POV: Twilight
I was truly worried that evening. I don’t know why, especially since Spike told me he was out with Rainbow. Still, it was atypical of him to stay out longer than sunset and it was already past eleven! I was pacing around in circles, waiting, thinking of where he might have gone off to.
It turned out, however, that I didn`t need to worry much longer. The door opened slowly and it was Markus, who appeared behind it. My eyes immediately locked onto him and I turned around in a short wave of joy, which was soon replaced with slight anger. Who was he that he would make me worry like that after all? I was about to give him a good lecture, when he suddenly made a few steps forward and… kissed me.
I gave a short, surprised squeal, as I suddenly felt his lips press into mine, a feeling which I was quick to embrace and welcome by returning his kiss. For a few minutes, we just stood there. His actions had told me enough to know, why exactly he had been out for so long, so instead of giving him the planned lecture, I just broke the kiss momentarily and asked him.
“I take it today has been a success, then?”
He didn’t answer and he didn’t need to, as his actions spoke plenty for him. Soon, our kiss ended and we just held each other in a warm embrace, after which both of us were content in ending our days.
The following morning, we decided that it was finally time to tell the other elements, now that Markus had finally gained some confidence. Although, apparently, it was less surprising to them than I had thought, as the only ones who seemed actually surprised that day were me and Rainbow, as Markus had come up with it in the first place.
Turns out that the others had seen it coming all along and were only waiting for us to finally break it to them. Pinkie even had a whole Party already prepared and ready for launch that very minute! Markus tried to talk her out of it, but quickly learned that trying to make Pinkie stop a party was a fruitless effort.
Time went by quickly, as our relationship had finally broken out if its stagnation. Winter started and the Pegasi quickly covered all of Ponyville in a thick layer of snow. Rainbow took great pride in the amount of snow, openly boasting over it before us. This only earned her a playful, but strong smack across the flank from Markus, complaining about him having to swing the snow shovel for three days straight because of it.
Soon, Hearth’s warming eve came and we had a big celebration together at the Town Hall. Everypony greatly enjoyed it, but probably not nearly as much as Rainbow and I did. The reason for that was Markus. More precisely, Markus’s gifts. It wasn’t much, as he had stated himself, gifting both of us a rose that matched our coat, as well as a book on Starswirl that I had wanted for a while and a pair of dumbbells for Rainbow. Like he said, it wasn’t much, but it was easily visible that he had made an effort on finding the perfect gift for both of us and he had succeeded.
We both jumped at him, giving him a tight hug and squealing our thanks into his ears. Although, I couldn’t quite understand what was so special about a pair of dumbbells. Something that Rainbow quickly cleared up for me.
“What do you mean ‘simple dumbbells’? Those are hoofmade wingbells! Even some of the Wonderbolts can only dream of having a pair of those! Which makes me wonder though…” She turned back to Markus. “How did you get your hoofs – er, hands on these?”
Markus gave a smug smile down towards us as he replied. “One of the little perks of having the lunar Princess as a friend.”
A short series of laughter concluded this line of discussion and we went back to having fun at the party. However, it wouldn’t be long for the next big event to happen.
Only a week after heath’s warming eve, we sat in the kitchen eating breakfast together, when we heard somepony knock at the door. Markus went to open it, revealing Lt. Bulkhead standing on the other side with a letter levitating by his side.
Markus quickly opened and read it, remarking that ‘the guard apparently does own trains’ at one point, before commanding Lt. Bulkhead to assemble the rest of the company fully equipped at the station in two hours. The Lieutenant obliged, quickly setting off towards the barracks, while I walked to Markus’s side to ask him what had happened.
“Apparently we are needed in the crystal empire.” Markus said, as he put the letter into one of his pockets. “A train will arrive in two hours to get us directly into the north, where we are to meet up with the General and Shining Armor.”
While he was saying that, he already set off to get his stuff, an endeavour with which I quickly helped him, before he then went off with a quick ‘see you at the station’ from both of us.
