As they approached the gate that marked the entrance into the empire border, Midnight noticed Autumn Wheat slowing down with every step. He looked to her, seeing her hesitant, afraid, unable to look at the gate and peer down at the snow instead. He frowned sadly, knowing why and said, “I understand you’re afraid and that you feel guilty… But the best way you can help your people is to convince the Sisters they need it.”
“…I was but a tiny foal when my parents brought me here,” Autumn recounted. “All my memories I have spent here, and now I must leave it.”
Midnight went over and placed a comforting hoof on her wither, glad the hood would hide the guilt on his face as he lied.
“When the king is stopped, you will come back and hear the flugelhorns again, see the jousting matches, taste the crystal berries. For now, focus on the task at hoof before you worry about the future. Before you know it… the empire will be saved.”
Autumn wheat looked up at him and smiled just a little.
“You know… you rather remind me of him… Before I lost him.”
Midnight was both honored and ashamed by her praise, and pressed, “Come on, we have a journey ahead of us, and the sooner we leave the better. No telling when the king will learn of our getaway.”
Autumn nodded and walked alongside Midnight, passing the threshold of the gate, and only too late did Midnight realize…!
There’s a ward!
The gate ignited with cursed flames like a pyre, alerting of the escapees! Midnight and Autumn shared a frightened look as Midnight whispered, “Run…!”
And run they did, into the vast treacherous tundra.
In his throne room, Sombra glared furiously at the two guards before him. Even in their addled-minds, they retained clarity enough to fear what their king was going to do to them. If they were lucky, he would simply execute them, for they’d already seen what he was capable of.
“The two of you had one simple duty…” growled Sombra in a tone low and foreboding. “One all-too-simple task to carry out… and yet, you have proven to me just how totally, utterly, incompetent you are!!!”
The guards literally held each other, yellow puddles appearing at their hooves as Sombra roared at them, bathed in cursed flames that burned his coat, his flesh, his cape, showing his as some burned and charred monstrosity!
But then the flames extinguished and the damages and burns were all gone! As if he’d never been burned at all, and yet he seethed and shuddered, taking deep breaths. He looked as though he’d just been through some traumatic ordeal as he recomposed himself. He took a deep breath and let it out as he glared more calmly yet that dangerous look in his eyes remained.
“Ordinarily, such failures as the two of you have shown merits death. However, death is more a release in this situation. Guards!”
The other guards present stood fast as their king ordered, “Take these wastes of flesh away! Strip them of their armor, their rank, their names! Beat them black and blue and bloody and then throw them into the stockades in chains! They can languish the rest of their miserable lives among the rest of the slaves.”
The two former guards gasped in horror as the guards forced them at spear-point along, but Sombra was too infuriated to take pleasure at the looks on their faces as they were taken away. He sat in his throne, trying to make sense of how this happened, how the prisoner could’ve escaped. She certainly couldn’t have done it on her own as the prison beneath the stockades was too secure for that. However, as the tyrant puzzled more into it he realized that somepony, most definitively a unicorn, could infiltrate the prison and escape with almost no problem. After all, it was designed to hold crystal ponies, who lacked active magic. Only a unicorn could have gotten in, and the fact they bypassed his dark magic security wards told the black unicorn this mage was no common pony.
Then he sensed it!
He looked out the doors that led to his balcony and hurried out. Yes, the signal pyre ward he’d placed upon the gate to the outskirts of his empire had been ignited!
“They’re escaping…!” Sombra growled before he went back into his throne room, the wickedness bubbling around his corrupted horn opening a void in the floor from which did rise an unnatural creature that was not truly alive. It had the general shape of a pony but it was not.
It looked as though it were composed of broken glass, held together by purplish mana. Instead of hooves it had claws, its eyes red like the pupils of its master, part of its body armored like Sombra’s own armor, and it had a horn that looked like a jagged thorn.
