"What's a crystal pony doing here?" Twilight asked in surprise as she gawped at the dark grey crystal pony.

The pony looked down on them with obvious disdain. "You're asking me the questions? Seriously?" Twilight folded her ears back and grinned sheepishly.

"Why is nopony else concerned that pony is made out of shiny crap?" the filly asked. "Am I seriously the only fucking pony worried about that." Summer gingerly held up a hoof, "Thank you Summer!"

"Relax," Fleur told her. "Crystal ponies are ponies from the Crystal Empire where everything is really crystally, even the ponies."

"Oh thank you Fleur, that was really fucking helpful."

The crystal pony narrowed his eyes at Fleur, "How do you know about the Crystal Empire?" he demanded.

"Because I've been there. In fact... Hooves up everypony that's been there." Fleur held up a hoof, joined by Twilight and Octavia. "It was on my to do list," muttered Trixie.

"But that's impossible!" the stallion yelled. "The Empire vanished over a thousand years ago!"

"Mmhmm, and it came back last year." Twilight cocked her head quizzically, "Surely you would have noticed when your coats became crystalline again?"

"No, our coats have always been crystalline down here!" The stallion appeared to be on the verge of a few blown aneurysm.

"Really? How?" Twilight asked in disbelief.

"I. Am. Asking. The questions!" the stallion yelled at her. He took a moment to compose himself and in a far calmer tone of voice asked "What of the traitor King Sombra?"

"He's gone, destroyed by the Crystal Heart." Twilight told him, taking note of the relief that crossed the stallions features.

"The Crystal Heart is back? Are you sure?"

"Positive. I'm actually the pony that found it," Twilight said, although she felt embarrassed for saying it like that. The stallion fell quiet, the silence stretching out far longer than necessary.

"You wants we should toss 'em in the deeps now boss?" one of the dogs asked, clearly becoming agitated by the stallion's silence.

"No! No... Get them out of that pit and put inhibitors on the unicorns and bind the pegasi's wings; we're taking them to the council." Two of the dogs dropped their weapons and set about digging a ramp that the ponies could walk up while two more dogs jumped into the pit, jamming inhibitors on Twilight's, Fleur's and Trixie's horns before pulling out some rope to bind Summer's wings. Twilight sighed in relief that the inhibitor didn't cancel the spell hiding her wings.

Octavia quickly interspersed herself between Summer and the dog, "You don't need to do that, she can't fly!"

"Huh, likely story," the hulking diamond dog said before roughly shoving Octavia aside. He stomped towards Summer who backed up until her rear hit the side of the pit before cowering down and sobbing, her wings locked tightly to her sides.

"Stop Bruto," the stallion said, the diamond dog backing off a few steps. "Can she genuinely not fly?"

"She doesn't know how. She was trained and kept as a sex slave her entire life, and she used to be punished if she tried to fly. We literally only rescued her the other day and we haven't even tried to teach her."

The disgust was evident on the stallions face and he nodded to Bruto. "Leave the pegasus unbound; she doesn't need to be traumatised further." Bruto growled and crammed the rope back into his armour before reclaiming his weapon and pointing it at the six ponies. "How do you intend on teaching a pegasus to fly? Especially in this country?" the stallion asked.

There were some awkward glances between four of the six ponies, a confused glance from the shortest one among them, and Summer was still cowering on the floor, trying her best to stop shaking while Octavia rubbed her back. "We haven't worked that out yet," said Fleur. "We'll probably work on it once we get back to Equestria."

The stallion raised an eyebrow, "You're Equestrians?"

"Two of us certainly. Another two of us have lived there for some time."

The stallion shook his head and grinned, "The council are going to have a field day with you lot."

"How much further is it?" the filly whined, "We've been walking for aaggeeessss..."

"Stop whining little pony," Bruto behind them growled, making Twilight grin as she remembered how Rarity had dealt with the diamond dogs back home. Suddenly the haft of a spear struck her on the rear, causing her to yelp and limp for a few steps before walking normally again.

"What was that for?"

"Won't hit baby pony. Yet. So hit you instead because you find dogs' pain funny."

"But I'm not a baaaby! Why are you so meeeaaannn?? What did I ever do to yooouuuu-aah!!" Bruto swung his spear so the bottom of it struck the filly squarely between her rear legs, sending her flying a couple meters to land with her cloak over her head. She jammed one foreleg between her thighs and screamed while her other leg scrambled to move her cloak back over her back, but not before Twilight noticed a strange pink line on the filly's back, devoid of fur.

The other diamond dogs set on Bruto the moment the filly had landed and proceeded to claw, bite and punch him, swiftly drawing blood. The stallion walked up to Bruto while Twilight and the others made a barrier around the filly. The other dogs ceased their attack, allowing the stallion to approach Bruto, who tried to stand up before being roughly pushed back down by the stallion. "Did I tell you to do that?"

"B-but sir! She just prisoner!" Bruto yelped as the stallion backhoofed him across the face.

"I said, did I tell you to do that?"

"No boss man."

"No, I did not, because I would never tell you to strike a filly. Even if I did I would never tell you to strike her in such a way. Try that again and you'll be cleaning latrines for the rest of your miserable life, got it?"

"Yes boss man." The stallion stepped away from the prone dog, allowing him to drag himself back to his paws, whining pitifully all the while.

"I'm very sorry about that. There's a reason people don't like Bruto, besides his wondrous odour that is." The stallion tried to get closer to the filly but was swiftly blocked by Trixie and Octavia. "I'm not going to touch her, I only want to see if she's okay."

"Don't care," Trixie told him.

"I'm fine," the filly squeaked from behind Trixie. The young filly glared at the stallion, despite the tears still streaming from her eyes, "Just don't expect me to walk the rest of the way." The filly stood up, but from the way her back hunched up it was obviously painful for her. Fleur lay down next to the filly, allowing her to scramble onto Fleur's back with a bit of help from Twilight nudging her.

