Of all the answers Twilight Sparkle expected from the Crystal Pony librarian, an explosive "NO!" was not among them. Twilight  gaped in astonishment at the vehement mare, who stood there with a look of terrified defiance on her face, was all Twilight could think to call it.

The yellow-and-grey pony seemed to catch herself, realizing what she had said, and tried to cover for her own outburst. "I mean...Nopony can see the original volumes... without special permission and preparation," she stammered. She regained some of her composure.  "The original are over a thousand years old, and are very fragile. You can understand that. We have several very good transcripts available here, though..." She looked around at the half-dismantled library. "...Somewhere," she finished lamely. "Ah, well-- ah, here's a copy!" She snatched a book off one of the stacks and held it out to Twilight in her teeth with an anxious smile.

Twilight shook her head. "I'll be looking at those as well. But regardless, I need to see the original journals to confirm what I've read and been told," she said.

"Need it all you like," Miss Lore said. "But the original volumes are not going to be seen by you, or by anypony else. It's... against protocol."

Twilight was naive about many things, but even she could see the obvious: this mare absolutely positively did not want any stranger... like her... seeing those journals. She could understand reluctance; she'd worked around the Canterlot library long enough to know how crochety archivists were about ponies messing with original volumes and manuscripts. But this was beyond simple caution and fussiness. This was outright fear. Like she was afraid that the young librarian in front of her would steal the journals or attempt to destroy them.

Twilight had an epiphany.  "Mrs. Lore, you're not just a librarian. You're a lore keeper, aren't you?" It was a statement, not a question. There wasn't any real professional term for it, it was just something that ponies did, without even calling it by name. She'd encountered a few; every community older than a few years had one. There were families in Canterlot who had lorekeepers of their own, dedicated to keeping the history of their family name intact and preserved;  Granny Smith could be regarded as one for the apples. Regardless of how big or small their job, they all had something in common; they were somepony who would push heaven and earth out of the way by sheer force of will, just to protect the remains of the past.

Precious Lore hesitated, then nodded.

"I'm guessing that was your job even before King Sombra came into power, am I right?" Twilight said. "Somepony put you in charge of preserving the archives and historical documents of the Crystal Ponies. "

The yellow pony nodded again.

"Even when whoever was on the throne didn't approve," Twilight guessed.

She hit the mark. Precious Lore's lower lip trembled. "You're a sharp one for somepony so young," she said stiffly. "How did you guess?"

"You're not the only librarian with hidden archives," Twilight said. "And I've known a few lore keepers."

Precious Lore sighed sadly. "You're right. It's a job that's been passed down from pony to pony since the first days of the Crystal Empire," she said. "We've been doing it since before the Empire was even a decent sized kingdom. I protected our heritage even through the worst of King Sombra's reign."

Her eyes grew damp. "Then the curse happened, and Sombra erased our memory. I forgot. I forgot all about my job. I..." she looked away, ashamed. "I'm supposed to protect our heritage from harm, from conquerors, from invaders, even from the throne, and I forgot about it. " Lore looked at Twilight, silently beseeching.

"Lore," Twilight said gently. "I have to see those books. I swear to you I'm not going to try to take them, or to harm them in any way. But if half of what I have been told is true, then this will change...it will change everything. For Crystal Ponies, for earth ponies, for everypony. For the whole world! But the only way to prove what I suspect is to do the research, and to do that I have to see those journals first."

Conflicting emotions warred on Precious Lore's face. She seemed to sag in defeat. "So be it," she said. "It's not like it's anything but an open secret anymore. Everypony and their uncle knows that we hid our most important relics here during Sombra's reign." She looked at Twilight. "Please, just promise me you won't let anything happen to them."

"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in... my... eye. Heh." Twilight's voice petered out at Lore's nonplussed look. "It's a ... pinkie promise," Twilight explained. "Something from my home town of Ponyville and....  never mind."

"I... suppose that will do," Precious Lore said, raising her eyebrow at the odd traditions of unicorns.  "I don't care how you promise, so long as it's a promise you don't break."

