Twilight and Cadance moved through the castle halls at a hurried pace. The soft thud of Cadance’s shoes hitting the carpeted floors echoed off the walls as they cantered along. There was the feel of something heavy in the air, and Twilight could see it reflected in the stiff shoulders of every guard she passed on her way to the throne room.
Word had already gotten around that something had upset Princess Celestia. Twilight picked little bits and pieces of it out of the hushed whispers of the maids who huddled in corners, just out of sight, where they liked to pretend nopony else could see or hear them. They probably knew about as much as she did at this point, but when Princess Celestia was worked up, the tension drifted through the corridors like a ghost, and the rest of the castle had obviously picked up on it.
If they did know anything that Twilight didn’t, she had no way of finding out. As soon as she’d get close enough to make out any details of what was being said, she and Cadance would get spotted, and the sight of them hurrying towards the throne room was more than enough to zip even the loosest of lips.
“Everypony seems really nervous,” Twilight said in a whisper, giving voice to the general vibe that she was picking up in the air.
Cadance nodded. Her face set in a stony, focused glare as she cantered onwards.
Celestia had sent a guard to their room, passing along the message that their presence was required urgently. Part of being a nigh-eternal being blessed with everlasting life was the fact that Celestia wasn’t one to sweat the small stuff, so when the princess said she required somepony’s presence urgently, she meant it.
The guards standing outside the throne room saw them coming from down the hall and immediately opened the enormous doors leading to Celestia’s audience chamber. Twilight and Cadance passed through without a word, and the guards shut the door behind them.
Celestia sat upon her throne, her face an unreadable mask. At her side, just behind the throne, sat Luna. It was strange to see them together in the throne room like this. They usually took turns using the throne room to meet with their petitioners – though Luna saw far less of those in a day than Celestia did.
There was a display pedestal set off to the side, with a huge rose-colored gem beneath a glass dome. That was either a new addition to the throne room, or it had something to do with why Twilight and Cadance had been summoned.
Curiously, there was also a noticeable lack of secretarial staff around. There was always somepony hanging around with a scroll for this or a letter for that, waiting for a signature or a nod of approval. The last time that Twilight had been alone with royalty in this chamber, it was when Celestia had given her the assignment as Cadance’s personal guard.
Twilight shot a look towards Cadance as they stepped up to the dais where the other two princesses awaited them. That mission had ended with her and Cadance finding one another, but the tiny flame of their love had been stoked in the crucible of the most harrowing experience either of them had ever faced. Twilight’s stomach knotted itself painfully as the notion overcame her that she might be facing yet another event of such importance in the near future.
“I won’t mince words,” Celestia said, rising to her hooves and speaking with the full authority she carried as the oldest of the princesses. “I’ve called the two of you here because the Crystal Empire has returned.”
Twilight blinked at the unfamiliar name. At her side, Cadance looked equally baffled, if the look they’d exchanged at Celestia’s proclamation was any indication.
“What’s the Crystal Empire?” Cadance asked.
Luna stepped forward, and Celestia moved aside to make room for her sister.
“The Crystal Empire was an ancient kingdom in the far northern reaches of Equestria,” Luna said. “It was a sovereign nation, though closely allied to our own. A thousand years ago its capital city disappeared from this realm, and the many colonies it controlled have since dissolved and become their own nations, forgetting the legacy of the empire that birthed them.”
“Disappeared?” Cadance asked. “How does an entire city disappear?”
Celestia stepped forward. “To understand that, first you must understand what sort of place the Empire was.”
Celestia’s horn lit, focusing her magic around the glass dome surrounding the crystal near her throne. The dome lifted, and the gem levitated closer and was placed on the ground in front of Twilight and Cadance. Another small surge of magic, and the crystal glowed, projecting an illusion that took the shape of a strange city. The city was beautiful, the architecture exotic and glittering in the illusory sunlight. The many roads intersected in the shape of a star, or perhaps a snowflake, and at the center was an enormous spire that rose high enough in the sky to put the tallest tower in Canterlot Castle to shame. Twilight squinted at the tiny, shimmering dots moving about the map, believing they might be imperfections in the spell, but found that they were actually images of ponies with radiant coats that sparkled like diamonds.
“This is the Crystal Empire’s capital,” Celestia said. “It’s a beautiful city, and it’s home to an equally beautiful magic that protects the city and its inhabitants. The crystal ponies that live there have a connection to the land that even Luna and I don’t understand – their rulers were very secretive about it. But what we do know is that when this city is filled with the magic of love and happiness, Equestria is likewise filled with that magic.”
Celestia’s horn flared again, and her eyes glowed with a menacing power. The beautiful city changed, turning black as tar. Black crystals formed out of the ground, extending beyond the borders of the illusion like a malignancy spreading through a body.
“When the Crystal Empire is filled with fear and hatred,” Celestia said, “so, too, are those things spread across our land.”
Celestia banished the dark crystals with a surge of magic, shattering them into dust, which dissolved into unformed magic that vanished before it even hit the ground. The image of the city slowly faded back to its pristine condition.
“One thousand years ago,” Luna said, taking over the explanation once more, “the Crystal Empire fell under the control of an evil unicorn who crowned himself as King Sombra. His madness and lust for power led him to acts of cruelty, and he enslaved his own ponies towards those ends. He must have plumbed some secret of those lands, for as the taint of his dark empire grew, so did his personal power.”
“Eventually,” Celestia said, “Luna and I had no choice but to intervene. His bid to spread his influence was nothing short of a declaration of war against us. We did not wish to see harm befall the much maligned ponies of the Empire, so in lieu of sending our armies, Luna and I set off to challenge him ourselves. The battle was fierce, but in the end we were able to defeat him, turning him to shadow and banishing him to the icy North.”
Twilight frowned. “You banished him to the North as a shadow?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion. “That seems a little… convoluted, if you pardon my saying.”
Luna stepped forward again, shooting a disapproving glare at Celestia. “Sister is perhaps attempting to – unnecessarily – whitewash the fierceness of the battle. We destroyed his physical body in an attempt to kill him, but it was not enough. He was able to survive long enough for his blackened soul to escape with a portion of his magic. As he fled, tail metaphorically tucked betwixt his legs, he placed a curse upon the city. It disappeared, never to be seen again... until now.”
“He didn’t leave us much of a choice,” Celestia said tersely. Judging from the look on her face, she clearly didn’t appreciate Luna’s correction. “The darkness had warped him. There was no coming back from what he’d become, and, at the time, Luna and I did not possess the skill necessary to utilize the Elements against him.”
“So now this Empire is back?” Cadance asked. “What were the conditions of its return? Did the curse lose power? Or does this mean that Sombra is back as well?”
“We have no reason to believe Sombra has also returned,” Luna said, lifting a hoof and attempting to toss her incorporeal mane over her shoulder. “Believe me when I say this – Sister and I brutalized that tyrant with our most powerful magics. Even with his power, it would be a miracle of miracles that he could have survived as a formless shade for these past thousand-some-odd years. He held the last vestiges of his soul together with sheer obstinance, but was assuredly on his final legs as he fled into the icy barrens to die like an animal. Therefore, we can only assume that the curse has run its course… a thousand years, give or take, seems to be the standard for these things, such as they are.”
Twilight hummed thoughtfully. “Okay, then. So what’s the plan? If this Crystal Empire is so important, we can’t just sit around and hope it straightens itself out with King Sombra gone.”
