Pockets of radiation were becoming more frequent, which was an indication that we were getting close to our goal as we moved on. Subtly natural hills were becoming marked by changes in the snow covered scenery where irregular pockets of displaced earth formed crater like dips in our travel. Within the next day we had come across a total of four or so trenches that were filled with unrecognizable dead bodies mostly buried in snow. Whatever guns or identifying equipment they had long since scavenged over the last hundred ninety years by other scavengers of the arctic wastes. Pumpkin pointed out from the direction the skeletons had been facing that they were likely Zebra skeletons, and with a bit of superstition she had decided to resolutely stay out of said trenches until proven wrong.

It was the third trench that was the kicker as the second and fourth trench was facing the other way with a mixed amount of pony bones, and others. The Crystal Empire, as far as I knew had been a melting pot of cultures who sought protection from the war, and having been seemingly dragged in it their trenches were full of all sorts of creatures bones. From minotaurs (much more humanely shaped than Bull Frown's), Zebras, unicorns, earth ponies, even a few Pegasus skeletons. Surprisingly there were also a few creature skeletons I hadn't seen before as well. From what I could gather, the unknown skeleton types bones belonged to that of some sort of bipedal canine with large arms in comparison to their rear legs. Similar to the Diamond Dog. A species I had studied in the stable, well relatively speaking. Grey had given my caste a crash course on the eastern and central side of the Equestrian wasteland. Which had contained a species called 'Hell Hounds'; but they were deemed too dangerous to be brought in for the arena fights due to their ability to dig and their apparent claw sharpness...

Was his a Hell Hound skeleton? No, what would they be doing all the way out here? This was more likely the 'Snow-Hound' skeleton that the cannibal ponies had mentioned when they built their land-mine net. I studied it over, taking note that while smaller in frame than the notes made on Hell hounds (About four feet tall compared to the seven to ten that Grey had mentioned hell hounds being...) it came as a surprise how durably built their skeletal system was. The skeleton had a rib-cage with a fused flat sturdy surface on the chest, providing a very natural form of armor that would very easily deflect small arms fire in short bursts. While not necessarily bullet proof(And few armors were), it was an upgrade in protection in comparison to my own chitin exterior. The Spine was more intriguing, as it and the rest of the rib-cage seemed to be linked in a manner that allowed the rib-cage to shift, allowing one of two things, if a new theory was correct.

In theory, this collapsible rib-cage system, linked by cartilage and probably additional muscles would allow them to absorb immense blunt force trauma to their chest regions, as well as maintain the ability to squeeze into tight and narrow spaces around the size that only a newborn foal could really fit into. It was also possible that this rib-cage could also puff out, to appear more intimidating to another individual, maybe to another member of a pack like community, similar to how some birds and pegasus ponies were able to puff out their chest to seem extra fluffy during courtship.

My mind momentarily wondered if Grey could of done that, the hilarious mental image of my grizzled old instructor with his mouth shut, full of air, and a chest full of extra fluff momentarily eliciting a soft snort from me, before getting back to the more deadly features of the Snow hound. Their claws were finely maintained, even in death they seemed quite sharp, easily capable of ripping through stone, though I had my doubts about metal or harder substances without being able to see the muscle mass proportion that these hounds had... I'd need to meet a live one to study that particular asset.

I made a few notes in my pipbuck before we progressed on, and it seemed in my stop to study Pumpkin had managed to scavenge a small stash of beer and wine, which had been carefully hidden in a hole sized just right for an old mattress to hide the alcohol. It didn't take an expert to know what she was going to do with it. Shaking my head with a small smile, we continued on.

Around midday we made it up over a larger hill, where a new sight found us. It was still distant, several miles away, but visible as a distinguishable speck on the horizon, was the ruins of the Crystal Empire.

Well, that and another blizzard rolling in in the distance. Next to me, Pumpkin was positively exuberant, "And here I was starting to think that you were leading us to our end out here in this arctic hell." She hit me in the side with a forehoof playfully, "But there it is! Far away, but still there! The one and only, lost to the ages Crystal-damned Empire!"

