The Crystal Empire was a beautiful place. Though being constantly surrounded by snow was a bit annoying, the young Earth pony mare thought. She was a beautiful Celestial blue furred with a baby blue faced, her Maize and pale Goldenrod hair cut and slightly spiked into a mohawk style. She was also three-legged with her back left leg a golden peg leg. Something leftover from being born as such, she was very much used to being different from the rest of the world.
Though, being the second born child of Princess of Princess Cadence and Lord Shining Armor still put her at a much higher status so others still would rather she didn’t seem so… odd.
Thankfully, her cutie mark said otherwise. At the moment, none of that mattered as she looked out the window. She’d been attempting to distract herself with the snow and weather of the far north but intrusive thoughts of her older sister, Flurry Heart kept coming to mind.
“Suppose I could try talking to her again. If I can find her this time.” She staggered up to her feet with a low sigh on to hear someone cough as a guard poked their head in. “Yes?”
“You have a message from your cousin, Princess Ticker Tape. Here you go,” The unicorn guard sent it over gracefully to her, placing it on the table before disappearing from sight.
“Dear Ticker,” Ticker Tape read to herself. “I hope you don’t mind but I asked my parents if I could come visit for a bit. I wanted to talk about something that CC brought up to me that you might be able to help me with. Please expect me within the day or so! I look forward to seeing you!”
“Darn Cacophony and her big mouth.” Ticker Tape crumbled the paper in irritation. “She blabbed about what we talked about, didn’t she! I’m gonna give her such an earful next time I see her, I tell her what!”
But she sat back, chewing on her lip. “Still. Nebula might be able to help me.” Ticker Tape blinked, her lavender indigo eyes furrowed with emotion. “We’ll just see how this goes.”
Nebula was packing when she heard noise outside her room. It sounded like a lot of scraping and thuds before the door fell open, revealing the very large dragon-pony hybrid hovering in the doorframe.
“If you’re going to help me pack this time, stay out of my unmentionables!” Nebula said over her shoulder to the male dragony.
Jet was red-faced as he stammered. Born from a dragon and unicorn, he was the adopted son to Spike, raised since he was barely three months old. He and Nebula were happily cousins despite that they had no blood relations but of course, boundaries had to be appreciated.
“I did not go into your unmentionables!” Jet managed to squawk out, walking in as his claws clicked loudly.
“Have you gone to the spa lately?”
“I do not need my claws clipped!”
“How does the floor look?”
Jet looked down in worry, trying to see if he was scraping anything but couldn’t see a darn thing. He looked up to see Nebula grinning at him. Jet was named for the very dark coloring that he had, clearly inherited from his dragon side. He was quite large, though he did sport a very smooth and curved unicorn horn.
He could do some magic but most of it was not at all unicorn in fashion. Jet had the great potential of being dangerous which often meant he hid himself from the rest of the world. It took a lot of prodding from family to just get him to show up.
So having him here near her was rather odd.
“What brings you here, Jet?” Nebula resumed packing.
“Cacophony was yapping in my ear and she wouldn’t shut up.”
“What is the girl’s problem? She won’t do anything herself, but she gets everyone else involved?”
“She is doing something, she’s getting everyone gathered.”
“Everyone gathered? For what?”
“I don’t know. But she said that I should go with you to the Crystal Empire. She practically begged me so I said I would.”
Nebula knew Jet. Once he made a promise, he would keep that promise. “Fine, alright. I’m just going to talk to Ticker Tape about Flurry Heart.”
She was still packing so she missed his grimace when she mentioned their cousin. But she certainly didn’t miss his comment.
“She’s being a hot mess, isn’t she?”
“What’s that mean?” Nebula stopped packing with confusion.
“What is the deal with you? CC can see it, I can see it, Ticker Tape can see it… well, it is her talent, after all but I digress. There is something off about Flurry Heart. She was cool when she was younger but she kind seemed to drop off now, don’t you think?”
“She’s got a lot on her plate right now! She’s the future heir!”
“So are you, you know. I don’t see you snapping.”
“Why do you all keep comparing us two? We’re not the same! I’m not even an alicorn!”
“Well, no but you share a lot of the same fates. Princesses set to rule certain parts of the kingdom, under a lot of scrutiny, and sometimes oppression by that scrutiny. I mean, a lot of Equestria don’t really… uh… I mean…” Jet trailed off.
“No, you can say it. They hate me,” Nebula said matter-of-factly. “Just like with my father. It’s something I know I face, that I will have to face. And I know, too, that I can’t change all minds either. That’s another fact.”
Nebula closed her suitcase. “But you know what? Who cares. I have my family. My friends. Those who do believe in me. And that’s enough.”
