Darkest Ambitions

by Llyander

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance, Dark, Rainbow Dash, Romance, Fluttershy, Adventure, Shining Armor
Length: 7480

As the Mane 6 struggle to come to terms with the events following "Magical Mystery Cure", dark forces mass around the distant, isolated Crystal Empire.

As the Mane 6 attempt to come to terms with the events following "Magical Mystery Cure", dark forces mass around the distant, isolated Crystal Empire.

While the rest of their friends struggle with their fears and nightmares, and Twilight attempts to adapt to her new position in life, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are in the Crystal Empire to help their athletes prepare for the games but they find themselves embroiled in something far more dangerous than either of them had expected.

Published 2013-08-10 21:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-08-25 08:59:37 UTC

Prologue

Darkest Ambitions
Prologue

Ardent was often right. Usually, that was a good thing but today… Today, not so much. Today being right was going to get him killed.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been running for, or how far he’d covered. The arctic air burned in his lungs, the snow melting the moment it touched his green crystalline body, steam curling up and into the air, lost in a moment in the driving snow that tried to push him back. He’d hoped it would erase his hoofprints, make it harder for them to track him, but his pursuers were more tenacious than any bloodhound or griffin and they would not stop till they brought him down.

He tucked his head down lower, shaking it quickly to dislodge the snow that was clumping in his mane, pausing for the briefest of moments to look around. Night was falling quickly, far too quickly, the temperature already plummeting, his breath forming thick clouds in the air with each sharp, ragged gasp he took, his flanks heaving and glistening with sweat.

He glanced quickly towards his haunches, reassured to find his saddlebags hadn’t got lost in the initial mad dash for freedom. His knife, though, he’d lost within moments. He’d liked that knife; his father had given it to him all those many years ago. The bow and arrows, thankfully, were still safely strapped down but to use them he’d have to stop and make a stand and he wasn’t ready for that; not yet, not when he could still run.

He let his breathing slow, his ears perking as he tried to listen over the whistling wind, trying to hear through the hiss of the snow. Had he lost them? So many times now he’d been sure he’d managed to get clear only to find them still doggedly pursuing him. How could they track him when he could barely see a yard in front of his face? His tracks were obliterated within minutes and yet still they remained fixed on his rump like some perverse game of Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Pony.

There. Was that…? Damn. Damn and blast and curse it all to the heavens. He could hear their hooves drumming, muffled by the thick snow, but they were still coming. He hesitated, feeling the fatigue creeping through his limbs, his legs heavy, hooves aching, chest burning, every fibre of muscle screaming for relief, for him to just lie down and give in and just for a moment, he found himself swaying, his knees starting to bow under him, lowering him down to the soft, welcoming snow.

He was so tired. He’d been running for hours now and he just didn’t have anything left to give, no reserves to draw on. Even Earth ponies had their limits and he had just about reached his. His knees sank lower and strangely the snow no longer seemed that cold, in fact is was strangely comfortable as he settled down, his saddlebags shifting on his haunches, the bellystrap drawing tight around his barrel.

His eyes shot open at that sudden sensation, adrenaline coursing through his veins driving him back to his hooves. No. No, no, NO. He’d nearly… He slapped himself across the face with a hoof, snarling bitterly at himself, at his own weakness. He raised his head and there, to his dismay, were five pairs of softly glowing eyes hovering in the darkness.

“Come on, you sons of Diamond Dogs!” He spat, stomping a defiant forehoof down, “Come and get me! You call that running, you spavined excuses for mules? I haven’t even started to show you REAL speed.” With that he turned and galloped off into the darkness once more.

He had to be getting close, right? It couldn’t be that much further to the outskirts of the Crystal Empire, then one of the border guards would see him and call in assistance. He just had to hold out a little longer, just a little more. The Princess had to know what he’d found, had to know that the Empire was no longer safe. Not for the first time he cursed his lack of magic. If he’d just been born a unicorn… But no, HE had made sure there were no unicorns or pegasi in the Empire, nothing but earth ponies.

Was that a light? He was sure he could see something glittering on the horizon and that hope added strength to his faltering limbs. He dropped his head down, gritting his teeth as he ploughed through the snow and then without warning, the ground vanished beneath him and he tumbled down the side of a hill, spinning end over end in a cloud of snow.

The first time he hit the ground he screamed as his left hind leg snapped under his weight. The second time he hit he could only groan in agony as the leg flopped uselessly around behind him, the impact robbing the breath from his lungs. He slid down the rest of the way, landing in an untidy heap in a snow drift.

