章節 150: Freezing History...
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Here I am! With a new chap! It was...hard.. like really. damn I struggled with this chapter. Why in Celestia's name did they thought that two Super villains in a row is a good idea!? Now I have to think so much so that I could make both the story lines sound decent haha. Though I think I did a good job with this chapter and I think you'll like it. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and it's a longer chapter than usual so double profit that I hope can be a reward for making you wait so long.
So Anyway, I hope you like it and like always EEEENJOY!!!
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//Flashback to a few days ago//
Princess Celestia walked down the corridor of the Lab with her eyes full of curiosity.
It had been a while since the last time she was here, and the place changed quite considerably, from a simple underground lab, into a wide complex of rooms and corridors equipped with futuristic looking technology, and almost thrumming with magic power running like veins through the walls of the entire facility.
She also felt as if the place automatically led her towards her destination by skipping some rooms, because she could clearly remember that there was a shorter way towards that part of the lab which lead through a large atrium with Discord's petrified form acting as a statue, standing in the middle of the wide and welcoming chamber...Why... she wouldn't have minded taking a look, as it was a while since she heard anything about the Spirit of Chaos. Had Starfall figured any way to contain him? Or maybe she could ask him to try and befriend the guy? Well... she'll ask him later after he explains why he called her...
Her hooves suddenly stopped as the Princess realised that she reached her destination, the doors closed just a moment ago, now slid open with her approach, clearly inviting her inside.
"Ah, Tia! You're here!" Starfall turned around with a smile, taking his eyes away from on of the screens prevalent in the chamber. There was a bunch of them, some filled with the live streams of different places scattered across Equestria, while the others containing incomprehensible for Celestia graphs and numbers. "I'm glad you came so quick, as there were some things I wanted to ask you, and I hoped I could hear them from you as soon as possible. Mind you, they might evoke some painful memories, so if you're not comfortable with sharing them then I'll understand." Starfall continued as he approached Celestia, and urged her to seat by the small work table in the middle of the room.
"I'm also glad to see you Star, and I'm sure there's nothing I would be opposed to tell you. I trust you completely." She said with a warm smile that Starfall returned.
"Well, I'm glad you think like this, though please don't force yourself. Now... What I wanted to ask you, is... What happened during the fall of the Crystal Empire?" He asked, completely stumping the Princess who didn't expect such a question, having almost forgotten about that place after a thousand years of it being gone. It had been a dark stain on the history of Equestria which she regretted with all her heart, and she hoped that whenever the kingdom reappears, they would be able to bring it's glory back into the light, so that it could once again shine in the Frozen North as the beacon of positive emotions that it used to be.
Celestia looked at Starfall with a pained expression, and finally sighed.
"I didn't expect you to ask me about this topic in particular, but I'll tell you everything, even if it pains me to remember..."Celestia collected her thoughts with a sigh as Starfall gently caressed her hoof to reassure her.
And then she began her story...
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//back to the present//
Starfall pushed through the snowy landscapes with his magic hardening the snow in his way and vaporising any that fell from the sky with an ingenious, in his humble opinion, magical barrier.
It was a pretty convenient way to travel through the harsh landscapes of the Frozen North, though even that didn't change the fact that this was not a place where any pony could survive for any extended period of time.
Starfall though didn't waver in his steps despite having to put up with the three stowaways sitting on his back and trembling from the bone chilling cold...
"I really can't understand why you're all so cold in the first place guys. We're surrounded by a hoofness damned warming barrier, and each of you are literally beings of fire..." He said in exasperation, looking behind at his back where Phoebe, Philip and Spike in their warm winter clothes sat huddled together constantly trembling from the cold...
"I would also like to remind you that you were the ones who insisted on accompanying me. As for you Phoebe. You're literally a native species here! Why are you like this!?" He asked looking at the white phoenix who ruffled her feathers and tried to hide from the cold by enveloping herself in her own wings like a ball of fluff and getting hugged by the other two who hoped to catch a bit of her natural warmth...
'But it's so cold Dad! And my species live in volcanoes around those parts! We don't usually stay out in that frozen desert for any extended period of time...' Phoebe said telepathically, making Starfall roll his eyes. He knew very well that it was just an excuse with knowledge she got from books, as she had never been anywhere close to any cold region before today's excursion. She was just whining because she was used to warmer weather...
"Let's just go. it shouldn't be that far anyway..." He sighed as the trio continued to act like children and trembling from the cold like three little popsicles...
