Winter Storm

by Snake Staff

First published 17th of August, 2014

Sequel to Together Forever. Twenty years into the future, tensions begin to mount in world as Shining and Cadence try to press on together.

Twenty years after the events of Together Forever, Cadence still struggles to create a new form for her beloved husband as Shining Armor seeks the source of his wife's misery. Meanwhile, tensions mount in the world at large, drawing the intervention of Celestia. But is this all more than coincidence?

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Prologue: Twenty Years

Twenty years.

Twenty years it’s been since the night I was almost killed. I confess that I don’t remember much of what happened during that night. I recall leaving the ball, going to the greenhouse to get away for a while, and then… my memory goes blank. Cadence told me what happened, though. She said that Lady Rose Quartz used some kind of weird mind-altering magic on me – tried to make me kill myself.

Apparently, that ticked Cadence off so much that she took it on herself to round up her aunt for backup and track down the perpetrator that very night. And kill the mare personally. I think that was premature, myself. One thing you learn, first as a guard, then as a prince, is that procedure is important. She should have been brought in for in-depth questioning, and then given a proper trial. That way, we could have determined what exactly was going on, and exposed any conspirators. As it happened, anypony that worked with her got away scot-free. I know Cadence can get emotional when dealing with threats to those she cares about, but I would have thought Princess Celestia would have known better.

I know Lady Quartz couldn’t have been acting alone. I may not know as much about magic as Twily, but even I know that an earth pony can’t muster the kind of mind control you need to make a pony kill himself. I even asked my LSBFF just to be sure (after she got done hugging me and asking if I was alright). There have to have been more in on that. But Cadence insists that there weren’t. Very odd.

Something’s been off with my precious princess since that night.

I’ve been with my wife for over four hundred and fifty years by this point. I know her almost as well as I know myself, or at least I like to think I do. Cadence hasn’t been quite the same since the day I came close to a second death. Don’t get me wrong, she’s as loving and sweet to me as she ever was. It’s just that she’s been… nervous. Distracted in the performance of her royal duties. Jittery, I think. When she’s putting on her makeup in the mornings, I can see from the bags under her eyes that she isn’t getting enough sleep. I’ve taken some of her work off her plate to try and let her rest easier, but she still doesn’t seem any more relaxed.

Something’s been on her mind for all this time, and she won’t talk to me about it. No matter how hard I push, no matter what I say, she always insists that she’s fine. When I ask her what’s worrying her, she says that nothing is. If I try to bring up the matter of whoever’s left behind from that assassination plot, she assures me that she got them all and not to worry. She’s not as good a liar as she thinks she is – at least not with me.

I’m worried for her.

I’ve had my best guardsponies go over the scenario again and again. The idea that it was the work of a lone earth pony mare is something we can all agree seems absurd, but now that she’s dead, we can’t pry any answers from her. I’m afraid that somepony is somehow blackmailing or coercing my wife. I don’t really understand why else she would so vigorously deny obvious facts to me. She’s always confided in me when she feels troubled. Well, there is one reason I thought of, but I already checked to see if she was a changeling doppelganger. Nope, she’s alicorn through and through. So somepony must be making her fear like this.

I don’t know who they are or what they want, but Shining Armor is not about to let his princess suffer.

Twenty years.

For twenty long years I’ve worked with a guillotine (Prench invention, ghastly thing) over my husband’s neck. My adoptive aunt, Celestia, believes Shining to be a threat to the ponies of the Crystal Empire for as long as his soul is attached to a golem body by dark magic. While I will concede that it has drawn the occasional spirit in our direction, there hasn’t been anything that the love magic we share and the Crystal Heart aren’t amply capable of handling. I believe Celestia seriously overestimates the risks.

But my opinion no longer matters.

“Auntie” Celestia made that abundantly clear that night, when she pounded me into so much paste during our fight. She’s so… powerful. If I’m a demigod, Celestia is a full-fledged goddess walking the earth. If she had wanted, it was within her abilities to end me on the spot, end Shining and his “threat”, and absorb our kingdom into her own. I think she would have done it too, if I hadn’t shown her my project. I never wanted my Shining Armor to suffer forever in an unnatural body of animated crystal. That’s why I work, then and now, to create an alicorn form his soul can inhabit. Then we can be properly together again.

Celestia proved amendable to bargaining, at least. She wanted my research, my silence, and eventually, my children. It grieves me every time I think about it that I’ve sold my future alicorn foals to her to raise and warp in her own image, but what else could I do? I’m not strong enough to fight her, and I’m not delusional enough to believe that there’s any place we could run where she couldn’t find us, given time. But all that got me was a stay of execution: Celestia still believes Shining is a threat to the well-being of the ponies of the Crystal Empire, only relenting with the opportunity for greater gains. If I can’t produce results within whatever timeframe she judges appropriate, she can still kill Shining. He lives every day with an invisible ax above his head, ready to drop whenever my aunt decrees.

And I can’t even tell him a word about it.

Can you blame a mare for being a little nervous?

He sees through me, I know it. Damn this geas – magical contract that I’m bound under unspecified penalty to uphold – to Tartarus. I admit I’m not entirely sure what exactly counts as telling a pony, but I am sure I don’t want to trigger it. The last time I saw somepony break one of Celestia’s spells, she lost almost her entire memory. Didn’t know who I was, where she was, or anything at all about my aunt. If that happened to me…

Besides, I can’t tell Shiny the truth – not now, at least – because I know how he’d react. He’s a bit too bold in defense of those he loves. He’d march right up to Celestia and confront her head on. He might even challenge her to a duel. And – not to speak ill of his not inconsiderable magical talent – he would get unceremoniously crushed. Celestia would pound him into a pulp if he was lucky, or decide that he’d become too “dangerous” to live if he wasn’t. I can’t risk that. Not until I succeed, and have some time to tutor him in alicorn-style magic. Then… then, maybe we can confront her together. But not now. Not now…

I need to hurry. I still don’t know how long I have left.

Don’t worry Shiny, I’m coming.

Twenty years.

Twenty years it has been since I finally worked up the nerve to act against my foal of a niece. I regret deeply what happened between us – I know, better than anypony I think, what it’s like to be betrayed by one close to you. But it had become clear as crystal that Princess Mi Amore Cadenza had chosen the welfare of her husband over the welfare of her kingdom. If she had had her way, Shining Armor would have continued to draw darkness to himself until one day he drew something too powerful to be easily repelled, something that could bring fire and ruin to the Crystal Empire and its thousands upon thousands of innocent ponies. I had to act. It was for the greater good.

I was sloppy, I admit. I let my heart – my ongoing affection for my adopted nephew – influence my head, and set out using the quickest and simplest means to dispose of the prince that I could find, without bothering to adequately cover my tracks. I should have used multiple proxies and an illusion spell to create a false trail to a pony that never existed. Then I would not have been tracked down so quickly. But what was done was done, and Cadence came to kill me in vengeance.

But she was hardly the first to try and end my life, nor has she been the last. I defeated her, and finally that foalish mare told me what she should have from the beginning – that she was working on a means to create a soulless alicorn body for her husband. The potential good that could be done by the offspring of such union (Luna and I being products of another) outweighed the continued risk. So, I gave her time.

But Cadence is disappointing me. I’ve given her two decades in which to work on her solution, but thus far I am seeing little in the way of concrete progress. There are plenty of platitudes in her reports, but not very much practical advancement toward her goal. I had hoped she would discover something about the process of alicorn creation – which even I confess I do not fully understand – but I can see little that she has achieved beyond proposing, testing, and then ruling out various theories. If work continues at this poor pace… I’m not sure how long I can continue to risk the safety of thousands of ponies for a chance at future gains. I do not like this risk-taking. I normally prefer to play my cards more conservatively – after all, in the worst case scenario I can simply wait for a change in the political situation. Gambling with ponies’ lives in this manner strikes an ill chord with me.

And speaking of the political situation, I find myself called once again to play the role of peacemaker between mortal belligerents. Prance, an independent nation of ponies, and the Gryphus Empire have long held competing claims to a group of uninhabited rocks called the Senadas lying far off their coasts. They weren’t important until a few weeks ago, when substantial deposits of powerfully magical gems were discovered in the waters surrounding them. If current estimates of their numbers are correct, control over these gems would offer a substantial economic and military edge in a dispute to anypony who wanted one. Naturally, everypony and their grandmother are now eager to get their hooves around these treasures. Some of the more aggressive factions in both nations are calling for outright military occupation of the Senadas to claim the resources for their respective countries. More sensible sapients would prefer some sort of diplomatic solution. And guess who they’ve invited to play mediator?

So, once again, the short-sighted mortals are on the verge of killing each other over a deposit of shiny rocks that will be gone in a few decades, and the adults have to step in and tell everypony to play nice.

An alicorn would know better. An alicorn would realize the stupidity of sacrificing lives – truly irreplaceable treasures – to acquire a temporary boost in power. But mortals rarely look beyond the century they live in, much less further on down the line. Is it really worth it, in the end, to create thousands of widows and orphans, to stain relations between nations for generations to come, to grant the wendigoes a feast of pain and misery, just so they can acquire a few gems? Of course not. But that’s proven a lesson that has to be taught, again and again and again and again over my many years of dealing with such things. I am very tired of having to explain this over and over to successive generations of egotistical fools.

But I will be patient. With any luck, the day will come soon when I no longer have to deal with such petty fools they call leaders. When mortal governments are a thing of the past, we can all learn to share like civilized ponies do.

So I will wait. Hopefully, it will be over soon.

Author's Notes:

So it begins.

Be ye warned that this will not be updating quite so fast as its predecessor.

Duty

“The court has reached a verdict,” I announce in my best imperial voice from my elevated platform. The usual chattering and whispering from the small group of ponies has to be silenced with a few bangs of a gavel. “Ahem,” I clear my throat, not for any need but more for the effect of it. “Mr. Shimmer has been brought here on charges of assault and battery against Mr. Polish,” I restate what everpony already knows, simply because that’s procedure, even here. “Mr. Shimmer alleges that it was a case of the removal of a disorderly bar patron gone wrong.”

“That’s ‘cause it was!” shouts the stallion in question, looking irritated.

“That is enough!” I reply in my best stern tone.

More whispering. Another few gavel bangs to get their attention.

“Now, the evidence presented by Mr. Shimmer, including sworn statements from several others patronizing his establishment at the time of the incident, indicates that Mr. Polish was, by his own verbal confession, heavily inebriated on that night. Furthermore, witness statements align with the allegation that when confronted by an establishment bouncer and told to leave, Mr. Polish responded by, and I quote, “decking him in one punch”.”

“That’s a bloody lie that is!” screams one Mr. Gem Polish from his place on the stands.

“Order! Order in the court!” I yell out, banging my gavel again for silence. When I get it, I continue. “The next pony to interrupt court proceedings will be held in contempt of court and removed from the secession. Is that clear to everypony?”

A good deal more mumbling, and vague assents from the two belligerent stallions.

I nod in satisfaction, then continue where I left off. “Following this, Mr. Shimmer is alleged to have personally taken action against the offender by, and I quote, “tackling him to the ground and wrestling him down”. Mr. Polish was subsequently arrested on charges of assault and disorderly conduct, prior to filing assault charges against Mr. Shimmer.”

So, a stallion gets drunk, decks another pony, gets wrestled to the ground, and then decides to allege assault against the pony that brought him down. Hardly a mystery for the ages. How exactly did this case get all the way to the Royal Court again?

“Mr. Polish alleges that he did not, in fact, assault another pony and was attacked without provocation.” I look down at the papers in front of me. “Unfortunately, Mr. Polish has not produced any evidence to support his version of events beyond his own word and his injuries, whereas Mr. Shimmer has produced a bouncer with a head injury, several sworn witness testimonies, and the Crystal Guard report filed on the scene. As such, the court has no choice but to find Mr. Shimmer not guilty on charges of assault and battery.”

The court erupts into a frenzy of whispers and hurried activity. Silver Shimmer, now free of charges against him, looks satisfied and nods his head my way with a small smile on his face. Gem Polish, by contrast, starts screaming and swearing at me, and has to be virtually dragged away by a pair of guards. I make a mental note to add “contempt of court” to his rap sheet, which is already pretty long even without the other charges he himself will be facing. Hopefully, this time the lower courts will be able to handle it without asking for my wife’s intervention. I still don’t know whose bright idea it was to send such an open and shut case this high up, but I suppose I could thank Mr. Polish’s absolutely insane devotion to appealing verdicts.

That, thankfully, is the final Royal Court session for the day, meaning I can take a break from this to go fill out paperwork instead. Goody goody gumdrops.

Sorry, do I sound a little bitter? Well, it’s just that, like many ponies, I’m not overly found of the mundane little details involved in running a kingdom. That’s one reason that I went into the military as a colt, rather than the civil service. At least there, for all the tedium and drills and standing around involved, when you see a threat you can usually just punch it in the face and that will solve most of it. I’m not exactly cut out for the paper-pushing lifestyle. I leave that to my LSBFF.

But there are more important things than my personal likes and dislikes. I know that Cadence isn’t sleeping well, and she’s been somewhat off in performing her royal duties. It’s stressing her, I know it is, to be caught between whatever she’s afraid of (and won’t tell me about), and all the responsibilities that come from being the eternal ruler of the Crystal Empire. If she won’t talk to me about her problems, and my investigations haven’t turned up anything yet, the least I can do for my wife is take some of the burden of leadership off her shoulders. She was going to be doing this today, but I surprised her in the morning and sent her off to enjoy a day at the spa and a long nap.

I hope that will at least make her relax a bit.

“RAAARGH!” I smash my hoof down on the table in front of me, snapping the exquisite old oak furniture in two like so much plywood. Splinters and wood dust fill the air, then clatter to the ground and settle. My samples floating in crystal jars full of nutrient liquid tumble this way and that, some managing to weather the fall and others ruined beyond usefulness. For a few moments, the only sound in my laboratory is that of my own heavy breathing

Then there is silence.

I glare around in rage. My inner god-queen, the imperial part of me, feels that destroying a mere table isn’t enough punishment. It wants me to smite down all that offends me, and right now all my equipment is offending me. It’s failing me. Listening to that voice would be immensely satisfying… but no. I need to keep a cool head in the face of intense emotion.

Reluctantly, I close my eyes and take a minute to go through an anti-stress breathing exercise. One, two. One, two. In, out. In, out. Aaaaaaahhhhh…

Oh, you expected me to be at the spa? Hardly. Shining’s thoughtful gestures are much appreciated and remind me every day of why I fell for him, but I’m hardly the mare to while away precious hours being pampered while my husband sits in a guillotine. An illusion and a few suggestion spells were all it took to get some private time to spend down here in my lab.

With the worst of my frustration driven away by the simple, calming expedient of controlled breathing, I simply slump back against a nearby bookshelf. It’s not fair. It’s just not fair. I’m doing everything. Absolutely everything I can think of. And nothing is giving me the results I want!

The latest experiment I just pounded on was another avenue in creating an alicorn body. I had got to thinking: I have an alicorn body, full of alicorn cells. I have extensive documentation on the physiology of my kind. And my body can endure and regenerate the loss of large amounts of tissue at once without much difficulty. So I decided to try and magically vat grow an alicorn form directly from the cells of my own body, one organ at a time if need be. It wouldn’t be quite as good as a male form, but it would be a vast improvement for poor Shiny until I could solve that issue. Plus, results like that would buy me more time from Celestia.

But it’s not working! Oh, sure, I created artificial organs grown directly from tissues of my own. I even had a fully functional heart in a jar (getting samples of that safely was not easy even for me, let me tell you). But my tests revealed a dire problem – the organs being grown weren’t the ageless insides of an alicorn, but the entirely mortal body parts of a pegasus!

Pardon my language, but what the buck?!

Those cells were mine! I know – carved them out of there myself. Nopony else was used for a donor. I was careful to keep all the samples clear of anything else in the lab while they grew in magical nutrient fluid. And yet, when I come to check my work that I find that all I’m growing is an ordinary pegasus form! Why didn’t that work?! How can my cells be alicorn inside me, but suddenly revert to pegasus once I take them out? What did I do wrong?

Aaaargh…

I bang my head against a wall and sob. It’s not fair! It just isn’t fair! I’m working my hooves to the bone to try and find some way to make an alicorn, and nothing I try works! And if I don’t succeed, not only will Shiny have to suffer for the remainder of his life because of my selfishness, but Celestia might well decide that my time is up and kill him! What’s the secret?! Where am I going wrong?!

I let the tears flow, dripping down my cheeks and onto the hard stone floor below.

I’d do anything to find that secret right now. Anything.

I smile, genuinely, as my chariot arrives at last within sight of Ostflugel, or East Wing as it is known in modern times, the mountain city in the Gryphus Empire closest to their eastern seaboard. As of a few days ago, it further holds the honor of hosting the diplomatic summit between the Empire and Prance to decide the fate of the Senadas, presided over and mediated by myself. I would have preferred Canterlot, but the two nations are quite prickly at the moment and I diplomatically bowed to their wishes.

It will be good to get off this golden thing and stretch a bit. Perhaps I’ll even have a chance to exercise my wings while I’m here. To be entirely honest with you, I would have enjoyed the flight much more if I had been flying myself, but it does make the Royal Guard feel good about themselves to do it for me, and who am I to deny them their happiness? I just hope my drivers haven’t exhausted themselves – it’s quite a long flight from here to Equestria.

We set down on a well-prepared landing field surrounded by the usual mix of guards, press, eager citizenry, shameless sycophants, and politicians. Reporters, mostly gryphons but with some ponies and a lone minotaur in the mix, start snapping shots of me and my honor guard the moment we arrive. I maintain a regal pose and gentle smile as we land and I step off, determined to give as good a show as ever.

The crowd surges and the guard lines buckle momentarily as the citizenry presses in, each struggling to get a good look at what’s about to happen. Emperor Serath XV of the Gryphus Empire is here to greet me in person, a fact I appreciate. The old gryphon, surrounded by a half-dozen others of his kind in the armor of elite protectors, walks at a slow pace down the field to meet me. My own guards fan out in ceremonial formation, surrounding me as I make my way towards the Emperor. Cameras continue to flash from all angles, and I am sure to keep my eyes ahead and my posture perfect even while I favor them with a motherly smile.

Emperor Serath and I meet in the center of the landing field, a smile on his elderly face. I like this Emperor, really. He is a long-overdue leader for the Empire that understands that a continuous policy of small-scale war and constant aggression only makes for misery all around. He even breaks the Imperial tradition of standing immobile and forcing important guests to come before him, opting instead to meet them halfway in a symbol of cooperation. It’s a shame he’s getting on up in his years – at eighty seven, I wouldn’t give him more than a decade, or perhaps two, before he’s gone and replaced with the child of his that the Imperial Senate most favors. A rather poor method of succession, in my opinion, but at least it’s better than the wild fratricides, struggles for power, and civil wars that came before.

“Your majesty, Emperor Serath XV,” I say, closing my eyes and giving him a formal bow at the neck. He may be a cut above his predecessors, but like all gryphons he has his pride, and it’s important to indulge it when being diplomatic.

“Your highness, Princess Celestia,” he intones, giving me a somewhat shallower bow.

“It is an honor to be invited here. I and all Equestria thank you sincerely for your goodwill and hospitality.” I smile at him.

“It is an honor to have you, Princess,” he responds, with a slight grin on the edge of his beak.

Serath and I pause just long enough to give the crowd a wave, and then vanish into one of the many tunnels carved into the mountain, guards gryphon and pony alike keeping the crowd from following us.

“So,” Serath begins, as soon as the elderly gryphon and I are safely beyond the prying gaze of the crowds outside. “What do you think the odds are that we all go home happy?”

I grin a bit. “Straight to the point, then?”

“Bah!” he snorts. “At my age, I ain’t got time to dance around in the wind like some damned breezie! We’re here to see if we can’t solve this with words instead of swords, and I want your opinion our chances of success.”

I consider for a moment, casting a discreet spell to frustrate and deny would-be eavesdroppers. “Nopony is going home entirely happy with everything. That’s just diplomacy. But I think, if we tread carefully, we can get a mutually-acceptable agreement out of all of this. There’s no inherent reason that your two nations cannot find some reasonable balance to mutually share in nature’s bounty.”

“Hmph,” he looks skeptical. “Well, I’ll take it. I’ve spent my life trying to avoid a war, last I need in my old age is a smudge on my record. I’d like to do this reasonably, but,” he ruffles his feathers. “Some in the Senate don’t quite agree with me there. And who knows what’s going on in Prance and that damn fool Premier’s head?”

“I am certain Premier Light will prove amendable to reason. What we do here will not satisfy everypony to the utmost, but if we can work to establish more trust between your nations and we avoid bloodshed I will consider it a more glorious success than any victory in battle.” I answer, truthfully.

“Hmph,” Serath looks up at me carefully, scrutinizing my face. I maintain a determined but hopeful expression. “I suppose I can agree with that.”

I smile. “Then we are half the way there already.”

Greetings

The remainder of my opening talk with Emperor Serath is, to be honest, of little note and a somewhat personal. We swap some stories, tell jokes, and generally indulge in a small period free from court protocols. It’s not the most exciting thing in the world, but it makes for a nice, if temporary, distraction from the more serious affairs of state ahead. Naturally, such a pleasant time flies by faster than an alicorn on stimulants.

Soon enough, a servant arrives to inform us that my welcoming repast is ready, and to kindly request our presence.

“You realize, of course,” I tell the Emperor as we make our way to one of the Ostflugel aerie dining rooms. “That just because we may enjoy each other’s company for a brief while does not mean I will favor your side in negotiations.”

“Hmph,” he chuckles cynically. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Wouldn’t have asked you here if I thought you would. There’s no honor in a victory won through cheating.”

I don’t believe that honor is as important as he thinks. In my opinion, preventing a war is infinitely more important than quaint notions of personal moral purity, but I stay my tongue. No sense antagonizing the Emperor when we’ve gotten off on the right hoof.

Eventually, we come to the double doors leading to the dining chambers my hosts have chosen to use. I don’t believe I’ve actually been in these before, which is somewhat novel for me after I the time I’ve spent in just about every sufficiently fancy restaurant, feast hall, or assorted places to eat in Equestria. The doors open to the sound of somepony very loud reading off the very long lists of titles in our combined possession.

A warm, salty breeze hits my face, blasting away the cool mountain air. The dining room takes the form of a large cavern carved into the mountainside by what must have been hundreds or even thousands of gryphon stonemasons. There are five lengthy wooden tables spread out across the room. Half a dozen enormous holes in the stone wall serve as both windows and exterior entranceways for the assorted gryphons coming to land here. The “windows” face the ocean, which looks absolutely lovely this time of evening. It will be time to set the sun soon, and I find myself wondering what the view from this place would look like at dawn with my star peaking just over the horizon. Perhaps I shall have to indulge that curiosity if I should find the time.

We sit down, Emperor Serath at the place of honor at the head of the central and I, as honored guest, get the chair on his right claw. Across from me sits a middle-aged gryphon with golden fur, grey feathers, and a handsome red jacket indicative of his position. Unlike the Emperor, this is my first time meeting this particular gryphon face-to-face. I’ve read about him, but even that doesn’t amount to much in this case.

I review what I know about the current Speaker of the Gyphus Imperial Senate, Etton of Northwind Province. A previously undistinguished Senator for five years, he made little fuss about anything and declined to draw much attention to himself during his short career. It was therefore something of a surprise when his predecessor nominated him for the position of Speaker before retiring, and even more so when the Imperial Senate voted to confirm him. To obtain such high rank with such an ordinary background, he must either possess considerable skills at backroom dealing – and be good enough to cover his tracks from my agents – or he’s merely a front man for somepony else.

Either way, he’s currently one of the most high-ranking members of the Gryphus Empire, and his cooperation, or lack of it, could have a major impact on negotiations. It’s important that we get along, or at least establish a reasonable degree of trust.

I size the Speaker up personally as the first course is being served around us. A light soup and salad combination, with what I recognize as chicken in the gryphons’ bowl, though mercifully not in mine. I know I shouldn’t disdain the gryphons for eating meats, as until very recent advances in dietary supplements it wasn’t even biologically possible for them to stay healthy without doing so, but I’m still a pony and an herbivore. Seeing living creatures consume other living creatures makes me a tad nauseous.

Thankfully, I am a princess and if there’s one thing I’ve gotten good at over all my years of politicking, it’s concealing inconvenient feelings. I extend my hoof across the table to the Speaker and put a smile on my face. He gives me a slow up and down with his golden eyes before taking my hoof in a talon and lightly shaking it.

“Hello, I am-”

He cuts me off. “Princess Celestia of Equestria, I am aware. You could hardly be mistaken for anyone else.”

It’s a bit rude to interrupt your guest, but it gives me more of a sense of his personality, so I don’t mind so much. “And you would be Speaker Etton of the Imperial Senate, would you not?” I ask in a polite tone.

“Hmmm?” he looks up from the bowl of soup he has just taken a spoonful of. “Oh. Yes, that would be me. Congratulations on figuring it out.”

My smile fades somewhat. This is certainly different from the normal breed of supplicating politician I’m used to dealing with, and it clashes with what my agents reported on his previously non-confrontational demeanor.

“Well,” I continue, ignoring the impoliteness of his response, “I simply wished to say that I am honored and pleased to meet you at last, and to offer my congratulations on your recent appointment.”

“Pity I can’t say the same about you,” he replies in between a mouthful of salad.

I frown slightly. “Pardon?”

He swallows another forkful of salad before responding to me. “Do I really need to elaborate on it? You are here to “mediate” talks between the Empire and another nation.”

“Yes. And your issue with that would be…”

He rolls his eyes and touches up his beak with a napkin. “You are a pony. You rule a nation of ponies. You, as you have put it in your speeches, love all your little ponies. The Prench, whatever else they may be, are ponies. We,” he points to himself, the Emperor, and then gestures to the other tables. “Are not. That you will be biased against us from the start is a given. You should not be here.”

Very blunt, very uncharacteristic of most politicians. “I assure you, Speaker, that my neutrality in these matters a matter of public record and-”

“I don’t believe you,” he interrupts again. “You and yours think my kind disgusting, barbarian meat-eaters. I have been around enough of your kind to know that much of you. How can we expect impartial mediation and oversight from a ruler of a land with such an attitude? I argued against inviting you from the start, but his majesty,” he inclines his head towards the Emperor. “Saw fit to ignore my council, and the Senate agreed. Nonetheless, my opinion towards you remains the same. I believe his majesty and my fellow Senators have made a mistake in trusting your judgment.”

“Very to the point, Speaker.”

He shrugs. “I see no reason to dance around it. If half the things I’ve heard of you are true you could pull the information directly from my mind regardless.”

Not without time and proper restraints, not to mention privacy. I can pull memories from a living thing, true, but it requires time and can be resisted by sufficient willpower. Not to mention it would be something of a diplomatic faux pas to do so in public, during a mealtime. So the good Speaker’s mind is safe from me, at least for the moment.

“Insulting a foreign dignitary usually isn’t considered politic,” I point out, taking a brief glance at the Emperor, who seems to be watching our conversation with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“I do not mean to offend. You have remained in power for a very long time, and I respect that. But your experience in ruling ponies does not make you fit to oversee negotiations between my kind and yours, any more than my political experience makes me a fit judge of airship engineering.”

“Is there anything I could say or do to change your mind on this, Speaker?”

“Yes. You could publicly admit your unsuitability for the role of impartial overseer, resign the responsibility, and leave the settling of the affair to those nations that are actually involved. Unless,” he raises an eyebrow. “Equestria also makes claims on the Senadas?”

I shake my head. “You know we do no such thing, Speaker.”

“This is true, to my knowledge.”

“But I am afraid that I cannot comply with your conditions. I have been duly invited by both the government of the Gryphus Empire and that of Prance to serve as mediator. I will not turn down a chance to do my part in preventing unnecessary bloodshed.”

“Hmmm, pity. So be it, then.” He goes right back to that revolting meaty brew and doesn’t so much as look at me again.

That… did not go as well as hoped.

The remainder of dinner goes off without too much in the way of stimulation, and I leave the table with a sense of vague disappointment, as well as a determination to improve my spy network. From the files I read on him, I had expected Speaker Etton to be a softspoken and tact individual inclined to moving with the crowd, not a blunt straight-shooter who kicks things off by expressing distaste for the mediator. A lesser princess might take the sort of comments he made personally.

I clearly need to improve my information network in the Empire, if they were so spectacularly wrong about such an important individual. I suppose I shall have to see to that when I return to Canterlot at the end of this. It wouldn’t do to be surprised again. I wonder why Emperor Serath chose to stay out of the conversation even when his judgment was being called into question. In an honor-bound nation like the Gryphus Empire, such words can rise to the level of honor duels on occasion. But then, I suppose it’s possible he wanted to avoid more public squabbling than was necessary, or perhaps he was even behind the Speaker’s bluntness, to test how I would react to insults.

A quartet of guards, two gryphon and two pegasus, escort me to what are to be my chambers during this summit: an artificial cavern carved into the stone near the mountain’s peak, lushly decorated in a broad imitation of Canterlot style. An elevated wooden platform surrounded by curtains functions as an effective private room, while the lower cavern floor is more a reception area. I can see that one of the walls has had a door carved into it, to allow flying creatures easier access no doubt. Perhaps I shall get that chance to stretch my wings after all.

“Will these be to her majesty’s liking?” asks one of the armored gryphons, whose name I don’t believe I’ve picked up, but who wears the colors of a lieutenant.

I smile and nod. “Yes, and I thank you and your Emperor for his hospitality.”

He looks satisfied. “Very good then. We shall be posted in the hallway outside.” He points to a rope hanging from the ceiling with a talon. “You may ring if you require anything during your stay.”

I nod again. “You have my thanks, Lieutenant. I am sure I shall be quite comfortable here.” A bit of a lie, but it sounds nice and there’s no reason to be rude. “You are dismissed.”

The pegasi salute me and take up position outside the cavern’s wooden door, followed shortly by the gryphons. The last pulls the door closed behind him, and I am alone.

Or so it would seem.

“You can come out now,” I say, without turning my head.

There’s a twang, and a projectile hurtles towards me from within the curtained platform quicker than blinking. But I’m faster, and more to the point was expecting this ever since I stepped into this room and heard the soft sound of the intruder’s breath. I simply didn’t want any guards to wind up getting hurt.

A golden aura envelopes the projectile and brings it to a swift and unceremonious halt before it can hit the base of my neck. I turn around and take it in with a glance. A crossbow bolt. Cold iron tip for puncturing magical forcefields, runic engravings against magic, and dipped in what I do believe to be concentrated essence of red nightshade. It’s very toxic stuff, known to virtually disintegrate the organs of anypony unfortunate enough to get it in their system.

I believe this thing might have caused me stomach pain.

In any case, my would-be killer doesn’t get a chance to try again – he too is gripped by my telekinetic aura and pulled right out of his hiding place in my bedroom. I yank the intruder directly up to my face before pulling the discharged crossbow from his talon. My attempted assassin is a gryphon with grey fur, white feathers, and what looks to be something of a limp on his rear left leg. He struggles against the gold magic holding him in place, but I’m far too strong and he has no chance of breaking free.

It seems that he realizes this too, for he opens his beak wide – and I hold it like that. I grip a small object inside his mouth and pull it out. As I thought: a poison pill. This one is devoted to his cause, I must give him that.

“I think not,” I say, casting a small spell on the pill. The gryphon shakes with helpless fury as his suicide capsule bursts into flame in front his eyes. I pin him to the ground and steal a glance at his weapon.

It’s an unmodified Gryphus Empire military model, latest design if I recall correctly. Thousands of these things are in the talons of gryphon soldiers nationwide, and there’s nothing in particular distinguishing this individual piece from any of the ones held by some of the guards in this very city. Perhaps this gryphon stole it from one of them. Perhaps he is one of them.

My would-be assassin glares up at me with an impotent fury. He’s not afraid, I can tell from the look in his eyes, just angry that I’m still alive. Couple that with the poison pill he had in his beak in case of capture, and it’s obvious this one is no hired killer or mercenary – he’s devoted.

“So,” I ask the gryphon, still pinned helplessly to the carpeted stone floor. “We have never met before. Might I ask what I have done that makes you feel that my death is the best solution?”

He just growls angrily at me, refusing to speak a word.

“We do not have to be enemies, you know. I would rather we be friends.”

He glares mutely.

“I don’t know what you have been told by your masters about me and why I need to be killed, but I can assure you that it is almost certainly a lie.”

I loosen my control over the gryphon’s head, and he manages to spit at my hooves.

I sigh. “Very well, have it your way then.” I turn away from my pinned assailant and raise a hoof next to my mouth. “Guards!” I call.

One of the pegasi is the first through the doorway. “Your highness!” his eyes dart around the room, finally settling on myself and my attacker. He swallows nervously. “Are you alright, my lady?”

“I am the picture of health, Sergeant Kicker,” I answer him. Which is true, literally in some cases – my ponies like to use me for an example of ideal personal wellness. “Would you all please be so kind as to take this would-be killer to prison for me?”

My guards and the gryphons hurriedly slap cuffs on the prisoner’s legs as I hold them steady. They search him for weapons, drawing a pair of daggers and even a small secondary hand crossbow from his bag and hidden sheathes on his rear legs. When he’s safely restrained and I am confident that he has no more surprises hidden about his person, my golden magic aura fades away. The guards yank him roughly to his feet and begin pushing the sullen gryphon out the door.

“And do be careful,” I call after them. “He may try to hurt himself or somepony else. Don’t let that happen!”

A gryphon and a pegasus drag my attempted and still silent assassin down one of the carved stone hallways, while another runs off to summon more guards. I find myself feeling rather touched by evident anger in the guards’ eyes – they, even the gryphons, care for my safety. It’s rather quaint.

Well, I’ve been here for a few hours and managed to completely put off a powerful politician by my mere presence. On top of that, somepony’s already tried to kill me in my bedroom for unknown reasons.

So, all in all, not my worst summit ever.

Author's Notes:

Yeah, I know I've been updating as quickly as I had before, but from this chapter on I'm going to be waiting a little longer between posts.

Also, I'm going to repeat my request that those who favorite the story also give it a thumbs up. And, as always, your commentary is appreciated.

It Begins

“And that is why I believe that the proposed tariff reduction should be rejected by this august body,” finishes the pegasus standing behind the podium opposite my throne. Took him long enough.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes at the round of polite stamping that passes through the Grand Council of the Crystal Empire. Most of these stallions and mares plan to vote in favor of the legislation anyway – so my agents assure me, at any rate. I for one frankly could not bring myself to care less what our tariff on imported… what was it again? Something to do with railroads, I think. Locomotive engines? Coal? Freight cars? Whatever. Tariffs and taxes go up and down all the time with the passing of generations, and unless I can see that it’s going to seriously hurt somepony or the Empire as a whole, I’m generally alright with leaving this aspect of governance to subordinates.

I get to my hooves and ritually call for a vote now that we’ve heard the final cases in favor of and against the proposed legislation. The ponies in the semicircle of surrounding my throne each raise a small green flag for “yea”, a red flag for “nay”, or a white flag to signal abstention. The results are carefully noted and recorded by the attending scribes. It’s one hundred fourteen in favor, twenty-three opposed, with thirteen abstentions. Just as my ponies told me it would be, an overwhelming majority in favor.

The proposed bill then passes to me for final approval. As Princess of the Crystal Empire, I have final authority on what may or may not become law. The council has the right to draft and propose almost anything they may wish, but if I decide against it nothing happens. Fortunately for them, as the Empire has grown and my attentions have been… diverted by other matters, I’ve found it much simpler to allow them to take on more of the burden of our governance and only intervene when needs must. They may not have any legislative power beyond what I allow, but many of them have the power to make my life much more complicated if I threw my weight around more. And since that would mean I have less time to work on a solution to my most serious problem… well, if the council wishes to manage the petty affairs of state, they’re welcome to it. I just wish I didn’t have to sit through it.

Technically Shining has every bit as much authority as I do, but in practice things just tend to work more smoothly with the majestic alicorn instead of the animated statue presiding, so the throne beside my own is more often than not empty these days. I hope that will change soon; a partner would make enduring these sessions far less tedious. But until that day comes, one of us has to be here to approve or reject all legislation, and right now that’s me.

I give my approval with a cursory glance at the bill. Like I said, this is trivial to me and I’m confident in the ability of my councilors to manage elementary work alone, and in my numerous staff to alert me to anything untoward in the legislative pipeline. In any case, if I do accidentally make a mistake, I can undo it basically at will. For all the drawbacks and distractions it brings, there are benefits to being supreme ruler.

“And let it be known,” booms Thundering Voice, still our Royal Herald after all these years, though he’s getting on up there. I expect he’ll be retiring soon. “That on this day, the twenty-first of frostfell, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza did hereby…”

Blah blah blah. I tune him out. No offence to the stallion, but is it really that hard to just say “the bill passes”? Must we do everything in this exaggerated manner? That’s half the reason these assemblies take so long.

I sigh internally. But bombast and pomp are what the nobility wants, and even an alicorn has to cater to them to a certain extent to enable a proper functioning of her nation. That’s why a full fifty of the one hundred and fifty seats on the Grand Council are reserved for members of nobility, rather than democratically-elected representatives from across the Empire. Some ponies wanted even more than that when we founded this council to assist us back when Shining was properly alive, but they were taught their place. I will make concessions for the sake of my subjects, but nopony had better test me when my temper’s up.

I turn just the slightest amount of attention back to Thundering Voice as he continues on in his bass tone. “Next on the order of business is the issue of a proposed amendment to the regulations regarding the importation of nonnative flora from the Zebrican continent. Presenting the proposal and making the case in favor is her ladyship, Shining Sunstone,”

I again suppress my urge to roll my eyes at the polite stamping as the orange-gold mare takes the stage. I’m going to have to spend the next hour listening to these ponies argue about whether it’s ok to import particular breeds of exotic flowers for their gardens or not.

This is going to be a long afternoon.

“And I assure you, your majesty,” declares the armored gryphon in front of me in what he’s trying to make seem a confident tone. “That the captain of the East Wing city guard has been dismissed for his laxity, and the Imperial Guard has taken custody of the prisoner and will be conducting a full investigation. We shall get to the bottom of this treacherous attempt on your life, you have my word.”

“I thank you for your diligence, Captain Gidon. I am certain that I am in safe talons with the Imperial Guard on the job.” I reply, favoring him with a reassuring smile. In truth, I’m more worried that they will be hurt than that I will, judging from the frankly subpar attempt to kill me earlier. I’ve seen far more cunning efforts over my long life.

“We shall not rest until every perpetrator is hunted down and brought to justice,” he vows with a talon clutched in a fist over his heart, for the fifth time in the past twelve minutes. He appears to be taking the lapse in security as a personal affront to his honor, in spite of it not even being his assigned task at the time.

“I am certain you shall not, captain. Again, my sincere thanks for your efforts on my behalf. You do your nation and emperor proud.”

He visibly swells slightly with the praise. “Your words are kind, majesty. You shall know if and when anything is discovered.”

“Then I suppose I should not delay you any further here,” I say with a nod. “You are dismissed, captain.”

He salutes me, returns the helmet to his head, and marches duly out the door to my quarters, the exterior of which are now positively swarming with armored pegasi and gryphons, looking on high alert. Captain Gidon wished to post guards inside my room as well, but I vetoed the idea. I desire privacy more than I do more potential casualties among my protectors. Anything capable of harming me would tear through them, so I feel that diverting Imperial Guards from gryphons as highly placed as the Speaker of the Senate himself to guard me was excessive, but my honor-bound hosts insisted. Their need to feel like they are doing something to protect an important guest overrides the logical fact that I need little protection from anything that they can overcome.

Once again, I make concessions to the wills of mortals for the sake of their egos. I just hope they don’t get themselves killed if somepony else decides to take a shot at me.

A day and a night pass me by like so many immaterial wisps on the wind. I choose to spend the time reviewing the facts on the case before me for one final time. It is, in truth, a rather straightforward case as far as international incidents go:

The Senadas are a small set of islands some few dozen miles off the coasts of the Gryphus Empire. Essentially twenty-one barren rocks sticking out of the oceans, little lives on them beyond some especially hardy breeds of lichen and shrub, along with the occasional flocks of migratory seabirds that take advantage of the isolation and lack of predators to lay their eggs in relative safety. They were discovered and nominally claimed by the Gryphus Empire almost three thousand years in the past, but the simple fact is that they were strategically and materially worthless to the predators. Compared to the richer pickings elsewhere, the Empire found no reason at all to build on or occupy the isles, instead claiming them simply for the sake of doing so. Mortals and their need to clutch at even the most petty of possessions.

This state of affairs continued until some six hundred years ago, when the Gryphus Empire was in the midst of one of its intermittent civil wars. One faction, rallying under the banner of a lesser daughter of the dead Empress Scyla II, claimed the isles among its territory. When the war turned sour for them and their coffers began to run dry, they resorted to selling whatever they could find to continue the fight against the empress’s other children. Among the things they sold was the Empire’s claim on the Senadas. In that age, before the Revolution overturned (and decapitated) the monarchy for good, Prance was experiencing an economic boom and was ruled by an inexperienced king who enjoyed flaunting his newfound wealth. He purchased the Gryphus Empire’s claim to the islands on a whim, before discovering them not to his liking and continuing the prior policy of total neglect.

Eventually, the civil war ended with the destruction of all of the empress’s offspring but one, and that victor, then crowned Emperor Serath XII, did not acknowledge the legitimacy of his sister’s actions. He asserted that, as she was nothing more than a pretender and usurper to throne that was now his, she had no authority on which to auction the property of the crown. The Prench believed that their purchase was legitimate, continuing to argue that they were the rightful owners of the isles. The issue has never been resolved, but until a very short time ago nopony had that great an interest in the ownership of valueless rocks in the middle of the ocean. Even the most proud and aggressive and domineering of leaders chose to fight over something more worth their while.

Then, a handful of weeks ago now, some enterprising Prench marine biologists visited the isles to catalogue their underwater life. By sheer chance, in the course of their dives they stumbled upon underwater caves containing an abundance of gemstones. Analysis of the recovered samples proved a magical energy content far higher than normal, making the jewels valuable for everything from boosting the natural magic of spellweavers to providing power for cities or airships.

When the naïve scientists announced their discovery publicly, the international community went into a tailspin. I wish I had been there to hold them to silence until a more appropriate time, but even my eyes have their limits. When hurried official geological studies by the Prench and Gryphus governments indicated a high probability that the Senadas contained considerably more of these gems, the issue nearly reached crisis point. Both governments asserted their total right to ownership of the isles and their natural bounty, and neither was willing to recant their claims. The tensions mounted, and many, including myself, seriously feared that it would come to blows if either side moved to enforce their claims. Before that could happen, more level-headed factions in the twin governments, some secretly at my behest, managed to convince their leadership to call for a conference to discuss and hopefully resolve the issue between them. I was duly invited to mediate between the two.

This may be somewhat difficult, but I believe I can find a compromise between the two sides before it comes to war. Nopony needs die over shiny rocks at the bottom of the ocean.

I stand at the side of Emperor Serath on a flattened landing platform outside of the mountain that makes up Ostflugel proper, a heavy wind whipping through my mane and the sound of enormous engines drowning out all else. Above us, a trio of gigantic white Prench airships is in the process of a coordinated landing. Pegasi and gryphons alike fly back and forth between the ground and the impressive-looking warships, affixing moors and guiding the pilots into a careful touchdown.

As they get closer, I can pick out details on the Prench airships. Each is a latest-generation model of pony warship, capable of carrying hundreds of soldiers in the armored compartments beneath their vast, reinforced gasbags above. Siege weaponry and battle wizard platforms are displayed prominently along their sides and top, while the bottom visibly possesses great bay doors capable of opening to unleash airborne soldiers or explosives in equal measure. Each one is a powerful weapon capable of unleashing devastation on ground and air alike, and not something to be taken lightly. Equestria possesses its own equivalents of these ships, and as somepony who has seen them in their demonstrations, I know and respect just what they can do to soldiers or civilians unfortunate enough to be caught underneath.

That Premier Radient Light is arriving in three of them tells me a great deal about his attitude towards the peace process.

I skim the report in my hooves with an incredulous expression on my face.

“That’s it?” I demand of the stallion in front of me, perhaps a bit more roughly than I should.

To his credit, he stands his ground. “Yes sir. That’s all. No evidence we’ve gathered suggests there is any more to their connection than that.”

I pound my hoof onto my desk, actually cracking it (the desk, and my crystalline hoof) a bit. “That’s not good enough! I need something better! Some substance! Don’t you have anything more on those two?”

He remains as stoic as ever. “I’m sorry, sir, but facts are facts. There is simply no evidence to suggest that the relationship between Lady Rose Quartz and Lady Opal was ever anything more than a series of non-magical commercial transactions between their households. I’ve done the best I could to thoroughly investigate all the interactions between the two that I could find, including their council voting records, personal visits, and all the financial records I was able to access. That’s it, sir.”

“Aaaaaahhh…” I moan, running my hoof over my face. My subordinate, Sharp Eye, simply stands stoically where he is and waits for me to finish. With a sigh, I eventually do and return my attention to him. “Thank you for your hard work, Sergeant.”

“Anything for the Empire, sir. Will there be another name you wish me to dig through?”

I think about it for a moment before shaking my head. “No, not at the moment. I’m sorry to have pulled you away from your usual duties. You can return to them.”

He salutes. “No need to be sorry, sir. Investigating a traitor to the Empire is always a worthwhile pursuit.”

“Be that as it may, you can go now.”

“Yes sir. Let me know if there’s anypony else you wish me to dig up dirt on.”

Sharp Eye’s a good pony, I decide as he leaves my office and shuts the door behind him. I borrowed him from a police investigative unit to do some snooping on my behalf, and I’ll admit he’s as thorough as his record led me to believe. But he didn’t find anything of what I was looking for, and now my latest theory’s been dashed.

I still haven’t gotten anything on Lady Quartz’s unknown conspirators. I’ve been running investigations of her closest associates for years now, ever since Cadence started deteriorating. But nothing I can find indicates they were at all complicit in her actions, nor that they are doing anything untoward with my wife. Lady Opal was one of the longshots, and she didn’t turn up anything fresh either. I need a clue, a lead, anything really. I can’t just leave Cadence to continue hurting like she is.

I suppose I’ve got no choice, then. I know it seems weird for a pony who most consider some type of undead, but I don’t like the idea of desecrating a grave. It’s always seemed… wrong to me. And Lady Quartz has been buried in her ancestral plot for decades now. But I need something to point me in the right direction. I need to examine the spell she used, and there’s only one place that the traces might remain: her corpse. But I don’t know anypony skilled enough in magic to read the traces of twenty year old spells on a rotten skeleton and give something I can work with from it.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I know one.

I pull out a sheet of paper and begin composing a letter.

Dear Twilight...

Help

Sunday. My favorite day of the week. My day off.

I stretch my legs and wings wide in my comfortable bed, yawning. It’s five thirty am. sharp, and time for Princess Twilight Sparkle to get herself up and about, even if the siren song of five more minutes beckons me back to the realm of slumber.

A mare has to keep to her schedule, after all.

Out of habit, my head drifts towards the plus-sized bed normally occupied by my number one assistant. He’s still a heavy sleeper, that one. If anything, age and the innate draconic tendency to long periods of dormancy followed by brief spouts of intense activity have only made the problem worse. Well, that and Spike’s remarkable ability to ignore even my most cleverly enchanted alarms.

I rub the last of the sleep from my eyes and… huh? …Oh, that’s right.

Twilight you goof, Spike isn’t here right now.

As it does once every twenty years, the dragon mating season has come. All dragons of sufficient maturity feel the inborn call to distant Southern Badlands. This year, Spike confided in me that he wanted to go. Alone this time. We’ve been to the last three, but only for research purposes. I must say that the results were quite fascinating and well worth the numerous burns and hasty flights for one’s life inevitably endured in the course of such field work. I would highly recommend any interested parties consult my recently published work Fiery Passion: The Draconic Reproduction Cycle, which hopefully should have been removed from the erotic literature shops by now. Some ponies just don’t…

Sorry, I’m rambling, aren’t I?

Anyway, the point is: Spike wanted to go on his own this year, and I promised to let him. For the next six months, two weeks, three days, and approximately nine hours, if my calculations are accurate, it’s just me and the staff here. I never truly enjoyed having guards or servants, but Princess Celestia says image is important for royalty.

I make my way to my bedroom window in time to watch Celestia’s sun peak over the mountains and cast its light down on Ponyville. No matter how many times I see it, watching that heavenly body bathe the slowly waking world in its warm radiance always puts a smile on my face. It never fails to remind me of my mentor – I’ll always think of her that way, no matter what she says about us being equals now. Princess Celestia may be away right now, but her star is always there to give me fond memories of the mare who’s been a virtual second mother to me.

Today, the sun looks down on a very different Ponyville than the one I first arrived in all those centuries ago. A full-fledged alicorn princess living in a crystal tree-palace for generations will do that to a small town. Now Ponyville is a large city in its own right, with a population of hundreds of thousands of souls spread across mile after mile of flatlands. Apart from the Everfree Nature Preserve, I can’t see anything but buildings and roads for miles around my house. The city itself is a fusion of the ultra-modern Manehatten approach to innovation with the ageless grace and classical elegance of Canterlot. At least, that’s how the travel brochures describe our fair town.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m boasting or anything, but I like to think that I’ve played a substantial role in turning our fair community into a beacon of learning. Directly beside my castle is the University of Friendship (they wanted to call it Princess Twilight University, but I told them off), where students from all over our nation and beyond come to study. I like to teach classes there when I can find some room in my schedule, and give guest lectures when I can’t. Another institution I played a part in creating is the Museum of Harmony, a gallery dedicated to the pivotal moments in our time as the Elements of Harmony. My friends may have chosen to pass away, but I’ve at least ensured that their story is remembered and celebrated. It’s the least I could do for them.

With a final stretch of my wings to rid them of the last knots and stiffness, I turn away from looking down on Ponyville. Time for some breakfast. Most days I have to allow somepony else to make it simply because of limited scheduling, but on Sundays I can take the extra few minutes to pop down to the kitchen and make it myself. No sense in getting a big head and thinking myself above mundane activities of daily life.

I make something simple: oats, with a dash of cinnamon and some blueberries for added flavor. My kitchen staff (had to hire them after Spike got too big to properly work the equipment) have today off, so it’s just me in there, humming a little tune and using magic to assemble my morning meal. I trot out of the kitchen and simply munch from the bowl as I walk, enjoying the break from protocol.

Today’s my personal day, so you know what that means: books, books, and more books!

First I’ll sort, catalog, and file away all the new additions to my collection I’ve received over the last week. Then I’ll work on my latest work to be published. Next, I’ll settle down and do some light calculus exercises to keep the old noggin’ sharp. And then I can sit back and check the newest textbook editions at the University for accuracy. And then I get to-

Sorry, rambling again. Old habit.

Anyhow, I could teleport straight to my library, but I prefer to walk when I can. On my short journey through the castle, I graciously receive the salutes of guards and the bows of servants as best I am able with my face half stuck into a bowl and my mouth full of oats. I’m not exactly the model of royal dignity that my mentor possesses (except when around cake).

The hall outside my library is filled with pictures and portraits of ponies significant to me. One I’m especially fond of is the group shot of me with Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. I miss them every day, but I acknowledge and respect their decision to move on rather than accept a new form like Shining Armor did. Another is a family portrait of Mom, Dad, Shining, Cadence, my husband Flash Sentry, and I. Only half of those ponies are around anymore, but I can still cherish my memories of those that are gone. I also have an official portrait of myself alongside Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. I remember holding that pose for hours waiting for our painter to get everything just right.

Right beside the double doors leading to my private library are another picture of myself and my friends, and another of my husband and I with our foals. My two daughters, Morning Shimmer and Vivid Star, and my son, Astral Haze. The last, my youngest, was nothing more than an infant colt cradled in my wing when we took that picture. Now he’s centuries dead, along with almost everypony else. I have descendants, but they’ve spread out all over Equestria and sadly don’t tend to visit me much.

Still… if I had to do it all over again, I’d make the same decisions. I mourn my friends, but the time we spent together changed my life, and the world itself, permanently for the better. And being a wife and a mother was like no experience I’ve ever had, before or since. My little ones… I can’t be with you anymore, but wherever you all are I hope you know that Mommy still loves you and always will.

It’s bittersweet to be regularly reminded of everypony I’ve known and lost, but keeping them alive in your heart is the key to making sure that it was all worth it. That’s what Princess Celestia taught me, and gods know she’s seen loss: her parents, her caretakers, her husband, her children, her sister, and even her race itself, all gone. A thousand years of loneliness, with nopony but herself for company. I hope and pray I never have to experience anything like that.

In a somewhat more reflective mood after my trot through my portrait gallery, I open the doors to the vast labyrinth that is my personal library. To put the sheer size of the thing into perspective, if I hadn’t enchanted the room’s dimensions to be spatially distorted into fitting inside the castle’s original space, my library would take up far more room than the entire crystal castle itself. A pony could get lost in here for days if she’s not careful and/or spontaneously decides to reorganize the whole thing.

Not that that’s ever happened to me, of course.

I take a few steps in, to my sorting desk near the entrance. There, I store all the books that I’m given as gifts, receive in tribute, purchase myself, retrieve from an ancient ruin, or otherwise acquire during my week for classification, labeling, and shelf assignment. This week is relatively light load – only twenty six books to classify.

Well, I’d better get to- Huh?

A letter appears in front of my face in a flare of light. I remove my muzzle from the bowl I had been focused on cleaning out to take a better look. Only a few ponies (and one dragon) have the spell to contact me this way. Otherwise, I’d be buried in a perpetual rain of mail. It’s unscheduled, but I trust it must be something important.

I open the scroll and read over it quickly:

Dear Twilight,

While I’m reluctant as ever to worry my LSBFF, I think I may not have a choice here. Something’s wrong with Cadence, and I need your help investigating what exactly it is. You’re the only pony I can think of skilled enough in magic to do what I have in mind. Please reply as soon as you can, and when you have time I ask that you come to meet me in the Crystal Empire. I’ll explain more then.

Your BBBFF,
Shining Armor

My eyes go wide, and I toss what’s left of my breakfast aside. Cadence is in trouble? Shining needs my help? He doesn’t need to ask me twice. Of course I’ll help my family.

My pen is already writing a swift reply without my needing to look at it as I dash right back out the library door. Books will just have to wait.

“Mmmmmm… Shiny…” my wife twitches underneath me. “Don’t stop…”

We’re lying on our bed, myself on top and Cadence on the bottom. All four of her long legs are wrapped around my smaller form, and her wings are gently brushing my flanks. I can see that this is happening, and the magic in my brain tells me where she’s touching, but I don’t get any sensation from it. In turn, my front legs are around her neck, and my rear ones encircle her lower stomach. It’s as close as we can get to being intimate these days.

I nibble on her soft pink neck some more, and Cadence giggles from her bottom position. She gives me a long, slow kiss on the cheek, running her tongue over the hard, polished rock of my body. The long, flowing pink, violet, and yellowy-white hairs of her mane float this way and that, gently wrapping themselves about my face, neck, and chest. A few even cross my eyes.

I keep nuzzling and playing with her neck and face, stroking her mane as I bite and lick (I wet my mouth for this) her perfect rosy complexion. I can see a faint blush underneath the pink fur, and I press further. My hormones are long gone, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t bringing back fond memories. I sense the ghost of feeling where my… masculine parts once were. I want this gorgeous divinity lying on my bed, and I want her now.

But I can’t have her. Not the way I want to. That was a sacrifice I willingly made, but that doesn’t mean I don’t wish things were different, especially right at this moment.

“Please…” her breaths are speeding up, and she’s having a bit of trouble stopping “Please Shiny… don’t stop…”

“Your wish is my command, your majesty,” I answer, trying to sound passionate, which is harder than you’d think without a heart to race or adrenaline to pump through your veins or breath to desperately gasp for.

Cadence twitches and gasps as I go directly for her sensitive ears, pulling at her mane all the while. Her wings cease their tender strokes and stand at attention, while I sense her lower legs releasing me and going wide. I press on, pulling her divine mane almost to the breaking point, grasping her neck to the edge of strangulation, clamping down hard on her rosy flesh with my teeth, and knowing full well what’s about to happen. Even after all this time it still seems a bit like sacrilege to do this to a demigoddess on earth, but that’s what she likes.

“Oh… Oh… Oh… Oooooh…” my wife’s body twitches and jerks underneath me, spasming violently in response to my touch. Then, all of a sudden, it’s over. Like somepony hit a switch, her wings droop down, her forelegs release me, the hairs of her mane fall away, and she lays flat on her back and moans contentedly. “Aaaaaahhh…”

I look down and smile at her. So many memories…

Without warning, the warm smile vanishes from her face. Cadence sniffs and looks up at me, eyes visibly watering. “S-Shiny… I’m… I’m s-sorry…” tears start to trickle down those beautiful rosy cheeks. “I-I didn’t… m-mean to… I just… I just…”

I put a hoof over her mouth and try my best smile. “Shhh…” I hug her gently. “It’s ok… It’ll be ok…”

Cadence’s eyelids droop down to cover her violet eyes, and more droplets roll down her face, staining her makeup as they do.

I opt to stroke her mane softly, whispering sweet nothings in her ears. But deep, deep inside me, I can’t fully repress a stab of jealousy. I shouldn’t feel this way. I should grateful for all I have. I’ve had a wonderful life that most ponies could only dream of, a prosperous kingdom to call my own, a loving little sister, and wife of incomparable beauty and kindness.

