Fallout Equestria: Reformation

I awoke in a cold sweat. I had come face to face with what I could only imagine was an honest-to-Celestia demon, and I didn’t feel like the heroes of old in the stories. I knew what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to fight the battle of my own heart from the inside, resisting temptation and corruption until I finally managed to overcome this dark will that had taken hold of me. I was supposed to hold true to my virtues and convictions, and the light inside of me would shine through the darkness. But lying there, I didn’t know if that was something I could manage.

It was getting worse. The nightmares, certainly; the others were chilling, but I had managed to shrug them off well enough. But the most recent one with Livewire would haunt me possibly forever. But more than the nightmares, this chat with the shadow pony was on another level. I could hear his voice still ringing in my ears, feel his eyes on me, ever-present. He was inside of me, waiting until I was weak enough for him to take over. A part of me tried to deny it, and I tried to tell myself I was just being paranoid. But it wasn’t paranoia if he had confirmed it to me himself. The blackheart’s power over me was slowly growing. And not only did I not know what would happen next, but I had no idea how to stop it.

As used to keeping secrets as I was getting, I didn’t want to keep this a secret at all. I needed help. I wanted out of this living nightmare. So I went straight for Ironbright.

Given her history with Tenpony Tower, she wasn’t fond of wandering around looking for something to do. Rosemary was working on dinner in Homage’s kitchen, and I didn’t know where Cloud Chaser was. Ironbright was sitting on a chair looking through notes in her Pipbuck. She could tell I was distressed as soon as she saw the look on my face. “What’s wrong?”

“I… I saw something,” I started. Suddenly, I realized I had no idea how to explain what had happened to me. My urgency switched to mild embarrassment as I tried to figure out how not to sound insane. “Are you busy?” I tried to de-escalate.

“Of course not,” she said. “What did you see?”

I sat across from her. “It was one of my nightmares. From the blackheart, that I mentioned. But… this was way different. I spoke to it.”

Ironbright leaned forward. “What do you mean?”

“I always felt like the blackheart had a will, like there was somepony inside of it… I spoke to it. Him,” I explained.

“Him?” she seemed surprised. “Who was he?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. He might not be a real pony. But… the nightmares are part of his plan. The blackheart… I think it’s corruptive. It’s like some kind of… soul stone or something. He’s in there, and he wants out, and he wants to make me his vessel.”

Rosemary, who had apparently been eavesdropping, could hide herself no longer, stepping into the room. “So can we destroy it now?” she asked. “If what he’s saying is true, then keeping it to study is way too risky.”

Ironbright nodded. “I agree. Before we head out to Stable 202, we’ll stop by the base. We’ll have a report ready for Elder Hibiscus Tea, and we’ll get the blackheart destroyed. And you can finally get a good night’s sleep for once,” she said. “We can leave as soon as Cloud Chaser gets back.”

When the little pegasus did return, it was triumphantly. “Holy cow, Ironbright! You were so right about them! They were loaded,” she said, jingling a pouch obviously filled with caps. We all looked at Ironbright accusingly. Cloud Chaser just said, “What?”

Rosemary was ticked. “Are you encouraging her to steal? You’re supposed to be an Applejack’s Ranger! A good influence on her!”

Ironbright looked caught, her face as red as her armor. Cloud Chaser interceded on her behalf. “Chill out, Rosemary! It was just some rich guy who’s paying raiders to scavenge for him. We can use it way more, and Ironbright had it all figured out. I was never in any danger. These assholes all totally deserved it. Isn’t that what you said, Ironbright?”

The gray mare grit her teeth. “Not. Helping.”

Rosemary was at a loss. “Well, at least you two are getting along!” she said.

We poured Rosemary’s stew into canteens and aimed to at least make it out of the greater Manehattan area before we got tired. We were all well-used to sleeping on the ground by now, and I think city living was starting to make us feel too comfortable. Homage almost seemed sad to see us go.

“Leaving already?” she asked as she stepped out of her studio tower.

“We need to stop by Stable Two for some ranger business before we head north,” Ironbright told her.

Homage frowned. “I get it. You adventurer types, always on the move.” I knew she was thinking of Littlepip. “Gliss has your warm gear ready, at least, so you can pick it up on the way out. I’m about to make my radio announcement about you being alive and all, Ebonmane, so you at least you might dodge the worst of the buzz about that.”

“We’ll be back,” I reassured her.

She nodded. “You better.”

Soon enough, we were back on the road, traveling by starlight. We didn’t say it, but I was certain we were all thinking it: scanning the sky, wondering if Livewire would drop down and come for me again. A second dose of paranoia to keep my nerves frayed. But nothing came of it. Rosemary’s stew warmed our bellies, and we heard the radio crackle with DJPon3’s broadcast.

“Hello everypony, this is your host, DJPon3 wishing you a lovely evening. Some good news this time around, almost a miracle you could say – Prince Ebonmane is alive! After sustaining a serious gunshot wound to the head at the end of the Friendship City parade, Ebonmane was rushed to the hospital where he was seen by expert healer and friend of Littlepip, Life Bloom. Folks, I wish I could tell you exactly how he pulled it off, but even I can’t begin to get a grip on what Life Bloom must have done to save our Prince. Nevertheless, Ebonmane has made a full recovery, physically and mentally, and walks among us once more. So whoever’s out there, thinking they can stop Equestria from putting an alicorn back on the throne, let me be the first to tell you that we won’t give up without a fight so easily.

“As for our Prince, he’s understandably not quite yet ready to share details on his plans for leadership yet, but he did want me to say that now is a time to come together as Equestrians. Earth pony, unicorn, pegasus, even zebras and griffons, stallion or mare, young or old, all have a part to play in this nation of ours. Now is the time to look around and ask yourself what you can do to help the ponies around you. And if you can do that, we’ll be one step closer to the Equestria we all dream of.

“I don’t play this very often, but I’m in a bit of a patriotic mood tonight, so he’s a rare find: Coloratura’s Equestrian National Anthem.”

Listening to the words and hearing the song was a bit surreal, especially considering that I had said no such things to Homage and we all knew it. Cloud Chaser turned to me and said, “Damn, she should write your speeches, Ebonmane.”

I had to laugh. “Probably not a bad idea.”

Rosemary and Ironbright were less amused with the broadcast. “Bold of her to be putting out propaganda like this so soon. I doubt most ponies are as certain of your royal status as she makes it seem,” Ironbright said.

“Are you okay with that, Ebonmane?” Rosemary asked. “That’s a lot she just put on your shoulders there. What if everypony starts looking to you for answers?”

The thought did give me pause. I knew I didn’t have them. “I’ve already agreed to do this. To be Prince Ebonmane. I’ll just have to do my best.”

The answer didn’t even satisfy me, but it was getting late. I wasn’t feeling rested at all from my afternoon nap, or even my nightmare the night before, but I still feared going to sleep. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know what the blackheart would show me. I tossed and turned all night, feeling my eyes droop, only to startle when I wondered if I had dozed off, looking around to see what fresh new hell I was awakening to. But it was all in my head. Eventually I was too exhausted to stay awake, and I didn’t dream at all. The blackheart was really getting to me. The sooner we could destroy it, the better.

When we reached Stable Two, the plan was to simply march down to the Elder’s office and take care of business. That mostly went without a hitch, but we weren’t too far down the halls when I started to feel pinpricks on my neck.

Eyes were on me. The other rangers were looking at me. Whispering about me. “…It’s him…” “Prince…” “Yeah. Horn and wings.” “No, no, the mutants can’t be male. He’s the real deal.” “…No way. I don’t buy it…”

“Eyes forward, Ebonmane,” Ironbright admonished me. I did my best, but I could still feel sweat bead at my temples as I tried to ignore them. Word was finally getting out, it seemed.

One pony I knew couldn’t help himself, though. Sand Sprint threw himself into my path, wide eyed, still in his armor. “Woah, new guy? Are you really a Prince?” I didn’t know what to say, so caught off guard. A lot of ponies were staring. Sand Sprint kept going. “I mean, I saw you were an alicorn, but those aren’t exactly rare nowadays, so I didn’t think anything of it. Sorry if I said anything at that party, by the way,” he said.

That was enough of that. “No, don’t do that,” I said, trying to get him to calm down. “I mean, I’m a natural-born alicorn, but that’s it. You don’t have to call me ‘Prince’ or anything.”

“Wow,” he replied. “Still, an alicorn! And you’re a ranger, too! This is going to be so great for us!”