Fleur stood up and glared at the crystal pony, who took it as a hint to get back to leading them to their destination. "It really isn't much further now, promise." They set off again and true to his word, it was only ten minutes before they came to a large metal door that was guarded by another diamond dog and a-

"Vampony!" yelled the filly, delicately trying to back away without falling off Fleur's back. "What are you doing? It's a freaking vampony!" Noticing that nopony else was freaking out, although on Summer's part that may have been because she had no idea what a vampony was and that she should be scared of it, the filly stomped a hoof on Fleur's back. "Why is nopony else freaking out?" she asked, sounding like she wanted to cry.

"It's only a bat pony," Fleur told her. "She's not going to hurt you. And there's no such thing as vamponies."

The filly buried her face in Fleur's mane. "This place is trying to kill me," she mumbled, "with its shiny ponies and half bat ponies and crazy dog people."

The dark grey bat pony mare gave her a lazy smile, exposing her fangs, "Actually we're quarter bat, and quarter dragon, and prefer the term 'thestrals.' Sooo... anyway, Onyx, I see you made some new friends and holy shit what happened to Bruto?"

"Bruto happened to Bruto," the stallion growled. "I'm taking them to see the council."

"Really? Why? Couldn't you just toss them in the deeps like everypony else that intrudes down here?"

Onyx shook his head, "No chance Shadow, they claim to be from Equestria. Well some of them anyway, and displayed knowledge of the Crystal Empire, saying it had returned."

"No kidding?" Onyx shook his head at the thestral. "Huh... Still, why would a bunch of Equestrians be traipsing around Mareitania?" The mare shrugged, "I guess that's something for the council to sort out."

"Uh, excuse me." Twilight waved a hoof, hoping to get the mares attention.

Shadow pointed a hoof at Twilight, "You in the purple!"

"Uh, yeah... um... you said you were quarter dragon right?"

"That do be right."

"Huh... Princess Luna never mentioned that..." Suddenly Twilight's space was invaded by the mare as she shoved her nose up against Twilight's.

"So Princess Luna is back?" she asked. Twilight was unsure whether the thestral was happy about that or not.

"Um, yes?"

"And not Nightmare Moon?"

"Well, she was Nightmare Moon when she first came back, but me and my friends used the Elements of Harmony on her, restoring her to Princess Luna."

Shadow suddenly leapt away in a flying back flip, cheering wildly. "Yeah! Princess Luna's back! Wait 'til the others hear this!"

"They can hear about it after the council is done talking with them," Onyx reminded her. "Once the council is convinced of their honesty, then you can spread the news."

"Aww, you're no fun." Shadow pouted and folded her legs with a huff. She glanced at the ponies and her eyes suddenly widened when she saw summer, "Hey! Is that a pegasus? Haven't had one of your kind down here in... well, longer than I can remember anyway."

Summer dropped her eyes to the ground and rubbed her forelegs together nervously, "Sorry."

"Sorry? What the hell you apologizing for?" Onyx grabbed the thestral by her tail and dragged her back down to the ground, whispering something in her ear. Shadow quickly folded her ears back and muttered a swearword, "I guess the surface is still as shitty as ever." She took off again and flew over to the door, "I just want you to know that nothing like what happens on the surface goes on down here." She knocked three times on the door, an echo issuing from every strike.

A second later there was a clunk as something was unlocked and the doors ponderously swung open, pushed by another diamond dog and a crystal pony mare. "Welcome to the greatest city in Mareitania, Caverndown," Shadow said with obvious pride. The six ponies stood in awe of what they saw before them, which was an entire underground city built out of crystal. They stumbled through the door and found themselves on a ledge overlooking the city, the light shining from its facets almost unbearably bright after their time spent in the dark tunnels.

At the center of the city was a squat, domed building with a bell tower type structure in its middle. Around the dome the rest of the city was arrayed in way similar to the Crystal Empire. At the back of the city a waterfall fell from a ledge higher than they were, landing in a reservoir from which a river ran around the city before disappearing into another cave, and in the roof of the cavern were dozens upon dozens of holes, the purpose of which escaped the six ponies until their eyes adjusted and they could see the thestrals flying back and forth, figuring the holes must be their homes. As a final touch the walls of the caverns were covered in clusters of crystal which shone as if emitting pure sunlight. "Pretty cool huh?" said Shadow.

Perhaps the most important feature of the city though was in its many streets. Ponies, both crystal and thestral, as well as diamond dogs, were walking around on whatever business they had like nothing was wrong with the world. Harmony did have a place in Mareitania, and it was called Caverndown.

"This place is amazing," Twilight said breathlessly. "Ponies living peacefully with diamond dogs. I never thought I'd see that."

"Well, technically the diamond dogs were here first so it wouldn't have been very nice of us to just kick 'em out."

"Enough Shadow, we can answer their questions later. Right now we need to get them to the council." Onyx started to lead the ponies down a ramp that hugged the cavern wall when he stopped/ "Bruto, take Shadow's post." The diamond dog whined but shuffled back out through the door which was quickly sealed up again.

Onyx led them down into the city, taking a route that led straight to the domed structure in the center. As they walked they were met by the curious stares of the ponies and diamond dogs in the street, which was a far cry from the outright hostile stares they would get from some ponies on the surface. "Why does this place look like the Crystal Empire?" Twilight asked, "Even if it's only a quarter of the size."

Onyx snorted but deigned to answer her question, "It was built to look like the Crystal Empire as a reminder of our late home. Admittedly it's lacking a giant towering castle in the center, but I've been told the rest is a pretty good imitation."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Onyx shrugged as he walked, "It's not like I've ever seen the Crystal Empire so I don’t actually know."

"Fair enough. When did your people come here?"

"I said your questions would be answered after you're done with the council."

