*Chapter 8*

The Princess of Saba

** I need a wonder not a dream

a moment in reality.

Goodbye my friend I'm leaving soon

for the mountains of the moon

Until the end I'll be sad and blue

Crying over you**

-Olumpos Mons- The Princess of Saba

...

Summer Blaze took his first few tentative steps into the city of Saba. He was surrounded by towering buildings, all made of solid bronze that shone in the light given off by the mysterious sun in the blue sky. While his surroundings were beautiful to be sure, Blaze couldn't shake the suspicion that something was missing. He couldn't quite put a hoof on it... but that's when Fairweather spoke up. "Where are all the ponies?"

Now he could see it. The market they were walking through looked as though it were set up for business, although there was nopony to do said business. Their hoofsteps echoed ominously on the hard-packed dirt road as they followed Winterbrave through the market.

Blaze's eyes again drifted up to the yellow sun burning in the sky. Just how was that possible? Was Saba somehow separate from the rest of Equestria? Did this place have it's own sun, not presided over by an Equestrian ruler? He turned to ask Mirrorrim if she knew anything about the phenomenon at all. She was walking along just a little ways behind the group; her eyes were set determinedly, and somehow sightlessly ahead. She seemed entirely unaware that Blaze was trying to get her attention. Blaze abandoned the effort.

Summer Dusk's head was turning to and fro as she took in the magnificence of the bronze city. "This city is beautiful, Blaze!" she chirped. "But why is it so empty..."

"I don't know, Dusk," Blaze answered. "Maybe it's like Ivy said and all the ponies' sleep cycles have been affected by the loss of the sun. But this place doesn't seem to make any sense; how is the sun still shining here?"

"Maybe we're not even in Equestria anymore," Fairweather said, joining the conversation. "We are in city unseen by most of ponykind since Celestia only knows when."

"Winterbrave could probably tell us," Blaze said. "I'd sure like you to know where the heck he's leading us."

"I'm taking you to see the princess," Winterbrave said, perfectly on que.

Blaze couldn't suppress the suspicion that he had heard every word they've been saying this whole time, despite walking some little ways ahead of them. "And incidentally; we have arrived."

The ponies were in the courtyard of a splendid towering castle. Like the numerous buildings that surrounded it, the castle itself was made of shining bronze. It was topped with many rooks that stretched seemingly on and on forever until they pierced the sky. "This is Saba castle, in case you haven't figured that out already," Winterbrave said snidely to the group.

"Yeah, something about it's castle-iness definitely gave it away," Nova Burst said in kind.

Winterbrave regarded him with a sneer. "I'd watch that tone of yours, foal. Once we are in the princess's court you had better not do anything to offend her. Her word is absolute, and anyone who speaks against her...let's just say they get treated rather coldly." Winterbrave trotted up the stairs and beckoned for the other ponies to follow. They did so, with a collective feeling of growing apprehension.

They entered a marvelous marble-walled chamber, hung with silk tapestries and laden with exquisite marble statues of fierce-looking ponies. Their hoofsteps were echoed over a thousand times on the spotless floor. Winterbrave was waiting for them on the other side of the chamber. He stood in front of an enormous set of oaken double doors. "Princess Fimbulvetr waits in her chambers beyond these doors." Winterbrave's speech pattern had become sternly and deathly serious. He had abandoned all pretense of obnoxious superiority, as though his words right here at this moment were the most important of his life, and he needed them to understand. "She has slumbered for over two thousand years in her wait for the return of the Elements of Harmony. If you ponies really are who you say you are..." he cast a furtive look to Mirrorrim, "...Then she will finally awaken again, and her work in watching over Equestria can continue."

Winterbrave focused his magic and the great double doors opened before them with an endless moan that reverberated throughout the chamber. Blaze wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he could have sworn the temperature just dropped by a few degrees. As Winterbrave led them inside the ornate chamber, Blaze's eyes adjusted to the sun-lit space. This room was even larger than the last; his house in Ponyville could have fit inside this place five times. There was a soft red carpet under his hooves that lead him and the others directly to the throne.

And when the group finally crossed the seemingly endless chamber, Blaze saw something there on the dais that stopped him cold in his tracks.

