Evening's Waltz

Luna stirred to the sound of bat wings and gentle bickering. Surprisingly, she was not the first one awake. She recognised the voices of Wyvern, Oak Leaf and Songbird talking animatedly about something.

Sure enough, when she opened her eyes, they were gathered near the entrance of the cave. Songbird and Oak were sitting opposite Wyvern, and all three of them were grinning madly.

“I still think pears and apples are the best fruits out there,” Songbird was saying. “When they ripen up, they’re delicious.”

Oak Leaf shook his head and swallowed a mouthful of his breakfast rations to say, “You are in denial.”

“When this is over and you get a holiday, come down to the Caverns,” Wyvern responded. “You should try a mango. Trust me, apples will never taste as nice as a ripe honey mango on a summer’s day.”

Luna sat up and cleared her throat. All three guards turned their heads towards the princess, and tried not to laugh from embarrassment.

“Is there something wrong?” she smiled at them. “Is it Our mane?”

“No, of course not, Your Highness,” Wyvern answered quickly.

It was true. Despite being so far from her castle and her servants and having only the most basic of essentials with her, and having slept the entire night on a cave floor with only a single dark silver blanket - although it was a very thick, soft, warm, Lunar Guard approved blanket - to provide any comfort for her, not a single strand of Luna’s short, pale blue mane was out of place, and she looked as regal as ever.

“Then may We inquire as to why you three appear to be so amused?”

Songbird glanced at her peers. “Your Majesty, my friends here are saying that they prefer something called a mango to apples and pears and all the other delicious types of fruit growing in Equestria.” She frowned at them. “What even is a mango?”

“An oval fruit. Their skin can be red, yellow or green depending on the variety and how ripe they are. Inside they’re usually yellow or orange, and are slightly fibrous. They taste delicious.” Wyvern glanced at Luna. “Have you ever tried one?”

Luna shook her head. “No, We have not.”

“When we finish this little mission, if you have some time when you are less busy with your royal duties, maybe you could visit the Caverns and try one.”

“We would love to,” Luna answered honestly. Then, with a little less honesty, she added, “However, We are often too overwhelmed with the amount of royal duties We have and the ponies wishing to see Us to travel far, except when there is a political significance to such a journey, such as this one.” Luna was unable to find a tangible reason as to why she felt compelled to lie; she simply lacked the motivation to travel to such a distant place and spend time with ponies. She never spent time with anypony, so why would she change that all of a sudden? All that would do is draw Celestia’s attention, and with it, questions.

Luna couldn’t tell where these thoughts were coming from, but thought better of analysing them. She had work to do.

The three bat ponies woke up their Solar Guard companions. Shining Snow was less than enthusiastic about the early start, but everypony in the group packed away their belongings and prepared themselves to leave the cave without too many complaints.

They left the cave, but waited for a few minutes as the Solar Guards gulped down some food and Luna lowered the moon to allow the sunrise to take place. Her spell to move the moon above and below the horizon was the only exception Luna had decided to make to her general rule of avoiding powerful magic while within the Crystal Empire’s borders. Even though it could have been done by Celestia, or by unicorns and bat ponies using the Sun and Moon amulet, she felt the need to cast the spell herself, since she was still able to, just to ensure that it was done properly.

Their journey continued. The weather grew bitingly cold. The terrain was rocky, snowy, mountainous, and devoid of all life forms as far as any of the ponies could tell. Each of them were grateful for the enchanted, insulating clothes which they wore beneath their armour to protect them from the hostile conditions, short-lived though they were. They were taking the easiest route possible, through a valley between two mountains, where there would be less snow and less uphill terrain.

“So,” Buttercup began the conversations, “how did everypony sleep?”

“Oddly comfortable,” Courage answered, stretching his wings.

“I can say the same,” Shining Snow agreed. “A cave floor is a cave floor, but the blankets made it bearable. They must be enchanted.”

“I sleep in a cave most of the time,” Wyvern grinned. “Beds are for the city ponies.”

“You didn’t exactly sleep on the floor, though, did you?” Songbird objected, giving her a pointed look.