Twilight chuckled. "Believe me, not even Princess Cadence would break a Pinkie Promise," she said. "Do you want me to, I dunno, wear a blindfold or something?"

"Not much point in that," Precious Lore said.

Twilight frowned. "Why not?"

"Because as it so happens you're standing on the trap door," Precious Lore said, pointing at Twilight's hooves.

"Oh. Heh heh." Twilight  shuffled to one side. Precious Lore scanned all around them, making sure nopony was nearby(1) before carefully tapping on several tiles on the floor.  With only the faintest of sounds a five-foot-square panel dropped down and slid aside, revealing a dimly lit descending staircase. The gray-maned mare quickly descended, Twilight close behind, ears pricked in curiosity. The door slid shut silently behind her.

The staircase curved down through solid stone, lit every few yards by clusters of glowing blue crystal in the corner between the wall and ceiling. It opened into...

Well, it certainly wasn't what Twilight had been expecting. A lifetime of experience in Canterlot and Ponyville had her expecting some dark, stony, vaulted chamber lit with flickering torches and rife with gothic trimmings.(2) Instead it was a small, rectangular room, not much larger than the first floor of the Ponyville library,  dry and cool and meticulously dust-free, with decent lighting and filled with sturdy, no nonsense shelves. The shelves were stacked with items, mostly books and scrolls, and those sealed in translucent containers. Twilight couldn't help but rubberneck as they passed among the shelves. For a nation countless centuries old, the collection was disturbingly small. But great care had obviously been put in preserving and storing each and every item.

Precious Lore walked past all the shelves and let Twilight to a long, low table at the back of the room. Set out on the table were what looked like three or four clouded blocks of crystal, about a foot on each side and only slightly less tall. It wasn't until Twilight stepped closer that she saw that the blocks were actually stacks of crystal sheets, about twice as thick as a window pane, with ancient-looking sheets of paper suspended inside. "Encased in shatterproof crystal," Lore said proudly. "The journals were already ancient when we got them-- it was the best way to preserve them, one page at a time. Protected from moisture, fire, cold, air... the crystal even protects the pages from bright light. We've already made hoof-written copies and just made photographic ones this year, but even then these pages should be safely preserved for centuries yet."

"Ooo," Twilight clapped her hooves. "You must teach the Canterlot archivists the technique." She sat down and started to reach for the first preserved stack, then paused. "...With your permission?"

Lore seemed to finally relax at this. She gave an awkward smile and nodded. "There are some crystal cleaning cloths in that box, there, just be sure and wipe off your hoofprints before... Oh, right," she finished as the first rigid sheet floated over to Twilight. "Unicorn. I forgot."

Twilight didn't hear her. She'd already begun to read.

..Cookie has made some progress in his research on earth pony magic. Clover is most enthusiastic. Pansy has contributed her own few notes on pegasi magic-- more often, poor thing, she acts as their test subject. .... they have quite a collaboration going, I think, despite their differences... they are close to a unified thaumaturgical theorem for all three branches of pony craft. But time passes and duty calls-- they are destined to be right-hoof ponies for their respective rulers;Smart Cookie, to

I wish they could stay at the tri-house collegium forever, and forget their differences... still, for now it warms my heart to see young ponies so relatively carefree...

...My role is a farce. I knew already the bitterness my father had over his task, but to know it oneself--! I am no representative of the earth ponies but merely the figurehead, to be chastised and upbraided for not wringing more work or more taxes out of my people. Our only reward for meeting our goals is to be given a higher one for the next year. The excuse is always the same: "We need more taxes to pay for all the charity and hard work we do as your rulers." Charity and hard work my marked flank. The most work they all do each day is finding a cushion to sit on while they raise the sun and moon, and their idea of charity is to feed the sparrows by passing the birdseed through their own greedy gullets first....

