//------------------------------// // Visitors // Story: Winter Storm // by Snake Staff //------------------------------// Shining Armor “Come on!” my wife encourages me. “You can do this! Broad beats, up and down! Come on!” her purple tipped wings flare wide in a display. “If I can do that, so can you!” “Easy for you to say from all the way down there,” I mutter under my breath. Cadence’s sensitive ear twitches. “What was that, soldier?” “Nothing, madam drill sergeant!” Beating her long wings to take to the air, she easily ascends to where I’m struggling to control my flight path. I switch to the rapid wing beats needed for hovering, trying not to pitch forward again in the unfamiliar position. “Are you saying that I’m lazy?” Cadence manages to sneak up on me while I’m concentrating on staying upright. “Are you accusing me of slacking off?” “Ma’am, no ma’am!” I manage to snap off a salute, though I wobble in the air as my leg gets a bit too close to my wings and the two limbs collide. I just barely avoid plummeting to the ground while resynchronizing my wings. “Then do you think I’m a bad teacher?” my wife circles me in the sky, making me feel remarkably like a fish being stalked by a shark. “Or maybe you think that I can’t fly as well as you can. Is that it? Do you think that, private?!” “Ma’am, no ma’am!” I answer again, with slightly more vigor this time. “Where was your salute? I didn’t see you salute your superior officer, soldier!” I make another salute, this time managing to avoid my frantically beating wings. Cadence gives me a satisfied nod and, dropping the drill sergeant persona for a moment, a reassuring smile. “You’re doing great, honey,” she whispers into my ear. “Now watch me and do what I do.” “Ma’am, yes ma’am!” Cadence gives a slight giggle before her face goes stern again. With several powerful beats of her long wings, she ascends even further into the sky, nearing the lowest clouds. She hovers there for a moment, looks down at me, and gives a wink. Then she tucks her wings in and dives. Cadence plummets towards the ground like a missile, and for half a second my heart leaps into my throat at the thought of her impacting. But she opens her wings again well above the green field beneath us. With long, slow beats she levels herself out before holding her wings wide and gliding through the air. Cadence glides in wide circles, gradually descending nearer and nearer the ground before her hooves hit dirt. She makes a running – or, rather, light trotting – landing, coming to a halt after a few long steps. My wife looks up at me with a slight smirk on her face. “Your turn.” I swallow, but push myself upwards with several frantic beats of my wings. I’ll admit I’m not as graceful as Cadence, but give a stallion a break. I’ve been at this for a few days. She’s had hundreds of years to perfect her technique. From the peak of my ascent, I too tuck in my wings and let gravity take hold. I plunge like a rock, cold wind whipping hard against my body. I can’t hear anything above the rush of air in my ears, and I wonder how I’m supposed to judge when to open my wings. Real quick on the uptake, aren’t you Shiny? Buck it, I’d rather glide too long than crash. I angle my dive and slowly force my wings back open again. The air whipping past me struggles to keep them pinned to my side, but thankfully I manage. With more strokes than are probably necessary, I pull out of the headlong descent and achieve something vaguely resembling a glide. Feeling somewhat proud of myself, I spare a glance at the ground below. Way, way, below. I’m far higher than Cadence was at this point. Damn. To add insult to injury, I think I can make out my wife’s pink form covering her mouth with one hoof and shaking. Like she’s giggling at me. My cheeks turn red as I realize I must look like more than a bit of scaredy-pony, breaking the fall so high off the ground. Ok, I am not going be humiliated like this. With a snort, I fold my wings back in and take another plunge. Once again, the wind whips by and chills me through my coat while drowning out all sounds but itself. This time, I keep a careful eye on the ground, which grows larger and more detailed with each passing second. I want to get a bit closer before pulling off the landing. Wait for it… wait for it… I could swear I hear something faint in my ears, but when I adjust to listen better all I catch is more wind. Huh. Whatever. Wait for it… I jerk open my wings again not even a hundred feet above the field, again trying to angle my dive. I take a few wing beats and begin to glide and… why is the ground so close? Oh