At the bottom of the world resided a realm ruled by King Hail and Queen Stellar in Hoarfrost Castle. A massive continent surrounded completely by frozen water where the land never thawed, the sky rarely shared the sun, and it always seemed to snow. This was the frozen wonderland that the snow ponies of the south had come to know.
The south was known to be the sister kingdom to the Frozen North, akin to their brethren ice ponies, but the kingdom kept to itself for many reasons. Their realm was naturally cut off from the rest of Equestria and chose to remain impartial to events the rest of the world concerned itself with.
Being polar opposites to their spiritual cousins from north, snow ponies were minimalist in much of their desires and focused on improving themselves physically rather than monetarily or spiritually. To survive in such an environment it was necessary to cultivate a way of life that would allow snow ponies to overcome the harsh conditions of their world. In the same vein of their northern counterparts, the snow ponies would seek to free their mind of their physical limitations, and build a kingdom that would reflect such values. It takes a great amount of effort to move in snow, even more effort to carry out tasks in the snow, and the land provided very little.
These ideals outlasted anything in their frozen wasteland, building a kingdom with what little resources they had, the snow ponies built a kingdom and flourished within it for several centuries. Such ideals also painted their view of the outside world in many negative ways, believing that such comforts warmer climates provided created weak and lazy ponies. For snow ponies mirrored the strength of flame ponies, their bodies hard like the frozen ground, their command of ice focused yet destructive, and their resolve unyielding.
While there have been many attempts to reach Hoarfrost Castle by many distant neighbors across the great seas through letters, none dared to cross the frozen wastelands of the south. There was nothing of trade to be had, no money to be made in anything the snow ponies valued, but the snow storms provided from the south were always on many main-lander ponies minds.
The natural laws of nature dictated the seasons bringing spring, summer, fall and winter to the rest of Equestria. Yet, there were times where nature becomes too unpredictable. Harsh winters were nothing the snow ponies feared, but their mainland neighbors across seas would seek out their assistance when snowstorms proved too intense.
Lord Hail and Lady Stellar would extend their good will towards the ponies across the seas, having a strong magical connection with the weather of their realm, and lessening the severity of the storms. It was one of many courtesies that their kingdom provided, lessening the size of glaciers that broke off from their land or ships unknowingly sailing through ice waters and having the ice shelf freeze around them overnight. Their command of the weather of their part of world had been years of self taught mastery through deep magical connections within the land and a strong host to preside over it. Which is why the line of royalty within Castle Hoarfrost has trained diligently for many years to obtain such powers over nature and rule alongside it with wisdom.
The young Prince Acrylic, the only son of Lord Hail and Lady Stellar, spent many grueling years being molded into the perfect host of such powers to one day be seated on the throne ruling over all the land and its unforgiving snow. Yet, the young prince wanted more.
In his youth the young prince had listened to the distant travelers, who had shipwrecked upon their shores due to their ever shifting ice, share stories within bitter cold taverns of other beings of enormous power throughout the world. Of a Mad King threatening to cover the world in a sea of fire, of a being known as Discord throwing the world into chaos, and of Tirek who sought to rule Equestria in times long passed. Acrylic wanted the life of an adventurer, of a conqueror, to have travelers speak of his story for ages to come. To have left a mark upon the world that no pony would forget.
Throughout the years Acrylic had begged his parents for a life beyond the kingdom, beyond the shackles of his family's traditions, and beyond the idea of just being a host. There was nothing for it, his life was one more subjective task after another until his eighteenth birthday where Acrylic was finally bestowed this ancient power by his father. Cementing his place within the Kingdom for the rest of his days, until he would take a wife, and have children of his own to which he would then mold into the same vessel he was made to be.
What few travelers that ever visited their Kingdom rarely spoke of any new stories, nothing that seemed to change the very face of Equestria. That is, until one traveling pony had brought a book that spoke of a runaway princess, a newly crowned flame king, the rise of an Elder Dragon, and that it all ended with a battle against a dark spirit from another dimension. A story that had once again ignited the deep desires of a young prince, desires that now had fine edge to them, that would cut cleanly into the hearts of those that stood against them.
