The Inevitable Return of the Great White North

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“Everypony hang on back there!” The Mare Stream bucked and shook, tossing its occupants around the interior with a few screams of surprise and loud thuds as bodies hit walls and floors.

“You could give us a little more warning next time, Zipp!” Pipp yelled up to the cabin as she pulled herself to her hooves and fixed the now askew tiara on her head. “Is everypony okay?” She asked the others as they pried themselves from their compromised positions.

“Ugh…yeah.” Sunny was the first to answer as she disentangled herself from Izzy and went to one of the nearby windows, only to be met with blinding white snow outside and even a few flashes of lightning from beyond. “I…should probably go help Zipp.” No small amount of fear and worry crept into those words.

“Good idea.” Hitch groaned and held his head with a hoof after it collided with one of the walls. “I’m glad we didn’t bring Sparky along…”

“Yeah,and it gives him and Misty a chance to become even better friends!” Izzy added with a beaming smile.

Sunny staggered away to the cockpit and walked into the cramped captain’s spot where Zipp sat, visibly wrestling with the controls. A gust of wind would hit the Mare Stream and Zipp would slam the controls to compensate before the unwieldy thing could roll over, or worse. Her wings were flared out and flapping a little each time she used all of her strength to fight for control. The bright prisbeam light from the lantern bathed the princess’ sweat drenched face with a colorful and all-too-cheerful light.

“What can I do to help?” Sunny’s voice came out shaky as her eyes focused on the blizzard raging outside. She had to do her best to collect herself. She took a deep breath and focused on stopping herself from hyperventilating. She couldn’t help if she was panicking.

“Can you control the weather?” Zipp asked through gritted teeth. She brought a purple and blue tipped wing to her head to get her mane away from her eyes. “Because that’s about the only waAAAAY-” the sentence couldn’t be finished as another rogue air current slammed into the bulky vehicle. This time, not even Zipp’s best effort could stop what was about to happen.

The Mare Stream tipped just enough so that the underside of the wing was exposed to the crosswind that had been battering it for the last little while. When the next gust caught it, the thing flipped. The ponies inside screamed as they were tossed around and the magical flying brick tumbled violently through the blizzard that consumed them. They were now at the mercy of the storm that surrounded them, and it had very little to give.

Zipp was still holding onto the controls as the plane/van hybrid fell, the screen in the middle of the dashboard letting her know that they were dropping like a rock. Not that there was anything she could do with that information. Nevertheless, it was there and sending her already thudding heart into overtime. The only thing she could realistically do was hope that the inevitable landing would only be awful and not catastrophic.

A soft golden light filtered into the periphery of her vision that quickly became harsh. Zipp craned her head around to see Sunny floating in the middle of the chaos, the Mare Stream rolling and jostling around in every direction as she hovered in place.She was a fixed point, somehow in the dead center of the cockpit with everything rotating around her without ever coming close to touching her.

An ethereal horn and wings sprung from the earth pony’s body and her eyes glowed with the same light. A wave of magic erupted from the mare, stopping the Mare Stream all at once. It slowly rotated until it was the right way up, and then it started to descend smoothly through the storm around it. Not even the strongest wind or the fiercest lightning could disturb the trajectory as it floated from the heavens and back down to earth with the aid of its very own angel.

The landing wasn’t as gentle as the descent. Once they were, according to the readout on the screen, a few dozen feet above the ground Sunny’s serene grip faltered. The Mare Stream hit the ground with a mighty thud, plumes of pure driven snow erupting around the windows.

Once it had hit the ground, so did Sunny. The mare collapsed into a head on the cold gray floor below, the only sign of life being shallow breaths. Zipp stood, her legs nearly buckling under her, and walked over to her friend. She put a hoof on Sunny’s barrel and felt the slow steady heartbeat and shallow breaths. With a nod, she moved to head into the back.

The others were in a lot worse shape than Sunny. The first thing Zipp noticed was her sister passed out with a nasty welt quickly growing on her forehead. She raced to Pipp’s side and hurriedly picked her up and tried to rouse her to no success.

“Nononono…” Zipp muttered under her breath, pupils dilated and breath quickening. Her hooves moved around her sister’s chest, only feeling the slightest movement. She placed her ear against the smaller pegasus’ chest and held her own breath as she listened closely.

*th-thump*

It was faint, but it was there.

“Is she okay?” A small voice came from nearby. Usually it would be full of life and excitement, but now it sounded so full of dread and pain that Zipp could hardly believe it was Izzy.

“I-I think so.” Zipp sniffled and wiped the tears that had formed at the corners of her eyes. “She’s breathing and there’s a heartbeat. I think she just got knocked out.” She saw the sheriff lumber into her vision from one of the corners rubbing his head and grumbling. “Are you two okay?”

“I think I twisted one of my ankles.” Izzy was the first to respond, her front right hoof inches off of the ground. She tried to put it down and put weight on it, but recoiled with a hiss as pain shot up the leg. “Yeah…not good.”

“I’m alright.” Hitch answered next. “A few bumps and bruises, but I’m good.” He shot an obviously forced half-smile at her, which Zipp returned with a nod. “How about you?”

“Fine. I was holding onto the stick the entire time.” Zipp sat Pipp back down gently, making sure to rest the pudgy pink princess on her side. “Sunny…Sunny saved us. She went all alicorn and stopped us from crashing. She’s passed out up front, just exhausted I think.”

“So what’s the plan?” Hitch wasted no time and just took Zipp’s assessment at face value. He straightened the leather sash that held his badge and smoothed out the turquoise mane on his head with a hoof. “We can’t stay here.”

“No, of course not.” Zipp nodded in agreement. “We need to check to see if this thing is damaged. Make any repairs we can and then leave as soon as the storm clears.” As she was speaking, she couldn’t help but see her own breath pouring from her muzzle as she spoke. “We might have our work cut out for us.”

“Izzy, do we have blankets in here?” Hitch turned to the unicorn, who had somehow already fashioned a makeshift splint for her bad hoof with bundles of tongue depressors and bright pink twine. The sudden appearance of the craft solution didn’t seem to even phase Hitch, only drawing a momentary glance from the sheriff as he spoke.

“Of course we do! Tons!” Izzy tapped the wall that separated the back from the cockpit and a panel opened, revealing at least a dozen blankets of varying colors and thickness. “And we have winter clothes packed for everypony! When Sunny said where we were going, I made sure we were prepared!”

“Thank hoofness for that.” Zipp said with a sigh. “Sherriff, bundle up. I want you to come out there with me to look this thing over.” She received a curt nod and a determined look from Hitch. “Izzy, do you think you can get Sunny and Pipp settled back here? Put some blankets down so they’re not laying on the ground and make sure they’re okay if you can.”

“I can do that, definitely!” Izzy limped away towards the cockpit after giving a salute with her bad hoof.

Zipp and Hitch found the wardrobe that Izzy had packed and bundled up the best they could: hats, scarves, jackets and boots for both.It was probably less than they needed, but it would have to do for a small stint outside.They gathered at the door to the outside while Izzy was busy arranging blankets on the ground behind them. They exchanged a not and Hitch pulled the door opened, bringing a surge of whipping arctic air into the inside.