"Aww come on Onyx," said Shadow, giving the stallion a nudge in the side. "There's no harm in answering a few questions."

"Ugh fine. My ancestors came here during the reign of King Sombra. They came to Maretania to escape from his clutches-"

"Why didn't they go to Equestria?"

"Because they thought that Equestria was going to be next on Sombra's list of conquests. Anyway, a large group of escapees came to Maretania seeking shelter, but the country was still pretty turbulent at the time, what with the pegasi only having just been subjugated. Rather than risk further enslavement they wandered until they found the caverns where they found the diamond dogs."

"Of course this was literally just a hole in the ground back then," Shadow added. "Diamond dogs don't exactly go in for fancy."

"So the diamond dogs took your people in?" Fleur asked.

Onyx nodded, "Yeah, the diamond dogs love of crystals meant that they were more than happy to take us in. Our people hadn't intended to stay for long though, but when the Empire vanished we had nowhere else to go and we ended up building the city here."

"But where did you get all the crystals from?"

"There were loads already here from what I've been told, but not enough to build all this from, so we grew them."

"You can grow crystals?" Trixie asked suspiciously.

"We aren't called crystal ponies for nothing. I'm not saying we built it quickly mind you, it took decades."

"Okay then," said Fleur, nodding approvingly. "What about you Shadow? How'd your people end up here?"

"Eh, it's not really a long story. After Celestia beat Nightmare Moon less than three minutes after the lunar rebellion had begun, we figured that Nightmare Moon's army of little monsters probably wasn't welcome in Equestria, so we scattered and most of us left. Through quite a bit of trial and error we ended up here where the crystal ponies and diamond dogs offered my folks a place to rest their wings."

"Hold on," said Trixie, who seemed amused by something. "What do you mean 'Nightmare moon's army of little monsters?'"

"Oh, well, you don't think Princess Luna decided on the spur of the moment that she was going to throw a hissy fit and bring about eternal night on a whim do you? She made plans, and one of those plans was making an army loyal to her and robust enough to take on the army loyal to Celestia. She did that by creating my people, the thestrals."

"Luna created your people?" Twilight asked in amazement.

"Well, yeah. Didn't you know that?"

"No! Luna's never mentioned that she created the thestrals! I don't know if Celestia even knows that!"

"Oh, well yeah, she created us. Half pony, part dragon and part bat."

"Why dragon?" asked Octavia.

"Because dragons are hella tough. Sounds like a good thing to have in your unstoppable army of the night. The bat part was mostly for show though. Princess Luna apparently did love them bats. It's also because of the dragon and bat thing that we all have wings, although I don't know why she didn't try to make alicorns..."

"How do you know all that?" Twilight asked, choosing to ignore the part about alicorns. She knew full well how alicorns are made.

"My dad told me, and he was told by his dad who was one of the first thestrals created."

"But that was over a thousand years ago!" Twilight blurted, "How was he there!?"

"Dragons live for, like, a really long time. I mean like thousands of years. Because we're part dragon we live for pretty long time too. My gramps was almost seven hundred when he died. Lore keeper Ebon is even older. He's seven hundred and eighty... something, I think."

"Who's Lore keeper Ebon?"

"One of the council," Onyx told her, "and representative of the thestrals. Incidentally, he's here in this very building with the rest of the council so that's enough questions." Onyx had brought them to the building in the center of the city. He led them up the stairs and stopped at the entrance which was guarded by two mares, one a crystal pony and the other a thestral. "Why have you brought these ponies here?" the crystal mare asked.

"They have information I think the council would be very interested in. I brought them here for questioning."

"What kind of information?" asked the other guard.

"Information on Equestria, the Crystal Empire, and Princess Luna." The eyes of the two guards widened and they looked sideways at each other.

"You better not be kidding around with this Onyx," the crystal mare said, suddenly a lot less professional sounding. "The council will have your head if you're wrong."

"Yeah, I know." The two guards stepped back and opened the doors, one of them entering before allowing Onyx to lead them inside. The room they were led into was surprisingly empty, housing only some podiums and benches. There were doors leading into other rooms but they were far less important than what was floating in the center of the room inside the tower structure Twilight noticed on top of the dome. It was a crystal, shaped like a heart.

"Is- Is that a crystal heart?" she asked Onyx, watching as the crystal gently spun on its axis.

"Indeed it is," was the answer she received, but it wasn't Onyx that said it. The group was approached by a crystal pony mare, who was distinguishable from other crystal mares not by her rose coloured coat, but by the horn adorning her forehead.

"A crystal unicorn!" Twilight exclaimed, "I've never seen one of your kind before!"

"Is Twilight about to have a fangasm?" the filly whispered in Fleur's ear.

"I see you know something of crystal ponies if you know how rare crystal unicorns are. Good, that'll make it easier to decide if what you're claiming to know is true." The mare must have noticed the confusion on Twilight's and the others faces and she bowed, "Councillor Quartz, representative of the crystal ponies, at your service. I'll be one of the people questioning you as soon as the others arrive."

"Who are the others?" Twilight asked.

"Lore keeper Ebon, the ironically named representative of the thestrals, and Chief Fishbait, representative of the diamond dogs. Please do not laugh at his name. You wished to know about our crystal heart?"

"Yes please. How do you have one is all I really wish to know."

"Our forebears created it. Without the true crystal heart we lost our luster amongst other things, and a new one was made in its place. However, it was never as good as the original and without the magnifying and amplify powers of the Crystal Empire's castle it never will be. There are even parts of the caverns where it's effects do not reach."

"Couldn't you try to recreate the amplifying matrix of the Empire?"

"We don't know how. Believe me, I wish we could. Things might not be so rotten on the surface if we could spread its effects further." A door thumped open, echoing around the room, "Ah, the others are here." First in was a snow white, male thestral, with a salt and pepper mane and tail and piercing red eyes. Behind entered a mottled grey and brown diamond dog, who, despite being a diamond dog, had a twinkle in his eye betraying an intellect perhaps greater than his fellows.

