//------------------------------//
// 2: Crystal Empire 
// Story: Rarified Airs 
// by SpinelStride 
//------------------------------//

	The caravan was… nice. In the ‘interminably slow’ sort of way. The caravan could only roll along as fast as the stallions could pull the carriages. Most of the nobleponies in the carriages could have walked faster, but it was one of those dumb diplomatic things that meant they all had to be fancy. And a couple of the older ponies really did need help. At least the road was well-maintained; with Princess Cadence marrying Princess Twilight’s brother, the Queen’s City and the Crystal Empire had some of the best inter-regional relations in Unicornia. Rainbow Dash wished there was something faster, but only really powerful unicorns like Princess Twilight could teleport, and there was no way she could get herself all the way to the Empire, let alone an entire caravan.
Dash couldn’t even fly overhead; too dangerous. Some out-of-sight unicorn might spot her and try to zap her. And if she flew high enough to be safe from that, then she’d be out of contact with the rest of the caravan. So she had to do her least favorite thing in the world: sit and wait. Just because she had a lot of practice at it didn’t mean she’d ever learned to like it any better.
At least they had brought along a bunch of royal cooks and stuff. She could spend her time nibbling. They made the best cookies and cakes and other pastries, and they’d brought along plenty of already-made nommables to last them way longer than they’d actually be on the road. Even with Dash’s prodigious appetite for sugary treats, she wasn’t going to run out any time soon.
The ambassador, Due Respect, was sharing the carriage with her. He was a naturally stuffy stallion, but nice anyway, as long as he thought Rainbow Dash was being dignified enough for his tastes. And she still remembered one time when she’d been a little filly and some jerk at court had reduced her to tears with ‘bird’ taunts, and Due Respect had stepped in and given the bully the sharpest tongue-lashing Dash had ever heard, then given Dash a surprisingly warm hug and escorted her to her mother himself. So… even if he scolded her sometimes for being wild, she counted him a friend. He got underestimated a lot, with that weird eye of his and a plain gray coat.
“The Crystal Empire is going to be our easiest stop,” he told Dash, looking up from his packet of notes. “It doesn’t adjoin to any other regions of Unicornia, so we’ll have to pass back through Princess Twilight’s territory to continue, but it does border on griffon lands. Accordingly, even had Princess Cadence not been romantically involved with Shining Armor, the Crystal Empire would have had excellent cause to wish to remain on good terms with the Queen’s City.”
“Yeah, and the griffons are all riled up right now ‘cause they just got a new leader of their own,” Dash supplied, to prove she’d done her reading too.
Due Respect cocked an eyebrow at her. “So they are, indeed, fractious. You have read the materials? It had been my impression you considered this trip objectionable.”
“What? No, getting to go outside the Queen’s City is pretty cool,” Dash said, tilting her head. “Why’d you think I had a problem with it?”
“You’ve done little but sulk, eat cookies, and stare out the window since we left,” he said. “Between bouts of fidgeting, at least.”
“I didn’t think I was sulking?” asked Rainbow Dash, though it wasn’t much of a question. “It’s just so slow, and I can’t get out and fly around. I get antsy when I have to sit for a long time. Princess Twilight says it’s probably a pegasus thing.”
‘I suppose you will have an opportunity to clean up after we arrive tomorrow,” Due Respect said slowly. “It would be ill-advised to take to the air, but if you would prefer to exercise your legs and expend some of your excess energy that way, you could walk rather than ride. You will need at some point to review your instructions, and it would be difficult for you to do so while walking, lacking any magical ability to hold the documents for you.”
“I read ‘em before we left,” Dash said with a shrug. “Or sort of. I don’t learn well when I sit. I’ve gotta be flying. So Princess Twilight told me what I need to do while I was doing laps.”
“Interesting,” Due Respect commented. “I shall keep that in mind, then. So your objective in the Crystal Empire?”
Dash rubbed the back of her head. “Mostly, meet my dad.”