Before them was an enormous formation of ice. It hid the throne completely and nearly managed to reach the ceiling, which was some feat, as the ceiling was too high for Blaze to even see. Gazing into the crystalline depths of the ice, Blaze could see...no...it couldn't be... "Is that a pony in there?"

"I reckon you might be right, Blaze," Ivy Leagues said, staring in utter disbelief. There was indeed a pony encased inside this tomb of ice. Although none of them could make out any great detail about her, they were all sure that it was princess Fimbulvetr.

Winterbrave stopped just before the great mass of ice, and lowered his head to the floor in a stately bow. "Mother, I have brought to you the new bearers of the elements. And now they seek the guidance of your all-knowing wisdom."

"Mother?" Fairweather said.

"Holy hayseed, he's a prince," Ivy gasped.

"Yeah, well, that doesn't make him..." Nova Burst had began a wise-ass response to this particular revelation, but a sudden event had started before them, cutting off his speech.

The tomb of ice had started to break. Great branching spiderwebs of cracks had suddenly formed all along the structure. And then, in an intense explosion of force, the ice was broken altogether. The group of ponies instinctively flinched into protective stances, however, the myriad of broken ice shards never reached them. Princess Fimbulvetr was now free of her self-induced sub-zero slumber. The shards of her former ice tomb now floated about her body on a dazzling magical axis. Her eyes were closed as she maintained a deep focus and spun the shards of ice around her, faster and faster. And then the shards began to shape themselves around her body;they interlocked in a tight pattern around her torso, her flank, and down her legs, forming a glorious suit of icy armor. At last she spread her white wings and her transformation was complete.

Her coat was the same reflective hue of white as her son Winterbrave's; her eyes were a light, powder blue, but held all the fury of the winter itself. Her cutie mark was an aurora, with all the colors of the northern lights. And her long and magnificent horn was coated in ice, coming to a deathly sharp point. But most striking of all about her, was her mane and tail. They looked to be formed from the very vapor that your breath becomes as it is exposed to the harshness of frigid air; it flowed about her slim body in a forlornly fascinating pattern. This was Princess Fimbulvetr, in all her ice-cold glory.

She looked over the group of slightly frightened ponies before her with a but a single sweep of her icy eyes. "Two thousand years," she began in a deep and self-assured voice. "Two thousand years since I have seen those elements with my own eyes. And now their new bearers finally reveal themselves to me." She paused here, perhaps for a dramatic, (although un-needed) effect. "And in that time, these elements have been used to safeguard Equestria from a myriad of threats However, the greatest threat of all still looms..."

"You know about Nightmare Moon?" Blaze blurted out.

"How could one not?" Fimbulvetr responded, with but a trace of civility in her voice. "With Celestia, the sun's harbinger gone from the world, the tyrannical nightmare brings unrest to us all."

"But how could you know that?" Blaze said. Something inside him told him better than to challenge the knowledge of a two-thousand year old alicorn, but the question burst from his mouth before he could stop it.

"The sun shines over all of Equestria, foal, not just Ponyville."

"How does she know we're from Ponyville?" Fairweather whispered to the others. Nopony had an answer of course. Blaze chanced a look at Winterbrave. He stood just by his mother, erect and proud, and still as a statue. It was amazing that this powerful alicorn princess was his mother. But wait a second...if Fimbulvetr was his mother...and she was over two-thousand years old, how old was Winterbrave? If Fimbulvetr had indeed frozen herself in that mass of ice to preserve her lifespan, then what of him? Blaze snapped himself out of it; there were more important questions to be asked than a pony prince's age.

And then suddenly, seemingly in the first time since forever, Mirrorrim spoke up. "But your highness-"

"Who speaks out of line?" Fimbulvetr snapped. Her eyes locked on Mirrorrim, who was instantly startled into silence. Winterbrave looked at his mother reproachfully. "I will only hear from the bearers of my elements. The rest of you will hold your silence!" Suddenly, a thick shell of ice had started to overtake Mirrorrim's body. The others looked to her in horror. Blaze readied his magic, attempting to counteract the spell.

"Mother, please!" Winterbrave cried plaintively. "She didn't know!" he dashed in front Fimbulvetr, hoping to detract her ire away from Mirrorrim.