As soon as he left the Library, I went to work myself. I packed a few things into my saddlebags that I thought I would need and went off to get the others. Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy and Pinkie quickly got some things into a saddlebag themselves before following me. Only Rarity needed longer than twenty minutes, although even that was a record for her. When she finally exited her boutique, she was pulling two big suitcases, which seemed full to bursting with things we probably wouldn’t need, but all of us knew this by that point and didn’t say anything.
When we arrived at the station, we saw everypony already assembled before a train with the markings of the guard on it. Markus stood before the formation and gave some last instructions, although something immediately struck me as odd. Namely it was that, at first, I could only barely make out Markus against the snow and it looked like he was talking with the air. That was because he and the ponies of his company had changed their attire. They now wore white uniforms, similar to the green and brown ones they usually wore, only that they were, well, white. Also they changed the coat colour not into brown but into white as well. Markus’s uniform, gloves, boots, vest and helmet, meanwhile, had been magically dyed as far as I could tell.
We approached the formation and greeted Markus, who quickly turned around to us and gave us a puzzled look.
“Well, that’s certainly some decent equipment for a simple farewell. Do you plan on going anywhere after I left?”
“Why, no! We are coming with you, of course, Darling.” Rarity answered him.
In response, he gave a quick look over to Rarity, before looking at me with a questioning gaze.
“Ooooooh, no no no no, Twilight.” He said after a while, “I am NOT going to take you into battle with me.”
“Why not? We have faced some serious threats already, so I’m pretty sure we can handle a little bit of marching in the snow!” I responded.
“’A bit of marching in the snow’ would not be a problem, but as far as my luck goes, we are probably going to face down a whole army of gryphons or even changelings! I know you have done well with facing down single monsters and such, but I doubt you can persuade an army of changelings to spontaneously drop their weapons.”
I pulled in an over-exaggerated gasp as he said this. “You don’t believe in the magic of friendship?! Only another reason to properly show you, what we can do! You will take us with you, if you like it or not!”
His eyes narrowed down and he looked sharply into my eyes. “Make me.”
He was as stubborn as ever in that situation, but I had a last resort. A trump card, if you so will.
“As a Princess of Equestria, I order you to take us with you!”
I heard a few of the soldiers give some short gasps at this and Markus’s mouth closed into a tight ‘o’, as he looked down in silence.
“That’s cheating and you know it.” He said finally.
“But it works.” I responded with a hint of triumphant glee.
He gave a longs sigh, slightly bobbing his head back and forth with his eyes closed. “Yes, it does indeed.” He turned around to the formation again and called out. “Squeak, go and fetch those spare coats we had lying around.”
The mare saluted and went off, before returning a few minutes later with six white, hooded long coats. Markus took them from her magic grasp and hoofed one over to each of us.
“You want us to wear these?!” Rarity exclaimed overdramatically, “Oh, never could I wear something this uninspiring, Darling. I am very sorry, but no.”
“Honestly, Rarity, since you are white already, I don’t really care, as long as you don’t go around like a piece of the rainbow itself. As for you others: As soon as we leave the crystal city, I want you to wear these and NOT take them off under any circumstances. Also make sure that they cover your whole body and at least part of your legs, understood?”
We all nodded in unison and then Markus led us into the train, together with his troops. There were no extra accommodations for us on the train, obviously, so we rode together with Markus and the other officers in a cart in the front. It was a rather spacious compartment. Not as spacious as the royal cove on the Canterlot Express, but still more spacious than what a normal first class wagon would afford. Of course, this extra space was needed, as the officers had to be able to move freely in order to access the map table that stood in the middle. There were also four bunks placed along the walls, adding up to eight beds in total.
Of course, that wasn’t quite enough for all of us, so we offered that we could put two of us in one bed, so that Markus and his officers each could have one bed, but Markus would have none of it.
“Oh, but I could never demand that a princess lowers herself to these levels… Your Highness.” He said sarcastically, giving an over-exaggerated bow at the end, clearly aiming to make me uncomfortable… which he completely succeeded in.
In the end, each of us got their own bed and Markus told Bulkhead and Overdrive to share one, while Mystic would sleep alone in one. Markus himself chose to stay awake during the ride, as he had some things to go over anyways.
It was a long ride towards the crystal empire, taking us almost a day to get there. During that time, we played some games or slept, while Markus and his officers mostly went around checking on their troops and talking to each other about what was to be done when we finally reached our destination.