***
It took three days for the caravan to roll into the Crystal Empire. Dash could have made the trip on her own in an afternoon. It rained on the second day, but at least that meant Dash could go fly above the clouds in safety - and get the pulling stallions on her side by clearing the clouds away over them so they weren’t getting soaked all day. Trotting along atop the clouds in perfect sunshine while ponies below were seeing nothing but rain was one of her favorite secret special moments.
On the third day, they were getting up into the high elevations around the Crystal Empire, and the rain turned to snow. Due Respect observed the swirling winds and told Dash to stay inside the carriage. She argued halfheartedly that she could clear the sky overhead again, but she could see how the wind was making the snow that had already fallen swirl all over anyhow. The stallions doing the pulling were working hard enough to get by with just a scarf and snow goggles, but all the other ponies bundled up inside the carriages. Except Dash. She never felt much effect from the cold. No matter how high up she went, she never felt a chill.
That all changed the moment they set hoof inside the Crystal Empire. One moment, bitter arctic cold; a step away, a warm, sunny day. Rainbow Dash could feel the storm raging all around, but the Empire’s Crystal Heart kept the snow at bay. A small stage was waiting for them, and a pair of unicorns sat on thrones at the center of that stage. A sudden surge of nerves made Dash’s feathers ruffle, and she swallowed. That pony, right there, the white-coated stallion… that was him. Shining Armor. Her dad. Technically. She’d seen his portrait, sure, but he couldn’t leave the Crystal Empire.
What if he didn’t like her? What if he thought she was a freak? What if he was one of those snooty unicorns and said she was a mistake? What if he was just a jerk? Princess Twilight grew up with him, sure, but he hadn’t been a prince, then. Maybe he’d think she should be… have her experiment ended. She fought to keep her hooves on the floor, not start chewing at them, to not curl up and whimper. She hadn’t felt so… unsure of herself in a very long time. She wanted to bolt back into the storm, find a cloud, and hide. She hadn’t felt this self-conscious since she was a little filly who kept having to walk out in front of all those big, hostile nobles at court.
A hoof patted her on the back. Due Respect’s voice was very soft in her ear. “He has read Princess Twilight’s reports and he is very proud of you,” he whispered to her. “You’re going to do fine.”
Dash closed her eyes for a moment and leaned into him. Her muscles relaxed and her feathers laid themselves flat to her sides. She’d put on the flight suit that Mom had made for her, with the fancy skirt that made it more official-looking, and that left her wings displayed. Normally something she was proud of, but it meant her wings would give away her nerves. But… Due Respect was an ambassador. He’d met Shining Armor a bunch of times. If he said Shining Armor was proud of her, he’d be proud of her. She could do this.
“You’ll follow behind me,” he said into her ear quietly. “You can say whatever you think best. Just wait for me to present you.”
“Okay,” she said back in a matching voice. Reassured or not, she swallowed anyway.
The door opened, and Due Respect lifted his hoof from Rainbow Dash’s back, then began to march regally down the waiting red carpet to stand before the stage. She waited for him to get a few paces in, then got out. She had to step down from the carriage, so naturally she flew a few paces to smoothly land instead of having to reach down for the ground. She heard gasps from the ponies watching all around. She always liked that bit. But she kept her head forward, watching Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor.
They were smiling. That was good. Due Respect was walking in front of her, and she made sure to match her pace to his, so she wouldn’t run up into him or fall behind. He didn’t look nervous at all; his tail was held down in a modest position, he was moving with a practiced, smooth step, and his head was high. She did her best to mimic him, stopping when he did and waiting while he presented the caravan.
“On behalf of Her Majesty Princess Twilight Sparkle, Sovereign of the Queen’s City, Duchess of the Canterlot Range, Lady of the Heartland of Unicornia, I, Ambassador Due Respect, do greet you, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Prince Shining Armor, Sovereigns of the Crystal Empire, in friendship and peace.”
Princess Cadence nodded her head regally back. “We greet you, Ambassador Due Respect, and welcome you to the Crystal Empire. The Empire has long been proud of our strong friendship with the Heartland of Unicornia and the Queen’s City.” A smile crossed her face. “And my beloved sister-in-law. And is this my niece I see behind you?”
Due Respect didn’t give any hint of surprise, so Dash supposed that they’d already decided what they’d call the relationship between her and Princess Cadence. ‘Step-daughter’ would’ve been another option, but then that would mean technically Rainbow Dash would be considered in line for the throne, and that wouldn’t have gone over well. So ‘niece’ made for a good way to acknowledge her without putting her into the succession.
“Indeed, Your Highness, it is. I present to you Rainbow Dash, first pegasus citizen of Unicornia.”
And that was all it took. Dash took a deep breath and stepped forward. She’d tried writing a speech or something she could make, but it always came out sounding completely lame. So she’d decided she was just going to wing it. Now she really wished she’d made something ahead of time after all. Well, too late.
She raised her head and spread her wings wide. The ponies to the sides gasped again. She set them back down and bowed her head. “I’m glad to meet you,” was what she came up with. The crowd was quiet.
There was silence from up on the stage, and then Princess Cadence said, “Not as glad as we are to meet you, my niece. Please, come up to join us.”
Dash felt her wings trying to spread, to fly her away as fast as she could, to get back to the safety of the palace. Why had they paused? Why didn’t Shining Armor say anything? The crowd stayed hushed, watching. She kept her wings pinned hard to her sides, walking slowly up the stairs onto the stage instead of flying up. What was wrong? Did she mess up? Had Shining Armor changed his mind?
At least Princess Cadence was still smiling at her. Shining Armor… Dash couldn’t read his expression at all. He looked frozen as the ice outside the Heart’s effect. Dash’s hooves felt just as cold as she approached them. What did she do wrong? What..
A mass of white-coated muscle engulfed her, and two strong forelegs wrapped around her. A blue mane was in her face, and she felt wetness on her neck. Tears?
“You’re beautiful,” a deep male voice rasped in her ear. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there for you…”
Rainbow Dash felt tears running down her cheeks too as she wrapped her forelegs around him in return, and saw Princess Cadence stepping in to join the hug.
“You’re here now,” she said, and that was the last thing that needed saying.