"I hopes this isn't silly waste of time like last meeting," the diamond dog said once he had claimed the left podium. "Almost made me miss lunch."

"Calm yourself Fishbait," the thestral admonished the chief as he claimed the center podium. "I'm not sure this meeting will concern you too much as it is."

"Ebon, Fishbait, glad you could join us," said Quartz as she claimed the remaining podium. "Perhaps now we could find out what these lovely ponies know about the Empire and Equestria."

"What? Why do chief have to be here for this? This doesn't even involve diamond dogs!"

"Fishbait..." Quartz said with an unspoken warning.

"No no, go on, I listening."

Lore keeper Ebon cleared his throat, "Sentry Onyx, why have you brought these ponies before us?"

"We found them wandering the tunnels. As we apprehended them we found out that some of them are from Equestria and they claimed that the Crystal Empire and Princess Luna had returned. I thought it prudent to bring them here for questioning."

The thestrals eyes bulged, "Princess Luna? She's returned?"

"I know!" Shadow shouted excitedly, "Isn't it awesome!" The councillor narrowed his eyes at her and she took a step back, "Sir."

Ebon shook his head and readdressed his captive audience. "When did she return?"

"A bit less than a year and a half ago, your honour," said Twilight.

"And she was truly herself, not Nightmare Moon?"

"She was Nightmare Moon, at first, but my friends and I reclaimed the Elements of Harmony and cleansed her of her evil. She is Princess Luna once again."

Ebon sat back and rubbed his chin in thought, "Well I'll be... It was obvious that the mare in the moon was gone, but I never dared to hope that our true princess would be restored."

Fleur took a step forward, "Excuse me your honour, but are you saying you don't support Luna as Nightmare Moon?"

"That's Princess Luna to you, unicorn, and no, we do not support Nightmare Moon. Eternal night would be just as deadly to us as it would be to the rest of the world which is why we never moved to support the princess in her attack on Celestia. We are loyal to Princess Luna, our benevolent lady of the night, not that vile tyrant."

"Then why didn't you try to stop her!?"

"Because she would have done something drastic to make us obey if she knew we planned to betray her!"

"Me thinks you getting too excited Lore keeper, you missing important questions like what ponies doing in caverns!" The diamond dog turned to the group and growled, "What ponies doing in caverns?"

"We originally came looking for something called the long story," Twilight told him, "but I have always wanted to explore the caverns since I was a filly, to walk the same paths as Starswirl the Bearded."

"Oh great," Fishbait grumbled, "tourists. Bearded pony came long ago, found dogs and crystals and left us alone. Maybe you should do same, yes? Also long story load of hokum. It just ponies keeping records of things, not dogs."

"So you do keep a record of all that has happened in Mareitania?" asked Fleur.

"As much as we can, yes," Quartz answered. "However that doesn't mean ponies should come sneaking around down here hoping for a history lesson. What interest are our records to you?"

"We were hoping to find information on the last rebellion and the alicorn that led it," Twilight deflated a bit, "but I think what we found in the first cavern answered that question for us..."

"Indeed." Quartz leaned forward and squinted her eyes slightly, "What is your interest in the alicorn?"

"Mostly to know if she was real or not," said Twilight, "and to see whether it was the Lady."

Lore keeper Ebon barked a single laugh, "The Lady? The Lady is a myth! I don't know who it was that led that rebellion, but I assure you it wasn't her."

"Then who was it?" Twilight implored.

"As I said, we don't know. We might have shared the caverns with the rebellion but we had nothing to do with them. We only investigated after the grand army had slaughtered them, and then all we did was claim the remainder of their supplies and reseal the passage."

"You mean you left all those bodies there!?"

"It was the only prudent decision," Ebon said with a sniff. "We do our best to keep our existence hidden from the Mareitanians and digging a mass grave for a couple hundred bodies isn't a very secret endeavour!"

"But-"

"Silence!" Quartz shouted, silencing both Twilight and the thestral. "We are not here to debate decisions made four hundred years ago! Now please, could you tell me what you are doing in Mareitania?"

"We are here on behalf of both Princesses' Celestia and Luna to bring an end to the rule of the Duke by any means possible."

"So not much then," Fishbait joked, although the humour wasn't shared by his cohorts.

"A fool’s errand if ever I heard one," Ebon muttered distastefully. "How do you intend to do that?"

"We... We don't know. We're still formulating a plan."

"Ridiculous..."

Quartz pursed her lips as she thought, "I regret that we cannot assist you in your goals. We have taken steps to keep ourselves hidden and safe, and aiding you would destroy that, especially if you fail. As we too would like to see the Duchy brought down though, and since you have done us a favour bringing this news to us, I think we can give you access to our records," she looked to the Lore keeper who nodded, "but that is it. First though I think I ought to ask you about the Empire. Is it truly returned to us?"

"It is. It came back last year but unfortunately Sombra returned with it. Thankfully we were able to reclaim the Crystal Heart and activate it, both protecting the Empire and destroying Sombra, and now it’s part of Equestria and is ruled over by Princess Cadence."

"You mean to tell me you had a hoof in that too?" Ebon said incredulously. "Anything else you were involved in?"

"Uh, my friends and I might have helped stop Discord when he broke free of his prison last year..." Ebon's eyes bulged in disbelief.

"Maybe tearing the Duchy down isn't beyond you..."

"A few months later we intentionally released him again and reformed him. He now does his best to do good, albeit with the occasional slip up." No way was she about to let Discord forget Tirek.

"Purple pony for president!" Fishbait shouted joyously. "Clearly she can do anything!"

"Who is this 'Princess Cadence?'" asked Quartz.

"She's... the Princess of Love..." Twilight bit her lip, even she knew that springing the existence of new alicorns on these people might seem a bit far-fetched.