“We need to speak with the Elder,” Ironbright said, roughly shoving him aside, and the conversation was over as quickly as it began. I was glad to Ironbright for ending it before a real scene started, but I had new thoughts to worry about. I had never considered how being a knight might interfere with being a Prince. Would the rangers expect me to follow their orders as Prince? Would they demand control over Equestria? It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them as an organization, but I doubted the average subject would be willing to follow me if they thought I was a mere puppet to Applejack’s Rangers. I had just joined the group, and I was loathe to cut ties with them, but I wasn’t sure I had a choice. And I wondered what that would mean for my friendship with Ironbright.

I never thought that being a Prince would mean making sacrifices. I wondered if I would have to cut ties to Rosemary and Cloud Chaser too. If I would have to rule all alone for Equestria’s sake. Suddenly, I wasn’t sure I liked this plan of Littlepip’s very much.

But Ironbright was dead set on her charge to the Elder’s office, and the four of us stormed in, again finding Elder Hibiscus Tea, this time speaking to an acolyte. She turned to us with disdain in her pink eyes. “You could knock, you know. And I typically don’t meet with civilians without an appointment.”

“Elder, I have urgent news about a top-secret subject,” Ironbright said. It was like she spoke in a magic code. The Elder sighed, nodded, and shooed away the acolyte. But she still looked at Cloud Chaser and Rosemary suspiciously.
“Civilians are not privy to top-secret information,” she said.

“They already know,” Ironbright said. “It’s about the blackheart.”

Elder Hibiscus Tea looked past the metal mare and toward me. “I assume this has something to do with you, Knight Ebonmane? Report, soldier.”

I hadn’t been given many direct orders by a superior before, much less the training to respond to them. My hoof twitched, tempted to salute, but I decided against it. I tried to speak as officially as possible. “Elder… Ma’am, I told you about my nightmares before, but they’ve been getting worse. I believe there is an entity within the blackheart, seeking to use these nightmares to weaken my mental state so that he can exert control over me.”

She raised an eyebrow. It did sound pretty wild when said out loud. “And what makes you believe that?”

“Because I saw him,” I said. “I can’t identify him, or even really describe him.”

“You saw him how?”

“In a dream. But it wasn’t like the other nightmares from the blackheart. It wasn’t just incredibly realistic. It was… as if he made contact with my soul. As if we were somewhere else entirely, not in Equestria.”

The Elder seemed to consider this. “And how exactly do you think he will exert this control over you?”

I tried to think of how best to explain. “The blackheart… I believe its magic is corruptive. I’ve… noticed changes in my mood, lately. And the nightmares are getting worse as well. As time passes, these forces get stronger, and the entity does as well.”

“How are the nightmares worse?” she asked.

I knew I couldn’t answer that. “I, uh… It’s hard to explain,” I stalled. “They’re more… Personal.”

“Personal?” The Elder pressed.

My ears flattened against my head. I had to say something, so with some shame, I admitted, “…Sexual, ma’am.”

I don’t think she wanted to know about what sick fantasies the blackheart was putting into my head, but I could feel the others looking at me. Hibiscus Tea moved on. “And what will happen when this… corruptive force consumes you?” she asked.

“The blackheart spirit will possess my body. I think. Something like that. He… wants to use me to rule Equestria.”

The Elder leaned back in her chair. “Ah, yes. Prince Ebonmane, isn’t it now? That’s what they’re calling you on the radio.”

We could all sense that the Elder wasn’t thrilled by the idea of me being a prince, but Ironbright kept her on topic. “Ebonmane’s status as royalty isn’t relevant to this report, Elder. The blackheart is a threat to one of our own, and I’ve come to formally request that it be destroyed.”

“I see,” the Elder said. “I’m inclined to agree with you. Especially in light of these troubling new developments.” She turned to me and added, “I believe you, Ebonmane. That this blackheart is evil, and that your strange connection to it is causing you harm.” When she paused though, we knew that bad news was coming. “Unfortunately, I appear to be one step ahead of you. Call me superstitious, but I didn’t like having that thing in my base, especially not knowing exactly what it was or how it worked. I ordered it destroyed last week. Unsuccessfully.”

“What do you mean ‘unsuccessfully?’” Ironbright demanded.

“The blackheart is indestructible,” the Elder replied. “We tried everything. Hammers. Bullets. Magic. Radiation. Hell, we even took it out into the wasteland and fired a mini-nuke at it. Not a scratch.”

We all deflated at once. “How is that even possible?” Cloud Chaser asked.

“Whatever magic it’s composed of appears to be more powerful than the mere physical,” Elder Hibiscus Tea said. “I’m not a unicorn, but it’s starting to make sense to me. Whatever entity that is inside of that thing is very powerful. Powerful enough to maintain a link to Ebonmane across all kinds of distance. Powerful enough to tap into a pony’s very soul. I have a feeling that destroying the blackheart will require destroying the entity that lives inside.”

“How can we do that?” I asked.

The Elder sighed. “All our attempts at magic have failed. No acolytes have even come close to replicating the effect you’ve described. The blackheart is linked solely to you, Ebonmane. But…” she looked me fiercely in the eyes. “Perhaps that is the key. Perhaps you are the only one who can destroy it. Through your link to this entity.”

“Elder, I’m not sure I follow,” Ironbright said, looking to me.

“This entity, this shadow pony… He is bonded to Ebonmane’s soul,” the Elder said. “If we can harness the magic to locate and access that link between Ebonmane and the blackheart, perhaps we can draw out this being and destroy him ourselves. Or discover a way for Ebonmane to do it himself. It’s the only thing we haven’t tried, and you’ve always been the core piece of this puzzle.”

“That sounds really dangerous,” Rosemary said.

“Perhaps,” the Elder said. “But it’s up to you, Knight Ebonmane. If you want to try it, we can proceed immediately. If not, we’ll see what alternatives we can find, if they exist. This affects you most of all. It’s your risk to take.”

I knew my answer. I was done with these nightmares. “Let’s do it.”

Within minutes, we were marching down the halls again toward the acolyte’s labs as Hibiscus Tea gathered them. Rosemary was at my side. “Ebonmane, I have a really bad feeling about this,” she said.

I wanted to put her mind at ease. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” I said, “But if we can take care of this now, it’ll be a lot better for all of us in the long run.”

“And what if it just makes things worse again?” she asked. She bit her lip. “I know you saw the memory orb. I heard everything that was said, and… Please, just listen to me,” she begged.

Celestia, she wasn’t making this easy. I didn’t expect her to just go for the throat, to bring up all the unsaid feelings between us just like that, but she didn’t have all the facts. I thought that if she knew just exactly what I was going through, she’d want to put a stop to it as well. “I’ll be okay. I promise,” I told her.

She left me alone, defeated. But she still followed us all into the testing chamber.

The blackheart was brought into the large, empty, metal-plated room by an acolyte with a pair of big forceps. Just seeing it left me breathless, and I felt my heart race. There was a two-way window that some acolytes were behind, but my friends and I stayed together on the inside with the blackheart. It was placed on a table, and the acolyte left.

From behind the window, I heard the Elder’s voice come in over a speaker. “When you’re ready, Knight Ebonmane.”

I stared at it for a moment, looking at the way its lustrous surface seemed to swallow the light. “What should I do?”

“Try and make contact with the entity again. We’ll keep an eye on things from this side, on the magical readings happening as you do. If things don’t seem right, we’ll pull you out of there.”

My friends stood by me, and I could feel how nervous they were for me, tense and ready for anything. We didn’t know what was going to happen. Suddenly, this didn’t feel like a very good idea.

But we were here already. I stepped up to the blackheart. I reached out with my horn and picked it up in my magic. Nothing happened.

I looked into its yawning, empty depths again. I felt as if it was pulling me in. I had felt this before. I reached forward, and just as I had originally, I touched my horn to the surface.

00000000000000000000

I knew immediately where I was, or rather, who I was. Shining Armor again. All those centuries ago. He was wearing armor now. Not like the ranger armor I wore, with all its bulky plates and heavy padding. This was lighter, gleaming gold, more ornamental. A uniform for the stallion who was once a guard captain and now a prince. Shining Armor marched tall and proud as he wore it. I couldn’t blame him. I would too if I had something like that.

He was flanked by an entourage of guards, seemingly higher-ranking military officials rather than the rank and file. He was descending a staircase, down into the bowels of the crystal palace. Wherever he was going, it was certain that the work was top-secret.

At the base of the stairs, a general saluted him, standing before a massive stone door. “Your Highness,” he greeted Shining Armor, his steely eyes serious behind his bushy beard and eyebrows. “It’s almost finished. All that’s left are the final touches.”

