//------------------------------// // Ch.2 - Cold Reception // Story: The Witching Hour - Looking Forward to the Past // by Chaotic Ink //------------------------------// The bitter winds of the frozen north seemed to cut into Midnight as she and Shoal flew above the train. Even as a wyvern and almost constantly swallowing her fire to try and stay at least a bit warm, the cold was almost unbearable. Shoal was obviously having the same problem, as she was almost constantly breathing out fire in front of herself and flying into the super-heated air in her own attempt to stay warm. Even so, Midnight and Shoal had put themselves into this position by choice and, hopefully, their little self-imposed gauntlet was almost over. They had departed Ponyville late the day before, after collecting the rest of the guard and the bearers, who Midnight and Twilight briefed on their mission. There evidently was a guard post up by where the Crystal Empire had rematerialized, which was how the news had reached the princesses, and also was the reason the train system went so far north. Since all that supposedly was up there was a guard post, no other passengers were going to such a remote outpost and the bearers and their guard had free run of the locomotive, able to relax however they wished without bothering anyone else. After Midnight had given each bearer their respective Element, Twilight had hunkered down and started reading the few books Princess Celestia had given her, re-reading things out loud for the rest of them if they seemed like things the rest of them should know or be aware of. Midnight used the ride, just as long as the one to Appleloosa, to get to know her guards better. Trainee Umbra Shroud had approached her after everyone had gotten settled and once again apologized for being late earlier. “I got to packing late last night since my friends wanted to throw me a going away party and-.” “It’s fine,” Midnight said, now in a slightly better mood. She at least had Arina back with her, though that was only because Sapphire had insisted that she take the spider with her. Arina had stayed back in town while Midnight had gone up to Canterlot in case something happened and when they’d returned only to say they were leaving again on official business, her marefriend had practically pushed Arina into Midnight’s saddle bags. “You need her more than we do,” the blue pegasus had told her with a goodbye kiss. “Just promise to be careful.” “And take care of Honey!” Squeaks insisted when Midnight gave her a hug. The new changeling queen and her four guards were coming along for two reasons. The first was, as she and her changelings were, technically, a separate state, this was the perfect opportunity for the new changeling queen to cut her fangs on diplomacy while those she trusted, and could look to for support, were around. Celestia had caught Midnight before leaving the castle and suggested the idea. Since Honey going also meant that the four changeling guards with her could be brought along as well without a fuss, Midnight had no objection. Honey had been nervous at the idea, naturally, but after a few hours of practicing negotiations and deals with others on the train, she was becoming more relaxed with the subject. The second was that, out of the immediate view of those that would flip their lids, Midnight would fully integrate the four changeling guards into hers for the remainder of the mission, getting them as up to speed as much as her new recruits would be. “What’s your special talent?” Midnight continued. She was cataloguing everything about her new recruits she could in an effort to figure out where best to place them around town. If one of their talents was a good match with one of the bearers, she would station them to patrol around that bearer’s home and the places in town they most frequented. Private Dapper, for example, had an eye for fashion like Rarity but in a more practical sense. What clothing stitches, for example, were more suited for outdoor wear or material and style of boots that were best for traipsing through a swamp. Others, such as Sergeant Brick Break, the only one of the two new sergeants to stay on, had a brick wall for a cutie mark and was just like one; hard to move and hurt like Tartarus when he hit you, so his profile said. He was more suited to general patrols around town and watching the outer edge of the Everfree Forest. Umbra shifted her body so that she could show off her cutie mark, which was a black orb with what looked like purple smoke around it. “Shadow magic. My “Moving in the Shadows” spell is the one I’m best at but I’ve been practicing others.” ““Move in the Shadows” spell? Shadow magic?” Midnight asked, looking around at the others. The few other unicorns in earshot just shrugged. Umbra’s way of answering when Midnight looked back at her was to look around then place her hoof in the closest shadow to her. Her horn lit up a dark