Evenfall: Verdant White

by Yinglung

Chapter 3 – Ballad of the Aurora

“Pisa!”

Pisacan’s ears perked up, and she carefully stood up from her hammock bed. She then smilingly walked towards the source of the voice.

“Spike, isn’t it?”

“Um, yes, I’m.”

“What may I help you?”

“Nothing. I’m looking for you because lunch is ready. We have egg stew for today!”

Pisacan smiled. “Thank you for looking out for me, Spike.”

“You’re welcome, Miss Pisacan.”

“Just Pisa is fine, Spike.”

Pisacan then quietly muttered. “In trying times like this, eating our good fill might be the simplest, but also the most blissful activity out here.”

Spike chuckled, and he was surprised to see Pisacan reached over to the table and poured a cup of water for herself.

“Wow, you’re still quite versatile… despite your sight.”

“Heh, I would pretend that I’m a super adaptor. But in truth, I have a special skill that let me ‘see’ to a certain extent without my eyes.”

Spike was intrigued. “What would that be?”

“You see, ever heard of how bats see with their poor eyesight?”

Spike’s smile turned into an uneasy gulp. “B- Bat? Uh…”

“Oops, sounds like you have a bad experience with them.”

“… You may say so.”

“Let’s use another example then. The bat ponies are also known to use a similar method, which is the sound of echo.”

“Echolocation?”

Pisacan instinctively widened her bright green but unseeing eyes. “… Oh my, you’re a learned dragon, aren’t you?”

“I never thought that would be useful when Twi forced me to study it.”

“Twilight, Sparkle…”

Pisacan muttered under her breath, then she shook her head and smiled. “Anyway, yes, I make clicking noises with my mouth or my hooves, and I find things by listening to the echoes. Neat, right?”

“Yeah, but…” Spike scratched his cheeks and became reticent.

“But how come I know such a convenient skill if I’m just blinded recently?”

“Uh…”

Pisacan chuckled. “You don’t have to be overly cautious, Spike, the only one I’m going to vent my anger on about my blinding is the orange witch.”

Spike let out an uncertain but affirmative mumble, and Pisacan continued. “I used to have a bat pony wet nurse when I was a foal. When I was young, I was curious about all those weird noises she made, when she waded through our house in the dark. After I asked, she taught me how to echolocate. I never gave it another thought till I was blinded all of a sudden.”

She shook her head. “It’s such a sad thing that when King Sombra came to power, all non-crystal ponies were thrown out of the empire, or else she might still be with us, not buried in the ancient past.”

“I’m sorry for your loss, Pisa.”

Pisacan pressed her lips. “There are many like me, and my personal losses are not the least special. What’s more important is that even at this very moment, countless Vinidi kin of mine are slaving away in unknown locations, toiling in hard labor… or even forced to become the orange witch’s pawns. She must be stopped. I would do anything, give anything for that to happen.”

“Pisa, we all want to stop her, but don’t do anything rash.”

Pisacan extended her hoof and patted Spike. “No, I would not be. We’ve waited five years for Sombra to be defeated, and then a thousand years more in the limbo of time. If there’s anything a Vinidi has, it’s plenty of patience to see to our enemies’ final demise.”

Spike gulped. He knew that he could not afford to be too kindly, since this Sunset Shimmer was incredibly ruthless. Still, the harsh language made the simple dragon feel somewhat uncomfortable.

He slowly sighed. “Pinkie is my marefriend.”

Pisacan’s surprised reaction carried a hint of strange uncertainty. “… Oh.”

“My heart and my guts tell me to rescue her right now, fire and claws blazing. We have met not nearly enough since Twi’s miraculous comeback, and then I chose Twi over spending more time with her. I’m a horrible drakefriend, I know it and I want to make up for it now. But I’ve drunk some ice cold kumis Prince Rutherford gave me, and I’ve given the current matter another good thought.”

He heavily sighed. “We really should get south first. When we have enough distance from that evil senior alum of Twilight, we should be able to think up better and safer way to defeat her and rescue our loved ones. I fear that any decision made in this state of panic will not be a wise one.”

“I agree.”

“I fear that time is not on our side though. Who knows what in the world does Sunset Shimmer send those soldiers around for. The only major nation up north other than Crystal Empire is Yakyakistan, and I don’t believe for one that she isn’t pointing her hoof here on a map. If her army comes, we’ll all be trapped.”

“When will the ships come exactly?”

“About three more days, I believe.”

“Not nearly quick enough… We’ve already waited for two.”

From outside the guesthouse suddenly came a loud and low howl, which was joined by many more. The ground trembled with the sound of many hooves treading.

Pisacan was alarmed. “What happened?”

“I- I’m not sure! But it sounds like the yaks’ war cry!”

“What?! Tacagà! Speak of the orange witch!”

“It m- might not be her necessarily, right?”

The door to the room was barged open, and in came a panicked looking duo of zebra and pegasus.

“Spike, Pisa! The Crystallians are flooding up the valley and preparing to siege the Gate of Heaven!”

Pisacan gritted her teeth. However, she breathed out eventually and said.

“I wouldn’t overly worry for now, even though the enemy’s at our gate.”

Kanipha raised a brow with aghast. “Not worry? They number in the thousands! They would sack the dang place and round us all up in a jiffy!”

“No one has ever taken the Gate of Heaven in an assault or a siege before. This should include the stretch of time that the crystal ponies disappeared from the face of the earth.”

The zebra colt scoffed. “That kind of boastful statement is just waiting to be slapped in the face by reality, isn’t it?”

“I’m not saying that no force in the world can successfully invade Yakyakistan. However, it will take more than number to storm the gate and then siege the Castle of the Sky Father. The Gate of Heaven is not just the gate itself, but a series of well-stationed battlements on the winding roads to the summit. It is built on a natural choke-point, where all roads narrow into a tight ravine, and only one yak or several ponies can pass at a time. Spike, Kanipha, you should know how treacherous the roads uphill since you presumably walked here, right?”

Spike scratched his cheeks in embarrassment. “Actually… We were carried up by a procession of yaks after we befriend them. We couldn’t see a thing in the ornate litter.”

“Oh… Well, then let me explain further. On the slopes that hug the roads to the gate line a chain of watchtowers. In them there are many expert yak rock-slingers and archers, ready to rain down Tartarus onto the invaders. And if the invading army managed to miraculously pass through the gate, then they have to face the prospects of either scaling the almost vertical mountain face, or marching in single file through three more waycastles till they reach the heavily reinforced main gate. Even Sombra himself was heavily wounded when he foolishly tried to invade, and that helped Celestia banish him to the north in his weakened form. Non-flying creatures would have a really hard time trying to get in.”

Spike sighed in some relief. “Heh, when you put it like that, it’s much less worrisome.”

Pisacan coldly added. “Heartless witch… She seems to be willing to spill countless Crystallian blood just to have a shot at taking a piece of yak lands.”

“What should we do now…?” Kanipha said with worry.

“We’re visitors to Yakyakistan. At times like this, we shouldn’t really move around unless absolutely necessary, because they might suspect that we’re spies. It’s doubly incriminating for me because I’m a crystal pony. I bet if not for Spike, I would already be interned.”

Geuse nodded and turned to the zebra colt. “Indeed. Kanny, this is a different situation compared to Timbucktu. We’re guests, and we should stay put for now. When the initial chaos passes, we can seek an audience with Prince Rutherford to see what we can do.”

A deafening blast pierced their ears, and the ground shook violently. Everyone in the room was almost thrown to the floor.

“Now what the Tartarus was that about?”

“Look outside!”

The three with good sight peeked from the small window of the room, which had a commanding view of the valleys below the capital. The morning mist permeating the valley was all but dispersed.

In a distance down the winding trail, where the Gate of Heaven was located, the ravine that formed the defensive choke-point of Yakyakistan was utterly obliterated, leaving a giant crater near crumbled waycastles and watchtowers.

Geuse said in shock. “What kind of destructive power is that?! The Gate of Heaven is utterly destroyed! In just one blast! Even the mountain body nearby is blasted off!”

“That- that is…”

Pisacan said shakily. “Where could this monstrous destructive power come from?”

“Could it be Sunset Shimmer’s magic?”

“… I have no idea of the limit to her magical power. But in the brief time that I had to deal with her, she didn’t come across as a particularly physical magic user, and she disliked menial work quite a lot. This doesn’t sound like her hoofiwork.”

“Then what-”

Another grounding-shaking blast saw the mountain face to the summit spectacularly collapsed. Pulverized rocks and rubbles fell from the sky and deposited under the base, seemingly into a gentler and wider slope for the army to walk on.

Kanipha yelped. “They’re blasting their way up! At this rate they would clear themselves a way to the main gate by sundown!”

Spike narrowed his eyes and said. “Whatever they’re using, it is not magic. No telltale signs of spell-casting as Twi taught me.”

“They’ve brought… cannons? But this kind of destruction is unheard of!”

Geuse gritted her teeth. “They must’ve figured out a way to really up the ante on their firepower, haven’t they?”

Pisacan muttered. “That’s bizarre… Crystallians were never really big gunpowder users, because ours was always terrible. There is no good source of saltpeter and sulfur up north, and ever since the days of the emperors, we’ve only relied on pony wave attack in battles – in other words, throwing a giant wave of hoof soldiers into a frontal assault, and hoping that it breaks the spirits and formation of the enemies. Sombra simply turned that tactic up to eleven.”

Spike breathed through his teeth. Reaching into his bag on the desk, he took out a telescope and gazed out the window with it. He swept the scenes of carnage with his eyes, but he suddenly stopped.

His claws shook, and his telescope almost dropped to the ground if not for Kanipha who caught it in time.

“What gives, Spike? That telescope was a precious gift from the ponies of Hollow Shades!”

“… That can’t be…!”

Spike looked entirely shaken, and the two mares near him both extended a hoof and asked with worry.

“What’s wrong, Spike?”

He again breathed in through clenched teeth. “Pinkie…”

“Pinkie is out there?!” Geuse gasped.

“Pinkie… She is wearing Crystallian colors and leading the charge up the hill!”

Geuse went silent at first. Before sadness and regret could creep up her face, unadulterated rage already took its place, as the orange pegasus almost broke her clay cup in brute force with her hoof and let out a frustrated yell.

“Sunset Shimmer! You scum!”

Pisacan also quietly simmered. “Absolutely lowest…”

Kanipha took up the telescope Spike dropped and gazed out again. He said with “She… She was carrying something on her shoulder.”

Geuse let out a heavy sigh. “Lend me the telescope, Kanny.”

Kanipha complied, and Geuse tried to identify the said object. The orange pegasus drew in a heavy breath and said. “It is the hoof-held cannon Pinkie brought with her up north…”

“Are you kidding me?! That thing cannot be much larger than a pony! How come it can blow off half of a mountain in one single hit?”

Geuse shook her head wryly. “If there’s anything I’ve learnt, it’s not to question what kind of skills and tricks Twilight and her friends hid under their sleeves. It’s terrible for these skills to fall into the wrong hooves, though.”

Pisacan bit her lips. “So… this Pinkie, she really has no reason to attack the yaks, no?”

Both Spike and Geuse turned sharply. Spike looked offended and was about to retort, but Geuse stopped him. “Pisa, I can swear on my honor and my life, if Pinkie is herself and in anyway sane, she would never partake in an unjust and unprovoked invasion. Not to mention unleashing such a destructive force on anyone.”

“Why did she bring a cannon this powerful with her, then?”

Geuse winced. “That… you have to ask her. She does many things without much reasoning behind, but she really is not a bad pony.”

Spike finally couldn’t bear it and join in. “For goodness’s sake, she’s friend to all Ponyvillians, and she organize party literally for everyone! Not to mention she’s the Element-bearer for friggin’ Laughter! How dare you imply that she’s in anyway in cahoots with Sunset Shimmer?”

Pisacan was a bit taken aback. “I’m sorry, Spike, Geuse. I… I just feel that’s a bit unreal. I don’t mean that you’re lying or anything, and my skepticism might seem ridiculous given what happened under Sombra.”

Pisacan shook her head wistfully. “I just found it hard to believe that this is actually happening, that something as nefarious and condemnable as mind control is being brought back to bring havoc to the world, and an illustrious Element-bearer is her victim. I shudder to think if she decided to pull this on me instead of taking away my sight, or on any of my kinsponies to make them listen to her. But now it seemed to be delirious to think that she would not stoop this low. I’m so sorry. I must sound horribly insensitive for doubting your good friend.”

Spike’s brows were still tightly knitted, but he eventually sighed. “… No offense taken, Pisa. We all have our reasons to be sad, or angry, or even fall into escapism. But the most important thing now is to take Pinkie back, both to rescue our friend and remove biggest danger in Sunset Shimmer’s invasion force.”

Kanipha exhaled. “This would be very dangerous!”

“When she’s held deep inside Crystal Empire and far away, we still have excuses. Now that she’s so close to us, and that we have a chance to snap her away from Sunset Shimmer, we must give it a try. If I don’t, my guilty conscience will forever eat at me.”

“Right you are, Spike.”

Geuse nodded forcefully. “The situation is different. Now we should be bringing Pinkie back, even if she’s kicking and screaming.”

“Let us go to Prince Rutherford with this information and plan. Hopefully my badge as a ‘dragon champion’ helps persuade him to cooperate.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The Prince sure was shocked to see a pony speak Yakyakistani.” Spike commented wryly.

“We used to trade with the yaks a lot despite our rivalry, but all relationships collapsed when Sombra came to power. Still, Yakyakistani was a must-learn for a Vinidi heiress like me. I bet the yaks haven’t heard Yakyakistani from a non-yak for precisely a thousand years now.”

Pisacan’s gaze flickered. “But what about you, then? What use is knowing Yakyakistani to a dragon? You almost make Prince Rutherford tackle you in a brotherly hug!”

“I don’t know… Maybe to beg for ships and safe passage?”

“Ha ha, you cheeky drake. Fair enough.”

Pisacan laughed. “I bet it’s another thing that your dear Twilight made you learn.”

“Well, who else? Almost every pony I met think that since Equestrian is pretty much the lingua franca of lands from Saddle Arabia to Zebrica, there is no use to learn it on the off-chance that they meet a foreigner.”

Pisacan grinned. “Heh, why then she insisted to have you learn foreign languages?”

“She said that Equestrians cannot afford to think that they’re exceptional, that they can take it for granted everyone has to follow their hoofsteps. It’s a surefire way to stagnation and earning resentment. Making an effort to speak someone else’s tongue, even when you fumble through it like a fool, is almost always taken as a sign of respect.”

Pisacan smiled. “She’s a wise pony.”

“She truly is. That’s why it hits hard to see her lose her memories now. I hope that we can eventually find a way to make her… whole again.”

Pisacan nodded, and then touched her cheek uncertainly. “I… I’m sorry for talking about your marefriend like that.”

“I told you already, you don’t have to apologize. You didn’t know Pinkie, and you didn’t know us that well either. It’s natural for you to doubt just one side of story.”

“You’re such an understanding dragon, Spike. In fact, all three of you are such upright people. My father must be pleading hard with Lady Destiny in heaven, in order for me to get rescued by Geuse and then meet the rest of you.”

Spike smiled with a hint of melancholy. “You’re being way too kind with your words as well.”

“I’m serious. When you’re the young head of an influential clan, honesty and kindness come across as rare commodities. Ruling a clan in Crystal Empire is a soul-wrenching affair, and my father certainly was hit hard. You three come by like dew drops in a drought, and you never once complain about the troubles of taking care of a blind mare, or having to spell everything out to the tee. I can’t be more thankful.”

Spike slowly breathed out, and then grinned. “Hey, Pisa.”

“Yes?”

“If you really want to thank me, there’s a way.”

“I’d love to give you some of the Vinidi fortune, but Sunset-”

“Silly Pisa! Of course I’m not so crude! I’m talking about the interesting tongue that you speak.”

Pisacan tilted her head in genuine surprise. “Huh?”

Spike chuckled at the rare showing of naiveté from the yellow mare. “Yep, I mean those curious little phrases that you sprinkle your speech with. Those aren’t Standard Crystallian, are they? Even your name does not sound Crystallian.”

“You’re so perceptive!”

Pisacan covered her mouth and chuckled. “Yes, we speak Vinidian in addition to Standard Crystallian, and it’s different from the rest of Crystallian languages. In fact, before the great migration which saw crystal ponies sailed west en masse, Vinidia was a nation within a nation, with its own tongue, laws and of course, our famous fleet which was responsible for transporting so many ponies across the sea.”

She patted her puffy mane. “Clearly, there were many more different unique groups and nations within the Empire, which stemmed from the imperial expansion, and they all spoke languages related to but not the same as Imperial Crystallian. But I can say that we Vinidis take immense pride from having an identity of our own, even to this day. Most other groups have long been assimilated, and ceased to call themselves anything but a Crystallian or crystal pony. But we Vinidis stand and stay proud.”

“Wow… So, Pisa, what does your name mean in Vinidian?”

“It means ‘dandelion’. My mother named me so because of my tufted mane.”

Spike smiled. “That’s an apt and beautiful name.”

Pisacan slightly blushed. “T- Thank you.”

“So, uh, what does Tacagà mean then? I heard you say that a moment ago.”

Pisacan did a spit-take. “W- What? Uh, uh… it, uh…”

Spike chortled. “A really dirty swear word, isn’t it?”

“S- Spike, you knew it and you still asked!”

“I just want to learn more Vinidian from you… after everything’s sorted, of course.”

“Of course yes! I’d be more than glad to teach you, Spike. It’s rarer than a blue moon that someone from outside Crystal Empire would be interested enough about Vinidis.”

