Opaline shook herself out of more ancient memories as she continued following her cutie mark across the arctic snowfields. This segment of her journey had been much longer; the sun had risen and fallen at least two dozen times before Opaline had decided to stop counting. As the landscape became more of the same day after day, it had been easier and easier to fall back into her memories.

She was also getting more and more concerned with how long she had gone without food or sleep, and seemingly had no need to. She figured it was the magic of her cutie mark, or the ‘echoes’ of Celestia and Luna and this ethereal peytral on her chest…

...But if that magic ran out, there was nothing here out on these snowfields to sustain her, and certainly no shelter of any kind. She couldn’t exactly stop and think about it, because her floating mark kept on its northward trajectory. So the only thing she was able to do was think about it while keeping a steady pace.

The alicorn could not help but wonder what the possible endgame was for this sojourn she was being taken on, and why the echoes had accompanied her, and had been silent since. Perhaps it was better than floating there in the middle of an empty valley, or if they hadn’t come with her, they simply would have faded away, and gone to join the rest of their selves that had left them behind.

She was grateful for the silent company, though. The light emanating from the peytral was soothing, and thus walking on this sea of endless white was not uncomfortable in the slightest.

But what could possibly be all the way up here?

She almost didn’t notice it at first, but her floating cutie mark began to float down towards the snow. As soon as she figured it would sink down into the field of white, the snow gave way, melting around the glowing purple and orange orb. As she continued to follow, she saw the path it continued to forge was essentially creating a ravine that was barely wide enough for her as it continued to descend into the snow and ice.

After nearly a minute of walking, her floating mark revealed a crystalline surface about twenty feet below the surface of the snow, and continued in further. As she continued into the mysterious structure, she saw that the orb wasn’t so much melting the snow as it was pushing it away to reveal more of this ancient, cavernous structure that had been buried under at least thirty feet of snow. It was a tower or castle of some sort.

Her cutie mark came to a circular pedestal on the floor, where a frozen book sat closed, and the cutie mark’s glow increased considerably. More of the snow was pushed to the edges of the chamber, revealing incredibly high arched windows, in what indeed looked to be the top of a tower that had been buried long ago.

There, on the edges of the pedestal were two more flickering flames hovering in the air. The one on the left was just a slightly deeper shade of pink than the one on the right.

Opaline’s mark brightened further, and sure enough, a pair of transparent alicorns materialized on the pedestal.

Princess Flurry Heart ascended the spiral stairs of the Heart’s Tower, by far the highest point of the castle, and normally, home to the most breathtaking views of the Crystal Empire. But now, all that you could see on the highest point in the city, was a wall of blowing snow on all sides. They had snowstorms before, but nothing like this, and if nothing was done, Flurry would put bits down that this storm was very capable of burying the entire region in snow and ice.

She took another deep breath, remembering the calming, meditative exercises she was taught in her youth.

Then she wondered that in the near century since the Empire’s return, why did they never have an elevator installed in here?

She finally reached the top of the staircase, and saw her aging mother with an open spell tome, standing in front of the Crystal Heart.

“Flurry, there you are,” her mother, Cadance, greeted. “Did everyone make it out on the last train?”

Flurry couldn’t hide the look of sorrow from her facial features, and shook her head.

“There are a few that have refused to leave their homes. The last train left without them,” she reported.

Cadance nodded sadly.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t somewhat understand their desire to stay here. For some, this is the only home they’ve ever known, and they would rather be here than down among the increasingly frightening unrest,” the elder alicorn replied.

“Mom, are we really going to let them freeze to death up here?”

Cadance gazed over at her daughter sympathetically.

“It’s their choice, sweetheart, and they’ve made it already,” she said.

Flurry turned to gaze down at their city, becoming increasingly covered with more snow than she ever remembered.

“How could it have come to this…?” She asked at just above a whisper.

“This was everypony’s responsibility; to listen, to love, and to settle disputes before they turned into division. If that responsibility is not lived up to, then the alicorns are powerless to keep the pieces together,” Cadance answered.

Flurry felt a shudder go down her spine.

“Then what can we do?” Flurry asked.

Cadance turned to the next page in the tome she was holding with her magic.

“We can save as many lives as we can. We can make sure Equestria gets another chance, somewhere down the road… And with this spell, we can permanently seal the Windigos away, and get Twilight what she needs,” Cadance told her, passing her daughter the spell tome, as she lit up her horn, and offered her right hoof. “For Equestria, sweetheart?”

Flurry looked at her mother’s notes, and saw what her part was, before setting the book down and lighting her horn up as well, taking placing her own hoof on hers.

“For Equestria, mom.”

“More alicorns…” Opaline began, looking first at the light pink alicorn with a tri-colored mane of violet, rose, and pale gold, with light purple eyes, and second at the slightly shorter one with a magenta coat, with a gray-violet mane with arctic blue streaks, and light opal eyes.

“I don’t believe I’m familiar,” the dark orchid alicorn finished.

