//------------------------------// // Moving Day - Part I // Story: Crystal Note - Where life leads us // by TalkingToMyself //------------------------------// A new week of school started and Crystal Note woke her fillies bright and early. As had become normal for them ever since their trip to Vanhoover, there was a glum silence during breakfast. Crystal Note knew she should be thankful that the heart-breaking sadness of the first night was gone, but she still didn’t like that none of the sisters could smile in the morning. She also knew that she would not just let this continue. Today, she brought the fillies to school herself. Usually, Glass Slipper would take her little sisters to their classroom, but Crystal Note told them she had business in the palace today and school was on her path anyways. After a quick hug from Crystal Note, Glass Slipper left to join her friends, but the twins stayed with Crystal Note and followed her to the classroom. The teacher was already in and shared a few words with Crystal Note as they waited for the rest of their class. As she had hoped, Crystal Note was not the only one who brought her fillies to class. She smiled when Ocean and Amber entered the classroom, followed by their mother Opal Waves. The two mares shared a hug and walked out of the school together “Well Crissy, how did that trip go?” Crystal Note smiled that Opal felt comfortable enough to use her nickname. Ever since she had stepped in with Glass Slipper and the twins, the two of them had grown closer as well “The trip was fine, great even. But coming home again was difficult.” She explained how the first night back home had gone, and Opal frowned but nodded “I think I understand." They kept walking next to each other in silence for a while. Opal noticed that Crystal Note had something on her mind, so she waited for her to bring it up, which she did once the reached the market plaza "I have to do something, Opal. I need to do something quickly." Opal Waves nodded sagely "But what is the right thing to do in this situation?" "I have an idea, but I need to check out a few things first. Opal, could you look after Sweetie Tooth and Velvet Heart after school? I don't know how long it will take." Opal smiled and agreed. She could see how determined Crystal Note was to help her fillies, and she liked it. They passed the entrance to the palace, and Crystal Note waved goodbye to her friend before she climbed up the set of stairs. Opal watched until Crystal Note had vanished inside. Crystal Note walked into the office the council had set up within the castle and smiled when ponies called out in greeting. Her smile grew a little wider when she saw Rose Quartz was present as well. The two sisters-in-heart met in a firm hug "Crissy! What brings you here today?" "I need your help, Pinky. I have a request and I'd like to ask the council for approval." Rose Quartz nodded and led her to her desk "How can I help you?" Crystal Note told her sister of the trip with the fillies and how devastated they had been on their return. Rose Quartz agreed that something had to be done, so Crystal Note told her what she had in mind. "They can't stay living in their old home anymore. It would only hurt them each and every day. So I came to ask for a new place to stay, something big enough for them and me." Rose Quartz watched her with a thoughtful expression. While there were lots of empty homes and houses in the Crystal Empire at the moment, it wouldn't be just as easy as picking one. For instance, many homes weren't structural safe after everything that happened during the war and the years after had left them in worse condition. There was also the fact that many houses still belonged to ponies, even if they didn't live in them at the time. "Is there anything you can do, Pinky?" Rose Quartz nodded with confidence "I'm sure we can figure something out. We've been checking for homes we can offer to the ponies from Equestria who requested to move to our Empire, I'm sure one of those will be available for you." "Maybe we don't have to go that far even." They both turned their heads to the stallion who had chimed in "Excuse me, but I couldn't help but overhear and I think I have a solution." Crystal Note smiled and followed the pony her sister introduced as Quillstroke to a desk that was covered with scrolls. He began browsing through them until he found one he showed to the two sisters. Rose Quartz frowned and shook her head "You can't be serious, Quillstroke." "But, why not? It's legally hers." Crystal Note took the scroll in her magic to get a look as well "What is legally mine?" She scanned the words and blanched as she understood "The old mansion?" Quillstroke nodded and pointed at some lines on the parchment "You see here? The mansion was given to your father..." "Sire." "Huh?" Crystal Note closed her eyes with a deep sigh "The pony you speak of only was partially responsible for my birth, so he is my sire, but I refuse to acknowledge him as anything more than that. A father is somepony who actually cares for his child." Quillstroke nodded again, but far less certain now "Okay, so your sire... he was the owner of the old mansion. But since he's passed and you were missing, the place was abandoned since then. Nopony ever wanted to claim it because of all the spooky stories, as you know." "I just wish they were only stories." Rose Quartz nodded as well and Quillstroke continued "Yeah, um, what I