I awoke again about ten minutes before we would reach the crystal empire. Markus was standing at the map table, intently studying the terrain. Since we had crossed the border, the temperature had dropped drastically, even though it was winter already. We ponies don’t really notice these temperature changes all too much, thanks to our coats. Markus, however, didn’t have a coat, his only defence against the cold being the clothing he wore. As such, he had changed his attire while I was asleep, now standing there not only in his field jacket, but also with a thick winter coat in the same colour scheme as his other clothes, with his vest strapped over it. He had also covered his face with a scarf, hiding his mouth and nose behind it.
I got up and walked over to him, giving him a slight and subtle swish with my tail to make myself known. He smiled down to me and gave me a few pleasant scratches behind my ears before returning to the map. I followed his gaze and saw that he was looking at the Crystal Mountains on the northern border of the empire.
“Quite an unusual formation, aren’t they?” Markus commented without looking at me. “While they do seem like they are of natural origin, there are some quite artificial-seeming features to them.”
He pointed at an entrance to a valley on the north-eastern border of the empire.
“Take this passage here for example. It seems like an ordinary valley at first, but when we trace it like this, it becomes apparent that it not only runs through almost the whole length of the mountain chain, but it also ends here…”
As he said this, he traced the valley with his finger, sliding it once over the whole mountain range and then stopping… deep within changeling territory.
At first, I thought that his finger might have slipped when tracing it, but every time I followed that Valley with my own eyes, I came to the same shocking conclusion, but it still made no sense. How could something like that have been overlooked for so long? It turned out that Markus had already thought of an explanation to that…
“It wasn’t there before.”
I looked at him with a questioning look, to which he responded with a short sigh.
“This map is enchanted to always show the current state, isn’t it?”
I nodded in response.
“So, that means that according to our knowledge, the terrain as we can see it on this map might have looked differently a few days ago.” He stated.
“Well, yes, but…” I responded, “but that’s impossible… I mean, mountains don’t spontaneously grow legs and move somewhere else, do they?”
“Of course they don’t, but someone who possesses magic might just make them.”
“Oh, but that’s highly unlikely. To pull that off, you would need the power of an entire A-“ I froze in place and my eyes went wide in horror, as my mind fully registered what I was about to say. “… an entire Army…”
Markus slowly nodded, as he traced the path he had shown me once again with his own eyes. “Of course I would like it to not be the case, but given that it was the Crystal Empire which has requested Equestria’s assistance, I find it unlikely that it is anything less than a national emergency.”
A heavy silence hung afterwards. Markus resumed his studies of the map, while I just stood there, slowly realizing, why exactly Markus didn’t want us to come along.
Shortly after, we heard the train apply its brakes. Markus and the officers immediately gathered up their equipment and went into the other wagons to gather their ponies, while I woke up the rest of the elements.
The train came to a halt at the same station, where we had arrived when we visited the last time and we were the first to disembark. I immediately spotted my brother, Cadence and General Pillbox on the platform, looking towards the train expectantly, although their faces changed to confusion, as they saw us exit the train. I quickly ran towards them and tackled Shining with a hug.
“Euh… Hi, Twilight, what are you doing here?” He asked me, exchanging a short look with Cadence.
“I ordered Markus to take me along.” I stated cheerfully.
“Wait, Markus?...” He looked over to the General, giving him a look that demanded an answer.
“Yes, she is referring to Captain Becker, sir. Given that his company is relatively new, I thought this to be the perfect occasion to properly test them.”
Shining Armor turned his head to look towards the rest of the train, where the first of the 4th FRC were currently unloading their equipment. “Indeed, and I am sure that we will need their firepower. Although… I could very well do without him.” He then said, playing his role of hating Markus.
Speaking of Markus, he and his officers disembarked shortly after and rallied on the platform. He then walked over to the General and gave a salute.
“6th Regiment, 4th Forward Reconnaissance Company reporting ready for duty, sir.”
It was then that I noticed that Markus, as well as most of his ponies had wrapped their weapons in white tape, probably to disguise them against the snow.