For a moment he stared up at the sky as he struggled to force air back into lungs that felt like he’d been inhaling dragonfire, blinking away the flakes of snow that drifted into his eyes, his world nothing but searing pain and bitter disappointment. His race was done, time for that last stand.

He’d lost his saddlebags somewhere in the tumble down the hill, but his bow and quiver had landed not far away. Rolling to his belly, Ardent began to slowly drag himself towards them, trying his best not to cry out, stifling his whimpers as he bit down on his bottom lip till the hot, salty taste of blood filled his mouth. This wasn’t fair. It wasn’t meant to end like this, not here in the snow and the cold, where no-one would ever know what had happened to him.

He could hear their hooves above him, hear them skidding to a halt as they found the ground dropping away. He snatched up the bow with trembling hooves, awkwardly nocking an arrow with his teeth and drawing it back, loosing blindly up into the darkness in one quick motion. He was rewarded with a thump of shaft into flesh but there was no cry of pain or surprise, nothing at all. He heard the arrow hit something, he was sure of it!

He drew a second arrow, panting as the world spun around him, pain, fear and exhaustion greying the edges of the world. A rustle off to his left, the sound of movement to his right and those eyes, always those damnable eyes glowing unblinking in the darkness. He loosed a second arrow straight into one set of those eyes but could only watch in despair as they dodged to one side and his arrow whistled uselessly into the darkness.

Soft steps now, closing in all around him. He tried to draw a third arrow but this time he found the bow yanked from his hooves, tossed away into the snow. The quiver was kicked aside, arrows spilling uselessly everywhere. Were they even breathing? He couldn’t hear them at all now, not a sound, couldn’t hear anything but a roaring in his ears.

“My life for the Empire,” he spat, defiant to the last, trying to ignore how his voice shook with fear, how weak and hopeless he sounded to his own ears even as the world was fading around him. “For the Princess.”

And then there was nothing.

Author's Note

Hello folks, and welcome to my second ever MLP story. This one will be substantially longer than A Monument to Fashion so the update times may be a bit slower.

Chapter 1

Darkest Ambitions
Chapter 1

“Why did the griffin cross the road?”

“HEARD IT!”

“Well, uh… Erm… Knock Knock?”

“….

“I said, uh, knock knock?”

“Not answering. Go away and come back tomorrow.”

Every night it was the same. The situation changed, the voices changed, but it was always the same. She was alone on the stage, the floodlight’s glare obliterating the world, pinning her in its merciless stare, the air hot, thick, the audience lost in the shadows but she knew they were there. The mocking voices made sure of that.

She glanced down at her flank, noticing her cutie mark, the three balloons that signified her special gift in making ponies laugh. It was her destiny to make them forget their troubles and be happy, her special talent was to make them laugh, make them smile, and yet night after night she stood here and they mocked and derided her.

Every joke, every silly trick, every attempt at a magical act backfired on her or faltered in the face of their mockery. The voices were growing louder now, jeering, laughing, booing. “Please. If you’d just, I mean, please if you’d just give me another chance-“

“Useless!”

“Fraud!”

“‘Bout as funny as a bout of hoof rot!”

“Failure! Loser! Imposter!” The voices grew louder, the insults thrown faster, merging into a cacophony of noise that drove her down to her knees, curving her wings over her head as she huddled away from them, desperately trying to block them out.

“No! Please! I just want to make you laugh!”

Fluttershy jerked awake with a strangled squeal, frantically waving her forehooves in the air before her to defend against her phantom tormentors, “No, please!” She squeaked, “I… I…” She yanked the blankets up and off her body, shuddering in relief as she found the butterflies adorning her flank as they always had ever since the day of the rainboom. Well, almost always, anyway.

That day. That was all any of them needed to call it. None of them would be forgetting it anytime soon and some days she wasn’t sure she was going to get over it at all. The day of Starswirl the Bearded’s last spell, when her destiny had been changed in the blink of an eye thanks to an accidentally invoked spell.

She rolled over in the bed, hugging the blanket tighter to herself as she remembered her feeble attempts to entertain the folks of Ponyville, seeing the sceptical looks on their faces melting into annoyance and anger at her antics to the point where she’d been prepared to flee the town to try and escape what she had thought was her fate.

It had all worked out in the end, of course, these things always did. They had each been restored to their normal selves and the courses of their lives had been set right. Twilight had even ascended to join the three princesses as an alicorn! Life, it seemed, was going to get right back to normal but within a few days the nightmares had started and she’d had barely any respite in the weeks since then.