Spike chuckled. “Thanks, it’s also not at all common to have a head of a nation herself teach you their national language. And since you’re the head of the Vinidis, aren’t you technically a Princess of Vinidia?”

Pisacan’s jaw dropped, and then she laughed, almost with tears out. “Hahahaha! My side, Spike! Never in my life did someone suggest something as ridiculous as that!”

Spike blushed. “It isn’t that ridiculous, is it?”

“Oh Spike, but it makes no sense. Vinidians never had any native princes or princesses.”

“No princesses? Then who ruled Vinidia? How did the government work?”

“Vinidia had a Great Council of forty one wisest and most influential ponies, who would elect leaders, who would then serve for a life-time. These leaders were called the doxe, or doge in Equestrian. They were not royals, therefore they couldn’t be called princes or princesses, although they did wield similar powers. After the great migration, because of our dwindling numbers and increasing central authority, the Mazor Consegio was eventually abolished, and the head of the Vinidi clan became a hereditary position with no statutory power.”

“I see…”

Pisacan smiled sweetly. “Well, maybe you can be the catalyst for the revival of Vinidia, Spike! People might actually take an interest in us after they hear the dragon champion is learning our tongue!”

Spike lightly chuckled. “You jest, Pisa.”

“It made you laugh, didn’t it? You need to relax your nerves before going with Geuse and Kanipha.”

Spike sighed, and Pisacan threw a hoof on his shoulder. “I can’t help much out there, so I’ll be here hoping for your safe return. Please, pull back when it gets dangerous, I really want to have the Vinidian lessons with you like you asked.”

Spike nodded. “Thanks, Pisa. Wish me luck.”

“I will.”

Spike looked out of the window. A purple trail of smoke billowed from the Prince’s Palace, signaling him to meet Prince Rutherford for the last time before leaving.

“I must go now.”

“… Please come back soon.”

The dragon smiled, albeit a bit weakly. “I… will try. Yeah, try.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The narrow trails to the summit of the Yakyakistani capital were a scene to behold. Strange-shaped rock jutted up from the slopes, forming spectacular arcs and bridges. Patches of grass, deep ravines, as well as crooked firs and birches, together created a view worth a thousand fair paintings.

However, the mountain pass was now pure desolation. Rubbles covered the now flattened pass, mixed with the obliterated remains of watchtowers and gatehouses. A few yak defenders who could not escape in time languished in pain among the ruins, until the Crystallian soldiers from behind swept in and captured each and every one of them.

Sunset Shimmer, who was now wearing an armor of gold and red, proudly announced to the soldiers in the temporary camp, who all listened with rapt attention.

“Soldiers of Crystallia! You’ve heard what they said about Yakyakistan… How it is ‘impregnable’, ‘unconquerable’! How yak warriors are ‘brave juggernauts’ of war! And yet, gaze upon this!”

She waved towards the destroyed paths.

“All lies to confound the honor and glory of our motherland!”

The soldiers cried out together with passion, prompting the orange mate to continue.

“The treacherous yaks spread lies to placate us, promising peace and trade. And yet what did they do? Kidnapping our good princess and prince, while threatening to halt our peaceful resettlement of the north! The shameful attack on our newly built railroad station showed us yet again the yaks’ cowardly plan to infringe our border and damage our sovereignty. It is crystal clear that there is no willingness on the part of the Yakyakistani government to conduct serious negotiations with us. I will not let them succeed in their nefarious plan to suck the blood out of our proud nation while hiding behind their forts. I will continue this struggle, no matter against whom, until the safety of the Empire and its rights are secured!”

The soldiers all erupted in cheers, raising their right hooves enthusiastically to salute their heroic leader.

“Today, our work towards regaining our ancient glory is greatly strengthened by the presence of the Element-bearer of Laughter, Pinkamena Diane Pie. Her ingeniously crafted weapon had flattened the defense of our cowardly enemies, allowing us, the true heirs of Roam, to march on! Destiny smiles upon us, Crystallians! Once more arise and be worthy of this historical hour! We shall win!”

Amidst another deafening round of cries, the trio retreated back into the gully, where they were hiding.

Spike this time served as the translator, but as he progressed, his expression turned sourer and sourer, and when he went to the part when Sunset Shimmer mentioned Pinkie, he almost burst out a bolt of fire in uncontrollable anger.

Kanipha commented. “Woah… what a dangerously charismatic orator… I can see why she might not need mind control spells and still makes the crystal ponies follow her. Heck, if I don’t know what was that about, I might even be inclined to think that the yaks indeed sneak-attacked the crystal ponies and earned their rightful ire.”

“That makes her even more dangerous…”

Geuse gritted her teeth. “If it’s just mind control, perhaps we can get them out of it by smacking them in the head. But if they truly believe Sunset Shimmer is their national savior, who would bring about a new age of glory and prosperity, they would absolutely fight to their last breath even if we slap them silly.”

Spike, however, was occupied with something else entirely. “I can’t see Pinkie…”

“I didn’t either.” Kanipha nodded.

Spike frowned. “But I swear we saw Pinkie walking back into the camp with the main army group.”

Geuse suggested. “Come to think of it, the soldiers here seem to be fewer than we saw on our way down.”

The dragon gasped. “It can’t be that when we’re flying around the bend, Pinkie was again sent out with a detachment?!”

Geuse widened her eyes, and Kanipha gritted his teeth. “Curses! We must’ve missed it when we fly low to avoid detection!”

“Telescope… telescope!” Spike muttered while reaching in his bag in a near-panic, and then hurriedly pointed the device towards the castle side. He immediately located the solitary dot of pink in front of the castle gate.

“Dang it! They’re already in front of the gate! Geuse, fly us there quickly!”

“O- Okay, hang on to me!”

The pegasus flew with her full speed towards the castle, this time abandoning the pretense of secrecy. A small contingent of crystal pony soldiers immediately located her, and showered a hail of arrows in her direction.

Geuse opened her wings and arrested her own momentum in the air, and the arrows passed above her head in a close shave. She then immediately started flapping again and managed to dodge the next wave of arrows by flying behind a hill.

“My ancestors! I thought that was the end of me!” Kanipha yelped.

“Yeah, I thought I was going to meet my set of ancestors as well, even I don’t really know who they are.” Spike swiped his chest in palpitation.

Geuse gasped for another mouth of air and said. “C- Couldn’t you just breathe a ball of fire and burn away the arrows?”

“No can do! Arrows are way too fast and my fire is not nearly hot enough. It would just turn the dang arrows into fire arrows!”

“… Point taken.”

Kanipha said. “Look, we’re approaching the castle! The gate had already been breached!”

After another look, he added. “Pinkie… Pinkie is inside, and she’s knocking out the yak soldiers!”

Geuse gasped. “What the…? I know earth ponies are strong and all, but they’re friggin’ yaks!”

Spike gritted his teeth. “I don’t know! The only thing we need to do now is to take her away from Sunset Shimmer and the Crystallians!”

“I… agree. You two, get behind me and grab tight on my tail, I’m going down at maximum speed!”

The pegasus let out a loud battle cry, as she rapidly descended to the direction of the pink pony with the speed of a shooting star. Both Spike and Kanipha struggled to hold on, and they felt the pressure of wind on their faces as if it was going to pull their legs off.

All of a sudden, in a loud blast, the sound barrier was broken. A brilliant trail of green shot from a sphere of radiant orange.

“H- Holy crap, was that what Twilight said the cyan pony did? A Sonic Rainboom? Except it’s, uh, orange and green?” Kanipha gasped.

Spike almost barked. “Kanny! We’re in the middle of a battle, pay attention and appreciate her feat later!”

“O- Okay, geez!”

They then swiftly closed in on the ground, and they could see the battle scene more clearly. Pinkie was indeed fighting in the forefront, while the other Crystallian secured the line of retreat and demolish the defensive structures, but Pinkie was now holding another device which seemed to cause any yak that came by kneel down in agony.

Suddenly, the three felt a splitting headache developing in their heads as well, and Geuse let out a yelp of pain, and instinctively flapped her wings down to get up away from the offending source.

Kanipha cried out again. “What the Tartarus was that?!”

Spike peeked and said. “Looks like a modified speaker… Another one of Pinkie’s gadgets! It must be playing headache-inducing ultrasound to disable her enemies!”

Geuse massaged her head and yelped. “Darn it, why are there so many gadgets of hers that have offensive potential?!”

“Geuse, I’ve seen a similar device in her home, I know how it roughly works. Can you do it?”

“Do what?”

“It’s actually quite fragile. Can you fly above her and deliver a drop kick to the device to knock it out?”

“Wow, you sure know how to pick the most difficult request, Spike! She keeps moving around and the device will surely disorient me. How in the world can I make sure that I don’t kick her head off instead?”

“We have to try!”

Kanipha interjected. “Hey, what about we really kick Pinkie’s head to knock her out? It can prevent her from resisting-”

“What the Tartarus, Kanny, are you serious? At this height, the momentum would break her spine, if not really take her head off! I don’t want another loved one of mine to become disabled, nor do I want a headless marefriend!”

“F- Fine, I retract my suggestion… How about picking her up then?”

This time Geuse shook her head. “It’s busy enough with you two on my back. Adding a kicking and screaming Pinkie will be way too much!”

“Well, Geuse, how about plan A then?”

“I guess I have no choice, don’t I. Hold on tight again!”

Geuse again descended quickly, this time bracing herself for the ultrasound-induced headache. At first, she was able to tolerate the disorienting effect. But as she got close to the device, it was as if the helm to her body control was yanked away crudely.

Letting out a pained yell, she nonetheless tried to stay on target, even though it’s no longer possible to fine-tune her flight using her wings.

Pinkie was bucking the last of the semi-conscious defenders aside. Hearing a sharp squeak in the air, she looked up. Before she could get a good look though, it was as if a giant hammer was knocked onto her side and she stumbled back.

She gasped, as she found her Vestibular Imbalance Propagator, VIP, knocked onto the ground and broke into a thousand pieces.

She turned a bit vexed, as she scanned for the culprit. Finally, she located a heap of creatures in a distance and closed in.

“You meanies! I was told by Shimmie to fight the yaks, why did you break my-”

Pinkie’s frown became a giant smile when she recognized the three, who was climbing up from the ground with alarm.

“Spike! Geusie! Kanny! Wow, how come you’re here in Yakyakistan? Are you here to help Shimmie out as well, huh, huh? And Geusie, why did you suddenly sneak away in the middle of the night? Shimmie is so, so sad and so, so mad! She immediately sent guards all over the city to look for you!”

“… See for yourself, Spike.” Geuse cupped her forehead with immense sadness and regret.

Spike and Kanipha went briefly speechless. The dragon then gulped and said. “P- Pinkie, why are you helping Sunset Shimmer to invade Yakyakistan? You’ve destroyed their city and wounded many yaks!”

“Silly Spike, the yaks attacked first! Shimmie says so, so it must be true! And so they have to be punished so that they won’t do it again! It’s for the greater good, and also to preserve the peace and harmony of Crystal Empire!”

Kanipha grunted and yelled. “Snap out of it already, Pinkie Pie!”

“Yeah Pinks, don’t give in!”

Pinkie looked genuinely bemused. “Give in to what? I’m just doing what’s best for everyone, because Shimmie-”

Kanipha and Spike looked at each other for a moment, and the dragon hardened his resolve. “You must come home with u-”

“Pink pony destroy Gate of Heaven, wound many yaks! I, Prince Rutherford, will offer up pink pony as offering to Sky Father! Pink pony will be nailed to the top of Everhoof and let eagle peck her heart out slowly and painfully!”

Spike gasped and cried out in horror.

“Prince Rutherford! No!”

The enraged yak prince turned in surprise to find Spike and others standing nearby.

“Dragon champion, what do you have to say about her only fate? She deserves no less after such an ignominious attack on the nation of Yakyakistan!”

“Pinkie is my marefriend, and she is not herself right now! Her mind is being controlled by the evil consul of Crystallia, and she will never do such a thing-”

The pink pony suddenly interjected and yawned. “So much mumbling in a strange speech! Shimmie told me not to waste any time.”

She again took out and raised her pocket cannon, and aimed right at the ancient palace of the yaks.

Spike screamed. “N- No—!”

The dragon jumped with all his might and tackled the pink pony. The latter yelped in surprise as Spike managed to get a hold of the cannon and punch it far away, which was promptly grabbed by Kanipha on the other side.

“Good job, Spike!”

Pinkie smiled and embraced the dragon, briefly forgetting what had preceded. “Heheh, Spike, you’re so passionate!”

Normally Spike would savor a moment of intimacy, but Pinkie’s clear anomaly made him feel incredibly uncomfortable at being cuddled. He immediately squirmed out and said. “Pinkie, we must go!”

Pinkie became sullen. “I can’t, Shimmie said if I haven’t mopped up all resistance outside the Castle of Sky Father, and blasted a hole for the Crystallian soldiers to get in, she would… she would hate me forever! I quite let her down, she’s my bestest friend!”

Spike held his head in utter frustration. “Pinkie, you’re being controlled!”

“Hmm…? If Shimmie is my bestest friend, then why does it matter?”

Geuse snapped and closed in. “Talking is useless, Spike, drag her away and be done with it!”

“And do you think I would allow you to do so, Geuse?”

The group turned to the source of the voice, and it was Sunset Shimmer, who stood at a distance with a thin smirk. Surprisingly, there was no soldiers who followed her around this time.

“You’ve already committed a grave crime by breaking out Pisacan de Vinidi, traitor to the law and to the Crystallian nation. Your name and likeness is already being circulated in our press, and later Equestrian press, and you will live in ignominy forever… if I let you live, that is.”

“Sunset Shimmer! Did you cast your foul magic on Pinkie when you two were in the small room?”

The orange unicorn smirked. “So what if I did?”

“Return her to normal at once, or face the consequences!”

“Hahahaha! I’m trembling in my armor, Geuse! I’d think that I’m somehow the one being surrounded with thousands of soldiers, if I hadn’t turned my head and checked!”

“…!”

“Now surrender at once, and tell me where you hid that traitor, and I might consider not making you lick my boots clean when you’re all under my thrall.”

Spike spat. “Bah, as if that would happen, you villainous cur!”

“A kinky villainous cur to boot.” Kanipha mocked.

“Oh, a dragon and a zebra. That’s a first for me. I already foresee a way for me to spin your subservience into another auspicious sign for all my fervent crystal pony soldiers to feast on.”

“I’d rather die than to serve you, scum!”

“And do you think that this is the first time I hear that, dragon?”

Spike gritted his teeth tightly. Satisfied at silencing her opponent, she grinned and raised her hoof towards the pink pony. “Pinkie Pie.”

The pink pony perked up and said. “Yes, Shimmie?”

“It seems that you’ve lost your cannon.”

The pink pony gasped, and her mane deflated in tepid anticipation. “S- Shimmie, I’m so sorry, please don’t hate me, pretty please?”

“Well, I don’t know…”

Pinkie’s expression turned despondent, until Sunset Shimmer again grinned. “Pinkie Pie, you can still help to break a hole to the castle if you try. Remember… Plan Rosa Frantumata?”

“Oh oh, of course!”

Pinkie beamed, and she took out a series of red canisters from her saddlebag. Then she tied them one by one to her belt.

“Wait, Pinks, what are you doing?!”

“Well, since you’ve broken my Blistering Blitz Bombard, I can only carry out Plan Rosa Frantumata! Hehe, Shimmie taught me this one!”

“Listen well, you three. If you don’t come close and come into my fold voluntarily, then you can fully count on me ordering your Pinkie to take herself out along with everything within our sight.”

“What?!”

“And she would gladly listen to my order… Would you, Pinkie Pie?”

“Of course!”

“Tell them what your little red fireworks can do.”

“Heheh, ah, actually, these red canisters are the shots of my BBB! There are 12 of them left, and if I make them all explode at once, they will create a crater so big, you can fill thousands and thousands of pound cakes in it!”

“How dare you threaten us with Pinkie’s life, you’re the lowest of the low!” Spike barked.

“And are you going to take up on my offer? Remember, if my lieutenant catch up on me, the offer will be null and void, and you lots would suffer a much worse fate.”

Geuse spat. “Tsk, death is preferable to the non-life under you, Sunset Shimmer.”

“… I’d take that as a n- Uogh!”

Sunset Shimmer was suddenly tackled from behind and flew forward onto the ground. The orange unicorn felt a piercing pain on her back. She reached back and gasped at her gashing wound, and another pang of pain told her that she might have broken a bone or two.

“Who dare to-”

“Orange unicorn, bad beyond hope. Me, the hundred and seventy-fourth yak prince, will defend home till last blood drop!”

The yak again sprinted, unusually fast for a creature his size, and pinned the orange unicorn down with his muscular legs.

“Foolish yak! You earn my wrath and yourself a quick end!”

Sunset Shimmer immediately charged up the strongest offensive spell she had in store, but she was shocked to see her magic fizzle out at her horn.

“What?! Impossible! I should have more than enough command of this-”

“Orange unicorn real fool. Orange unicorn know not how Sombra fail.”

“What did you s- Argh!”

Sunset Shimmer was casually smacked aside, rolling on the ground in pain. Prince Rutherford immediately dashed forward and continued his dominance.

“Yak connect to Sky Father, yak prince channel His protection. Magic do no harm!”

“You useless piece of dumb muscle!”

Prince Rutherford slapped the orange unicorn again, and turned to the onlooking trio. “Yak prince live and die by his people. Pegasus, take dragon champion and friend to safety.”

“Prince Rutherford…!”

Geuse bit her lips and approached Pinkie, but the pink pony suddenly yelled. “Don’t touch me!”

“P- Pinkie?”

“I will stay here with Shimmie! If you dare pull me away, I’ll show you how these red canister can do!”

