Sarah kept her gaze to the expansive plains and mighty forests that she saw through the window, deciding to not engage in any conversation that her fellow Fantasians were having as the Friendship Express went on its set path. Eventually, though, somepony noticed her silence and went up to her. The hippogryph heard a mare clearing her throat, and turned from the window to find Anna next to her, looking back with a concerned look on her face.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked in a low tone, frowning.

"Nothing. Just watching the hills roll by," Sarah replied with a shrug. "The sky in Mythos is so clear…"

"That's because the Cloudsdale pegasi schedule the weather around here, for every single town in Equestria," Shining piped up from his seat, garnering looks from the sisters as he spoke. "Did you guys see the mass of rainbow clouds?" At their nod, he stated simply, "That would be Cloudsdale." When Anna and Sarah's jaws dropped open, he quirked a brow and asked, "I take it you haven't seen the early morning cloud-kicking?" The two shook their heads, and the Captain sighed. "It's different for Fantasia, isn't it?"

"Ectoplasms run rampant," Lance answered when the twins failed to do so, garnering Shining's attention in the process. "And they hate pegasus ponies. I had to send a few of my gryphons after Rainbow Dash when she decided to scoop up some of her friends and drag them to the sky at fast speeds. You can ask her about it when we get back to Ponyville."

"I've seen it happen. I'm a witness," Spike added, raising a claw and nodding in affirmation.

Shining nodded, and his horn glowed for a moment. Materializing in a flash of magenta light, Sarah's eyes grew to the size of saucers as she recognized thin strings attached to a lightweight metal frame that briefly shimmered with green mana, which highlighted odd symbols carved into the steel.

"I believe this belongs to you," he said, turning to the hippogryph and cautiously handing her the harp in his magic. Sarah took it in her claws, incoherently sputtering for a few seconds. "The high mages figured out what was wrong with it, and tweaked its innate magic a bit. Go ahead, try to play it."

Fenrir and Maria cried out in unison, faces contorting to display wide-eyed horror when Sarah looked at the instrument and hesitantly rose a claw to one of its strings. They made to protest, but fell silent as a string was tenderly plucked, but did not radiate mana of any sort. The lyrist blinked and experimentally plucked a few more strings, yet the only thing that happened was a series of brief and serene twangs filling the air.

Anna looked at her sister's cutie mark, which still lacked the harp, and watched it as her sister started playing her instrument more. A sweet tune that did not devolve into a horrid cacophony filled the air as Sarah went on, and it relaxed everyone in the cab as she kept picking at the strings tenderly. The cutie mark of wind and halberd failed to change, even as the tune ended minutes later. The archer jerked her head to Shining and spoke up, "What was wrong with the harp?"

"It had a few curses—mainly forbidden cutie mark alteration and sound distortion, to name a few. One of my soldiers told me about your sister's cutie mark, and I sent word to the high mages, and they were able to get rid of the various hexes and add new ones," Shining answered, a pleased grin on his face.

"Cutie mark alteration?" Anna repeated, both brows shooting up.

"Sound distortion?" Katie inquired, ears raising to stand on their ends.

Shining nodded once. "Yes. Long story short, if a pony plays it good, the curses respond negatively, and vice-versa—so long as their mark had been altered by the main hex itself first. I do believe we've all been through such a song of the curse?" he stated, the remark causing Fenrir and Maria to pale a little. "However, since the main curse has been removed, and new enchantments put in place of the old ones, I do believe Sarah could will the harp to make such a song whenever she wanted—bear in mind that I said believe."

"So, you have a hypothesis, and a small hooffull of evidence… lemme guess, you didn't test it out yet?" Lance murmured, putting a hoof to his chin and rubbing it thoughtfully. Shining turned to him and nodded again, and the general nodded back in understanding. "Let's not make that hypothesis into theory right yet. Getting booted off this train is something I don't want to happen until we arrive at the station."

"A fair point," Shining agreed, still grinning. "And besides, I do believe I have several spare pairs of earmuffs at the Empire. We're going to need those before we test out the harp again." At this, Fenrir and Maria gave dual sighs of relief and let their heads drop for a moment. They looked up at the door as the yellow-coated stallion with the scarf and hat barged in.

"Is everypony alright? I heard screaming," the stallion stated, frowning as worry flickered in his eyes.

Shining turned to the new arrival. "It's alright," he said in a serene tone. When the scarf-wearing stallion's face did not shift in any way, he added, "No, seriously, it's fine."