One night, within the royal dining room, Lord Hail, Lady Stellar, and Prince Acrylic dined together as they always had at seven o’clock sharp. The young prince was looking rather anxious, desiring to speak, gambling at his chance before dinner had concluded.
“Father, I wanted to ask—”
“We do not speak until our meal is done.”
The King was an older stallion. His mane bore of clouds of ice that rippled like water all down his back. He sported a beard that swayed in a ghastly way whenever he lifted his fork to his mouth. The tone of his voice groaned like hulls of trapped ships being crushed beneath the creeping ice. His eyes alone were intense enough to have Acrylic refrain from speaking any further.
The prince lowered his head, passive-aggressively stabbing at his bits of juniper berries and gobbling them up quickly.
His mother eyed him glaringly about the attitude she saw on display. She was an older mare. Her shallow cheeks provided an impression of the she chewed. Her physique was gaunt, dressed in a formal gown that draped from her frail figure like curtains in a drafty hall. Her mane was thin of clouds, barely billowing from her neck, hiding the thinning areas with her crown and shall that draped over her shoulders.
It would be another twenty minutes before dinner was announced to be over and the time for evening discussions were to commence. Traditionally, it was the King’s prerogative to begin the discussion or choose a pony to start one. He chose his Queen to speak first.
“Were you able to respond to Lord Tundra’s invitation about us not attending his Winter Solstice, darling?”
“Indeed, darling. I promptly wrote back thanking them for thinking of us, but clearly stated that we would not be attending this year.”
The prince sat quietly. Bearing down on his teeth, wanting nothing more than to speak, but knew his interruption would void him of his turn. Nearly a half hour had passed. Acrylic gripped the arms of his chair so tightly from his aggravation that it started to crack the marble.
Lord Hail turned his attention towards his son, finally offering him the opportunity to speak.
“Was there anything you wanted to discuss, Acrylic?”
His eyes flashed with excitement. “If you would, father, there is something I wish to know more about from this book.”
“What book?”
“The one you received from his majesty, Lord Tundra.”
“Your fascination over that book is becoming obsessive, Acrylic. What could you possibly want to know?”
Acrylic went to speak but was cut short by his mother’s interjection.
“You’re not leaving this realm, Acrylic. We’ve already discussed this.”
Acrylic sneered at his mother.
“I simply desire to know more, mother. Since I am unable to speak with the author face to face.”
Lady Stellar laughed. “As if any of what that pony wrote has an ounce of truth to it.”
Thunder rolled overhead. It was not uncommon for the Southern Realm to have storms, but this storm was not of nature’s design. The white of Acrylic’s eyes had dimmed to a grey, the blue in his eye becoming ultraviolet, but it passed just as quickly as did the thunder.
Lord Hail already seemed tired of the conversation. “What is it that you desire to know?”
Acrylic turned to look at his father. A smile forced its way out, unable to contain his excitement.
“What makes a good story?”
I yawned.
The corridor to the sparring room seemed so much longer this morning. My eyes felt heavy. Lack of sleep and early mornings had made me a dangerous combination of exhausted and short-tempered. By comparison, I was accompanied by an energetic Princess that seized the morning as if it was a prize needing to be won. She was an ice pony from the Northern Kingdom who had risked her life to help me save a whole other dimension from an evil celestial being. Princess Sapphire was a morning pony.
“Did you attend this morning’s security briefing?” Sapphire asked.
I yawned again. “With both eyes shut.”
Sapphire narrowed her eyes at me. “You need to be awake and alert for those types of meetings, Smolder.”
“Well, I would be, if somepony didn’t take away my coffee privileges.”
“You drink entirely too much coffee and it’s not good for you.”
“Remind me who’s the King again?” I asked with a frown.
“Only in title, not in practice. Which is why I’m here to turn you into a halfway decent King so you don’t embarrass yourself in front of the rest of Equestria.”
“I don’t see how being casual with ponies is such a bad thing.”
“Because a King needs to be a good leader, not just a good friend. Ponies must trust in your judgement even if it goes against their personal views on the subject and you must be ready to ask the impossible of your friends if the need ever arises. Because a King must put the best interests of his kingdom and his ponies before his own feelings. Which is why everypony knows not to go against my wishes and bring you coffee.”
