Compared to Ponyville, the Crystal Empire was massive and crowded with ponies and yaks. Though the Northern Wastes was the border between the lands of ponies and yaks, it hardly seemed like a barrier to international trade and travel. Farmers from Appleloosa to Vanhoover brought their produce to the capital of the Crystal Empire to fill the markets.
From the north, yaks brought their own goods too. The hardy timber of their land was especially strong, and perfect construction material for the homesteads out in the Wastes. Meanwhile, ice cream made from yak vanilla was famous in every major city. Just walking through the streets proved Princess Twilight’s postulation right: Equestria was safer building bridges between their neighbours, not walls. Luna understood better than most why her sister touted her student as being her greatest accomplishment.
Lost in thought, Luna passed from the marketplace to the city centre until she reached the doors of the palace.
“Princess sighted!” called out one of the guard ponies. “Unlock the gate and inform Princess Cadence!”
Luna blinked and brought her attention back from her thoughts. The sound of guards shuffling told her enough of what had happened.
“Oh no, it’s not a big deal,” she tried explaining to the guards, “you needn’t bother Cadence with my presence. I was actually planning to head north.”
“In that case,” Cadence’s voice rang through the opening doors, “I’m glad they did.”
“Are you sure?” Luna stepped forward and embraced her. “I wouldn’t want to impose. I saw how busy the marketplace is. Life here must be busy, now that more creatures beyond Equestria are coming into the Empire.”
“You’re right,” Cadence said as she led Luna into the palace, “and the yaks are the least of it. The Crystal Empire’s status as a Dominion State to Equestria is raising a lot of concern around the issue of the travel of dragons. A lot of citizens are apprehensive about gemstone eating dragons being free to enter Crystal Empire territory.”
“But the Crystal Empire has always deferred to Equestria in foreign affairs,” Luna said as they took a turn toward the palace library.
“It’s a tradition, yes,” Cadence nodded, “but it’s been made aware to me by certain protesters that by having the status of an autonomous dominion, there is a legal basis for passing legislation that differs from Equestria.”
“But, surely you can’t agree.”
“I don’t,” Cadence shook her head, “but the movement for larger independence and strict immigration policy on dragons is becoming a problem. And frankly, I don’t know how to stop it. Even with Twilight’s- I mean Starlight’s School of Friendship, and the agreements with the Dragonlord, there are some dragons who cause trouble in the city. They’re usually small infractions, like eating the crystal walls of a store or disorderly behaviour, but they’re adding up.”
“True, not all dragons who come to Equestria on business go through the School of Friendship. There’s a great deal of cultural difference.”
“I know, but I can’t put cultural differences above our laws. I’m really at an odds here, Luna. What do you think I should do?”
Luna paused just outside the library doors with a stunned look on her face. “I’m sorry, truly, but I’m retired. The importance of these matters cannot be overstated, I know, but I can’t bring myself to get involved. I am only just beginning to grow comfortable with a normal life.”
Cadence sighed. “I see, and I understand.” She gestured into the library. “Honestly, some nights I walk around the library looking for a spell to make Flurry Heart grow up faster so she can just take the Crystal Empire off my hooves.”
“That explains some of the dreams you’ve had lately,” Luna looked at her with some concern. They continued on and took a seat in some reading chairs in the library.
“Haha,” Cadence laughed, “sorry about that. I know you still have responsibilities beyond the moon. The amulet you gave Twilight, it has some of your power, right? Does that include any of your dream-walking?”
“Some, but not all,” Luna said. “Still, I find that I have a lot of free time now. That’s actually why I’m in the Crystal Empire.”
“Oh, doing some travelling like Celestia? I can recommend some places for breakfast.”
“Ehm, no. Actually, I want to start a power metal band. I came here because there’s some pony I wanted to ask about joining. If anything, she could probably add a lot of special effects to future performances.”
“That’s certainly… surprising to hear. My best wishes to you. Do you know where this pony is?”
