A Crack in the Glass

Chapter Ten: Heralds and Horses

The cupcake stood menacingly upon the platter like a dragon perched atop a mountain scanning the tops of trees in search for prey. The sprinkles rattled with every twitch and sway of the metal saucer stabilizing the moist, fluffy, intensely sweet pastry, taunting those who gazed up to the lightly colored, perfectly baked chocolate treat. It glistened in the sunlight piercing through the recently cleaned windows of Sugar Cube Corner, presenting its utter transcendence in a glorious display of vibrantly painted sprinkles and asserting its imposing stature of four inches height, excluding the creamy, yet solid vanilla frosting swirled in a flawless spring atop the light and crumbling surface. The cupcake still lightly steamed with the youth of a freshly baked pastry straight from the fiery chamber that molded it and shaped it so elegantly, so magnificently. Tempting the taste buds, howling out hunger’s name, and maligning any sort of mockery with its pure splendor, the cupcake faced no admonishment in comparison to its competing samples of Sugar Cube Corner’s sweets.

“Get this thing out of my face,” Varkrai mumbled through his teeth, staring down the cupcake at smelling distance.

Astonished, Pinkie Pie quickly brought the pastry back to herself, almost cradling it. “What!?” she shouted in disbelief. “How can you say no to this!?”

An eyebrow raised in contempt, Varkrai crossed his arms. “By combining the letters of the English language ‘N’ and ‘O’ in rapid succession to create the sound of the word ‘no’, thus stating my declaration of disdain for that...” He grimaced at the cupcake. “...monstrosity.”

“Monstrosity!?” Pinkie Pie set the cupcake down on a table and hid it behind her back. “This cupcake is my favorite kind of cupcake! How can you not want it?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Varkrai started. “I guess it’s just that the last one of these what you call ‘cupcakes’ tried to suffocate me when I took a bite of it! I can feel the pain again just staring at the one behind you!”

Desperate to at least get one feer to like the pastries, Pinkie quickly turned to Noitorum, who stood shyly off to the side. “Noitorum? Will you at least try it?”

An uncertain laugh and smile formed across her as she stepped backwards. “I... Varkrai told me what happened when he tried to eat one. I- I think I’m fine without it, thank you.”

Wide eyes were all that Pinkie could convey. “But- but- but-!” She hurriedly grabbed the platter and held it out to Noitorum, a few sprinkles falling of the cupcake. “Please?”

Noitorum bit her lip and winced at the sight of the overly sprinkled and extremely sweet smelling treat. She looked to Varkrai for advice, but all she got were forebodingly worried eyes and a quickly shaking head that told her taking a single taste would be a massive mistake. “I’m gonna have to pass, Pinkie,” Noitorum restated, nodding as she looked back to the dejected pink pony.

Ears flopped against her head, Pinkie stood in silence for a second, staring down at the platter. That is, until she realized that if neither Varkrai nor Noitorum would eat the cupcake, it was all to herself, and the pastry was gone without a single second wasted more, but Pinkie’s usual smile was back for a while.

Exchanging a look of relief with Noitorum, Varkrai spoke, “Listen, Pinkie Pie. I said I was hungry, not looking for something that would choke me to death if I tried to swallow it.” He paused as he felt and heard his stomach rumble loudly, giving Noitorum a silencing glare as she held back a giggle. “I don’t know exactly what is edible here or not, so I’m just going off of what you say.” Varkrai warily squinted at Pinkie, still with a bit of frosting on her lip. “Though that’s somewhat unreliable.”

“Don’t be silly!” said Pinkie, waving a hoof at him. “I know just what you need! Applejack has her kiosk set up at this time of day, usually. I’m sure you can get something from her.”

“I don’t think I should have to remind you that I’m at a severe lack of money, or ‘bits’ as you call it. It’s probably not likely that the ponies are gonna willingly let me have something for free.” Varkrai reached into his pocket and fiddled around with its contents. A subtle chill ran up his spine as his finger tips ran across the familiar coupon he had received from Honey Flower, but he continued looking around anyways. He pulled his hand out to find a single bit along with a clump of dust in his hand.

“I’m sure he can find something to eat with... uh, how much is that, Pinkie?” Noitorum asked, walking over to Varkrai and examining the golden coin.

“A bit. One bit.” She furrowed her brow as she thought. “Uh... a single bit. That’ll get you an apple, I’m pretty sure. Maybe two!” Pinkie jumped slightly as Varkrai’s stomach rumbled again, even both feers opening their eyes wide at the intensity of it. Pinkie giggled and started off toward the kitchen. “I’ll go see if I can lend something to you.”

Varkrai let out a sigh as the bubbly pony left the room. He presented the coin to Noitorum and asked her, “Are you sure you don’t want anything to eat? I know you don’t exactly need it, but I’m sure it’s nice to get something in you once and a while.”

Closing Varkrai’s fingers on the bit, Noitorum gave him a light smile. “I’m fine for now,” she said as she poked at his stomach. “You seem more hungry than I’d ever be capable of. Besides, I can always get something later if I feel like it.”