***

The rest of the official greeting was anticlimactic; Cadence and Shining Armor insisted that Rainbow Dash share the stage with them while the rest of the caravan presented their credentials. Mostly Cadence listened; Shining Armor was too busy holding Dash against his side. She kept a wing across his back in return, leaning into him, while somepony talked about tariffs and things until the ceremony was over.
Cadence and Shining Armor escorted Rainbow Dash to their personal chariot, with a quartet of crystal ponies waiting in their gleaming armor to pull them back to their palace. Both royals insisted that since Rainbow Dash was family, she didn’t have to say ‘Prince’ or ‘Princess’ - even if politics said she couldn’t call Shining Armor ‘Dad’ in public, that degree of familiarity would make the point clearly. Dash had never felt so… well, so awesome.
They gave her a personal showing of the Crystal Heart and explained how the happiness of the Crystal Ponies empowered the magical stone, keeping the frequent northern storms safely at bay and letting the Empire do the mining work it was so famous for, extracting valuable gems and magically-potent crystals for the rest of Unicornia, along with a variety of specialized crops that didn’t grow anywhere else. Their lenses and glassworks were unmatched anywhere else as well.
Dash, in turn, gave them the greatest flight display she’d ever put on - with the help of Princess Cadence single-hornedly projecting an announcement into the sky over the Empire inviting all of her subjects to watch. Having the entire population concentrated in that single city, with no outlying stragglers, made messages like that much more effective, and Princess Cadence’s skill with large-scale images was known across Unicornia. Her line stretched back to Mad Prince Sombra, and ever since his infamous conquest of the Changelings, his line had been marked with green eyes and a talent for illusion.
So Dash showed them just what she could do. Her rainbow trail blazed behind her all afternoon, and she dove between clouds, spinning them, starting and ending rainbursts (avoiding soaking her audience, of course), and showing off the lightning bolts that had won her her cutie mark. She’d never put on a show that long before, and she was bone-tired at dinner and all evening, but she found it a worthy trade. Taking Princess Cadence’s cue, the Crystal Ponies were cheering her on - and Dash was falling in love with the Empire at the same time.
An entire region of Unicornia that likes me and accepts me? Maybe the only reason they’re such jerks in the Queen’s City is they think I’m getting in their way, she thought happily as she fought to keep her head off the table at dinner. She barely noticed what she was eating; tired as she was, her body demanded fuel, and everything was delicious. Her wings were sore, and she’d brought a cloud down to the luxurious bedroom Cadence had set aside for her. She was so ready to sprawl herself down on that unmatchable softness and sleep like a spell-stunned hydra.
The moon rose through one of the tall crystal windows in the palace dining room, held in the combined glow of dozens of unicorns all laboring together, all knowing that they risked their very horns each night to overstrain. Dash watched that clear, bright surface shine, a silver glow contrasting with the yellow flames of the table’s candles. She was seated next to Shining Armor, and every so often his hoof would reach over to brush along her wing, as though to reassure himself that she really was there. It felt nice. Not like Mom preening her wings, but just… being there. It was so wonderfully cozy she felt like purring like Mom’s cat. She felt… close, like the air was wrapping around her more closely than it had all day, and beyond the window the light glinted from falling flakes of snow.
“It looks so pretty out there,” she drowsily commented to Shining Armor, pointing a hoof at the window. He turned to see, but he didn’t have the snug, comfortable response she expected. His eyes widened and he jumped to his hooves.
“Cadie!” Shining Armor gasped out. “SNOW!”
His wife turned. “What?” She followed Dash’s pointing hoof, and her shock matched Shining Armor’s. “The Heart!” she cried out. “Guards! To the Heart!” And she didn’t wait for her orders to be obeyed, galloping out of the dining room herself.
Rainbow Dash’s tired mind wasn’t putting two and two together, but seeing ponies running sparked something in her that said she should run with them. So she did, and even as sore as her wings were, she rapidly caught up to Princess Cadence.
“What’s wrong? It’s just some snow,” she asked, keeping pace smoothly at Cadence’s side.
“Snow inside the Empire shouldn’t be possible!” Cadence gasped, her breath coming much less easily than Dash’s. “The Heart keeps the snow away! Dash! You’re faster! Go ahead! Go!” Rainbow Dash didn’t need to be told twice to go faster. The Heart was in a nice prominent location, so it was easy to remember where to go.
Even if it hadn’t been, it would have stood out a lot right at the moment. It was the place with a half-dozen dead guards sprawled in front of it. The holes of horn-stabs in the backs of their necks suggested that they’d never even seen their murderers’ approach. Their enchanted armor would have protected them against spells, but a purely physical attack through a gap was unblocked. The moonlight made their pooled blood shine like black crystals on the ground. Dash didn’t have to even go inside to see that the Crystal Heart was missing.