The duo pushed outside and quickly shut the door behind them. The surrounding environment was, in a word, desolate. White dunes of snow as far as the eye could see, which wasn’t but a few feet at the most given the current conditions. Zipp looked around once, and upon seeing nothing but the blizzard, went to trudge around the Mare Stream.

The snow almost came up to their stomachs, making any sort of movement a slog. Zipp would’ve flown to avoid the inconvenience, but with the way the wind was blowing that could only end bad for her. So they went around the exterior of the van as quickly as the situation permitted, which was painfully slow.

Above the snow, there was no visible damage to the Mare Stream. At least nothing catastrophic, there was a small crack towards the top but that could be patched up from inside.They had to briefly dig in the still accumulating snow to get to a tire and found it completely bent, which spelt troubles ahead when they got back home.

“We have to try to start it!” Zipp yelled above the howling wind that overwhelmed the senses. “Everything else seems fine, I think! It’s really hard to tell, the only way to tell is to see if it’ll start up!”

“Yeah, I’ll go in and-” Hitch’s words fell away as his eyes fixated on something behind Zipp. “-hey what’s that!?” Zipp spun around to follow the sheriff’s eyes and saw something through the heavy veil of snow.

It was a light. High in the sky, even through the blitzing blizzard, it was visible. It was maybe a few thousand feet away from them, and then the same distance or more above them. Zipp wanted to brush it off as the lightning they had seen during their rapid descent, but it wasn’t right. It was pulsating, slowly, but rapidly gaining pace. The flickering became blinking, which became a strobe of light that not only became quicker, but brighter as well. It cut through the thick sheets of snow and caused the two ponies to shield their eyes from the intensity.

The small distant light exploded with unexpected force, pushing both Zipp and Hitch firmly against the cold metal exterior of the Mare Stream. When next they were able to open their eyes, they found the landscape surrounding them changed entirely. Snow no longer covered the ground, the sky was no longer dark and impenetrable. Instead, they were in a verdant green field with a bright blue sky above them. The bone chilling cold that had been biting them even through their clothes had left, only to be replaced with the air of a nice spring day.

The sudden change in the weather wasn’t even the weirdest part, no that was the objects that had sprouted up in the distance. They were large thick pillars of purple and blue crystals, some with what looked like windows in them. Then, even past that initial line of crystal was a massive shining spire of bright blue crystal with a light gleaming from its tip.

“What in the world…” Hitch was the first to speak, and he voiced Zipp’s thoughts exactly. “What is this place…?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Sunny knows? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an oasis in the Arctic.” Zipp dug her hoof into the soil below as she spoke, just to make sure it was real. Her white fur became stained with dirt as she brought it up to confirm that it was indeed real and not some kind of sick illusion. “We should go into that…town and see if there’s anypony that can help us with the injuries.”

“Maybe you should go ahead, you’re a lot faster without me tagging along.” Hitch removed his scarf and hat with a nod. “I’ll try to get this thing started up and follow when I can.”

Zipp was already removing her winter gear and dumping it on the ground. Her wings unfurled and tipped back and forth to see if they could catch a breeze, only to find the air was unnaturally still. She gave a running start, her hooves beating against the soft grass and dirt below, and jumped into the calm air of this new place.

As Zipp flew through the sky, she kept her eyes focused on the ground below. She was expecting to see signs of life, not sure if they would be ponies, but she was expecting **something** beyond the desolate fields and streets she saw below. With all of the crystals, maybe this was where the dragons had gone? It would make sense for their magic to keep the cold at bay and Sunny had mentioned something about them and crystals in the past. This had to be the lead they were searching for!

There was no sign of life in what Zipp now recognized as a city. There were streets with carts turned over on their sides, stalls with fresh produce left abandoned with nary a pony or other creature around. Not even the wind swept through the deserted streets. It was as if death had swept through the streets and buildings.

The silence was finally shattered by a window breaking in the distance, more specifically from the giant spire that sat in the middle of the city. What looked to be a spear was falling along the side from high up with smoke trailing in its wake. It tumbled and struck the side of what could only be described as a palace, lodging its blade firmly in the crystal.

A howl followed, an unearthly animalistic sound that caused Zipp to freeze and sent shivers throughout her entire body. Something deep down compelled her to run, to fly back to her friends and get as far away as fast as possible. She fought that urge down and swallowed her instincts and sped over to the shattered window.

Inside was, as she suspected, a palace. The decorative sconces that lined the hall and the obscenely high quality rug that ran the length of the hallway were things she had grown up around. It was a universal language of a place of importance. The familiar isn’t what stood out, no, it was the unfamiliar. A great cloud of smoke sped down the corridor, a purple and green aura erupting from the front of it and firing vicious blasts of energy at something.

“This might be out of my league…” Zipp mumbled under her breath. “...but whatever that thing is after is in trouble.” The window wasn’t wide enough for her to squeeze through, and even if it was she wouldn’t risk that with the shattered glass around the edges.

She had to find a way in.

So around the spire she went in an upwards spiral from the window. There had to be a balcony or rooftop access point somewhere, but she found nothing and began to work her way back down. That’s when the sound of another window breaking caught her attention. This time instead of a weapon flying into the calm skies, it was a pony.

Unlimited Hangout

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A pony tumbled from a window about halfway up the Crystal Empire’s castle spire. Broken glass followed in his wake, as did tendrils of thick black smoke which crackled with malevolent energy. A small magical mark, a circle that was filling up clockwise, on the pony’s foreleg flashed a few times. It filled up entirely with color as the pony came precipitously close to the ground.

The very tip of the castle’s spire flashed, then flashed again but infinitely brighter. The light it exuded consumed the world around it.

<<<

“You’re not going anywhere!” A stallion roared as his horn flared to life and a bubble of pure magic appeared around the thing opposite him. He lifted the creature into the air just to make sure there was no opening between the bubble and the ground he could slip out of somehow. “You’re stuck here with me now. Forever.” He narrowed his eyes and focused on the sphere containing the monster in front of him and slowly shrank it.

The room they had staged this confrontation in was the throne room of all places. The seemingly victorious stallion was standing atop the dais where the eponymous thrones were sat, the two of them made out of the same shimmering blue crystals as the rest of the place. The midday sun shone through the high windows and bounced off the crystalline walls and floor, bathing the whole space in soft natural light. The lingering bits of heavy smoke that trailed along the ground seemed to dampen that effect, though.

The magic bubble became smaller and smaller, the dense gray and black smoke inside battering against the sides in a desperate attempt to get out. He was sweating as he poured more and more power into the shrinking sphere, constantly reinforcing it as the little monster inside chipped away at it from the inside. The pool of mana inside was only so deep, and it was becoming more and more shallow by the second.

There was a moment before he ran out where he could act, but it had to be decisive.

He chucked the sphere as hard as he could towards the other end of the room and hopped down from his perch on the throne. Without looking to see where the monster-constricting pearl landed, he sprinted through one of the side doors close to the thrones. The sound of the magic shattering and the furious howl of a monster let loose echoed through the hall as the stallion bolted down it.

Wind rushed down the corridor as the door was thrown open again. The stallion didn’t even need to turn around to know that the billowing cloud of smoke was rapidly gaining on him, the snarls and growls echoing through the space. He made a beeline for the spiral staircase at the end of the hall. That would take him up to the royal chambers and he would have to find something to help him fight the creature off with, at least for a little while.