Taking a moment to pride himself on his creation, Sombra snarled, “You will go after the escapees who just left my empire. There are two of them, a crystal mare while the other is undoubtedly a unicorn. Kill the latter but bring the mare back to me, alive!”
“As you wish, Your Majesty…” the dark construct responded in a voice like a knife being scraped over rock.
“Guards!!” Sombra yelled and in came five, standing fast. “My prisoner was liberated by a n intruder in my empire… You will accompany the crystal golem here and track them down! I don’t care what you do to her rescuer, but I want the mare returned to me alive! And so help me, if you fail…!”
“We exist to carry out your will, Your Majesty,” the guards responded in monotone but one raised his hoof.
“Yes, what is it?!” Sombra snapped.
“Your Majesty, the escapees have already gotten a head-start into the tundra, and a blizzard is coming,” the guard brought up.
“Tracking them down could prove… a challenge.”
“Not for my hunters…” Sombra’s horn glowed purple and red.
The snow and ice, just outside the gate, glowed a poisonous purple and bloody red as it was bunched together into three piles, the dark magic shaping it. The snow and ice rose up, forming bodies large yet lithe, mimicking bristling fur and bushy tails, paws, icicles becoming fangs, and then they released frightful howls that revealed these unnatural wolves of the tundra were ready to hunt!
They don’t know how long they ran although Midnight always made sure Autumn Wheat was at his side. It was cold. So very cold. Freezing winds screamed across the tundra like lost ghosts, the cloudy sky made it difficult to guess the time of the day but it wasn’t exactly dark yet. Even so, the extreme environment soon began to take its toll on the two fugitives. The white stuff was numbing their hooves and Midnight was afraid one of his hooves had cracked a little.
After a while, they finally slowed down but kept moving. As they continued their trek, more thoughts began to buzz in Midnight’s head like a swarm of hungry parasprites. Twice in this journey through time he was undertaking he had ascertained roles he had secretly played in Equestria’s history. He had assumed Star Swirl’s image and convinced Scorpan to accept friendship rather than power and here he was, braving a freezing tundra to safely escort this crystal pony to the Royal Sisters with the darkest unicorn Equestria had ever seen soon to be on their tails.
He had heard of the tyrannical enslavement over the Crystal Empire, seen what it had done to the Crystal Ponies when they had returned to the world, seen and did battle with the pony he now calls his prince and master, come to admire him, respect him, perhaps even consider him the father he never had.
But now, after witnessing the evils his master had committed firsthoof, Midnight was starting to doubt. In his head, he knew Sombra was not truly at fault, that the Whisperer had overshadowed his broken heart and fevered mind, but when he saw the tyrant in that dark room he was reminded of the monster he faced that day that had yet to come in the time he was in.
The question of why Sombra had isolated Autumn also nagged at Midnight’s mind. Perhaps in some shadowy corner of Sombra’s stolen mind he had retained even a flicker of affection for this crystal pony he had been growing to love although Midnight recalled his master telling him he might have only been doing so in an effort to move on and get over the pain of losing Celestia’s heart and trust. He also wondered what Sombra had been doing to Autumn down there but he had no intention of making Autumn revisit those moments. When he’d seen her in that dark hole, she’d been terrified.
“Ohh…”
Midnight turned and saw Autumn lying in the snow.
“Autumn!”
He hurried over and helped her to her hooves, taking her into his cloak to share his warmth.
“Perhaps we should find shelter and rest for a while.”
“Shouldn’t we… keep going?” Autumn moaned in exhaustion. “Maybe we can break into another full gallop and-”
“The nearest settlement is too far,” Midnight shook his head no. “Expending ourselves like that will only cause us to freeze faster. So for now, let’s find shelter, rest, and once we’re feeling better we’ll carry on with more haste.”
“Alright, but… where can we shelter in this tundra?” Autumn shivered as the both of them looked around.
It seemed like a frozen wasteland, no trees anywhere, powder snow blowing about, a lake or two frozen over. Then Midnight noticed it was also hilly, and had an idea.