"Equestria has another princess? Truly?" Ebon said in a voice strangely devoid of feeling.

"Two more princesses actually; the Princess of Love and the Princess of Friendship, although she's barely been a princess for a few months."

Fishbait snorted, "Equestria sound like sissy place with princesses of 'love' and 'friendship.' What name of friendship pony?"

Twilight froze. Her friends looked at her expectantly, except for Summer and the filly, and Trixie even gestured towards the council before making little flapping motions with her hooves. Twilight glanced up at her horn and shook her head slightly, trying to indicate that she couldn't reveal her wings because of the inhibitor. Not that she thought she should anyway.

"As I said she's a pretty new princess, so her name somewhat escapes me. Duskshine Sprinkle, or something like that." Twilight hoped to hell that the council bought her poorly thought up lie.

Ebon and Quartz spared a glance at each other while Fishbait picked his nose and flicked whatever he dug out away. "Are we so out of touch that we don't even know about two new alicorns?" Quartz muttered.

"Pfft, purple pony could be lying about new pony princesses."

"I doubt it," said Ebon. "What reason would she have to do such a thing?" He stared at the six ponies for a few seconds like he was deciding something, before speaking. "The council thanks you for your cooperation, but we have things we wish to discuss. Privately. Sentries Onyx and Shadow will escort you to the archives if you wish."

Twilight and the others bowed to the council members, "We are most thankful for your generous decision to let us see them."

"Yeah, and for not throwing us into the deeps," the filly muttered a little too loudly. "Whatever they are."

Ebon gave the filly a stern look, "The deeps are a vast underground lake far below the caverns. The perfect place for doing away with inquisitive ponies."

"Isn't that rather brutal?" Fleur said, sounding shocked.

"Yes, it is. As I said, we take protecting our secrets very seriously. As a final thing, could I ask your names?" Twilight told him, pointing out the ponies the names went to, ending with the filly. "The filly..." Ebon deadpanned.

"She doesn't have a name for some reason," Fleur explained, "and for some reason we can't think of one suitable."

"I see." Ebon looked to Quartz and Fishbait, both of whom nodded. "Very well, this council is adjourned. Shadow and Onyx will take you to the archives and should we need you we will send for you."

Twilight blinked in the unnatural light the crystals emitted as they stepped out of the council chambers, "That went rather well I think."

"I disagree," said Octavia. "They claim that they wish to remain secret, which I can respect, but how could they have remained secret for over a thousand years? Especially considering that the crystal ponies came here openly, hoping for asylum."

"Are you questioning the council’s wisdom?" Onyx narrowed his eyes at Octavia who had the decency to look a little ashamed.

"Not at all, I just think that keeping an entire colony of crystal ponies, thestrals, and diamond dogs secret for over a thousand years would be next to impossible. There would at least be rumours of your existence, even if there was no proof."

"Oh yeah?" Onyx sneered, "There's nothing backing up what you're claiming either!" Even Shadow seemed put off by his defensiveness.

"Dude, chill out. They do kinda have a good point."

"Oh not you too Shadow. As I said, these ponies have no reason to doubt our claims."

"Yes we do," said the filly, an unusually serious expression on her face. "You have, what, a few thousand ponies and diamond dogs down here right?"

"Something like that," Shadow confirmed.

"What are they eating? I don't see any farms down here, and it's not like you can grow food without proper sunlight. So where's the food coming from?"

"Pfft," Shadow snorted, "That's easy. We gather some from the land and what we don't get from that we steal."

"You what?"

"We steal it. That's why the crystal ponies and diamond dogs let us stay here, because we could go out at night and take food from the farms and stuff."

"Every night?"

"Yep!"

"You take enough food from the surrounding area to feed a few thousand ponies and diamond dogs, every night, without being seen and without ponies being suspicious about all that food going missing..."

"Um... yeah?" Shadow frowned and scratched her head. "Well, we must do, right?"

Fleur swept the filly up in her legs and gave her a nuzzle, "I gots a smart filly!"

"Enough," Onyx said with an air of finality. "We are going to go to the archives, and you are going to stop poking holes in our way of life." He walked off without looking to see if they were following and feeling that they had little choice they followed after him.

"Something about this place smells rotten," the filly said just loud enough for the ponies near her to hear, although judging by the way Shadow bit her lip it was clear she heard it too.

"Here we are," Onyx announced, "the archives." The crystal pony had led them to a building on the outskirts of the city. The only thing differentiating this building from the others was that it said 'archives' on the front and appeared to be backing into the wall of the cavern meaning there was no way to tell how big the building truly was.

"Wouldn't it make more sense to keep the archives in the council chambers?" Twilight asked.

"We used to, long ago," Onyx answered, "but we had to find a new place because the council chambers ran out of room. Of course this was about five hundred years ago so don't quote me on that."

"What could you possibly have so much of to record?" Trixie said sceptically.

"Mining records mostly," said a pleasant voice from behind them. It belonged to an elderly thestral mare, light grey with a white mane and tail. "Who are these ponies you've brought here?"

"My apologies Archivist," Onyx said to the newcomer, "I didn't realise you were out."

"Even I'm entitled to get out of that dusty building once in a while Onyx, despite what Ebon might think. Now introduce me to these ponies before I give you what for."

"Sorry archivist." Onyx pointed to the appropriate pony as he said their name, "This is Fleur, Summer, Trixie, Twilight, Octavia, and the filly."

"The filly?"

"Yeah, I don't have a name, just a description. Roll with it."

"I see. Well I am Archivist Script, Lore keeper Ebon's younger sister and master of these archives. How can I help you?"

"Hang on," said Trixie, "if you're the master of these archives then how come Ebon's the lore keeper and not you?"