Shining Armor nodded. “Let’s proceed,” he said in his firm, commanding voice.

The doors were opened into a dark, crystalline chamber, illuminated only by dim torches above. Two purple crystal spines extended from the floor and ceiling with only a bit of space between them. And hovering in that space was the blackheart.

Shining Armor didn’t have nearly the same fearful reaction I did when he saw it. Instead, he strode right up to it, gazing deeply at it, his mind certainly quite full. It was exactly as I knew it, more or less, but it looked more like a simple onyx gemstone. It didn’t have that inky, infinite void that seemed to swallow all light within yet. The shadow wasn’t yet there.

My host closed his eyes, focusing, and I could feel him summoning all of his magical power. I had never felt anything like it; his strength was on a level I couldn’t begin to understand. But the energy wasn’t like other magic; I could feel that his aura was different. Darker. I could see the same purple flames licking at the edges of his vision, before it all went blank.

I heard that sinister laugh. A shadow fell over the room, extinguishing the torches and plunging everything into darkness. Rage, hatred, spite, cruelty – pure evil flowed through Shining Armor’s body. The shadow pony was here. He was Shining Armor.

The Prince focused his spell, forcing the power he had summoned into his body inside the gem. It went, almost willingly. I felt the shadow leave from his body as the light in the room returned. Shining Armor was exhausted, but when it was over, he turned his gaze back to the blackheart. The void burned within, pulsing, a beating heart. Alive.

“Did it work?” the general asked Shining Armor.

He nodded. “All of King Sombra’s dark magic is sealed in that artifact.” But Shining Armor and I both knew that wasn’t true. It wasn’t just his magic that was there. It was King Sombra himself. Now I had a name to go with my tormentor.

The general faltered. “And you’re certain this will work?”

Shining Armor whirled about on him. “We can’t win this war by simply blowing Equestria to hell. But we can take them down from the inside. We can corrupt them. Turn them on each other. That’s how we win,” he said, his voice fierce and cold.

“Yes, Your Highness,” the general conceded.

I couldn’t believe it. Shining Armor had created the blackheart. But even as the weapon was taken and sealed away, I knew that Sombra was not sealed safely inside. I could feel his presence hovering around Shining Armor. Needling at his thoughts and emotions. This was all according to his plan.

Shining Armor returned to the world above, retiring back to his chambers. It was late in the evening. All he wanted was to rest before he drew up plans to deploy the weapon. The blackheart was all he could think about.

When he stepped into his chambers, he was greeted with candles on just about every surface. Rose petals were scattered about the luxurious crystal bed. His wife, Princess Cadance, lay on the bed. Her slender form was dressed in lacy lingerie, and it was obvious just what was going on.

“Cadie…” Shining Armor started to protest.

“I know you’re tired, Shiny, but I have some good news,” she said. She beckoned him over with a hoof.

Shining Armor sighed, but walked himself to the bed and leaned down so she could whisper in his ear.

“I’m pregnant,” she said excitedly. I felt Shining Armor’s breath leave his body. Even I was taken aback, and I didn’t have lungs. “I just found out this morning.”

“Cadance, that’s…” he replied weakly, dumbfoundedly.

Her excitement couldn’t be contained. She was practically shaking. “I can hardly believe it too,” she said. “We’ve been trying for so long… All this fighting has made things so stressful and busy. I’m not surprised it took this long.” But she looked back to her husband, her eyes flashing as she batted her lids at him. “But you’ve been such a trooper through all of this. Always finding time to make it happen when my cycle lined up. I know that wasn’t easy on you. So I thought we should celebrate. And I’d give you a real treat for trying so hard for us.” I had no idea what this ‘treat’ was, but Shining Armor clearly did, and he clearly liked the sound of it. And the way Cadance said it… I could only hope I would be worthy of such generosity from a mare someday.

But I didn’t feel his heart start to race, or any heat build within him, much less more personal signs of arousal. He seemed angry. Like she was in the way. “Maybe some other time, Cadie…” he said.

The disappointment was clear on her face. Total heartbreak. “But…” she didn’t even know what to say. She crawled toward him, looking up at him. “Isn’t this what we wanted? I thought you’d be happy. I know you’ve had a big day with the war front, but I thought this would be such a good surprise for you…”

It seemed like she had no idea about the blackheart. And he wasn’t about to tell her. He tried to maintain his composure and not come off too cold. “I’m just tired, that’s all. It has been a big day, and… I’m not sure I have the energy for all… this,” he gestured to the candles and the flower petals.

Cadance looked around at all she had done, another knife lodged in her heart. But then she looked back to Shining Armor, her gaze harder. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “It’s finally happening, Shiny. We’re going to be parents. It’s everything we ever wanted. Why aren’t you happy?”

Anger flared up in Shining Armor’s chest. “Well, maybe it’s everything you wanted,” he said coldly. “You need an heir to the throne. I’m just the Prince Consort. I was just doing my job,” he said.

Cadance wasn’t about to let him speak to her that way. “How could you say that?” she demanded. “If that was how you felt, you could have just said something! If you didn’t want a foal, I would never force you!”

“It’s not the foal,” he snapped back.

“Then what is it? Are you worried you and I won’t get to spend as much time together? That’s what I’m trying to do now!” she said, gesturing to her sexy getup.

“It’s not like that,” he insisted.

“Then what?”

“It’s everything!” he said. “You’re the Princess, and I’m just the Prince. You’re the alicorn. I’m not. If you want a foal, you get a foal. If you want to stay out of the war, we stay out of the war, even if I am Knight Commander. That’s how it’s always been!”

I felt that shadow crossing over Shining Armor’s back, King Sombra twisting his emotions, perhaps even feeding the words to him. Bitterness and jealousy, anger and hate. I couldn’t be sure if Shining Armor was even saying these words himself.

But Cadance didn’t react with anger. She paused, holding her husband in her tender eyes. “I didn’t ask for it to be this way either,” she said. “You’re everything to me. No matter who has the horn and wings. What you say and what you think matters to me.” She reached out and caressed his cheek, and I think some of what she said softened him. “I may be Princess of the Crystal Empire, but I will always be your wife first. I would do anything for you. Whatever it takes to help you feel better. To help you realize that I could never look down on you.”

Shining Armor considered her words. But the dark feelings still twisted in his heart. He looked at all the candles, the rose petals, and the lacy outfit that caressed his wife’s slim curves. He smiled. “It would be a shame for all this to go to waste.”

Cadance seemed relieved he was responding to her romantic advance. “Maybe you’d like a different kind of treat?” she offered.

“Something like that,” he said.

They began to kiss, and the memory began to fade when Shining Armor mounted his wife. I didn’t see anything, thankfully, but as I felt myself pull out of his body, the emotions lingered still. Bitterness and jealousy, anger and hate. I don’t think I could call what the two did ‘lovemaking,’ as Cadance yielded to her husband, letting him truly have his way with her.

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I pulled out from the memory gasping. Still in Stable Two. Still in the testing chamber. As soon as I was back to myself, Ironbright announced it. “He’s alright.”

“Get that thing out of here,” Hibiscus Tea ordered, and the acolytes rushed the blackheart away from me.

Rosemary was immediately before me. “Are you okay?” she asked me. “It was another memory, wasn’t it?”

I nodded. “Shining Armor again,” I said. “He made it. He made the blackheart. The pony inside… His name is King Sombra.”

Elder Hibiscus Tea was inside the test chamber, hearing my words as she entered. “King Sombra? Is what you said?”

“Who’s that? Equestria never had a king,” Cloud Chaser asked.

“Not many ponies know about him,” Hibiscus Tea said. “Unless you really study your pre-war history. He’s practically a pre-war myth in his own right. He wasn’t the king of Equestria. He was king of the Crystal Empire. A tyrant if there ever was one, according to what records we have. Banished to Tartarus by an artifact called the crystal heart.”

Cadance’s cutie mark came to mind immediately, and suddenly I was connecting dots between the image adorned on her flank and the shadow artifact. “A crystal heart? Like the blackheart?” I asked.

It was enough to force a heavy pause as we considered the implications. “What does it mean?” Rosemary asked.

“I don’t know,” Hibiscus Tea answered. “I’ve never seen the crystal heart, or even a picture of it. The blackheart could be a corruption of it. Or perhaps just a replica. But at any rate, now we know the identity and the source of its power. That brings us one step closer to figuring this out.”

Figuring it out wasn’t destroying it though, as I had hoped we could. “So what do I do in the meantime?”