“You know, it never hurts,” Varkrai persisted, wrapping an arm around Noitorum’s waist.

She let a puff of laughter out of her nose. “I think you tend to forget that I’m just a collection of complexly manipulated solance in the shape of a feer, Varkrai. I don’t want to take your food away from you.” Noitorum raised her eyebrows intently. “You actually need it, stupid.”

Smirking, Varkrai leaned forward and kissed the top of her head. “As long as you don’t call me Varky, then I’m fine with being ‘stupid’ for now. I’m just trying to let you have some fun and do some new things while we’re here.”

“Vaaarrkyyy!” Pinkie called out from the back rooms of the shop. Varkrai’s tolerance shattering was almost audible. Pinkie Pie walked out back into Sugar Cube Corner’s main room, a small brown pouch atop her head and a grin spread across her face. “I have a few bits that I could give you! Here. Take it.” She leaned her head forward at the two feers she drew near.

Noitorum grabbed the bag and untied the red string around the top of it, peering inside. “Pinkie, these are gumballs,” she stated blankly as she pinched one out of the bag, looking over the red candy.

Surprised, Pinkie leaned forward and looked in the bag as well. “Oh! Uh...” Pinkie Pie quickly snatched the bag out of Noitorum’s hand and backed away into the back rooms of Sugar Cube Corner again, her face tinted red.

“What are they?” Varkrai asked as he examined the candy in Noitorum’s fingers.

“Gumball! See?” Noitorum abruptly popped the red ball into Varkrai’s mouth, smiling as he stood with a confused look on his face. “You chew it, and it turns gummy and stretchy, like taffy.”

“Gumball? And taffy?” questioned Varkrai as he began to chew on the gum.

“You never really explore the contents of the dimensions that we come across, do you?” Noitorum asked, crossing her arms. “It’s a type of candy that I learned about some time back when we were in the company of humans. You were asleep.” She giggled as Varkrai continued to maintain a befuddled and uncertain look on his face as he chewed loosely. “So, how’s it taste? What’s it like?”

With the gum stuck on his teeth and partially covering his mouth, Varkrai spoke sloppily and muffled, “Ith not exacthly the betht, but I think it’th alrigth. Geth this thing out of my mouth; it’th starting to freak me out.”

“Ew, no!” Noitorum backed away from Varkrai as he opened his mouth, his eyes aimed down to try and see his tongue.

Snickering to himself, Varkrai balled the gum and spat it out onto his palm. “What? Don’t you want some?” he asked, displaying his hand to Noitorum.

“You know, for a grown up feer that can responsibly handle himself, you sure know how to act like a child,” Noitorum stated. Her hand outstretched toward Varkrai’s gum, she surrounded the candy in solance and tossed it out one of the open windows of the shop.

“Says Miss ‘I can’t handle myself when it comes to cute things’,” Varkrai said, walking over to Noitorum and ruffling her hair. “Don’t think I’m gonna forget how you scared half of the town by just screaming excitedly at them.”

“I take pride in my bubbly attitude, thank you very much,” declared Noitorum, lifting her chin up confidently. “If it weren’t for me being friendly, I doubt the ponies would want anything to do with you with all your grumpy antics.”

“And it would be amazing...” Varkrai muttered off to the side.

“Excuse me!?” Hands on her hips, Noitorum leaned in to Varkrai. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Hm? What? I didn’t say anything,” Varkrai laughed, walking away from her casually. “You’re hearing things.”

The loud sound of a party popper echoed throughout Sugar Cube Corner. Out from the back rooms of the shop, confetti and balloons burst into the main room along with a brown bag similar to the one Pinkie had brought out earlier. Fortunately, it hadn’t gone flying out the front door and windows like the rest of the festive decorations, but its path was just precise enough to catch Varkrai’s face in the midst of the calamity. A low, muffled growl resonated from the fabric containing small metal coins slapped onto Varkrai’s head, and a soft, suppressed snicker escaped Noitorum as she stared at him with a hand over her mouth.

“Hey! It’s working again!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she walked out into the main room, her front hooves pushed against a colorful wheeled cannon. She and her heart stopped dead in their tracks as the coin bag slid from Varkrai’s nose and into his palm, revealing his red, irritated, and overall infuriated face, which only instigated Noitorum’s smile to leak farther.

“Pinkie Pie...” Varkrai exhaled rigorously, squeezing the bag in his hand. His eyes refused to blink or stray away from the nervous pink pony. “Where... exactly... is Applejack?”

Trying her best to conceal most of her body behind her party cannon, Pinkie meekly pointed her hoof out the door and squeaked, “Just down the block.”

Barely able to open his mouth again without biting his tongue, Varkrai simply turned around and gave Pinkie a feeble wave goodbye as he headed for the door. Noitorum, stuck between catching up to Varkrai and apologizing for him to Pinkie Pie, she only laughed nervously and flittered her fingers toward the pink pony, rushing out the door a second later. Relieved to not have gotten the coin bag thrown back at her, Pinkie Pie let out a sigh and propped her head against her party cannon as she watched Varkrai and Noitorum walk down the street.

