Chapter 118: The Shifting Snow

Prince Blueblood shook the snow off his body as he stood near the northern border of Equestria, staring at the wide-open square in front of his eyes. Watching the snow pile on top of the roofs places over the benches, painting the concrete tiles of the floor with dots of white.

"How much did this place cost to build?" Starlight Glimmer asked him, her black suit covered by an oversized winter coat, one she refused to return to its rightful owner. Her eyes focused on the bronze statue sitting in the middle of the fountain built into the middle of the square.

The statue depicted a Unicorn and a Yak sitting in front of one another. Mugs of an undisclosed liquid sat before them as the two cheered in merriment, their joy and camaraderie depicted for all to see in the bronze symbol of their friendship.

"The Square?" Blueblood repeated the question, "Only twelve Million, Give or take." He shook his head to drop the snow off of it, his front legs still holding on to the walking stick he was given after the Changeling attack on Canterlot.

"I can walk just fine, I don't need this!" She remembered him yelling angrily, only to quiet down and promise to keep the stick for another week once Princess Celestia caught him trying to walk without it.

"If you're talking about the entire project, Closer to two hundred and thirty million." Blueblood's nonchalant answer almost caused Starlight to miss the amount he gave, "From the raw materials I had to ship over from Caninia, to the construction of the train track itself, to the employees who I've trained to work this train, to the many new stations I had to build all over the new North-Equestrian-Royal-Railroad, that's the name of the railroad by the way, this train is not for royals only." He told her, "It should be open to the public by the end of April, and with it, the Pony-Yak Railway should be officially complete."

"...Did you say two-hundred and thirty million?" Starlight repeated hoarsely as she turned to look at her best friend and boss as if he just told her he used liquid gold to flush his toilet.

"Do you have a hearing problem? Do we need to get you to a doctor, Starlight?" Blueblood raised an eyebrow as he looked at her from the corner of his eye, "Never mind all of this, it's the inside of the place that really matters, let's go!" Blueblood tapped his cane on the floor beside him as he started walking, making Starlight follow after him as the two walked past the open square and entered the train station on the other side.

Starlight watched many ponies wearing BBF-branded uniforms walk around the station, checking the walls and corners, testing the pipes and sinks of the bathrooms, and measuring the distance between the benches and the railway itself.

They were like a swarm of bees, all working like a machine in order to make sure nothing was wrong with the station.

"Welcome, Starlight Glimmer, to Rutherford Station!"

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In the far northern nation of Yakyakistan, Prince Rutherford let out a hearty laugh as he read the letter before him, "Then our station be named Blueblood Station! Hahahahaha!"

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Deep inside the Everfree Forest, in the Deer Kingdom of Thicket, a certain Pony was sitting in a surprisingly comfortable prison cell, spending her sentence listening to the birds singing outside of the small room she sat locked in.

"Hey, Pony, You've got a visitor, Stand up." Gloriosa Daisy let out a yawn and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she stood up and faced the wall, waiting patiently as the deer unlocked the door before being given permission to walk out.

She was already used to this by now, Some Deer came to visit her, mostly guards asking about how she got her hands on the Heart, or curious researchers who never got the privilege of leaving the forest's borders.

As she walked into the nearby room, where she was sat in front of a screen of magical see-through sap that acted as the Deer's answer to Glass, she watched the door on the other side of the screen open up, revealing that same Deer that kept questioning her about the security of the castle, about that other deer who helped her, about why she did what she has.

Portunes sat on the other side of the screen, stared at the prisoner through the plane of sap, and started asking the same questions he asked each time he visited the Pony.

"Do you regret what you did?" He asked the first question, already knowing what the answer she will give was going to be.

After all, they both had this song and dance twice a week.

"I regret that I could not save my camp," Gloriosa Daisy neutrally told the Deer Captain, calmly staring into his eyes, fully knowing what answers she would give him before he even asked his questions.

"But do you regret trying to steal the Heart of the Everfree?" Portunes asked, watching with a slight tinge of annoyance as the pony mouthed the question as he spoke it, mocking him for still asking the same questions over and over expecting a different response.