Celestia sighed as she dismissed the illusory city and returned the chunk of crystal to its display case. “Luna has presented the facts rather more bluntly than I would have liked, but she isn’t wrong. She and I, for all intents and purposes, invaded and conquered the Crystal Empire with our own hooves. It was a matter of self defense, and with his… expulsion from the Empire’s throne, his realm is now Equestrian spoils. In fact, the land that the Empire’s capital once stood upon has been marked on maps as ours since the Empire disappeared. However, at the moment, the Empire is in a very delicate position. Sombra ruled the entire city with fear, and through the power of his own magic. There is no government in place to maintain the city in his absence, seeing as he went so far as to execute what few nobles the Empire had.”
“This presents a problem,” Luna said, “as it might tempt other nations into sending envoys to take control of the Empire for themselves. It is ours by right of combat, but as we have no presence there to enforce this, if some other nation was to claim it first, it could become something of a political imbroglio.”
Twilight closed her eyes and let that sink in. If this city really had returned, and it was within their lands, that did mean it was Equestrian, but there was another factor to consider – the crystal ponies that lived in the Empire. It was their city, and if they were just waking up from a thousand year nap, there was no telling what sort of chaos the city had devolved into. She couldn’t even begin trying to guess at their behavior in the absence of government presence. Her understanding of psychology was embarrassingly basic – especially compared to ponies like Cadance and Luna – and there was no telling if what little she did know would even be applicable to ponies from a thousand years in the past.
But those were concerns for later. At the moment, what was most important was getting their flag in the ground.
“So we need to be the first nation to get there and provide aid and structure,” Twilight said. “We need to be first to bring it under our wing.”
“Yes,” Celestia said, nodding. “This is a diplomatic mission. The crystal ponies were in a very delicate state when last we saw them, and there’s no telling what effect Sombra’s rule – not to mention his curse – might have had on them. We need a fine-touch for this, so a military presence is out of the question. We want to be greeted as liberators, not invaders.”
Cadance stepped forward, her head held high and chest out proudly. “Which means that you need a princess to help the crystal ponies through the transition period. Don’t worry, Aunt Celestia, I won’t let you down. I’ll go there and secure the city for you.”
Celestia shook her head. “No, you won’t. You’re going to be securing it for yourself.”
The cavernous chambers of the throne room went dead silent at that declaration. Twilight’s mouth fell open wordlessly, and though she couldn’t see Cadance’s face from the angle she was standing, she knew that her fiancée wasn’t faring much better.
“W-what?” Cadance asked. “What do you mean?”
Celestia descended from the dais, taking the steps without breaking eye contact with Cadance. The soft clip of her heavy shoes echoed in the silence, counting out the seconds like the ticking of a clock. She stood before Cadance, looking down at the smaller alicorn.
“Luna and I must stay in Canterlot,” Celestia explained. “Our place is here, ruling side-by-side. Somepony else must sit upon the Empire’s throne – somepony who understands Love in a way that no one else does. It must be somepony patient, who cares about the happiness of others… somepony who is wiser than she knows.” A tear formed in the corner of her eye and rolled down her cheek, along her jaw, and dripped from her chin onto the carpeted floors. “The Crystal Empire is the Empire of Love, and you are the Princess of Love… I knew the day that I met you that this was what destiny had chosen you for.”
“Aunt Celestia…” Cadance said breathlessly. “I don’t know what to say…”
Her voice was strained, like she was on the verge of crying, and Twilight had to fight her urge to rush to Cadance’s side at the sound of it – this was Cadance and Celestia’s moment.
Celestia sat down and pulled Cadance into an embrace, wrapping her huge wings around her niece. “Say that you’ll go and help those ponies. Say that you’ll find a way to protect them.”
“Protect them from what?” Cadance asked.
“There’s something wrong with the Empire’s magic,” Celestia explained. “If all was well, Equestria would already be feeling the effects – good or bad – of its power. I fear that Sombra may have done something to it, and you must find out what has happened and right his wrong.”
Cadance sniffled, burying her face into Celestia’s chest. “Do you think I can?”
“If anypony can, it’s you,” Celestia said softly. “And you won’t be alone. You’ll have Twilight with you, and I’ll be sending along Shining Armor and the other Elements to help.”
Cadance pulled away, sniffling loudly. “Then I can’t fail. Hearts are strongest when they’re united, and you’re sending some of the strongest hearts I’ve ever met.”
Celestia kissed the tip of Cadance’s nose. “That’s my girl,” she said.
Twilight smiled, wiping away a stray tear of her own. Cadance had always seen Princess Celestia as a second mother to her, and it was wonderful to see the two of them sharing this tender moment. More than anything, being present to see this made her feel like a part of this family.
“It is touching,” Luna said suddenly, her voice a whisper so as not to disturb Cadance and Celestia as they embraced one another.
Twilight almost jumped as she realized that Luna had somehow snuck up on her. She’d been so engrossed in the family drama that she’d let her guard down for a moment.
“Yeah,” Twilight said, nodding.
“I must warn you, however, that you should be cautious… Sister believes this to be a simple diplomatic mission, but I fear it may be more complicated.”
Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “Complicated?” she asked. “You said Sombra was dead.”
“Verily.” Luna sniffed derisively. “But that does not mean there may not be surprises awaiting you. Sister and I took to wing in our assault, and battled the bastard in the skies. While I do not believe the crystal ponies themselves will pose you any danger, there is no telling what magical hazards might await potential invaders within King Sombra’s stronghold.”
“So you’re saying I should watch my back?”
Luna considered her words for a moment before replying in all due seriousness. “I am saying that you should watch everyone’s backs.”
* * *
The train chugged along the tracks, rocking slowly from side to side as the frozen winds buffeted the train. There was a sudden, powerful thud that resounded from ahead of the engine, and the entire train shook with enough force to rattle the windows. They’d hit another bit of hard packed snowdrift. There was no danger in it, as the train they were on was built specifically for smashing through snow and ice piled onto the tracks.
Twilight had actually ridden this rail line before. It was a single line of track, separated from the rest of the rail system, which extended to the furthest edge of the Northern Equestrian territory. Princess Celestia had ordered it built decades before, back when trains were just becoming popular and the rush to lay track over every inch of Equestria had created a booming railway industry. Publically, the line was built with the hopes of one day reopening trade negotiations with the nation of Yakyakistan, but the people of that land were notoriously difficult to negotiate with and the entire plan had fallen through.
In the end, the line had only been used to transport military personnel up into the tundra in order to practice cold-weather maneuvers and survival tactics. Twilight had spent seven days up here with just a knife, a canteen, a thermal blanket, a folding shovel, and a sheet of paper stuffed into an envelope with the orders ‘Don’t Die’.
That certification test was one of the biggest reasons she hated the cold.
Now that the Empire had returned, however, the real reason for the line’s construction was apparent. Celestia had always assumed that there was a chance the Empire would pop back up, even before Cadance had ascended as the Princess of Love. She knew that there would be a rush to get an envoy in place to lay proper claim to the city, and a train was the newest, fastest way to ensure she could send as large a detachment as she wanted.
The train shook again, this time hard enough to rattle every seat in the car – including the one Twilight was sitting on.
“Those bumps are getting more frequent,” Cadance said from beside Twilight. Twilight was forced further against the back of the seat as Cadance leaned across her to look out the window at the falling snow.
“We’re getting further north, which means it’s getting colder,” Twilight explained. She redid the knot of her scarf – the one Cadance had given to her the night she’d proposed – and rubbed her shoulders in anticipation of stepping off the train. “More cold, more ice.”
For a while, neither Cadance or Twilight said anything. Twilight just watched as the snow whizzed by the window, tossed aside by the plow attached to the front of the train. The rumble of the tracks and the roar of the train cutting through the snow had long ago blended together into a single static noise in the background, like a radio failing to pick up a signal.