“So... how’s your day goin’?” asked Noitorum, casually walking up beside Varkrai in the middle of the street.

A fiery gaze shot from Varkrai’s eyes at Noitorum, the blast radius extending to a group of ponies standing off to the side of the street and causing them to shift uneasily. The look itself was enough for Noitorum to look straight ahead and close her mouth. The early afternoon air was warmer than the days of autumn gone by, and the residents of Ponyville took the chance to get as much of the remaining warmer weather as they could. With the Running of the Leaves nearing its scheduled date for the fall, the ponies of Ponyville had already begun to practice their routes through Whitetail Wood and work on their endurance. Even with the strange happenings of the past few days, and despite Varkrai’s eyes pinning themselves on the town’s population whenever he stepped outside, the ponies still remained focused on traditions and holidays. Their lives were still normal for the time being, and there was little so far to make them think otherwise.

“It’s fine, I suppose,” Varkrai admitted, staring out at the houses and stores lining the street he and Noitorum walked down. “I could’ve gone without the stinging feeling in my face, but there’s not much I can do about that.” A passing couple jumped in fright as Varkrai’s stomach let out another rattling roar. “I could also go for something to eat. Where did Pinkie Pie say Applejack was?”

Suppressing another giggle, Noitorum pointed down the street. “Just over there. I think that’s her at the little wheel barrow thingy.”

Amidst the other stores and kiosks set up stood a orange pony with a white apron and brown hat, smiling and greeting ponies that walked by. Having just set up, Applejack’s kiosk remained stocked with apples and her attitude remained cheerful as she sold Sweet Apple Acre’s products. Accompanying her was Apple Bloom, the filly wearing the same outfit as her older sister, aside from her usual red bow atop her head. Customers came and went to them at varying intervals, and the system seemed to be as flowing and smooth as always. It hadn’t been anticipated that Varkrai and Noitorum would come along. It was like magnets against their opposite poles as the feers’ presences came close to the ponies, though a few of them at the kiosk remained put, yet slightly shaken.

Trying her best to seem as normal as possible, Noitorum made sure to keep a neutral expression across her face, but the same would be difficult to say for Varkrai. Hungry, face still burning, and somewhat tired, the black winged feer didn’t take his demeanor into account as he stood over the ponies lined up at the kiosk. It was difficult to tell if he was deliberately trying to scare the ponies away or not, but the intense, thundering rumble that sounded from his stomach overpowered any sort of reasoning that he was at least attempting to be friendly. The ponies in front of the kiosk had scattered in the mere seconds the resonant groan had lasted, and even Applejack and Apple Bloom were tempted to hide behind their cart.

Letting her shoulders droop, Noitorum sunk in distaste. “Well, I guess that wasn’t entirely your fault,” she admitted, wondering if the ponies would start to become apprehensive when Varkrai would grow hungry again.

Varkrai shrugged. “Either way, I don’t have to wait in line.” He turned to the sisters stationary by their cart, Applejack as silent and still as she possibly could’ve been. Apple Bloom only looked up at him with curiosity, watching the feathers of his wings twitch in the breeze. “Uh, sorry about that, Applejack.”

“It’s- it’s fine,” the orange pony assured him, adjusting her hat. Even though she knew Varkrai wasn’t going to hurt anyone, she still couldn’t help but get past the disgruntled and volatile look that he had about him. Noitorum’s constant smile didn’t help much with lightening his appearance.

“Hey, you’re that guy that Granny was throwin’ apples at a few days ago!” Apple Bloom said, quickly walking up to Varkrai with a smile.

“Really?” Noitorum asked, giving Varkrai a strange look.

“You were asleep,” noted Varkrai. “You tend to miss quite a bit when you’re napping.”

“Well, maybe you should wake me up so I can be there!”

Varkrai smirked. “That’s a little hard to do when you have more attitude than me when you’re tired.” He turned to Applejack before Noitorum could retaliate. “Anyways, I didn’t come here to chat. I think my stomach’s speaking for itself at this point. What do you have here?” He gave the buckets full of apples a disgusted look. “Aside from what ‘Granny’ was throwing at me.”

“Uh, well, this is pretty much all we got here,” Applejack admitted, smiling nervously at Varkrai. “Not much else I could give ya.”

A grumble was all Varkrai could conjure in response. “Alright, I’ll just have one of these things. What are they, again?” he asked as he dug in his pocket.

“They’re apples!” Apple Bloom quickly answered. She walked over to one of the buckets and flipped an apple onto her head, balancing it as she walked back over to Varkrai. “How do you not know what these are?”

Varkrai raised an eyebrow at Applejack as he pinched onto the stem of the apple and lifted it off the filly’s head. “I would’ve assumed that your sister would fill you in on that kind of stuff. I’m surprised she hasn’t.”

“What? What do ya mean?” questioned Apple Bloom, giving her sister a troubled look.