Fimbulvetr regarded her son before her. The look in his eyes was something she had never seen there before. There was fear, of course, but there was something else as well. Could it be...did he... care for this pony? "Very well, Winterbrave. She shall be spared, only at your request." The ice overtaking Mirrorrim's body was instantly thawed. Her fear-widened eyes looked to Winterbrave as he retreated back to his position by his mother's side.

Screwing up his courage, Blaze spoke in Mirrorrim's place. "What I think she wanted to say, your highness, was how the sun is shining here if it was taken away by Nightmare Moon?" Seeing as he had been allowed to speak thus far, Blaze couldn't see Fimbulvetr lashing out at him. Though he now resented her for attacking his friend, he was careful to keep that fact absent from his face and his voice.

"'Tis but a simple sun spell; an artifice devised to give the ponies of my realm at least some modicum of normality in this troubled time."

"Simple?" Blaze gasped. He looked through a nearby window to the yellow sphere casting light to this place. He could not even begin to fathom the complexity of a spell that could put an artificial sun in the sky.

"But enough of that," Fimbulvetr said. "There is much more important business at hoof here. As I have predicted, the moment that I have waited over two-thousand years for has finally arrived; the Elements of Harmony have returned to me. However, only three of you fall under my jurisdiction. Will my elements of laughter, kindness, and generosity please step forward." The ponies looked around at each other. While, of course they bore the elements, they all had no idea which element was which, or who represented them. "Alas, nopony understands which elements they are in command of," Fimbulvetr said. "Never the less, the determination can be made easily." Fimbulvetr cast her horn aglow with a light-blue aura. Blaze suddenly felt his elemental necklace pulling him gently, but inexorably forward. He found himself pulled just a few paces from the others along with Fairweather and Summer Dusk. "The elements of my making now stand before me," Fimbulvetr said.

She took the three ponies in her line of sight with a single sweep of her calculating eyes. Finally her sight locked on Blaze, "Unicorn," she said. "What is your name?"

Blaze straitened himself and tried to look as tall as he could, even though he felt incomparably small in the face of this ancient and powerful alicorn. "My name is Summer Blaze, your highness." at least his voice was steady as he spoke.

Fimbulvetr turned to the next in line. "And you, pegasus, what is your name?"

"My name is Fairweather, your majesty," she replied evenly.

And lastly, Fimbulvetr turned her attention to Dusk. "Earth pony, what is your name?"

Dusk couldn't even look Fimbulvetr in the eye. The poor filly was clearly terrified; her legs trembled as she stared at the ground. "M-my n-n-name..."

Blaze came to her rescue. "Please, your highness, her name is-"

Fimbulvetr silenced him by raising an ice-clad hoof. "The child will speak for herself," she said. She cast Dusk a withering glare.

The young pony managed to pull herself together long enough to sputter, "My name is S-Summer Dusk, your highness."

Fimbulvetr nodded. And then she turned to Blaze again. "Summer Blaze, " she began. "As of now you represent the element of generosity, but I ask you this; would you or would you not take it as your own responsibility to spread the trait of generosity to everypony you meet? So that they in turn would take to their own responsibilities in life?"

Blaze did not really understand what Fimbulvetr had just said, but he knew it was important to comply with. "Yes, your highness," he said.

"And so it shall be," Fimbulvetr said. Blaze found himself enveloped in a soft bubble of magic as Fimbulvetr turned to Fairweather. "Fairweather, as of now you represent the element of kindness, but I ask you this; if kindness is spread universally throughout Equestria, without prejudice or bias, would that or would that not create a spirit of unity among all living things?"

Fairweather nodded, "Yes, your majesty."

"And so it shall be." Fairweather was surrounded by the same magic bubble that Blaze was in. And lastly, Fimbulvetr turned to Dusk. "Summer Dusk," she said. "As of now you represent the element of laughter, but I ask you this; laughter is often said to be the language of the soul, any being who can laugh is said to have the quality of innocence within them. Is this or is this not true?"

Summer Dusk straitened herself and said, "Yes, your highness."