“Am I crazy, or is this crazy?” Cadance asked in a whisper. “We’re going to a magical empire that neither of us has ever heard of before, to meet with an entire city of abused ponies that have been a thousand years displaced from time, and I’m supposed to take the throne?”
“It’s a little out there, I guess…” Twilight said lamely.
She was honestly still feeling a little numb to the whole situation. She knew what they were doing – what their mission was – but the situation still didn’t feel… real, yet.
Twilight felt a tap on her shoulder, drawing her gaze from the window. Cadance was chewing her lip in that way she sometimes did when she was especially nervous. There was an almost sensual quality to the look, and the light flutter in Twilight’s belly made her feel a little dirty. Cadance was reaching out – this was no time to be admiring how pretty she looked when she was troubled.
“Twilight, seriously,” Cadance said imploringly, “last night you and I stayed up until the middle of the night pitching ideas for erotic Daring Do fanfiction.”
“You were the one pitching all the eroticism,” Twilight countered. “I wanted to add more fight scenes.”
“The point is,” Cadance said, soldiering on despite the correction, “that last night you and I were screwing around with a beloved children’s tale, and this morning we woke up and were told that we were going to become the rulers of our own kingdom.”
Twilight could almost hear the other shoe dropping with the grim finality of a judge’s gavel. The bottom fell out of her stomach, and she felt the very sudden and very real need to lie down.
For months, Twilight had been worrying over whether or not she would make a good princess when she and Cadance finally tied the knot. What she’d taken to calling her ‘Princess Studies Time’ hadn’t managed to cut into her physical and combat training, but every moment that wasn’t spent with Cadance, family and friends, or training, was spent in the library trying to amass the necessary skills she needed to not completely embarrass herself in open court.
And that had been when she’d thought she’d be the lowest mare on the princess totem pole – the fourth in line for any kind of real decision-making. Now Cadance was getting her own nation – or principality, or whatever – to rule, and Twilight would ostensibly be her co-ruler.
“Yeah, welcome to me about five hours ago,” Cadance said, her voice dripping with something that might have been satisfaction over her point being made, but also just as easily might have been pity. “The face you’re making is the way I felt when this train pulled out of the station.”
Twilight’s entire body felt numb as she leaned against the wall. The train was heated, but she could still feel a bit of the chill from outside through the walls of the car.
“What’ve we gotten ourselves into?” Twilight asked with a heavy sigh.
“Sorry,” Cadance mumbled after a long moment. “My fault again, I guess... Me and my stupid destiny…”
Twilight gave herself a hard mental slap. This wasn’t the time to be maudlin.
“I don’t believe in destiny,” Twilight said, “you know that. Choices are what brought us here. Yours, mine, Princess Celestia’s... even Prismia’s choices helped bring us to where we are right now.” She shifted her weight, leaning to the other side so she could rest her head against Cadance’s shoulder. The numbness she’d felt earlier had blossomed into a lump of worry and uncertainty in the pit of her stomach, roiling and burning like molten iron – but leaning against Cadance like this made the sensation tolerable. Drawing strength from the physical contact, Twilight felt confident enough to reassure Cadance, despite her own doubts. “Even still. You have nothing to be sorry about. I’m here because I want to be at your side, and you’re here because you’re the best mare for the job.”
Cadance was quiet for a long time, and the radio-static of the train’s movement and the comforting warmth of Cadance’s body tugged at the edges of Twilight’s consciousness, trying to lure her to sleep. It might have worked, if she weren’t so wound up by the daunting task ahead of them.
When Cadance broke the silence, her voice was so soft that her words were almost drowned out by the ambient sounds of the train.
“I put on a brave front for my aunts,” she said, “but that was just me getting swept up in the moment. Now that I’ve had time for this all to sink in, I’m… I’m really scared Twilight. What if I’m not the best mare for the job? Aunt Luna has spent the entire last year acclimating herself to the modern world after being away for a thousand years. If anypony is qualified to help the crystal ponies, it’s her.”
“Those ponies also suffered at the hooves of a crazy unicorn dictator that ruled them with fear and magic,” Twilight countered. “What they need, more than anything, is somepony who can show them how to love again.”
“I’m the Princess of Love,” Cadance said. It was a simple statement, but the way she said it bespoke something more complex behind the words. “I know everything that can be learned from studying love. I’ve helped couples find it in their hearts to find comfort and contentment through love… but this isn’t even remotely the same. I’m not helping parents with their wayward children, or patching up a marriage after some tawdry affair. How am I supposed to help an entire city relearn the meaning of something so… so complex? I’ve never done anything like this before.”
The uncertainty in Cadance’s voice was like a knife in Twilight’s chest, sharp and colder than ice. Just like that, as she heard the need and the worry in Cadance’s beautiful voice, all the doubt and fear that Twilight felt in her heart fell away. It became background noise, like the roar of the train and wind bleeding in through the walls. Whatever lingering doubts Twilight had were still there, but now they were tucked away in the deepest parts of her being, shoved aside as insignificant in the face of Cadance’s needs.
Cadance had begun to wring her hooves nervously, and Twilight reached out to gently hold her lover’s hooves still. Twilight brought one of Cadance’s hooves up to her lips, kissing it lightly, then pulled it to her chest, holding it against her heart.
“You can do it, Cadance,” she said.
Cadance chewed her lip. “How do you know?”
“Because you can teach anyone to love,” Twilight said, more sure of that fact than she’d ever been sure of anything. “I know it because you’re the one that taught me how to love.” She brought a hoof Cadance’s face, lightly caressing the elegant lines of her princess’ jaw, tracing a path down the neck, and leaving her hoof pressed firmly against the spot above Cadance’s heart. They sat there for a moment, feeling one another’s hearts beating. “You said you can always sense my heart, no matter where I am, right? If things start seeming like they’re getting too complicated, just focus on that.”
Cadance smiled as she gently stroked Twilight’s chest, mussing up her fur. “You always know what to say,” she said softly. “Partners, right?”
“Partners always,” Twilight said with a nod. “You watch my back, I watch yours. This whole thing kind of got thrown on us like a sack of bricks, but scary as it is, I know we can do anything as long as we stick together. I mean… it’s not like we’ve never had to roll with the punches before, right?”
Cadance snickered. “You’re starting to become a real Miss Spontaneous, over here… but you’re right. I can do anything as long as I have you standing next to me.”
“We’ll help them, Cadance, don’t worry,” Twilight declared. “We’re going to help your ponies.”
“Our ponies, Twilight,” Cadance said insistently. “Ours.”
The door at the front of the train slammed open suddenly, shattering the microcosm that Twilight and Cadance had erected around themselves with howling, freezing winds. Spitfire walked in, followed by Basenji. They shook themselves off, sloughing off clumps of snow that began melting into sludge the second they touched the floor of the heated compartment. The gap between the cars was maybe three full-strides wide, but that short distance had been enough to cover them in snow.
Spitfire looked up and lifted an eyebrow at the pair. “Whoa, uh, sorry,” she said, laughing nervously. “Didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“It’s fine,” Twilight said as she pulled away from Cadance. She smoothed out the spots on her coat where Cadance had gotten a little gropey and cleared her throat. “What’s the word?”
Basenji and Spitfire had gone up to talk to the engineer and his assistant. They were the only passengers on the train, and for the moment, this whole Crystal Empire business was being treated as a need-to-know situation, so the train’s crew had been dismissed aside from the two ponies required to run the engine.
Spitfire walked over and took a seat on one of the benches across the aisle from where Twilight and Cadance sat. Basenji took the seat opposite her.
“Just a bit further until the end of the track,” Spitfire said. “Not that I’m in much of a hurry to get there, mind. I been here before – cold weather survival cert – and trust me when I say it’s no picnic in the Canterlot Gardens.”
