Sassaflash rubbed the fog from the window with her hoof, but it did little to help the view. The snow outside was falling so fast that she could only see a short distance away from the train. As she tapped the windowsill in a strange mixture of anxiety and boredom she noticed her cousin sleeping peacefully across the aisle from her. In times like this, she was often envious of her cousin's ability to believe everything would turn out alright while her own confidence dissipated as she thought more and more about the task ahead of them.
Almost everypony had gotten off at the last stop. All that remained of the once filled train was Twilight and her friends in the first car and herself, Rocinante, and a mysterious shopkeeper in the second. For now, the gray earth pony sat quietly in his seat behind them.
He had introduced himself as Curio, and although he said they could call him Uncle Curio if they wished, Sassaflash was far too leery of the mercantile pony to act so informal around him. He evidently owned a store of some kind, but Sassaflash was far more interested in how some seemingly random pony knew so much about the Crystal Empire while her cousin, who she thought knew every ancient legend like the back of his own hoof, knew next to nothing. Sassaflash had desperately hoped he would get off sooner, but he had already stated he was going to the Crystal Empire.
Looking back towards Curio, Sassaflash couldn't wait to get off of the train. Whatever this pony's business was in the Crystal Empire, they would part ways at the platform and that would be that. No sooner than the thought had come to her mind, Sassaflash could feel the train slowing down and almost instantly her heart began to race. This was it, the Crystal Empire. Now their journey would really begin.
As the steam cloud billowed by their car, Rocinante shifted uncomfortably. Typically he preferred to bust through the steam in a bold and overly dramatic fashion, flourishing his lance with a boisterous laugh, but today, Sassaflash kept herself between him and the door. It wasn't that she felt he couldn't control himself, but just the simple appearance of the inward struggle inside her cousin was enough to make her do what she could to prevent them from revealing themselves.
“Umm...Pardon me, but what, exactly, are we waiting on?”
Sassaflash looked back over Rocinante's shoulder towards the confused earth pony behind them and back out to Twilight and her friends on the solitary platform outside. Shining Armor had appeared and after exchanging a few words, they set off in the direction that, Sassaflash presumed, was towards the Empire.
“Nothing! Nothing at all! We were just going, right cousin?”
Rocinante, the temptation to burst forth through steam clouds quickly subsiding as the clouds themselves faded away, nodded and straightened his helmet.
“Indeed, Dear Sassa. We should all hurry towards our destinations, for one does not require experience as a weather pony to tell that when night falls upon us, the cold shall as well.”
Throwing open the door, the three ponies were met with a frigid and forceful wind blast that nearly removed the knight-errant's helmet, but while Sassaflash and Curio looked to the outside with disdain and chattering teeth, Rocinante smiled, readjusted his helmet and stepped boldly into the unknown.
“Come, Sassa! We go forth now to our most glorious quest in the name of our illustrious lady, Princess Luna of Canterlot!”
There was something about her cousin's booming voice that overpowered the wind as he reared up on hind legs and pointed his lance in the direction that Twilight and her brother had trotted off. As though something had warmed Sassaflash's heart and boosted her spirits, she spread her wings and pushed off of the train car's floor taking flight into the fierce wind and almost immediately she was grounded by the same as the wind threw her down next to her cousin.
While most ponies would have burst out laughing at the pathetic display, Rocinante's laugh carried a different feel as he offered Sassaflash a hoof.
“Most excellent display of spirit, dear cousin! All of the Empire's most pure and innocent denizens may rest peacefully this day, for now the forces of justice, virtue, and valor have arrived and all of evil's dastardly presence henceforth shall be undone!”
“D-Did, did you say Princess Luna?”
Both knight and squire turned to the earth pony who was just now emerging from the train car onto the station. His eyes were wide, although Sassaflash wasn't certain if it was from the rather unorthodox sight in front of him or from the sudden and frigid bite of the cold.
Regardless of what had surprised him most, Curio was quick to catch up to the two unusual ponies as they continued their way across the snow and towards the Crystal Empire.
“I had no idea you were a Knight of Canterlot! Tell me, what brings you out here, so far away from the castle?”
Sassaflash looked to her cousin. She wasn't certain how much they should say to some pony they had just met, but Rocinante merely laughed as he pranced after Twilight's company.