"You sure about that?" the yellow pony asked, worry still flashing in his gold irises.

"Yes. I mistakenly hit my head on the lamp above me," Fenrir answered, using a paw to gesture to said lamp for emphasis.

"And I fell off the seat and stubbed my talon," Maria added in an overly innocent tone, raising a claw and putting a knuckle to her mouth.

"Well… alright then," the yellow stallion sighed. With that, he turned and left the room, closing the door behind himself on his way out.

"Let's put this away for now…" Anna murmured, her horn glowing. In a flash of emerald light, Sarah's harp vanished, despite the instrument still being in her talons up until then. Her sister responded by sending the archer a very sour look that boasted a pronounced frown and eyes narrowed to jade slits.

Fenrir reached over with a paw and grasped the hippogryph by her shoulder, being mindful of her broken wing. When Sarah turned to him, her glare eased up. "Just forego the harp for now," he said calmly and simply. He smiled when she nodded, and relinquished his hold on her shoulder, grin widening as she turned to the window with a blush painting her cheeks.

Anna turned to the diamond dog and immediately noted his smile, and she could not resist opening her mouth to speak about it, "You're grinning madly. You got something going on with my sister?" At this, everyone else in the cab turned to the sod, and he began blubbering in wide-eyed surprise. Fenrir's smile fell, a blush painted his cheeks, and he turned away whilst inaudibly grumbling to himself. "What's that? Speak up, I can't hear you," she persisted, a smile cropping up on her muzzle when he failed to comply.

"Natz, do you have a spare bag of popcorn on you?" Matt asked, turning to Natalie as he spoke.

Natalie donned a wry grin and slowly nodded, her horn glowing. "I brought several," she replied in a low voice.

"Do you and Sarah touch each other under the tails?" Maria asked, again in an innocent tone. Fenrir's pupils shrank, his eyes widened to the size of saucers, and all that left his mouth was a choking sound in response.

"N-no!" Sarah exclaimed, her voice an octave higher than usual. She wasted no time turning to the filly with more or less the same look on her face, except her cheeks were much redder than those of Fenrir's. "W-what makes y-you think that?!"

"The fact that you're blushing and stumbling over your own words are quite telling," Alexander remarked, garnering a squawk of alarm from Sarah, who made to hastily bury her face in her talons.

"I don't need my horn to see the crimson on your cheeks. Golly, your faces are red as ground cherries! You two are giving me a run for my bits here!" Katie piped up, a giggle escaping her mouth as she waved a hoof at her mane for emphasis.

"That's pretty bad," Spike remarked off-handedly, shaking his head as Fenrir hunched over with his red snout pointing to the floor and lowly growled in annoyance.

"I think it would be best to leave those two alone for a while," Armin stated in a snide voice, turning to Lance as he started chuckling.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The sun had fully set after a few hours, and still the Friendship Express churned on in the moonlit gloom. Everyone stowed themselves away in a few darkened cabs laden with bunk beds, with Shining, Lance, Armin, and Alexander falling asleep as soon as they got on the mattresses. Others, like Matt, Natalie, and Anna, stayed awake for a bit prior to nodding off. Spike, Katie, and Maria all shared a bed, and they jabbered so much they went from one topic to the next in the span of seconds. Zecora watched the three prattle on, and occasionally chimed in with her two bits before they fell asleep as well.

In the next cab over, all by themselves, Fenrir and Sarah sat in front of an empty bed, silent as stones. Their ears were swiveling seemingly at random, catching even the faintest of noises until all they heard was the train wheels turning and the occasional bump that accompanied it. The hippogryph sighed deeply and rose a claw to rub her eyes with, shoulders sagging for a moment as the diamond dog rested his paw on her withers.

"Seriously, Maria had no basis to make her accusation…" Sarah grumbled, still rubbing her eyes.

"That wasn't so much an 'accusation' as it was an embarrassing inquiry that should not have come from the mouth of a foal," Fenrir snarled, nostrils briefly flaring as he huffed.

"And besides, I don't even fornicate with anybody," Sarah stated, removing her claw from her face before crossing her forelimbs together. At this, Fenrir turned to her with a brow quirked.

"Not to be crass on my behalf, nor coming across as one with ill intent, but I feel the need to question your statement. Are you a virgin?" Fenrir inquired, garnering a nod from the hippogryph.