“Don’t have to tell me,” Twilight said with a grin. “I took the same class.”
Spitfire laughed. “Yeah? Not many unicorns got the backbone for it. Even some pegasi go pale at the thought of that one.”
“It wasn’t fun, that’s for sure.” Twilight looked to Basenji, whose nose was pressed firmly against the glass as he watched the snowdrifts whizz by. “What about you, Basenji? Ever seen the snow before?”
“At a distance,” he said. “In the winter months, snow can be seen atop the highest mountain peaks in my land. It gathers there to later melt, and becomes the lifeblood of the grasslands during the dry seasons when wild storms are not seen for many months on end. Never before have I had the pleasure of seeing it up close, however.” He plucked a small clump of snow that had stuck inside one of the folds of his cloak and watched his melt between his claws. “I believe I like it, somewhat.”
“Well, in a few more minutes you’re going to get your fill of the stuff,” Spitfire said with a snort. “Or maybe you won’t. You’ve got the shaggiest coat out of all of us, so you might not even feel the cold, even when we’re up to our necks in snow.”
“It shall be an experience,” Basenji said with a shrug.
Cadance cleared her throat daintily, drawing attention to herself. “Can I just say it again? Thank you both for coming with us.” She flashed them a grateful smile. “Your experience as entertainers will be invaluable on this mission… and on a personal note, I just feel much better knowing that I have friends here with me to back me up.”
Cadance’s admittance got a laugh out of her companions, and small peck on the cheek from Twilight.
“I am unsure of how much help I can be, but I will do what can be done to support you in this trial, my friend,” Basenji said, grinning that huge, toothy dog-grin of his. “It was an honor to be asked to accompany you.”
“Ditto from me,” Spitfire added. “I’m on sabbatical from the Bolts anyway. It’s better than sitting on my rump and waiting for the action to come to me.”
“We might be in for a bit of that if Luna’s guess about traps pans out,” Twilight said, allowing a note of seriousness into her voice. “Which reminds me. I’ve got something for you, Spitfire.”
Twilight hopped off her seat and pulled her pack from the compartment beneath the bench. She opened one of the bags and began digging around, pushing aside her various supplies and emergency rations as she looked for Spitfire’s gift. Her new saddlebags had been enchanted with help from Luna, allowing them to store much more than what should normally be possible while also keeping the weight down. As a result of the modification, the bags were able to hold a big enough kit to shame her old steamer trunk at least twice over – though, the trade-off was that it was a bit less organized.
“Hold out your arm, please,” Twilight said.
Spitfire did as was asked without question, sticking out her left foreleg. Twilight levitated a brown canvas holster – similar to the one she wore her chakram in, though much smaller – onto Spitfire’s bicep and secured it with a pair of elastic straps.
Spitfire lifted an eyebrow at the holster and the item it held. “A flask?” she asked, her voice light with amusement. She poked at the brushed steel of the flask with the tip of her wing. “I know you hate the cold, Twi, but if you want a rescue dog to bring you whiskey, I think Basenji is the most qualified out of all of us.”
Basenji made a curious noise, his ears flicking as he tilted his head in confusion.
“Ah, I’ll… I’ll just explain that joke later,” Spitfire said, coughing into her hoof.
“It’s not whiskey,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. “That’s a special alchemical brew that Luna and I made out of phoenix feathers. Rub it on your hooves and it’ll react to the internal magic you use when you fly.”
Spitfire lifted an eyebrow suspiciously. “React how?”
“It’ll catch on fire.”
“Okay, but then won’t I just be on fire…?” Spitfire asked nervously.
“It’s phoenix fire,” Twilight explained. When she drew a blank stare from Spitfire, she sighed. “Phoenix fire is incredibly pure and magical. As long as your magic is fueling it, you control it. It’ll only burn what you want it to burn.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Spitfire said with a sigh of her own. She lifted a wing and plucked the flask from its holster. Pegasi were astonishingly dexterous with those appendages, and she had no trouble holding the flask with a folded wing as she pulled the cap free with her teeth to peer into the mouth of the flask. “So what happens if I take a swig of this stuff?”
“No!” Twilight cleared her throat as she realized that her shout had startled the rest of her companions. “Er, no, you don’t want to drink that gunk. It’s for topical use only – I cannot stress that enough. That’s pure, concentrated essence of phoenix magic… and a few other things. Luna and I tossed around some ideas about what might happen if you drank it, and none of our scenarios were...”
“Pleasant?”
“…survivable.”
“Right, right,” Spitfire said, gulping nervously, “topical use only.”
* * *
The train pulled up to the old platform at the end of the line. The brakes squealed angrily as they fought against the momentum of thousands of tons of rolling steel, announcing their presence for miles around. The smoke from the engine’s stack slowed to a trickle, but the snow-catcher at the front of the train still billowed steam as the heating charms it carried instantly melted and evaporated the falling snow in midair.
Twilight was the first off the train and onto the platform. The structure was made of wood and whined and creaked to accept the burden of her weight. The builders had clearly enchanted it to protect against the harsh elements when it had first been erected, and here and there were signs of repairs that had been slapped on over the last century or so. Still, the incessant snowstorms, with their constant wind and hail, had weathered away much of the wood and long-ago peeled off the original paint. At this point, the wooden planks were probably held together more by ice than by nails.
The blizzard had picked up considerably in the last few minutes, and the falling snow was a wall of solid white that lowered visibility to less than a dozen meters. It was the middle of the day, but the cloudy gray sky muted Celestia’s sun, dispersing the light into a dull glow that only just barely illuminated the surrounding area. Twilight shivered in the wind and tugged at her scarf with her magic, trying to cover as much of her throat as she could. The craft that Cadance had put into the heating spells in the scarf was immaculate, but in a temperature like this you couldn’t ever completely shake the cold, no matter what you did.
She adjusted the saddlebags on her back, moving them out of the way of her chakram in case she had to draw it in a hurry. At the very least, a pair of saddlebags was an extra layer of clothing to help hold back the cold.
Spitfire was next off the train, then Basenji and Cadance. They each were wearing a pair of ski goggles that Twilight had picked out of the armory before they’d left Canterlot.
Cadance was dressed in her regalia, freshly polished and ready to impress. Twilight had urged her to put on a scarf, but Cadance had insisted that she was fine.
Spitfire was wearing a thick flight jacket, the flask containing the brew Twilight had given her stuffed into the breast pocket. Basenji was wearing his cloak, and carrying his drum and satchel, as usual. Aside from Twilight, he was the only member of their group who had brought along any kind of kit.
The whistle blew as soon as they were off the train and the engineer started up the second engine that had been hooked up in place of a caboose. The rail line was a dead end at this point, and the only way back was to go the same way they’d just come.
“He’s in a hurry,” Spitfire said, raising her voice enough to be heard over the howling winds.
“The conductor’s got orders to double-time it back to Canterlot,” Twilight explained. “That’s the only ice-breaker train we’ve got and he still needs to bring Shining and his friends up here.”
Cadance seemed to be having some trouble with her goggles, so Twilight stepped up and helped her adjust the strap. “Thanks, but do we really need these?” she asked. “You don’t think they ruin my regal poise? I kind of have a look going here and I have to make a good impression.”
“The wind’s blowing pretty bad,” Twilight explained. “A blizzard isn’t like the snow fall you’re used to. The snowflakes aren’t all that fun when the wind blows them into your eyes at over thirty-miles-per-hour.”
“You could have just said yes,” Cadance said with a huff. Her breath condensed in the air in front of her face like a little cloud, and she waved it away with a hoof.
