King in the North

Epilogue

Year 1001 of the 4th Age

Lilian set down his lute as he finished the story. The last of the guardponies had fallen asleep around the point in the story that Archbishop Fethrus had appealed for help, but he’d kept on with the tale anyway. Unless he was being thrown out or pursued by the authorities (or angry husbands), it wasn’t his style to leave a performance unfinished. Apparently, the guards had deemed his story satisfactory, for they hadn’t thrown him back out into the storm and had allowed him food and shelter for the night. He would likely have to keep the performances coming if he wanted to stay here more than tonight, though. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take long to gather whatever stories these ponies had to share so that he could get out of here soon. The bard didn’t know what had possessed him to come here in the first place.

The Ballad of the King in the North had tweaked something in his mind, however. Officially, there were no names for the two queens who’d come to visit Emperor Boreal, but with the revelations in Cant’r Laht after Luna’s return, Celestia and Luna seemed to fit. Could it all have really happened? The tale was a way of explaining how the Frozen North had become what it was, but maybe there was more substance to it than that. Why had Celestia ordered an outpost to be constructed here, of all places, unless she thought the North might one day return? And if it could return, could the Shadow King come back as well? Lilian shivered.

***

In the farthest reaches of the Frozen North, in the shadow of Mount Everhoof, there was a cave. This cave had once been a mine from which ponies had extracted gemstones for status or for use by sorceresses. Nostracom the Wise had even once visited this place, and from the crystals within had fashioned the Crystal Heart. The last of the gems had been stripped for nefarious purposes during the end of King Sombra’s reign, and it had been abandoned before the battle on the Plains of Amon, the slaves sent to work elsewhere. Ice coated the openings now, making entry nearly impossible.

Deep within the cave, the darkness moved in a way that was imperceptible without light. Green flames flared up in the center of the chamber, casting shadows with the stalagmites. These shadows began to congeal into the form of a pony with a long, flowing cape. Two burning eyes appeared in the shadowy figure, purple mist trailing from the edges. Victorious laughter echoed in the cavern, with nopony to hear it.