green, then the shadow just seemed to… swallow her into it. Before any of them could react, something inside the shadow moved, racing around the train. The entire time the movement stayed within shadows and only moved through those that were connected, never jumping from one shadow to the next. Once the movement had managed to make one circuit around the car, Umbra popped out of the first shadow she’d disappeared into. “I’ve been trying to do other things, like send packages by themselves or reach for something through shadows, but right now that’s my best spell.” They all blinked at her, then Midnight scribbled down in her notes: Night patrol/espionage. Have her see Twilight to improve skills. “Thank you, Trainee Shroud. I think you’ll be a great value to the guard.” “Thank you, Captain Storm!” Umbra said with a salute and a smile fit to burst. Before bed that night, Midnight had personally interviewed all the new recruits and had shared her notes with her sergeants and lieutenants to get their opinions of them. Of course, there was still one recruit she needed to officially go over and she was currently high above the train, apparently okay with being up there all night. Midnight had found it hard to figure out what to do with Shoal while they had returned to Ponyville to pick everyone up. The distance to the frozen north was, in Midnight’s opinion, too far to fly without rest and the train would not be stopping, so at some point the dragon would fall behind and possibly even become lost or arrive far too late to help with whatever they encountered when they arrived. When Midnight had approached the dragon and asked her to stay and keep an eye on the town for them and had been forced to explain why at Shoal’s inquiry, the older creature had given her an amused snort. “A nap to us is a decade or two to you. I’ll have no problem keeping up with the train and even flying through the night,” she’d assured the kirin, who finally accepted this as the train whistle announced final boarding. So, Shoal flew above them, not once losing pace with the train as she promised, even during the night. Midnight had finally decided to join her in the air when one of the conductors had made their way to the back to announce they were about an hour away from their destination, a little ashamed at leaving the dragon out in the cold without any company and as an excuse to stretch her own wings and wyvern form. They’d discussed what Twilight had told Midnight before the snow, which had started about an hour earlier, went from a soft, pastoral falling to a whipping storm and the two had stopped in order to concentrate on keeping an eye on the train and staying aloft without freezing. There was the option for Midnight to return to the train but as they were surely almost there and the idea that a wyvern and full grown dragon arriving with the train would be a good show of force, she’d decided to push on. Thankfully, the small station, if one could call the ragged platform and small guard shack a station, soon came into view and Midnight and Shoal landed with heavy thuds as the train came to a stop. The two gave the offloading beings a show of blue and light purple fire as they toasted themselves with their own fire directly, momentarily driving the snow and cold away. “Alright everyone, make sure to stay together!” Midnight called out once everyone had gotten off the train, which immediately began to back out of the station, “keep the bearers in the center. Shoal will stay on the right and I will stay on the left. Make sure to stay between us so no-one wanders off!” “Someone is supposed to meet us here!” Twilight yelled over the howling blizzard, reminding Midnight that Celestia had sent word ahead of their arrival. “We can’t stay out for long in this storm!” Midnight told her. “You won’t have to!” a familiar voice called out and they all turned to see a pony-ish shape materializing out of the snow. “Shining!” Twilight called happily, running up to her brother. Midnight snorted. “Next time paint yourself neon green so we can see you!” she huffed, lowering her head to get a better look at him. He’d gotten very close before they’d finally seen him. “Good to see you too, Captain Cranky,” he shot back up at her good naturedly. “But you’re right; we need to get out of this storm as soon as possible; there are things out here besides the cold that you don’t want to meet,” he said ominously, but smiled when he saw the Elements his sister and her friends were wearing. “Which makes me glad you’re wearing those. Follow me back to the empire!” “Um, what kind of things?” Fluttershy asked, the cold not being the only thing making her shake now as they all marched forward. Shining sighed. “Let’s just say the empire isn’t the only thing that’s returned.” “Called it,” Midnight said. “You owe me five bits, Corporal Spread Eagle.” “We just HAD a crisis!” the pegasus shouted. “Can’t we have a break!?” “No, now