She slowly rolled out of bed, blinking blearily out at the darkness that blanketed the land. Oh dear, she’d barely been asleep for any time at all! She looked at the warm bed and soft pillows that would normally be so inviting and all she could feel was a deep unease as the last lingering remnants of the dream tugged at her subconscious. No, she decided, she was done with sleeping for tonight. She’d just have to have lots of tea tomorrow morning to help her stay awake.

Her decision made, the yellow pegasus tugged the blankets back into some semblance of order before she opened the door of her room and peeked outside, nearly bumping into the silent frame of the guard that was standing his post outside. He turned his head slightly, the lights in the hallway glittering on his crystal coat as he gave her a quizzical look. “Ma’am?” He murmured, his voice pitched soft. He’d been warned that this particular guest of the Princess was shy to say the least, “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Oh, er, no, nothing,” she whispered, shrinking back a bit as she saw the frown on his face, “I just had a, uh, nightmare. I was going to go and make myself some tea.”

“I can have some brought to your room if you need, Ma’am? It would only take a moment to alert the kitchen staff.”

“Oh no, no.” She squeaked, horrified at the thought that some poor pony would be roused from their beds just because she’d had a bad dream, “I don’t want to be a bother at all. I’ll just go down and make myself some, no need to bother anypony just for a cup of tea.” She faltered a little, ducking her head down so that her mane hid her eyes. “If that’s okay with you, of course, mister guard sir.”

The guard’s expression lightened, just a little, “I don’t think the Princess will mind you helping yourself to some tea, Ma’am,” he assured her, “of course if you were to perhaps bring me back a nice blueberry muffin when you’ve had your tea, I can guarantee that not a whisper of this will ever reach her ears.” He added a playful little wink and a hint of a grin that she couldn’t help but return with a sweet, shy smile of her own.

“Blueberry, right, got it.” She giggled softly as she slipped from her room and closed the door behind her, “I’ll be back in a while.” She promised and trotted off down the hall before quickly taking to the air and fluttering along so that she wouldn’t wake anyone up with her midnight excursion.

Even this late at night the place wasn’t entirely devoid of life and Fluttershy exchanged quick, shy greetings with a number of other guards standing silent vigil at their posts as she flew down the hallways.

She’d been here long enough now that the Crystal Palace was no longer quite as confusing or intimidating as it had been in the beginning but it still took her more than a few wrong turns before she finally found what she was looking for – The palace kitchens.

She pushed the heavy door open and was startled to find there were already lights flickering within. Was someone else having trouble sleeping as well? She peeked cautiously in to make sure she wasn’t going to be bothering someone and her eyes widened in surprise. “Rainbow Dash?”

“Oh hey, Fluttershy. What’re you doing up so late?” The rainbow-maned pegasus waved her over. She was leaning up against one of the counters, a half-eaten sandwich lying on a plate next to her along with a mug of steaming black liquid, the acrid scent of coffee reaching Fluttershy’s nose as she came closer.

“I, uh, had a bad dream,” she admitted. “I couldn’t sleep anymore so thought I might as well come and have some tea.”

“You too, huh?” Dash replied without thinking as she turned to put the kettle back on the stove to heat for her friend. “I mean, er, not that I have bad dreams ever! I’m far too awesome for nightmares!” She puffed her chest out as she did her best to quickly gloss over that little chink in her armour. Dammit, what was it about Fluttershy that made her slip up like that all the time around her? Totally not cool. That little pegasus was far more tricky than she let on, that was the only explanation for it. She’d been able to do this ever since they’d both arrived in Ponyville, coaxing her into revealing those little, personal snippets of information that she otherwise kept securely hidden away from her other friends.

“You too?” Was all Fluttershy said, “Are they about… You know… That day?”

Dash could feel her shoulders hunching up despite her best efforts to remain cool, calm and awesomely collected. What else would they be about but that? The day of Twilight’s biggest screw up and her biggest triumph. “Yeah.” She finally managed to force the word out from a throat suddenly gone dry and tight.

“Oh.” Fluttershy stared down at her hooves, rubbing them together nervously as she debated if she should pry into Dash’s personal affairs. The dreams, whatever they were, had obviously upset her even if she did her best to deny it. “Can I-“ she started, but Dash cut her off.