***

It took Shining Armor and Cadence a few minutes to catch up. Dash spent the intervening time doing the only thing she could think of that might do some good - look for hoofprints. With so much blood splashed around, it seemed impossible that the unicorns who killed the guards could have walked away without leaving tracks, but the clouds were rolling in, the snow was already increasing in intensity, and the moon’s light was hardly enough to make out fine details. Rainbow Dash had better eyesight than any unicorn could boast, but she wasn’t suited for the night.
Shining Armor came out of the oncoming street first, a pace ahead of his wife. His face went grim the instant he saw the blood, and he tried to stop, to make Cadence turn before she could see it as well, but he was too late. Even in the dim light, her eyes watered and her face paled.
“Solid Stalwart… Rocky… Subtle Spell… Big Apatite… Jack of Diamonds, you silly pony, you weren’t even supposed to share a watch with your brother… Bright Flash, it was his first time guarding the Heart…” she whispered. It did not surprise Dash at all that she knew each of them by name. She had little doubt that the princess could have named every unicorn in her guard.
Shining Armor put a hoof across her back, holding her against him, but she wouldn’t turn her eyes away from the carnage before her. That the Heart was missing was producing no reaction from her at all, compared to the loss of those she cared for. But the tears never fell from her eyes. A Princess of Unicornia could never show quite so much weakness.
The guards who came with them were less sentimental. One of them, a red-maned mare, snapped out to Dash, “Which way did they go?”
The pegasus could only shake her head. “I don’t see any tracks. They must have teleported or something.”
The guard, evidently the ranking officer while Shining Armor consoled his wife, shook her head grimly and glared at the bodies, as though their failure to guard the Heart was a far greater sin than mere death could expiate. “There aren’t a dozen unicorns in the Empire who can teleport at all, and they’re all academics. The lot of them put together couldn’t take down six guards without giving them time to shield.” She looked up to the sky, watching the snow fall down as though it was an accomplice.
“Princess!” came a cry from another street, and a brown-coated, white-maned unicorn came charging in. Not a guard; this mare was wearing a bathrobe - that nonetheless had leather patches on the sleeves. And Rainbow Dash had thought Twilight’s collection of professors were monomaniacal about advertising their status. “Princess! It’s snowing! The Heart! Something’s wrong with the Heart!”
Cadence lifted her head, all signs of woe vanished in a twinkling; her eyes cleared and her voice was steady. “The Heart has been stolen,” she admitted. “Detailed Study, you must gather the mages. Every mage you have. We need to find out who did this, and we need to ward the skies. If the snow is allowed in, the Empire will be reclaimed by the Northern Wastes in days, and the perpetrators must be caught.”
The professor gaped at her. “Princess… we don’t have any weather mages. We’ve had the Heart. We’ve always had the Heart. I don’t know if all of us together can brute-force a spell to hold back the storms, let alone spare the hornpower for a no-clues Empire-wide scan at the same time. We’ll have to break to raise the sun, too.”
Rainbow Dash was still circling, taking wider loops, hoping to spot something further away, but still in the open area around the Heart’s display. Her wings were aching again now that the surge of excitement was wearing off, after that aerial display all afternoon. Still, she could hear through a hurricane. Hearing a loudly-protesting academic was impossible not to do.
Nor could she miss the steel in Cadence’s command. “Find a way. We cannot let the Empire be lost, and we cannot let the Heart be lost.”
Nor the fear and despair in the response. “We can’t. There isn’t a unicorn in the Empire with a talent for weather manipulation, and it would be days to bring them in from the Heartland.”
“No unicorns,” Rainbow Dash called out before thinking about it. Her wings were already killing her, but she brought their attention on herself anyhow.
The professor blinked and then made the unaccustomed motion of looking up to see who was talking to her. Her mouth gaped. Dash assumed she hadn’t been looking out a window. Like, all day long.
“You can do that?” asked Cadence, and her voice betrayed surprise - and a hint of wonder. “You can hold back the snow, by yourself?”
“Princess, no!” yelped Detailed Study. “Let the guards do the search. My colleagues and I will do the weather spells! We’ll make it work! We can’t trust the Empire’s safety to some mrmmph!” A blue glow wrapped around her mouth.
“Think very, very carefully before you choose your next word,” said Shining Armor in a very soft voice. His horn was burning bright enough in the night to send shadows scattering around the courtyard. “Perhaps you don’t know who her father is.”
“... Novice?” improvised the professor weakly. “I read Princess Twilight’s publications, Your Highness. She has not set Rainbow Dash to regular weather work. She’s too valuable to risk a fall from such a height.”
Dash felt like the other colors in her mane were going to shift to join the red. A fall? Her?!? “Sorry, can’t hear you, too busy saving the day,” she snapped out, and launched herself into the air. Even in the dim light, her rainbow trail blazed brightly.
No magical auras reached up to snag at her as she flew. The rest of the Empire was indoors or asleep; most Unicornians rose and slept with the sun. It was only the wealthy and the highest-ranking who would spend the bits on candles to prolong the evening. The snow felt… close, and stuffy, to her, pressing in, as though eager to fill the spot that the Heart had so long carved out of the Northern Wastes. Barometric stabilization, ran through her head, and Dash dutifully filed that away to write down and send to Princess Twilight later. She could feel the pressure moving in with just her natural senses. Another data point for her to squeal over; pegasi really were weatherponies by nature.
She really, really wanted to land on top of the Heart’s chamber and rest, but there was way too much to do. The clouds were moving in fast, and even if Detailed Study had gone running back to the Imperial College at top speed, they were going to be trouble before the mare could rally the scholars to cast together. Once again, Rainbow Dash was alone.
And she was going to kick some soft puffy vaporous flank.
Shining rainbow trails criss-crossed the sky over the Empire as she blasted her way through the clouds, like a thick spiderweb shining impossibly brightly in the moonlight. Her leading hooves struck the soft, yielding surface of the clouds, and by her will alone - or, as a Twilight-trained part of her mind prompted, by a unique application of her innate magic - she demanded the vapors burst. She accelerated. The faster she went, the easier it was. Just like Princess Twilight told her. Her heart raced and her eyes ached, the wind whipping salty drops from the corners of her eyes as her tear ducts tried to keep up with the loss of moisture. She really, really wished she had a pair of goggles. Those big laboratory goggles would be perfect.
Nothing tried to grab at her, so she assumed that Cadence wasn’t going to try to make her come back. For hours she raced the storm, darting back and forth across the Empire to destroy any dark fluffy harbingers of doom that trespassed on that bubble of warmth and life in the midst of the deadly ice. Her wings screamed at her and she ignored their protests; for all the pain, exhilaration and pride kept her going. This was it, this was what she was made for, she was flying harder than she’d ever flown in her life and she was saving the entire freaking Crystal Empire by herself!
She hoped they were going to be able to track down the murderers who killed the guards. And stole the Heart, that too. Her hooves lashed out at another cloud. Then another. Her legs were getting tired; her wings had transcended exhaustion and felt like they had passed beyond her control entirely, responding to her thoughts without providing the slightest bit of feedback to her brain.
Her mind fogged. Cloud. Cloud. Cloud. Cloud. Spotting the next intruder and mercilessly obliterating it became reflex, not conscious action. Something changed, but she didn’t process what it was, just kept chasing the clouds. Cloud. Cloud. Cloud. Cloud.
Something was very bright and it kept flashing in front of her eyes when she turned. The sky had changed colors, too. Bluer, easier to see the clouds. Something pink showed up next to her, making noises. It had the wavery look of an illusion. That should mean something. She didn’t have the spare energy to wonder what that something was.
Finally, her eyes closed and her wings locked out to the sides. In a long, slow, lazy spiral, the unconscious pegasus circled back down to a four-hoof landing in the courtyard, her sleeping body operating entirely on ancient reflexes. Then, safely on the ground, she fell forward onto her face.