clam up and keep walking unless you want to be an even more useless popsicle!” Wild Mane snapped. “Cadance and I have a shield up,” Shining called back, “however this storm has been raging ever since the empire returned and it’s been battering against our shield.” “How do you know it’s this unicorn, King Som-bat then?” Rainbow asked. “Sombra,” Shining corrected, “and because storms don’t slam into the shield over and over again in one spot every few minutes.” As if to punctuate his point, an eerie howl rose over the din of the storm. Midnight turned to see a large, inky black cloud rising up from the ground behind them, two eyes of green and red staring back at them. She roared, which got everyone’s attention, then twisted her body around and let out a gout of blue fire that slammed into the black cloud, making it howl in pain. “We need to get back to the empire!” Shining called out as Shoal followed Midnight’s example and hit the cloud with her own fire. Their attacks didn’t exactly hurt the cloud but they were staggering it. “Everyone form lines between that thing and the bearers!” Windrunner called out. “Unicorns and changelings in the back, flyers above!” Swords, spears, and hoof blades were drawn as the bearer guard got into position. Faced with an actual threat for the first time, many of the trainees and even some privates who previously had visions of glory now shook with a bit of fear. “Don’t tell me you lot are all afraid of a cloud!” Sergeant Brick Break yelled when he saw this. “I thought you all had more bones than that!” “You all knew what you were getting into!” First Sergeant Wild Mane joined in, “and the first one to run will answer to me or my ghost, got that!?” “Sir, yes sir!” came the resounding call back and the two sergeants were glad to see many of them stop shaking and hold their weapons more tightly. The cloud, tiring of the fire the two largest opponents were pouring into it, at first seemed to fall back to the ground. As the bearer guard was about to cheer in apparent victory, the cloud shout up and forward, past the wyvern and dragon and towards the defensive line. Both flyers and ground-pounders let out a defiant yell and charged the cloud, swinging at it with their weapons while the magic users charged their horns. The weapons, of course, did little against it, but the cloud had stopped its charge again to deal with the new threat. It seemed to reach out and smack the offenders away one by one, like one would do to annoying flies. Some, like Long Spine, were only momentarily stunned before moving back in to hack and slash at it again, while others, like Privates Dapper and Ditch Digger, were sent flying back. They all came rushing back in but a few had been hit hard, landed awkwardly, or both and a few were already starting to show injury and even some odd black crystals were growing from where the black cloud had hit them. Midnight and Shoal attacked from behind, unable to breath fire in case their companions got in the way, they began to claw and bite at the cloud, their size doing more obvious damage to it but still not making it retreat. Black crystals began to grow on their faces and claws as well and neither felt any real pain from them, more like that pins and needles sensation before going numb. ‘We’ve got it distracted; any time, Twilight!’ Midnight thought, seeing the black crystals and the prickly to numb feeling creeping towards her eyes. “Twilight, Ah think they have it pinned!” AJ shouted. “We kin use the Elements on that varmint and stop’im fur good!” “Yeah, that’s why we have these things after all!” Rainbow agreed, batting at her own necklace. “But, Princess Celestia said only if we really need to!” Twilight protested. After they had left for the library, Celestia had told Twilight that not every problem they faced could, or should, be solved by blasting them with the Elements. She told the unicorn that she and her friends should only use them if they absolutely had to. “And we don’t need to now!?” AJ said, motioning at the battle, were several other guards had just been sent flying. “We can retreat to the empire!” Twilight said, pointing towards where they were trekking to, a blue, magical glow occasionally peaking through the whipping storm clouds. “You said he can’t get us there, right?” she asked Shining Armor and he could see the pleading in his little sister’s eyes. “We can,” he agreed, then motioned at the battle. “But they might not be able to. What if some of them are hurt and can’t make it back? They’ll freeze to death out here if we leave them or he might kill them outright.” He could see how what he’d just said cut into Twilight and he also knew how much she looked up to Princess Celestia and would follow her every word. However, he had learned a few things from his new wife, like how alicorns weren’t the infallible goddesses society made them out to be and how Celestia liked to make plans. Celestia