“I don’t have to last forever…” He reminded himself. “Just long enough…” As he was ascending the stairs, he saw the little magical circle on his right foreleg slowly being filled in. Not forever, not even that long. He just had to keep the thing busy for a little while longer.

A blast of purple and green magic shot over his head and impacted the wall in front of him, causing angry black crystals to erupt from the spot. There was barely any time to react, so he barreled right through it with all of the might he could muster. A wave of malice washed over him as the crystals shattered against his fur and he could feel his strength wane from even that small contact with them.

Another shot of the toxic magic blew by his side, grazing his skin and sending a shot of burning pain through his entire body. He stumbled, but caught himself and kept going. Fatigue greater than should be possible began to set in as his hooves pummeled the shimmering steps beneath them. The monster’s magic set in quick like venom. The stallion could even feel crystals begin to form on his horn and the mana deep inside pooling like a sludge in his skull. Staying in the stairwell with that thing constantly on his hooves, free to chip away at him, was a death sentence. He couldn’t run all the way up to the royal quarters, he needed an out sooner than that.

The door on the next landing was flung open as the stallion forced his shoulder into it and it nearly came off the hinges. Through it was yet another long hall, this was lined with suits of armors and several doors on either side. It was the level the armory was on, which would be perfect for what he needed.

He got to the first suit of armor and tore the spear from its metal grip with his hooves. He turned around to see the smoke of the monster pour in from the stairwell. A shape coalesced in the dense miasma, a bulky armored stallion with blood red eyes. His lips curled into a cruel smile which bared fangs that dripped with liquid shadow. King Sombra looked at him with a mix of disgust and self-assuredness.

“They left you, Shining Armor. They abandoned you here in some token attempt at resistance.” Smug satisfaction draped his words as they left his mouth. “We both know what happens next, don’t we? I kill you, then I follow your wife and daughter to wherever they ran off to and enslave them. Then the rest of my ponies, and then Equestria itself.”

“”That’s not how this is going to go.” Shining growled out through gritted teeth. That was his mission statement, his solid thesis upon which everything was built at the moment. It wasn’t going to go that way because it couldn’t. It was more than blind faith, it was an unwavering certainty.

Shining Armor summoned the magic from deep inside and forced it through the block Sombra’s magic had caused. He gripped the spear in his magic and threw it as hard as he could in the corrupted king’s direction. He saw the tip tear through the flesh of his enemy, he saw it carry all the way through without losing any momentum, then he heard it crash through the window behind Sombra.

A long piece of Sombra’s body was absent, but so was the viscera that would usually accompany such an injury. Instead it was just a solid hole through his entire form, one that was quickly filled in by the omnipresent mist that followed Sombra around. The green and purple aura that seeped from his eyes intensified in strength and the solid equine form dissolved into the familiar dark miasma where only the glowing green eyes were visible. Then a mouth appeared from the smoke and a guttural, primal howl echoed through the entire castle and out into the Crystal Empire proper.

Shining Armor was already running. He had spun on his hooves as soon as he saw the spear had no effect. As he fled, he looked down to his leg and the little magic dial imprinted on his fur. It was nearly three quarters full at this point. He was close, just a bit longer. His hooves caught on the rug beneath them as he skidded around a corner, two bolts of corrosive magic hitting the spot where he had been moments ago. He was once again on the back hoof, running and fighting to stay one step ahead.

The deep purple crystals that crackled with green energy started to sprout from the walls and floor independent of Sombra’s magic hitting them. They all seemed to be reaching out towards Shining Armor, like hooves of the dead trying to drag him down into the Styx. He ignored their clawing grasps, even as a few nicked his hooves and legs.

Even as he felt his strength wane more and more, he kept pushing himself. Sweat dripped down his face and stung his eyes and his vision began to swim. Even through all of that, he kept going through the familiar halls in search of another delaying tactic. He wasn’t even looking for salvation, he just needed a little more time.

Shining Armor’s shoulder was put into the nearest door and he stumbled inside, quickly shutting it behind him. He quickly looked around, found a bookshelf a foot or two to the right of the door and tipped it over to block the entrance. Sombra could probably still get in with his smoke, but it would take a little bit of time.

Hopefully.

Shining took a moment to look around and realized where he was: Cadance’s office hideaway. When she needed to get away to do some official business, when she needed those moments of silence to focus and do her duty to the ponies she served, this is where she did it. There were bookshelves that lined the walls of the small room, a couch to lay on, and a simple wooden desk with a lantern sat upon it.

On the desk, next to stacks of papers, was a small framed picture of their family. It was one they had taken during a Crystal Fair, Shining and Cadance and Flurry Heart all making silly faces at the camera. It brought a smile to his face, the first smile he’d cracked today. He had to hold back the tears though.

“I’ll see you again, I promise.” He mumbled as he hugged the picture to his chest. Thoughts of better times consumed him for a moment before the banging against the door brought him back to reality. “Right…”

Shining looked around the room. There was not another door, not adjoining room or some secret passage built into the walls. The only other means of egress from his wife’s office was a large window that provided ample natural light, and that wasn’t really an option. Once more he looked down at his leg and the magical indicator imprinted upon it.

Almost full.

Shining Armor made his way over to the window and tried to open it but found it firmly locked, the familiar ‘scent’ of Cadance’s magic all over it. No doubt a foalproofing spell in case Flurry was ever in here with her. Judging from the view through it, they were about halfway up the spire. He did some quick math in his head to figure out just how high that was, and how long it would take for him to reach the bottom from here…

The door behind him cracked, a single spiked purple crystal poking through the wood. The dense fog Shining Armor knew all too well seeped in through that crack and pooled on the other side of the bookcase. King Sombra once again rose from the mist and solidified, a scowl replacing the smug grin he had worn before.

“Nowhere to run now, Shining Armor.” He slammed an armored hoof against the ground, black crystals erupting around the impact area. “Kneel before your King, and I might let you live long enough to see your family in chains.”

Those words, the images they conjured, pushed every ounce of fatigue from Shining’s body and set his heart alight. He sneered at the usurper and steeled himself. He would never kneel, and they both knew that. However, Shining couldn’t give Sombra the satisfaction of killing him. His gaze fell to that little dial on his leg again and judged the time he had left, then he looked to the window.

There was no deliberation, only action. He threw himself at the glass, which shattered around him and cut him from face to flank. He heard Sombra yell something at him, but it was lost in the din of wind rushing past his ears. The city and the green fields of the empire stretched out around him as he fell. He would miss this view and the ponies who once lived here.

Most of all, he would miss his family. His last thoughts were of them as the ground rushed up to meet him.

<<<

“You’re not going anywhere!” Shining Armor roared as his horn flared to life and a bubble of pure magic appeared around the smoky visage of King Sombra opposite him. He lifted the usurper king into the air just to make sure there was no opening between the bubble and the ground he could slip out of somehow. “You’re stuck here with me now. Forever.” He narrowed his eyes and focused on the sphere containing the monster in front of him and slowly shrank it.

The room they had staged this confrontation in was the throne room of all places. The seemingly victorious prince of the Empire was standing atop the dais where the eponymous thrones were sat, the two of them made out of the same shimmering blue crystals as the rest of the place. The midday sun shone through the high windows and bounced off the crystalline walls and floor, bathing the whole space in soft natural light. The lingering bits of heavy smoke that trailed along the ground seemed to dampen that effect, though.

