The walls of Canterlot Palace resonated with the clip-clopping of hooves, almost as though they were built specifically for dramatic echoing. The loud clopping came from two alicorn princesses coming from opposite sides of the hall. One was coming from the direction of the throne room, while the other smaller figure had just descended from her lofty tower, where she had just raised the moon. With starlight streaming through the windows, Princess Celestia greeted, “Good morn…I mean, evening, Luna.”
With a scoff, the younger sister replied, “You would think I have been here long enough to get that right, sister!”
“It’s been thousands of years and I still get that wrong. I don’t think it’s changing anytime soon!”
The two exchanged chuckles, after which Luna asked, “Anything I should know about tonight?”
“No, nothing today. It’s been a slow month, which is a good thing, I should say.
“Yes…I suppose.”
“Luna,” the elder pony said, tilting her head disapprovingly.
“Sorry, Celestia. While I was upstairs, I was just reminiscing about those days when we fought dragons and hydras and mad shadow kings in giant crystal palaces as warrior princesses.”
“Luna…that never happened. Where did you get that from?”
“Some of our subjects have vivid imaginations, you know.”
The sun princess could only nod in agreement, knowing all too well what Luna meant. With fatigue starting to crawl into her millennia-old bones, she placed a hoof on her sister’s shoulder and said, “Listen Luna, the chances of something happening tonight is extremely slim, you know that. But if anything comes up, make sure you tell me.”
Rolling her eyes, Luna answering snappily, “I appreciate your concern, but you know I am perfectly capable of handling dire situations.”
“Ahem…the wall…”
“Yes, okay, you are never going to live that one down are you?”
With a smirk of satisfaction, Celestia simply said. “Good night, Lulu.”
The princess of the night watched as her older sister climbed up the stairs, until her hindlegs were finally out of sight. Blowing out a hot puff of air, the princess mocked in a not-so-regal whisper, “Good night, Lulu…bleh.”
xxx
A couple of hours into the night, Princess Luna found herself strolling down the Echoing Hallway yet again, her head drooped with absolute boredom. She managed to leave her guards back at the throne room, giving her space to do her favorite pastime: lonely skulking. “Royal duties include: strolling through dark hallways, getting midnight snacks, and occasionally sitting down…hmm, actually food doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.”
Heeding the pleas of her belly, the princess made her way into the kitchen, which was empty for the night. Humming a song about playing your part or something like that (‘Goodness, why is that song so catchy?’), she creaked open the refrigerator.
To her surprise, a furry object quickly pounced out of the fridge, trying to attack the princess’s face. But the alicorn was too fast for the unknown assailant, and the object quickly sailed to the floor before scurrying out the door to terrorize the hallways of the palace.
And sitting on the shelf above was a ferret.
Luna’s eyes quickly lit up at the sight of the tiny creature, and using her magic, she levitated the animals so that his snout was in front of hers. “Jeffery! Oh hello! I thought I lost you! You have been hiding in the fridge this whole time? Hmm, I probably should not have forgotten about that game of hide-and-seek.” The little critter started to chatter furiously, letting his deepest rage pour out over a slew of tongue-clicks and screeches.
“Oh, I missed you too, Jeffery. Look at you, you’re all dirty! Come, let’s clean you up.”
Princess Luna took the ferret to a large kitchen sink, placing aside the dirty plates to make a tiny bathtub. But just as she began to scrub the creature’s fur, a sharp jolt went through her skull, causing her to shriek in pain. One of her batguards quickly trotted through the doors, having heard her shriek down the Echoing Hallway. “What happened, Your Highness?” he inquired urgently, paying no heed to the thrashing ferret in the sink.
Leaning against the counter, the princess began to rub her temple. “I sense…a disturbance.”
“In the force?”
“What the…? No, I don’t even know what that is. I can sense…something is not right.”
“What could it be, princess?” Jeffery claws continued to scratch the stainless steel, but with less energy as before.