“We’ll help you sort through these nightmares,” Ironbright said as she stepped up beside me. “The last thing you need is to be isolated. I know you might not want to talk about it,” she said, recalling that I had said that my nightmares were occasionally sexual with a blush on her face. “You don’t have to tell us everything. That’s probably for the best. But you can tell us.”

The Livewire dream was at the forefront of my mind. I looked at Rosemary. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“We can handle it,” she said firmly.

I couldn’t say no. And a part of me didn’t want to. “I’ll give it a shot. Next time I have one…”

That seemed to ease their minds. We left the test chamber, and it seemed our encounter with the blackheart was over for now.

Elder Hibiscus Tea spoke to us as she headed back to her office. “I don’t suppose you’ve returned to receive your next orders, Paladin Ironbright? Knight Ebonmane?” she said to us.

“Littlepip wants us to investigate a stable in the Crystal Empire,” Ironbright informed her.

The Elder raised her eyebrow at Ironbright, then me. “This is about him, isn’t it? About the latest Prince? This has her hoofprints all over it.”

“We could potentially recover valuable tech and information for the Rangers,” Ironbright tried to persuade her by speaking her language.

“Save your breath,” she said. She turned and looked us both in the eye. “In the interest of solving this blackheart, I’m going to allow you two to go on this errand with your civilian team. This weapon is my top priority at the moment, and if it originated in the Crystal Empire, you’re likely to find something in that stable. But don’t for a second think that you can disobey orders to pursue this throne if something changes.” Then, she looked straight at me, staring me down fiercely. “You are no Prince of Equestria. Not yet. Right now, you are Knight Ebonmane of Applejack’s Rangers, and your loyalty belongs to us. And you would be very behind on your training as well, if it weren’t for the fact your silly quests happen to coincide with my primary objective at the moment. Do I make myself clear?”

I nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

“Dismissed.”

I couldn’t say for sure if I would really follow her orders if they contradicted Littlepip’s plan, but at the very least, it was nice to have somepony tell me to my face that I wasn’t a prince and I shouldn’t be acting like one. I felt like it kept me somewhat grounded. I could worry about my loyalties later.

We still had our supplies from Homage’s more or less with us. So the next morning, we carried on with the original plan. North.

The supply packs were pretty bulky and fairly heavy, and there was one for each of us. We had assumed they were full of blankets to keep warm at night, but when we finally dug through them, we found a couple layered cloaks for each of us, hoods included, some thick, woolen blankets, and what looked like a pre-war military tent that had been through some serious repairs.

“This seems like a lot of stuff for a trip to a stable,” Cloud Chaser said, holding up a cloak. “Do I need to wear this if my armor already has a hood?”

“We’ll need it. Trust me,” Ironbright said.

“Have you been to the Crystal Empire before?” I asked her.

“No, but I have done quite a bit of wilderness survival training. Cold environments can be very dangerous to pass through unprepared. You would know if you had taken the time to be properly trained as a Knight,” she told me.

I flattened my ears. “It’s not my fault I haven’t had the time.”

She just smirked. “Consider this a crash course, then. You seem to learn pretty well from experience, as it were.”

The temperature did seem to decline quickly as we headed north, and within days we were seeing snowfall. After the Gardens had purged the radiation from the land, the seasons had slowly returned to Equestria. I had seen snow before a couple times in the winter, but nothing like this. White flakes that fluttered down from the sky like the air itself, and smooth, rolling hills and drifts of snow, a frozen desert that shined in the light.

Cloud Chaser in particular was excited. “Look at all of it! And none of it’s melting! It’s like looking at the ocean!”

“It’s so soft, too,” Rosemary said before Cloud Chaser pelted in the back with a snowball. “Oh, it’s on!” she said, picking up plenty in her magic and flinging it at Cloud Chaser with terrifying speed and accuracy. Cloud Chaser didn’t stand a chance.

Watching them laugh and have fun lightened all of our spirits. We moved ahead, and soon we were seeing our breath. A breeze blew under my belly and I felt the cold keen as teeth. I jumped and said, “Time for those cloaks…”

“Good idea,” Ironbright said as she donned hers. “If you don’t keep warm, those balls could freeze and fall right off in a day or two.”

I nearly stopped dead in my tracks, blushing. “You’re… not serious, are you?” I asked. I realized she was messing with me when the mares had a good laugh at my expense. I only blushed harder.

Cloud Chaser was near hysterical. “You should see the look on your face, Ebonmane! Priceless!”

Even Rosemary was chuckling, but could see my embarrassment. “Leave him alone, guys.”

They dropped the subject, but Ironbright still bumped me as she strode past. “Bundle up good, Knight,” she ordered.

All of us bundled up, but I realized that Ironbright was still trekking along in her armor. “Hey, it is smart for you to be wearing a metal skin suit in the cold?” I asked her.

“Normally, no. When we set up camp, you should try removing your armor as well and stick to the cloaks. You could actually get frostbite that way. Ranger armor is more insulated than your plate armor. I can move through freezing or very high temperatures without worry. It’s all automatically regulated. Besides, even if I did take it off, carrying it on my back would slow me down too much. You wouldn’t believe how much this actually weighs. You’ll get used to it when you get your own set,” she said.

“Are we all going to have to share a tent?” Cloud Chaser asked. “It’s going to be pretty snug…”

“You won’t be complaining,” Ironbright answered. “One tent isn’t going to keep things warm inside, but being close together will, sharing body heat.”

“You mean cuddling,” Cloud Chaser said flatly.

“We’ll see how you feel about it tonight,” Ironbright replied. “You’re so scrawny. No meat on your bones to trap the heat. The rest of us will probably be nice and toasty.”

Cloud Chaser craned her head to look at her own butt. “…It’s not that skinny…” she muttered to herself. The rest of us fought the urge to chuckle at her expense then.

Our worries were few as we traveled through the frozen wastes, seeing very few features to note at all, our Pipbucks being the only navigation available to us. We kept our eyes on them, always wary of the stray monster that might be lurking beneath the top layer of ice and snow, especially after our unexpected run-in with the sea monster, but there was another reason to watch out for red dots on our radars. The blank, open sky above, save for a few clouds that saw fit to dump snow on us, meant that we were sitting ducks in case Livewire was following us. Any pony above could see us against the snow, or follow our tracks with no trouble at all. There was hardly any use covering them anyway. The worst part is there was nothing I could tell myself to calm my fears. She very well could be looking for me. And if she came this way, she would find us. And if she found us… I didn’t know what would happen then.

For the first night, we appeared to be safe. Things got even colder more quickly after the sun set, and even the daylight didn’t seem to last very long. Our tent was a simple canvas triangle, and it took some heavy hoof strikes from Ironbright to drive the stakes into the ice and stave off the wind, but once we were inside, the difference was noticeable.

Rosemary was trying to work on dinner, concentrating hard on levitating what raw materials she had in one aura while trying to conjure and contain a small flame beneath them to cook them.

“Be careful with that,” Ironbright told her. “It’s not like this tent is well-ventilated.”

“I know what I’m doing,” Rosemary said simply, focusing on her attempts to make kebabs.

“It’ll be worth it to eat something hot,” Cloud Chaser said. “I’m freezing.”

“You’ll have to get used to it. At least for the next several days,” Ironbright said.

“Ugh,” she complained.

“Maybe you could help me get this armor off, then?” I suggested to give her something to do.

There really wasn’t a lot of room in the tent. “Wings in, Ebonmane, unless you want burnt feathers,” Rosemary complained.

“Sorry,” I replied. The plates came off one by one, and finally I was able to shiver in the bare cold. “Let’s get those blankets out,” I suggested.

We draped the blankets over our bodies one by one, and there was barely enough room for the four of us to lay down next to each other as we nibbled on Rosemary’s dinner.

“Holy hell, Ironbright!” Cloud Chaser complained as she jumped suddenly. “Your armor’s freezing!”

Ironbright just shrugged. “I’m warm enough in here, and I’d rather not go to the hassle of taking it off. Better get comfy with Ebonmane.”

I was about to say something, since that would have been very awkward, but Ironbright just shoved Cloud Chaser into me until we were laying side by side.

“Oooh…” she cooed. “Ebonmane, you’re so warm!”

“Thanks?” I replied.

“Rosemary, you feel him. He’s like a furnace,” Cloud Chaser said.

Rosemary wasn’t quite so comfortable pressing into me so quickly, but she did reach out and touch my side with her hoof. “Oh, wow, you’re right. Ebonmane, do you have a fever?”