mean is, now that you're back and you being his daughter, that means it's now in your possession." Crystal Note nodded and put the scroll back down "I never even thought of this." "Well, we've been doing a lot of research on those kinds of things recently. But, this place is certainly a special case." Rose Quartz shook her head "I'll second that. Crissy, do you really think you should move into an old ghost house with three fillies?" "Pinky, you know as well as I do that there's no ghosts or spooks in there." Rose Quartz looked at her sister "It's not about what I know though. They have heard the stories like everypony else. They'll be scared, Crissy." At that, Crystal Note just had to smile "Don't underestimate those little fillies, Sis. They are much braver that you'd guess. They took the trip to Vanhoover, when most others can't even think about leaving the Crystal Empire without shivering in fear." Quillstroke grinned and rose his hoof "I'm one of them, for sure." That finally made all three of them chuckle. "Okay Crissy. If you think that's a good idea, here's what we'll do." A few days later, early morning at sunrise, half a dozen of ponies had gathered at the dead end of an abandoned street. All the houses around them lay empty, but it was the biggest one in front of them that gave them the creeps. The old mansion seemed to swallow all the light and none of them dared to step closer “Tell me again why we are here today?” Ivory Lance was grumpy, from getting up so early and from this place “We’re helping out a friend here, Lance.” “You are, maybe.” “Ivory Lance.” Ruby Rose poked his flank “Behave yourself. Crystal Note asked us for her helping her fix up her old home.” “That’s not her old home. That’s the hole where that crazy unicorn wizard used to hide in.” “Show some respect, Lance. He was her father.” “No he wasn’t.” They turned around and saw Crystal Note had arrived, accompanied by Rose Quartz and Sunburst the unicorn. “Sorry to keep you all waiting. Thank you being here so early in the morning.” Opal Waves smiled and reached out to greet her friend with a hug “No problem, Crystal Note. We’re glad we can help.” She heard a few mumbled affirmations, except from Ivory Lance who just rolled his eyes. Crystal Note walked towards the big house in a normal pace, with everyone else tarrying behind a little. Until one of them refused to get closer. Sour Berry stopped in a good distance and looked at the others “Are we seriously going in there? This place is haunted.” “There are no such things as ghosts, Sour Berry.” He shook his head “This is madness. We don’t know what kind of hexes that crazy stallion left behind. If we go inside, we might never get out again.” Crystal Note just kept walking and ignored his babbling, but Rose Quartz turned around and glared at him “When did you become such a coward? It’s just an old house. I’ve been inside already and so has Crystal Note. Get over it.” “He has a point though. Is this really a place for young fillies to grow up?” Crystal Note blended out the talking ponies behind her and approached the door. Only Rose Quartz noticed how she tense she really was, since Crystal Note kept her usually calm and practiced expression. She reached out and pushed the door open. Her silvery-white form stood in a stark contrast to the dark inside. She hesitated only for one breath, then walked in. Rose Quartz followed right behind her, unconcerned by the darkness. Opal Waves and Flint were next. Sour Berry and Ivory Lance stayed outside for last, but the guard pony hurried in when he saw that even Sunburst had no worries about the haunted house. Defeated, Sour Berry followed. The inside was dark, what little lights the rising sun from outside could offer didn’t make it through the dusty and dirty windows. Sour Berry looked around, but all he saw was a thick layer of dust covering everything. “So, we’re in. Now what?” They watched Crystal Note, but she had a faraway look in her eyes as she scanned every inch of the room. Ivory Lance had seen that kind of look before too many times in the time before the long curse, so he knew better than to argue now. Before long, Crystal Note shook her head as if to physically push away some troublesome memories and answered the question “We check out if this place is in a good condition or not. If it is, I guess we’ll have to clean up this mess and get rid of everything we don’t need anymore.” Sour Berry looked at her incredulously “We’ll need weeks to clean this all up. Nopony has been here in a decade or more.” Crystal Note smirked softly and stood in the middle of the room “You might want to take a few steps back.” The others didn’t get it at first, but when Crystal Note’s horn started to glow, they hurried to the edges of the room. Even though they had all seen her use magic before, it was still somewhat disturbing to them. Only Rose Quartz looked calm and Sunburst watched curiously. Crystal Note flared up her horn bright enough to illuminate the entire room. She closed her eyes and the others thought they felt a tingle in the air. At this point, Crystal Note started to sing, not very loud but clear enough for everypony to hear Another turning point A fork stuck in the road Time takes you by the hoof Directs you where to go So make the best of this test And don’t ask why It’s not a question But a lesson learned in time It’s something unpredictable But in the end it’s right I hope you have the time