"Can't even stand the sight of someone's private parts, let alone if they're swinging in the open," Sarah replied, shuddering for a moment. "Unless it's in the event where a rapist gets his or her shit harmed in any way, shape, or form."

Fenrir nodded in understanding. "A chaste mare... " he mumbled, deliberately closing his mouth and keeping his remark unfinished when he saw Sarah turn to look at him from the corner of his eye.

"Let's just share a bed tonight. We're not doing anything else—we need our rest, and don't need to confirm Maria's suspicions in the process," Sarah scoffed, and with that, she turned around and climbed into the bed first. Fenrir followed her, though only after she had gotten comfortable, and made sure his back faced outward. A minute after they had settled, the sound of trotting hooves hit their ears, and shortly after that many Mythonian ponies they did not know came in from the south end of the cab and took the other beds.

"What's a diamond dog doing here?" a stallion asked a mare as he claimed the top bunk directly above said diamond dog he spoke of.

Fenrir groaned and lifted a paw up, knocking on the bottom of the top bunk. He craned his neck and met with the gaze of the stallion who questioned his presence after he went to poke his head down. "I am a vagabond, much like you are at this current time of day. Please do not ask why I am present on this locomotive," he said in a low whisper. The stallion nodded and retracted his head to his bunk, and the diamond dog sighed before turning his head back to Sarah.

"A filthy mutt has no business travelling on Equestria's railways, let alone on her roads," a mare with a haughty-sounding voice scoffed as she trotted past Fenrir. "I'm impressed he can speak normally."

Fenrir let off a quiet growl, but did not move from his bed or say anything in protest. All he did was ball his paw into a firm fist, though he relaxed when Sarah patted his shoulder with a claw in support. He smiled at the hippogryph, before immediately frowning when somepony else decided to pipe up, "Does he have a bird with him? I see a claw on his shoulder!"

Sarah sat up and scoffed, "I'm a hippogryph." With that, she laid back down and sighed, before scowling as the arrogant-sounding mare decided to stick in two more of her bits.

"Equestria has no conceivable use for half-eagle mongrels. Why, has anypony else heard about what happened to Chanson Cheval?" the conceited-sounding mare asked, and instantly the cab erupted into hushed murmurs between ponies that were loud enough to mute out Sarah's snarl of contemptment.

"Yeah. Heard he lifted a foreign hippogryph's tail in front of the Captain of Their Majesties' Royal Guard," a stallion piped up. "Gave her a good bashing, too."

"What got into that sorry stallion? What drove him to try and get his dick wet with a half-gryphon?" another asked.

"Quarter-gryphon," Sarah murmured to herself, her claws balling up.

"I do not believe he was trying to fornicate with such a mongrel. Don't be ridiculous—who'd even attempt to perform coitus in public, especially with that misguided Shining Armor a few paces away?" the vain mare hissed in a dismissive tone. "That fool should've sent that gryph to the dungeons, instead of Chanson."

Sarah sat up again, and this time made to climb past Fenrir to get off the bed. "Oh yeah, well that gryph is currently in the same cab with the rest of you!" she exclaimed, the red that was cropping up on her face concealed by the darkness.

She immediately heard a sharp "harrumph!" as a mare climbed out of a bed on the other end of the cab and lit up a horn with a golden light, revealing a pink body and orange mane both cleaned and held up with fancy-looking sticks. This mare sported metal shoes and an expensive evening gown, one hewn of multicolored silk, that wrapped tightly around her forelegs and cascaded down her back legs in a manner that obscured her cutie mark.

"And what business do you have, exactly?" the mare in the gown asked in the same haughty tone, eyes of silver narrowing to glare coldly at Sarah.

"Currently? I'm gonna tell you to your face up front," Sarah replied in an equally cold voice, and she marched over to the mare until their muzzles were inches apart. "Shut the fuck up, you self-centered, ignorant, arrogant, holier-than-thou, making-an-ass-of-yourself cockface." The other ponies in the cab shared a collective gasp of surprise and alarm that the snobbish mare echoed as she reeled and took a few paces back in shock.

Fenrir turned over, climbed out of the bed and rushed to the mares before stepping between them when they took a step towards the other. "Ladies, please return to your bunks. I do not wish for you to fight any further," he said. Sarah sighed and trotted over to her bed, climbing in without even grumbling to herself. The diamond dog didn't join the gryph until the gown-wearing mare gathered herself and begrudgingly went back to her bed.