I raised an eyebrow. “I feel fine.” Then I rolled my eyes and spread my wings. “Come on,” I invited them in.

Ironbright chuckled as the others bundled in next to me. “I told you this would happen. It helps, doesn’t it?” she said. “Must be a dream come true for you, Ebonmane.”

It really wasn’t. Since I knew that Cloud Chaser was a lesbian, and things were plenty tense between Rosemary and me, it was far from what I’d call a male fantasy. But I didn’t get too uppity about it. Ironbright wasn’t usually a joker, but quips like that kept the mood light, and she had been doing a great job of taking leadership of morale. In my current state, I was grateful for that.

“We’ll see. Cloud Chaser snores pretty bad,” I joked back.

She turned her nose up at me. “You’d be lucky to get me into bed, Ebonmane.” I couldn’t tell if she was just pretending to be straight, or if she was making a more literal joke at the secret we shared together. I wondered how Rosemary would react, but it didn’t seem to bother her. I suppose she really had accepted that Cloud Chaser and I had nothing together.

By the time we put out our lights, we had grown comfortable lying together like this, especially as the wind howled outside, and the cold outside of the blankets stung whatever parts we exposed. Soon, all awkwardness surrounding the cuddling was gone. Cloud Chaser and Rosemary were telling me how to arrange my wings around them, and I was complaining about stolen blankets for my long legs. At least Ironbright seemed more or less comfortable.

Again, as always these days, I feared the blackheart and its nightmares. Sleep came with difficulty, and more than once, my sudden, nervous awakenings caused my companions to sleepily ask if I was alright, or if I was having a nightmare. They tried not to show it, but I realized that they went to sleep with the same thing on their minds: whether or not I’d have another one. I felt bad for worrying them, and keeping them awake. So I bucked up and closed my eyes, resigning myself to whatever the blackheart had in mind for me.

My eyes snapped awake. I scanned the tent. I was the first awake, the morning sunlight barely illuminating the canvas walls of our tent. All seemed in order. No sign of anypony else.

No nightmare. Again. I wondered if this was a part of Sombra’s plan to mess with me. Make me wait so long for the next one that I became paranoid. It almost made me wish one would just happen so I could get it over with. And I realized that could mean his plan was working.

The wind was howling louder now, a real roar. I groaned and looked at my Pipbuck. Weather was a rarely used function, and it was hard to read, but it was there. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was seeing, but it didn’t good. The temperature was really below freezing.

“Ironbright,” I nudged her awake. “Look – something’s happening out there.”

She roused herself and put on her helmet to read her own Pipbuck screen. “It’s a blizzard,” she said.

The other mares were starting to wake up. “Blizzard?” Rosemary asked sleepily.

Ironbright nodded gravely. “It’s just starting now. And from the size of it, it could last a couple days. Moving through this won’t be easy.”

Cloud Chaser quivered. “Wait, doesn’t Littlepip control the weather or something? How could she let this happen to us?”

“I don’t think it’s that simple,” I told her. “And we’ll be okay. We’ve got good gear, and the Crystal Empire shouldn’t be too far.

“Just through the mountains,” Ironbright said.

“Mountains?” Rosemary asked. “Are you sure we shouldn’t just stay put until this blows over?”

“If we can make it through the pass, we might be able to get on the other side of this wind,” Ironbright replied. “If we stay put, the storm could last even longer.”

So we packed up and headed out. Getting the tent down wasn’t easy with the wind picking up, the sky overhead a murky gray void, snowflakes blowing sideways at us and stinging our faces. Even with our cloaks and our layers, moving wasn’t easy, especially when the wind was against us. We tried to shield ourselves and each other, but the temperature dropped quickly. Even sticking a wing out to try and cover my muzzle left my wing tips feeling numb within minutes, so that was out unless I wanted frostbite. Ironbright led us all throughout, dispensing every bit of survival knowledge she had, making sure we weren’t sweating too much, managing our layers, and that we were drinking enough.

It was slow going. And even with all of Ironbright’s coaching, we were still freezing. We shivered and chattered, but Ironbright assured us that it was a good sign, and that it was helping. But Cloud Chaser soon stopped shivering. “Can we take a break?” she asked. “I’m kind of tired…”

Ironbright immediately looked her over. “You’re getting hypothermia,” she said with a frustrated sigh. “We’re going to have to stop and warm her up.”

Rosemary was already acting before Ironbright could even finish her sentence. A plume of flame erupted before her, and Rosemary carefully nurtured it into a warm, pulsing bulb of glowing light. She hovered it somewhat close to Cloud Chaser where it could warm her core. “Does that help?”

Cloud Chaser nodded. “Yeah, that’s really good.”

“Rosemary, I think you could give Twilight Sparkle a run for her money like that,” Ironbright praised her. But then she took the idea a step further. She took her canteen, filled the empty space with snow, and then brought it over the flame.

“We can make drinking water later,” Rosemary said. “This is to get Cloud Chaser warm right now.”

“Oh, I know,” Ironbright said. When the snow was melted and the water was warm, she pressed the bottle to the side of Cloud Chaser’s neck and tucked it into her clothes.

“Celestia, I think I could climax,” Cloud Chaser groaned.

Ironbright took the liberty of heating up Cloud Chaser’s other canteen, and tucked that away elsewhere in her clothes. From the way Cloud Chaser reacted, we were all excited to have ours done.

“Ohhh…” Rosemary’s moan was also nigh sexual. “That does help a lot,” she said.

Ironbright returned mine to me by jamming it between my hindlegs. “That should keep the rest of you nice and warm,” she said.

Rosemary scoffed. “Ugh, Ironbright, would you please knock it off?” she said.

I felt the warmth ooze through me, like butter in my veins, all the way into my hooves. “No, no, it’s perfect…” I sighed.

As long as we stayed close together, Rosemary could maintain the flame to hover near each of our faces, minus Ironbright’s helmet-covered one, and with the canteens warming the rest of our bodies, the blizzard hardly bothered us. Occasionally we had to stop and reheat them or drink from them, but we felt confident in our pace as the terrain grew more steep and uneven. The wind was whipping all around us, and there were still parts when it was so strong we could hardly move forward against it, and even with the light of Rosemary’s fire, we could hardly see a few paces in front of us. It wasn’t comfortable, but we did have the Pipbuck’s map and sources of warmth to keep us going. And my mind was at least at ease, doubting that even Livewire would try to find us in this hellish storm.

However, our confidence didn’t last long. After a few hours, Rosemary’s fire began to flicker and shrink. We all looked to her. “Are you alright?” Ironbright asked.

She looked tired, but her horn still glowed. “Yeah, I’ve just… never had to do this spell for so long before.”

“It is fire out of nowhere,” I said. “It can’t be easy.”

“It’s not,” Rosemary growled.

Ironbright looked ahead. “We’re almost to the pass. If you can keep it up for just a little while longer, then we can stop for the night.”

She nodded, but even a half hour later, the flame was barely bigger than a candle, and the loss of heat was noticeable. We couldn’t really heat our canteens over that, either. We started shivering again, but Rosemary did her best, and we trudged on.

The snow got deeper as rocky walls and cliffs rose out of the frozen waste before us. Going uphill was hardest of all. The snow didn’t do much for our grip, and we were exhausted from the cold before we even began an ascent.

Finally, it was too much. Rosemary slipped, and her flame went out.

Cloud Chaser and I dove for her and caught her before she could roll too far. She was conscious, but winded. “Come on. Just over the hill, and we can stop for the night,” I promised. She could only nod. The two of us picked up some of her weight on our backs and dragged her over the top until we had crested the hill, and we could set up our tent in the lee of the wind.

Not that it did us much good. When we flopped down inside, the blizzard was still raging, rattling the walls and roaring all around. We hung up our cloaks and clothes, soaked through with sweat from our efforts. Rosemary was still conscious, but clearly spent.

Things were darker and chillier in the tent as we arranged our blankets and fished out what food we had on us. Rosemary crawled into an upright position and tried to light up her horn. “Here, let me cook those for you guys,” she offered.

“They’re fine to eat dry,” Ironbright reprimanded her. “You rest.” We all agreed, but the lack of warmth in our bellies made the night a bit sadder. Even Rosemary looked upset, but she knew she couldn’t argue with the giant ranger mare.

There wasn’t any argument about squishing together beneath the blankets that night. Conversation was light either. We were tired and cold and sick of hearing the wind and snow all around us. Even a nightmare couldn’t have scared me from sleeping then. If it happened, it happened. If not, then even better.

