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Into the World1,148 words
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Forget the Secrets1,418 words

Into the World

I took one look at my wife, Cadance, and knew she was thinking the exact same thing I was.

We were bored.

It had been a week since my sister Twilight had gone home to Ponyvile with her 5 friends and Spike, and a week and a half since Sombra had been destroyed by the Crystal Heart. Cadance and I had spent the entire week in the castle, getting the Empire set up after its thousand-years-long vacation. Papers were filled out, trade had to be set up for supplies, and teachers had to be brought in to fill up the millennium gap in education. After a week of all these things happening, along with the initial adrenaline settling down, my wife and I were sitting in a room filled with papers we had signed. And it was boring.

"Do you want to go explore the town with me?" I asked, "We really haven't had the chance to, what with all the paperwork and Sombra attacking the Empire." I waggled my eyebrows at her, in that funny way she liked. "We can find a nice, private spot to do some not-so-nice things."

I could see her will breaking under my masculine wiles. "Shining, you know we have to-"

That was as far as she got before her face started to get grumpy, and I started to intervene. There would be no sour faces on my watch!

I sat up straight, and put my forelegs up. I used my pink telekinesis to pull my wife to me, and she started giggling. When she reached me, I gripped her tightly and started spinning. I held her close, and finally she started to laugh fully. As I slowed to a stop, so did her laughter, until it was just a light chuckle.

"As fun as that was," Cadance pouted, "we still have work to do."

The words made my ears fold down in sadness. As captain of the Unicorn Guard, I've had my fair share of paperwork. But this was ridiculous!

Cadance noticed my saddened face, and sighed.

"Fine. Shiny, why don't you go explore the kingdom while I finish this one last stack. Maybe you can find us something entertaining- or romantic- to do together after I'm done."

That was all I needed to hear. After a quick extra squeeze and a peck on her cheek, I was outta that stuffy room. I joyfully cantered down the hall, feeling like a young colt again. The stiffness from sitting all week was slowly dissipating as my muscles moved me out of the palace and out to the main road that surrounded the plaza. I headed east, as that was where the least amount of Crystal Ponies were. I wanted to explore, not socialize or ask for directions. Besides, the Crystal Ponies weren't really level with me- always with the Your Highness business they gave me as Prince-Consort. It was disheartening, and I just wanted to be a child for a bit, see where my hooves took me.

But for all my wistful thoughts, I soon noticed a distinct lack of ponies in the area. There wasn't a single crystally flank to be seen, and strangely, a fog seemed to roll in.

It shouldn't be foggy out here, I thought, it wasn't scheduled and the Crystal Heart should have kept all the bad weather out-

And then the temperature dropped.

I yelped, then started shivering violently. I was so cold, so suddenly, that I was paralyzed by it except for the shakes. I couldn't think clearly, the sudden temperature drop filling my heart with an irrational fear.

Two sets of cold, ice-blue eyes appeared out of the mist and a very rational fear struck me. Snow Leopards. I couldn't look away. Their cold, predatory gazes swept over me, and I couldn't focus. I searched my mind for my favorite spell, the bubble shield spell, but the rhyme wouldn't come to me. I was too scared, too cold. I shut my eyes, waiting for the end to come. I heard a small groan, a shifting of the snow in the leopard's body.

But death never came. I opened my eyes again, to see the leopard look strait into them. I shrunk back, only to feel something like a cold breath on my flank. I whipped my head around to see that the second cat was disturbingly close to my cutie mark, as if studying it. Then its mouth unhinged like a snake, and it scooped me up with it. I could feel myself falling into its stomach. It felt... warm. Or at lest warm enough to think.

I quickly lit up my horn, only to find it snuff out. Darn it. The snow must be runed against magic. I felt my prison shift as the snow leopards started waddling away from the scene of the crime. I could only hope it was away from the rest of the city.

=^=^=

"Ugh," I groaned. The initial terror had long since died off, once I realized I wasn't being eaten. Of course, after that I could only wonder who or what I was being taken taken to. The snow leopards had been waddling for over an hour (or two, I wasn't sure) while I tried to plan for when they would finally drop me.

"Oof!" They finally dropped me. I fell through the thing's stomach, onto a cold, hard stone cave floor. I quickly put up a shield, not wanting to die to whatever I was brought here for.

I heard a soft m'row that sounded amused. It was followed by a voice that almost sounded like a young colts', but with a hard edge that came from being an old stallion. "You found Shining Amour? Oh, goodie!"

"Armor, actually," I corrected, searching for the source of the voice. "Who are you, and what do you want?"

"Forgive me. After a thousand years of only myself for company, it's hard to keep track of the small things. As for who I am, I am death itself." A large, dark figure stepped out of the shadows. It was distinctly feline, approximately the size of a teen mare, and it had one white forepaw. Its eyes, the same color as the leopard's, contrasted with its black fur to the point where they seemed to glow. It had a purple collar with seven sharp teeth sticking out of it, and an extra tooth stuck to the tag ring.

"What I want, however..." It smiled largely, showing off the large, sharp teeth it had in its mouth, "is for you to kill me."

Author's Note:

Since this is my first fic, please be gentle. Constructive criticism is very much welcome, however straight out rude comments will be deleted. I hope people will enjoy this story as I write it, and if you don't, please explain why in the comments, as it will help me become a better writer.

The Snow Leopards came from the Ask King Sombra Tumblr, in case you were wondering.

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