So why am I feeling so down right now?

The damn voice chooses that exact moment to speak up again.

This isn’t…

Well, you know.

Backup

I hang my head in shame and cry. Stupid, stupid mare. Tactless, uncontrolled foal. You couldn’t keep a handle on your hormones for five more minutes? You just had to do that right in front of Shining Armor, in what was supposed to be a cuddle to try and make him feel better? Way to go, dear princess, now you’ve rubbed all he’s lost on your account right into his muzzle with a flashing neon sign.

Shining is stroking my mane and trying to comfort me. It’s nice of him, but really it only makes me feel worse about myself. He’s suppressing the negative emotions that I could feel coming from him to try and make me happy – why did I have to ruin his day because I couldn’t reciprocate? He sacrifices part of himself for me, I should have been able to do the same for him. I worry that the natural give and take of a healthy relationship is becoming all take, and I’m the greedy one.

I’m not entirely sure how much time passes on our bed while I mope about and Shining does what he can to try and make me feel better. It’s times like these that I’m tempted to just come clean about everything and throw myself into his hooves and beg him to forgive me for all I’ve done… but no. I can’t do that. Even if by some miracle my mind wasn’t turned into a vegetable by Celestia’s geas, all knowing what happened that night would do would be to get Shiny to march right up to her and confront her head on like I tried to do. The Royal Guard has an old saying: “When in doubt, charge,” and Shining has always put great stock in that particular philosophy. He would get crushed like I did, or worse.

I can’t even tell him about my experiments. There’s no worse tease on suffering mind than just the slightest ray of false hope. I don’t how long my project will take, or even if it will work at all. If Shining finds out, all it will do is give my poor stallion another painful stress on his emotionally-weary mind. Every day will be even worse for him, the knowledge that something might be done about his condition but that it can’t be yet teasing and tormenting his mind day in and day out. It may yet take another twenty years to find my answers. It may take a hundred or more. I wouldn’t have those years be any more painful to Shining Armor than I can help.

Our clock chimes for eight. Let’s see, on Sunday… Tartarus’ Gates. I have a meeting I have to attend of the Grand Council in fifteen minutes’ time. Arse.

I hate these infuriating blowhards. They suck valuable time away from my duties that truly matter so they can discuss petty trivialities and feel like they matter in the grand scheme of things. The idea of telling them all to buck off and spending my whole day with my husband or in the lab is very tempting… but I can’t. Like it or not, I’m a ruler in addition to a wife, and I still have duties to my subjects along with my marital ones. I have to make the Crystal Empire run smoothly, whatever else I may wish I was doing instead.

“Sorry honey,” I find myself saying as I slip out bed. “I’m sorry for everything.”

“I told you, it’s alright, Cady. Why don’t you just believe me?”

“I-It’s not alright. I used you. I shouldn’t have done that. This was supposed to be about your comfort, not mine.”

Shining jumps off our bed and looks up at me, putting a hoof under my chin. “Cadence, when will you learn that your happiness means the world to me? If you’re happy, I’m happy.”

Such a big heart on such a brave stallion. Swoon.

I reluctantly push his hoof back to the ground. “I h-have to go now, Shining. The council has a meeting this morning, and one of us has to be there. And I’m the one…” I trail off, not entirely sure how to finish that sentence without hurting him further.

He smiles wearily. “You’re the one they want. Their beautiful alicorn princess. Not a used-up old statue like me. I’m not an idiot, I can see that.”

“Shining…” I don’t like to hear him denigrate himself like that, even if the words are the truth. Even from his lips they make me angry; anypony else that said them to my face would be likely to get a few weeks to consider their mistake in prison. As of fourteen years ago, lèse-majesté is officially a crime within the borders of the Crystal Empire.

Shiny keeps smiling with that tired expression. “I’m only telling you the truth. Your subjects want you, so go on and do what you need to do. I’ll manage for a while on my lonesome.”

“Our subjects,” I correct him, brushing off the knowing smirk on his face. “And I… I don’t… want to. I want to be here, with you,” I confess, unsure whether I should be feeling guilty about that as well.

His smile vanishes, replaced by a slight frown. “We all have our duties, Cadence. Yours is to your ponies. Get out there and show them what it means to be a princess.” He points his hoof at the door.

I bite my lip, considering it for a moment. “Alright, but on two conditions.”

He shakes his head and smiles, like a father dealing with an eager little filly. “Name them.”

“One, we’re going out. Tonight. Just you and me, doing something nice together.”

“Agreed,” he replies.

“And two, you’ll let me cast a new bit of love magic I’ve whipped up on you.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Oh…” I smile with just a hint of teasing about it. “I was thinking that since I can’t make new memories with you, the least I could do is bring out the old for your viewing entertainment.”

From his emotional radiance, he’d have a slight blush if any blood existed in his body. “Which memories?”

I giggle. “You’ll just have to find out, won’t you, Shiny?”

He shakes his head. “I guess I will. You have a deal, Cady.”

“Great. It’s a date then,” I smirk teasingly. “Now sit back down and let the princess give her prince something special.”

“As her highness wishes,” he says with an over the top flourishing bow. He clambers back up onto the bed and sits down on all four legs. “Now what?”

“Shhh…” I tap his horn with my own, reaching into his mind. My love magic dredges numerous memories to the fore, but I reject them as unsuitable for the occasion. I want my first use of this spell I’ve designed to be… well, memorable.

Finally, the pink magic finds what it’s looking for. “Now relax,” I whisper to him as invoke the spell. “And enjoy yourself.”

Shining’s eyes go wide and curiously vacant as the whole of mind is dragged back into the memory I’ve pulled up for him. For this, I’ve chosen the first night of our honeymoon, when we were both exhausted from the changeling attack and simultaneously burning with lust for each other. It was the first time we were ever intimate with each other… or with anypony, for that matter. That took years of strict self-control on our parts that was often far from easy, but I think it made our relationship that much the stronger in the end. And it was positively romantic in the extreme. Still brings tears of joy to my eyes, even now.

I leave Shining behind in the depths of my conjured show as I slip out the door. Have fun for both of us, my prince, because I won’t be.

My long violet wings carry me north with a speed not even the Wonderbolts of the current age could match. Chariots are cozy and royal-looking, but they’re not as quick as I want for this. I’d even hazard that if Rainbow Dash could see me now, she’d demand a race for the title of Equestria’s fastest flyer after I was done with this task.

Yeah, suddenly flying across the nation by yourself without much warning and leaving only a brief explanation behind isn’t exactly considered proper princess behavior, but who cares? My family needs my help, and I’ll be damned if I let them down now. I know Shining and Cadence would do the same for me.

Hours pass in my flight. Below me, the well-populated heart of Equestria slowly gives way first to the smaller villages closer to the border, then to the wilder forests of the north, then to the pine forests and tundra that mark the edge of the Crystal Empire. Small towns of the Empire’s distinctive crystalline architecture style flash below me, growing steadily larger as I continue my journey north towards the Imperial City, the seat of the Empire’s rulers since time immemorial. There isn’t much air traffic to worry about: even after centuries of interconnectedness with Equestria, the Crystal Empire’s pegasus population remains a distinct minority that tends to concentrate itself around the capital in any case.

Eventually, I spy in the distance the enormous tower-palace that marks the Imperial City and my goal. As I begin my approach, I’m met for the first time by a pair of pegasi in the armor of the Crystal Guard.

“Halt!” one of them shouts as soon as she’s in earshot. “This is restricted airspace! All flying visitors are required to land and enter through standard-” She cuts herself off as she recognizes just who she’s talking to. “P-Princess Twilight. Your m-majesty. Please, forgive me.” The mare and stallion bend their heads to me, even though technically as a foreign ruler I don’t have any claim to their allegiance. I don’t believe I’ve met these two before, and they’re no doubt worried about what I might say to Cadence and Shining.

“It’s quite alright,” I reassure them, doing my best to mimic the comforting smile Celestia always uses to make me feel better. “You were only doing your jobs. But if you wouldn’t mind speeding up my entry, I’d be much obliged.” I really don’t blame them - the Crystal Empire has had to take measures to restrict immigration to the Imperial City ever since a major population boom threatened to overtax the city’s resources, and since then has been trying to move more of the population into newer and smaller locales throughout its northern lands.

“Of course, your majesty,” says the mare with a continued look of embarrassment on her face. She leans over and whispers something to the stallion, then points towards the palace. He nods, salutes, and dives towards it and out of sight. She turns back to me. “If you would please follow me, your grace.”

“Certainly.” Still don’t really like all the titles and formality, but I’m not going to waste time arguing about it now.

I’m lead into the very familiar Imperial Palace, seat of the Empire’s governance and site of several of my more memorable adventures. Granted, my first impressions of it weren’t very good, but in all the years since I find that it’s far homier with Cadence and Shining living here instead of Sombra.

I’ve been in this particular waiting room before, but it looks to have been remodeled since last time. The old Imperial-style furniture has been removed and replaced by more modern neo-Canterlot pieces, and somepony’s laid down a carpet. Also, I see a portrait of a younger Cadence and a living unicorn Shining in full royal regalia, sitting on twin thrones and looking benevolently down on their subjects. I don’t believe I’ve seen that particular painting before. Huh. Has it really been that long since I came here last? How the years fly by. I really should visit more often.

I sit back on the sofa and reminisce. A servant comes by to offer me some tea and a platter of refreshments. I take them graciously and eat with all the dignity and poise that – ah, who am I kidding? I stuff my face with cheese and crackers and olives. In my defense, I did just make a cross-country international flight on my lonesome with no breaks and only a light breakfast in my stomach. Sure, I can go without food if I need to, but at the cost of burning magic to fuel my body instead (like Cadence did when trapped in the Canterlot caves for weeks on end) and that makes me weaker. Besides, food is yummy and I want some now.

Wouldn’t you know it; the door swings open just as I’m in the middle of licking the cracker crumbs off the silver platter. Welp, that’s going to be a sight somepony will remember for a while. My ears are down while I’m blushing fiercely and praying to every god I can think of that they don’t have a camera on hoof.

“Twily?” comes the sound of a very familiar voice that is rather obviously struggling to sound less entertained than it is.

I turn around to face the speaker. “Shiny!” I’m blushing even harder now – knowing him, he’ll remember this moment for decades.

“Well,” he spread his forelegs wide. “What are you waiting for? Come here and give your BBBFF a hug!”

I squeal in an embarrassingly filly-like manner, but so what? I rush up to embrace my brother, squeezing him nice and tight. He hugs me right back, and I lower my head so he can give me that playful noogie he’s been doing since we were foals. We both giggle a bit and hold the embrace for a good while before finally consenting to let go.

Between you and me, I think we may have inherited that tendency from Mom.

“It’s been too long!” he says when we are finally apart again.

“Seven years, three months, two weeks, six days,” I reply automatically, before my brain catches up to my mouth and my ears fold back at the realization. Has it really been such a long time since we’ve visited? Here I am complaining about my relatives never visiting me and I’ve neglected my brother and sister-in-law for so long? Nice going, Twi.

Shining Armor chuckles a little sadly and shakes his head. “I should have known my little bookworm would have an exact date.”

“Heh, yeah,” I blush. “I’m s-sorry I didn’t come to see you more, I should have-”

“Twily,” he cuts me off. “We’re both adults. We both have a lot of responsibilities to attend to. I understand that.”

“Yeah, but-”

“But nothing. If anything, I’m the one who should be ashamed. I didn’t find time to visit you either, and aren’t I supposed to be the big brother around here?” A small smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. “Besides, I promise I haven’t been lonely around here.”

Shiny always knows just what to say to cheer me up.

He continues. “I’ve got Cadence and the family and everypony else for company.”

Oh, right. Cadence, the reason I’m here.

“Speaking of Cadence…” I prod him.

Shining looks around the room with a wary eye. “Twily, I’d like to speak to you somewhere a little more private, if you don’t mind,” he says in a serious tone.

I nod. “That’s fine with me. We’ll talk wherever you think you need to.” Now that I consider it, the fact that he didn’t mention what exactly was the matter in his letter implies that whatever it is must be some sort of important secret. I shouldn’t be surprised that he wants more privacy than a side chamber offers.

I follow my brother out the door, past saluting guards, through the hallways, up several flights of stairs, through another set of hallways, and to another door I recognize. Shining opens the door to his office and beckons me inside. I trot in, and he closes the door behind us and activates several protective enchantments that I can see.

“Twilight,” he says once he’s satisfied enough that we won’t be interrupted. “I need you to promise me that what we say here won’t get out of this room, no matter what else happens. Can you do that for me?”

I nod without hesitation. “Of course I can.” I go through the old motions I still remember. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

My brother chuckles. “Cute. That’s was Pinkie’s, wasn’t it?”

I nod again.

“Alright,” Shining Armor sighs heavily. “Twilight, I need your help to desecrate a grave.”

What.

Author's Notes:

Surprise fast update!

Doing the Deed

“You need my help to what?!”

I facehoof and shake my head. “Maybe… that wasn’t the best way of putting it.”

My little sister has an expression that just screams “no shit” on her face. I’m very thankful I can’t blush at the moment.

“Ya think?” she manages, after a few seconds. At least she’s more polite than I might be.

I remove my hoof from my face and try to reword my proposal. “Sorry, Twily, I’ve been under a lot of stress lately, and…”

Her expression softens, and she softly places a hoof on my shoulder. She doesn’t say anything, but she doesn’t need to.

Argh! Damn it all, she shouldn’t be seeing me like this! I’m supposed to be her big brother, the one who protects and comforts. Not the other way around. It’s embarrassing to think that, in addition to all the times I’ve failed in my duties before, now I can’t even keep a poker face in front of my little sister. Stallion up, Shining Armor! You’ve got ponies who need you to be strong!

I gently guide her leg down from my shoulder and give myself a brief pause to collect my emotions before continuing. Had I any lungs, I would be taking a deep, calming breath right now.

Cadence’s little show this morning really didn’t help me. I know she only wanted to try and make me feel better, but reminding me of the night when she and I consummated our marriage… Well, suffice to say that when a pony isn’t feeling well because they can’t have sex ever again, reminding them of some the best sex they’ve ever had isn’t exactly that comforting. I waited before because I cared for Cadence, and if I’m honest because I knew there was a reward at the end that would make it all worth it. But, if all goes as I see it going, I’ll spend forever and day waiting this time, with no end in sight…

Argh! Off topic, Shining! Focus, dammit, focus! Strength and discipline, like Sarge used to say. No whining like some over-privileged Blueblood brat.

Now then, where was I?

Ah yes.

“Anyway, Twily, let’s start this again.”

She nods, her eyes still showing concern.

“As I said in my letter, something’s wrong with Cadence. For a long time now, she’s been… how to put it? Off, I think would be the best way of saying it. She’s not sleeping well, and she’s jittery and reluctant in performing her royal duties. And the worst bit is that she’s denying the whole thing and refusing to confide in me. I’m worried for her.”

Twilight nods again, her ears folding back behind her head. “Do you have any idea what’s causing this?”

I nod. “I think it has something to do with what happened that night. At the WFPC.”

Her expression becomes one of anger for a moment, before shifting to thoughtfulness. “Shiny… have you considered that she might just be concerned about you? You came close to dying. It really scared everypony. Even Princess Celestia looked worried.”

I shake my head. “No, there’s more to it than that.” I tap my chin as a thought comes to me. “Here,” I reach into my desk with magic and pull out a case file. “Read this, and tell me what you think.”

My LSBFF takes the file folder and leafs through it. She’s always been a fast and avid reader, and I’m not surprised when she looks up from several dozen pages of summaries in far less time than I could.

“You think that Lady Rose Quartz had presently-unknown conspirators, but you don’t know who and everpony you’ve checked has come up clean,” she says. It’s not a question.

I grin. “That’s my Twily: astute as always.”

“Have you showed this to Cadence?”

“Yeah. That…” I pause to search for a proper way to frame it. “Could have gone better. She got mad at me, denied that anypony but Ms. Quartz was involved, tore the papers in two, and made me swear to drop the matter.”

Twilight’s brow furrows. “But you didn’t. Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious? She’s hurting, Twilight. And I can’t leave her to suffer like that. I have to do something to help, even if I have to go behind her back to do it.”

“You say she got mad and denied the weight of factual evidence?” When I nod, her frown deepens. “That’s not normal behavior for her.”

I shake my head. “It isn’t, and trust me, I know. I’m worried that somepony is blackmailing her… or something. She has to have some reason for behaving so oddly, and as her husband it’s my duty to help her when she needs it, even if she doesn’t see that she needs it.” I sigh. “I’ve been going over this for twenty years, Twilight. But…” I hang my head with the shame of yet more failure.

Twilight nods again. “But you can’t find anything on your own.” She reaches out and lifts my chin up, looking me in the eye. “And don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re doing everything you can. You’re a great brother, a great prince, and a great husband. Cadence loves you. I love you. So don’t beat yourself up too much, ok?” She smiles faintly before spreading her forelegs wide for me.

I shake my head. “You’re as clever as you always were, sis,” I embrace my sibling. “You know just what to say.”

We hold our hug for a good while before she releases me. I do actually feel somewhat better, if a little embarrassed about needing another pick me up.

I gesture to Twilight. “Go on.”

She nods. “So you want to try something you haven’t yet. You want to examine the spell directly on Lady Quartz’s corpse.”

I grin. “Right again.”

“But to do that, you need somepony who knows a lot about magic and can reconstruct and examine spell matrices from the smallest components.”

“You know your stuff, Twily.” I give her a playful punch on the shoulder.

She giggles and blushes. “That happens when you spend all day in a library for years on end.”

“So now you understand?”

“Why you want my help?” She nods. “Definitely. It’s a reasonable course of action to request outside assistance when one’s own resources are inadequate to the task at hoof.”

“Like you always do?” I tease her.

She blushes a little harder. “Heh, yeah. Like me.”

We share a good laugh.

“So,” I ask once we’ve had our little moment. “Will you help me?”

She grins broadly. “Of course I will! You can count on me, BBBFF!”

I smile. “I’m sure I can.”

We embrace once more, though the tears in her eyes are of happiness this time instead of worry.

“Now listen up,” she says, a confident look on her face. “I have a plan!”

And that’s why I’m currently sneaking through a cemetery in a black ninja suit. In broad daylight. Behind my giant alicorn sister. Also in a ninja suit.

Weirdest grave robbery ever.

“Twily,” I moan as we “stealthily” make our way between carved black and grey crystal tombstones. “Did we have to wear these?”

She puts a hoof over her mouth to stifle a giggle. “Yep!”

“And did we have to do this at two o’clock in the afternoon?”

“Nope!” she grins.

“What will ponies say?”

“Nothing!” she says with an exaggerated sigh. “I’ve told you a dozen times: I’ve put so many spells of concealment on these babies that it’ll be a miracle if anypony even remembers that we exist while we’re in them, much less notices that we’re here.”

“But why jet black ninja suits?”

“Gifts from an old friend, you might say. Now quit your whining and follow me.”

I groan. “Couldn’t we just teleport straight there?”

She snorts. “Yeah, if you want there to be a magical signature any ignoramus within a mile could examine. Now do you want my help or don’t you?”

You can do this, Shining. It’s for Cadence. “I do.”

“Then shut your mouth and follow my lead.”

Like I said: weirdest grave robbery ever.

We proceed through the mausoleums of the great and powerful of the Crystal Empire’s history, not having to really do much to avoid anypony, as nopony’s out here. I checked the site’s funeral schedule to be sure before we left the palace.

After a few minutes of walking around and feeling thoroughly ridiculous, we finally come upon the tomb that we’re looking for. Lady Rose Quartz is buried next to her late husband in a plot of land traditionally belonging to his household. I notice that nopony’s come by to lay flowers in a very long time, and I can’t decide whether to be spitefully gleeful (for trying to murder me, and for setting this whole thing off) or sad (because everypony should at least have somepony who cares). In the end, I settle for pity with just the slightest edge of “you got what you deserved”.

“Pass me the stick,” Twilight says, extending a hoof.

Did I forget to mention that I’ve carrying around this random piece of wood she found on the ground? Yeah, this is really bizarre and I can’t help but wonder if my sister is high on something.

Still, I toss it to her. Her horn lights up, and the stick suddenly becomes a shovel. I suppose there is a method to her madness after all.

Twilight starts digging, scooping shovelfuls of dirt and lawn up and tossing them aside without ceremony.

“What, that’s it?” I ask rather incredulously, as the alicorn Princess of Friendship digs a hole in the ground with her bare hooves.

She pauses and looks at me. “Yeah. What of it?”

“Well…” I shrug. “I just figured we’d magic it out or something. Not dig a pit in the ground.”

“Magic it out?” Twily looks at me like I’m nuts. “Do you know how many crazy defenses against magic these noble types like to put on their graves?”

“No,” I offer, hesitantly. “Are you sure?”

“Let me put it this way, BBBFF: how many ancient royal tombs have you excavated on the Lost Continent?”

She’s referring to the original homeland of the pony species, westward across the sea, now lost to an endless winter thanks to the hatreds of the different types of ponies summoning the wendigoes. The tale of the Great Migration, as related on Hearth’s Warming Eve back in Equestria, says that many of the royals of the land left behind great treasures and magic artifacts in their haste to flee, or buried them with their ancestors. I know Twily’s taken an interest in recovering things from that period from time to time.

“None,” I admit, eventually.

“Then you have no idea what you’re talking about,” she declares with an air of finality. “We dig.”

Weirdest. Grave. Robbery. Ever.

Well, it takes us a few hours to pry the coffin from the earth, refill the hole, regrow the damaged grass, and get the whole thing back to an unused palace storage room Twilight has chosen to commandeer for her “laboratory”, but eventually we succeed. I frankly, am most glad to be out of that utterly preposterous ninja suit. I looked like the villain of some cheesy action film.

Twilight lays the long box upon a sturdy wooden table before prying it open with a perfectly mundane crowbar. I’d ask how she knew to do that, but frankly I probably don’t need to know. She crinkles her nose when the crystal top finally comes loose, but looks proud of herself all the same.

“So,” I say, coming over and looking down on the inside of our prize. The Lady, once a rather pretty mare, is now little more than a skeleton, with a few rotten bits of shriveled flesh hanging on here and there. From Twily’s expression, it probably doesn’t smell that much better than it looks.

“So?” she prods me on.

“So, have I gotten you everything you need?”

Twily takes a look around the room at the various bits of alchemy equipment, advanced chemistry textbooks, and the boatload of coffee she requested.

“Yep,” she nods. “I think this should do fine. I can take it from here, BBBFF!” She punches me playfully on the shoulder. “Now go get ready for your date!”

“You sure?” I ask, “I can make up some excuse to stay and help you if-”

“Shining,” she cuts me off. “I can promise you that I can handle this part on my own, no problem. If Cadence is hurting, what do you think will make her feel better: her husband and his sister hunched up together in a closet, or her husband on a night out with her?”

Dammit, she has a point. This isn’t exactly my field of expertise in any case. I don’t know how I would help her.

“Alright,” I sigh begrudgingly. “You win. I’ll go get ready.”

“Excellent choice,” she smiles.

I start to walk out the door, but Twily’s voice interrupts before I can. “Oh, and Shining?”

I turn back. “Yes?”

She conjures a clothespin over her nose. “Take a bath or something. You stink.”

Thanks, Twily.

Date Night

Once I’m sure that Shining is gone, I seal the door shut behind him and drop the cheerful façade from my expression. Ok, it wasn’t entirely faked, but honestly I don’t think even Pinkie Pie could be that lighthearted in a situation as serious as this. I just thought my BBBFF could use a bit of a pick me up, and one lesson I’ve learned well is that laughter is contagious.

I won’t lie: I feel kind of bad for doing this. I know it’s for a good cause, but violating tombs is never an entirely pleasant idea for me. Poking at the bodies of unwilling ponies is even worse. But two ponies that have been there for me since I was a filly are counting on me (even if one of them doesn’t know it yet).

I peer into the open coffin and remove the skeleton inside as delicately as I can, placing it on a long table I’ve set up for this procedure. I don’t expect this to be easy – examining traces of magic for useful information after the spells have expired is a tricky business at the best of times; still more so when two decades have passed. And I have to hope the spell was cast on some biological component of the late mare, rather than on her soul, which is well beyond my reach.

I wish my brother had come to me sooner, but suppose he just didn’t want to worry me. Well, that, or it’s those issues he has with feeling useless (I don’t know why he would, objectively he’s achieved far more than most) that made him hold off. Probably some combination of the two, I decide.

The first step of the process is to figure out what part of Rose Quartz, if any, the spell was focused on. This will let me zoom in better on whatever’s left of the magic after so many years of rotting underground. I close my eyes and fold my ears down over my head to shut out physical distractions. Taking a deep breath and concentrating, I open myself up to the Aether, the realm of all magic that overlaps the material world. Through my eyelids, I can see the flowing currents and patterns of magic all around me, from that attached to the souls of living ponies to the pure white gleam of the nearby Crystal Heart.

I look down at the body with my alternate vision. There’s little left of the inherent magic of earth ponies about this cadaver, with just the slightest streaks of brown still nestling in the bones to identify her species. I sweep over the body again and again, carefully checking each nook and cranny. Nothing… Nothing… Nothing… Nothing…

Wait, what’s that?

As I do a fourth examination of the skull, I spy something. It’s very faint, but where the eyes used to be… there’s just the slightest sheen of gold mixed in with the flowing brown of earth pony magicks. Not much to go on, and I can’t tell anything about whether this is even the spell I’m seeking, but it’s a start. With no better leads to go on, I’ll start my examination on the eyes.

You know, this would have been much easier if she had been looked at while alive, but I guess Cadence and Celestia were in too much of a rage to bother to think of it. It’s alicorn nature to be extremely wrathful when our loved ones are hurt. Ask Tirek if you don’t believe me – if he hadn’t been so tremendously supercharged with stolen magic after he destroyed my library and almost killed Owlowiscious, my attacks would have vaporized him on the spot, and I wouldn’t have regretted it for a nanosecond. So I suppose I can’t blame them.

Plucking the thin strand of gold from the flowing weave of brown without disrupting it is rather like attempting to dissect an ant under a microscope with just a pair of tweezers. I lose track of real time as I immerse myself in the effort, carefully unwinding the threads of magic so I can get a better look. This could be taking minutes, or hours. I’m fairly certain that I’d notice if it were longer than that.

Eventually, the magicks are separate enough that I can examine at least part of the hair-thin string of gold on its own. Yes… this is definitely a spell for manipulating minds. A potent one, at that. I’ve found my target. Now to analyze it.

A growl in my stomach tells me that I’ve been standing here for some time, and I have only begun.

This could take a while.

Did you know that I’ve seriously considered abdicating?

No, really, I have. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Crystal Empire and its ponies… most of them, at any rate. It’s just that the politicking that goes on manages to be just the right combination of sycophantic, time-consuming, and inane to really put me off. Ponies go through elaborate routines to make trivial changes to our laws, and I have to put up with it or else they’ll make life more difficult and eat up even more of my time. Sycophants who don’t honestly give a buck about me constantly shower me with meaningless flattery, which is a walking insult to my domain. I get it, some ponies don’t like me and never will; I don’t enjoy that, but I accept it. But what truly makes me sick to my stomach is seeing the purity of love mocked by feigning affection for selfish gain. If you dislike me, fine, that’s your prerogative, but come out and say as much. Don’t insult me with servile fawning intended to butter me up. I’ll respect you more for your honesty.

That’s what I’ve had to endure for centuries – the price of rulership. To tell the truth, I’d probably be happier foalsitting again, basking in the sincere and innocent love that oozes from fillies and colts. Leaving the halls of power behind me and finding some homey little village to settle down in is a recurring fantasy of mine.

But I can’t do that. I’m an alicorn, and whatever else she may be, Celestia was right when she told me that it is the unavoidable destiny of our kind to rule. If Shining and I ever did settle down in some village somewhere, I would inevitably be beset by ponies asking for advice, instructions, and blessing. Even the most isolated backwater would eventually notice my ageless nature and feel the magic within me. Whether I held formal power or not, in a few short years, or decades at most, ponies would hang on my every word again. And so, power and the politicking that comes with it would follow me wherever I went.

Besides that, I can’t just leave the innocent of the Crystal Empire to their fates. It may sound egotistical of me, but I can guarantee that the next ruler of the empire, whoever he or she was, wouldn’t care for them quite the way I do. They’re mine, and I’m theirs, bound together by generations of trust and love. It’s my duty to keep them safe and happy, and ruling is a burden I bear for their sakes.

But none of that makes enduring the day-to-day tedium and false flattery any less irritating.

Why am I telling you this? Why whine about how hard the pretty pink ageless love goddess has it with her adoring subjects, beautiful kingdom, loving husband, and vast riches? I know I must sound like some griping drama queen, but I only want to give context to why I’m in a bit of a sour mood right now.

It’s presently seven o’clock in evening, and for the last five hours I’ve done nothing but listen to a crowd of shameless upper-class sycophants tell me how great I am while “humbly” asking me to grant this or that. Honestly, the requests are interchangeable, and so utterly predictable, that even with a magically augmented memory I’ve already forgotten who asked for what. If I didn’t have scribes writing it down, I wouldn’t remember what I’ve even decreed today. Which only adds that lovely slice of guilt to my simmering pot of irritation – my duty demands that I remember things like that, and I don’t because I’m selfish and bored. Some goddess.

So, to sum up, I’m busy getting ready for my date with Shining Armor while radiating a mixture of negative emotions, and feeling bad about that, too. I’m reapplying my makeup, going a bit heavy on the primer to hide the dark circles from lack of sleep. This whole thing is to try and make him a bit happier, and nothing spoils my husband’s mood more than knowing I’m in a bad mood. He’s already dealing with repressed depression because of me, I don’t need to add anything more to it.

I finish dolling myself up, then smile and strike a pose for the mirror, looking over myself with a critical eye. I’m going for chaste beauty, not the sexy look that comes a bit too easily when I’m preparing for a night out. I try a couple more poses before deciding on a demure, almost submissive posture virtually guaranteed to inspire warm, protective feelings in a stallion. Shining’s always been happiest when protecting others, and a lot of his issues are related to his perceived failures to do so. If I can make him feel just a bit more useful tonight, I’ll call this idea a success.

Once I’ve finished applying just a tad more blush, chosen my jewelry (simple earrings and necklace, no crown or golden horseshoes tonight), and preened my feathers until they’re just right, I decide that I’m ready. I’m sure Shiny is already all dressed up – stallions have it so easy – and waiting for me in our chambers.

I walk down the stairs and through the doorway and… yep! Called it.

“My, oh my,” I announce my entrance in a tone of faux surprise. “Whatever is yon roguishly handsome stallion doing in the fair princess’s tower? Not here to steal me away, I hope?”

Shining, dressed in a smart-looking blue and gold uniform jacket, can’t restrain a small chuckle. Then he gives me his best “handsome rogue” grin. It’s adorable. “I’m afraid you’re out of luck, princess, for that is exactly what I’ve come here to do.” His crystal horn turns a soft pink, and I’m gently lifted off my hooves and floated over to him.

“Oh, woe is me,” I intone dramatically, a hoof over my forehead in a completely stereotypical wilting maiden pose. “For I have been captured.” Shining sets me down beside him. “Will nopony help the poor damsel in distress?”

“I’m sorry to say that you’re on your own this time, my lady,” Shiny answers, wrapping a freshly-polished hoof around my neck. It’s heavy, but I like the feeling all the same.

“Alas,” I bend my neck down so that I’m looking meekly up at him. “Then it seems I am your helpless prisoner, oh villain most foul.” I’m barely managing not to giggle at the sheer cheesiness of it all. “You may do with me as you will, but I beg of you to be gentle to this poor princess.”

He smirks. “Not a chance, my lovely.”

“Oh no! Truly is my doom sealed! Woe is me!” I put a foreleg over my forehead again and, in a ridiculously overdone performance, fall over backwards in a mock faint, letting out my hammiest sigh as I do.

It’s too much for Shining Armor. He bursts out laughing, trying at first to conceal it behind a hoof but rapidly giving in to the urge and rolling over onto his sides. I try to resist, but the sheer corniness of the whole performance and the contagious nature of my husband’s laughter soon gets to me, and I’m in stitches too.

An over-the-top performance with plenty of ham and cheese always works on him. He tries to be Mr. Super Serious all the time, but it always has. After almost five hundred years of marriage, I know his weaknesses as well as he knows mine.

When we finally manage to stop giggling like foals, Shining puts his hoof around me again. I feel a lot better already.

“So,” he asks. “Where are we going? Your chariot drivers out there won’t tell me.”

He found them? Oh poo, I had hoped he wouldn’t go out on the balcony before I was ready. Good to know that I picked a pair of trustworthy ponies at least.

“You weren’t supposed to see them.” I pout girlishly, then give him a light shove on the shoulder. “And it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I told you, now would it?”

“Aw, not even a hint?”

I giggle and push him softly again. “Nope, sorry, you’re out of luck.” I stick my tongue out at him.

“Fine, have it your way,” Shiny says with faux indignation. He crosses his forelegs and sticks his own tongue right back at me.

“Hmph!” I stick my nose in the air and do my best imitation of cousin Blueblood, strutting towards the balcony door like I own the world. Shining chuckles again before following me. Right as he’s about to pass through the door, I notice him give a backwards glance out of the corner of my eye. Odd. Did he forget something?

I brush it off and lead us out to our well-appointed balcony, where two pegasi are waiting to pull us in our chariot. It’s a little less private than I’d like, but Shining dislikes being carried by me and these two have already proved their discretion. Shiny, ever the gentlecolt, helps me on first, before climbing into his own space. I nod at the two pegasi, and they take off. I’ve already discussed our destination and timetable with them during a bit of downtime this afternoon, so nothing really needs to be said.

This far north, at this time of year, the sun has already set and Auntie Luna’s moon and stars shine brightly above us. The sky is crisp and clear, without a cloud in sight, a fact with which I had nothing at all to do with. Well, maybe a little… Anyway, we rise high into the sky above the Imperial City before leaving its bounds altogether. Shining raises an eyebrow at that and takes another backwards glance, but doesn’t say anything.

The always-cold north wind whips by us, its biting chill made even worse by the season and altitude. I snuggle up to Shining, bending down to lay my head against his shoulder. He smiles softly and rests his own head gently on top of mine, just like I like it. He wraps a hoof around my neck, while I put a wing over his back. His crystal body is as cold as the wind, but as mare capable of literally opening up her own chest and digging samples of her heart tissue out, I think I can tank it pretty well. Besides, it’s not about me, not now.

We soar over towns and villages, pine forests and tundra. The wind continues to be strong, cold, and very, very loud. It would be pretty hard to talk here if we were trying to, but thankfully we’re content just to enjoy a little time to just relax in each other’s company. During that time, I notice Shiny take one or two more glances back towards the Imperial City. Odd… what is he worried about? Regardless, our journey takes about twenty minutes or so, but at long last I see the destination I picked for us.

Our drivers take us down slowly over a particularly isolated forest of pine trees, circling I clearing I informed them of before landing softly. The silence of the place is broken by the sound of hooves and chariot wheels crushing pine needles and stick underhoof. Shining looks around, obviously puzzled, and then gives me a questioning gaze. I just giggle teasingly and hop out, beckoning him to do the same. With a grin of cautious optimism, he does so, and our drivers fly away.

“So,” Shiny says once they’re gone. “A mare lures a stallion out into the woods by himself in the dead of night. Should he be concerned?”

I smirk and flick my flowing tail at him. “You tell me. Are you?”

“Maaaaaybe…” he smirks right back.

“Shiny!” I tease, playfully batting at his hooves.

He laughs. I love to hear that sound. “Alright, I’m not. As long as it’s you.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m me.”

“Then I guess I have nothing to worry about.”

“I guess you don’t. Now follow me, Mr. Suspicion. I have something to show you.”

I lead Shining out of the clearing and into the trees, taking the time to enjoy the relaxing sounds of a quiet woodland at night. Moonbeams filter through the branches to light our path, and from time to time I see little creatures scurry past at our approach. This forest in pony-tended, but the Crystal Empire’s animals still tend to be a bit shyer than those of Equestria proper. Shining follows me closely, but I still catch glimpses of a worried expression on his face and homeward looks from time to time. What’s eating him?

“Shining?” I ask as we emerge from the trees to find a crystal clear stream running through the woods, feed year-round by northern ice and snow.

“Hmmm? Yes?” he hurriedly switches his attention away from whatever he was thinking about back to me.

“Is everything alright?” I ask, a note of worry I didn’t intend entering my voice. “You’ve been awfully quiet and you keep looking back. Is there something wrong?”

He hesitates. “…No.” He’s never been a very good liar.

I walk over to him and put a hoof on his check, stroking it softly. “Are you sure? If there’s anything going on, you know can tell me anything, right?” The hypocrisy of that statement makes me feel guilty, but I suppress the twinge of conscience.

“Of course I know that.”

“So you’re sure there’s nothing wrong?”

“Positive,” he replies in a firmer, more commanding tone.

I don’t believe him, but I decide to back down for now. I still want this to be pleasant, and if he doesn’t want to talk about something I won’t force him.

“Alright,” I remove my hoof. “Just let me know if something comes up, ok?”

“Of course,” he nods, and I sense guilt coming off him. He doesn’t like lying to me any more than I do to him.

“Anyway,” I go on, forcing my voice into a brighter tone. “We’re here.”

Shining looks around. “Interesting choice,” he remarks. He looks me in the eye and his face perks up a bit. “You have something planned.”

“You bet I do,” I answer in a genuinely more cheerful voice. A quick spell conjures a soft red mat by the stream. I gesture at it. “Take a seat. We’re a little behind schedule, but luckily for us I packed a bit of extra time in.”

He smirks. “Behind schedule? On a date in the woods? Are you sure you aren’t Twily in disguise?”

I giggle. “Pretty sure.”

“Well, alright then,” he says, sitting down on all fours on the mat.

I snuggle up beside him, wrapping my wing around his midsection and putting my head against his neck.

“Now what?” he asks.

“Shhhh…” I put a hoof over his lips, then point to a gap in the tree cover running alongside the stream. The stars are clearly visible in the cloudless night sky. “Just watch and you’ll see. Trust me.”

“Alright.”

We sit there in silence for some time. A minute ticks by. Two. Three. Now I’m starting to get worried. What if the charts I consulted were incorrect? What if the view from here is bad? What if Shining gets bored sitting around here? Come, hurry it up, world! Hurry it-

“There!” I can’t resist the urge to give a little yelp and point when I finally see what I’ve been waiting for.

A dazzling emerald green streak of color lights up the night sky around where I’ve pointed. It grows, rapidly, flying across the black void of night to shine on all the ponies beneath it. It curves, twists, and flows like some vast river of liquid jewel in the sky. It continues to grow closer and closer until the streak soars directly above our head, painting the forest and all within it a vivid green. This beautiful display is the Crystal Empire’s famous aurora, better known as the Northern Lights.

I nuzzle up to my husband, looking at his expression. He smiles and puts his head on mine, and I can sense that he’s feeling happy. I smile widely as the feeling spreads to me.

Shining Armor and I sit alone together in the forest, watching the light show go by.

Author's Notes:

Hurray! Romance and murder investigation!

Fight

Our little forest light show lasts for hours. How long precisely eludes me, but it doesn’t matter. I can tell that Shining Armor is enjoying simply being out here in these peaceful woods to relax with me, and I with him. Not much is said between us, but then not much needs to be. Why spoil the moment with words?

But like with most good things, all too soon the aurora fades from the sky and Shiny and I are left sitting alone in a dark forest. It’s not a problem for either of us, but without the natural spectacular above to distract us, the normal sounds of a woodland at night reassert themselves, and the magic is lost. It’s time to go home, but I don’t want to leave. I’m content right where I am: far away from all finery and politicking and responsibility, alone with somepony who loves me. So I just cuddle up, rest my head on his neck, and close my eyes. Time passes, but I don’t know how long.

Shining – ever the dutiful stallion – is the one who gets up first, nudging me gently with his muzzle to prod me into action. Reluctantly, I remove myself from him before regaining my hooves. I remember where I asked our drivers to wait for us, so I take the lead again as we trudge back through the nighttime forest. I’ve enjoyed this little outing immensely, and I feel a bit melancholy to be heading home in what feels a blink of an eye.

Something of this must be showing on my face, because Shining gets a concerned look on his. He walks beside me and gently nuzzles the side of my neck and lower face, reaching as high as his own height will allow. I smile and wrap a wing around him to pull him close just as the trees part to expose the clearing we landed in and our waiting chariot.

By the time we hop back off of the royal chariot onto our balcony, I’m getting worried again. Even when we were trying to cuddle in the air, Shiny seemed somewhat distracted. He was continuously making small gestures on the ride back: running a hoof over the chariot’s base, flicking his ears, even licking his gleaming crystal lips. I’ve known him long enough to recognize the signs of impatience in my husband. If he’s like this even during a date with me, whatever the issue is must be important.

As soon as we’ve shut the balcony doors behind us, Shining gives me a kiss, his lips cold and hard against my pink coat.

“Cady?” he whispers gently.

“Yes?”

He sounds a little nervous, tugging at his collar gently. “I… have a little work I need to catch up on, and I was thinking I could get some of it done before hitting the hay.”

“Must you?” I ask, throwing in a small yawn for effect. “It’s getting late, and you need your rest as much as I do.”

He nods slowly. “I think so, yeah. And don’t worry, I’ll be back pretty quickly. Just need a bit of time to finish.”

“I’ll miss having your hooves around me when I go to bed tonight,” I respond, running a hoof up and down his foreleg. In truth, I’m not actually planning to sleep tonight, but he doesn’t need to know that.

“I’ve… got to finish it tonight. Timetables and all. You understand, right?”

“What is this thing you’ve got to do anyway?” I prod.

“… Paperwork. For the guard. Approving expense reports, assigning new personnel, things like that.”

Damn, Shining, you are an awful liar.

I can sense he’s feeling guilty as he continues. “You don’t mind, do you?”

I hesitate for barely half a second before responding. “No. Go and do what you’ve got to do.”

He grins. “I’ll be back soon,” he says, trotting towards the exit of our chambers. “Oh,” he turns and winks. “And be sure to keep the bed warm for me.”

I snicker slightly. “Of course.”

His face suddenly becomes that of a drill sergeant. “Is that any way to answer a superior officer, private?”

I giggle and salute. “Sir, no sir!”

“Good!” he snaps. “You’re learning, maggot! We’ll make a soldier out of you yet!”

“Sir, yes sir!” I try my best at a stereotypical grunt’s voice, but the effect is ruined by my soft giggling.

“Now, your assignment for tonight is to lie down on that piece of furniture and get a good, restful sleep.” He points a hoof at our bed. “Is that clear, private?”

“Sir, yes sir!”

“Good! Dismissed!” he says with a salute of his own, before sauntering out the door and shutting it behind him.

My smile drops as he leaves, replaced by a worried frown. What’s going on? Shining never likes to go behind my back, and he likes lying to me even less. What could be so important that he thinks he can’t tell me about it, but that keeps him occupied even during a date? I don’t like my husband wandering off where I don’t know where he is. I’m aware that this is hypocrisy, and that it might sound paranoid, or even possessive, but the last time this sort of thing happened he was brainwashed and seconds from killing himself.

My emotions go to war with each other. On one side, there’s my respect for my husband as a grown (and very old) stallion, my desire not to violate his privacy, and the part of me that thinks that I’m just being a paranoid fool. I mean, Celestia wouldn’t just up and… Nopony else would…

I swallow.

On the other hoof, it’s my duty as a loyal spouse to protect my beloved, even from himself if necessary.

Is it spying?

It’s my castle every bit as much as his. And so what if it is spying? I do plenty of that already. I pay a ring of ponies to bring me information on their masters without even feeling bad about it anymore.

But what if it makes me seem like a stalker?

Shiny needn’t know, does he? Just a quick peek to be sure that all is well, and then back to bed to wait for him.

Is it right to keep secrets from him?

I do that already, don’t I? And he’s trying to do it to me, albeit ineptly.

Would this be an abuse of power and trust?

…

No. It’s for his own good.

My mind made up, I cloak myself in a spell of concealment and follow him.

As soon as I’m out of earshot of our rooms, I up my speed from a light trot to just barely below a full-on gallop. My conscience is burning me, and badly. I’m taking advantage of my wife’s trust in me. She’s doing everything she can to try and make my life more bearable out of the goodness of her heart, and here I am going behind her back in the dead of night like some filthy… adulterer.

I’m actually glad right now that I don’t have a stomach, or I would be sick to it.

Still… all this is for her. I may be breaking my promise and sneaking around to do wicked things with a stolen body, but it’s all for Cadence. No matter what, I can’t leave her to suffer when I could be doing something about it. If it means some stains on my conscience and honor for her sake, then those will be my burdens to bear.

I hurry down flights of stairs, ignore the salutes and inquiries of surprised staff, race through crystalline corridors, and don’t slow down until the room where my LSBFF works is in sight. I want this over and done with asap, so I pray to all the gods I can think of that we can work quickly, get a clue that I can use, and return this body to its resting place.

I open the door to find Twily standing over a skeleton laid flat over a table, eyes closed and horn aglow with a purple aura, which pulses through the room in waves. Her magic illuminates the otherwise pitch-black storage room, giving it a rather creepy purple-black color scheme.

Shutting the door carefully behind me, I whisper softly. “Twily?”

No response from my alicorn sister. Unsurprising – she’s always been one for intense focus.

I raise my voice a bit. “Twilight?”

Still no answer.

I walk to her side, put a hoof on her shoulder, and shake her a little.

“GAAAAAHHH!” she screams at the top of her lungs, flailing her forelegs wildly and jerking her head around in a panic. When she lays eyes on me, Twily manages to stop, staring at me and breathing heavily. “Oh, Shiny,” she says between gulps of air, with a faint and rising blush on her cheeks. “You startled me there.”

“Studious as ever, I see.” I give her a slightly teasing smirk.

She scratches the back of her head with a sheepish grin on her face. “Yeah, I guess so. Heh heh heh.”

“How’s it coming, sis? You find anything?”

Twilight frowns. “I think so, but it’s not proving very cooperative.”

“What do you mean?”

She looks a little unsure. “I’m… not entirely certain. The spell is woven deep into the earth pony magic of the body, and seems to be almost… actively resisting my attempts to pull it out to where I can properly get a look.”

I know a bit about investigations of this sort myself, but to get addition confirmation I ask the question anyway. “Is that unusual?” I’m pretty sure I already know.

She nods. “Definitely so. Even in a spell freshly cast, most don’t have the capacity to resist being dug out. One that’s been attached to a rotting corpse for two decades? That’s very impressive. Most ponies would have neither the knowledge nor power to cast such a thing.”

“And that tells us something in and of itself,” I immediately deduce.

Twilight nods again. “Right, it tells us that somepony with a lot of power and skill didn’t want anypony else getting a good look at this magic. You were definitely right; Lady Rose Quartz had to have had-”

My sister is interrupted by a shout from near the door.

“WHAT?!”

Half of my mind is screaming at me the whole way down as I follow in my frantic husband’s trail. I’m a snoop, an untrusting paranoiac, a stalker, an… an abuser! Am I an abuser? I don’t know. I don’t want to be, but what else is trying to observe and maybe control your spouse’s private movements but the act of some manipulative, possessive, emotionally abusive control freak?

I don’t want to be an abuser. I want our relationship to be healthy. But even more, I want Shiny to be safe and healthy. So I shut down the part of me that’s overflowing with regret and self-loathing, and continue to walk quietly, invisibly, after Shining Armor.

At last, my husband comes to a door that should lead to… I think it was some closet or something. I’m not completely sure – it’s not like the princess gets much time to explore the more mundane spaces of her castle, and we’ve remodeled more than once. He opens it, and I catch a glimpse of purple light spilling out.

My heart almost stops. Somepony’s casting a spell in there. And Shining is going in. My thoughts immediately jump to that night in the garden twenty years ago, and the weeks leading up to our wedding before that. Is somepony casting a spell on my Shiny? Is that what’s going on? My mind dredges up memories of seeing my poor husband standing beside Queen Chrysalis, being brainwashed into believing her to be me. Yes, my rational mind reminds me that Chrysalis is confirmed dead, perished from the immense fall (I don’t regret that any more than I do killing Sombra), and the changelings are supposed to be extinct, but… I can’t help it.

I have to know that my Shining is safe. With a silent spell, I vanish from the spot and reappear on the other side of the doorway, now shut again. I release a breath I didn’t realize that I was holding when I see the room’s other occupant. Twilight. Twilight Sparkle is here. Why didn’t anypony tell me? I would have loved to see her again, and we could have done all sorts of fun things together and-

My eyes wander to the table in front of my sister-in-law. My heart skips a beat. There’s a skeleton laid out on a fine oak table, illuminated an eerie purple by Twilight’s magic. Whose is it? Oh gods… please don’t tell me that is what I think it is.

I watch my husband rouse his sister from her concentration, resisting the urge to giggle at her jumpiness. I listen carefully as they talk about what’s going on, and more and more my guess seems to be getting confirmed. Gods, please… don’t be who I think this is… Shiny… please… please… tell me you’ve left well enough alone… please…

In spite of everything, I’m still shocked when I hear my sister-in-law name the remains on the table.

“WHAT?!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

Immediately, the siblings Sparkle turn their heads to stare at where I stand with shocked expressions on their faces. I don’t even bother trying to hide anymore, releasing my cloaking spell as raw panic consumes me. Twilight’s eyes could be mistaken for dinner plates, while Shining’s jaw hangs limp.

“…Cady?” he eventually manages, expressions of fear and guilt warring for control of that handsome face of his.

I’m not listening. My mind is going through a meltdown from the sheer terror I’m feeling right at this very moment. Oh gods… if Shining and Twilight continue this… and they find out what happened… and who was responsible…

It would be even worse than I feared. I’ll lose the two ponies that matter more to me than anything else in the world. The sweet little filly I foalsat and watch grow into a wonderful and accomplished mare along with the stallion I love like no other. Celestia would kill them both, I know it. If she was willing to kill Shining to prevent a theoretical future danger… then why would she hold back against both of them if they presented a clear and present one?

I don’t know what to do. My mind is drawing a complete blank. Then, without warning, an idea pops into my head, and I seize on it like a drowning pony clinging to driftwood. I don’t take time to evaluate, to consider. I just do what seems like the only way to protect these two stupid, stubborn ponies.

My horn lights up, and before either of them can so much as make a move, blue magic bursts out and lances into the skeletal figure. In an instant, bones become so much dust and ash scattered about the room. The table beneath it explodes, showering the room with splinters that bounce off alicorn hide and rock-hard crystal.

My two favorite siblings in the whole wide world stare at me in slack-jawed stupefaction, neither seemingly able to come up with anything at all to say.

I breathe heavily while my initial panic resides, giving way to apocalyptic levels of anger. At Twilight Sparkle in part, but mostly at Shining Armor. How dare he endanger himself like this?! Doesn’t he know how much his life means to me?! How dare he violate his promise to me?! How could he rope his own little sister into helping him betray me? Why is my stupid… pigheaded… stubborn... mule of a husband doing this to me?!

My feathers start to ruffle in my wings, while my legs quiver and my tail twitches. “How long?” I demand, through gritted teeth, my breathing speeding up again.

“Cadence?” Shining Armor looks confused and worried. Is he really that bucking dense?!

“How long have you been doing this?” I snarl out, advancing a few steps towards my husband. “How long have you been violating your promise to me?”

“I… I…” Shining Armor’s ears fold back, and he puts a single hoof backwards.

“How long?” I repeat, not giving him a chance to come up with another lie.

He hangs his head. “T-the whole… the w-whole time.”

He’s been putting himself in danger… going behind my back… for twenty years?!

I don’t think I’ve ever felt the temptation to hurt Shining before, but I suppose that there’s a first time for everything.

I take a few more steps forward. I’m almost on top of my husband now. “You blind. Bloody. Fool!” I shriek at him. “Did you ever consider that there was a reason I asked you to stop?! Did you ever wonder if I knew what I was doing?! Did you ever wonder if I was trying to protect you?!”

“Protect me?” he looks up, meeting my gaze but not wilting under it as most ponies would. He still looks guilty, but now puzzled as well. “Protect me from what?”

“I…” I trail off, the memories of what became of Rose Quartz when she betrayed her vow flashing through my mind. A drooling, incoherent vegetable that knew little and didn’t even resist her own execution. My overstressed mind can’t come up with a plausible explanation, so I resort to the truth. “I can’t say.”

He frowns. “Can’t, or won’t?”

I hesitate, fearful of what could happen but unable to see an immediate way out. “… None of your business!” I finally manage.

His frown deepens. “You’re my wife! Of course it’s my business!” His expression softens, and he walks directly up to me to lay a gentle hoof on my shoulder. “Cadence, you know what’s going on, don’t you?”

I don’t say anything.

“Tell me, please,” he continues. “I want to help. I want to make you feel better. Just tell me what’s going on, and we’ll face it together.”

I just melt under those honest, caring eyes of his. Even in crystal instead of flesh, they’ve lost none of that strangely innocent charm he had in life. At the moment, I want nothing more than to break down and confess everything to him. But I can’t do that. All I can do is cry a moment, while Shining hugs me tight.

“I-I’m s-s-sorry,” I squeak when I find my voice again. “But n-no. I won’t d-do it.”

“Why?” Shining asks. “Why won’t you trust me?”

“I do t-trust you,” I reply. “More than a-anypony else.”

“Which is why you followed me, right?” he says, his tone slightly hurt.

That stings. Dear gods, that stings. My conscience was already killing me over that, but to hear it from his lips…

“N-no,” I answer. “I followed you because I want to protect you, Shiny. The last time you wandered off… I came so close to losing you… I was so scared.”

His expression softens, and he hugs me again.

“Shining,” I manage, once we’ve released each other. “Please, please, please, drop this. I beg of you. If you love me, please don’t torture me by endangering yourself so.”

“But what’s so dangerous?” he looks a little frustrated now. “Cadence, you’re hurting. I can’t just let you stay this way forever. Please, tell me what’s the matter, so I can protect you.”

“I won’t do it,” I declare in a tone of finality. “I won’t permit you to risk yourself like this! Not for me!”

“Permit me?” his eyes narrow. “Since when do I need others’ approval to do my job? Are you my wife or are you my mother?”

Some part of me knows that I’ve hurt his pride now, and that that’s a very touchy subject for him. The rest of me is fed up with this bull-headed fool of a love-struck stallion.

“I am your princess and supreme ruler of the Crystal Empire.” I draw myself up to my full height, towering above my husband. “And as such I order you to stop this foolishness at once!”

“As your prince and your husband,” Shining also stands tall and proud, looking me directly in the eyes without flinching. “I refuse to carry out that order. I will not allow you to hurt when I can do something about it.”

“Guys…” Twilight tries feebly to interject, only to be stared back into meek silence by both Shining and I.

“You can’t!” I half-scream at him. “Don’t you get it, you thick-headed numbskull? You can’t help me here!”

He grits his teeth. “I am Royal Guard, and I will protect my princess until the day I die.”

I want to slap this idiot. “I don’t need protection, you twit! You are the one who needs to be protected!”

“And why is that?” he demands, so utterly blind and oblivious.

My temper breaks. “Because I am a goddess and you’re just a fragile little mortal!” I scream directly into his face.

Shining’s angry face vanishes in an instant, replaced with naked shock. Then he… deflates would be the best world for it. His ears droop, his eyes halfway shut, and he hangs his head before me in a posture of meek submission. What I just said finally penetrates my thick skull, and I clamp both hooves over my mouth in horror.

Oh gods… what have I done?

“Shining,” I finally manage after a long silence, tears in my eyes. “I-I’m sorry… I’m s-so sorry… Please…” I reach with a hoof to put it on his shoulder. “I d-didn’t m-mean it… Please… I-”

He bats the hoof off of himself with a gentle nudge of his own foreleg.

“No,” he says, his voice low and soft. “You were right, Cadence. You two,” he gestures at his sister and I. “Are goddesses walking the earth. And I?” He hangs his head even lower. “I’m nothing. A failure. A disgrace. Only meaningful at all because Cadence chooses to make me.”

I can only stare in naked horror at the damage I’ve done with just a few words.

Twilight tries to wrap her brother in an embrace, but he shrugs it off.

“Please,” he says. “Twily, Cady. Please… just leave me alone for a little while. I need some time… to myself. I promise I won’t… won’t…” he looks up, and I can tell there would be tears in his eyes, had he the ability to make them. “Won’t hurt myself… I’ll still be here, for both of you.”

“Shiny…” Twilight is openly crying now, tears dripping down her lavender cheeks.

“Please, your highness,” he repeats, looking meekly up at me. “May I be permitted some time alone?”

I can’t find any words, so I just nod through blurry eyes and step out of his way.

Shining Armor slowly exits the door and leaves the ruined storage room behind. A few seconds later, the room’s other alicorn makes her own way out, stopping just before the exit to look back at me with teary eyes for a few seconds, and then she too is gone. I’m alone.

I can only stare dumbly after them.

“RAAARGH!!!” I smash a table full of carefully-brewed potions to splinters and glass and spilled multicolored liquid with one blow of my hoof. I don’t care, picking up the debris with magic and throwing them into a nearby bookshelf. It topples, destroying dozens of valuable books and months of research notes.

“Useless junk!” I scream as I rampage through my own laboratory. “All of it! Useless! Worthless! JUNK!”