sh- And then I plow face first into the ground. Grass and topsoil fill my vision as my muzzle plunges into the earth, carving a small furrow into the soil as I keep going. The earth here isn’t that soft, and quickly arrests the momentum of my face. The rest of me is not quite so lucky. My backside carries itself up and over the rest of me, slamming down hard onto the dirt. I lie there for some time, in a bit of a daze. My white coat is covered in brown and my limbs are splayed out, but strangely I’m not feeling a lot of pain. My mind tells me that that should have hurt a lot worse than it actually did, but I don’t think it even broke the skin on my face. Really, I’m just feeling a little frazzled and somewhat irritated with myself. “Shining? Are you alright?” Oh, and embarrassed. Don’t forget embarrassed. My cheeks once again flush with blood, I scramble hurriedly back to my hooves at Cadence’s approach, shaking myself a little to get rid of the worst of the dirt. “Never better,” I answer with a cocksure grin, to which she giggles. “Then let’s get you cleaned off,” she says, flapping her wings in place. The gentle winter breeze is amplified to a bitter wind, but it quickly blows the bulk of the debris off of me, leaving my coat only slightly stained brown. Satisfied, Cadence tucks her wings back against her side. “Are you up for trying again?” she asks me. “I could do this all day,” I declare. “Oh really?” she smirks. “Perhaps I’ve been going too easy on my soldier then.” “Try me.” “Oh I will. You can bet your last – Shining?” Cadence looks at my face, and then turns her head to follow the trail my eyes are taking. Up in the sky are two winged shapes, clearly headed this way. As they grow closer, my eyes can pick out their colors: white with a rainbow mane, and lavender with a dark purple mane. I grin widely and wave. Cadence’s wings twitch slightly, but she does the same a moment later. The two ponies glide gently to the ground, making a much better landing than I did. “Hello,” says Princess Celestia. “I do hope that we aren’t interrupting.” Cadence I bite back my first impulse – to snarl angrily and demand that the witch leave my kingdom – for the sake of the siblings Sparkle. Instead, I force a smile onto my muzzle and shake my head. “Of course not, Auntie,” I manage a distantly polite tone. My smile becomes at least somewhat genuine when Twilight bends her knees in our all-too-familiar greeting ritual: “Sunshine, Sunshine, Ladybugs awake Clap your hooves And do a little shake!” We wiggle our rumps at one another and giggle foolishly. My smile is for just an instant entirely unforced. It’s been far too long since we’ve done this, I think. And then my happiness fades as I once again have eyes for my aunt. She’s smiling down at us with that oh so perfect “benevolent princess” look on her face. When I was younger, that face was my comfort on more than a few occasions. Now it just looks like a hollow mockery to me, a pretty face to hide the ugliness inside. I haven’t forgotten what you’ve done to me, Celestia. You may have duped everypony else, but I see you for who you are. “Twily!” “BBBFF!” Twilight, with boundless enthusiasm, rushes to embrace her brother, bowling him back over into the dirt. The two hug warmly for a long moment, before he gives her mane a playful noogie and they laugh. “It is good to see you, Cadence,” Celestia’s voice cuts in. I’m forced to return my attentions to the eldest of our kind. “You too, Aunt Celestia.” She opens a leg invitingly. “Come here and give this old mare a hug.” I repress my urge to vomit and wrap my forelegs around my aunt. She does the same to me. Though her heart is ice, her body is warm, and her coat is soft. She smells faintly of rosemary and cinnamon, an odd but not unpleasant combination. She rubs my back gently, and I’ll admit that it feels nice. “You have done well, niece,” she whispers into my left ear in the faintest of voices. “You should be proud.” And then I am released to stare up at the beautiful goddess of the sun. Once more, she smiles at me without a hint of malevolence. Once again, my stomach churns at the sight. I tear my eyes from her to look at reunion of my favorite siblings in the world. Shining has managed to hoist Twilight off her hooves and is twirling her around like she was a filly, to which she is squealing happily. It’s childish, but so many of life’s simplest pleasures are. In any case, he sets her back down on the ground momentarily. I smile at the sight. “Shining Armor,” Auntie takes a few steps around me and towards the two. I fight the urge to interpose myself. Shining