“At ease, Captain.” The General said and Markus changed into a wider stance, “As you probably already know, this here is Captain Shining Armor, your superior. He has requested assistance in an internal matter and as such, you will be temporarily placed under his command.”
He let Shining stand before him and they both started to grimly stare at each other for a while. So long in fact that I slowly got the feeling that they were trying to pull off a show.
“So… we finally meet again. Captain.” Shining broke the silence, lacing the last word with a good deal of venom.
“Indeed we do, sir. I’ve heard, you need me yet again to pull your sorry butt out of a ditch?” Markus replied, pronouncing the word ‘sir’ in a sarcastic manner.
“Heh, I wouldn’t be so cocky if I were you, captain. You may have shown off a little a few months ago, but I am not impressed. The only reason that you are still here is that we do need the reinforcements.”
Shining made a few steps away from Markus and acted as if he was composing himself. “We have registered a few powerful magic outputs in the northern mountains, followed by short earthquakes. We don’t know what had caused them and it will be your task to find out. You will enter a small valley to the northeast and march through it towards the north-western border. Report anything you find…” He made a large step towards Markus, snarling at him. “And don’t break more than there`s already broken.”
“Oh, don’t worry, we will do just fine. As long as you refrain from giving any orders, that is.” Markus countered.
“If I were you, I would watch my tongue, as ranks can sometimes be very temporary, you know? Dismissed, Captain.”
“A show. Definitely a show.” I thought, as Markus and Shining walked away from each other. My friends, Cadence and most of the company looked pretty shocked at the display, except General Pillbox, who seemed to watch with stoic indifference, although I could swear I had seen him give a short, devious smile out of the corner of my eye.
While the others got ready to depart, Cadence approached me with a troubled expression. I readied myself, thinking that she might attempt to convince me to leave Markus, but got surprised, when she did quite the opposite.
“I… I have to apologize, Twilight. I thought that he just wanted to use you somehow, but now that I have actually seen him, I could feel the immense love he outputs towards you and Rainbow Dash… I-I’m sorry, Twilight. I was wrong. Can you forgive me?”
She offered me an apologetic smile and I quickly pulled her into a one-legged hug.
“Of course I forgive you, Cadence.” I whispered calmly to her.
We broke the hug and she gave another, this time thankful smile. “Thank you, Twilight. I promise I will make up for that outbreak soon. In fact… how about I try to solve the tensions between Shiny and Markus?”
I froze for a second, noticing that she could very well ruin Markus’s plan when doing that.
“Euh, No, no, you don’t need to, Cadence… I think that situation will resolve itself soon.” I tried to convince her, but she didn’t listen.
“I think, I already know, how. Don’t worry, Twilight, leave it to me!” She gave a short, playful salute and trotted back towards Shining. I considered telling her what was actually going on and decided against it, instead hoping that she wouldn’t get too much into it.
After a few minutes, we departed and made our way to the north-west. We walked for multiple hours through the snow, until we finally reached the entrance to the valley. From there, Markus led us along mountain paths and through ravines further and further through the mountains.
The march was straining for us. There was a constant wind blowing from one side of the valley to the other, making it hard to walk straight and a constant snowfall limited our vision greatly. Even Pinkie slowly lost her bounciness, instead opting for a more conservative walking style, although that might have been just as much of a mistake, as the cold slowly got to us. So much so, in fact, that even Rarity had finally decided to don her coat.
Soon, the small paths morphed into a single large one, which finally became a single large valley, along which we traversed until we came to a junction. According to the map that Markus had brought, both ways would eventually meet up on the other side, with one making a slight, long turn, while the other went straight over a hill.
Seeing as most of us were tired anyways, Markus opted to set up camp in this spot and wait for the weather to clear a little. Rainbow tried to clear it immediately, if not to save time then to make the situation a bit more bearable. She flew up and kicked the clouds, but there was no reaction. She shuffled around them, trying to move them away, but each time she approached one, she just flew straight through it. This was no wonder, seeing as we were no longer in Equestria.
Camp was set up and, as we didn’t find any firewood, we used magic to warm our tents. Since none of us six had brought any of our own, though, we were split up between the female soldiers. I was placed together with Mystic and after sentries were set up and shifts were assigned, we went to sleep.