might have said to hold off on using the Elements, for whatever reason, but she wasn’t here and lives were on the line. “Twilight,” he picked up her chin so they were looking directly at each other, “you are the Element of Magic, your friends are the Elements of Loyalty, Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, and Laughter. Your job is to protect Equestria from evils like the one your guards, your friends, are fighting right now. How can you call yourselves the Elements of Harmony if you turn your back on them now?” He poked the Big Crown Thingy that sat on her head. “This is your destiny, no matter what anyone else says. Show me you’re the ones that saved Equestria from Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Queen Chrysalis.” Twilight looked up at him, taking in what he’d said, running it through her mind, mixing it with what both Midnight and Celestia told her, and finally coming to the conclusion she knew was the only right answer. “You’re right,” she said, her voice wavering a bit. “You’re right,” she repeated, more firmly. “Girls, gather around; we have an evil cloud to disperse.” Unaware of the situation behind them, the magic users began firing off their own magic blasts at the evil cloud as more of their fellow guards began to fall or be pulled off to the side, unable to fight anymore. “We’re about as useful as the others against that thing!” Corporal Lance Breaker yelled as their vollies went right through the cloud, punching holes that were just as quickly closed back up. “We have to keep trying!” Honey called out, taking an involuntary step forward as Midnight took a rather vicious hit to the head that made her stagger back. The black crystals were covering most of her head now and the wyvern let out a cry of anguish that nearly made Honey leap forward to put herself between her friend and the evil cloud. Umbra was in agreement with both sentiments but had no better idea what to do except just keep shooting beam after beam at the monster. Then, like a bolt from the blue, she had an idea. “This is supposed to be that evil unicorn king, right?” she asked no one in particular. “Yes,” Honey answered shortly. “Well, a lot of old tales say that evil beings used dark magic, including shadow magic. What if that’s not a cloud, but a huge shadow?” “That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard,” one of the others called back. “What are you thinking?” Honey asked, not sure where the unicorn was going with this. “I can use my shadow magic to get in there and maybe hit him from the inside!” Umbra said. “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard!” Corporal Lance Breaker shouted. “Stay in line and keep firing!” “I have to try!” Umbra shouted, charging forward. “Trainee!” the corporal yelled after her. “Umbra, get back!” Honey also called out. Umbra ignored them both, charging up her horn as she ran towards the black mass. She had just reached her fellows who had pulled back a bit to reassess their strategy when there was a loud *thoom* and a bright flash of white behind them. Skidding to a halt, Umbra turned around to see a double ribbon of rainbow flying up into the sky. The ribbons met and one large rainbow ribbon shot out and at the black mass. “Hit the deck!” Midnight roared out, also having seen the incoming rainbow with her one still uncovered eye, and flung herself away. All the other guards still fighting did so as well, Shoal shaking the ground as she landed. That was nothing to the overwhelming blast that impacted the black mass, which let out the most bone-chilling howl as it seemed to just disintegrate under the rainbow. Another flash of white light and the mass was gone; even the weather seemed to calm where the blast has impacted. Blinking, they all saw that the only thing left of their adversary was a small black puff that was twisting about like someone very drunk trying to walk properly and making similarly unhappy noises. After a moment of staring at it, something clicked in Umbra’s mind and she fished out one of the mason jars she’d accidently took with her, popped the top off, then ran forward and caught the small smoke cloud in the jar, quickly closing the lid over it. The smoke cloud struggled inside the jar, but could barely shake it at best. “Nice job, Trainee,” Captain Midnight said, trotting up next to her and once again a kirin. She looked battered but victory was keeping her on her hooves. All the black crystals that had grown on her were gone as well. Umbra smiled and saluted. “Thank you, ma’am!” “Gather up all those that can’t move!” The kirin called out to the rest, glad to see that the crystals that had grown on everyone else had disappeared as well. “Shoal will carry them the rest of the way!” She looked up at the once again standing dragon who nodded at her. Looking back over at the bearers, she could see them all hugging each other in celebration. Snorting something between