A harsh, piercing wind cut its way through the gemmed streets of the crystal empire. With it, came a fresh bout of snow, white and beautiful. Threads of ice formed along the places it glanced, the wind fueling this terminal frost.
A small arctic butterfly lazed along the air, before a huge gust of wind blew it into the side of a nearby building. Pinned under the frosty gale, it silently faded from life, plastered against a cold crystal wall.
The windows shut themselves, noisily at best. The wind cut its way through the crystal streets, uncaring of the lives inside the buildings. Winding its way through the crystal empire, the draft made its way to the very center, where the Crystal Palace lay.
Inside of that crystal palace, there lived a couple. The couple was a royal couple, the rulers of the Crystal Empire and the crystal ponies. They themselves were not crystal ponies, curiously, but when the Crystal Empire had rejoined with the rest of Equestria, Princess Celestia had appointed Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor to be the rulers of the newfound land. Together, they had ruled it happily for six years.
Or so everypony was lead to believe.
The Crystal Heart, the great artifact that had once kept Crystal Empire safe from all manners of nasty entities, and indeed, had become a symbol of the Crystal Empire itself, had been altered slightly. The great and powerful love magics performed by Princess Cadence herself upon it imbibed it with the ability to fuel the shields that the Crystal Empire used to keep sheltered from the cold arctic winds, and the horrible creatures that lived in them, with a power that she knew from personal experience always prevailed: the power of love. This source of love the shields shields were powered by came from the one place Cadence knew could never falter: the love between her and her husband, Prince Shining Armor.
The Crystal Heart was held in the palace center room, through the large hallway that one centered through when they first came to the palace. It sat upon a marble pedestal, eight feet high, and glowed faintly with a blueish light. In recent times, the light had grown fainter and fainter, slowly fading with each passing day.
“It’s colder out there than a windego’s backside!” remarked one of the palace librarians, Amethyst Pages, as she walked through the main hall on her way to the library. “It almost makes me want to not even bother coming to the palace for work!”
“I’ve noticed that over the past few months,” said one of the servants, Chipped Topaz, who had been buffing the pedestal's side. “Even over a year, if I’m counting it right, that it’s been getting colder as the light from the Crystal Heart begins to fade! It was slow at first, barely noticeable now, but there’s barely any light! And look at it! It’s the first time we’ve got any snow this late into the year, it’s nearly March!”
Amethyst Pages nodded. “You don’t suppose... that the source is going out, do you?”
Chipped Topaz looked up at her, mouth open in shock. “Don’t say things like that! The source couldn’t possibly go out! Princess Cadence chose it herself, and she’s the Princess of love, damn it! If she can’t pick a good love source for the Crystal Heart, then I don’t know who could!”
“What do you think is causing all this, then?” Amethyst asked, eyeing the Crystal Heart with a frown.
Chipped Topaz cast his gaze to the side. “I’m not sure, but... I hope it gets resolved soon. Princess Cadence and Shining Armor’s love is absolute, though, and nothing will change that! We just have to have a bit of faith in them, is all.”
Prince Shining Armor pushed a piece of grapefruit across his plate wearily, eyeing the sour fruit with disdain. The citrus would not do anything to detract from how drearily predictable this day was to be, and how awfully dreadful the company would be.
“Have a good sleep, dear?” asked Princess Cadence, who sat at the other end of the long table. Shining took a break from giving his fruit the evil eye, and looked longingly at his wife. Once, the two of them had slept together, entwined in the sheets, sharing kisses and giggles afterwards for sometimes an entire day. Now, the bed they slept in might as well have been two separate beds on different continents, no contact between them occurring whatsoever.
Shining thought he would want to feel his wife pressed against him at all times, forever since the day they had first dated, to the day they passed on. Not five years into their relationship, however, the Prince had noticed something: she was incredibly boring.
It seemed humorous at first, honestly; it was like his mind had played a little joke on him. Haha, very funny, let’s get back to loving her. Sadly, this was not the case, and with each growing day, he noticed how dreadfully systematic she was. The same breakfast, the same morning comments, the same routine throughout the day—even the lovemaking, the passion that he yearned for every night, the one thing he could count on keeping the marriage fresh and lovely, become dry and dull.
Shining found himself pushing away the mare he had once loved so very much, drifting off to sleep when she tried to nuzzle him, or purposefully choosing routs in the palace in which he did not have to see her. He hated himself so much for this, but the fire that had once been there was not even an ember anymore.