"Because he's the oldest individual in the city and therefore must be possessed of a lifetime of wisdom like no other could hope to match." Script tried to keep her face serious but quickly failed, bursting into a smirk. "Or it could be that he's allergic to paperwork and gave me the job of dealing with it while he took all the glory. Now, as I said, how can I help you?"

Twilight took a step forward before speaking, "We've been given permission to look for information on the last rebellion and the alicorn that led it."

Script immediately rolled her eyes and sighed, "You came looking for the long story didn't you? Typical, the first surfacers to be allowed down here in as long as I can remember, and it turns out you're tourists chasing a myth. I'm not even sure why that stupid legend persists."

"What do you mean?"

Script walked around the group and stood in front of the archive building, "The long story was a bunch of chicken scratch scraped onto a wall by a diamond dog detailing how his people arrived in these caverns. All in all it took about five minutes to read, which might be long by diamond dog standards, but for the rest of us it only took as long as it did to read because it was written in pictograms and was very much open to interpretation. It was destroyed centuries ago, which only makes it all the more annoying when ponies come looking for it."

"What did it say though?" asked Twilight, who was slightly mortified that anypony could destroy an ancient piece of art like that.

"It basically said that the dogs came, saw some shiny crystals and decided to stay. Doesn't even say where they came from and why they came here. Now then, that's enough chitchat. You wanted information, so let's find some information." Script led them into the archive, and was about to shut the door when she noticed Shadow hanging back, "Are you not coming in dear?"

"Umm... no. My shift ended a while ago and there're some things I need to do." She spread her wings and crouched down, ready to take off.

"Shadow! Wait!" Onyx shouted, but it was too late, the thestral was gone. "Damn it Shadow, you're going to get in trouble for abandoning your duties again." Onyx snorted and headed inside, shutting the door behind him before turning and walking into Twilight's backside, not that she noticed because she was too busy taking in the atmosphere.

Twilight breathed deeply, sampling the musty smell of accumulated ancient knowledge. The archives did expand far back into the side of the cavern, carefully carved out of the rock until you couldn't tell you were inside a cave rather than a room, and inside that cave was a veritable collection of treasures. If you were Twilight anyway. The others didn't share her enthusiasm in the slightest.

"How are we supposed to find anything in here?" Trixie whined.

"By asking the archivist nicely I imagine," Octavia told her.

"Oh great and knowledgeable Archivist Script, do grant us your favour and show us where the history section is." Trixie bowed deeply before the Archivist.

"It's... uh...at the far end, where all the history is. Are you okay dear?" Trixie had started sneezing heavily and appeared to be having trouble stopping.

"Your f-f-f-floor is... is... a-a-ah-choo! Your floor's a bit d-d-d-dusty... Ah-choo!"

"Then that will teach you for trying to mock her," Octavia said. She nudged Trixie on the side and followed after Script who was leading them up through the archives.

Twilight looked at the rolls of parchment carefully stacked in their cubby holes as they passed, "You said most of this was mining records?"

"Yes indeed, the diamond dogs would mine even if we didn't record all this, so we figured that if it's going to happen anyway it may as well be organised."

"What are you mining for?" Fleur asked.

"Why, whatever we happen to find. Crystals and precious metals aren't that commonly found here anymore but we do have quite a bit of iron and copper down here."

"But what would you need those things for?" asked Fleur. "You hardly need them for building materials."

"And can't you grow your own crystals?" added Trixie.

"We have the occasional need for such things, but as I said, the dogs would mine them all the same." Script led them into a room that branched off at the end, a room that bore a little sign over the door saying 'history.' It wasn't a very big room.

"I thought there'd be more than this!" Twilight exclaimed before quickly covering her mouth in embarrassment. "Sorry, I just thought that a thousand years’ worth of history would require more room."

"Sadly not. You see, while we're safe down here in Caverndown we are rather cut off from the world. Events that are common knowledge on the surface might be missed by us, or lack a lot of detail. The gatherers bring back what news they can but that is not really a lot to go on since they can't stop somepony and ask them about it. We record what little we do find out."

"Why though?" Trixie gave the archivist a funny look, "It's not like what happens on the surface really applies to you."

"I don't know... The crystal ponies started the archives before my people even arrived here, and the ponies that started them are long since passed. I'm sure it's mostly for posterity." Script ran a hoof over the shelfs as she searched, "Aha, here we go," she pulled out a scroll and gave it to Twilight, "This should contain the knowledge that we have of the rebellion four hundred years ago, but feel free to look through the other scrolls here. After all, there's been more than one rebellion in the last one and a half thousand years. I'll be at my desk by the entrance if you need me. I'm writing up a scroll on what recently happened in Prance."

Script headed off, leaving the five of the seven ponies to exchange awkward expressions with each other. "Do you really think what she said about other rebellions is true?" said the filly.

"I don't see why not," said Fleur. "I doubt that ponies put up with the Dukes' crap for a thousand years before realising that they should maybe do something about it."

"But it seems odd that every one of them failed," Octavia added.

"Yeah," Twilight put down the scroll Script gave her and unfurled it slightly using her hooves since her magic was still inhibited. "I'm going to read this, you guys look for information on the other rebellions if they have any." Twilight settled down and started reading while the others spread out on their search. She couldn't help but grin though. It might not quite be a library but it was the closest thing to one she'd found since leaving Equestria.

"Are you okay Summer?" Octavia paused in her reading to address the pegasus sat stoically next to her. "You don't have to just sit there."

"I don't know what else I can do. I can't read so I'm useless right now." Summer looked so crestfallen that Octavia couldn't help but pull herself away from the scroll she was reading to hug the pegasus.

"You are not useless, and I don't want you to ever think that you are."

"B-but even the filly can read! I can't... I can't do anything..." Summer turned her head to look at her cutie mark of a sun covered by a couple of clouds, "I don't even know what that means... I don't even remember getting it!"

"It's probably a metaphor for something."

"What's a metaphor?"