“What about taking things in moderation? Why do I have to go cold turkey?”
Sapphire rolled her eyes at me. “Don’t be such a filly.”
For the past six months the Princess of the Frozen North has been frequenting the castle, in the effort of making me into a respectable King. I was told by many my superior that I needed a teacher, an instructor to help mold me into this vision of the King that everypony was expecting of me. Luckily for me, Sapphire offered to be the one to show me the ropes, but these ropes seemed miles long with complicated knots I had to work through.
We arrived at two giant obsidian doors. It blended in with the rest of the castle wall and many ponies would never see it without being told of its existence.
A blue hue of magic erupted from Sapphire's horn, the door outlined with her magic. It slid open, revealing a rather wide circular area with several tall windows that stretched towards the high ceiling. It was the Royal Training Room. It was our morning routine, our daily workout, the time in which Sapphire beat the ever-living hay out of me.
“Hurry up and stretch,” Sapphire ordered.
I yawned again. “Yeah, yeah.”
Roman had made many additions to Castle Char. The damage done by the Elder Dragon gave a lot of freedom to explore new ideas and areas for the castle. Many of his ideas were approved because he realized putting the word ‘royal’ in front of everything made it seem like it was necessary. I personally enjoyed the Royal Snack Bar.
A hard twist of my neck brought a cracking sound. Leaning forward, dragging my back legs and raising my wings, I felt my back popping as if it were a bunch of little fireworks. Taking a deep breath and holding it in, I made my flames roar for a few seconds before settling down.
“Are you finished?” Sapphire asked.
Rolling my shoulders, I noticed Sapphire hadn't limbered up. “Aren’t you going to stretch?”
“I did. An hour before you woke up.”
My eyes were the last things I rolled. I approached Sapphire, stepping into a crude chalky sparring circle she had drawn many weeks ago. We were nearly nose to nose with each other.
“We’ll start with Deer Form.”
I snorted.
“Really? Every time?” Sapphire asked.
“It’s not a good name,” I replied.
“Oh, and Ember Dancing is any better?”
“Sounds better.”
Deer Form, despite its silly name, was a close hoof to hoof combat that ice ponies used. It used speed and transferal of your opponent's energy against them, able to freeze an opponent or render them unconscious in seconds.
The sparring match would only end if one was to be overpowered, taken down, pinned, or be forced to submit. It was called Deer Form due to sudden thrust of energy when two deer collide with their horns.
“Ready?” Sapphire asked.
The movement of my hoof against the side of hers was my acknowledgment that I was. Sapphire threw a quick succession of strikes, all ranging from my chest to my neck to my head. I recognized it to be form three of the style and found myself routinely blocking each hit she threw.
“Good.”
Sapphire stepped forward. She started with her left hoof, signaling that this would be the third tier grapple and possible throw. I remember my flank was sore for a week when she first tossed me.
Her hooves gripped my shoulder and arm. My reaction the first time encountering this move was to step away, which played right into her hooves as she kicked out my back legs to knock me off balance, allowing her to toss me. This time I stepped forward, gripping her arm and placing my elbow against her chest. It provided me with a strong stance and stopped her from approaching even more.
“You’ve gotten better.”
“Yeah, but no pony is going to willingly grab a flame pony though.”
“Be that as it may, you may end up fighting another flame pony or ice pony at some point and you’ll be ready.”
Sapphire’s grip weakened. We backed away from each other. She had stepped out of the sparring circle which meant that we were no longer fighting.
“You seem rather alert considering you’re without your precious coffee.” Sapphire jested.
I smirked. “Deer Form is becoming predictable.”
“Well then, let’s try something a little more robust,” Sapphire offered.
“Such as?”
Ice crept across her body. Her ice coated the feathers of her wings, freezing them in a thin layer of ice that was imbued with magic from her horn that sharpened them to a razors edge. With a whip of her cloudy mane she smirked at me.
“Roman and Crow haven’t gotten around to rebuilding the one I used from the battle with the Orc,” I said.