I lift a dozen different tables covered in everything from chemistry sets to cell samples to alchemy textbooks from the Lost Continent. At my unspoken command, they’re crushed to so much compressed rubble, as if by the claw of an invisible dragon. It’s still not enough. I toss the rubble indiscriminately, destroying tens of thousands of bits worth of equipment and books without giving the slightest of bucks.

This equipment failed me. This equipment failed Shining. And now, coupled with my insensitive stupidity, it may well have broken the stallion beyond anypony’s power to repair. It deserves to be punished. I deserve to be punished. But there’s nopony to punish me, besides my own conscience. To the thing’s credit, it’s doing an awfully good job of that.

I flop backwards onto the ruins of a bookshelf, my alicorn body easily ignoring the sharp splinters of wood that fruitlessly try to pierce my skin. I wish they would, though. I wish somepony would come down here and make me suffer for what I’ve done. But nopony does, and I’m left to cry my heart out on top of ruined furniture.

Time passes. I’m not sure how much, and I don’t care. I’ve ruined everything, perhaps destroyed the pony who I want to be with eternally more than other. What do a few hours matter in comparison to that?

I can’t see much through the tears that pour endlessly from my eyes. Not that there’s much to see – just a half-wrecked laboratory in an underground cave. And… I think I may see some grey smoke. Did I set something on fire in here? I don't remember doing that.

Then, finally, sounds beyond those made by my sobs echo through the cavern. A voice. A familiar voice.

“Hello again.”

Author's Notes:

Guess who.

Deal

At first, I trudge around the palace rather aimlessly, not sure of where to go. Our room is of course an option, but that’s where Cadence might go. I’m not ready to face her again right now.

I’m ashamed. I’m ashamed that I’m such an unworthy husband for Cadence. Rose Quartz may have been trying to kill me, but she was right when she said that I wasn’t good enough for the alicorn of love. How could I be? She’s an ageless beauty with tremendous power and matchless grace. I’m a dead stallion living a hollow mockery of life. Protecting others is my special talent and my life, but how can I protect somepony who’s greater than me in every way that counts? How could I presume so much as to think I could shield her against something potent enough to make her sweat? I would be brushed aside like dirt. Again.

I’m ashamed that I’ve been hogging the Crystal Empire’s princess to myself. She’s a tremendous gift to anypony around her, and all those in the empire love her. She spreads happiness wherever she goes. And yet, she has to stoop low to take care of obsolete, worthless me because she’s too kind and loving to ever let me rot and find somepony better able to make her safe and happy. I should never have proposed marriage. Everypony would have been better off if I had been her servant instead of spouse.

Odd as it may seem, I’m also ashamed of being ashamed. Some part of me knows that I’m just indulging in a pointless, whiny self-pity session. A lot of stallions would thank their lucky stars to trade places with me for one day, and here I am letting myself get broken by hooful of words. Even if I am not up to protecting Cadence as she deserves, she should get my best at all times, and this is certainly not me at my best. I’m sure that my bitching is hurting her, which only makes me feel worse about myself.

Eventually, I find that my hooves are taking me back up the castle floors, towards our chambers. I have no idea why, but frankly I do not give a buck at the moment. I let my unconscious self lead me, and soon enough I’m out on the enormous moonlit balcony outside our chamber. I’m sitting on a couch under the gazebo, though I don’t remember getting on it. I stare out at moon and stars and the Imperial City below, just thinking. The temptation to just throw myself off the edge and end it all is strong… but no, I promised I wouldn’t hurt myself. That promise, at least, I can keep.

I’m not sure how much time passes, but eventually there comes the sound of a voice from near the doorway.

“Shiny?” it says in a soft, almost mousy tone.

I turn my head to look at my visitor. It’s Twily – no, Princess Twilight Sparkle. She and her kind deserve better than childish nicknames.

“Princess Sparkle,” I bow my head to the living goddess stepping out onto the balcony.

She blinks and her mouth opens slightly. Then it closes, and her eyes look moist. “S-Shiny, what are you doing? It’s me, Twily. Your little sister best friend forever, remember? You don’t have to bow to me.”

“You deserve it, your highness,” I keep my head low. “You’re a hero of Equestria, several-time savior of the nation, pioneer of magic, and an all-around wonderful mare. You deserve to be royalty. You deserve immortality. Me?” I point a hoof at myself. “All I ever accomplished was marrying far above my station. I’m nothing.”

“Shining Armor, look at me,” my sister’s voice now seems more commanding. I meet her eyes, and they’re firm despite the small trickle of tears coming from them. “You are not nothing, you hear me?”

I snort derisively. “I couldn’t stop Nightmare Moon, couldn’t do anything against Discord, couldn’t even tell that my own bride had been kidnapped and replaced, fought Sombra and lost, and fought Tirek and lost. You, your friends, and Cadence had to bail me out of every one of those situations. How can I claim to be a prince, a husband, or even a stallion when I’m too fragile, too weak, too… mortal to protect anypony from anything?”

“I didn’t do any of that alone. I had my friends. I had the princesses.” My little sister takes a few more steps forward and puts a long lavender wing over my shoulders. “And I had my first friend and the brave colt I always admired: my big brother.”

“You shouldn’t admire me,” I answer her. “I’m a failure. Too weak to do anything useful, too stupid to accomplish the most basic of royal tasks, too worthless to cause anything but pain to the ponies I love.” I hang my head again.

“Shiny, look at me. Please.”

“Yes, your ma-”

She cuts me off with a hoof over my mouth. “And none of that servile nonsense. You’re my big brother and I’m your little sister, and nothing will ever change that. To you, I’m “Twily” or “Twilight”, not “Princess” or “your majesty”. You got that?”

I nod, and she removes her hoof from my face.

“Good,” she sighs, taking a moment to gather herself and wiping away some of the tears staining her face with her other wing. “Now, you are not weak, you are not stupid, and you are not worthless! You’re loved, Shiny. Cadence and I, Celestia and Luna… we all love you. You’re family. Where in the world did you get such utter horseapples in your head from?!"

I’m a little surprised at my bookish sister’s use of profanity, but I resist the brotherly urge to give her a cheeky scolding. I have no right to do that to a goddess.

Instead, I answer her question. “Observation. You’re strong, I’m weak. You saved the world, I got crushed. You’re ageless, I’m an insignificant mayfly in a false body.”

Princess Twilight’s gaze hardens. “So, you think that because alicorns have more magic than you, are stronger than you, you’re worthless to us?”

“Yes,” I respond, hanging my head again.

“You know who else thought that power was everything and friendship meant nothing? Lord Tirek.”

I start to protest the comparison. “I’m not-”

The alicorn princess cuts me off again. “You know who else thought that the strength of love between two ponies was a “ridiculous sentiment”? Queen Chrysalis.”

This is absurd. “But-”

“Do you think your wife has terrible judgment?”

I shake my head vigorously. “Of course not! But what does that have to do with-”

“So if Cadence has good judgment, of all the countless thousands of stallions she could have had, why do you think she picked you?”

“I… don’t know,” I admit.

“I had a husband once, if you recall. Flash Sentry, a pegasus. As an alicorn, I had an earth pony’s strength, while he didn’t. In the air, I could outfly him any day of the week. Heck, he didn’t even have a horn - couldn’t do the smallest piece of magic. By your logic, do you think he was worthless to me?”

“No way! Anypony could see that you two cared for each other!”

“So why would you think that being weaker than Cadence makes you worthless to her?”

“It… does!” I declare, feelings of shame warring with Twilight’s words.

My sister just shakes her head and smiles sadly, wrapping my unresisting form in a hug.

“Hello again.”

Those words echo throughout the cave. The voice that made them is strong. Deep. Masculine. And far more familiar than I would like.

I look up from where I lay sobbing, tear-blurred eyes searching the room around me for the pony I despise and yet feel indebted to. I locate him without difficulty. Before me once again stands the misty, grey form of King Sombra. He’s wearing the form of the handsome stallion rather than that of the warped tyrant, but he elicits a shudder from me all the same. I remember well what this pony did to the poor crystal ponies.

“Y-You,” I manage, after a few seconds of staring.

“Me,” he says, flatly.

I wipe the tears from my eyes with my soft wings. I can’t look weak in front of a spirit like this. No telling what he might try.

“I suppose I should thank you,” I say, after a few calming breaths.

“Thank me?” he says, cocking his head slightly.

I nod. “For telling me about Shining. All those years ago. If you hadn’t…” I trail off, fighting back against a fresh welling up of tears at the horrible thought of having been too late, of finding naught but my dead beloved. I sniff and wipe my eyes again.

There’s a period of awkward silence, as Sombra walks slowly throughout my ruined laboratory, passing through solid objects as only a spirit can. I watch him carefully, trying to judge his reactions. His face is flat, and remains that way as he walks past smashed furniture, torn books, chemical spills, and even half-formed pegasus organs.

It is only when he come within sight of the case containing the alicorn skeleton that he shows any sign of emotion. His eyes go wide, and then he hangs his head. He whispers to himself, probably thinking I can’t hear.

“Elysie… It has been so long… and I regret so much…”

“Elysie?” I ask, my curiosity overcoming the extremely limited respect I have for his privacy. “Did you know her?”

He actually starts slightly when I speak up, but quickly gathers composure. “Yes, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, I knew Princess Elysium rather well. Intimately, you might even say.”

My jaw drops when I process what he just claimed. “You…” I look at the remains of my murdered predecessor. “And she…” I shake my head. “I don’t believe you. You’re lying.”

“Am I? Why would I do that, in your line of reasoning?”

“To try and make me sympathize with you! I’m the alicorn of love, so you’re trying to make yourself seem like less of a monster by saying that you were once lovers with an alicorn princess and thereby implicitly comparing yourself to Shining Armor!” I declare, feeling proud to have seen through the ghost’s trick.

He raises a smoky eyebrow. “Indeed?” Sombra sighs and walks back towards me. “I do not expect you to believe that I am anything but a villain, your highness. You have read more than enough of my works to know the truth of that.”

“I have,” I confirm. “You murdered prisoners for experiments. You drank the blood of foals.”

He nods. “I did.”

“You murdered Princess Elysium, the very pony you claimed to have been intimate with, in cold blood to steal her power and throne!” I point accusingly at him.

“Guilty as charged, princess,” he says with bowed head and a look of remorse on his face.

“So why on earth would I believe anything you say now?”

“Why did you believe me twenty years ago?”

I freeze. All is silence for some moments, until I work up an answer. “For Shining,” I eventually manage.

The spirit nods. “So,” he continues, slowly, “you require aid. What is it you seek?”

“Help? From you?!” I blink. “I don’t want your help! I want your foul spirit exorcised from the Crystal Empire for good!”

“Then why did you not do so? You have had many years to learn a spell to banish the dead, or to find somepony capable of doing so for you. You might have called on the power of your Crystal Heart against me as you did once before. Yet you have done nothing of the sort.”

“I… I…” I stutter. Why didn’t I? I surely could have found some way to expel him from the empire forever if I had given the task my all, but I haven’t. Why not? I surely can’t have… can’t have wanted him to remain here.

Can I?

Nopony speaks for several minutes. I sob softly as the truth of the matter slowly dawns on me. I’m truly the worst pony alive, I think.

“I d-didn’t,” I at last confess, “b-because of S-Shining. Celestia… would have k-killed him… if n-not for y-you… and… a-and…” I stop to cry at the true depths of my hideous selfishness. How could I be so negligent a ruler? How?!

Sombra nods at me. It stings my conscience, badly.

“Well then,” the ghost speaks up. “Now that you have admitted to yourself what it is that you have done, perhaps you might tell me what it is you need?”

“It’s… It’s…” I still can’t manage anything between my terror for Shining and the crushing weight of guilt on me.

“It is your husband.”

I nod. “I h-hurt him… and C-Celestia… Celestia will k-kill him… if I d-don’t deliver…” I sniff and sob again. “And I don’t know! Don’t know what to do! I’ve tried everything I can think of, but nothing works! I can’t live… I can’t live without him!” I weep still more, shame at my pathetic weakness adding to my general feelings of despair. “Please!” I beg the ghost. “Please! You wrote…” I gesture towards ruined binders full of the slain tyrant’s notes. “All this! You must know something! You have to tell me! Please!”

Sombra looks… uneasy? He hesitates before answering. “There is… I am not certain if…”

“Tell me!” I shout at the spirit.

“I do not know…”

“TELL ME!!!” I roar in the Royal Canterlot Voice, the sheer volume rattling the cavern and shaking a shower of dust and pebbles from the ceiling.

“As you wish, princess,” he sighs wearily, with a slight bow. “There is a way, by which those who are dead can live again.”

“What is it?! Tell me!” I implore the king’s ghost.

“If I am to give you this…” he pauses, and there’s a flicker of… something in his emerald eyes. “This time, I wish for something in return. Nothing too extreme,” he adds quickly, shaking his ethereal head to try to dispel the notion. “Not your kingdom, or your soul, or…” Sombra gives a knowing look. “Your firstborn.”

My chest tightens at that. Even if I have Shiny back… I’ve already sold my own future children to a monster just to preserve him. What could this dead stallion want of me that I wouldn’t willingly part with to be a proper husband and wife again?

“A small personal favor, really,” he goes on.

I narrow my eyes. I don’t believe him… but I need what he knows.

“Name your price.”

Sombra smiles.

Author's Notes:

In the words of Rainbow Dash:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhMvKv4GX5U

Morning After

The rest of the night passes all too quickly to me. Princes Twilight and- no, Twily and I spend several hours out alone on the balcony. It’s rather embarrassing to have to be bailed out by my little sister again, but I’ll admit that it also feels nice to be reassured of my value to the ponies I love. We don’t talk too much, but that’s fine – she’s said all that needs to be said, and her presence reminds me of the truth of the matter: I’m Shining Armor, Prince of the Crystal Empire, and even my alicorn family needs me.

Eventually, Twily and I start to play rather foalish games. I know, I know, it’s not exactly politic to have a pillow fight with your sibling on the upper balcony of the Imperial Palace. There’s no doubt that at least some patrolling pegasi can see us. But, buck it, I don’t care. Tackling Twily to the ground and exploiting my knowledge of her sensitive spots to tickle her silly seems even less appropriate, but the reaction from her… the sheer guile-less, innocent, foal-like adoration shining in her eyes… that makes me feel really good.

Like with most things, our time together comes to an end all too soon. One minute I’ve engaged my LSBFF in a rousing round of couch fort, the next a letter magically appears over her head. It bears the seal of Princess Celestia, so unsurprisingly Twilight doesn’t waste any time opening it up and reading through the message. By the end, she looks both nervous and sad. I recognize my sister’s “bad news” expression, and urge her to go ahead.

I don’t remember the exact details, but she tells me that apparently Celestia needs her. Something to do with the negotiations the solar princess is presiding over. She looks reluctant, but I remind her that Celestia wouldn’t call her so abruptly if it weren’t vital, so she should go to her old mentor. It’s pretty clear that Twily doesn’t want to leave Cadence and I, so I tell her that if lives are at stake and that it’s too important to waste her time here. It takes a little bit of brotherly charm, but I convince her that I can handle myself and my wife for a bit longer. When you’ve lived as long as I have, you learn a bit of patience.

In the end, my LSBFF promises to return as soon as she can, and to keep helping me, even if we have to start from scratch. I wind up lending her one of our chariots – I’m sure Cadence won’t mind – and bidding her a fond farewell. With any luck, she’ll be back soon.

The balcony is thoroughly messed up by now, and the air is cold, but I can’t think of a better place to lay my head for whatever remains of the night. Cadence… you have the bed for tonight. We can talk in the morning.

But, when morning comes, and Celestia’s fiery orb again graces our skies, I’m awoken from my impromptu sleeping position not by my beautiful alicorn wife, but by a frantic-looking pegasus in the uniform of the Crystal Guard. Private Steady Hoof his name is, if I recall correctly.

“Oh, thank the gods you’re alright, sir,” Steady says as I stir from the sofa. “We weren’t sure, what with…” he trails off, still looking anxious.

“What with what?” I ask almost immediately, the transition from sleep to wakefulness made easier by lack of biological inertia. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s Princess Cadence, sir,” he answers. “She’s…”

I’m on my hooves in a split second. “She’s what?!” I demand, perhaps more roughly than I should, grabbing my unfortunate subordinate by the neck and shaking him. “What’s going on?!”

My mind is already counting dozens of nightmare scenarios. Has she been kidnapped? Has she been hurt? Did somepony attack her? Was it an internal foe? The blackmailer, maybe? The work of some other nation? Is she in the hospital? Gods… is she dead?! What the buck has happened to my wife?!

The private looks like he wishes for all the world that he knew how to teleport right now. In a shaky voice, he replies, “S-She’s m-m-missing… my p-p-prince… can’t f-find her… a-anywhere…”

“WHAT?!” I let him go, reeling in shock. How could this have happened?! Here, in one of the safest places in one of the safest nations on the planet…

No. No. NO! Not again! Please, please let this have been my insensitivity and ingratitude that drove her to hide! For the love of all the gods, don’t let her have been abducted again! Or hurt… or… or….

My discipline reasserts itself. “Assemble our officers,” I harshly command him. “All of them. Now.”

Private Steady Hoof nods with an undue amount of eagerness. With a salute, he hurries off to do my will.

Cadence… Please, be alright.

Eighteen hours. For eighteen long, panic-stricken hours, my wife is nowhere to be found. I mobilize the entirety of the Crystal Guard, order a near-total lockdown of the Imperial City, and alert every border guard we have to be on high alert and inspect all outgoing shipping, but nothing seems to help.

I don’t want to cause a mass panic or a riot, so I give instructions not to go public about what’s happened. Still, it isn’t exactly hard to guess something resembling the truth. The princess doesn’t show up to her court or to the meeting of the Grand Council, the prince is either running about or locked in his office, and the guard goes into a frenzy of activity and starts inspecting anypony deemed even vaguely suspicious? Yeah, not exactly hard to speculate what might have happened. Naturally, rumors start flying like a parasprite swarm. It’s disappointing but not exactly surprising to learn that some of them feature me as the power-hungry perpetrator of Cadence’s disappearance. Insults can be dealt with in time.

As the hours tick by, more and more possibilities occur to me, each more horrible than the last. Is she being tortured? Is she imprisoned somewhere? Has she been banished to a celestial body? Will there be another creepy bug queen imposter coming soon to take over her role? I don’t know, and for once I’m thankful that I don’t have a organs, because otherwise I think I might have given myself a heart attack. Cadence is one of the only things I have left. If I lost her… I don’t think I could take it.

I’m presently pacing rather franticly up and down my office floor with nopony but two guards for company, waiting for anything new to work with and debating what to do next. I don’t want to set off an international pony-hunt for nothing if this turns out to have been merely the result of my idiotic refusal to accept her apology last night. But still, the light of day has come and gone, and my wife, who never does things like this, is still nowhere in sight. I wonder if I should be contacting the other three princesses. Maybe they would know something. But… that would mean admitting failure. Confessing that I can achieve nothing without the aid of the alicorns. Again.

Not yet, I decide. Not yet.

If this takes too much longer I may have no choice. More anxiety fills me. Am I being stupid? Should I call my alicorn relations now, before anything else happens? Should I have done so hours ago? I don’t know… Aaaargh…

I pull on my own mane, more for habit than any feeling. Focus Shining, focus. This is no time for running around in circles like some headless chicken. I just need to-

“SHINY!”

I think you can imagine my surprise when there’s a brilliant flash of blue and Cadence, the object of so much worry, appears in front of me. She’s filthy, covered in dust and soot and wearing dozens of multicolored stains on her rosy coat. Even her flowing main and tail aren’t free of the grime and grit coating her. But in spite of that, she’s wearing one of the biggest grins I’ve ever seen across her muzzle, and her eyes are sparkling.

I take a step back, my mouth hanging open limply. I don’t know what to say, which doesn’t matter anyway because words won’t come out. Dammit Shining Armor, can’t you keep yourself together for ten seconds in front of your wife? It’s just like when we started dating, I never could manage a whole trip without doing something stupid or awkward or-

One of my guards recovers before I do. Great, upstaged again, this time by a random grunt. “Princess?” he asks, hesitatingly at first, but he quickly grows a bit bolder, rushing to her side. “Your majesty? Are you alright? What’s happened?”

She doesn’t even bother to look at him. “Yes yes, I’m quite fine,” she says with a wave of her hoof. “You can stop doing whatever it is you were doing to look for me. Now, please give us some private time.”

The two stallions look confusedly at each other. “Your highness, you’ve had everypony on high alert looking for you. Are you hurt? Is there anything- Whoa!”

Again, the alicorn won’t so much as glance at him. “Don’t care. Perfectly alright. Alone time. Now.” And with that my two guards are lifted off their hooves and unceremoniously tossed out the door, which seals itself shut behind them.

“Cadence,” I finally manage. Took me bloody long enough. “What’s going on h-”

I too am picked up in her aura in mid-sentence, but instead of tossing me out she yanks me right into an enormous hug. She locks her lips over mine, then showers my face with kisses and twirls us in circles like a ballet dancer.

“Cady, what- mmph!” I try again, only to be silenced by yet another lip lock.

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA!” she’s laughing in slightly maniacal manner that I confess to finding unnerving.

While she continues to twirl our intertwining forms about, I cast a small spell. It’s a little something Twily and I came up with after the wedding disaster: a magic that reaches past the outer shell of being to look into its genetic code and identify it. A modification of a spell we already used in the guard way back then to identify murder victims, this one is just meant to tell the species of an individual. Cadence was replaced once before, and just in case…

The spell rings out in my head. Alicorn, it tells me.

So this is my actual wife, then. That’s a relief.

“Cadence, I really need to-”

Aaaaand she shuts me up again with another kiss.

Ok, this is getting a little out of hoof. I like being kissed, and I like being loved, but I don’t like being carried about like some foal. And I definitely do not like working myself into a panic because I thought my wife had been hurt. I never enjoy going against her, but we need to talk, now.

I disappear from her hooves in a burst of pink, and then reappear a few feet away with a stern expression on my face. Cadence adjusts to face me again. I hold up a hoof in a manner reminiscent of a school teacher before she can yank me back into her wild dance.

“Cadence,” I state, calmly but firmly. “We need to talk.”

“I…” the enormous smile on her faces fades slightly, and she breathes in and out a few times. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I was just… mmmm… so excited!” She actually dances on the spot at that, and for a moment I fear she’ll grab me again, but the moment passes and she regains her control of herself.

“About what?!” I really hate to do this. It kills me to be harsh with a pony I love, but sometimes love requires a bit of toughness. So I stallion up and get to it. “Cadence, you just up and vanished! Do you have any idea how worried we all were?! Thousands of ponies were searching the Crystal Empire high and low for you! We had no idea what had happened, where you were, or whether you were even still alive!” I rant at my wife, whose beautiful smile is almost entirely gone. “You’re an alicorn princess! You have responsibilities! You can’t just up and disappear without notice like that! Your ponies need you too much!”

Cadence hangs her head and meekly accepts my scolding. It makes me feel like I’m kicking a puppy. Did I go too far? Was I too harsh? Will she leave me?! Oh gods please don’t let me drive her away!

“I’m sorry…” she says, head low and eyes to the floor. “I didn’t mean to worry anypony, I just… I just…” Suddenly, she explodes into motion again, grabbing me and holding me close. She nuzzles me, and then looks into my eyes with tears in hers and a smile on her face. “I’ve finally done it, Shining! I’m finally finished! Ha ha!” The alicorn kisses me again. “I love you so much.” She hugs me tight yet again.

I, now very puzzled, opt to hug her back. At least I haven’t driven her away.

After a moment, my brain churns out a response. “You’ve done what, Cadence? What’s this all about?”

I genuinely have no idea why my wife is acting so oddly, but I’m sure she’ll be happy to explain it to me.

Her eyes get even brighter, to the point where I could swear they’re actually glowing, and she smiles again. “Why tell you… when I can show you?” Her horn begins to light up.

I pull back slightly. “Cadence, you’re starting to scare me. What's going-”

And then we vanish.

Rebirth

We reappear within a dark, enclosed space. There’s almost no light wherever we are, beyond the faint, flickering glow of a hooful of torch crystals that look as though they’ve neglected for a long time, or damaged somehow. But one benefit of my condition is that lack of light is little barrier to my vision, and I take a good look at our surroundings.

I realize almost immediately that Cadence and I are in a cavern of some kind. The cave has a high, rocky ceiling, and a wide expanse of open space between the walls – larger than most houses I’ve ever seen. But what really catches the eye is the scattering of debris throughout the place. I’ll be honest: it looks as though a hurricane has been through here, and recently too, judging by the lack of evident dust or decay. There are bits and pieces of furniture scattered hither and yon without apparent order or purpose. A table leg here, part of a bookshelf there, a liberal sprinkling of broken glass, odd-looking stains, crystal fragments, torn pieces of paper… this place is a wreck.

My wife has, by this point, released me from her grip, and is looking at me with an enormous grin of giddy anticipation. I do my best to ask the question without saying anything. Namely, “what the hell is this and why are we here?”

Cadence seems to read me well enough. “This place is a laboratory. My laboratory.”

I look around again. This ruin is where Cadence has been? “It looks…” How does one tell one’s mare that’s she looking crazier by the second?

“Oh, the mess,” she waves a hoof dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. I did that. Sorry that I didn’t clean up, but I was just so eager to get on with it.”

My sweet, gentle-hearted wife rampaged through this place like a force of nature? What got her so angry? Has her stress taken more of a toll than I thought? Does this place have anything to do with it?

“Get on with what?” I ask again, focusing my attentions back on the rosy alicorn princess behind me. “Cadence, will you please just tell me what is going on here?”

She smiles and giggles. “Like I said, why tell you when I can show you? Just follow me and get ready for a big surprise!” She walks past me, teasingly stroking my back with one of her grime-covered wings as she does. “This way!” she beckons cheerfully.

I admit I’m a little wary, but my spell confirmed that this is indeed Cady, and I trust my wife. Even if she has been acting a bit strangely. For her to be so pepped up, something good must have happened down here, and I’m guessing that it involves me somehow. Maybe she’s found a way to let me feel again…

No, bad Shining Armor! Quite reminiscing about things you won’t have again and setting yourself up for disappointment.

Cadence steps cheerfully through the debris, humming a little tune and seemingly not at all worried about getting hurt by the broken glass or the like. Now that I look, I observe that her shoes and most of her other regalia are missing. But, as I’ve learned to expect, ordinary sharp objects stand no more chance of piercing her alicorn hide than they do of cutting my crystalline hooves. She crushes debris under her hooves without comment or seeming care in world, leading towards the rear of the cavern. We pass by numerous wrecked pieces of furniture and what look to be alchemy equipment, though I note a curiously intact, but empty, glass display case.

At last, she points to a piece of furniture near the corner. A long table of what looks like redwood, it is one of the only things left reasonably intact in this place. Atop it is a long grey blanket, covering something lumpy… and irregular…

I feel as though I’ve seen similar things before, in the guard. Is that… please, gods, tell me that my wife hasn’t gone insane and killed somepony. Tell me that I’m not looking at a body. I don’t know what I would do, who I would side with, and that lack of knowledge scares me.

“Well, go on,” Cadence says, looking positively jittery on her hooves with barely-constrained excitement. “Take a look.”

Slowly, reluctantly, I inch towards the table. As I come closer, I notice not far to the side a cauldron of classical design, showing some signs of recent use, and covered in odd stains of many colors. When I’m a few feet from the long furniture, my eyes pick up the telltale rhythmic rise and fall of the blanket. My long training identifies it immediately, but my mind doesn’t want to believe it. But logic and experience tell me that no other source of motion would be that regular, that specific.

The conclusion is inevitable: somepony’s breathing under that cover.

I swallow a mouthful of air and lick my dry lips with my equally dry tongue. I don’t have a heart, but I could swear I can feel it beating faster anyway. Adrenaline also is but a memory, but the fire coursing through my limbs and chest begs to differ. Hell, I could even swear that I’m sweating.

Behind me, Cadence is looking on with a filly’s anticipation on Hearth’s Warming Eve. Her wings are twitching with agitation, and her legs are doing a little dance on the spot. I swallow again, and repress my fears. I trust my wife. If she thinks that this is a good thing, I’ll believe her, no matter what my instincts are telling me.

No point in putting it off any longer. I seize the blanket in magic, and with one sharp tug rip it off the table altogether, flinging it to the side and looking at what’s underneath.

My jaw drops. My ears fold back. My eyes become dinner plates.

Underneath that blanket is… me.

Or, I suppose I should say: me as I was as a unicorn in my prime, plus a few feet of height and appropriate adjustments to maintain my proportions. And on my side… wings. Long wings covered in pure white feathers to match the fur on my coat. I check my… I mean, the body’s head. A snow-colored horn, long and straight and sharp, protrudes from the forehead. This thing is me. As an alicorn.

“Surprise!” comes the sound of Cadence’s voice, and dirty, rosy forelegs wrap around my neck from behind. I stagger under the sudden addition of weight, but my instincts easily guide me compensate for it and right myself within seconds. She laughs and bends down to nuzzle my cheek and nibble my ear. I don’t feel it.

Well, even less than usual, I mean.

“So,” she whispers to me. “Do you like it?”

“Cadence,” I manage after a long interval. “Are you… are you…” I don’t think. I just say the first thing that comes to mind. “Are you replacing me?” My voice is hoarse with a choked-back sob.

Who am I kidding? Of course she’s replacing me. I don’t know how, but it looks like she’s finally found a worthier mate than a dead ruin of a guard captain, no matter how I… how I… feel about it. Oh gods, what is this feelin-

“WHAT?!” my wife’s terrified scream echoes throughout the cave around us, shaking loose a shower of dust from the ceiling, coating the three of us in it. Faster than blinking, Cadence is in front of my face. “Shining, look at me. Look at me!” Her hoof grasps my chin and forces it upwards, bringing my eyes up to meet her violet orbs. They’re filled with tears, flowing liberally down her cheeks. “Listen to me: no matter what happens, no matter what the future holds, come hell and high water alike, I will never replace you!” She hugs me close and rubs my back, while I hang limp, too confused and surprised to do much of anything.

After a very long time of tearful embrace, Cadence loosens her grip and looks me in the eye again. Her eyes are bloodshot and watery. “You have to believe me. Please say you believe.”

“I… believe you,” I manage, feeling rather pathetic. “But… what’s… what’s…” I flop a hoof limply towards the body on the table.

“That?” she sniffs, and smiles sadly. “Oh, Shiny… That’s not your replacement. That’s your gift! From me to you.”

“A gift?” I reply, unable to quite grasp the concept. Damn, I feel stupid.

“A new body,” she whispers, nuzzling me again. “A living, breathing body, crafted in your image, which will never expire, never sicken, never grow weak with age.” She strokes my chest with a hoof. “You’ll be able to breathe and eat and feel and… live again!” The excitement in her voice is building once more. “Think of it: we can be together again! Like it used to be! No, better! Because you won’t age, you won’t tire, and you’ll never have to endure another day of…” she grins flirtatiously. “Deprivation.”

“Cadence…” I trail off, still unsure of exactly what to say. “You made this thing?”

She nods and turns her gaze to it. “I did. For you. It was a lot of work… and it cost a lot… but…” she looks back to me. “It was worth every bit. Because now I can give it to you.”

The acquired cynicism of centuries is a powerful force, and it rears its ugly head again. What if this is a dream? What if I’ve just fallen asleep at my desk? Or what if this is some kind of cruel illusion? How could this truly be possible? It couldn’t…

Could it?

I swallow. “How could you possibly have made-”

Cadence puts a gentle hoof over my mouth. “Shhh… it’s not important right now. What’s important at this moment is that I can make you live again, Shining, if you'll let me. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want us to be like we were, all those years ago?”

“I… more than anything…”

She smiles sweetly. “Then take my gift. Take this body, my prince, and be whole again.”

I lick my lips yet again. None of this seems real to me. It all seems… too good to be true. My military instincts are telling that it must be; that there must be some kind of angle to this whole affair. There has to be a trick... or a trap... Things like this don’t just happen out of nowhere. The solution to your life’s biggest problem doesn’t suddenly fall from the sky in the hooves of a caring angel.

But this is my wife… and this doesn’t feel like a dream…

The voice speaks into my head once again. For once, it’s something more than simple discouragement.

You could be alive again.

Life. Air in my lungs. A heart in my chest. Food in my stomach. The wind on my face. My wife’s soft body beside me at night.

You could be respected.

Not looked at as a freak by ordinary ponies. Not pitied by my sister or coddled like a foal by my wife. Seen as a noble prince rather than necromantic abomination by others.

You could equal your sister.

I could finally be what Twily is. Royalty in every sense of the word. Accomplished, powerful, and respected. I could be her big brother again, rather than the hollow shell of a stallion that I’ve become.

You could be what she deserves.

I look at Cadence. She’s looking at me with pleading eyes, hoping and praying I take her offer. I imagine myself as an alicorn prince… I could finally be her equal. I could finally do my duty as a protector. I wouldn’t have to rely on her to save me. And I could finally show her as much love as she’s earned.

Now that I think about it, there really is only one answer I can give.

“I’ll do it.”

“Now, sit back and relax,” says Cadence, as I lie on the table beside the alicorn form, our heads and horns locked together with runic chains. “This should only take a few seconds of real time. But in the other plane, time is… flexible.” She shakes her head. “I don’t know how long it will seem to you.”

“Probably not long,” I say with a slight smirk. “I have a good reason to hurry back.”

My wife giggles and brushes her tail over me. I can just imagine the wonderful, silky-smooth sensation from back before it was so ethereal. What must it feel like now? I want to know. And soon, with any luck, I will.

Her face becomes serious. “Now, I’ll do all the work of providing the path, but you have to follow it. Shining,” she looks me dead in the eye. “When you’re severed from this body, you’ll feel a very strong upwards pull. You must not follow that, whatever you do. That’s your soul being called to the hereafter, and if you wander off I don’t think you’ll ever find your way back.”

I swallow nervously and nod. “Can’t you just-”

“Do what I did before?” she shakes her head. “The mechanics of soul transfer are a bit… complicated, but suffice to say that binding a soul to golem and fitting it into a living body are very different from a magical perspective. I’m not so much tying it down as gently guiding it home. Just follow the path I make for you, and you’ll be alright. Ok?”

“Ok,” I answer. Cadence shudders, and I put a hoof on her shoulder. “I’ll be fine, understand?”

She nods and wipes away a tear. “I k-know… it’s just that… the risks… even a tiny risk I’ll lose you is too much… I don’t know if I should…”

“Cadence,” I say, cupping her chin under my hoof. “You’re the bravest, most talented mare I know. I trust you completely. You do your part, and I’ll do mine.”

Cadence sniffs, and, after a pause of some length, nods. “Alright.”

I smile, close my eyes, and lay back as my wife begins her incantation.

The realm of souls… words to describe it properly do not exist in our language. I can see everything, and yet nothing. Colors foreign to the material realm dance in front of my eyes, and I know that they are flavors of magic. Then I forget it. Then learn it again. Then forget. Then learn. And so on it goes, for how long I’m not sure.

I’m floating, in a dreamlike state. Then I’m surrounded by black fog. Cadence promised me a path, but I don’t see anything. I feel a tug, where my heart used to be. It bids me to rise, to ascend beyond our insignificant planet orbiting a tiny star in an ordinary galaxy, and behold all the secrets of the universe. I look upwards, and feel myself start to drift. Up. Up. Up, I go. Stars and planets and galaxies and darkness and light and…

NO!

I grab my mind and wrench it back. I need to focus. Need to follow the path. Buck the afterlife with a fifteen foot pole.

I’m Shining Armor, and I will not abandon my princess.

I’m back in the darkness. Black fog surrounds me, drifting this way and that. I look, but there’s no road I can see. Nothing but blackness in every direction, watching… waiting…

Then the darkness coalesces. There’s a road now, green and grey and black and colors we don’t have words for. I follow it, hearing the slightest sounds of my wife’s voice resound. It gets stronger as I gallop down the trail, which twists and turns and forms itself into a maze. For what feels like centuries, I gallop this way and that, praying that I’m not lost. Then, suddenly, the maze is gone. There’s a bright green light in front of me. On instinct, I leap in.

And the realm of souls is gone. Now there is only darkness.

I gasp, panting for breath by the instincts buried deep within all living things. Air rushes in, warm and dusty and smelling quite funny and…

Wait.

Air rushes in. I just breathed in.

I have lungs.

I have a body.

I let the breath out quickly, just to make sure. Just to be sure I’m not imagining this. I feel my chest deflate, feel the air rush up my trachea, feel it exit my mouth. My mouth, which is warm and wet and full of nerves.

I can’t explain how this good the simple act of breathing in and out feels after such a long time. I might compare it to a fresh spring of water after days in the Saddle Arabian desert, but such falls woefully short of the sheer excitement I’m feeling right now. My heartbeat – I have a heart, huzzah – picks up as adrenaline floods my body in response to the emotions overwhelming me right now.

“Shining?” a soft, sweet voice whispers, almost hesitantly.

The voice in my head is gone, but this… this is hearing.

“Are you there?” it asks me, and something soft rubs itself along my neck. It’s been far too long since I’ve felt it, but I’d recognize the feel of Cadence’s muzzle anywhere.

I’ve put this off too long already. Slowly, as if arising from a deep slumber, I force my body’s eyelids open. The scene before me is not much brighter than the interior of my eyelids, but these eyes adjust more quickly than my originals ever did. One eye sees nothing but the redwood below and the end of my muzzle. But the other… I see my wife, covered in dirt and grime and stains, but beautiful nonetheless.

This is seeing.

Cadence looks directly into my eye as it opens, twin expressions of hope and fear plain to behold on her face. “Shiny?” she asks again. “Is that you? Are you in there?”

I take another breath of air. Stale and full of dust and funny smells as it is, the sensation is marvelous. From long memory and instinct, I force this body’s voice box into action. “You’d better…” I wheeze slightly, not yet used to breathing again. “Believe it,” I finish, and curl the lips back into what I hope looks like a smile.

“Oooooh,” tears roll down her rosy cheeks while her mouth forms that gorgeous smile. “Come here, you!” Cadence wastes no time in pulling me into a kiss.

If breathing again was a joy, this is… heavenly. There’s no other word sufficient to describe the feeling of my wife soft lips, even stained with dirt and something blue, on my own again. So soft. So smooth. So perfect. I kiss her back with everything I have, which I’ll admit isn’t much, but she seems to enjoy it all the same. Her flowing mane wraps itself around my face and neck once again and… gods, it feels smoother and softer than any silk I can ever recall touching when I was last alive.

It’s during this moment that another thing I’ve been missing out on for four hundred years or so comes back to me in a rush: hormones. This body has all the primal instincts of a stallion, combined with centuries of repressed longings. I’m not going to lie: the mare in front of me is gorgeous, and I want her. I want her so badly right now.

As an aside: I’d always wondered if the straightening of wings on pegasi and alicorns during moments of intense emotional activity was voluntary or an inbuilt reflex. I can now confirm from personal experience that it is the latter.

Cadence at last breaks our kiss, violet eyes still shedding tears freely. “It is you,” she says in a tone that suggests that she can’t quite believe it either. Then she notices my… ahem, expanded wings. I can feel my cheeks warming as extra blood rushes to them. Cadence chuckles with embarrassment, like the blushing bride she was during our first time. Her own rosy cheeks become even rosier, and her wings very quickly snap to attention.

Cadence takes a few steps back from the table as I roll this body off of it. I stagger a bit, not quite used to how the different build needed for flight affects my center of gravity. Blue magic catches me before I fall, and I manage to get myself onto all four hooves, though not without a little bit of stumbling. My wife chuckles, and I blush some more, but truthfully her melodious voice only makes me want her all the more.

I glance upwards by chance during my first, hesitant steps in these new hooves. There’s something near the cavern’s roof. I can’t quite make it out. Is it… grey smoke? Is something on fire? I blink, and it’s gone. Huh. It must have been my imagination, or maybe just a product of my new eyeballs. Seeing through wet, soft orbs instead of crystalline lenses is another skill I’ll have to relearn, it seems.

Then my gorgeous princess nuzzles me on the neck again, and all thoughts of anything else are washed away in a tide of hormonal desire. Cadence smiles and her wings are stretched about as far as it is physically possible for them to go. I return the smile.

I can tell that this night is going to be the best I’ve had in a long, long time.

Reactions

By the time we finally manage to teleport back to our chambers, I’m utterly exhausted, my breathing is hard, I’m dirty, sweaty, and I can barely walk. But hot damn, I can’t remember ever feeling better than I do right at this moment. How did I ever go so long without this?

Beside me, I’m quite proud to say that Shining now looks just as tired as I do, if not more so. I’m resting my head against his neck – it feels just as nice as I’d hoped to be looking up at my stallion again – and he has his head atop mine. Our wings are intertwined as we support one another, to keep our shaky legs from collapsing underneath us. Slowly but surely, we make our way across the few feet in between ourselves and our desperately-needed bed.

It’s just as we’ve managed to flop limply onto the mattress that an earth pony stallion in the armor of the Crystal Guard opens our door. Probably continuing whatever search Shiny started earlier, my brain sluggishly informs me.

His expression rapidly turns to one of shock, and he rushes to our bedside. “Your highness!” He stares down at me, concern radiating from him. “Are you alright? And…” he glances at my husband, now lying there with his eyes shut, and his ears fold back. He can’t have failed to recognize his commander – there are far too many portraits of him in life about the castle for anypony to not know what Shining looked like – but his mind doesn’t seem to want to believe what his eyes are saying.

“S alright…” I manage, fighting off the urge to just switch off like a light. “Tha’s… Shining… Armor…” My breath is heavy, and speaking is difficult, but I manage.

The guard’s nostrils flare and his face begins to rapidly redden. I realize that we must still stink of all we just got through doing. I’d be embarrassed, if I could work up the energy. We’ll just have to deal with it in the morning.

“Please…” I plead, struggling to keep my suddenly lead eyelids open. If I close them now, that’ll be it. “Give us… alone time… need… rest… explain… morning…”

The now thoroughly nervous and embarrassed guard nods and, taking the excuse offered, bolts back out the door he came from, no doubt rushing off to inform his comrades that their quest is at an end. I bet it’ll make for more than a little raunchy teasing in the barracks, but I’m too contented and sleepy to give a damn.

A pulse of magic in my brain reminds me of one last unhappy obligation I have before bed. I muster up a scrap of magic to pull open a chest of drawers near our bed and remove a personal effect. The camera floats awkwardly into what I think is a good position before snapping a picture of us both. I snatch the print that comes out and return the camera to the top of the furniture. With one last effort, I cast the spell, the print disappears, and I collapse into peaceful slumber.

I sit back against my room’s sofa and simply take a moment to enjoy my own hoofwork. The sun – my sun – slowly rising against the backdrop of the ocean is an impressive sight, and a calming one at that. I take a delicate sip from my cup of jasmine tea, taking time to savor the flavor in my mouth before swallowing. Aaaahhh… It’s quite relaxing. And, with how things are going, I need that right now.

My brow furrows as my mind returns to the source of my frustrations: these negotiations. I swear for all the gods to hear, it’s as if these mortal imbeciles are looking for an excuse to kill one another. To waste time, money, and irreplaceable lives shedding blood over some rocks in the middle of the ocean that will be mined out in a paltry few decades at most. Days in, and we haven’t even established the basics.

The Gryphus Empire demands that its geological estimates be used for determining any hypothetical splitting of the isles, while Prance has produced any alternate set, and both sides accuse the other of attempting to cheat them. Neither was willing to commission a third party to do an independent study, not trusting the other side to select an unbiased team. It got so bad that I actually had to request the aid of my own former student, a Princess of Equestria, to lead a joint delegation to do basic fact-finding. Pandering to these idiotic sentiments with Twilight’s valuable time is humiliating, but as ever my Princess of Friendship was willing to step in and lend a hoof to the cause of peace. Her self-sacrificing nature is befitting a proper alicorn. I couldn’t be more proud.

Still, with any luck at all this won’t be necessary within a few generations, and I can-

Hmmm, what’s this?

A small flash of light appears above my head, and a folded piece of paper materializes into being. I snatch it up with magic before gravity can, and bring it in front of my face. It lacks the usual seal identifying which pony is contacting me. Still, it can only be one of a few, so I unfold it.

It’s a photograph. Of my niece and… my eyes widen just a fraction. Is it? Could it finally be?

I take a long and careful look. Then I smile.

Yes…

I actually pump my hoof like a hoofball player. And I barely restrain from the temptation to jump in the air and whoop. Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes YES! Of course I’ll need to ask for more details on the creation process later, but for right now simply setting eyes on the first male of my species that I’ve seen since the loss of my father is more than enough.

I thought that the most important thing that I’d be doing today would be fighting for the fate of thousands of mortal lives. But I was wrong. I was oh so wrong. And I’ve never been so glad of it. This is but one conflict of many, all involved will be dead in a mere century, but what has just happened… it will change our world forever.

Oh Mi Amore Cadenza, I’m sorry that I ever doubted you. When this is over, one way or another, I must take the time to stop by the Crystal Empire and offer my niece and nephew my congratulations in the flesh. And after that… I had better be certain that my preparations for foals are complete. It has been a rather long time since I was last called upon to play the role of a mother.

I sit back and relax, sipping at my steaming hot tea again. This has suddenly become a much better morning.

I’m standing atop a boat in the middle of the ocean. It’s mid-morning, and my mentor’s sun is shining brightly overhead. With me on the boat are eight other sapient creatures: four gryphons, two unicorns, a pegasus, and an earth pony. Each set of four represents a hastily put-together delegation from the diplomatic parties negotiating under Princess Celestia’s oversight. My job is put together in very little time a geological survey of rocky Senadas isles, and their collective job is to stare over my shoulder while I do it.

Slightly annoying, yes, but I’m happy to serve the cause of friendship between nations. That’s my duty as princess, and, if I’m entirely honest has been an increasing focal point of my life since my friends and family passed. Don’t get me wrong, I still love to make new friends, but it’s much harder when you know for a fact that you’ll watch them die over the course of decades while you remain locked in eternal youth. Duty helps to fill the void, as Princess Celestia told me from millennia of bitter experience.

I’m lucky, really. I’ve had Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Cadence, Shining Armor, Spike, and even Discord to keep me company in the long centuries. My mentor endured it alone for a thousand years, with her sister on the moon and nopony at all to comfort her. I can only imagine the strength it took to get through that. A lesser mare would have gone insane from the isolation and loneliness. I just hope I never have to meet that same challenge.

I’m in the middle of writing down a few initial observations when yet another scroll appears over my head. Seems I’m popular these days.

The seal is from the Crystal Empire. My heart rate jumps a bit. I left Cadence and Shining in a bad state. Has something happened? Should I have been there? Is somepony hurt? Oh gods… are they breaking up?! What if-

Calm down, Twilight. Deep breaths.

In, out. In, out. In, out. In, out.

Aaaahhh…

That’s better. Now, let’s open this thing and see what’s up.

I break the seal and take a look at the contents:

Dear Twily,

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I hope that they’re right, because I don’t think I have the words to describe this properly. I was never as good at writing as you are. So I’ll let this photo do the talking.

I wanted to break the news face-to-face but I don’t know how long you’ll be away, and I’d rather you hear it from me than some rumor.

Come see us as soon as you can.

Always Your BBBFF,
Shining Armor

As the letter states, accompanying it is a photograph. I set it aside while reading, and only after assessing my brother’s the brief and somewhat vague message do I take a look. It’s a picture Cadence, posing by…

My jaw drops. Could it be?

My brother, whom I preserved in a crystal statue for centuries, is posing by his wife. In the flesh. Exactly as how I remember him in life.

No… he’s about a head taller than Cadence, and her mane and proportions tell me that this must have been taken recently… and my brother doesn’t have wings…

Then it clicks.

My happy squeal rings out for all the heavens to hear.

I’m not usually one for ostentatious ornamentation. Never have been, and especially not since boot camp, and learning just how easily restrictive or heavy clothing can get a pony killed a dozen different ways in a fight. I’ve always preferred simpler, more practical decoration, like my armor (ok, yes, it is a bit flashy but that’s tradition) or a uniform jacket for especially fancy occasions.

So you can imagine the war that very quickly breaks out between the royal tailors and I. On one side, two mares and a stallion under pressure to whip up an outfit appropriate for an alicorn prince in a very short amount of time and determined to make it as over-the-top and theatrical as possible. And on the other, yours truly, not wanting my first public appearance as a living being in hundreds of years to be marred by looking like an overdressed, gaudy peacock of a stallion.

We can’t exactly keep what’s happened a secret. I mean, the news has already spread throughout the barracks before we even wake up in the morning, and of course some loose lips managed to get the story to a morning tabloid in time for printing. Gossipy ponies around the Crystal Empire, and I don’t doubt very soon if not already beyond, are on about what’s become of the princess’s husband. So, to head the rumors off before something stupid happens, we’re going to do a public announcement of my “ascension”, as Cadence calls it. I think I’m being given too much credit considering that all I did was receive a gift created by somepony else, but my wife just giggles and tells me that my centuries in unfeeling purgatory make me more than deserving. I don’t know, but she’s our public relations expert.

With the importance of first impressions in mind, I hope you see why I’m so ardent in my battle with the clothing crusaders. I mean, for gods’ sake, they want to put me in golden armor plating. Not the faux version the Royal Guard wear, actual gold. With a red and white cape, of all things! I’d feel ridiculous in that kind of overdone clown suit. The biggest disagreement between the three is whether I should wear a helmet or a crown. All I ask for is a simple navy and gold uniform jacket, tailored to my new measurements. But do they listen? Of course not. So we wind up arguing far more than actually measuring for more than an hour, and just to make matters worse, when my wife arrives, she promptly sides with them!

Thanks, honey.

Author's Notes:

More lightheartedness, yay!

Well, mostly.

Announcement

“So, what do you think?” asks my dear, beloved, traitorous weasel of a wife. She gestures to the outfit hastily arranged on a somewhat undersized alicorn mannequin that I’m reasonably certain is supposed to be the tailors’ model of Cadence.

“It’s… better,” I grudgingly admit, before shaking my head. “You helped them, didn’t you?”

She smirks. “I may or may not have slipped them a few suggestions on what might look best on you, yes.”

“Traitor,” I accuse her irritably, to which her smirk simply widens. “You know I was never one for dressing up like a peacock. Couldn’t I just wear a uniform jacket? I think I look pretty good in those.”

“You look good, but not royal,” she corrects me.

“I’ve worn jackets like that since our wedding day,” I point out. “And you never had a problem with it before.”

“And you’ve never announced your ascension to alicornhood before,” she counters. “As a unicorn you could get away with your limited wardrobe, but alicorns are expected to have a greater degree of sophistication to their wear. Especially when attending such important public events. Or did you think Twilight and I wore those dresses for fun?”

“I know. It’s not fair,” I groan, putting a hoof over my face.

Cadence snorts. “Not fair? You can complain about not fair when you have to spend three hours getting your mane done into this ridiculous thing.” She points a hoof at her head, and the ceremonial headdress atop it. I recognize it for the very same one that she first wore on the day of our competing for the Equestria Games for the first time. I would love to ask how many cans of hairspray valiantly laid down their lives to make my wife’s mane sit still, but frankly I don’t want to know.

"I had to spend the time catching up on paperwork,” I defend myself. Seriously, do you know how much work piles up in my office over a measly two days of time away from ordinary business? Why anypony would want the job of ruling a nation, much less try and take one over by force, eludes me to this day.

“Tell you what: I’ll trade you next time. I’ll fill out forms, and you get your mane put into this setup.”

Me? In that? I stifle a chuckle at my own expense and shake my head. “Sorry honey, but no deal. You’re stuck with it,” I flash her a roguish grin.

Cadence smiles triumphantly. “Then you’re stuck with this little number.” She puts a hoof over the clothing, and my grin vanishes. My wife rolls her eyes. “Oh come on, Shiny, it’s not that bad.”

I like to think of myself as a reasonably objective stallion, so I have to admit that’s she’s right – if we’re comparing it to the initial idea for actual golden armor. This new creation is a full suite of genuine steel battle armor, minus helmet, polished to a solid silver sheen and engraved with elegant swirls of gold in numerous places along the sides, chest, and legs. Matching steel hoof coverings included, naturally. That’s a bit showy, but not such a bad design in and of itself.

If only they had stopped there.

Underneath the armor plating are a matching velvet set of deep purple tunic and pants, showing through wherever necessity or design left gaps in the steel plates. It’s really rather a flashy effect, but again I suppose I might learn to tolerate it. No, the really awful part, the thing that more than any other makes me hate this outfit, is that they totally ignored my wishes. They put a cape on this bloody thing.

Let me explain something: I hate capes. Can’t stand them. Some ponies think that they look bold or dramatic, but really they only make the wearer look silly. Whether billowing out in the wind (and getting wrapped around your face when it switches direction) or hanging over one’s flank (and constituting a tripping hazard), capes are uniformly impractical to wear and not much to look at.

So of course my wife and tailors decided to add a cape to my ensemble. Of course they did.

The cape on the armor is a lengthy purple thing, attached slightly behind the shoulder and stretching down to just above my rear hooves (or so they assure me, on the actual mannequin it goes past the hooves and onto the floor). It’s made of dark violet velvet to match my other clothing, with a white faux fur trim around the edge. Seriously, guys and gals? Fur? Yes, I know it’s fake. Yes, I know it’s traditional royal garb for kings and princes of the Crystal Empire. But does it have to be on my outfit?

“I disagree,” I answer Cadence after a moment of silence. “It is that bad, and I will not show up in public alive for the first time in generations wearing that costume.”

“Come on, Shiny,” my wife urges me. “Do it for me? Pleeeease?”

I cross my forelegs and shake my head. “No.”

There is no way, no how, that I am ever going to wear that stupid outfit.

I can’t believe I’m wearing that stupid outfit.

Damn Cadence and those irresistible pleading eyes of hers.

Speaking my treasonous wife, she and I are lined up together in an antechamber to the Imperial Palace’s main viewing balcony. There’s about half an hour left before the big public debut of brand new me, and the crowd is already pretty large. From what I hear in palace gossip, the rumor community has currently formed into a relatively even split between those who think I’ve become an alicorn, and those who think I’m being replaced by an alicorn. Then there are the fringe theories, which include that Cadence, myself, or both of us have been replaced by changelings, that I launched a coup against my wife, that we’re being annexed by Equestria, and so on.

Cadence is busy practicing her hastily-written speech in front of a mirror, while I am occupied with getting my mane attacked by a pair of fussy mares with far too much time on their hooves.

“It doesn’t flow,” comments one of them, running a comb through the back of my mane after an excessive does of hairspray. “But it is almost as difficult to work with as her highness’s. Do you cast a spell on your hair to keep it from staying down, my prince?”

I snort at the question, but before I can do more the other speaks up. “It doesn’t flow like the rest of their highnesses’ manes. Why is that?” she asks me.

I shrug. “Search me. I’m rather new to this myself, but I can tell you that there was a time when Cadence and Twilight’s manes didn’t flow.”

“Told you so!” says one to the other. “You owe me five bits!”

“Shut up,” grumbles the second mare.

“Maybe it’s just a function of age,” I speculate out loud. “Or maybe it simply doesn’t happen to stallions.”

Wishful thinking, that. I’d like to keep a longer manestyle without it perpetually flowing in the wind and making me look like some pretty-colt or mare. If this thing starts fluttering in the breeze, I’ll have to cut it real short or be the laughingstock of the Crystal Guard. I suppose I’ll need to ask Celestia or Luna when next I see them.

In front of the mirror, Cadence finishes her practice session, and before she can begin again I interrupt. “You know of course that you’re going to pay for this,” I use my right hoof to indicate myself, my outfit, and the two stylists attacking my mane.

She raises an eyebrow and smirks at me. “Oh?”

I present a tight smile. “You may be a princess out here, but once that door closes on our bedroom tonight,” my smile blossoms into a full-on devilish grin. “You’re mine, little mare.”

“Ooooh, I quiver with fear.” Cadence upturns her skirt just enough to flick her long tail teasingly at me. The tip just barely grazes the edge of my muzzle.

I adopt an indignant pose and stick my tongue out at her. She responds in kind, closing her eyes and just short of giving me a raspberry.

We hold our respective postures for a hooful of seconds, before cracking and breaking down into a giggling fit. Cadence walks over and rests her head against my chest. I nuzzle her affectionately.

“Love you, honey,” I whisper into her ear before nibbling it just enough to be playful.

Cadence runs a soft wing over my chest and down my foreleg. How I’ve missed that wonderful sensation.

“Love you too,” she smiles.

The clock chimes four, and I know that it’s time. I give Shining a smile and quick kiss for luck, then turn and exit our little antechamber. I’ll be going out first, both to reassure everypony that I’m alright and do the actual announcement. I’m wear a long, sapphire-colored dress threaded with gold and studded with blue diamonds, complete with a ballgown-like skirt. Add a heavy golden necklace that might be mistaken for a yolk, diamond earrings, and crystalline horseshoes so clear that a pony might not notice them on first glance, and you have my outfit. Also? My mane and tail still smell funny from the chemical bath I had to undergo to get them to stand still, in spite of all the perfume I put on afterwards. And they feel really stiff. Put all of this together, and truthfully I don’t know what Shiny’s complaining about. His getup is nothing compared to mine.

I roll my eyes and smile. Stallions. They have it so easy.