"Celestia-damned mongrels, why don't you canter off back to your dirt hole? You and any intellectually-inferior children you might produce would be much better off tilling fields than trying to sound sophisticated and trample on roads you have no business being on," the prissy mare scoffed one last time.

This caused Sarah to fly into a rage, and she jumped out of bed faster than Fenrir could grab her. The gryph ran halfway to the mare before the diamond dog got up, caught up with her, snatched her by the tail, and pulled her sharply back.

He did this all the while Sarah managed to shriek out, "Prepare thy ass, haughty cunt, for a noble and honor-bound bitchslapping!" Fenrir wrapped an arm around the hippogryph's midsection and hoisted her off of her claws and hooves, keeping hold of her as she wildly thrashed about in an attempt to break free and deliver a smackdown to somepony.

The door on the northernmost end of the cab burst open, and Shining Armor trotted inside. "I heard the whole thing. Cease with the hostilities, immediately!" he barked, his outburst causing the vain mare to turn to him and Sarah to cease her struggling and screaming. He turned to the gown-wearing unicorn and added, "You're speaking ill of easily-provoked foreign diplomats who came all the way from Fantasia. I would advise you do not speak to them, especially since you have nothing nice to say."

"Fantasian diplomats?" the conceited pony asked, quirking a brow as a bemused grin crossed her muzzle. "They don't even look the part."

"That is true in that they don't look like much, but that hardly matters. It's best for you and everypony else in this cab to leave them be," Shining warned, eyes shifting to the ponies who wisely stayed in their beds. He then turned to Sarah and added, "And you, calm down. Let me take care of this." Sarah nodded to him and took a few deep breaths, though Fenrir was reluctant to put her down. The two watched intently as the prissy mare approached the Captain, her movements garnering his attention.

"You are but a fool, Shining Armor," the gown-wearing unicorn started, her smile morphing into a wicked grin. "My cousin Chanson would be a much better Captain of the Guard than you. Why, I think he could whip your troops into shape at velocities and volumes you could only dream of."

Shining narrowed his eyes. "All I saw was a fool who broke several laws while he performed his little stunts. I dare say, it seems foolishness runs in his—and by extension, your—family," he replied coldly.

The mare stopped her advance, eyes widening and a foreleg rising as a startled gasp left her mouth. "F-foolish, you say?" she inquired, her voice faltering. "S-surely, you jest."

"I do not jest," Shining stated, his gaze level. "You'd rather believe your cousin is perfect in every way, instead of accepting that the things he has done were wrong."

"Why, I never!" the mare hissed, stomping her raised hoof onto the floor with the might of a pouting child. "Chanson never did anything wrong! It was that blasted hippogryph!"

"Lies, lies, and more lies," Shining retorted, shaking his head as he spoke. "You seem dead set on spreading misinformation wherever you trot. Honestly, I pity anypony who fell into whatever pitfalls you've succumbed to."

The mare's left eye began twitching. "Lies, me? I believe it is you ceaselessly spouting out and simultaneously espousing those lies," she stated in a firm, cold voice. She begun advancing again, only stopping when the Captain spoke.

"You poor, deluded soul," Shining said simply. This remark caused the mare to let out a wordless, bestial snarl, and she wasted not one second in closing the distance to him. Everypony gasped as her hoof shot out and connected solidly with his left eye, causing him to stagger into the cab behind him from surprise while leaving a sizeable horseshoe-shaped mark in the process. She made to lunge again, but an aura of magenta magic halted her before she could move.

"Ma'am, I'm afraid I'll have to put you under arrest for assaulting a royal guard and the Emperor of the Crystal Empire. You will be detained at the Crystal Empire upon arrival," Shining growled, summoning a magic inhibitor and capping the mare's horn with it. At first, the vain pony didn't move, instead staring at him in wide-eyed shock—almost as if she could not comprehend even the slightest thing in what was going on.

Then her eyelids slanted and she started stomping her hooves, sucking in deep breaths before making rather unconvincing whines of protest. "I didn't do anything wrong! It's that dumb hippogryph's fault!" she cried out, her attempt at crocodile tears making Fenrir and Sarah just roll their eyes in unison.

"Um, yes you did. You did a big no-no," a stallion on a bunk bed piped up, causing the pompous mare to whine more.