The magic bubble became smaller and smaller, the dense gray and black smoke inside battering against the sides in a desperate attempt to get out. Shining was sweating as he poured more and more power into the shrinking sphere, constantly reinforcing it as the little monster inside chipped away at it from the inside. The pool of mana inside of him was only so deep, and it was becoming more and more shallow by the second.

There was a moment before he ran out where he could act, but it had to be decisive.

He chucked the sphere as hard as he could towards the other end of the room and hopped down from his perch on the throne. Without looking to see where the monster-constricting pearl landed, Shining sprinted through one of the side doors close to the thrones. The sound of the magic shattering and the furious howl of a monster let loose echoed through the hall as the stallion bolted down it.

Wind rushed down the corridor as the door was thrown open again. Shining Armor didn’t even need to turn around to know that the billowing cloud of smoke was rapidly gaining on him, the snarls and growls echoing through the space. He made a beeline for the spiral staircase at the end of the hall. That would take him up to his and Cadance’s chambers and he would have to find something to help him fight the creature off with, at least for a little while, in there.

“I don’t have to last forever…” He reminded himself. “Just long enough…” As he was ascending the stairs, he looked to his leg and the little magical dial that was supposed to be there. Where he had seen it a minute ago, now was just white fur. Panic surged through him in that moment. The spell couldn’t have failed, Sunburst and Cadance had worked on it together. He had seen them cast it and saw the timer on his leg not that long ago.

He had to have faith that it had worked and that it would work when it came down to it.

Another shot of the toxic magic blew by Shining’s side, grazing his skin and sending a shot of burning pain through his entire body. He stumbled, but caught himself and kept going. Fatigue greater than should be possible began to set in as his hooves pummeled the shimmering steps beneath them. The monster’s magic set in quick like venom. The stallion could even feel crystals begin to form on his horn and the mana deep inside pooling like a sludge in his skull. Staying in the stairwell with that thing constantly on his hooves, free to chip away at him, was a death sentence. He couldn’t run all the way up to the royal quarters, he needed an out sooner than that.

The door on the next landing was flung open as Shining Armor forced his shoulder into it, making it nearly come off the hinges. Through it was yet another long hall, which was lined with suits of armors and several doors on either side. It was the level the armory was on, which would be perfect for what he needed.

Shining got to the first suit of armor and tore the spear from its metal grip with his hooves. He turned around to see the smoke of the monster pour in from the stairwell. A shape coalesced in the dense miasma, a bulky armored stallion with blood red eyes. His lips curled into a cruel smile which bared fangs that dripped with liquid shadow. King Sombra looked at him with a mix of disgust and self-assuredness.

Shining Armor was already running. He had spun on his hooves as soon as he saw the spear had no effect. As he fled, he looked down to his leg and the little magic dial imprinted on his fur. It was nearly still gone. But something deep down inside, some kind of internal clock told him that he was close, just a bit longer. His hooves caught on the rug beneath them as he skidded around a corner, two bolts of corrosive magic hitting the spot where he had been moments ago. He was once again on the back hoof, running and fighting to stay one step ahead.

Hopefully.

Nothing. Maybe the spell hadn’t taken. Maybe this was already messed up and he was doomed. Maybe he had messed it up somehow? Or had Cadance failed?

“No.” He rebutted the thought immediately. Cadance didn’t fail. Something was wrong, but it couldn’t be serious. Maybe the timer just faded, maybe his magic being blocked by Sombra’s magic had killed it. The spell still had juice, it had been cast over the entire Crystal Empire, not just him.

Most of all, he would miss his family. His last thoughts were of them as the ground rushed up to meet him.

A white blur impacted him before his rapid reunion with the earth and knocked the wind out of him. He instinctively wrapped his hooves around the creature that had saved him and held on tight. Flying wasn’t his thing, and the few times Cadance had flown him somewhere had been some of the most terrifying moments of his life.

The creature carrying him was a pony, a pegasus of course, with a bright white coat and a pink mane with a blue streak parting it to one side. She gave Shining an uneasy smile and then dipped in the air a bit.

“Oookay big guy, we have to land, sorry! I’m not used to carrying this weight!” The mare informed him with a chuckle and another wary grin. He gave her a tired and confused nod as they descended. Her hooves hit the ground and she unceremoniously dumped him onto the concrete below. “Sorry! I didn’t really…have a good grip!” She rushed to his side. “Are you okay?”

“Complicated question.” Shining Armor admitted as he picked himself up. The pain from his previous exploits hit him all at once and he groaned. He looked down and saw his legs and chest covered in tiny skin-deep cuts that oozed blood and stained his white coat. “Thanks for the save, did Cadance send you…” He left the question hanging, looking for her name.

“Zipp.” The mare nodded. “Nopony sent me, my friends and I found this place. Well, not really ‘found’, it sort of just appeared.”

“No.” Shining stated flatly. “That can’t be right.” He looked back up towards the castle and he saw Sombra’s smoke pouring from the window he had flung himself from. He saw the green eyes appear and focus right on him and Zipp. “We have to get out of here! If the spell didn’t work, then we need to get back to Canterlot and warn everypony!”

“Hey, no.” Zipp put a hoof on his shoulder and looked at him with piercing cyan eyes. “You need to tell me what in the world that thing is first.” She pointed a hoof at the vaporous body of King Sombra, whose eyes were now cast about the landscape rather than focused on them.

“What do you mean?” Shining asked, trying not to raise his voice at this newcomer. “It’s King Sombra. We need to warn everypony, set up defenses! I’m serious, so stop playing games! Point me to the train you and your friends got here on and let’s turn it around and burn coal!” He was getting frustrated, there was just no helping it. The adrenaline was still going and Zipp was testing his patience.

Zipp looked at him, the look on her face somewhere between confused and intrigued. She looked back up at Sombra, then back to Shining Armor. She opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by something skidding around the corner.

To Shining Armor, this object looked like a box on wheels. He supposed it was a cart of some kind, but there was nothing pulling it and it was traveling on a flat plane so gravity wasn’t helping. It had a glass screen up front and he could see a pinkish-purple unicorn mare with a long blue mane in control of it.

The thing skidded to a halt about a dozen feet away from them, which caused Shining Armor to jump back in surprise. A small door towards the rear opened and an earth pony stallion stood there and waved them both in.

“Come on!” The other stallion hollered. “That thing doesn’t look friendly and now it’s looking at us!”

“Out of the frying pan…” Shining mumbled to himself and followed Zipp into the vehicle.

Red Eye

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“Izzy, get us out of here!” Zipp yelled up to the cabin. “Home would be nice, but I think Zephyr Heights is closer.” At least she thought that was the case. This far up north, it was hard to tell exactly what was closer because everything was half a world away.

Something hit the Mare Stream, and suddenly an angry black crystal that crackled with purple and green energy pierced one of the walls. It seemed to grow and spread around the impact area, trails of smaller crystals moving out from the puncture site like roots searching for food.

“Whoa!” Hitch, who had been standing a few inches away from the puncture point, raised a hoof and kicked at the intruding object. The crystal shattered, but the energy it contained crawled up the sheriff’s leg like vines. “W-what in the…” Everypony saw his posture slump and his knees start to buckle.