“Don’t be si-”

Pinkie looked dead serious, as she took out a match and casually lit it on the pelt of her belt. Geuse wheezed out in shock, and immediately stepped back.

Sunset Shimmer had repeatedly tried to fire spells at the brawny yak to no avail, but suddenly, a flicker of spark shot forth and singed the yak’s cheek hair.

“What? H- Haha! Your magical resistance is not total after all!”

Prince Rutherford grumbled, and he again bellowed. “Blessing of Teniri last not forever! Pegasus, move out at once!”

Geuse looked at Pinkie, who had since retreated to behind the wrestling duo, and bit her tongue. Eventually, she grabbed Spike and Kanipha up and spread her wings.

“Geuse, Pinkie is still there!” Spike yelled.

“She’s going to blow herself up if I touch her! Do you want her to blow up, huh?!”

“Grr…”

Kanipha interjected. “Let’s go! Don’t make Prince Rutherford’s selfless actions meaningless!”

Geuse immediately flapped and shot up into the sky. Dashing around the castle and heading towards the mountains, Geuse suddenly remembered that Pisacan was still waiting in her guesthouse, and gasped. She immediately dipped and flew towards their residence.

“Geuse, where are you going?”

“Pisacan is still down there! If Sunset Shimmer gets her hooves on her, she would be no more!”

Spike felt incredibly conflicted at first, but he soon nodded. “… Even if Pinkie cannot be rescued right now, a life saved is a life saved!”

Kanipha frowned worriedly. “But Geuse, can you really carry three of us on your back at once? I’ve never seen a pegasus carrying so many on her back!”

“I’m not dumping Pisa here after breaking her out of the dungeon! Even if my wings break off after this, it would be worth it!”

“Geuse…”

Kanipha took in a breath. “W- We’d forever remem-”

“Duck, you fools, we’re going through a window!”

The two immediately ducked, and Geuse dashed inside the room, barely stopping herself in time before crashing. In the room sat a solemn-looking pony squibbling something on a piece of paper.

“Pisa!” Geuse cried out.

“G- Geuse?!”

Pisacan shakily dropped her quill onto the table. She turned towards the direction of the window with a shocked look, seemingly unable to comprehend the pegasus’s presence.

“Get on my back and get out at once! We’re fleeing again!”

Pisacan bit her lips and looked aside. “You three should go by yourself.”

“W- What? Are you out of your mind, Pisa?”

“You can’t carry the three of us together and still fly! I’ll just finish my last note here and-”

Geuse took over the notes, glanced at it and shredded it to pieces. “You foolish fool! You can’t even write legibly, and yet you talk about writing notes and face certain death?! Are you trying to throw away everything I did for you in a gutter?!”

“G- Geuse-”

The orange pegasus was approaching the breaking point of her frustration. “Cut the crap and get on! I alone will decide if I can fly!”

Spike interjected. “Pisa, come with us, you promised me!”

“P- Promise?”

“Yeah, you said you would return your thanks by teaching me about Vinidi and Vinidian tongue, don’t you back out of it now!”

“Spike…”

“Stop getting sentimental, you lots! Prince Rutherford is out there buying time for us! Sunset Shimmer is an expert unicorn mage, and she could catch up with us using teleportation in no time if she could locate us!”

Pisacan looked bashful, but she at last clamped onto the panting orange pegasus. The four immediately burst out of the window and took to the sky, quickly flying into the chilling north wind and disappeared into the mountains.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In frigid winds, Geuse flew weakly across the seemingly endless field of snow under the moonless dark sky. Pisacan, Spike and Kanipha hanged on limply while shuddering in the unbearable cold.

Finally, Geuse reached her physical limits. She gradually lost altitude, and flew herself onto a patch of snow on a gentle forested slope. All three on her back rolled off and fell into the snow as well with soft thuds.

Being a dragon, the cold weather was making Spike incredibly drowsy. But through sheer willpower, he used his claws to dig up snow and make way for a fire pit.

The zebra colt was also in a place completely against his elements, being a tropical creature. However, he decided that he could not be completely useless. After helping the shivering crystal pony mare up, he trotted under the pine trees, gathered some branches and tinder and place them in their middle.

“S- S- Sp- ike.”

Kanipha said, teeth clattering. “Y- You got any more matches?”

Spike reached into his bag, and grunted with frustration after a while. “Darn it, we must’ve used it all up in Hollow Shades.”

The dragon then drew in a breath. Kanipha noticed what he’s about to do and said hurriedly. “Don’t strain yourself, Spike!”

Spike gritted his teeth. “Gotta try now, we have no other options. Maybe I can even squeeze out some green flame to send a message.”

He opened his mouth, but only black smoke came out, and he began to cough laboredly.

Pisacan had picked herself up from the ground. She heard the two’s conversation and said in alarm. “Spike! Don’t-”

He tried again despite the warning. Although the pain became more unbearable, this time a shower of sparks came out from his mouth. Kanipha immediately hugged the tinder nest and carefully blew. To their delight, a small fire began to glow.

Spike panted. “I- I don’t think I’m ready to breathe fire yet.”

“Don’t stretch yourself to the limit!”

The zebra colt chastised, as he moved the completely exhausted pegasus near the fire.

“Geuse, are you alright?”

A completely hoarse and tired voice came through. “W… Water…”

“R- Right on!”

Kanipha reached onto his bag and took out a metal bottle. After stuffing some snow into it, he roasted the bottle on the fire, and soon the snow melted. He then carefully fed the water into Geuse’s mouth.

The pegasus gulped slowly, and weakly smiled. “T- Thank you…”

“No, thank you. We would all be done for if not for you.”

“You… you should’ve looked into my bag. I have all the stuffs you need in the wild... including firestarter.”

“Oh… oops.”

The pegasus’s gaze began to wobble. “I… want to… take a rest, if you don’t mind.”

Spike had recovered somewhat from his exhaustion. He reached into the pegasus’s saddlebag and unfurled a sleeping bag. With the help from Kanipha, he stuffed Geuse inside quickly and zipped it up. Immediately, soft snoring could be heard from outside.

Pisacan cuddled near the fire, and quietly said. “Poor dear, she’s been through a lot these few days.”

“We’ve all been through a lot, Pisa.”

Kanipha looked at the burning pinewood and lowered his head. “I’m sorry, everyone. There’s only pinewood in this area, and it burns not that well in general. What’s more, it makes pungent smokes.”

“Kanipha, you’ve done more than enough for us. It’s not your fault that there isn’t a pile of properly seasoned ironwood sitting where we landed. If anyone has to say sorry, it should be me, the only deadweight in here.”

“Of course you’re not a deadweight, Pisa. You’re from the north, and you helped us out on many things we didn’t know throughout our run. If not for you, Geuse’s breakout might not even be a success.”

“Now… Achmm-!”

Kanipha managed to cover his nose before his sneezing could wake Geuse. “We’ve gone north instead of south because Yakyakistan has fallen. What should we do next?”

Pisacan noticed a sense of expectation from the dragon and the zebra. “… I’m terribly sorry, Spike, Kanipha. The far north had always been poorly mapped and not well known even by us. Ever since the ill-fated expedition to explore the north by one of the princesses of the new Crystal Empire, it had become kind of a place of taboo. To my knowledge, we might as well be the first group from greater Equestria to cross to this side of the Everhoof, and reach the Arctic North in thousands of years… Barring Sombra’s shadow, of course.”

She sighed. “So not even I can say where and whether we can obtain assistance, if there’s any in this wide, untamed land.”

Spike drank some water from the bottle to soothe his chest pain. “If it’s any consolation, then I guess since this place is so taboo, it’d be very unlikely for Sunset Shimmer to reach us.”

Pisacan muttered. “That’s probably true.”

Kanipha nodded. “If so, this is already a big plus.”

Pisacan pondered for a while and said. “Actually, things aren’t that grim, if legends are to be believed.”

“Oh?” The other two listened with interest.

“The far north isn’t completely barren. You see, trees and plants do grow in here, and with food there are inhabitants.”

“So there might be someone who can help us out?”

“I’d hope so, even though it might be a flimsy hope. Still, there are few sapient races in the north according to legends.”

“Oh, I heard them in stories, like, the windigos?”

“I don’t know if they count, because windigos are more spirits than sapient creatures. And I doubt that they’d be particularly helpful given their nature.”

Pisacan smiled. “But actually, there might be dragons up here as well.”

“Really?”

Spike looked surprised. “I thought all dragons came from the Dragon Lands south of the Griffonland! What business would a dragon have in such a cold, northern place? Dragons hate the cold! If one could not hold his warmth in such a place, he could easily perish from exposure!”

“You clearly know a lot more about your race than me, Spike. I do not pretend to be a dragon expert. I heard that there are far from only one Dragon Lord, and the one closest to Equestria only rule over the dragons here because they’re close by. They even say that there are a full-fledged, advanced dragon civilization to the far, far east, and it would take years of travel to reach from here.”

She touched her cheek and continued. “As for the story I heard, it told of an eternal ice dragon in the far north, who lords over snow, motionless and age-defying. But nopony actually saw this ice dragon before. Of course this could mean he doesn’t really exist, but it could also mean that he’s not bounded to the Dragon Lord and did not need to see him or her.”

“Whoa, perhaps we can bet our luck on finding him.”

Kanipha raised a brow. “Spike, that sounds a bit, you know, risky? He’s just a legend after all.”

“Alright, what other races might be out here in the far north then, Pisa?”

“There might be deers as well. I don’t imagine that they fancy ponies like me this much, since their ancestors were chased north by pony settlers even before Equestria was founded.”

Spike nodded. “I read about this in history books. There were talking deers in the Everfree as well as the White Tail Woods. But there aren’t seen anymore for the last millennia or so.”

Kanipha smiled. “Well, at least dragons and zebras don’t have a history with them. If we really see them, we can just approach without fear of offense.”

“What else, Pisa?” Spike asked.

“Umm… I don’t think things might work out well if we really see one of those, but in the whitest snow, they say, lies a fierce race of white wolves. They are quite unlike the… what do you call those wooden wolves in the Everfree forest?”

Spike raised his brows, as his thoughts briefly drifted back to long ago, when he and Twilight investigated their mysteries. “Uh… timberwolves.”

“Thanks. White wolves are beings of flesh and blood, and they are said to roam the towering crags upon the Arctic Sea. They’re possibly one of the first inhabitants in this land. But they have a legendarily fierce dislike for ponies, which is said to make them fly into a rage uncalmable by anything, surpassing whatever distaste those displaced deer might hold for us. So… it would be probably better if they and we do not meet.”

Spike slowly nodded, still quietly wondering if the two kinds of wolves had any tie. But then his pondering was interrupted by a giant yawn.

Pisacan chuckled. “It seems that we all are slightly exhausted by today’s events.”

“Acho-!”

Kanipha shivered. “T- This might be the biggest u- understatement I’ve heard in moons!”

Pisacan slowly walked near the zebra colt and cooed. “Kanipha… You really need extra cover for tonight.”

Spike nodded. “I don’t know why. I used to be dead afraid of cold, but now I don’t feel exactly shivering, besides a bit drowsy, but Kanny definitely needs some more insulation. Twi taught me that small thing loses heat fast.”

“Who are you calling- Achoo-!”

“Quick, get him into a sleeping bag… no, make it two, he’ll need it.”

Spike nodded, and grabbed the freezing zebra colt and put him into the sleeping bags one by one. The zebra colt was too numbed by the cold to even resist or respond.

After making sure the zebra colt was tucked in, the dragon sat back down near the bonfire, and looked to the yellow mare again. A thin layer of powdered snow covered her billowy mane, and with a gust of night wind, the snow was blown away, floating above the fire and shooting up into the sky.

“Heh… it really looks like dandelion seeds.”

“…?”

“N- Nothing.”

Spike lightly bit on his tongue, quietly chastising himself for being somewhat insensitive by mentioning visuals in front of the blind mare.

In any case, the mare didn’t at all mind. “Spike, we should probably call it a night. We should walk by ourselves instead of riding on Geuse again, and we need the stamina.”

“You’re right… Oh dear.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Uh, only one sleeping bag’s left, because Kanny’s using two.”

Pisacan chuckled. “That’s nothing to worry, we can share! It would even be warmer this way.”

“Yeah, right… wait, what?”

Pisacan smirked. “Don’t tell me you’re too embarrassed to share a sleeping bag, dragon champ.”

“Um, uh, m- my scales would be too uncomfortable to hug!”

“We all got pelted in the face by hurricane-level hail, while hanging on Geuse like wonky strings of Hearth’s Warming Eve ornaments. Tell me again about discomfort.”

“Do you really not mind?”

“Why would I?”

Pisacan quietly sighed. “Spike… do you know how I feel, when I just lost my sight?”

Spike said sadly. “It must be terrifying.”

“It is, at first. But it soon gives way to loneliness. Horrible, horrible loneliness. We’re so used to use our eyes to confirm there’s someone out there to talk to, to connect with. But without sight, it was like being in a dark dungeon alone at all time.”

Pisacan drew in a sharp breath. “I find that I want… no, I need physical touch. Whenever a friend like you confirms your presence in such a way, I feel much safer. So if anything, I’d even be elated to have you in my embrace when I sleep. The only concern that I have is that it might cause your wound to hurt.”

“Not at all. If anything, the warmth would make it tingle nicely.”

“Heheh.”

“Pisa… If you wish, then I’d be glad to make you feel better.”

The yellow mare looked delighted. “Thank you, Spike… I was worrying my request would sound, um, too weird.”

“Not at all. So, let us crawl in, shall we?”

Pisacan beamed, and immediately followed Spike’s directions and climbed in the remaining sleeping bag. With the small dragon resting near her chest, she quickly drifted off to her best sleep in weeks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heating up the frozen energy bars on the bonfire, the four were chitchatting to disperse the heavy atmosphere that otherwise plagued their escape.

Spike warmed his claws on the fire and muttered. “I wonder if there’s any gems around this place. I’ve been hungry for a good turquoise since we left the south.”

“Even if there’s any, I guess they’re all buried under this accursed mountain of snow.”

Kanipha huffed in annoyance. “Seriously, does this place ever stop snowing?”

Spike shrugged. “Kanny, to be fair, it’s now snowing not nearly as heavy as before. Heck, the snow felt wet somehow. It must be melting.”

Pisacan quietly pondered. “I suppose seasons here don’t work like they’re in Equestria proper. The presence of magic and weather management usually overshadows the natural progression of seasons, and we don’t know if there’s any here. But judging from the amount of snow and the temperature, now it should be sort of like the early spring in the north.”

Geuse said. “Thank goodness, that means it would only get warmer, right?”

“I hope so.”

Spike nodded “Mhmm. Speaking of which, why isn’t the sun up yet?”

Pisacan explained calmly. “We’re at a rather northern altitude. Since the sun and moon ran around a circle around the equator of the world, they might not even pass beyond the horizons around here. Depending on the season, it would either be day all day or night all day.”

“Aw, I’ve forgotten what Twi taught me. But yuck, eternal night? This is like if Nightmare Moon got her ways.”

“Nay. See? There are lights on the horizons. I would prefer calling this polar twilight.”

Spike slowly smiled. “Now that you put it this way, it sounds much more auspicious. Let’s do this for Twi then.”

He stretched his arms. Then he waved his claw and directed the aroma from their breakfast to his nose. “Smell nice.”

Kanipha laughed. “Spike, I remember that you spat them all out when Applejack offered one to you.”

Spike immediately blushed, and Geuse grinned. “Everything looks like a gourmet dinner when you’re hungry enough.”

Pisacan nodded. “Well, let’s eat our ‘gourmet’ then. We need some energy, regardless of whether we want to go further north, stay here, or go look for signs of habitations.”

As they were chewing on the pleasantly heated food, some rumbling could be heard in the far side of the forest.

All four of them put down the bars they were chewing on, and turned towards the source of the noise.

Geuse muttered. “Could it be…?”

Pisacan whispered. “Be careful… I heard that bugbears are sighted in the north as well. Nopony was able to communicate, much less reason with them before.”

Spike again took up his trusty telescope and observed. After a while, he shook his head and said. “Just a fallen tree, I’m afraid.”

Kanipha even looked disappointed. “What? Just a fallen tree?”

A loud gruff voice boomed from behind all of them. The four turned again with shock, and a large black bovine stomped on their bonfire and extinguished it.

The bovine male glared at them, his curved horn waving aggressively. It seemed that apart from the color, he also had a thicker layer of fur than the yaks. A necklace of colorful decorations shook as he huffed angrily.

Geuse whispered. “W- What is he saying?”

Spike shook his head. “I… I’m not too sure. It sounds like Yakyakistani, but not quite the same. I can only pick out a word or two.”

Pisacan bit her lips. “I think I heard something about ‘daring’, ‘sacred’ and ‘lighting fire’.”

Kanipha gasped. “Dang, we must have angered this black yak by lighting a fire in their sacred grove! Quick, someone explain to him in Yakyakistani!”

Spike and Pisacan looked to each other, and gingerly approached the black ‘yak’ in submissive looks.

“Mister yak-”

The 'yak', however, grumbled and shouted a long sentence, ending with the word 'muskox'.

“Muskox?”

Pisacan covered her mouth and tutted her tongue. “How could I forget about them!”

Spike whispered. “What about them?”

“They’re the ones who invited the yaks to the land of Equestria in the first place. They and yaks are related, kinda like pegasi and bat ponies. But unlike the yaks who built a nation south of Everhoof, they chose to remain in the north, living a nomadic life. Nopony has heard about or attempted to visit them for a long time!”

“He’s grumbling, let’s talk later and apologize first!”

Spike quickly turned back to the angrily huffing muskox, and said.