“My dear Mister Curio! I am the Knight of the Restored Moon, the champion of her Most Noble Grace, Princess Luna of Canterlot, who has tasked us both to secure the lands of the Crystal Empire from the forces of evil and darkness and to provide to her Most Fair Highness and her beloved the martial support necessary to secure the Empire from whatever evil may threaten its newborn weakness!”
Curio nodded as he trotted alongside the unusual pair. In his eyes, they certainly didn't look the part of Knights of Canterlot and certainly not champions of any noble, let alone Princess Luna, but he couldn't imagine any other reason, except for madness, that would drive a pony out into the middle of nowhere like this.
“Ah, so that explains how you know about the Empire then!”
Sassaflash nodded, but eyed Curio very closely.
“Yes, what about you? How exactly did you come to know so much about the Crystal Empire?”
Curio smiled and took off his hat as he nodded in a slight bow that imitated the knight-errant beside him, but the chilling wind swiftly caused him to place the hat back on his head.
“Not every crystal pony was trapped within the Crystal Empire as it fell under the curse. My great-great-great... well, my ancestor, whom I am named after, fled the Empire during the confusion of King Sombra's fall. Finding a home and love in Canterlot, he settled there, but never forgot to pass on to the next generation who we were and where we came from. Naturally I was overjoyed when I heard that my ancestral home had returned!”
Curio smiled and nodded with satisfaction at his own story, hoping that the curious pegasus wouldn't question the validity of his tale or how many guards he had bribed to get his hooves on the Empire's information.
Sassaflash eyed Curio with an obvious suspicion, but before she could say anything, Rocinante suddenly stopped with a sudden and overly enthusiastic look in his eyes. Turning her head forward, Sassaflash could see a dark and clearly unnatural fog forming ahead of them with a deep, guttural roar. Her mouth dropped open as the dark cloud lurched forward, clearly fixated on the group of ponies ahead of them, but Rocinante, not even giving his opponent a second thought, grinned widely as he pulled his famed helmet of Marebrino lower upon his head, tilted his lance, and tore off after the very darkness that Twilight and her friends were running away from.
“Behold! Dear Sassa, Mister Curio! The very foe I seek! Halt! For I am I, Rocinante, the Pony of La Manecha! Stand before me villain and face the wrath of justice, virtue, and valor!”
As the knight-errant raced after his foe, Curio was left standing there, completely bewildered by the sight of this single earth pony charging after the very heart of darkness. Perhaps this so called “knight-errant” was indeed mad after all?
While Sassaflash may have been temporarily stunned by her cousin's sudden and decisive action, it failed to surprise her as much as it used to and soon she too was racing after the darkness and her cousin. She wasn't certain what they were going to do against this evil form, but she certainly knew she wasn't going to be left behind.
Just as it appeared that they wouldn't catch the racing evil or Twilight and her friends, the dark cloud halted, clearly mustering itself for action when suddenly a ray of magic whizzed through the cloud and into the sky behind it. Sassaflash recognized the purple ray as unicorn magic, probably from Twilight, but dark mist only dissipated and reformed below it, diving at its attacker and enveloping them.
Sassaflash was shocked by the sight. Had this evil really overtaken the champions of Princess Celestia? Was Twilight Sparkle truly defeated so easily? What chance did they have against such a seemingly untouchable evil? But Rocinante, in contrast with his cousin and squire, was emboldened by his chance at glory and the thrill of battle as he raced ever closer to his unsuspecting opponent.
“Hear me now, incarnation of evil's intent!
Though your motives are dark as can be!
Either halt now and humbly prepare to repent!
Or stand and prepare to face me!”
It was a brash and fearless verse that would have stunned anypony, but with the wind blowing fiercely around them, it was doubtful that anypony except Sassaflash had even heard it and she had long since grown accustomed to her cousin's more peculiar habits.
But Rocinante paid no heed to the fact that the darkness seemed to be ignoring them, for inside the cloud, at its very center, his eyes could barely make out the form of a pony, a unicorn surrounded by the swirling darkness. Though this pony was obscured by the shadows swirling around it, Rocinante could make out the ghostly form of a fluttering mantle around the pony's shoulders and dark crystals beginning to form on the tip of its horn. To the eager knight-errant, it was a simple and obvious deduction that this lone unicorn must be the incarnate heart of evil before him. With his target clear and and his battered lance set, Rocinante charged straight towards his visible opponent and placed everything he had into his strike.
