//------------------------------//
// 2 - Recovery and Snow 
// Story: Queen of Equestria 
// by BlackWater 
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Rainbow Dash. Hero of the Skies. She might have been named that in a different life. Heroism was fine but she didn’t want any more violence. Any more pain. She didn’t see any pride, honor, or gain in that and loathed those that did. Because it was them who caused this.
Her heart had been broken when Cloudsdale fell. Now she walked through Canterlot Castle with her head hung low. She wasn’t doing nothing. No, she was too loyal to abandon her friends and especially her queen and special somepony. She just chose to do things more menial, where she could let her thoughts and feelings take their course. Unlike Pinkie Pie, who was so immersed in helping out in what had become known in the recent days as “Tent City” Or “Pegasi Down.” The latter didn’t escape Rainbow as being completely derogatory in meaning.
Twilight Sparkle had too many urgent matters on her plate of responsibility to deal with a depressed Rainbow Dash right now. And yet here she was coming around a corner from the kitchen to snatch that same pegasus from an errand. Rainbow had been delivering documents from the court chamber on the distribution of supplies to the emergency zones set up in Canterlot.
“Dashie,” Twilight began softly, coming up to her side and beginning what she knew would be a difficult conversation. “I know how hard this is-”
“I know,” the blue mare said quickly. “I know you feel what I feel. You know what I know. I just,” she paused to consider what she did indeed feel, “don’t know if I feel what I feel.”
“Dashie,” the queen’s face saddened and she stopped them in the grand but empty castle hallway. Though red carpet laid atop the hard stone floor beneath, she could only imagine it still felt just as cold to her Rainbow.
“You do feel what you do,” Twilight assured with a hoof on RD’s shoulder and their eyes met. “I know I could change that, but I decided not to. I don’t want you to feel this way. I never want you or anyone else to feel this bad. But I won’t take away your individuality. I won’t make you be anyone besides yourself. I wouldn’t be confident that you really loved me otherwise or that you were really you at all.”
Rainbow was about to cry, but held back the tears and pressed her face against Twilight’s neck instead. “It’s gone,” she sniffled. “It’s really gone.”
Twilight embraced Rainbow fully. There was nothing she could say. She couldn’t bring back the old Cloudsdale or what it meant to those who lived in it. Those that grew up in it. So she did what she could do and sat there with Rainbow now crying in her hooves. She let Rainbow remain herself.
She let her face her own loss, as many other pegasi were doing.
She stayed there to comfort her through it.









Hay in an apple barrel!
Applejack kicked the ground in frustration. This had been the only lead they had and now it turned out that Sombra had just lead them into the middle of nowhere to ditch the trail for good. The Earth pony turned to Midnight Strike, the guard that Twilight had sent with her.
“Rainbow Falls has a magical leyline that interferes with magic traces, correct?” he guessed while testing the flow of a rainbow stream. The myriad of bright colors in the mysterious water flowed effortlessly around his dark blue hoof and even reflected the hues back onto his silver mane, giving it some bright color under the shining sun.
“As good as my Void,” Applejack agreed. She looked around for another minute and had to give up for lack of a reasonable hope to search.
The magic emitted from this place forces trails and traces to be absorbed into its signature. Twilight’s conclusion over the hivemind stopped Applejack from further futility. Talk to the residents. They might have seen something that the currents have washed away.
And you? AJ asked in reply. She could tell her queen was planning something to do as well.
Twilight didn’t bring up Sombra, however. It is absolutely critical that we get to him as soon as possible so he cannot repeat what happened to Cloudsdale. However, he won’t need to do that if Equestria falls apart on its own. There is unrest in Las Pegasus over what happened. I have to go there myself to ease tensions.
You’re in no shape, AJ grumbled. Not after fixin’ the railroad too.
It was Fluttershy who replied, though. Her calm and soothing voice betrayed a motherly affection that seemed odd given the recent events but usual given her inexhaustible kindness. We know. She isn’t going anywhere without our care.
Chrysalis and the maids gave their agreement in the hivemind. The queen’s two remaining guards reinforced her protection as well. Although Rainbow Dash was close to Twilight both in the mind and reality, her voice was weak. Cloudsdale was too close in her heart as well. Rainbow Dash’s father had been in Cloudsdale and thankfully only had minor injuries, as losing him might have proven too much for the mare who was only now facing the full intensity of the grief.
Trying to keep moods light in days that were anything but that, Applejack tried a smirk. You sure you ain’t more interested in her flanks than her wellbein’?
Applejack, Fluttershy complained with an embarrassed wobble in the hivemind utterance.
Hey now, the farmpony broke a laugh which anypony not in the hivemind would have seen as strange. You don’t have any competition from me. Twi’s nice and all but she’s not my kind of pony. You, RD, and Chrysy can have her all to yourselves.
Chrysalis asked her a question she didn’t see coming in her light-hearted attempt to brighten their spirits. The changeling’s thoughts came across almost as buzzy as her voice in real life. So what kind of pony are you attracted to, hm?
Applejack stiffened. Midnight Strike drew his hoof from the stream and placed it back upon the soft green grass that covered the flat area of the Rainbow Falls mountainside. He looked to her with a quizzical expression, expecting something interesting.
I...uh...hrm... AJ’s face contorted. How did one go about masking thoughts inside the hivemind again? Aw, nelly.
Oh...oh my, Fluttershy covered her face where she was in Canterlot Castle.
Chrysalis responded with only a smirk and a single word. Hot.









Spike curled tighter around himself upon the throne of the Crystal Castle. Anything would have been better than this. He had long gotten past the relief over his mother’s safety and now bathed in the annoyance of being sent back to the Empire when the rest of Equestria was inflamed in danger and disaster. That and the changeling swarm that had attacked them only to retreat.
A beautiful white unicorn entered the throne room. Her coat, mane, and tail shone like crystal in what had become more and more her regular form. Whether it was related to her Element of Harmony, cutie mark, or love of crystal ponies, she shimmered in that special glassy sparkle that made Spike’s fiery dragon heart burn with passion. In spite of her love of more showy apparel, the mare was well insulated with a magnificent and furry purple overcoat that flared from her hips in a most becoming manner for a pony as attractive as she was. Or perhaps that was only the dragon’s mind that thought so. He didn’t care whether it was an opinion or not. The Element of Generosity was breathtaking.
She was also very smart on using their hivemind to read his moods and find ways of soothing them. That was what she intended to do now. If not to distract him from the recent disaster of Cloudsdale then to distract herself. They were all finding ways of coping with the reality.
“Spikey,” she said in an almost sing-song tone upon entering the throne room. Her spirits were higher than they had been upon leaving Canterlot a few days prior. Perhaps it was because their hivemind had been restored properly, or that she was safe again with Spike in the Empire, or perhaps some random crystal pony had bestowed her some act of kindness as they were apt to do in response to her own generosity.
“Hm?” Spike grunted, his attitude only now beginning to improve in her presence.
The mare walked right up to him and put her hoof on his claw. “No need for brooding, darling. The Empire needs us.”
“Twilight needs us,” Spike countered with a huff of smoke from his nostrils. His increased size meant that he almost took up more space than the throne allowed and the smoke he could produce from a simple huff was enough to contain a glow of heat.
What had happened nearly a week ago had been troubling to put it lightly. Something must have changed in the enemy’s plan. Rarity gathered from their renewed connection to their queen that the changeling swarm had been called off once Sombra’s plan in the Canterlot foothills fell apart. They didn’t know what had originally been schemed for the swarm to do with Spike and Rarity but whatever it was had required that Twilight been taken in a weakened state.
Neither Spike nor Rarity wanted to pursue the changelings in retreat while still concerned over Twilight’s safety and not knowing of her status or that of their friends for that matter. So the changelings had gotten away and the traces were long covered up by the time opportunity had returned to find them. At least no considerable injuries had been inflicted in that canyon. Even during the worst of it, when Spike had been buried in twenty chaneglings trying to capture him, it was doubtful if the dark beings could actually accomplish it. The chariot drivers were safe too – at no small effort by Spike to protect them.
Rarity took her custom made ushanka from her head and placed it upon the smaller throne that had been set up beside the primary one. It had once been sparsely used by Shining Armor while his wife, the Crystal Princess, ruled the empire. Now with the Empire’s hero Spike at the throne, Rarity took the seat as a caretaker.
“Twilight cares about more than herself,” Rarity spoke boldly but not without her kind disposition towards Spike. She loved him dearly just as he loved her, but she was not shy to speak her mind when it contradicted his own. He would have known in the hivemind had she said nothing anyways.
Another huff of smoke came from the dragon, but it came from his mouth this time in the form of a sigh. “May I be allowed to make a point you cannot defeat?”
“Not likely,” Rarity answered easily with a grin. “Now come, there are more pressing matters for us to settle with the public.”
Spike rolled his eyes, knowing what the matter was that she referred to. He had felt her shock in the hivemind when she became aware of the “issue” earlier that day. “That’s not pressing.”
Rarity scoffed with a dramatic harrumph. “I most certainly believe it is! I will not be seen as some...some accessory to someone else! Even if that someone is my Spikey Wikey.”
“It’s considered a very respectable position in the Emp-”
Rarity would have no more. She plucked the dragon whole from his throne with her cyan magic. It was now infused with green sparks and powerful enough to hover the dragon in the air beside her despite his being nearly twice her size (depending on how one measured such sizes).
The dragon groaned in the magical grasp because it meant that he could no longer afford to keep his grouchy attitude and would have to face the worries of the crystal ponies and, of course, Rarity. He also groaned because he had gone to the trouble of warming up the throne and now his hot spot would get cold again. The air outside the castle was even colder, as evidenced by Rarity’s thick overcoat and her replacing the ushanka on her head. She also repositioned her pink scarf so that the tapered ribbons that trailed the ends would flow along with the angles of her overcoat.
They both traveled the foyer and outer courtyard. Rarity only dropped Spike back to his feet once they were just before the courtyard and confident he would not flee back to warmth. He refused any considerable amount of clothing for himself but did accept a white and purple colored scarf around his neck, which he put on before they exited the door.
The Empire was even more severe than the last time Spike saw it from outdoors. He had not been hidden in the castle for long, either. Weather in the Empire was not a lucid thing. Crystal magic kept the city safe and green from the worst, but lapses had to be built into the outer crystal emitters to prevent overload or deterioration. This was the peak of a lapse and snow was thick everywhere one looked.
The powdery ice crunched beneath his clawed feet and the high-walled boots Rarity had now added to her attire. She was well on her way to looking like a true pony of the North. The only things missing were the more rugged condition of her clothing and the accent which, though common with the ponies of the North who traded here, was absent in the crystal ponies themselves who had come back from a time very different from the modern era.
They tread carefully through the snow-stricken streets, waving to ponies who were working tirelessly with shovels and wheelbarrows to keep the roads useable. They bowed in return, but it was a city square near the castle that was Rarity’s destination. A group of ponies was there, crystal coats shining even in the gentle snowfall. The ponies huddled around the square’s public bonfire that helped the surrounding blocks with the cold of the outdoors or the isolation of individual fireplaces.
Spike noticed that they were all adults. Perhaps the younger ones were kept indoors with their own fireplaces or perhaps more likely they were in the parks playing in the snow while their break from school allowed it. But more noticeable were the snickers that some of these crystal ponies were trying to hold back out of respect when they saw the pair approach. He and Rarity walked right up to them and the dragon made no effort to hide his greed of the fire’s heat. His eyes lidded with pleasure as the warmth seeped into his scales and the snow beneath him had been left behind for a somewhat less cold marble road.
“Now we may put this affair to rest,” Rarity said to the ponies with a high nose.
Silence. Crackling of the fire. They all looked to Spike.
The dragon wanted to roll his eyes again but didn’t want to further upset his special unicorn either. “No,” he confirmed to the small crowd. “Rarity is not my concubine.”
One of the braver of the ponies, a light brown stallion of medium build, had to ask. “But do you not love one another, Spike the Brave and Glorious?”
Rarity was torn at that, knowing she loved Spike but not knowing how to express that in a way these ponies would understand. They seemed to have a difficult time applying their usual romantic terminology to the relationships of a ruler or caretaker.
“N-n-no...I mean, yes. We do. We love each other. But we aren’t...I mean…” Spike fumbled with his response.
“Oh,” one of the middle-aged mares in the crowd appeared to brighten with an idea. “So you just haven’t done it yet.”
“Done it?” Spike’s face was blank and then started to grow hot as he heard Rarity’s own thought and reaction in the hivemind. He looked to her, the mare’s face blushing hard and her mouth stammering for a response at the etiquette-breaking frankness of the remark.
The stallion that had spoken first looked up and down the dragon, who was standing tall on his hind legs. “I suppose it would be difficult to manage since you’re...rather large.”
Rarity’s face paled this time. It might have been visible if not for her naturally light complexion and the whitening fog of the snowfall. Spike, however, was wrestling with what was going on between him and Rarity in their hivemind. He was at first dumb to the meaning of the conversation, then enlightened by Rarity’s clear understanding of it, then embarrassed by the implications, then hurt by Rarity trying to put up a wall in the hivemind to calm her own embarrassment from Spike and the others. Especially the others. Rarity didn’t want Twilight or Chrysalis to listen in on this or her thoughts. Particularly Applejack, who Spike could already hear laughing her flank off.
“Oh my,” another mare exclaimed from the other side of the fire. “Poor girl.”
A second stallion also added in. “No, she’ll be fine. I hear that dragons have t-”
“For Celestia’s sake!” Rarity finally cried out, her head now feeling light from her struggling in the hivemind. “Who taught you to speak so openly of such private affairs?!”
“Why the Crystal Princess, of course!” they all answered in unison.
“Our Beloved Cadance has revealed to us the beauty of love and the folly of shame,” the first stallion explained.
“And she has explained to us the pride it brings to a dragon to speak of his of her achievements in love!” a third mare chimed in with a sparkle in her eye. Apparently, she thought she could win points with Spike by speaking of his bedroom affairs. “Truly only Spike the Brave and Glorious could win the heart of one of Equestria’s famous Elements of Harmony, watch over us with love and protection, and produce for the whole world to see the first and finest of the pony-dragons!”
Spike and Rarity both gaped. Whether it was in white shock or red embarrassment was difficult for the crystal ponies to discern. Mostly they just saw two lovebirds they cherished as rulers and overseers.
“Don’t let us keep you,” the first mare bowed. “Cold nights make for warm bedrooms.”
The second stallion bowed too but looked up with a wink. “Nail her good, Spike the Brave and Glorious.”
Rarity’s voice screamed in the hivemind what she still resiliently had the decency not to say to the crystal ponies before them. Cadance! I’ll get you for this, you whore!









Shining Armor was packing up their tent so that they might continue their journey. He heard his wife snicker behind him and so turned around. "What's so funny?" he asked innocently.
There was a creepy smile on her face. "Just remembering something I did before we left."