Wyvern glanced at her. “I happened to notice the rock jutting out there. I have wings, and a tail. I can hang upside down comfortably enough, and I prefer sleeping that way. It had my name written all over it.”

“I was going to sleep there.”

Wyvern smiled wider. “Inner Circle advantage. I rest my case.”

Neither Oak Leaf nor Songbird could argue with her, though they too both wore smiles on their faces.

They continued walking, shivering, those of the group with wings moving them to allow their blood to continue circulating properly. Luna tried to admire the scenery to the best of her ability. Her sister’s sun shone off the snowy mountaintops, nearly blinding them when it shone through the clouds and highlighted the deadly beauty of the pure white snow scattered across every surface. Luna could hear her every breath, and see the little puffs of the air leaving her lungs, but she was able to feel gratitude for her armour and her shoes on this occasion for preventing her hooves from freezing.

“Woah,” Buttercup gasped suddenly as she walked around a makeshift corner in the base of a cliff on the side of the mountain. She stared up at a spectacle which the others were unable to witness.

“What is it?” asked Courage. He, the other Royal Guards and Luna trotted up to her, and each of them reacted with the same surprise at the sight which met them.

On the other side of a set of train tracks to where the ponies stood, and within a translucent smoky-coloured magical dome, was a large town, with almost all of its buildings made of dark red, darker silver and pure black crystals. The tiniest specks of moving figures could be seen in the gaps between the buildings. At the civilisation’s centre, black crystalline towers rose towards the sky, competing with the mountains to reach higher into the sky than they could, and almost touching the heavens themselves. In a way, the sight was beautiful, but it also filled Luna’s heart with deep fury and heartache for the ponies trapped within the corrupted city. The last time she had visited - less than a year ago - the city had shone in a rainbow of colours, with warm rubies, rose quartz and orange citrine highlighting the sea green, pale blue and pure dazzling white snowflake design which the city was built around. The central palace was supposed to be a brilliant blue, but it was now pure black. In the area surrounding the magical dome which protected the city, enormous black crystal spikes had risen from the ground in seemingly random places, adding to the dangers of the already hostile territory.

“I visited here with my family, five years ago,” Songbird spoke with wide-eyed shock. “How could it change so much, and so quickly?”

“Dark magic,” answered Wyvern. Her eyes scanned the landscape. “I have seen with my own eyes what this magic is capable of, and how it affects ponies and their surroundings when it is used. Then again, what I witnessed was not anywhere near the scale of this. An entire city, under the power of such a spell…” She turned to Princess Luna. “I can only guess if you have seen anything resembling this before.”

Luna clenched her jaw. For the second time in as many days, the harsh memories of Grogar’s callous cruelty and Discord’s deranged mind games confronted her. The destruction caused when the centaur Tirek came across to Equestria, hungry for power after his banishment from his own kingdom which he betrayed, also came to mind. He mostly used regular magic, but it was with dark magic rituals that he had stolen the magical power from innocent ponies and other creatures, and had used it to lay waste to the Equestrian landscape to attempt to seize the country for his own. Somehow, whoever was now in charge of the Crystal Empire seemed to embody the worst traits of three of Equestria’s greatest foes. Luna felt sick to her stomach.

In answer to Wyvern’s comment, she quipped, “I have encountered something similar, yes.”

All seven ponies were silent for a minute or two.

“The plan?” asked Oak Leaf eventually. “Do we stay in one large group, or split into groups of two or three?”

Shining Snow and Wyvern Paladin shared a look. “So,” Shining started, “we are on the outskirts of a city protected by a magical barrier-”

“As well as the cold and the crystals,” Wyvern added.

“It is unlikely to be a simple diplomatic mission, considering the lengths this pony has gone to so far-”

“There will most likely be trained soldiers waiting for us, potentially under the control of dark magic-”

“There are only seven of us-”

“Seven trained warriors, most of whom have had experience on the battlefield-”

“But still only seven of us, and maybe hundreds of them, and a tyrant at the city centre who uses dark magic-”

“And civilians who we need to try not to hurt but who could also be under the magic’s influence-”

“It’s a suicide mission,” declared Shining. He looked around at all of the other ponies. “If we are even able to find a way into the city beyond that barrier, the odds are against all of us making our way out again alive.”