...another round of demands from Princess Platinum for more crops to pay for our 'fair share' of taxes. Several more ponies arrested by her guards and jailed for failure to pay. Fat, spoiled fool. How does she expect us to pay her exorbitant taxes when nothing grows? How does she expect us to grow anything when she throws all our farmers in prison? Even the rock farmers cannot produce jewels from our overworked land and in the ever-longer winters, yet in the name of her father she demands ever more...

...Conflict with the Pegasus cities. The pegasi are claiming that the unicorns are not dividing the spoils fairly. In retaliation they have begun kidnapping earth ponies to work as slaves in their fields. At first only colts and fillies (only! as if this were the least crime they could do to us!) but word arrives of entire earth pony villages being swept away. Commander Hurricane does not bother to deny this, proclaiming that if the pegasi do not receive fair tribute for the rain they bring, then they will take it in the form of slaves-- Though where in the Maker's name he plans for them to work I have no idea. The land overshadowed by the Pegasus cities is as barren and frozen as everywhere else...

....I pleaded with Queen Platinum to negotiate for the return of our people. She laughed. Laughed right in my face, demanding to know when an earth pony serf had gotten the delusion he had a right to make demands of the Queen. She dubbed me "Chancellor PuddingHead" in mockery. Chancellor Clover, bless her, pleaded my case as well, but Platinum brushed off her advice. As always... are we forever destined to be ruled by fools?

...Burned. All Smart Cookie's hard work, burned! By order of the wretched King. The poor boy, he broke down and cried after the guards had left... perhaps Clover still has some of her notes--

-- no, she does not. Her papers were among the first to be burned.

...ponies are starving. Not enough food to sustain us after slaving in the fields, and to feed the gluttonous mouths of the unicorns and the pegasi... unicorns have been talking of altering the length of the day and night and changing the angle of the sun, trying to deny the pegasi sunlight in retaliation for the pegasi withholding the rain and failing to control the freezing winds... Chancellor Clover has managed to talk Queen Platinum out of such foolishness, thank the Maker... though the poor girl is little more than the pampered queen's hoof-stool.

...attempt at a meeting between the unicorn and pegasi. I was forced to attend and bear witness. Broke down into a squabble over whose serfs and slaves were whose, and how much food was allegedly "hoarded." All that Chancellor Clover, Brigadier Pansy and I could do was sit there and watch them squabble over the remains of our tribes like two snarling dogs squabbling over a dried-out bone.

...Disaster! The unicorn and the pegasi are in open war. Madponies. Fools. The blizzards blow, the summer never came this year, our stores of food are gone, and they go to war?

In my own anger I was more than ready to have our ponies take up what arms we have and strike them from behind, but cooler heads prevailed. Counselor Smart Cookie, bless the Maker for sending you to me. Your plan is underway. Chancellor Clover has tricked the Queen into releasing the earth pony prisoners from debtor's jail, claiming that they were a burden on her soldiers and their dwindling resources; Pansy likewise has done the same for the slaves of the Pegasi nation, convincing Commander Hurricane (the empty headed blowhard) that they could easily round their earth ponies back up after defeating the unicorns (and I wonder how he plans to raise the sun again? With a winch?)(3)

Both sides plan for a massive battle on the frozen heath that was once Manticore Moor for this very night.  Once their forces are committed, the Earth Ponies will gather and strike out for new territory. We travel light, we do not stop. Clover-- clever, clever Clover-- devised a means by which we could travel as a group without stopping. We march in a column several miles long. After a certain distance, the first carts will pull to the side, stopping to rest till the last cart passes them. Then they will fall in behind the last carts and resume the march, till they pass the last resting cart, at which point they will stop again. We should be able to maintain a pace of ten miles an hour without stopping, with quarter to half hour rests for each wagon in between. If we see signs of pursuit, both columns will pick up and flee.

I pleaded with both Clover and Pansy to come with us-- they would have no friends here, were their treachery uncovered. They refused; they had hope yet that they might persuade their tribes out of this folly.

We leave tonight. Even now I am working to secure the few tomes of Earth Pony magic we saved from the Unicorn King's bonfires. May the Maker speed us on our way.... and may the gods rot those who have brought this upon us.

