A Wraith in Winter

Flash Sentry gave the mare his most disarming smile and a slow, friendly wave. The Crystal Pony flinched from the attention and abruptly turned down a side street, shoulders slow and moving in quick, jittery strides. Her coat, a shade of bright blue, glittered in the sunlight filtering through the shield as she disappeared between a closed bakery and an open vegetable market.

“You’re too ugly, Lieutenant,” Flare quipped with an easy, gap-toothed grin. She tapped her horn knowingly and bumped the Pegasus with a shoulder. “Crystal Mares dig magic.”

“Reminds them too much of Sombra,” Trench replied from Flash’s other side. The brown Earth Pony looked nervously down the alley and tried to see which way she went. “She was a bit suspicious, though. We should investigate.”

“No,” Flash sighed. “We shouldn’t.” He shook his head, making his golden helmet chafe against his ears, then lifted a foreleg and pulled a strap on his greaves tighter with his teeth. Flash tested the fit with a quick stomp, then continued on the patrol, trying to ignore the glare of the sun reflecting off the crystal buildings along the street. His two friends and squadmates followed.

“We’re here to be a reassuring presence, not to harass Shining’s citizens,” Flash reminded them with a mild frown. A young colt caught sight of a frowning guard and scurried under the vegetable stand. On reflex, the mare at the stand placed a sack of potatoes in front of the colt and blocked him from sight. She looked away when Flash raised a wing in greeting. He didn’t stop and continued to lead his guards down the street. This was a mistake.

Flash Sentry had known Shining Armor for years; they graduated from the Royal Academy together as part of the same class. The head of Princess Celestia’s Royal Guard was always a unicorn, and Shining Armor was easily the finest Unicorn in the academy. He memorized the manual so thoroughly he mumbled quotations from it in his sleep. That habit saved Flash on a few inspections when they were both cadets.

The official response to a tragedy was to increase the presence of the Royal Guard in surrounding areas to assure Ponies they were being protected. The Crystal Empire didn’t associate helmeted and armed Ponies with protection, however. Princess Amore ruled ably a thousand years ago with the Crystal Heart as her only force. She ruled well, until Sombra killed her, usurped her throne, and sent the Crystal Ponies into the mines. Sombra ruled through fear, and the sight of armed soldiers stoked more fear than reassurance. Flash twitched his wings against the gilded armor along his barrel. At least I talked Shining out of keeping the identity enchantment. At least they can tell we’re all different Ponies.

The golden armor standard to all Royal Guards was the most heavily enchanted in the world. Unicorn Mages with marks and talents worked tirelessly to refine their spells in Canterlot. Flash enjoyed the cooling spells and featherweight enchantments. Wish they’d get the fit right around the legs, though. His wing brushed against his collapsed spear hung by his side. The metal shaft folded into two parts and locked together. It could be a flimsy weapon, if not for the runes etched along the haft.

Trench seemed to guess his friend’s thoughts. “We should stop using the appearance enchantment in Equestria.”

“It’s tradition,” Flare Warden replied with a whicker. Next to Flash, the shorter mare could’ve passed for his younger sister. Both were blue-maned with orange fur, but Flare’s eyes were bright pink compared to his own bright blue.

Trench lowered his voice to a whisper; a hard feat for the tall Earth Pony. “It makes it easier for changelings.”

“We don’t use that word,” Flash rebuked him sharply, stopping in the street.

“We’re all thinking it,” the Earth Pony answered defensively and scuffed a hoof against the rough cobblestones.

“We don’t know what happened,” Flash said, referring to the morning's news. Another mining settlement was discovered by a mailmare, burned down and destroyed. The search team failed to find any bodies, just like all the others. A near-riot of Crystal Ponies was barely dispersed by Princess Cadance. The pink alicorn was clearly stressed, torn between her subjects and her foal.

“What else could it be? Sombra?”

Flash shushed the Earth Pony with a sudden jab of his greaves. Metal clinked against metal on the street, and Trench rubbed a forehoof against his armor to rub out the scuff mark. Some of the Crystal Ponies stopped to watch the exchange, then rapidly trotted away.

Pointless. Flash sighed. Since the liberation of the Crystal Empire and the death of the Tyrant King, the Crystal Ponies had proven to be a superstitious and easily frightened herd. Flash still felt sympathy for them, to be stolen away for a thousand years out of time would’ve destroyed most mares. After all, look at Luna. He shook the thought out his head.

The Royal Guard was admittedly biased against the Princess of the Night; she preferred her own guards and her own, long-forgotten enchantments of bat wings and fangs. Despite her oddness, anypony offering criticism of Celestia’s sister within earshot of Captain Armor tended to have surprise reassignments to the frontier. Nopony told him about the running bet on when she’d declare herself Nightmare Moon. “I heard Shining’s getting ready to name a replacement,” Flash offered as an apology to his squad.