“Uh, nothin’, Apple Bloom,” Applejack hurriedly spoke. She strayed her wincing eyes from Varkrai. “We can talk later at Sweet Apple Acres. We still got plenty of customers to be servin’ right now.”

“Are... you okay, Applejack?” Noitorum asked softly. The orange pony was noticeably shaking despite trying to hide it, and she barely looked up at the two feers for more than a second. “You’re a little jumpy.”

“I”m just fine, thank you,” Applejack assured her. “There ain’t a thing you need to worry about me for.” She felt a drop of sweat run down her head as Varkrai placed his eyes on her.

“So, how much does this cost, exactly?” asked Varkrai as he reached into his pocket again.

“Uh- there ain’t a need for that, Varkrai.” An awkward smile on her face, Applejack motioned her hoof limply at the apple in his hand. “You can jus’ have that one with no charge. It’s the least I can do for a f- friend.”

While Noitorum smiled and her eyes lit up by the sound of the word ‘friend’, Varkrai remained with a neutral expression, though he felt his heart beat faster and his face redden. Not quite sure how to respond, Varkrai simply sighed and said, “Thanks, I guess.” He lowered his eyes to the filly standing in front of him and Noitorum, Apple Bloom looking up at them with a puzzled look on her face.

Noitorum kneeled down to come level with Apple Bloom. “Hi!” she greeted happily. “I don’t think we’ve met before. My name’s Noitorum. Sounds like you’ve met Varkrai here, yeah?”

“Yeah!” Apple Bloom confirmed. She paused at the sound of Varkrai taking a bite of the apple and afterwards coughing vigorously. He simply looked at Applejack and shrugged, bending his face as if he did nothing while he chewed. “We met him at Sweet Apple Acres a few days ago. Granny didn’t take too well to him being there, though.”

Applejack mumbled something under her breath as she briefly lowered her hat over her face. She stood upright and froze as Varkrai subtly scooted closer to her. He continued to chew the apple, though he made sure to make a note of his pupils narrowing and his wings flaring in an assertive manner.

“Did he do something?” Noitorum asked intently, furrowing her brow at Varkrai, who only stood with a blank face next to Applejack.

“Not that I saw. I guess Granny was just a bit loopy,” Apple Bloom suggested. “But I told my friends about Varkrai soon after! They think I’m just playin’ with ‘em, but I bet they haven’t seen him or you yet. Do you think you two could come to our treehouse so I can show them some time?”

“Uh, Apple Bloom,” Applejack hastily spoke, walking forward to her. “I don’t think it’s quite nice to be treatin’ Varkrai and Noitorum like a show and tell project.”

With a assuring smile, Noitorum stood up and said, “Oh no, it’s fine. It’s not all that rare for the populations we find in dimensions to be frightened or intrigued by us. It’s actually quite normal.”

“Seems like they tend to be a bit more frightened than interested,” Varkrai noted, running his eyes over Applejack with an apple core in his hand.

A small tap on the left side of Varkrai’s head almost caused him to knock over the apple kiosk as he spread his wings out and positioned himself in a combative stance. He scanned Ponyville’s marketplace as quickly as he could searching for the origin of the poke, though he only found empty space beside him and a rolled up letter at his feet. Quickly clearing his throat and casually standing straight again as Applejack and Apple Bloom stared at him, he kneeled down and picked up the roll of paper. From the look of one of the sides on the letter bent as if it had been crushed, he assumed someone had thrown the letter at him, but the mail deliverer had either hidden or ran away as soon as they saw who the letter was addressed to. Shaking his head, Varkrai unrolled the letter and looked over the contents.

“What’s it say?” Noitorum asked, standing on her tiptoes and tilting her chin up as she observed the paper.

A few seconds went by as Varkrai stared at the letter with a strained face. “It’s just a bunch of scribbles,” he noted, turning to show the message. Indeed, the letter was solely composed of horizontally aligned waves on the page along with a signature in the same format.

“Oh, uh, why don’t I take a look at that for ya,” Applejack offered. She carefully walked over to Varkrai and plucked that letter out of his hands, backing away slightly before she ran her eyes over the paper. She hastily read the letter and presented the letter back to Varkrai, the feer glaring at her and snapping the paper out of her hoof. “It seems like the princess would like to see ya as soon as you can. Somethin’ about a meeting at the castle.”

“Again?” Noitorum wondered aloud as she walked beside Varkrai to look at the letter. “She really seems to want our attention late- oh wow this thing actually is just scribbles.”

The letter in Varkrai’s hand lit up in flames as a flick of solance lit at the corner of it. “She also seems to want to get on my nerves,” Varkrai groused, sneering in the direction of the royal city. “If she needed us again so soon, I don’t see why she just didn’t keep us in Canterlot.”

“Uh, so that means you’ll be leavin’?” Applejack asked quietly.

“I’m sure it won’t take long. We’ll probably be back by the end of the day,” Noitorum assumed.

Apple Bloom walked up to the two feers again. “It’s been nice seein’ y’all here!”