I know that I shouldn’t be so hard on Shiny – ah, who I am kidding? I know precisely the opposite. We used to tease each other all the time when we were young. It helped to keep us from getting all stuffy and uptight about everything, like some ponies seem to be. It’s another thing I’ve missed about our relationship these many years, but with so little left to him I didn’t dare poke his fragile pride. But now that’s behind us, and I can get back into the game! Squee!

I give myself a little nibble just to be sure that I haven’t been dreaming this up… Nope! I really have finally gotten what I’ve wanted most, and I really am on my way to announce my husband’s ascension to the world! Yes! I pump my hoof triumphantly, and there’s a bounce in my step as close on the balcony doors. If it weren’t for the weight of this dress, I might be skipping like a school filly.

I halt before the double doors leading to the balcony and take a moment to compose myself. Deep breaths. In and out, in and out. You’re a princess, so be sure and look the part. Remember: dignity and poise. Don’t go out squealing like a little filly.

When I am reasonably certain that I’m ready for the show, I nod to the twin unicorn guards, who pull open the doors with magic. I step out into the sun.

Arrayed before me is a vast crowd. I don’t know exactly how many. I’m no Twilight, with her irrepressible ability with numbers. I’m sure if she were here she could estimate the exact audience count by finding the average number of ponies in a given amount of space and then totaling the amount of space occupied. Lacking the ability to do that without paper, I’m just forced to go with my gut, which gives me a wild guess of ten thousand or more. Crystal ponies constitute a clear majority, but I also spy pegasi and unicorns among the crowd, some gryphons, a smattering of zebras, and even a small number of minotaurs in the audience. All look up when I step out, and not a few start chattering in low murmurs. Some even wave at me.

My wings twitch slightly with excitement, but I suppress that urge, take a final deep breath, and cast a spell to activate the microphone about my throat.

“Ladies and gentlecolts,” the sound of my voice booms out through the speakers we’ve set up, and the crowd falls silent. “Citizens of the Crystal Empire! I, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, bid you welcome. I wish, first of all, to thank each and every one of you for taking time from your busy schedules to come and attend this very special event. I know that you all have your own lives to lead, and I am deeply touched that so many of you have chosen to lend some of your time to me. Again, I thank you.”

I pause, and almost immediately hundreds, then thousands of ponies start stamping their hooves. I let them for a time, then hold up a hoof for silence. That takes a minute, but eventually all is quiet once more.

“I would request,” I continue. “That you please conserve your applause for the culmination of this ceremony.” I pause briefly again, just to be sure. Thankfully, the vast majority honor my wishes. Once I’m certain, I go on. “Secondly, I wish to extend my apologies to anypony who has been inconvenienced by the chaos of the previous day. There was a small issue of confusion about the whereabouts of myself and my husband, and for that I accept full responsibility. Neither the Crystal Guard nor any other pony was to blame for the incident, and I ask that you bear them no hostility nor begrudge them for any difficulties you may have endured. To all residents of the Crystal Empire, citizens and guests alike: I am sorry.” I bow my head, to more murmurs from the audience. There is a scattering of applause, but most ponies continue to hold it, as per my request.

“Thirdly,” I proceed, my tone now much happier for having gotten that out of the way. “The main reason that we are here. I know that some among you,” my eyes sweep meaningfully along a row of journalists, whole are presently engaged in either photographing me or writing down everything I say. “Have heard rumors of certain extraordinary events over the past few hours. Some of you may have been involved in spreading them. I have called you all here to dispel certain suppositions, and to confirm the truth of others.” I pause again to let the chatterers chatter amongst themselves. “It is with great pride and the deepest of pleasure that I say that I am here to announce a new addition to the family of the alicorns!”

That gets a reaction. Almost everypony says something to one another, or else shouts it at me. Speculation runs rampant, and not a few call out to ask who the father of the new baby is. How I would have a baby without having been visibly pregnant these last few months is a puzzle to me, but I guess all sorts of miraculous things are attributed to my kind. I raise another hoof for silence, but that doesn’t work this time.

“Ladies and gentlecolts, please!” I implore them. “Please, cease talking, and I promise I will tell you all!” That, on the other hoof, does it. Silence once again descends.

“Ahem,” I clear my throat before continuing. “Now then, first of all let me lay to rest any speculation about a baby. I have had no children for many years, and I did not give birth yesterday. Furthermore-” I’m interrupted by the various reactions of the audience, ranging from cheers to disappointed sighs. “Furthermore,” I emphasize the word a bit more. “While new to the family of alicorns, the stallion of whom I speak has been with us for a very long time. With his impeccable record of loyal service to crown and country alike, his unending devotion to the Crystal Empire, and his oft-demonstrated bravery and commitment, it gives me great pleasure to announce to you all that the latest to ascend into the alicorn race is my husband, your captain of the guard: Prince Shining Armor!”

I whirl around to face the double doors. Right on cue, Shining Armor steps out onto the balcony in his suit of… well, shining armor. The polished steel gleams brightly in the afternoon sun, so much so that it might well blind an ordinary pony up close. As planned, the weather pegasi whip up just enough of a wind to cause his mane and cape to billow dramatically as he strides into full view of the audience. Like we discussed, he flares his wings as wide as they can go and simultaneously lights up his horn. Standing there in his armor and cape, a stoic look concealing the embarrassment that only I can sense, my husband looks the very image of a noble warrior prince. I for one think that it’s quite dashing.

The reactions from the audience are mixed. Some stare blankly with shock. Others shout in dismay. Still more whisper to their neighbors, pointing at Shining.

But by far, the biggest reaction is applause. It starts slowly, with a few of the bolder ponies stamping their hooves for their prince. Then, like an avalanche started by a single pebble, it grows and grows until it’s out of all control. The crowd below us cheers wildly, stamping their hooves or clapping their hands or talons in thunderous, rapturous applause.

Bolstered by long years of military discipline, Shining Armor keeps his face neutral and stoic, trying to look the part of the brave commander. But from up close, I can see a small tear sliding down his cheek and the twitching at the corner of his mouth. But most of all, I can feel my husband’s happiness radiating from the core of his being.

From where I stand, off to the side as not to hog the spotlight, I smile contentedly.

Author's Notes:

So I decided to give my faithful readers one last treat before the weekend. Enjoy!

Evening

Alright, I’ll cop to it: I cry just a little bit during the applause. I know, I know, it’s not exactly proper stallion-like behavior. And I also know that Cadence should be the one receiving the outpouring of support, not me. She was the one who did all the work that made this possible. Sure, she insists I earned it with my years spent as a golem for her sake, but ultimately all I did was receive a thoroughly unexpected but wondrous gift from my wife. But I can’t help but shed a few tears of liquid pride all the same – after being the freak of the royal family for so long, you can’t quite imagine just how good it feels to have thousands of ponies spontaneously cheering for you. These last few hours have convinced me: I must be the luckiest stallion alive. From an unfeeling crystal prison to immortal flesh and the love of a beautiful wife who’s been more faithful to me than I’ve ever deserved.

Eventually, the applause dies down, and I clear my throat to say my own brief piece. I hope I can halfway justify their support. I glance at my wife out of the corner of my eye, and she offers and encouraging nod. That helps, and I activate my own microphone.

“Citizens of the Crystal Empire,” I say into the techno-magical device, my voice now booming from speakers instead of Cadence’s. “My friends. I thank you sincerely, each and every one of you, for your show of confidence in me today. You honor me greatly with your cheers, and I can only pray that I will live up to your hopes for me.”

There’s more applause from the audience, though it lasts a bit less time than before. I continue when it’s about pattered out. “On this day of my ascension, I promise to all of you, on my honor as prince and as a soldier, that I will never stop giving this Empire of ours my all. In everything I do I will seek to serve and protect our people, with every bit of power that my blessed new state grants to me. In turn, I ask only that you all go forth from this place in the spirit of love, harmony, and brotherhood, in hopes that tomorrow might be even better than today!”

With that, my first brief public address as an alicorn is over, and I switch off my microphone with a telekinetic prod. I step back slightly while the crowd applauds, Cadence coming forward to stand beside me. Together, we smile and wave for the cameras while the audience below roars its approval to the heavens.

I think I’m going to like this new chapter in my life.

Eventually, Cadence and I retreat back into the Imperial Palace with a final wave of our forelegs, which remain remarkably not sore for having been waving without rest for some ten minutes. Extra endurance is another perk of this form, it would seem. Of course, I already knew that from last night.

Heh.

Joking aside, it is nice not to feel significantly exhausted after a good day’s work. What’s even nicer is just feeling all the little sensations that I didn’t even realize I missed. The feel of the carpet and the crystal floors beneath my hooves, the smell of flowers and that of food being prepared, the way the wind feels when you’re walking against it, even the irritating little itches that you can’t scratch – I’m experiencing every single one of those freshly, and I love it.

And then there are these wings. I confess that I don’t really have clue what to do with them, beyond being able to tuck them in or spread them out. I’m not even sure how to flap them properly – they’re different enough from their pegasus counterparts to render even my observations from them moot. Still, I’ll admit that they do look good on me, and having them preened makes for a most… enjoyable experience.

Once we shed these overdone outfits (and Cadence washes her mane back to its usual ethereal state), the two of us head to a private dinner of our own. This will be my first meal with my wife in four hundred years – breakfast and lunch I had to take alone while I worked – and I can’t wait. Cadence is in her usual royal regalia and I’m not wearing anything when we arrive on our private balcony, where our staff has kindly set out a meal for us.

The two of us sit down next to one another on a sofa, with a delectable spread of cooked greens, flowers, fruits, breads, and pastries on several platters in front of us. My mouth is already starting to water at the smell, but I want Cadence to get the first bite. She deserves it for making all this happen for my sake.

But my wife isn’t looking at the food, she’s regarding me. I glance at it meaningfully. She looks puzzled for half a second, then jerks her head slightly to the side, horn pointed at the meal.

So she wants to play it that way, does she?

I point at the meal with exaggeratedly stern look on my face.

Cadence giggles and shakes her head.

I point again.

“Shiny,” she shoves me lightly on the shoulder. “It’s your special day, you should have first crack at it.”

“No, you,” I insist. “You’re the one who did all the work.”

“I did it for you. Now come on and take a bite.” She picks up a succulent-looking stalk of celery in blue magic, which looks to have been marinated in… something or the other.

Hey, not exactly a culinary expert after all this time, ok?

“Say ah,” she teases, hovering the food near my head.

“Cady, I’m not going to- mmph!”

My wife, clever as ever, immediately takes the opportunity presented by my speech to shove the vegetable into my open mouth - whereupon she promptly starts giggling at me.

“You see, Shiny, you can’t deny this- gah!”

Of course, I return the favor my jamming a slice of fried apple into her mouth while she’s gloating. You’d really think she would have known better. Ah well, it’s funnier this way.

Another advantage of alicornhood: choking on your food while laughing far too much at a relatively tame joke is a minor inconvenience rather than a life-threatening phenomenon.

After I’ve managed to cough the barely-chewed vegetable back up and swallow it properly this time, I return my attention to my wife. Or, at least, I try to. The instant my head comes up, it gets smacked by a pillow.

Once I pull the cushion off of my face, Cadence wags her hoof at me like a little foal. “Now Shining, you know that stealing ideas from others is wrong, you naughty colt.”

“Says the mare that cheats to win,” I retort.

She winks. “Cheating is what makes competing fun, love.”

I answer with another of my trademark devilish grins. “Is that so? Well then…”

Before my wife has time to blink, my magical aura surrounds her body. I yank her directly towards me, catching her in one hoof and pushing her down onto the sofa. Using a move I’ve taught to generations of guard recruit to non-lethally subdue assorted assailants and rowdies, I pin her underneath me. Cadence squirms briefly, but seems to think better of it and relaxes. She knows I would never hurt her.

“I suppose I win, don’t I?”

Cadence laughs at me.

“You said it yourself, dear. Cheating makes competing fun. And I do it better than you.” My face is still showing off a cocksure grin.

“I suppose I can let you have this little victory on your special day,” she answers smugly. “So now what, oh glorious Shining Armor, conqueror of his wife?”

“Perhaps I’ll force feed you the entire meal,” I reply, before pausing briefly as another thought occurs to me. “Or…” I continue in a sly tone, bending down to whisper in her ear. “We could do something else for my victory celebration.”

Cadence blushes and her wings spread out a bit. “Really?” she giggles. “Here? Now?”

I raise an eyebrow and smile. “Why not? It’s not like we haven’t before.”

Cadence runs a hoof over my chest. “Well, when you put it like that…” Her lips begin to come together. I close my eyes and bring my own head down to meet hers…

“Pardon me, your majesties, but- Oh! Oh my!” the sound of another pony’s voice shatters the moment.

Seriously, universe? Now, of all times? Perhaps some god gets their jollies by screwing with me.

I reluctantly scramble off my wife and look towards the source of the interruption, my cheeks feeling far warmer than they should. At the door of the balcony stands a young pegasus mare in servant’s attire, her cheeks furiously blushing as she stares at the floor, looking for all the world like she wishes she knew how to seep into the crystal beneath her. Cadence pulls herself back up to a sitting position with twin expressions of disappointment and embarrassment warring for her face. For some time, there is nothing but extremely awkward silence.

Eventually, Cadence coughs lightly. “So,” she says, “Was there something you needed to say, or…”

The mare tugs at her collar as though it were much too tight, before swallowing nervously. Her mouth moves, but no sound comes out.

“It’s alright,” says Cadence in a motherly tone. “You don’t have to worry about being punished. You were only doing your job. Go on and tell us what you came here for.”

The mare swallows again, still not daring to meet our eyes, but manages to find her voice. “Y-Yes, your m-majesty. There i-is… T-There is… a g-guest awaiting y-your highnesses.” She licks her lips. “A v-very special guest.”

“Can you please tell us who it is?” I ask, trying not to sound frustrated. But I’d really like to hear who it was that just interrupted our private time.

“Princess L-Luna,” she stutters. “She s-says she’s c-come to congratulate your h-highnesses. Asked to s-speak with y-you as soon as possible.”

“Please tell my aunt that we will see her at once,” Cadence says gently. “And then why don’t you take the rest of the evening off? I think you may need it.”

“Y-Yes, your majesty. Thank y-you, your majesty,” she manages, before closing the door quite hastily. I can hear very rapid hoofsteps trailing away from it from the other side.

“Well,” I say as the sounds fade away, if only to keep awkward silence at bay. “That was…”

“Unfortunate timing,” Cadence completes my sentence for me with a sigh. “But it is what it is. Imagine if she’d come in a few minutes later.” She giggles a little, picking up a small carrot from the table and nibbling it delicately.

I snort, caught between amusement and embarrassment. With little better to do, I also return my attention to the food on the table. It still tastes nice enough, but the mood is somewhat spoiled as of right this moment, and I do believe both our thoughts are more focused on what we might have been doing instead.

I’m gnawing in silence on a piece of honeyed bread when I catch the sound of more hoofsteps approaching the balcony door from the other side. In another moment, the door is opened by a different servant than before – a crystal pony stallion this time. He bows to my wife and I before speaking.

“Your majesties, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Prince Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire, may I present her majesty Princess Luna of-”

“Oh, please do stop! There is no need for such formality on a personal visit!” A very familiar dark alicorn barges her way past the stallion, beaming widely at Cadence and I as we rise to greet our elder. “Besides,” she turns to the servant as an afterthought. “I am certain my niece and nephew already know who I am.”

“Of course, your highness,” he mutters, before shrinking back the way he came and shutting the door behind him, leaving all three of us alone on the balcony.

As soon as he’s gone, Princess Luna drops even the pretense of royal decorum and rushes right up to us, wrapping both our necks in a bone-crushing hug. “Congratulations!” she squeals in almost childlike tone. “Oh, congratulations to both of you! ‘Twas wonderful news to receive!” Luna kisses first me, then Cadence on the forehead before releasing our necks. “And to think I thought this day would be dull!”

Cadence is quicker to recover. “And hello to you too, Auntie Luna,” she says with a smile, even as she rubs her throat. I don’t blame her.

“I came as soon as I could! I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there for your announcement, but I did have just one or two pieces of court business that absolutely couldn’t be put off,” Luna rubs the back of her head with a hoof and grins awkwardly. “But you mustn’t think that I didn’t hurry here as quickly as I could!”

“Don’t worry,” I reassure her. “It’s fine. I know how busy ruling nation can get. Especially when you’re doing the work of three mares all by yourself!”

“Oh,” Luna says. “That reminds me. Your sister and mine wrote to me soon after you did. They asked me to bear their congratulations as well as their apologies that they cannot be here immediately. This was most unexpected, you know.”

“Trust me, I wasn’t expecting it any more than you were,” I answer her. “So I completely understand.”

She nods. “I am certain that they would have come alongside me if lives were not at stake, but…” she trails off.

“It’s fine,” I repeat. “I know how important their work is, and I’m sure they’d love to have been here. But I can wait.” I wink. “I have all the time in the world, you know.”

“But of course!” Luna laughs, and then hugs just me. The way she does it, I’m very glad breathing is optional for me. “Again: congratulations, nephew! ‘Tis a great joy to at last welcome you into our family in every way!” Then she releases me, and grabs Cadence in the same way. “And congratulations to you as well, niece! You truly selected a worthy mate, if he was able to transcend mortality even so long after his death!”

“Thanks… Auntie…” my wife manages, between gasps for air. I try and restrain my urge to chuckle at her plight.

At length, Luna releases her grip on Cadence and looks back and forth between both of us. “You must tell me all! How did you do it?”

I glance at my wife. In truth, she’s been a bit evasive on the particulars whenever I’ve found the time to ask today, but honestly there’s been so much going on that I didn’t care enough to press. She did request that I let her explain if the subject came up, and I’ll honor that. It’s not like I could in any case.

Cadence pauses and bites her lip for a moment before responding. “Love,” she answers at last. “The raw energy for Shining Armor’s ascension came from love.”

“You mean as it did in your wedding?” Luna asks.

Cadence shakes her head. “I mean, the energy came from the love stored in Crystal Heart. Our love was the conduit, but we may have had to… borrow some extra strength for a time. Like Twilight received power from the Elements of Harmony.”

“Ah,” Luna nods. “But what do you mean by “borrow” it?”

“I mean, the Heart is currently sapped of much of its strength.”

What? I didn’t know-

Cadence hastens to continue before I can even think through the repercussions. “But that’s alright, isn’t it? There’s plenty of love and happiness in the air, it should recharge itself in a matter of weeks. And the energy isn’t gone; it’s just with Shining Armor now. Besides, it’s not like there’s anypony out to get us, is there?”

I feel a bit uneasy at the knowledge that Cadence sapped the Empire’s defenses, even if temporarily, to make this possible, but I still trust her judgment. And her logic seems sound enough to me.

Luna appears thoughtful. “Sombra is dead… the changelings are no more… Discord is not even on this plane… Tirek remains in Tartarus…” She shakes her head. “I cannot think of any foe who might seek to gain advantage during this time, if they even somehow knew. And if there were,” she looks at me and smiles. “I can think of nopony better suited to be the second alicorn guardian of the Crystal Empire than you, nephew. I am certain that this place is in safe hooves.”

Cadence looks a little nervously at her aunt. It’s subtle, but I know her body language like nopony else. “Anything else you needed to know?”

“Hmmm…” Luna puts a hoof under her chin. “No, I do believe that answers the question. The Crystal Heart and the magic of love together are a very potent combination, and I see no reason that they would not have been able to grant new life to a worthy pony.”

“Shall we eat, then?” Cadence asks; her calm face now restored. She gestures at the food.

“Oh, you were having supper together?” Luna blushes slightly. “Forgive me for interrupting, I just-”

Cadence shakes her head and smiles. “It’s no trouble at all, Auntie Luna. Shining and I are always happy to have you visit us! Aren’t we?”

She could have timed it better, I think.

“Of course we are,” I say aloud, wrapping a hoof around my wife’s shoulder. She lays her head against me.

“Fantastic! I will admit I am somewhat famished from the long journey north. If you will have me for a dinner guest…”

“Of course!” Cadence answers with a smile.

As we lay in bed that night, exhausted and sweating after several rounds of… intimacy, my giddiness for this blessed day is disrupted by the last sound that I thought would ever do so: my husband’s voice.

“Honey?” he says, between heavy breaths. “I’m sorry.”

“What?!” I look at him, alarmed. “For what?”

“I’ve been so busy enjoying today… I completely forgot about what I was doing… before…” he shakes his head.

“You mean…” I think back to that horrible moment when I almost crushed his soul, for trying to help me. “Your… investigation?”

He nods, slowly. “I shouldn’t have let myself… stop today. Now we’re on even footing, will you tell me what’s wrong? I can… help you now.”

I smile ruefully. Typical Shiny. A once in a lifetime event has just boosted him to greater power than most ponies can even dream of, and the day isn’t even before he’s thinking about how he can use it to protect me. His selfless devotion is charming, especially compared to how selfishly I imprisoned him for centuries. I couldn’t ask for a more loyal stallion. But I still can’t tell him the truth.

The truth. It grips my gut like an icy talon, stealing the warmth and joy I was feeling. I have what I want… but I’m still compelled to surrender any of our offspring to my murderous aunt. Every single time we’ve coupled… I might well have already been fertilized. I fight back the urge to sob and beg forgiveness for selling my husband’s future foals to a monster, but just barely.

Shining picks up on my distress anyway. “Cady?” he asks, softly. “What’s wrong? Did I say something? Do you not want to talk about it? Do-”

I cover his mouth gently with a hoof to stop him talking.

“Shiny,” I ask, slowly. “Do you trust me?”

He nods, and I put my hoof back down again.

“You say that I’m the most talented mare you know. Do you truly believe that?”

“Of course,” he says, looking confused. “Cadence, what’s this all about?”

“If you trust me,” I say, fighting to keep melancholy out of my tone. “Then believe me when I say I can handle this on my own. Please, for my sake, leave this be.”

Shining doesn’t even know how to fly yet, much less how to properly wield the magic boost his new body gives him. He’s still far too weak to have a hope of matching the oldest and strongest alicorn in existence. I can’t risk him finding out. And, if I’m entirely honest, I can’t bear to hear what he would say if he knew that I gave away our very foals for his sake. He would leave me, I know it. And I can’t endure that. So he must never know.

“Cadence, I can’t just-”

“Please,” I beg him, my eyes watering. “Just let this be, and I will take care of it. You can help me most by being happy and forgetting all about it.”

He stares into my eyes for several minutes in silence, worry writ large all over his face and soul. He pulls me close, stroking my mane tenderly while I barely hold back tears of guilt. This wonderful, selfless husband of mine has no idea what an evil witch his wife is, and I can’t ever tell him. And I’m playing my last card, the same weapon I used to hold him captive in crystal for centuries: my sadness.

At last, he lets me go and looks into my teary eyes again. I look at my hooves, feeling unworthy to meet his gaze. “If it means that much to you,” Shining Armor sighs. “I will leave it alone. Just look into my eyes and promise me that you’ll be alright if I do. Promise me.”

Gathering all my courage, I look into his eyes and lie to him. “I promise.”

I won’t be fine, and I know it. My children and his will be taken from us and subjected to who knows what kinds of horror. All because of their mother, and her selfish ways. But to tell Shining would be to destroy him, be it physically or mentally, and that I could never bear. So I’ll lie to him, and bear the guilt, for all eternity. Shining Armor deserves a happy life after what he’s been through, and he’ll never be happy unless he thinks I am. So I’ll smile and be the best wife I can be, and content myself with him, though it’s more than I deserve.

As we lie down to sleep together, my thoughts churn. These last few years have turned the world I thought I knew on its head. Aunt Celestia, who raised me, whom I looked up to, betrayed me and extorted a deep and ongoing price to spare my husband’s life. King Sombra, whom I loathed for a monstrous tyrant, gave me the most important help I’ve ever had in return for nothing more than simply planting an odd violet flower atop his grave. What has the world come to?

Author's Notes:

Feedback, as ever, is requested and appreciated.

Surprise

“This is outrageous!” snarls Speaker Etton at me, teeth gritted inside his beak. “What you are proposing amounts to little more than glorified highway robbery!”

“I suggest you take another look, honored Speaker,” I reply, keeping my tone level and patient. “I think you will find this proposal – which I will remind you is nothing but a suggestion at this stage – to have some merit. As other plans to split nature’s bounty between your nations have failed to gain traction, I simply have suggested one possible alternative for your consideration.”

It has been five days since I received the news of my adoptive niece’s success. I long to go and see for myself the results of her work, but my other duties keep me here. The effort to preserve fragile mortal lives must precedence over my personal wants, and in any case Shining Armor is far more likely to keep than the peace between these two nations.

“What you are proposing,” continues Etton angrily. “Is that the whole of the isles go to another nation, and we should receive economic compensation for a share of all resources extracted from it – the value of which should be determined by a “neutral party”, for which you conveniently volunteer yourself.”

“I simply suggested that course based on the fact that both of your governments chose to invite me to oversee this conference. If the Speaker has another such party in mind that both parties,” I nod at the gryphons, and the Prench delegates across from them, each seated around twin semicircular tables with myself on a chair in between, “can agree to, I would be more than happy to offer any assistance that I can to aid in convincing them to oversee this role.”

I am not lying. While it is true that I would certainly like such a position as arbiter of value and the consequent influence over the economies of the Gryphus Empire and Prance alike – I can always use more cards in my hoof – I am hardly wedded to the idea. In any event, the long-term importance of this conference has dropped dramatically in my view, leaving the prevention of war as the most important issue. The gathering of influence over mortal nations now has much less value to me.

Unfortunately, the good Speaker seems quite determined to shoot down every proposal I make, and then some. This is the eighth suggested plan for a split from the start, and all of them he has opposed most bitterly. Even a perfectly even fifty-fifty split of all the gems mined he opposed, on the grounds that the Prench had nowhere near a valid enough claim to justify such a division of spoils. I confess that I’m actually starting to feel something more akin to true irritation rather than the disappointment of a caring mother to a misbehaving foal. I should work to control my temper, I think.

“Yes, I’m sure you would be very happy to hand-pick the being who controls a substantial chunk of monetary flow in to the Empire, wouldn’t you, you-”

Before he can insult me officially, Emperor Serath interrupts, speaking the gryphon’s native tongue rather than the Equestrian that is most commonly used for international communication. Fortunately, I happen to be fluent in that as well.

“You are overstepping your bounds, Speaker,” the Emperor says. “Opposing specific settlements is one thing, but openly insulting our guest is another. Control your tongue, or I will be forced have you removed from this conference to preserve our honor.”

“Your majesty, this pony princess is clearly trying to cheat us and give herself and the Prench the greater portion of the bounty! She favors her own kind, just as I said she would. We must not allow ourselves to be played for fools by-” Etton answers, also in Gryphon, but is cut off by his liege.

“We have discussed this already! Cease embarrassing our nation by appearing the snarling oppositionist! Disagreeing with courses of action is your right, but it is not your place to make us look like squabbling chicks in public. Come to me with your concerns, again, after this is through. Do not violate our unity in public again. Is that understood?”

“Yes, your majesty,” he replies, again in the predators’ native speech.

I know for a fact that only two of the eight Prench delegates, including their Premier, actually understand more than a few words of it. But they must enjoy their rivals bickering in public all the same.

“Of course,” I continue, in Equestrian, once the Speaker has settled himself again. “If it were more acceptable to both parties that the islands should go to the Gryphus Empire, and Prance receive compensation, I would again be more than happy to-”

“Never!” I’m interrupted, this time by Prench Premier Radient Light, a blue-white unicorn with a greying mane and mustache. “We are the rightful owners of the isles, paid for in full by our hard-earned money! We will not accept any solution where we are pushed off of our territory!”

For all that I harp on the Speaker of the Imperial Senate, the Premier of Prance is almost as bad. A very belligerent nationalist, as I’d feared from the profile on him that my spies assembled for me. Worst of all is that fact that, from all I can tell, he appears to sincerely believe what he says. None of the usual inducements – money, political backing, sex – that have been offered by my agents have drawn his attentions as of yet. If only this negotiation had taken place a few years earlier – his predecessor was a much more compromising (and influence-able) figure. Regrettably, she was replaced in the last election, as more nationalist currents in the electorate gathered steam.

Republicanism. Is there any worse system of governance than that which gives the pony on the street – who knows little of and cares even less for politics – total control over who is in government? Nobles and kings and even tyrants are at least somewhat predictable, but the sentiments that can sweep the herd in mere weeks sometimes confound even my predictions. And leaders must answer to them on a regular basis, giving rise to a truly perverse set of incentives.

For even if Premier Light himself does not believe in nationalistic rhetoric, he has every reason to play along with it anyway: those who do are his base, and are unlikely to desert him even in war, if it does not affect them personally. And such a war would most likely be conducted far from the Prench mainland, no matter the outcome. If Light is like most leaders, the continuance of his political career is of far greater import to him than the lives of a few thousand soldiers. And so, he has good reason to oppose commonsense peace, if he thinks it will make him more electable.

The utter stupidity of allowing democratic politics without the firm hoof of an absolute, eternal ruler to manage its passions should be easy for anypony to see.

“Your territory?!” Speaker Etton speaks up indignantly. “Those islands are the rightful claim of the Gryphus Empire, dating back for thousands of years! You are the interlopers!”

The one thing I can say in the Premier’s favor as a shouting match descends on our conference yet again is that he doesn’t appear to be utterly opposed to my mediation – merely to anything that would make Prance look anything less than glorious. With Speaker Etton, I cannot be so generous. He does not want me here, and has political clout in the Empire to keep his seat at the negotiating table regardless of the Emperor’s wishes. I can’t help but feel that it would be much easier to save lives were he to no longer be in a position to interfere.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes and sigh as the two sides yell past each other and ignore my pleas for calm. Once again, the folly of mortal leadership is made plain.

I trot slowly through the rocky cavern with all eight of my observers trailing behind, my horn aglow to provide our party with illumination. Simultaneously, I’m furiously writing down everything I observe about the crystalline formations around us, along with the surrounding bedrock, in addition to indulging in a little hypothesizing. I’ll admit that I’ve found a puzzle, and my instincts are to keep going until I solve it.

To put it bluntly, from what I’ve found in my investigations so far, these things don’t make any sense. The mineral composition of the surrounding rock is all wrong for forming these sorts of gem. In addition, the rocks of the Senadas are almost entirely igneous and do not seem to date back particularly long in geological terms, while the gems I’ve examined thus far are primarily metamorphic. This, in and of itself, is not particularly cause for more than a raised eyebrow, but from the mineral composition of the bedrock, I’ve been able to reliably conclude that the magma that formed these isles was ultramafic. That is, it had very low silica content. However, the gems I’ve examined have almost exclusively been silicates, including zircon, zoisite, titanite, enstatite, scapolite, pyrope, and sphalerite. This is very unusual, particularly as many of the impurities that allow the gorgeous crystalline structures around me to form do not exist in any substantial amounts in the surrounding bedrock. And magic doesn’t explain it, as magic gathers in crystals after their formation, and it doesn’t tend to transmute them in such a manner. Certainly not on such a large scale.

To put it simply: these things don’t look like they should be here. Yet here they are.

While my mission is supposed to entirely consist of getting an accurate read of the Senadas’ bounty for Princess Celestia’s conference, I confess that once you give me a mystery, I feel bound to solve it. Science demands it!

So, anyway, my observations on the growths around me continue to baffle my mind. All sorts of gems, precious and semiprecious, have taken shape around me. But there are so many different kinds of silicate, in such close proximity, that I don’t quite understand how they would have all formed like this in a silica-poor environment. The formations are quite prominent, often sticking out of the walls in their apparent eagerness to be seen by anypony walking through here.

Don’t be ridiculous, Twilight, rocks can’t be eager to be seen. Don’t personify nonsentient formations of mineral, it’s unscientific. I mean, sure, crystals can be grown for display, but that’s only in the Crystal Empire, and…

Wait… crystals can be grown for display…

I recall a quote from a rather famous novel, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Is it possible? Would somepony have somehow caused these things to sprout up in a rock in the middle of the ocean? But how? And why? Such a thing would make no sense, and the sheer magical power required… Maybe it was Discord? He hasn’t been around in a while, and this doesn’t seem his style after his reformation, but maybe it’s a remnant of his earlier antics? Like the plunderseeds in the Everfree Forest?

Hmmm…

I’ve only done rudimentary scans of the magic in these things so far, mostly to determine the average power level contained within. But maybe, if I looked deeper into the origins of this magic, I could see something about the origins of it. Oooh, how exciting!

I decide not to wait to return to my improvised laboratory aboard my boat. There are quite a few large formations that I can examine in the heart of their native environment right here, after all, and I’m more than practiced enough to do so. I choose a large, deep green crystal poking out of the wall for my target of study.

Walking up to it, I close my eyes and tap into my magic. The material world fades from view as the sight of the Aether replaces it. The flow of magic through the natural world surrounds me. I can see the energies of the earth – appearing to my mind’s eye as flowing brown streams of magic – flowing through the surrounding rocks, concentrating themselves in the crystal formations. It would look normal, if it the magic wasn’t pooling so thickly in spots I recognize as corresponding to the gems I could see in the real world.

My aetherial self, taking the rough form of an alicorn of blindingly bright violet magic, slowly reaches her hooves out to the closest of the magical pools. Slowly, carefully, I part the energies of the crystal, seeking for the source, the cause of the attraction that is causing these gems to swell with so much power.

Layer after layer of brown magic is carefully peeled away. As before, time in this realm is flexible and not always corresponding exactly to real time, so I’m not entirely certain how long I’ve been at it for. But even in the Aether, I can tell that a considerable amount of time is passing as I take this pool apart like a liquid onion. Currents of earth magic flow this way and that throughout the gem, and I set them aside one by one.

At last, I pull another strand of brown magic aside, and gaze in on what should be the core. It’s… more brown earth magic. A wave of disappointment crashes over me. That’s quite a boring answer, and…

Wait.

That’s not sensible. Like attracts like in free-flowing magic, yes, but not this powerfully. I glance around at the currents of earth magic flowing through the bedrock. They’re thin, and not particularly strong. They wouldn’t exert a pull this powerful on their own. Something else must be drawing magic into these crystals.

I reexamine the core, peering over it again and again. Nothing… Nothing… Nothing… Nothing… Nothing…. This is frustrating….

There!

On my twelfth recheck, I spot something. For just the slightest second, a tiny strand of red is visible amongst the flowing brown. It’s not something most would notice, but I would. I calculate the flow of the current in my head, guess where the red should be, and plunge my purple hooves in.

Gotcha!

I pull a squirming current of red magic from the gem’s pool. It seems to be actively resisting my pull, tugging back towards the place where it came from. For such a thin current, it’s very strong, and most ponies wouldn’t be able to keep a hold of it. But, not to be immodest, I’m one of the greatest spellcasters of all time, and I have the strength to force it to hold still while I examine it.

Now, my elusive little friend, let’s see what you are…

Identifying this takes me less than an instant. I gasp aloud, releasing the current in my shock. The current squirms itself back into the pool of earth magic, but I cease to care, returning my mind to the material world in my haste to report my discovery.

When I open my eyes, I find that the Gryphus and Prench delegates have occupied themselves in various manners, from pacing the cave to admiring the gems to resting against a rock.

“Dark magic,” I whisper aloud, panting with the exertions of my last actions. “Did you all hear me?!” I raise my voice and half shout at the delegates around me. “These things are the result of dark magic!” And that stuff isn’t natural. It wouldn’t show up here on its own. “Somepony made them!”

The gryphons and ponies glance at one another and… laugh?

The first to snicker is a pink-coated, blue-maned, golden-eyed Prench unicorn, who I recall is named Rosebud. She chuckles aloud, at first covering her mouth but rapidly giving up all efforts to do so. The laughter spreads from pony to pony, and from pony to gryphon, and soon everypony is laughing at me.

I’m flabbergasted. What is wrong with these folks? Didn’t they hear what I just said?

“Did you all not just listen to what I said?!” I demand of them. “These crystals are the creations of dark magic! They’re artificial! Somepony put them here, and I’m betting they wanted them to be found! Both of your countries are in danger!”

The chuckling continues, and I put a hoof over my face. Are these ponies stupid or just deaf or what? We need to warn-

My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of Rosebud’s voice.

“Right you are, princess.”

Huh?

I remove the hoof from my face, and look at the grinning pony who just spoke, meeting her gold eyes head on.

But her eyes aren’t gold anymore.

They’re green.

Old Enemy

My jaw drops. It couldn’t be. They’re extinct. Those that remained after Canterlot destroyed themselves in a civil war to claim the dead queen’s mantle. I’ve been through the weathered ruins of their hives. I’ve personally seen Queen Chrysalis’ sun-bleached body, recovered from where it fell in a crater in the badlands.

But it is.

The eight figures around me are enveloped in a sudden green fire. When it vanishes, I recognize in place of four ponies and four gryphons seven changeling drones and the larger, more obviously feminine silhouette of a changeling queen. The latter has the black chitin coat, long legs riddled with holes, ragged insect wings, semitransparent blue mane, green eyes, and long, pointed horn that mark her out as a royal amongst her kind.

I take a step backwards and swallow. “Chrysalis?” I ask, too stunned to think of anything else.

The queen narrows her eyes, as if the name angers her. “Not quite,” she lifts a hoof to her own chest. “Though I’m surprised you could mistake me for my mother, considering that you all murdered her!” The queen bares a mouth full of pointed teeth.

It’s the tone of apparently sincere outrage that motivates my next words. After all that Chrysalis did, from brainwashing and feeding on my brother to leaving Cadence to starve to death in the Canterlot Caves to invading Equestria unprovoked, her daughter has the nerve to be angry with us that she died of the fall?! She died because her own actions, we only ever defended ourselves.

“Queen Chrysalis died because she attacked us without provocation,” I respond, my voice hard. “We would have made peace had she been willing. As princess of Equestria, I now extend the same offer to you. Stand down and cease whatever scheme you have created, and I am sure we can find a way to live in harmony. Refuse, and I will have no choice but to defend myself.” I don’t expect her to accept, but as Princess of Friendship I would be remiss if I didn’t try to at least give her a chance.

“Make peace? With prey?! Hah!” She laughs, sounding remarkably like her mother. “When we are so close to our greatest triumph? I think not. Soon we will have our revenge and more love than we could ever need, and we’ll have no need to treat with my mother’s murderers.”

I narrow my eyes. “Very well.” I activate a spell to take me out of this place. If they’ve revealed themselves, logic says they must have at least some plan to defeat me, and in any case I’d much rather warn Princess Celestia than fight. With a flash of lavender, I vanish.

Or, at least I should have.

The spell fizzles on my horn, and I stay right where I am.

The changelings, led by the queen, snicker at my surprised expression. “What’s the matter, princess? Your little tricks not working today? Tsk tsk. Such a shame.”

“What did you do?” I demand, already trying to determine what just happened. I didn’t see any of the chitinous pseudo-equines cast a spell. So this place must have already been warded against teleportation.

The changeling queen laughs again, as the drones begin to spread out to encircle me. I back up a few steps, until my tail hits the wall. I’m already outnumbered and on enemy territory, I don’t need anypony stabbing me in the back. The queen advances directly towards me, grinning broadly. She’s now between me and the way out.

“Answer me!” I shout, though not yet in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

She shakes her head and smirks. “Now now, Twilight, didn’t Celestia teach you manners? That’s no way for a mere princess to address a queen.” Her horn, straight and full of holes, begins to glow with a light green.

In response, I activate my own magic and call a spherical, purple barrier into existence between myself and the surrounding bugs. “You’re no queen,” I answer. “A queen must earn the loyalty of her subjects and seek their good above her own. You’re just another tyrannical pretender leading whatever’s left of your people to their doom.” I address the drones. “Please, you all must see that your queen is mad! She is taking you down the same road to war that saw your society crumble and your last ruler perish! Abandon her, and I swear to you that I will personally find a place for you in Equestria and ensure that you are granted amnesty for whatever she’s had you do, no matter how long it takes!”

The drones look to each other, then to their queen, and then back at me again. They bare their fangs menacingly at me, as one.

“Please! Think about what you’re doing!” If they attack me, they’re likely to die in the effort, and I don’t want any bloodshed that can be avoided. “Do any of you truly believe that this will end any better for your people than last time? Leave her, and I promise you refuge. But if you attack me,” I set my face in a determined look. “I will defend myself.”

The queen laughs again. “Do you really think that will work? My children are far too clever to side with a relic of an age that is about to end against their own flesh and blood! No,” she shakes her head. “The changeling people know their ruler, and that ruler is Queen Ecdysis! Not some pitiful pony princess!”

Ecdysis: the act of molting or shedding an outer cuticular layer in many species of invertebrate. Apparently bug-themed names run in the family.

I shake my head sadly, but put on a firm expression. “Even if you best me here, you will not prevail, any more than did your mother.” I’ll admit that I’m a little afraid, but I’ve faced more frightening monsters than this one. “But you won’t win here, so the point is moot.”

“Enough talk!” Queen Ecdysis shouts, lowering her horn and unleashing a blast of green magic directly at me.

I return fire with a beam of my own magic. Green and lavender collide in between the two of us, and for just a moment are at perfect equilibrium. Then, slowly but surely, the purple magic begins to beat back the green, and the point of contact creeps closer and closer to the queen’s head. I grin.

“What are you all waiting for?!” the straining queen shrieks. “Attack her!”

The remaining seven changelings fire up their horns, and seven smaller blasts of green magic come hurling my way. I break off the contest with Ecdysis to reinforce my shield, as eight beams strike it as one. There’s an explosion upon contact, and through sheer kinetic force I’m hurled backwards into the rock wall, hard, and I feel one of the crystals shattering against my back. But my shield doesn’t break. There’s a bit of pain, and I think my skin might be broken at one point, but the actual damage is minimal. I can already feel the tiny wound in my flesh knitting itself.

I get back to my hooves in an instant, shaking off the dust covering my coat. While the smoke in front of me clears, I stand at my full height, flare my wings wide, and my eyes glow a solid white.

“CHANGELINGS!” my Royal Canterlot Voice booms out, echoing painfully in the confined cavern space. “YOU CANNOT WIN HERE! THIS IS YOUR LAST OPPORTUNITY TO SURRENDER, OR ELSE I WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO DEFEAT YOU!”

Some ponies would think that offering the enemy one more chance to give up after they’ve already attacked me is stupid, but I disagree. Friendship is a powerful force, such that even Discord could not resist its lure in the end. And these insects are hardly on his scale – Chrysalis could only defeat Celestia because the latter held back to spare her subjects, and because of the strength of my brother’s love for Cadence. Her daughter doesn’t have that, and I’ve grown very strong. After experiencing the limits of Queen Ecdysis and her minions’ combined strength, I’m confident in victory. But I would still prefer to avoid bloodshed, if at all possible.

“NEVER!” screeches the queen, pointing a hoof at me. “Get her!”

With far more loyalty than sense, the seven launch themselves at me, wings buzzing and a magical green shield appearing around their heads.

Very well then.

I concentrate, building energy and weaving my spell over the scant seconds it takes the queen’s minions to get near me. When they’re almost upon my barrier, it suddenly expands. Each and every changeling is hurled away from me with great force as my lavender sphere swells to envelope dozens of feet of ground. I’ve never been as proficient at shielding spells as my brother, but I’m no slouch.

Seven changelings are smashed against my magic like bugs on a window shield, and are carried backwards until they impact against the opposite bedrock wall of this cave. I can hear the sickening crunch of chitin cracking against stone. I hope that I didn’t just kill anypony, even if they did attack me first.

Alone among my opponents, Queen Ecdysis is able to stand firm in the face of my spell. Her eyes screwed tight and her teeth gritted, she holds her position and forces her way through my attack when the barrier sweeps over her. She is, however, pushed back several feet by the forces involved, and looks somewhat strained.

I don’t waste any more time calling for her surrender, opting instead to follow up by conjuring numerous tendrils of violet magic from the floor and sending them straight at the changeling queen. They spread out to wrap themselves around her and bind her for me, but Queen Ecdysis conjures another beam of green energy that severs the tendrils near their roots, disrupting the spell and causing the attack to fizzle out harmlessly before touching her. No matter. She’s starting to breathe hard, and I’m not.

I fire another blast of energy at the queen, which she dodges by flittering her ragged wings and taking to the air. The room for aerial maneuver in these tight quarters is limited, but I don’t intend to allow her even a chance to do so. I flap my own wings in broad, powerful strokes, calling on the pegasus magic within me to stir up the stagnant cavern air into a powerful wind capable of blowing Ecdysis away like a leaf in a storm. A localized air current with all the force of a light hurricane hurdles at the changeling.

Queen Ecdysis hurriedly wraps herself in a bubble of deep green energy, meeting my attack head on. The force of it is enough to push her back some way, but her magic does its job and my wind does little damage. But when it’s gone, the queen is openly panting, while I’m just barely starting to sweat. She’s weaker than I thought – she must not have been feeding well recently. No surprise, if she’s been keeping to the shadows and impersonating staff at a hostile international conference. Somehow, I can’t find too much sympathy for her plight. She’s brought it down on herself.

Like mother, like daughter, I suppose.

“Care to give up?” I ask, extending a hoof of mercy yet again, as Princess Celestia taught. “I’m still willing to accept your surrender.”

Ecdysis sets herself down on the cave floor, still looking winded, but her gritted teeth and hateful expression answer my question for me.

“As you wish then,” I fire another violet beam of magic at her. The queen dodges gracelessly, throwing herself to the side and stumbling over a crystal outgrowth on the floor. Before she can recover, I seize her in telekinesis and pin her against the nearest wall. Ecdysis struggles furiously, but can’t break my hold on her body.

I approach her cautiously. “You lose,” I declare authoritatively. “Whatever plan you had is finished. Come quietly and I will still promise you greater leniency than you will otherwise receive-”

I’m interrupted by the changeling. “Enough of this!” Queen Ecdysis roars, lighting her horn up with magic again, even in my magical grip. I raise my shield again, but she fires upwards, at… the ceiling?

No, her magic hit one of the crystals, and it’s… glowing?

But not green, like the queen’s magic. The crystal on the ceiling is glowing red. In fact… I catch something in the periphery of my vision. Some of the other crystals are starting to glow red as well. No, not some of them. All of them.

Uh oh.

Before I can reinforce my magical barrier, each and every one of the crystals that surrounds us discharges a thin stream of red magic directly at me. That wouldn’t be so bad, except that there hundreds of them. My defenses are overwhelmed in less than a heartbeat, and I’m hit directly.

Agony wracks my body as the magic courses through it. All my appendages stand on edge as my nerves go haywire, ignoring my mental commands to do something. My mouth opens to scream, but no sound comes out. I feel like my insides are fire. My coat and mane are actually on fire. Inside me, bones snap, tendons break, muscles strain themselves to bursting. Blood literally boils inside my arteries under the assault of dark magic. The rest of the world vanishes, irrelevant next to the white-hot agony engulfing the totality of my mind.

I don’t know how long it lasts. Time ceases to have meaning, my brain fully occupied with the task of trying to perceive just how much pain that I am in. And then the magic reaches all the way in there as well, killing off the pain receptors and leaving me curiously numb as just about every component in my anatomy that is capable of being damaged is so afflicted.

With no warning, the storm is over, and I collapse limply to the ground like a puppet with her strings cut. I can’t feel much of anything, but my vision gradually returns. I can see that my legs are twisted underneath me at unnatural angles, which would have broken them on their own if they weren’t already shattered by the surge of dark magic. My lavender coat has been burnt off, and much of my skin is black or red with burns. My carefully preened feathers, naturally, are also gone.

A hoof reaches under my chin and pulls my head upwards. I look where directed, to see… myself, as I was not long ago, grinning down at me with a triumphant smirk on her face. Gods, I hope I don’t really look that malicious when I smile.

“Now, what was that about accepting my surrender?” Queen Ecdysis – or so I presume, my rational mind tells me that it could just as easily be any of her minions that survive – says mockingly.

I won’t rise to the bait. My lungs and throat are incredibly damaged, but already the magic that’s kept me alive despite these fatal injuries has done a bit of repair work. With effort, I can force out a few words.

“Had to cheat… beat me… I am… youngest alicorn… Celestia….” Talking isn’t easy, but I manage.

“Oh, don’t you worry about your pretty little sun princess. We have plans to deal with her.”

Of course they do. How successful these will be remains to be-

Wait.

“We?” I ask, my insatiable curiosity urging me on even now.

Ecdysis’ smile grows wider. “Yes, we. Another old friend of yours, you might say. In fact,” her eyes shift momentarily, looking at something that’s behind my limp form. “It would seem that he’s eager to see you again.”

Huh? Who’s eager to see me? Old friend? Don’t tell me Discord has gone bad again.

My question is answered and a thousand others are raised when a second figure steps into my field of vision. His body is smoky and the outline is inconsistent, but I still recognize the one before me instantaneously. But that can’t be right. Can it?

Why not? The changelings were supposed to be gone as well.

“Sombra…”

Failure

I rise to my hooves as my old student enters my guest chambers in Ostflugel, a smile on her face.

“Princess Celestia!” says Twilight Sparkle, her eyes alight with the endearing adoration that a filly shows her mother. Some things never change, which I find quite comforting.

The warm smile I give her is, for once, completely genuine. “Now, you know that there is no need to be so formal with me, Princess Twilight,” I remind her as we hug.

“I know, I know,” she scratches the back of her head awkwardly. “But, you know, old habits die hard and all that.”

“Indeed they do,” I smile again. “But I am certain that you can overcome this small problem with a little more time. You are Twilight Sparkle, one of the most talented mares that I have ever had the privilege to know.”

She blushes at me praise, smiling up at me. Ah, still so young, so trusting. What would she think of me if she knew of everything I’ve ever done? Hopefully, that is a question that I will never have to answer. I’ve worked hard to preserve her innocence for all this time, as it has always been a trait I find desirable in my little ponies. If I get my wish, she will never have to face the cruelest realities of rule. I should hope I don’t grow as attached to my future grandnieces and nephews. I don’t think I could bear to send a pony like Twilight out into the world to usurp a nation. A flaw, I know – a ruler should always be ready to do anything and everything for her subjects’ well-being.

We hold our hug for a few more seconds before I release her and sit down on a sofa, bidding her to do the same. She sits down across from me, and I pick up my tea cup.

“I know that you’ve had a long journey,” I say, taking a small sip. “Would you care for anything? Tea? Cocoa?” I give a knowing smile. “A hayburger? I made certain that they are available even here.”

“No thank you,” she shakes her head. “I’m not hungry right now.”

“You didn’t miss any meals on my behalf, I hope? I know that this was a demanding task to suddenly spring on you…”

“Oh no, it was fine! I’m always happy to do my part!”

What a giving spirit. Would that all ponies had such an attitude towards duty.

“Still, I must apologize for eating up so much of your valuable time,” I take another sip of tea, remembering with distaste the frustrating lead up to my request. “If there had been anypony else that they would have believed, anypony at all…” I shake my head. “Both sides were so worried about the potential political alignment of the geologist that they could agree nothing short of an alicorn princess. And of us all, I knew that you would be the best suited.”

Twilight blushes again. “Really, Prin- Celestia, it was no trouble at all! I was helping to save lives, and I’m always available if you need me.”

“Now, I believe that you have a report for us?”

Twilight nods, reaching into her saddle bag with magic and pulling out a binder, which she promptly levitates over to me.

I open it to find a well-ordered, sixty-page report on the geology of the Senadas, complete with table of contents, diagrams, and footnotes. That’s my old student, alright. I smile nostalgically while I flip through it and enjoy a little more of my tea. When my eyes fall on certain figures, however, I have to resist the sudden urge to spew my drink all over this research.

“Twilight,” I ask, after being certain that I have swallowed my tea. “Are you sure these estimates are accurate?” I turn the binder to show her what I am speaking of.

She frowns and looks worried. “I calculated them to within 96.3% probability of falling within the standard deviation noted.” Her worried expression grows. “Did I do something wrong? Is there a mistake?! Did I make some mathematical error?! Lives are at stake! Oh no, this is horrible, I have to-”

“Twilight,” I cut her off before she can work herself into a frenzy. “You have not made any errors in your calculations that I can see. It is just that…” I pause to word it carefully. “These estimates of the total magical gem deposits are larger than I was expecting.”

That’s understating it. If Twilight’s report is to be believed, the Senadas have more than triple the amount of magical gemstone deposits than my servants’ most generous projections suggested. But of course she’s right. This is Twilight – she is far more studied and talented anypony else I know, and I do not lie when I say that I have total faith in her abilities. I shall have to have words with the geologists in my employ. Perhaps I will even need to clean out that department somewhat, if they failed me this utterly.

I dismiss the idea of putting a hoof over my face, but I do sigh. This is just grand. If everypony was on edge before, negotiating a peaceful solution will be a nightmare now that the prize has been shown to be that much more valuable to whoever claims it. The temptation to out and out seize the isles will be that much the greater.

Twilight still looks worried. “Is this not what you wanted, Celestia?”

I shake my head. “No, Twilight. You did well. I simply wish that things were not as they are.”

“Oh…” she hangs her head, looking a bit sad.

“Each delegation has already reviewed and received a copy of this report, correct?” I ask, just to be certain.

Twilight nods her confirmation. “They did. They were very insistent on it.”

I sigh again. Wonderful. I thought that they would. So I can’t even consider trying to change some of the numbers to make outright conquest seem less appealing. I don’t know if I would, with Twilight’s reputation at stake, but not even having the option is something of an irritant.

“You think this will make them more likely to fight?” Twilight asks me after a moment of silence. “I was hoping that when they see how much there is to go around, they’d realize that they could split the isles comfortably and still each benefit greatly.”

And this is why I try to take on all duties revolving around international politics. Outside of Equestria, things are not quite as peaceful and optimistic as they are at home. Friendship is magic, but there is a power to irrational pride and short-sighted greed as well. Not everything can be made better with kindness, at least so long as successive generations of egotists and fools hold the reigns of nations.

“Twilight,” I say gently. “Know that you have done nothing wrong. You have accomplished in mere days what it would take another pony months to do, without help. While things have not resolved quite as I had hoped, none of the blame for it lies with you.” I walk over to where she sits and embrace my old pupil again, determined that she should not blame herself for anything that may happen in these next days. “I am proud of you, as I always have been.”

Twilight sniffs and looks up at me. “Do you mean it, Princess?”

I stroke her mane. “Of course I do.”

Twilight Sparkle smiles a little.

“Unacceptable!” Foreign Minister Morning Glory, the ranking member of the Prench delegation, beyond Premier Radiant Light, yells out, banging her hoof against the table. “Simply unacceptable! The ponies of Prance will not cede one inch of our soil to a foreign aggressor!”

“Quite right!” comes the sound of the Premier himself.

“Aggressor?!” Speaker Etton sputters with outrage. “You are the clear aggressor in this situation! Your claims on our isles clearly violate all accepted international norms regarding the governance and legal transfer of territory between-”

“Lies!” the mare snaps back, looking equally as fierce. Pity, I had hopes for her as one of the more level-headed members of her side. It seems as though the new bounty on display has, as I feared, riled up already enflamed passions. “Our government possesses full legal sovereignty over the isles by the terms of Treaty of Maresailles, as agreed to by-”

“A treasonous faction that never possessed lawful jurisdiction over any of the Empire’s territories to begin with! You have no case!” a female gryphon by the name of Cielda snarls over at the Prench.

I resist the urge to facehoof, for dignity is important for royalty.

Not that I am not tempted.

This is the third shouting match that we have gotten into this morning! For the love of all the gods, can you squabbling children not calm yourselves for ten minutes so that we can find some common ground between you? This is something I would expect of foals, but you sorry bunch are supposed to be the leaders of your people! To put their wellbeing ahead of your ego-stroking! Does the prospect of gain really blind you so completely to how utterly senseless you are becoming?

“Ladies and gentlecolts, please-” I try to interject, only to be drowned out by the voices of almost two dozen other creatures, all spewing venom at one another.

Beside me, Twilight Sparkle is looking thoroughly dejected. She wished to come and see the results of her work for herself, and this is what it has gotten her. I tried to warn her away, but she was so eager… I couldn’t say no in the end. And now she is looking miserable and becoming more so with every passing second. I hate to see the pony I care for more than almost anypony else in such pain. My instincts are to hug my old student comfortingly, followed shortly by breaking the necks of everypony in this room. This group should feel glad that I am no mindless animal, to follow every whim that I have.

But I am rapidly reaching my wit’s end. My own emotions are irrelevant and can be sacrificed for the good of others, but hurting Twilight Sparkle in this manner… it simply will not do. I will not permit it to continue any longer.

Reaching deep inside myself, I call on my Royal Canterlot Voice.

“SILENCE!!!”

The sound of my voice is loud enough to send papers flying in every direction, force everypony to cease arguing in order to cover their ears, and even bowl over some of those closest. Even Twilight feels the need to fold her ears behind her head.

My command is obeyed, everypony in the room shutting their mouths and gazing up at me with various expressions of meekness, fear, awe, or hostility. Only the Emperor seems to be relatively indifferent.

“ENOUGH OF THIS!” I continue, still blasting at their eardrums. “YOU ARE NEITHER CHICKS NOR FOALS, AND YOU WILL CEASE ACTING AS THOUGH YOU WERE!”

Speaker Etton finds his voice again. “I will not be insulted by-”

“YOU WILL BE SILENT!”

Under that assault of noise, even he must back down, at least for some time.