In preparing for the battle with the Orc, I had copied Sapphire’s technique using a much more robust version. A shield like crest that sat upon my back with two slots for my wings to slide into, the mechanism would slide blades across my feathers before securing the whole weapon to my wings. It was ingeniously designed by Roman and Crow, but having won that battle I had no pressing need to have it rebuilt. Although, Sapphire did not seem interested in my excuses.
“You’re a clever colt. You’ll think of something.”
There was a remarkable display of reflective lights from her ice covered feathers. Sapphire raised her wings while beginning to crouch. A very big tell that she was going to attack.
I was backpedaling away. “Whoa, let’s not get too hasty, Sapphire!”
It was clear that Sapphire was in unusually competitive spirits today. Unfortunately, that meant I was clearly outmatched.
“Keep your guard up, Smolder!”
I felt Sapphire’s hoof strike my jaw. The Ice Princess was being less than forgiving with my openings, punishing me for it whenever she had the opportunity. I preferred taking a shot to the chin than allowing a razor feather to flay me.
Sapphire’s movements were elegant, not wasting a single step or breath in her onslaught. It was quite mesmerizing to behold, which probably got a lot of her opponents cut or worse.
Still, I knew better than to allow myself the luxury of staring at such a sight. Unable to replicate Sapphire’s technique without the aid of my contraption, my focus was now on trying to remove the ice from her wings to prevent her from cutting me to ribbons.
Spewing fire against the stone flooring, I ducked and weaved my way around Sapphire’s strikes. Flaring my mane, raising the heat of my flames higher and higher before the room itself began to cook.
Sapphire was beginning to look uncomfortable, trying harder and harder to create more ice, but the lack of water in the air proved to be detrimental to her ability to continue fighting. Droplets of water were becoming cascades from her wing tips. Her razor sharp icicles were now brittle and nearly melted.
“How’s that?” I asked.
While I was looking for some sort of approval from her, Sapphire did not like the idea of being outwitted.
“I can still fight!”
“You haven’t got any ice left!” I retorted.
A whip of her wing flung a stream of water that caught me in the face. The water turned to vapor in an instant while I covered my face with my arm from the painful stinging.
I groaned in pain while backing away, holding up my hoof to Sapphire and signaling I had conceded to her.
There was a sudden gasp before feeling Sapphire’s hoof gingerly touching the arm I used to cover my face.
“Smolder, I am so sorry! Are you alright?”
Sitting myself down I felt Sapphire carefully touching the sides of my face, wondering how bad the water burn would be. In all honesty it would have been puffy or swollen for a regular flame pony, but as I removed my arm I had just a bit of redness around my eyes. One of the perks I had discovered of having the Phoenix Flame was the recovery rate of wounds. I had been training almost everyday to understand and better use this power that had been passed down through my family for generations.
“Yeah, I think so.”
The pain had come and gone. I was adjusting my eyes back to the light of the room, feeling Sapphire’s hooves still tracing around my face and examining me closer. She seemed wracked with guilt over what happened.
“I guess I still need to learn to keep my guard up,” I said.
“It was inexcusable. I could have seriously injured you, Smolder. Perhaps even blinded you.”
“Like you said, I may be fighting an ice pony someday and they’ll use something like this to their advantage.”
“Don’t try to make excuses for me. I took it too far and you got hurt.”
I reached up taking hold of her hooves clutching my face. “I know you’d never hurt me on purpose, Sapphire.”
Sapphire’s face flushed a dark purple, her hooves slowly gripping my face tighter and tighter.
“Sapp--Sapphire? My face?”
“Oh!”
I felt my face come free from her grip.
“That’s enough of a warm up today,” Sapphire said quickly.
Moving away from me, the princess turned on a dime and headed for the door. With a whip of her wings the sauna of a room was instantly cooled by her ice, leaving a thin mist hanging about. I was holding my face, massaging my cheeks, wondering if I should say something more.
“Sapphire?”
“You still have to meet with Roman at the Magic Academy build site today to oversee some of the new additions he’s planning on including to the structure. Don’t forget to bring Mira with you if she isn’t already there.”