“And it’s been nice meeting you two,” Noitorum said, patting her on the head. She looked up at Applejack, the orange mare practically hiding under her hat. “I’ll be sure to try one of these apples next time we come around. Sound good?”

Slowly, Applejack lifted her hat from her eyes and barely nodded. “Sounds great.”

All eyes turned to Varkrai for his goodbyes, but surprisingly, the still air where he used to stand kept Noitorum, Apple Bloom, and Applejack in an uneasy silence. The sound of Varkrai’s wings flapping in the air above Ponyville only now became apparent, and Noitorum stood not knowing what to do with her wings spread wide. She locked gazes with Applejack as they both stood frozen, Noitorum scrunching her mouth up and holding her breath.

“Uh... bye!” Noitorum briefly exhaled, and she launched off the ground.

The two sisters remained in their places, not quite sure what to do. Applejack sighed in relief and said, “Well, I guess we should get back to work, anyhow.”

Apple Bloom nodded and agreed, “I suppose so.”

The filly looked up at the sky as Varkrai and Noitorum slowly ascended. She still wasn’t exactly sure what to think of them. On one side, they acted like any other pony in Equestria aside from their figures, yet on another she knew that they weren’t quite normal in the world she was growing up in. Apple Bloom remained quiet about what Varkrai had said Applejack would tell her later, and the Ponyville market continued on as it naturally would. Even with a vague opinion of Varkrai and Noitorum, Apple Bloom still couldn’t wait to show them to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.

______________________________________________________________________

“Is it... a bird?” Noitorum guested, scratching her head with one hand and coiling the grass in front of her with the other.

“Uh, not quite. What kind of bird?” Varkrai hinted.

“A... a dove. No! A canary!”

“Keep guessing.”

“A chicken?”

“No.”

“An albatross.”

“No idea what that is.”

“A finch.”

“Nope.”

“A crow?”

“Yes!” Varkrai flung his arms in the air in celebration. He exhaled and let his shoulders droop with his hands on his folded legs, tempted to poke at the grass as Noitorum was. “A dove?”

“Oh I don’t know,” Noitorum said, swiping at Varkrai with a limp wrist. “There are a lot of birds with black feathers.” She furrowed her brow for a second before she looked up from her crossed legs and questioned, “A crow? Why have they been calling you that?”

“Beats me. Might have to do with symbolism or something, but I’m not exactly familiar with what means what here. I overheard one of the ponies in Ponyville talking about it. Well, me.”

“Huh. Kinda weird.”

A cough interrupted the conversation, and it also reminded Varkrai of the royal guard standing right next to him and Noitorum. He looked up at the guard. “Speaking of weird, I would have expected you to stand at least ten feet away from us. The least you could do is breathe quieter.”

The royal guard simply answered, “Princess Celestia has ordered me to stay with you until she is ready. She will be out shortly.”

“Did she also order you to hug us while we were waiting?”

With the royal guard remaining silent again, Varkrai only sighed and looked back at Noitorum, the white winged feer smiling and holding onto his hands. It hadn’t been too long ago that Varkrai had received the letter from Celestia back in Ponyville, but the time they had spent waiting outside her castle seemed like it should already be night fall. The sunny, late morning kept the feers awake as they sat in the courtyard and talked with each other, and the royal guards’ constant promises convinced them to not go wandering off into Canterlot, though it was slowly becoming apparent to both Noitorum and Varkrai that Celestia ordered the guards to do exactly so. However, even if they went exploring the city, it wouldn’t last long. Princess Celestia knew quite well that Varkrai had a hard time being patient from his first visit in Canterlot, and the thought of having almost all of the royal city upset with her because the guards didn’t stop the feers from intruding where they didn’t belong wasn’t ideal. The alicorn of the hour, however, wasn’t as aware as Celestia was of the situation.

The front doors of the castle finally opened. The majority of the eyes within the courtyard were directed to the shining figure that stood just at the edge of the red carpet inside, though a certain feer’s white eyes were distracted with a beetle crawling in the grass beside her. With a tap on Noitorum’s head by Varkrai, both feers directed their attention to the princess of the sun and stood up, nodding at her in recognition. At the motion of Celesta’s wings up at her sides and a smile, the royal guards within the courtyard that she had requested watch over the feers dispersed back to their usual stations in Canterlot, leaving only a small group of guards left watching over the meeting outside. Varkrai and Noitorum felt as if they were able to move freely again without a royal guard standing right next to them, and they walked forward to meet Celestia in the middle of the courtyard.

“Varkrai, Noitorum. It’s good to see you two here again,” Princes Celestia greeted them. “I trust I didn’t interrupt anything with the letter I sent earlier.”

“You didn’t do much harm,” said Varkrai. He could still sense a bit of a rumble in his stomach, but the roars had subsided into muted gurgles. “So how long is this gonna take? I was hoping I could find something to eat before my stomach starts convulsing again.”

A quiet bubbling noise gave Celestia enough of an impression as to what he was getting at. “I’m sure it won’t take long. I apologize for not explaining too much in my letter. I was hoping my sister would be here before you two made it to the city.”