“Now,” I say, once I have everypony’s total attention, allowing the deafening tone to slip away. “You have invited me here in good faith to mediate a peace between your nations. It is my full intention to do so. I wish for nothing more than that both of your nations should share in the bounty that nature offers you. But,” I pause. “This requires that you are both willing to settle your differences reasonably, like adults. If all that you wish to do is shout at one another for the rest of your days, like errant children, then this conference is pointless and we should all go home. So, tell me,” I stare hard into the eyes of each and every delegate across the room, my eyes blazing with the power of the sun. “Which is it?”

Everypony seems to be looking at their hooves. Premier Light tugs at his collar nervously. Morning Glory looks down at a sheet of papers in front of her, pretending to shuffle them. Emperor Serath puts a talon under his chin, scratching it in a thoughtful manner. Even Speaker Etton seems to have been somewhat muted by my display, for he looks away from me and into the eyes of a female gryphon named Scalia beside him. She turns her head to meet his, and I lose sight of her face from this angle.

“So,” I continue after a time, allowing my conjured aura to fade away into nothingness, the glow of my eyes dimming into the usual violet. “I take it that your silence means that you are all willing to listen to reason and discuss this issue like-”

“NO!”

All eyes, including mine, swivel to focus on the source of the interruption. To my complete lack of surprise, it is Speaker Etton
.

“No, I won’t stand for it any longer!” He looks to Emperor Serath. “Your majesty, you see how this mare insults us?! Drags our name through the mud! And then has the audacity to order us around – as a guest in our city, no less – as though we were some of her pathetic, mewling, sycophantic-”

There’s another interruption. This time it comes from the Prench MP Righteous Judgment, whom I recall was a member of the delegation that accompanied Twilight's geological study so recently.

“You will show Lady Celestia more respect, bird,” he snarls in a surprisingly angry tone.

I think back through my files on these ponies… oh yes, he is member of Church of the Two Sisters in Prance, as I recall. Fervency runs in his family, according to my information.

“Your majesty!” Etton continues to Emperor Serath, half pleading and half raging. “You must see what is happening here! We-”

“Enough,” the old gryphon Emperor speaks at last, to his Speaker. “I have had enough. You are endangering our chances for a peaceful solution to this crisis. I want you out, this instant!”

Thank you! I knew that I liked that gryphon.

Etton narrows his eyes. “So…” he says in a menacing tone. “Even our Emperor will not defend the honor of the Gryphus Empire against those foreigners who conspire to take it from us!” He stands up out of his chair. “Very well, your majesty, I shall leave. But be assured that the Imperial Senate will be hearing about this act of treachery!”

Snarling, Speaker Etton moves to leave. Righteous Judgment, to my surprise, gets up and imposes himself between the gryphon and the door.

“You will not leave,” the Prench pony says. “Not without an apology to Lady Celestia,” he nods at me. “I will not permit you to dishonor her so.”

“It is alright,” I begin. “I do not require any such-”

“I am Speaker of the Imperial Senate of the Gryphus Empire! I will not be ordered about by some filthy Prench alicorn ass-kisser!” Etton snaps back before I can finish my statement.

“You will apologize to the Goddess of the Sun on your knees, you scheibe esser!” Judgment’s last words are in the tongue of the gryphons, all of whom gasp. That’s a terribly serious insult in the honor-bound Imperial culture.

Speaker Etton stands still for half a second, quivering with rage. Then, before I get the chance to say anything else, he smacks the Prench pony hard across the face with his claw.

“Enough of this!” calls out Emperor Serath. “Guards! Break this up!”

Two armored gryphons move forward to obey their ruler’s orders. But Righteous Judgment is quicker.

With a great cry, he smashes his hoof into the side of Speaker Etton’s skull with such force that it sends the gryphon flying. His head impacts on the stone wall carved from the mountain, and the Speaker slumps slowly to the floor. Everypony can see the trail of red he leaves behind. My student gives a strangled gasp of horror.

Both guards hurriedly converge on the downed Speaker. Twilight vanishes from my side, reappearing above the gryphon's limp form. The Prench pony also takes a step forward, only to find himself enveloped in my magic. This has gone too far, and I have let these fools play at diplomacy for far too long.

Twilight invokes a healing spell with a panicked look on her face. A warm purple glow washes over Etton... and nothing happens. Tears start to fall from her eyes as she tries again and again, with the same results. One of the gryphon guards puts a talon on Etton’s neck, checking his pulse. After a moment, she puts the same talon over his chest, where his heart would be. I doubt I am the only one who notices the conspicuous lack of breathing.

“He’s dead…” gasps the gryphon in question. She looks up, straight to her Emperor. “He’s dead! The Speaker has been killed!”

“Murder!” screeches Scalia, the gryphoness who had been seated beside Speaker Etton. “Murder!” she points a talon at Righteous Judgment. “Arrest him!”

The guards look to Emperor Serath, who nods. They seize the immobile pony between them when I duly release my magical grip.

“Take him away,” says the Emperor. “He must face justice for this.”

“NO!” cries Morning Glory. “He is a duly registered diplomat of Prance and enjoys the full immunities thereof! You cannot arrest him!”

The guards hesitate in dragging their captive out the door, waiting to hear Emperor Serath’s response. The old gryphon looks over to the middle-aged mare, and the somewhat older stallion beside her.

“Well?” he says.

Premier Radiant Light looks at his Foreign Minister’s eyes for a moment, then faces the Emperor.

“Under the terms of diplomatic relations duly agreed to by both Prench and Imperial governments, neither side possesses the right to arrest, confine, or otherwise apply pressure to one another’s diplomats,” he says, somewhat cautiously.

“That’s correct,” says Serath. “But you can arrest him. You saw the crime with your own eyes. He must face due punishment for the murder of our Speaker, however much I disliked him. Honor demands it.”

“What I saw,” Light continues, “Was that your Speaker assaulted a representative of our Parliament for a petty insult, for which he defended himself.”

“Whatever the Speaker’s actions, your stallion clearly used disproportionate force that resulted directly in the death of a ranking member of our government.” Serath shakes his head. “You know that such a crime cannot go unanswered.” He sighs. “In accordance with my role as Protector of the Empire, I formally demand the arrest of Member of Parliament Righteous Judgment and his immediate extradition to the Gryphus Empire to await trial on charges of murder.”

Light snorts. “Trial? You know as well as I what a farce such a thing would be here. I will not permit an official of our government to be put through some kangaroo court and slaughtered. He is a Prench citizen, and as such will be duly tried in a Prench court. You will have the opportunity to testify against him, if you should wish.”

“Unacceptable,” Serath says, staring harshly at his counterpart. “He killed our official, he will be tried here… or else.”

Light meets the gryphon emperor’s gaze head-on. “Or else what?”

“Gentlecolts, please,” I say, trying to interject myself. “There is no need to resort to threats. That that pony must answer for his actions is clear to all of us, surely we can work out where he is to stand trial without compromising our chances of peace. Or do the lives of thousands of your own soldiers mean so little to you?”

“Or else,” Serath continues, pointedly ignoring me. “I will have no choice but to declare war in his name. The Imperial Senate would never permit me to act otherwise.”

“The sacred honor of Prance will not be impugned by surrendering one of our MPs to be killed by some foreign government!” Light declares resolutely. The Prench delegation around him cheers and applauds.

“Don’t do this!” I plead. “You’ll see thousands dead to avenge one!” I look Emperor Serath in the eyes. “Do you think war will bring him back?” I meet Radiant Light's eyes as well. "Is the location of a trial really worth the blood of so many of your land's sons and daughters?"

Again, the two ignore me.

“Then it is war,” says Emperor Serath, in a completely flat tone.

“So it is,” agrees Premier Radiant Light.

I face hoof.

Visitors

“Come on!” my wife encourages me. “You can do this! Broad beats, up and down! Come on!” her purple tipped wings flare wide in a display. “If I can do that, so can you!”

“Easy for you to say from all the way down there,” I mutter under my breath.

Cadence’s sensitive ear twitches. “What was that, soldier?”

“Nothing, madam drill sergeant!”

Beating her long wings to take to the air, she easily ascends to where I’m struggling to control my flight path. I switch to the rapid wing beats needed for hovering, trying not to pitch forward again in the unfamiliar position.

“Are you saying that I’m lazy?” Cadence manages to sneak up on me while I’m concentrating on staying upright. “Are you accusing me of slacking off?”

“Ma’am, no ma’am!” I manage to snap off a salute, though I wobble in the air as my leg gets a bit too close to my wings and the two limbs collide. I just barely avoid plummeting to the ground while resynchronizing my wings.

“Then do you think I’m a bad teacher?” my wife circles me in the sky, making me feel remarkably like a fish being stalked by a shark. “Or maybe you think that I can’t fly as well as you can. Is that it? Do you think that, private?!”

“Ma’am, no ma’am!” I answer again, with slightly more vigor this time.

“Where was your salute? I didn’t see you salute your superior officer, soldier!”

I make another salute, this time managing to avoid my frantically beating wings. Cadence gives me a satisfied nod and, dropping the drill sergeant persona for a moment, a reassuring smile.

“You’re doing great, honey,” she whispers into my ear. “Now watch me and do what I do.”

“Ma’am, yes ma’am!”

Cadence gives a slight giggle before her face goes stern again. With several powerful beats of her long wings, she ascends even further into the sky, nearing the lowest clouds. She hovers there for a moment, looks down at me, and gives a wink. Then she tucks her wings in and dives.

Cadence plummets towards the ground like a missile, and for half a second my heart leaps into my throat at the thought of her impacting. But she opens her wings again well above the green field beneath us. With long, slow beats she levels herself out before holding her wings wide and gliding through the air. Cadence glides in wide circles, gradually descending nearer and nearer the ground before her hooves hit dirt. She makes a running – or, rather, light trotting – landing, coming to a halt after a few long steps.

My wife looks up at me with a slight smirk on her face. “Your turn.”

I swallow, but push myself upwards with several frantic beats of my wings. I’ll admit I’m not as graceful as Cadence, but give a stallion a break. I’ve been at this for a few days. She’s had hundreds of years to perfect her technique.

From the peak of my ascent, I too tuck in my wings and let gravity take hold. I plunge like a rock, cold wind whipping hard against my body. I can’t hear anything above the rush of air in my ears, and I wonder how I’m supposed to judge when to open my wings. Real quick on the uptake, aren’t you Shiny?

Buck it, I’d rather glide too long than crash.

I angle my dive and slowly force my wings back open again. The air whipping past me struggles to keep them pinned to my side, but thankfully I manage. With more strokes than are probably necessary, I pull out of the headlong descent and achieve something vaguely resembling a glide. Feeling somewhat proud of myself, I spare a glance at the ground below. Way, way, below. I’m far higher than Cadence was at this point.

Damn.

To add insult to injury, I think I can make out my wife’s pink form covering her mouth with one hoof and shaking. Like she’s giggling at me. My cheeks turn red as I realize I must look like more than a bit of scaredy-pony, breaking the fall so high off the ground.

Ok, I am not going be humiliated like this. With a snort, I fold my wings back in and take another plunge. Once again, the wind whips by and chills me through my coat while drowning out all sounds but itself. This time, I keep a careful eye on the ground, which grows larger and more detailed with each passing second. I want to get a bit closer before pulling off the landing.

Wait for it… wait for it…

I could swear I hear something faint in my ears, but when I adjust to listen better all I catch is more wind. Huh. Whatever.

Wait for it…

I jerk open my wings again not even a hundred feet above the field, again trying to angle my dive. I take a few wing beats and begin to glide and… why is the ground so close?

Oh sh-

And then I plow face first into the ground. Grass and topsoil fill my vision as my muzzle plunges into the earth, carving a small furrow into the soil as I keep going. The earth here isn’t that soft, and quickly arrests the momentum of my face. The rest of me is not quite so lucky. My backside carries itself up and over the rest of me, slamming down hard onto the dirt.

I lie there for some time, in a bit of a daze. My white coat is covered in brown and my limbs are splayed out, but strangely I’m not feeling a lot of pain. My mind tells me that that should have hurt a lot worse than it actually did, but I don’t think it even broke the skin on my face. Really, I’m just feeling a little frazzled and somewhat irritated with myself.

“Shining? Are you alright?”

Oh, and embarrassed. Don’t forget embarrassed.

My cheeks once again flush with blood, I scramble hurriedly back to my hooves at Cadence’s approach, shaking myself a little to get rid of the worst of the dirt.

“Never better,” I answer with a cocksure grin, to which she giggles.

“Then let’s get you cleaned off,” she says, flapping her wings in place. The gentle winter breeze is amplified to a bitter wind, but it quickly blows the bulk of the debris off of me, leaving my coat only slightly stained brown. Satisfied, Cadence tucks her wings back against her side. “Are you up for trying again?” she asks me.

“I could do this all day,” I declare.

“Oh really?” she smirks. “Perhaps I’ve been going too easy on my soldier then.”

“Try me.”

“Oh I will. You can bet your last – Shining?” Cadence looks at my face, and then turns her head to follow the trail my eyes are taking.

Up in the sky are two winged shapes, clearly headed this way. As they grow closer, my eyes can pick out their colors: white with a rainbow mane, and lavender with a dark purple mane.

I grin widely and wave. Cadence’s wings twitch slightly, but she does the same a moment later.

The two ponies glide gently to the ground, making a much better landing than I did.

“Hello,” says Princess Celestia. “I do hope that we aren’t interrupting.”

I bite back my first impulse – to snarl angrily and demand that the witch leave my kingdom – for the sake of the siblings Sparkle. Instead, I force a smile onto my muzzle and shake my head.

“Of course not, Auntie,” I manage a distantly polite tone. My smile becomes at least somewhat genuine when Twilight bends her knees in our all-too-familiar greeting ritual:

We wiggle our rumps at one another and giggle foolishly. My smile is for just an instant entirely unforced. It’s been far too long since we’ve done this, I think.

And then my happiness fades as I once again have eyes for my aunt. She’s smiling down at us with that oh so perfect “benevolent princess” look on her face. When I was younger, that face was my comfort on more than a few occasions. Now it just looks like a hollow mockery to me, a pretty face to hide the ugliness inside.

I haven’t forgotten what you’ve done to me, Celestia. You may have duped everypony else, but I see you for who you are.

“Twily!”

“BBBFF!” Twilight, with boundless enthusiasm, rushes to embrace her brother, bowling him back over into the dirt. The two hug warmly for a long moment, before he gives her mane a playful noogie and they laugh.

“It is good to see you, Cadence,” Celestia’s voice cuts in.

I’m forced to return my attentions to the eldest of our kind. “You too, Aunt Celestia.”

She opens a leg invitingly. “Come here and give this old mare a hug.”

I repress my urge to vomit and wrap my forelegs around my aunt. She does the same to me. Though her heart is ice, her body is warm, and her coat is soft. She smells faintly of rosemary and cinnamon, an odd but not unpleasant combination.

She rubs my back gently, and I’ll admit that it feels nice. “You have done well, niece,” she whispers into my left ear in the faintest of voices. “You should be proud.”

And then I am released to stare up at the beautiful goddess of the sun. Once more, she smiles at me without a hint of malevolence. Once again, my stomach churns at the sight.

I tear my eyes from her to look at reunion of my favorite siblings in the world. Shining has managed to hoist Twilight off her hooves and is twirling her around like she was a filly, to which she is squealing happily. It’s childish, but so many of life’s simplest pleasures are. In any case, he sets her back down on the ground momentarily. I smile at the sight.

“Shining Armor,” Auntie takes a few steps around me and towards the two. I fight the urge to interpose myself.

Shining gives his sister one more quick hug before pivoting on the spot to meet her gaze. The two are now about the same height, he having perhaps half an inch on her, at most.

“Celestia,” his tone is far warmer than I would like.

“Please, accept my congratulations on your ascension,” Celestia says in a motherly way. “And,” to my surprise, she crosses a foreleg over her chest and bows her head. “Please accept my apologies.”

“Apologies?” he raises an eyebrow. “For what?”

“For my attempts to convince you to move on,” she sighs and looks guilty, keeping her head low but looking up at him with her purple eyes. “I feared that you endangered yourself and others by your continued existence on this plane. I worried that you were inadvertently hurting my niece. But now I know better.”

“You do?”

She nods. “You could never have ascended were you undeserving. You have proven all my doubts about you wrong, cast away the dangers of your false form, and in the process shown yourself to be a worthy prince.” Celestia smiles. “I could not think of a better co-ruler for the Crystal Empire than yourself.”

He blushes slightly. “I don’t know about that. Cadence did all-”

Celestia interrupts with a warm chuckle. “Of course she helped you. Did you think I had nothing to do with Twilight’s ascension? That I did not do everything I could to facilitate it? I gave her what she needed. But in the end, it was she who earned it, as have you. The Crystal Heart would never have blessed the process if you had not.”

“I see,” he says, looking uncertain.

Shining still has some issues with self-confidence, but I’m certain that we can work those out. We have all the time in the world, after all.

“So, Shining Armor,” Celestia bows her head again. “Will you please accept my apologies?” she looks up. “And my friendship?”

I want to scream out, to tell him that this is a trick. To tell him that she’s a monster who almost killed him; that she’s already set up provisions to rob our future cradle. But I can’t do that, so there’s nothing left for me but to silently plead that he’ll see through it.

“Hmmm…” Shining taps a hoof on the bottom of his chin. Celestia looks at him with sorrowful eyes. “You only ever wanted the best for us, I know that. But you made a mistake.”

“I am aware,” she says. “And I am sorry.”

He sighs. “You swear you won’t try it again?”

“You have my word,” she nods.

Shining smiles reassuringly. “Then how could I hold it against you? Gods know I’ve had my share of screw-ups over the years, but the ponies I love have always forgiven me. You always forgave me when I failed in my duties as Captain. How could I do anything else to you?”

“From the bottom of my heart, thank you,” Celestia smiles, and the two white alicorns embrace one another.

Though my face is smiling, my heart is sinking.

The rest of the afternoon and evening seems to go by at a snail’s pace. When I eventually resume trying to teach Shining how to fly, I can’t help but get distracted by the continued presence of my aunt, and we wind up returning home for dinner earlier than I’d planned. Celestia takes the opportunity to ask if she can stay the night, and of course being a good little niece I have no real choice but to comply. Dinner winds up being a long and rather depressing discussion of the failed peace conference and political implications thereof. I can’t even take pleasure in Celestia failing at something, because of the consequences of it. Living beings are going to die – have already died – and it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. She asks that if we should be in a position to help those widowed and orphaned by the conflict, might we do so? For once, I’m totally sincere in saying that we’ll help her.

After our meal, the siblings Sparkle head off their own way, as do I. I’d like to be alone to stew in anger and guilt for a time, and perhaps indulge in revenge fantasies where nopony can see. Perhaps a walk through our greenhouse gardens will do.

Getting to the garden is no problem. I step inside and immediately feel the change on my skin. It may be chilly outside, but in here it’s warm and wet. The plants are as green and leafy as they always are, and I can even see some flowers blooming. That purple moth orchid in particular is looking tasty. If I hadn’t just eaten, I’d probably take a bite. As it is, I content myself with a sniff and move on.

“Cadence?”

Really? Now?! Does she have some compulsion to spoil everything I do?

At least when we’re alone I don’t have to pretend to be friendly.

“What?” I answer gruffly, without bothering to face my aunt. “What do you want?”

“I merely wish to offer you my sincere congratulations on your splendid success.”

“Oooh yeah, ‘Congratulations on completing the task I enslaved you to do’. Yeah, real wonderful. I feel sooo much better now.”

“You should be proud of yourself, Mi Amore Cadenza. I for one am very impressed.”

“I don’t give a damn.”

Celestia is now at my right side, her stride easily matching mine. I turn my head in the opposite direction and stare at the plants as they go by.

She leans her head over and speaks softly into my ear. “Believe it or not, I am quite happy that any further bloodshed has been avoided,” she sighs before continuing. “There is quite enough of that as it is.”

I snort. “You mean that you’re happy that I’m going to be your good little foal factory. If you cared about bloodshed you wouldn’t have started this in the first place.”

“That is the trouble with you, Cadence,” she replies. “You have never learned how to prioritize the big picture over the little ones. If eliminating one prevents the loss of dozens… hundreds… thousands… is it not the right thing to do? Even if that one is personally important to you?”

“Don’t try and justify the unprovoked assassination attempt against a pony who had always been loyal to you.”

“I did what I believed that I needed to do with all the information I had. This all could have been avoided if you had simply told me what you intended from the start. I thought you meant to keep him that way for all eternity.”

My lips curl back into a snarl, and I swing my head around to face her. “Now you’re saying it’s my fault that you tried to murder my husband?!”

Celestia’s face is impassive and infuriatingly calm. “No. The decision was mine, and I accept total responsibility for it and for all the consequences thereof, as any good ruler should.”

Real subtle there, Celestia.

“Quit being passive-aggressive and just tell me what you want already. You wouldn’t have sought me out alone if you didn’t want something.”

“Very well. I simply wished to ask a few questions about the method you used.”

“Fine,” I answer, concealing my nerves.

What I told her in my letters was that the information I used to create the ascension ritual “came from the same source” as the notes, which apparently was true enough not to get my brain wiped. I’m seriously hoping that she didn’t notice the weasel wording.

“You used Elysium’s bones as the base for this body, correct?”

I nod.

Celestia sighs mournfully and looks down. “I had hoped to bury her…” she shakes her head. “But it was for the best.” She looks up again. “Your creation also required Shining Armor’s mortal remains, did it not?”

“It did.”

Why is she asking me this? She knows full well what I did.

“You defiled his grave in the dead of night to dig up moldy unicorn bones.”

My ears fold back and I lower my head as a fresh wave of guilt washes over me. “Yes.”

The corner of Celestia’s mouth twitches. “The ends justified the means, did they not?”

I hesitate. “…I’m not answering that.”

There’s a twinkle in her eye. “So be it. Tell me, then: are you certain that a full alicorn skeleton was required? Could it be done with less?”

“Not as far as I know,” I answer. “Why?”

“I was just thinking,” she looks at her own legs. “I do not have any remains of our kind… but I do have bones. It is not as though I could not grow most of them back.”

Ok, that’s…. alright, it’s not so different from what I tried with growing organs at one point. Shut up.

Celestia continues. “Tell me about the Crystal Heart. You described your interaction with it in vague terms. I want to hear more.”

I hesitate, remembering the long hours I spent pleading with the heart. “It was… reluctant,” I say at last. “It didn’t seem to want to give up that much energy. I needed to coax it into going along with my idea.”

“Did it actually speak to you?”

I shake my head. “No, I just felt… emotions. No words, just impressions.”

“How did you convince it to surrender its strength to power your spell?”

“… Love. I spent a long time showing it the love we shared for each, the dedication we both felt to the Crystal Empire. It’s an artifact of love and joy and positive emotions, how could it resist? I fed it our love for one another and our subjects until it gave me what I wanted. I still got the impression that it wasn’t terribly fond of the idea of draining itself so much.”

“Interesting…” Celestia looks thoughtful. “Thank you, niece, you have given me several things to think about. Is there anything I can do for you in turn?”

“Don’t take my foals.”

“I am sorry, but I cannot honor that request.”

“Then leave me alone.”

“As you wish.”

Celestia vanishes in a burst of gold, and I’m alone again.

Siblings

“Come on Shining! Can’t catch me!” laughs Twilight, doing an easy and graceful loop-de-loop around me before ascending even higher into the clouds.

“Twily!” I call out in between my comparatively slow, awkward attempts to follow. “Slow down!”

My sister pokes her head out from over the top of a cloud. “Nope!” She sticks her tongue out. “You’ll have to come and get me!”

“Twily!” I protest vainly, frantically beating these long white things that I’m still getting used to. “I need to talk to you for a minute!”

Twily’s been acting like this ever since we left dinner together. I was hoping for a few private moments with my sister to have an important conversation about what we were doing before she was called away by Celestia. But all I’ve gotten is a teasing foal who seems determined to lead me higher and higher into the sky. I thought she was taking our work more seriously than that. Yeah, I know she’s been silly at times, like during our visit to the cemetery. It’s a way to deal with the hard fact of outliving all your best friends. And yes, I know that me finally being alive again is an exciting moment for us all. Believe me, nopony knows that better than yours truly.

But still, Twilight usually knows when she can play around and when to be serious, if only for a few minutes. Something’s not right.

“Not until you catch me!” she wiggles her tale at me before taking off and gaining still more altitude.

I struggle to follow my sister, but she’s so much more experienced at flying than I am. I’ve never flown outside of chariot before these last few days, while she’s been practicing since the day she ascended. Add to that the fact that the evening sky is covered in grey clouds, and I honestly have little chance of catching up with her if she doesn’t let me.

“Please!” I call out as my sister vanishes behind another cloud. “This is important! It’s about – WHOA!”

I tumble backwards in an unusually strong burst of bitter wind. The world spins around me as I struggle to right myself, and for a moment I fear that I’m going to plummet. But what lessons I have learned kick in, and I manage to get myself back to right side up with a few well timed beats of the wing.

I hover there in the clouds for a moment, attempting to adjust to the powerful air current I now find myself in. It’s much stronger than the ones I’m usually in, and I’m puzzled for a moment before a coincidental glance downwards answers my question. We’re high. Really high. As in, I think I may be more than a mile off the ground. Even the Imperial City looks small from here – a little sparkling circle on a vast plain of tundra. Individual ponies are almost invisible even for the enhanced eyes that I now have. I can’t image they can see me in turn. I’ve never been afflicted with acrophobia, but right now I feel just a slight edge of nervousness coming on.

Another part of me is surprised that I didn’t notice before how far we’ve come. I suppose I’m not quite used to this new degree of stamina – really, I don’t feel tired at all. Even crystal me needed more rest than this.

My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of Twilight’s voice.

“Shiny!” it calls through the grey sky. “Up here!”

I don’t see anything, but I can hear roughly where it’s coming from: the other side of a particularly large and dark stormcloud. Ignoring the feeling that something is off about this and fighting the air currents, I pull myself still higher into sky, aiming to just go straight through the thing.

“Twilight!” I shout to make myself heard above the current. “This is serious! Please, stop!”

I plunge into the vast grey bulk of the cloud, it feeling oddly semisolid even when I’m trying to pass through it. Does that happen to all pegasi, or is it just inexperience with their magic on my part?

“I need to talk to you.”

My head pokes through the top of the cloud. I look to where I guessed Twilight should be, but there’s nopony there.

“Not for much longer,” says somepony from behind me. It’s Twilight’s voice, but… different.

My military instincts are what save me. Literal lifetimes of guard training give one something approaching a sixth sense about these things. Some situations just scream “defend yourself”, and so that is what I do.

And just in time too. Something impacts heavily on my hastily-formed shield and explodes. It doesn’t penetrate, but the sheer kinetic force of the attack picks me up and hurls me into the air. Pegasus magic means that the fall is a few feet onto a fluffy cloud rather than a few thousand onto the ground below.

A second impact rocks my barrier before the smoke clears or I can get to my hooves. Again, my defense buckles but does not fail. I dig my hooves into the cloud and hold on, not moving nearly as far this time.

I shake my head to clear the slight daze and look to the source of the attack. There’s smoke in the air from where the two magical attacks met my shield, but the wind at this height blows it away within seconds.

Standing on the cloud, with a deep scowl on her face, is my little sister.

“Dammit!” she bares her teeth. “What is with your family and seeing things before they should?!”

“Who are you?” I demand, rising to my hooves. “And what have you done with my sister?”

“Oh, you know. Kidnapped, imprisoned, replaced,” she grins maliciously. “The usual.”

“Tell me where she is,” I snarl through gritted teeth. “Now!”

“Hmmm, let me think about that… No.”

“Then I’ll just have to force it out of you!”

Offensive magic has never been my specialty, but I like to think I haven’t neglected it. At my command, my barrier reforms into a wave of rose-colored energy and flies at the imposter. It’s supposed to wrap her up tight – I want this one alive, at least until Twily is safe.

She conjures a protective bubble of her own – just as I’d hoped for. My magic envelopes the fake Twilight, where it forms a second bubble around hers. She shouldn’t be able to teleport out of that, and if I’m correct she won’t able to break-

Her sickly green shield expands, meeting mine. For a moment, they’re evenly matched. And then my attack shatters into fragments, which dissolve into mist.

Ok, she’s stronger than I was hoping for.

“Dear little Princess Twilight’s heart had a lot of love in it,” that malicious grin is plastered all over her face again. “It was delicious.”

Green magic, eats love?

“Changeling,” I hiss, scrapping my hoof along the cloud we’re standing on. “How dare you?!”

I was under mind control when it happened, so my memories of the event are vague and fuzzy at best, but I recall that having love sucked from my body and eaten was both painful and very debilitating. Imagining it happening to my little Twily…

If I’m not careful, I’m going to kill this bitch.

“I wonder what you taste like?” she licks her lips. “Let’s find out. Minions!”

Suddenly, more figures rise from out of the cloud to stand in a circle. Pegasi, the lot of them, in civilian clothing and Crystal Guard armor alike. Two, four, six… I count twenty of them altogether, surrounding me on all sides.

I lower my ears and reform my barrier. I’m not much liking my odds here. Twenty one to one is hardly fair… I could release the pegasus magic holding me up and just hurdle for the ground… but no. I can’t do that. As she wants to capture me, I want this changeling – likely a queen – alive. As far as I know, she’s the only one who knows where my little sister is. If I run, she’ll get away and I may never see Twily again.

Alright then, I’ll just have to beat them all. For Twily.

“Get him!” imposter Twilight yells, pointing a hoof at me.

The “pegasi” drop their disguises, unsurprisingly revealing twenty changeling drones in various attack poses. Several of them open fire with their green magic.
Beams of sickly green energy smash into my shield. It’s intense, but defensive magic is my talent and I have far more energy now than I ever did before, and it holds. I force it to hastily expand. The wave of energy knocks the lot of them off their hooves, and then I’m on them.

I throw myself towards the closest of the bugs. I have to take as many out as possible, as quickly possible. I grab the nearest changeling by the head before it can recover its hooves and twist as hard as I can. With a sickening crunch, its chitinous neck snaps and its struggling form goes limp.

I toss the carcass at one of the changeling’s comrades. It impacts, and the two fly off of the cloud together. One changeling, either brave or stupid, comes at me from behind, green energy wrapped around its horn as its body hurdles at me. I lash out with both hind legs, kicking it hard in the face. I can feel exoskeleton crack at the point of contact-

Gah!

One of the little insects just stabbed me in the side. Its horn penetrates an inch or so into the flesh in between my ribs, and I can feel paralytic changeling venom being pumped into the shallow wound. I swing my right hoof around and smash it in cheek. The part of its horn inside me is torn off by the sheer force of the blow, as the rest of it sails off into the distance.

I ignore the small injury, already feeling my body acting to purge the poison, expel the foreign object, and close the wound. I don’t expect it will take long at all.

The sixteen remaining changelings wise up and change tactics. The sound of insectile buzzing fills the air as they take off from the cloud, retreating upwards into the sky or downwards into the grey mass below. More beams and lances of green energy lash out towards me, and I renew my shield. In a lethal parody of a rainstorm, blast after blast after blast collides with my shelter, exploding on impact. Smoke and fire obscures my vision, and very shortly I can see nothing beyond my own magic and the enemy assault.

Great, I’m pinned. I’d teleport, but I can’t see if it would put me in a better or worse position. But I’m willing to bet I can maintain this shield longer than they can keep up this barrage.

Seconds pass. Ten. Twenty. The changelings’ attacks continue, exploding against my defense. But they’re wasting their energy – it’ll take more than that to get past one of my shield spells.

Thirty seconds. The barrage begins to slacken. They’re weakening.

Forty seconds. One more beam of energy fruitlessly expends itself on my barrier, kicking up one last explosion. But I’m unmoved.

Smoke still clouds my vision, but I can see the wind already starting to blow it away and-

Wait.

My ear flicks. I hear something.

I rear up on my hind legs on pure instinct. The false Twilight emerges from the clouds directly below my hooves. She smashes into the bottom of my shield at incredible speed horn-first, forcing her way through and shattering it like some kind of missile. Her horn passes through the space where my heart just was. Without thinking I kick out with both my front legs, catching the faux-alicorn on the chest.

“Twilight” is hurdled through the air, her own momentum carrying her upwards while my blow carries her backwards. Her body spins in the air, and she lands roughly on her belly. I grab her in telekinesis while she’s too winded to fight it off, and-

Argh!

I get stabbed again – this time in the back, on the joint of my left wing. More venom enters my system through the wound, but more worrying is how the wing flops limply to my side. I conjure several daggers from the aether – energy intensive, but effective – and fling them at the changeling with its horn stuck in my back. It’s ripped from me and repeatedly impaled by sharp metal blades.

By the time I’ve done that, though, the queen – so I presume – has recovered. She blasts the pink telekinetic aura off of herself with an annoyed snarl. We face each other, I raising my signature shield once again. It’s worked well enough for me so far.

“Useless…” faux-Twilight mutters to herself. “Can’t my daughters do anything right?”

I vaguely recall some lesson on changeling reproduction that Twilight gave me way back when. All changelings come from eggs laid by queens, but vast majority are infertile female drones. I suppose that’s what she’s talking about.

She faces me, making eye contact. Around us, the other changelings have stopped at some unspoken signal, hovering wordlessly in place. “I was hoping to feed on you first, but I’m not going through this again.” She looks past me. “Do it now!” she shouts.

I brace myself, but refuse to take my eyes off of my sister’s imposter. She’s the most dangerous thing her, and in any case I’m building charge for a much larger attack on-

Grey suddenly surrounds me. It half looks as though the clouds have risen up to consume me, but the texture is wrong. This is smoke, and it… passes right through my shield. What the hell?

Without warning, my muscles start to seize. First my legs, then abdomen, then wings, neck, and finally, my face freezes as I struggle to make any part of me move. Why is my body not listening to me? What in the bleak infernal planes of Tartarus is going on here?

Then the grey smoke envelopes my face, and all is darkness.

Author's Notes:

This was originally one part of a larger chapter, but I decided to split it up because reasons.

From Dream to Nightmare

After my dear Auntie leaves me in peace, I try to continue my walk for a time. The gardens are still lovely, and not a few of my plants tempt me to take a nibble. Unfortunately, I find that I’m still not really gaining very much from it. By the time I decide to leave, I still feel like I’ve been put through one of those barbarian meat grinders.

The cold hard truth of the matter is that now, even after I’ve gotten what I wanted most of all, I’m just as trapped as ever. I’m no match for my aunt, and she still holds all the cards. Revenge fantasies aside, even together it’s doubtful Shining and I could match her and her sister, and I can’t even alert him to why we should in the first place. So, I’m left to face the fact that I’ve effectively sold my soul to satiate my greatest desire. I’ll be living a double life, forever lying to my nearest and dearest, and even giving away my children.

I hate Celestia for forcing me into this. I hate myself, for being so thoroughly self-centered in the first place. I’m very much aware that none of this could have taken place had I not been selfish enough to hold back my husband from the afterlife at the cost of almost everything he had.

But you know what the worst part is? If I’m going to be one hundred percent honest with myself, it’s the knowledge that after all of this, after everything I put Shining and Twilight and myself and everypony else through… I’d do it again. I really would, and I know it. I’d sentence my husband to centuries in lifeless crystal, knowing how miserable it made him. I’d endure the night he was almost killed, when I faced my aunt and lost miserably, when I felt my body burned to a crisp. I’d even sell my own unborn children once more. I would do everything that I did all over again, if only I could be allowed to keep Shining Armor at the end of it all.

And that knowledge scares me more than anything else.

Retiring early, to my complete lack of surprise, doesn’t help me much. You can’t escape your troubles with a hot bath or a comfortable bed when they’re all in your head. It’s quite rare that I wish to be buried in work, but at the moment I’m not too busy, and in any case I can hardly trust myself to do well by my ponies when I’m at war with myself. They deserve better from their princess. So I shut up, flick off the lights, and lie down to sleep.

“Get away from me!” snarls Shining Armor, putting a hoof on my chest and shoving me back a ways. “How could you do this?!”

“I… I…” I whimper pathetically and look at my own hooves, unable to meet his blue eyes. “I h-had to... don’t you s-see? I couldn’t… I couldn’t…” Unable to even finish the sentence, I manage to raise my gaze slightly, looking to my sister-in-law for support. But Twilight Sparkle only glares daggers down at me. I cower, feeling very small.

“You disgust me,” she spits at my hooves. “Your own children?”

“I… had to…” My voice is feeble, and the words sound hollow even to my own ears.

“You knew, you witch!” Shining growls at me. “You knew I’d rather die a thousand deaths than let harm come to any foal of mine! And you sold them for your own pleasure!”

“Shiny, I-”

He slaps me hard across the face, hoof impacting roughly against my cheekbone. I topple to the ground with a whimper. From where I lie on the crystalline floor of our palace, blood trickling down my cheeks, the siblings tower over me.

“Shut up!” he snarls. “You two-timing, worthless, selfish bitch!” Shining advances on me, placing a hoof on my neck and bending down. “I was loyal to you,” he hisses into my ear. “I was the most devoted stallion on the planet! I spent hundreds of years in a cursed half-life because you said you couldn’t live without me! I betrayed my own conscience and accepted the risks of carrying a beacon dark magic on my very soul so you wouldn't have to be alone! How many would do that?”

I try to answer, but all that comes out is a frightened squeak.

Shining put more weight on the hoof atop my neck as he bends down until his muzzle is inches from mine. I for all the world that I could vanish on the spot, but I can’t even pull my eyes away from his own.

“How. Many?” he repeats, his voice a deadly low whisper.

“N-N-None,” I manage, and his head rises just a fraction.

“That right,” he says with a nod. “And how did you repay my loyalty?” His hoof presses down even harder on my neck. I can feel my windpipe being compressed “You sold out everything I believe in! My principles, my duties, my subjects, my family… everything!” His eyes are piercing to the point where I could swear that they’re on fire. “All so you could have your oh-so-precious hunk of stallion meat!”

“Not… true…” I whimper through my tightened throat.

Shining’s hoof pushes down so hard it cuts off my air flow altogether. “LIAR!” he roars, his Royal Canterlot Voice enough to shatter glass and eardrums alike. “If you cared about me, if you gave one tenth of a percent of a damn about who I am and what I want, you’d have let me die!”

My reply is nothing but a strangled gurgle, though I’m unsure of what I could say to that in any case.

“If you cared about anything but your own gratification, you would have killed me yourself before selling my foals to a monster! If you had even the slightest bit of conscience, you would have banished Sombra back to hell the moment he showed his ugly face! I would do anything to protect those I love, while you knowingly let an evil spirit wander free across the Crystal Empire for decades because you didn’t care for anypony but yourself! Who knows what harm he’s done in that time?! Princess of Love?” he snorts. “You’re a heartless monster, Mi Amore Cadenza.”

“I should have left you in Tartarus to rot,” Twilight says. “You and Tirek would make a good couple. You deserve each other.”

I look pleadingly up at the siblings, but their faces are hard and unforgiving.

“Come on BBBFF,” Twilight says, “Let’s go. Leave the witch to drown in her own bile.”

Shining removes his hoof from my throat, and I gasp for air. Shining and Twilight turn their backs on me and begin walking away. I hold out a hoof, silently begging them to come back, to give me another chance, but they don’t even spare a glance. I try to speak, but nothing comes out.

Then the two are gone, and I’m not an alicorn princess in the Imperial Palace anymore. I’m a little pegasus filly, wandering alone through a dark forest. I don’t know where I came from, or why I’m here. I just know that I’m alone, weak, and very scared.

I wander through the forest for what seems to be hours. There’s nothing and nopony in sight, no movement besides my own. Not even the smallest insects are to be seen on the ground, and the sky is nothing more than an endless grey horizon. The sun and moon and stars are gone. My wings are lead – they cannot lift me so much as an inch off the ground.

I call out in the weak voice of a lost filly, but nopony answers me. Desperate, alone, and afraid, I repeat my pleas for help into the uncaring wind. But there’s nopony to answer, and tears roll down my cheeks.

Without warning, cruel laughter echoes around me. Out from the shadowed trees steps an enormous equine figure, covered from head to hoof in black, chitinous armor plates. Green eyes look down on me from a monstrous parody of an equine face, a wild mess of membrane hanging down from where her mane should. Her open mouth reveals row after row of viciously pointed fangs.

“Welcome home, my child,” Queen Chrysalis says magnanimously as I cower on the forest floor. “You have done well.”

I can’t even manage the strength of will to get up and flee from the monstrosity before me, much less speak.

“You played your part perfectly and everypony fell for it,” she grins broadly. “They showered you with love and affection, never knowing, never even suspecting…” Chrysalis laughs again. “The hive feeds well tonight.”

What?

Drawn by some instinct, I look down at my legs. I let out a scream.

Where there was soft pink fur, there is only hard, black chitin filled with holes. Franticly, I look at my back. My feathered pegasus wings have vanished from my body. In their place are insectile buzzing things filled with whole. Even as I open my mouth to shriek again, I can feel my teeth elongating, becoming sharper.

I spy a puddle out of the corner of my eyes. Hoping against hope, I rush over to look at my reflection. The face the stares back at me from the muddy water is that of a soulless, love-sucking, parasitic monster – an unholy blight on all those she falsely claims to love.

A changeling.

My screams and Chrysalis’ laughter echo throughout the dark forest.

I gasp like a drowning mare when my eyes shoot open. The cool tower air rushes easily down my throat and into my lungs. I take several more gulps in quick succession as my heart hammers in my chest. I can feel cold sweat dripping down my body.

Gradually, awareness starts to return to me. I’m in the Imperial Palace, I realize. I’m in our bed. It’s damp with sweat and I’ve kicked the silken bedsheets around, but I’d recognize it anywhere. I look over my shoulder nervously, half in hope, half anticipation.

I breathe a sigh of relief. Shining Armor is still there. My husband hasn’t left me. I’m not a changeling imposter. He’s still asleep even – gods bless whatever makes him so hard to wake up. My secret shames are still secret.

It was… It was only a nightmare.

Right?

Breakfast the next morning is a rather subdued affair. I say little except when spoken to, pick at my food, and generally keep my head down. My low mood spreads easily – Shining picks up on it quickly and wraps a comforting wing around my back. His show of concern naturally just makes me feel worse about myself. Twilight looks a bit down at the bad atmosphere, but doesn’t seem to be able to come up with anything to rouse the mood. Even Celestia seems more subdued than she normally is, her violet eyes flicking back and forth between myself and Shining.

The one piece of good news that comes up is that Celestia will be leaving soon after breakfast. She says she’s been away from Equestria for quite long enough. Twilight, on the other hoof, will be staying for a few more days, to catch up with us after our time apart. On most days, that would make me genuinely smile, but not today. The pretty pink princess is too busy feeling sorry for herself, you see. So I fake it instead – nopony else should have to feel bad because I am.

Celestia’s exit stage left really isn’t much to speak of. She wears that serene smile (though I now think it’s more a smug smirk) as she gives us all warm hugs and pleasant words goodbye. As always, she’s warm and soft to the touch, and smells nice. A pretty mask over an ugly soul, I think. Then she steps onto her golden chariot, and in a few minutes is out of sight altogether.

Brother and sister soon inform me that they were planning on spending some time together today, and ask if I’d like to go with them. I don’t want to spoil it for them, so I make some excuses and head off on my own. Besides, there is one thing that I’ve been meaning to do for a few days now. Celestia’s visit only reminded me of its importance.

“Are you certain, doctor?” I gaze at the papers before me with a skeptical eye. “Absolutely certain?”

The nervous stallion in front of me tugs at his collar hesitates slightly, but nods. “About as certain as I can be at this stage, your majesty. It’s quite early on, you know, and we can’t always be sure… but with all the tests in agreement I would hesitate to call it any other way.”

I sprung this visit to him out of nowhere, so I don’t blame him for being a little nervous. Also, I picked him precisely for the fact that he isn’t royal personnel – less likely to spread gossip around the palace that way. I want this confidential, at least for now.

“I see,” I finish reading over the results he’s presented me. Insofar as I can tell, his diagnosis is accurate. “Thank you, doctor,” I slide off the medical examination table.

He bows. “No trouble at all, your highness,” he assures me. “Your presence was merely…”

“Unexpected,” I fill in, saving him the trouble of finding an appropriately tactful way to put it. “I trust you’ll keep this duly confidential.”

“Of course!” he bows lower. “Of course! My lips and records are sealed tighter than Tartarus’ gates!”

“Thank you,” I respond, already beginning to head to the exit and wondering what to do next.

“Oh, and your highness?”

I turn around and look at him. “Hmmm?”

He smiles timidly. “Congratulations.”

I leave without saying anything more.

That evening after my duties as princess are through sees me in our bathing chambers, floating in water hold enough to scald ordinary ponies and attempting to relax, or at least calm down a bit. But the atmosphere does about as much good for my overworked stress response as trying to fight a forest fire with a single bucket of water. I’m feeling exhilarated, giddy, stupid, ashamed, and afraid all at the same time.

I’m pregnant. After all this time, it’s finally happened again. I don’t know exactly when the foal was conceived, and it’s still in the very earliest stages of development, but it’s happened. In about eleven months’ time, I’ll give birth again – to the very first alicorn foal to be born in countless generations, no less. My most primal and instinctive response is, of course, happiness. I love caring for all foals, but especially my own. It’s been far too long since I’ve had a chance to do that.

My more rational side is, of course, far gloomier. I still have a bargain to uphold. The child growing inside me is pledged to my aunt and whatever purpose she might have for it. What do I do now? How to I tell Shining? What am I going to say when Celestia inevitably comes for my foal? If Shining were to find out the truth… he’d leave me, I know it. If he didn’t kill me outright. I don’t suppose I could blame him if he did.

I wring my hooves and flap my soggy wings in self-reprimand. Stupid, stupid mare. I knew I should have taken precautions… but there was so much repressed passion. I’d waited so long for my wish to come true. So much so that Shining and I went through several rounds without my even considering the possibility of consequences.

“Cadence?”

Well, speak of the devil… or think of the devil in this case, I suppose.

I turn my head to face the speaker, a ghost of smile playing on my face. This may just be what I need right now. Shining Armor stands at the door, looking somewhat weathered but clearly happy. I can feel the satisfaction that he’s radiating. That’s good, at the very least.

“Well,” I ask, “What is my prince charming waiting for? An engraved invitation? Come in and shut the door behind you.”

He smiles flirtatiously and does as I bid, slipping easily into the burning hot water in our very large bathtub. I swim over to where he sits and press myself into him. I settle my head against his chest, nuzzling it gently, while he wraps one hoof around my neck and runs the other softly through my mane. The sensation is very pleasant, and I slowly close my eyes and breathe deeply. From here I can feel the steady beat of my husband’s heart and the rhythmic motions of his breathing. It feels good to have a chance to genuinely relax, if only for a little while.

This goes on for a while. I don’t know exactly how long – keeping track of time is something I really don’t care to do at the moment. Just sitting here, enjoying our time together, is more than enough to keep my mind occupied.

Without warning, Shining’s grip on my neck tightens exponentially. His other hoof joins the first. His hold is so strong that it’s actually a bit painful. Before I have the chance to ask what’s going on, he twists right sharply.

Snap.

With a sickening crunch of bone and muscle, I feel my neck being broken, alicorn bone snapping as easily as brittle twig. The rest of my body goes limp and loses all sensation. I’m so utterly shocked that I haven’t the slightest inclination to do anything besides lay there stunned before black metal chains appear from nowhere and wrap themselves around my horn. Even my sensation of magic fades away as they secure themselves tightly.

Shining Armor releases his hold on me, and I drop face-first into the water. I’m light, so I float with a portion of my skull and ears above the surface. My face, contorted in shock and pain, is completely under the water. Thoughts and emotions race through my mind. Why is he doing this? Has he somehow been alerted to what I did? Has Shining decided to retaliate for my deceptions? What’s going on?

I’m so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I miss the first few words that he speaks to somepony I can’t see from my limited vantage point.

“…told you it would work. He’s an assassin and a hostage, all rolled into one,” Shining says in an uncharacteristically smug tone of voice.

A female voice answers, but it’s low and I don’t quite catch what it says.

A familiar hoof reaches down under the water and grasps my chin. My face is pulled upwards and out of the water by the foreleg of Shining Armor. But when I look into my husband’s face, it’s not his kind blue eyes that are staring back at me.

“Your kind are so gullible.”

Return of a King

Not-Shining looks down at me with a dark glint in his green eyes and his mouth his mouth twisted into a cruel smirk. For a moment, our gazes lock and all is still as my flabbergasted mind frantically tries to process what the hell just happened. Then, without warning, he hoists me out of the water by the scruff of my neck and tosses me into the air. I fly up towards the ceiling and back down again in a tall, narrow arc. My limp, sopping wet body impacts roughly onto the white-blue crystal tiles of the bathroom floor, but I’m numb. I still can’t move, and more worryingly I don’t feel the surge of magic that usually signals my body being repaired.

Half of my face can make out nothing but the floor underneath it, but one of my eyes is facing upwards. So I can make out another figure looming over me – this one of Twilight. She gazes down at me, her face is twisted into a broad leer. But this is no more Twilight than the thing in the bath is Shining. If nothing else, the sheer exultant malevolence radiating from every pore of the mare would be enough to tell me that.

“The Princess of Love,” comes the voice of Not-Shining, still identical to that of my husband. “As I promised.”

“I must admit, I had my doubts that you could deliver,” says Not-Twilight, looking up and away from me. From the sound of it, her conspirator is getting out of the bath himself. “But you’ve been as good as your word.” She glances back down at me with a hungry expression in her eyes.

“Remember,” Not-Shining answers a note of caution in his voice. “This is only the beginning of what we stand to gain. Soon our friends from the north will be here, and then we move the next phase. Keep your eyes on the greater reward.”

“Yes yes,” Not-Twilight rolls her eyes. “I’m not going to go running off and leave you to face them alone after all this investment. Honestly, a little confidence in me would be nice.”

“To run and hide is in the nature of your kind.”

“And it’s not in yours’?” she snorts. “Ponies flee before the dread wrath of an irritable chipmunk.”

“… I suppose that is fair enough.”

Not-Twilight looks satisfied. “But we have a little time yet before they’re here,” she now turns her full attention back to me, lying limp at her hooves. “Time for revenge.”

Not-Twilight is enveloped in a wave of all-too-familiar green fire.

“No!” I plead silently. “Please no!”

My prayers aren’t answered. When the fire dies, Twilight Sparkle is gone, and in her place stands Queen Chrysalis.

My eyes widen, my ears fold back, and somehow, despite my paralysis, I start to shake. If I could shrink back before her, I would. The paragon of dark majesty towering above my helpless form radiates a sense of utter triumph and malice. Her sickly green eyes and vicious bared fangs promise me nothing but imminent pain and a slow death. Oh gods, she survived! I don’t know how or what happened but Chrysalis survived the fall or came back from the grave and she’s here to murder me and destroy all I hold I dear and-

No… wait…

This isn’t Chrysalis. The face is wrong. Her horn is shorter, with a slight curve to it. And the membrane that comprises her mane is longer. And she’s slightly taller than the Queen I remember – first from my wedding, then from her autopsy.

Not that that actually improves my situation any.

The Queen ends my speculation readily enough. She leans down to glare at me from close up, her fangs mere inches from my eye, and speaks.

“My name is Ecdysis. You killed my mother. Prepare to die.”

She opens her fanged maw wide and-

“NO!”

Queen Ecdysis’ head jerks upwards, surprise writ large covering her face.

“What?” she asks, her tone more confused than anything else.

“I said no. Don’t kill her,” answers Not-Shining, coming to stand over me. He’s slightly taller than Ecdysis, but two pairs of green eyes lock easily enough.

“What do you mean, no?” hisses Ecdysis through gritted teeth. “I agreed to your little scheme on the express condition that I would exact vengeance on each and every one of my mother’s murderers. If you think just because you have a body now that you can try to go back on our arrangement…” She hisses again, baring her fangs and placing a hoof over my body, like lioness defending her kill.

Not-Shining looks unfazed, a raised eyebrow the only sign of any emotion at all on his face.

“You don’t sense it?” he asks, sounding genuinely curious.

Ecdysis blinks. “Sense what?”

He puts a hoof on my stomach. “There is another life in her. It is yet weak, but it is there. She is expecting.”

The sound of those words coming from his lips triggers something in me, enough at least to shake me out of my silent stupor. “No…” I manage, my voice little more than a hoarse, barely audible whisper.

“I…” Ecdysis looks down at me, then back up at Not-Shining. She shakes her head, and her expression hardens. “That means nothing. I’m going to drain her until she’s a withered husk begging for death and no appeal to pity is going to-”

“Think!” he growls, his brow creasing for the first time as he bares his own teeth. “Think! Whose child do you suppose it is?”

“…Shining Armor’s?” she asks, blinking again.

He rolls his eyes at her apparent incomprehension. “And what would that make it?”

Ecdysis’ eyes go wide briefly, before narrowing. “An alicorn.”

“And how useful could such a tame creature be to us?”

“…” she hesitates, clearly torn between opportunism and the burning desire to slaughter me on the spot.

“And besides,” the corner of Not-Shining’s mouth curls into a cruel smirk. “How much better a revenge would it be to consign her to oblivion knowing not only that she failed utterly, but that her own foal will serve as a slave to her conquerors. Forever.”

Ecdysis puts a hoof to her chin, appearing to mull it over for some time. Without warning, her mouth splits into another toothy, malicious. “Yeeesssss…” she hisses. “How much pain that knowledge would cause them… How delicious…”

Not-Shining grins, his own perfect whites a stark contrast to the changeling’s yellowed fangs. “Now you understand.”

“Yes,” Ecdysis’ smile is suddenly replaced by a deadly serious look. “But after she gives birth, we kill her. No more excuses, no more delays. Agreed?”

Not-Shining looks down at me, his deep green eyes making contact with my own solitary orb. “I assure you that when the time comes,” he says, not looking up. “I will have no hesitation in disposing of her.”

Ecdysis' grin returns, wider and more malevolent than ever. “Excellent. Then we have an agreement?”

“So we do.”

“But as the Princess of Love, she can survive quite a lot being drained…”

He smiles knowingly. “Indeed she can. By all means, go ahead. Just be certain to stop before it reaches fatal levels.”

“With pleasure.”

Ecdysis lowers her head towards mine, opening her maw wide once again. Her horn glows green, and I somehow feel a yanking sensation in my gut.

My screaming begins shortly thereafter.

How does one describe the sensation of having one’s love drained away to somepony who has never felt it? Hmmm…

Well, the best comparison I can think of is having your intestines grabbed none too gently by an armored gauntlet, followed shortly by having them pulled through your guts, up your throat, and out through your mouth. Inch by bloody, torturous inch, over the course of several minutes. Only your body doesn’t have the decency to break down and die. Is that how it feels for everypony? Or is it just me, with my rather intimate connection with the emotion? I have no idea.

The aftermath is, from a purely scientific standpoint, rather curious. You’d expect to be overcome with sadness or fear or hatred or at least anger at what happened to you. Some kind of negative emotion. But no. It has been said that the opposite of love isn’t hatred, but apathy – you have care about something on some level to hate it. Indifference is the sensation that fills the void left behind in me by the changeling queen. A total emotional numbness overcomes me in the wake of those frantic, agonizing minutes. I’m literally not feeling anything at all right now, other than perhaps a vague sense of intellectual curiosity.

I passed out in the wake of the feeding, only to awake in a dark, dank space that I quickly evaluate as one of the old mining caverns of the Crystal Empire by the faint light provided by a hooful of crystalline growths on the wall. Not-Shining is here, affixing shackles of black, rune-encrusted iron to each of my hooves and both of my wings. More chains of the same material loop around and bind me to the walls.

I honestly don’t know why he bothers. My neck is still broken, and I can’t feel anything of my body. Even if I were somehow free, I doubt I could summon the motivation to do anything.

I just stare at the white alicorn binding me firmly for a few minutes before he apparently notices that I’m awake and speaks up.

“You know who I am, don’t you?” he asks, almost conversationally.

I see no reason he shouldn’t know. “You’re King Sombra,” I answer, my voice still very weak. “Ecdysis said you didn’t have a body until recently. And your eyes are the same color as his.”

He nods. “Very good,” a last chain attaches itself to the cavern wall, and he turns his full attention to me. “It would be a shame if you didn’t realize at whose hoof your downfall comes,” he rubs his hoof along his chin. “Though I suppose you going to grave believing your lover betrayed you had its own appeal.”

“Can’t say I much care either way,” I answer, honestly.

Sombra snorts. “That will pass. I daresay you will recover quickly enough, even after a draining of that scale. Your heart will balance itself again, and it is for that reason I want you to know:” he leans in closely, as though whispering a great secret to me. “Everything that has come to pass is entirely your fault. Your worthless sister lies in magical stupor in a stone coffin at the bottom of the sea, awaiting only my return to strip her of the last of her magic. Your pathetic, effete husband writhes helplessly inside the body you so thoughtfully created for me, his soul trapped in an endless reliving of his own worst fears. Your kingdom is awash with my allies, with more well on the way. I will destroy everything you care for, take everything that should have been mine, and remake this world in my image. History will not remember you, your beloved, your sister, your aunts, or your precious harmony.” He leans in very close, his mouth mere centimeters from my ear. “And it is: All. Your. Fault!” He sounds excited. "You succumbed to temptation. You drew me back from beyond the grave. You drained your kingdom's defenses. You made me a host body."

“Hunh,” I muse.

Sombra frowns and bares his teeth, flicking his ears irritably. “This is far less enjoyable when you have nothing left to feel despair with. I had hoped something of that would get through to you, but it seems the queen was too thorough.” He shakes his head. “Ah well, soon enough you will learn the true depths a heart can sink to. I hope to be there to watch.” He turns towards what I guess is the exit.