“Not you?” Warden asked mockingly. It was also well-known amongst the guards that Flash had been passed over for promotion thrice by his best friend. You break from the book too often, Shining said. Prove me wrong here, and then we’ll talk.

“Maybe,” Flash answered impulsively, but without much hope. He was technically in charge of several three-pony squads throughout the city, but the Crystal City was too large to properly patrol with only three hundred guards. They needed more Ponies, and Equestria wanted more coal and railways. And nopony was coming north anymore to mine the mountains.

“How’s the little terror?” Flare asked. She meant Flurry Heart, the newborn alicorn foal. It was the first natural birth of an alicorn in living memory, including Celestia’s. Flash cast an eye about for other Equestrians on the street, but didn’t spy any.

“Seems like she’s not bringing in anymore gawkers,” Flash said neutrally. He shook his wings out and continued walking down the street.

“Princess Cadance is a stronger mare than I to push out those wings,” Warden chirped. “Are they really that big?”

Flash had only seen Flurry Heart once, at a safe distance as she dragged her tutor Sunburst down a hallway. “Yes.” Warden and Trench laughed and the noise startled the few Crystal Ponies left on the street. They cleared the way for the trio.

After the liberation and coronation of Princess Cadance, the Crystal Empire was jubilant. Celestia had published a series of articles and essays of her own memories of the Empire; it made the front page of every newspaper. Luna’s memoirs made page four. There had been a huge surge of starry-eyed Earth Ponies to work the green fields around the Crystal City. Pegasi lined up to manage the weather, and Unicorns applied to learn Sombra’s secrets.

Sombra’s dungeons and laboratory had been sealed off by order of Princess Cadance. Sunburst was confirmed as the Royal Crystaller for his connections to Celestia’s academy. The weather was always sunny within the shield, which made rain and irrigation a difficulty. Flash had been pressed into cloud duty more than once. And the fields turned out to be too small for the number of Earth Ponies that arrived.

The Crystal Empire, really just a city in the snow, only survived due to Equestria’s support. The payment for that support was the crystals and precious ore in the mines. The Frozen North varied between mountains and frozen tundra. The Crystal City's reappearance meant that there was finally a presence in the north. “Let’s go to the train station,” Flash decided. It was off-route, but the streets from the station to the palace were the busiest.

“Thinking like that ain’t gonna get you promoted,” Warden warned.

Trench just nodded. It took several minutes to trot there.

As they turned a corner around a three-story purple house, Flash froze and gaped at an empty street. He ran through his head a list of patrols supposedly in the area, and came up with at least seven. A Crystal Pony crouching behind a cart in the street spied his helmet peeking around the corner and waved her hoof wildly with panicked eyes.

Trencher went tense and slowly retrieved his own spear and extended the haft. “Changeling,” he whispered.

Flash reared off the ground and flexed his front hooves. The knives in the greaves extended with a clunk, and he retracted them. At least that works. “Warden, you got that spell, right?”

“Yeah,” she said softly and her horn glowed pink. The Crystal Pony was too preoccupied staring under the cart down the street to notice her coat flicker and shimmer. “She’s clear,” Warden said.

Flash scanned the rooftops as he walked forward. A lot of Equestrians lived closer to the outskirts than the palace, and some Crystal Pony merchants liked to set up their stalls along the way to the train station and sell little trinkets. The pony he crept up to looked to be selling her tea sets as ‘ancient antiques.’ Honestly good business sense, Flash judged from the pile of bits next to the cart. The mare waved him to crouch lower and harshly whispered, “He’ll see you!”

Flash practically crawled along the cobblestones and suppressed a wince. His armor didn’t cover his belly. “Who?” he asked once he was close enough.

“The dragon!”

Flash looked over the top of the cart towards the train. “Sir Spike?” The Crystal Ponies revered Spike. Hatched by Princess and prodigy Twilight Sparkle, he had saved the city from Sombra when the Crystal Empire returned. That doesn’t make sense.

“Another dragon,” she hissed in a whisper. “He has evil eyes like Sombra and has some poor pony under his thrall!”

Flash bit his lip. Crystal Ponies were difficult to work with. They panicked over the smallest detail, and the disappearances around the outer mining towns had nearly caused a stampede. “Right,” he sighed. “Where is this dragon?”

The Crystal Pony jabbed a hoof down the street and laid down behind the cart. “He has a sword!”

Of course. Flash waved Trench and Flare forward with a wing and slowly walked down the center of the street. He spied eyes watching him from alleyways and windows in every building. “Something spooked them. Some creature probably got off the train.”

“Like that Griffon?” Trench asked suspiciously. “Might be changelings.”

“We checked him.”

“Still…”

Flash tuned him out. Sky High should be patrolling around here. Where is her squad? He wasn’t concerned until he turned around another corner and stopped short at a slim dragon staring at his reflection on a bright crystal wall. A beleaguered pony sat next to him with a teary-eyed frown.

The dragon carried a long sword loosely in one claw. The blade seemed to shimmer in the light.