“Sister?” Noitorum asked. “You mean you’re not the only princess here?”

Varkrai stared at her. “Of course not. You didn’t already forget about Cadence, did you?”

Quickly delivering a swift punch to Varkrai’s shoulder, Noitorum clarified, “I meant here in Canterlot and Equestria.” She turned to Celestia. “Your sister must be an alicorn, and thus a princess, right? That’s how this royalty thing works?”

Celestia nodded. “You seem to know about our statuses fairly well.”

“Yeah! I spent some time with Twilight Sparkle back in Ponyville. She told me about alicorns and their role as high royalty. Strange that she didn’t say anything about your sister.”

“There have been some disputes that have come up lately involving my sister and I, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some things are left unmentioned,” Celestia explained. “But they aren’t of importance right now. As soon as my sister arrives we will head inside and discuss matters there.”

The wait wasn’t as long as she had anticipated it to be. The clinking of an unusual sounding armor reached the courtyard and drew even the royal guard’s attention. They had heard the familiar steps of the lunar guard’s armor enough to realize what the sound of the particularly soft metal foretold, even if the dark coated, bat winged ponies had only been recognized for as long as Luna had returned from the moon. If the uniquely light sound of the lunar guard’s armor wasn’t enough to identify them, their sight, along with their princess, was. The edge of the courtyard away from the castle walked a group of three lunar guards, each of them equipped with a long, jagged blade sheathed at their sides. Their sharp lavender armor blended in with their dark grey coats, and their striking yellow cat-like eyes brought out the sinister atmosphere they dragged with them.

Amidst of the triangular formation walked the princess of the night. Her attention barely wavered from the direct line that she stepped toward her sister and the feers she had already heard so much about. Eyes narrowed, Princess Luna took no effort to hide that she was focused on Varkrai and Noitorum more than anything else going on within the courtyard, which wasn’t much now that she had arrived. With Varkrai providing as a mirror of Luna’s glare, the nocturnal princess remained stoic even as her sister smiled at her. Luna’s opinion of the two feers still had yet to form outside of the rumors she had heard from the lunar guards and Celestia, and she managed to keep her emotions toward the tall, avian figures neutral. It didn’t take long to change.

“So, I guess the guest of the hour finally decided to show up,” Varkrai stated as Luna and her guards drew near. He crossed his arms and faintly squinted at her. “I’d expect a leader of a nation to be a bit more tight on her schedule.”

Princess Celestia cautiously laughed as her sister glanced at her unsurely. “I’m sure Luna was on her way.” Celestia lifted a wing toward the feers. “Varkrai, Noitorum, this is my sister and co-ruler of Equestria, Princess Luna. She raises and lowers the moon here in Equestria for the day and night cycle. Luna, as I’m sure you have heard already, this is Varkrai and Noitorum.”

Lifting an eyebrow, Luna inspected the two feers, mainly Noitorum, who managed to keep a constant smile on her face. “I had anticipated them to be a bit more... imposing, from what I have heard,” Luna mentioned.

The grin on Noitorum’s face twisted and slowly withered to a weak smile. “Uh... I’m- I’m sorry to hear that, Princess Luna. It’s nice to meet you, anyhow.” She stuck out her hand toward the princess, but she was only met with a scowl from the three lunar guards behind Luna.

Varkrai stepped forward slightly as Noitorum let her arm down. Luna’s glare back at him almost seeming like a challenge, he smirked inside. “And I had expected an alicorn such as yourself to be a bit more grand, considering your status. But I suppose by your affiliation with the night you’re supposed to be a bit gloomy in appearance.”

A shift of Luna’s wings kept the lunar guards in their places as they stepped forward, and a subtle force of solance against Noitorum’s stomach held her from intervening. Celestia and Noitorum exchanged a glance of understanding as they both felt they had gotten a grasp of the situation. While the lunar guards shifted in subtle anger, they had too caught on to the verbal duel.

“It is my duty to watch over the night and maintain Equestria’s safety in its darker hours,” Luna declared, standing tall. “My appearance is a representation of my passion and my rank. I had assumed a creature not from this world would be ignorant of our culture and our purposes.”

“You assume wrong, princess of the night,” Varkrai proclaimed strongly. “Even though we are not of your world, we have been traveling between dimensions for longer than you know. There are cultures and governing systems that are not quite different from the one here in Equestria. It wouldn’t be surprising to me that someone that has only heard rumors of a stranger would be so quick to make such assumptions.”

“Rumors they may be, accurate they can still stand. A silver-haired, tall figure of black wings and similar eyes dotted with red, bearing a dark green cloak, and accompanied by a white winged companion of similar demeanor. Not far from you two, yes? There have been numerous accounts of you already disrupting the peace of Equestria in the past few days. It doesn’t say much positive about your ability to control yourselves.”

“Our ways are different from yours, and that should be known even without us having to explain our actions if your insight is functional. If anything, I should be making note of the quite primitive technology that this world possesses compared to others. If you equipped your nation with weapons and armor to be able to stop such interruptions in your casual life, I’m sure that none of our actions would have ever happened in the first place. Maybe the leaders of a nation should be more interested in maintaining a stable environment in their domain.”