To my credit I gave her a worn out Squee myself. Personally I was starting to have reservations as well about the accuracy of my own map, "Just a bit farther and we'll be in the city!"

"Yep." She started to dig into her pack, "But with that blizzard coming around again, we may need to wait a day or two. Lets get ourselves situated before it hits, yes?"

She stated that last part as a question with a sidelong glance, as though wondering if I was more eager to risk the storm and continue towards it, but I simply nodded in agreement as we dug in away from the storm, setting up tent and camp on the side of the hill that was less likely to be blown away from the storm, and entrenched ourselves there. We had about an hour, half the time I had estimated before the storm begin to hit, as we shared a relatively cramped camping space we cooked some canned carrots using a Hotplate powered a laser rifle clip.

The wind was howling, and distantly I wondered if I heard something more in those sounds. As if the howls of wind weren't just that, but howls of wolves or dogs as well. My nervousness made Pumpkin chuckle, which turned into a small laugh as I explained why. With a bit of mirth she replied, "Seriously Aria? Wolves in this weather? I'd be surprised if they haven't gone to ground as well if there were any around us. If you want to get your mind off it, why did you even want to head all the way out here, to the Empire? I mean its certainly has its qualities for the adventurous types, but its even more dangerous to survive out here than the normal wasteland with all these added difficulties.

I looked to the side to meet the gaze of the masked Nightmare Nighter that was Pumpkin Blitz, that ever mysterious mask a barrier. Rarely had I ever seen any part of her face, and it was mostly just her mouth when she was eating, as currently with the cooked carrots. I wondered for a short while if she ever took it off, and what she would look like under it. I'd kept my mouth shut out of respect for her personal space, but curiosity slowly gnawed and worked itself trying to figure out an image that would fit, and failed.

I took to consuming my own portion of carrots to remove hunger and as a distraction from my initial thoughts. But then more thoughts came from the carrots themselves. How in Equestria did they manage to preserve carrots in a CAN for near two hundred years? Was a simple preservation spell really THAT effective? I'd add that onto the list of things I needed to learn about. I was cut from my thoughts as Pumpkin spoke up, "What are you looking for, anyway? Something important in the Empire, from as much as I can gather, but what?"

That was a good question, I was told there had been something important in the north, something that had validated travel as far as I was, but I didn't really have much to go on aside from collecting something that would help me free the Changelings back at my stable. It was my morale obligation and duty to protect the fellow members of my hive... even if it was from both themselves and the stable ponies who lived there as their tyrannical slavers.

The Answer you seek, is the Crystal Heart. An item that both founded and established the Crystal Empire... The voice of Roggar spoke in my head without warning.

So that's its name? But what IS it? And how do I get it?

That... is a long story, one both of you need to hear if we are to be successful. Will you be my mouth as I tell this story?

Alright voice in my head, hopefully I won't seem insane to my companion for what you're going to have me say. Quickly I told Pumpkin that I had a story for her about the Crystal Empire and why I had to go there. She nodded and settledown, pulling out a tin that quickly filled with popcorn as she cooked it on her hotplate, and settled in for the story... When she was ready Roggar began to speak again, and through him, my mouth started to speak as well, repeating each sentence as he told them.

Once Upon A Time...

In the days before the founding of Equestria, there had lived three major tribes of ponies. The Unicorns, Earth Ponies, and Pegasai. Long story short they were xenophobic to each other, and often extorted each other and abused each other with feelings of hate. Tensions run high as the most numerous pony, the earth pony, was extorted of food all three needed to live, for in exchange, the unicorns raised and lowered the sun and moon, while the Pegasai controlled the weather needed for the earth ponies to live. The unicorns with their magic, were snobbish to the extreme for their abilities, looking down on all the other more passive magic users like the Pegasai and the earth ponies. The Pegasai, warriors to the extreme, looked down upon the unicorns quite literally from their cloud homes, claiming aerial superiority as the best.