“It’s almost as though…two ponies, pegasi to be exact, are trekking northwards in the dead of night, trying to deliver a very important…thing…across the border into the Northlands!”
“That was…oddly specific, Your Highness.” The scratching stopped.
Luna sniffed the air, adding, “And judging by the smell…they also possess strawberry strudel in their packs!”
“I…I’m not sure how that…is important, Your Highness.”
“Not now, Metalface.”
“My name’s actually—.”
“No time for semantics. Don’t you see what is happening? Not only have they made a poor choice of strudel filling, they are smuggling something across the border! It must be the same two pegasi who caused me so much humiliation months ago!”
Princess Luna quickly stood herself up, and the guard could see the fires burning in her eyes. She stood erect, her ethereal mane flowing more furiously than it had been only minutes ago. With a raised, commanding voice, she uttered, “Quickly. Assemble the troops as fast as you possibly can. We are not going to lose them again.”
“But princess…”
“Go, soldier! Now!” The command echoed throughout the hallways, following by the sound of flapping wings as the guard took off toward the barracks. Luna was left alone in the kitchen, her mind already formulating the plan to capture those elusive smugglers. With a devious smile playing on her lips, the monarch of the night whispered, “They are mine now. I’ve thought about this for a long, long time. No amount of rainbow warfare will save you this time, smugglers! Come Jeffery, our army awaits! Jeffery? Jeffery? Wake up! Jeffery! Come now don’t be a pansy…”
Meanwhile, only a couple miles away from the mountain Canterlot was perched upon, a trio of ponies marched northward with only the moon to light their way. Next to them was a steadily flowing river, their guide as they traveled further away from civilization. The smallest of the ponies was actually in front with her hood pulled over her face, while the pegasi stayed just a few yards behind. The yellow pegasus couldn’t help but keep her eyes on the young mare in front, unsure of what to make of her. “This is…different.”
“Not really, Fluttershy,” Dash whispered matter-of-factly.
“How so?”
“Listen, we just gotta keep doing this thing like we’ve always been doing it. Sure she’s a…nother pony. But the game’s still the same. We’re just kinda transporting her, like the animals.
“But…but she’s not an animal. It’s different.”
“You’re just bein’ shy, Fluttershy. Really. We just gotta get her to the destination. We don’t need to make friends or get along or whatever. Strictly business. Now come on.” Rainbow Dash quickened her pace, catching up to their ‘package’.
A couple seconds later, Fluttershy followed suit, mumbling under her breath, “That’s what you thought about Fluffy…”
The young mare only took a few cursory glances when the pegasi took their places on either side of her, keeping her eyes mostly trained on the ground. Dash was the first to speak, saying, “So your name’s Ivy, right?”
Surprisingly enough, the unicorn answered quietly, “Crimson Ivy actually. But yeah, just Ivy for short.”
“That’s a pretty name,” Fluttershy remarked.
“I guess it would be, y’know, if I wasn’t named after the mafia.”
“Wait…the Crimson Mobsters?” Dash said incredulously. “And your dad’s the head of it?”
“Yeah…” Ivy let the word trail off into silence, her hood covering her narrowed eyes and furrowed brow.
“I’ve never really heard of them.”
“That’s good! Usually by the time you’ve heard of them, it’s too late. Oh…wait that’s not good for us…whoa, Fluttershy? Hey Fluttershy you okay?”
“Y-yeah, my lungs just tried to jump out of my mouth is all…”
“That’s cool.” The trio walked in silence for about ten more minutes, during which Dash could feel the awkwardness growing like a tumor. So using noise like a scalpel, she cut through the silence and said, “So hey…kid.”
“…”
“Do you know why you’re supposed to be heading north?”
“No,” was the curt, almost hostile reply.
“They didn’t tell you anything?”
“Nope.”
“…You like jokes?”
“…Nope.”