It’s not like he hadn’t tried to save it—quite the opposite, in fact. Shining tried to get Cadence to try different things out during the day, work on different subjects, try different things in bed, even something as simple as a different breakfast meal was attempted. Everything was rejected by Cadence, who felt nothing was wrong. As a result, Shining continued to drag his head through the monotonous dirt of the life he was now stuck in living.
He had even once suggested foals—he wanted a son or a daughter, and he knew Cadence loved fillies and colts, having been a foalsitter when she was younger (for Shining’s sister, no less!). Alas, she had rejected the idea, mentioning that the kingdom was the priority right now, and she went back to planning the same renovation of the garden district she had been planning for the past five years.
“Fine, I guess,” Shining responded to his wife in a neutral tone, secretly wishing that she would just flip the table over and start breaking plates under her hooves, just for a change of scenery.
“Well, that’s good!” Cadence said, giving him a sweet smile. Shining had to bite his tongue to avoid cussing at her, swearing her out, screaming vile things at his wife just to try and get some sort of reaction.
“Yes,” Shining said, lying to her as he had lied every day for quite some time. “Yes, I guess it is.”
“All this guessing,” Cadence chided with a bit of a chuckle. “Oh, Shiny, you ought go and find something concrete with you life.”
Shining looked across the table, down at the pink alicorn, who was sipping a mug of lukewarm Morningdew Tea (the same she had every morning, for the past six years). Had she... had she just insulted him? Even in a joking, passing manner... had she just talked down to him? Was this the beginning of—dare he say it—conflict? This dry spell, this never ending cascade of boring times, this... awful monotony, was it coming crashing down around him as his wife began to rust the shackles of pleasantries and routine that had bound them and starved the love from their relationship?
“Oh, really?” he said, his voice acquiring the edge of a rusty sword. “And what if I don’t want anything concrete, Cadence? What if I want a bit of an adventure? What if I want everything to be unpredictable?”
His wife looked up, took a long sip from her mug, and then smiled genuinely at him. “Well, then I’d say I married the right stallion! This is what attracted me to you, you know; I always loved your passion, your willingness to go out and challenge what’s been set in stone.”
Shining’s ears perked up, and a smile grew on his lips. “So... do you think you’ll want to go someplace? Say... just up and leave the palace, take to the street, live like the common ponies?”
For a moment, the Crystal Heart glowed a bright blue, and the winds and snows that plagued the empire died down.
Cadence giggled. “Oh, my silly stallion! I couldn’t do that—especially not today! It’s Hearts and Hooves day! I have to be on the top of my game, making sure that love is indeed in the air, for all of Equestria.” She paused to take a long drink from her mug of coldish tea. “Besides, I’m not the sort of mare who’d want that kind of excitement. Once, a long time ago, but in recent years... I’m content with settling down. Still, it’s a nice thought...”
Shining gave her a look. “You don’t remember when we got the Crystal Heart? Or when you fought that worm-thing with my sister?”
Cadence shrugged, still smiling a kind, warm smile. “Oh, Shining! Those are the times of the past. There was once a time when I thought that I wanted a life of adventure, a life without having to be tied down to one place, a life where I could run about and enjoy everything... but not anymore. You remember at the beginning of our marriage, a few months after your sister become princess?”
Shining nodded.
“And you remember when I went off with Twilight and Discord for a month, right after that giant worm incident, on the wild edges of Equestria?”
Another nod from the Prince.
Cadence shrugged, and levitated some sugar into her tea. “Well, that sealed it for me. That’s the thing that made me decide the adventuring life just... wasn’t for me.” She pursed her lips. “There were some things ponies were just never meant to see, Shining Armor, and I saw them on that adventure. I never wanted to see them again, you have to understand that. Here in the Crystal Empire, I’m safe, and with you! It’s all working out for the better.”
Shining looked down at his grapefruit. “Right. Right, I get it.”
Cadence smiled cheerfully. “I’m glad you understand. Talking things through makes you feel better! I know that’s certainly true for me.”
Shining only felt worse.
Reached for a bottle next to his plate of food, Shining took a deep swig. The hard taste upon his tongue smoothed him down slightly, and he gazed over at his wife again. He had been driven to drink quite some time ago, and everyday he needed more to keep himself sane.
Deep down inside, he knew that it was doing the exact opposite, of course. The drink had its clutches around him though, and without it, he’d never find the spark of adventure he needed in his life to keep Shining from throwing himself from the top of the Crystal Spire.