She had the large obsidian door open before I could think of something to say. So I blurted out the first thing that came to mind, “Are we still having dinner tonight?”
It was enough to have Sapphire stop hard. She seemed a bit flustered by my question. I watched her head tilt towards me. She did her best to let her cloudy mane hide her flushed face.
“If… you’re still okay with it.”
“Totally.”
I earned a smile from Sapphire. Before she could step through the door another pony was attempting to step in, nearly running into her.
“Bleak? What are you doing here?” Sapphire asked.
Bleak Weather was a pegasus, colored a royal blue with a cloudy mane rich in the color purple. This morning it was delivering the incident reports from yesterday’s patrol.
“I’ve come to deliver these to Smolder.”
“Lord Smolder,” Sapphire corrected.
Bleak rolled his eyes.
Bleak stepped around Princess Sapphire to meet with me.
“A couple of incident reports from Ms. Fizzle. Nothing too serious, no injuries, but it may come up in the evening security briefing,” Bleak reported.
“Thanks, Bleak.”
As I glanced over the reports, I found Sapphire nearly shoulder to shoulder with me seemingly curious to what they were about as well. I passed her the top slate that I was already done with for her to review. Taking the slate, Sapphire could see that Bleak had circled the finer points of each incident, cutting the reading down to a couple of lines.
“So, you’re having Bleak run errands for you?” Sapphire asked.
“Of course not, Bleak volunteered to deliver the incident reports to allow me more time to deal with other things.”
“And what does Bleak get out of this?”
“Summer.”
Sapphire nodded seeming content with that answer. The moment she turned her back Bleak pulled out an apple tart from under his wing and quickly tossed it to me. I ate it hurriedly.
We had come to an agreement that if I gave Bleak our weekly schedule of royal duties, he would bring me delicious snacks. Sapphire’s royal dietitian had visited a few weeks prior and had a few choice words about my eating habits. It was the perfect way to get what we both wanted with an airtight cover.
Wiping my mouth clean of crumbs, I hoof bumped Bleak before clearing my throat to get Sapphire’s attention.
“I’ll be going to see Roman now, Sapphire. I’ll see you at dinner tonight,” I said.
“Of course, I’ll come collect you after your evening security briefing with the Night Watch,” Sapphire replied.
“Right.”
Bleak and I headed for the door. I noticed Bleak had managed to sneak another apple tart under his wing, offering it to me. I took it quickly, devouring it before we reached the door. It opened to us revealing Summer stepping through. She stopped short, looking surprised to find Bleak inside.
“What are you doing here, Bleak?” Summer asked.
“Just running some errands for the King,” Bleak replied.
“Are you sneaking snacks under your wing again?”
Summer was quick to apprehend Bleak, checking under both his wings for signs of food but found him snackless. Bleak smiled wide, feigning his innocence. Summer turned to me as I struggled to keep a straight face with a mouth full of tart.
“Don’t waste time getting back to your duties, Bleak, or else Flare won’t be the only pony you’ll be answering to.”
Bleak cleared his throat with a rather mischievous smile forming across his face.
“Are… we still on for the carnival tomorrow night?” Bleak asked.
Summer flushed nervously looking from Bleak to me. I could sense that my presence was no longer necessary and excused myself.
Once outside in the hallway I quickly pressed myself up against the side of the doorway to hear what Summer had to say. Bleak had been talking about this particular date with Summer for the last couple of weeks and I too wanted to know what she was going to say.
“Bleak, I’m sorry, but Sapphire might be returning to the Frozen North earlier than we anticipated. It’s for the preparations for the Winter Solstice. We might have to reschedule,” Summer replied.
There was a look of disappointment on Bleak’s face, but he did his best to hide it with a smile. Summer was already looking quite miserable herself, having given him the bad news.
“Next time then.”
Bleak stole a kiss from her. Summer covered her mouth, flushing a deep orange at the prospect of being familiar in front of Princess Sapphire.
I hurried away from the door, bolting around the corner to hide my eavesdropping. I watched as Bleak walked out into the hallway, letting his disappointment come flooding out. He kicked a three hundred year old statue with his back leg in frustration while cursing under his breath about his luck. He turned the corner to find me waiting for him.
