The Krussian Imperial Castle was a fortress. Unless you had a Royal Invitation or asked Commander Whiptail for permission to be given a tour there was no way in. Full-armored guards always patrolled both the skies and the vast courtyards around the palace, their eyes piercing the night in search of any potential intruders. Particularly, the Royal Guard had grown accustomed to looking out for a certain golden unicorn.
Sunset Glare felt rather uncomfortable under the wary stares they gave him as he trotted alongside Hookbait the ivory and obsidian halls of the Imperial Castle, heading towards Lord Clawblack's study. It took Hookbait ten minutes to convince the Royal Guard that the golden unicorn was with him so they would let him into the palace, ever since Sunset's last attempt at sneaking into the Imperial Castle Commander Whiptail ordered the Royal Guard strictly not to let him near the gates.
The castle's halls and corridors at night could be seen as creepy by foreigners. The dark gray walls were dimly illuminated by candles, the orange light reflecting on the parts of the marble floor that wasn't covered in a velvet red carpet. The pale moonlight filtered through the windows, the shadow of the snowflakes moving down as if bugs were crawling down the window. The few outsiders who had been invited into the palace often sometimes even thought the palace was haunted by evil spirits. Not that they voiced their opinion to their hosts, of course.
"Here we are." Hookbait finally broke the eerie silence when they came to a large door, using his magic to open it with a creak. "I shall wait for you here, my master wishes to speak with you alone."
Sunset Glare gave the drake a suspicious glance, but trotted into the room anyway. He trembled internally when the door closed shut behind him, leaving him alone in the dark room. Just like the halls outside, it was only dimly illuminated by candles. The room itself was spacious, and with the little light in there Sunset could tell the room was not as sparse as he thought. Sure, it had a plain, bare obsidian desk, a simple chair, an unadorned window and thin purple curtains. There were bookcases filled with scrolls, dark books and papers he wouldn't probably understand, for he never mastered Krussian language like his father did. On the side of a wall hung a giant, violet-colored piece of cloth with golden borders and the national symbol of the Empire, a black dragon, trimmed exactly in the center.
Clawblack had his back turned on the door, his back turned on Sunset Glare, his bat wings folded upon his back.
"Seriously, what's with the Temnokt and the darkness?" Sunset Glare snapped softly, looking around the dark space. "Don't you know electricity's already being invented?"
Clawblack chuckled darkly. "I don't know if you've noticed, why do you think our race is called 'Temnokt? It's actually a Krussian word that means 'darkness'. The ponies who first tried to document us were Neighpanese, and they noticed we had a natural affinity of darkness and shadows, thus they started calling us Kurosidae, or but we called ourselves Temnokt." He ignored Sunset Glare's snort of discomfort. "Long story short, we like the darkness."
"Whatever." Sunset snapped, his patience running short. "Just tell me what do you want?"
"Straight to the point, huh? I think you and I are going to be good friends." Clawblack finally turned his head to glance at the stallion. "I want the Elements of Harmony."
Sunset Glare blinked. After a while, he burst out in laughter, stamping his hoof on the ground. "Now, that was a good one! 'I want the Elements of Harmony', ha!" He laughed for a while before he noticed Clawblack's eyes were hardening. "Wait a minute, what do you mean? Are you serious? Why would you want those? They're just an old wives' tale."
Clawblack shook his head. "You don't know your own history, do you? The Elements of Harmony have been wielded by Bearers already, and you never found out? The Mare in the Moon, the Spirit of Chaos, the Changeling Queen and her army and even he who must not be named were already defeated by them." The drake noticed the look on Sunset Glare's face. "If you don't believe me, then look at this."
He levitated the Canterlot Gazette articles Hookbait had brought him a few days ago. They glowed mint as Sunset Glare took a look at the articles with widened eyes. After a while, he regained his icy composure. "Even if it is true, why did you make me come here just to tell me that? I cannot give you the Elements of Harmony, I live here. Besides, what do you want them for? You cannot wield them, only their bearers."