And even though Portunes was annoyed with the Pony, he could not hate her. He could not support her reasoning in the slightest, she still is a selfish and greedy criminal who risked the lives of hundreds for her own selfish exploit.

But she did force his King to actually act like a King for the first time in decades. Even if he is only meeting the bare minimum of being a King.

"I do not. I did it to save my camp-" Now it was Portunes's turn to mouth the words as if the two were reading from a script, "I would do anything for my camp."

Portunes sighed tiredly as let the guards walk back in and take Gloriosa Daisy back into her cell, noting in a small notebook that no change has been found, and that the Prisoner does not regret her actions.

All the Deer Captain could do now was hope his King would finally locate Platinum Manor so he could finally do something else with his time.

"Why is he even using those old maps?" Portunes thought to himself as he walked out of the Prison, "The Forest has changed so much in these thousand years, The town he's looking at is mostly debris and ruins, and that's not counting whatever Magic this Pony of Shadows fellow has placed on the building..." He shook his head as he made his way back to the Castle, watching with no small amount of awe as the giant tree that acted as the Royal Castle could be seen actively growing in front of his eyes.

The process was slow, there were still a lot of rooms and walls that needed to be replaced, but seeing the tree grow at a visible pace was still a wonder to his eyes.

"Magic... What a truly wonderful thing..."

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Deep below the tundra, in a cage of crystal beneath the vast expanse of snow that stood between Equestria and Yakyakistan, a phantom banged on the walls of his cage.

His red horn burned with fury as he seethed and fumed, the words leaving his lips barely more than the wild howling of a beast, starved and mad, the few words that could be understood leaving his mouth could be described as the raving of a wrathful spirit.

He screamed about revenge that he shall never achieve, about a girl who he could never love, about a crime that should not have been, about the princess whose existence was a stain on the planet, about the whispers and touches of invisible pests, and most of all-

He screamed about Love.

"AMORE!!!!!!!!!!" His eyes were pinpricks, his body in a state of magically shifting between solid and gas, his entire focus being placed on the mocking timer that ticked away just out of reach, taunting him with the knowledge of his stay in this prison of ice and snow.

He growled and gnashed his teeth, his screams seeming to grow more and more feral as he watched the clock tick down.

3

His hoofs banged on the crystal walls, as if in an attempt to hasten the count.

2

His teeth chipped under the strength of his gnashing, turning into smoke as his body magically repaired itself in its constant shifting between the states of matter.

1

He screamed, a mixture of excitement, anger, and the indescribable primal feeling that all living beings experience.

0

For the briefest of moments, everything was calm.

He was not angry, His body was not in constant flux, His mind cleared from all noise, his words turned intelligible.

His very being seemed to enter a state of enlightenment, a euphoric release one thousand years in the making.

For but a single moment, no longer than a few seconds, the phantom remembered who he was, what he was here to do, why he was placed in this cage, all he knew became clear.

And then the crystal walls around him shattered, and with them so did the serenity.

Once more, he was barely more than a phantom, a mad and greedy being who was little more than a raging beast.

And with the freedom now given to him, King Sombra of the Crystal Empire left his cage for the first time in over one thousand years.

"AMOREEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

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Outside of Equestria's borders, inside a long-abandoned castle, a Queen cackled loudly, proud of the new plan she had concocted to fulfill her ultimate goal.

It was an outlandish plan, one so outlandish no sane person would risk placing their bets on it.

It was the perfect plan for someone like her.

And so she told her minions what her plan was.

"Your Majesty! This- This plan requires all the pieces to fall into place in time for one specific hour that only comes by every three thousand years!" One of her bug-eyed followers exclaimed.

So she drained all the love he had in his body, unhinging her jaw like a snake in order to let the magical pink mist enter her mouth, watching as his body shriveled like an empty water bottle that kept being sucked on, leaving him as nothing more than an empty husk, broken and unmoving.

How dare he question her. She was going to be perfect, her plan would make her perfect, therefore the plan itself was perfect. Perfection had no flaws. Therefore the plan had no flaws.

She ignored the rest of her minions, the fear that flooded out of their small bodies was none of her concern.

She had Thirty-six days, Seventeen hours, and forty-two minutes before her plan could come to fruition.

Before she would finally become Perfection Itself.