“Roughly,” Luna said. “You might be able to help with that, actually. I’m looking for Tempest Shadow. I know she helps out in the Northern Wastes.”
Cadence raised a brow. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with that little escapade of yours a while back, would it?”
Luna’s jaw went slack. All the ponies she had first asked to join the Nightmare Knights swore secrecy, and she trusted them. And while her powers over the night let her learn many secrets. Did the magic of love have the power to uncover secrets as well? Luna mused that infidelity would be a thing of the past if that were the case.
“Oh come on, don’t stare,” Cadence smirked playfully. “I don’t know the details, but Tempest is very thorough with her patrol logs. Her partner Glitter Drops did her best to cover, but there’s a gap in her patrols. I had some suspicion, but your reaction confirms it.”
Luna found her composure and reasserted herself. “You have a calling as a detective if you ever retire. But no, it’s not about that. Tempest and I just have some shared interests, so I wanted to know if she’d be interested.”
“Fair enough,” Cadence leaned back in her seat. “I can’t be sure, but some yak merchants have made reports of dangerous beasts cutting off travel through the wastes. Knowing Tempest, she and Glitter Drops are probably on the roads looking for them.”
“Then that’s where I’ll start.” Luna rose from her seat and thanked Cadence, bowing with the same respect from any other citizen. “And, if you could do me one favour…”
“Don’t worry, I’ve suspected for a while now,” she quickly answered. “Celestia won’t find out about your secret adventures. I’m sure you have your reasons.”
Luna thanked the Crystal Princess once again before she made her way out of the palace and then out of the city. Teleporting to the Norther Wastes would be pointless, Tempest could be fighting beasts anywhere in the vast territory. The only way was by hoof.
The Northern Wastes hardly lived up to the name. Much of the land was rich with life. Granted, the things that lived in the constant cold and snow were undoubtedly hardy. Luna passed by bolting snow hares, far faster and larger than their temperate cousins. And of course, she noticed the tracks. Ursa tracks were hard to miss, major or minor.
She was thankful for the hiking outfit sold at the marketplace. The Northern Wastes was barren of one thing, and that was the touch of ponies. No roads or signposts marked the way through. The only major path was a narrow strip of padded dirt and ice that ran on for miles.
“Yaks take this path just to trade with Equestria?” Luna remarked astonishingly after over an hour into the Wastes. “Tough folk, those merchants.”
And then another empty hour passed by until she came across what looked like yak’s cart on the path. Beside it, a massive yak was wrapped tightly in bandages and in no condition to move.
“Who is there?” he shouted. “Snow is cold, and Baldrick is tired. Not see very well.”
“I am called Luna. What happened here?”
Baldrick squinted his eyes as she approached. “Ooh, you are big for a pony. Even taller than other pony who save Baldrick.”
“What other pony?”
“Scary eyes, dark coat, oh! And she had sparkling horn like yours! But shorter.”
“Was it broken?”
“Not know. Did not see. When jotun beast attacked, Baldrick too scared to see.”
“Hmph,” Luna grunted, opening her scarf a little to test the air. “You said you felt cold?”
Baldrick nodded. “Very surprised. Yaks say pony lands are warmer. Baldrick never come before, did not know his friends were playing tricks.”
Luna shook her head and immediately searched for extra blankets in his cart. Yaks had a stable textile industry too, it was almost a guarantee there’s be something else to warm him up. She levitated whole bundles of timber until she found a bolt of carpeting. It wasn’t a blanket, but it was thick and warm.
“Your friends didn’t lie,” she hurriedly tossed the carpet over Baldrick. She knelt down and checked his bandages. They were soaked black and crimson. “There isn’t a day of bad weather here than a yak can’t stand. Your body is in shock. The bleeding hasn’t stopped at all.”
“What?” The yak tried to look, but he cried out as his movements only worsened the wound. The large bones in his ribs were jutting into the muscle, tearing and expanding the hole even just by breathing. Luna immediately understood why Tempest had to leave him here. Moving him was a death sentence.
“I’m going to teleport with you to the Crystal Palace,” she told him. “It’ll be harder with your cart so I’ll have to leave it behind. Just be prepared, you might feel a slight jolt when we land, but it’ll be better than moving you physically.”
As soon as the yak nodded, Luna shot them both through a field of magic an in the next instant they were outside the palace’s library.
“Luna?” Cadence jumped out of her seat. “What’s going on?”
“No time. This yak needs a doctor, now. Take care of him, I have to teleport back now. I was near Tempest, and if she’s fighting a beast that can do this to a yak, then I have no choice but to help.”
Cadence nodded firmly. “I can have a doctor here in minutes. Just go.”
A burst of snow hit Luna in the face when she returned to the cart. The winds were freezing cold, but now that she was near, she could afford to fly and search for Tempest. She just hoped she was close enough. The air in the Northern Wastes was going to make her wings go frozen stiff if she took too long.
Luckily, after soaring north for a few minutes, Luna began to hear the sound of crackling lightning. The intensity of the magic was unmistakable. Tempest was whipping up a storm against whatever beast she had tracked down. She was up on the side of a mountain, her back pinned the cliffside while the monster paced side-to-side.
From the sky, it was plainly obvious what kind of disadvantage Tempest faced. The monster was massive. Clever too. It gripped a solid chunk of ice, using it to take the full force of Tempest’s attacks. Its two stumpy legs wobbled its massive body around. It had two main arms, but another set of four arms sprouted from its back as well.
It was a shadow. A memory of King Sombra’s reign over the Crystal Empire. Despite his absence, the dark magic he tapped into continued to leak all over the Empire. The monsters were supposed to hide far from the Crystal Heart.
“Tempest!” Luna called out as she landed nearby. “You can’t fight that. It’s too strong!”
“Princess Luna?” Tempest barely looked her way, she couldn’t afford not to dodge an attack. “You old geezer, I thought you retired.”
Luna formed a bubble around Tempest and dragged her away from the flailing arms of the shadow. “It’s just Luna. And I’m not that old.”
The shadow giant lumbered its overweight torso around and locked its little beady eyes on Luna. Its head almost did not exist, mostly sunken into its chest. The creature charged, and Tempest prepared another bolt of lightning.
“No, it’s a memory of the dark magic Sombra used. Your rage only fuels it.”
“If you tell me to make friends with it, I’m throwing myself off this mountain.”
Luna hopped in front of Tempest and pushed her back with a firm kick. There just wasn’t time to explain the nature of dark magic. It fed on fear and hatred and rage, and the only thing it respected was power.
She breathed. She kept a part of her dark self alive, if only for the sake of Nightmare Moon events. Turning into her own monster was excusable if it meant bringing joy to fillies and colts. Or so she used to think. If she wanted music to make her accept the past, she had to be willing to embrace the magic that came with her dark side.
The sparkling white light reflected on the snow vanished. Splotches of black popped and bubbled around Luna, filling her coat with ink-black stains, covering and devouring her body. Immediately, the shadow giant stopped.
“Cease thy fruitless rage, base beast!” She executed her royal court voice with absolute perfection. The timber of Nightmare Moon resonated into the icy bones of the mountain. “Thou art an offence upon the dark powers. Thy own shadows quiver under the pale light of the moon.”
The shadow’s stump-legs quivered, collapsing to the ground in awe of Nightmare Moon. “I am but a merciful ruler. The Princess of Darkness is a gentlemare. Thy suffering can now end. Let go your mortal coil and submit thyself to me!”
Like a child slurping for the last of their drink on the bottom of the cup, watching Nightmare Moon absorb the shadow was like waiting for the last drop to give up its fight. Piece by piece, the shadow drained into Nightmare Moon’s horn.
Tempest squinted. Even the sunlight that reflected blindingly off the snow seemed to shy away from Nightmare Moon’s presence. As Luna returned to herself, Tempest covered her eyes from the light finding the courage to return to its place.
“Apologies, such things should never have gotten this close to the Crystal Empire.”
Thud. Luna whipped her head around. The pony she saw holding her own against such an unnatural apparition lay collapsed in front of her. She rushed over to find the snow beneath her streaked in red.
“Where’s the bleeding?” She looked all over her, eventually finding a scrape on the back her Tempest’s leg. The wound was shallow, but the dark magic from the shadow beast was eating deeper and deeper. Luna took her scarf and bound it around the wound.
“That’s only temporary. You must get inside the magic of the Crystal Heart, it will drive the dark magic out.”
Tempest nodded weakly. “Patrol office… within the bounds. Glitter Drops can help.”
“I remember where it is,” Luna said. “Hold on. You won’t make it on hoof, I’ll have to teleport you.”
Glitter Drops didn’t even need to ask when Luna barged in, carrying Tempest on her back. The moment they entered the bounds of the Crystal Heart, Luna felt the dark magic in Tempest burn away. But it had done its damage already. The scrape had deepened into a major gash and no amount of gauze could stop the bleeding.
“Put her on the counter and hold her leg,” Glitter Drops directed Luna. She levitated a small packet made from foil from a first aid kit. It tore open and drops of watery paste trickled onto the counter. Immediately, crystals grew out from the paste and solidified.
Glitter Drops place a hoof firmly on Tempest’s shoulder. “Fizzy looks out of it now, but trust me, this won’t feel good. She’ll flinch for sure.”
Luna nodded. “I have her.”
Like ripping a bandage off, Glitter simply gave Tempest the full treatment, not wanting to draw it out. The paste sizzled against her skin, hardening into a reddish crystal that applied pressure onto the wound.
Tempest twitched first but quickly start jolting and bucking around on the counter. “Ack,” she cried out as the pain mounted. “Argh!”
“It’s okay Fizzy, I’m here!” Glitter Drops quickly consoled her friend. “We had to crystalize your wound before it bled out.”
“I know, but…” Tempest groaned, “the bleeding has slowed now, so can you get the morphine?”
With Luna’s help, Glitter Drops was able to stitch close Tempest’s leg. Once the painkillers kicked in, the mare was a lot less temperamental about her injury, and finally explained what had happened before Luna showed up.
Apparently, it was supposed to be a rescue patrol. Search for travellers on the road and keep them safe from the unknown threat. It was Baldrick that she found wrestling with the shadow beast, driving it back with his horns. Once she joined the fight, the beast knew it was outnumbered and ran for the mountains.
“So you thought chasing it down was a good idea?” Glitter Drops scolded. “I warned you that would happen. You should have let me come with you.”
“I thought you two did all your patrols together,” Luna remarked.
“We do,” Tempest replied, “except when one of us is still recovering from the flu.”
“I told you, I’m better now,” Glitter Drops insisted.
“Now who’s being stubborn?” Tempest sneered.
“Your case is a little different,” Luna warned. “It was a shadow of the past. Parts of the dark magic Sombra used was so powerful, it left scars on the very land around the Crystal Empire. They’re like memories of the magic itself, imprinted on ice and stone.”
Glitter Drops looked curiously at Luna. She didn’t question the information, but it was clearly news. “First time I’ve heard of them.”
“That’s because they shouldn’t be around anymore,” Luna said. “They may be able to manifest in strong physical forms, but magically, they’re weaker than a levitation spell. The Crystal Heart should be strong enough to suppress them from here to the furthest parts of Yakyakistan. The fact that they can manifest physically is a great concern. The Crystal Heart must be weakening.”
Glitter Drops and Tempest looked at each other worryingly. “I have noticed the Crystal Empire being a bit more…”
“Irate?” Glitter Drops finished.
“Actually, I was going to say comfortable. If I’m starting to like the Crystal Empire, something’s seriously wrong. This is why I can’t understand by ponies would rely on so much magic just to live in this city.”