“Your actions would have been an issue if the disturbances were worth our time.”

“Strange that you’re sworn to protect your subjects and you barely bat a wing at a hint of trouble.”

A squint reflected across both of their faces. The courtyard had become noticeably quieter, even more so from when Luna and her guards had presented themselves. Varkrai and Luna glared into each others’ eyes as intensely as they could. It seemed as if they were attempting to decipher a code across them locking their weaknesses, yet their unmoved expressions hid it from view. The two slowly relaxed themselves and stood up straight, though they still kept a careful eye on each other. A hidden, satisfied smile slid across them both.

“I think it is time we began our meeting,” Princess Luna suggested, nodding to her sister after one last peer at Varkrai.

Celestia and Noitorum both looked over the two now that they were done. Varkrai, who had been noticeably ill-tempered earlier, seemed much lighter and cheerful with his eyes lifted. Princess Luna wasn’t much different in that her mouth, instead of a frown, had turned into a subtle smirk. The mind games that were at play between Luna and Varkrai beyond immediate comprehension, Noitorum and Celestia simply nodded in shock and remained silent. Even the lunar guards, who knew Luna almost as well as Celestia did, were somewhat bewildered by their princess acting in such a way towards someone she had a diminished opinion for, but they were content now that Varkrai had halted his attitude toward her. They patiently waited in place as the two feers and two alicorns headed into the castle entrance, the doors shutting behind them.

______________________________________________________________________

“Alright, go.”

“M’kay. Shoot.”

“Uh... here. Go.”

“Let’s see... uh... here.”

“Right here.”

“Aaaand there we go. I win again.”

The wooden board and numerous pieces of paper flew up into the air as Hutch flipped the game table.

“Damn it!” Hutch shouted, pacing in anger. He pointed at Myles, who sat on the ground of the cave with a smug look on his face. “I know you’re cheating, you scrawny bastard! This is the tenth time in a row!”

Myles shrugged. “Not my fault I have better tactics than you.”

“I am going to-!” Hutch put a finger up to his ear as a buzz of static came through his radio piece. “What!?”

“Hey Hutch, if you can hear me over the wind, you’re a filthy little school girl,” Adrian reported. “Take the middle on the sides every time. It works, idiot.”

Boiling over with frustration, Hutch took the radio out of his ear and threw it on the ground. He turned to the entrance of the cave, where Adrian laid on his stomach looking out at the arctic through the scope on his sniper. “I hope you freeze to death over there!” Hutch yelled at the top of his lungs.

The radio on the ground buzzed again. “Copy that. Get good at tic-tac-toe, and then then I’ll take your advice seriously. Have fun fixing this thing.”

“Hey! Knock it off!” Aimee commanded from farther into the cave. “And Hutch, just accept that Myles is better than you.”

The rest of talking that came out of Hutch’s mouth was a combination of swearing and mumbles about tic-tac-toe. Aside from the disgruntled hum of Hutch’s voice, the rest of the noise within the cave oriented from the snowy entrance where the wind still howled. The inside of the cave remained out of the bitter, rushing air that swept across the open fields of the arctic, though a few gusts of wind managed to blow an occasional puff of snow into the deeper parts of the cave. Snow and ice blanketed the entrance of the four soldiers’ shelter, and wind pushed and pulled at Adrian as he stared out at the northern reaches of Equestria through his sniper. The barely operating thermal vision on the scope revealed nothing aside from the curvature of the mountains and hills of snow.

It hadn’t been very long since Equestria was introduced to more beings from a dimension very different from its own. The four soldiers had sought any shelter they could find after they were done surveying the area they had jumped into, and a cave not far from the valley had seemed to be their only choice. Having found the cave empty and big enough to set their supplies down with a fair amount of room to spare, they stayed the night within the still, dry, and relatively warm hole in the side of a mountain. With the entrance of the cave elevated, the soldiers could peer out into the arctic and scout out for anything that showed signs of life, though the blizzard that continued to whip back and forth blinding amounts of snow hindered their sight. Anything beyond the base of the mountain was a blank white canvas that cleared itself every second, and the use of a thermal sight was no use, as even if the snow could be seen through, there was nothing in direct view to find.

Nevertheless, Adrian continued to stare out at the snowy landscape in hopes of catching something in the scope. The objective was just about as productive as the rest of the activities being played out in the rest of the cave. Hutch continued to mumble distastefully about various things that made him frustrated, Myles still sat on the floor with the paper around him thinking about other things in which he could beat Hutch, and Aimee resided towards the back of the cave, marking into the rock walls the number of obscenities Hutch grunted to amuse herself. With the blizzard continuing to prevent any prolonged exposure to the open arctic, the soldiers remained within their shelter hoping that the sniper scope would find something amidst the chaos. They knew that even with their similar black and grey uniforms covering their entire bodies, and with the heavy black armor that they had stripped of themselves now that they were out of the wind, the ice and snow would eventually make its way to them if they made an attempt to search for another, more fitting shelter without direction.