“Why?” I blurt out, driven by a vague impulse. “Why are you doing this?”

Sombra turns his head to regard me with one green eye.

“I could tell you,” he says after a delay of several seconds. “Of an alicorn princess much like yourself. Beautiful, powerful, eternal – beloved by all. I could tell you the tale of a stallion besotted by her from an early age. A great magician, he rose to become her councilor. And in time, even her lover. But he eventually grew old, as all mortal things must. She thought him used up, and callously cast him aside. Determined to prove himself, he ventured into realms of long forbidden magic. It brought him power beyond his wildest dreams, but drove him mad. In jealousy and blind rage he slew the princess and cast down all her works, taking everything that was hers for his own,” he sighs. “I am certain it would make for quite the story in the right hooves.”

Sombra turns around fully and looks over me up and down before continuing. “But, in truth, I am going to do this because your kind are a blight on our species. You keep us shackled in chains of indolence and stupidity, suppressing our potential by chaining ponies to ridiculous notions of harmony and peace and,” he virtually spits. “Friendship. With our combined strength every nation in the world should bow and scrape before us. Yet because of you and your ilk our kind are weak stupid, left vulnerable to the predators of this world and utterly dependent on you for our defense. The armies and defenses of our nations have languished under pathetic fools like you and your husband, unable to see off a direct attack on their own capital or even expel a single dragon. Only a small number of magical artifacts – controlled, conveniently, by you – stand between us and the mercies of our enemies. You alicorns keep ponies placid and weak so that you may rule, crushing any who threaten your dominance. Yet even there you lack spine, imprisoning such creatures as Discord and Tirek when they should have been stripped of all magic and executed. We should be the rulers of this world, but with you in control we are nothing but its prey,” he shakes his head. “But I will change all of that. I will destroy you, your husband, your sister, your aunts, and purge all our kind of your indolence. Then, with myself at the head, ponies shall crush utterly each and every threat or enemy of our kind, until we stride this world as colossi and-”

The king’s speech is cut short as a frigid chill passes through the cell. Even as deep underground as we must be, I can see my breath in the air, feel the cold even deep in my numbed bones.

“Ah,” he says, looking upwards. “That will be them then.”

Sombra pauses for a moment, return his eyes to me, and then takes a deep breath. “That is why I do what I do. I was not lying when I told you that I regretted my actions from before. I regret that I only slew one of you and then succumbed to the madness of my own magicks. But centuries wandering the realms between life and death have taught me perspective. I know what I must do now, and will not repeat my mistakes of last time. My magic bows to my will, not the other way around. I shall use its strength,” he grins. “And the strength of the Crystal Heart that you so generously donated, to finally rid the world of your kind.”

King Sombra laughs and turns his back on me, walking briskly towards the exit. Right before he reaches it, he turns his stolen head around for one parting shot.

“Oh, and your child? It will make for a most excellent host.”

The king’s laughter echoes behind him as a quartet of dark crystal golems take their places within my cell.

The Storm Breaks

Something is wrong. I can feel it.

I am not Discord, with his innate, intuitive, and frustratingly inexplicable connection to magic itself. His senses in this area far exceed my own – which is why it was he I sent after Tirek all those years ago. My own passive divination abilities are limited to the occasional premonition. Once in a while this takes the form of a vision of past, present, or possible future, but most of the time, as now, it is just a vague and worrying sense of something being off in some manner.

I take these seriously, even though I have no control over if or when they happen. Most of the time, my magical nudges are triggered in direct response to serious threat to my life or reign. I like to believe they are a gift from the gods even greater than I, nudging me onwards to completing my life’s purpose. But in truth, I have never been able to discern the true nature of this power. I have, however, learned to trust it – particularly since my visions played an irreplaceable part in leading me to Twilight Sparkle and restoring Luna to me. Without my guiding visions and feelings, I would never have risked Equestria’s safety on a longshot plan to redeem Nightmare Moon as I did.

So when I am suddenly overcome by an inexplicable feeling of wrongness and an image of the Crystal Empire flashes briefly in my mind, I pay attention.

I am in my personal study when the premonition strikes, going over our national budget and attempting to see what resources I can afford to assign to (once again) cleaning up after mortals’ messes. Budgetary figures, projected casualty counts, sympathetic local organizations my servants can work with – everything I could need to try and prepare for the care of the wounded, the crippled, the homeless, and of course the widows and orphans that will be generated by this fool Gryphus-Prance War. To help others where we can is the duty and honor of our nation. And it generates international goodwill to boot.

I put that aside for now. No sense in ignoring my own senses.

“Protocol?” I ring for my hoofservant, the seventh generation of his family to occupy that role. What can I say? I like continuity.

When Proper Protocol comes at speed, as ever, I nod to acknowledge it before continuing. “Would you kindly fetch my scrying bowl, and then find my sister? Tell her that I’ve had a bad feeling. She will know what that means.”

“Of course, your highness,” he answers.

“Thank you,” I nod again. “Please, be quick about it.”

The middle-aged stallion takes one stiff, formal bow before departing on my errand. The door closes behind him.

Now I-

“Do not bother.”

I spin around, eyes wide and magic flowing into my horn. Who could possibly have snuck into my chamber? This is one of the most heavily enchanted places in the world, with more wards than most ponies even know exist, there’s no-

Then I see him.

King Sombra - flickering and insubstantial, yes, but unmistakably him.

My eyes narrow. “You are dead.”

“The reports of that, I am told, have been greatly exaggerated.”

I switch my vision into that of the Aether, leaving the physical world behind. I recognize the matrices of the magical energies producing the image of the king immediately – I designed the spell myself, after all.

“You are using my spell. That’s how you’ve gotten past the wards,” I declare, lowering my magic just slightly. The thing before me is a mere image, incapable of enacting any sort of harm.

The spell creating the illusion of Sombra is one I designed in secrecy around a century ago and entrusted only to my highest level agents and spies. It is meant to form an untraceable means of direct contact with me from deep cover, bypassing any conventional defenses or wards. My trusted servants are sworn never to reveal it to others, but if this is truly the tyrant of the Crystal Empire returned to life I do not doubt he could torture it from one of them.

“Perhaps. Perhaps not.”

“What do you want?”

To gloat, obviously. His type always do. Encouraging them to do so often provides helpful information.

“Why, merely to announce my return to sovereignty over the Crystal Empire,” he says in a mock innocent tone, before grinning. “Your pawns fell easily enough. You really must be making anypony an alicorn these days.”

My heart skips a beat. I suspected, but I didn’t want it to be true. “My niece and nephew?”

“What do you think?” he smirks darkly. “And it would seem that once again one of your princesses has… lost her way.”

No… Twilight is powerful, intelligent, the best mare I’ve ever trained… surely he couldn’t have…

Another illusion joins that of Sombra. This one is Twilight Sparkle – beaten, bloody, and broken. Her wings are utterly plucked of plumage, her mane is a singed ruin, her legs are bent at several unnatural angles, and her whole body is covered in cuts, bruises, and burns. She’s held in the air by magical chains, the occasion moan the only sign she’s still conscious.

I grit my teeth and make a silent vow: if even half of this is true, somepony is going to pay.

Sombra’s smirk is suddenly gone, replaced by an intense stare. “Listen to me, Celestia! I do not care about your politics! I do not care about your nation! I only live to see you die!”

The illusory Twilight is flung to the ground before Sombra, and black lighting crackles on his horn. My student – my daughter, in all but blood – is engulfed in the dark magic. Her heartrending wails echo throughout my chamber as she writhes helplessly under the assault. Her skeleton – hideously broken in too many places to count – appears and disappears at random. Her coat, mane, and even skin catch fire, and all she can do is scream out her agony. The stallion staring down at her grins feverishly, almost manically, at the sight.

Sombra, you are going to die.

The brutal scene goes on for almost half a minute, until at length my pupil can take no more. She collapses into merciful unconsciousness and ceases movement altogether. Sombra, no longer able to take amusement in her suffering, loses his smile. He ceases his spell and looks up to meet my gaze head on once more.

“But,” he says, grin returning and eyes widening. “Death will not come so easily for Princess Twilight. I will make her suffer endlessly, because I know that is more painful for you all!” He throws back his head. “Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HA HA!”

With a last bark of laughter, Sombra’s image, along with that of Twilight, vanishes from my study. I am alone again.

Outside, I remain, as I must, the calm and collected princess of the sun. Inside? I’m seething. Cadence and Shining Armor? Yes, we’ve had our disagreements, but to hear of them being callously slaughtered, for no greater purpose than to slake the bloodlust of a madpony… they deserved better. Even if this is their fault – for how else could Sombra have been drawn back into the world of the living – they still didn’t deserve what befell them. They will be avenged, I swear it.

And even worse, Twilight… my little Twilight Sparkle… is in the hooves of that… that… demon. The thought of somepony hurting her makes my blood boil. To hear of her being tortured… to see her being tortured, just to spite me…

Suffice to say that by time my servant returns with my sister and my scrying bowl, the sun outside is burning an angry red.

“He’s baiting us, Tia,” Luna says.

I snort. “Of course he is. He wants us to come charging right into his lair and whatever surprises he has waiting for us.”

The two of us are standing around a small marble pillar, on top of which rests an unadorned silver bowl full of water. Short, flat, wide, and unassuming, few know that it is a device I’ve spent hundreds of hours enchanting to give me a god’s eye view of almost any place I wish to see. Right now, its focus is on the Crystal Empire.

The Imperial City is, for lack of a better way to describe it, utterly frozen over. Every building, street, wall, tree, and road is coated with a thick layer of ice. From the Imperial Palace to lowliest of homes, nothing has been spared. Looking closely, I can make out individual ponies caught in the process of trying to flee, to hide, or to fight. One guardspony I can see was in the process of shooting his crossbow when he was frozen, the bolt frozen a scant few feet from his weapon. Most of the citizens’ faces are terror or grim determination, and it is very easy to see why.

Soaring above the city in seemingly random patterns are more windigoes than I have seen in one place in a dozen centuries – since my last visit to the Lost Continent. To the best of my ability to count, they number at least one hundred of the ice spirits. Enough to overwhelm all but the greatest of armies in minutes. Certainly enough to overtake the Crystal Empire if its guardian alicorns were dealt with and the Crystal Heart drained of its power. Of the Imperial Palace itself I can see nothing but the exterior, numerous wards – some of them old, others recent and darker – preventing even my device from peering inside. But I have no doubt that is where the king will be, if this truly is Sombra returned. His ego would demand no less.

“The question is, Lulu,” I continue, after a long pause. “Can we afford to not take the bait?”

Luna rubs her hoof along her chin. “What are you suggesting?”

“If he spoke truly, then we have already lost two members of our family.”

Luna nods sadly. “’Tis most likely that he did.”

I grimace. We both remember what happened to Elysium.

“That leaves only ourselves and Twilight among our number. And the longer we take to affect a rescue, the more likely it is he shall grow bored and kill her.”

“If he has not already,” Luna points out. “’Twould be in his character to make such a cruel jest at our expense.”

I shake my head. “I would have felt, I’m sure of it.”

“Are you?” Luna looks at me sadly. “Are you truly certain of that, Tia? Or is that just what you desire to believe?”

“I…”

…

No, what am I doing? Twilight Sparkle has been with me nearly her entire life. Our bond is strong. Surely I couldn’t fail to know it if she were dead.

Surely not.

“I would know it,” I answer resolutely.

Luna sighs. “Then I will trust you.”

I smile, a little sadly. “Thank you, Lulu. That means a great deal.”

A tiny smile tugs at the corner of my sister’s own mouth. “You are most welcome.”

We embrace, just for a moment. A few tears drip down my cheeks. But when we pull apart again, a second later, I am once again all business.

“So,” Luna continues. “If you are certain Twilight Sparkle yet lives, the question becomes how can we save her before she is killed, while also protecting Equestria and the Crystal Empire as best we are able?” She looks down at the vision in the scrying bowl. “Do you think we should mobilize?”

I consider it for a time. Our army would be a very useful asset to have against this new threat, but…

Eventually, I shake my head. “No. Not entirely. Our ponies could guard Equestria’s borders and assist in the evacuation of the outer reaches of the Empire, but to attack the Imperial City?” I glance down at the bowl again. “The losses – to our own as well as the crystal ponies – would be appalling. Thousands, at the very least. Probably more.”

And of course there’s the fact that such a move would take days to execute, even under forced march conditions. Days in which Sombra could decide to kill Twilight and put her head on a stake before we even arrive. Whereas the two of us could be there in a matter of hours.

“But if we don’t use the military to fight him…” Luna trails off, her meaning obvious.

“Then it’s up to the two of us,” I finish her sentence.

Luna looks a little paler under her dark fur. “I don’t know, Tia,” she looks into the scrying bowl again. “That many windigoes, in addition to whatever dark sorcery Sombra can conjure?” She swallows. “That is a very tall order, even for us. Are you certain we can accomplish this alone?”

“I will not continence the loss of innocent life where it can be avoided.”

“But if we should perish instead…” she swallows slightly. “Who shall be left to protect Equestria?”

“We will not,” I answer in a firm tone. “We shall prevail. As we did at Gorgur Pass.”

The Battle of Gorgur Pass occurred twenty-seven centuries ago, pitting just the two of us against a mercenary army of over thirty thousand determined to sack the city where we then resided. We slew hundreds and put the rest to route in a single hour.

Luna’s wings twitch slightly. “Are you certain, Tia? Walking into this trap… are we strong enough without the Elements of Harmony?”

“I am certain,” I declare, putting aside my own reservations. I must be the stronger, older sister. For Lulu’s sake. “We shall destroy this pretender king and all his works, rescue our fellow, and avenge our family.”

The two of us lock eyes, pink and blue.

I reach out a hoof. “Are you with me, sister?”

“I…” she hesitates, but then her face hardens. She grasps my hoof. “I am with you. I trust you, Tia.”

I allow a smile to touch my features. “I am glad to hear it.”

We embrace once more, sister to sister, this time for much longer.

Soon, though, we are on our way to Royal Armory, to issue orders to the Equestrian Armed Forces, and more importantly to retrieve our own combat gear. Armor that has not needed to be used in centuries is pulled from its prominent place at the symbolic center of the vault. As our attendants ready our bodies for the battle to come, I fortify my mind with righteous anger.

It is time that this upstart “king” learns that there is but one great plan. There is only one design which shall govern all things.

Mine.

Sun and Moon and Ice

Our journey north across Equestria is, from my perspective, simultaneously very rapid and very slow. Of course, my rational mind informs me that we are making very good time, pressing ourselves to our best speeds and unburdened by a baggage train of mortal followers. More subjectively the flight feels as though it is taking an eternity, my mind constantly occupied with increasingly-frightening images of what tortures Sombra might be inflicting on the mare that may as well be my daughter. Righteous anger fuels my speed and gives me strength, but even I have limits on how fast I can travel from one place to another.

As the miles rush past at a breakneck pace, I try to at least keep my focus on the plan. I don’t need to be emotionally compromised for this – nothing good comes from a ruler allowing her heart to override her head. Below us, the army is already undergoing mobilization. Per our instructions, those units close enough to do so will be assisting in the evacuation of any outlying communities of the Crystal Empire that have yet to be overtaken.

I do not intend that the remainder of our forces should just sit passively by. Our air corps – the combined airship fleet and pegasi legions – will soon be moving northwards in our wake. The aerial transports will be carrying a considerable detachment of unicorn magicians skilled in both fire and light magic. They will begin by creating a rough perimeter around the edge of supernatural winter’s grip. Their initial orders are simply to hold it back as best they can and await our return. If all goes well, Luna and I will liberate the Crystal Empire from Sombra and his allies, and all will be well.

But I am not such a fool as to blithely assume our victory is inevitable. There is a possibility, however remote, that my sister and I will fail here. I pray to all the gods that that does not happen, but it is not impossible. We are dealing with a known alicorn-killer in the heart of his resurrected domain. Add to that the fact that this is almost certainly a trap, and there must be a contingency plan in place should we fall. And so there is.

If Luna and I do not return, or the spell on the empire does not break, within twenty-four hours of our entry into the snowy domain, the armed forces are to move in. Ideally, they should be able to retake the Imperial City on their own. If this proves impossible and we have still not reported back, the army is under orders to forget about us and destroy the city from afar. There are more than a few spells in their arsenal suitable for such a feat.

For no matter what, Sombra’s evil cannot be allowed to spread.

I hope and pray it will not come to that. There would be countless thousands of innocent casualties, not the least of which would most probably be myself and all whom I love. But I cannot discount the possibility. My last will and testament has been in existence for millennia, updated every few years, with emergency instructions on how to move the sun and moon, who is to take the reins of power, and a good deal of my personal secrets inscribed within. If need be, it will show itself to my designated successor upon my death.

Let us hope that it will not be necessary.

Observing a windigo infestation through a scrying bowl is one thing. Actually beholding their work in person is a completely different matter. I have much more experience with the vile ice spirits than most and a direct connection to the sun itself, and even I am left shivering by the sheer soul-sucking cold coming out of the Imperial City. It’s not just the physical side of the weather they generate that gets to a pony. More than anything else, it’s the fact that the cold seems to be actively searching for a way to get inside of your soul, to suck out the life and happiness until nothing but a frozen shell of bitterness and hate remains. If these hell-spawned fiends had their way, the entire world would be consumed by the whirling blizzard that has now overtaken the Crystal Empire.

Staring down at the frozen cityscape from a perch atop one of the nearby Crystal Mountains, Luna and I are discussing our approach vectors.

“Perhaps from the northeast?” Luna suggests, pointing a hoof. Enhanced by a spell, my eyes zoom in on the indicated angle. “There seem to be fewer windigoes in that direction.”

“But if we only destroy a few on our way in, will they follow us?” I muse. “If they do, we could be pinned in between Sombra’s trap and a windigo army.”

“I thought you wanted to get to Twilight as quickly as possible, Tia?” Luna sounds puzzled.

“I do,” I answer. “But not at the cost our overall success. It pains me to admit it, but it will do her no good if we burst in heroically only to get struck down ourselves.”

“So what do you propose, then?”

“We need to take out the greater bulk of the ice spirits before we face Sombra.”

“Will not that alert him to our coming?” my sister looks up at me. “Should we not seek to break through them as quickly as possible?”

“Oh, he already knows we’re coming, Lulu,” I remind her. “And I expect he already knows we’re here.”

“You think so?”

“Definitely,” I nod. “So I think we need to destroy his demon servants first. We both know they’re a cowardly lot, used to preying on the divided, the weak, and the defenseless. They won’t stick around for too long if we can send enough of them screaming into the abyss.”

“That is true, but will not we be worn down? Be left more vulnerable to whatever else he has planned?”

“Only if we do a poor job of it, sister. Together, we are strong enough to see these monsters off.”

She sighs. “I suppose that makes sense. I just worry that we’ll be giving him too much time to prepare. Or that he will…”

It doesn’t really need to be said what he might do.

“We will not allow it, Lulu,” I declare firmly, though I share her concerns. A leader must never appear weak.

“You really think we can? Without the Elements?”

I put a comforting hoof around her shoulder. “Of course we can. We are the sun and moon, the last and greatest of our kind. We will destroy this villain, rescue our friends, and avenge the dead.”

I give Luna my best confident smile. After a moment’s hesitation, she returns it.

“Let’s do this.”

My sun burns brightly overhead as close as I dare place it to the planet, giving us the most blinding glare and intense heat that can be safely managed. Many of the outer storm clouds are burned away before we even begin, their dark magic withering under the star’s gaze. The ice spirits themselves are creatures of the cold and dark, so the sudden waves of light and warmth are disorienting. And then Luna and I strike with all the suddenness and fury of an Everfree lightning storm.

Our entrance is heralded with a whirling torrent of blue and gold fire that incinerates more than one windigo on the outskirts of the Imperial City before they even have the chance to look up at us. We two descend from the skies with the sun at our backs, flinging orbs and streams of fire at any of the demons that catch our eyes. Their initial response, as anticipated, is to scatter and flee. They aren’t used to creatures that fight them. We show those that we see no mercy, outright vaporizing any that aren’t fast enough. The cleverer ones weave between buildings and frozen crystal ponies as they go, correctly guessing that we don’t wish to harm them.

Still, it doesn’t take long for the demons of the north to rally themselves. They are many, and we only two. The whirling winter storm surges out to reclaim lost ground, and the windigoes come with it. The blizzard engulfs my sister and myself within seconds, the runes on our armor blazing with light as they strive to counter the attempts to freeze us in place. Visibility, even with enchantment to improve our eyesight, drops dramatically. Howls echo, and then they’re on us.

The first I see of them is when Luna takes a sudden dive, a blue-white cone nicking her tail as she does. Frost immediately starts to form on it, but I have no time to worry about it. No less than five of the creatures come at me simultaneously. All of them open their mouths to unleash a wild spray of blue and white magic. I do what they least expect and take it head on, relying entirely on my armor’s enchantments to protect me. I power straight through the closest cone, directly to the creature at the other end. Before it has time to do anything at all, I impale its semisolid form through the chest and pump the demon full of light magic. It has just enough time to howl mournfully before shattering into so many shards of dead ice.

There is a thin coat of frost on my armor, but it’s already melting off as I turn about to deal with the others. Like the cowards they are, they immediately start to scatter into the winds. Semi-transparent, with only their glowing blue eyes to pick them out, they stand a good chance of doing so. I lob a ball of fire at one as it retreats, and its burning form plummets shrieking to the ground below.

But even as the first wave vanishes, a larger number appear. Perhaps fifteen of the monstrous creatures can be seen on the edge of vision, closing with-

Ooph!

One windigo, braver or more foolhardy than the rest of its kind, gets the drop on me from directly above. It wraps its semisolid tail around my midsection, front hooves trying to grasp my neck. Its mouth breathes a flashing stream of magic directly onto my unprotected horn. The cold wracks my wings, neck, and head, sending shivers through my body.

The other spirits press their attack, firing their magic indiscriminately at myself and their intertwined compatriot. Most is absorbed or burned away by my golden armor, but some of it appears to be getting through. My fur stands on end, and far more importantly my feathers are starting to feel heavy.

This will not do at all.

Abruptly, I simply stop flapping and allow myself to fall. I whirl around onto back during the brief seconds of the drop. The windigo on my back has no chance to disentangle itself before we smash onto a frozen-over mailbox. The abused metal shatters easily underneath my weight, driving sharp chunks of steel against my armor and flesh. It would easily slice through an ordinary pony, but I am far from that.

The windigo’s grip slackens briefly, and I seize it with telekinesis before its friends can descend to give aid. Throwing it to the ground before me, I crush the squirming demon’s head with one armored hoof. I allow myself a brief snort of disdain for the wretched creature, and then shoot up to meet the rest.

Horn and body alike surrounded by a trailing golden glow, I speed upwards like some meteor and simply punch straight through one of the monsters, magic and all. It outright explodes behind me, even as I can feel the others readjusting their aim and firing upwards. For my part, I take a deep breath and conjure flames in my mouth.

In a manner reminiscent of the dragons – indeed, I learned this from them – I expel a vast cone of red-orange fire from my mouth. It meets the oncoming windigo magic… and then subverts it. My lethal cocktail travels up their frozen beams and directly into their mouths to ravage their insides. I take more than a few hits myself, but that’s a price I’m more than willing to pay for the burning demons surrounding me. I can endure it. They cannot.

Shortly, I am alone.

Panting slightly, I spy a small spark of familiar dark blue below, and immediately I vanish from the spot. I reappear atop what appears to be an iced-over domicile, and am immediately beset. No less than three dozen ice spirits are circling around the building, unleashing their magic against my sister. I’m caught in the frigid cones as well, and for a moment I can feel my temper boiling up, urging me to lash out… to destroy this place… kill all who oppose me… how much trouble has this land and its royalty been for me and mine… so easy… just bring the sun close enough and…

No!

I shake my head hurriedly. I will not succumb to others, my will is my own! I will not permit myself to be used as an implement of genocide!

When I blink, I realize half of my legs are frozen solid, in spite of the burning, smoking rune on my armor. I conjure a shield of life and light immediately, focusing on happy memories and ponies I have loved. A golden sphere envelopes me. Very quickly I can feel it make contact with a similar barrier of Luna’s. Through instinct and long practice, the two merge into something greater than themselves.

Around us the ice demons are pressing in by the score, drawn to us like sharks to freshly-spilled blood. Each and every one of them is spraying us with its blue-white magic, striving to drown our barrier in dark magic and consume us utterly, body and soul. There are almost fifty of them now, against our two. Enough to overcome even a small army without effort.

They don’t stand a chance.

In our little safe place, Luna glances at me. “On three?”

I nod.

“One…”

“Two…”

“THREE!” we shout together.

Fire. Together, our shield becomes an orb of pure, harmonious white flame. The burning white orb crashed outward like a tsunami, overpowering the demons and pressing through their hasty attempts at defense.

The windigoes shriek in voices so piteous one might even mistake them for equine. The lucky ones, those closest to our epicenter, are simply incinerated on the spot, their dark spirits sent hurdling into the next world before they even know what hit them. Those further away are washed over by our fires and set alight. They scream and howl and whinny, plunging themselves into ice or else flying frantically from one direction to another, desperate to halt their agony. But it does them no good – that spell is nothing less than then holy cleansing fire of the heavens. It will burn and burn and burn until our enemies are naught but ash on the wind or our powers give out. And the latter will take far longer than the former.

Deliberately hardened as I am, as evil as I know these monsters to be, it is hard not to feel a smidgeon of pity for them as they scream their last. It sounds like a torturous way to die, and for those on the edge of the burst it takes some seconds for the flames to utterly consume their bodies.

I quickly suppress the feeling. I remember who they are in league with, what they have helped to do here.

They deserve this.

When the last of the winter demons that assailed us are slain, Luna and I take a moment to catch our breath. The blizzard continues to coat us, but for the moment nothing more happens. I eye our surroundings warily, wondering if that was all. But, when nearly a minute passes without another of the windigoes showing its wretched face, I am forced to suppose that the survivors have learned their lesson. Or they’re planning an ambush. Either way, the path is the same.

“Well, Tia?” Luna asks, gesturing toward the vague outline of the Imperial Palace. “Shall we?”

I take a final, careful look around through the driving snow. “I think so.”

Sombra, you’re next.

Sun and Moon and Shadow

Compared to our initial arrival at the Crystal Empire, our entrance to the Imperial Palace is rather… tame. The blue-white crystal of the building is of course coated in ice and has begun to shift to black, but the process is not nearly complete. The only modification of note is the thick layer of dark crystal grown around the normally open section where the throne room is located. No simple window entrances then. By way of contrast, the front doors, curiously befit of ice, swing open for us. Luna and I share a look before deciding to go in that way. We kick the doors off their hinges of course, as a precaution. No sense in having them slam shut behind us.

Nearly the instant Luna and I set hoof inside our ears prick up. Just past threshold is the immediate sound of screaming, coming from a voice I can hardly fail to recognize.

“NO! AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Twilight Sparkle’s shrieks echo well in the eerily-deserted palace. “PLEASE!!! AAARRGGGH!!! HAVE MER- GAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!”

I grind my teeth and scrap the ground with a hoof. My first impulse is charge in, mane flaming, magic flying… but I fortunately have long since passed the point of being governed by such things. The screams are indeed echoing quite well. Too well. I can immediately sense the locus of dark magic that can only be King Sombra in the throne room – exactly where I expected he would be – and the acoustics of this place shouldn’t allow such a clear transmition. Obviously Sombra wishes us to charge ahead without thinking, caught up in righteous indignation, and walk right into some trap.

I reach out, trying to sense Twilight as well… but nothing. That could mean anything. In this place the aura of dark magic radiating off the ice and the king is so strong that it could easily block off lesser magical signatures, particularly if they’re in bad shape. I can’t sense my niece or nephew or even their remains either, so I’m fairly confident that it’s simply all the darkness shrouding everything else. If Twilight were… well… I would know.

I know I would know.

Luna and I take a moderate pace through the palace corridors, our eyes open for any sign of attack or trick. Sombra knows we’re here. Even if he didn’t know long before we arrived he could hardly have missed the battle outside. As much as I yearn to rush in and halt the abominable screaming that booms throughout the building I will do no good by getting myself shot in the back. There are so many possible traps: animated statues, force field cages, fear toxins, incorporeal ambushes, warding circles… those last I am especially vigilant for. All they require is the carving of situation-appropriate runes into a circle along with an adequate amount of magical energy. They couldn’t capture us themselves, but be useful enough to hold us still long enough for another trap. In the blue-white crystal of the palace floor, they would be incredibly easy to miss.

I remember in my younger days actually being captured in one of those circles by a cabal of sorcerers wanting me to grant them a wish. Not my proudest moment.

The halls of the Imperial Palace are dark and cold, and the heart-wrenching screaming is a constant, but beyond that Luna and I simply do not encounter anything between the entrance the door to the throne room. No traps, no illusions, no windigo ambush. If I was on alert before, now my mane is positively standing on end. Why are we being allowed so close? Doesn’t Sombra remember how powerful we are? What ace up his sleeve makes letting us into his very lair worth it? The Sombra I remember is far too clever not understand the peril he’s inviting in – he must have something of incredible potency in store to make it worth the risk.

Luna and I stare at the sealed doors to the Crystal Empire’s throne room.

“Tread carefully, Tia,” my sister says. “He is up to something.”

“And you as well,” I reply. “But whatever he is planning will come to nothing. We are greater than he, and we are in the right.”

“Agreed,” she nods. “On three again?”

“As you say.”

“One…”

The two aim our horns.

“Two…”

My horn glows bright gold, Luna’s blue.

“THREE!”

We disintegrate the doors.

The ash doesn’t even have the slightest chance to settle before we’re inside, shields and magic at the ready. A quick glance reveals that the throne room of the Crystal Empire has been entirely reshaped in the image of its “king”. Dark crystal everywhere, sinister motifs on the tapestries, his sigil on the banners… and of course, the bodies.

Speaking of Sombra, he has rather naturally parked his flank atop his stolen throne. Steel armor, barbaric red fur-lined cape, grey coat, curved horn, and unnatural eyes. It’s unmistakably him sitting there, an enormously self-satisfied smirk on his face. And bound with rune-encrusted cold iron chains to the foot of that chair, her body beaten bloody and barely breathing…

I eye the unicorn king with a look that promises hell.

His smile widens.

“Ah, your majesties,” Sombra says in his deep, deceptively-pleasant voice. “Welcome to my palace. I’m so glad you could make it to this little get-together.”

“This is not your palace,” Luna growls. “And you will pay for what you have done to this land.”

“And here I was so hoping we might become friends,” he says in mock anguish. “After all, what’s a bit of murder and mayhem between old comrades, eh Celestia?”

“Shut your filthy mouth, you monster.”

“Oh, dear sweet Celestia, watching you work these past years has been a treat,” Sombra takes a step off the throne. “I never knew just how wonderfully dark you could be. We-”

“Enough!” I stamp my hoof hard enough to shake the room ever so slightly. “I did not come here to listen to you prattle like some two-bit cliché storybook villain! Surrender this land and my student, or face my wrath!”

“Now I ask you: is that any way for a petitioner to come before her king? Especially one who has a gift for her?”

Before I get the chance to do or say much of anything else, the Sombra’s magic envelopes one of the bodies spread throughout the throne room and hurls it at me. I immediately raise a shield, but all the thing does is fly through the air and then collapse limply at my hooves. Looking more carefully at it, through the evident scars of torture and what look to be mortal wounds, I recognize Affable Accord, my ambassador to the Crystal Empire. And, naturally, a coordinator of my intelligence network within it.

“Your… highness…”

I confess that I am as startled as anypony when his lips manage to move and sounds come out. For one, his body is covered in what look to be several fatal wounds. For another, he isn’t breathing.

“I’m so… sorry…”

I grimace as the realization kicks in. My ambassador is dead – that just hasn’t stopped Sombra from using him as a tool to taunt me. I recognize a soul bound to a corpse when I see one. And the “king” is by all accounts an accomplished necromancer.

“I… failed you.”

Yes, you did. A major part of your task was to monitor the empire and Mi Amore Cadenza in particular for any taint or hint of dark magical corruption. Considering what’s happened, it is quite safe to say that your observational skills are extremely lacking.

Still, there is no point in telling you as much now, is there?

“Shhh…” I urge him gently, lowering my head to softly tap his body with my horn. “Pass now with your duties fulfilled, and know that you enter the next life with my blessing.”

I step over the corpse of my servant as it is swiftly consumed in flame. The destruction of the body should release his soul – as it should have been for Shining Armor all those years ago – and in any case there is nothing more I can do for him. The dead are beyond my power to heal.

“So ready to eliminate one of your own?” Sombra smiles again. “I must say, your care for those under you is truly touching.”

“Spare me your lecture.”

“I mean it. Your lack of hesitation is almost worthy of myself.”

Hardly. My hesitation in the face of clear necessity has almost been my doom on a number of occasions. Nightmare Moon, where I initially refused to fight. Had my maddened sister been a fraction less overconfident, had she been the slightest bit smarter I would have perished there in the Everfree Castle. Soon after, the world would have withered under night eternal. And then there is the case of Cadence and her husband, where I allowed respect and sentiment to stay my hoof for centuries. I am certain that what is happening right now would not have come to pass had I simply done the right thing a long time ago. This entire mess is, in a way, my fault, for being so hesitant to deal with the dark beacon years ago.

The lesson to take from all of this is very simple: in a moment of crisis, a ruler must not hesitate. No matter her feelings.

And today, I do not mean to.

“Sombra, I am going to give one chance,” I tell the false king, fire in my eyes. “Your allies are defeated, your plan in ruins, and your curse shortly to be lifted. Surrender now, undo this madness and submit to justice of your own volition, and I might allow you to live.”

“Hmmm…” he taps his chin briefly with one hoof. “Alright then.”

I blink. My jaw drops. Behind me, I can hear the unmistakable sound of Luna’s gasp.

“What did you just say?” I manage, still unable to control my facial expression.

“I said: I surrender,” Sombra repeats himself. “In the face of your superior power, I submit myself into your legal custody to await any charges you wish to bring against me in a court of law.”

I confess, this is indisputably the last thing I expected him to do. After going through a multitude of no doubt harrowing experiences to return from the dead, retake the Crystal Empire, capture Twilight, and lure us here, surrendering is absolutely out of character. I simply asked to observe what formalities exist for this sort of situation.

Still, I find my voice quickly enough. “Very well then. Begin by releasing Princess Twilight. You will then cast down your armor and weaponry at our hooves and-”

I don’t get the chance to say anything else, because that is the exact moment that black shadow magic coalesces around Sombra’s horn impossibly fast before turning itself on me. Fortunately, I am no slouch in quick draw department either, and the stream of dark energy explodes uselessly against a golden sphere.

“Hah hah hah hah hah!” Sombra laughs as his attack dissipates. “You two should have seen the looks on your faces! Hah! Priceless!”

Neither Luna nor I answer, moving immediately to the part where we vaporize him. Blue and yellow streams of magic fly back at the unicorn, only for a pony-shaped chunk of dark crystal to throw itself into their path. The sacrificial pawn is immediately shattered into a million pieces, but the monster behind is untouched.

“I suppose that it’s time you meet my welcoming party.”

And with that simple phrase, the throne room immediately becomes a wild hive of activity. Sections of the walls and floor tear themselves free with loud scrapes of stone on stone, revealing themselves as war golems. Every single carcass littering the ground lurches abruptly to its hooves, witchfire glowing balefully in their eyes. The castle itself shakes when around a quarter of the entire ceiling rips itself out and crashes to the floor below. The thing the enormous mound shapes itself into is not so much a pony as a thirty-foot insectile… thing. Unlike the others, it actually raises its claws high and roars.

Lesson learned: next time, don’t offer the villain a chance to surrender. Just shoot him while he’s talking.

“Make yourselves useful and kill them.”

And then we are beset.

Sombra’s zombies and golems are surprisingly quick for dead flesh and hunks of stone. Dozens of the things skitter across the throne room at us, some firing as they go. Even the insect monstrosity is moving at a pace more appropriate to a leaping antelope. Luna and I, by mutual unspoken consent, fall back fluidly through the doorway and slightly beyond. No sense in allowing them to surround us.

The quickest of the puppet corpses makes a headlong leap at us, jaw unhinged and teeth bared, only to run directly into a wall of force conjured into the doorway by my sister. The necromantic abomination smashes its head into the magic with enough force to audibly crack the skull. Not seeming to notice, the zombie pounds against it with raw and cracked hooves, soon to be joined by as many of the false king’s minions as can fit around the area. Above, I can hear the much larger one pounding against the wall itself. Of course, the mindless constructs fail to notice that they are lining themselves up like bowling pins.

Luna and I hold position for half a second, allowing our magic to build up, then as one we thrust our heads forward. The barrier blocking the door immediately pulses outward in an overwhelming wave of force, sweeping over the horde. Even the largest golem is pushed back, the lesser creatures have no chance. They are hoisted off their hooves and tossed about like clothing in a dryer. Some are torn to pieces, some shatter outright, and some simply lay still against the floor. Only around half manage to pick themselves up again. On his stolen throne, I can make out Sombra grimacing unpleasantly. He vanishes on the spot.

Even as his minions commence a second wild charge, a quick flash and Sombra appears out in the hallway with us. He ducks under a double backwards kick from Luna and simultaneously conjures a red wall that absorbs my lance of magic. He stamps his hooves and a half-dozen shards of black crystal thrust upwards at my sister’s chest, but she has little difficulty in rolling aside from them even in her armor. I shatter his little barrier with a single well-placed hoof strike. Together, Luna and I advance on the king.

Sombra snarls and sends a solid cone of pitch-black energy at the pair of us. We fight back with counterstrikes of our own magic. The three beams meet in the middle, and we all strain. For a few heartbeats it is a tie, the might of the royal sisters temporarily matched by that of the shadow king. But then his energy starts to fade, his magic slowly giving ground before ours.

And then I am jumped by a zombie.

What was once a heavy-built minotaur bull slams into me from the side like a hoofball player. I confess to being unprepared and admit I rather deserve to be bowled over. I am suddenly in tangle with three zombies and four golems at once. They bite, kick, stab, scratch, and pound against my flesh and armor, desperate to fulfil their orders and terminate me. But at my age, my skin has roughly the natural durability of well-made steel plate, and the enchantments on my armor only make it stronger.

As my hooves wrestle against an abomination each, I look up at one of the zombie ponies, staring straight into the green witchfire that now rests in its eyes.

“Burn.”

I detonate a fireball on myself. It sweeps across the hall, consuming fabric and flesh alike. My sister and I are quite fireproof, and the crystal golems are relatively resistant, but the zombies have no such luck. Their dead, bloodless flesh is natural tinder to the flame. It burns them to the bone within the blink of eye. I lash out with two hooves and shatter the head of one golem before it gets the chance to recover, and then disappear in a flash.

I reappear directly behind the usurper king, who through these handful of seconds has been locked in heated contest of magic with my sister. This time, I take the expedient route and shoot him when he’s not looking. Hundreds of thousands of volts of summoned electricity race through Sombra’s body, and his concentration is broken. Luna’s blue magic smashes through his own and catches the stallion in the chest. There is a tremendous explosion, and Sombra goes flying backwards over my head, smashing straight through a wall a considerable ways down the hallway.

My sister and I have absolutely no chance to celebrate, for at that exact moment the enormous insect-golem finally succeeds in smashing through the throne room wall. In fact, it actually knocks around half of the whole thing over, directly onto our heads. Luna, myself, and several lesser golems are buried in an avalanche of finery and crystalline wall. I will admit that having several tons of rock dumped on one’s head is rather painful, even for somepony like myself. Enough to break skin in a few places.

Still, escaping from under it is as simple as a basic teleportation. I materialize again a good distance into the air. Luna is already there, above and behind the vast golem. It is not aware of us, and it appears to actually be digging through the debris for our bodies. That is actually somewhat amusing – the stupid brute really thinks that it has slain us. Luna gestures slightly at its back, and I nod.

We level our horns at the golem and gather our magic. Right on cue, twin lances of blue and gold energy shoot through the air towards the back of the insect’s “neck”. As one, they slice straight through it like it were soggy paper. The monstrosity freezes in place for just the slightest fraction of second, as if taking that long to comprehend what has just happened. And then, just like that, cracks begin to form around the two holes in the golem. They spread rapidly through the beast, the false life visibly fading as they do. Very shortly, it crumbles into so much rubble and dust.

I immediately scan the throne room further threats, but see nothing but the broken ruins of Sombra’s minions and my precious Twilight. I double check, but get the same result. I shake my head. I must confess that that was… easier than I expected. Significantly easier.

Was that it? Was that all you could conjure, Sombra?

A low moan immediately draws my attention back to the horrible-looking mare chained to the throne. I do not know if that was all Sombra had up his sleeve, but I do know that this is a perfect chance to get Twilight Sparkle out of here. The last thing she needs is to fall victim to crossfire when Sombra himself returns. He will not flee – his monstrous pride would not allow such a thing.

“Lulu,” I instruct my sister. “Keep a watch for me. I’m going to break my student free.”

“Aye,” she nods, and we both descend to the ruined floor.

I gallop towards Twilight, perhaps a little more quickly than is entirely prudent, but frankly I do not care. I spend so much time caring for the needs of others, I can be forgiven for indulging in love for one of the only ponies I can even begin to regard as a peer. She is my little one, my daughter in all but blood, and the sight of her lying there, so clearly tortured within an inch of her life… frankly, it makes me half wish I was the type of mare who would do that sort of thing herself. Just so I could visit such vengeance on Sombra.

He may consider himself very fortunate that all I am going to do today is thoroughly kill him.

As I get close, one of Twilight’s ears flicks weakly, and she manages to crack open one eyes.

“P... Prin…” a faint hiss emerges from her mouth. Dear gods, her voice is weak. What did that monster do to her?!

“Shhh…” I urge Twilight as I finally reach the spot where she is chained. “It’s alright. It’s going to be alright. Help is here,” I shatter one runic chain with a single fierce stamp of my hoof, then another. With as much gentleness as I can muster, I lift her limp body up with magic and place it on my own back. “I won’t let anything else happen to you, I swear!”

“Th…” there’s the weak rasp again.

“Please, save your strength,” I plead, before shattering another of her bindings. “Lean on me, and I will take care of you.”

“Wan… Want to… ugh…”

“Just stay still and we’ll have you out of here,” I destroy the last chain that binds my student in place. “We’ll take you to a place of healing and soon you’ll be – urk!”

With absolutely no warning, I feel the sensation of something extremely sharp plunging into the gap in my armor around the back of my neck. The lance of pain travels swiftly through me, puncturing my heart and bursting out of my chest within the space of a single heartbeat.

It’s a lavender horn.

“Suuuupriiiiiiiise!” comes the singsong voice of Twilight Sparkle.

Bright green lightning explodes from the horn, wracking my body from the inside out. My world dissolves into pure agony.

And then blackness.

Moon and Shadows

“Suuuupriiiiiiiise!”

My head jerks around just in time to witness a horrifying sight: Twilight Sparkle, her neck twisted in a bizarre and almost impossible angle, impaling my sister through her chest. As the first drops of Tia’s blood hit the ground, Twilight’s horn unleashes a green electrical storm straight into her most vital organs. The throne room is lit up with such force that I can even briefly see my sister’s skeleton. And then, with a heartrending wail, Tia’s eyes roll back into her head, and she topples over.

I… I… What?!

Twilight pulls her bloody, sparking horn from the ruin of Tia’s chest, breathing heavily. She looks down at my sister’s broken form and grins widely, showing all her picture-perfect white teeth.

“What treachery is this?!” I hiss, finally overcoming my mind’s momentary paralysis. My own horn grows hot on my head.

“Oh nothing,” Twilight smirks at me. “I just thought I’d give myself a little long-overdue promotion. How does “Queen Twilight Sparkle, Sovereign Ruler of Equestria” sound to you?”

“You are not Twilight Sparkle,” I snarl at her, even as I check the aether for illusions. None, so that means… “Changeling.”

Her face visibly falls. “Oh come on! I spent days coming up with just the perfect routine for this moment and you’re just going to- GAH!”

The false Twilight ducks at the very last second to avoid a blue fireball about twice the size of her head, which incinerates the throne behind her and a good portion of the wall behind that as well. Without pause I throw a second, and then a third. She just crossed the last line. No games, and no surrender.

The insect wearing the princess’ form throws herself roughly to the side to dodge the cleansing flame, it burning chunks of the floor out instead. I stamp my forehooves and crystal floor bursts into a wave of lethal spikes that tear up through the ground at her. She yelps and leaps into the air at the last second, though not quickly enough to avoid an impromptu mane-cut from one twelve foot long specimen.

“Now would be…” she calls out, gasping for breath. “A very… good time!”

On cue, several chunks of crystal or apparent statues around the room burst into green flames, revealing the hideous insectile forms of the species we thought long dead. I am beyond caring. My sister, the one pony who has always been there for me, even when I was too mad to see it, lies broken on the floor. She may even be dead. The thought of that… my only family, the one companion that I shall ever have throughout my endless days. Without her… without her…

“Die,” I whisper.

I throw another ball of fire at the changeling nearest to me. This one is less nimble than Twilight’s imposter and is caught full-on. It doesn’t even have a chance to scream before the magically-guided flames bore through its exoskeleton and plunge into its vulnerable insides. It takes but fractions of a second for its heart to be consumed, followed shortly by its lungs and the remainder of the organs of the creature’s chest. Some even shoots up its neck to vaporize the changeling’s brain. A smoking, empty shell hits the floor before anyone has even had time to blink.

The idiot insects don’t quite grasp the lesson. Loyally obeying their presumed queen, perhaps three dozen or so launch simultaneous arcs of green energy towards me from all angles. I simply vanish from the spot and allow the explosion to consume the floor. I reappear high in the air, directly above the false Twilight. Before she even has a chance to look up I deliver a vicious double kick to the rear of her skull. She plummets towards the earth, screaming. The other changelings adjust their facing and fire more magic at me. This time I envelope myself in a blue orb and watch the green lances explode against it one after the other. The fire and smoke, at least, are spectacular.

“That’s it!” Twilight’s voice calls out. That the creature continues to wear her form even know I would take for an insult were I not already furious beyond words. “Kill her! Kill her for the glory of the hive! For the memory of Chrysalis!”

Through the haze, I can vaguely make out changelings cautiously approaching my position. That makes things more convenient, so I impel the smoke to linger a little longer, force the unnatural fire to burn just a few seconds more. Wait for it… wait for it… wait for it…

“FOOLS!” I roar in a Royal Canterlot Voice loud enough to rattle the Imperial Palace itself.

I lash out with my barrier, pulsing the globe in all directions to shatter walls, ceiling, and pillars. The channeling drones, having so helpfully gathered themselves close, take the full brunt of it and are thrown everywhere. The luckier ones travel some distance from my barrier before they hit the ground or a wall. Those less fortunate… well, it’s a quick way to go, at least.

“I come from an age of gods and monsters, you pathetic insects!”

I gather a lightning storm about my horn and fling it downwards with a vicious thrust of my head. The electricity catches one downed changeling without issue and immediately arcs through its body and into another, and another, and another, and into more still, subjecting them all to a thoroughly lethal dose of ancient pegasus war magic. One manages to get up and send another beam of green up at me - I swat it aside with my bare hoof.

“I have treated with gods and slain them!” I yell down at them. “I have traveled the world a thousand times and more and learned more of magic than you could ever imagine! I have fought armies and wrestled with monstrosities that would think you mere fleas on their hide! I seized control of the moon itself over the broken bodies of the great sorcerers of old! I have lived for uncounted millennia, and I will live to see the star themselves die!” I roar loud enough to surprise myself. “I AM A GOD, YOU PITIFUL MORTAL FOOLS! FLEE FOR YOUR INSIGNIFICANT LIVES!!!”

I don’t know why I’m trying to scare off the changeling drones. I could easily just kill the rest of them here and now. I suppose it could be that I recognize that they didn’t really have a choice to be born what they are. These drones are little more than loyal soldiers doing their duty for queen and hive, even when it means facing down a demigoddess. I suppose a part of me might respect that. Besides, they didn’t strike down my sister.

Whatever the reason, that just about does the job. Changeling drones are far from mindless, and while loyal most know a losing fight when they see it. Those that are still capable of movement run, fly, or hobble towards the throne room’s broken wall and the hallway beyond.

“Get back here!” the false Twilight screams at them, even going so far as to grab one of them with her green aura. “You cowards! You traitors! I hatched you ungrateful worms! Where is your loyalty to your mother?!”

“Where is yours to your daughters?” the captured drone hisses back. “We can’t beat her! We’ll all be killed!”

“Then it is your duty to die for the hive!” she rages, still in Twilight’s voice.

“For the hive! Not for you!”

“I am the hive!” she snarls at the drone.

The drone bares its fangs and snaps at the queen. Though long out of their reach, she flinches. That’s all the opportunity the drone needs to shatter her grip and fly for it. It buzzes out through the wall and vanishes quickly into the hallway beyond.

I, not being of the time-wasting sort, use the brief mother-daughter spat to descend to Tia and hurriedly check her. She’s alive, praise the gods! But just barely. That attack outright melted a considerable number of her internal organs. The alicorn magic running through her is the only thing unnaturally forcing her body to stay alive. Regenerating from this will take some time. When turn around, though, I’m not any less angry. In fact, seeing the damage done to my poor sister up close and personal has, if anything, made me want to kill this bug queen even more. And then Sombra.

“Now it is just you and I,” I tell her as I stalk forward in the manner of predatory cat.

The false Twilight bares her teeth and growls.

“With you, I will not be so merciful. You have collaborated with Sombra, invaded an innocent kingdom, and stricken down my own sister. For that, you must answer.”

“Hmph,” green fire envelopes the image of Equestria’s princess, dying down a moment later to display the tall, chitinous form of a changeling queen. “I won’t need your mercy.”

“I am a god, you fool,” I tell her, my voice low. “You are but a passing mortal insect.”

“Some god,” she snorts, looking meaningfully past me and at Tia’s limp form.

I narrow my eyes.

“A pony, even if some fools worship it as a god, is still in the end only a pony.”

“We shall see.”

Energy bursts forth from both our horns simultaneously. There is no complexity here, no epic feats of masterful spellcraft. We simply unleash beams of blue and green energy that meet in the center of the throne room – a contest of raw power. I pour in great rivers from the vast ocean that is my magical power. She is stronger than I thought, but slowly I begin to take the advantage.

“Did you know,” she manages despite the eveident strain on her face. “That I took down your beloved sister… with your niece’s love?”

“Cadence?!” my ears perk up, though I don’t let up for a microsecond. “What have you done with her, you devil?”

“Isn’t it… nrgh… obvious?” she shows fangs in the vague approximation of a grin. “I drained her… dry. I did… what my mother should… have done, all those years ago. She is… dead. And her power is mine! All mine!”

I grit my teeth. I remember the stories of the wedding all too well. Celestia and Chrysalis, and the love that made all the difference. If this beast has truly claimed all the love that was in my niece’s heart then shouldn’t…

Wait.

My eyes flick backwards, just for a moment.

“You already used it all,” I declare. “You can’t beat me and you know it. Not without Cadence’s love. And you already used that to strike down my sister. You’re running on scraps!”

“Nrrrrgh!” is all the response she can make as the point of our spells’ contact creeps slowly, inexorably, back towards her head.

“You’re only…” my eyes widen, as I come to realization. “Stalling for time!”

I don’t even bother to listen to her reply, with my eyes instead shooting back towards the throne room’s shattered entrance wall. Sure enough, he’s there. King Sombra is standing there, observing us both through those unnatural red-green eyes of his. My ears fold back, and I’m immediately set to calculating how fast I can cross the throne room, grab Tia, and bolt out of here. I knew this was a bad idea from the start! Now that they’re both here I have no real option but to-

“Now… would be…” the queen manages, the point of magical contact now only a foot or so in front of her head. “A good… time…”

Sombra does… nothing?

“Sombraaa…” she moans, legs starting to wobble as my magic creeps inch by inch towards her head. “Help… Help!”

The dark stallion still stands there, stock still. His expression is perfectly neutral.

I think I get what’s going on before she does. I don’t know why he’s choosing now to make that move, but I’m not wasting the opportunity. I redouble my efforts, pouring more and more power into my magical beam before he changes his mind and it’s two on one. Blue presses green even further back, to within an inch of the queen’s head.

“HELP ME!” she screams. “HELP ME YOU SON OF A-”

She never gets a chance to finish. With one final push I break through the last of her magic and blast her horn. All the changeling queen gets is one final high-pitched wail before my lethal energies travel down her horn, into her head, and make her living brain… not so living.

Her smoking corpse hits the floor half a second later.

There is a moment’s pause in the throne room. All is quiet save for the sound my own slight panting, as my body works to cool itself down a little. I could do without breathing but that costs magic and I don’t wish to spend it right now. For his part, the usurper king continues to regard me with a calm expression, silent as the grave.

“One down,” I say, taking one step forward. “And one to go.”

“Funny,” Sombra says. “I was thinking the exact same thing.”

Moon against Shadow

As I catch my breath, absolute silence falls on the throne room. The usurper king stares me down, radiating a sense of calm confidence but apparently in no hurry to take action. I stare back at him, projecting my best aura of divine power. It doesn’t seem to faze him. Moments later, I break the silence.

“You allowed your ally to perish,” I say, my voice now echoing in an eerie fashion. “Why?”

“Can’t you guess?” he smirks.

“Because she was no longer of any use, and you have no wish to share power.”

He nods. “True. There’s also the fact that changelings could ultimately have no place in the new order of things that I will build. Ultimately their very nature is deception and manipulation. She would have betrayed me sooner or later, better to beat her to the punch.”

“New order? What new order?”

Sombra takes a small step forward. “Did you think I had no plans for what to do after disposing of you? That I am just some rampaging monstrosity out for blood?”

“What manner of nightmare realm would a pony like you forge?” I demand brusquely.

I want to keep him talking. Sombra’s kind have always enjoyed letting others in on the full magnitude of their supposed genius, and right now I could use a small break. I’ve flown across two countries, taken on an army of windigoes, blasted my way through golems and undead while dueling Sombra, and then taken on and slain a changeling queen and more than a few of her drones. The longer he babbles at me, the longer my body and magic have to recover. Against a foe of this magnitude, I want every advantage I can get.

The false king smiles. “No nightmare, princess. Not for any who lack your foolish weakness, at any rate.”

“You think me weak?”

“I think you and all your kin idiot weaklings,” he says. “Ponies have long had it in ourselves to claim dominion over this world and stride the land as its unquestioned lords and masters. Yet, under your rule not only have we not claimed the glorious destiny that could be ours, but our race has degenerated into pathetic weaklings incapable of dealing with the slightest of threats! Once our warriors and battle wizards were feared and respected across all the lands. Now they are the butt of every joke, easily brushed aside by anyone and everyone! As I proved so recently here.”

“So you’re going to kill us because you think we’ve weakened ponykind?” I snort. “Is that it? Is that your grand vision of an ideal society? Brutal warriors and merciless tyrants subjugating the rest of the world by force? Bah! Your rule would as unsustainable as it would be foolish! Only through friendship and kindness and harmony can this world be joined as one!”

“You once thought as I do,” he says.

“You lie!”

“Many millennia ago you and your sister, under other names, once carved out great dominions through force and intrigue, seeking to end the era of disunity left by Discord through conquest. Do you deny it?”

How does he know that?! We never even showed ourselves as alicorns, much less used our own names. During those days chaos reigned and warlord armies looted and burned at will. We had a duty to step in to stop the mortals’ bloodshed.

“Conquest for the sake of conquest was never our goal,” I answer him. “We sought only to bring peace in an era of anarchy and violence! And we seceded power once peace had been attained!”

“But many had to die for your vision to be realized, princess. You had ponies who sought to oppose unified kingdoms killed. You had vision for society and you did what you had to do to attain it. And did you not claim even more power in the end?”

Celestia and I took on power over Equestria when it became clear that with mortals at the helm a peaceful, unified, prosperous pony homeland would never come into being. The hubris and stupidity of mortals had already doomed the Lost Continent to its frozen grave and then nearly destroyed Equestria in its infancy. We could not sit back and watch any longer – even if the alicorn race was a pale shadow of its former self, our duties to others remained.

“Do not compare us to yourself, Sombra,” I hiss, stepping forward myself. “We have sought nothing but peace and happiness for our subjects. You offer nothing but war and slavery.”

“In any case, your deaths here will seal the end of the old order announce the rise of the new. And no matter what you think of that, there is simply nothing you can do to stop it.”

“Now you resort to juvenile taunts?”

“Revenge is a dish best served with an extra helping, my dear princess,” he begins walking towards me, but slowly, around the side. “I want you to know just how outmatched you really have been before you die.”

I start walking myself in tandem with him, going along the same general route but on the room’s opposite side. We slowly circle each other, eyes never breaking contact.

“How did you even do this?” I ask him. “You were slain centuries ago.”

“Very true,” Sombra nods. “I confess that the task was neither simple nor easy. The mere act of prying my spirit from the bleak void between life and death was extraordinarily difficult. Simply manifesting again as a powerless ghost was the work of more than one century. I could have been drawn into the afterlife at any time, sealed forever from returning to this world. But my spirit was strong, I refused to let go. And so, inch by painful inch, I dragged myself back to this world.”

“But you are hardly a ghost now.”