Sleep still didn’t come easily for me though. I lay awake, looking at Rosemary and Cloud Chaser. I tucked my wings around them, pressing my body into them, hoping they were warm enough, worried if they would be able to continue the journey. Rosemary especially. As the other spellcaster of the group, I had an idea how draining magic could be. I knew even a good night’s sleep in a regular bed wouldn’t necessarily have her refreshed for tomorrow, let alone a cold night in a tent.

I made sure the blankets were tucked nicely against her. If any of us deserved a night of uninterrupted, peaceful rest, it was her.

When I awoke, the blizzard had subsided. The walls of the tent were glowing brighter with the morning light. Things were calm. At last.

Until I saw a red dot on my Pipbuck, closing in on us.

Gunfire ripped through the walls of the tent, clanking off of Ironbright’s iron skin. She was lucky she slept in it. Everypony scrambled awake, but I already knew who it was.

I headed outside. I saw her above us, yellow mane like lightning against the purple sky. Livewire.

She raised her gun at me. I brought my pistols up at her. I wouldn’t let her take me again. I unloaded everything I had.

Her rifle fired, but missed me. Her shield must have had a gap for her bullets to travel through, because I saw her jerk in midair, as if I had hit her. She plummeted.

I ran to her body as the others came out. I could hear them talking to me, but I wasn’t even listening to their voices. I felt breathless.

Livewire impacted against the snow, and her body lay crumpled. I approached it, seeing the red streaks against the white expanse. Her features were just as intimidating as ever. I felt fear well up within me just to approach her.

My fear turned to sickness and shock when I saw her up close though. She was holding something in her arms.

A foal. An ashy black alicorn with neon yellow eyes, and a fragment of its skull and brains missing from its head, blown away by my bullet.

I felt sick as soon as I awoke. I was sure I would vomit.

“Here,” Rosemary said, quickly giving me some of her water to drink. I gulped it down greedily, trying to catch my breath as cold sweat poured down my body. “A nightmare?” the little unicorn asked.

I nodded. I had promised to talk about this one. I couldn’t share all the details, I recalled, but I quickly thought of a way to explain it without perhaps giving everything away. “It was Livewire again,” I said. Rosemary slid next to me, kindly rubbing my shoulders. “We fought, and I killed her, but… I dreamt she was, well… the mother of my foal. And… I killed the foal too on accident.”

Rosemary was obviously confused. “Why would you dream that?”

“I think it’s because we’re both alicorns,” I said. “There’s no one else like me, and I’ve wondered before if it would be possible for me to have a child who’s an alicorn like me.” Rosemary still looked skeptical, so I hedged and added, “I think the blackheart’s just really trying to fuck with me.”

That seemed to satisfy her. “I can’t imagine… You said your dreams were really vivid?”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“But… Why does that bother you?” she asked.

I found a way to ask what I wanted to ask without revealing the truth. “What if… What if I kill my foal?” I asked.

Rosemary shook her head. “Ebonmane, that’s not going to happen,” she said. It was ridiculous.

“But what if? Just… answer the question.”

Rosemary sighed, but she thought for a while. “Well… In your dream, it sounds like it was an accident.” I nodded. “It’s not your fault,” she reassured me. “You would never do that on purpose. You would… be a good father. Even if something like that did happen…” She looked me in the eyes. “I guess it’s harder for you to imagine because you’re a stallion, but mares lose foals all the time Ebonmane. Especially out here, in the wasteland. I heard it used to be way worse before the Gardens. Mares were giving stillbirth all the time, and some would try and… get rid of it, if they were, you know… raped or something. And even if a mare wasn’t pregnant for very long, it can still be so hard.”

“What’s your point?” I asked.

“Some mares feel like they killed their foal,” she said. “But they survive. They forgive themselves. They might have others later on, but it’s not a replacement. You could never replace your own child. But they keep going. Sometimes, these things are out of our control, and we just have to grieve.” She paused. “For the stallions who love their children, I imagine it’s the same. A father can mourn just like a mother can, right?”

I nodded. I felt the weight release from my chest. “Yeah,” I said. “You sound like you… know this,” I said, fearing I was touching something sensitive.

She shook her head quickly. “No, I’ve never… But I’ve known mares who have. Around New Appleloosa. Especially running the inn, I see a lot of mares in crisis. And sometimes I talk to them.”

With a big exhale, I absorbed her words. They made sense. If I fought Livewire, she might be pregnant with my foal. And if she died, the foal, my child, would die too. The very thought made panic well up in my chest, but I reminded myself of the facts. I was raped. And to tell the truth, I was absolutely not ready to be a father yet. But I couldn’t let her use that pregnancy to hurt me again. I had to protect myself. I would do everything in my power to protect my child if I could, but if something happened… I could grieve. I desperately prayed it wouldn’t come to that. But being able to see some sort of path forward was better than floundering in hopeless.

When my anxieties eased, I finally took notice of what Rosemary was doing. She had her flame back, small, but the heat almost erased the sound and chill of the blizzard still raging outside. She was heating up some biscuit sandwiches with it. “What are you doing?” I asked.

“Breakfast,” she said. “I feel bad that I couldn’t cook you guys dinner last night. You deserve something nice to wake up to.”

I rubbed her back with my wing, and she didn’t shy away. “You don’t have to do that,” I said. “You should conserve your energy.”

Rosemary remained firm. “A nice breakfast will help everypony move better. It’s the least I could do after nearly collapsing on everypony yesterday.” Sheepishly, she added, “I’m sorry you had to carry me again.”

“No, don’t apologize,” I told her. I could tell I wasn’t getting anywhere with her, and I knew to take a different approach with her. I accepted her breakfast sandwich and just said, “Thanks. This is really nice of you.” I took a bite. It was delicious. She had melted cheese over a veggie patty, and I could taste the herbs and spices she always used. It was just the thing to pick me up after a nightmare. “It’s really good,” I groaned.

That got a smile out of her. “It’s not a big deal. It’s my job.”

But I didn’t stop there. “But it is a big deal,” I said. “You’re always putting us first. You always cook for us and look out for us. You were there for Cloud Chaser when things were rough for her, and… you were here for me this morning.” I dug deep, searching my feelings to speak from the heart. “It means a lot to me. This Livewire thing… It’s got me really shaken up. But you’re the first pony to actually help.”

I could tell she didn’t know what to say. “You don’t have to thank me for that,” she said softly.

“But you treat everypony that way,” I said. “The ponies who come to your inn, and us, and… even Ebonmane Prime. He was a clone, but you made him feel just like any other pony.”

“He was like any other pony,” she said. I could see the feelings, still raw on the surface of her face as she looked away. “He was a good stallion. He didn’t deserve that.”

I didn’t know how to answer at first. Instead, I just reached across and touched her hoof. She was so warm. “He didn’t,” I agreed. “But… I know he could never thank you enough for what you did for him. His life was short, but you made it happy. He was so happy…” I felt tears in my eyes. “He didn’t have any regrets. You were like some kind of angel to him. And I know it wasn’t easy to do that.”

She was fighting back tears as well. “I don’t want to talk about this…” she said.

But I wanted to get through to her. “Rosemary… I know what he promised you. About me. That I would be there for you. And… I think I feel the same way about you that he did. I know I don’t know you very well, but… I want to.” I paused, really finding the words I wanted to say. “You are so kind to everypony. You always put yourself first. I… I want to see you happy, too. I don’t want to see you alone anymore.”

Rosemary looked into my eyes, and for a second, I felt her reaching out to me. But she couldn’t. She turned away. “Ebonmane… You don’t understand,” she said. “Ebonmane Prime… He was the first stallion to ever make me feel special. I know he’s technically you, but… He’s wasn’t. He was always himself. And I… I was there when it happened.” She wiped the tears from her eyes. “I saw it. Right before my eyes, he… I can still see it. I think about it every day. I’m… I’m not ready for this yet,” she said. I withdrew from her, and she calmed herself. “I know you want to keep his promise. I know you like me, but… There’s still something wrong. I still miss him. And you… Sometimes, I feel like I don’t know you anymore,” she said. I froze, the echoes of Cadance’s fight with Shining Armor piercing straight through my soul, from my first blackheart memory. But I fought back the panic to listen. “You hardly talk anymore, and you’re so afraid to take this throne… When I first met you, you would have done anything if you thought it would help others. And now you can, and… There’s so much you’re hiding from us. All these nightmares you’re not telling us about… And I can’t help but fear the worst.”