gives his sister one more quick hug before pivoting on the spot to meet her gaze. The two are now about the same height, he having perhaps half an inch on her, at most. “Celestia,” his tone is far warmer than I would like. “Please, accept my congratulations on your ascension,” Celestia says in a motherly way. “And,” to my surprise, she crosses a foreleg over her chest and bows her head. “Please accept my apologies.” “Apologies?” he raises an eyebrow. “For what?” “For my attempts to convince you to move on,” she sighs and looks guilty, keeping her head low but looking up at him with her purple eyes. “I feared that you endangered yourself and others by your continued existence on this plane. I worried that you were inadvertently hurting my niece. But now I know better.” “You do?” She nods. “You could never have ascended were you undeserving. You have proven all my doubts about you wrong, cast away the dangers of your false form, and in the process shown yourself to be a worthy prince.” Celestia smiles. “I could not think of a better co-ruler for the Crystal Empire than yourself.” He blushes slightly. “I don’t know about that. Cadence did all-” Celestia interrupts with a warm chuckle. “Of course she helped you. Did you think I had nothing to do with Twilight’s ascension? That I did not do everything I could to facilitate it? I gave her what she needed. But in the end, it was she who earned it, as have you. The Crystal Heart would never have blessed the process if you had not.” “I see,” he says, looking uncertain. Shining still has some issues with self-confidence, but I’m certain that we can work those out. We have all the time in the world, after all. “So, Shining Armor,” Celestia bows her head again. “Will you please accept my apologies?” she looks up. “And my friendship?” I want to scream out, to tell him that this is a trick. To tell him that she’s a monster who almost killed him; that she’s already set up provisions to rob our future cradle. But I can’t do that, so there’s nothing left for me but to silently plead that he’ll see through it. “Hmmm…” Shining taps a hoof on the bottom of his chin. Celestia looks at him with sorrowful eyes. “You only ever wanted the best for us, I know that. But you made a mistake.” “I am aware,” she says. “And I am sorry.” He sighs. “You swear you won’t try it again?” “You have my word,” she nods. Shining smiles reassuringly. “Then how could I hold it against you? Gods know I’ve had my share of screw-ups over the years, but the ponies I love have always forgiven me. You always forgave me when I failed in my duties as Captain. How could I do anything else to you?” “From the bottom of my heart, thank you,” Celestia smiles, and the two white alicorns embrace one another. Though my face is smiling, my heart is sinking. The rest of the afternoon and evening seems to go by at a snail’s pace. When I eventually resume trying to teach Shining how to fly, I can’t help but get distracted by the continued presence of my aunt, and we wind up returning home for dinner earlier than I’d planned. Celestia takes the opportunity to ask if she can stay the night, and of course being a good little niece I have no real choice but to comply. Dinner winds up being a long and rather depressing discussion of the failed peace conference and political implications thereof. I can’t even take pleasure in Celestia failing at something, because of the consequences of it. Living beings are going to die – have already died – and it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. She asks that if we should be in a position to help those widowed and orphaned by the conflict, might we do so? For once, I’m totally sincere in saying that we’ll help her. After our meal, the siblings Sparkle head off their own way, as do I. I’d like to be alone to stew in anger and guilt for a time, and perhaps indulge in revenge fantasies where nopony can see. Perhaps a walk through our greenhouse gardens will do. Getting to the garden is no problem. I step inside and immediately feel the change on my skin. It may be chilly outside, but in here it’s warm and wet. The plants are as green and leafy as they always are, and I can even see some flowers blooming. That purple moth orchid in particular is looking tasty. If I hadn’t just eaten, I’d probably take a bite. As it is, I content myself with a sniff and move on. “Cadence?” Really? Now?! Does she have some compulsion to spoil everything I do? At least when we’re alone I don’t have to pretend to be friendly. “What?” I answer gruffly, without bothering to face my aunt. “What do you want?” “I merely wish to offer you