Shining Armor poured every last ounce of his strength into the shield he had encased himself in, but King Sombra's magic was simply too powerful. As the dark cloud began to lift him from the ground, Shining Armor looked back in the direction of his little sister, who was now completely obscured by the enshrouding darkness. He didn't know what the evil unicorn king would do, but he knew he had to last as long as he could, he had to buy Twily as much time as he could, so that together she and his Cadance could stand together against this evil. His only regret was that he clearly wouldn't be able to stand with them.
As painful dark crystals began to sprout out of his horn, Shining Armor could feel his magic fading fast. A shadow of a pony slowly began to appear before him, wielding a dark, bent, and twisted lance. Clearly the true form of King Sombra was taking shape in front of him to strike the final blow.
Though his end was now charging towards him, Shining Armor gritted his teeth and put the last of his power into his magical shield. He may be unable to fight back, but he still wouldn't go down quite so easily.
The dark lance hit his shield with the full force, not of a unicorn, but of an earth pony. It appeared that Sombra was even more powerful than Shining Armor had given him credit for, but it seemed that the blow had even taken even the unicorn king by surprise as it struck Shining Armor with so much force that it catapulted him from the evil king's grasp.
As though desperate to hold onto its captive, the lance reached through the now broken shield and took hold of Shining Armor's cloak, but it quickly ripped off and Shining Armor found himself free of Sombra's grasp as he landed on the ground a short distance away from his enemy.
To Shining Armor's surprise, King Sombra seemed both distracted and infuriated by this sudden setback. Although he couldn't see where Sombra was directing his rage, he could see that his opportunity to escape had come. Without looking back, Shining Armor raced towards the magical shield that protected both the Empire and the ponies he loved.
Rocinante could feel the impact through his lance and immediately knew that both his aim and his blow had struck true, and the tattered black cape billowing on the end of his crooked lance proved to the knight-errant that his foe was all but bested. As the darkness turned and faced him with now visible, glowing, and clearly infuriated eyes, Rocinante laughed triumphantly as he stepped back and pawed at the snow eagerly with one hoof and flourished his lance with the other.
Time seemed to stop as the two figures attempted to stare each other down. To Sassaflash, who was only a short distance away, it felt eerily similar to the knight-errant's stand against Discord. A champion of light against a champion of dark in a joust, deciding the fate of a nation. Perhaps it was because of those memories that Sassaflash couldn't help but worry. The duel with Discord had ended both swiftly and decisively against them and yet, perhaps because of Rocinante's earlier speech, or his earlier success, or how Luna now had placed so much trust in them, Sassaflash found herself confident in her cousin's victory, even as he charged into the swirling cloud that lunged back at him.
But her confidence was short lived. Rocinante's form instantly disappeared into the swirling mist and was gone for only a moment when Sassaflash's heart sank. Something was wrong, something was very wrong, and without another thought, the young pegasus charged into the swirling darkness herself.
The moment she entered the fog the strong wind currents inside battered Sassaflash as though she had flown straight into a cyclone. As she tumbled through the darkness, she cried out for her cousin, but she could neither see nor hear anything. Was this the end? Had they charged foal-heartedly into their own demise?
Just as the skies around her were at their darkest, Sassaflash caught sight of a single, faint light shining in the distance. She had no idea what this light was or where it came from, but it felt strangely warm and comforting in the midst of the chaos swarming around her. Desperately flapping her wings, Sassaflash slowly forced her way towards the light.
The crystal pendant that Princess Luna had given them, caught by an updraft, was trying to fly away, but was thankfully held close by the tiny pendant that Rocinante had kept around his neck.
“Crystals...”
Sassaflash jolted in fear at the sudden and unfamiliar voice. Was that the enemy? Was the crystal pendant what he wanted? Sassaflash held her breath as the crystal's light began to grow brighter in response to the ominous words. What was this thing that the Princess had given them? She began to cry out for Rocinante as she grew closer and closer to the light, but as his form slowly became visible, Sassaflash was stunned by the sight of her cousin that was so peculiar that, even after all she had seen at his side, took her by surprise.