"A metaphor is a... um..."

The filly piped up from the other side of the shelves, "A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable, for example, saying somepony has a heart of stone means they're emotionally distant and not that they literally have a heart of stone."

There was a brief pause that nopony seemed to want to break until Onyx said "Is this filly for real?"

"My existence is not to be questioned thank you very much."

"Seriously though," said Trixie, "how you don't have a cutie mark in this stuff is weird. You sound like more of an egghead than Twilight sometimes."

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with being smart."

"Trixie never said there was! Otherwise Trixie would be insulting herself!"

"Says the one who talks in the third pony as often as she can!" said Fleur.

"Trix- I told you I'm trying to kick the habit!"

"Guys!" Twilight shouted, "I don't know how long we'll be allowed in here so maybe we should argue less and read more!" They all grumbled but returned to their reading.

"A metaphor for us," Octavia whispered, "would be a herd of bickering foals."

Summer giggled lightly but her expression quickly turned serious again. "Can you teach me to read?" she asked after a few moments. "I want to read, I want to be useful."

"Um, okay. I'm not sure I'm the best pony to teach you but I'll do my best. We'll have to start with the basics though." Octavia motioned for Summer to lie down next to her, and using her hoof she carefully marked out the letters of the alphabet in the dust.

Twilight rolled another scroll up using her nose, lamented her lack of magic, and added it to the pile of scrolls she had already read. So far she had found nothing of use apart from a list of dates on which battles occurred and who had won said battles. Mostly the Grand Army. There was nothing about the ponies themselves, what their goals were and what went wrong. The mostly destroyed diary they had found had been more informative. There was also an annoying lack of information on the alicorn, other than saying she was there and that she surrendered.

She stood up and stretched, taking note of the plate and small collection of glasses that had accumulated around her. She didn't even remember eating or drinking the entire time. She grinned happily though, as it had been far too long since she'd had a research binge, and her mind felt slightly gooey. "What time is it?" she asked, hoping somepony was still there to answer.

"Don't know," Fleur groaned. "No sun underground so I can't tell. Suffice to say it's been a long time since we came in here. Please say it was worth it."

"I'm not sure... There's a lot of dates and suchlike but nothing truly informative. How about you guys? Find anything?"

"There have been a few rebellions over the years,” said Fleur, “but like you said, there's just dates and occurrences. There's nothing really telling us why those rebellions failed just as bad as the last one. Whoever made these records wasn't very good at it; the rebellion before the last doesn't even have a pony mentioned as its leader."

"The Duke at the time is mentioned though," said Trixie. "Helmcleave the Horrible. Apparently he liked to hang and draw his enemies, before beheading them in the noose and sticking the severed heads on pikes above above the main gateway of High Rock Keep. Really not sure why they went into such detail with that, but whatever."

"Delightful," Fleur said sarcastically. "Octavia, you find anything?"

"I'm afraid not. There's a mention of a place called Manestone being razed-"

"Manestone?" Fleur said confusedly, "Never heard of it."

"Hence ‘razed.’ The town declared its independence from the Duchy, but it doesn't say why, and the Duke back then didn't take too kindly to that sort of thinking." Octavia got up and walked closer to whisper to them, "I did find something though, scribbled on the side of a scroll from three hundred-ish years ago. 'Another shipment sent out to G.A.' I have no idea what it means though."

"Shipment sent out?" Trixie pondered out loud. "Sent out where? Caverndown doesn't trade with the surface-"

"Especially since their existence is meant to be secret," Twilight finished. "I wonder who G.A. is?"

"Usually that's used as shorthoof for the Grand Army, but that wouldn't make much sense in this situation." Fleur scraped at the floor, drawing a line in the dust, "I don't think we should worry about an abstract note on the side of a scroll right now. What we should find out is what we're going to do now."

"Well that's just it," said Trixie. "Trixie's been looking through all this hoping to find some clue as to what 'hail green son' might mean but so far has found nothing." Twilight bit her lip. She had been so taken with her research and everything else that she'd forgotten all about the clue.

"Hail green son?" said the filly sleepily. "Wha's that?"

"It's the clue the assassin gave us..." Fleur said slowly. "I'm pretty sure we told you. We talked about it after Octavia and Twilight got back from their little trip together."

"You mean the trip where the rest of us stayed behind and you gave Trixie a right royal rollicking? You never mentioned it while I was there."

"She was up the tree wasn't she..." Twilight facehoofed and ran the hoof down her face before groaning. "Filly, do you have any idea what 'hail green son' might be?"

"How's it spelled?" Twilight started to spell it out letter by letter before stopping. She searched around until she found a blank piece of parchment and a charcoal stick and wrote the words onto that instead.

The filly studied it for a moment and shrugged, "I don't know about any green son's or anything like that. You sure you're not just trying too hard and it's actually a lot simpler than you think?"

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked in the hopes that they weren't all about to be shamed by somepony much younger than them.

The filly traced her hoof over the letters, silently moving her lips, before speaking again. "Well for starters, this is an anagram of Neigh Orleans..."

Silence reigned for a moment until Fleur reared up and threw her forelegs into the air; "How dumb are we!?"

Trixie quickly raised a hoof, "Oo-oo-oo-oo-me-me-me-me! Trixie knows! The answer is very!"

"Bingo!" Fleur dropped back onto all fours and pulled the scrap of paper over to her with a hoof. "Did we seriously miss that because we were trying to be too clever about it?"

"Probably," Twilight admitted. "Best part is though, is that we were going to go there anyway, meaning that the clue is actually completely pointless."

"Unless," Octavia piped up, "the clue could have two meanings. Hooves up everypony that has been to Neigh Orleans before. Apart from Trixie that is." None of them raised a hoof apart from Summer who started to raise one before putting it back down. "Summer?"

The nervy pegasus ground a hoof in the dust, "I've kinda been there before but I didn't exactly see anything."