of your life As she sung, the whole room was suddenly set into motion it seemed. All the years of dust from the floor, the walls and the furniture flew up into the air from an invisible breeze and towards Crystal Note. Then it formed into a ball of dirt that hovered in a glow of turquoise light, the same light that also surrounded her horn. In a short minute, it was all over and the ball of gunk turned into a heap of dirt on the floor. Opal Waves looked across the room and smirked. The room was still messy, but nothing that couldn’t be dealt with “Well, that makes things easier.” Ruby Rose nodded and went to open the still muddle windows, flooding the room with light in the process "I guess this is as good a place to start as anywhere else." The small group of ponies set into motion, except Crystal Note who still sat in the middle of the room. Rose Quartz walked up to her and noticed that she was panting softly “You okay, sis?” Crystal Note smiled and opened her eyes again. It was rare for Rose Quartz to be so informal these days, but as intended, it reminded Crystal Note of the easier times the two sisters spent together “I’m okay, Pinky. Just took a lot out of me.” The others watched her with some concern, but she got up back on her hooves “Probably don’t have enough in me for doing this in the whole house.” “Well, I guess that’s where I come in.” Sunburst added in helpfully, with a friendly smile “How about I keep it up down here and you go check upstairs for now.” “Okay, Sunburst. Thanks.” Flint and Ivory Lance set into motion “We’ll see how much of the stuff in here is still salvageable.” Ruby Rose and Opal Waves nodded along “Then we’ll start cleaning already. We’ve got a lot ahead, let's get going.” Rose Quartz joined the two mares while Crystal Note climbed up the stairs in the back of the room. Sour Berry, after a moment of hesitation, followed her. The others didn’t say anything, but they were watching him as him climbed up after her. Sour Berry walked up to the only open door in the hallway. Crystal Note was sitting in the middle again with her eyes closed and her horn glowing. He saw her lips were moving, but if she sung, she was doing so silently. He waited for the rubble and dirt to sink down into a little heap near the door again, before he dared to step inside. Crystal Note didn’t seem to notice him until he stood right beside her. He saw that she was panting harder already, so he tried to stall some time, if only so she would take a longer break “I didn’t know unicorns could sing their spells.” Crystal Note chuckled softly and shook her head “They usually don’t. Singing just helps me focus, especially when I’m doing something complicated.” Sour Berry nodded and sat down next to her “So this cleaning thing is complicated I guess.” Crystal Note took his clue and sat down as well, waiting for her breath to return to normal “It’s not a real clean-up-spell. Those exist, but I don’t know how to do them. This is just levitation, but a lot of it at once. It’s like I’m trying to pick up every speck of dirt at the same time and coordinate it all at once.” “Wow. Sounds like a lot of work.” Sour Berry tried to keep their conversation going, but Crystal Note just nodded and he didn’t have the know-how to keep a talk about magic going. Desperately, he tried switching topics instead “This is the first time I’ve been inside here. What kind of room was this?” “My room.” Sour Berry’s eyes opened wide and he looked around, trying to take in more details of the room. He only realized what he had been doing when he saw the hurt expression on Crystal Note’s face “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… this is quite a big room for a single filly.” He didn’t even try to fake explaining he’d understand. He clearly didn’t and he was obviously changing topics again. He saw her smile and knew that she appreciated his effort. But he also saw her sad eyes and realized that he had picked a topic that was even more uncomfortable. She kept the conversation going anyways “It made for a nice prison cell.” Sour Berry hesitated. Crystal Note clearly wanted to talk about this, otherwise she wouldn’t have said anything. The least he could do was listen, so he asked quietly “Was he really that bad?” “Worse.” There was not a moment of hesitation when Crystal Note answered “You never knew him, did you?” Sour Berry shook his head and shrugged “I knew of him. I’ve seen him trot around and he seemed so angry all the time.” “In public, he was holding back. With me, he didn’t.” Sour Berry looked at her and saw the tears that nearly leaked out her eyes “What did he do to you?” Crystal Note sighed deeply, but it was really more of a sob “He was a unicorn and I was an earth filly back then.” She didn’t need to say anything more for Sour Berry to go pale “He cast spells on you?” “Sometimes he did. But those weren’t the worst things he did.” Sour Berry saw her horn glow and in some distance, a long forgotten toy was lifted up by her turquoise glow. He suddenly realized it was the remains of a formerly bright red ball, now deflated and its colour mostly faded “The worst was when he just hurt me in passing. I can levitate things now, so I understand that it’s really not a big deal. But when he did it…” Sour Berry flinched when the ball was hurled against the wall with force, crashing into it with a smash. It was only a deflated ball, so there was not much of an impact. Sour Berry still