“Come on.”
They walked for maybe a half hour when Midnight spied what he was looking for, a low ridge that was positioned away from the direction of the wind. Slipping off his saddlebags and allowing Autumn to wear his cloak, he told her, “Just give me a minute.”
Shivering but forcing himself, Midnight stepped towards the ridge and was glad to see the drop was only six or seven hooves down. He motioned Autumn to follow as he slid down, Autumn picking up Midnight’s bags and obliging his request. At the foot of the ridge, Autumn watched curiously as to what Midnight was up to.
She heard him muttering something as his eyes closed and brows furrowed in concentration, and she marveled as glimmers of turquoise light spread from his horn, peppering the snow around them. The snow then moved as though it were alive, giving off a gentle glow, as it morphed and molded all on its own.
Autumn Wheat watched, amazed as her rescuer’s intricate control. The snow moved to the ridge, balling up before ballooning out until it was the size of a small hut, big enough for at least four ponies to sit in. A hole opened up on the giant snowball, revealing an empty way big enough for a pony to hunker down and get in. Midnight released the magic with a sigh and looked to Autumn invitingly, “After you.”
Autumn gave him a confused look, “You want me to crawl into a giant snowball? I think I’m freezing just fine, thank you.”
“It’s a shelter,” chuckled Midnight, “the walls are made of snow packed together, and the cold will trap any heat inside. We crawl in, share our warmth, it’ll feel nice in no time. Tell you what, we’ll even light a candle or two to help it along. I promise, it’ll be a lot warmer than you think.”
Autumn maintained a skeptic look but the one on Midnight’s face made her trust him. She slipped into the entry hole and found the interior was a small round room, just barely visible. For a moment it darkened and she saw it was because Midnight had come in to join her. Between the two of them there was still room enough for another pony or two when Midnight made a candle float out of his saddlebag and she watched as he sparked his horn and the candle was lit, providing more light. The inside had initially felt only a little less bracing as it was outside but as the candle glowed, she began to notice the rise of temperature that she slipped off Midnight’s cloak and they both sat down. Midnight had cleared away the snow on the ground, leaving only dry, bristly grass and hard frozen dirt.
For a long moment, they sat there in the slowly warming enclosed space, glad to rest their aching fetlocks but soon the silence became awkward. Autumn didn’t look like she was willing to break the metaphorical ice so Midnight asked, “What was it like? Y’know, before it all went bad.”
Autumn considered Midnight’s question and started slow.
“I grew up in the empire. When I was a foal, it was a smaller community, the citadel wasn’t half as tall as it is today, but it was happy. My mother liked to shepherd the ewes while my father was among the first to join the original guardsstallions whom Sombra eventually dubbed the Crystal Force. I was more in touch with my earth pony roots and became a farmer when I was old enough. I loved working the fields, sowing the seeds, tending to the crops and watching them grow, and literally enjoying the fruits of my labor and sharing it with everypony. Sombra’s crystal magic and the Crystal Heart had an effect on all of us, changing us from earth ponies to crystal ponies. In certain ways we are still earth ponies but we have developed a special magic that resonates near high quality crystals, especially in large quantities.”
“Does this magic have to do with the Crystal heart?” Midnight inquired.
“The Crystal Heart…” Autumn sighed sadly, “our greatest treasure. Sombra called it his magnum opus, his masterpiece, possibly his greatest creation. He created it to be a beacon for us, to take in the positive energy of our love, our hope, our joy, and to spread it across Equestria, share our happiness with all. It also served to protect us… but it could not from its creator.”
“Whattya mean?” asked Midnight, having an idea.
“After Sombra fell to evil, his first act was hiding the Heart away,” Autumn lowered her head, her mane obscuring her face but it could not hide the tears falling to the ground.