“I’m in the cottage. Your cottage. The animals are all there and no matter what I do, they just won’t listen to me. They run around and fight and break things and then… Then it all turns dark. They all stop and their eyes are glowing red and then they’re all over me, grabbing onto my wings so I can’t get away, and I’m swatting at them trying to get loose and they’re biting me and…” She broke off, suddenly realising how high pitched her voice had got, how the words were tumbling over one another in their haste to leave her mouth. “And then I wake up.” She finished lamely.

It took Fluttershy a moment or two to think of something to say. Rainbow Dash was having nightmares? Rainbow… Dash. Bravest pegasus in Cloudsdale if not Equestria itself, who had faced down Nightmare Moon and once kicked a dragon? It just didn’t compute, but then if she thought about it… The last three years had been one crisis after another. Nightmare Moon, then Discord, the Changeling invasion, the return of Sombra, plus her own more personal issues through all that. She’d been in and out of the hospital with various flight and stunt related injuries and then, of course, there had been dropping out from the Wonderbolts flight camp. It all added up to a heavy emotional burden for any pony to try and carry.

She was barely even aware of forming the thought before she was across the room and had both her forelegs and her wings wrapped around a somewhat startled Dash, burying her head down against the blue pegasus’chest as she blurted out, “I’m so sorry, Dash! My animals are normally so sweet, I’m sorry they were so mean to you! I never meant for you to have bad dreams!”

“Oh hey, come on Flutters…” Dash cleared her throat as she awkwardly patted the back of her friend’s neck, shifting uncomfortably in the sudden tight embrace, “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t choose for me to end up with your job after all. I just...” She trailed off and sighed. “You know, it kinda opened my eyes to some stuff so it wasn’t really all that bad in the end.”

“Oh? What sort of stuff?”

“Well…” Dash shuffled in place, gently extricating herself from Fluttershy’s embrace to take another sip from her coffee, stalling for time before she went on. “I guess I never realised just how tough it is with all those animals. So many different ones, all with their own demands! It’s not like looking after Tank. He’s happy with some carrots and lettuce and being allowed to hover around in town. You’ve just got SO many and they all want something different to eat and some of them can’t be around the others and…” She shrugged and gave a little smile. “It’s just pretty impressive, y’know, what you do. I just thought you should know that.”

The building whistle of the kettle forestalled any further conversation as Dash nudged it from the hob. “Maybe best you fix your own tea, though,” she admitted with a faint little grin, “I’m not really the best at it. One time I tried to make tea for Rarity, you should have seen the faces she pulled!”

Fluttershy flitted quickly around the kitchen until she had what she wanted, adding the tea leaves to the pot before adding the steaming water, giving it a quick stir with a spoon before leaving it to steep. “So what do you make of them, Rainbow? We’ve been here a week now.”

“Mmm? Whossat?”

“Your trainees. Your… What are we calling them exactly? Your disciples?”

“You mean my awesome team of radical athletes who are TOTALLY going to win every single gold medal in the Equestria Games?” Dash couldn’t quite resist puffing her chest up at the mention of why they’d been invited to the Crystal Empire in the first place.

“Uhm, yes. Those ones.”

“Team Awesome, of course! As if there could be any other name!” Another sip of her coffee followed, “And they’re coming along. Slowly.” She hesitated, then groaned and dropped her head down to the counter with a loud thump. “Who am I kidding? They’re terrible. I mean, you’ve seen them, Flutters. The individual athletes are doing great, I’ve got no problems with them, but all the team sports? We’re awful. I might be the Element of Loyalty, and I KNOW that’s why Cadence asked for me to come up here, but… I just dunno.”

“Oh Rainbow. It’s not like you to doubt yourself. Who was it who whipped the Ponyville weather team into the envy of every other team in Equestria?”

“Well, me.” The pegasus admitted, giving her friend a curious look as she tried to figure out what she was getting at.

“And who was it who was so loyal to her friends that she wouldn’t abandon them even when offered her lifelong dream?” She paused. “Even if that dream WAS just an illusion, it still counts!”

“Well, me again.” Dash lifted her head up, her ears slowly straightening from being laid flat against her head.

“And what about tornado day?” Her voice was rising, growing firmer and more determined with every “and” that left her lips, hammering the point home until Rainbow couldn’t deny it any longer, “You rallied every single pegasus in Ponyville and got Cloudsdale the water it needed!” Fluttershy was really hitting her stride now, her excitement growing as she listed of all the times Dash had stood by her friends, or got them to work together when no-one else thought they could. “That’s why the Princess asked you to come here, Rainbow! You make ponies believe in things they never thought they could do! You make them believe that the sky really isn’t the limit!”