Twilight rolled her eyes – pointlessly, since they were hidden by the reflective lenses of her goggles – and lifted her chin towards the wall of white behind her.
“The track is laid pointing due-north,” she said, “so that means east is this way. Princess Celestia said as long as we head east, we should hit the city eventually. She isn’t sure how close she was in guessing where to put the rail line, so we might be in for a hike. Visibility is low, so everyone stay together.”
The others all nodded and Twilight took point. They slowly crossed the snowfields. The fierce howling of heavy winds pushed at them from all directions and drowned out the sound of snow crunching beneath their steps. They had to be cautious as they moved forward. Not because of any potential traps, but because snow hares made their homes in these fields. Their warrens were basically open holes in the ground covered by snow, and one wrong step could mean breaking a leg if you weren’t careful.
Luckily, it seemed like Celestia had been closer than she’d imagined in estimating where the Empire would pop back up. Within a few minutes of walking they’d found their first sign of the Empire – two enormous crystal formations slowly emerging from behind the veil of falling snow – and Twilight led the group in that direction for a closer look.
Twilight frowned at the sight, unsure what to make of it. The crystals stood at least five meters high, and were spaced apart wide enough for two wagons to pass one another. Three more crystals, each about the size of a pony’s head, were arrayed between the two pillars like a banner of some sort. The crystals floated in the air, seemingly suspended by nothing and bobbing in the wind. On a hunch, Twilight used her magic to brush aside the snow between the two pillars, and to her surprise there were flagstones beneath the snow.
“Looks like we found the main road,” Twilight shouted over the wail of the storm.
Using the road was much safer than walking through the fields, so Twilight picked up the pace, pushing the group a little harder. The winds continued to howl at them, but thankfully the snowfall seemed to be letting up the closer they got to the city.
Twilight spared a glance back to find Cadance marching with her head held high, but Twilight could see the nervousness that she was trying to suppress in the almost imperceptible hesitation of her steps. Twilight slowed down a bit and fell in step with her fiancée.
“You okay?” Twilight asked, leaning in close so she could be heard over the wind without having to shout.
“Nervous,” Cadance replied. “But we’re almost there, right? I’ll be fine.”
Twilight nodded and cast a look back to where Basenji and Spitfire were walking together. Spitfire was actively scanning their surroundings for danger, but the happy grin she was wearing belied the state of readiness she was in. Beside her, Basenji was likewise on guard. His ears were perked and swiveling. A light layer of frost had gathered on his nose, and his cheeks were bright red. At first, she thought he might be flushed from the cold, but as he turned his head towards Spitfire he quickly looked away again.
“You guys doing okay?” Twilight asked.
“I caught Basenji eating snow when he thought nobody was looking!” Spitfire said, laughing happily.
Twilight almost chastised them both about staying on task, but Cadance let out a light giggle that seemed to relieve her of some of the tension she’d just been feeling, so Twilight felt obligated to let the matter slide. Cadance needed to be at her best so she could make a good impression with the crystal ponies. If laughing at Basenji helped Cadance, Twilight wasn’t going to complain about it.
Following the road, they made it to the actual city in relatively short order. The stones that paved the road outside the city ended, becoming a street of smooth, glassy crystal. They marched into the street, far enough that the buildings could shelter them from the winds. It was strange, but the snow seemed to have subsided considerably once they’d gotten within a stone’s throw of the city. She looked back, and sure enough, the snow and winds were still wreaking havoc on the snowfields outside the city. Twilight could only shake her head and put that thought aside for the moment.
Everything in the Crystal Empire was obviously made of crystal – the roads, the buildings, the signs. Even some of the shrubbery seemed to be made of sculpted crystal. In the distance, the magnificent spire of the Crystal Palace rose proudly into the sky, as though a piece of the city itself was reaching for the heavens. A fine layer of snow covered everything, and the perfect, crystalline stillness of the place made it feel like they were all standing inside of an enormous snow globe.
Up close, the buildings were even more stunning than they had been in the illusion that Princess Celestia had shown them. The sharp, irregular angles looked too random to be designed, reminding Twilight more of the natural formations that she’d seen down in the quartz mines below Canterlot. It was almost like the crystal ponies had somehow grown crystals as large as buildings, and then hollowed them out to build their homes.
Twilight removed her goggles and stowed them in her bags. The others followed her lead, and Twilight packed Cadance and Basenji’s goggles. Spitfire held off the offer with a shake of her head, preferring to keep her eyewear dangling around her neck.
“Looks deserted,” Twilight commented. They’d passed a few homes already, but they hadn’t seen so much as a light in the windows.
“They’re probably all inside their houses, trying to stay warm,” Spitfire said.
That made sense, but a lot of the buildings had protrusions that appeared to be chimneys, and none of them had the telltale smoke of a fire burning in the hearth. “There’s no smoke coming out of the fireplaces, though,” Twilight said.
“Perhaps they are burning firestones,” Basenji said. He rummaged in his pack and held out a number of rocks that were the same dark color as rust. “They burn like coal, without making smoke.”
Twilight frowned. If they had access to stones like that, why would they build chimneys for their fireplaces? Maybe they did have those stones, but they were rare? But if that were the case, they should still be seeing at least one or two pillars of smoke.
“Maybe,” Twilight muttered.
“Let me try something,” Cadance said.
Twilight nodded and stepped aside.
Cadance cleared her throat and stepped forward, flaring her wings and straightening her posture into something more appropriate for a public address. When she spoke, her voice boomed, filling the air with her presence and echoing across the silent streets.
“Greetings to you, ponies of the Crystal Empire,” Cadance said, the Royal Canterlot Voice adding a slight audible warble to her speech. “I am Princess Cadance of Equestria. I am here to help you. Please, if you can hear my voice, come out and greet me.”
They all waited, listening and watching for any sign that someone might have heard Cadance’s greeting. The only thing that came back to them was the howl of the winds outside the city, the fading echo of Cadance’s voice blowing through the city like a banshee, and a soft thud as a clump of snow was shaken loose from a rooftop by the force of Cadance’s speech.
Spitfire let out a sharp whistle, drawing the group’s attention. “There,” she said, lifting her chin in the direction of a three-story house that looked to be made of some kind of sapphire. “I saw the curtains move in that window.”
“Let’s go see who’s home,” Twilight said as she walked towards the front door.
They walked across the lawn, the frozen blades of grass shattering and snapping like bits of glass. Twilight lifted a hoof and knocked on the door. Cadance stood next to her on the front step, with Basenji behind them and looking on curiously. Spitfire stood a bit further away and kept an eye on the street with those sharp pegasus eyes of hers.
They stood in front of the door for a minute or two, waiting for someone to answer. Twilight lifted her hoof to knock again, but the sound of a deadbolt slamming open stayed her hoof, and the door opened to reveal a mare.
The mare was just a bit shorter than average, and she didn’t look particularly crystalline for a crystal pony. Her coat was a dull, muted gray – not gray with age, but more like the way an old bit of cloth might lose its color from being left out in the sun. Her white mane was done up in a high, tightly coiled bun that looked like it hadn’t been in style since the Hayllenistic Period, and the toga and sandals she wore were likewise outside of fashionableness. The mare looked up at Twilight and Cadance with a vacuous look and a glassy quality to her eyes.
Somepony was home, but the lights definitely weren’t on.
“Hello,” the mare said. “Sorry, I didn’t answer. I couldn’t figure out how to open my door.”
Twilight blinked, and at her side Cadance seemed likewise taken aback.
Cadance cleared her throat daintily. “It’s no problem at all,” she said, quickly regaining her confident poise. “I don’t know if you heard the proclamation I just made, but my name is Princess Cadance. I’m from Equestria and I’m here to help you.”
