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Rainbow Dash and Ike spent the rest of the day floating around in the sky on the pirate painted balloon, startling a few citizens from time to time. At one point they even dropped in on Twilight. All in all it had been a great day. And though Ike didn't know it, it would be his last day in Ponyville for quite some time.

~

It was time to go to the Crystal Kingdom so Ike and the girls piled onto the overnight train, heading for the sleeper car.

~

Morning arrived quickly, and the train slowly came to a halt at the station. It was a bright and sunny day, the blizzards had ended along with Sombra's destruction.

Ike was the last to wake, groggily opening his eyes to the bright sunlight.

~

I awoke to the prodding of a hoof into my side, opening my eyes in an unhappy squint.

"Umm... Excuse me... Its time to wake up now." Fluttershy quietly whispered.

I managed a small smile. It was impossible to stay angry with any of these girls, Fluttershy especially.

As we disembarked from the train two earth pony guards came to greet me.

"Sir Ike?" One of them asked, receiving my nod. "If you would follow us please."

The guards received strange looks from my friends but they were quickly led off another direction.

As I followed I silently gazed at the city. The words 'crystal kingdom' were indeed a very good representation. The buildings themselves glinted elegantly in the sun, and when I saw the native populace I again was astounded. Each one of them had a unique crystalline shine. I caught one of their glances awkwardly; even their eyes had a unique lined structure instead of the usual rounded iris.

She giggled at my stare. "Never laid eyes on a crystal pony before? It's fine, we get a lot of stares from outsiders." She clopped off along the beautifully paved walkway.

"They think they are so great. This is the only city remaining in their entire empire." The first guard snorted.

"Don't talk bad about them. They may look pretty now but you don't want to see one angry. Some of them are still born with the warriors blood."

"Come on. The imperium is just a legend isn't it?"

"King Sombra returned. That's proof enough. If not for his quick defeat he could have regained his power."

I listened to their conversation silently, hearing tales of a Great War waged long before Celestia was even alive, a while later I interrupted with a question. "Why is it that I have never heard anyone speak of the imperium before?"

"We only learned of it recently, if you have time you should check the grand library. These people have history from before the founding of Equestria." He stopped walking "It looks like we're here, if you would just head inside and through to the courtyard you'll find the Captain."

The two guards stationed themselves outside the main entrance as I entered the large open-air building. Approaching the courtyard I could hear the sound of many trampling hooves. I stopped on the outskirts and watched the proceedings.

It appeared to be some sort of training program. Younger looking mares and stallions all were completing various tasks. But something caught my attention more than the rest... The sparring.

A male pegasus was facing off against a female crystal unicorn. I approached the group that was forming, keeping a close watch on the action. According to stereotype the Pegasus Pony should have speed on his side and in hoof to hoof combat have the advantage if magic was disallowed. But as I watched I saw differently. They were both young adults but it did seem that crystal kingdom children were bred for war...

The Pegasus jumped into the air and with a quick flap was flying towards his opponent. As he approached he pushed out one hoof to deliver a massive kick. The translucent silver unicorn stood upon two hooves moving to catch the flying attack instead of dodging. She used the force and momentum against her opponent, forcing him out of the air into a sliding collision with the ground.

She paused and waited for him to get up. As he did he faced her, a hoof quickly sending a plume of dirt her way. As the dirt flew into her eyes she flinched away and squeezed them shut. The Pegasus landed a few quick blows before she could back off out of his range.

He was about to advance again before an older pony from the crowd with a white coat and a multi colored mane of blue shades spoke out. "The match is over, and we will be having a talk about your cheap tactics..."he glared at the Pegasus. " I expect better from a guard in training."

"No! It's fine!" The crystal unicorn spoke with closed eyes.

The Pegasus looked over to the white non-crystal unicorn whom I assumed, from the six-point star very much like Twilight's as part of his cutie mark/crest, was Shining Armor. Shining gave a shrug saying, "Her choice..."

The unicorn girl took a defensive stance and perked her ears to collect all the sound information in the area. The Pegasus attempted to circle around her but she tracked his movement and continued to turn to face him. The crowd had become silent, unknowingly making her job easier.

The Pegasus purposefully kicked a stone one direction, and went the other. He lashed out, landing several quick attacks to her side. She recovered quickly from the surprise and took one quick jab right at his head. It connected fitfully with his snout and he stumbled back, not expecting her to land anything.