"And you are behaving rather childishly on top of that," Fenrir added, putting Sarah down before raising a paw and letting it connect with his face.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The following morning, the group had been dropped off at a station that stood in a grassy plain, and in the distance loomed some sort of tall, tealish structure that managed to reflect a great deal of sunlight. A road of crystal had been set into the dirt and it started just shy of the station, marked by pairs of thin crystal columns of varying colors. Shining still had the detained mare whose head hung low, as well as a black eye that had formed from where she managed to sock him.

Lance eyed the mare in the gown and asked, "Lemme guess, she did something stupid?"

"Straight-up gave me this," Shining answered, using a hoof to gesture to his new bruise. "I'll have her taken to the Empire's dungeons, after I find some guards to escort her."

Matt nodded. He turned to the road and pointed to it. "And that will lead us to the Empire?" he questioned.

"You'd be right on the money," Shining replied, and he trotted to it after hefting the arrested mare in his magic, dragging her with him. The Fantasians and Zecora followed him, with Spike hitching a ride on Lance's back. A cool breeze wafted by as the bunch started following the sparkling road.

"Chanson didn't do anything wrong…" the detained mare mumbled.

"The day he stops being an assclown is the same day I lose my virginity while I go into heat," Sarah snapped, her remark causing Lance to shudder and pause for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Spike asked, tilting his head.

"It's just… the way she said that… it disturbs me. Greatly," Lance replied in an uneasy voice as he began trotting again. "I-I'd explain it to you better, but you're a kid, Spike. It's… let's not speak of this again."

"Alright…" Spike grumbled, slowly nodding. With that, the group went on without further incident and found themselves passing under a magenta crystal gate roughly thirty minutes later. Still the road continued to stretch, and in place of the crystal posts thereafter, shrubs and a few small trees sprouted. They continued on, and another fifteen minutes passed before they found a street of the Empire.

The street was also hewn of crystal, and so were the various buildings on either side of it, for that matter. Some were simple houses that gleamed in many colors, while others were shops boasting elegant signs and the occasional crystal statue. The street was fairly linear, giving the Fantasians and Zecora a decent view of the tealish building.

A few ponies were out and about, tending to stands and lawns and such, and all of them had glittering coats and manes that appeared to reflect and refract the very sunlight at the same time. Even their eyes and cutie marks glistened in this manner, and most had small grins on their faces. Some noticed Shining's presence and ran up to him before bowing their heads. "You may rise," Shining stated, and the ponies that bowed stood up straight. He gave the group a level look before asking, "Could you move, please? I need to get to the palace, and so do my guests."

"Yes," one of the ponies said, a stallion with a yellow coat and greenish mane. "Um, why're you holding that mare in your magic? And what's with the black eye?" he asked.

"She punched me in the face last night, and will be detained shortly," Shining replied with a sigh. The assembled crystal ponies nodded, and with that they cleared a path. They eyed the Fantasians as Shining trotted on down the road with them following him.

"That one has eyes… eyes as red as Sombra's," one golden-coated mare whispered fearfully to another, using a shaking hoof to gesture to Lance for emphasis.

"What's the Great and Honorable Spike, the Brave and Glorious doing on his back?" another mare with a blue coat asked without whispering, shuddering for a moment.

Spike heard the question and answered the second crystal mare, "He's just one of the visiting Fantasians. His eyes are red, sure, but he's a good pony. Trust me."

The whispering mares sighed in relief and nodded. They waved at Spike, who casually waved back at them with a friendly smile, and the group went on to the tealish building. "What did they call you?" Lance asked, craning his neck to look at the drake on his back as he trotted with the others.

"Oh, Great and Honorable and Brave and Glorious," Spike replied with a shrug.

"Why do they call you that?" Lance continued, a brow quirking up.

"Long story. Short of it is, I helped save the Crystal Empire," Spike answered with a grin. Lance sighed and turned his head to face forward, and noticed he had fallen a little bit behind the others as he chatted with Spike. He rushed up to meet them before slowing his pace.

As the group trotted onward, the crystal ponies took increasing notice of their visitors and emperor. They either said polite hellos that usually went to Shining or Spike, or make concerned remarks about Lance's eyes that were simply ignored. Almost none of them heeded the levitating gown-wearing mare, and when a few did and asked about her, they were told she was under arrest.

