quickly as he glared at the shield that denied him access to HIS Empire that he had fought and bleed to possess; only for HER to turn against him in his moment of triumph.
"Crystalsss . . ."
His ruby red horn and eyes glowed a sickly green as he focused on a dark magic spell. If SHE would rather send minions, instead of facing him HERSELF, he could do the same. Perhaps sending back them back to HER broken and corrupted would be enough to draw HER out here.
A shard of black crystal launched from his horn and buried itself into the snow in front of him. He watched as over the next few minutes the shard sprouted, grew into a black crystal obelisk taller than his current form, and with a loud crackling the obelisk broke into 5 pieces. The largest piece formed a jagged boulder shaped torso, two pieces formed jagged stumpy legs, and the last two formed jagged arms that ended in claws.
The 'head' of the creature gained the same sickly green glowing eyes as its master. Knowing its master's will, the golem turned toward the barrier and began taking lumbering steps toward it. It slowly picked up speed until the ground shook with its rumbling charge and smashed into the shield wall. The golem shattered into a dozen pieces; scattering fragments around the point of impact.
Within a minute, each of the shards began to grow into a black crystal obelisk. His eyes alight with glee and his fangs shimmered from his wicked smile as his army began to arise to take back HIS Empire.
(Line Break)
Crystal Empire. Residential Housing.
I reluctantly followed behind Twilight Sparkle and Spike as they approached the first house of a Crystal Pony. Twilight intended to write a research paper of all things on the Crystal Ponies, believing that this was the test part of Celestia's test. This foolishness had been made worse by her loudly declaring this in the throne room in front of myself, Cadence, her brother, and friends. My flanks had hit the floor just so I could use both hooves to preform a face hoof.
Private tutoring by Celestia. while giving Twilight an almost encyclopedia knowledge of spells, history, sciences, and other obscure knowledge. Had apparently left her with a severe lack of understanding about the real world when it couldn't be learn from a book. Probably one of the reason she had been sent to Ponyville in the first place, somethings only experience could teach. That and the whole friendship thing.
I had tried to get Twilight to understand that a test could come in more forms than academic, such as this being a test of Twilight's abilities as Celestia's apprentice to carry out and enforce her will as needed.
This led to Twilight bringing up that she had been Celestia's apprentice for many years longer than I had been allowed to study at Canterlot, and that Celestia had personally assigned this "test" to her.
As far as she knew I was just tagging along with her friends instead of because of Princess Luna requesting that I aid her. Not for the first time I had to wonder if Princess Luna had started taking me under her not literal wing because she wanted her own trainee planeswalker apprentice.
After a few minutes of knocking on the door, it finally opened to revealed a 'Crystal Pony'.
What answered the door couldn't have been farther from my expectations. Given the names of the various pony races living quite literally up to their names with Unicorn, Pegasus, and Earth Pony; I fully expected to encounter a pony made at least partly out of crystal.
Instead the sight before me could have passed for a very depressed Earth Pony with a coat of blue-gray. The only vague proof that she was a crystal pony I could find on her was the way her mane and tail looked like melted purple glassware. I don't think in my entire time on this world that I have ever seen such a depressed and listless pony.
"I'm sorry. I wish I could help you. But I can't seem to remember anything before King Sombra came to power" the pony said, answering a question from Twilight I hadn't heard.
Then she winced in pain and her eyes shifted away from Twilight and fell on Spike, who like the loyal dog he pretty was, had followed his mistress.
She stared at him blankly for a few moments; suddenly for the first time since meeting her she actually began to display some emotion, unfortunately it was terror.
The pony began to hyperventilate, her body trembled, as her mouth quivered, and finally she released a shriek that sent me to the ground as I used my front hooves to cover my ears.
"DRAGON! THERE IS A DRAGON HERE! HIDE THE COLTS AND FILLIES!"
The pony retreated back into her home, a moment later a crystal vase come flying out and smashes into Spike's head sending him tumbling down the steps.
Poor Spike.