“Well, yeah, I did all those things, sure. But these ponies, Flutters…” She slowly shook her head, idly drawing little patterns on the table with some coffee that had dribbled from her mug, “They’ve never worked together in their lives. They were slaves to Sombra for so long that they’ve forgotten what any sort of teamwork or cooperation is. They’d gladly have stabbed each other in the back for a handful of grain if that’s what kept them alive. I tried to explain it to them, that in things like the relay, they gotta all work together! They just stared at me like I was speaking Zebrican or something.”

Fluttershy took the time to fix her mug of tea before replying. She added milk and sugar and took a little sip before she turned back to face her friend, seeing the indecision on Dash’s face, the slump of her shoulders. “But that’s why I’m here as well, Rainbow.” She assured her friend. “Between the two of us, we’ll get them ready.”

Dash fidgeted a little as she took another gulp of coffee, then finished her sandwich in one quick bite. “I hope so. We’ve got so little time to get ready for this.. We can’t stay up here forever; we’ve both got things to do back in Ponyville, jobs and friends and… You know what, I’m tired. Things’ll look better in the morning, I bet. Just need to get a good night’s sleep.”

Fluttershy hesitated before speaking again, chewing on her bottom lip as she debated whether or not to say anything more. Rainbow hated having to ask for help, nearly as much as Applejack, “Have you tried talking to the Princess? Maybe she could help you sleep.”

“No, because then I’d have to tell her why I was having problems. I don’t want her to know, I don’t want anyone to know. You got that?” She jabbed the tip of one wing towards Fluttershy, the yellow pegasus shrinking away from the angry gesture with a startled squeak, “This is my problem to deal with and I’m not going to let some stupid bad dreams put me off my game!”

“Our problem.” Fluttershy gently corrected after giving Dash a moment to calm back down.

“Say what?”

“Our problem,” she repeated, “because if you’re not at your best, then it makes it harder for everyone, Rainbow. For you and me and the athletes and everyone around us. Do you really want to be out there trying to motivate them when you’re not a hundred percent? You wouldn’t go trying any of your tricks when you were tired, would you?” Her point, hopefully, hammered home she placed her hoof gently over Rainbow’s, giving her a soft, hopeful little smile. “Please tell me you’ll speak to her. It can’t hurt.”

Dash stared sullenly at the tabletop, trying to ignore the strange little shiver that ran through her at the touch of that hoof on her own. Huh, she really must be more tired than she thought, “Yeah, okay, Flutters,” she grunted at last, “I’ll go speak to her in the morning, see if she’s got any advice.”

Fluttershy squee’d in delight and clopped her forehooves together. “Thank you, Rainbow.”

“Yeahyeah.” She grunted in return as she finished her coffee and set the mug aside. “Look, I’m not going to get any sleep tonight, think I’ll go for a few laps around the city, see if I can tire myself out enough that there won’t be any more dreams. Feel like joining me?”

The yellow pegasus shook her head as she scooped the teapot up by the handle and topped up her mug, “Nff thks.” She mumbled around it, then cleared her throat as she set it down. “No thanks. I’m going to finish my tea and read a book, I think. I also promised the nice guard outside my room that I would bring him back a muffin!”

“Fair enough. See you in the morning, bright and early!” She moved to leave, then paused mid-step, “Ehn… maybe not QUITE so bright and early as usual though, huh?” She grinned, flicking her mane playfully before she trotted out to find a good place to launch from. She’d learned the hard way that the guards didn’t take kindly to her simply flying in and out of any window she pleased.

Fluttershy returned to her tea, quickly transferring her mug onto a little carry-handle tray. A cursory search around the kitchen soon yielded the sweet treasure that she was seeking and so, two muffins sat proudly beside the mug and teapot, she trotted back to her room with the handle of the tray held in her mouth, trying to make sure she didn’t make too much noise as she passed through the long, echoing hallways.

The guard at her room saluted her politely as she arrived, pushing the door open for her to enter after he had taken the muffin from the tray. Three bites later and it was all gone, only a crumb or two around his hooves betraying his midnight snack. “Thank you, Ma’am. Another few hours without anything to eat and I think my stomach might have tried to climb out and go to the kitchen without me!”

“Oh, no problem at all, mister guard. I hope you have a quiet night.” She nudged the door shut with a hoof and laid out on her bed with a lazy sigh. If she lifted her head she could see Dash out the window, flying her circuits around the city, the moonlight catching her rainbow mane and making it shine.

Funny. She’d never really noticed how pretty Rainbow was.

