Raider led the group, with Luna behind him, then Celestia, then Cirrus at the back. The group had wisely decided that Raider should lead and Cirrus should stay at the back, to help protect Luna and Celestia.
Originally, Luna and Celestia had objected to the chivalrous stallions’ suggestions, but they said that they needed to be protected as they were the only ponies there that were capable of magic, which could prove vital later on their journey.
After what seemed like hours of slowly trotting through the biting winds and snow, but was more like thirty minutes, Luna had a strange thought and shouted to Raider through the loud blizzard.
“Raider?!” Luna tried to raise his attention.
“What is it?” He yelled back while continuing to walk without turning to face Luna.
“The Captain said that there’s no water here, so where does all this snow go when it melts?!” Luna wondered.
“It doesn't!” Raider yelled back. “It’s so cold that the snow can’t melt! Any water vapour is instantly frozen as it comes closer to the ground! And the humidity is so low; no lakes can form, so there’s no surface water either!" He loudly explained.
The strong winds carried his voice to Luna, and through the battering sound of the storm, Luna gathered what he was saying.
When the group had continued to walk for a few more hours, the visibility in the Desert started to improve. At the front of the pack, Raider noticed that his field of vision had increased by a few more metres. Raider thought to himself.
Why can I see more? We should be seeing less the further we walk into the Desert.
But more vision was a gift that could save a life in this wasteland of death.
The temperature seemed to be increasing also, which greatly increased the chances of survival for the group. The biting winds had ceased and the snow fell more gently, rather than blowing horizontally into the ponies’ faces, but Raider could still only see about five metres ahead of himself.
The group continued to plod onward through the icy Desert when Raider tripped and fell.
“Raider?! Are you okay?!” Luna shouted to the Sergeant, concerned.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just tripped over…this, whatever it is.” Raider admitted, feeling embarrassed.
Raider stood back up and brushed the snow off of his armour, then looked down at the ground. There was a large, square-shaped mound protruding from the snow.
“What is it?” Celestia asked as she leant around Luna to look at the square shape.
“I’ll check.” Raider said. He brushed aside the snow atop the square to find a faded blue carrying pack.
“What’s inside?” Asked the curious Cirrus.
Raider didn’t answer, he just opened the pack. Inside, he found a large, curved sword in its sheath with a strap on the handle. The blade was still gleaming despite being left out in the snow. He took the sheathed sword and wore it on his armour. At the bottom of the pack lay two food sachets, a bottle of water and a map of the Desert. Raider took the supplies and stored them in his pack.
“We’ll share them out when we get to the overhang.” Raider pointed out, eager to get out of the cold.
“Come on, we need to get to the cave, it’ll be going dark soon, so it’ll go colder again. We’ll check out this stuff later." He finished talking and continued to walk, with the group following him.
Sure enough, after twenty more minutes of walking, the snow and winds picked up again. Luna had been worried about losing sight of the leading Raider in the blizzard, but the sword he had taken clinked against his armour every time he took a step, so even if she couldn’t see him, she could hear him.
The freezing, exhausted group continued to battle on through the arctic winds, searching for the protected cave so they could rest. Raiders’ temper had started to flare.
“Emerald Horn said we’d be there by now! I can’t believe he’d lie to all of us! He’s always had it in for me, but he’s lied to you three as well! There probably isn’t even a cave out here!” He yelled in anger.
“Raider.” Cirrus started. “We probably haven’t reached it yet, give it time, you should trust Emerald Horn after the way he helped us.” Cirrus stood up for the Commander.
“Oh, yes!” Raider exclaimed sarcastically. “Some help he was! Made this impossible task even harder!” He shouted back angrily.
Raider calmed himself as quickly as he had gotten angry.
“Luna, Celestia.” Raider raised the alicorns’ attentions.
“Yes?” They both answered.
“One of you grab that map we found, it might help us find this cave, if there actually is one.” Raider suggested, still slightly angry about Emerald Horn.
Luna quickly grabbed the map from the Sergeants’ pack as Cirrus and Raider stood in front of the sisters so they blocked the snow from blowing the map away as they inspected it.
“Well.” Celestia stated as she looked at the map. “This map doesn’t have anything on it except this small cross marked on the outskirts of the Changeling Kingdom.”
“I knew it!” Raider yelled. “I knew he was lying! Come on, let’s get to the Changeling Kingdom before night comes, we haven’t got time to make a camp!”
Celestia put the map back inside Raiders’ pack and the Sergeant started to walk very quickly, obviously annoyed and eager to get out of the cold. Before Raider had taken a few paces, he fell through the blanket of snow and ice with a cry of help.
Luna, Celestia and Cirrus ran to the hole Raider had just fallen down. He shaken but unhurt, looking back at the group from about ten feet below the snow he’d just walked on.
“Are you okay, Raider?” Cirrus asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Raider admitted while he brushed himself off for the second time that day.
“Come down here, the snow acts as a slide, you won’t be hurt.” Raider said.
The three ponies jumped into the hole and slid down the snow to where Raider stood.
“So much for there being no cave.” Celestia said, smiling sarcastically at Raider.
The group looked around the cave. As Commander Emerald Horn had said, a layer of snow and ice was at the top of the cave, blocking out the wind and snow, but the hole Raider had made was letting the cold in.
“How are we going to patch up that hole?” Cirrus asked.
“No problem.” Celestia said. “Luna, freeze that snow on the ground.”
Luna looked at a large lump of snow on the ground and started to concentrate hard. Her horn lit a darker shade of blue as she froze the snow into one large block of ice.
Celestia’s horn then glowed a bright white colour as she lifted the block with magic and sealed it in place of the hole Raider had made. As she placed the block, the whistling wind noise was muted and the temperature in the cave started to rise.
“I knew you two would come in handy at some point.” Raider said with a smile.