***

She was hot. Way too hot. Way, way too hot. And the bed was ridiculously hard. She never slept away from her clouds. Why would she? They were the best beds ever. Cool and soft, just right. But now someone had stuck her in a hard unicorn bed and piled blankets over her like an invalid, and she was roasting. She threw them off, and then her eyes snapped open as the movement made her body snarl at her.
Oh, by Platinum’s line were her wings not happy with her. She had never felt them this sore before. What had she…
Oh. Oh. Oh. Right. She shook her head sharply and rolled out of bed, looking around. A rich-looking room with a big now-mussed bed and...
… and Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor apparently had not thought to hide their very naughty paintings on the far wall when they brought Rainbow Dash in to recuperate in their bedroom. Dash’s face went red. Then it went purple as she realized that the stallion in that painting was her dad. Doing…
On the plus side, she found out that hastily flying out of a bedroom was a great way to stretch sore wings and work out the kinks in a hurr…
To work out the sore muscles in a hurry.
A pair of guards were stationed outside the bedroom. Only one of them had reflexes quick enough to jump out of the way of the door swinging open. The other got a sore nose and horn when the door hit and then a sore skull when the back of her head hit the wall. Dash didn’t have time to feel sorry for her.
“Did they find the Heart?” She didn’t need to ask if the snow was falling. She could feel it at a distance, not close by. Not much of it, either. The academics must be holding off what was left after Dash’s overnight efforts.
“No, not yet,” the still-standing guard said. “Are you able to fly?”
“I just did,” pointed out Dash. “Open a window and let me get back up there!”
“Princess Cadence gave orders to have you brought to her so Her Highness can personally update you,” the armored pony said, holding up a hoof. “At the very least she needs to tell the College to stop casting first.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” asked Dash. “Which way to Princess Cadence?”

***
        
Cadence and Shining Armor were in conference with their top-ranking guards, coordinating the search efforts while the professors handled the weather. The air was getting colder, but the northern storms were in a lull. The relatively few clouds that made their way into Imperial airspace were slow enough for the university’s academics to clumsily shove them back out. The guards at the door sent Dash right in.
Shining Armor was moving little models of unicorns around the city, directing the patrols, but Cadence looked up. She looked tired; Dash doubted she had slept a wink. Her voice was loud and clear, though, as she called out, “Our hero arrives! Rainbow Dash, how do you feel?”
Dash trotted over and was pulled (first magically, then physically) against Cadence’s chest in a tight hug. She was a really good hugger. Also a really strong hugger. She got her horn into it. But not too hard; just enough to feel firm and close. Dash felt vaguely guilty for admitting it to herself, but she couldn’t deny that Cadence gave the best hugs she’d ever felt. When Shining Armor joined in, it was maybe the homiest moment Dash had ever had. The one out by the boundary of the Empire had been in front of a whole crowd, so she hadn’t broken out her full powers, Dash thought.
All good things must come to an end, and all three of them knew they had other duties, so the hug broke all at once, and they turned back to the model of the Empire. The guards had kept positioning their figures all around, politely not looking at the family moment.
Family moment? Dash thought to herself, then mentally shrugged. Yeah. It was.
“I’m ready to go back up,” Dash finally said. “There’s not a lot of clouds on the way, though. I don’t think I can do much about the cold air coming in.”
“There aren’t many on the way?” asked Shining Armor. “Did you go up and look?”
Dash gave him a proud grin. “Don’t need to. I can feel it. Pegasus thing. It’s gonna be light cloud cover for a few days. Nothing but maybe some flurries here and there.”
“That helps,” one of the guard captains said. “If we can get more of the eggheads working on searching spells, they might actually find something.”
“So, uh, no luck so far?” Dash asked, looking at the city model. It looked like the guards were just sort of scattered all around, but she figured there was probably some logic to it. Or else they really had just decided to go random. Princess Twilight told her a bunch of times about randomness being useful for some things.
“We haven’t found a trace of the Heart,” Cadence said with a shake of her head. “It’s a powerful magical artifact, so it should be standing out like a zebra in the Queen’s City. But there’s nothing. Even if it was a long way off, we ought to be able to get something from it. So someone has to be shielding it, but we should be able to detect some sign of that.”
“We’re looking for links to the blood that the perpetrators got on their horns, too,” Shining Armor added, looking over the model again. “Blood is one of the most potent magical traces there is. Any unicorn with blood on their horn ought to be the easiest thing in the world to find. But… not a thing. We couldn’t find so much as a red hoofprint.” He held up a leg. “I had to scour my hooves to a gleam to get the tracking spells to stop finding me. I don’t know how somepony could have horn-jabbed all those guards without walking through it all. Everypony who came on that scene got it on their hooves.”
“Not everypony,” Dash said, and waggled a hoof back. “I never landed. But I don’t have a horn.”
Shining Armor groaned and dropped his face to the table. “Flying. The attackers flew.”
“What? No! I just said I don’t have a horn!” Dash protested.
Cadence gave her a reassuring hug. “Not you, Rainbow Dash. You’re not the only one who flies. We have neighbors who can do that too.”
“The griffons?” Dash asked. “But that would start a war! They’ve gotta know they’d get their beaks kicked in.”
“Maybe not, if they got away with it. They’ve got a new leader. He’ll be looking for something that will solidify their clans behind him and make a place for him in the history books,” Shining Armor said, moving more and more of the pieces on the table toward one particular building. “If the Empire got buried in snow last night, we’d have been busy for days trying to recover. If the Heart stays gone for long, the Empire will freeze anyway. The griffons would have the Heart, the Empire would be ruined, and I don’t know if anyplace in Unicornia other than the Heartland would come to our aid at that point. Twiley would stand with us. Tiara, Zecora, and Blueblood? Who knows?”
“I didn’t think they would take a risk like that, but it makes sense,” Cadence reluctantly conceded. “Their embassy has warding runes built into the stones. The Heart could stay hidden inside there.”
“Along with spears,” Shining Armor added. “They wanted to throw us off the track and make us think it was our own.” He moved another quartet of units across the model, surrounding that one building. The griffon embassy.
“If it’s not them, we could start a war ourselves by accusing them,” said Cadence, taking a deep breath. “It could still be somepony else. Maybe Filthy Rich sent his agents in to try to trick us into starting a war, so that he could claim it was my own fault, and then take the Empire for himself later.”
“The Donager is only named Filthy, Cadie,” Shining Armor said. “He’s ruthless, yes, but he’s not a bad unicorn. He wouldn’t betray all of Unicornia like this.”
One of the guard figures on the table, one of the ones near the griffon embassy, flashed, and then a scroll appeared in midair. Shining Armor’s horn glowed, catching and unrolling it. He snorted. “Corporal Blackhoof reports heightened activity inside the embassy. They’re doing something, and doing it fast.”
Another figure flashed. One of the other guards caught the paper this time. “Sire! They’re moving out!”
Dash blinked. “Wait, those are linked to real guards? Not just planning?”
Shining Armor waved an impatient hoof at her. “Yes, one to each actual guard. We move, they get orders. Half the guard is converging on the embassy right now. Give me a second, let me think!”
“Do it,” said Cadence, and put her hoof down hard on the table. “If it means war, then so be it. Do not let them leave.”
Another figure flashed. Another scroll; the other guard caught this one too. “They’re in the air!” she cried out. “Magic-disrupting armor. They’re too hard to grab, and at that range they’re shedding bolts!”
“Take them down,” said Cadence flatly. “Do not let them get out of the Empire under any circumstances.”
The window cracked as Dash blasted through it.