Myles stood up from his spot on the floor and stretched. The cave felt more and more cramped the longer they stayed inside, and the walls seemed as if they were angling inwards the longer he stared at them. The sight of his brother, Hutch, was starting to look more like himself every second he had him in his sight, though it was hard not to do so in the first place. Even as identical twins they had enough differences to tell them apart. It was mainly the tones of their voices and their statures being the indications that one wasn’t the other, with Hutch being more muscular and deeper voiced and Myles just about being the opposite. Without armor on, it was difficult to tell since they both have short brown hair and blue eyes, along with retaining almost the exact facial features outside of subtle scars and muscularity. Aimee herself, despite knowing them for two years already, rarely distinguished them apart on first look without their usual layered black armor on. It was Adrian, having known them since they were both three, that intentionally switched their names around to annoy them.

The room on the wall Aimee carved her markings in was running out of space to scratch her combat knife on. She wasn’t sure if her arm was getting tired or if the blade was progressively getting duller, but the pitiful scratches that the knife was now making convinced her that Hutch wasn’t planning to stop any time soon. Aimee sheathed the scratched, yet functional blade away as she rose from her spot on the floor. She had put her long blonde hair into a ponytail not long ago due to the sporadic gusts that entered the cave every now and then, though she still held her hair in place as she walked toward the entrance of the cave to keep it from flailing about her back. Her green eyes squinted in the frigid wind near the icy mouth as it inhaled another breath, holding herself to try and conserve some of her warmth. The long sleeves on both her pants and shirt, the soft black and grey gloves, and hard black boots did little to keep out the cold. She looked down at Adrian at her side.

The rifle lazily swept side to side as Adrian pushed it gently. He had been the only one to assemble his armor back together and press the pieces into place along his uniform in the morning, using it as protection from the biting air that blew past the hole in the side of the mountain. Frost and ice had almost encased Adrian from how long he had been looking out at the arctic, and his sniper had to be shaken every second or so to free it of snow. The firm cloth mask about his light face, Myles’ hood, and a pair of black-tinted goggles protected Adrian’s head from turning an icy blue. The strands of his black hair that flailed in the wind had already frozen and seemed as if they were going to shatter, but he ignored the tapping of his hair against his forehead and still peered through the scope mounted on his sniper. Aside from the mountains and the snow, and maybe even an occasional arctic creature, there was nothing to be seen through the thermal vision, and there was even less with the thermal turned off. The staring contest he had been having with the blinding white snow still proved to be hopeless.

Adrian turned his head to his left as he heard Aimee sit down, the soldier smiling at him. He looked over her before putting his eye to the scope again. “Aren’t you cold? Where’s your armor?”

“It’s back in the cave. I can deal without it for a little bit,” she responded. Aimee stared out at the icy landscape. “Find anything? You’ve been at it for about two hours now.”

Sitting up and placing the sniper behind him, Adrian shook his head. “There isn’t a damn thing out there aside from snow, ice, and rock. Turns out there actually is some life out here, but they don’t seem like they’d be the type to have a conversation with. Some look like big silver centipedes, and another I saw looked like some sort of bird made outta ice, but they didn’t seem very intelligent. Just walked across the snow and looked around aimlessly.”

“Huh. Must be the wildlife, then. There’s nothing else than that, though? No cities, no houses?”

“Not from what the thermal can pick up. The geometry sight can’t do much with all the snow in the way, so that didn’t help. Normal sight is just about as good as what you can see here. Night vision I’m pretty sure would just blind me.” Adrian chuckled and he lifted the goggles from his head, his brown eyes instantly squinting in the cold breeze. “Even if it’s our worst option, walking blind is our best bet.”

The cave had gone quiet now that Hutch had stopped mumbling to himself. Aimee looked back toward Myles, who laid on his back and stared at the serrated ceiling. “What about Myles? He may be augmented, but carrying that turret around can’t be healthy for him in the cold.”

“The work’ll heat him up.” Adrian pulled down his mask and smiled at Aimee. “Besides, you underestimate us Alpha units. There’s more brawn past our appearances than you’d think.”

“Adrian!” Hutch called out. “Find something already! I’m bored! And Myles is planning something! He’s got the look in his eye again.”

Hutch’s radio cracked with static again. Adrian’s voice just barely came through. “Fix your radio if - bored. You - well do something while - on your ass.”

Another vexed mumble was all that came out of Hutch. Aimee’s earpiece cracked with Myles’ voice. “Tell Adrian Hutch said he was a blind cu-”

Giggling as her radio filled with Myles’ pleas for Hutch to get off him, Aimee whispered to Adrian, “Hutch says you’re a very nice lady.”

With a sigh, Adrian stood up and motioned for Aimee to follow as he headed further in the cave. “There’s something that makes me doubt that. Hutch! Get your hand out of his face, and thank you for the compliment. Both of you get your armor on and pack up your weapons. You too, Aimee. We have places to go, hopefully.”