my sincere congratulations on your splendid success.” “Oooh yeah, ‘Congratulations on completing the task I enslaved you to do’. Yeah, real wonderful. I feel sooo much better now.” “You should be proud of yourself, Mi Amore Cadenza. I for one am very impressed.” “I don’t give a damn.” Celestia is now at my right side, her stride easily matching mine. I turn my head in the opposite direction and stare at the plants as they go by. She leans her head over and speaks softly into my ear. “Believe it or not, I am quite happy that any further bloodshed has been avoided,” she sighs before continuing. “There is quite enough of that as it is.” I snort. “You mean that you’re happy that I’m going to be your good little foal factory. If you cared about bloodshed you wouldn’t have started this in the first place.” “That is the trouble with you, Cadence,” she replies. “You have never learned how to prioritize the big picture over the little ones. If eliminating one prevents the loss of dozens… hundreds… thousands… is it not the right thing to do? Even if that one is personally important to you?” “Don’t try and justify the unprovoked assassination attempt against a pony who had always been loyal to you.” “I did what I believed that I needed to do with all the information I had. This all could have been avoided if you had simply told me what you intended from the start. I thought you meant to keep him that way for all eternity.” My lips curl back into a snarl, and I swing my head around to face her. “Now you’re saying it’s my fault that you tried to murder my husband?!” Celestia’s face is impassive and infuriatingly calm. “No. The decision was mine, and I accept total responsibility for it and for all the consequences thereof, as any good ruler should.” Real subtle there, Celestia. “Quit being passive-aggressive and just tell me what you want already. You wouldn’t have sought me out alone if you didn’t want something.” “Very well. I simply wished to ask a few questions about the method you used.” “Fine,” I answer, concealing my nerves. What I told her in my letters was that the information I used to create the ascension ritual “came from the same source” as the notes, which apparently was true enough not to get my brain wiped. I’m seriously hoping that she didn’t notice the weasel wording. “You used Elysium’s bones as the base for this body, correct?” I nod. Celestia sighs mournfully and looks down. “I had hoped to bury her…” she shakes her head. “But it was for the best.” She looks up again. “Your creation also required Shining Armor’s mortal remains, did it not?” “It did.” Why is she asking me this? She knows full well what I did. “You defiled his grave in the dead of night to dig up moldy unicorn bones.” My ears fold back and I lower my head as a fresh wave of guilt washes over me. “Yes.” The corner of Celestia’s mouth twitches. “The ends justified the means, did they not?” I hesitate. “…I’m not answering that.” There’s a twinkle in her eye. “So be it. Tell me, then: are you certain that a full alicorn skeleton was required? Could it be done with less?” “Not as far as I know,” I answer. “Why?” “I was just thinking,” she looks at her own legs. “I do not have any remains of our kind… but I do have bones. It is not as though I could not grow most of them back.” Ok, that’s…. alright, it’s not so different from what I tried with growing organs at one point. Shut up. Celestia continues. “Tell me about the Crystal Heart. You described your interaction with it in vague terms. I want to hear more.” I hesitate, remembering the long hours I spent pleading with the heart. “It was… reluctant,” I say at last. “It didn’t seem to want to give up that much energy. I needed to coax it into going along with my idea.” “Did it actually speak to you?” I shake my head. “No, I just felt… emotions. No words, just impressions.” “How did you convince it to surrender its strength to power your spell?” “… Love. I spent a long time showing it the love we shared for each, the dedication we both felt to the Crystal Empire. It’s an artifact of love and joy and positive emotions, how could it resist? I fed it our love for one another and our subjects until it gave me what I wanted. I still got the impression that it wasn’t terribly fond of the idea of draining itself so much.” “Interesting…” Celestia looks thoughtful. “Thank you, niece, you have given me several things to think about. Is there anything I can do for you in turn?” “Don’t take my foals.” “I am sorry, but I cannot honor that request.” “Then leave me alone.” “As you wish.” Celestia vanishes in a burst of gold, and I’m alone again.