The Earth ponies in the meantime, just wanted to be left alone, and be free of the other two tribes that taxed them so. The earth pony wasn't without their strengths, however. Their endurance often meant they were able to work longer and harder than the other two, and had a way with nature, at times, that bordered on the supernatural. It was this natural talent with plants and animals that had the other two races extort them, for plants couldn't grow without either good weather or sunshine, and it was this tyranny that lead to the first revolt and war of pony-kind.

It had started small, a single earth pony, wiser than most in the ways of the spirit and plant life, brewed a potion to be rid of the unicorns and the pegasus ponies that hated them, and to use that hatred against them. Their fur was black as coal, and their cutiemark of a tribal design made of white swirls. They brewed their potion, cursing the other two tribes as she sung. With this, the invention of black magic was born, but what she gave birth to, from that stone cauldron, wasn't the answer she sought, but a plague.

A distant ghastly neighing sound, one so shrill it drove shivers down their spines.

A windigo was born, a spirit created that would feed off hate, and freeze the world around it in turn. Their village barely escaped, but not before it was destroyed, and its residents scarred forever with the white stripes of its hooves slashing down upon them as they ran. The first Zebras were made, and they didn't stop running until they reached the sea. And from the sea, the Zebras first invented the boat and sailed across in their panic the memories of their creation burned into their minds.

The Windigo didn't pursue, after all it had a greater purpose that it was made for, and all the hate it fed off of in the following months increased its numbers. From one, to two, to four, to eight, and so on... And so on... Until hundreds of windigos roamed the lands, coating land and sky in an endless winter as hundreds died. Some escaped in this land, some pegasus ponies hid in the caves until the feathers fell from their wings, and became thestrals, also known as bat ponies, while the rest fled to the south, away from the freezing menace.

Unicorns at first tried to combat the windigos with magic, but none of their spells had a lasting impact against them, having tuned themselves for refinery and casual experimentation with magic, they had to rediscover the combative means of which to fight this method. At first they had the brilliant idea of creating something to combat the windigos. And so they underwent experimentation. But as life would have it, instead of creating something to fight hatred with love, they created another threat upon the world. Something that would absorb love just as readily as the windigos absorbed hatred. Hunted down, only one escaped, through the adaptation of becoming more bug like, they gathered the skills and powers necessary to become the first Changeling on the planet, and subsequently the first Queen. The remaining unicorns then turn, and fled their mountain homes, to the south, in order to escape the windigos.

The three races fled, southward, the only direction safe as none of the remaining three had any knowledge of naval travel that the Zebras had invented, nor the caves that the thestrals had hid in, or the guile of the changelings to cover themselves. Their numbers were dwindling as they fled, naught but eight remained by the time they found each other, and only six of them were of the three main tribes. Two of each tribe, but three rulers between them and their most trusted advisors behind them.

Daughter of the unicorn king, Princess Platinum, who's father had died fighting off the windigos.

The Ruler of the pegasai, Commander Hurricane. A Stallion who had gone to war and failed against the winter spirits.

And lastly, leader of the earth ponies, Chancellor pudding head.

Each of them wanted to claim this land for their own, and their 'grand peace summit' promptly turned into a nest of cursing and swearing as they promised to undo each others lives. Their arguing attracted the attention once more of the windigos who descended upon the rulers. Doing as they had always done, as their advisers stared in horror at the scene before them. They had advised to work peace between the other rulers, and the way they had thrown aside such talk had broken them. But as they stared at their freezing, and then frozen rulers, they found similarities between them. A comradeship in their seemingly final minutes of breath.

Their advisers names were Private Pansy, of the pegasai, who admitted first that she felt no hatred for the others, just a dislike for her frozen commanders brashness. Followed by Smart Cookie of the earthponies, who admitted much the same. The last of them was the one who had been Starswirl The Bearded's apprentice, a powerful unicorn in his own right by the name of Clover the Clever. It was with the last statement that the Windigos felt no more hate, and their power started to weaken. With that chance, Clover casted his final spell from the emotions of his new friends hearts and they created the first fire of friendship...