I didn’t know what to say. We sat in silence for a long time. “I’m sorry,” I said. She was right, of course, about all of it. “I didn’t want to worry you.”

“It’s just… Not going to be that simple,” she said.

I nodded. I had a feeling this might happen. “I’m trying, though,” I said. “I’m trying to do the right thing, and… I’m trying to be honest with you.”

“Then why don’t you tell me what’s really bothering you? What’s on your mind all the time? You’re stuck on something. It’s all you think about,” she said, finally letting her eyes meet mine. “What are you afraid of?”

“I…” I started. I tried to tell her. The memories flooded my mind, the nightmares and what actually happened. I was so very afraid. “I can’t yet,” I finally said. “I want to, but… It’s so hard.”

She pressed harder. “What is it?”

I shook my head. “It’s bad, Rosemary. If I told you all of it… It’s too much. It’s too much for me to even think about. I don’t know how I could even begin to try…” She looked heartbroken again, but I forced myself not to let this moment slip by me. “But I won’t lie to you,” I told her. “I promise I’ll tell you when I’m ready. I’ll tell you everything. And then… I’ll be better for you. I don’t want to stop trying.”

She thought about my words, and I think she felt my sincerity. “I will, too. It’s… nice to finally talk about Ebonmane Prime. I haven’t said anything since it happened.”

I rubbed her back affectionately with a wing. “He really was something,” I said. “Maybe one day, I’ll be like him. He really saw how special you are.” Rosemary let a few tears slip through as she nodded.

The others were none the wiser to our heart-to-heart as they awoke. “Breakfast,” Rosemary greeted them.

“Your fire,” Ironbright started.

“I already tried,” I told her as I finished off my breakfast. “Too stubborn.” I smiled at Rosemary.

She smiled back as she distributed meals. “Just eat your breakfast,” she told them.

“I’m not gonna complain,” Cloud Chaser said as she scarfed it down.

The blizzard didn’t let up at all. It was the third day, and there wasn’t even an eye of the storm to rest in. It was freezing, the wind was such a loud scream we could barely talk to each other as it whistled through the rocky pass, cliff walls high above us, snow pouring down from the mountain face. We feared an avalanche, trying to move quickly as we were buffeted by the wind funneling down to us on all sides.

Rosemary’s flame was strong enough to heat our canteens again and keep us warm for a few hours, but by the afternoon it began to wane, and the fatigue was clear on her face.

“I told you to conserve your strength,” Ironbright admonished her. “A dry breakfast would have done just fine this morning.”

“She’s fine,” I stood up for her. Rosemary shot me a grateful look, and I returned it. “She can do this. She can keep up a smaller flame longer. Just let her work.”

It wasn’t quite the toasty warmth that she had produced at first yesterday, but we managed to get another round of heat out of our canteens. Still, the cold was becoming unbearable. The flame could heat our faces, but we soon were relying primarily on our clothing layers and our fur to keep out the blizzard. Numbness seeped into our extremities as our bodies pulled heat to our cores. We adjusted the warm water in our bottles around to try and stave off frostbite, but there was only so much we could do. Each breath was ice, and the snow was a constant lashing of thorns into our hides. Ironbright joked about it, but when we took turns going to the bathroom, the momentary exposure was so cold I worried my bits might actually get frostbite.

“How much farther?” Cloud Chaser called, a question we were all desperately thinking.

“We might be able to make it out of the storm by the end of today if we hurry,” Ironbright called as she looked at her Pipbuck. “I don’t think it’ll let up soon, but we’re almost on the other side of the mountains, and-”

There was a deafening splitting sound. And suddenly, Ironbright dropped right out from before us.

Water splashed up in a great spray before the plates of ice shifted, the cracks almost seamless. In an instant, we knew what happened. We were light enough to walk on thinner ice, even over a frozen river or lake. But Ironbright in her ranger armor was heavier than all of us combined and then some. A few inches of ice couldn’t hold her.

I dove for the edge. I knew in that armor she was already sinking like a stone. And I knew that if I dove in, I would be in just as much trouble. But I took my sword out of its scabbard. Placing the blade in my mouth, I stuck the handle into the water.

Ironbright swam with all her strength, slowing her descent as much as possible, buying herself precious seconds. Suddenly, I felt a pressure on the other end, the blade cutting into my mouth as she gripped the handle. I called with everything I could. “Pull!”

Cloud Chaser tugged on my legs while Rosemary’s magic tugged on my body. The blood was warm and metallic in my mouth, but I wouldn’t let go. We started to slide backwards. When Ironbright’s body was revealed, Rosemary’s aura enveloped her, relieving enough of her weight to pull her to safety.

I spat the sword out as Ironbright released it. We breathed a sigh of relief. But the danger hadn’t passed yet. Ironbright wasn’t moving.

“Are you okay?” we asked her.

She was gasping for air, fighting shock. “My armor – it’s all frozen,” she said. We realized what was happening. Her suit may have been watertight, but it wasn’t like mine, with padding on the inside. It was a metal skinsuit, and if the plates were frozen, she was moments away from freezing to death inside.

“We need fire,” I said to Rosemary.

“No,” Ironbright said. She could hardly even shiver, let alone speak. I don’t know how she managed to stay conscious. “Get the armor off me, Ebonmane. Quickly. Rosemary – tent.”

We went to work. I wasn’t sure exposing her naked body to the blizzard was a good idea, but she was the one with the survival training, and I could see her relying on it now. The armor still worked, and with a hiss, the plates unlocked, and I managed to pull her big gray body out of it. The others were doing their best to assemble the tent as quickly as possible, barely bothering to ram the stakes into the ground.

“Your cloak, Ebonmane,” she ordered me. I would have given it to her in a heartbeat. I wrapped it around her shoulders, hoping my body heat lingering in the fabric would make the difference. The tent was halfway up when she turned to the others. “Cloud Chaser, finish. Rosemary, blankets. Make – A cocoon. Put some fire in it.”

Rosemary knew what she meant. She fished the blankets out of her pack and bundled them up, trying to create a warm pocket that we would slip Ironbright into without burning them. I’m sure it wasn’t as easy as it looked.

The tent rose, and I wasn’t going to let Ironbright stand outside a moment longer. “Let’s get her in.” I was practically dragging her body. But soon she was out of the wind.

Rosemary extinguished her flame and was working to wrap the blankets around her, but Ironbright again spoke. “Ebonmane, in – cloak off.”

I would have done whatever she told me at that point. I removed what I was wearing and slipped in with her. She was absolutely freezing. The blankets were warm enough to make me sweat, but I knew that my body heat would help keep them warm longer even as she absorbed the heat. She didn’t have to tell me to wrap my hooves around her and start rubbing her limbs to keep the blood flowing. Maybe in hindsight, I would look back on the moment with embarrassment as we pressed together rather intimately, but I didn’t feel anything except her big, cold body as she passed out.

Cloud Chaser gasped. “Celestia…”

I didn’t know what was happening. She wasn’t hurt, but I knew she was sick. I didn’t know if it would help, but I flared my horn up. I tried to calm down, to forget about the blackheart and Livewire and everything. Ironbright was my commander, but she wasn’t even just my friend. I admired her so much, and I knew we all relied on her wisdom, experience, and strength more than anything else. We’d all be lost without her.

I felt my healing magic pour out of me, soft and white. Her heart kept beating, and her lungs kept breathing. Shallow, but alive.

I didn’t dare drop my spell as I felt a cool warmth flow through her from me. “She’ll be okay,” I said. “We’re stopping here tonight.”

The others didn’t argue. I stayed with Ironbright for the rest of the day and through the night. She warmed up slowly. I couldn’t be sure if we were lucky, or if my spell managed to heal any frostbite she might have caught, but soon she was simply dozing next to me. It was still the worst case of “cold hooves beneath the covers” I had ever felt, but Rosemary heated enough water bottles to keep us both warm.

“That was way too close,” Cloud Chaser finally said as they bedded down, and we could relax enough to finally try and rest. Now that Ironbright was in the mix, Cloud Chaser took the other side of her, while I felt Rosemary at my back. “Luna, Ebonmane, you’re still like a damn furnace. I can feel you from here,” she said.

“That’s why I picked him,” Ironbright muttered. We didn’t realize she was still awake. Her eyes were still closed. “Stallions give off more heat than mares,” she said. Then, she gave a single chuckle. “You’re certainly a popular stallion tonight, Ebonmane.”

I couldn’t even feel embarrassed.

When we awoke, the sky was clear again, just as in my dream before. I could hardly believe it. I was still pinned in with Ironbright, but she was certainly doing better. Her bulky muscles were giving off heat in waves more than I ever could.