“Not a fan of statues, huh?” I asked.
My sarcasm didn’t seem to land as he walked past me without a word.
“I’m guessing Summer’s busy again.”
“Is there something you needed, Your Majesty?”
I could tell that Bleak wasn’t in the mood to talk. Which was difficult because I knew the best way to reach a pony.
“No, but I--”
“Then I have to get back to my duties, I don’t get to spend all day with my special pony like you do.”
The floor was layered with a thin layer of frost from Bleak’s silent anger before he stormed off. I didn’t want to argue about his assumptions about Princess Sapphire and I, but I could tell he was trying very hard not to let out his anger on me. I looked after him just as he turned the corner of the long corridor, knowing that there was something I could possibly do for him.
Sapphire and I were having dinner together in the royal dining hall. It was perhaps the largest and dreariest place in the castle, being nearly three times the size of the throne room, but far less used for many reasons. Topping the list was the obsidian floors, walls, and ceiling bringing the whole room into a blackness that instantly felt depressing. The table itself was carved from a dark granite along with the chairs that offered zero comfort in terms of flank or back support. Even with the windows open the dining room smelled of wet clay.
Roman had suggested on many occasions that we simply demolish it from end to end and cursing the dragon for not targeting the uglier parts of the castle in its rampage. I, personally, would have been the first pony to take a sledge to the side of the wall to begin its remodeling, but other areas of the castle were in need of repairs first.
The room was meant to entertain many ponies of nobility, although we weren’t planning on entertaining any ponies for quite some time, but Sapphire and I used just the first two available chairs at the head of the table.
Tonight we were served some rather slimming hay cubes, a few carrots, some apple slices, and a cup of carrot juice. It wasn’t much of a feast thanks to Sapphire’s royal dietitian and made sure to enforce a rather strict meal plan for us. Neither Sapphire or I were crazy about it.
I was chewing on a carrot when Sapphire sighed, longingly rolling one of her hay cubes end over end on her plate. I could tell she was tired from the lackluster meals as I was.
Luckily, I had put in a special request to Bleak earlier today, and I could feel the satchel against my knee having been tucked away behind the leg of the table. Reaching for it, I retrieved the emergency snack bag.
Sapphire magically poked at her carrot, looking none too thrilled about it. A soft red glow of my magic neared her plate, a cupcake floating gently through the air as it set itself down in front of her. A smile came across her face as she glanced over at me as I shrewdly pretended to be busy eating my carrot.
“The Royal Dietitian would put you on a strict roughage-only meal plan if he saw this,” Sapphire remarked.
“I’m not the pony eating it.”
Her face flushed slightly. She unwrapped the paper before taking a bite. A shiver shot through her body, a rather sensual moan escaped from her as she closed her eyes in a cupcake euphoria.
I felt myself flush after hearing her swoon, I did my best to occupy myself with the last of my apple slices while Sapphire ate the rest of the cupcake.
“So, Sapphire… I wanted to ask you something.”
She was quick to wipe her mouth with her napkin, magically disposing of the cupcake wrapper before giving me her undivided attention.
“Yes?”
“Would you be able to stay for another day?”
“I'm afraid I cannot. The Winter Solstice is fast approaching and my mother and father will be up to their necks in preparations. My presence there will alleviate some of the burden.”
I felt like a door just shut in my face over this discussion. Picking at my carrot, my mind raced for another angle or reason to convince her to stay at least for one more day.
“Just… out of curiosity… why did you want me to stay?”
Looking up, I saw Sapphire’s face slightly flushed, glancing at me from the corner of her eyes. My mane flared, feeling my own face beginning to flush.
“I--I--I don’t have a date for the carnival tomorrow.”
Sapphire’s face flushed again. Quickly diverting her eyes back to her plate, she started to dribble her carrot in small circles, trying not to become flustered.
I had already slapped myself in the head for having used the word ‘date’. Bleak and Summer were the ones supposed to be going on a date tomorrow and I may have just ruined it.
“I--I can understand the need for a companion for such public events. The pressure to be accompanied for such things can be taxing. I--I--I was planning on asking you something similar.”