approval and annoyance, she looked back over her troops. “The rest of you, let’s get to some shelter already!” ----------------------------- “So,” Cadance said, tapping the mason jar she was holding and watching the small black cloud spasm about angrily. “This would be King Sombra? And you took care of him so quickly?” “In the… smoke, apparently,” Midnight said, also eyeing the jar. She’d prefer it if the pink alicorn would gently put the thing down already and have it sent down to dungeons. To be buried. Hopefully with a nice, thick capping of cement poured on top. Just to be safe. She looked tired and the kirin wasn’t very trusting of the alicorn’s magic just then. She did smile however. “And that just shows you how valuable it is to use all the resources available to you,” this aimed at the purple unicorn standing beside her, who rolled her eyes. “Alright, I get it! You were right; happy?” Twilight whispered back to the kirin, who was trying not to grin. “The Elements will have rendered him completely harmless,” Twilight assured them both. “And with Sombra taken care of, undoing his spell shouldn’t take too long at all, though I wonder why it didn’t dispel like those crystals when the Elements hit him…” “That’s excellent news,” Cadance said, finally putting the jar down next to the throne and walking shakily off it. While both she and Shining had been powering the shield that had protected the city ever since they’d arrived, being an alicorn Cadance had put in the lion’s share of the effort and it was showing. Midnight had winced when they’d first entered the throne room; the princess had looked as drained as when Chrysalis had been sucking the love out of her right before the wedding. “Hopefully I’ll be able to take a breather now.” She winced and the magic around her horn flickered. “I’d love to know how they kept the weather at bay before they disappeared. Sombra may not be attacking anymore but it’s still a chore to keep the storms out.” “I’ll handle it from here,” Shining said, moving over to let his wife lean against him. “Twily, I know if anyone can figure it out, it’s you. Celestia may have given you some books but there’s actually a library a little ways from the palace. I’d bet our old Sibling Supreme crown that you’ll get better answers in there.” Twilight’s eyes immediately lit up. “Library? They have a library? With all kinds of books that may have been lost to history!?” Shining chuckled. “And it’s big, too.” Midnight’s ears went flat as the purple unicorn next to her screeched with joy. “You did that on purpose,” the kirin growled accusingly. “No idea what you’re talking about,” Shining said innocently. “Oh, this will be so exciting! Imagine rediscovering lost history, old spells that have been forgotten!” She gasped loudly, “the cataloging!” Spike sighed loudly and let his face fall into his claws. “Anyway, while Twilight hunts down the on button for the No-Freeze-To-Death system, I’d like permission to leave six guards here, take the rest out to where we left Shoal and begin getting my new recruits trained. If the big bad is no longer a threat, I’d like to have them do more than stand around like life-like statues for the locals to gawk at.” On the way in they’d seen quite a few large statues lining the streets, shaped like ponies the size of Midnight and in armor. Midnight figured it was just how an evil king would decorate. They also had to leave Shoal waiting in the fields outside of the city proper, right by the edge of the shield. Even with the city streets as wide as they were, the dragon would probably never make it to the palace without kicking at least one building by accident. Even if she flew there would be the issue of where to place her tail and Midnight privately wondered how long she could stay standing in one position before wanting to shift even a little. Beyond the problem of fitting her into the city was just how the locals would take to her and pretty much everyone she broached the subject with on the way in agreed that panic would be the default for most residents at having such a large dragon descend on them out of the blue. So, once they were out of the cold and getting reorganized, Midnight approached Shoal and laid out her reasons for asking her to stay put as respectfully as possible. The dragon agreed without an issue of any kind, that she understood why there’d be an issue with her joining them to the castle and said with an easy air that she’d try digging up some gems while she waited. “That sounds reasonable,” Shining said as he let a few of the palace staff take Cadance out of the throne room and Twilight trotted back towards the main throne room doors and her friends. “Which six did you have in mind?” “My First Lieutenant Windrunner, to lead, and then Honeycomb and her own guards,” she motioned after Twilight where the five changelings in question were standing with the Mane Six and trying to look like they belonged. “They