“Mister muskox, we're sorry for the offense. We're refugees from Yakyakistan, because it was attacked by Crystallia.”

Pisacan nodded and added. "Yes, we've been chased by its evil consul, Sunset Shimmer, and we ended up taking shelter here. We really didn't know it is your sacred place.”

The muskox took some time to process their words, and said with almost no accent. “Alright, you lots can speak your own tongue. The tongue of our yak cousins is different to the tongue of ours, and given your accent, it’s somewhat difficult for me to understand.”

“H- Huh?!” Pisacan’s jaw dropped at hearing almost perfect Equestrian.

He continued. “Dragon, crystal pony, you’re from the south, are you not?”

Spike was shocked that this muskox’s Equestrian was much better than Prince Rutherford’s pidgin speech, and much better than his own command of the muskox’s native language anyway.

“Well?” The muskox huffed impatiently.

Spike hurriedly nodded. “Y- Yes, Prince Rutherford and I are friends. I helped him take back the tug banner of Aimag from the Gorge of Seven Horns, so he honored me before the sudden attack by Crystal Empire. He fought for enough time so we few could bring the message out.”

The muskox slowly nodded and turned to Pisacan. “You’re a crystal pony, why are you against your fellow crystal ponies?”

“I’m not against my fellow crystal ponies, wise muskox. I’m only against the terrible rule of Sunset Shimmer, who tricked them into supporting this unjust war. I rose up against her, and I was blinded and imprisoned.”

“You’re blind?”

The muskox looked surprised. He then breathed in deeply and said. “My name is not ‘wise muskox’. I’m Chief Kirgut of the muskox tribe.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Chief Kirgut.”

The chief took a good look of the four, and said slowly after some pondering. “… I am a follower of Earth Mother. Earth Mother told us about what makes a tribe great. A tribe is great because the tribe would treat the weak and the needy with kindness, not throw them out.”

Facing with the sudden spring of kindness, the four looked elated.

Kanipha asked. “Is, is that true? Chief Kirgut, you will take us in?”

“If you four truly are speaking the truth, and among you are the hungry, the cold and the blind, then Earth Mother shall frown on my name and my honor, if I take away your warmth and leave you outside in the cold.”

The group immediately thanked the muskox profusely. “T- Thank you, Chief Kirgut!”

Chief Kirgut stroked his long beard. “Not yet. You four need to swear by this sacred rock on my neck, that you four has nothing against the muskoxen, before you may enter our place. Would you?”

“Of course!”

The four almost said at the same time, as they sprinted towards the muskox. They rubbed their noses when they got near, noticing the namesake of the muskox, a strangely sweet and musky smell.

The chief took his necklace up in the air. It was a stack of plain-looking flat stones, arranged like a two-legged creature.

“Touch it and swear.”

The four followed his instruction, and then the chief raised the necklace up towards the sky. The overcast above their head suddenly cleared, revealing a direct path to the sun.

They looked on with amazement as the sunlight hit cast a shadow on the chief’s giant curling horn, and it began to glow a mesmerizing blue.

Chief Kirgut smiled. “You four are truthful, worthy visitors to the muskoxen tribe. Now follow me and you should have a shelter of comfort.”

“Thank you again, Chief Kirgut, your kindness is a slice of heaven.”

Geuse said with a moved tone, which was followed by a series of nods from the others.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the nervous silence during the long walk, it was Pisacan who first broke the ice. “Chief Kirgut, we’re still terribly sorry about the fire.”

“Fire on sacred ground is not bad in itself, but it must be lit in a proper ritual to make it a tribute to Sky Father and Earth Mother. However, I understand the need to maintain warmth, and we allow even members of our tribe to overlook the rule if their lives are in danger. After all, our lives are gifts from the divine, and they should be placed before ritual.”

The four quietly exhaled in relief at the open-mindedness of the muskox chief. Spike then asked. “Excuse me, Chief Kirgut?”

“Yes, small dragon?”

“I wonder why you have such a good command of Equestrian language. It’s simply amazing, since not even Prince Rutherford could speak Equestrian with, uh, a bit of errors here and there.”

The chief lowly muttered. “Rezer is a hard-headed yak. I don’t know if he truly doesn’t master your tongue or else. However, in the few times we met, he pretended to speak bad muskox to make yaks look unyielding.”

Spike slowly took in what the chief implied. “Oh… But where did you learn Equestrian from, Chief Kirgut? No one down south had seen a muskox for millennia! And I don’t think Prince Rutherford himself is… uh, fluent or willing enough to teach you.”

“The trees cast long shadows, and evil spirits might be listening.”

The chief again showed the vague expression when he challenged them to swear on his necklace. “And even though we shall honor you, our visitors, with fresh milk broth, I shall have a… certain task for you afterwards. And after that you will know where I learn the tongue of the ponies.”

Spike nodded hesitantly. He looked to the others, which gave him similar looks of bemusement.

Regardless, they walked on, and after passing through a few ravines and gullies, they reached a seemingly dead end with a pile of stones at the end. It curiously resembled the one which was hanging on the chief’s necklace.

“Get near and lay your hooves… or claws on the stone.”

The chief touched his necklace to the stone pile after everyone complied. And with a flash of light, the five were inside an enormous cave, standing in the middle of a bowl-shaped hall.

“Whoa!”

“W- Where are we?”

Pisacan looked particularly concerned and disoriented, as she held tight at Geuse’s tail uncertainly.

“Worry not. This is our winter home, the Cave of Earth Mother. The blessing of Earth Mother allows us to seal the cave, and go in and out by magic instead of hooves. This is not our year-round home, however, for the fields under the blue sky are our true home.”

Pisacan looked amazed. “So we just teleported in, unbelievable!”

Chief Kirgut called to a young female muskox nearby, and ordered something in his native tongue. The female muskox nodded, and briskly trotted to the other side of the cave.

The chief looked to Spike and said. “You must be wondering why I know so much about the pony tongue.”

“Um, yes.”

“Follow me.”

The four gingerly trailed the large muskox, and after walking through an arched corridor, they arrived at another domed room.

Dim torchlight barely illuminated the stone walls, smoke was drawn towards an air hole at the top. At the far side there was a strange structure – it looked like a bed built with a sheet on some dried grass. However, there were two large, strangely shaped pillars with pitch-black chains tied to them, and the chains led to two figures who were laying motionless on the bed.

Geuse, Spike and Kanipha walked close to take a better look, and they were stunned, to say the least, to discover who the two chained figures were.

Spike was first to ask with shock and disbelief. “Why in the world are they here?!”

“Yeah, why?” Geuse and Kanipha joined in.

Chief Kirgut nodded imperceptibly. “So it appears that you also know the two, even though you’re not the crystal pony. I was slightly worried because she cannot see.”

Pisacan frowned and asked. “What’s going on? Who are they?”

Spike almost shouted. “Cadance and Shining Armor! They’re chained to the bed and-”

“Dragon, I mean them no harm. The chains are there for protection, because they had become a danger not only to us, but to themselves as well.”

Geuse immediately said. “We need explanations.”

Kanipha, however, already thought of some educated guesses. “It’s the yaks who sent them to you, wasn’t it?”

“Clever zebra. Yes, Rezer did request us to hide these two in our cave.”

The chief looked at the yellow torch flame and slowly said. “Ever since our yak cousins chose to completely settle down, our relations have been lukewarm. Many yak princes did not even send anyone at our kurultai. Rezer was first in many years to try to reconnect with us. We’re a bit surprised, though, by his request to hide these two among us. He’s a shaman head for Sky Father, so I bet he foresaw something in his visions to not keep these two in yak lands.”

Pisacan muttered. “Chief Kirgut, do you know well who these two are?”

“I know, they’re the chiefs of the crystal pony nation. But the problems lie not in my recognition.”

The chief let out a groan. “By Earth Mother, they have been talking non-stop since their arrival. But since no one here knows what the Erlik they’re talking about, we put them on hold initially. But by some forsaken way, they got rid of the magic limiters Rezer put on them, and they began to go crazy on their spells, almost bringing down the whole cave.”

Spike asked with a deep frown. “That’s why you chain them up?”

“Not yet, dragon. We’re a peaceful bunch, so my advisors suggested me to first appeal to Earth Mother in order to understand what they said, and therefore stood a chance to talk them down. Such a ritual would usually grant us a short moment of trance-like clarity, allowing us to talk a foreign tongue temporarily, and we do this whenever we need to talk with the deer and the wolves.”

Pisacan touched her lips. “So there are indeed deer and wolves up north.”

Chief Kirgut looked bemused. “Of course there are. Granted, they don’t usually show up in our lands, if at all. We only meet when there is any dispute with regards to water and control of summer grasslands. Unlike us, they are highly evasive and like to keep to themselves, and would never stay around long enough to really let us learn their tongues, so we always had to resort to invocations.”

The muskox then sighed. “But to start the ritual, we need some hair or clippings from them. When we got close to them, they became even more frantic. The blue-maned one is crazy strong, and it took three muskoxen to pin him down.”

Spike muttered. “Well, he is the Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard…”

“When we got all the materials ready, I was shocked to see that the usual invocations caused a most unusual omen. The stone platform burst into a storm of sparks, and a brilliant band of aurora appeared in the sky. This was the sign of Ulgen, not Umay.”

“Uh…” The four listeners were clearly stumped by Muskoxen mythology. Kanipha, in particular, was barely able to hide his skeptical look convincingly.

“I see that you’re not familiar with our beliefs. Umay is the Earth Mother, and she is usually the most responsive of our pleas. However, knowledge was not her domain, it was the domain of Ulgen the stargazer. Ulgen seldom comes up in our divination, however, and it signals something highly unusual. In any case, after seeing the signs, I was struck by a torrent of knowledge, and in no time I become fluent in the strange southern tongue of the two ponies. This time, it did not go away even long after the ritual.”

Geuse said slowly. “That’s… intriguing.”

“The last time we muskoxen received a sign from Ulgen, it was a thousand years ago, when the evil shaman king of the crystal ponies was defeated by Gun-Ana the Brilliant.”

“Who?”

“I thought you all must know. She resides in the south and leads the southern ponies alongside Ay-Ana. She’s the spirit of the sun, a winged unicorn.”

Spike widened his eyes. “You mean… Princess Celestia?”

“Oh, right, this is what you southerners call her. The highest spirit, Tanri, had long ceded the control of the two brightest stars in the heaven to the rainbow race, and we fully acknowledge that.”

“Uh huh.” Spike listened, but understanding only some of it.

“Ulgen had warned us of the evil shadow of the defeated shaman king, and we all wore nazars to successfully ward him off. We even took the efforts to spread the news across the entire northern lands, and to this day, the deer and the wolves still honor this memory despite their reclusiveness.”

The chief picked up and signaled with another trinket on his necklace. This time it was a blue, teardrop-shaped bead with concentric circles.

“Ulgen never relay us with revelations that were less than life-changingly important. Therefore, there is a sense of urgency at reading his intent. I immediately tried to use my newly learnt tongue to talk with the two ponies we kept, but…”

Spike asked. “But?”

“They are plainly crazed. I do not think that they are in their right minds at all.”

Pisacan interjected. “What did they say to you? Pardon me, but it might be cultural misunderstanding.”

“Nay, no. They are cursed, their eyes are clouded by haze and impurity. Their chants are singular, only begging to return to yak lands so that they can continue to placate Rezer and other yaks, and persuade them that the crystal ponies are all for peace. It is simply impossible to talk any sense into them. And after some time, they would simply forget everything that we talked. When they finally acted up and could no longer be talked with, we had no choice but to chain them to the black pillars, which absorb all kinds of offensive witchery and magic.”

Geuse spat. “Sunset Shimmer must have placed them on some sort of mind control or hypnotic suggestion… Just to use them as tools to detract her enemies.”

“Is this Sunset Shimmer the new shaman king-”

Pisacan interjected. “She’s a mare.”

“Alright, queen of the crystal ponies?”

“She’s just a consul, but Sombra was also ‘just’ an advisor before he usurped the throne. Cadanza is supposed to be the… hmm, rightful princess. The one supposedly related to our late Princess Amore and supported by Equestria anyway.”

Spike was concerned about the obvious signs that his new crystal pony friend clearly had issues with Twi’s foalsitter and one of his closest relations, but he stayed quiet for the moment.

“So are you saying that they’re cursed by the new, witch q- consul?”

“I think so.”

“Then my decision to bring you four in is definitely right.”

The chief clapped his hooves and thinly smirked. “I must admit, my action is not purely selfless.”

Pisacan knitted her brows. “What do you mean, Chief Kirgut?”

“I was expecting a group of four to come to our aid in our quest to portend Ulgen’s will, and I had been scouting within our tribe for long without success. Now, you four came along and happened to fit. However, I still had doubts whether you’re the ones I was waiting for, so I brought you in and see whether you have any connections to the two ponies. Now I’m sure of it.”

Kanipha finally asked, unable to contain his doubt. “Why four, huh?”

If the chief heard any hint of skepticism, he did not show. “Four is the number of stars in the constellation of Great Square, the abode of Ulgen, and I suspect that you hold the key to solve our mysterious dilemma. Now, I expect you to break their curses and make them sane, so that Ulgen’s will would be done.”

The group looked to each other with barely concealed looks of surprise. Pisacan was the first to hide it with a placid expression. “We understand. Chief Kirgut, since this might take some time and efforts, and bear some risks, we would like to stay in this room alone.”

Chief Kirgut nodded. “As you wish. But first-”

He trotted out of the room and took a tray of jugs from the female muskox they saw earlier. “Have some warm muskox milk first. It’s what make us healthy and strong.”

The four all smiled or beamed. They were all hungry and thirsty following the trek to the cave.

After finishing their drinks, the chief took out a curious looking plant from his bag. It was a yellow flower tipper with red, and it had a tall fleshy stem.

“They’ve been fed some specially made chamomile tea, and they’re in really deep slumber. If you want to wake them, you might use this roseroot plant and hold it to their noses. They should be up in no time, but take care, they might be unstable after… everything that had happened.”

“We understand.”

“Good luck, visitors. Hopefully you four would help us solve the riddle from Ulgen, and at the same time help yourselves as well.”

They nodded, and saw to the departure of the chief from the room. A large round stone was pushed in to seal the entrance. And with it came the silence.

Spike first turned to Pisacan. “Pisa, why did you tell the chief to leave?”

“Spike, it’s clear that none of us have quite an idea to break Sunset Shimmer’s spell, isn’t it? It might not be the best of ideas to disappoint the chief, after everything he did.”

The rest sighed with frustration, but Geuse then said. “But now that Cadance and Shining Armor are here, if we do revive them, we’d have two magic users by our side!”

Spike also perked up. “Yeah, I mean, if we manage to get them safely in front of the crystal ponies, maybe we can even expose Sunset Shim-”

Pisacan interrupted. “They might help us with their magic, but they’re not going to be that helpful with talking down the Crystallians.”

Spike looked surprised. “Why?”

“I know they’re your close relations, especially to you, Spike. But to us Crystallians, they have done few things to merit our loyalty.”

“But Cadance is an Alicorn, a Crystal Princess!”

“Of course she is, but she’s also somepony the Equestrians pushed onto us. To the average Crystallians, the Sombra-vanquishing ‘hero’ that is Sunset Shimmer is always at the forefront, and she’s the face of the revived Empire to most of her citizens. Cadanza’s heritage might matter to some, but it isn’t the biggest issue for most. What’s more, she and her husband simply hid in the castle all day, not even coming out to calm the citizenry, for example, when the labor revolt happened.”

Geuse muttered. “You seem to have a pretty dim opinion on her, Pisa.”

“I’d freely admit, yes. Back when things were less grim, when Sunset Shimmer began to arrest my kin left and right, I thought that appealing to Cadanza was a last but valid resort. I was wrong, as I was just casually dismissed and placed me under house arrest. A do-nothing, know-nothing royal, that is my only impression of her.”

Spike frowned with sadness and disbelief. “Cadance is a Princess of Love, she surely wouldn’t have done such a heartless thing-”

Noticing Pisacan’s silent dismay, he added quietly. “… if she’s herself.”

“So you’re saying that they’ve been under Sunset Shimmer’s thrall since this long ago, and that face of indifference was not her true face?”

Spike argued. “That’s not unreasonable, isn’t it?”

Pisacan huffed, and Kanipha tapped his chin. “We might as well find out by trying.”

Pisacan said. “But how?”

Geuse picked up the roseroot and suggested. “Let’s wake them up first?”

Kanipha raised a brow. “But are you as strong as three muskoxen?”

“The chains look as thick as your legs, Kanny. They should do the job of restraining them. I think we should be more worried about them injuring themselves by accident.”

“Here goes nothing…”

Spike took the roseroot plant from Geuse’s hoof, and began waving it in the front of the two’s noses like he was angling for a sneeze.

Kanipha snorted and commented. “That’s just silly.”

Suddenly, the two moved abruptly. Despite the expectation, Spike took a bit of a scare and stepped backwards slightly, steadying himself at a distance.

“P- Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, can you hear me? I’m Spike!”

The disheveled duo appeared to look to the direction of the dragon, yet their eyes were not focused on the dragon at all.

Shining Armor stood up, and immediately growled. He leapt forward, and the chains on his body were immediately pulled taut.

When Spike was briefly distracted by the frenzied look on the face of Twilight’s brother, a powerful kick was suddenly delivered to his side.

“Woagh-!”

Spike rolled and tumbled to the side of the wall. Kanipha sprinted to catch him, partly softening the blow with his own body.

Kanipha helped Spike up, and gleaned at the one who kicked Spike to the curb. Cadance was nothing like the friendly and mature Alicorn she once saw in Twilight’s house. She bared her teeth and hissed in an animalistic manner, making threatening gesture with her hooves as she struggled to get off the chains.