She followed after his backwards shuffle, knowing by the sound exactly where he was. She pressed the offensive, and focused all her blows to his front left leg, each hit resonated fitfully. He shouldered against her, pushing her away as he took a few limping steps on his aching limb. She lunged at him once more and he flinched back in genuine fear. A light grin crossed her face upon hearing his action.

Rather than stay on the ground and give his position with the limp he entered the air again. It looked like she could hear even the beating of his wings as she still was keeping him generally in front of her. He locked himself into as quiet of a glide he could, attempting to circle silently around to her side. When he achieved the right angle he swooped in preparing for the takedown. Just as it looked like he was about to succeed she ducked under him and reached out blindly, catching his tail.

He was stopped dead with a jarring motion as she took her grab and used it to her advantage. She completed her move behind him as he flapped awkwardly to avoid striking the ground. She gave a quick yank on the tail before releasing it and leaping, landing herself immediately on his back.

He struggled to remove her but she grabbed on to one of his wings and his unstable flight came crashing down. Brining her weight down on top of his back as he fell flat. All of the assembled crowd could hear the sound of his breath completely escaping him.

She dismounted and stood in front of him, raising a hoof as if to make one final knockout blow.

He flinched but she grabbed his head instead, lifting it up slightly making sure he heard the words. "The dirt missed." she opened her eyes before continuing. "I just wanted more of a challenge." She dropped his head back to the ground as he panted out, trying to recover his breath. The translucent silver unicorn turned to leave, but before doing so she 'accidentally' kicked a little dirt into his gaping maw.

The crowd, getting over their stunned silence, began a stomping of hooves as a form of applause.

Shining Armor spoke out to the crystal unicorn, saying, "Very good! I think you will make for a fine guard, royalty class even." He switched his attention to the pegasus, "And you... I think the trouncing was punishment enough. For now take a break and rest your back."

The Pegasus gave a nod in acknowledgement and slowly pulled himself up, wincing. A limp, a possibly throbbing wing and back... All from a sparring match. Even if she looked to be barely an adult I didn't want to tangle with her.

After a brief conversation with what seemed to be an actual guard she went off for some other training. Shining Armor looked my way for the first time, a glint of recognition in his eye.

His professional demeanor was lost entirely as he came over and gave me a quick bro hug. "Thanks for keeping Twilight and the others safe. I for one am glad of you being here."

He pulled back from the embrace, looking around quickly to make sure everyone was doing their required tasks and not watching. "Sorry" he blushed a little scratching his mane.

"Umm...ok... " I paused and let out a quick cough. "What was this offer that Celestia so 'strongly' suggested for I accept?"

"Oh... Geez. Sorry, I didn't know the Princess was making you. It was supposed to be your choice. I know you haven't been here too long and are still settling down... But because of your powers and potential we thought you should be trained to effectively and safely use them."

"Couldn't Twilight teach me? Her talent is magic after all?"

"Not that kind of magic. She knows a lot more spells than me, but she hasn't learned any real combat worthy magic. Unless she's teaching it to herself."

"I guess this means I should go let the girls know I'll be staying here a while..."

"You still have tonight to tell them. But for now, a test of sorts."

"And what might that be?"

"This way" he motioned to me and I followed to another part of the courtyard. "It's a place we found underneath this building."

He led me through a doorway to a hole in a collapsed wall. The hole revealed a long stairwell that I began to descend, following closely behind Shining Armor. Our path was dimly lit with glowing crystal torches along the walls that he activated with magic as we approached. We descended for what felt like a good five stories downwards before reaching a dead end.

"Cadence an I have been working to expand our knowledge of crystal kingdom's lore and tradition." He pointed his horn sending a quick bolt of magic to remove a concealing spell. "If not for a recent cave in we never would have found this."

A great stone door appeared, opening with a rumble as a bit of dust filtered through the torchlight. We entered into a large underground hall, nearly untouched. Large banquet tables were laid out with golden trays and hemmed chalices. The hall lead up to a grand throne, tucked away at the end of the dust and web ridden cavern. The throne itself was pushed to the side to reveal a hidden passage. The air of the place seemed almost stale, like nobody had been down there in ages. It had an air of mystery about it, why would there be a whole under city buried deep below the crystal kingdom?

"What is this place?" I asked Shining

We walked through the passageway, a narrow stone hewn tunnel, as he told me a story.