Nervously stirring her carrots around her plate, Sapphire did her best to remain unaffected by her own words, but flakes of snow were quickly sprinkling from her mane.
I nearly dropped my fork with my magic, desperately trying to settle my nerves. “M--me?”
“The--The Winter Solstice requires all attendees to be accompanied by a suitable partner. Tra… tra… traditionally it is required by royalty to begin the festivities with a d--dance.”
“You… want me? To--to--“
I struggled to get the word out. Both frightened and surprised at the same time at such a request.
“I--I--I assure you that it is no way a--a--a date or anything of that nature! Finding somepony I’m comfortable with… what I mean to say is that we--we--we are easier to get along with than-- than…”
Sapphire’s plate suddenly froze over. Her fork nervously stabbed the plate, cracking it down the middle and making both of us jump. Dropping her fork on the table, she lowered her head to let her embarrassment flourish beneath her billowing cloudy mane, face nearly a royal purple.
I laughed nervously, speaking in a much louder register than I had intended. “I--I guess it’s only fair!”
I ended up purposely smashing my plate in hopes of easing Sapphire’s embarrassment, but all it did was make her jump in surprise again.
“If--if you’re willing to stay an extra day just to help me out, then--then I can most assuredly help you with the Winter Solstice.”
Sapphire seemed to be willing to work this new angle I had offered.
“A--agreed! Such tiring social duties will be more easily handled if we attack them together.”
With our dinner plates now smashed, we had nothing really to occupy ourselves with. Awkwardly forced to stare at the remains of dinner and try to find something that would relieve our tension.
Sapphire was now willing to stay, although our presence at this festival would most assuredly be requiring some sort of bodyguard. Which meant I had done nothing but add to the problem.
“Could…” I began. “Could it… just be… the two of us?”
A thin layer of ice quickly formed around most of Sapphire’s body, literally freezing up to the question. It was my turn to duck my head from embarrassment, wondering how in the hay I had gotten so deep into this.
“...okay…”
Embers fell from my mane. I could see them fizzling to the floor before turning to black dots. I slowly looked up to Sapphire who seemed rather flustered but she made no attempt to hide it.
“I… enjoy our time together… Smolder.”
“And… having you here makes me happy, Sapphire,” I replied.
My response was almost reactionary. Sapphire usually praised me for my efforts in becoming a learned pony of royalty and it was my response to compliment her in turn. This made Sapphire’s mane storm with hundreds of small snowflakes billowing out around her. She hid her face, turning away from me, to avoid letting me see how embarrassed she was.
My head was so low to the table felt that I was nearly kissing it. I held my tongue between my teeth to stop myself from speaking again. Feeling so angry with myself for being such a dork.
“I’m… happy you feel that way,” Sapphire said.
Our eyes met over frozen carrots and broken dinner plates. Sapphire was the first to turn away out of embarrassment from her own words this time.
Pieces of the crushed dinner plates were being pushed across the table. Sapphire turned once more to see my hoof reaching across the table to her.
“Will you have my back tomorrow, Sapphire?” I asked.
This was our promise. The first time our trust had been put to the test, where we had put our lives on the line for one another and promised to stand by each other through the worst.
Sapphire smiled shyly, taking my hoof with her own. Finding it almost amusing that the last time I had asked her this we would most certainly be heading to our demise.
“You don’t have to ask, Smolder.”
There was red all over the floor. It pooled from two bodies. The first a full grown mare, throat cut deep, eyes open and vacant. Closer by lay the other, a full grown colt, heart run through, blood lining the grooves of the tiles upon the marble floor. Both had worn crowns, each had been having dinner, and had now taken their last breaths.
All that was left was colt at the peak of his adolescence, face splattered and wings soaked with red. At his hooves was the book he had obsessed over, fallen open to the chapter of the Fire King’s endowment of ancient power from his deceased parents. A power now solely his, a kingdom now under his rule, and a smile that hinted at an even greater agenda. A turn of the page revealed his motive, the prize at the end of his conquest.
“I shall be seeing you soon, Lady Sapphire.”