“Spike, are you alright… Oh, oh, oh my goodness!”

The dragon raised a brow quizzically at the panicked face of his zebra friend, until he felt a wetness at the corner of his mouth. He rubbed it with his arms, and it was dark red. He looked down to his scarring wound, and it had been torn again, blood again seeping out.

He wheezed in pain. “Damn it, Cadance. I’m not into this kind of tough love.”

Kanipha gasped. “That’s no joke! You might’ve some internal injuries!”

“Bah, this is nothing to a dragon. Even a broken tail can be healed in a few weeks. But now…”

The four again looked at the two ponies, who had seemingly degenerated into mindless, feral fierceness. They growled and wrestled, using every fibre in the body to try to get away from the magic-suppressing pillars.

Gently patting where he was kicked and wincing, Spike moaned. ”I thought the chief said he picked up Equestrian from the whatever star-spirit to talk with them! What happened to talking?”

Pisacan sighed. “Didn’t he also said they were too crazed and unstable towards the end? Perhaps that’s what he meant.”

Kanipha gritted his teeth when he saw Spike’s injuries. “He could’ve used some bucking clarity, then!”

All of a sudden, with an unnerving crackling sound, the bolts that pinned the chains to the black pillars gave way in quick succession, and the two ponies leaped towards the shocked four like two wounded beasts.

Geuse yelled. “Spread out!”

The pegasus flew up to evade a mad charge by the crazed blue-maned unicorn. However, she gasped when she saw he turned to the crystal pony and began to charge up his horn.

“N- No-!” She yelped in panic.

Just as a searing spell was about to hit Pisacan squarely on the head, she was knocked sideways by Spike, who happened to lean on the wall nearby.

“Ugh…!”

“W- Wha-”

Ignoring his own pain, Spike immediately stood up and dragged the crystal pony away. “Follow me and get behind cover! They’ve shaken loose and started shooting spells everywhere!”

After shoving the fearful pony behind a stone table, Spike immediately walked out and towards the rampaging duo.

Geuse was busy dodging stray spells in the air. The pegasus wanted to fly further up and dash towards the ground with her trident to gain momentum and impact, a favorite tactic of hers. However, the cave room was not high enough for her to even completely evade the occasional jump from the two.

Wanting simply to subdue the two without seeing blood, the pegasus was rather reserved in her strikes. She attempted to hug the ground and bend behind Shining Armor, and administer a blow to his head.

However, she attracted the attention of Cadance, who in this deranged state, seemed to be alarmed at someone attempting to hurt her lover.

She snarled and lit her horn. The trident on Geuse’s hooves shot out with a purple glow despite her firm grip.

The trident then shot back tip-first in an even greater speed. Geuse could barely react as her right wing were pinned onto the wall crudely, immediately spilling blood on her orange feathers.

“Argh—!” Geuse let out a scream of pain.

Just as the pink Alicorn was ready to deliver the next blow, a primal cry of anger was heard behind her. She turned her head, and was squarely pummeled with a large splinter of black stone.

Further behind in the room, the white unicorn, who had been about to charge at the dragon, was also clobbered in the head by the pillar that used to restrain his movement. A frightened zebra colt stood behind the collapsed column and gasped for air.

With the two rampaging ponies lying motionless on the ground, Pisacan shakily asked.

“I- Is it all over?”

“… I think so.” Spike said with a strained voice.

Geuse drew in a heavy breath and took a firm hold of her own trident. With a resolute yell, she widened her eyes and pulled out the trident with her own hooves.

Immediately dropping to the ground, the pegasus whimpered on the ground as her injured wing bled profusely. Still, she bit her tongue and took a roll of bandage from her saddlebag, and immediately wrapped the wounded area tightly with both her hooves and mouth.

“Geuse…! Y- Y- You-” Kanipha had run towards the pegasus and said shakily.

“Kanny, this is far from the first time I’m badly wounded. Heck, this is not even the first time you see me bleed from a battle wound. So stop freaking out.”

Letting out another heavy breath, she said through clenched teeth. “Damn it all to Tartarus, I have too little experience dealing with magic-capable foes. I almost got poked in my damn neck by my own damn trident.”

Spike had also led Pisacan out and came near the pegasus.

Geuse closed one of her eyes and turned to the dragon. “Hey bud, still alive?”

The dragon said in short burst of breathes. “My wound is again torn open, and I might have bruised internally… But not as bad as yours, I guess.”

Geuse quickly lent the bandage roll to the dragon and helped him dressed his wound. Spike looked at the pegasus’s wing and asked. “Is your wing…?”

“Can’t fly for a while, I’m afraid. But it shouldn’t be anything permanent.”

Pisacan’s head lowered with deep regret. “I shouldn’t have let the chief go and seal the door. It almost became a cage deathmatch here.”

Geuse muttered. “It’s over, and this is what matters.”

Spike peeked at the carnage and said bitterly. “We’ve wounded ourselves and knocked them out. We have achieved precisely nothing.”

Kanipha shouted. “Look out! They’re moving again!”

The others straightened in alarm. Geuse and Spike observed warily as Cadance and Shining Armor slowly and unsteadily stood up. They had been wounded and incapacitated. If they were again in a combat situation, things would turn really ugly.

However, Geuse noticed something different. The hazy gazes in their eyes were replaced by simple looks of confusion. They no longer grunted ferally or emanated a primal sense of aggression.

Spike also noticed something similar, and tentatively asked despite heart-wrenching pain. “Ca- dance, Shining Armor?”

The pink Alicorn winced deeply and shook her head. “Ugh… what happened?”

Shining Armor briedly widened his eyes, but then gritted his teeth in response to the terrible headache. “Where are we?”

Spike exhaled heavily and said. “This is the Frozen North. Specifically, the cave of the muskoxen tribe.”

Cadance was nothing but shocked. “What? Why are we here? Shouldn’t we be in Crystal Empire?”

Kanipha said. “… Whoa, we might be dealing with quite a spectacular blank in memories here.”

Pisacan let out a sigh of relief. “At least we aren’t dealing with two caged animals.”

Spike asked. “Do you two remember being taken to this place? Or anything prior to that?”

“I… I-” Shining Armor again clenched his teeth in pain.

Cadance similarly winced, but she managed to squeeze out. “I don’t know why we’re here… Everything seems like a blur and a dream…”

Geuse asked. “What is the last thing you remember, uh… Princess Cadance?”

“You… you’re Twilight’s friend from Zebrica, right? I think we met you in the Golden Oak once.”

“Yes, I’m Geuse, the zebra colt is Kanipha.”

“For your question, Geuse… I don’t quite know. I remember bits and pieces of imageries that don’t quite make sense, and the past moon or so seemed like a really bad dream.”

“Cadance is right, that’s what I felt too. In fact… If I’m forced to described, it was eerily similar to the trance Chrysalis once put me in.”

Cadance was stunned at her husband’s suggestion, while Spike raised a brow and bared his teeth. “There it is, the red hoof is right there! Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, did you remember Sunset Shimmer doing anything suspicious to you?”

“Sunset Shimmer…?”

Cadance’s initial expression was one of utter bemusement. “She- she… suspicious?”

“Yeah, did she take you into a room or something?”

After a labored recollection, she shook her head and sighed. “… Sorry, I can barely remember anything after my return to the Empire. I think that I did summon her to the throne room to discuss some… thing?”

She looked to the ragged bunch and frowned sadly. “Speaking of which, why are you two wounded, Spike, Geuse?”

“Well…” Geuse mumbled in hesitation.

Pisacan coldly said. “You magicked Geuse’s trident onto her own wing and bucked open Spike’s old wound, that’s what happened.”

“Eh?!” Cadance and Shining Armor both gasped in shock.

The pink Alicorn looked at the white-maned crystal pony. “W- Who might you be?”

Pisacan’s look was a complex mix of anger, shock and betrayal. “How can you? I pleaded so relentlessly, till my very last breath, for you to exercise your royal power to overrule Sunset Shimmer’s unlawful arrests! How can you now tell me that you don’t remember a thing?!”

Spike tugged at the blind mare, who was shaking with such intense emotion that she could barely speak. “Pisa, they were clearly under Sunset Shimmer’s thrall at the time…”

Visibly shaken, Cadance gazed long and hard at Pisacan. “I- I recognize you from the banquet… you’re from the Vinidi family, right? P- Pisacan?”

Pisacan drew in another breath and calmed her anger. “Yeah, then-matriarch of the then-Vinidi clan. It’s no more thanks to Sunset Shimmer. And excuse me if I don’t look you in the eyes when talking, Your Highness. I got blinded and jailed by your trusty consul, and if not for Geuse, I would be probably be paraded on a spire soon enough!”

Standing in for his trembling wife, Shining Armor asked heavily. “S- Sunset Shimmer… What had she done?”

“You want the concise version, huh? She’s poised to become an even more shrewd and cruel Sombra.”

Ignoring the appalled looks, she continued. “And instead of having everypony under her iron hooves, she charmed the whole nation with her silver tongue into following her. From what we’ve seen, mind control’s not below her, but she seems to know that straight-up deceiving them into genuinely following her is much safer.”

Her cold tone turned heated, and she hissed. “All because the new leaders Equestria got for us did nothing to stop her, and even got duped and manipulated into being disposable pawns to distract the yaks!”

Shining Armor felt a torrent of emotions in his chest, however, his wounded pride came through first. He bellowed. “You will have your respect before your princess!”

Pisacan’s subdued rage flared again. “Respect? Respect?! The Crystallian throne has done nothing but to hound and torment the Vinidis for the past decade! What have you done for us to warrant respect?! Tell that to my kin who survived Sombra but now about to be driven onto the battlefield by someone with royal assent!”

Spike frowned at Twilight’s brother. “Shining Armor, this might not be the best of times to flaunt your royal status.”

Geuse at the same time calmed the angry mare. “Don’t work yourself up, Pisa. Our true enemy is Sunset Shimmer, and I’m sure they never hope for this terrible situation themselves.”

Shining Armor gritted his teeth, and reluctantly said. “I misspoke, sorry, Pisacan.”

Pisacan did not respond or even acknowledge his apology, and turned sideways simmering in quiet ire.

Kanipha sighed. “At least we did what the chief asked us to do, which is to return you two to sanity. Now we can plan to do something more than escaping to somewhere even more northern and freezing our snouts off.”

Cadance again asked with a sad, pleading look. “C- Can you tell us more about the current situation?”

Spike sighed. “Alright, Princess Cadance. We suspect that Sunset Shimmer had already usurped the power in Crystal Empire and had complete control. She had mobilized the Brownshirts and presumably drafted a lot of Crystallians into the reformed army. Yakyakistan had fallen in just a day.”

Shining Armor was in disbelief. “A day?! Yakyakistan is the best defended place in greater Equestria!”

The dragon said through clenched teeth. “That’s because she captured Pinkie and made her do the dirty work using mind control. Pinkie’s gadgets were majorly destructive, and the defense of the yaks fell like a house of cards. We barely managed to escape intact, although Prince Rutherford stayed till the end… Grrgh!”

Geuse took over from the frustrated dragon. “Pinkie and I was originally going to the Empire to investigate a separate incident in relations to an industrial sabotage, but it seems to be a trap to capture one of the Element-bearers. Before she could lay her filthy hooves on me, I saw through her foul play and escaped, although I couldn’t rescue Pinkie, to my utmost shame.”

She pointed towards the yellow mare. “On my way out I met Pisacan, who was being imprisoned in the dungeon. With her help we escaped the Empire and fled to Yakyakistan, with them hot on our trails. We then met Spike and Kanipha, who happened to be trekking across Equestria to research a way to help Twilie. We originally planned to get to the coast and left for the south on a ship, but unfortunately, the Crystallians caught up to us and quickly sacked the place. And we had no choice but to flee again.”

Kanipha nodded and continued. “So we flew round Everhoof on Geuse’s back and came here, the Frozen North. We met the muskoxen chief Kirgut, who revealed to us that he was entrusted with watching over you two. Prince Rutherford must’ve thought that the hostages he had would prevent an outright war, but it was likely just a ruse by Sunset Shimmer to give a false sense of security to the yaks.”

Spike again picked up and explained. “We don’t know for sure, but Sunset Shimmer had likely hypnotized you two to distract the yaks using whatever means necessary, and with you being sent here…”

Spike flicked his cheek scales. “Now, I’m by no means an expert, but with what Twilight taught me about mind-bending magic, if somepony who is hypnotized is placed in a situation that the victim cannot carry out an order, he or she would default to the spell-caster. However if the spell-caster is not around nearby, the magic would cause the victims to go into a mindless craze… Like what happened just now.”

Kanipha asked curiously. “Huh, so why did hitting them in the head work?”

“I don’t think it’s the strike in the head, but rather the fact that we used something that is magic-absorbing. The chief said that the black pillar is exactly that, and I guess it’s the closeness of the material to the head did the trick, but I’m far from sure.”

Cadance and Shining Armor looked to each other and silently nodded. The blue-maned white unicorn sighed. “We must return to the Empire and right the wrongs.”

Pisacan grunted and mocked. “Forget it, Prince Shining Armor! What do you wanna do? Just walk up to a soldier and say, ‘Hey, we screwed up, Sunset Shimmer is evil, and she wants to bring the nation into wars and ruin!’ Do you honestly think that any of them would listen to you? If so, you are a fool even when you’re not brainwashed!”

“You-!”

“Remember, you two are as foreign as Sunset Shimmer when it comes to us the Crystallians. No one would dare point this out to your faces, but to a mare like me who’s lost everything now, buck it! You two are ineffectual and nameless, wastes of space as supposedly heroic leaders!”

Cadance looked shook up, but neither she nor Shining Armor could offer a retort.

“In their eyes, everything since the comeback of the Empire is done by the orange unicorn, Salvatore e Guida della Nazione! You might think that it’s unfair, how you’ve been misled and even controlled… But that’s the reality you have to deal with. That not even a crystal pony would take your words over what they’ve been constantly told through countless rousing and mesmerizing speeches, as well as what they’ve read in the papers. If you do go south and run into any Crystallian, I swear to the Crystal Heart that they would side with Sunset Shimmer each and every time.”

The yellow mare sneered. “She knew who to appease to shift power to her side, and cement it on an ever stable pedestal. On the flip side, she knew when to strike hard and without mercy. Do you know why she targeted us, the Vinidis? We’re the largest clan, the most influential and the longest established family in the Empire apart from the royal Amores. We were made to be an example of what happens to someone who dares to oppose her! After our fall, not even a squeak came from the Zenas, the Florentinas, or the Mediolas, even if their kins were drafted and a war tax three times higher than under Sombra was levied on them!”

She trotted forward, stopped right in front of the royal duo and gesculated. “That’s the mare you’re going to deal with. She has done something even Sombra with his magic couldn’t – She made herself the will of the Crystal Empire, the second sun, none can stand up to her without getting struck down, the closest thing to an ancient Crystalline Emperor! Do you really think you can just wrangle her away with just a few platitudes, huh?!”

Cadance and Shining Armor were stunned silent. They had been disoriented by the blank in their memories, and the subsequent discovery of everything that happened in between. However, the most shocking thing was the complexity in Crystallian politics, which both of them failed to see through when they ruled the Empire in their castle. Had they been deceived and misinformed from the very beginning?

“Pisa.”

To the yellow mare’s surprise, the first response came from Spike. And the next thing he did was even more surprising.

The dragon ignored his searing chest pain and held the white mare tight with his arms. The mare quivered at the intimate touch, and her indignation was doused almost immediately.

“Pisa, I know that you’re incredibly frustrated. You feel shocked, betrayed, and everything worsened so unbelievably quickly. But remember, we’re still all here together, and we all have the same goals – to defeat Sunset Shimmer, rescue our loved ones and restore peace to the land. We can point hooves, but it wouldn’t help us achieve those goals. Only mutual trust will help us through.”

“D- Do you think that I don’t know th– Orf!”

Spike tightened his embrace. “Pisa, you said you’ve lost everything, but you still have us, you still have me!”

The yellow mare shuddered again. Slowly and with tremble, she returned the embrace.

“Spike... Do you think that an exit to all the madness is out there?”

“We’ve been very fortunate to escape and get received by Chief Kirgut already. We’re on an upward trajectory of luck! If his star spirit is really out there, then we’re literally blessed to succeed.”

Cadance suddenly interjected. “Signora de Vinidi.”

The white mane of the mare quivered, as she turned to the source of the voice with cautiously.

“You have every right to be angry with us. As leaders, we failed you completely. What have been inflicted on you and your kin can hardly be recompensed. But now that the horrible curses have been lifted, we must work together to defeat Sunset Shimmer first.”

Cadance winced. “I… I know there probably is no love between us now, but you’re free to vent your anger on us after everything’s over. Please, for the moment, accept my sincerest apology.”

Pisacan was a bit taken aback by the humble gesture, and it was a bit hard for her to remain boiling mad with the Alicorn princess now. “… I must apologize as well, Vostra Altezza. It’s not entirely your fault to be bewitched by the orange witch. She’s our true enemy, and our first order should indeed be dealing with her and not going against each other. For my inability to control my emotions and insolent outburst, if you wish to punish me with lesa maestà after this, I’d not object.”

“Don’t be silly, I’d not respond to a plea of redress with lese-majesty. And please excuse Shining Armor as well, he’s just very protective of me.”

Shining Armor gave his wife a look, and nodded towards the yellow mare. “Please accept my apology.”

Pisacan narrowed an eye and said. “Very well.”

Cadance then said. “Everyone, I’m so glad to be brought back to… sanity after all things that had happened. Now it should be time to discuss a way to defeat Sunset Shimmer while not endangering any of us.”