"I will start with what I know of their lore... They say that their 'creator' fashioned a people from the very earth, breathing life into them. He made them beautiful and strong, using the natural crystals. But his creation was not happy; they fumbled around in the darkness. They begged for the ability to create light so the creator granted it to them, giving them much more. He gave them a horn to craft magic but in turn took away their physical strength.

With magic they light their caves and toiled away to build a home in their stone world, cursing him for taking their strength. The maker was sad, and left them for a time. The crystal ponies, left on their own, eventually dug upwards, opening a hole to the surface. But when they saw the sky they were unhappy with their forms, wishing to fly with the creatures they saw in the air.

They then called upon and pleaded with their maker to give them wings. So he did, giving them the wings they so desired but taking their magic as a price, along with all the work they had done by sealing the entrances to their great underground empire.

They flew until they discovered that the surface was less kind than they had hoped. They cursed their creator yet again, but now for taking their magic.

The creator fell into a deep rage, believing his creation a failure. As a punishment he took all their powers away.

They wept, realizing their error. But it was too late the creator had left them. So lightless, flightless and weary they lived out their lives. They lived this way for generations until the creator remembered them.

Seeing their sorry state he took pity, giving them now an assortment of power, some strength, some magic, and some wings. Seeing that this was the only way they could learn to live in harmony. The people were finally happy and he decided to leave them and never interfere again."

"Wow, quite a unique creation story they have there. Its like a moral lesson and a sermon all at once..." I replied after he finished.

"Each culture has its own version of a creator, none are exactly the same."

"It's like that where I come from too... But we have wars over it... Some people are even willing to die over petty squabbles that their idea of a creator is better."

"We don't go to such lengths here, we just accept that they have their own way of things and that some will refuse to believe any version at all."

"If only humans could learn that principal... Acceptance... tolerance," I muttered. The tunnel ended and we were at another stone doorway. " So this is one of their old cities... But why are we here?"

"You are here for the stone to judge... Great magic resides here and it can decipher your heart. It is the best way to know if anypony can be trusted."

We entered together into the chamber, Shining Armor's horn glowed, I assumed, to light the room. The cavern was filled with statues; each depicted some figure I could only guess was a part of the crystal empire's history.

A large crystal on the far end of the room omitted a deep but soft ringing sound. My ears perked up to hear the crystal; light seemed to collect inside of it as it slowly became brighter. The glow drew me forward until I was standing directly in front of the massive crystal. I could almost feel it calling out to me... It wanted nothing more than a touch... I looked over to Shining Armor who nodded to me as I reached out to touch the crystal with a hoof.

The crystal pulsed, releasing a controlled stream of light. I jumped back a bit but Shining directed my attention away from the large crystal to the stream of light.

The light diverged on multiple paths, fleeing to the edges of the room to other unlit crystals. Each one sounded its own note, accented by the low hum of the first crystal. The crystals that joined in quieted as they passed the energy on to others. The room light fluctuated lightly as the crystals played a song, passing and dividing the energy between themselves.

Every wall glowed out, the diversely shaped crystal covering pulsing. I stood there silently as the song played out around me, the swell and flow touched my heart. As the notes reached a glorious peak I felt chills move down my spine.

The undertone remained, tying everything together. For some reason I wept but I could not understand why. As the final notes rang out and faded into nothingness the light returned to the now silent center crystal. I stood there in total silence afterwards for what seemed to be a good minute.

"Ike... That was..."

"Amazing." A voice came from behind us. I looked to see who had spoken. It was an Alicorn, a pink Alicorn with a crystal heart as her cutie mark.

"I'm glad you were here for this Cadence, you are more attuned to music than I." Shining spoke to her.

"Yes I arrived just before it started. That was beautiful Ike; you truly are a worthy soul. I can tell that you have felt great pain, but are destined to achieve so much more."

I stood somewhat confused. "What is all this about?" I asked her

"The song, it was yours. The crystals can tell your heart, and sometimes when moved to they do something more. And a beautiful song it was, one I hope to hear once more when fate has taken its course."

"So that was the test?" I looked over to Shining.

"Yeah, Celestia should be glad to know how it went. Now all that's left is your training."

Cadence spoke up, "For now let us forget what lies ahead. The crystal kingdom is glad to have you, as should the rest of Equestria. For your fate could very well be tied to this land's wellbeing."

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading!