Crystal Symphony [CYOA]

You mentally grind your teeth; disgust and fright slither down your voice:
“We have to return to the Crystal Empire while we still have the chance, Red Sulfur.”

“Is this really a good idea?” he asks after a brief pause, “He did –that– to the sun, Aurora. Let’s be reasonable.”

“What are you saying?” you ask him with annoyance, “The more we run away, the stronger he will become.”

“Even Princess Celestia lost,” you can hear a whimper from the silently crying filly, “We were to fight against the Vizier – she was an opponent we could defeat, not him. He wasn’t supposed to return, all our fight was for nothing.”

“Nifty Ribbon,” you approach you soothingly, “I promise you it was not for nothing, we will beat him.”

“How can you say that?” she asks you with a twist of her head before she hastily gets back on her hooves and, immediately, steps to trot down the snowy hill, “If even Princess Celestia could not… we have to find her!”

“Nifty, for Amore’s Sake, where are you going?!” you exclaim as you turn to face Red Sulfur with a question.

The stallion shrugs back with a cold melancholy, “I’ve told you – we saw an alicorn fall not far from here…”

>What do you do now?

>>29558103
We might as well help Nifty to find this alicorn. She might be able to help us, unless she try to destroy us first.

You sigh, then you give Red Sulfur a nod of your head; he answers with a duplicated sigh of his own. The two of you sprint to follow Nifty Ribbon into the menacingly growing blizzard, down the slippery, heated, edged and dangerous slope of the Dragon’s Ridge. Unlike your precise and fluent movements, similar to a dolphin in water, your companions are less experienced and tough. Because of this, you caught up with Nifty Ribbon in no-time; however, you simply give her a pat on her head and additional piece of clothing to keep her warm. The filly gives you a meek nod and carries on through the hollow, howling winds of the Crystal Mountains, to the very rim - where the mountains meet the Frozen North. You keep yourself to Nifty Ribbon just in case; Sulfur is meddling behind you.

Certainly, the distance of which Nifty Ribbon spoke of is bigger than she expected and the place that the alicorn landed, or fell, is a long way of travel away. As the blizzard wind grows, the speed of your trot comes to a haul. The further you venture from the protection of the massive mountains, the more powerful the winter’s storm resistance grows until you are the only one who is able to push through it. Red Sulfur and Nifty Ribbon are practically frozen on their spots, the powerful gust pushing their every attempt to move forward back. They struggle to lift a muscle, now.

>What do you do now?

>>29558476
Shit. Can we place them both on our back?

>>29558476
I don't think they can continue to clime this mountain, they should head back as we continue to get to the alicorn.

After a bit more of a struggle, you realize that nopony is going anywhere, at this rate. The two of them will be unable to reach the place the alicorn have fallen to on their own, surely; if there’s a time to turn back – it would be now. Regardless of this reason, you decide to help Nifty Ribbon – if there’s any chance that she won’t break into a mess so soon after her incident with the Ring of Destiny, it would be now. With a quiet step, you place yourself to shield the struggling filly with your body; you offer Nifty Ribbon a lift; the menacing gust immediately tries to knock her out. You can feel her trembling and stressed body trembling under the assault. The filly is barely able to hold on to you.

“It might be best for the two of you to find a shelter, Nifty Ribbon and Red Sulfur. I’ll check on the alicorn myself.”

“P-please,” Nifty Ribbon whispers to your crystallized ear, “Help her if you can, teacher Aurora.”

“What?” he mutters through the frozen wind, “I’m interested what that fallen silhouette was too – I want to see.”

“I’m not surprised you want to, Red Sulfur,” you shout throughout the raising snowstorm, “But you are too weak.”

“Way to be blunt, Aurora,” the stallion answers as he then begrudgingly pushes his hood to stay on his head, “Fine, fine, I’m not sure where in the world we are going to find shelter in this tundra… Quartz Eye apparently knows.”

“If she knows, then I’m sure she’ll keep the two of you out of danger. I’ll meet you soon, Red Sulfur.”

“Yeah,” he mutters without a positive, “Sure, I’ll meet you soon.” The two of them, silently, face their way back.

Despondently for you, however, the moment they are away from you, the blast of air smashes straight into you, sending you rolling down the long snow hill. Then, yet another gust pushes you even lower. Despite the powerful control over your own body, the wind is just too much. The blizzard lifts a massive, rumbling cloud of snow high above your head and soon after, the avalanche crashes on top of you.

Caught in the high tide of snow, you are barely able to stay afloat as you come rolling down the mountain top further and further away from your companions… Soon, you find yourself eyes deep in the snow with no ability to know where you are compared to the high ground. Once again, you are thankful for the fact that you do not have to take breaths, for you are clearly trapped in a prison of snow. You try to break through it, but you are in too deep now.

>What do you do now?

>>29558916
Let grab ourself with telekinesis and try to force our way out of this snow pile.

Which way is up and which way is down? – You ask yourself. You remember learning that if, in some magical scenario, you are to find yourself trapped with no knowledge of which way is up, you have to spit and let the saliva guide you. Your crystallized body produces no saliva, gross as that might be or not, but your dim, glowing eyes release a trail of shadow fog, and what it does right now is rise; it rises up. You concentrate and quickly draw the symbols of the powerful incarnation of telekinesis spell and then, you surround yourself in its energy. With a powerful push, you literally send yourself up through the layers and layers of hard packed snow.

An eerie, copper-green glow reflects of your body the moment you free yourself of your entrapment. You cross your gemstone eyes with the corrupted solar giant, the boiling thunderous winds on its surface clearly taunting you; they are trying to scare you as much as they are trying to scare the rest of Equestria. If even the sun itself is in Sombra’s control, what is there to be free of his all-powerful chains?

You shake the snow drape off your body as you realize that the hostile wind is no longer present; you turn your head to see a massive, twisting wall of wind and snow behind yourself – the “White Divider”. You remember now, it is just as your father said - a great wall that separates and protects (ha) the Frozen North from the Crystal Mountains. Now, in this hollow emptiness, you stand on flat, ice plateau that reaches thousands and thousands of miles forward, with nothing but snow on it way.

Despite the fact that this terrain is supposed to be nothing but flat, you notice a crack, a fracture in the rocky ice that, as soon as you begin to follow it, keeps growing and growing in its size. Soon, you find a massive rapture that resembles a clash of two colossal, unyielding earthquakes. If this is the place, the two walls are molded together in a gladiator’s hug.

>What do you do now?

>Body Changes:
27% [-1] Alicorn ‘Dark’ Magic [Magic]
01% [+1] Volatile Arcane [Magic]

>>29559546
I simply cannot picture what you're trying to describe in that last paragraph.

I guess this might be where it went down. Look around for an alicorn.

A closed crevasse, basically.

>>29559546
It's likely the battle happen here, let see if we can find the alicorn in the area.

You look around yourself but, the only thing you are able to make out is an unvarying and continuous landscape of ice and snow that flows all the way to the far horizon, and beyond; it makes you feel desolated, and lonely. There are no animals and trees, no flowers or life – there is only cold air and brisk wind here. Behind you stands the ever-changing cloud of blizzard storm, a tornado wall of impenetrable and deadly current of air. From time to time there’s a quiet rumble, an echoing clicker of an avalanche that is yet to happen.

You press your hoof against the closed crevasse only to find it utterly molten together; if there once was a chasm and somepony, or something else, fell into it – they are not escaping anytime soon. You try to use your hooves to open the ravine to no visible avail, beneath the ice layer there is a hard-to-break to stone, granite and marble.

>What do you do now?

>>29559906
Maybe... maybe "the alicorn" was sealed away or something? Use our third eye to see if we can look past the ice and stone. There has to be something down there.

You take a deep, mental breath and then, you let yourself concentrate; you lift the ebon canvas of your magical casting. From your memory alone, you engrave the symbols of a spell you have not used before – yet one you feel reliant and completely sure of. The jade runes of alicorn magic glint back at you with an eldritch, green glow before part of your magical essence begins to alter and change. You allow the dark veil to consume your eyes as you let the dark energy of your mind to obediently burst out of your body.

The shadow spectacularly swirls into an orb before your eyes and from it, a crystal, blinking eye is born, as if scratched straight out of a somepony’s eye socket. Then, your vision dims and black outs until, in a blink of a moment, you are forced to the revelation of your magically constructed ogle – your third eye. You then spend a couple of moments to get used to controlling the eyeball socket, it is certainly uncomfortable – you are also unable to see if anypony is to crawl behind and attack you, even though you are still able to control your body; what a mess.

>Body Changes:
26% [-1] Alicorn ‘Dark’ Magic [Magic]
02% [+1] Volatile Arcane [Magic]

You slowly lower your eyeball through the thick, stone ice wall that is the crumbled, entangled crevasse. The deeper your eye descends, the more you are able to see that there is no ways to climb, or even pass, through it – the walls are utterly squeezed against each other, as if by magic. You fell yourself weaken when you pass yet enough thick layer, only to finally stagger upon an incredible dark, gemstone cave. There are gray, ancient crystals here, thousand of crystal formations that are letting out a strange, black glow – it is a glow that is somehow able to eat the light that your magical eye is barely able to produce.

The more you pass through, the more dreadful it the vision becomes until you are no longer sure if you falling through the endless darkness or if you have long reached the bottom of it…

Despite this, you allow yourself to wait. Then, you can hear a grunt, a feminine grunt of a mare. Despite the surrounding of powerful and massive crystal formations that are – supposedly – eating the very light around them, she has a glow to herself; it is a very weak yet persistent radiance. She appears to notice you. She raises her head and it’s then that you are finally able to see her – it is the alicorn of the sun, princess of the Day, the older of the two sisters. It is Princess Celestia.

While one of her massive, angelic wings is white and pure, her second wing has a massive hole in it, the feathers are charred and burned; there are black crystals present all around her wound like disturbingly similar to infectious blisters. Her long, ashen horn has been tainted the same way, anti-magical crystals practically swallowing it whole. She has wounds and burns all over her body and her, previously for sure; majestic metal armor appears to be broken and cut through. The purple gemstones on both her golden crown and necklace are shattered and missing. This is the first time you see the beloved ruler of Equestria so close and… it is not the way you have hoped to meet her.

Even her voice is virgin in nature, “Have you come to check on me, Sombra? No… wait, you are not Sombra.”

You feel your eye growing weaker, and it is at that moment you realize that every single gemstone around you is very similar to the ones that Sombra summons with his magic; all of them are anti-magic, they consume magic! It does not appear that your eye is going to sustain for that much longer in those conditions…

>What do you do now?

File: img056.png (1MB, 861x590px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 861x590px

I did some art out of boredom, just for fun.

>>29561289
Can we speak?

>>29561603
Yep, on that note, I'm going to sleep. Thanks for playing!

>>29561289
Princess! Know that I am a victim of Sombra that has escaped his clutches. I will do all that I can to free you! What would you have me to do? Speak quickly, my magic is fading.

>>29561289
Hello Celestia, I'm was Sombra apprentic warlock, but my own selfishness killed me and turn me into a golam and force to do his bidding for 2 years.

>>29563105

>>29561315
Is it just me or your ponies do look nicer when drawn traditionally?

>>29564582
They look worse.

>>29564731
I find them to look better, actually. Or maybe it's because I've seen only one drawing. Do more.

>>29564746
I'll try for sure, though either with just a pencil or need to buy more crayons. Got any requests?

>>29564766
Shield and Aurora from regular Equestria being happy and raising a child.

Aurora's parents.

>>29564792
Regular Equestria is a lie.

>>29562736
I was hoping to skim over that by saying "Know that I am a victim of Sombra that has escaped his clutches" since time is of the essence right now.

“I am,” you hollow, draconic voice echoes as you stumble on your words, “Princess Celestia – know that I am here to help. I’m a victim of Sombra who managed to escape his clutches; is there any way I can help you to break free?”

The alicorn princes staggers and trips in her feeble attempt to stand up, the moment her body leans against the cursed encrust of the wall, her barely visible glow turns even dimmer. Her aura is being devoured by her surroundings, and so is the existence of your magical eye. Princess Celestia approaches you with a present grandiose, despite her weakened and injured outward appearance. “I’m sorry, then, my little pony – it must have been hard.”

Her voice is angelic, protective and motherly – much more than even of your own mother.

“It is fine, Princess Celestia. My spell does not have much time, tell me what I can do to help?”

She hesitantly lowers her head, “I am afraid that there is nothing you or I can do to save me – now, Sombra has put me through the same thing as me and sister forced him through – he banished me in here. It is impossible to use any kind of magic in here. Even if you are able to somehow reach me, you will be as ineffective as me inside this prison. I know it is a lot to ask you, but-” Her voice crumbles as your eye disintegrates in the heavy, darkness-filled air.

You find yourself in your body once again.

>What do you do now?

>>29565783
Damn! Quickly survey our surroundings just in case and cast it again.

>>29565783
God dam it, recast it and see what she want from us.

>>29565783
RECAST
E
C
A
S
T

You take a brisk look around you to make sure that nopony or any other creature is here to bother or pose a problem for you and, thankfully, that is the case. You look over the locked crevasse to make sure that there is no simple way to pass through it. You release a puff of dark energy and then, with annoyance and hurry, you draw the runes of the magical spell on the canvas on your mind to, once again, create a “Third Eye” of your vision.

The descend is boorish, long and time-consuming, the fall itself steals at least half of your eye’s existence. The fall grimly shows you the layers and layers of stone, ice and who-knows-what stacked on top of the gemstone cavern, the pure impossibility to break through all of it even with all of your magic. Your eye bounces off the cold floor on the momentum impact, and your arrival is one that Princess Celestia prepared for. She takes your tangible eye in her wobbly hooves and whispers an incarnation. You can sense magic, dark magic, floating through your spell as her face turn vivid scarlet and charcoal black, a purple smoke of darkness evaporates with no visible strength from her irises.

“Alicorn magic,” your voice whispers as you once again face the Princess of the Day, “…I’m here, Princess Celestia.”

“I remember now,” a smile briefly slides on her face, “You are golem Aurora, are you not?”

“What? Huh?” your Cyclops eye blinks back at her, “How do you know my name?”

“A certain crystal foal tried to enter my chambers in the middle of the night, he told me about you.”

“Trampled Flower,” you smile to yourself in your mind, “I see that he is fine, then.”

“He is,” she pauses, “But he is in danger, everypony is. Sombra has defeated me, there is no refuting it – regardless of all the help I had his army and he himself was enough to battle us to a tooth. Now, he is on his way to Canterlot. My pony, he plans to get rid of the last relative of Princess Amore that I have adopted for my care. I don’t know how, I don’t know when, I’m not sure what exactly is his plan but… if she is gone, there might be no way to stop him now.”

>What do you do now?

>>29566037
Does she know about crystal heart?

>>29566037
Who is she and where do I find her? I will not fail, Princess. Not again.

“Amore’s heir… is she is alive?” you gasp, “Does she know about the Crystal Heart?”

Princess Celestai tenderly raises your tangible gaze to her level, “She does not, and she hasn’t been even once in the Crystal Empire. I do, however, I heard stories from some of the ponies about the Crystal Heart – are they… true?”

“No,” you say with a negative, “No, the Crystal Heart is still somewhere, hidden. Sombra hid it, but he has no way of destroying it, at least, he had no power until her returned back from Tartarus. I don’t know how powerful he is now.”

“That is good to hear,” her voice breaks as she falls into a horrible cough, “I apologize, Aurora. I wish it was not like this, I wish I could stop this once and for all just by myself, with nopony having to struggle and fight him but me.”

“It is alright,” you reassure the kind and benevolent Princess, such an obvious antonym to a putrid and vile evil that is Sombra. “Tell me who she is, this heir, and where can I find her? Canterot is a long, long way away from here.”

“Her name is Mi Amore Cadenza, she is a pegasus pony. Duke Blueblood and other brave stallions and mares have promised me to keep her safe; they know what Sombra is going to do so they are keeping her in safety. Not even I know for sure where they are, as Sombra can simply look into my memory. To think one pony could possess such power…”

“Then what do I do?” you ask with hesitation, “If he is on his way to Canterlot, I won’t be able to reach him in time.”

“Find the Crystal Heart then, Aurora; as long as he is away from the Crystal Empire you have the chance to do it. If both the Crystal Heart and the Crystal Princess are there then maybe, maybe not everything is lost.”

>What do you do now?

>>29566486
Our quest is clear now. Bless Celestia, does she have any clues.

>>29566486
We will not fail calestia. lets regroup with sulfer and nifty and tell them the new goal we have right now.

File: Oh Shit.webm (1000KB, 500x206px) Image search: [Google]

1000KB, 500x206px

Sorry guys, I do not feel to well today, I'm going to cut it short here. Hope you enjoyed this short session, I hope I'll be able to run next one longer and better, next Friday.

>>29566827
The choice of webms worries me.

Can we redeem Sombra-husbando?

>>29568630

>>29569343
Are you retarded?