Royal guard #1: News from Northern Equestria! Uh... Your Highness.
Princess Celestia: Yes?
Royal guard #1: I am simply to tell you that it has returned.
Princess Celestia: [gasp] Find Princess Cadance and Shining Armor and Princess Moonstone Dream and Grape Luck.
Royal guard #2: Yes, Your Highness.
Princess Celestia: My dearest Twilight and Rose, you must come to Canterlot at once.
Twilight Sparkle: [panicked breathing] Where are all my quills? Brbrbr. No, no, no, no, no... Ugh! I need the Magical Compendium volumes one through thirty-six! Where is it?!
[thud]
Rose Light: Flash cards! I should make some flash cards. Spike, I'm gonna need you to quiz me. On everything. Everything I've ever learned. Ever. That isn't going to be enough cards.
Spike: Twilight and Rose, calm down. It's just a test.
Twilight Sparkle: Just a test? Just a test!? Princess Celestia wants to give me some kind of exam, and you're trying to tell me to calm down because it's just a test?!
Spike: Uh... yes.
Applejack: I'd say she's handling things pretty well, considerin'.
Rose Light: Urgh!
[explosion]
Princess Luna: Are you sure you don't want me to go as well?
Princess Celestia: Yes. Princess Cadance, Princess Moonstone Dream, Grape Luck and Shining Armor are already there. The others will be joining them soon.
Princess Luna: The Empire's magic is powerful. It cannot fall again, my sister.
Princess Celestia: She will succeed at her task. And when she does, we'll know that she is that much closer to being ready.
Twilight Sparkle: Ahem.
Princess Celestia: Trust me, little sister.
Rose Light: You wanted to see me? To give me a test? I brought my own quills and plenty of paper to show my work. Sorry, sorry!
Princess Celestia: This is a different kind of test. The Crystal Empire has returned.
Twilight Sparkle: The Crystal Empire? I'm sorry, I-I thought I'd studied. Ooh. I don't think there's anything in any of my books th–
Princess Celestia: There wouldn't be. Few remember it ever existed at all. Even my knowledge of the Empire is limited. But what I do know is that it contains a powerful magic. One thousand years ago, King Sombra, a unicorn whose heart was black as night, took over the Crystal Empire.
King Sombra: [growls]
[chains jangling]
Princess Celestia: He was ultimately overthrown, turned to shadow, and banished to the ice of the arctic north.
King Sombra: [roars]
Princess Celestia: But not before he was able to put a curse upon the Empire. A curse that caused it to vanish into thin air. If the Empire is filled with hope and love, those things are reflected across all of Equestria. If hatred and fear take hold... Which is why I need your help finding a way to protect it.
Rose Light: You want me to help protect an entire empire?
Princess Celestia: It is, as I said, a different kind of test. But one I'm certain you will pass.
Twilight Sparkle: How do I begin?
Princess Celestia: By joining Princess Cadance, Princess Moonstone Dream, Grape Luck and Shining Armor in the Crystal Empire.
YOU ARE READING
Discord
FanfictionThe spirit of chaos and disharmony known as Discord and his wife, Rose Light, escape from their stone imprisonment following an argument between the Cutie Mark Crusaders to which Princess Celestia summons Twilight and her friends to use the Elements...