"Would you shut up and listen?" Clawblack hissed as he stood up and elegantly circled the Unicorn. "I can't wield them by myself, I know that, I need the other bearers. Yet it seems fate is looking favorably upon me, I got word that the Bearers have just come to our fair country."
"What do you mean….?"
"The white Unicorn, Shining Armor, the Spirit of Chaos himself, a Changeling, a baby dragon, even one of own my kind has become a Bearer, something I didn't thought possible."
Sunset Glare's eyes widened like plates. Shining Armor, an Element Bearer? The Spirit of Chaos? A Changeling? But the most disturbing, a Temnokt? That was not possible!
"As for what I want them for?" Clawblack stopped his pacing, giving the Unicorn an evil smirk. "Let's say I'm not happy with the current government."
"You want to overthrow King Bittercold?" Sunset Glare chuckled again. "Good luck with that." He turned to leave, but the drake's magic aura immobilized his hooves. The stallion shuddered internally when he felt Clawblack's hot breath behind his neck.
"You don't know what I'm capable of to get what I want, my friend." the dragon hissed dangerously. "Do you recall reading why my kind was banished from Equestria?" Clawblack's two long fangs flashed in front of Sunset Glare. "We can steal magic from other beings. In fact, if I wanted, I could dig my fangs into your neck and suck you dry of your magic." The drake regained his composure. "But no. I need you in perfect conditions for this."
Sunset Glare had enough of this. "Knock it off! Why in Tartarus do you need me?! Send your dog outside the doors to steal them!"
"No." Clawblack shook his head. "It would be too obvious that the robber came from Krussia, and Princess Celestia would warn King Bittercold in advanced. But if an Equestrian is the one who robs them, she will never suspect the Elements were brought over here and she will focus solely on her own country."
"And what makes you think I'll agree to this?" Sunset Glare snorted, raising an eyebrow. "If I get caught by King Bittercold, he can apply the Capital Punishment to me since I've lived here for the past twenty years, long enough to be considered a citizen of this country. If I get caught by Princess Celestia, she'll exile me from Equestria and I'll never be able to return, forever wandering through the world country less. What can you offer me that can outweigh those risks?"
Clawblack smiled like a crocodile. "That pretty pink Alicorn, of course. I've noted you have feelings for her, don't you."
Sunset Glare's eyes widened in shock. How did he…? Before he could ask, a raven flew to Clawblack's horns and posed there, staring at the golden-coated stallion curiously. That must be how he even knew Cadence was here.
"You weren't very happy when you found she already formed a family with another stallion, were you? You wanted her all for yourself, but she moved on from you and found comfort in the hooves of another pony. It bothers you." Clawblack smiled further. "But if you help me, I can give her to you. Dark magic can do anything, even mess with love and feelings."
Sunset Glare seemed to consider for a moment, but he set his jaw. Before he could say anything however, Clawblack lifted his wing. "No, no, no. You don't have to answer me now. Go back home, give it a little thought, and when you've taken a decision come back to see me." Clawblack's smile faded. "But do not even think of mentioning this conversation to anypony, or anytemnokt, I have ears and eyes in this whole city. Spill anything I just told you to anyone, and I'll destroy you. Like I just said, you don't know what I'm capable of when I want something."
Sunset Glare nodded and, with his hooves now free, walked out of the room, where Hookbait was still waiting, like he said he would. Wordlessly, the drake led Sunset Glare through the halls of the palace, not turning to glance at him. Sunset Glare was giving thought to Clawblack's words. No, he didn't think he would need dark magic to win back Cadence's heart from Shining Armor's hooves. He was sure he could convince her that he was a much better choice.
Still, he would have to pick a right time to start with his plan.
Next morning, it was surprisingly sunny. In such a tundratic climate, such days were very rare, and when they came, everytemnokt spent it outside, either playing or just enjoying the sun. Sunny days meant that the Devastating Winter was coming, and they wanted to enjoy the last days they would spend outside before shutting into their homes for two whole months.