“Stay away from it!” To his credit, the new pony was the first one to Hitch’s side. He supported the other stallion and helped him slowly to the ground. “That stuff is nasty. I don’t know what Sombra did since the last time I faced him, but he’s…different. It’s like he can drain us of our energy now.”

“Who’s Sombra?” Sunny was the one to ask the question. “...and what do you mean ‘last time’? He’s attacked before?”

The new stallion opened his mouth to answer but confusion washed across his face. His mouth shut and he looked around the interior of the Mare Stream slowly. Zipp could see the stallion taking account of everything he saw, then his eyes fell on Pipp’s phone, which was on the ground next to the still-unconscious princess. He looked back at Sunny and spoke slowly.

“What…what year is it?”

“Uhh…” Zipp and Sunny said in unison as they looked at each other, each with an eyebrow raised. “Well it’s not really that simple…” Sunny said as she rubbed the back of her neck with a sheepish grin. “You know, you unicorns have a different way of keeping track of that stuff, same with the pegasi and us earth ponies.”

“No, come on.” He got to his hooves, leaving Hitch on the ground. “I get that it’s still not ten-fifteen anymore. It was winter last time I went in, it’s a new year and I get that. Is it ten-sixteen?” He was met with blank stares. “Ten-seventeen? Ten-twenty?” He moved over to Zipp, a look of barely restrained panic in his eyes. “Please, if this is a joke you guys have to stop. It’s not funny.”

“It’s…not a joke…” Zipp said quietly.

“Why don’t you sit down?” Sunny came up behind him and touched his shoulder with a gentle hoof. “Tell us who you are. What’s your name?”

“You don’t recognize me…” It wasn’t a question, it was a realization that fell from the stallion’s lips. “No, that can’t be right. No. It couldn’t have been…” He was now mumbling to himself, not even looking at Zipp or Sunny. Slowly, the stallion fell to his haunches. “Shining Armor. That’s my name.” He waited a beat. “You’ve…heard of me, right?”

Zipp looked at Sunny, who could only shake her head. This was about what it was like when Pipp first spent a day in Maretime Bay without her entourage. It was somepony who was so used to being a focal point, if not a center of attention, deprived of that luxury for the first time. Pipp had spent most of that day whining, but Zipp felt like Shining Armor might be a little different than her diva little sister.

“I’m sorry, but no.” Sunny sat next to him and kept a hoof on his back. “Why don’t you tell me the last thing you remember?” Her voice was calm, soothing, almost motherly as she spoke to the sullen stallion.

“I…we evacuated the Crystal Empire.” Shining Armor’s anxiety melted and he adopted a martial tone. His back straightened and he stared into the middle distance. “King Sombra had returned and had been circling for days. We had to come up with a plan, so we did. Cadance took everypony that was left…that he hadn’t gotten already before the defenses went up. They got into the train headed for Canterlot-”

“-Canterlot?” Sunny interjected with wide eyed excitement extinguishing her caring attitude. Zipp could practically hear Sunny’s mind going into overdrive as the old city was mentioned.

“We had to get word to Twilight. We had to warn everypony that Sombra was back and he was stronger than ever. The last time he came back, when he took over Canterlot, we barely stopped him then. Now?” Shining shook his head. “We did what we could, what we had to.” He looked Sunny dead in the eyes, his cold blue pupils hard with determination. “I kept him busy. Cadance and Sunburst cast a spell over the entire Empire where-” Something seemed to hit him like a freight train, some realization that he had yet to vocalize. “-it was only supposed to be a few minutes…but…if it looped…how long…” He spoke in broken sentences to nopony in particular.

“You don’t mean Twilight Sparkle, do you?” Zipp was the next to speak. Sunny was too ingrained in her own thoughts at the mere mention of the ancient princes to even speak anymore. “I mean, you can’t.”

“Of course I mean Twilight Sparkle.” Shining Armor turned to Zipp. “What do you mean? Why can’t I mean her?”

“She’s…” Zipp knew these next words were going to be bad, she could just feel it in her gut. “She’s gone. She has been for a long time.”

Shining Armor’s face went from momentary surprise to made of stone in a matter of moments. The stoicness didn’t reach his eyes, and it didn’t stop them from beginning to water. It reminded Zipp a lot of her own mother, whose heart you could see break through her eyes.

“Then…we need to get to Celestia or Luna.” He was met with another shake of the head from Zipp. “Cadance…?” Shining’s voice quavered ever so slightly as the name left his mouth. He had brought up the name twice now, it had to be somepony close to him…and that made this next moment all the harder.

“I’m sorry, I’ve…never heard of anypony named Cadance before.” Zipp admitted quietly. “I’m really sorry, Shining Armor…wherever you were, you were there for a really long time.”

“You…you knew Twilight Sparkle.” Sunny finally roused from her stupor with a grin that Zipp had to refrain herself from calling out. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you really knew Twilight Sparkle!”

“No.” Was all Shining said in response. He stood up and spun on his hooves to face the door to the cockpit. “No, we’re going to Canterlot. Now. This can’t be right.” His hooves carried him with purpose as he entered the cockpit, and Zipp was right on his heels.

“I’ll try to keep him calm.” Zipp said to Sunny as she passed her friend. “You just stay back here with Pipp and Hitch, okay?”

“But I have so many questions for him!” Sunny protested and took to her own hooves. In response, Zipp put a hoof on her shoulder and pushed the overly eager earth pony back to her haunches. “I have to know more!”

“Later.” Zipp stated sternly. “I don’t think now is the best time to interrogate him about this stuff, okay? Trust me, I get it. But just…lay off for now. I don’t think he’s okay.” Understatement of the year, but she hoped Sunny would pick up on that. Zipp didn’t say anything else as she followed Shining into the cockpit, where he was already talking with Izzy.

“-due south from here. You’re going to hit the White Tail Mountains and that’s where you start to head south west.” For her part, Izzy was happily nodding along while maintaining the heading she had already been on. “We need to get there fast, okay?”

“Oh yeah, sure!” Izzy smiled at him, two hooves still on the controls and the course didn’t alter at all. Shining Armor simply looked at her, then out at the landscape outside. The blizzard had seemed to let up to just a minor snowstorm now but it still wasn’t great flying conditions. “I’m Izzy by the way!” The unicorn tacked on cheerfully.

“Shining Armor.” He replied curtly. “What is this thing, by the way? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Everything that had been said in the back seemed to stay back there. Zipp didn’t hear any panic or worry in Shining Armor’s words anymore, just simple curiosity. She wasn’t sure that was a good thing, but they would have to let him have this for now. So Zipp just leaned against the doorframe.

“We built it.” She chimed in. “Izzy and I, that’s who I mean by we.” Zipp was still more than a little proud of this thing, and she puffed her chest out as she spoke to show that. “Took an old tram car and just threw some stuff together, y’know?”

“Bravo.” Shining Armor nodded and looked around the cockpit again. “I mean really, it looks so…futuristic. Like something in a comic book.” He moved over to the console in the middle of the dashboard and the screen embedded in it. Currently, it only displayed the time in blocky white lettering on a black background.