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"And... were here!" Starfall announced as Spike and the two phoenixes jumped down from his back feeling happy to finally be done with the long walk, their minds all but filled with hope of building a campfire...
Spike rubbed his shoulders through his thick, fluffy, winter coat and looked around in a bit of confusion.
"Huh...I d-don't see anything special about this place..." He stuttered from the cold as Starfall cast a slightly stronger warming charm over the four of them.
The two phoenixes landed to the side and once again huddled together to try and share some warmth, but they were also confused about what they were doing here.
"Oh there's a simple reason for that..." Starfall said kicking some snow from a nearby pile and revealing his spherical drone which instantly lifted up, freed from its cold confines.
'Is that one of those weird 'drones' of yours Dad? Did we come here just to dig it up?' Asked Phoebe as the drone instantly moved toward a small snowy hill standing nearby.
Starfall shook his head, following right behind the drone.
"No, The drone being buried was just the consequences of yesterday's snowstorm. It had also unfortunately caused our target to get temporarily covered by a thick layer of snow." He said as his horn started to to emanate a noticeable amount of magic.
"T-then did we come here for nothing?" Asked Spike as Starfall looked at him with a look that said "who do you take me for"...
"Well, I'm pretty sure that our target was going to get unburied on its own in a few days time, though I'm not really willing to wait that long.."He said as his spell finally got completed, causing all the snow that formed the hill to suddenly melt, before all the now liquid water converged upwards and in a few short moments transformed into some sort of towering structure.
Spike and the two phoenixes had only managed to get a glimpse of some red coloured object standing in the center of the water construct, before the entire structure freezed over by the power of Starfall's magic, leaving in it's place an imposing tower of ice.
Starfall walked towards the structure with confident steps and with a simple spell created a doorway, which swooped open for all of them, revealing the blue, crystalized interior.
But all their attention was now focused on the large crimson coloured crystal the size of a pony, sticking out of the frozen ground in the middle of the chamber.
"Woah, That's...so cool!...What is that?" Spike asked in confusion, causing Starfall to chuckle.
"This Spike are doors... Doors that I hope are going to lead us to an important answer." He said, acting mysterious to the exasperation of Phoebe and the excitement of Philip who very much enjoyed the small adventure.
"An answer to what?" Asked the still confused Spike, causing Starfall to turn to him with a slightly somber look.
"An answer to what happened to the Unicorn, who once upon a time had been fated to become a princess...An answer... to what really happened to Radiant Hope..."
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//A thousand years ago(more or less)//
Radiant Hope, a young, purple, crystal unicorn with light blue mane and a Cutie Mark of a Caduceus sat by the window of the Castle, looking towards the grounds, and observing all the happy fillies and colts playing around with no worries stacked on their shoulders, with her expression showing the look of profound sadness.
It had already been months since she had lost everything, her friends, her home, her family...Her best friend... All because she wasn't good enough to stop it all from happening...
Maybe If she didn't contact the Princesses, she could have had more time to talk to him...or...or maybe if she tried harder to make Sombra see reason...or used her magic to...to...
Tears slowly fell down her cheeks. It was all gone...The Crystal Empire...Sombra...even Princess Amore, scattered into pieces after he turned her into stone...but...she didn't understand what Sombra was going through back then, so him lashing out like this was understandable, right? The Princess didn't spend every single Crystal Fair with Sombra as he suffered the excruciating pain caused to him by the Crystal heart, despite having done nothing wrong to deserve such a treatment by the artifact. And Radiant Hope understood... yet she didn't do anything to help him... What was all this healing talent good for, if she couldn't help her best friend in the time of need.
Yes, Radiant Hope blamed herself for what happened. and she knew that she won't be able to continue like this for much longer. The Crystal Heart once upon a time showed her the possible future. Of herself becoming a real Princess...but she knew that this future had long sailed. Even if she managed to stay here and learn from the Princesses, she knew that she won't become a Princess herself. After all she couldn't possibly take care of other ponies when she had already failed so spectacularly when her best friend and her own Kingdom were concerned...and it costed her everything...
"Hope, My sister had called for you... I heard you were about to learn the orange transfiguration spell. I know it sound weird, but it's actually quite fun once you master it and it's an important step into the transformation magic..." Princess Luna said softly from behind Radiant Hope who looked up into the distance before sighing.
"I'm leaving..." She said without turning back towards the Princess.