However, Twilight and her friends had no time to play. Tonight, they were expected at the Imperial Castle to join King Bittercold for dinner, and they wanted to cause a good first-impression. All morning, it was spent practicing the ways of Krussian etiquette; they were so lucky that Fukkuteru's family was a High Blood family, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to help. Pinkie Pie, however, preferred to go outside and play in the snow with Screwball and Tinder (dragging Stormfly along), having decided that making new friends 'was not so hard'.
Lightfire was an expert in etiquette, having being taught by her mother ever since she could remember. With Twillight and her friends, Discord, Shining Armor and Cadence sitting (Lake Wave and Catseye had to put cushions so their guests' heads would be above the table) examining the dining table's contents, she had to be specific and try not to confuse them very much. "Pay attention to everything I say, it's a little bit complicated to understand the first time, especially since you don't have any..." Lightfire sighed sadly. "Claws. First of all, table manners are casual. The fork is held in the left paw and the knife in the right." She nodded in satisfaction when the ponies took the fork and knife in their hooves just like she just told them.
Twilight examined the knife nervously, wondering how sharp it was. However, she gathered the courage to speak. "Lightfire, according to the book, the oldest guests are always served first?"
The drady nodded. "Yes. If I may ask, who of you is the oldest?"
"That would be me." Discord lifted his eagle talon, blushing. "Don't ask me how old I am, you won't believe me."
Rarity reached out for one of the pieces of freshly-baked bread, but Lightfire levitated it off her hoof and back into the plate, frowning lightly. "Do not start to eat until your host has invited you to start." Then she caught a sight of Rainbow Dash resting her head on her hooves with a yawn. "You should not rest your elbows on the table!" Lightfire moved the cian pegasus's elbows off the table with her magic, but left her hooves upon it. "But your hooves should be visible at all times."
"Oh, come on! Are there so many ways to be rude on a table?!" Discord groaned. He caught sight of the obsidian, red wine jar a few inches away from him. But as he snapped his finger and, with some effort, levitated to serve himself, Lightfire coughed. "Aren't you forgetting something, mister Discord?"
"What?"
"Males are supposed to pour drinks for females eated next to them. Fluttershy and Twilight are next to you, you should serve them first." Lightfire then glanced at Spike and Shining Armor. "That's for you as well. Shining Armor, you first serve Cadence and Applejack, and Spike has to pour Rainbow Dash and Rarity's drinks. "
The baby dragon stared at the giant-sized wine jar (in his standards, that is). "How am I supposed to lift that thing off the table?"
"I see you're going well with Lightfire's mannerism classes."
Lightfire rolled her eyes at her older brother's remark. "At least I do have, manners, Catseye. If you weren't so rude at the table and disrespectful with your guests, father would have already found you a mate."
"My dear sister," Catseye patted Lightfire's shoulder lightly. "That's the idea. I don't want father to find me a mate too soon. I'm in the prime of my youth, and he wants me to settle down already. Besides, not everydragon has the luck to be born as beautiful as you."
Lightfire rolled her eyes at his words.
"Catseye, weren't you looking after our children?" Twilight's heart skipped a beat when she noticed the drake had apparently left their children alone.
"Don't worry, Lady Sparkle, they're safe and sound with my granpa." Catseye replied with a confident grin, but his younger sister gasped.
"Catseye! How can you say that?! He fell asleep in the Civil War!"
"But he did wake up to sound the alarm! He should be able to handle a handful of foals!"
Just as he finished speaking, there was a sound of an explosion upstairs. Twilight and Cadence immediately rushed upstais to see if their foals hadn't hurt themselves or destroyed a part of the house, but Discord simply limited to snap his fingers and disappear in a flash of white. Shining Armor was next, going after his wife and his sister when he overcame the shock of what had happened.
Lightfire arched her eyebrow at her brother. "You were saying?"
"Grandpa!" Catseye rushed up through the stairs, worried about his grandfather's well-being, while Lake Wave and Vasilisa ran in from the courtyard and rushed up the stairs to see what had happened. Rarity wondered what Catseye had meant when he said not everydragon had the luck to be born as beautiful as Lightfire. She lifted her hoof to call for the drady's attention.
