//------------------------------// // Coldsnap // Story: My Little Pony, Kidnap is Magic! // by Xanders //------------------------------// An icy breeze blew through the training grounds, sending shivers down the spines of everypony present. Shining Armor looked up from the clipboard he was levitating in front of him, getting a good look at the recruits in front of him. Of course, he had his Captain of the Crystal Guard to assess and train new guards, but Shining liked to keep his hoof in, get acquainted with them before he might have to depend on them to take an arrow or a spell for him or his wife. As he watched the guards practice wielding training spears (weighted wooden poles), he flipped through the paper and read the notes he was given on each of the recruits. A chill wind flipped the sheets up, one by one, till the whole bunch was hanging off the end of the clipboard, holding onto the clip for dear life. Sighing, Shining Armor gripped onto the papers and flipped them back onto the clipboard with a flick of his horn. Just as he was about to start finding his way back to his place in the group of notes, a freezing gust blew the whole lot over, dislodging about half the pages and causing them to be blown all across the race-track. Huffing, the Prince started swiping at the pages with his magic, but they kept fluttering out of reach. The wind was picking up, and it was infuriating him. He'd have to talk to the head of the weather team about this – he would have worn warmer clothes if he'd known it'd be this cold today. Slightly annoyed, Shining walked up to Sapphire Shield, a blue crystal mare who was in charge of training his guards. “Sapphire, I'm sorry about this, but I've gotta talk to the weather ponies. We're not due a blizzard today, but I think we might be getting one. Look after the recruits for a bit, ok?” She nodded, and performed a small salute. “Yes Shining Armor Sir!” she barked, making him smile a little. Sapphire always set a good example in everything she did in front of recruits. Turning away, Shining Armor started a gentle trot towards the barracks, from which he could enter the castle proper. Once in the castle he could clime to the weather office from which the pegasus and unicorn weather ponies coordinated weather across the crystal city and outlying farmland. The door was covered in a gentle patina of frost, which was a bit surprising – it had only been a couple of minutes since it'd gotten cold enough for frost to form. Shining Armor paused a moment before cocking his head slightly and opening the door. --- Cadence had a rare hour of rest. Sombra's mad policies of strict punishment, insane laws and ridiculous grandstanding had plunged the Crystal Empire into disarray, resulting in massive problems across the whole domain. Under his rule the Crystal Empire lost two whole cities and countless small towns and villages, until only the capital remained. As a result, Cadence had a lot of rebuilding to oversee; countless meetings with engineers, trade associations, workers guilds and newly established unions to arrange simple necessities such as aqueducts, houses, sewers, plumbing... Cadence felt now that she could go for one of Twilight's famed panic attacks, just to let it all out. But that wouldn't do. Cadence lifted her leg up to her breast, breathing in, and swung it out, breathing out. Let it go, but calmly. Panic doesn't help, auntie always said, even when one desperately wants to panic. Too many slips and the whole thing may shatter; especially while it was as fragile as the Crystal Empire. A shiver ran up Cadence's spine. With a start, Cadence realized that she was quite cold. Looking around, she noticed several other things. Firstly, the whole room was covered in a thin layer of ice. Secondly, her pony-sized windows were wide open. Thirdly, and most shockingly, something seemed to be grinning at her from just outside. --- Shining Armor was starting to panic: there had been frost on each door he'd encountered on his way into the castle and up the spire. And each time he'd reached a door it had thicker ice on it. His instincts had first told him to find the weather ponies, but now this felt less like an accidental storm and more like an invasion. He'd rounded up any pony he could find and set them to chip away at important doors – like the armoury door, the pantry door and the door to the royal chambers, which he himself was working on at the moment, bombarding the door with offensive spells which could shatter most wooden doors with ease. After an hour of bombardment, and three reinforced ice doors broken down into slurry and toothpicks, Shining looked in upon his bedroom, where he was disappointed to find, as with all the rooms in his suite, no trace of his wife. Except that there were traces, this time; scorch marks and hurled objects, surrounded and covered by a ubiquitous ice – evidence of a struggle. The guard in Shining recognized immediately that some terrorist had forcibly taken Princess Cadence. The best thing to do, it reasoned, was to send a message to Princess Celestia and send out search parties. Shocked, lost and confused, the husband in him mutely agreed. “Guards! To me!”