"Why not?" asked the filly.

Summer bit her bottom lip, "Octavia, what's a polite, not too much informationish way to say I was chained up and forced to... do stuff... to anypony that wanted to use me?"

"Uh... You were... indisposed?"

"Indisposed..." Summer nodded, "I was indisposed."

The conversation took an awkward turn after that but Octavia cleared her throat and pushed on, "As I was going to say, there could be something in Neigh Orleans that the clue is a reference to."

"So I guess this whole diversion into these caverns was a complete waste of our time," Trixie moaned. "Why is Trixie not surprised..."

"You do remember where we are right?" Twilight said, gesturing vaguely in the direction she thought the city was. "I would hardly call finding all this and the remains of the last rebellion a complete waste of time. The small amount of stuff we learnt from that unicorn's diary was worth this diversion, as you call it."

"Ugh, fine... whatever. To answer your first question Fleur, what we're going to do now is go to Neigh Orleans."

"Yeah, I've gathered that, but what I meant was what are we going to do right now, as in we're still prisoners here. Are they at least going to give us a bed for the night?"

"Oh. Yeah."

"Is Onyx still around?" Twilight asked since she couldn't see him.

"Don't know," said Fleur. "He went somewhere a while ago and he never came back. Maybe Script knows where he is." She led the way out of the history section and headed back towards the archives entrance, hoping to find Script at her desk. Instead she found Onyx sat inside the door, his eyes half lidded like he was trying to not fall asleep. Script was nowhere to be found. "Onyx?"

The crystal pony jolted, his eyes fully open. "I'm awake! I wasn't slee- Oh, it's you. Are you done in here?"

"We think so," said Fleur. "Where's Script?"

"In bed I imagine," Onyx told her.

"Why? What time is it?"

"Nearly midnight. I imagine you're wondering where you're going to be staying tonight?"

They all nodded. "Something like that," said Fleur.

"The council has provided you with temporary accommodation in the city. I've also been told to remove your inhibitors for some reason, so if you'll line up I'll take those off before taking you to where you'll be staying." He pulled something that looked remarkably like a spanner from out of his amour and set about removing the inhibitors from Fleur, Trixie, then Twilight, before placing all the items back into his amour. "Now, follow me."

He pushed the archive doors open and immediately stopped when he found Shadow outside, pacing back and forth outside on the stairs, a frown adorning her face. "Shadow?"

"Gah!" the thestral yelped and jumped into the air and hovered, giving the other ponies a good view of the saddlebags she was wearing. "Damn it Onyx! You scared me!"

"Uh-huh. Where've you been? We were both meant to guard these ponies."

"I was getting some shuteye so that I can guard them tonight while you get some shuteye. You're not going to be much use sleeping on the job."

"Fine," Onyx grumbled. "What's in the bags?"

"Just some snacks in case I get the munchies later on. Now come on, take these ponies wherever they're going so I can get to guarding and you can get to sleeping." Onyx grunted and led the ponies down the stairs and before heading left, sticking to the outskirts of the caverns. Shadow quietly brought up the rear, various expressions hinting at some kind or nervousness whenever somepony looked her way.

After a few minutes Onyx led them to a reasonably sized house built of crystal. It was even more apparent that this was somepony's house when he led them inside as it was furnished in a way that suggested 'family home' rather than the jailhouse it was currently being used for. There was even a family portrait on the wall, depicting a small family of four crystal ponies, two adults and two foals. "Whose house is this?" Trixie asked.

"It belongs to the ponies in the picture." Onyx told them. "They've let the council borrow it to house you while they stay somewhere else." Onyx yawned heavily, "I won't give you the full tour but feel free to use the facilities. The bedrooms are upstairs and if you need anything, ask Shadow who is going to be guarding you responsibly, isn't that right Shadow?"

Shadow sighed irritably, "Yes Onyx."

"Excellent. If there's nothing more I shall bid you all goodnight, and I shall see you in the morning." Onyx turned and walked past Shadow, who tried to keep out of his way the best she could, before heading out and shutting the door behind him.

"Jerk," Shadow muttered once he had gone.

"Are you okay Shadow?" asked Twilight. "You seem a bit..."

"Edgy?" "Neurotic?" "Paranoid?" "Nervy?" suggested the others.

"I'm fine. I just... I kinda learnt something and it's kinda... Well... Y'know what, it's fine. Goodnight folks."

"Wait!" shouted the filly. "How're we supposed to sleep when it’s still light out?"

"Hmm? Oh, well it's always light outside. Just close the curtains and you'll be fine."

"Okay, and you promise not to sneak into my room and drink my blood?"

"Aww, but fillies are my favourite..." Shadow scuffed the floor with her hoof, "Shoot. Okay, I promise to not drink any blood. Besides, as I said, I brought snacks." The filly nodded, satisfied, and headed upstairs followed closely by Fleur, Octavia and Summer.

"Are you sure you're okay? You can talk to us if you want,” said Twilight.

Shadow ran her tongue over her teeth as she thought and sighed, "Maybe later. I'm still trying to get my head around things." She turned and exited the house, leaving Twilight and Trixie on their own.

"She's hiding something."

Trixie gasped dramatically, "How could you tell? Was your friendship sense a-tingling?"

"No, my friendship sense wasn't 'a-tingling.'"

"Uh... you don't actually have a friendship sense, do you?"

"No." Twilight remembered her new role as the princess of friendship, "Or at least not yet, now come on, I'm hoping to get to sleep before you start cuddling me."

"For the last time, that isn't Trixie!"

Author's Notes:

I apologise for the expositiony nature of this chapter, but I couldn't really think of some other way to get the information out of the way without going off on some huge tangent that could be a fic in its own right, so in the end I just thought 'screw it.' Twilight is going to ask questions because its her nature, and I can't have everyone just shut her down all the time, so, ta-da! Exposition!