***

This is so dumb this is so dumb this is so dumb, ran through Rainbow Dash’s head like a mantra as she flew, gathering speed. There’s a ton of trained griffon soldiers and they KNOW how to fight each other air-to-air. Princess Twilight is gonna be so, so, so, so mad I got myself killed.
The embassy was toward the edge of the Empire, about two-thirds of the way between the palace and the border. She could see magical bolts shooting up into the air already, and her sharp pegasine eyes could make out shapes ducking and jinking in the air.
Okay, they’ve got armor, but they’re afraid of getting hit too much anyway. They’ve got to dodge, but they’re climbing. Think, Rainbow, think! How would the old-timey pegasi have fought? How would they have done it? She kept accelerating as neared the griffons. Something felt warm for a moment against her side, but it passed after a moment. Then another. She looked down just in time to see a third magical bolt coming at her. She didn’t have time to dodge.
It didn’t matter. The bolt seemed to fizzle as it got near her, where she could feel the air wrapped around her, letting her push forward faster than wings alone could possibly manage. She felt a bit of warmth from that one too.
So much for keeping that a secret. Maybe they think they missed. Now think! They’re gonna gang-rush, and…
A thought made her stomach churn. If she could fly through two feet of solid wood, she could probably fly through armor and bones and flesh, too. She could probably chop all of those griffons to bits just by flying at them. Just thinking about that made her feel like she’d never be able to preen enough to make her wings feel clean again. No.
The academics were still trying to keep the skies clear. A cloud, surrounded by a half-dozen mingled magical auras, was wobbling along nearby. Dash’s eyes lit up.
That’s it! If there are just enough clouds left to make this work…
She put on another burst of speed. Then she held onto it and pushed for another. She veered away, toward the nearest cloud she could find. Rather than dispersing this one when she hit it, she pushed it in front of her. Her rainbow trail blazed behind her as she looped around the Empire, hoping the ground attack would keep the griffons slowed down enough they wouldn’t get out before she finished her lap.
She ended up with seventeen clouds - or, rather, one medium-big cloud that had previously been seventeen smaller clouds. She let go, then used one extra wing-flap to jet herself forward, atop the cloud, still racing across the sky.
The griffons were getting higher too, away from the weaker casters and heading toward the range at which only the long-range artillery casters would be able to hit them. But they weren’t as high up as Rainbow Dash.
She waited, the cloud rapidly decelerating now that she wasn’t pushing it any more. A little more… a little more…
She jumped away from the cloud and raced up as fast as her wings would take her. Something told her that anything less than everything she had was going to leave at least one griffon in a very bad mood and ready to fight back. She had to get them all, right now.
She got up as high as she dared take the time for and braked, hard… then turned about and began beating her wings, propelling herself back down as hard as she possibly could. Her left foreleg reached out in front of her, guiding the air to ease her path; the other foreleg stayed against her barrel.
A hundred feet. Fifty feet. Twenty feet. Ten. She pulled her left foreleg back, and the air ‘broke’ around her. The wind buffeted her harder than she’d ever felt. She began to swing with the right foreleg. Five feet. She could feel the cloud waiting for her. It was like it was waiting for her, eager for her to tell it what to do.
Her hoof connected. The cloud erupted. It wanted to dissipate, to turn into harmless puffs of air, but she held it, made it take all of that power she could feel inside and concentrate it in a split second.
The flash blinded her, but she couldn’t stop now. She ripped a neat hole straight through the cloud, following the lightning bolt’s path. The griffons below looked like puffballs, feathers and fur alike crackling and charred in the wake of the lightning. The thunder hit her like a physical blow, making her wings hurt, slamming her chest like a kick from a guard, but she kept flying down. It was the loudest thing she’d ever heard, but it didn’t hurt her ears. Unicorns on the ground dropped, hooves going to their heads, the sheer volume dazing them.
She couldn’t see, but she knew exactly where the Crystal Heart was when it tumbled free of its bearer. Her wings beat the air like a hummingbird as she blasted after it blindly. The feeling of sheer magic coming off of the thing was palpable, even to a pony without a horn. She brushed past something and grabbed the Heart. It felt warm and happy just to hold that magical artifact against her chest, and she braked in midair again. Something bounced off of her flank and left her feeling wet right there.
Nothing else hit her. It belatedly occurred to her that a whole lot of unicorn guards were just a minute ago shooting up at everything they saw in the sky, unicorns couldn’t see as well as she could, and they had to know she was holding the Heart. An urge to get as high as she possibly could hit her… but then a feeling of calmness soothed her. They wouldn’t shoot at her when she was holding the Heart, would they? The ones who hadn’t been blinded by the flash or incapacitated by the thunder. And they all saw her flying around… was it just yesterday? Yeah. It was. So they knew who she was.
She was still really, really glad when her eyes cleared and she could see, anyway. It looked like the entire Imperial Guard was down there. She’d never been so happy to get out of the air before. They were all staring at her. At the Heart.
When her rear hooves touched down, the Empire exploded in celebration.