“Well, what if Flurry Heart doesn’t have that?” Jet asked with a shrug.
Nebula burst out laughing. “Are you kidding! She has my family, her parents, I’ve seen her people worship her and adore her up close and from a distance. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say anything mean about her. Who wouldn’t believe in her?”
Jet sighed. “I don’t know but you are right. She is surrounded by a lot of positivity. It would be odd that she would think that she’s not… you know, enough.”
“It’d be downright impossible.”
“Well, not entirely. Let’s try not to count it out, okay? You never know,” Jet offered.
“Fine, fine. But you all are making a mountain out of molehill, I swear!” Nebula pulled her suitcase with her over her back, floating with ease with her magic. “I’m ready, how about you?”
“I’m packed already. Did you purchase the tickets?”
“I was going to just head down and by a set, get a ride.”
“You don’t plan very well, Nebby.”
“If I had more time instead of this being supposedly pressing,” Nebula stated, pushing past Jet. “Then I would’ve called ahead. For now, we ride overnight.”
“Fine, fine.”
The two arrived at the platform with no guards, just themselves as Jet went ahead and purchased the two overnight tickets. “It helps that we can magic letters to others in seconds if we need to. You know, instead of snail mail,” Nebula mentioned as they settled into their carriage. They booked into a private booth where they could sleep in solitude.
Jet took the floor, his body too big for even the long seat to rest upon. Nebula helped set up the blankets and pillows to help get him comfortable.
She was yawning as she opened a book by the window, to read by moonlight.
“Come on, you really going to read right now?” Jet mumbled, already looking like he was falling asleep.
“I haven’t gotten anything read today. I always try to read a little each each.”
“Yea but it’s by moonlight. You’re going to hurt your eyes.”
Nebula sighed and lit up her horn softly, using the light as a flashlight. Jet blinked and then rolled over and away.
“You always seem to forget that I can use my horn,” Nebula said absently.
“It’s not that I forget, it’s that I can’t use mine,” Jet answered, a bit angrily.
“You can, you know. It’s just that it relies more on your dragon magic.”
Jet mimicked her words to himself with embellishment, obviously irritated by her pointing that out.
“Still scared about using your magic?”
“I am not scared,” Jet tried very hard not to be snappy. It was very difficult to not be so. His jaw worked tightly, anger lacing his features. “I am not scared.” He repeated, unable to say anything else.
“Mom said that the two sister Princesses can help you.”
“I don’t think that ponies are the ones that can help me here,” Jet put up his head in protest toward his cousin, his words snapping with emotion. “It’s dragon magic. Wouldn’t a dragon be better?”
“So why not Dragon Lord Ember? She’s very qualified for helping you. She’s been doing great in opening the communications between Equestria and the Dragonlands in general.”
“She’s too busy!” Jet protested. “And besides, I’d have go to the Dragonlands and I… kind of… don’t want to… go.” Jet trailed off, looking very bothered by the whole conversation at this point.
Nebula closed her book with a sigh. “Look, either you wallow in the suffering that you don’t get better with your magic, have either the Princesses help you, or the Dragon Lord help you. Why are you being prideful now? You never were like that before.”
“It’s not prideful! It’s that…” Jet sat up on his legs, looking at Nebula with a glare. “Look, you don’t understand it. To dragons when I go to the Dragon Lands, I’m not good enough, not pure enough!”
Nebula’s eyes narrowed as she tilted her head before it hit him.
“It’s not the same as what you face! At least the other creatures don’t attack you! Don’t challenge you! Once I’m in the Dragon Lands, I’m constantly having to watch my back and being sure I don’t have to fight just to prove my dragon hood. Going through test after test, it’s just a waste of time.”
Nebula’s eyes softened. “Right, I heard about some of that but I didn’t realize it was that bad. Why do you keep going?”
“Because my Dad really wants me to learn more about being a Dragon… being a dragon, so far, -sucks- by the way. In Equestria, I’m a threat but in the Dragon Lands, I’m a pussy.”
Nebula turned her head toward the window, trying desperately not to laugh at his horrid description of himself.
Jet heard her laughing and despite it, found himself laughing with her. “I’m acting like a child, aren’t I?” He asked Nebula, settling back in his bedding.
“No, you’re not. Look, Jet. Only you get to decide how you want to learn but you can keep pushing it off. Perhaps you can ask if the Dragon Lord can send another here that you trust to teach you instead of heading over there. That way you’re still in your comfort zone.”
“I’ll do that. Not sure who she’ll send, though.”
“Probably Garble.”
“Ah, yea. Dad loves him.”
“I thought… oh, you’re being sarcastic.”
Jet snickered under his blankets. “Don’t stay up too late.”