Spike said. “Why not tell Chief Kirgut first? He seems to be convinced that everything happening here is the will of the star-spirit of his tribe.”

Kanipha nodded. “Yep, he seems like one who might be able to offer some way to help.”

Spike scratched his cheek again and asked. “Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, you really don’t have an idea who he is? He said he talked with you in this very cave.”

Shining Armor responded first. “… I can’t say one way or another. Everything that happened in these weeks seem hazy.”

Cadance added. “I do remember seeing someone who looks like a darker version of Prince Rutherford. He wore a necklace of many different colored stones.”

Spike nodded. “That’s probably him, and he’s probably waiting outside as well. If you two feel ready, we can push the stone at the entrance away and go find him.”

The royal couple nodded to each other, and levitated the stone together with their magic. With some efforts, they’ve pushed the stone out and then to the left, and the corridor to the main hall could be seen again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Well met, Princess Cadance, Prince Shining Armor.”

Cadance nodded. “It’s an honor to meet you as well, Chief Kirgut.”

Shining Armor added. “Yes, it’s my honor as well. And if what Spike told us is true, then we must’ve made quite a scene. We’re terribly sorry about that.”

The chief waved his hoof and said. “You two did not behave too badly. It’s quite an eye-opening deal to cross hooves with someone with the ability to cast magical spells so effortlessly. What’s more, the dragon told me that you two were indeed not yourselves until now, so there’s no need to feel apologetic about the slight rampage, or your lack of recollection about what we’ve talked about previously.”

Cadance and Shining Armor smiled appreciatively. Chief Kirgut did seem to be a reasonable and benevolent authority that they could count on.

The muskox chief picked up his cup of fermented milk and drank. He grinned. “Worthy chiefs of the crystal ponies, you perhaps are thinking that I’m much more obliging than my cousin Prince Rutherford, aren’t you?”

Cadance and Shining Armor widened their eyes. The Alicorn princess instinctively shook her head, then nodded, and then shook her head again. “I, uh… Chief Kirgut, I respect both of you as the leader of your respective honorable nations.”

“You don’t have to be so cautious in words. I didn’t get mad from the things you two said to me some time earlier when you’re not quite yourselves, and I will not be concerned simply because you say something less than flattering about my yak cousin.”

The duo gulped, thinking what exactly they did and said when they were under undue magical influence.

“Our yak cousins were warriors on the endless plain, before they came across the narrow sea upon our invitations. They’re fiercely protective of their pride. We muskoxen, on the other hoof, are proud of our hospitality as much as our tradition.”

“And we’re grateful for your excellent reception under this… extraordinary circumstance.”

“Extraordinary… Yes, this meeting is definitely most unusual.”

Adding some firewood to the cave fireplace, he continued.

“The northern lands, as I understand, are called the Frozen North by southerners. A barren place of no importance, perfect place to let loose the spirit of an evil shaman king.”

Cadance almost sweat-dropped. “I- I’m sure Princess Celestia didn’t mean harm to the esteemed residents of this land. She might’ve been… underinformed.”

“I didn’t bring up the apostle of Erlik to show our grudge, no. I only meant to say that it’s about to change.”

“What do you mean?” Shining Armor asked.

“Princess Cadance has put it in a way that cannot be more perfect. I’d also be inclined to believe that the sun princess did so not out of malice, but a mix of lack of knowledge compounded with lack of choice. Uninformed decisions, ignorance, misunderstanding, these are all things that Ulgen, the spirit of knowledge, would despise.”

Pouring a new cup of milk for himself and the two ponies, he said. “Your intention is plain to see, my pony friends, you want to deal with the threat of the new evil shaman queen, and yet you fear that you alone have not enough power to do so. Therefore you come to us for help. Is that correct?”

Cadance nodded. “… We would be immensely thankful if you can lend us your hooves.”

“We’ll, not simply because the new shadow would eventually be casted over the whole world, but also because the portent of Ulgen. However, our help would not be enough.”

“Why?” Cadance was surprised.

“As it was explained to me kindly by Spike the dragon, the Crystallian army numbered in tens of thousands. Armed with reforged weaponry left over from the era of the shaman king, they are further bolstered by bewitching an erstwhile ally, a pink-maned fire-caster, whose infallible arrows destroyed our yak cousins’ high fortress in just a day. We’re but humble muskoxen, and while we might be relatively long-lived and strong, we breed slowly and number in just low thousands at most, lots of us being children and the infirm. Compared to our yak cousins, we’re few, and yet they got tragically crushed under the horseshoes of the new shadow. We need more than us to destroy this dark shadow once and for all.”

Shining Armor licked his dry lips. “We only need a breakaway opportunity to go south past their line of defense. Once we reach Princess Celestia, she surely can unleash powerful forces upon Sunset Shimmer, who dared to usurp our power for her terrible deeds.”

The chief’s eyelids drooped to half. “Well, how exactly do you want to do it?”

“C- Can we reach south by the sea?” Cadance asked.

“The only access to sea in the north is dominated by the white wolves. They’re kings on the pack ices. So regardless of everything, we’ll need to talk with the wolves. What’s more, it’s now early spring in the north, and the sea is almost completely frozen.”

“How about pounding an opening in their line for us to rush through?” Shining Armor suggested.

“Prince Shining Armor, this is equal to telling my young muskoxen to just throw their lives away. And after inviting the wrath of the new shadow, do you think that they would hesitate before descending on us with full force?”

Shining Armor muttered difficultly. “I don’t mean…”

“Listen, Prince and Princess, any plan would require us to put our gaze to the north as well as the south.”

Shining Armor’s gaze focused on the chief. “Chief Kirgut, the way you put it… it sounds like you have some idea.”

“Ulgen gave us a way to shield against the shadow, and it’s clear that he would want us to stop this threat on its trails. This calls for an unprecedented union in the north.”

Cadance asked. “Can you explain what do you mean by that?”

“Much like the three races under the union forged by Gun Ana, the north had been a land shared by three races. We the muskoxen, who live on the plain, the deers, who live in the forest, and the wolves, who live on the coast and the ice. However, we never had real peace, only long truces.”

Carefully taking out a crude piece of hemp rag from his drawer, he gazed upon the writings and the hoof and paw prints on it.

“Before the mutual struggle against the shadow of the shaman king, the three races fought against each other viciously, and there were no accord of any kind. The legacy of cooperation cooled down our enmity, and granted us this arguably grudging recognition of each other’s existences in form of this treaty. However, the deer and the wolves still quarreled from time to time, and we’ve seen no real unity between us.”

He looked up with determination in his eyes. “The new shadow will require a never before seen unity between the three races. In addition to liberating my yak cousins as well others under the tyrannical hoof, this is a golden opportunity for us to turn the looming threat into a seed of positive change, and bring true peace and boon to this long-ignored piece of land in the world. Ulgen wills it.”

Shining Armor couldn’t help but feel that the chief had leapt a bit far with his idealistic picture. “This sounds rather nice and all, but don’t you think that we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves?”

He chuckled. “It’s not a bad thing to set a higher goal.”

Cadance asked in worry. “Chief Kirgut, are you sure that the other races in the north will join in our struggle against Sunset Shimmer? I fear that they would not understand the real threat of Sunset Shimmer to the world. In fact, not even we know what the end game of her is, besides her ruthlessness.”

“They will know the price of disunity, I’m certain of it. After all, the shadow was a matter of life and death back then, and it will be the same this time.”

“Sunset Shimmer is not Sombra.” Shining Armor commented.

“Is she really?”

The chief said with a curious look, causing the duo to contemplate what could he possibly mean.

“A shadow is a shadow, whether it is casted with a spear or an arrow. A drop of bad blood would not stop until it spreads to all corners of a jug of water. Given how the old shadow tried so desperately but failed to manipulate the northern races for his recuperation, I believe, and I hope, that they would not be so foolish to ignore the threat of a new shadow.”

“… What exactly did Sombra’s shadow do in the north?” Cadance slowly asked.

“He first attempted to enchant and coax a muskox shamaness into offering him the liquid gold of life. However, the shamaness resisted, and jumped into the Chasm of Seven Fires along with the elixir in order to evade him. To this very day, we still honor the memory of the Qam Qatun by burning offerings on winter solstice.”

“What a brave muskox...”

“Indeed she was. After the old shadow failed to manipulate our tribe, he moved onto the white wolves. He wanted to make use and stoke the age-old enmity between wolves and us herbivores. By promising storm and thunder upon their enemies, he almost persuaded the wolves to complete a blood ritual that would restore a physical body to him. But at the end…”

“Huh? What happened then?” Shining Armor asked when Chief Kirgut trailed off.

“The white wolves just hated you ponies too much. Since Sombra, even in just his shadow form, was one of your kind, he was rejected and promptly thrown out from the wolves.”

“Why did they hate us? What ever did we even do to them?” Cadance frowned.

“No one other than themselves know. It’s good to be cautious though, as they probably still have a great distaste for ponies in general. Hopefully it would not be an obstacle when we seek their help.”

“So I presume he moved on to the deer, am I right?” Cadance said.

“Probably, but how, we never know. The deer was something of a mystery to us. The white wolves might be aggressive, but they are bluntly honest and honorable, kind of like our yak cousins. But the deer never told us what the shadow did to them. All we know is they became determined in joining us against the shadow afterwards with never before seen passion.”

The chief gently shook his head. “After all the failures to make us do his bid, the shadow attempted a frontal assault. Fortunately, Ulgen, our stargazer spirit of knowledge, taught us to protect ourselves with the magical blue beads. Added with our unity and bravery, we successfully dissipated his remaining power, and his shadow disappeared from the northern lands ever since, slumbering and waiting for his next chance to strike.”

Cadance and Shining Armor looked to each other. The same question came to them at the same time.

“Chief Kirgut… Do you know anything about Sunset Shimmer before all these? Specifically, do you know how she dealt with the remnant of Sombra which threatened to rise up again?”

The chief’s calm smile faltered a bit, as he sighed sadly. “I can’t say I know clearly. We’ve always known that Sombra hadn’t truly been purged out of the world. Dark mist still lurked in the mountains in the dead of the winter. However, I can say that most inhabitants of the northern lands know of the moment Sombra rose from his slumber, and was swiftly struck down. It was dark green, followed by a brilliant explosion of orange and yellow, the sign of the chariot stars. It was supposed to foretell great time of change, and we all think that whoever vanquished the remnant of the old shadow must be a great hero.”

“So you do think that Sunset Shimmer defeated Sombra and lifted the curses he casted on the others.”

“Yes, but sadly, being a great hero does not make one immune to evil. In fact, the more she is convinced of her moral superiority, the more likely she will excuse herself from horrible actions. The greater a hero is, the more disastrous it was for her to turn wayside. Now that she seems dead-set on waging destructive wars in the name of her nation, she was rightly labelled as the ‘new shadow’, I’m afraid.”

Cadance and Shining Armor both sighed at how they’ve allowed this threat to grow from within.

The chief said meaningfully. “I suppose that you’ve now had a clearer understanding of the current situation.”

Cadance nodded back. “Thank you Chief Kirgut, what you and my other relations said have filled us in properly.”

Shining Armor added. “Your help is immeasurable, Chief Kirgut. Equestria… and Crystal Empire would not forget your assistance.”

The chief raised a brow and laughed. “Now you’re getting ahead of yourself, Prince. We haven’t formed our northern alliance, and you haven’t regained your nation yet. Let’s talk with your other friends and see to a way to achieve those first, huh?”

Cadance asked in surprise. “Wait, Chief, aren’t you going to send anyone to accompany us on any mission?”

Chief Kirgut blinked, and patted his head lightly. “Oh. Indeed, I should. You would at the very least need a tracker, because the white snow and white sky is quite disorienting even to us. My daughter Yolana would do, she’s always raring to go do something big, and she’ll surely do better in diplomacy than an old muskox like me.”

Cadance smiled. “You’re quite the diplomat yourself, Chief Kirgut.”

“I’m just an old muskox obsessed with stars and portents.”

The chief thinly smiled. “Now let me have some time to carve some snow goggles for all of you. You will need them for the good of your eyes.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cadance and Shining Armor left the chief’s room to a concerning scene. The purple dragon was coughing his lungs out, while his friends surrounded him with very worried looks.

“What happened? Why is Spike coughing like that again?” Cadance asked in worry.

Pisacan began to mumble under her breath, but Geuse preempted her before the yellow mare could utter something that invited arguments. “Spike overexerted, when he tried to use his green-breath to send in a message to Princess Celestia about our current situation.”

“I can’t. I still can’t.”

Spike breathed in heavily. “It seems that it’s not possible for me to use even non-magical fire breath for probably some time. What a joke, a dragon without fire breath, I might as well just be a talking lizard.”

“Your own health is far more important!”

“The herbs that the chief’s daughter gave to me are very effective. They’ve stopped my wounds from bleeding soon enough.”

“Spike, I can’t apologize enough for-”

Spike opened his mouth again immediately. Unfortunately, he had disturbed the dressing on his wounds, and his words came out a little strained and annoyed. “Yes, I get it. You’re not yourselves. You’re sorry for hurting us. Et cetera. If we keep this apology match on, we’ll be seeing Sunset Shimmer’s lackeys in frigging Trot before we can get out of this cave.”

Shining Armor immediately frowned at the small dragon’s disrespect. “Spike, this is not the way a baby dragon talks to an Alicorn princess.”

Pisacan immediately mocked. “If you don’t want someone using a strained voice to talk with you, Your Royal Highness, then consider not bucking open their old wounds.”

Cadance winced, but she hurriedly stopped her husband from joining the fray. “Yes, yes, it’s our fault. We should not dwell on this any further, as Spike said, time is not on our side. The chief had brought us her daughter, an excellent tracker, who would also be our representative and translator once we reach the deers and the wolves.”

Shining Armor tried his best to calm his emotion. For some reason, Pisacan really wanted to pick a bone with him. “… The chief said that only the combined force of the three races would stand a chance against Sunset Shimmer, so it’s a must for us to go.”

A young muskox female sneaked up on behind them and suddenly said. “Welcome to the muskox tribe, honored guests.”

A few of them turned with an ‘Eep’, while the rest looked back with curiosity. Who else could be speaking such good Equestrian in muskoxen land?

The muskox female unfurled rolls of white silky cloth and put them on the necks of each of them. Then she smiled and said.

“I’m Yolana, daughter to the chief and Qam Qatun of the muskoxen tribe.”

“You’re the chief’s daughter?”

Kanipha asked in surprise. The young muskox was the very female they saw when they first entered the cave, the one who Chief Kirgut told to pour milk for them.

“Yes, indeed. Do you need to confirm this with father?” The greyish brown muskox touched her short shaggy black mane.

The zebra gulped and shook his head. “N- Not at all. I’m just wondering, uh, how come you also know how to speak the Equestrian tongue?”

“As I said, I’m the Qam Qatun, the chief shamaness of the tribe. And while my father prayed to the Blue Sky, I set up the whole ritual. So when Ulgen’s sign struck, I was also miraculously blessed with the ability to speak this tongue. And no, no other muskox in the tribe can speak it besides me and my father.”

Geuse nodded. “That’s very good. We don’t need to translate back and forth when talking among ourselves.”

Spike toothily grinned. ”Not that Pisa and I know much about the Muskoxen tongue. According to the chief, our attempt to talk to them using Yakyakistani was like an offensive caricature by a drunken yak.”

Yolana said. “There is some similarity between Yakyakistani and Miski, but they are ultimately different. If you’re interested, I can teach you more about our tongue.”

“Hmm, another tongue to learn?”

The dragon raised a brow and grinned. “Hey, why not? The more the merrier. As Twi would say, you don’t know when what you know would become life-saving some day.”

The female muskox smiled, then walked to the front of all and clapped her hooves.

“Right, everyone. This has been a most hectic day for all of us. You all need to rest, because our trip will be long and harsh. Please first go to the common area for dinner and then I will lead you to a sleeping area. Don’t worry, it’s definitely better than the dark room you all saw earlier.”

Yolana scratched her cheek to the embarrassed-looking Alicorn princess and her husband. “Sorry, but that really wasn’t the room guests were supposed to live in. It was a storage room, and the bedroom the princess and the prince were in originally was sadly ruined when hoof-fight broke out. We might scantly receive any guest, but we don’t just let guests sleep on rough hay, even in summer time.”

Cadance immediately said. “N- No, it’s fine. After all, it’s primarily our fault that things turn out like this.”

“Now is the chance for us to make proper welcome with our northern hospitality. Come with me, and I shall tell you more about muskoxen and the north.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spike tried to sleep, but he woke very early after only a short period of sleep.

He was not exactly worried about another journey to largely unexplored lands. He and Kanipha had wandered into enough places where they had no business being in, for the last moon or so.

He was a bit regretful that the stated reason of his trip, which was to look for a way to help Twilight’s recovery, was barely being fulfilled. He was even more regretful that he missed the chance to save Pinkie in Yakyakistan, which was a constant sore wound in his heart.

But he had been the one to keep telling Geuse not to dwell on unrecoverable mistakes, and he had so far maintained a veil of indefatigability.

However, all these were not the reason why he lost sleep.

The real reason was far simpler, incredibly silly even.

He couldn’t help but think Yolana reminded him strongly of someone he saw before. But he just couldn’t put his claw to it. He simply rocked his hammock from one side to another until he reached maximum annoyance.

There was no clock in this cave, and he couldn’t quite tell the time without seeing the sun or the moon, not that he could see them outside. The muskoxen were strangely able to tell what time it was via some means, but he had forgotten to ask before bed.