Lightfire noticed the unicorn's lifted hoof. "Is there something you need, Lady Rarity?"
The Unicorn grinned. "Oh, there's no need for formalities, Miss. You may call me Rarity." Rarity's smile faded a bit. "But there's something I need to inquire of you. What did Catseye's words mean?"
Lightfire knew what she wanted to know. She sighed in sadness before replying. "Take a look at me, everypony." the drady stood from the table and allowed the present ponies to see her. "What do you think of me?"
Fluttershy blinked. "Excuse me, I do not understand."
"My looks. How do you think I look?"
The ponies eamined the drady closely. Lightfire had a well-proportioned body, with stunning curbes and a slim waist. Her legs were delicate-looking and thin, but with well-cared claws and scales. Her neck was slender and curved, like her tail and wings. Lightfire's hair was unique as well, with locks of blue hair tinted purple at the tips cascading from her head, like spider silk on one of Rarity's most beautiful dresses. Her green eyes had a shine full of spirit, glowing like two emeralds. Lightfire's Age Marks were shaped like drops of water, also beautifully curved.
In other words, she could be the definition of beauty.
"My, you're one of the most beautiful Temnokt I've ever seen." said Rarity after a while.
"You're pretty." Fluttershy added.
Rainbow Dash wasn't usually interested in this kind of things, but even she couldn't contain it. "How do you do that with your hair?"
"Wow. Sugarcube, I bet you have everydrake in this city kissing the ground you step on." Applejack commented.
Usually, anyone would be very flattered by those words, but Lightfire wasn't. She looked down sadly, the shine in her eyes gone momentarily, before replying. "That's precisely the problem."
Rarity blinked. "What do you mean? Are you not happy with your looks?"
"It's not that. Like Applejack just said, almost everydrake in Krussia is smitten with me and my looks. Every Rose Festival I'm flooded with bouquets of flowers. gifts, cards and love letters. Back in school I was never picked on by anydrake, instead they harassed and bullied the less-attractive females. Not me."
"Wait, how is that a problem?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I would be very happy to have tons of stallions and colts who would sell their tails for a single glance from me."
"The problem is, that none of those drakes really love me." Lightfire replied, her eyes tearing up a bit. "They're just smitten and infuatuated with my looks and my beauty, they want me as a mate without even knowing me. When Catseye marries, father will start looking for a mate for me, but how is he supposed to find a drake who will love me sincerely, when none of the males I've met has even bothered to strike a conversation with me?"
"Lightfire," Fluttershy began sympathetically.
"What are you complaining about?" Vasilisa's voice called everyone's attention. The teen was standing in the stairs, having overheard what they were talking about on her way down. Her eyes were filled with hurt. "At least the drakes are actually interested in you! Because they think you're beautiful!"
Rarity and Fluttershy took their hooves to their lips in shock. Rainbow Dash and Applejack stared at the younger drady pitifully.
"Vasilisa," Lightfire tried to speak, but her sister interrupted her.
"Me, on the other hand...! I'm not even close to you! All the males in my class are always calling me names and teasing me, and none of the other females want anything to do with me! All because I have bad hair and an unnatractive body? At least you've never been stood up by a drake!"
"Vasi," Lightfire felt like crying for her sister's words, but she was once more interrupted.
"So what are you so teary-eyed about? I'm the one who has every reason to cry and be miserable! You should instead be worrying about what will you do when you grow old and your beauty is reduced to nothing more than a memory!"
With those parting words, Vasilisa flew upstaris again, her eyes blood-stained from her tears. Lightfire wanted to go after her, but in that state the young drady would not listen. Besides, she felt she was not the adequate dragon to talk to her about this matter. She had to talk to their mother about this later.
Meanwhile, their pony guests had experienced a rather awkward scene. Lightfire just hoped they would not get a bad impression for this.
"How does it look? Do you like it? If you don't we can always make another one until there's one you actually like! It's pretty fun!"
Fukkuteru rubbed his temples like it would cease his headache. "Pinkie, for the eleventh time, it's fine the way it is." He glanced at the pink mare's attempt to make a snowdragon, a crudely made snowdragon. Tinder attempted to give it a few touches, but all she managed to do was to make a bit of the snowdragon fall apart.