“Well-” Zipp was primed to dive headfirst into some of her design ideas when something shook the Mare Stream. The three ponies in the cockpit all braced themselves as a stream of green and purple energy shot by them and shook the van again. “He’s still following us?!” Zipp moved to the front and ushered Izzy out of the pilot’s spot and took the controls from her compatriot. They both knew she was the better flier, so she didn’t get any pushback from Izzy.

“Hold on, I can help!” Shining Armor widened his stance and closed his eyes. The horn on his head shone with pink magic. Sparks poured from the tip as small black crystals that decorated the length fell off one after another. Soon enough, a pink bubble appeared around the Mare Stream.

“Hey, good j-” Zipp was about to compliment the apparently skilled stallion, but they started to lose altitude as soon as the bubble went up. “Nope! Drop it! It’s not letting any air in, we’re not getting any lift from the wings!”

“Okay, wait!” Shining Armor’s horn flared once more and the Mare Stream gained altitude once again. “It’s a half-shield now, just on the back!” Sure enough, the pink in front of the windshield dissipated over a few seconds. “I-I’m not really sure how long I can keep this up, Zipp..” Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the sweat pouring down his face. “..so please, lose him.”

Zipp pulled back on the stick and the Mare Stream went vertical. It was sharp and sudden and she heard Sunny and Hitch scream from the back, but there was no other choice. She pulled even harder on the stick, putting it straight into her gut and even then still pulling. Her wings flapped to give her a little more leverage. She could pull off a full loop in midair like nothing, but the Mare Stream was a brick and was about as graceful as one. It took all of her might and then some to pull off that simple maneuver.

Sombra, or at least the dark cloud that was Sombra, hadn’t fallen for the maneuver and was now directly below them. Eyes formed from the cloud and stared right through the windshield, focused entirely on Shining Armor. Lightning the same color as the energy the crystals displaced, crackled from the monster and lashed out at nearby clouds.

“Punch…it!” Shining Armor, pinned against the back wall of the cockpit, said through gritted teeth as he moved the shield he had conjured from the back of the Mare Stream to the front. The windshield became coated with his pink magic, turning the flying brick into a battering ram.

Zipp saw the vision, and obliged. She let go of the stick, letting it shift back to neutral and deferring to gravity. Sure enough, the pull of the earth was too much to resist and the Mare Stream began to fall straight down. Once she was sure they were lined up, Zipp did as Shining Armor said and punched it.

The lantern on the dashboard flashed as bright as Zipp had ever seen as they built up speed. Rainbow light flooded the cockpit and bathed them all in its magical light as the barrelled towards Sombra. Once he figured out what was happening, which was too little too late, Sombra’s eyes turned from pure hatred to shock.

The Mare Stream slammed into Sombra like a right hook to the jaw. For ostensibly being a gas at the moment, he was surprisingly solid. The flying brick punched through the gaseous monster, but it was far more of a fight in which momentum helped them rip and tear through the magical sinew that kept Sombra whole. It was enough to keep them from plummeting directly into the ground and it let Zipp wrestle some semblance of control back and level out the vessel.

Wisps of smoke trailed from every edge of their vehicle, pieces of Sombra slowly sloughing off as they flew through the sky. She craned her head back as far as she could and pressed it against the curved windshield to see if she could catch a glimpse of what they left behind. Through the snow, she could see black clouds dissipating and falling apart.

“We did it!” Zipp cheered with a pump of her hoof in the air. “See, Shining Armor? Problem solved!”

“I wish…” Shining Armor stumbled and his horn fizzled. The shield he had erected on the front of the Mare Stream sputtered out and the unicorn fell to his knees. “We’ve ‘killed’ that thing twice before. At the most, we slowed him down. Celestia hopes it’s for a while.” He tried to stand, but his legs shook and faltered, and he fell.

“Hey, just relax okay? I think you’ve done enough today.” Zipp urged and motioned for him to stay down with a wing. “You’re still bleeding all over the place and everything…just please relax.”

“I’ll go get the first aid kit!” Izzy offered with a smile and trotted off towards the back. Zipp’s ears swiveled and followed her hoofsteps. She was waiting to hear the click of the cockpit door to speak openly again.

“Listen-” She started once that click signaled she was alone with Shining Armor. “-I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now. I really can’t. We don’t know exactly how long it’s been since you were last around and a lot has changed since then.” She wasn’t good at this kind of thing. This soft stuff was Sunny’s realm, and maybe Hitch’s. Concerning herself with the problems of others was decidedly not an attitude she was raised to have, it was a skill she had to learn on her own. “I don’t even know if it’s possible to get you back to when you belong, but I know we’ll do anything and everything to help…” She looked back to see if anything she had said was having an effect on Shining Armor, but found him passed out on the cold floor.

“Well he certainly deserves a rest!” Izzy said after sticking her head back through the door. “It seems like he’s had a doozy of a day.” The unicorn flopped on her haunches next to the unconscious stallion and used her magic to lift up his forelegs and bandage them. “What’s his deal, anyway? He was talking to me about Canterlot like it’s not just ruins now!”

“I think he was trapped in that-what did he call it, Crystal Empire?-for a very long time.” Zipp sighed and combed over everything Shining Armor had said in her head. “I don’t even think he knew about the crystals or the ponies all splitting up…and he said he knew Twilight Sparkle.”

“Woah.” Izzy gasped. “He’s super old! He looks great though!” Well, there was no denying that at least. “So are we going to Canterlot again?”

“Maybe eventually. He seems dead set on it.” Zipp brought a wing to pinch the bridge of her nose. “But we need to get home, probably Zephyr Heights. We’re all a little banged up and need help, and we need to warn ponies about Sombra. Mom will have some idea of what to do, at least I hope so.”

Royalty Free

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Shining Armor awoke slowly. A combination of dull aches and sunlight washing across his face pulled him from the rather dreamless sleep he had been drifting through. High ceilings and intricate stonework framed by gold trim and bathed in natural light came into view as his vision cleared. Was he in Canterlot? It had to be the castle.

He pulled himself up into a sitting position and looked around. If he was in Canterlot Castle, then he wasn’t in a wing he recognized. But everything from the colors, to the view of eye level clouds out the window told him he was back in his home city. That wasn’t right, though. It wasn’t all a nightmare, right?

Shining looked down at his body. Bandages criss-crossed his torso and front legs and his joints were stiff and achy. He brought a hoof up to feel his face and felt a line of stitches along his jawline. Either he fell down a long flight of stairs, or everything he remembered actually happened.

The latter raised more questions than answers.

“Hello…?” He called out. The room he was in looked to be a bedroom, like any of the spare bedrooms in the castle. It had a bed, a wardrobe, and a view and not much else. Mind you, they were always high quality beds and wardrobes and a top tier view, but it was the base of luxury in such a place and this one was no different.

Shining Armor stood up, he figured out that was a bad idea as soon as his hooves hit the ground. He winced and groaned, his knees buckling as his body weight settled on them. There was a time when feeling this beat up was few and far between, but it seemed like it was a little more common nowadays. Maybe he was just getting old.

After steadying himself and making sure he could properly support himself, he pushed off from the bed and slowly made his way across the room towards the door. His hooves didn’t even click against the tiles as he walked, a testament to how slow he was taking all of this. Only after his first tussle with Sombra had he ever been this sore. Even basic training for the royal guard hadn’t messed him up this bad, and Chrysalis had just left him with a pretty bad headache for a few days. So his takeaway from this was to not face Sombra one-on-one and throw himself out of a window.