There, with his lance firmly planted into the snow below him, was Rocinante, his fiery eyes glowing almost as much as the crystal around his neck as they darted around, searching for his foe. With one hoof, he held on tightly to his impromptu anchor. With the other, he held on to his precious helmet of Marebrino. As the winds attempted to lift the stubborn knight-errant from his anchorage, his hind legs kicked wildly into the air, desperately seeking a target with as much fury as his eyes.
Yet despite how precarious his situation was, Sassaflash could hear him laughing as he called out to the obscured enemy around them.
“I am I, Rocinante! The Pony of La Manecha!
Your Empire's freedom shall stay!
Through this darkness you may slide,
But know you cannot hide,
From Justice that seeks you this day!”
Sassaflash shook her head in disbelief. How could her cousin possibly believe he had any fighting advantage now, when things were both figuratively and literally as dark as they could be? But that was when Sassaflash asked herself just how, exactly, she was seeing her cousin, who was clearly a decent distance away when she could barely see her own hooves? Then she noticed the crystal pendant around her cousin's neck growing brighter and brighter. It's light was both brilliant and warm, and somehow appeared to be growing even brighter as Rocinante laughed in the face of their situation.
The sight of her cousin, still optimistic in their situation, somehow began to spill over into Sassaflash as well. She couldn't explain why, but her heart felt lighter and lighter and her fear melted away, almost as though it were being illuminated by the crystal in front of her. And as her heart felt lighter and stronger, the light from the crystal appeared to glow even brighter and brighter, as though her heart was reciprocating back into the crystal the joy and the courage it had given her. As the two ponies watched the light shine so brilliantly that they could see each other as plain as a cloudless, sunny day, the darkness roared, but suddenly began to dissipate. Soon, Sassaflash was able to control her flight again and her cousin half landed and half crashed into the snow beneath him. Rising quickly, Rocinante let out a triumphal laugh as his crystal suddenly burst with a final brilliant flash.
When Sassaflash could see again, the dark fog was completely gone and Rocinante stood with his chest puffed out as he soaked in his victory.
“Wh-What was that?! What happened?!”
Rocinante smirked as he placed his hooves around his lance.
“Justice prevailed. Though the fight was indeed both long and difficult, the forces of hope and valor ultimately overcame the forces of fear and hatred.”
Rocinante tugged on the lance, but it remained firmly placed as Curio ran up to them with wide eyes.
“Where?! Where did you get that!?”
Sassaflash looked back and forth between her cousin, who was still tugging on his lance, and the trembling earth pony. While Rocinante's reasoning about their victory may or may not have been correct, she hoped that Curio's reaction indicated that he knew a bit more than either of them about how “justice” prevailed.
Rocinante stopped pulling on his lance as he wiped his brow and looked back towards Curio.
“This lance of mine? It was acquired from-”
“No! No! That crystal! Where did you get that?!
Rocinante stopped, clearly irritated at the interruption, but he swiftly recovered as he placed his hoof to his chest.
“This dear crystal was a gift from Her Most-”
Rocinante's words were cut short as his hoof searched for the crystal, but found only the broken and burnt bail that used to hold it in place.
“What is this?”
Curio sighed as he half-fell onto his haunches. The thought of how much that crystal would have sold for in his shop dragged on his heart as he shook his head.
“That WAS a crystal from the Crystal Empire, no doubt one from its pre-Sombra treasury. It had several valuable properties that make it worth a great deal to the most wealthy of unicorns. There are only a hoof-full of those remaining today.”
Sassaflash felt as though they had just broken an invaluable museum artifact and, according to Curio, they had.
“What happened? What did it do?”
Curio shrugged his shoulders.
“I only know a few things about them, but they can mirror a pony's heart. When they are filled with hope and love, they radiate that outwards in the form of a bright magical light. But if hatred and fear take hold of the pony's heart, then they emit the same black magic that King Sombra used to take over the Empire in the first place.”
“So why did it burst?”
Curio shrugged again as he stood up.
“Again, I only know a few things. That was a lot of darkness, and that is... or rather was, only a tiny crystal. Perhaps it was too much for it? Either way...”
A cold wind suddenly blew in between the three of them, reminding them of how open the snowfields were.
“Either way, we should get going. We will want to be in the Empire before it gets dark.”