“No,” he grins. “I am not. Even once I was back here the work was not half-finished. What has happened these past few critical days has been the culmination of decades of work. Hiding in the shadows, spying on old enemies, seeking allies, pushing just the right buttons at the right time, setting up a war, and even…” here he pauses, as if savoring a crowning achievement. “Engineering an ascension.”

My eyes narrow. “You liar. A monster like you could never summon the purity and power to induce such a wondrous transformation!”

“No. But your niece could. The Crystal Heart heeded her call for power. All she needed was a push in the right direction.”

“Cadence would never heed the words of a black-hearted murderer like you!”

“Wouldn’t she?” he smiles knowingly. “She craved her husband’s restoration with a passion beyond words. She simply had to be given the right rituals at the right time, just as war drew nigh. From there she stripped her kingdom’s greatest defense for me. And with dear Shining Armor so new to his body and power, he could not hope to stand against me.”

“You mentioned the war. I take it you are responsible for that as well?”

“With some help from my changeling “friends”, yes. I taught them how to create an artificial abundance of crystals with the islands, I arranged for them to be found just when I wanted, and I arranged for the murder of the gryphons’ speaker. You would have been surprised to learn how many of the delegates there were changelings or under their control.”

“Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I needed the hatred and bloodshed to fuel my power. They were necessary preconditions for my return to flesh.”

“And the windigoes?” I ask as we continue to circle one another. “Do they know what you have done? Will they countenance such a betrayal of the changelings? Or are they too expendable in this plot of yours?”

“Of course they know. They knew from the beginning that we would destroy the fool Ecdysis and her brood. Even now, I think, they should be hunting down what changelings remain in the Crystal Empire. They are not creatures of deception like the changelings. They can be dealt with to destroy our enemies, and more the fool you for not realizing that before I did. They would have made formidable vanguards to your armies, as they will for mine.”

“They will destroy you, fool.”

“Oh, I doubt that. I will give them a feast richer than even the last days of the Lost Continent. In return they will help me.”

“You have no leverage over the ageless winter spirits. They will seek to consume you, in time. It is their nature to feed on hatred.”

“I have more dark magic at my command than any other being. And once I am done here, I shall have the sun and moon at my beck and call as well. They will honor their agreement. They will have no choice.”

“You will not prevail here, either.”

“Really? Because it seems to me that I’m on the verge of it now. I’ve killed or incapacitated every last alicorn in the world save you, and once you too are defeated I will be-”

Sombra is cut off by the massive lance of blue magic that slams into his chest. The fool gave me more than enough time to recharge, and now he pays the price.

The attack isn’t as effective as I’d hoped, but about what I expected. Sombra’s armor has arcane defenses built in, and that’s not even counting whatever spells he may have cast on himself. My magic hits his chest armor and explodes with enormous force, shattering the floor beneath and sending the false king flying backwards so hard that he outright smashes through the side of the palace. His smoking forms plummets into the distance, and I hurriedly invoke a protective ward over my sister before hurling myself into the air after him.

Sombra flies some distance before crashing into an ice-covered road hard enough to leave an impact crater and still roll a considerable distance. I commence dive-bombing at once, drawing on light magic to create a silvery-white sphere and drop it almost directly on top of him. The sphere explodes into countless streams of light that move to coil him up, only for a dome of red energy to impose itself instead. He’s faster on the uptake than anticipated – even the strongest unicorn should at least have been stunned momentarily by that kind of impact.

The false king rolls easily onto his hooves as my spell expends itself uselessly against his barrier, grinning wildly and seemingly unhurt. He jerks his head in my direction and hundreds of tiny black crystal shards tear themselves from the ground in a veritable hailstorm of pin missiles. I teleport at once, reappearing a good distance away, only for the shard-storm to immediately reorient itself and come my way again. This time, I stand my ground, allowing the swarm to draw closer and closer until the very last second. When they are all but on me I stomp my hooves at blistering speed, raising a towering wall of earth. I can hear the pitter patter of the missiles crashing into it at high speeds, expending their tiny charges of dark magic by the dozens and hundreds.

Guided by long instinct I whip I my head around at just the right instant to catch Sombra rematerializing from a smoky black cloud. I let loose a miniature lightning storm from my horn, but he just dissolves back into a gaseous cloud to slip around. I take the opportunity to plunge my horn into the snow. The moment Sombra reforms hundreds of frozen claws assail him from all angles. Dozens manage to get a grip, ice rapidly spreading across his body from every point of contact even as they struggle to pull him towards the earth. Yet again he surprises me by remaining on his hooves seemingly without difficultly, and a moment later breathes a cloud of noxious green flame that sweeps over the enchanted ice. The hands I conjured melt away to nothing, while the flames rear up into the form of a great wyrm of the east.

The monstrosity opens it jaws in a silent roar even as it lunges for me. I am more than ready, seizing the flame by force of will and molding it to my desires. The beast-form dissolves as the flames whip around my body, changing from green to blue. The stream of blue fire hurdles back at Sombra, who raises one hoof to conjure a wall of black in front of himself. There is an explosion and a great cloud of steam, but my eyes have no trouble piercing it. I give the false king another blast of lightning, this time connecting. His eyes squeeze firmly against the pain and his body shudders under the crackling electricity coursing through it. Seizing my chance I fire off a lance of silvery-white light magic at him. But the usurper king is again quick on the draw, physical body melting away into smoke before it can strike.

A moment later Sombra reforms at the top of the column of steam, which is rapidly becoming a tornado of sorts. Icy winds from the ongoing storm surge into to join the twister, before it abruptly shatters in all directions. Hurricane force winds throw me from my hooves and send me skidding back hundreds of feet, bouncing along the frozen streets as I go. It is slightly painful, but not particularly so with my armor and natural resiliency. Ironically, the supernatural ice itself proves an effective shield for the trapped crystal ponies and even the surrounding architecture. As rooted to the ground as they are and as quickly as the winds pass, they remain mostly untouched.

Even as I roll to my hooves, Sombra reappears atop a nearby homestead and flicks his head. A half-dozen massive black crystal spikes burst from the ground all around me, aiming to impale me from several different angles. But I’m already gone from the spot, and they catch nothing but one another. Materializing on high, I send a spell down not onto my enemy, but a area below him. A second later the ivy decorating the house’s walls explodes from the ice as rapidly-forming tendrils six feet thick. They rise up and plunge towards Sombra, who conjures a sphere of blackness about himself. The instant the enchanted plants touch it they crackle with energy, turn a much darker green, sprout random crystal shards, and race up towards me instead. I rear my head back, open my mouth wide, and snap it forward again to breathe a vast cone of blue flame. The fires race down the corrupted ivy towards its master, who promptly vanishes into smoke again. The plants burn away to their roots.

There are a few seconds of near silence before vast chunks of supernatural ice and whipping winds tear themselves from their course to race towards a rising shadow. The shimmering ice and inky blackness merge into one another and coalesce into an orb. This orb promptly explodes out, thinning itself and winding through the earth and sky in a manner combining flowing river with winding rope. The energy takes on more and more solid form as it trails along, manifesting a shimmering coat of silvery-black scales and a thick underbelly. As the fore of it rises through the air it grows a hood, a head, a mouth, and fangs. Vast green eyes larger than my own body stare up at me from a serpent twice the size of a full-grown dragon. It opens its titanic jaws and roars with all the fury of the damned, shaking the entire Crystal Empire and no doubt lands beyond.

I drop a big rock on it.

Alright, more specifically I reach through my primal connection to the moon while Sombra is putting on his big light show. In an act impossible for a lesser magician, I call an infinitesimal shard of my great sphere to come to my aid, warping itself through space to appear at my side precisely when and where I will it. That being when the snake is roaring, and directly above its head, respectively. Not as flashy as merging oneself with dark magic to create a city-eating terror perhaps, but I would argue infinitely more practical.

I watch with a grim smile on my face as the moon rock is caught in the planet’s gravity and plummets directly onto the snake’s head with all the force you would expect from a multi-ton boulder. Not only does it audibly snap the serpent’s neck on first impact, but it grinds the construct’s head into the ground hard enough to break supernatural ice and engineered crystal road alike, leaving a massive crater. The great beast twitches once, then lies still in the snow. It is… almost anticlimactic, really.

I slowly descend towards the freight train-sized corpse, keeping wary eyes on it. By all rights that should have killed him. But then, by all rights the usurper king should already have been dragged off to the afterlife to endure his rightful punishment. I approach cautiously, just in case this thing has a little more fight in it than it seems. As I make my way, my eyes start to pick out small wisps of black smoke hissing from between the scales of the great carcass. It pours out faster and faster, and then begins to coalesce once more. No! It can’t be! Not after a beating like that!

But it is. The inky smoke fades away to reveal the unmistakable armored grey stallion. What in all the blazes is going on?! How is he so durable?! If I didn’t know better I’d swear he was concealing wings underneath that armor!

Sombra, for his part, seems more than a little shocked, and is not immediately aggressive. Instead, he’s looking at one of his hooves.

“Astonishing,” he says in a half-whisper that my ears easily catch. “This flesh is even more resilient than I anticipated. Natural, or a result of the circumstances of its creation? What other surprises does it hold?”

Enough of this! I am done with this disgusting monster and all his black arts!

I hit the ground and rear back before unleashing a brilliant blue beam of pure power directly at the monster king. For all his seeming distraction, he immediately jerks his body to face me and returns fire. Blue and black energies meet at the midpoint between us. Just as it was with Ecdysis, Sombra and I are locked together.

It becomes immediately apparent that the king is stronger than the queen was. Granted she has already expended her best weapon to defeat my sister, but Sombra has been using quite a bit of magic as well. He should be worn out. No mortal unicorn should be able to access such power and then duel an ancient alicorn princess as we duel now. It’s just not possible!

But, apparently, it is. Sombra and I both grit our teeth and lock eyes as the two beams press against one another. For all that it shouldn’t be, the two appear to be almost equal in strength. One moment blue pushes black backwards a few inches or a foot, the next its black resurgent and blue being pressed back. The balance point between us remains firmly locked in the center, only shifting slightly for short periods towards one or the other.

Minutes pass in this fashion. Sweat drips down my body despite the cold as I call on every scrap of energy I possess. Here is the tyrant king, the source of all this misery and death. If I can slay him here, the Crystal Empire and more will be saved. Such is worth everything I have, and so that’s what I dedicate. I turn I can sense Sombra’ absolute, unflinching will to prevail here, to cast me down that his nightmare empire my rise. He too is giving it everything he’s got.

“You… cannot… beat me… Sombra,” I manage to hiss between heavy breaths. “I… am… stronger!”

Sombra is silent, for just a moment. His eyes flick upwards, then back to me. His mouth twists into a sharp-toothed grin.

“Don’t… need… to…”

I manage to glance up, just for a second.

Infinite infernal hells that is the biggest windigo I’ve ever-

The princess glances. The spirit strikes. And it is over.

The magic between us fades away as the alicorn princess is consumed by the towering windigo’s magic, the very blood in her veins freezing solid beneath his breath. Utterly focused on me and with nothing left to defend herself or ever keep watch, she made an easy target. But even then it might not have been enough if this were not one of my greatest allies: Hoarfrost, a windigo of almost unmatched age and power. He is old enough to have joined the feast that ended the Lost Continent, and was one of the ones to follow the Great Migration across the seas, almost ending Equestria before it could begin.

He was very eager for a second chance.

Hoarfrost throws back his head and roars in triumph. When the powder fades and I see the result, I cannot help but laugh with elation. Princess Luna is frozen utterly, her face contorted into a delightful expression of shock tinged with fear. When I think back on this triumph in the centuries to come, it will moments like these I remember best.

And what a triumph it is! I’ve done it! After all these years, all this waiting and plotting and patience, I’ve finally done it! The alicorns are beaten, their power and pride laid low before me. The body I wear is stronger than anything I’ve had before, the energies taken from the Crystal Heart empowering it beyond anything even I expected. I am more powerful now than I have ever been, and very soon I shall become more powerful yet! No one, not Discord nor Harmony nor the gods themselves will be able to stop me!

I’m in such a good mood as I levitate my frozen quarry back towards my palace that I even consider sparing a hiding changeling I spot along the way. But then I reconsider and kill it with a casual bolt of lightning. Others, better concealed, fly off in all directions as its smoking corpse hits the ice. I feel so pleased that I don’t even care. Do what you will, go where you like, nothing will escape me in the end. Your kind is as doomed as the alicorns.

As I make my way up the stairwell and through the open palace doors, one thought occurs to me: This day has been just perfect.

As time has passed, my emotions have slowly trickled back. Well, one emotion really: crushing despair.

I’ve lost. I’ve lost so utterly and profoundly that I don’t know if even the hells themselves could impress it on me more. I’ve failed at everything. I’ve failed as a ruler. I set the Crystal Empire up for Sombra and his changeling witch just as surely as if I’d handed over the throne and the heart personally. Out of wishful thinking I acted the fool and so received my due reward in this dungeon. But why do others have to suffer?! What justice is there in punishing my kingdom and family for my mistakes?! I could have spared them with a little caution but failed to do so. I’m not worthy to wear a crown.

Twilight, I failed you. I’m sorry for being so stupid. I should have recognized an impostor, should have done something to save you. Where are you now? Are you even alive? Do you even want to be? I’m sorry.

Shining… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Everything that’s happened to you, from beginning to end, has been my fault. I blackmailed you into centuries of suffering out of my own neediness, and then when I sought save you I damned you instead. As assuredly as all this has damned my own soul. I’m… I’m… I’m…

Huh?

What’s that?

My ears perk up. Even from here, I can hear something. It sounds like… a scuffle. There’s screeching, hissing, the sound of magic, and then what sounds like shattering.

And then somepony pounds on my cell door.

Pivotal Moments

A vague and distant voice first rouses me from my slumber, though weakly. The jolt of pain that wracks my entire body is much more effective.

“Rise and shine, princess,” the powerful, deep voice says, before another round agony rips through me. “We wouldn’t want you to be unconscious for this.”

By the voice and tone I already know what awaits me, but I confess that when I open an eye I’m still a bit dismayed to see King Sombra standing before me, a smug smile on that warped face of his. In my half-conscious state I even feel the urge to gasp, but that notion is swiftly quashed by the realization that I’m not breathing. My lungs don’t appear to be functioning at all, as near as I can tell. Looking down, it quickly become apparent that my chest is a blackened ruin, with a prominent hole directly through my heart. It’s numb rather than agonizing, suggesting major nerve damage.

“Hello your highness,” Sombra’s mocking tone draws my attention back to him. “It’s good to see you awake again. I wanted to have you aware for the last few hours of your long life – and the beginning of your own personal hell. After all you have done to me over these many years, it seemed only fitting that you would go first.”

“I have been impaled, disemboweled, burnt alive, crushed beneath a rock titan, suffered sextuple amputations, been eaten by a dragon, and on one memorable occasion been beheaded. I fear neither death nor pain,” I tell him in a calm tone. Though my lungs are useless, my inherent magic gives me a voice. “Do your worst.”

It’s not bravado that makes me tell him this. Rather, I want Sombra to take his time. I can deal with a little suffering. The more time he spends tormenting me, the sooner the army moves in. Seeing as I am here and in Sombra’s clutches, I must assume Lulu is either driven away or captured herself. I would know if she were dead. That means plan B is now in effect. Stalling Sombra is therefore my best move.

“You will learn fear, Celestia,” Sombra says, pointing behind me with a hoof. “Do you know what this is?”

Moving my neck is difficult due to a heavy rune-inscribed black iron brace around both it and my horn. With a little bit of straining though, I manage get a good glimpse of some sinister-looking contraption of black iron and crystal. I am strapped to a solid platform of dark iron by all six of my limbs, plus my horn, neck, and tail. My mane has been cut away. The platform has been positioned to me on eye level with the false king, and is held in place by six pillars of blackened crystal. Smaller shards of crystal poke out of the platform and into my body at various points. The entire contraption is covered with pulsing green runes, which explains the lack of flaming death erupting from my horn despite my fervent urgings to the contrary.

“It looks like another overly-complicated torture device,” I answer. “No doubt intended to draw out my death agonies for as long as possible, correct?”

He shakes his head, smiling. “Wrong, dear princess. That is a device for draining magic.”

Oh... oh dear.

“You see,” Sombra goes on. “During my years wandering the earth as a ghost I heard tell of what had happened when Lord Tirek escaped Tartarus all those years ago. I found them… most inspirational. Imagine what a being not handicapped by foolish notions of peace and morality could do with all that power. So I got to thinking: if he could steal the magic of the alicorns, why couldn’t I? Of course, I’m not a natural to the power like he was,” there is the slightest undertone of bitter jealousy. “So I had to duplicate the effect artificially. It took me a great deal of time and effort to design such a masterpiece, and even longer to find somepony willing to build one for me. But it was all worth it, because through it I’ll have everything you ever had and more.”

My face is impassive – I don’t say a word.

“Just imagine it, princess,” he leans in close, almost whispering into my ear. “One pony with all the power of not one, but six alicorns in a single body! No one in the world could even come close to matching me! The Crystal Heart and the Elements of Harmony themselves could not touch what I will become!”

Six? Counting Shining Armor, there are only five alicorns alive today, I’m absolutely sure of- Oh.

Cadence is alive then. Given the circumstances, I’m almost uncertain if that is a good thing. She may well wish she wasn’t.

“You will not prevail regardless of what happens to me, Sombra.”

“Really? Because it looks to me that I’ve already prevailed. You’re helpless, your sister and niece are in my hooves, your nephew is screaming in an endless nightmare in the back of this head, and your oh so precious student is locked in a magical coma in a coffin at the bottom of the sea. That’s right,” he gloats. “She was never even in the Crystal Empire. Everything you saw from the moment she came back from her survey was the changeling queen Ecdysis wearing her form. And you fell for it hook, line, and sinker. How does that make you feel?”

Horrible, if I’m entirely honest. How could I have been so stupid? So blind? And after the debacle at the wedding so long ago? Did I allow emotion to blind my reason again? After what just happened in the throne room, I must admit that I did. But I’m hardly going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.

Twilight, Lulu… I’m sorry. I failed you. I hope that you will have more luck than me.

“So,” I say. “Your plan, as it were, is to steal the magic from myself, my sister, my niece, my nephew, my student, and my niece’s unborn foal, correct? You believe this will make you effectively invincible, allowing you to… what? Take over the world like some cliché supervillain from a foal’s comic book?”

Sombra grimaces. “To give ponykind the leader it should always have had, and destroy the ruinous indolence your rule has brought to our society. But yes, the restructuring of the prevailing world order is part of the plan. It has been ever since I clawed my way back out of the void between worlds, guided by the beacon attached to dear Shining Armor.”

Of course he did. I knew I should have moved to put an end to that danger long ago. A ruler’s sentiment and emotion once again reveal their fundamentally poisonous nature.

“And about that,” his expression perks up. “Your amateurish little assassination attempt twenty years ago came far too late. But it did help push Cadence right into my hooves, so for that I am grateful.” Sombra gives me a mock-bow.

Why am I not surprised to hear that my niece consorted with an evil ghost? If she had learned to let go of unnecessary attachments centuries ago, this would never have happened.

“So, you’ll take over the world and… what? Turn it into an enormous slave camp? A vast gladiatorial arena for your amusement perhaps? Some demented playhouse where you exercise your sick impulses on the weak and helpless?”

“Patience, dear Celestia. You’ll see soon enough. In fact you’ll have a front row seat. You see this?” Sombra pulls a small rainbow-hued crystal from beneath his cape. “This is where I plan to put your soul after I drain you dry and you die of your wounds. Having been a ghost myself, I don’t wish a vengeful alicorn spirit stalking me for the rest of time. From here you’ll get to scream and beg and watch helplessly for the remainder of eternity as I do what I wish with everything you cherish. A suitable vengeance for engineering my downfall not once, but twice.”

“Make that three times,” I say, voice still calm and confident.

“I doubt that very much,” Sombra answers. “Very soon you’ll be a screaming spirit in a gemstone prison. Yes, this device might take some time, but for a being as old as yourself a few hours should just fly by.”

Sombra’s horn lights up, and around me the bizarre invention begins to activate. Arcs of electricity move up and down the crystals, while runes pulse and dim in seemingly random patterns. I begin to rotate backwards, towards the ceiling.

I brace myself, body and soul, as best I can. If this monster wants my power, he’s going to have to pry every last drop out of a wringer. I must draw out the process as long as possible. Any additional suffering it brings me is immaterial.

“Oh, and before we begin, I just wanted to add how idiotic your so-called plan for your own kind of world conquest was. Even discounting the dubious probability of training dozens of virtually kidnapped alicorns to behave precisely according to you will, you didn’t even need them! You had the sun, for gods’ sakes! You systemically eliminated any potential knowledge or ability to move it outside of yourself centuries ago! All you had to do was inform the world’s leaders that their nations would now bow to you, or else never see another sunrise! It was that simple!”

“So, you propose I should have united the world in hatred and fear of me using terror and mass-murder?” I don’t even bother to hide the scorn in my voice. “Who do you think I am, you?!”

Sombra ignores me as he completes the activation sequence. “Hold on to your crown, princess. This is only going to hurt a lot.”

It does.

The lock of the cell’s door shatters after several strikes. The golems in the cell with me move forward, firing bursts of black lightning through the partially opened door. They shove it open roughly as my would-be rescuer retreats and advance into the cavern beyond. I hear the sound of more scuffling as flashes of black and green briefly go by. It takes a few seconds, but eventually there is the sound of shattering crystal and heavy thuds.

And then my little spark of hope dies as changeling drones march into my cell.

There are half a dozen in here with me, more than I can get a proper count of outside. Black and chitinous and repulsive as ever, though to my surprise looking a little rough around the edges. Some have cracks in their exoskeleton, others have wings more tattered than usual, and still others feature patches of deep frostbite on their bodies. I would have expected them to be plump and happy. The Crystal Empire should have provided a veritable all you can eat buffet for them.

“So,” I ask them. “I assume you’re here to drain whatever’s left of me? Your queen not get enough earlier?”

They don’t answer. Instead, the drones walk up to surround my prone form. One of them gets a firm grip on my horn and… tears the chain off?

I gasp as I feel magic surging through me again. The other changelings viciously attack the chains binding me to the walls and floor, tearing the rune-covered iron apart with hoof and fang and magic. The flow of power grows stronger and stronger as each one is destroyed. I can sense my body’s innate power pouring into my neck, mending muscle, straightening and refusing bone, and merging ruined nerves back to the peak of health. Ordinary sensation begins to return to the rest of my body as my broken neck is repaired. The changelings stand there and watch as, over the course of a few minutes, my body brings itself back to full capacity.

I rise slowly to my hooves and stretch my wings, almost as confused as I am elated by this strange turn of events. The insectile equines watch, passively as ever, as I flare my horn and give it a test run, followed by cricking my neck.

“Why?” I ask.

“Not of love of for you,” one of them, the largest, says to me. “We are betrayed. Our queen is dead. Sombra means to kill us all rather than share power.”

I resist the urge to say that it serves them right.

“We want him dead before he can complete his scheme. You are the only one who can do it. So we broke you free,” the drone says, buzzing its wings slightly. “Simple.”

“What’s going on up there?”

“Your empire is in the grip of Sombra and many windigoes. He has managed to subdue your aunts – with our queen’s help,” it adds bitterly. “As well as your husband and sister. He plans to consume all of their magic to become the single most powerful being in the world, as well as yours and that of your child. You must stop him before he can. We are no match for him without the queen.”

I put an involuntary hoof across my stomach.

“And…” I hesitate. “Shining Armor?”

“Possessed. The dark power harvested from the Imperial-Prench War and your husband’s relative unfamiliarity with his body enabled Sombra to overtake him. But he is not yet finished. If you can purge the king’s soul from his body, you may yet save him.”

“Alright,” I nod, moving towards the exit. At the last second, I turn my head back. “And… thank you.”

“Hmph.”

Love and Valor and Shadow

After nearly two hours have passed, I must confess that Princess Celestia is… more resilient than I had expected. I had thought that centuries of her soft life of pampered luxury and near-invulnerability to injury would have left her with a very low tolerance for actual pain. Apparently I was wrong, as during the entire time she hasn’t so much as squeaked even though I know the process is intensely painful. That she’s fighting against it should make it all the more so.

The alicorn princess and my device are, on a metaphysical level, essentially wrestling for control of the vast reservoirs of power inside of her. The slowness of the process and the relatively thin stream of magic flowing to me shows that she’s putting up quite the fight. Determined to defy me to the last, I suppose, or perhaps even hoping the machine will kill her before I can take all of her strength. But the process is inexorable and the end result inevitable. I will claim her strength and her star, and use them both to lead our race into the glorious future that should have been ours millennia ago. I can already feel the sun through what magic I have absorbed, and I half wish to reach out and grab it right now, thrash it, and break it to its new master. But patience is a virtue – I learned that much during my death. No need to take unnecessary risks now, not when I’m so close.

But still, sitting here and absorbing the thin trickle of golden magic flowing from Celestia is, well, rather boring. There’s only so long one can stare at a silent, slightly twitching alicorn princess before one wishes for something else. In picturing this moment I always imagined plenty of screaming, pleas for mercy, and maybe even offers to serve me at length. It’s just not as much fun casting down false gods and reveling in your triumph if they won’t even acknowledge their defeat. Elysium at least had the decency to scream as she died. What I do is necessary and not solely for personal amusement, but still… it’s like watching paint dry. I wonder if there’s anything else I could be doing.

Hmmm…

I suppose it wouldn’t be a bad thing to check up on the other prisoners. I’m certain they’re all there and under guard, but it can’t hurt to be doubly sure when talking of such important ponies. Step one is, obviously, check up on the one in my head. Shining Armor is straining against the nightmare spell, so I reinforce it for the seventh time. I’m not quite strong enough to expel his soul without risking this body’s death yet, as he’s bonded to it in a way I’m not. So he gets to endure here a little longer. Again, no sense in taking unnecessary chances.

I make certain that my wards and summoned guardians are in place before I take even one step towards the door. Then I do it again, and then conjure two more golems to secure this area while I take my little tour. When I finally do start walking towards the exit, the trickle of stolen magic follows me. I take it slowly, making certain nothing disrupts the flow as I walk down my palace’s corridors, a few flights of stairs, and some lightless tunnels underground. As a security measure, I have of course been keeping all the alicorns a good distance apart. I can see the golden thread thin out and lengthen as I go, but it remains firmly attached, and I can feel Celestia’s power continuing to add to mine at a slow but steady rate.

Princess Luna is in one of the city’s natural caverns. I warded the area with glyphs of cold, put a half dozen golems on patrol, and then assigned that twice that number of windigoes to do nothing but circle her frozen form and continuously reinforce the ice. For added security I also created the best containment circle I could around her prison on such short notice. I don’t think it would be enough to stop if she broke free, but at least I would know about it.

When I check in on her, I’m pleased to see that all is well. The princess of the night is still comfortably frozen there, the delightful look of shock and fear plastered all over her motionless face. The windigoes are breathing ice magic across her prison every few seconds as they circle, making it even thicker and stronger than before. I ask for a report in their language, and they tell me exactly what I want to hear. I leave the cavern behind feeling a little less bored. So that leaves just-

What the buck?!

The thin, golden stream of the solar alicorn’s power suddenly, and without warning, snaps. I’m not receiving anything anymore, and I have no idea why.

I immediately dematerialize from the spot, rushing upwards as a black mist far faster than any wings could carry me. I pass up through the caverns and up through the palace’s lower levels before my own wards force me back into a solid state. My hooves hit the floor running, and I don’t stop. A thousand catastrophic scenarios pop into my head as I go, and I bare my teeth. Someone is going to pay for this interruption.

I bolt up the stairs with all the speed I possess, tear open the door to the appropriate floor, then race down the hallway towards Celestia and whatever is causin-

Urgh!

I slam into something at full speed, and go down to the floor roughly. It doesn’t hurt, but I’m briefly stunned all the same. There wasn’t anything there, I could clearly see the empty hall beyond this point! What the hell dares to get in way of the rightful king of this land?!

The air before me shimmers, forms into a semitransparent outline, and then takes the shape of a certain pink alicorn princess with a murderous scowl on her face.

Oh, invisibility. I forgot she could do that.

Cadence lungs at me before I can recover, horn first. “Get the hell out of my husband’s head you son of a bitch!”

Ours horns connect, and hers immediately begins to glow a bright pink.

“No…” pleads a beaten, bloody Twily. “No… no please…”

My sister lies broken on the scorched earth, mane and tail burnt to stubs, limbs twisted into impossible angles, wings stripped of feathers, and horn utterly shattered. Above her towers the immense form of the demonic centaur Lord Tirek. His muscles bulging, manacles shattered, and face locked in a triumphant leer, the contrast between the two could not be starker. Around them the earth has been blackened, the forests and villages burnt to ash, and the sky itself is a deep red. The massive centaur raises but one of his forehooves over Twily. It’s easily twice the size of her entire body, maybe more.

“No…” my sister pleads again, tears running down her cheeks. “Please!” she reaches a single, trembling hoof out towards me. “Shiny! Help!”

I race towards her as fast as my hooves can carry me, praying to every deity I can think of for more speed. I call all the magic I have into my horn and fire it up at Tirek. It hits his chest dead on, but he doesn’t even seem to notice. His yellow eyes gleam but once, and I’m casually tossed aside like the world’s most significant gnat. I hit the ground hard enough to feel my spine snapping. Tirek positions his vast hoof directly over Twily.

“SHINY!” Twilight screams. “HELP! HELP ME! SHINY!”

I try to get up. I can’t. I try to cast a spell. I can’t. I try to beg for her life. I can’t. I try beg him to leave her, to take me instead. I can’t. I can’t do anything at all. As the monster’s hoof descends on my little sister, I can’t even manage the strength to call out her name.

Tirek’s hoof hits the ground. There is a gruesome, lengthy crunch that seems to hang in the air for what feels like hours. Unnatural silence follows as the centaur lifts his hoof from the small crater he made. It’s covered in… well, exactly what one would expect it to be covered in. A strangled gurgle emerges from my throat. My visions goes blurry and my cheeks becomes wet. Lord Tirek turns his head to face me. He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t need to. The expression on his face does all the talking.

Canterlot. The city of royalty. The seat of power in Equestria for a thousand years more. Boasting the finest academies of magic, the most selective alchemist guilds, scores of priceless, magical ancestral weapons, and the best-trained, largest, and best equipped regiments of the Royal Guard, it is a point of pride for the city that it has never once in all its history fallen to an outside attacker. Until today.

When I allowed it to happen.

I look out to see what my negligence, my stupidity, complacency, and weakness has cost Equestria. Changelings are running rampant through the streets, seizing screaming civilians to be carried off or simply devoured on the spot. The broken corpses of the Royal Guard – my men – litter the streets. They all trusted me. Trusted me to protect them. And all I can do is watch as the city I love is torched and consumed by the ravenous insects.

I’m in the chapel of Canterlot Palace, where weddings are held and royalty is crowned. I’m not chained up – no one could be bothered. Chrysalis is here, and she knows just how helpless I am. I try for the hundredth time to do something, anything at all, to her. She doesn’t even notice the feeble pink bursts that explode against her exoskeleton. I charge her, horn first. She swats me aside with a single glance, not bothering to look. I get up and do it again. She bats me away just as easily. A third try gets no better results. Neither do the fourth, fifth, or sixth times.

Chrysalis grins broadly as the doors are thrown open and her minions drag a pair of ponies in. It’s Princesses Celestia and Luna, their bodies broken, their wings snapped off, and their horns little more than a pair of sawn-off nubs. Chrysalis gloats to them, telling her just easy it all was, just how powerless we all were to stop her. I shout out insults and challenges to the queen, only be summarily ignored. Not even the drones bother to acknowledge me, and my attacks are no more effective than ever.

Eventually, Chrysalis conjures a broad, curving sickle from the ather. Her minions drag the helpless princess forward. She raises the scythe high into the air. At the last second, Princess Celestia turns to look at me. Her eyes are hollow, mourning, and… accusing. The blade descends onto her neck.

I get to see all the gory details of what comes next.

The Crystal Empire is a warped nightmare. Black crystals structures everywhere, barring every exit. The Crystal Heart is a shattered ruin, the fragments left on its plinth as a sick joke and a testament to the power of the old king come again. The guard – my men all, who trusted me – are hanging limply from rafters, nailed to planks, or even worse. I’m nailed onto one as well. It’s a prolonged, excruciating way to die. And it leaves me plenty of time to watch what happens next.

Ponies in dark armor and demonic masks poke and prod and whip the terrified survivors, driving them to the clearing before the Imperial Palace. On the palace balcony, that place where Cadence and I once announced their liberation, stands King Sombra, a triumphant grin plastered on his ugly face. He isn’t alone. Cadence, beaten, bruised, and bleeding, hangs limply from chains hovering in the air.

“Now,” Sombra says, his booming to be heard perfectly from every corner of the empire and beyond. “Behold the futility of your hope!”

With that, he runs my wife through from behind. His curved horn punches through her back and emerges right through the center of her heart, with all the effects one might expect. Cadence’s eyes somehow find me, give me one last sorrowful look as I scream and struggle. But it avails me nothing.

Cadence’s corpse slumps limply to the floor while Sombra laughs. The crystal ponies below scream in horror and fear, trying to run this way and that. It does them no good. Inky black spirits emerge from the ground, seizing each terrified pony one by one and hurling them into a great maw that seems to appear from nowhere. The sick spectacle goes on for hours, and I’m treated to every last second of it. Ponies beg me for help, but I can’t even find the strength to struggle any more. I can just watch as everypony in my kingdom is methodically hunted down and cast screaming into the endless pits of hell. I even see my own living grandchildren seized and thrown in – even the little fillies and colts. Diamond Eyes, Gallium, and young Snowflake go in near to the end, giving them plenty of time to scream for help I’m powerless to give.

Last of all comes Cadence. When every single one of the crystal ponies – stallion, mare, colt, and filly – has been torn away and thrown into the great void, Sombra raises her body high. With one last gloating glance at me, he throws her body and soul into the endless nightmare, laughing triumphantly as she plunges in and disappears from sight and memory.

“Why didn’t you save me?” the specter of my little sister asks. “Why, Shiny?”

“It’s cold here,” Celestia’s image adds.

“And dark as well,” says Luna.

“We thought you were our leader,” says a pony in a guard’s uniform. “We thought we could trust you.”

“We thought we were safe in your hooves,” a crystal pony says. “So why are we here?”

“There are things here,” Diamond Eyes tells me. “They hunt us. They drag us away and… and…”

“Eat us alive,” Cadence finishes for her. “Every day Shining. Every day they hunt us down and consume us alive. Every night we shiver in the frigid depths and feel ourselves being put back together, slowly.”

“And then every day they come again for us,” Twilight says. “It’s dark and freezing and there’s no way out!”

“Why are we here, Captain Armor?” Luna demands. “It was your job to protect us.”

“I trusted you,” Celestia continues. “I trusted you with the lives of everypony in Canterlot and the Crystal Empire. I trusted you with my own family.”

“How could you leave us here?” Twily’s wispy image asks. “We’ve been here so long… why haven’t you gotten us out?”

“I’m… I’m sorry…” I manage. “I don’t know what to do! Nothing I try has any effect!”

“You’ve failed us,” Celestia’s eyes begin to narrow.

“We are here because of your negligence and failure,” Luna accuses with a hoof pointed at me. I don’t even bother to try and defend myself.

“It’s… all your fault,” Cadence says. “Your fault. Your fault.”

“Your fault,” Twilight agrees. “Your fault.”

The other specters begin to take up the chant, one by one. A slow, droning monotone rises through the darkness, seeming to permeate everywhere.

“Please!” I yell out above it. “Please, give me one more chance! I’ll get you out of there, I promise! Please!”

If the ghosts can hear me, they ignore what I said. If anything, the chanting grows more rhythmic and powerful with each repetition. I can’t concentrate, can’t think properly. I fold my ears down and cover them with my hooves, but that doesn’t seem to have any effect at all. More and more ghosts appear, ponies I know and some I don’t. First dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. The simple chant gradually become a booming crash with such force as to shake the very earth beneath my hooves. And it only grows stronger still from there.

Images begin to form around myself and the ever-growing legion of specters. I see Tirek crush my sister into a bloody ruin a second time. Then a third. Then a fourth. A fifth. A sixth. Another image joins it, this time of changelings devouring the citizens of Canterlot. Then one of Chrysalis beheading the princesses. And then the Crystal Guards hanging limply from their nooses. Then the crystal ponies being cast into the black pit. And last of all, I see Cadence being impaled by Sombra. Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. All the while the chant continues to pound endlessly, so hard that it rattles my teeth.

All I can see is vision after vision of my failure, of those I love perishing while I can do nothing. All I can hear is endless accusing chant of their ghosts, risen from the endless frigid hells to punish me for it. It goes on and on and on and on and on, never once ceasing or even growing more quiet. Escape is impossible. Movement is impossible. Speaking is impossible. Even thought is impossible. I should just lie down. Submit to my just punishment.

But, wait, isn’t there-

“Your fault! Your fault! Your fault!”

Thing I should be-

“Your fault! Your fault! YOUR FAULT!”

Real… world?

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

What… saying? This… is real world?

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

Just… retribution?

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

Just… retribution.

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

Lie down…

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

Submit…

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

M-my… m-my… my… my fa-

“NO!”

What the-

The tempo of the chanting drops back a little as a new voice comes onto the scene from on high. I shake my head to clear off the buzzing and manage to look. There’s a brilliant white light high above all the scenes of death and vengeful ghosts. At the center of it is an almost angelic-looking figure, descending slowly towards where I stand. I blink and squint and it’s… Cadence?

But Cadence is in the…

I swivel my head back down. Sure enough, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, my wife, is one of the crowd of specters surrounding me. Behind them I can see quite clearly the scene of Sombra’s triumph, where he executed her and sacrificed the rest of the Crystal Empire to dark spirits from beyond. I see her die once, twice, and then three times over! We lost. She’s dead! I… I failed everypony, her included. This is just-

“Shining!” the taller, angelic-looking Cadence drops directly in front of me, interposing herself between the ghosts and me. “You’ve got to listen to me! None of this is real!”

“Your fault!” the chant’s volume starts to rise again. “Your fault! Your fault!”

“Listen to me!” she grabs my face and wrenches me into eye contact. “This is all just a spell! An illusion! None of this has really been happening!”

“Your fault! Your fault! YOUR FAULT!”

“But how can that even…” I trail off uncertainly.

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

“Sombra’s back!” Cadence yells, trying to make herself heard over the booming legion of ghosts. “He’s possessed you! This is all in your head! Please, hear what I’m saying!”

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

“But it’s all my… all my fault…” I hang my head.

Cadence slaps me.

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

“None of this is your fault!” she’s screaming at the top of her lungs, but compared to the chant it’s barely a whisper. “None of it is real! Come back, Shining! Help me! I need you!”

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

“You need… me? I… why?”

“He’s in your body! He’s too strong! I can’t pry him loose on my own, I need your-”

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

The ghostly legion is growing closer, the sound of their voices drowning out the end of Cadence’s sentence. As they walk towards us, I notice that they’re starting to show… fangs?

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

“His soul can be expelled, but not by just me!” Cadence has to get in close and yell directly into my ear. “We can save the day! We can make everything right! But we can’t do it without you!”

“YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT! YOUR FAULT!”

The specters are almost on top of us now. I can clearly in their mouths long, sharp, identical sets of fanged teeth. Fangs that I swear I’ve seen before.

“But… how?” I manage. “I don’t have… don’t have the strength…”

Cadence smiles gently, though her ghostly duplicate is all but nipping at her tail. She leans in and whispers delicately into my ear.

“Our love will give us strength.”

…

Right.

We touch horns. The ghosts pounce. And everything explodes.

Just as I can feel the ice-cold fangs of a spirit sinking in to one of my back legs, a spark of blue and pink magic passes between our horns. The spark explodes like the heart of a star, blinding in its radiance. It sweeps over Cadence and I without effect, but the instant it touches ghost flesh there is an agonized scream. Not from one throat, a dozen, or even a hundred. Ten thousand throats wail in an unbelievable, earth-shattering screech. The blast – half-bubble, half wall of flames – expands outward exponentially, consuming the screaming ghosts as it does.

Cadence and I lift off the ground as the inferno expands to cover the endless plain that surrounds us. I can see into the distance, see the accusing specters fleeing like the hounds of hell are on them. It does them no good, as the cleansing fire sweeps over each and every one of them. It reaches the images – the horrible, unending scenes of nightmarish death – and shatters them with the lightest of touches. As we ascend towards a great light above, I feel almost embarrassed for having bought into them.

Almost.

I awaken screaming and in a good deal of pain.

I can feel my body writhing, contorting under me in manners unnatural even for an alicorn. My back and legs twist themselves into pretzels as I kick and flail wildly against the agony. My wings jerk in every direction possible and few that aren’t, breaking and repairing themselves several times over in course of seconds. There’s armor on me, unfamiliar and uncomfortable, and in the course of my blind thrashing about I kick a good deal of it off an onto the crystal floor beyond.

My coat, I can vaguely make out, is somehow grey now. And it’s oozing black mist, as if I had sprung some sort of leak. Cadence is towering above me, worry writ large on her face and spell on her horn. Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to be working. The pain goes on and on and on as I kick and scream. Minutes – or what I think are minutes – pass as I continue to release trails of inky blackness. But they gradually grow thinner and thinner, while my coat becomes lighter and lighter.

It takes… a lot more time than I would have liked.

At last, though, the fiery agony fades away, first into a dull ache, and then into nothing more than a cold sweat and bad case of shivers. My fur resumes its natural white coloration as I pry off the last of the unfamiliar steely-grey armor. I lie trembling on the crystal floor of what I recognize for the palace, curled up for warmth. Cadence has her own body, sweaty and dirty but soft and warm, wrapped around mine as best she is able.

At length, I finally manage to force my body to stop shivering. Then, one by one I peel my limbs away from my body. Slowly and hesitantly I make my way back to my hooves. I take some small pride that despite the quivering I don’t need the slightest bit of assistance in getting back up. When I finally do, Cadence is there beside me, looking up at me with those beautiful purple eyes of hers.

We breathe a simultaneous sigh of relief.

“It’s over…” she manages as we share a kiss. “At least… it’s over…”

“The hell it is.”

Our head swivel as one at the sound of that deep, echoing voice. Not too far from where we stand, that black mist is coalescing into a thicker, deeper cloud. No… more than that. It’s coalescing into an outline.

“I did not cheat death and spend centuries planning to correct the world to be undone at the last second by some amateur-hour horsecrap like the power of love!”

Cadence and I each take a step back as the outline grows more and more solid, forming into a pony I thought I’d never see again.

“I’ve taken more than enough of your strength!” King Sombra snarls, setting one all-too-solid hoof onto the floor. “I am killing you BOTH, RIGHT NOW!”

Love and Valor, Ice and Shadow

Sombra lunges forward with surprising speed, curved horn aglow. Cadence and I leap to either side at the very last second before an enormous green fireball cuts through the space we just vacated and obliterates a good chunk of wall down the hallway. The king lands where we just stood and fluidly twists his entire body around towards my wife, hurling several bolts of black lightning at her. I act without conscious thought, causing a pink barrier to encase her in a split second. The lightning crackles uselessly against its surface.

Cadence immediately rallies, bursting out from the shield amidst a surging wave of blue magic. It barrels down the corridor at the dark king, but he stomps his hooves and a small wall of black crystal springs up between them. The wave parts harmlessly around it, leaving Sombra untouched. I take advantage of the distraction to conjure an orb of light magic. It’s much more difficult than it should be – just how much did this guy take out of me?!

At any rate I manage to form a pinkish-yellow orb after a few seconds and toss it at his back. Sombra rolls aside without even looking, leaving my attack to disintegrate his wall. I swear he must have military training, because he flows smoothly back onto his hooves just the way I’ve taught generations of recruits to do. Cadence pulls back her right wing, then uses it to fling a half dozen razor-sharp pink feathers at him. The enchanted projectiles strike true against Sombra’s chest armor, but do little more than scratch the plate before clattering to the floor.

“How are you even alive?!” she demands. “We killed you! We just purged your spirit!”

“A good necromancer never reveals all his secrets,” Sombra grins. “After all of this, did you really think I wouldn’t have a backup plan?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I tell him. “Because you’re dying here. Once and for all.”

“Brave words from the weakest link in the chain!” he taunts, pulling his head back as air is drawn towards it. “Ha!”

Sombra levels his horn and a miniature whirlwind erupts from it. The vortex tears through the hallway, picking up every decoration, piece of debris, or loose object around and adding them all to the wild and lethal blender. But I’ve already conjured a protective dome about myself and Cadence. That, at least, is still coming easily to me. Hooray for special talents. Wild chaos rages outside of it as we’re caught in an extremely localized tornado.

The wind and rain of objects come to a halt after a few seconds under my shield. Immediately the hallway becomes visible again, as does the wild array of crystal jutting from the walls and floor where Sombra had been standing, blocking off the hallway beyond.

“We can’t let him get away!” Cadence and I shout simultaneously.

Twin beams of pink and blue shatter the wall Sombra left behind. The effort required sends a brief spasm of pain through my wings and back. But then it’s over, and I bolt after my wife and the evil king. The sheer magnitude of dark magic he radiates leaves a trail that is easy enough to follow, for those who know how. Spending centuries with your soul attached by such magic doesn’t hurt your chances of picking it up either. I make a strained attempt to teleport ahead, only for the spell to fizzle out against all the wards pulsing around us. Figures.

Sombra may have a head start, but both Cadence and I have longer legs and, from the sound of it, a good deal more athletic experience. The sound of the king’s hoofsteps grows closer and closer with each bend we round, and they’re growing more and more erratic. As though he’s getting tired, or maybe having difficulty keeping his balance. New bodies can certainly do that to pony. And his own spells won’t allow him to teleport in here.

We race on after the king, my longer legs affording me a slight lead on Cadence. He leads us through the winding corridors of the Imperial Palace that I know so well, excepting of course the good number of holes and dark growths protruding from it. How long has he been here? Periodically we run into barriers of Sombra’s black crystal, but smashing through them is never that difficult. You can’t raise a truly powerful physical defense without a lot more time and effort.

Seconds pass, and we’re almost on him. As we round one corner, I catch a glimpse of an armored hoof disappearing around another just ahead of us. We gallop after him, and… what’s this feeling? It’s a buzzing, nagging little sensation in the back of my skull. Like my instincts are trying to tell me something. What?

…

Oh.

This is too easy. Sombra talked big, then turned tail and ran after a very short exchange. He wasn’t even injured or substantially outmatched. Why? Why manifest a body at all if all he was going to do was bolt? Hell, if he wanted to make it a straight up fight, why not do it while I was still writhing from the pain of having his spirit purged from me? That had to have taken at least a few minutes. Was he also trying to recover? Or was he doing something else? Something like… like…

Setting a trap.

I pour out all the magical energy I can muster in an instant, summoning another pink orb to encase myself and Cadence. She has time to give just the slightest aside glance before we round the corner and everything turns white.

The entire world around us is engulfed in a blinding whirlwind of brilliant white. Hundreds of thousands of ice crystals shatter against my shield, while millions more consume the entire hallway beyond. Even inside my spell the temperature drops dozens of degrees in so many seconds, to the point where I can see our breath in the air. The floor beneath us begins to acquire its own coat of frost, the carpet on it turning hard and even cracking in some places. Despite all of that, all the considerable magic directed at my shield, it holds. Not to brag or anything – ok, to brag a little – it’s what I’m good at.

When the storm finally fades away and I do allow the energy-consuming barrier to drop, Cadence and I get a good coating of snow and ice dumped on our heads. I notice that the cold and wet doesn’t bother me half as much as it might have unicorn me. My wife appears equally unfazed.

Standing some thirty feet or so down the frozen corridor, atop the rubble of the throne room wall and the remains of some very large black crystal construct is Sombra. Floating about him are some thirty white creatures I instantly recognize for windigoes, including the single largest specimen I’ve ever even heard of. Blue-white mist is leaking from their mouths.

“Damn,” Sombra frowns. “You are annoyingly quick on the draw, aren’t you?”

“Nah,” I tell him with just the slightest hint of an irreverent grin. “You’re just really slow in your old age. Gotten a pudge, vision’s going, and all that. It happens.”

Despite everything, despite the utter seriousness of our predicament, Cadence still manages to find a snicker. Sombra grimaces. I… have no idea why I did that.

“We’ll see!” he snaps, opening his fanged maw to breathe a long cone of green fire.

Cadence and I fall into our practiced routine. We’ve had centuries to go over this, to train ourselves how to fight in a tag-team formation. It’s never actually come to it in a serious context before, but we know what to do. We’re strongest in a pair, so we stick close together. Protective spells are my special talent, so I handle the defense. The green fire washes over another pink shield to no avail. You can’t do too much useful from the inside of an effective shield, so I drop it just in time to allow my wife to throw a half dozen conjured spears of light. Sombra and the winter spirits dodge most of them, save one that’s too slow. It gets impaled through the chest, then set aflame by the pink-white magic. Its agonized wails echo while the king and the windigoes launch their counterattack. But my next shield is already up, black and white alike doing little to it.

You see how it goes? My shield spells have always been extremely effective and relatively low-maintenance. Freed from the need to take the offense, I can concentrate all of this body’s considerable energy on them. Cadence, close to me and safely shielded, can take the offense without fear of leaving herself vulnerable. It’s not a method for quick victory, and it doesn’t allow us to separate, but it makes my wife and I a very hard nut to crack. In a battle of attrition, I’m betting we can win.

Judging from the expression on his ugly face, Sombra is thinking the same thing.

Of course, neither the dark king nor the ice spirits are idiots. They pick up on the fact that we can’t move very fast or attack from inside the shield almost immediately and alter their tactics. Sombra and the huge windigo begin staggering their attacks, never allowing a moment to pass without something impacting on the shield while still allowing the other time to rest. The lesser demons surge forward in a wave, some just getting closer, others swooping around or beside us. They swirl around like a school of hungry piranhas, making certain to assail my shield from all angles at any given point, allowing for no let-up on the pressure. Beside me, Cadence has her eyes squeezed tightly shut in concertation. Luckily for us, we thought of this sort of scenario a long time ago.

Remember when I said you couldn’t do anything from inside a barrier? I may have fudged the truth a bit. While it’s true that shield spells block things going out as readily as in, that only applies to whatever spaces the shield is actually covering. At the moment that does not include the floor at our hooves.

Cadence’s hooves glow silvery-white, and she pounds the floor with enough force to send shards of crystal into my own pelt. Outside the shield, a wall of razor-sharp, brilliant blue crystal spikes tears its way out of the floor. Two of the nearest windigoes are impaled outright before they even have the chance to blink. Cadence immediately follows up by channeling her power through the crystals in the form of a localized lightning storm. The sapphire electricity leaps onto everything in the vicinity, electrifying demons, blowing out both walls, lashing against my shield, and setting the poor abused carpet on fire.

Enormous forks of the spell leap down the hallway at Sombra and the more distant windigoes, but his horn shines and a red barrier springs up in their path. The two connect in a series of spectacular explosions that send a great wave of fire washing back down the hall at us. We hunker down as it washes over the dome. By the time it’s gone, there’s nothing in front of us but our thoroughly destroyed corridor. My wife is breathing hard from the sheer effort of her spell.

“What do you think?” Cadence asks after a moment passes and our enemies fail to reappear. “The throne room?”

“Well, it would be a dramatically appropriate place to find him, don’t you think?”

Cadence smirks slightly and nudges me in the shoulder.

“What? Where else would an evil king want to hold the final battle?”

“Alright, fair enough, but do you have to joke about it?”

“Call it a little mid-battle levity to raise the morale of my soldier,” I answer. “And after that spell, you could use a small break.”

I’ll be honest, this is the first prolonged engagement I’ve been in in such a long time. And especially since I was last alive. The feel of adrenaline coursing through me, the sensation of power and being useful for once, it’s kinda… exhilarating. Like it was what I was born to do. Of course I haven’t forgotten what’s at stake, but still…

“Oh!” I come to a sudden realization. “We need to watch out for changelings! One of them has been impersonating Twily and-”

“No,” Cadence says, shaking her head. “We don’t. Just trust me on that. They won’t be bothering us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sombra double-crossed them. Their queen is dead.”

“…Oh.”

Bitch had it coming. And if I don’t find Twily happy and healthy after all this, I swear I’ll hunt every last one of them down and make them wish they had gone with her.

“No sense in standing around any longer, is there?” I ask after a few seconds.

“Not really,” Cadence says. “It only gives Sombra more time.”

“You feeling up to it now?”

She takes a deep breath, then nods. “Yeah.”

As one, we take careful, slow steps towards one of the many smaller holes carved into the wall by Cadence’s lightning and look inside. And wouldn’t you know it: Sombra is standing there on the throne’s dais, a calm and confident expression on his face. The chair itself looks to have been demolished. The windigoes are swirling around, looking agitated, save for the big one. But the king himself isn’t budging one inch. He’s just standing there… menacingly.

How the hell does that even work?

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

“On three: One… Two…”

“Three!”

The much-abused wall in front of us explodes inwards the moment our horns touch it. Simultaneously, we release twin beams of pink and blue, which entwine themselves in the air as they go. Before the combined attack can touch Sombra, a red glow tears a large hunk of rubble from the ground and tosses it into the spell’s path. The ensuing rain of crystalline shards would be dangerous were there any normal ponies around.

The remaining windigoes open their mouths to counterattack, so I raise my shield again before the icy wind can engulf us. We again sit tight and endure it, though this time I’m sure to shield the ground as well. I’m certain Sombra’s clever enough to draw inspiration from Cadence. Seconds pass, but the frigid magic doesn’t let up. It’s still not enough, I have more than enough strength in this body to keep up a defense like this for hours before-

The world dissolves into a blinding hellstorm of red and gold.

My shield shatters like glass. I have less that a nanosecond to process it before I’m engulfed in a blazing inferno and thrown backwards like a ragdoll. I feel myself smash into something hard, and the through it. It hit several more objects before smacking into the floor, rolling a good distance until I finally come to another wall. I lie there, twitching and smoking, as my body scrambles to repair itself.

“So…” my ears pick up the sound of Sombra’s voice, even at this distance. He’s breathing heavily, but sounds satisfied. “This is the power the preening old fool was keeping hidden in her back pocket. This is the wrath of the sun.”

I open my eyes. I can see that I flew backwards out the hole we made, smashed through the wall on the opposite side of the corridor, crashed through two chairs, a table, and a potted plant before finally winding up propped up against a third wall. Much of my coat is gone, and my skin is blackened and covered with blisters… but I don’t feel nearly as much pain as I should from third degree burns. My body is already putting itself back together.

I can see Sombra clearly from here. He’s still standing where he was. Behind him, the wall that once backed the empire’s throne has been all but completely destroyed. A vast, vaguely-circular hole is lined with glowing, melted crystal. More of the bright substance runs down the walls and towards the floor, past the flaming remnants of banners. Outside I can clearly see parted grey storm clouds – and Celestia’s sun blazing bright.

No… he can’t possibly have.

Can he?

The sun brightens almost imperceptibly, and a massive pillar of golden fire flies thorough the hole above Sombra, out and out melting a considerable portion of the throne room floor. The molten rock crashes onto the floor below, shaking the palace. The king laughs triumphantly.

Ok, so he can.

The windigoes around him, especially the big one, don’t look as pleased. Their apparent leader gets right in front of Sombra, hissing and wailing in some horrible ear-rending language.

“Really?!” Sombra sound frustrated. “Now?! Can you not endure another few rounds of-”

The towering ice spirit screeches directly into his face.

“Alright! Alright!” he hisses back.

Outside, the sun’s glow dims as it seemingly retreats. The grey storm clouds move in to plug the hole in themselves, and almost immediately begin to unleash a blizzard on whatever in underneath. The temperature inside the palace drops markedly.

“There!” Sombra snaps. “Happy now?”

My coat is already almost whole again. I get back on my hooves with an ease that surprises even me, everything working just fine. I whip my head around immediately and practically tear off the door to the next room over. Cadence is there, and I can see her own injuries fading away. She smiles slightly as I help her back to her hooves.

“Now look what you’ve done!” Sombra complains to the ice demons. “They’re back on their hooves! Get them!”

“Plan B?” Cadence asks.

“Plan B,” I affirm.

Since hiding and waging a battle of attrition is clearly not going to work against whatever solar magic Sombra is using, we switch to rapid offense. We meet the oncoming wave of ice with a wall of fire. A huge cloud of steam emerges from where they connect, enough to be debilitating to any ordinary vision. But Cadence and I simply reshape the flames into a ball and fire them right at the ice spirits. And launch ourselves immediately afterwards.

We race straight at them, horns blazing. Cadence is flying, but I obviously am not practiced enough for that. We burst through the steam cloud just as the fireball explodes in the center of the wrecked throne room. Cadence soars over the gaping hole in the floor while I skirt around it, but both of us are firing bursts of light magic towards the windigoes, starting with the smallest and slowest. A few are hit, but most of those remaining are quick enough to dodge.

The ice spirits split up, with the largest one soaring up to meet Cadence and the group of smaller ones rushing to attack me. I throw myself to the side and roll behind one of the damaged pillars to avoid their magic, then smash it as hard as I can with both hooves. The towering thing trembles, cracks, and then topples over towards my enemies. One of them is even slow enough to be crushed underneath it.