Pushing his grapefruit to the side, he drained the bottle in two large gulps, then set it down with a loud clunk!. Getting to his shaky hooves, he staggered slightly as he wandered towards the doorway that lead down a staircase to the library. He barely registered his wife’s voice echoing behind him in his ears.
“Have a good day, dear!”
***
Down in the library, Amethyst Pages had just entered the large room, full of all sorts of books. In the past years that the Crystal Empire had lived under the jurisdiction of Equestria, they had gained all sorts of new books, including updates on the times of the world, so there was much work to be done.
Sitting in one of the ornate armchairs was a old crystal pony, tinged a light green, with a great green beard that extended nearly down to the ground. This was Mossy Agate, one of the oldest crystal ponies alive. He spent his days mumbling his way through life in the library, but he was good company nonetheless. Amethyst found him to be one of the more knowledgable ponies around, and for good reason; he was often found pouring over a book, and if he was to be believed, had been doing so for almost his entire life.
Another assistant, Flawed Jade, was working in the library, restocking some shelves. Grinning at Amethyst as she entered, she waved her hoof at her, gesturing for the mare to come over.
“Hey,” she said. “How’re you? It’s damn cold.”
Amethyst snorted. “I hadn’t noticed.
“Hey, don’t get snarky with me; just trying to get a conversation going. Somepony’s gotta try...”
Amethyst shrugged. “Well, I suppose. Still, the cold’s a pretty... non-evocative topic.”
“Not everything’s got to be deep, you know,” Jade retorted with a roll of her eyes. Amethyst nodded slightly at this, shifting somewhat on the old rug of the library.
“This cold’s worth talking about, honestly,” Jade said, looking Amethyst in the eye. “I mean, it’s Heart’s and Hooves day! It shouldn’t be nearly this cold this late in the year, we’ve never gotten snow past the end of January.”
“It’s only been six years since we’ve been freed from Sombra, though,” Amethyst pointed out. “Five years of a certain weather pattern, and then a small change, isn’t really a cause for alarm.”
“Well, I suppose this is why Equestria uses pegasi to control their weather!” Jade laughed. Amethyst gave her library coworker an odd look. “What? I keep up with the times! I’ve read up a little bit on Equestria! Plus, you saw how they were at the games a few years back; they had complete weather control.”
“Oh, I know, I just wasn’t expecting you to be so well versed,” Amethyst smirked.
“Hey!”
Moss Agate cleared his throat. Both of the younger mares jumped slightly, and looked over at him.
“I got myself a hunch on why it’s so cold this year,” Mossy Agate said, moistening his lips slightly with his tongue, in the way old ponies do. The clank of dull, soft crystals filled the room for a moment, before he looked over at the mares. “It’s been happening slowly over the past couple of years, really. It just takes a bit of time for you all to notice, and by the time something big like this happens, it’s too late. It’s what happened with Sombra, you know.”
The two crystal ponies stared at each other in horror. They had lived through Sombra’s rise and fall, and they knew this to be true.
“What can we do?” Amethyst asked Mossy in a hushed whisper.
Mossy looked at her, his expression grim. “We need to make sure that the Crystal Heart is at full power. Whatever’s keeping Prince Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amora Cadenza’s love from conveying properly needs to be eliminated.”
As if on cue, Shining Armor entered the library through a door on a wall not twenty paces away from them. He looked somewhat disheveled, not at all like the Prince they were used to. Casting an uneven gaze on Flawed Jade, he opened his mouth, wordlessly gaped for a moment, then said. “Flawed Jade, there’s an issue that I need you to help me attend to. Immediately.”
Flawed Jade looked uneasy, then turned to the other two. “Look, I better go with him. With any luck, I can figure out what the issue is, right?”
Mossy and Amethyst looked at each other and nodded. Jade smiled, and trotted over to Shining, who slammed the door shut behind them.
Immediately, when they were in the small corridor that lead to the stairwell Shining had descended down to get to the library, the prince dragged Flawed Jade into an alcove and thrust his mouth onto hers. The two began to caress, Jade’s gem hooves trailing through Shining’s mane, and Shining’s hooves on her sparkling flanks.
Jade could taste the fresh alcohol on Shining’s breath, as she always could when then engaged in their affairs.
After a quick moment, however, Jade pulled away.
“Shining, we can’t do this anymore,” Jade said, looking up at him. “I... the Crystal Heart is falling, and the Empire’s in trouble. I don’t want to be a part of that. Please, do back to Cadence, and love her! Reignite the love with her, and save us.”