make great plain-clothes guards.” “Uh-huh,” Shining said, giving the changelings and Midnight a skeptical glare. “I believe a few of those applied for your guard already.” “And most were promptly kicked out because they refused to work with another species.” Midnight growled, then sighed and continued before the unicorn could comment. “Shining, almost all the ponies I met before coming to Ponyville treated me like a monster when they found out what I was. I will not let those same ponies into my guard where they’ll treat others like that. I think you can understand the issue with discipline if a private won’t listen to their sergeant because they have scales.” To her surprise, Shining sighed as well and nodded. “I reread your file after the wedding; I kinda glanced over those parts the first time when I was looking for a reason for someone more experienced to be head of the bearer guard. I can understand why you feel that way; I even agree with you after being in different nations with Cadance.” He looked at the changelings again. “You trust them?” “I let one sleep in the same house as me, so with my life and the lives of my family, yes,” Midnight said. Shining nodded. “Princess Celestia said they’d be joining you for some political reason.” Midnight huffed. “It’s complicated.” “Well Cadance specializes in that, so when she’s feeling better I’ll arrange a meeting between them before you head back to Ponyville.” It was Midnight’s turn to nod. “Thank you. Arina!” she called out. The spider, currently standing on Honey’s back, came to attention. “Go with Honey, Windrunner, and the bearers! I need eyes on them while I break the trainees in.” The spider chirped and saluted. ----------------------------- “That was good thinking, keeping your pet with them,” Umbra said as she and Midnight continued their patrol, heading for the palace. Around them, crystal ponies went from booth to booth, getting snacks or souvenirs that were a staple at the Crystal Fair. So said the book that Twilight had dug up, anyway. They’d only been drilling for about three hours when Arina had called her. Midnight had closed her eyes and opened them to find herself, or more appropriately Arina, face-to-face with Twilight. After a minute of Twilight going “Hello?” and “Is she on?” and Midnight becoming frustrated enough to yell “YES!” and startling some of the recruits out of formation, resulting in a storm of colorful admonishment by Wild Mane, Honey finally convinced the unicorn that glowing eyes meant a connection. Awkwardly, through Arina, Twilight had explained that apparently the way to keep the empire safe was if everyone in the empire was happy and the best way to do that was to hold the Crystal Fair, which was meant to “renew the spirit of love and unity in the empire so they could protect it from harm” or something like that. In Midnight’s opinion a defense based on the mood of its populous was, well, dumb to put it nicely. All it would take was one bad day for everything to go south faster than Rainbow. Then again, the empire had somehow survived for centuries before Sombra, so there must be some reliability to the system and if all it took to power the shield on its own was some funnel cake and trumpets, who was she to judge? It also didn’t help that the drilling out in the fields had felt a little slap-dashed to her. She had finally gotten Celestia and Luna to agree to turn over the old Castle of the Two Sisters to her to make into a training ground/fort inside the Everfree right after Shoal had arrived and she would not waste that little gain. The alicorns had told her that some rooms in the old ruin were off limits for now and that they would put together a recovery party to remove certain long abandoned items from it but that was a condition Midnight had no problem with; from the start over half the castle was hers to do with as she pleased and she already had a few ideas. Once the Crystal Empire was properly propped back up and in working order, they could get back and put some of those ideas into action. So the guard had rounded itself back up, marched back into the city, and helped the bearers and Spike set the fair up. Most of the guards had been put to running various stands alongside the bearers while Midnight had selected seven of them to patrol in two-person groups with her to keep order and act as quick responders in case anything came up. For the most part, the patrollers were all the upper brass of the guard, with Midnight, Windrunner, Hazelnut, and Wild Mane making up the leads of each patrol and Honey and two of her changelings making up three of the seconds. Midnight needed Honey and her changelings to wander around so they could be the “barometer” to tell them how much happiness was going on. The changeling queen was with Windrunner, so that any ill news could be spread to the other officers quickly. Midnight’s second was trainee Umbra Shroud, who was making