Chapter 2

Darkest Ambitions
Chapter 2

Dawn came all too soon, and with it the first sounds of the castle stirring to life. Dash rolled over in bed and tugged her pillow down tighter over her ears, trying to ignore the sound of hooves passing by her room. She’d finally got back to sleep after flying to near exhaustion sometime in the early hours of the morning, stumbling back to her room and only bouncing off two walls on the way. Her sleep had been fitful and while the nightmares hadn’t returned she had slept badly and she looked it.

“Ponyfeathers.” She grunted as she stared at her reflection in the full length mirror, noting the shadows under her eyes, mane even wilder than usual and wings in desperate need of a proper preening. “This is just getting stupid.” She trotted into the ensuite bathroom and wasted no time in dunking her head into the sink, letting the cold water pour down over her head and neck, stifling a most un-cool squeak as some trickled into her ears. She snapped her head back up, briskly shaking her mane and shivering from head to tail. “Alright. That’ll do it. “

More serious grooming and preening could wait, she had something to do this morning, the same thing she did every morning. Stepping back into her bedroom she took up her stance in the centre of the room, her wings partly spread as she let her eyes close, drawing in a deep breath and slowly letting it out. Focus. The cold water seeping through her mane was a good test of her concentration, making it all the harder to block out the world.

She let her thoughts slow and her awareness narrow till she could feel her lungs expanding and contracting with every breath, feeling the subtle tension in the muscles of her legs, neck and shoulders along with the dull ache of the muscles in her wings.

She could smell the slightly unfamiliar fragrance that filled the room, the crystal ponies using their own particular local flowers in the guest chambers; she could hear the soft voices in the corridor outside as the palace staff went about their duties, hear the faint chatter of ponies through the open window. One by one she tuned out every distraction, letting them fade into the background until there was only her slow, steady breathing and the darkness behind her eyelids.

She let her wings extend fully, aware of every feather, feeling the air currents from the open window caressing over the flight surfaces but it wasn’t enough. Still further, still turning inward till she could almost see the patterns of her magic in her mind. Unicorns weren’t the only magical ponies in Equestria, their magic was simply the most visible. Magic gave Earth Ponies their strength and endurance and gave pegasi their ability to fly and walk on clouds.

The routine began simply enough, but quickly gathered pace. First she flared her wings wide before taking a quick step to the side, ducking her upper body down as if avoiding a blow, snapping around and sending her hind legs lashing out in a quick buck. Before her hooves had even touched the ground she was in motion once more, forehooves slamming down onto the floor as she flipped head over tail, wings fanning to quickly spin her around so she could bring her forelegs to bear in a quick one-two jab that turned into another spin in place, wings working hard to bring the pegasus around to again buck out at her imaginary opponent

She didn’t even wait to touch down this time, instead launching herself into a tight curve to land behind her shadow opponent, bringing her head snapping forward, following up this strangely inelegant part of the routine with another set of jabs from her forehooves, quickly dancing back and away from an imagined counter-attack.

“You know you make me tired just looking at you.”

Dash reacted on instinct, spinning around to bring her hooves lashing out towards this intrusion, her eyes still closed even as she attacked. There was a sharp exclamation and suddenly her hooves slammed up against a hastily erect shield, the feel of unicorn magic tingling through her legs finally enough to break through her trance.

“What the hay is…? Shining? What’re you doing in here?” She dropped back down to the floor, feeling her hind legs smarting from the impact against the unicorn’s barrier.

“Nearly getting my head bucked in, apparently.” Shining Armor, co-ruler of the Crystal Empire, grumbled as he dropped the magical shield that had appeared barely an inch from his wide-eyed face. “Damn, Dash, I didn’t know you’d studied Falling Leaf style.”

She shrugged as she turned away from him to casually tug the blankets into some semblance of order on the bed. “Falling Leaf is the one I’m best at. I’ve studied a little Krav Pega, even some Gale King, that one’s crazy difficult and more than a little risky. You need to use your wings as part of the pattern and not many pegasi are comfortable with that. It doesn’t take much to mess your wings up good and proper. So, what brings the Crystal Prince to see me at this Luna-forsaken time in the morning? I’m guessing it was for something other than discussing my form, as spectacular as it might be.”

“Yeah. I, uh… I need a favour, Dashie.”

“Okay, we can discuss a favour, but first thing’s first. Never call me that again,” she growled. “Only Ditzy gets away with calling me that.”