“He swore it would never again see the light of day, and when it was gone so too was our hope… I cannot fathom what has turned Sombra into this monster… but I pray someday, somehow…”
She broke into soft sobs and couldn’t speak no more, Midnight scooching over and putting an arm around her, allowing her to cry into his chest. He said no words, knowing she just needed to cry, to let it out. And because he didn’t want to say more lies, that it would all be okay, that she would be reunited with her family, her friends, her home, her life. The guilt of holding his tongue was heavy but for the sake of preserving history, he had to bear it.
Then, a distant sound sent a chill down Midnight’s back, from the tip of his horn to the dock of his tail. Autumn felt it too, as they looked to the entrance of their shelter.
“Wolves?” she whispered fearfully.
“Something worse, I think…” Midnight sensed it. Something was coming, and it was worse than wolves.
“We gotta go, now!”
Midnight snuffed the candle and they grabbed their things. Midnight went first and saw only the tundra but just because he couldn’t see anything didn’t mean he couldn’t sense it. He heard Autumn step up next to him as she whispered, “What do we do?”
Midnight looked towards the ridge and said, “It came from the direction we did. Whatever it is, we have to-”
A harsh snarl interrupted him as three blazes of white and purple flew over them and swirled about, icicles fangs bared.
“Tundra wolves!” Autumn gasped, her heart beginning to pound.
Midnight gave these creatures a good look. They weren’t real wolves, like his pet wolf Dreamer. They were made of ice and snow and in the shape of wolves. They reminded Midnight of Timber Wolves, like from the Everfree Forest.
They were the same size as Timber Wolves, the snow making up their bodies bristled in a rather good imitation of fur, their fangs and claws were made of ice, and they were held together by purple auras.
“Sombra sent these beasts after us!” he whispered to Autumn when, to their confusion, all three wolves threw their heads back in long and loud howls.
Why are they howling? Is it because they’ve found us and are feeling victorious? No…
Then a horrible thought crossed Midnight’s mind in realization!
“They’re hunting dogs! They’re letting the enemy know they’ve found us!”
“What do we do?!” Autumn cried fearfully when she felt a sense of dread she once felt before but it was coming from Midnight.
He stepped forward, his voice low, ‘Autumn, stay back…”
Autumn watched in horror as purplish flames flowed from the corners of Midnight’s eyes, his horn crackled with black electricity, bubbling with green and purple, his expression merciless as he glared at the Tundra Wolves.
The beasts sensed it! What they thought had been prey… was a threat! They stood together, snarling, but now they were shaking. And it wasn’t because of the cold. Or rather it was. The cold an animal feels in the face of fear. Their growls turned whimpering as Midnight gathered his power… and released it in a black and green tornado of destruction!
It spiraled out from his horn, twisting into a whirling mass of darkness! Such force should’ve drawn in everything around but aside the snowy winds, only the Tundra Wolves struggled to resist its pull. Midnight growled as he forced more of his power and the dark tornado released tendrils of energy that lashed out, ensnaring the Tundra Wolves! They howled in fear as they were pulled in and swallowed. Over the roar of the wind, Midnight and Autumn heard the agonized whines and whimpers as Midnight’s spell tore them apart before bursting, sending the snowy remains of the frozen ferals all over.
Midnight took a deep breath to compose himself and heard Autumn step up next to him. He looked up at her, expecting to see fear. Instead, he saw concern.
“We have to go,” he panted. “Those wolves just gave away our position. Whoever else the king sent after us can’t be far behind.”
“…Then let’s hurry,” Autumn agreed. She looked ahead and said, “It might not be the best idea, but we could probably lose them in that blizzard ahead.”
Midnight looked and saw there was indeed a blizzard coming. He agreed it might work but they weren’t gonna go in unprepared. He pulled an extra cloak from his bag and wrapped it around Autumn before adding some protective wards, and also pulled out a rope..
“This cloak will stay the cold and preserve your body-heat. This rope will keep us connected so we don’t lose each other.”
Autumn agreed and held still as Midnight weaved the knots and bound them together. They gave each other a resolute nod, and ran straight into the whiteout.