It took less than ten minutes to reach the teal structure, and the Fantasians gawked as they found that much of it stood on four rather slender but sturdy legs forming four brilliant arcs and a flat ceiling. Underneath this overhang, smack-dab in the middle jutted twin teal spikes, with one going up and the other going down. Between them, smoothly floating by itself and spinning slowly was a heart hewn of this same crystal, and for a moment it pulsated with pure mana. "Holy…" Anna remarked, breathing in deeply.

Shining turned to the Fantasians and noticed them gawking. "Like what you see?" he asked, garnering hesitant nods and wide-eyed looks from his visitors. He heard hooves coming from behind, followed by a stallion clearing his throat, and whirled around to find himself face-to-face with a crystal unicorn sporting purple and silver armor that gleamed like his body.

"Emperor Armor, may I ask why you have a mare floating in the air?" the armored crystal pony asked in a flat voice.

Shining gestured to his black eye and answered, "She did this to me last night, and I detained her for assault. Take her to the dungeons, at once." The armored crystal pony replied and his horn lit up, and he grasped the mare in his magic as the Captain relinquished his hold on her.

"Chanson didn't do anything wrong, you mongrels…" the mare growled as the guard escorted her away. Just as the guard made it to one of the massive legs of the structure, she spoke again, this time shouting, "Chanson didn't do anything wrong, you filthy, deluded mongrels!" The guard went into the leg, dragging her with him, and the Fantasians simply blinked at the anomaly.

Anna turned to the nearest leg and trotted to it, quickly finding a winding staircase that went up and down. "Oooooh… I see," she murmured before galloping back to the others. "The legs have stairs inside them." The other Fantasians turned to her and gawked, and she motioned for them with a hoof to follow her. Spike hopped of Lance's back before they went to the anomaly after Anna rushed back to it.

"Stairs? Going up and down?" Natalie asked, looking at the flight Anna lead her and the others to. "That's… odd. This must be pretty big to require multiple floors."

"That's the case with the palace. Think of it like Canterlot's castle, except going into the ground and sky at the same time," Shining remarked as he rushed up to the group who eyed the flight of stairs like it was their first. They turned to him and donned calm looks before nodding in understanding. "Lemme show you around, and then we can hit the library," he added, trotting over to the heart that floated and spun languidly between the crystal spikes. The others followed him, vexed gazes falling onto the heart itself.

When they came near it, the heart began glowing a faint yellow for a moment, and then it turned red before reverting back to its teal hue. "What the…" Shining murmured, leaning in close to the heart, but not close enough for his muzzle to touch it. The colors shifted again, to yellow, then red, and teal. "The Crystal Heart hasn't done this before…" He leaned back and shrugged to himself before turning and addressing his guests, "Whatever you guys do, do not touch this."

"Is it fragile?" Lance asked, tilting his head.

"No. You could disrupt its innate mana, and it's acting a little strange as is," Shining answered, turning back to the Heart as it cycled through three colors again.

"Disruption of innate mana is certainly strange. You mean to tell us this is the first you've seen the Heart do such a change?" Zecora asked, using a hoof to gesture to the Heart as a frown framed itself on her muzzle.

"That is very odd… maybe we should ask Cadence about it when we get the chance," Spike suggested with a shrug.

Shining nodded, also frowning. "I guess I'll show you to the library first… maybe it has a book about this phenomenon. While you guys are in the library, I'll fetch Cadence," he murmured. With that, he trotted over to one of the sturdy legs and descended its flight of stairs, with the Fantasians, Spike, and Zecora following suit. They trotted in single file, and reached the end of the flight a minute later.

As soon as they stopped, the Fantasiasns paled as a large library made of crystal spanned out for several yards before them, on four separate floors that were kept apart by crystal panes and many more staircases going between them. A glass pane had been placed overhead, letting the sun's light shine upon the scene.

"By Godcat's teats… this is huge!" Matt cried, irises shrinking at the sight. "This'll take days, if not weeks, to go through!"

"I don't even know how much of this is organized, sadly," Shining sighed, shaking his head. He blinked when he saw a blur of pink with bits of purple and yellow whiz past two shelves on a lower floor.

"Oh, where is it, where is it, where is it?" a mare's voice repeated over and over as the blur came and went, the tone erring on the panicked side. "Amethyst Maresbury said it was in this row!"

"It seems we have another pony scouring the shelves," Shining noted. "And I think I know who it is."

"Cadence?" Spike guessed, garnering a nod from Shining.

"Let's follow her," Shining replied, wasting no time in galloping to the nearest flight of stairs that lead further down.