As dawn cracked over the snow-covered mountains, Cadance admired their crystalline shimmer.
“It’s so pretty,” Lux said from behind her.
Looking back, she smiled at the awkward foal. His eyes shined from within the shade of the cloak wrapped around his head. She’d explained the spell to him, but he still felt the need to cover his horn.
“Celestia and Luna should be here today,” Cadance said, motioning for Lux to join her at the balcony edge.
“Already?”
“It’s been a week.”
Lux peered over the railing. “Is it as pretty there?”
“Different, but yes.”
Celestia’s response had been a mixture of curiosity and concern. Both she and Luna wanted to meet the foal personally to figure out what should be done with him. They knew of the group Lucerna had mentioned, and they both wanted to meet the curious foal, for a variety of reasons that would better be explained in person. But either way, it had been decided that he should be taken back to Canterlot.
Looking into Lucerna’s half-covered eyes, she could see anxiety clouding them.
He understood the gravity of this meeting. Cadance couldn’t blame him, his whole world had been thrown into chaos and now he was about to face the two most powerful mares in existence. Cadance had been hoping to let him explore the empire before hand. Today was the start of the Crystal Fair, and a little play would have done him good.
Cadance put a hoof on the foal’s shoulder, she tried to ease his worries. “Don’t worry,” Cadance said. “You’ll be fine.”
Lucerna nodded with a weak smile. Turning his head towards the sky, his eyes widened. Cadance followed his gaze, taking little time to find what he had seen. Two figures were flying towards them and as they landed, it was clear who they were. The taller one had a white coat and was wearing golden jewellry, with a multicoloured flowing mane. The other was short and dark blue, wearing jet black jewellry and had a flowing mane that twinkled like starlight. Cadance walked up to them and accepted a hug from her aunts, Celestia and Luna.
“Hello aunties,” Cadance said happily. “How was your journey?”
“It was fine, Cadance,” Celestia responded, smiling. She then looked over to see Shining armor and Lucerna. The foal looked at the two alicorns in awe and it wasn’t hard to see why. “So this is the foal?”
“Indeed, it is,” Cadance said. “Come here, little one. It’s alright.”
Lucerna took a deep breathe and slowly walked forward. When he was close enough, she gave the most formal bow he could. Considering it was his first time bowing to any royalty, it wasn’t a bad attempt. Celestia softly chuckled and spoke first.
“Rise up, young one,” she said. “Please, let me see your face.”
Lucerna stepped backwards and shook his head. “Not out here!” he said quickly.
“Alright, don’t be scared,” Celestia said. “We will discuss this inside. I can tell from your actions that you understand how important this situation is.”
With that, all five of them turned to enter the crystal palace. Cadance guided the party towards one of the private lounges that would act their meeting room. Lucerna entered the room but before Cadance could, Celestia stopped her.
“Cadance…” Celestia said slowly. “This is a situation that Luna and I will deal with. We need to do this in private. Do not worry about him, if that truly is Sombra’s horn and his power is within this foal, we will be able to control it. Please understand that I am doing this for your safety as much as his.”
Cadance wanted to argue, wanted to be near the foal for moral support, but relented and solemnly nodded. With that, Celestia and Luna entered the room and closed the door.
As Luna walked in the room with her sister, it was clear to her that the foal was scared of what was going to happen. In a way she felt sorry for the foal; all alone and facing both the rulers of the sun and moon. But she put those feelings aside and sat beside her sister facing the foal.
“Now, young foal.” Celestia said “Show us your face.”
The foal raised his hoof to his hood but then stopped, as if frightened by the thought of showing himself.
“It’s alright, little one.” Luna said “My sister and I are not going to hurt you. We have seen far stranger things than you could ever show us.”
With trepidation, the foal slowly pulled his hood back unto his shoulders.
“If you would please, Cadance.” Celestia said nodding towards the colt.
Answering with a nod, Cadance unravelled the illusion.
Luna took in a sharp breath at the sight. “Stars, what were they doing in there?”
Celestia eased herself closer to the nervous colt. “If I may, I would like to look closer at you.”
Lux closed his eyes, and nodded in consent.
Beside her, Celestia could feel her sister weaving a web of spells. Most defensive in nature, but a few were lethal. “Thank you Sister,” she said as a few of the spells entwined around her in loving protection.
Reaching first with her hoof, Celestia touched the red crystal. Moving the colt’s head around, she examined the horn and his reaction alike. He winced, but from anxiety not pain, while the horn itself remained inactive.