The mare stared at Cadance silently, her eyes blinking with the sort of disinterested languor one might expect from a sloth. After a few tense seconds she nodded.
“I heard you,” the mare said. The light reflected in her eyes unnaturally, and the mare held a hoof to her head to rub at her temple. “Didn’t Equestria have somepony else as princess? I can’t remember, but… no, yes, I don’t think it was somepony named Cadance… maybe it was two ponies?”
“I’m, um… I’m new,” Cadance said. Once again, she seemed at a loss for what to say in the face of somepony who seemed so clearly out of it. “My aunts are the Royal Pony Sisters, Celestia and Luna. Do you remember them?”
The dazed mare winced, sucking air through her teeth and letting out a ragged sigh. “I don’t know,” she whispered tiredly. “I can’t remember…” She looked up at Cadance and Twilight again with her eyes still all glass and fog. “Do either of you know how to light a fire? I can’t remember how.”
Twilight cautiously stepped forward enough to thrust her head into the home for a look around, and the mare obliged her by backing up a bit. It was a very simple house, but what little furniture was present had been tossed and overturned, piled up against the walls and in front of windows. There was a throw pillow and a pair of flints sitting in the hearth, as though the foggy-headed mare had tried to light the cushion on fire. There was a perfectly usable stack of firewood next to the hearth. Twilight levitated the pillow out and put a few pieces of wood in its place. She lit a fire with her magic and within seconds the warm glow of the hearth was heating the room.
“Thank you,” the mare said emotionlessly. She went to the fire and spun in a circle in front of it, pawing at the rug like a cat getting ready for a nap. Sure enough, she laid herself down, curling up as she hugged her tail to her chest, and quickly fell asleep.
Twilight closed the door and left the mare to sleep.
“Cadance, what the hay…?” she asked, looking up at her fiancée.
Cadance shook her head sadly. “I don’t know…”
“Could you not sense anything with your magic of the heart?” Basenji asked.
“Sensing someone else’s emotions is a tricky thing,” Cadance explained. “If someone is emotionally disturbed, or if they’re directing their emotions at me, I can pick it up no problem. Otherwise, I need to use magic to look into someone’s heart.”
“Did you try it on her?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, but I didn’t probe too deeply,” Cadance said. “There’s a… fuzziness around her heart. Like it’s being gripped by something malevolent.”
“Could it be the curse of this King Sombra?” Basenji asked.
“That’d be my guess,” Cadance said. “I don’t dare search any deeper than I have until I better understand what we’re dealing with here… It looks like Aunt Luna was right. This might be more complicated than we’d thought.”
Spitfire let out a small chuckle from her guard position at the rear. “More complicated than a regime change and annexing an entire Empire into Equestria?”
“In a word? Yes.”
* * *
Cadance had insisted that they try a few more houses as they made their way towards the center of the city. The results had varied, but every pony that managed to answer the door was at least as befuddled as the first one they’d met. In the end, they’d decided that the best thing to do was to press on and make for the palace, where they might finally get some answers.
From afar the Crystal Palace was impressive, but up close it was downright awe-inspiring. The entire structure was raised off the ground by four pillars, and each of those cornerstones held a massive staircase that wound upwards into the palace itself, allowing ascent into the structure. The pillars formed four giant archways, leading to a courtyard with a massive domed ceiling.
It was beautiful, but a strange design. It was as though the courtyard was meant to protect something at the exact heart of the city, but there was nothing. Not even a statue or a fountain.
The inside of the palace was likewise unadorned. Much like the homes of the crystal ponies they’d met with along the way, the walls were bare, with not even so much as a tapestry to brighten up the endless halls of smooth crystal. It was stark, uninviting, and the chill they all felt as they moved through the halls was only partly because of the temperature.
At the very least, Luna had been wrong about traps, so far, and they were eventually able to make their way to the third floor of the palace uncontested. While the rest of the castle hadn’t had so much as a throw rug, a long carpet ran the length of the hallway on this floor, leading from an enormous pair of doors out onto a large balcony that overlooked the entire western half of the city. The balcony was most likely there for the crowned ruler to issue public proclamations, but was big enough to accommodate a sizeable group of speakers.
The big doors were open, revealing the throne room, and they made their way towards it. There were other doors along the hallway, though they were far less impressive and a quick peek showed them to be offices for castle staffers and other miscellaneous meeting rooms.
The throne room had simple curtains hanging from the windows, dyed to match the same dark violet as the carpet. It was the bare minimum of décor, but it was positively ostentatious when compared to the rest of the castle.
As she looked around the sparse room, Twilight couldn’t help but compare it to the throne room back in Canterlot, with its collection of stained glass murals. It felt greatly lacking in comparison.
The throne – like everything in this city – was coldly beautiful. The crystals that formed the throne sparkled and shimmered in the light pouring in through the windows, and as their group drew near, Twilight realized that thousands of tiny gems were suspended within the crystal. A small, whimsical part of Twilight’s brain laughed at the thing, likening the suspended gems to the little bits of fruit that her mother put into gelatin moulds.
“What’s the deal with you three and creepy cities?” Spitfire asked as they approached the throne. “This place is practically a ghost town.”
“It can’t be a ghost town if there’re ponies living here,” Twilight said.
“If you call that living. You saw how they were. They’re like… like phantoms.” Spitfire shuddered.
“That’s why we’re here,” Cadance said. She stepped up to the throne, hesitating for only a moment as she lifted her hoof to climb the steps onto the dais.
Twilight saw the hesitation and knew what she had to do. “Cadance,” she said. Cadance looked back, her eyes filled with a trembling resolve, and Twilight smiled. “I’m here with you, honey. I’m not going anywhere.”
Cadance smiled weakly, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and ascended the steps to sit upon the throne. “We’re going to save these ponies,” Cadance said, her voice carrying a note of authority and power as it rang throughout the room. “Basenji, you’ve been very quiet. Have you noticed anything?”
The diamond dog frowned, his ear flicking nervously as he considered his words. “I have been… contemplative,” he said. “This place is very strange. The people of a city fill it with life, and so they give to it a heart which beats – this is part of the Ways. But the Ways of this city are so very weak that I can barely hear the rhythm.”
Cadance scowled. “We need more information,” she said assertively. “We’re going to need to continue knocking on doors, checking to see if there’s anypony around that might be fighting off this curse, or whatever it is.”
“That’s going to be a bit of a pain,” Spitfire said, sighing as she fluffed her wings in irritation. “Lot of doors.”
“It still needs to be done,” Cadance said. “If even one pony is able to tell us what’s going on in this city, it’ll be a huge help.”
“I’m not disagreeing,” Spitfire said, raising her hooves defensively. “I’m just grumbling – as is my way.”
“Before that, I think we need to have a better look around the castle,” Twilight said. “The upper floors need to be secured. After that, I think Basenji and I should start looking into how this place works. Since information is what we need, we need to look for books.”
Cadance laughed demurely, hiding her smile behind her hoof. “Of course you want to go looking for a library.”
A furious, otherworldly howl suddenly pierced the air, shaking the palace violently and ending further discussion. All four members of their group fell to the ground, clutching their ears in a futile attempt to block out the noise. The howl ended as suddenly as it began, and Twilight rose to her hooves shakily.
“What was that?” Spitfire asked. She took to the air and dashed down the hallway towards the balcony. “Twilight! You need to come see this!”
Twilight threw off her saddlebags. They’d only weigh her down. It was a straight shot to the balcony, so she charged her magic and teleported directly next to Spitfire.