***

The next couple of hours passed in a blur, even for a pony as fast as Rainbow Dash. The griffon ambassador came to the palace on his own, swearing up and down that the murderers were wanted outlaws within the griffon kingdoms, and clearly acting entirely on their own. He got that much out in the first thirty seconds. That was all he got before Cadence informed him that he and his staff were now persona non grata and had fifteen minutes to get out of the Empire. Then she and Shining Armor were busy with the guards, with calming the city, and with arranging a victory celebration, and all the other details that went with ruling the Crystal Empire.
Rainbow Dash spent the first part of that time breathing in and out of a series of large paper bags. Her impressive lung capacity kept bursting them. She’d been doing just fine until she saw that one of the griffons hadn’t survived. He’d probably made it through the lightning bolt just fine, but there was a huge slice halfway through his torso, and crossing one leg. His falling claw had bounced off of Rainbow Dash’s flank.
When I killed him ran its course as the only thing she could think, she threw up. One of the guardsmares helped her along; Rainbow Dash wasn’t paying attention to where she was going. She knew just when it had happened, and she hadn’t paid any attention to it. She’d barely felt it. She killed a griffon and hadn’t even noticed. The griffons were going to demand Princess Twilight hand her over. She’d do it, to avert a war. And they’d… they’d…
She threw up again. By the time her frantic imagination made her stomach rebel a third time, the guardsmare had gotten her into the guard barracks, and a toilet to upchuck into. After one more and some dry heaves, the guard put a hoof on Dash’s back.
“You’re not a bad pony,” the guard said, firmly. “You are not a bad pony.”
“What?” asked Rainbow Dash, her mouth tasting like… well, like the last time she’d been sick. Nothing else had quite that acidic, bitter, nasty taste to it.
“You are not a bad pony,” the guard repeated. “Say it. Say ‘I am not a bad pony.’”
“I am not a bad pony,” Rainbow Dash said back, numbly.
“Again,” the guard demanded.
“I am not a bad pony.”
“Again.”


“I am not a bad pony,” Rainbow Dash repeated. It… felt good to hear that. But… of course she was a good pony. She just...
Another round of dry heaves followed. The guardsmare got her a glass of water, which Dash was very happy to use to rinse her mouth out.
“It’s healthy to feel like this after your first taste of combat,” the guard said, quietly. “Hurting, even killing doesn’t come naturally to unicorns. I think I’m glad it doesn’t come naturally to you either. But sometimes you have to do hard things or else even worse things will happen later. You saved the Crystal Empire, ma’am.”
Dash felt like her legs were rubber, and she sat down where she was, looking into the bowl. “... Have you ever…?” she asked.
“Not a griffon,” the guardsmare said softly. “There was a minotaur lord with some servant goats. One of the servants went mad. They said later that he had a sickness. But he killed the minotaur and the other servants, then went into the streets. I was the one who found him. He came after me, and I blasted him.” She paused. “... I didn’t stop crying for three days. I wouldn’t look at my armor for a month. So… I know how it feels to think you’re a bad pony. And you’re not a bad pony.”
Rainbow Dash couldn’t think of anything to say, and the guardsmare didn’t seem to have anything she needed to add either. After a while longer, the other mare helped Dash into the barracks’ communal showers. It took about two hours, all the hot water the building had, and help from the quiet guard, but eventually Rainbow Dash couldn’t see the blood on her coat anymore.