"Are you sure? Are the horns fine? And the teeth?" she pointed at the two toothpicks they used to make the Kuros's fangs.
"It's fine!"
"Are you really, really sure?"
"YES-!" Fukkuteru nearly roared at her, but he held his breath and inhaled deeply, then exhaled to calm himself down, the cold making his breath freeze. "It's perfect the way it is, Pinkie Pie. Why don't you go play snowball fight with Screwball and Tinder?"
Pinkie Pie thought for a second, before shrugging. "Okay."
"Yay! I want to show you how much I've advanced with my magic, Big brother!" Tinder squealed happily.
Fukkuteru smiled fondly at his younger sibling. "I'm sure you have, Tindy. I'll catch up to you in a while."
Fukkuteru sighed in relief as he watched her trot away to look for the purple-maned mare, Tinder going after her. It was not he disliked Pînkie Pie, but she was so... He couldn't even find a word for it. The dragon looked around the snow-blanketed courtyard of his family's home, looking for Stormfly. There was not a sign of his black carapace, nor his red scarf. Fukkuteru rose to his paws and was about to return inside when he heard something from the tree he had been resting under.
He recognized Stormfly's voice. "Are you sure they won't find us here?"
"Don't worry! Pinkie and Tinder must be playing snowball fight, so we have about ten minutes before they start looking for us." Screwball replied.
Fukkuteru arched an eyebrow at their hideout. He silently crept towards the tree and stretched his neck to take a pek through the leaves. Krussian trees were adapted to the constant winter climate, so instead of losing their leaves during Autumn, the leaves only turned gray and dull and unresponsive. Fukkuteru peeked into the inside of the tree, spotting Screwball and Stormfly sitting on a branch. The Changeling was covered with a thick, woolen blanket, trembling and chattering his teeth.
"Why must every place I go have snow? ACHOO!" Stormfly sniffed and wiped his mucus.
"Come on, Stormy, it's not that bad." Screwball replied between giggles. "At least we can play together in the snow."
"That's my point, Screwball. I do notlike snow. I'm not a pony, I don't have any fur."
Screwball pretended to be upset and crossed her hooves. "Well, you didn't want to put on the sweater Mrs.Velvet offered you."
"That thing was the size of a blanket!"
Screwball giggled at the remark, her angry facade fading away.
"What's so funny?" Stormfly inquired before sneezing again.
"You're cute when you're complaining about something."
Fukkuteru contained a snicker when he saw Stormfly's cheeks turning red at that comment. "Well, thanks for the compliment."
Stormfly started to tremble when Screwball shifted closer to him, but he did not dare move away. She leaned her head closer to him. "Do you think I'm cute?"
"Of course! I... You're..."
Screwball leaned even closer until her snout was touching the Changeling's. "Yes?"
"I think you're... very... uh..."
"Beautiful?" Fukkuteru rescued him with a snicker.
"Yeah, thanks. Screwball, I think you're-" Stormfly blinked in surprise and turned towards the direction he heard his friend's voice. Fukkuteru was staring at the two with a toothy, teasing grin. Stormfly yelped in surprise and lost his balance. Screwball gasped when she saw her friend fall backwards from branch to branch until he was caught by the blanket of snow on the ground. Fukkuteru let out a hearty laugh as he removed his head from the leaves of the trees and shook the snow accumulated on his hair and horns.
"Owowowowow..." Stormfly glared up at the Temnokt. "Hey, you don't spy on other ponies!"
"What were you loveponies doing up there, Stormie?" Fukkuteru snickered playfully. "You were about to kiss!"
"What?!" Stormfly blushed at his words. But before he could reply, the tree's branche shook, making the ice on the trees fall to the ground.
"Hey, guys." Screwball called out from the tree. "Would you help me down? I may know how to climb trees, but I'm scared to climb down!"
Stormfly sighed in dismay as his friend approached the tree to help the filly-mannered mare get down their tree. He needed some time to think this.