Shining sighed. “Look, you knew what you were getting into when I proposed this fling—”
“No, I didn’t,” Flawed Jade spat. “I thought I would be getting to love a prince at long last; instead, I ended up just being his cheap thrill. You’re bored of her, you’ve told me this over and over again.”
“There’s love,” Shining attempted to reassure her. “I mean, if there wasn’t—”
“There’s a love for the adventure,” Flawed Jade said, her eyes downcast. “There’s a love for the thrill, the exoticness of you’re affair. You’ve told me how you wished your wife would do something, ANYTHING to deviate from the normal. That’s why you love this experience so much, isn’t it, Prince Shining Armor?”
Shining was about to retort, before the door busted open. Amethyst Pages stood there, looking at them, standing in the alcove.
“Um, pardon me, Prince,” she said, looking at the two of them. “But a guard sent me in. There’s a bit of an issue.”
“What sort of issue?” Shining said, absently smoothing down his disheveled mane, swaying slightly as he did so.
Amethyst Pages swallowed hard. “Windego.”
***
Shining Armor stood around the pedestal where the Crystal Heart faintly flickered, with a small troop of his respected generals, Amethyst Pages, the captain of the guard, and Princess Cadence.
“What the hell’s going on?” Shining demanded, turning to the captain of the guard.
“Well...” the stallion said, glancing to the side. “The winds have picked up, and the flurries are advancing through the city, and ponies have been catching glances of dark shapes in the outer snowstorms. We sent a troop out, and they were confirmed to be windego.”
Shining groaned, holding his head. “Well, is there anything we can do? How’re the shields holding up?”
“Not good at all. They’re kept at bay momentarily, but... the snowstorms are fierce as all hell.”
The windows of the palace all shattered inward, and snow began to pour into the palace, biting winds slicing into the skins of the ponies inside. A few of the staff nearby screamed, and Amethyst Pages sunk to the ground, cowering.
“How’re the civilians doing?” Shining shouted at the guards, who all glanced at each other nervously.
“We couldn’t get through the streets,” the captain said, his voice wavering a bit. “We tried to issue a warning, but... the snowstorms rolled in at such a sudden and furious pace that there really wasn’t enough time.”
Shining looked over at Cadence, who was staring at the floor, a tear in one of her eyes. Walking over to her, he set a hoof on her shoulder.
“Hey,” he said, a buffet of snow swirling between them for a moment. “You alright?”
She looked up at him. “Why are the shields failing, Shining?”
Shining stared at her, the room suddenly becoming much colder.
“Because I know my magic isn’t failing.”
Shining swallowed hard.
“And I sure know it isn’t because I love you any less then I did the day I met you.”
Shining removed his hoof from her, and set it gently on the floor, which was coated in a growing layer of snow. “I...”
Cadence looked up at her prince, and sighed softly. “Shining, why didn’t you tell me before?”
“I tried to,” he said, the howling winds increasing as the snow piles through the room grew higher. Shivering, her talked through his chattering teeth as best he could. “I t-tried t-to t-tell you th-that I want-ted a more excit-ting relationship...”
Cadence looked around the room, the guards fighting their way through piles of snow, shouting things at each other. The generals were huddles together, and Amethyst Pages was nowhere to be seen. Shining bowed his head, and grit his teeth.
“Shining, we can’t blame this on anypony right now...” Cadence said, looking at her husband with pleading eyes. A horrible shriek could be heard from outside, and terrible shapes started to enter the room, causing the snowstorm inside to flicker.
“Windego...” Shining whispered. The terrible creatures flew across the room, settling on the generals, freezing them solid as they danced their awful dance.
“We don’t have much time,” Cadence said, looking over at Shining. “We have to reignite the spark of love, and power the shields up.”
“How do we do that?” Shining asked frantically, the snow now up to his stomach.
“A sincere announcement of our love should be enough,” Cadence said, looking at Shining, her tears frozen on her cheek. “You still love me, don’t you?”
“Of course,” Shining said, his voice shaking. “Of course.”
“Alright,” Cadence said, biting her lip. “I love you Shining Armor. I’ve loved you since I first met you; I loved how you laughed at almost everything I said, how you your ambition lead you to become a powerful leader, and how you are willing to put your family before anypony else.”
The Crystal Heart glowed bright for a moment, and the windego slunk backwards.
“And I...” Shining said, stuttering. “I... love you too.”
The Crystal Heart flickered for a moment, then died.
“Is that all?” Cadence asked.
Shining stared at Cadence as the windego crept closer, the snow piling higher as everything else froze around him.