In the far distance to the west, black stormclouds were gathering with an unnatural speed. Soon the entire horizon was blanketed with a churning, angry cloud of darkness that drew in on itself as it rushed in their direction. In the huge, billowing mass of darkness, something was glowing. A pair of green eyes glared at them, filled with pure, absolute hatred.
A low, rumbling wind washed over the city, carrying a voice like thunder. “Crystals…”
“What is that?” Cadance asked fearfully.
The clouds gathered even more quickly, and within seconds they’d become a stallion’s face. It was a unicorn, with a wickedly curving horn that glowed bright red. “Awaken, my slaves…”
“I think that’s King Sombra,” Twilight said, grinding her teeth. “Not quite as dead as we were led to believe.”
Twilight knew right then that she’d be having words with Luna next time she saw her.
“The crystal pony discussion is tabled for the moment!” Twilight said commandingly. “Cadance, Basenji, you two hold down the fort! Spitfire, you’re with me!”
Twilight gathered her magic and cast a spell that made her body very light. After the success she’d had using a mass-altering defensive spell as an improvised offensive attack against Ammit, she’d invested heavily in gravity magic and now counted a weight-reducer among her arsenal.
She leapt into the air, soaring much higher and further than should have been possible with her physical strength alone. She focused her magic again once she began to fall, and teleported herself closer to the ground, tweaking the spell to arrest a bit of her momentum. Between the teleportation and the power of the gravity spell, she’d manage a drop of several dozen meters to land safely. She didn’t waste time as she hit the ground trotting, tearing through the streets as fast as her legs would carry her.
The freezing wind whistled by Twilight’s ears, nipping at every inch of her flesh where her fur was thinnest – the tips of her ears, on her face, down her throat, and on her belly. She ignored it and the burning in her lungs as she drew in heavy breaths of near-arctic air.
Spitfire was above, the reflective lenses of her goggles obscuring her eyes, and she was easily keeping pace with Twilight. She’d pulled off the flight jacket she’d had earlier, and the flask filled with the phoenix oil had been returned to the holster on her arm.
“You got a plan, Twi?” Spitfire asked, shouting to be heard over the rush of wind as they hurried down the deserted streets to meet the cloud of darkness at the outskirts of the city.
“Not yet,” Twilight said between breaths. “But I’m just going to throw fire at him until I think of something better. It’s worked for me in the past!”
The sound of Spitfire’s laughter echoed loudly in their wake.
* * *
Cadance stood on the balcony, watching as Twilight and Spitfire galloped full-tilt at the quickly approaching mass of clearly evil magic. She paced back and forth, fretting in a most unladylike manner and not caring about how unladylike it was.
“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” she muttered nervously. “Oh no, oh dear.”
It was happening again. Twilight was leading the way into danger, while she stood at the back and waited. But what could she do? She wasn’t a fighter like Twilight. She had power by the bucketload, but not the skills or the instincts to use it effectively in a fight. What good was power when there was nothing she could do with it?
She ground her teeth, furious at her own impotence. She needed to help, to do something. But what?
“Friend Cadance,” came Basenji’s voice from behind her. “Please, do not worry for your beloved. My honored sister, Twilight Sparkle, shall protect this city.”
“And doesn’t that bother you?” Cadance asked. She turned to glare at him, disappointment clear on her face, though it wasn’t really Basenji she was disappointed in. “You’re fine with letting her go and fight all our fights for us?”
Basenji lowered his eyes. He held one paw on his drum, and the other was balled into a fist, pounding rhythmically at his leg. “You are worried, and ashamed of your lack of skill – this I understand, and I beg that you believe that I feel the same within my own heart. But what can we do?”
Cadance looked away, with shame filling her heart as she returned to pacing worriedly at the edge of the balcony. Basenji didn’t deserve the ugly look she’d given him. He was worried about Twilight, too, and it was a pointless exercise to argue about who was more worried.
“I’m sorry,” Cadance said. She heard a soft grunt from her dog companion, and the wordless response somehow carried more meaning than a simple acceptance of her apology. She took a deep breath, held it a moment, and released it. “We can’t just stand here doing nothing. We need to think of something.”
Basenji grunted again. “It is a spirit. Perhaps I can craft a song which can send it to the land of the dead… this may prove difficult, however. Even from a distance, I can see that there are dark ways tainting this spirit. What is left of his soul may be too twisted to be reached through the Ways. Perhaps if I had time to study, to consult the wisdom of the Old Dogs for insights into how this may be accomplished...”
“Time is something we don’t have much of,” Cadance said.
Basenji sighed. “As you say…”
There had to be something they could do. She mentally kicked herself, silently wishing she was as smart as Twilight, or Shining Armor, or one of her aunts.
She stopped and took another deep breath. That was not a productive line of thought.
She looked down over the city, searching for anything that might be helpful. Maybe there was trebuchet, or a cannon, or something she could use to help… but there was nothing. Just row after row of houses, and the addled crystal ponies listlessly milling around inside their homes.
An idea came to her suddenly.
What had Aunt Celestia said about the Crystal Empire? Something about the magic of love protecting the city. How did that work? Did the city naturally just pick up on the good vibes of the ponies living here?
“Maybe…” she muttered to herself. “Maybe… the problem isn’t with the city.... maybe the curse is only on the ponies, but not the city itself...”
A smile made its way to her face. She spun around to face Basenji, and he jumped, startled by the suddenness of the movement.
“I’ve got it!” she crowed. “This city wants love? Well I’m full of it!” Cadance thrust a hoof out, pointing dramatically at Basenji. “You and I are going to make love!”
Basenji tried to back away in a panic, but his footing failed him and he fell gracelessly onto his rear. “What!?”
“Calm down, that’s not what I meant.” Cadance strode to the very edge of the balcony, her smile growing with every step. “Play me a song. Something romantic. I need to get into the mood.”
Cadance closed her eyes and focused her magical sense. The power of her love for Twilight was strong, and through it, she could always feel her lover’s presence as a sense of security and contentment. With focus and a bit of Love magic, this link was strengthened, and Cadance could even feel every beat as Twilight’s heart raced with the exertion of her sprint. She focused on that, and on the memories she had of Twilight. Every touch, every kiss, every moment they’d shared over this past year came flooding back to her in vivid detail. The warmth of her love for Twilight was like a fire in her heart, surging and hot as the sun. She thought about her aunts, about her parents, about Twilight’s parents. She thought about Basenji, and Spitfire. Shining Armor and Spike. Their friends from Ponyville. The maids in the castle. The guards.
Everyone she’d ever met, everyone that had touched her heart, even briefly, came to mind. Her love for them all was like a thousand tiny flames, and they added their heat to the massive sun that was her love for Twilight Sparkle. She took all that heat, all that love, and spun it into magic.
She’d never done anything like this. This spell was all duct tape and bubblegum, cobbled together out of bits of a dozen other spells she knew, but it had to work.
She opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder at Basenji. When she spoke, her voice distorted the air around her with the force of the magic she was channeling inside her body. “Hey, come on now,” she said with a laugh at the shocked expression on his face. “It’s going to be a few minutes before this spell is ready. Play me something nice while we wait.”
* * *
Twilight stood at the edge of the city, panting as she caught her breath. Every exhalation released a puff of condensation like a train’s smokestack. Spitfire stood behind her, staring intently at the darkening sky. She didn’t even look winded.
They had decided to stop at the road marker they’d found at the edge of the city. It was a fair distance away from anyone else that might get hurt, and stopping here gave them a few minutes to collect themselves before they made contact.
“Big cloud, there,” Spitfire said simply. She spat on the ground and narrowed her own eyes at the two huge glowing green ones in the center of the mass of blackened smoke. “I don’t like the way it’s looking at me.”