But against the windigo hordes it was not enough. Three could stand against a large group, sure, but the amassed hatred of three entire tribes? The world was not as optimistic, but their fire wasn't left to die. From the shadows two sisters, a mixed breed between the three tribes, Starswirls own daughters made in secret, was the new wardens of the sun and moon, who fueled that fire with their own devotion, as alicorn magic aided the three tribes own fueled friendship, they began to thaw. But the fire, no matter how bright would burn itself down quite quickly, so the alicorn sisters converted the walls of the cave to form a vessel made entirely of crystal... And thus, The Crystal Heart, the eternal fire of friendship, was made.

The sisters fled in secret before the tribes learned of them, but Clover the clever caught but a glimpse of their saviors before they left, and when they were thawed, new peace was born between the three tribes as advisers became leaders, and the remenants of pony kind came together to form Equestria.

The war grew stagnet for a while after that, powered by love, the crystal heart protected the ponies from windigos, and without the hate that fueled, them the windigos gradually began to die off, but their wrath had left a stain upon the world that couldn't be healed by either magic or friendship. The north was covered in a permanent layer of snow. Eventually, after the Princesses revealed themselves and took over as the diarchs of equestria, the Crystal heart was taken back to the homeland of pony kind by earth ponies and unicorns who wanted to resettle and wipe out the windigo threat. Great builders and great casters did fight battle after battle in their war, eventually wiping the remaining windigos, their hate filled creations from the face of the earth. But as the earth ponies had created the windigos, the windigos weren't dumb. They were smart... In the time it took the ponies to recover they had made a threat greater than themselves...

Roggars voice sighed in Aria's head, long weary, as if he had thought this over for a long time... Dark magic had been born, and from its creation, it had been extended. New spirits joined the sky as the windigo's created a vengeance upon the land. A beautiful bejeweled sky, came to life as a shower of comets heading upwards, creating the stars that joined the otherwise lonesome moon. A deadly beauty as their new spirits could enact upon the world in subtle ways. Manipulating the course of events relatively uninterrupted for thousands of years to come. The world had become cursed, as the last true windigo fell, they vowed to return to destroy their creators, and to break the world upon its back from the hatred it had wrought... If they could see the world now, they would laugh, with mirth, and wipe the remainder of us out.

The Crystal heart's creation signaled many more events to come. Many of which had long since passed. The disappearance of the empire and the heart left many questioning what to do should the windigos return, but a thousand years passed and it reappeared the same as it had been left, some blamed the stars for its disappearance, but others blamed its ruler... The truth obscured, under the fantasies of hate, and the misconception and miss guided education of the youth. But these are all stories for another time...

Xp footnote: 75% until level up.

Note added: The Founding of Equestria.
Note added: The Crystal Heart
Note added: Snow-Hound Observations
Note added: Windigos

I wanted to do my take on the tale, as a way not only to cover up the plot hole about the shows use of the two sisters on the founding equestrian flag, which wouldn't of made sense unless Celestia and Luna were already seen at that point by one of them (Presumably Clover the Clever, since it somewhat seems that Celestia already knew Starswirl personally somehow. One does not simply have Starswirls last diary without knowing something about him I'd think)

I also wanted to make a less kid friendly version of the tale as well as include the various deviations of the three equine tribes we know of. (well I sort of skipped the horses of saddle Arabia, but to be fair, they were in the show for all of what? Five seconds?) While introducing some of the darker aspects fallout was known for. I also wanted to make reference to why 'the stars will aide in her escape' mentioned in the start of the show for Nightmare Moon, as well as the 6th season mlp tale about scrouge-mc-high-horse with the windigos being able to return if hearths warming isn't celebrated.

Well, hope you guys enjoyed it.