“Fair enough, Dash.” She could almost see him fighting the urge to call her it again and damn the consequences, the corners of his lips twitching as he fought back the smile. Funny, when she’d first arrived here he’d seemed like such a starched collar. He’d been so uptight, coming across as a real by-the-book kind of stallion, but then she supposed her chances to get to know what he was like had been rather limited. First he’d been under Chrysalis’ influence, and then they’d been busy holding off Sombra, neither of them situations that let you get to really know a pony.

Turns out he had a bit of a prankster streak in him and had been delighted to find a co-conspirator in mischief and mayhem though they’d been careful never to let their pranks affect Fluttershy, the yellow pegasus rather too high strung for such things. He was also surprisingly easy going for a former Captain of the Guard and now co-ruler of a kingdom and despite her initial reservations they’d soon struck up a fast friendship.

“I need you to go take a look into something for me,” he said, slightly hesitantly, “and I need you to do it quick and quiet if you can. The sooner the better.”

“Very cloak and dagger. Lemme guess, Sombra’s back and you need me to go pound that horn of his back into his head? Chrysalis has sworn her undying love for you and is currently right outside in the hall and you need me to pose as your secret lover?”

“Firstly, gross,” Shining deadpanned. “Secondly, no, I don’t need you to pound anyone anywhere with anything. What I do need is a pegasus because the Crystal Empire, as you may have noticed, is entirely made up of earth ponies and it’s going to be a lot easier for you to leave the city without being seen and go scouting for me.”

“Scouting for what, exactly?”

“Less a what and more a who. His name’s Ardent and he was supposed to report back to me two days ago.” Shining’s voice remained casual, but there was a hint of worry in his eyes, “Even with the bad weather we’ve had lately he’s well overdue and I need you to see if you can find any trace of him.”

Dash shrugged as she stretched her wings out one more time, then flicked them back to her flanks, “Sounds easy enough. You want I take Flutters as well? She’s not as fast as me in the air, not that anyone is, but having two of us means we can cover a whole lot more ground than just the one.”

Shining hesitated, “No.” He decided at last, ”Not this time, anyway. The fewer people we have involved in this the better, and right now speed and discretion is more important than anything else.”

“Again with the cloak and dagger, Shining. What’s this Ardent guy supposed to have been up to?”

He shook his head curtly. “Need to know, Dash, and right now you just don’t need to know.” He held up a forehoof to cut off any protests, “I’m not trying to mess with you, you need to trust me on this. Right now finding any trace of him is all I need.”

“Ugh, fine. Keep your secrets. Can I at least get some breakfast first?” Dash flexed briefly, flicking her tail, “Maintaining all this awesome burns up calories, y’know.”

“Sure. That was the other reason I came by, to invite you to have breakfast with Cadence and I. Fluttershy’s already said yes.”

Dash pulled a face, “This isn’t going to be like that dinner you threw when we arrived…? I swear to Celestia, I didn’t know you were meant to dip your hooves in that instead of drinking it! And how many ponyfeatherin’ knives do you need for one meal?”

Shining bit down on his bottom lip, doing his best to stifle another smile that was desperately trying to escape and spread across his face, “Nothing like that. Just you, me, Fluttershy and Cadence in our private rooms. We thought it might make a nice change for all of us to eat together. Cadence also wanted to say thank you for all the work the two of you have been putting in with the athletes.”

“Lil premature there, Shining. We’ve got a whole long way to go if you want to be ready for next year. You might wanna hold off on the congratulations till I can at least convince your relay team that they really do need to hand the baton off to another pony if they want to win.”

The stallion nodded, “You can tell me more as we walk. I know you’ve sent a couple of progress reports through but I, uh, haven’t really had much of a chance to look at them yet, kingdom to run and all that. Are things really that bad?”

They stepped into the hall, closing the door behind them, “Yes and no. The individual athletes are great. Crystal ponies have no problem at all with those sort of things when it’s everypony for themselves, but asking them to work together? I just don’t get why it’s such a big problem for them. I mean they all banded together to use the Heart to kick Sombra’s flank, why go all to pieces now?”

“Because I suspect that without the threat of Sombra, a lot of ponies just don’t see why they should work together and after a thousand years or so of slavery I can’t say I’m that surprised.” He paused to turn and look out one of the windows as the sun slowly rose up and over the city, seeing the first few ponies going about their business, forehead furrowed in a frown, “We’ve had trouble with civil disobedience, some ponies acting out, nothing too serious but it’s something we’re keeping an eye on in case it escalates. When it comes to things like the Equestrian Games I guess they have trouble understanding that it’s not just about looking out for number one anymore. They rise and fall as a team. Trust, I understand, was pretty hard to come by under Sombra’s rule.”