“But if we do nothing,” said Luna, “an entire country is under the reign of a tyrant, who felt more than comfortable with threatening my sister and I. This pony has potentially caused serious harm to Princess Amoré, and I doubt after their use of mind control over her subjects that they would have even the slightest hesitation in doing the same to the ponies of Equestria.”

Shining Snow eyed the princess warily. “Your Highness, you - one of only two alicorns in Equestria - would risk your own life - and the lives of six highly trained Royal Guards, I might add - for this, rather than retreat to the safety of Equestria and return with an army?”

“You almost sound scared,” Buttercup said sarcastically. “You did swear to protect Equestria and the Royal Sisters and to follow their orders like the rest of us did, didn’t you?”

Shining Snow glowered at her. “Be quiet. This is serious.”

Luna held up one of her wings to interrupt their argument. “If we bring an army, we may as well say my sister and I are declaring war on the Crystal Empire, which would have far greater consequences for everypony in the long run, especially if the war came to last for several years.” She shook her head. “That will not do. I, myself, swore at my coronation as Princess of Equestria to do what was morally right for all of ponykind. Groups of soldiers led by myself have been outnumbered with equally poor odds before and still fared better than the opposition in the end.”

She took her sword, held it in her aura, and ran her hoof, covered in her black armour, along the silver metal. “Ancient history books refer to me as the Grogarian Butcher for a reason.” She fell quiet; the memories of the horrors of those battlefields plagued the back of her mind. “I say… Give the unarmed civilians mercy, but do what must be done to survive. We will find our way to the city centre, and enter the castle.”

“It will be risky,” said Wyvern, as she traced a line through the snow with her hoof. “But… We might just be able to do something.” She glanced at Luna. “Your Highness. What about when we find our foe in the city centre?”

Luna thought back to around twelve years before the final letter she and Celestia received from Princess Amoré arrived at Canterlot Castle. She thought of a time when a pod of Sirens attacked the coastal city of Baltimare, and those most adept at the art of wielding a sword had been recruited to defend against the beasts, and a younger sandy bat pony, with her pale blue mane tied back behind her head, leapt through the air towards the jaws of one emerald green sea monster and swung her sword hard enough to remove the draconic beast’s head swiftly from its shoulders, saving the lives of many ponies who would otherwise have been lured to their fate in the water’s depths or snatched from the beaches and headlands. She remembered how the then shy, socially awkward mare had insisted on not answering anypony’s questions about how she had achieved the feat, and had begun her journey home as quickly as possible, in order to fade into the background and resume a peaceful life. Luna had almost forgotten the pony responsible for that incredible action; almost, but not quite.

“Each of us is skilled in hoof-to-hoof combat, in addition to wielding our weapons of choice,” said Luna. “I am surrounded by some of the best sword fighters of this century and the last.” Luna looked at Wyvern directly. “Wyvern Paladin, you and I will face whoever is behind this evil magic.” She turned to Shining next. “Shining Snow, you will be in charge of defending us against the guards or other security which may be in place.” She glanced at the rest of the group. “You will assist Shining Snow in defending myself and Wyvern Paladin from any additional threats while we confront the Crystal Empire’s supposed new leader.”

“And… and if we’re captured?” Songbird hesitated.

“Remember your confidence, and remember why we came here. It was for a diplomatic meeting, in response to a letter sent to Everfree Castle, and you were asked to travel with me for the purpose of protection only.”

The group was silent for a minute. They each looked south, towards Equestria, then north towards Aurora.

Wyvern Paladin stretched her wings, then stood tall and wore a smile - or grimace - of determination on her face. “Well, there isn’t a point in waiting…” She looked around at her fellow guards and at Luna. “Shall we?”

Courage nodded. So did Buttercup, then Songbird, then Luna, and finally Shining Snow.

“Well then,” said Luna in a bitter tone, spreading her wings wide. “I suppose it is time for some… diplomacy,” she pronounced the word ever so carefully. With her sword held in her magic, she began walking across the frozen landscape towards the border.