herself a standout among the new recruits and who the bearer guard captain wanted a word with. “No luck, trainee, all planning, which is something you’re going to have to learn to do if you want to be an officer one day.” “Ma’am?” “You ran headlong at Sombra like you were going to impale him with your horn, which went against your orders and common sense. Care to explain?” The unicorn’s ears folded down as she ducked her head and looked away from the stand Rarity was manning, making some kind of bowls or hats or bowl-hats, expecting the captain to look angry again. Instead, when she looked up, she found the kirin with a simple, expectant look on her face, as if she’d just asked for the time. It gave Umbra a little more confidence in her answer. “I thought that he was more shadow than cloud,” she explained, “and I thought that if that was the case, maybe I could dive into him and hurt him from the inside.” “Not exactly a bad idea,” Midnight said, flicking an ear as she mulled that over, “but what if he really was just cloud and you simply dove through him? Even if you didn’t end up encrusted in those black crystals, what would you have done then?” Umbra pondered that for a few seconds. “I… don’t really know…” “And what if I was counting on every magic caster we had to stay in line and keep doing what they were doing? You just charging in could have made a perfectly good plan fall apart, which means many more of your fellow guards could have gotten hurt or worse. Didn’t you remember how much pomp I made about giving the bearers the Elements?” Umbra’s ears flattened again. “No, I forgot about that.” “I never planned on us beating him ourselves,” Midnight explained, “since I don’t know how to beat a magic user who can make an empire disappear for over a thousand years. What we were supposed to do was distract him long enough for the Elements to power up and take him out. Seeing as they were able to strip away the evil from Princess Luna, after banishing her the first time, and turning an insanely powerful being using chaos magic to harmless stone twice, I figured they would have the magical power to stop him. Thankfully, Twilight didn’t let me down.” Her face twitched and Umbra wasn’t sure if it was a small smile or annoyed frown that played briefly on the captain’s face. “And if the Elements didn’t work?” Umbra asked tentatively. “Then hopefully your little stunt would have worked,” Midnight said, “from what I’ve seen, if the Elements don’t work, nothing will.” “So… then why-?” “Why is there a guard? Because the Elements are for the Big Bads, powerful evils like Discord and Nightmare Moon and Queen Chrysalis, stuff that only an even more powerful magic can contend with. We, on the other hand, are for all the other stuff that the Elements would be overkill or just wouldn’t work on, such as land disputes, large carnivores, or the bearers themselves doing something stupid. I’d say that I’d simply tell everyone if we’re going to rely on the Element or not, but I think we already have a system like that.” “We do?” Umbra asked, and was surprised to see a real smile spread on the kirin’s face. “The louder Corporal Spread Eagle whines, the more likely we are to need them.” That got Umbra to laugh and Midnight to chuckle out loud as they approached the center of the plaza directly underneath the palace, where the Crystal Heart centerpiece was located. The mirth at the corporal’s expense didn’t last long when she saw Twilight, Rainbow, AJ, Shining, and Cadance all standing around the now covered centerpiece and looking like something important just broke. “Everything alright?” Midnight asked as came up to the group. “Y’all know that thing Twilight made, supposed to be the center of the fair?” AJ asked, gesturing at the covered crystal. “Yeah?” Midnight said, issue after issue, both small and large starting to run through her head. Was it the wrong color? Was it actually supposed to do something? Were there supposed to be more? Was it supposed to be a specific kind of crystal? Was Shoal somehow eyeing it all the way from the barrier? “Turns out it’s a real relic,” Shining said, “and we have no idea where it is. Without it, there’s no way to power the empire’s natural protection.” He looked worriedly at his wife, who was back to powering the shield. “There was a page missing,” Twilight said, becoming more frantic as she re-scanned the book for probably the hundredth time. “How could I not notice there was a page missing!?” “Twilight, calm down,” Cadance said, laying a wing on her sister-in-law. “I know you’ll figure it out. Just take a deep breath and let it out slow. The storms are nothing compared to King Sombra; we have all the time in the world.” Shining caught Midnight’s eye and shook his head. Clearly the pink alicorn was under more strain than she was letting on. “One other thing, Trainee,” Midnight told Umbra with a long-suffering sigh, “ALWAYS expect things to get worse.”