Dash snorted softly as she heard an echo of her own words leaving Shining’s lips, “But that’s why you called us in, right?”

“Yup. Couldn’t ask for two better ponies to get these guys working together than the Elements of Loyalty and Kindness, and the fact that you’re a top class athlete helps them respect you when you tell them something.”

“Yeah, I am pretty in shape.” Dash almost absently buffed one of her hooves against her chest, “I only had to run two of them into shuddering wrecks before they started taking me seriously.”

“What about Fluttershy?” Shining turned and continued walking down the hall, nodding absently to two guards that saluted as they passed, “How have they been with her?”

“Less awesome,” Dash admitted with an expression akin to biting into a lemon. “Flutters was nearly in tears the first time, not because they were lashing out at her, but at each other and they were ignoring everything she said. Till she busted out the Stare,” the pegasus’ grin widened as she remembered the scene that had greeted her when she’d come to investigate what all the shouting was about. “You should have seen it, Shining. These four ponies all on their knees in front of her, blubbing their eyes out and falling over each other to apologise the quickest. She sure can kick butt when she wants to. ‘Course, then she had to ruin it by apologising for making them cry. She’s too damn soft-hearted sometimes! Those ponies deserved a whoopin’ for upsetting her.”

“Whoa now, Dash! Easy up there.” The pegasus had risen higher in the air as she’d gone on, her ears pinning back to her skull, “Sounds to me like Fluttershy took care of it just fine. You can’t go around threatening to beat up everyone who upsets her. You’d be picking fights from now till the world’s end.”

“Well,” Dash dropped back down to the floor, grumbling under her breath. “Still doesn’t excuse them being so mean to her.”

Shining barely resisted the urge to reach over and ruffle Dash’s mane, “She’s a big filly, she can take care of herself. It’s very sweet that you care about her, though.”

“Oh stop.” She threw a mock punch at the Prince who danced back out of the way with a snort and a grin. “I’ve known Flutters since Flight School, been looking out for her most of our lives. Wish that mare would grow a bit more of a spine, some days.” She stopped and snorted, “Hey, did Twilight ever tell you about the whole “new Fluttershy” thing?”

Shining shook his head, “Twiley’s not the best at letters, believe it or not. I tend to get a lot of my news second hand though I usually hear about anything big that’s happened around Ponyville direct from Princess Celestia.”

“Huh. Well, I guess that doesn’t totally surprise me. Until you and Cadence got hitched she’d never even mentioned you! She’s a weird one, that filly. Anyway, this minotaur called Iron Will came to Ponyville and-“

“Iron Will?” Shining interrupted, “I bet I know how this story goes. He came to Canterlot a couple of years ago to put on one of his supposed motivational seminars. A couple of the guards went to attend and-“

“Hey! This is Rainbow’s story time! It can be Shining’s story time when I’m done!”

“Yes Ma’am!” He grinned, accepting the inevitable punch to his shoulder without complaint.

“As I was saying. Yeah, he decided that Fluttershy would be a great example of his techniques and in a way he was right. She took to it like Applejack to bucking trees, but she didn’t know when to stop. She turned into an utter terror and a bully! Rarity even saw her beat one poor stallion up over a taxi cab.”

“Wait, FLUTTERSHY got into a fight? We’re still talking about the same pegasus, right? Yellow? Pink mane? Still flinches when her own shadow catches her by surprise?”

“Oh, Flutters is a lot tougher than she lets on. Did you hear about how she made a dragon cry? Had him all but eating out of her hooves!” She grinned to herself, “Crazy filly, that one. Truth is, though, I wouldn’t change her, and how the hay did we get on to talking about Fluttershy so much?” She eyed Shining up warily. “You been using some of your wife’s weird magic on me?”

“Now why would you be worried that I was using love magic on you, Rainbow Dash?” He enquired in a voice near dripping honey. “Unless, of course, there’s something going on between you and Fluttershy that you don’t want people to know about? You certainly don’t seem to be short of stories about her exploits! I dunno, Dash, it’s almost starting to sound like she might even be as awesome as you.”

Dash was reduced to near incoherent spluttering as Shining went on, her eyes narrowing, “Oh that’s it. It is ON now, Mr Former-Captain-of-the-Royal-Guard. When I’m done with you, the Crystal Empire is gonna need a new Prince!”

Shining laughed as he galloped off down the hall, Dash in close pursuit.