In any case, in the midst of all the rumbling, he suddenly felt a need to answer the call of nature. Fortunately, he did remember to ask about where the loo was.

As he carefully jumped down and walked towards the corridor in the dark, he tripped over something. Suppressing his natural reaction to yelp aloud, he tumbled forward and fell.

His heart missed a beat. If he again fell hard on the ground, then his wounds would be torn open again. At his rate it was never going to heal, not to mention the nerve-wrecking pain whenever it happened.

But he fell into something soft, much softer than the mudbrick flooring of the room.

“Mhmm-!”

He was swept inside the embrace of someone. He was shocked, until he heard the soft snore from Pisacan.

The yellow mare somehow rolled to the middle of the room from her wallside blanket. Spike tried to wrangle himself out from the embrace, but he couldn’t move out without touching his bandage or risking waking up the mare.

What’s more, as he struggled, he heard the low murmuring of the yellow mare, barely audible but filled with emotion.

“Please, don’t leave…”

Spike tried to look at the face of the yellow mare. Using the weak light filtering from the hemp curtain separating the room from the corridor. She was still clearly sleeping, but she was mumbling off half-consciously.

The dragon gasped, when he saw some flickering light reflecting off her eyes.

Her eyes were wet with tears.

Why? Spike thought with surprise. The young Vinidi matriarch might get emotional, temperamental, cynical, borderline hysterical even, but she never cried in front of them.

He thought she was always making a point, such as proving her toughness against the orange unicorn that brought them much misery.

No matter the reason, here she was. In the seemingly safety of her own dreams, tears finally freely flowed.

Spike felt uneasy, even somewhat guilty, at infringing the privacy of the mare. But then he thought, it’s not like he could help with being dragged into the crystal pony’s grasp.

There he quietly lied, not knowing what to do. Luckily, as he now discovered, his need for bathroom seemed to be a false alarm, even though it led to another conundrum.

He shrugged imperceptibly. Sometimes he might as well what destiny dished out for him. Pisacan was quite warm and velvety to sleep next to, and it was not like they hadn’t slept in the same sleeping bag the day before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Spike woke up, he was somehow in his hammock again.

He turned and noticed that more torches were lit in the corridor, so perhaps it’s morning already?

He briefly wondered if it was all just a dream, simply because of the experience he had with Pisacan the night ago.

Jumping down from the hammock again, this time he was more careful about not tripping over anything on the floor.

When he was finally out in the corridor, he heard a chirpy voice from behind.

“Good morning, Mister Spike. Did you have a good night of sleep?”

Spike turned, and saw the chief’s daughter, Yolana, waving at him genially.

“Thanks, Yolana, I, uh, slept okay.”

Yolana said with an amused tone. “I’m sure you did. I also remember fondly of the days when father still let me sleep under his coat. Miss Pisacan’s mane does look quite comfortable to sleep next to as well.”

Spike blushed. So it wasn’t a dream. “I- I was just trying to calm her. She wasn’t sleeping well, and she was calmed by having someone in her hooves.”

Yolana tapped her chin. “Is that so? Very well.”

She then smiled again. “Anyway, though you’re up early, but I have already heated the pot and made a stew.”

“I see, thank you! What time is it anyway?”

“Um… If Ay-Ana is doing her work, the moon should be two third down the zenith.”

“Whoa, that’s really quite early! Why are you up so early then?”

“I have to prepare the gifts and other materials for our trip. It’s over thirty years since we last met the deer and the wolves, and I wish to make the best preparation possible. Besides, I’m the current Qam Qatun, I have to stay up late to go out, stargaze and read portents. It can’t be helped, but I can drink some herb tea to remain alert during the day.”

“Thank you so much for your work, Yolana. So you cooked breakfast for yourself?”

“Not just myself. I met Miss Pisacan, and I also cooked the stew for her. In fact, you can go join her in the dining area, the pot’s still hot.”

“Oh, uh, I’ll be right there then. Thanks again.”

As Yolana waved him again and trotted away from some other works, Spike slowly waded through the corridor thoughtfully, and eventually entered the wide open area.

Although he had dinner in there the night before, everyone was so tired that no one really paused to appreciate what the room looked like. The drab mud and stone wall was covered by white sheets, which were further decorated by red ropes weaved into complex geometrical shapes, and a plethora of colored stones that were tied on it.

There were also tapestries all over the cave. Much like the stained glass in the Canterlot Royal Castle, they seem to depict events of all kinds. Rituals, celebrations, battles, and so on.

“If Twi were here, she would’ve been overjoyed at the opportunity to study muskoxen culture and history.”

“Spike?”

The dragon was a bit surprised that his low muttering was heard, till he turned and found Pisacan holding a bowl of half-empty stew near him.

Spike smiled and asked. “You’ve done already?”

“Yes. I can’t quite hold all of them though. It’s way too much for me.”

“Cool, can I have the rest of it?”

Pisacan’s face slightly reddened. “I- If you don’t mind, I don’t mind.”

Spike gently took over the bowl and began scooping away. Pisacan massaged her own neck and said. “Strange, I was always the biggest eater in the family.”

The dragon thinly chuckled. “You don’t look like the eater type, no offense. You’re much fitter than Pinks... Don’t let her hear this though.”

“Hah, dungeon life did wonder to my waistline. I bet I’ve lost half my weight since this ordeal began.”

“… Wow.”

“And my body clock has been out of whack ever since my sight was gone. I’m feeling as if breakfast, lunch and dinner is blending into a vague blend of indiscriminate meal. Back in the dungeon, I was trained to eat anytime at order. When I was inexplicable up and then bumped into Yolana earlier, I decided that I might as well join her and have a chat along the way.”

“Aw…”

“Don’t be sad, my eating schedule compares nothing to what we as a clan has been through. I’ll get over it eventually when this is over, and we can finally start to rebuild.”

“… Did you sleep well last night, Pisa?”

Pisacan quietly gasped and blushed. “Y… You know, don’t you?”

“Don’t worry. I guess once someone hugged me, they won’t be able to resist my luscious texture.”

The yellow mare blinked and snorted. “Oh you. But uh, I must’ve somehow romped you from your bed in the middle of the night. I’m sorry for disturbing your sleep.”

“No, not at all. I just tripped and fell onto you when I wanted to go out. Somehow you rolled to the middle of the walkway.”

“I see. Then my apology stands, perhaps even more. I’ve always been a terrible roller. Back when I was a small foal, my dad used to put me in a caged crib.”

“Your father put in you in a cage?!”

Pisacan giggled. “Sounds cruel, doesn’t it? But it’s really because I would manage to roll over even the tallest fence. If anypony saw me back then and only see me again now, they would probably think that I’m blind because I’ve hit the back of my head too much growing up.”

Spike looked at the satisfied grin on Pisacan’s face, and knew that he had to politely chuckle despite the discomfort.

After a moment of silence, the yellow mare said. “This is pretty surreal.”

“Yeah.”

“And it’s about to get even more surreal, I think.”

“Surrealness I can stand. I just don’t want to see any more hurt faces about lost loved ones.”

Pisacan slowly nodded. “Amen to that.”

She then slowly let out a sigh and stretched her hooves. “You know, I’ve become more and more interested in meeting Twilight Sparkle after spending more time with you all.”

The dragon was surprised. “Twilight? Why?”

“It takes a certain quality for a pony to gather so many good and competent people around her. Even Discord, the king of chaos himself, seems to become so tamed and pliant. I was born just after Discord’s reign down south, and let me tell you, nopony thought he could be dealt with in any way but with brute force and a tight seal.”

“To be fair, Pisa, you would still want to seal him up regardless, after having to live with him for a while.”

“Heh, I’ll pass.”

Pisacan chuckled. “But still, Twilight Sparkle had such a meteoric rise, and then had a miraculous comeback after everypony thought she’s a goner. I was not all that into the hero worship thing given my experiences, but even I’m tempted to know what kind of a pony she is.”

“She’s still recovering, you see. I’m not sure she’s fit for accepting guests right now.”

Pisacan sounded slightly disappointed. “Ou. So the rumors… they’re true, aren’t they?”

“What rumors?”

“That she’s amnesiac? O- or even…”

Pisacan looked a bit troubled. The dragon patted her shoulder, causing her to jump a little bit.

“Easy there. I know that you don’t mean to offend whatever you say, so just say it already.”

“Alright. There was a strange rumor out there, claiming that this Twilight Sparkle that was brought back from Zebrica is not the real deal.”

“Hah? Ha ha ha… Oh, geez.”

“… I must say, that was a most strange and curious reaction.”

“The thing is complicated. It’s patently false. But I can’t blame the whisperers for doubting the identity of somepony who should be addressing the public a long while ago. It’s true that she lost her memories due to injuries, magical mishap, or likely a combination of both, but there’s no doubt that she’s the real Twilight.”

“… You know, they said she was a high-ranking changeling spy that had been spared under some secret deals.”

“What? They really say that?”

“It’s reported in one of those Manehatten street tabloids.”

Spike’s voice turned irritated. “Those bucking rags. Barely legal, hardly moral and scantly truthful pieces of garbage. I don’t know why Princess Celestia never did anything with them honestly. Those ‘journalists’ are more like failed script-writers from Applewood who can’t say good things about others for a change.”

“Heh, that sounds almost personal.”

“They made a lot of noises about us after the debacle in Canterlot, and nowadays about the Zebricans and Cruzesians. Very annoying bunch of jerks who would blatantly lie to get more readers. If we don’t have a counter-voice in the Mirror, we’d have been billed as heartless monsters Tartarus-bent on stealing Twilight’s money and legacy, and now attempting to flush out all ponies in Equestria and replace them with ‘mud-trotting zebras and cows’.”

“Whelp, I should know better. Those shrills of border guards weren’t going to let real news pass in or out of the Empire.”

Spike harrumphed. “Since we’re on the same boat now, and I trust you, Pisa, I’m going to tell you what I know. It’s not exactly national secret, but it would be good if you don’t speak about this casually.”

“Of course.”

“There are indeed changelings in where we live.”

“Oh dear…”

“But they are on our side now, sort of.”

“What?! Changelings too?”

“You see, Twilight beat the crap out of them in West Zebrica, and they became weak and hungry. But after she and the changeling queen fought a duel of mind, something strange happened, and it made even Chrysalis soften down somehow.”

Spike tapped the stone desk and continued. “Admittedly, the changeling queen did once conspire to steal Twilight’s body along with her magic, in order to revive the fortune of changelings. She even taunted the real Twilight by threatening to hurt me. Twilight absolutely loves me to bits, so she was devastated. By the time we’re on the ship, she had already got ahold of her body, but Discord rose up to the threat and managed to dislodge the changeling queen.”

“The very chaos draconequus himself helped you all out, huh…”

“Yeah, it’s him alright. And to be fair to him, apart for that one big demerit in Canterlot, he’s been nothing but loyal and diligent.”

Spike shrugged. “Can’t say I would trust him totally, but in my heart, he’s turned from a terrible heartless traitor, to a roguish friend, who would trip you up down the road for fun, but would not spare a helping hand when you’re about to fall down a cliff.”

Pisacan said. “Doesn’t seem too bad to have someone like that on your side.”

The dragon scratched his cheek. “Kudos to him at least, because I don’t even want to consider the terrible alternative if Chrysalis succeeded. Unfortunately though, the mental shock she sustained during the fight, added with those injuries she got before, seemed to cause her to lose her memories. She had since been recovering under Cruzesian care.”

“Cruzesians…”

“As for the changelings, they actually had an internal coup of sorts, and leadership changed hooves. But at the end, both Chrysalis and the new leader pledged themselves to Twi. It was apparently due to some bizarre accident that transferred the changeling symbol of power to her. So technically, Twi is also the new changeling queen in name.”

The yellow mare’s jaw dropped. After a while, she cupped her mouth and chortled. “I sometimes wish my brother was not that big a tool. If he didn’t wander off to join the army and became Sunset Shimmer’s lackey, I could be free. Maybe I could even pull a Geuse, become an adventurer and join up you guys. You guys sound much more interesting... At least more fun and less harmful to my eyes than watching over the clan and arguing with jealous uncles.”

Spike was slightly surprised at the mare’s showing of adventurous spirit. He coughed and said. “Ha. But remember, they’re quite the exclusive club. I know they don’t like to be labelled as a secret society, but heck, I know they have things that they’re keeping away from even me.”

“Even you?”

“Yeah. I know it all along, and I don’t like that a bit. But hey, I’ll bear with it as long as it doesn’t lead to foolish actions and loss of lives. They always mean well, which is a plus.”

Pisacan nodded with a sigh. “What a story, what a band. But…”

“But?”

“I just don’t understand. How can you come to tolerate the changelings in the first place? Even if Chrysalis softened up, she still hurt all of you immensely. If it was me, I would’ve hated them too hard to give them a chance.”

Spike let out a long sigh. “That’s none of my choosing.”

“What do you mean? How can you be unable to choose to hate someone?”

“The girls- well, at least Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and…”

He sadly sighed. “… Pinkie anyway. They all saw to Chrysalis’s change of heart, and thought that she could pull a Discord and go on our side.”

“She almost sacked Canterlot and was the one who blew Twilight Sparkle up.”

“I don’t claim to know what’s going on in their minds. But their logic went like back when Discord betrayed us. I was beyond angry, but the girls insisted that we gave him a chance to repent. It was unbearable in the beginning, but it worked out at the end.”

“It’s not just forgiveness, it also takes a boldness of unimaginable proportion to try to give a chance to really terrible people…”

“At the risk of sounding insensitive, Pisa, can you imagine a day… that you could forgive Sunset Shimmer?”

The yellow mare widened her unseeing eyes. The corner of her mouth trembling, she eventually shook her head. “I can’t. It’s too much to ask.”

“Too much?”

“If she got Pinkie Pie maimed or killed, would you ever forgive her?”

Spike drew in a breath through clenched teeth. He did not reply immediately, as he simply dug into his bowl of stew and remained silent.

“… Spike? I thought that was a cut-and-dry question with a cut-and-dry answer. Anypony would answer that question in a heartbeat.”

The dragon exhaled deeply. “Perhaps it rubbed off me somewhat as well.”

“Huh? What?”

“I love Pinkie, I really do. If Sunset Shimmer hurts her, I would fight her to my last breath. But after what happened with Discord, I’ve learnt that even feeling towards the foulest of offense can be diluted with time. The note will always be sour, but seeing how Discord and even Chrysalis reformed in such a spectacular way, I will never say impossible. Even if the perp is remorseful, unconditional forgiveness sounds stupid. But give the girls credit, they pull it off twice by now. Even if I don’t personally believe it, by now I’d have to at least look into it.”

Pisacan clenched her teeth tightly. Spike let her have a moment of thoughts and stayed quiet.

Eventually, the yellow mare quietly muttered. “You lived with Discord right after he betrayed you all.”

“Yeah, kinda.”

“It’s impressive how you bore with it.”

“Not really. I just avoided seeing him in the beginning, until I stopped screaming internally whenever I saw him. His own remorse and the girls’ good words eventually soften me up enough for me to treat him roughly normally.”

“I see… I know it might matter to you less, but what about his past records? Do you know about them, the terrible things he did when he was the chaos king of Equestria? Did his betrayal make you think that his reformation might not hold after all?”

“I know some of them. Twi made me read them. He himself was a great offender in messing with pony’s heads, causing untold damages. But Twilight said she was willing to give a chance to him to recover from past mistakes, and even forgiving every offense committed against herself. But if he dares to do those to any other ponies nowadays, and Twilight goes back to normal… she will blast him to dust, personal relationship be damned. He knows that, and he treasures his relationship with Twi enough to stay put, so I’m not too worried.”

“She sounds almost unreal, no offense.”

“She is unreal. What real pony comes back from the dead after six moons?”

“… I really hope we can weather this storm together. If we make it out this frigid north in one piece, I hope you can find a way to make her normal again, and if my clan is no more, I would look forward to work with somepony like her. She’s bound to do great things.”

Spike chuckled. “… Yes. I’m sure you would be warmly welcomed among us.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Yolana?! What are you doing?”

Geuse shook herself a bit to poke her head out of the thick coat the muskoxen gave her. She let out a shocked yelp, to the non-understanding of the sleek female muskox.

“Miss Geuse, is there any problem?”

Cadance added with a raised brow. “That’s way too much belonging to bring with us on the snow plain, don’t you think? We can’t possibly drag them al-”

Yolana shrugged, and just slugged the baggage up onto a giant snow sled as if they were just small bean bags. She then secured the sled onto her neck with ropes and a wooden beam. Then she inspected the sleds carefully and caressed the pattern on them with an almost loving look.

Noticing the strange looks from the others, she turned and coughed. “Um… Right, everything’s ready. All hooves on sled, my friends.”

“Seriously? We’re bringing this many things with us.” Pisacan was surprised that the muskox wanted to carry everyone plus the luggage all by herself.

“This journey will be long, and we need many supplies on our way. Besides, I’ve dragged heavier stuffs than that. We muskoxen are not shy about our strength, mam. Father got elected chief many years ago because he managed to carry our entire tribe to the safety of our ancestral cave, during a mysterious plague that made the afflicted extremely sensitive to sunlight. Every single muskox all by himself.”

“Darn. That’s impressive.” Spike commented.

“I will say thanks for him, Mister Spike. Just don’t bring it up to him unless you want to hear it all day long. He still liked to go about it all the time. Alas, old people do like to reminisce about their good old days.”

The group laughed. The female muskox then continued. “This year the Windigos are calm, and warm days are coming quicker than usual.”

“Windigos, you say?” Spike asked with surprise, joining in by the royal couple.

“Yes, windigos. They bring forth the winter. They are usually a genial bunch, bringing us enough snow to feed the Kuukpak in the summer.”