... at long last we have found new land. Smart Cookie is in raptures over the richness of the soil; the rock farmers likewise over the bountiful minerals in the stones. The land is wild and dangerous, with many perilous creatures and dangerous plants and wild magic running free. But it is lush and fertile; already the famine is forgotten as full bellies and rested hooves testify. Fields have been cleared, and the first crops have been planted. For the first time peace, plenty and the end of the foreman's lash.

We have voted to name this land "Everfree..."

...Another year, another bountiful harvest. Work proceeds apace on study of earth pony magic. Alas for Pansy and Clover, their insights would have been so valuable! .... I have gathered a few other scholarly minded ponies to help Smart Cookie carry on the work. Already they have made a few insights which I have noted down in my other journals. What we have already learned and formulated has proven invaluable against the manticores and hydras teeming in this land....

They found us.

The unicorns and the pegasi found us. It seems that their bitter war of attrition in the middle of the blasted ruins of our old homeland finally whittled down their numbers and forced them to flee. I received word today that two columns of ponies-- the unicorns to the west, the pegasi to the north-- were bearing down on us. Worst of all, Queen Platinum and General Hurricane had survived.

I cannot express, I cannot describe the rage I felt when I got word that those two miserable, wretched creatures had survived their own pointless war. They have destroyed whatever was left of our ruined land, and now they come to steal what we have made and put our foals in chains once more? No. Never again.

They will learn to their regret that the Earth ponies are more than prepared for them. I had feared this day would come; I have had our ponies prepare accordingly. There is not a pony in Everfree without sword, shield, and crossbow; there is not a settlement without arbalist, catapult and trebuchet.  Air cavalry? We have an air cavalry of our own, now; hot air balloons bristling with archers. Likewise our earth mages have prepared; the arrogant unicorns will have the shock of their lives when they see what lowly peasant earth magic can do when focused through stone and crystal. In two short years we have amassed a force to be more than reckoned with, as our enemies will soon learn.

...I cannot forgive them.

The fate of us all hinges on that, and I cannot.

We clashed on the land and in the air, as foreseen. Their shock at our resistance was written plain on their faces, even as we smote them out of the sky and snuffed their spells aborning. They were on the ragged end, and we were fresh to the fight.

The battle itself lasted little more than an hour, with terrible loss on all three sides. Then the windigoes caught up with them.

It was the windigoes all along. Those evil creatures, translucent as air, had fed on our hate and our warmth and our pain, gorging themselves even as they fanned the icy embers of our rage. When we earth ponies had fled we had been too filled with fear for them to feed. But the armies of the unicorns and the pegasi had still been fresh from the hot blood of battle. The two tribes had skirmished back and forth the entire journey, laying out a trail of battle and bloodshed like a trail of breadcrumbs for the windigoes to follow.

They came on the wings of a blizzard, ending the battle abruptly, forcing all of us... all of us who survived... to seek shelter in the caverns and tunnels under the hills of Equestria. We are all down here now, and even now the cold enroaches on us.. slowly, slowly freezing us to death. Some few of the unicorns and the one or two earth mages left have begun casting Cold Sleep spells on the weaker ones, the elderly and the young, so that the cold will not kill them outright. Will anything wake us, ever again? The scholars cannot say.

And the greatest irony of all, the one thing that could save us all, lies at my hooves.

The Crystal Heart.

It took a year and a day to be crafted. It was to be our nation's ultimate defense; a field of magic and light, powered by the innate magic in all the earth ponies of Everfree, that no creature of evil intent could ever penetrate. Even now it could save us, drive back the ice and the cold, drive away the windigoes who cannot digest magic or warmth with the taint of love upon it.

But it takes a spark to ignite it. A spark that none of us here can find, least of all myself.

Forgiveness.

The heart was a symbol of harmony and unity. We earth ponies had that as a lone tribe. But now the remnants of three tribes filled with hate are under its aegis, and it cannot work.

