Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 3:0 - The Return

Chapter 3:0 – The Return

Otto cursed as he lost his grip on the rope and the load of firewood dropped jerkily toward the ground. Leaning toward the hole in the center of the room, he could hear pieces of it that had spilled out clattering down below. He’d have to clean that up later, but there was no point in lowering the load he’d already heaved halfway up the tower in order to top it off. Laboriously, he hauled the remaining firewood up the rest of the way and secured it in place. Matters could have been worse. The door on the side of the box the firewood was in could have opened on its own, and then there would have been hardly any left worth pulling up. Otto unloaded the wood that was piled higher than the box’s sides before opening the door and pulling out the rest. Once it was all stacked up along the wall and he’d thrown some pieces into his cart, he pulled on a thick cloak and thicker cap and hitched himself up.

Nopony at the Cant’r Lahtian outpost in the Frozen North liked their duties, but firewood duty was the least liked of all. Not only would the guard assigned to it have to haul wood up from the base of the tower, where it was delivered by the ponies of the Crystal Mountains, but they then had to venture outside in order to feed the fire at the tower’s peak. Warmth beat against Otto as he pulled the cart up the ramp and onto the top of the tower, but he didn’t dare take off his warm winter clothes. Icy cold swirled against him the next moment, and his mane was caked with snowflakes as the eternal blizzard of the Frozen North fought against the fire that guided ponies to the outpost. Not that Otto could see any reason for ponies to come here unless they were under orders. That strange little bard had come, though, and stayed for a few weeks, but he’d left shortly before the new year.

The blaze at the center of the circular tower’s top was massive. It was rumored to be fed by Celestia’s magic, but if that were true, then why did the guards have to bring firewood up here? Otto trotted as close as he dared to the fire before throwing in the firewood. The flames didn’t appear to be dying out, but he and the others knew from experience how difficult it was to get the fire going again if it began to give way to the snowstorm, so no chances were taken in letting the flames diminish. Otto emptied the cart into the fire as efficiently as he could

On his way back to the door that led down into the tower, he spotted somepony down below through the blizzard. Actually, there were two ponies down there, pushing through the snow to get to the outpost’s door. It was hard to see through the blowing ice, but Otto was able to tell that one of them was a pegasus with her wings outstretched, despite that being a very unwise idea in the Frozen North’s weather. She didn’t seem to be affected, though, and neither did her companion. The snow eddied away in a sphere around them. So, one of them was a sorceress. Why were travelers suddenly interested in coming here?

Otto brought the cart inside and stripped off the heavy cloak and cap, leaving on the rest of the winter clothing he’d been wearing underneath. The stallion cantered down the spiral staircase that ringed the empty center of the tower, and he nearly tripped over a piece of firewood that had fallen onto a lower stair. Otto tossed it over the side to join its fellows and continued on. At the bottom of the stairs were piles of firewood, as well as wagons stacked with it. The pieces that had fallen out of the box during its ascent were scattered around, but Otto decided to leave them where they’d fallen. He’d forgotten to lower the box before coming down, and since he was on firewood duty for the next few days anyway, it could wait until later. He wanted to see who the visitors were.

“Who’s this, then?” he asked as he entered the outpost’s common room while tugging off his scarf.

The guests were a mare and a stallion, both dressed in heavy coats and cloaks that looked very fine, like something Stalliongrad’s royalty might wear. The stallion had a snowy coat that remained white even after he brushed the snow off, and he eyed the guards like a captain might during inspection. His companion was the one that Otto had first seen from the tower, a pegasus with a pink coat and wings. Only, she wasn’t a pegasus. Like the stallion, a horn sprouted from her forehead. She was an alicorn.

“Forgive me, your …” Otto said to her as he realized who she must be, but he was at a loss for how he was supposed to address her. Your grace? No, that’s how Celestia is—was—to be addressed. Madam sorceress? Maybe.

“M’lady will be fine,” Lady mi Amore Cadenza told him gently, “Though if you want to call me by name, please call me Cadence.”

“Yes, m’lady,” Otto said, and he looked to his fellow guards to make sure he didn’t make more of a fool of himself by asking questions for which they’d already obtained answers.

There were signs of a quickly hidden dice game that the stallion visitor was frowning at. Rickert swept up a coin that had fallen on the floor with a wing, and Otto managed to catch his eye.