“Genial bunch, windigos?! They will blanket the whole world with ice if they have their way!”

“Okay, I might’ve undersold their impact whenever they act up. But like all worldly spirits, ice spirits like windigos have a role in the mundane. They react to the affairs of the living and prompt them to act in a virtuous manner. In this sense, they’re kind of like a harsh mentor pushing us to do good.”

Kanipha said with an unamused tone. “Mentors don’t usually kill off their mentees, however harsh.”

“That why the windigos are as they are, I can’t tell. We respect all spirits but prefer to leave some distance between us and them. So long as they hid in their high heavens and only occasionally came out during winter, who am I to complain?”

She waved her hoof and said. “Anyway, this means the snow will melt quickly, and the Kuukpak will overflow if we don’t depart soon. I can’t drag the sled over wet mud, so we better be quick.”

“Can you really...?” Shining Armor raised a brow.

She thinly smiled. “Talk is cheap. Let’s hop on and see whether I can really do it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“This is ridiculous… How’s there so much power packed inside that small frame of body? I can’t even pull one of these sleds alone.”

Kanipha muttered while shaking his head. The endless snow plain dashed in front of his eyes, the occasional white hills dotting the landscape.

The lone muskox ‘princess’ – Kanipha addressed her as such in his mind, after all, Yolana was a daughter of a chief – took on the unwelcoming menial task without any hesitation, and dragged everything and everyone towards the destination. The procession of chained snow sleds was like a train he saw in the south, swiftly ploughing a trail in the soft spring snow.

Spike from the sled behind caught his words, and agreed. “She’s really not kidding when she said she’s got power. Heck, I bet she could wrestle with one of those farm machines in Sweet Apple Acres.”

Pisacan nearby also spoke up. “She’s daughter of the chief. I’m sure it’s in the blood.”

Kanipha drily chuckled. With the new clothes generously given by the muskoxen, his mind functioned much better despite the bone-chilling cold.

But he did not quite devote it to the current situation for the moment. He simply looked and observed the virgin tundra. It was a spectacular sight, comparable in its splendor to the Great Desert in Zebrica.

Wearing the specially-made goggle, his gaze darted around the seemingly infinite circular pattern of melted snow on the ground.

The vegetation in this northern land was scarce, but those which remained thrived in the unrelenting cold. The greeneries, once buried under many feet of snow, now burst out from the ground, and even gave off enough heat to melt the snow nearby.

Geuse was lying sideways next to the zebra colt. She was carefully preening her wing feather, which were brutalized by the north winds and then broken off in the cage match against the royal couple. She raised her head and said to the zebra colt. “Hey, Kanny. Never thought you’re that big about scenery.”

Kanipha briefly turned to the pegasus, and then returned his gaze to the endless plain. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been staring the horizons ever since we’re out of the cave. You never did that in the Great Desert. Seriously, even with this wacky goggle, my eyes still hurt from all those reflected light!”

“Geuse, the white is soothing, don’t you think? I now know what Mkondo meant when he waxed philosophical on us. A moment of peace is valuable in these tumultuous times.”

Geuse looked to the zebra colt again. He had really changed a lot compared to when they first met in Timbucktu. He had been clingy, annoying, quarrelsome, the quintessential example of a brat. His only redeemable qualities were his wits and loyalty to Twilight, and maybe the occasionally biting humor.

But these days, he was a different zebra entirely. It was quite a strange experience to see his past irreverence superimposing with his current placidness.

While the pegasus and zebra colt were sitting side by side each other, the royal couple looked at each other quietly on the last sled car.

“Cadance, sweetheart.”

“What is it, Shining?”

“It’s a bit short, isn’t it?”

Cadance’s tired eyes looked up briefly, before she caught what her husband meant. “It’s almost as dream-like as the trance we were in.”

Shining Armor’s face turned pained again. Cadance stroked his blue mane and cooed. “We can only make do with what we have on our hooves. Things are turning better again, aren’t they?”

“I can’t help but feel pessimistic, dear. We all think that Twily’s return is a sign that everything will become better. But now here we are, mired in another desperate situation. This time, it’s even our undeniable fault, because we pretty much put our trust in the wrong mare and handed the Crystal Empire to another evil unicorn.”

Cadance turned to the sled trail on the snow behind them, unable to meet her husband’s gaze.

After a while, she began in a shaky voice. “Sunset… Sunset Shimmer… I still can’t believe that she would do this to us. She’s supposed to bring the Empire out of darkness, not into it! I trusted her, she’s supposed to be another brilliant spark under Princess Celestia’s tutelage!”

“But dear, don’t you feel it in your mind as well? Fragments of memories, and dark suggestions pushed onto us by unicorn magic. They’re much clearer now that we’re out of its restraining bound. Spike and Kanipha literally gave us a blow and a shout. It’s no doubt that she did this to us, and made us forget anything that is suspicious about her.”

Cadance felt as if her throat dried up. She slowly squeezed out. “But… why? She was a pleasant dear when we first met her…”

“She could’ve been faking it all the time.”

“If that’s the case, then I’d be immensely saddened. Her passion for Crystal Empire seemed so real. Even if I took out the utterly condemnable transgression on pony’s minds, she did look like she would give it her all to make Crystal Empire a better place. I just never thought that she would turn out to be a dabbler of dark magic and a destroyer of peace.”

“On the contrary, Cadance. If she’s so completely able to hide up her dastardly ambition to usurp our power, first behind a benign veil, then using casually casted mind spells, then she’s nothing but an utter psychopath. It’s important for us to completely renounce any remaining attachment to her, lest we’d look like we’re still under her sway.”

“S- Shining…” Cadance winced.

“I should’ve been more cautious…! Because of my carelessness, I’ve already lost Twily once. This has all the signs of disaster brewing, and all Equestria would be engulfed in it soon. I’m sure many crystal ponies and yaks have already been hurt and maimed due to this oversight. Outright war will come to Equestria after a millennium of peace and harmony… and it’s all my faul-”

Suddenly, something smacked Shining Armor’s face. It was not a forceful strike, and for a second, Shining Armor thought he had been hit by a snowball or a piece of hail.

When he looked up again, he only saw an astonished Cadance looking down to the floor. And when he traced her gaze, he saw a bashful Spike scratching his cheek.

“Oh, hey, sorry Shining Armor.”

The voice of Geuse hollered from two sleds ahead of them. “Spike, are you alright? Sorry for overexerting.”

Spike turned and said. “Nah, I’m fine. Thanks Geuse.”

“Really? You could’ve torn your wounds open yet!” Shining Armor chided with worry.

“Nah, don’t worry. Before we’re out, Yolana gave me some amazing potion to drink. It sealed up my wounds faster than even a nurse unicorn’s magic! That’s why I thought to try fire-breathing again, though it didn’t pan out.”

Despite their current situation, Spike was the sole acquaintance that the couple knew from youth, and his presence gave them a sense of security in the sea of uncertainty. Cadance therefore smiled at the small dragon and asked gently. “Spike, is there anything you would like to talk with us?”

“Yep. I’d forgotten to ask you two before we hopped on. I was too concentrated helping out Yolana to put the luggage on the sleds. She was asking if you two can cast magic normally again.”

Shining Armor raised his brows and asked with some surprise. “Is there anything she would want us to do?”

“Yes. She said that normally, we would have to take a long detour round the bend of the river, because there is a deep fjord cutting between the muskoxen hills and deer forest. But since you two are magic users, she wonders if you can just move us across the ledge. If so, we can cut the journey short to only three days instead of a week.”

Cadance winced and said. “Our magic should be largely intact, but it’s a bit too many things for us to handle.”

Shining Armor muttered. “How far apart are the two sides of the ledge, Spike?”

“She said it’s hard to tell because the Arctic landscape changes often, but she’s confident that she could find a crossing that is less than fifty feet apart.”

“… Well, tell her we’ll try our best.”

“Roger that.”

Noticing that the dragon was yet to move, Shining Armor asked. “Do you need a lift back to your own sled?”

“Thanks, but not now, Shining Armor.”

“Huh? What’s the matter?” The blue-maned unicorn was surprised.

Cadance continued to smile. “Spike, you want to spend some time with us?”

“I don’t mind spending more time to reconnect with you two, but more importantly, I just want to make sure that you two are alright.”

The royal couple widened their eyes again. They could not expect something more mature to come out of the mouth of the small dragon. Slowly, but steadily, Cadance nodded with an even bigger smile. “I… no, we’re alright. Thanks for your concern, Spike.”

Spike’s gaze was persistent. His focus swept from the Alicorn princess to the white unicorn, giving out a surprisingly pressing aura.

Shining Armor coughed. “Yep, Cadance is right. We’re fine, so let me just get you back to-”

“No, you’re not. I’m too used to be fooled around by Twi and her friends, and I can notice that kind of evasiveness from a mile away.”

The mare and the stallion were stunned at how direct the small dragon’s speech was. Rather than feeling embarrassed or even offended by being talked to by a dragon much younger than them, they felt an air of immense concern and understanding emanating from the small draconic frame. Even the dragon’s round chubby face was somewhat more chiseled than they remembered it.

“Things have gone downhill in a blink of the eye, and we’re all within our rights to feel terrible and the urge to assign blame to ourselves and others. I must say sorry for accidentally eavesdropping on you two, but I’ve heard it all, how you two are feeling guilty for your inaction back then.”

Cadance sighed sadly. “But it’s true, Spike… We could’ve done much more to prevent the rise of Sunset Shimmer and her descent into tyranny. We basically gave her a free pass on a lot of alarming things.”

“Princess Cadance-”

She smiled wistfully. “Just call me Cadance, Spike… like the old days.”

A genial smile came up from Spike’s determined face. “Alright, Cadance, Shining Armor. Let me tell you something I never told you two about Twi… and Discord.”

The royal couple looked shocked at the mention of Discord. The confusing enigma of a character that once betrayed them in their most important moment of their lives, and now redeemed himself somewhat by bringing back their beloved Twilight.

“Decision and indecision is divided by the thinnest line. And as you may know, Twi and Discord had a fall-out before what happened in Canterlot.”

Shining Armor looked displeased. “He tricked Twily and used magic on her to make her fall for him! If it’s done by anyone other than that chaos draconequus, he would be indicted and then confined to the royal dungeon long ago!”

Spike paused for a bit. He sighed. “It’s quite heinous, I agree. Twi did not forget it, but she chose to forgive him, and we accepted her decision.”

He then turned to Cadance with interest. “Cadance, do you think that Discord loves Twi? You know, in the romantic sense?”

Cadance looked a bit surprised at the question. She briefly pondered and replied. “I can certainly sense a heavy sense of longing on his part. They have a bond that is… special. But whether it transcends the boundary of friendship and common intimacy, into the sacred realm of romantic love, I think this is a question that can only be answered by him and him alone.”

With another pause, she quietly added. “The signs are there, I must admit.”

“Cadance, I’m but a green dragon in terms of love, especially before the Princess of Love herself.”

“Spike, you joke.”

Shining Armor thinly smiled in a flare of mischief. “You have twice the experience the other usually has, though.”

Spike rolled his eyes up. “Not you too, Shining Armor. Not that I don’t appreciate your humor, but I’ve heard too many variations of this joke that obviously upsets the girls, so I’ve kinda become ambivalent about it.”

Cadance again smiled with a hint of sadness. “So long as your love is true and steadfast, and it is not clouded by the poison of jealousy and distrust, no one are right to criticize you three for it.”

“Thanks, Cadance. I’m glad to have a seal of approval from the Princess of Love herself.”

Spike toothily grinned, but his grin gave way to a sad smile. “But enough about me. What I meant to say was that I too agree with what you said, Cadance. Discord had feelings for Twi… whether he has now still, I can’t tell. And Twi might have feelings for him too. Unfortunately though, their relationships were troubled by inexperience, lack of trust and indecision. And it ended badly for both of them.”

Spike reached back to straighten his scale, then continued. “Twilight is a brilliant unicorn, incredibly bright, wise beyond her years even. It’s not exaggerating to say that she’s got more knowledge than an entire library combined. She had helped so many of her friends through difficult times, me included, but she doesn’t know what to deal with her own feelings. In this aspects, she’s not that different to Discord.”

“You’re comparing Twily to that- that…” Shining Armor looked shocked and somewhat offended.

“I know it sounds wrong, but hear me out. Before the mess in Canterlot, Twilight not only once hinted to us that she felt close to Discord. It was such a strange idea to me, because they could not be more different to each other. But now that I think about it, one of the reasons could be that they both felt lonely in their power and their knowledge. Their senses of self are lost among larger goals, and they see each other as buoy in a storm.”

The two ponies slowly took in the dragon’s observations.

“Unfortunately, they are also newbies in this thing called trust and intimacy. I know that they fought not over Discord’s trickery with the love potion nonsense, but rather the reason Discord used the love potion in the first place. It’s about a secret. So secretive that Twilight never told me about it.”

“What could it be?” Cadance asked.

“I never knew, and it’s through pure observation and luck that I noticed. Though I know that the other girls do know. They made a vague promise that they would tell me if Twilight is completely healed.”

Spike looked to the side of the sled. “Not that I don’t want to know. I fervently want to know everything about Twi, but the more important thing about what I’ve said is that they become mired with uncertainty and even a hint of distrust, which was what ultimately led to the sad day of infamy.”

He then turned back to look at the two. “And after what happened in Canterlot, we all were a bit shell-shocked, weren’t we? And if there were anything that we three had in common, it was that we all hated Discord’s guts.”

Shining Armor huffed. “I still do.”

“Honey, you said you’re over it when he apologized to us in our wedding.”

“I said I’d think about it. And I said it because all of Twily’s friends were watching.”

Spike grinned wryly again. “Well, hate him all you want, he did do the ultimate redemption and become devoted to not only Twi as a person, but also her ideals of peace and harmony. I saw to his changes, but it’s not at all straightforward, especially since he had something that was at the same time his drive and his hurdle.”

“And that is…?”

“His own sense of guilt, of course.”

The two took in a sharp breath, feeling a swirl of emotions as they realized they were being compared to Discord.

“At the risk of sounding rude, yes, I’m making such a parallel. But again, please listen first then judge, because Discord’s experience with guilt is actually quite illuminating.”

Shining Armor looked reluctant, but Cadance softly sighed.

Spike continued regardless. “The very first thing Discord did when he committed the treacherous act was atonement. He went to the Tree of Harmony, even when he knew that his nature would likely came into conflict with the very expression of harmony on this land. Twi told me that he once hated the Tree so much, he attempted to smother it if a viny overgrowth of chaos. But there he was, knowingly got burnt and stung, in a misguided hope that pain would wash away his guilt.”

“He never told us this…” Shining Armor muttered.

Spike chuckled. “He’s a prideful draconequus. He would never admit his weakness in front of anyone but his closest relations.”

Cadance smiled thinly and thoughtfully. “When you put it this way, it’s as if the ageless chaos spirit is not that different from any pony.”

“This is true, Cadance. His showing of guilt shows that he has a healthy conscience, just like every normal sapient being in the world. Guilt brings us up short and convicts us for actions, and it can be good or bad depending on how we deal with it. At first, he chose the unproductive way of self-punishment. Apart from the episode at the Tree of Harmony, from which he was talked out of by Fluttershy, he also took unhealthy indulgence in being lashed at and even assaulted by walkers-by.”

He sighed. “I must admit, it was somewhat perversely soothing to see him punish himself at first. It was as if justice was done… But was it though? His beating himself all over did not bring back Twilight. It only caused him to look like a shell of what he used to be. Depressed, anxious and tired, blaming himself for past sins all the time. If he was like that when we’re ordered by Princess Celestia to go to Las Pegasus, then harmony helps us when we had to deal with Chrysalis.”

The two listening ponies looked fretful. Especially Shining Armor, who seldom thought of the chaos spirit in sympathetic light.

“But then Fluttershy nursed him through the period of renewal and recovery. She made him understand his guilt, rather than get tormented or manipulated by it passively. It’s from there on he went on to try to become a helper, and even sometimes a mentor to the girls using his expertise.”

Cadance briefly looked to the scar on Spike’s belly and winced. She kept her eyes closed and slowly said. “Spike, I understand. You put the whole thing in such a long and roundabout way, only to tell us that we should not wallow in our guilt for the past.”

Spike’s eyes slightly widened, and he turned aside. “I’m young, and in many ways I’m still a baby dragon. I know little, and I will never say that I’m mature enough to dish out lessons. I’m just trying to make things better in my own small ways.”

He sighed. “I might have said a string of big morals, but to say the truth, those are regurgitated words. I wouldn’t be able to say those to you if not for Twi and her friends’ demonstration. At heart, I’m much more concerned that my loved ones are frowny and regretful all the time.”

Shining Armor gently patted the back of the purple dragon. “I’m glad that Twily has brought up such a thoughtful and kind dragon.”

“I can never hold a candle to Twi herself. That’s why I would work my hardest to right this situation, bring back Pinkie, and at the end give Twilight her memories and mobility back.”

Shining Armor and Cadance looked to each other. The blue-maned unicorn brushed his mane and said. “No, Spike.”

The dragon looked surprised at the rejection of his vow. “H- Huh? What’s wrong with it?”

Cadance smiled. “You should mean: We would work our hardest, shouldn’t you?”

Spike slowly widened his eyes, and emphatically nodded. “Yes, of course! Welcome aboard, Cadance, Shining Armor. Let us work together… for our better tomorrow.”

Comments

[ferret]

“If you really want to thank me, there’s a way.”
“I’d love to give you some of the Vinidi fortune, but Sunset-”
“Silly Pisa! Of course I’m not so crude! I’m talking about the interesting tongue that you speak.”

Spike, you dog!