Shining Armor pushed the door open and staggered into the hall, only to be stopped by a mint colored hoof clad in silver armor with gold trim. A pegasus pony trotted into view and looked at him like a plague victim.

“Y-you’re not supposed to be out of your room…sir.” The pegasus, a stallion, said shakily. “So…uh…please go back inside? I’m supposed to tell the princess when you finally wake up.”

“The princess?” All of the aches and pains in Shining’s body faded away with that one word. He stood up straight and looked through the pony holding him back. “Yes, do that guardspony. I’ll wait for her, of course.” The official tone he knew so well came back up in an instant as he spoke to the stallion. “Please, hurry up. I have a lot to talk with her about.” With renewed vigor, Shining Armor turned on his hooves and walked back into the room.

He sat on the bed and waited. It had to be Cadance, maybe Twilight, that wanted to see him. Probably Cadance, she no doubt wanted to ask him about what happened. Though, maybe she was busy dealing with all of the crystal pony refugees. Twilight was no doubt dealing with security stuff, and that would include this. Maybe her friends were already here and raring to go take down Sombra yet again.

“Maybe I should’ve asked that guardspony to fetch my armor.” That naked feeling crept up on him, which he only seemed to get when he was in a castle. Years had been spent striding through the halls in his armor, to be without it here made him feel underdressed. Plus, addressing a princess about a serious security issue

“Shining Armor?” His ears perked up at the voice and his head swiveled as fast as he could manage. His excitement had tricked him and it wasn’t the pony he was expecting. It was the white pegasus from before, standing in the doorway.

“Oh…” Shining Armor couldn’t help but let the disappointment shine through. “Sorry…” Her name escaped him in the moment so he trailed off instead. “I was expecting one of the princesses. The guard outside said he was going to fetch one. Is she with you?” He shifted seamlessly back to his formal guard voice and slowly got to his hooves.

“Well…” Zipp looked around the room then down at her hooves. “..I sorta…am the princess he got.”

“What?”

“Princess Zephyrina Storm.” The name fell from Zipp’s mouth with utter disdain. “At your service and here for…what would you even call this? A debriefing?”

“No.” Shining stated flatly. “Go and get me a princess. An alicorn princess. Cadance, Twilight, Flurry Heart. One of them, I don’t care who.” His voice raised in volume as he spoke and he could feel the heat rise from his chest up into his cheeks. “I need to talk to one of them. I need you to stop playing around and be serious!”

Another pegasus emerged from behind the doorway, this one a mare who was visibly older than Zipp. She had a pale pink coat and an expertly coiffed grayish blue mane that had an extravagant crown nestled among it. A purple collar rode its way up her neck and blended in with her wings, giving the illusion of a cape that went halfway down her back.

“Do not speak to my daughter like that.” The mare spoke in a haughty accent, one Shining had heard for most of his life from the unicorn upper crust of Canterlot. He had rarely ever heard such a thing from a pegasus. “While you are a guest, we still expect civility!” The icy glare he received from the mare let him know those words meant something. It was a warning.

“Right.” Shining Armor took a deep breath. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have raised my voice. My apologies, Mrs-”

“-Queen Haven.” The older mare interjected.

“Queen…?” The word felt nasty in his mouth when referring to a pony. It felt like a dirty word, something his mother would wash his mouth out with soap for even uttering. He let it settle on his tongue for a minute and decided he still hated the way it felt. “Seriously?”

“Our family has ruled Zephyr Heights for generations.” Queen Haven insisted. “The title of king or queen has been passed down to the eldest child of the ruler for a long time.”

History lessons pried their way back into Shining’s mind from a long buried section of his memories. The last time he had ever even heard of something like that was when they were taught about the warring tribes. King Bullion had been the last unicorn ruler to use such a title. Not even his daughter, Princess Platinum, adopted the moniker of ‘queen’ after his passing. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the ponies who raised the sun and moon, even forwent the title.

Ponies just weren’t called king or queen.

“My apologies, Your Majesty.” Shining figured he would just go along with it for now. “I just really need to get to Canterlot and warn somepony about what’s happening. I need to talk with Princess Twilight Sparkle or Princess Cadance right away.”

Queen Haven shot a look of confusion at Zipp, who quickly pulled her mother away. The two mares spoke quietly to each other, with Zipp’s voice raising once or twice but still relatively hushed. After about a minute, the two supposed royals broke their huddle and moved closer to Shining Armor.

“I understand you are in a hurry, Shining Armor.” Queen Haven spoke in a calm and level voice. “But I’m afraid whatever has you worried now also concerns us as our city is closer than Canterlot.” He knew this tone, it was the same one Celestia used with rowdy nobles during her open court sessions. He was being patronized in the nicest way possible. “So please, tell us what happened, from the beginning.”

“Fine.” He slumped back onto the bed with a sigh. He wasn’t going to be let out without acquiescing to some of their demands, so he was better off just getting it over with. “A train came into the Crystal Empire covered in black crystals, some of the ponies inside were completely drained. Not just of their magic but…of their life. They were like…husks.” He shivered at the memory. “The survivors said they were attacked by a giant black cloud with glowing eyes that shot crystals at them. I immediately knew it was King Sombra. I don’t know how he returned or how he changed into whatever he is now, but we knew he was on his way.”

“King Sombra…” Queen Haven rubbed her chin with a hoof thoughtfully. “Zephyrina, please tell Thunder to fetch that old nursery rhyme book your nanny used to read to you.” She waved her hoof. “You know the one, I can’t think of the name right now, but have it brought to your friends.” Zipp nodded and trotted off for a moment, and then came right back. “Please, do continue.” Haven motioned at the stallion.

“Right.” Shining Armor closed his eyes to gather his thoughts before continuing. “We had to evacuate the Crystal Empire. All of it. So many of the crystal ponies were so traumatized by Sombra’s last reign that we couldn’t let them fall into his hooves again. “

Sweet Celestia, he could still hear their panicked cries as they made the announcement from the palace balcony. He could see them collapse into heaps and wail. He could feel the roar of the crowd as it erupted into hysterics and demanded action. He could taste the doom and gloom on the wind.

“We made a plan, a risky one.” Shining had to stop himself from mumbling as he spoke. “Sombra got there before we could even get it all set up. Cadance and I put up a barrier like before to hold him off while everypony got ready. We had to move at night when he couldn’t see, we built tunnels from in the city out to the train station. Every single pony, including Cadance and Flurry Heart, went down there and got ready to leave.” He cleared his throat as he thought about Cadance and Flurry again. “I drew him into the city. I let him chase me into the palace.”

“You set a trap.” Zipp joined in. “Some kind of magic. You said something before about it only lasting for a few minutes.”

“Yeah.” Shining Armor nodded. “Sunburst, an old friend who had been visiting, came up with a plan. A…” He tried to remember the exact words, but he just knew the specifics. “...a time loop spell, I guess you would call it. He set it on a timer. It wouldn’t start until I activated it, but when I did it would reset after 10 minutes. They were going to come back for me, deactivate the spell when they had some way to deal with Sombra. It would be a few months at most.”