"Luna wanted to say something, but finally sighed, knowing well how the young mare had felt ever since the Crystal Empire disappeared.
She gently put a hoof over the shoulder of the girl as Hope said more firmly-
"I already decided...I-I need to find my own way..." She trembled as Luna closed her eyes sadly.
"I felt that it was going to happen one day... I wont try to change your decision. Just remember...There's a home for you here...If you ever find what you're looking for, please...come back home..." Luna said before turning away and leaving the room, as Hope kept staring into the distance.
Not long after that, Hope left the Castle of the Two sisters after saying her goodbyes, none of them realising that they wouldn't see eachother ever again.
That night, Luna sat alone in the same spot that Hope had been sitting when they previously talked, looking at all the quiet streets and knowing that all the ponies were now sleeping, not really taking notice of the beautiful night she had gifted them...
She sighed to herself feeling slightly melancholic, and before long departed back towards her own room, on the way smelling the calming scent of lavender she had set up around the castle like she had done every night for who knows how long...
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Spike looked at Starfall in confusion.
"Radiant Hope?...I never heard about her...who is she? and how is she related to that big Crystal?" Spike asked Looking at Starfall and waiting for an answer, as the two phoenixes also flew a bit closer, curious to hear Starfall's explanation.
"She was one of the Princesses' old apprentice, and had a pretty complicated history. Suffice to say, something bad had happened, and she ended up blaming herself about it, so she embarked on a journey, hoping to find her way and perhaps correct her mistakes if that was at all possible. That's where this Crystal comes into the story. I won't bore you with the details why but, if there's a place she could have gone to after leaving on her journey for her to never come back afterwards, then this is the place." Starfall said, looking at the red crystal with a lot of curiosity.
"But, why...what does this crystal have to do with anything Dad?" Asked Spike as he came closer to the Crystal, only to get pulled back by Starfall before he could touch it.
"This Crystal... Isn't really a simple Crystal at all... Its a kind of crystalized spatial magic, that forms a gateway into a special prison designed to house the foulest of monsters which Tartarus couldn't hold. I'd have to make some test later but as far as I can tell, it had been the monsters' attempt at escaping, but it only ended up as a sort of back door for regular Ponies and some forms of magic to go in and out of the prison without letting out any of the monsters, the sealing magic makinh sure none of them could escape...with one exception..." He explain, saying the last part quietly as the trio recoiled from the Crystal.
"Why would she even come here if that's the case!?" Spike asked in confusion and Starfall sighed. Why ever? Of course because of love...
"Well, let's just say she hoped to achieve something, anything, to correct her mistakes." Starfall said and Phoebe turned her head in confusion.
'Then why are We here? Don't tell me dad that you think she's still alive? It's been a thousand years since she came here, right?' Phoebe asked and Philip nodded agreeing with her question.
Starfall gave them an awkward smile.
"Well, I certainly hope so..." He finally said turning towards the Crystal. 'Because the alternative would be quite tragic...' he thought, sighing and thinking on how to enter the Prison without alerting the Umbrums... It was already lucky that they didn't notice them standing in front of the Crystal, because they could communicate and even cast magic through it if they really wanted to...
"Alright let's not waste any more time, please take a few steps away everyone, the Crystal is still buried quite deep for the most part and this is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak." He announced before once again casting the same spell which melted a circular pool around the entire crystal which under Starfall's meticulous control transformed into a deep bowl with a ramp stuck to the edges and providing a stable and mostly safe way to descend deeper downwards...
The group quickly walked to the lower level, the three youngling taking the chance of riding down the ramp as if it was a slide to the amusement of the unicorn.
"Just be careful guys! I don't want to have to rescue you if you get sucked into the crystal by accident!" He called out only half joking. He really would prefer if nothing like this actually happened.
in just a few moments Starfall found himself in front of the Crystal, now standing at approximately ten meters tall, it was truly an impressive sight. He was just about to start setting up his field lab so that he could research the Crystal and find out whether it was safe to approach, but a sudden call from the trio took all his attention.
"Dad! I think you need to see this!" The voice of Spike from the other side of the crystal sounded quite urgent, so without thinking twice Starfall went to see what the kids had found, only to gasp in shock when he laid his eyes on something that he really did not expect to find in such a manner... It was no wonder Radiant Hope never came back from the Magic Prison like she did in the comics...This would certainly make it rather difficult...
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