I clambered out of the blankets, but the change in the weather left me skeptical. I checked my Pipbuck. Blank. If this was another nightmare, it would have to be quite a bit different from the last ones.

Ironbright awoke next after all her rest, and as she withdrew from the blanket cocoon, I was able to put my morning anxieties to rest. “Sleep well?” I asked her.

“Yes.” She stuck her head out of the tent. “The storm’s finally passed. Thank heavens,” she said. I wondered if it really was the natural course of the heavens, or if Littlepip actually had managed to cut the blizzard short for us.

“Still cold?” I asked.

“No. You did well yesterday. Quick thinking,” she said to me, even smiling at me. “I knew you’d make a good Knight. And you managed not to attempt suicide in your rescue of me either.”

“I was tempted,” I joked.

She raised an eyebrow at me. “And things aren’t too awkward for you, lying so close to me like that all night? I’m certain you felt more than you may have bargained for.”

I shook my head. “It all happened so fast, and you were so cold. You’re my commander. I know you’re a mare, but… I don’t really see you that way.” Then I backpedaled. “Not that you’re not attractive or anything, but…”

“Save it,” she said with a laugh. “I’d much rather have your respect than any other impulse you might have for me.” Before I could even feel the dig of her comment, she added, “I didn’t think things would get awkward between us. As far as, shall we say, ‘male impulses’ go, you’re not as bad as you think you are. I’ve never seen another lone stallion travel in a company of mares for as long as you have without issue.”

I raised a brow. “Really?”

“Oh, yes. The rangers try to keep their units fairly evenly split. If not, a lone mare will feel isolated and threatened. And a lone stallion will set his sights on at least one of his companions and disrupt things. If he doesn’t become unmanageable, trying to uphold his pride.” She chuckled to herself. “I’ve had to break in more colts who thought they could dominate a female commander than I could count. But you’ve followed my orders without complaint from the beginning.”

I couldn’t help but laugh too. “To be fair, when I first saw you in the showers… I thought you were a stallion.”

That got a big laugh out of Ironbright. She laughed so hard her big, broad chest shook. At last, she said, “I think that’s the best compliment I’ve ever been given.”

Things were lighthearted between us, and while she mentioned my respect for her, I could feel it was mutual. So I had the courage to ask, “What about you, though?”

“What about me?”

“I’ve never even heard about you looking at… well, anypony. You’ve never mentioned relationships. Or that you wanted foals or a family, or anything like that.”

Ironbright cocked her head at me. “Has it occurred to you, Ebonmane, that there are more important goals in life than a pony finding romance?”

“I know, you’re serious about being a ranger,” I said to her. “But… everypony gets lonely sometimes. Don’t you ever want a stallion?” I asked. Then, I quickly added, “Or a mare.”

She gave me a hard, sidelong glare, and I feared I had overstepped. But then she smiled. “Once in a blue moon,” she said. “I’ll have some time off. I’ll get a few drinks to loosen up. I’ll find another Paladin to take me to bed for the evening. Just to blow off some steam. But nothing more. It’s as professional as can be.”

“Ah,” was all I said, fighting a blush.

“I’m not a machine. Everypony has some needs. Even I need that particular itch scratched every once in a while. Mares like it more than we let on,” she said.

Things were getting a bit more personal than I anticipated. I tried to imagine Ironbright feeling… horny, but I couldn’t. Or at least, I didn’t want too. It felt like my imagination was breaching her privacy. I was getting pretty embarrassed, but at the same time, I could tell she was trying to mentor me, and her perspective as a mare was invaluable to me.

“Do they?” I asked quietly. I wanted her to say more, to give me some advice, especially concerning my recent brick wall collision with Rosemary, but Ironbright was the last pony I expected to be having this kind of talk with.

“Of course,” was all she said. “Mares, stallions… we’re really not that different from you, you know.”

If anything, Ironbright was living proof of that. “That’s… good to know,” was all I said.

She sensed my embarrassment, but I was still full of curiosity. She could sense that too. “Stallions, by way,” she said. “Not that I haven’t had more than a few mares make that mistake. I’ve always been naturally muscular. Once I started carrying hundreds of pounds of armor all over my body, then they really flocked to me.”

I chuckled a bit. “So… you don’t ever want to settle down with a stallion then?”

She shrugged. “Maybe someday. If I don’t die by then, and I do feel like settling down, and the right stallion comes along. Then, maybe I’ll consider it. If he wants a foal, I suppose I wouldn’t object.” Then she looked me square in the eyes. “But to tell you the truth, Ebonmane, I haven’t given it much thought. It’s not very high on my list of priorities. I’m more concerned with the rangers. Going for Star Paladin. Keeping Equestria safe. And now, restoring it to its former glory. The last thing on my mind is starting a family, even if, I’m told, my uterus has a ticking clock in it.”

I laughed a bit, but I saw her point. “I can’t imagine,” I said. “I’ve never wanted to be alone. I’ve always wanted all of that. Whenever I get feelings for somepony, I think about it. Whether they’d be good for me, for a family.”

Ironbright nodded. “It’s a good quality for a stallion to have. To be a family stallion. A stallion like you at least offsets a mare like me.”

“Equestria is way safer with you out here than at home,” I told her.

I could tell she really liked that. “Spoken like a Prince,” she said. “It’s just as well. You’ll need to be family-oriented. As soon as you take the throne, I’m sure everypony will be pushing you to produce a few heirs.”

She was ribbing me again, and I chuckled, but that was the end of the conversation as I couldn’t help but think that I may already have an heir on the way. And if that made Livewire my queen.

The rest of the frozen wastes were smooth sailing. The crystal mountains were behind us, but we could see crystal spires on the horizon ahead of us. We had heard stories, we knew our history, but we couldn’t believe our eyes.

“Is that… all crystal?” Cloud Chaser asked, her kleptomania flaring.

“It’s the Crystal Empire,” I said.

“What’s left of it,” Ironbright reminded us.

We didn’t know what to expect. We knew enough about the war to know that the city wouldn’t be in pristine condition. That we could be walking into any kind of untold danger. No pony had been to the Crystal Empire since the war. Before Littlepip had cleared the sky, the frozen wasteland had been plagued with constant blizzards, likely far worse than what we had experienced. There were no records of what happened there after the war started, or even what kind of megaspell had been used to destroy it. All that was certain was that there was no pony left.

The snow gave way to crystal beneath our hooves. Drifts piled up here and there, but we could still identify what were once streets. And soon, crystal buildings in pastel hues rose among us, houses and businesses, open and bright. And ahead, we could see the crystal palace, a mighty tower that reached up to the heavens. We had expected ruins, but things were… pristine.

“It’s all still standing,” Rosemary said.

And it was. Not a scratch on the buildings. The sturdy crystal structures wouldn’t be worn away by the ravages of time like other materials. The only thing missing were the ponies. But then, we started to see shapes before us.

They were like crystal sculptures. Statues. Crude, having many facets, but lacking in any detail. Yet the vague shape was clear enough for us to know at a glance exactly what we were looking at. Stretching out beyond us in waves, filling the streets in scores.

“They’re ponies,” I said. Legions of them. Where we stood, on the streets leading into the heart of the city, all of these crystal statues were facing the palace, looking to that massive blue beacon that towered over all. They weren’t quite frozen in time; it was hard to tell what any given one of them was supposed to be doing. We walked among them, cold and lifeless all the same, and we knew that we were surrounded by corpses.

“What in Equestria could have done this?” Rosemary asked, afraid to even touch one. “How is this possible?”

“That is what a megaspell does,” Ironbright said simply. “A weapon of ultimate destructive power. Millions of lives snuffed out in an instant.”

“No wonder the world ended,” Cloud Chaser said, fixated on one that pointed toward the palace. “How could any pony choose to do this…? Who could even make these?”

“Ponies have always sought to destroy each other,” Ironbright said. “We’re no different. War never changes.”

The sobering words stopped us in our tracks. We looked at the mass grave we stood in, at each of the crystal bodies around us, and tried to imagine each one as a life. As a flesh-and-blood pony as real as we were. We couldn’t. We could never. It was too much to fathom. I suppose no one pony could ever truly comprehend the real toll of war. Not just in death, but in the scars that remain forever after.

“Come on,” Ironbright kept us moving, as usual. “My Pipbuck’s got it. Up ahead. In the palace.”

I looked at my Pipbuck as well. Sure enough, the location was marked and labeled: Stable 202.