“But what about you?” Zipp asked, her voice soft but failing to hide the admiring tone. “You were going to be trapped in there with that thing. Was that really the only way?”

“It was ten minutes to me. Ten minutes for as long as it took.”

“Ten minutes of Tartarus for the rest of your life” As Sunburst had put it.

“It wasn’t months, was it?” Shining Armor whispered the question. He already knew the answer, but it was a question he had to ask.

“No.” Haven and Zipp answered in unison.

Shining Armor clenched his jaw and chewed on the next words that sat upon his tongue. He was already mad at the answer before the question was even asked. He was mad at himself for even daring to ask it and mad at the world for forcing him to. He took a deep breath before he spoke.

“How long was it…?”

“We’re…unsure.” Queen Haven approached him slowly as she spoke. “Our records are not complete, but from what we could gather it’s been over three hundred years.”

He thought those words would hit like one of Applejack’s kicks to his gut. He had been bracing for the shock. Every synapse in his head was preparing for the worst and it had come. Strangely, there was no impact from those words.

He felt nothing.

“Twilight Sparkle. Cadance. Flurry Heart.” He spoke their names slowly. “They’re alicorns. Three hundred years is nothing to them, maybe a quarter of their life. Where are they?” Princess Celestia had lived for well over one thousand years and it never seemed to have phased her. This was a sizable gap, but they still had to be alive.

“Twilight, we’re pretty sure, is gone.” Zipp said with a heavy sigh. “My friend Sunny’s dad spent his whole life studying her and looking for relics she left behind. He was the expert on everything Twilight Sparkle and harmony and…there wasn’t a lot left.” Shining could feel something was being left unsaid, he could hear it in her voice. There was a noticeable apprehension and her eyes never met his.

“What about Cadance and Flurry Heart?”

“I’m sorry, but we’ve never heard of them.” Queen Haven spoke again. “Zephyrina and her friends spent all night looking through our records to find mention of them.”

“I’m really sorry, Shining Armor. We don’t know what happened to them.”

“They have to be alive.” He decided with a new fire in his belly. Even Twilight, whatever happened to her, couldn’t be dead. Alicorns couldn’t die. They just couldn’t. Maybe she was trapped or some villain of the week had gotten lucky and banished her somewhere. There was no way his little sister, a hero of Equestria, had been defeated decisively. “I have to go to Canterlot. Somepony there will know something. They have to.”

“It’s abandoned.” Zipp laid that out on the table with no preamble or care. Obviously she was getting tired of beating around some bushes. “We went and saw it. Nopony’s been there for a hundred years at least.”

His brain refused to accept that. It categorically didn’t make any sense. Canterlot had been the capital of Equestria for close to one thousand years. It was the center of culture, of pony society. There would be no reason to just leave it to rot.

“What happened?” He asked, trying to piece together the answer to that question himself but he was missing vast swathes of information. “We wouldn’t just…leave all of that. Where are we even? Are we still in Equestria?”

“I think, perhaps, you should try to digest the information you’ve already been given before we unload even more onto you.” Haven said with a polite smile that failed to hide the meaning of the words.

It got worse, and she didn’t think he was ready to hear just how much worse it got.

—-

“How’d it go?” Hitch was the first one to speak as Zipp entered the library where they had been doing all of their research. “Is he…okay?”

Laid out on the table before them were numerous books, some marked with little colored sticky notes for later reference. Pipp was on her phone, scrolling and not paying attention to the work in front of them. Meanwhile, Sunny and Misty were pouring over the books in front of them and Sunny had a notebook she was slowly filling with notes.

“No.” Zipp said with a shake of her head and a sigh. “I don’t think he’s ready to accept where he is…or ‘when’ he is, I guess.” She made her way over to the table and sat in the spot beside Hitch. “What about you guys? Find anything?” There was always hope that they had found something deep in the records of Zephyr Heights to shed some more light on their visitor.

“We got that old nursery rhyme book from the guards.” Sunny chimed in. “There is one about a Shadow King, but it’s just a rhyme made for foals. It doesn’t tell us much other than to ‘watch for eyes in the dark’.”

“Not very helpful, sorry.” Hitch said with a shrug.

“He also brought up those other ponies again, Cadance and Flurry Heart.” Zipp tapped her chin with a hoof. “He said they lived with him in the Crystal Empire, and he said they were alicorns.”

“M-more alicorns?” Misty’s head shot up at the mention of the creatures. “That’s not possible, right? There can’t be more!”

“He said they should be still alive. I told him we’ve been to Canterlot and didn’t see anything.” Hitch’s hoof gently rubbed Zipp’s back as she verbally began to work through what she had been told. “He put his life on the line, sacrificed himself to trap Sombra until they could find a way to beat him specifically for them and all of the other ponies in the Crystal Empire.”

“What if he was a knight? Like their protector?” Sunny tapped the foal’s book in front of her. “I mean c’mon, his name is Shining Armor. He had to be some kind of monster slaying knight to be named that!”

“The guard’s have their logbook of like every guard ever.” Pipp waved her hoof as she raised her phone and snapped a couple of selfies with the rest of them in the background. “If Cadance and Flurry Heart were alicorns then they were royalty, right? Maybe he was a royal guard.”

“Oh my hoofness, Pipp. You’re a genius!” Zipp jumped up into the air, kept aloft by her wings as she did a quick circle around the table. “Zoom!” The blue pegasus mare trotted over from her spot near the door to the library and looked up at Zipp. “How far back do the Royal Guard records go?”

“To its inception, Your Highness.” Zoom responded with a hint of pride. “At least a thousand years. It’s a long proud tradition of ponies who have put their lives-”

“Yeah yeah, I know. Brave ponies, lives on the line for the ponies who rule yadda yadda.” Zipp cut her off. “I need you to look for a pony from about three hundred years ago, Shining Armor, I don’t know what rank but we think he might be in there.”

“That’s…there have been a lot of ponies in the Royal Guard, Princess.”

“I’ll help!” Hitch got up with a smile. “I’ll find Izzy and Sparky and we’ll get through it in no time!” The sheriff gave a small salute to Zipp. “Don’t worry, if he’s in there we’ll find him and get back to you.”

“What about the other alicorns he mentioned?” Misty asked with a raise hoof. “If they are still alive like he says, then shouldn’t we find out where they are?” Everypony looked at the unicorn, which caused her to drop her head. “Right, sorry…I just-”

“No no, you’re right.” Sunny nodded. “It’s just, how are we even supposed to begin looking for them? We’ve been to Canterlot and all we found was-”

“-Discord!” Sunny and Zipp shouted in unison.

“There’s no way he’s still there.” Pipp added. “He wasn’t exactly thrilled that we found him last time, why would he stay? He’s probably gone to who knows where.”

Zipp bit her lip and slowly sat back down in her seat. She racked her brain for all the possible ways they could get any information on Shining’s alicorns. Discord was a longshot, but there was no guarantee that he was even reachable. Where else could they get information?

Her eyes fell on Misty.

“Opaline is an alicorn…” the words fell from her mouth with a grin. “...she knew Twilight. What if she knew the others too?”

Nothing Beside Remains

by BaeroRemedy

The Inevitable Return of the Great White North

Unlimited Hangout

Red Eye

Royalty Free