I look across the chamber now, and I cannot forgive. I cannot forgive Queen Platinum for her folly and wastefulness, her self indulgence at our expense. I cannot forgive Commander Hurricane for his arrogance and callous cruelty, his slave-taking and his warmongering. Neither of them, clearly, can forgive the other for the war they both wanted.

Our three 'advisors'... who we never heeded enough... are the same way. I could hear loud, angry words between the three of them. They will not speak or look at each other.

Oh, Smart Cookie, my poor grandson, what have I done to you?

Old fool. Old fool. Look at the Crystal Heart. If you had spent as much time working on this as you did on anything else, you might have finished it in time. Your tribe might have ignited it before the other tribes arrived; you might have prevented the war entirely.

I write these last words as I prepare to cast the Cold Sleep upon myself. I have failed my tribe. I can only ask that, if any survive to read this that they forgive me

...

...

...

The final page hovered in front of Twilight, unmoving. She looked up. There were several empty coffee cups and a few paper soup cups as well. Precious Lore had apparently come and gone several times, making sure that the unicorn was fed and watered during her marathon reading binge.

It was true. It was all true. And the journals were no fakes, either. The writing was in ancient Equestrian; the writing style, the ink color, the deterioration pattern of the paper... A quick passive age-testing spell came back as what could only be translated as "fricking older than you would believe." These volumes predated Celestia and Luna by generations, easily.

This turned everything she knew about Equestria on its ear--

Okay, maybe not everything. But a lot of really really important stuff about it.

And it made for some shattering realizations about the ponies around her.

Twilight paused, the page still hovering in front of her, and looked up at the elderly pony. "Precious Lore," she asked, "do the Crystal Ponies... hate unicorns and pegasi?" her eyes held a tiny bit of hurt.

Lore made a "Mmph" sort of sound. "You've been talking to Roller, is that it?" the older pony asked. At Twilight's blush and nod she said, "don't take what youngsters his age say completely to heart, dear. A lot of them make a lifestyle out of being bitter about the past and believing that 'the Hoss' is out to get them."

"The Hoss?"

"Oh, you know-- the Big Horse, the powers that be, the pony in charge!" Twilight made a silent "oh" with her mouth. Lore waved a hoof and went on. " It's a thing with a lot of the younger colts and fillies. Nursing a grudge and slouching around and wearing those earrings that let them keep their manes all mussed up.... don't you have youngsters like that in Equestria?"

"Yes, we have a few," Twilight said. "Well, not specifically like that but... anyway. Believe me, Lore, I have enough sense not to derive an entire graph from a single data point. That's why I'm down here, after all. And it's why I'm asking you. I want to know how ponies here really think and feel about us." She set the crystallized page down. "How do ponies here really feel about non-earth ponies?"

Lore bit her lip. "It's... complicated," she said. "Some are like Roller-- angry about the past, stumping about full of resentment and calling it 'earth pony pride.' Some are outright prejudiced, think that the other kinds of pony should be driven out of the Empire entirely. Some think we shouldn't even associate with non-Crystal ponies at all." She snorted. "But most of us... we're mostly just... uncertain."

"Uncertain?"

"Wary. Frightened. Gun shy. And you can't say you can blame us, can you?" Precious Lore pointed out. "Even before those horrible years under King Sombra, the throne went from being an earth pony throne to one filled by unicorns, and the throne's army filled with pegasi. And quite a few of our unicorn rulers, especially the last few before you-know-who, were bloomin' idiots." Lore snorted. "Tampering with the Heart to do our hair up. Imagine!

"Now Princess Cadence, she seems like a sweet and kind pony, and a good ruler. She and her consort prince are actually quite popular with ponies... a handsome stallion and a beautiful filly, newlyweds in the palace? Right out of a fairy tale," Lore chuckled, giving Twilight a nudge and a wink. "They have fillies and old mares all over the empire swooning at how romantic it all is." She sobered a bit. "But deep down every pony in the Empire knows; if Princess Cadence turned out to be a bad ruler-- if Equestria's armies of unicorns and pegasi marched in and took over-- there isn't a thing, not a single thing that any of us could do to stop it." She looked around. "Just like I know you could use your magic to smash and burn and destroy everything in this room, and I wouldn't be able to do a thing to stop it."