***

The next day was way, way better. For starters, it started with a cool, soft cloud for a bed in her room at the palace, and mercifully, wonderfully blank walls. She would never again take that for granted.
They let her sleep in, too, and then had a huge brunch waiting when she did get up. Pancakes, waffles, breakfast cookies, muffins, cupcakes - all the sugary treats her rapid metabolism could handle, and then some. And she was starving. She thought she saw some of the servants exchanging bits as she blazed through plate after plate. She remembered her manners, as much as she could, but she didn’t exactly have a horn to pick up a fork with, so she couldn’t do much better than foal-manners - which meant not splattering anywhere or getting too much on her face.
She was amused that a lot of those bits being traded were ending up in Due Respect’s custody. He didn’t crack a smile, or show anything but his usual polite expression, but she grinned for him. Served ‘em right for not doing their homework about what their guests would be eating.
After brunch came something even better. A parade. A parade for her. All for her. With the guard band marching and the royal chariot and everything. She’d dreamed about a moment like this all her life, of a cheering crowd all around with her in the chariot by herself, in the symbolic position of honor, tossing roses and other treats out, and now… now here she was.
The tight-fitting flight suit Mom had made for her was in pristine condition; somepony had found time to clean and press it to perfect sleekness. They hadn’t put the skirt on, either; she was okay with the skirt, but that was for court wear. Today she was showing off her pegasus-ness. To a cheering crowd. Who all were there to bask in her awesomeness.
And then it kept getting better and better. At the start of the parade, Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor had a stage set up, and Cadence was using her impressive illusion talents to project her green-eyed image in the sky overhead, along with a magnification spell for her voice.
“RAINBOW DASH,” her voice boomed across the Empire, then adjusted down to a more comfortable, still clear level.
“Rainbow Dash,” Cadence repeated. “I think there is no unicorn within the Crystal Empire who does not know by now of your heroism. You single-hoofedly saved the Empire from being buried beneath the northern snows, in what already the songs are naming the Night of Rainbows. You rescued the Crystal Heart from a murderous band of griffon thieves with a lightning bolt that was itself a wonder to behold. Your loyalty, determination, and strength will be remembered as long as the Empire itself lives. For your great service to the Crystal Empire and Unicornia itself, we create you Lady Rainbow Dash, Countess of the Imperial Sky, Lady of the Wonder Bolt.”
And she dropped a different illusion, one around the top of the palace itself. Etched into the crystal itself, near the top of the central spire, a triply-streaked lightning bolt blazed downward from a cloud. Rainbow Dash’s breath caught in her throat. Her cutie mark. Cadence hadn’t even put her own mark on the palace - nor had any other ruler. Not even Mad Prince Sombra. There were only a few times in history Dash knew of that the Queen’s City had even flown flags of some hero’s cutie mark. Even the stained-glass windows of the Heartland’s palace only showed a single ruler at a time, with previous ruler’s glass portraits removed to the museum. Nopony ever marked the building itself.
And then the cheers of the crowd drew her to look out across them instead. They were cheering for her. By her new title.
“WONDER BOLT! WONDER BOLT! WONDER BOLT!”
She couldn’t help it. She did a loop-de-loop. And they cheered.

***

The caravan stayed in the Empire for another three weeks. The guard on the Heart was doubled, the slain guards were buried with Imperial honors, the griffons held up their flimsy facade of innocence by not expelling the Crystal Empire’s ambassador in return, and Rainbow Dash had the best month of her life. For the first time ever, she could fly any time she wanted, as fast and high as she could go. She started doing tricks. Real tricks, fun stuff that Princess Twilight would never let her do - ‘too dangerous,’ of course. She crashed more than she ever had back home, too, but never too bad, never more than enough to leave her sore for an afternoon.
It felt like tying ropes around her wings when they finally had to leave. The sky over the Crystal Empire was small when the Heart was keeping storms away, but when the clouds weren’t there, she could fly for miles, and every unicorn in the place knew who she was and wasn’t gonna try to grab at her in midair. On the way back to the Heartland, though, it was back to the carriage. Too many rural yokels who’d try to yank her or blast her.
Due Respect had spent the whole time in the palace, doing ambassador stuff. Trade agreements, checking over the books to make sure there wasn’t too much smuggling going on, talking about cross-border crime things, and all the other paperwork that Rainbow Dash was incredibly glad she didn’t have to deal with. He was even smiling a bit in the carriage on the way back.
“You seem to have taken a shine to the Empire, Countess Rainbow Dash,” the ambassador commented, as Dash watched out the window while the Empire’s towers shrank in the distance.
That made Dash snort in amusement and turn to face him instead. “See, now, that sounds funny when you say it. Think they’re gonna flip out at court when I show up with a title of my own and outrank a bunch of ‘em?”
Due Respect’s mouth quirked. “No doubt there will be some discussions already in progress. It is my educated hypothesis that one faction shall have already emerged declaring that only Heartland titles may be considered relevant to rank within the Queen’s City, while another faction, comprising largely those unicorns with external titles, will prefer instead of insist that only unicorns with titles ought to be considered worthy. A third faction, smaller but more influential with Princess Twilight Sparkle, will point out that to deny external titles or to limit the accepted impact of titles to unicorns alone would lead to certain diplomatic quandaries with regard to our foreign trade. And a fourth faction, consisting largely of the Princess herself, will opt to let the court squabble among themselves and thereby distract themselves from issues of more immediate import, and thus get some actual work done.”
Dash’s ears perked. “That’s kinda more cynical than I thought you’d be.”
“Congratulations, Countess,” he said drily. “You are no longer primarily defined as Princess Twilight Sparkle’s personal project. As a Countess in your own right, publicly acknowledged as a relation of the Prince and Princess of the Crystal Empire, you will, whether or not you wish it, become involved in the power struggles of the court. Those of lower rank shall now be obliged to, if not obey you promptly, at least consider it. Those of superior rank shall, in turn, be aware that your primary recourse is no longer to run for the Princess’ support. You will find yourself with hangers-on of your own - both those of the Heartland and those of the Empire. As such, you will now require a certain degree of attention to court affairs than you have been accustomed to.”
She swallowed and sank back into her seat. “... I was thinking it was gonna be hard just getting used to hearing everypony calling me ‘Lady Rainbow.’”
He nodded his head to her. “You might prefer ‘Lady Dash,’ or one of the other titles that Princess Cadence bestowed upon you. ‘Countess Sky’ would be entirely appropriate, to use your rank as well as the name of your domain, or ‘Lady Wonder Bolt,’ as she also dubbed you. But to refuse to use a title would serve you poorly. It would diminish your own standing, minimizing your rank and making it an even more foreign thing than it already is, and it would come across as a grave insult to Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor, a declaration that their titles were worth so little that you would choose to remain outside the nobility rather than acknowledge them. Your social position will, I fear, remain entirely precarious no matter what you do, so you must learn to balance with uncommon agility. Fortunately, you do have the remaining months of this diplomatic tour to learn - which is far more than most nobles have upon their arrival at court.”
Rainbow Dash rubbed at her forehead with a hoof. “I think I wanna join that faction that says Imperial titles don’t count.”