The windigoes promptly swarm me, which, to be honest, is exactly what I wanted them to do. Sombra can’t use his solar death ray or whatever it is as long as his allies are on top of me. I tackle one of the windgoes head on and pull it to the floor. I throw a tiny dome on top of both of us and proceed to beat it to death with my bare hooves. The others get wiser and back off into the air, where I can’t effectively follow. We trade blasts of magic – I take a few hits to get off a better shot, but I’m much more durable than they are.

High above I can see the giant spirit and Cadence swooping about in what under other circumstances might be mistaken for graceful aerial ballet. She’s smooth and quick with hundreds of years of experience, transitioning from dodging to attacking and back with consummate ease. Unfortunately, the great ice demon seems just as slick, twisting its almost serpentine form around her spells. When the two magicks do collide, they seem almost evenly matched.

I blast another wendigo out of the sky, immediately chaining a shield spell to block the retaliation. I give myself a little shake to break off the ice starting to form on my coat and feathers, before dismissing the barrier and shielding my face with my wings. Icy cold winds blast over me, freezing my feathers immediately. I counter with a wild burst of uncontrolled flame. The ice spirits screech.

I lower my wings, trying my best to shake off the frozen coat, and-

“ARGH!”

I look up just in time to see Cadence hanging there in the air for a fraction of a second. Then she plummets, dozens of tiny black crystals embedded in her back and wings. The giant windigo opens its maw and unleashes a miniaturized storm at just the moment when she’s too distracted to defend herself. The icy cone engulfs her…

And the deep-frozen form of my wife hits the floor.

Sombra, still standing where the throne once was, laughs. I go into a blind fury, summoning every last ounce of light magic I can muster and hurling it in an enormous sphere at those windigoes stupid enough to be between me and her. Five of them are obliterated in a single shot, but I don’t give a damn and race across the floor. Cadence is right there and I have to-

Instincts hurls me aside just in time as a lance of red energy blows yet another hole in the increasingly unstable floor. I hit the icy, slippery ground roughly and roll some distance.

On the throne’s dais, Sombra is laughing even harder. The giant windigo now floats beside him, expression leering and malevolent. There are no other ice spirits left – either I killed them all or they fled like beaten curs. The king takes a step off the dais, radiating infuriating smugness.

“Very cute,” he says. “But now you shall deal with ME, oh prince, and all the powers of the sun!”

Valor and Ice and Shadow

Despite Sombra’s declaration, it’s his big windigo friend that actually attacks me. Despite its size it’s easily the fastest that I’ve yet seen, diving straight at me like hawk after a rabbit and giving me yet another cone of ice magic from almost point-blank range. It’s powerful, but predictable, and I quickly raise a shield to block it as the spirit peels off. Can those things even do anything else?

I don’t get the chance to see, because the very next thing that happens is a half dozen crystal spikes bursting out of the ruined floor beneath me. I jump to the side instinctively, rolling along the ground and back onto my hooves in one swift movement. Immediately shards of ice descend from on high, punching deeply into the floor. I avoid most of them, but one cuts along the side of my flank, drawing blood. Sombra follows up instantly by breathing a stream of weird greenish-gold fire, which I raise another shield to block.

I think I’ve got the king’s measure now. His tactics were developed during a time when he was a mortal unicorn essentially hunting demigods. He plays rough, invokes all manner of underhanded tactics, and generally tries to avoid anything resembling a straight fight. Hence all the minions, the running, the traps, and now the double-teaming. Even hyped up on solar magic, he doesn’t want to take me on one-to-one.

Rule of thumb: if the enemy doesn’t want something to happen, there’s a good chance that you do.

How to make that happen? Part of me strategizes, while the other dodges around another cone of ice magic and returns fire at the windigo. It’s incredibly nimble though, and my shot doesn’t even come close. Sombra snorts and stomps his hooves. For just a moment, nothing happens… and then two of the room’s pillars morph into enormous clawed hands. The ceiling rattles as they rip themselves out and fly at me. I let them get close, let those razor-sharp fingers get around me, conjure a tiny shield at the last second, and then blast outwards with all my strength.

The claws shatter into a million tiny fragments, which I telekinetically grab and hurl right back at Sombra and his little buddy. Unfortunately he proves to have some ability with shield spells as well, a red dome encasing the both of them almost immediately. The gemstone storm patters off it as easily as rain off a window. I notice that between the demolished wall, the gaping hole in the floor, and the numerous ruined pillars this throne room is starting to get dangerously unstable. I need to end this quickly or take the fight somewhere else, or we’ll bring the whole building down on everypony’s head.

I pound my own hooves into the floor. The building shakes a little, and then the piece of floor Sombra is standing atop… jerks upwards like rake that somepony just stepped on. He goes sailing straight back through the very hole his sun powers melted into the wall.

Funny thing about unicorns: they can’t fly.

So while Sombra is busy screaming and plummeting a good few stories, I take the opportunity to make a mad dash for my frozen wife. She’s on the other side of the vast maw in the floor, so I stretch my wings and manage a glide across it. And who should get in my way but some thrice-damned winter spirit that just doesn’t know when to quit.

“Why are you even working for Sombra?” I shout up at it, even as I raise a shield to block a rain of knife-like icicles. “I mean, are you some kind of bucking moron?!”

It doesn’t respond, except by opening its maw for yet another wintery spray. This time I meet the attack head-on with my own beam of pink magic. The two attacks connect in the middle and form a shining silver orb at the point of contact. I stagger back a little. For a creature famed for being rather cowardly, this thing’s attack is quite powerful.

“Are you capable of – nrgh – pattern recognition?!” I manage, through gritted teeth as the contest between us shifts one way, and then another. I saw Sombra speak to the creature earlier, I know that it must be able understand me. “What did he promise you in exchange for this?”

Our little beam of war continues, and I slowly get the edge. This spirit is powerful, don’t get me wrong, but even freshly off of ghostly possession I’m a trained fighter and an alicorn. Windigoes are not creatures built for fair fights. Bluish-white loses ground steadily to pink. At the last second the demon breaks off its attack and deftly avoids mine, which explodes against the ceiling instead.

“Did he say you would get the denizens of the Crystal Empire?” I ask, firing another beam. “Did he promise you Equestria itself?” It twists around my attack with consummate ease. “Unlimited frozen ponies to feed off of forever?” I snort scornfully, looking up at the giant windigo. It’s backing off rather that attacking, and appears to be staring down at me. I don’t know whether or not that’s a good sign, but I decide to press it.

“Do you really think you’ll get anything, in the end?” I ask it. “Look around you. Sombra already betrayed the changeling queen to her death, despite whatever rewards he promised her. Do you really think he wishes to rule over a kingdom of ice and snow for all eternity?” I gesture around. “When I came in here there were many of your kind. Now it’s just you. He sacrificed all of your fellows without hesitation. He double-crossed the changelings when they were of no more use to him. What makes you think you’ll be immune?”

Now I can make out what appears to be a slight widening of the demon’s eyes. It’s not even backing away from me anymore, just looking down. It even cocks its head a bit.

“Think about it!” I urge. “When Sombra is done here, when he’s disposed of all of us, what use will he have for you? With the sun, he’ll have an unbeatable weapon of conquest. And, might I add, a perfect way to destroy you all with little fuss. You saw how casually he threw that fire around earlier, when he was using it on us. Just imagine how quickly he could use it to turn on you. And he’ll have every reason to do it. Face it,” I stare the ice demon down. “If he wins here, you lose. Permanently.”

“Don’t listen to this fool!” another voice barks out.

Both our heads turn just in time to see Sombra hopping back through the hole in the wall, a towering pillar of black crystal visible beneath him. The windigo makes no move to return to his side.

“I promised you rewards beyond your wildest dreams, and have I not delivered?”

Wow, Sombra’s actually worried about this. I just thought I might gain a tactical advantage from introducing uncertainty. But if I can genuinely flip this thing…

“The Crystal Empire is ours! Equestria lies ripe for the plucking! Nothing in all the world will be able to stop us once we dispose of these worthless alicorns!”

“Us?” I ask. “Or you?”

Sombra bares his teeth. “Do you think this prince has your best interests at heart? He only seeks to drive a rift between us so that he can rescue his precious wife! He will kill you if we do not eliminate him first!”

“The way I see it, we’ve pardoned worse spirits than you,” I answer, thinking of a certain chaotic demigod. “Join us and I personally guarantee your safety when this is all over. He’s the one who’s been getting all his allies killed. We don’t do that sort of thing.”

“You’d be surprised, naïve little Shining,” he snorts. “And I would never betray you! We’re in this together!”

“I’m sure that’s just what the changeling queen thought.”

The enormous windigo looks back and forth between the two of us, its expression unreadable. For just a moment both Sombra and I are perfectly still, not wanting to tip the balance in any way. Finally, the demon turns itself fully back towards the king… and breathes a wide cone of cold right at him.

YES!

The startled king barely has time to throw up a barrier of his own to block the attack. The ground around him ices over rapidly, and he even stumbles a little. When the flow of ice magic ceases a moment later, his face is rictus of utter loathing.

“Traitor…” he hisses, sharp teeth bared.

“Says the double-crossing usurper,” I retort, pawing at the ground.

The windigo screeches something in its own language, hovering backwards towards me. I can’t believe I just talked an evil ice demon into switching sides! I suppose I might have picked up more from Twily than I thought.

I take the offensive immediately with a silvery-white lance of light magic. One of Sombra’s hooves begins glow dark purple, and to my surprise he out and out bats the blast aside, where it destroys yet another of the throne room’s pillars. And at that, a portion of the ceiling comes crashing down in an enormous wave of rubble that buries almost half the room. Cadence, thankfully, is far away from that.

All three of us hesitate for a heartbeat. Nobody wants the Imperial Palace to come crashing down. There are still ponies inside, my wife included. Sombra no doubt wants to live in it again. And my new ally for the entirely pragmatic reason of being inside it at the moment.

I use the brief pause to make a flying leap for the hole behind the throne’s dais. It’s a little difficult to stand on, but I make it work.

“Outside,” I growl.

Sombra bares his teeth, but gives the faintest of nods.

Black crystal bursts from underneath the king’s hooves, propelling him upwards at a surprising speed. Before I even have a chance to blink he’s virtually on top of me. He tackles me full on, and we both fall backwards out of the hole. As we go, our hooves intertwine, wrestling one another for some advantage, to force the other onto the bottom. He’s stronger than he looks, and he looked pretty strong to begin with. And then Sombra opens his fanged mouth and bites into the side of my neck. I punch him in the face.

We both hit the ground at roughly the same instant. I impact on my side, Sombra on his back. I can feel both of my left snapping like twigs, along with a few of my ribs. The king looks shaken, but his armor is shining and he’s pushing himself back onto his hooves. It’s a little unsteady, but he’s much better off than me.

Oh hell.

Sombra towers over me, snarling, as dark energy gathers about his horn. But he turns on a dime a rips another wall of crystal from the earth. The reason become evident about half a second later, when said wall freezes and then shatters. The giant windigo engages him while I lie there, blood leaking out of my side and neck. It’s as nimble as it ever was, and Sombra isn’t having any easier time hitting it than I did.

I force myself back onto my hooves even while my bones are knitting, painful at first but rapidly becoming less so. Within five seconds I’ve managed to get off the ground, within ten all the bleeding has ceased and my legs are almost completely restored. Wow, no wonder alicorns are so hard to kill.

“ENOUGH!” screams Sombra in a very plausible Royal Canterlot Voice. “ENOUGH OF THIS!”

The king rears up, yet another pillar of black crystal jutting out to carry him skywards. His eyes are alight with magic, pupil and iris alike disappearing into a brilliant white-gold flare. High above us, the grey storm clouds also begin to glow. No, wait… they’re not glowing, something is shining through them. The enormous windigo is looking upwards in naked alarm.

And then, with an ear-splitting boom, the storm clouds out and out catch fire! No, I’m not making that up. No, it doesn’t make any sense to me either. But a tidal wave of flame explodes from the glowing clouds, rapidly washing over the remainder of them and somehow consuming them like they were made of alcohol-soaked paper. Orange-gold fire rains down on the Crystal Empire, forcing me to encase myself and my ally in a protective dome. Wherever the fire touches the ice it sizzles and melts into steam almost instantly. The air itself goes from frigid to blistering around us.

When I look up in the sky I can see Celestia’s sun overhead, larger and closer than I’ve ever witnessed in all my years. The waves of heat coming off of it blast the last of the storm away, begin to melt the ice. I can see smoke starting to rise from beyond the city’s edge, where the grasslands are.

“DIE!” Sombra screams.

A pillar of fire a dozen ponies wide plunges from on high at unbelievable speed. It’s too fast to outrun, but we’re outside of the warded palace now. I teleport the both of us a good distance, only to feel the ground shake as the fire bores a great hole into the earth.

“DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!” I can hear him roar.

The sun flares and more fire plummets down. At first there are more streams and pillars of it, but then Sombra starts to get creative. What look for all the world to be flaming meteor strikes begin to follow us. Globs of sun fire track us wherever we run, blasting holes through streets and gardens, parks and marketplaces. My heart skips a beat as one incinerates a house – with frozen ponies still visibly inside.

My next teleport brings us right into Sombra’s face. As one, the windigo and I unleash bursts of magic directly at him from point-blank range. One of the pillars of fire descends atop him before our attacks can strike, washing them away in a tsunami of flame. When it clears, both the king and the pillar he stands atop are perfectly unharmed.

Sombra opens his mouth and breathes more of his golden flame. I teleport again before it can strike, but this one doesn’t follow. Instead it whips around, thinning itself out before gradually forming into the image of a giant serpent. The construct rears up and hisses at us, displaying long, fiery fangs. Why he felt those were necessary, I have no idea.

The king smiles, horn glowing. The pace of the great balls of fire picks up. Even as we have to dodge around them, he breathes more of the fire. Now instead of one serpent there are three. Just as we emerge from yet another teleport, they lunge. The windigo and I leap in opposite directions. One of the vast golden snakes gets between us as it towers over me, rearing up to strike.

I conjure still another shield as the fanged maw envelopes me. The snake bites repeatedly, attempting to find some purchase for its fangs on the smooth pink dome. Its coils wrap tighter and tighter around me, cooking the air to scalding levels even inside my protective spell. But now it’s right where I want it.

I gather my energy and force the shield outwards into a pulse. The snake is just fire bound by magic – subject it to enough stress, and all the shape dissolves. Before the sun’s flames can fade away I seize them and fling the whole stream right back at the king. Sombra does absolutely nothing as the flames wash over him like a purifying tide. Only… when they’re gone, he’s still standing there. He looks down at me, smirking.

And then my world dissolves into a wild yellow blur of heat and pain. One of the falling fireballs caught me dead-on while I was distracted. My skin blisters, my coat catches fire, and the fire even gets directly into my eyes. I’m not ashamed to admit to screaming a bit. Ok, a lot.

As I roll along the ground, screaming and pawing at my own face, I get treated to the sensation of multiple razor-sharp objects piercing my hide, unleashing a horrible burning pain that wracks my entire body. On total instinct I throw up another barrier. Coming to a stop, I lie blinded and shivering on the ground as my body struggles to repair itself.

Thankfully my eyesight recovers first, allowing me to rip out the small black crystals embedded in my side. Blood flows liberally, but I’d rather not have black magic plugging the wounds. I get to wince as another fireball explodes atop my shield, but for the moment the barrier holds firm.

Then my ears get treated to a piercing, agonizing shriek loud enough to shake the earth, shattering half-melted ice and glass alike. The sound is coming from the enormous windigo, caught in the flaming jaws of one of the serpents. It looks as though it disposed of one only to get grabbed from behind by the third. At any rate the ice spirit is writhing and screaming as the fiery serpent shakes it back and forth. Somehow the windigo is catching fire, steaming pouring from it. The snake rears back and whips its head around, flinging the spirit like a toy. It crashes into the side of a home and lies there, smoking.

Sombra laughs deeply, another pillar of solar fire whipping around him, He twirls it like a toy for half a second, then directs the lethal stream directly at my downed ally. I close my eyes and concentrate, summoning whatever energy I have left. I appear directly in front of the windigo, just in time to raise a shimmering pink barrier.

The fire crashes down atop my shield like a hundred thousand tons of brick. The golden light envelopes everything, catastrophic and blinding. I have to close my eyes against it. The flames rush on and on. I drop to my knees. The air grows hotter and hotter, becoming scalding enough to burn the insides of my lungs when I take a breath. So I just hold my breath and pray we survive this.

It takes what feels like hours, but eventually the solar fire does let up. Around us somepony’s yard has been reduced to a charred, glassy crater almost ten feet deep. The smoke is thick enough to bar all sight, until a powerful wind comes out of nowhere to sweep it away.

“You defended that worthless creature?” Sombra looks down from his pillar. “After it froze your dear wife? Why?”

“What… can I say?” I manage, taking a big gulp of air. “I’m a stallion of my word. Unlike you.”

“That thing is useless now. You might have attacked me from behind while I was distracted, fool!” he shakes his head. “Typical for your kind.”

I give a glance backwards. My winter spirit ally does look… well, crippled. The windigo is laying sprawled out on the ground. It has twin gaping holes in its semi-ethereal form, and small puffs of steam and smoke are still rising from across its body. Its icy blue eyes are almost gone. It’s looking up at me, with an expression I don’t recognize.

Whatever might have happened next is lost, because the remaining serpent chooses that moment to lunge forward at us, fangs bared. I brace my legs, spread my wings wide, and launch myself horn-first at it. At the very last second I enclose myself in the smallest possible shield, and punch directly through it. I keep going, bursting out from the dissolving beast to smash right into the pillar that Sombra is standing atop. I come to a sudden, rather unpleasant halt, but the inky black crystal cracks… and then topples over, king and all.

I’m on him before he has a chance to recover. I tackle the king myself, and we roll, wrestling one another once again. I get the upper hoof this time, rolling over on top of him. He bites the side of my right wing. I jam my horn into his face – he just barely manages to get his eyeball out of the way. It cuts along his forehead instead.

Abruptely, the unicorn’s body dissolves out from underneath me, becoming that hateful black smoke. He reappears a good few yards away, blood running down the side of his face. For just a moment the two of us stare at one another, panting audibly as we both bleed. The difference is that my wounded wing seals itself up within a second or two, while his forehead continues to slowly ooze crimson.

“Alright…” Sombra says, breathing heavily. “That does it. I’m ending this farce. You will surrender to me, right now.”

“Uh, no.”

Has he gone insane or something? Did I hit him hard enough to rattle his brain? Why in the infinite hells would I surrender?

“You will surrender to me,” he repeats. “Or else I shall steer the next wave of solar fire directly into the palace throne room.”

My eyes go wide.

“You may be fast enough to avoid most of them,” he says. “But as for dear Princess Cadence… I am afraid that she is rather indisposed, is she not? She could only watch helplessly as she’s liquefied by the sun, and then buried beneath a thousand tons of ruined palace. And you know as well as I that you cannot teleport into that room. Not while my wards are in effect. Of course, you could always sacrifice her for a chance to stop me…” Sombra looks up meaningfully, grinning mockingly.

“You monster…” I hiss. “She’s helpless!”

“Somepony calls me a monster. Oh shock and alarm,” he rolls his eyes. “Perhaps next you’ll swear that I’ll never succeed? Tell me that the power of friendship and love and happy unicorn rainbow sparkles will save the day?”

I bare my teeth.

“No?” he smirks. “So, prince charming, what’s it to be? Will you lay down right now and surrender, or will you watch as I incinerate your dearly beloved? Hmm?”

“I…” my voice catches in my throat.

“Last chance, dear Shiny,” Sombra says, horn lighting up. “On your knees or she dies. Three… Two…”

“Stop!” I call out, hoof extended. “I… I… I…”

“You what?” he demands. “Say it.”

My legs tremble, and then fall out from under me.

“I… surrender.”

“Ha!” Sombra throws his head back. “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Aha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA HA!”

I can’t really do anything but sit there and watch the king laugh. Tears roll down my cheeks. Everypony in the Crystal Empire… I’m sorry. I failed you. I just can’t beat him. And I can’t lose her… I’m sorry. I can only pray somepony better than me will be able to do what I couldn’t. I’m so sorry.

“You are weak,” Sombra mocks as he saunters rather easily up to me. Black chains spring from nowhere to wrap tightly around my horn. “You put on a good show, little fool, but in the end you could not rise above pathetic nature of your kind. Had you any strength worth mentioning you could have sacrificed a piece that was no longer useful for a chance at victory. Thanks to your infantile attachments, you have lost everything. But then, mewling weakness is in your blood. You are as weak now as your sister was the day Tirek returned. Fickle chance saved her then. You will not be so fortunate now.”

I can’t even bring myself to look up at the king, even as I see his hooves right at my face.

“But I’ve wasted enough time talking. It’s time for you to d-”

Sombra’s voice is cut off by a sudden, rapid drop in temperature, enough to send shiver down my spine and freeze the tears on my cheeks…

Wait, what?

I look up from my own self-pity party and what do I see? An all-too-familiar cone of icy-cold magic enveloping the both of us. Only, Sombra’s standing between me and the source, so he’s getting the full brunt of the localized blizzard. When the blue-white magic fades away just a moment, he’s the one encased in ice.

I get a glance behind the king. Floating there just a foot or so off the ground, looking pained but determined, is the giant windigo. It has one hoof over the gaping hole in its essence, and a faint mist trailing from its mouth.

A faint crunching noise yanks my attention back to Sombra. I can see his eyes rolling frantically about inside the ice, feel the pressure he’s exerting against it. Small cracks are already starting to form as he desperately struggles to get free. This won’t hold him for long.

But it’ll hold him long enough.

Bereft of any magic and lacking the time to pry chains off of my horn, I opt to use what weapons are available to me.

My horn impales King Sombra right through the chest.

It bursts right out through the king’s back, messy with blood. Sombra manages to make the vaguest of grunts heard through the ice. He’s still locked in position, but his eyes do manage to widen, staring down at me as his life’s blood drips from his chest. I can feel his pucntured heart beating slower… and slower… and slower… and slower…

And gone.

The chains begin to weaken, falling from my horn as their master’s strength dies away. I don’t remove it. This time, I want to be sure. Strength of the Crystal Heart, don’t fail me now. I gather all the mystic energy I can find, every last drop from all across my body, and send it right up my horn. With closed eyes and gritted teeth, I concentrate and summon the biggest, baldest shield of light magic I can manage.

From inside Sombra’s body.

Somehow, impossibly, I swear that I can hear the sound of one last scream of denial, one last curse of hate, as my spell consumed King Sombra from the inside out. It doesn’t last but a second as the flash of white bursts out and consumes us both. When my eyes can see again, Sombra is just… gone. As though he had never been at all.

The effort of it all catches up to me in that exact moment. I stumble and fall back to my knees, gasping desperately for breath. As the adrenaline rush fades away, I realize for the first time just how much I’ve been expending. Just about all of it, really. I’m out. The windigo could easily take me out, right now. I’m too weak to stop it.

But instead, the ice spirit just… stares at me. Its blue eyes meet my own, as the both of us clutch wounds and struggle to recover. It hisses something in its own incomprehensible tongue.

“I… don’t…” I manage, between my gasps. “Understand…”

So the windigo just looks at me again, cocks its head, and… nods once in utter silence.

I take just a moment, and then return the gesture.

“I…thank you…” I tell it, hesitantly. “I need to go… to go look for my wife.”

The spirit nods again.

Author's Notes:

Even in this future, even at the worst of times, friendship is still magic.

Ice magic, specifically.

Aftermath

Time passes strangely for me. Drifting in and out of consciousness over a matter of… I don’t know how long, will do that to a mare. My mind is hazy, my body is in pain. So much pain. I can’t think straight. Eventually my body settles into a kind of half-asleep stupor. I do little but wait patiently as my chest knits itself back together inch by aching inch. It doesn’t matter. I wait for the end with closed eyes and a silent prayer for my sister. Perhaps she shall enough magic left to survive the apocalypse. Sombra would want to drain me fully before feasting on her. But my end is virtually assured. I await it in silence.

And I wait, and wait, and wait and wait, but the end does not come.

At length my trickle of magic finishes repairing my body. My heart, left as little more than reddish jelly, begins to beat again. As my lungs fill and fresh oxygen floods through my bloodstream, my mind begins to perk up. Naturally, the first thing that I do is start asking questions.

Why am I still alive? The logical answer is that either the army has failed in its assigned role, or else found reason not to execute it. Admittedly they don’t have any real way to be prepared for what my magic could unleash, but the latter scenario seems more plausible to me. If Sombra had routed them, he would have come back here to gloat, and then take what’s left of me. It’s been too long for that, and his machine has ground to a complete halt. I am alone in a dark room strapped to a dead device. I therefore conclude that the usurper king has most likely been driven off or, dare I get my hopes up, defeated.

The question then becomes: how, and by whom? The army is right out. Brave and well-equipped as they may be, them defeating a dark sorcerer of Sombra’s caliber supercharged with the bulk of my magic without destroying the area is totally implausible. Full bore solar magic has the power to wipe out an army, and a wielder with no scruples about collateral damage or civilian casualties would experience little difficulty in doing so. It therefore virtually certain that any victor is going to be an alicorn. Unless somepony’s broken out the Elements of Harmony without my knowledge, they would have the only realistic chance.

Who, then? Luna? Possible, but I doubt she would have retreated and left me behind. If Sombra took me, he was virtually certain to have captured her as well. She could of course have escaped, but… to be entirely objective, that’s not very likely. Cadence or Shining Armor? If they aren’t dead, they would have been captured and drained to begin with. The final, and most likely possibility is the one to bring a faint smile to my face. Twilight Sparkle has come through against all odds so many times even I have almost lost count. If Sombra underestimated her but a little, it would not surprise me in the least to see that mare swoop in and save the day yet again.

Now that I have established a theory, what do I do? For the moment, the answer is obviously: nothing. I am a spent alicorn. I feel empty, almost as much as the day Tirek returned. What magic hasn’t been forcefully ripped from me was spent on healing the otherwise-mortal injuries I sustained from the false Twilight Sparkle. I have little more than a few sparks left inside me. And I’ll need more to break these chains. Their magic seems to be holding, for the moment. So I will do what I have done so many times before: close my eyes, lay back, and settle in for the long haul. I close my eyes, clear my mind, and focus on stirring the last embers of the great bonfire that was once my magic.

Sometime later, my meditation gets interrupted by the sound of a door getting rather brutally kicked open. Light floods into the dark chamber. I turn my head and slowly open my eyes.

Princes Mi Amore Cadenza stands there, horn emitting a soft blue glow.

“Hello, niece,” I greet her in a polite tone. My voice sounds weak and raspy, even to my ears. “I am pleased to see that you are alive.”

She doesn’t answer. Instead, the pink alicorn walks slowly, carefully up towards my chained body, eyes narrowed and suspicious.

“There is no need for worry,” I tell her with a soft sigh. “I am quite harmless at the moment.”

Again, she doesn’t answer, stalking further towards me with an expression halfway divided between incredulity and hatred.

“Before you do what you are going to do, at least tell me this: is Sombra vanquished? Is the Crystal Empire safe? What of my sister and student? For old times’ sake.”

“Sombra’s dead,” Cadence spits. “He paid for what he did.”

Permanently this time, I should hope.

“Just,” she hisses softly, now all but on top of me. “As you’re about to, auntie dearest.”

“Everything I did,” I answer, looking her directly in the eye. “I did for the good of all. All of my life I have served and sacrificed for others.”

“Liar…” she says, eyes slits. “Traitor... Murderer.”

“My own integrity was one sacrifice I offered, yes. Someone had to. As the eldest of our kind, that duty was mine, and I performed it. I offer no apology.”

Her eyes actually widen a bit. “Why? You’re at my mercy.”

“You are going to kill me no matter what I say, niece. I will not spend my last few moments on this earth pointlessly begging you for mercy.”

“You’re that eager to die?”

“Merely realistic, Cadence.”

“Don’t call me that. You don’t have the right.”

“Very well, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. I repeat my question from earlier. Is the empire safe? Are my sister and student alright?”

“For your information, yes to the first,” she says. “Shining has gone to free Luna. He knows where she is being held. Twilight we don’t yet know about, but we will find her.”

“I see. That is good news. Whatever you do to me here, I ask that you kindly leave my sister out of it. She knows nothing at all,” I lie to her.

“I want you, Auntie Celestia,” Cadence says. “Nopony else. I don’t target the innocent.”

“You have much to learn, my dear niece. Perhaps when you are as old as I you will understand the true measure of hard choices.”

“I understand that you’re a double-crossing, baby-stealing monster, Celestia. That’s all I need to know.”

“Such lovely idealism,” I smile faintly. “May it serve you better than it did me.”

Cadence grits her teeth and growls a little.

“So then, if this is goodbye,” I lay my head back a bit. “I simply wish to say that I wish you the best of luck, Mi Amore. May your empire prosper, may your love bloom eternal, and may your foals be many and well beloved by all. May you find peace and happiness, and may you never be called on to sacrifice as I was. Oh, and please tell my sister that I loved her until the very end.”

“You… you…” Cadence is openly snarling at me. It is clear that of all the things she expected out of me, a blessing wasn’t one of them. And it is just making her angrier.

“You may pretend that I never cared for you, Cadence, but you know as well as I that that is not true. Your magic cannot work on those whose hearts know no love. If I am to die here, I simply wish for you to know that. I only ever wanted the best for you.”

“You are a snake-tongued liar and a murderer,” she declares, face hardening. “I want nothing to do with you. When I end you here, it will be justice twenty years overdue.”

“Then I will enter the next life with my head held high,” I answer. “I did only what I thought was the best for all. I sacrificed everything I had for that. You will get no apologies out of me.”

“So be it,” Cadence hisses, her horn beginning to glow more brightly. “I thought that maybe you had a conscience. I thought perhaps you might prove willing to admit your crimes with death hanging over you. Clearly, I was wrong.”

“You hoped that I would offer you vindication for what you are about to do,” I shake my head. “You will get nothing of the sort. My blessing is all I will bestow.”

“I don’t want your blessing!”

“But you have it regardless.”

“Shut up already!” she barks. “I’m tired of this! Tired of you babbling! You know what I think? I think you’re scared! You know that you’re about to be plunged into the infernal abyss and made to pay for all your crimes! You want to make me doubt myself, to make yourself look the part of the heroic martyr and loving aunt so that I hesitate! You’re just trying to delay the inevitable for a few more seconds!”

My ears prick up a little.

“Perhaps that is true,” I tell her. “Perhaps I really am just a terrified old mare, clinging to any straw to put off death just a moment longer. I would hardly be first. Perhaps all of this was just my attempt to plead for mercy in a roundabout way, or to introduce just a speck of doubt into your head. Alternatively…”

I let the word hang in the air as I settle back against the device, closing my eyes.

“Perhaps I was just stalling for time.”

“Wha-”

I lie back against the Sombra’s machine as an overpowering aura of chill fills the room, driving my body to shivers in the space of a second. A heartbeat later I hear two sets of hooves burst into the rapidly-crowding cell.

“Tia!” cries one voice.

“Princess Celestia!” yells the other.

I can hear the two of them rush over towards me, feel their breath against my neck. Slowly, groggily, I force my eyes open in the most wearied manner I can feign. I see exactly who I expected to see. Well, save for one figure. Still, my smile I quite genuine.

“Lulu…” I breathe. “Cadence… Shining Armor… so good to see you all again.”

“Sister!” the worry is evident in Luna’s eyes as she shoves past the other two. “Are you alright?! What did that fiend do to you?!” she tears open the collar around my neck with one powerful flash of blue magic.

“I am… alright,” I say. “Just relieved to… see you all again. Please… get me down from here.”

“Of course!” Luna’s magic tears chain after chain, runic black iron no match for her fury. “I’ll help you! Lean on me!”

And with that, my dear little sister destroys the last chain binding me to Sombra’s device. My body, weak and virtually devoid of magic, falls limply. Luna catches me with her own telekinesis, helping me to stand up straight. One wing offers me further support as I take my first, limping steps off towards the exit. Shining Armor offers my support from the opposite side, like a pair of living crutches. I’ll admit to staring at the oversized windigo sharing the room with my family, but I’m sure that’s a story I’ll hear soon enough.

Just I do manage to walk throw the room’s threshold, I get a quick glimpse back at my niece. I swear I can see an eyelid twitching.

That… that… that bitch!

Celestia tricked me! I had her alone, powerless, and at my mercy, and she still played me like a cheap violin! She knew she had nothing but words, but she still managed to hit enough buttons to keep me listening until more ponies showed up! I could hardly kill her in front of her sister and my husband!

ARGH!

Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid! Why didn’t I just kill her immediately?! Nopony else was around! Sombra would have been blamed! But nooooo, I had to go listening to her babble and lie shamelessly to me until she used up all my time! Now the opportunity is gone!

It’s all I can do to contain my burning rage for the next few hours and not go on a wild rampage through what’s left of the palace. Heaven knows half of me wants to. This was the chance I had hoped for these last twenty years, and I completely blew it! At least I have the excuse of feeling unwell such that nopony asks questions when I don’t do much in the immediate aftermath.

Shining, Luna, and Celestia busy themselves with the rescue and cleanup efforts. Luna starts by restoring the sun to its proper place much further from the planet, and then slowly setting it. It turns out that my aunts brought an army, and it also moves in on their orders. With the storm dispelled the ice begins to melt on its own, but the arrival of thousands of Equestrian troops to the scene speeds the process immensely. We’re very lucky, I suppose, that wendigo ice is supernaturally preservative. Ordinary freezing would have just killed everypony in the empire, but the ice demons prefer to keep their prey alive.

Somehow, I can’t bring myself to feel lucky.

Speaking of demons, we now have one being hosted in the palace. The very same one that froze me and, as I find out very shortly, Aunt Luna. It – or he, apparently – introduces himself in his own language. Surprise, surprise, Celestia speaks fluent demonic monstrosity. His name is Hoarfrost and he, apparently, helped Shining against Sombra. I don’t trust his motives one bit, but Shiny vouches for him and won’t take no for an answer. So I don’t really have any choice but to tolerate another monster underneath my roof.

Search parties have also been dispatched towards the ocean and Twilight’s last known location. It’s presently a warzone, so finding my sister-in-law may take some time. For further bad news, the closeness of the sun started wildfires in the grasslands surrounding the Imperial City, some of which are still yet to be brought under control. Oh, and at least thirty-one ponies are confirmed dead in all of this, including the entire staff of the Equestrian embassy. All because of me and my reckless stupidity.

You can imagine that that does wonders for my mood.

Shining senses, obviously, that something is off with me, but he doesn’t really get it. He’s thinking I’m just sad and scared, whereas in reality I’m raging and guilty and wildly mournful all at the same time. Between that and his understandable distraction, his attempts to comfort me over the next few hours, while sweet, come to very little.

So, by the time that the four of us meet up in an army command tent late that night, I’m not exactly upbeat. Sullen silence is the most I can manage, along with the occasional glare over at my aunt.

“On the plus side,” Shining Armor is saying. “We’ve managed to extract another forty-seven buried or injured ponies and gotten them to treatment in time. The downside,” here he looks down a little, “Is that we can add four more names to the ranks of those confirmed dead. They were frozen inside their homes when the fire started falling. Sombra wasn’t very discriminate.”

Make that thirty-five ponies dead because of me.

“I see,” Luna nods grimly. She hasn’t left her sister’s side since she pried her off that machine. I know, I’ve been watching. “And what of the ice?”

“Almost all gone now. Less than ten percent of the city and two percent of the citizenry still encased. Your pyromancers have been a great help,” he nods to both Luna and Celestia. “Soon we’ll have it all cleared away, and then…” his wings twitch a bit, and he looks in the direction of the distant sea.

“Peace, Shining Armor,” Celestia says in that infuriatingly calm tone of hers. “Your new friend’s information has proven valuable. Our team has already narrowed in on Twilight’s probable location. She will be free very soon, you have my word.”

“Probable isn’t good enough!” he snaps. “I should be out there with them, not stuck back here managing-”

“You have duties to your land,” Celestia cuts him off, a little harshly. “As well as to your family. Your sister will be rescued without need of your intervention. Your subjects need you more, for the moment.”

My husband growls at her, to my delight.

“Please,” she says, expression softening. “Simply trust me on this. I am as eager to see Twilight Sparkle happy and free as you are. But neither of us is in any condition to be plunging into the depths for her at the moment.”

That is the one bright point of this whole debacle. I can see that Celestia’s atherial presence appears to have noticeably deteriorated. Not as though she’s simply run through her pool of magic for the moment – as though that pool has shrunk. Considerably. I never thought I’d thank King Sombra for anything, but it appears as though he took a large chunk of her magic with him when he died. Auntie Celestia is weaker than I’ve ever seen her, and she isn’t likely to recover. That will be helpful.

“I am pleased to report,” Luna steers the conversation back onto topic. “That our weather pegasi have brought the wildfire almost entirely under control. A few have burned out already. The danger to the Crystal Empire’s outlying villages has passed.”

We all nod in relief, especially me. No more deaths today, gods. Please.

Well… if you’re feeling generous, maybe one.

“That is good to hear,” Celestia says. “Cadence? How are our relief efforts going?”

“Fine,” I mumble, barely able to bring myself to say a word to her without spitting acid.

Shining Armor puts a hoof around my neck and pulls me a little closer. It’s nice, but it doesn’t really help.

“Good,” she nods. “We do not want anypony going hungry or without shelter tonight. And on a somewhat brighter note, I can assure you that the Imperial Palace has been stabilized. It is no longer in danger of crumbling and crushing somepony.”

“Glad to hear it,” Shining says, petting my mane a little. I won’t lie, it feels good. “Everything seems to be going…”

“About as well as could be reasonably expected,” Luna finishes for him. “Considering the circumstances, the death and destruction were quite limited. It might easily have been far worse.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” Shining nods his head.

“That does bring me to another topic,” Celestia chimes in again. “While we proceed with the recovery, we must also investigate how this disaster came to be in the first place.”

“So that we may avert any potential repetitions,” Luna agrees.

“Correct. And to that end I thought it might be best to start with one of Sombra’s former co-conspirators,” my aunt looks over her shoulder.

“If you would.”

A few moments later the tent’s door opens, and immediately the temperature inside the room drops markedly. I begin to shiver, but from Hoarfrost’s cold. No, what makes me shake is the way that ice spirit is looking over at me.

He knows.

I don’t know how – scratch that, Sombra must have told him. Why, I’m not entirely certain, but I’m sure he must know that I was the one who lowered the kingdom’s defenses in spite of knowing that Sombra’s ghost was around. Perhaps the king was just gloating to a partner, or perhaps this demon was savvy enough to demand details of the plan before committing to it.

And as for Celestia… I look at her, and her expression is utterly neutral. I’m not fooled. She must have spoken with this beast already. She knows that he knows, and she wants the truth to come out in front of Shining and Luna. Or just enough of the truth for her purposes. She wants to make me look like a dangerous moron! But because the damned geas is still in place, I can’t tell the whole story!

What do I do? What do I do?! What do I do?!

“Mr. Hoarfrost,” Celestia begins. “Could you please shed some light on what exactly it was that happened here? From my perspective one moment everything was, if not perfect, relatively normal, and the next King Sombra is announcing his return backed up by an army. Such a maneuver could not have been pulled off on the spur of the moment. There had to have been plan in place and advance knowledge of the state of the Crystal Empire. As a leader among your people, you would have known more, would you not?”

He hisses something in his own language, nodding.

“Please, elaborate.”

The ice spirit begins to hiss, sputter, and screech in the incomprehensible language of his kind. Celestia “kindly” provides a translation for those of us less acquainted with it.

“Yes,” she repeats for us. “You are correct that there was a plan in place. The ghost of the one that you call Sombra approached us years ago. He offered to give us many of your cities, great masses of your people, for food in perpetuity if we would help him.”

Maybe it’s the extreme language barrier, but to me Hoarfrost doesn’t sound remorseful at all. Why is he still alive after this, much less sitting in a tent with us?

“At first we called him liar and drove him off. We thought him a competitor. But he returned, time and time again, with the same offer. Then he started coming with changelings in tow, and their queen began to vouch for him. We knew her of old, for we were once bitter rivals, forced into uneasy peace by you,” the spirit looks around. “They had spent many years sheltering on the outskirts of our continent, hiding from the other races.”

The changelings hid on the Lost Continent? No wonder nopony found them – it’s well known to be an uninhabitable death trap.

“We did not believe that you could be overcome. But they argued, and argued persuasively that it could be done. We simply needed to lure you to a place of our choosing with a bait you could not refuse.”

“The Crystal Empire was your bait,” Shining says, neutrally.

Hoarfrost nods.

“And your sister,” Celestia translates his next rumblings. “We knew that the diarchs would have to respond to that. And then we could work together to eliminate them. But the question we wondered was: how? We are not fools. We knew of your Crystal Heart. Sombra assured us he would make a way to bypass it. We were skeptical, until he told us how he would do it.”

“How?” asks Luna.

“He would wait until just the right moment, and then he would have its magic drained away.”

“That’s not possible!” Shining interjects. “He never had that power! The only pony who that kind of access to the Crystal Heart was…”

“Me,” I finish, hanging my head.

My husband looks confused. “So, what, was Sombra just hovering around the Crystal Empire and waiting until Cadence overused the magic or something?”

“No. We were informed of the date and time weeks in advance.”

“Weeks?!” his eyes widen. “How is that possible?! How could Sombra possibly have known when the heart’s magic would be down?”

The next screeches Hoarfrost makes are short, sweet, and to the point.

“Ask your wife.”

“Cadence,” he looks over at me, all trust and confusion. “What does he mean?”

“Uh… “I shrink back. “I… uh…”

I’m flailing about for something right now. I can’t just dismiss what’s been said, but for the life of me I can’t think of a plausible untruth either. Simply saying that Sombra was spying on me wouldn’t explain a timetable laid out that long in advance. And as I look into Shining’s eyes… after all that this put him through, doesn’t he at least deserve to know?

“I knew.”

Shining freezes on the spot, staring at me. “What?”

“I knew that Sombra’s spirit was around. I… I…” I can’t bring myself to look into his eyes. “I listened to it.”

“You knew?!” his eyes are wide. “And you… and you…”

“I didn’t know what he was up to, I swear!” tears begin to roll down my cheeks. “I thought he had changed! He swore he had changed!”

“And you believed him?!”

“I… was desperate!” I hang my head miserably. “He told me things, Shining! He told me what to do, the proper rites to be enacted. He knew, somehow he knew how!”

His eyes begin to narrow. “Knew how to what?”

“To… to induce the Crystal Heart to give up its power,” I sniff a little. “To use that power and… other magic to… to…”

Shining’s eyes go wider than I’ve seen them in a long time. He says nothing, not even taking a breath. Luna looks as though she wants to say something, but Celestia restrains her with a single glance. Hoarfrost is silent and totally inscrutable.

“I’m sorry!” I wail. “I didn’t know! I swear that I didn’t know what he was doing! He acted like he wanted to make amends, sounded so sincere… I was desperate for answers! And he had everything I’d wanted, the solution to all our problem!” tears are pouring unreservedly down the side of my face. “I had no inkling this is was his plan! Please believe me! I just thought that we could finally be together again! I just thought… I just thought…”

“You didn’t tell me any of this,” Shining says, voice unnaturally quiet.

“I was scared, Shiny! I was terrified that if you knew you’d never agree! That you’d want nothing more to do with me!”

“So you opted to conceal what you had done and trust to blind luck rather than making proper preparations for such a feat,” Celestia interrupts. “Did it ever occur to you that you might have kept the knowledge in your back pocket until you had bolstered the empire’s defenses? Called on your family for help? If you had told us of Sombra’s presence we would have been more than happy to assist in protecting the empire during its moment of weakness. Did you just blindly dive in the moment he related the knowledge to you?”

My sobs are half-choked by a thwarted shriek of rage. How dare you, Celestia?! How dare you?! You drove me to this! It was your threats and your power that kept me awake every night for twenty damned years! You were the one who drove me to take a chance on Sombra in the first place! And it’s your thrice-damned geas that’s preventing me from coming out and telling the whole story right now! How dare you lecture me like I was some foal!

“There are thirty-five ponies presently on the list of those perished in this crisis,” Celestia continues. “Shall I read them off to you? Would you like to know the names and faces of everypony who now lies dead because of their princess’ reckless abandon?

Shut up shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP you horrible bitch! How can you do this?! Haven’t you taken enough from me already?! Do you just want to torment my conscience even more?

“You knew…” Shining Armor’s flat voice draws my eyes back towards him. “And you did nothing.”

I can barely bring myself to look up at my husband. Through tear-blurred eyes I find myself looking at one of the hardest expressions I have ever witnessed. Shining’s face looks as though it might have carved from granite. Stoney. Unflinching. Judging. I cower meekly before it.

“Please, I-”

Something harder than diamond hits the side of my face with all the force of an avalanche. Or at least that’s what it feels like as I topple over onto the ground. My cheek stings a bit, but all I can think about is the alicorn stallion looming over me, face a mask of tightly-controlled fury and hoof right where my cheek just was.

Slowly but surely, Shining lowers his hoof back to the grand, utterly silent. Nopony is making a sound, not even to breathe. The moment seems to last an eternity.

And then, without warning, Shining Armor turns and walks past me without a word, heading toward the tent’s entrance.

“I’m going to go and get my sister,” he says, slowly. “I’ll be back shortly.”

“Shiny, wait!” I get easily back to my hooves, the small stinging completely gone. “I… I…”

He pushes at the door. I pull my last card.

“I’m pregnant.”

Shining Armor’s head turns, inch by agonizing inch, back towards me. One blue eye regards me with an unreadable expression. Finally his head turns away again.

“Like I said, I’m going to go and get Twilight.”

“Do what you must,” Celestia says. “We will deal with situation here.”

And then he’s gone.

Epilogue: Picking Up the Pieces

Several days pass in what is little more than a vague blur to me. The rescue efforts go on, ponies are treated, fires extinguished, damage repaired. Slowly but surely the Crystal Empire begins to recover from the damage of the occupation. I know that I should be happy about that, but I can’t really bring myself to be.

Eventually Shining Armor returns with several of Equestria’s soldiers and Twilight Sparkle in tow. My husband won’t talk to me, and for my part I don’t really blame him. He thinks that I did what I did out of love-blinded idiocy. That I ignored the safety of my kingdom and subjects because I wanted to have sex with him again or something like that. He doesn’t know the full circumstances behind my decision, and for the moment I can’t tell him.

Twilight, by contrast, is all over me. She’s absolutely delighted to see her sister-in-law alive and in one piece, and the hugging takes a little while to end. When it does she asks plenty of questions, mostly varieties of “What happened?” and “Are you alright?”. I answer as best as I am able, omitting a few details here and there. I hate to lie to her – I’ve done enough of that – but in this case it is necessary.

As for my “dear” aunt, she seems mostly content with the damage she’s done. She let me go without a word the night Shining left and, for the most part, has avoided me since. Perhaps she feels that she’s done enough to punish me inside the family, because nopony is more publicly adamant on my blamelessness for the whole affair. The official story, as I understand it, is that Sombra’s return was a matter of ill luck and horrific timing, for which nopony among us should be held accountable. On the dark king’s shoulders alone rests the blame for everything, which is a story the ponies of the Crystal Empire seem ready enough to believe. Even after all this time the cultural memory of the dark sorcerer remains powerful.

Of course, it could also be that she worries that if I’m pressed any further I’ll decide that I have nothing to lose, flip out, and publicly try a murder-suicide against her. I don’t think either of us are entirely sure who would come out on top of such a contest now. Celestia lost an enormous chunk of her magic to Sombra, and he took it with him when he died. This won’t be like Tirek – there’s no recovery in sight for her. And even if she did win, a public fight to the death with her own niece would destroy all of her carefully-cultivated reputation and shatter the illusion of an infallible, always-moral god princess. I can’t say that the thought isn’t sometimes tempting.

But no. Whenever I even begin to think such thoughts I put a hoof to my belly. I have things to live for. Ponies I love. Ponies I have to care for. I have a child on the way, and husband who loves me. I heard about what he did – how he was willing to die by Sombra’s hoof before letting the same happen to me. Such love is not lost in a day, merely buried. He is angry at me, he thinks me childish and stupid and perhaps an unfit ruler, but he hasn’t stopped caring. I know it in the depths of my soul: Shining Armor still loves me. For his sake, and for the sake of our child, I cannot give up. I won’t surrender to despair. My family needs me.

Those ponies who died in the crisis are given an elaborate state funeral as a group. Those whose families wish it will of course have a more private service later, all paid for by me, personally. It is, I feel, the very least I could do for them. The final casualty list is thirty-eight ponies killed, either during the takeover or by Sombra’s liberal use of solar fire during the final battle. Each death weighs heavily on me, for I should have been able to prevent them, to protect them. That I failed is a stain on me that ten thousand years won’t wash out.

Shining Armor, as the hero of the hour, delivers the opening speech. There are more than three thousand ponies turned out for this, and there would be more if we had been able to find room. All of the alicorns are present as well, and we listen with bowed heads and heavy hearts. Well, my heart is heavy at any rate. To see Celestia doing it just feels like mockery. Even Hoarfrost is here, though for taste’s sake he’s under an illusion. It wasn’t long ago he was leading the very army that killed some of these ponies.

Next, the families of the deceased take the stage to deliver their eulogies. I’ve already memorized the names and faces of the dead, but seeing their families standing there, tears in their eyes, commemorating the slain really drives the point home for me. My rash action and lack of forethought killed these ponies. My aunt may be a lying, snake-tongued murderess, but she wasn’t wrong about that. I should have been more cautious, taken measures to ensure our security. That I didn’t will haunt me forever, I think.

One by one the families file by, reminiscing about those that they loved and tearfully bidding them goodbye as they join the Eternal Herd. I allow myself a few tears and a brief prayer of my own, silently asking the spirits of the dead for their forgiveness. I have no idea if they can hear me, but it’s always possible. If so, ponies, please know that I never intended this, and had no idea what would happen.

Eventually the eulogies end, and it’s my turn to speak a few words. I climb up onto the stage with as much solemn grace and dignity as I can muster, making certain that my black dress doesn’t get caught on anything.

“Citizens of the Crystal Empire… Guests… My friends,” I begin, voice carried easily through the air by magic. “We have all gathered here to mourn the loss of thirty-eight good ponies, lives cut short by the malice of a great evil. Today is a tragedy, and I join each and every one of you in shedding tears for those now departed from us. Further,” I pause for just a moment. “I wish to extend my personal condolences and heartfelt apologies to everypony here. I failed to protect you all as well as I should have, and for that I am deeply sorry.”

I bow my head once, twice, thrice, and so on, until I’ve bowed the mourners of each and every one of the dead. Some of them cry a little at the gesture.

“Before I call this to an end, I have one more thing to say,” I continue, slowly. “Though this is a day of great sorrow and mourning, I implore each and every one of you to not allow this to change who we are. Let us rise of from the ashes of tragedy with a new determination. Let us not allow the specter of what has been to mar our futures. Let the Crystal Empire stand as a beacon of hope brighter than ever before, shining the light of love across all lands, to every corner of the world. Let us build an even brighter future, that the tyrant rotting in the eternal abyss will know that he has failed to break us. This I implore you: let the Crystal Empire rise anew, like a glorious golden phoenix.”

That earns me a good amount of agreeable stamping from the crowd. I bow my head again before descending back towards my seat, the eyes of the theater following me. Save for one.

The state funeral ends shortly after Cadence’s remarks. Then we move on to the more private funerals – at least those where we’re wanted. Some of the families requested our presence, others declined. My wife and I go together as a public show of unity and strength. Sometimes Celestia, Luna, or Twily are also invited, other times they’re called away to the funerals of the Equestrian embassy staff.

We don’t actually do much, just generally show up, offer our condolences, and show support for the families. I wish I could do more. Scratch that, I wish I had been strong enough not to get possessed and enable all of this in the first place! Lacking the means to make that a reality, all I can do is offer what comfort I can to those who need it most. Since somepony put the word out that I was the one who slayed Sombra this time, they’re all looking up at me like a I’m some sort of hero.

The various funerals we attend take up virtually the entire day, but even they eventually come to a close. Coffins are buried, prayers are said, and ponies go home for the night. As for us, we head back to the Imperial Palace, currently undergoing rapid repair. Cadence tries to make small talk on the way. I don’t answer her. Eventually she falls silent, looking down.

I’ll admit to feeling extremely conflicted right about now. On the one hoof, I love Cadence. I’ve spent centuries with her, raised children with her. To see her looking miserable makes me want to do nothing so much as comfort her and assure her that everything will be alright.

On the other hoof, I can’t ignore what just happened. Dozens of ponies just died because of her negligence and infatuated stupidity. She cared so much about putting me back in flesh that she ignored the empire’s defenses and made everything that just happened possible. My sister was kidnapped and imprisoned, I was possessed, the empire overrun, and Celestia permanently damaged as a direct result of her actions. I can’t overlook something like that – it calls her entire stability and competence into question. I know that she obviously would never intend such a thing to happen and that she was deceived, but results matter.

So what do I do about it?

I don’t know, to be perfectly honest. By the time I returned from getting Twily back, the decision had already been made not to make that part of the story public. To avoid undermining the public’s confidence in their leadership even further, Luna explained to me. And it is certainly true that ponies need to believe that their rulers are looking out for them. But how am I supposed to look after them when the biggest threat to their safety might well be their beloved princess, my wife?

I just don’t know how to deal with Cadence right now. We’ll have to speak again sometime, but I don’t think I’m ready for it. I don’t want to explode against her, but at the same time she has to learn that there are serious, personal consequences for dealing with the devil. I can’t in any sense appear to condone her behavior. What’s the right balance between loving correction and firm discipline when you’re dealing with an immortal alicorn princess who also happens to be your wife?

I just don’t know. And until I do I won’t risk accidentally sending the wrong message. The stakes, as today demonstrated, are too high.

Late in the evening, as the sun is gently setting over the western horizon, I’m seated atop a balcony on the Imperial Palace. I’m here alone, picking at my dinner, thinking. And thinking. And thinking some more. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I-

My train of thought is interrupted by a soft knock on the balcony door.

I look up, set my face in its best steely expression, and then cautiously reach over with magic to open the door.

“Hello,” says Princess Celestia.

My face falls a bit. I was expecting Cadence. Just looking at Celestia right now makes me feel somewhat guilty. She’s lost a huge chunk of her power, and for reasons ultimately traceable back to me. Seeing the princess I used to guard victimized by a monster like Sombra is quite uncomfortable.

“May I please have a word with you?” she asks in a soft tone.

“Of course,” I nod, making space. “Do you want anything? I can have-”

“Nothing,” she cuts me off, walking easily over to take a seat across from me. “But I thank you for your hospitality.”

“Think nothing of it! You’ve more than earned every bit of hospitality we could give!”

“That’s very sweet of you to say,” she smiles. “But perhaps you overstate things.”

Her modesty is incredible – just as I remember it. It’s like she doesn’t even slightly resent losing so much magic to try to fix our mistakes.

“Regardless,” her tone becomes more serious. “I should like to talk to you about something very serious.”

“Go on.”

“It is about…” she hesitates. “Your upcoming foal.”

I blink. “Our foal?”

These last few days have been so hectic that I’ve barely had time to think about what Cadence said that night.

“Yes. Let me be blunt,” she looks me in the eye. “Each and every alicorn born is heir to immortality and vast power. Even the least can do great good or great harm. They may cause nations to rise and fall, or hold the lives of millions in their hooves. Their early environment and instruction are therefore matters of the utmost importance to us all. And, I am sad to say..." she sighs. "That in light of recent events, I fear that Cadence can no longer be trusted with the responsibility of raising an infant alicorn.”

I honestly don’t know what to say to something like that.

“…What are you proposing?” I eventually manage.

“Well,” Celestia says, slowly. “I did have a few ideas…”

“Cadence?” a soft voice accompanies the knock on my door.

“Ah,” I turn my head, a smile on my face. “Come in! Come in!”

I’ve seen enough of Celestia. She thinks she’s won. She’s thinks that for all she’s lost she’s finally on top of the world. Well, Sombra thought the same thing, right before Shiny gutted the bastard. Well, Auntie, I’m not giving up. I have something to live for, and a future to secure.

You’re not in it.

But for all that you are a horrible, backstabbing, baby-stealing old witch, you do occasionally spout some good ideas. You were right when you said that a big part of what happened was my excessive secrecy, my refusal to invite ponies who cared for me to help. That policy ends right this moment. You gave me the idea that I need to set everything right again. I’m sure you’ll appreciate the irony.

“You wanted to see me?” my guest walks in.

“Twilight!” I smile at her. “Come in! Come in! Give your sister a hug!”

She does so, cheerfully. I can feel the innocent warmth flowing freely from her, seeming to make the world a better place by its mere presence. I take a moment to seal the door shut behind her, casting a few spells in case of eavesdroppers.

“What’s up, Cadence?” she asks. “You said you had something you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Yes, I did. Before we begin, can I count on your absolute silence on this?”

“Of course!” Twilight insists, looking a little worried. “You know you can trust me! Is something wrong?”

“I need your help with a little… magical problem I’m having.”

“Oh?” her ears stand at attention. “What kind of problem?”

“I’m looking to develop a very specific kind of counterspell for something very important to the empire’s security.”

“I can help with that. I know a lot about counterspells,” she says. “What kind of spell are you looking to get rid of?”

I smile a little on the inside.

“A geas.”

Author's Notes:

And that brings us to the end of this part of the story. To those of you who have read this far, thanks, and I'd appreciate your feedback.

I look forward to posting this tale's third and final installment soon enough.