“This will tingle,” she warned, more to let Luna know what she was doing then for the foal’s benefit. Celestia blinked, and her eyes smoked green. Luna’s defences bristled, pointing their energy at her for the briefest of moments. Reaching into her memories, she sound a little seed of fear, and brought it to her horn. The memory of fear burst to life on on her from, burning purple and black, before leaping for her to the foal.
“No!” The foal reeled as the fear took hold of him. Shadows drank the fire of fear, and the horn took a ember’s glow. “No,” the foal cried again. “I don’t want to,” he answered a voice nopony else heard. Scurrying backward from some unseen danger, Lucerna covered the light of his horn with both hooves. “You’re wrong. They’re nice.” Tears choked his voice as he tried to curl into a ball.
“Enough.” Luna loosed her magic into the room, snuffing out the fading clouds of dark magic from Celestia's eyes, and the glow of Lux’s horn in one flash.
Cadance burst into the room when she heard Lux scream, the sight of her mentor wielding dark magic having taken her breath. “What... was that? What happened to Lux?”
“Fear,” Celestia answered, collecting herself as Luna tended to the still crying foal. “I need to see how he would react. Is he alright?”
Luna nodded as she scooped the foal into her lap. “Shaken, but unharmed. I think it’s obvious, this foal has no more ill intention in him than you or I.”
Moving next to her sister, the adrenalin of dark magic began to fade, leaving her with a knot of guilt in her stomach. “Agreed, but we still need to watch him. Sombra’s followers had him around for a reason, I want to make sure they don’t lay their hooves on him again.”
Luna nodded, gently cradling the crying foal. He had quietened down but was still weeping. He reminded her a lot of her own tangles with dark magic. Unlike her though, this was a foal, barely out of the cradle. He should be worrying about what ice-cream flavour he gets for dessert, not dealing with Sombra.
After few moments of silence, Lux’s whimpers faded to the soft sounds of sleeping. Stepping closer, Cadance lit her horn, and again applied the illusion over the colt. The magic stirred him, sending him deeper into Luna’s embrace, but not fully awakening him.
“The Crystal Fair just started,” Cadance said, watching Luna tend to the foal. “It would be a shame for a young colt to miss it.”
A smile stretched across Luna’s muzzle, as she looked down at the colt. “A bit of revelry would do him good.”
Nudging Lucerna awake, Luna helped him back onto his hooves. “You need some fun,” she told the colt, who only answered her with a skeptical look. “There are games and sweet foods outside, would you like to go and see?
Foalish curiosity overtook fear. He had heard about the Fair, but dared not ask to leave the palace, let alone see the it. “Could I?” he asked, nodding his head.
Luna returned the smile. “Of course. Stay close to me, though. It is easy to get lost in the crowd.”
Heading towards the door, Luna motioned for Lux to follow, which he was all too happy to do.
From the balcony, Celestia watched Luna escort Lucerna into the vast street party that was the Crystal Fair. Seeing Lux all bright eyed and carefree was enough to bring a smile to anypony, especially considering that this was probably the first time the foal had ever experienced something like this. Watching Luna teach him how to play made Celestia chuckle slightly, when she remembered that it wasn’t too long ago that Luna herself was learning how to play games like this and have fun. Twilight’s letter from nightmare night had included numerous references on how Luna playing and learning about the games ponies play on occasions like these.
Even with all this, something irked Celestia: something about Lux. Even though she was sure that the foal had no ill intentions for her, or equestria at large, the fact that he was an alicorn didn’t sit right with her. Now, this could be something as simple as somepony placing Sombra’s horn onto a pegasus foal to create Lux, or something much more malicious could be at work. She remembered something that the pony that Lux called “Father” had said to her as he was being hauled away:
You sit on your throne... thinking you are safe... you think that by capturing us, you can purge us and save us... you think the darkness is gone, but you are wrong... My chosen foal has been unleashed, with the powers of the Dark Monarch... he will finish our work and it will be us who stand on top of the world.
It seemed that Lux hadn’t been told about this plan from what Cadance had told Celestia, but Celestia was not going to take any chances. She would personally oversee Lux’s training in magic and flight, make sure that he was surrounded by ponies that would love and take care of him and do everything in her power to keep Lux on the straight and narrow path. There was a reason that this “Father” wanted Lux around, but Celestia was determined to make sure that reason never came to pass.