At least that was the plan. However, the truth is that I couldn’t manage to fall asleep, even though I was very tired. It seemed that Mystic Gem suffered the same fate, as she suddenly spoke up.
“So, it seems it is really true, huh? That the captains can’t stand each other I mean.”
“Euh… well, yes, it sadly is.” I answered shortly, turning over to face her directly. She did the same and lit up her horn to spread a dim, blue glow around our tent.
“Must be pretty hard on you, then.” She stated compassionately.
“Yeah, it is pretty hard on all of us sometimes, but there isn’t much we can do, except keep them away from each other.” I answered.
“Yeah, but that’s not what I mean. I mean that it is especially hard for you.”
“I… what? I don’t know what you are talking about…” I said nervously, not liking the way this was going.
“Oh come on, princess! I know you have a thing for the Captain.” She said teasingly.
“What?! He is my brother! I would never even dream of-“ I tried to evade, but a single look at her face told me that it was no use. I let out a heavy sigh and admitted. “Yes, okay, it is true, I have ‘a thing’ for Marku- euh, Captain Becker.”
“Oh, so you are already past formalities, eh? When were you gonna tell him?” She suddenly asked and I felt my cheeks fire up.
She looked me directly into the eyes, trying to read my thoughts directly and I felt that it would be no use to hide it anyways. “Eh… actually, we are special someponies already… together with Rainbow Dash…”
This had her slack jawed a little. “Wow… I mean, I always believed in my captain, but to get into a herd and with a princess no less? That definitely is something.”
I had to giggle a little, as I thought back to how this all originally began. “Actually, he is more of the shy type. We didn’t even kiss until three months had passed…”
We spent the rest of the evening talking about romance and our (in Mystics case still very lacking) experience with it, until we finally fell asleep.
The next day, the weather had cleared significantly, leaving a clear sky above us. Markus ordered Lt. Overdrive to go along the long path, while he and Mystic would go for the short one. Lt. Bulkhead and his platoon were to stay behind and originally, we were too, but a quick use of my power as a princess quickly solved that problem.
We climbed up the hill, constantly on the lookout for anything that might be suspicious, but nothing was there. That is, until we reached the hilltop.
The hilltop was a large, long passage, enclosed by two rock walls on either side, though the passage was not what was interesting, but what we saw on the other side of it. Markus immediately ordered us all to lay flat on the ground and Mystic’s platoon scattered all over the place, hiding in ditches and behind Rocks, while Markus, Mystic and I were hiding behind another boulder.
What we saw on the other side of the valley definitely warranted such a reaction, as on the other side, we faced a large wall of black that was slowly approaching.
…Changelings. An entire army of Changelings.
“You know, sometimes I really hate it to be right…” Markus remarked, as he peeked out behind the rock to look at the army facing us. They hadn’t noticed us yet, still moving straight at us without a change in pace. As they slowly drew closer, one could see a single, large changeling walking in front of them. Queen Chrysalis.
“Mystic, get your unicorns ready to cast shields, we are going to open up on them.” Markus ordered.
“Are you sure, Captain? Shouldn’t we let them come closer and try to ambush them?” Mystic asked.
“Normally, that would be the plan, yes. Unfortunately, you can’t really ambush someone from the front and we can’t climb these walls without being seen, so we have to at least keep our range advantage. Also, opening up from here will make it easier to prevent them from taking flight, as we can shoot straight over their heads.”
Mystic nodded once and gave the order. Six unicorns slowly moved up and readied themselves, while the rest prepared their weapons and offensive magic. When everypony was ready, Markus gave the command.
“FIRE!”
Immediately, the valley was filled with bright sparks and magic blasts. The first two rows of changelings fell almost immediately, but those behind them as well as Chrysalis herself managed to erect shields. Although, those weren’t much of a problem either, as Chrysalis’s was the only one that truly managed to withstand and it is even likely that she got help from her drones.
After they had rallied themselves, the changelings began to return fire. Their green magic blasts flung towards us, hitting the shields with great force, but our unicorns stood fast. Rarity and I decided to help as good as we could by providing shields of our own, lifting some stress from a few of the other unicorns.