“So this is where we’re staying tonight?” Luna asked, while blushing from the compliment.
“Yes.” Raider replied. “We’ll leave in the afternoon, so we'll arrive at the Changeling Kingdom by night. So all of you get some sleep.” Raider ordered. “We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”
And with that, the group settled down for the night.
The group awoke from their sleeps suddenly drenched in water.
“What the hell?” Cirrus exclaimed as he shook himself dry.
“Hey, look.” Luna said as she looked upwards.
The overhang had melted and the water had slowly dripped down around them, leaving them soaked. The sky outside was bright blue, with no clouds.
“How did the ice melt? What’s going on?” Raider asked.
Celestia flew up to the surface and said what she saw.
“The sun’s out. The ice has gone, and there’s sand everywhere.”
“Sand?” Raider looked very puzzled, not sure what to make of the change of weather.
“This’ll be Discord’s doing.” Cirrus proclaimed.
“Hmm, more than likely to be.” Raider pondered. “Well, it doesn’t mean anything to us. In fact, it makes it easier for us."
He looked at his watch.
"It’s one in the afternoon, and it’ll only take a few hours to get to the Changeling Kingdom, so we have time to burn.” Raider pointed out.
“Why don’t we go to that cross?” Luna suggested.
“What cross? The one on the map?” Raider asked.
“Yeah, why not? It’s something to do, and it’s bugging me, I want to know what it is.” Luna admitted.
Raider found the map and looked at it, considering his options.
“Well.” He started. “From where we are now, it’ll take roughly three hours to get to the Changeling Kingdom, but we’ll have to go a mile further away from it to have a look at that cross on the map.” he noticed.
“I can manage a few more miles of walking; especially now it isn’t snowing. I’m up for it.” Cirrus said.
“What about you Celestia?” Raider asked. “You coming?”
“I don’t see why not, I’d like to see what it is.” Celestia confessed.
Raider looked at Luna. “Looks like we’re going then, we’ll leave in two hours. That’ll get us to the Changeling Kingdom in the late afternoon.” He anticipated.
Two hours later, the group got ready to leave for the mysterious cross.
“Now, how the hell do I get out of here?” Raider asked. “I can’t fly.”
“Raider.” Luna butted in. “Give your armour to Cirrus and hand me and Tia the packs.”
Raider did what Luna told them and handed over the possessions. Cirrus, Luna and Celestia then carried them and flew up to the surface.
“Well, that’s fine, but what about me?” Raider asked.
Cirrus then swept him up and carried him like a baby filly.
“You ain’t that heavy, you lightweight.” Cirrus laughed at Raider as he lowered him to the surface.
The group then picked up their packs and Raider donned his armour and they set off.
As expected, the journey was long and boring, but they had conversations so they didn’t get too bored.
While Raider led and looked at the map to get his bearings, the other three followed and talked.
“At least it isn’t snowing anymore.” Celestia said with a happy sigh.
“Yeah,” Luna continued, “that cold-weather clothing was getting heavy, I’m happy we don’t have to wear it anymore.”
“Yes, we can thank Discord for that.” Cirrus laughed.
Raider looked over his shoulder. “Don’t laugh about Discord.” The Sergeant said very seriously, then went back to reading the map with a smile on his face.
“He’s snow joke.” Raider dropped the punch line.
The other three groaned as the Sergeant cackled at their reaction.
“That has got to be the worst joke I’ve ever heard.” Cirrus laughed in disgust at the poor pun.
The group continued to tell jokes and stories until they reached their destination.
“There.” Raider said as he stopped walking. “That’s what we’re looking for.”
The group followed Raiders’ gaze to a small, cross-shaped stone jutting out of the Desert floor.
They cantered to the out-of-place rock to find that it was a grave for two ponies, proven by the two lumps of protruding earth in front of the stone.
Raider looked around the rocks’ perimeter while Luna and Celestia knelt by the side of the graves to read the inscription on the stone as Cirrus stood in front of the burial site, a look of worry on his face.
Celestia read the inscription aloud,
“In memory of Glimmer and Orbit, of Canterlot.”
“Lovers till the end.”
“Survived by-“
Celestia paused, a lump forming in her throat, then continued.
“Celestia and Luna”
Luna and Celestia turned to look at the watching Cirrus, his bottom lip shaking. He simply lowered his head in response.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
The sisters looked at the grave again.
“Mom and Dad?” Luna asked, tears forming in her eyes.
Luna and Celestia hugged each other and began to cry tears of bereavement, Raider stopped patrolling and turned to see the sisters crying into each others’ arms while Cirrus was sat on the ground, head in hooves. Raider cantered back to Cirrus, who had composed himself, and was wiping away sad tears.
“Who is it?” Raider asked.
“Their p-parents,” Cirrus stammered, tears starting to form again, in memory of his old friends.
Raider walked to the bawling sisters and knelt beside them, they released each other to try and stop crying.
“I can’t imagine how hard this must be for you.” Said the Sergeant, his face carved with worry. “But I’m gonna need you to suck this up, I need to know that you two can continue on this mission.” He explained.
Luna felt shocked that Raider could be so harsh, but the older Celestia understood his request.
“I’m sorry, I know I must seem heartless, but I need to know if you two are mentally fit to continue on this quest.” Celestia and Luna continued to sob quietly as he spoke.
“Don’t think you’re doing this for the Princess. Or me. Or yourselves... Do it for them.” He said quietly.
This seemed to calm the two down, as they stopped crying and calmed themselves. They then stood teary eyed, looking down at the two mounds of earth. They hugged again,
“For Mom and Dad.” Celestia said.
“For Mom and Dad.” Luna repeated.
With a parting glance to their parents’ final resting place, the group set off again for the distant towers of the Changeling Kingdom.