stared at it, and his coat lost its light when he understood the implications. Especially when Crystal Note whispered in a scared voice “It’s terrifying that I know now how he turned something so normal and innocent into a way to hurt others. To hurt me.” Sour Berry could only stare at her. He was afraid of this place, but he didn’t even know what really had happened inside these walls. Crystal Note did, from first-hoof experience, so she had every reason to be afraid. And still, she had walked in before anypony else. Compared to her, Sour Berry suddenly felt like a coward. He had also seen bad things and witnessed cruelty, but he had been able to push it all aside. He dropped nearly everything from his old life, beside his name, and started new from scratch. Crystal Note never had that luxury since everypony constantly reminded her of being different. And if those tears were anything to judge by, she had never been able to let go as he had. Unsure for a moment, he hesitated. He knew what to do, he knew he what he wanted to do. But he was not sure if Crystal Note would want it. Following his guts, he carefully wrapped his hoof around her shoulders. Crystal Note froze only for a moment, but then leaned against him. For a minute, she just let her tears flow down her muzzle and drip onto the floor. Sour Berry held her as she cried silently. Then, with a start, Crystal Note sat back up again. She rubbed her hoof over her eyes and smiled gratefully at Sour Berry. He just nodded silently, he knew her long enough to understand that Crystal Note appreciated his gesture. Without another word, Crystal Note started working through the remains of furniture in the room, as if the moment had not happened. They both knew it had happened, but they also knew that there were things that were more important right now. Crystal Note had three fillies to keep in mind, and a moment of weakness would not stop her from supporting them as much as she could. Sour Berry turned towards the door and noticed Rose Quartz watching him. Crystal Note had not noticed her older sister yet. Rose Quartz and Sour Berry looked at each other, Rose Quartz nodded firmly once. While Sour Berry took take of the garbage, Rose Quartz went over to Crystal Note to help her. He could hear them whisper to each other, but he quickly left the room to give them at least a couple of moments of privacy. By noon, they little group had made some progress already. Ivory Lance, Flint and Sour Berry had checked each room thoroughly and found no structural damages in the walls or floors, all windows and doors still were fine as well. Most of the furniture would have to be replaced, since it was either damaged or simply not what Crystal Note and the three sisters would need. Crystal Note wasn’t to phased by that, in fact she was glad to be rid of more dark memories that way. After a deep cleaning, the mansion already looked at lot less like the place where she had grown up. Crystal Note had just finished the upper floor with Ruby Rose and Opal Waves, when she passed the old study. She had skipped this room so far, but she noticed some flashing light through the slightly ajar door. She pushed the door open and smiled at what she saw. Sunburst sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by old books and scrolls that circled around his head in his magic. He scanned each document with interest and even scribbled down a few notes as he organized them by some system. Crystal Note stepped inside and looked around more closely. The last time she had seen this room, the floor had been littered with scrolls and papers, but Sunburst had most of it cleaned up already into a few neat stacks. She cleared her throat so he would notice her, which he did. Sunburst smiled sheepishly and lowered the books down to the floor “Hello Crystal Note. I hope you don’t mind, we were finished downstairs and when I saw this room and so many books…” He blushed a little, but Crystal Note just smiled to let him know it was okay “Thank you for all your help, Sunburst.” He nodded and adjusted his glasses with his hoof as he glanced over the books again “I know he wasn’t a good pony, but I must admit he was very well read for a stallion of his time. Some of those books you can’t even find in the Crystal Library.” Crystal Note nodded even as her smile faded. She didn’t feel like going to deep into this, but then her smile returned when she watched Sunburst peek into one of the old tomes already “You can have them all, Sunburst. They will be far more useful to you as they ever would be to me.” Sunburst's ears perked up, but Crystal Note could see he was very conflicted "Are you sure? There might be some personal journals in between all those books, don't you want those at least?" Crystal Note simply shook her head and levitated the book he had been looking at into his hooves "I don't mind if you read them, even if they are personal. If you find something significant, you can tell me when you do." Sunburst took the book in his hooves, but he kept watching Crystal Note "Aren't you at least a little curious of what's inside?" "Not really. I've closed this chapter a long time ago." Sunburst kept her eyes on her, but Crystal seemed calm. “Okay. I’ll keep them for now, but if you ever want them back, they’re still yours.” “Thank you, Sunburst.” Crystal Note helped him stack all the books into boxes and they went to the next room. There was still a lot to do.