Twilight looked horrified. "I would never--"

"--But you could," Lore pressed the point home. "That's the whole point. And in the past, ponies like you did." She tapped the hovering page for emphasis, gently pushing it back down onto the table. "And not just umpty thousand years ago, either. It's made us a little bit fatalist, I think."

Another burning question rose in Twilight's mind. "The journals," she said. "Why did they end so suddenly? I mean, we know that they survived the windigo blizzard..."

Lore looked a bit sad. "The journals that came after this one were... lost. Destroyed. We don't know, but they were never found. Neither were the journals he kept about earth pony magic, or Smart Cookie's notes..." she shrugged. "Queen Platinum's father wasn't the last unicorn ruler to try to purge all research into earth pony magic. They may very well have succeeded..." she walked around the table and pulled out a small drawer in a nearby cabinet. Two pages came out. "These are all that we've ever found. One is from a journal written shortly before the departure from Equestria. One is from his journal written shortly before his death." She set the pages down before Twilight.

...Clover, you little fool. You silly little fool.

She had to find a way to replicate the Crystal Heart with unicorn magic. She just had to.

I can't help but feel angry at her, though I know better. She couldn't help it, she is as much a creature of science as Smart Cookie-- more so. Once the question had been laid she could not help but pursue the answer...

And she succeeded. She "borrowed" the Crystal for her research, and devised a spell that recreated the fire of the Crystal Heart. It was nowhere near as powerful-- the Crystal Heart alone protects all of the capital and grows stronger daily-- but hers can be created instantly, anywhere, and requires no carefully shaped and grown crystal to form. Already the balance of power in the triumvirate is shifting in the favor of the unicorns, and the disfavor of the earth ponies...already the discord grows.

She has realized what she has done, and come weeping to me, begging my forgiveness. I fear it will take me a long, long time to give it.

We have already taken the Crystal Heart back, and are organizing all those willing to follow us. I will not wait this time for famine or war to befall our people....

... So many years have passed. So many decades since we fled, yet again, leaving Everfree behind us. (Oh how my heart breaks at that loss!) Decades since Everfree fell into the clutches of a Draconequus, scarce few years after we left. The land we now live in is cold and wintry, but the Heart keeps our growing little kingdom warm and lit, and keeps both the cold of those who hate us and the madness of the usurper at bay...

...My grandson, bury me in the tomb prepared for me and mine. Bury me with my most precious treasures, as you will be buried with yours, that their memory may be preserved against some dark day long hence.

"Bury me with my most precious treasures, as you will be buried with yours..." Twilight murmured the words aloud. "Could he have meant his notes and journals? The long lost secrets of Earth Pony magic?"

"I know what you're thinking, dear," Precious Lore said. "But noone knows where his family tomb is. It was deliberately hidden by his descendants, its location deliberately unrecorded."

"Way too many ponies forgetting and losing things around here," Twilight grumped. "I swear it's a miracle anypony can find their shoes in the morning--"

"Hundreds of ponies over the centuries have tried to find it," Lore went on. "I even did a little snooping about for it, in my younger days. It's just a silly pipe dream."

Twilight looked Precious Lore in the eye. "Well that's not gonna stop me! Who was it that found the Elements of Harmony, huh? Who was it that found the Crystal Heart?"

"I don't know, who was it?" Precious Lore asked, curious.

Twilight gave her an exasperated glower. "Me. It was me, okay?" She jumped to her feet. "And now it's time for me to make it a hat trick. I'm Twilight Sparkle, prodigy, faithful student of Princess Celestia, bearer of the Element of Magic, and I'm going to find--" At that moment half a dozen cups of coffee and at least as many mugs of soup hit her bladder at once. "--a bathroom," she groaned. She bolted for the stairs.

"And right after that," she yelled as she hobbled frantically up the stairs, "I'm going to find the lost tomb of Chancellor Puddinghead!"