Luna silently listened as the two unicorns listed off the odd occurrences they saw in the markets and business sectors. Most of them fit with Cadence’s rising problems. Crystal ponies were slow to trust foreign creatures. In their own hearts, fear was replacing love.
Perhaps retirement wasn’t an option. Luna wanted desperately to leave her princess duties behind, but if calming the fears in every pony’s dreams was necessary for peace, then she couldn’t refuse her destiny.
“Princess Luna?” Glitter Drops tapped her on the shoulder. “Got your head in the clouds?”
“Huh? I’m just Luna, now.” She wobbled around to face the two mares, a little dumbfounded. “Apologies, my worries drifted for a moment. Tempest, are you okay?”
“For now. We’ll see how well I run in a few days.”
Glitter Drops furrowed her brow. “You mean weeks. That dark magic took their toll. Don’t help it along by doing patrols before you’ve recovered.”
“Might not have a choice, if Princess Luna’s here,” Tempest said. “Is this about the Nightmare Knights? A different mission, or is it about Daybreaker again?”
“No, it’s not an adventure,” Luna informed her, and an immediate wave of disappointment washed over Tempest’s face.
“Then, how did you know we needed your help?” Glitter Drops asked while lightly pressing on Tempest’s stitches, a reminder that she shouldn’t get excited over adventures for a while.
“I didn’t, at first,” Luna said. “I first came looking for Tempest, but for entirely different reasons. I wanted to inquire if she would be able to join my power metal band.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Tempest recoiled, looking at Luna as if she had transformed into something unrecognizable.
Glitter Drops covered her friend’s mouth before any more could be said. “She’ll do it!” the mare beamed.
“Hold on, I do not consent to this,” Tempest said.
“You will,” Glitter Drops snapped back at her friend. “Just look at your condition. A few weeks of recovery is generous. We don't know yet but there's a huge chance that you might need more surgery. if that happens, you won't recover for months. I left you on your own the last time you were injured, I'm not doing it again.”
“Why join her band?”
“What else can you do while you recover? I have a good reputation with Cadence and other patrol teams. Every pony can cover a month or two for us. now's the perfect time to call in those favours so you can rest.”
“I’m not even a good musician,” Tempest said. “The only kind of music I made was for the Storm King's propaganda and marching music.”
Luna tilted her head. “Are you sure? Princess Twilight claims you have quite the vocal range.”
“You pick up a little bit when you’re the general of an expansionist army,” she replied. “And I learned enough to know that I’m not a professional.”
“Oh, I know. Neither am I, really. But I’m not starting a band to go big, I just want to what I love.”
“Well, I love being here at this patrol station,” Tempest said, putting her hoof around Glitter. “I have friendship right here.”
“Aw, you’re just a big softie Fizzy,” Glitter Drop beamed. “But you’re definitely joining Luna’s band. Your leg won’t heal for weeks, and full recovery might even take months. Don’t try and worm your way out, you know it’s true. I know you’ve seen a fair share of battle wounds, and I’ve recused countless of injured animals in the Wastes. We both know a bad injury when we see one.”
“I can’t just leave you.” Tempest protested.
Glitter Drops smiled. “Oh, you won’t. I don’t feel like working alone again, so I’m going to call in all the favours I have with the other patrol teams. Each of them can cover us for a few weeks at least. That way, wherever you end up performing, I’ll be free to go.”
Tempest stared at her friend. “Like a stalker?”
“Oh!” Luna hopped. “Like a VIP fan! I can envision it now, a backstage pass around your neck, envied by all the other commoners who wish they could get in.”
“What happened to not wanting to go big?”
“Oh come on, enough questions Fizzy,” Glitter nudged her friend. “We both already know you’re going to say yes.”
Tempest looked left and right to Luna and Glitter Drops. It seemed was choice was already made for her. And surprisingly, that felt okay.