Slowly, the changelings resumed their advance, their pace quickening with every step. They wanted to close the distance as fast as possible to make use of their strength in numbers.
“Captain, they are getting closer! Should we retreat?” Mystic asked slightly panicked, as the changelings were only about two thousand hooves away.
“No, not yet. We need slow them dow- hmpf!” Suddenly, Markus was hit by a batch of snow from above, covering his face completely under it.
He dug himself out and looked up. He then turned around and searched along the walls of the valley and apparently, he found what he looked for, as a smile quickly washed over his face.
“Correction, Mystic: Get your ponies into that cave about 100 meters down that wall and hide in it. Twilight, you and the Elements follow her, while I will join up with you later.”
Mystic quickly agreed to his orders and I wanted to protest, but a sudden hit against my shield reminded me that this was not the time to argue. Markus gave his rifle to mystic, before we stopped firing and slowly moved backwards until we saw the cave that Markus had talked about. When we were there, we quickly shuffled inside and left the rest up to Markus.
He, meanwhile, still sat behind the rock with something that looked like a white flag in his hand. He waved it over the rock, while a tirade of spells was still being hollered his way. However, shortly after he had waved it, the attack stopped and Chrysalis called for him to come out.
He looked back at us and gave a devious smile, before he adhered to her command. Chrysalis looked very surprised and confused, as she saw Markus come towards her at first. They seemed to start talking, so I quickly cast a spell to amplify my hearing.
“…are you?” Chrysalis asked confused.
“I am a human, your highness, currently in service with the Equestrian Royal Guard.” Markus politely introduced himself.
“Oh, are you? Well, ‘human’, you do realize that I cannot show mercy to anypony who serves those pony weaklings?” Chrysalis threatened, charging her horn with magic.
“I am aware, yes, however, I would ask you to wait a moment, for I have a message for you.” Markus then said, slowly grabbing his grenade from his vest and holding it in both hands.
Chrysalis thought for a moment, before the glow on her horn faded and she took a slightly less aggressive stance. “Fine then. What’s the message?”
Markus quickly pulled the pin, reeling backwards and screaming: “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” before throwing the grenade towards the Changeling army and darting to the ground. Chrysalis barely managed to erect a shield, before the grenade exploded, taking out several Changelings with its shrapnel. Although a sizeable amount of changelings fell to this grenade, the amount was dwarfed by the sheer mass of the rest of the army.
Markus quickly got back to his feet and Chrysalis took a few menacing steps towards him, laughing madly. “Nice try, human, but this isn’t even nearly enough to be a threat against my –“
She was suddenly interrupted by a loud crack, followed by a slowly growing rumbling sound. Markus started slowly walking backwards, keeping his front towards Chrysalis.
“Welp, it seems my message is delivered. I am very sorry, but I must take my leave now. Enjoy skiing!” He gave a quick salute, before turning around and running, just as two massive fountains of snow came pouring in from the edges of the valley, creating an avalanche that buried the whole changeling army, including Chrysalis, beneath it.
Meanwhile, Markus was still running towards the cave we were hiding in, with the avalanche fast approaching. He barely made it in, before it reached the entrance and sealed it off, trapping us inside.
As soon as the rumbling had ceased, we started digging ourselves a way out, before then marching towards the original meeting point with Lt. Overdrive. We met halfway, as the Lieutenant had decided to come help us when he heard the avalanche and showed himself very glad that Mystic was okay…
We went back to camp, where Lt. Bulkhead and his Unicorns had barely managed to shield themselves from the incoming snow, and spent another night there, before moving back towards the empire. The trip back wasn’t as harsh as the trip to, as the weather conditions had bettered greatly.
That isn’t to say that the march was an easy one, though and all of us were more than happy as we reached the train and set off back home. Markus reported in to Shining, telling him what had happened in the mountains, for which he wrote a proper report during our way home.
Speaking about home: as we came back to the Library, I was instantly greeted by a very worried Spike, which was no wonder, seeing as I had completely forgotten to tell him, where we were actually going. After I had successfully calmed my little Dragon, there was only one thing left, which I had never thought I would come to miss as much as during these three days.
A long, warm shower.