Letting out a forced chuckle, Dash answered while slowing her pace, “Heh riiiight, that’s cool. Ahem, Fluttershy, can I talk to you again?” Without waiting for a reply, the pegasus quickly grabbed her friend and pulled her back just out of earshot of Ivy. Her fake smile replaced by a very real frown, Dash whispered, “Okay you were right.”
Scratching her head, Fluttershy replied, “She’s not really the, um, social type I suppose.”
“Heck, I think the animals had more personality than her.”
“Rainbow!”
“What?”
Pointing stealthily towards Ivy, Fluttershy defended, “She’s just a child. I’m sure this situation is just as difficult to her as it is to us!”
“I dunno, she seems to be handling it just fine. Maybe she’s just naturally a stone,” Rainbow Dash uttered with a skeptical roll of her eyes.
“Or maybe…maybe she just needs somepony to talk to her.”
“I just tried that!”
“You just asked her if she liked jokes.”
“And she said no!” The pegasus threw her hooves up in the air, not noticing a pair of ears perking up on Ivy’s head. “Who doesn’t like a good joke? And I’m like, the queen of awesome jokes, okay? I know what I’m talking about.”
“All I’m just saying is—.”
“Why do we spell ‘waffle’ with a w?”
“Not now, Rainbow.”
“Ugh. You too?”
The brash pegasus spread her wings and began to hover away, but Fluttershy clenched her teeth around Dash’s tail, pulling her back down. “You can’t just give up so quickly, Dash,” Fluttershy pled through clenched teeth. “What if you gave up on me all those years ago after three sentences?”
Letting out a sigh, Rainbow Dash replied, “Listen, you can go make friends with her all you want. But we don’t have to get along to finish this journey up. I know that.”
“But it would help!”
“Then go right ahead, Flutters. Me, I’ll spend my energy flying.” And with that, the rainbow-maned pegasus took off into the troposphere, scouting the land ahead. Fluttershy started to follow, but she shook her head, keeping her hooves on the ground.
Meanwhile, just a couple yards ahead, a young mare had her eyes trained on the shadow flying overhead, Dash’s words still ringing in her ears.
xxx
“Gross, strawberry strudel. No thanks,” Dash said, wrapping up the pastry and putting it back into her pack.
“You don’t like strawberry strudel?” Fluttershy inquired.
“Nope. Especially not after having AJ’s apple strudel delight. Once you go apple, you ain’t never going back...le.”
Fluttershy started to nod her head, only for a shiver to jolt her body. Cold bit into her skin and stung her cheeks, her breath condensing in front of her snout with every breath. The group had long since diverged from the river, which had been frozen solid when they left it. Now, a slight wind blew twinkling particles of snow around their heads, which Rainbow Dash tried to catch on her tongue.
"If I had known we were going so far north, I would have packed something w-warmer," Fluttershy said, pulling her cloak tight. “What about you, Ivy? Do you want anything?”
“Um, no not really. Not hungry.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, really, I’m fine,” the unicorn replied, letting the timid pegasus nibble at the pastry awkwardly. Fluttershy only turned her head down for a second in dismay, but in that second, she found herself tripping over Ivy’s robe, who had come to a sudden stop.
Dash quickly helped her friend up, at first disturbed by the blood-like substance covering her friends cheek, and even more so when Fluttershy started to lick it. While her friend wiped the strawberry filling off her face, the brash pegasus asked, “Hey kid, what’s your deal?”
The unicorn didn’t answer, gazing at something in the far off distance. Rainbow followed the unicorn’s awestruck glare; it didn’t take long for her to understand why she had stopped.
Although they had quite a way to go, a ridge of craggy mountains could be seen on the horizon, covered by thick snow. And in the middle of it all, a gargantuan mountain dwarfing all the others protruded from the earth for what seemed like forever, the tip obscured by dark clouds. But most impressively, the crest of jagged rocks seemed to shimmer, even in the bleak night.
“That’s…that’s where we’re going,” Rainbow Dash said, mesmerized.
With a quiet voice, Ivy responded, “Yeah…the Crystal Mountains.”