“I suggest caution,” Twilight said as she drew her chakram and began building magic up inside of herself. “Pretty sure this is King Sombra, which means this is the unicorn that managed to hold an entire empire under his hoof with his magic alone. No idea what he’s capable of now that he’s… whatever he is, but let’s not get cocky.”
“Alright then, I guess it’s time for me to oil up,” Spitfire said. She pulled out the flask with her wing and applied a dollop of the viscous goop to her hooves. It glowed a bright golden yellow, like molten steel, and poured out of the flask with the consistency of honey, Even from a few paces away, through a howling snowstorm, Twilight could feel the warmth radiating from it. “Not that I don’t trust you,” Spitfire said as she massaged the chemical into her forehooves and up her arms as she’d been instructed on the train, “but if this stuff hurts, I’m beating out the flames with your face.”
Twilight snickered. “Don’t worry, phoenix magic has some immensely powerful healing properties. I’m sure that any burns you sustain will heal up pretty quickly.”
Twilight wasn’t worried. Luna had helped test the concoction already, so she knew it was safe. The formula worked by reacting to the magic that pegasi naturally possessed, which was often simply called Weather Magic – but the simplistic name belied the complexity of the magic. That magic made pegasi lighter and faster while in the air, in addition to the weather controlling they were capable of by instinct. Spitfire, and the rest of the Wonderbolts for that matter, had excellent control over this magic. It was what they used to create smoke trails behind themselves during their stunt shows.
Spitfire hesitated in her ministrations. “Somehow that doesn’t fill me to the brim with confidence…” she muttered as she quickly finished applying the oil.
The cloud containing what was left of King Sombra’s battered soul and magic roared. The smoke gathered again, solidifying into the gargantuan head of a unicorn that sneered at them malevolently. His mouth opened as he screamed wordlessly at them, baring unnaturally sharp teeth. He was still a bit away from them, but when it came to attack magic, distance on the battlefield was subjective.
His long crimson horn began to glow with violet colored magic that burbled and popped like soap bubbles. A glimmer of wicked delight flashed in Sombra’s eyes, and his magic gathered at the tip of his horn.
“Break left!” Spitfire shouted as she spread her wings and dove to the right.
Twilight was already in motion when Spitfire’s warning came. She leaped to the side, quickly casting a teleportation spell that took her safely out of range of whatever Sombra had just shot at them. Her chakram had come along for the ride, and she levitated it in front of herself defensively as she spun around to assess the damage Sombra’s spell had done.
The bolt of lightning, dark as the night sky, had stuck the place where she and Spitfire had been standing. Huge onyx-colored crystals rose out of the ground, projecting a magical aura as they grew and spread across the impact site. The magical aura coming off those things was sickening, greasy even, and made every hair on Twilight’s body stand at attention.
Sombra was actually cackling, like a villain in a play that had been amused by his own nefarious deeds.
Twilight looked up at him with a sneer. She definitely wasn’t going to give this guy the chance to hit her with that.
She gathered her magic for a fire spell, but rather than projecting it out of her horn, she changed the focus, weaving the spell pattern into the levitation spell on her chakram. The ring of steel began glowing white with the intensity of the heat, and a halo of golden flames radiated from the spinning disc. She commanded it forward, and the chakram took off like an arrow, straight and true, cutting right through the cloud of smoke.
Sombra wasn’t laughing now. He opened his mouth and roared in pain, his eyes focusing on Twilight with a deathly glare as his vaporous body reformed. He cast that black lightning spell again, but this time there was no showiness, no buildup, no attempt to frighten them with his power. The spell was formed and cast in the blink of an eye, with the speed of an accomplished magical fighter.
But Twilight was just as fast as he was. The second she saw him preparing the spell, she’d began her own casting. She teleported again, popping out and back into existence a short distance away.
Twilight still had control of the flaming chakram and directed its flight path back down, scoring a hit across Sombra’s horn as he charged another spell. The spell fizzled out, exploding into a shower of jet-black sparks. Bits of ash and cinder fell to the ground, staining the snow around them the color of coal.
Two lines of golden flame appeared in the sky above Sombra. Spitfire had ignited the oil and was diving headfirst towards the ground, her forehooves held out in front. She was spinning, the trail of flames corkscrewing behind her like a drill aimed straight at the back of Sombra’s head.
She punched through his head, and the apparently solid formation was reduced to wisps of smoke and soot as Spitfire gracefully spun through the air. The mass of dark magic shrieked in fury and pain, and Sombra’s eyes glared at them with pure, undiluted hatred.
Several more exchanges ended the same way. Sombra would attack, Twilight would quickly teleport away and strike at him, and Spitfire would speed in from his blind spot like a shooting star.
Some bit of Sombra was probably still more than a mindless, hate-filled beast, because he had enough intelligence to break off from the battle. He turned away from his attackers, barreling full speed for the Crystal Empire.
“Don’t let him get to the city!” Twilight shouted.
“Don’t gotta tell me twice!” Spitfire shouted in return.
But chase was unnecessary.
A single note, musical and clear and perfect, like the chime of a flawless crystal bell, rang throughout the city. A sphere of light blue energy blossomed in the distance, starting from the palace at the very center of the city and growing rapidly. As the sphere of magic expanded, that beautiful note rang across the city, and every building, every crystal, every stone, seemed to resonate with it.
It was like the entire city was struggling to wake up – stuck in the languid moments between sleep and full wakefulness.
In seconds, the sphere had grown large enough to encompass the entire city and stretched on beyond the edge of the city proper – but Sombra paid it no mind. He continued on, and the cloud of magic that was his body struck against the sphere with an audible thud. The force of the impact blew him back, and it took a few moments for the dispersed cloud to reassemble itself.
Sombra threw himself against the barrier again and again, beating himself against it. The intense magical aura contained in the cloud was diminished a bit with every failed attack.
Twilight grinned as she sent her still-blazing chakram at Sombra, scoring a hit across his shapeless body.
Sombra shrieked, howling in pain and frustration, and his eyes turned back to Twilight one last time before he flew straight up and fled to the west, in the direction he’d come from.
Twilight didn’t release the spell on her chakram until the dark cloud had fully disappeared from sight. The steel wouldn’t retain the heat of a fire spell after she’d released it, so she holstered it without hesitation.
Spitfire landed next to her in the snow, staring in the direction Sombra had escaped in. Her forelegs were still ablaze, and the hiss of snow melting under her hooves filled the air.
“Should we be chasing that thing?” Spitfire asked.
Twilight frowned. She hadn’t noticed, but the blizzard had only intensified since they’d arrived. The bubble of magic somehow seemed to have calmed the weather immediately around the city, but that benefit didn’t look like it would extend very far. The winds had picked up enough that it would be too dangerous for anypony – even somepony as experienced as Spitfire – to fly out in. Going on hoof was also out of the question, as there was too much chance that she and Spitfire might get separated, or even lost, as they wandered the snow. Considering conditions as they were, it was best to stay as close to the city as possible.
“No,” Twilight said with a shake of her head. “Storm’s too rough now. Let’s get back and check up on Cadance and Basenji. We need to wait for the blizzard to subside a bit before we can even start talking about chasing after that guy.”
Spitfire nodded her assent and put out her flames by shaking her hooves. It was an unnecessary gesture, as the flames died out on their own once they were no longer being fed magic, but it seemed like the sort of thing Spitfire would do, so Twilight didn’t comment on it.
Twilight walked up to the barrier and pressed a hoof against it, expecting a bit of resistance. Her hoof passed right through, and the moment she made contact with it she felt a comforting surge of warmth in her chest. She knew immediately what this bubble was made of.
“That mare of mine sure is full of surprises,” Twilight said, laughing as she crossed the barrier.
* * *