“Mi Amore Cadenza. Last ruler of the Crystal Empire, and the Princess of Love,” Cadance began, before motioning to the other. “This is my daughter, Flurry Heart, the first natural-born Equestrian alicorn in our history. I see you’ve already had the pleasure of meeting my adoptive aunts.”

Opaline glanced down at the peytral on her chest.

“If you want to call it that,” she replied before returning her gaze to the pair on the pedestal. “Princess of Love, hm? Is that what has been sustaining me all this time? These echoes and this peytral? It took me weeks of following my mark to get here, and in all that time, I have not rested or eaten, nor have I frankly felt the need to.”

“For those that can commune deeply enough, the magical energies of aetherius can be as sustaining as the freshest food,” Flurry replied.

Cadance stepped forward.

“You have been alone for a long time, Opaline Arcana. Much longer than anypony deserves. Maybe your mark senses that. Loving acts sow seeds that reap beautiful, wonderful experiences. Sadly, the opposite is also true; selfish acts sow seeds that hurt, twist, and corrupt. Maybe you don’t have to be alone anymore.”

Opaline’s eyes left Cadance’s gaze, and rose to her floating cutie mark once again.

“I wasn’t always alone…” She replied, just above a whisper, as another voice of the past echoed in her mind.

‘And all this time, I thought we were friends!’

‘No! We weren’t! It’s so sad… You’ve got all the power in Equestria, and you still have never felt true friendship.’

‘Ha! I have friends!’

‘You have to force others to pretend to be your friends! That’s control!’

‘You ungrateful little pony!’

‘You were by yourself for so many moons. All alone. I actually feel really sorry for you.’

Opaline felt her emotions begin to well up in her throat again as she continued looking up at her mark. At first, she wanted to assume that this was how she had made all three tribes feel as she had taken their Cutie Marks for her Together Tree. That they had all felt as barren and helpless and cold as she had during this journey.

But they didn’t.

Misty outright refused to help again with her cutie mark right in front of her, and mere hours later, Sunny still stood against her with no mark, with all three tribes still united and singing.

A few moments more, she was markless, trapped, and then had no choice to follow her mark, as it tantalized her for this entire journey, more alone and afraid than anypony who had opposed her had been.

Opaline took another shuddering breath as she fell to her knees again.

“What do you want from me? I don’t even know these alicorns…” she asked her mark, as it floated above the pedestal, unmoving and silent.

Cadance and Flurry stepped up to her.

“You’re right. We don’t know you,” Cadance said.

“But we would like to help. Because you may be able to help Equestria,” Flurry continued.

“A threat is approaching, and most of the time, unity is enough. But on the rare occasion that it isn’t, perhaps that is when a Skyrosian comes down, to augment that unity,” Cadance told her.

Opaline slowly got to her hooves.

“I don’t think they’ll be doing that this time. The entire city departed for destinations unknown when they sensed the birth of your daughter, considering the uplifting of this realm to be complete. So no, a Skyrosian will not be coming down to save Equestria again,” she told them.

“Maybe that doesn’t matter,” Flurry replied.

“And why is that?”

“Because maybe, a Skyrosian has already come down to help…” Flurry told her, before she and her mother held out their hooves towards her.

“And she just hasn’t realized it yet,” Cadance finished.

Opaline looked down at the two hooves being offered, looked at her mark again, took a deep breath, then placed her right hoof on both of theirs.

As before, the ghostly alicorns faded from view, and the two pink flames traveled up her right leg, and took their places on her peytral, below Celestia’s and Luna’s. Now with the four sockets on the sides occupied, only the one on top, and the one in the middle remained empty.

And she felt even warmer now.

She was about to look up at her mark when the entire area began to vibrate, then shake violently. Her floating mark moved rapidly up the ravine it had made, and Opaline followed at a full gallop, as she saw the sides of the narrow passage begin to crack, and she heard snow and pieces of ice fall behind her as the ravine began to collapse.

‘Almost… There…!’

She could see the blowing snow up in the sky as she came closer to the top of the ice fields. She saw her mark clear the ravine, but just as she was almost there, she felt a weight crash onto her back, and she was shoved down into the snow, darkness enveloping her a split second later.

The first thing she thought of was the bathtub full of jam that had been thrown at her weeks ago.

Then the chill set in.

‘No. Not yet!’

Opaline took as big a breath as her compressed body would allow, and focused on the flames of the echoes in her peytral. She had to be close to the surface, she had almost made it…

She drew her front hooves back, then thrust them forward, again and again, striking the top of the snow and ice that had fallen on her.

On the third strike, she broke through to the surface. Slowly, she made the hole bigger, and after a couple minutes, was able to pull herself out of the snow. Once she was completely out, she collapsed onto the snowfields, taking several deep breaths, thankful for the inner warmth that the flames of the echoes brought, looking up at her cutie mark that was seemingly waiting for her.

Once she had caught her breath, she got to her hooves.

“Wherever you’re taking me… Whoever or whatever needs help… If I see this through to the end, just let me see her. Let me see Misty… Please.”

Her cutie mark hovered in place for another moment, before beginning to move back in the direction they had come, and Opaline followed, not taking her eyes off of it.

“Please. I need to tell her that I am sorry.”

Author's Note