“Lady … Cadence …” Rickert hesitated, though her ladyship didn’t seem to care about his informality, “… decided to pay us a visit.”

Very recently, Cadence had fulfilled her promise to Khosar Stalanokov to intervene with Prince Braid on his behalf and convinced him to grant Khosar some of the lands that had been taken from disloyal subjects. With that over with, she hadn’t wanted to return immediately to Cant’r Laht. While she was so far north, she wished to see the mysterious outpost in the Frozen North before returning home, something she’d likely never have a chance to see again. She and Shining Armor had set off with Prince Braid’s assistance and guarantee of safety across the Principality of Stalliongrad and through the Crystal Mountains. Cadence regretted that she hadn’t been able to be in Cant’r Laht for the summer solstice ceremony, but she had already missed Celestia raising the sun to usher in the new year the last thirteen years; she would have plenty more opportunities. Next year, it would be held at Cant’r Laht Castle, and as that was her place of residence since her return to Equestria, she would surely to be in attendance.

“Beggin’ your pardon, m’lady, but … why?” Otto asked, dumbfounded that somepony would come here willingly. Though she’s not the first.

“Because I want to see and understand every part of the Kingdom of Cant’r Laht, and you are as much a part of the realm as Ponieville, the roosts in the White Mountains, or Cant’r Laht itself,” Cadence replied.

Of course. She was the heir to the newly minted Kingdom of Cant’r Laht. If anything happened to Celestia and Luna, then she would be the one to take over as Cant’r Laht’s first queen. If Cadence were queen, would things be better or worse? Nopony understood why Celestia had insisted on building this outpost or why she insisted on maintaining it. Eventually, some began to wonder if the ancient sorceress herself knew the reasons or was just holding onto it in case the reasons may have once been important. Perhaps Queen mi Amore Cadenza would order the outpost abandoned, and the guards here could return to civilization. Even if that were the case, it likely wouldn’t affect Otto, Rickert, or any of the others. They’d be long dead by the time anything happened to Celestia and Luna.

“Do you hear that?” Cadence asked, cocking her head.

“I don’t ‘ear anything,” one of the guards said after a moment of listening himself.

“The wind has stopped,” Shining Armor stated.

“Impossible,” Rickert said, and though Otto agreed, he had to admit that he couldn’t hear it beating against the outpost any longer, “The blizzard of the Frozen North has raged for a thousand years.”

“Or longer,” Cadence said as she strode across the common room to the outpost’s northern door.

Nopony had opened that door in a very long time, perhaps in centuries. There was no reason to when nothing lived any farther north in Equestria than this outpost. A weapon rack filled with rusty swords and draped over with blankets stood in front of the door, and Cadence pushed it aside, making a dreadful racket as it overturned an empty barrel. A couple of the guards helped to remove the crossbar, though neither of them were nowhere near as confident as their lady in thinking that opening the door was a good idea. The latch stuck at first but came undone after Cadence hummed a few notes, and she pulled the door open to reveal a wall of snow.

The alicorn sorceress made quick work of the drift and stepped outside, followed by her husband and the guards, who were stupefied by the fact that they felt overwarm in their heavy cloaks. The storm had ceased and the sky was a bright blue, clear but for a few wispy white clouds that were being carried away by strong winds higher up in the atmosphere. Snow stretched out to the north as far as the eye could see, blinding in the sunlight, but it was beginning to melt away. A town could be seen not far away that definitely hadn’t been there before. Sometimes bored rookies would venture out into the storm and explore the area around the outpost, searching for something, anything, in the infinite whiteness, but they’d never found so much as an old scabbard—definitely never any ruins. This town wasn’t a ruin, though it did look to be in bad shape. On the northern horizon, something glittered and glinted in the sunlight, outshining even the glare from the snow.

“What is this?” Cadence wondered aloud curiously.

Comments

[WhitewolfStormrunner]

And the Crystal Empire returns.

[TasermonsPartner]

Hooray! New update! Though the fact that the Empire returned just as Cadence and Shining happened by the outpost on a tour seems abit dues-ex-machina. But that's par for the course, I guess. (Unless Cadence really was aware or suspicious of it the whole time, and was using the "tour" as an excuse?)

[Xanderfox]

Well the outpost was pretty much on top of the Empire, makes me wonder was thier a distortion right behind the door before the Empire returned or is the outpost inside the boarder of influence of the Crystal Heart?