"And so it shall be," Fimbulvetr said. Her horn came alive with a magic more powerful than anything Blaze had ever felt before. The world was suddenly lost to him in rush of soundless color. Everything spun faster and faster, he could no longer tell if his body was his own as he twirled and tumbled through the air with Dusk and Fairweather. And just as quickly as the event began, it was over. Blaze was deposited gently back on his hooves as the world came back into focus. "Behold, the new Elements of Harmony!" Fimbulvetr cried mightily. "Summer Blaze, the element of responsibility; Fairweather, the element of unity; and Summer Dusk, the element of innocence! May these new elements serve their bearers well!"

Blaze could hardly believe his eyes. The jewel inside his necklace had changed shape. It now resembled his cutie mark; a round orange sun.

"Did...did we really do it?" Summer Dusk asked tentatively.

"We did!" Summer Blaze cried. Despite his elation, Blaze suddenly found it of a dire importance to thank princess Fimbulvetr properly. He bent his front legs and lowered his head nearly to the marble floor. Dusk and Fairweather followed his example. "We humbly thank you a million times, princess Fimbulvetr," he said. "Your elements will see to Equestria's salvation."

Fimbulvetr nodded. "I certainly hope so, Summer Blaze," she said gravely.

It was only after this moment that the rest of Blaze's friends closed in on them, in awe over their new Elements of Harmony. "Y'all really did it!" Ivy cried. "We're halfway there; Nightmare Moon ain't gonna know wut's comin' to 'er!"

"Yeah, just three more to go," Blaze said, looking at Ivy Leagues, Nova Burst, and Mirrorrim. "I guess we should be off now, the sooner the better." He turned and gave princess Fimbulvetr one last bow of gratitude. He offered the same gesture to Winterbrave, not forgetting that it was he who saved them from the Windigos and guided them across the Winter's Edge.

Winterbrave offered a curt nod to Summer Blaze as he watched the group of ponies turn to go. Just as the silver-haired unicorn cast him one last look as she slowly followed the rest, was when Winterbrave remembered something direly important. "Hold!" he shouted. They all stopped and turned at his voice. His eyes were locked on the beautiful white mare. It was only when she turned to leave that Winterbrave knew he could not stand to watch her go; to potentially leave from his life forever. And yet he still did not know her name. Even from here, across the chamber, he knew his voice would carry true. "What is your name?" he asked her.

The unicorn turned whole round to face him. It was as though Winterbrave's dire need for this information resonated within her mind, for she said slowly and purposefully, "My name is Mirrorrim."

"Mirrorrim..." Winterbrave sounded the name out slowly, tasting each letter. "I will remember it," he said.

"As I will remember you, Winterbrave," she said back.

It was too much.

His name on her lips had been his undoing. He hopped from the dais and galloped the length of the chamber towards her. And at last, after crossing such an interminable distance, his mouth met hers at full speed. The other ponies looked away, slightly embarrassed at the scene. Fairweather clapped her hooves together and cooed, "Awwww, I knew it! Love at first sight!"

Winterbrave finally came up for air, his own eyes locked on Mirror's beautiful one's as he ran a hoof through her lovely silver mane. He turned back to the princess then. "Mother, I wish to go with them," he said. "Their quest is most noble and I want to be a part of it's completion. And to also be there for Mirrorrim as well." Mirror's cheeks were flushed crimson as she cast Winterbrave a glowing look.

Fimbulvetr was silent for a moment before she said, " My son, that is something that you and I both know cannot happen. You are the guardian of the winter's edge, as long as any evil exists, there is potential for it to cross into our realm. You are the only thing that can ensure that doe not happen."

Winterbrave cast his head down. He knew of course that she would say that. He new the winter's edge was his only true home, ad no land away from it would ever be right for him. "If I could at least accompany her and her group back to their vessel..." surely she would allow that much?

Fimbulvetr simply nodded permission. Winterbrave turned to Mirrorrim and they set off together, just a few paces behind the others for a semblance of privacy in these fleeting moments he would have with her.

The trip back was short, much too short. In what felt like a blink of an eye, they had returned to the ponies' ship. The storm at the winter's edge had passed, leaving gleaming white snow drifts and a clear night sky in it's place. "C'mon y'all," Ivy said. "Let's give 'em a moment." The other ponies boarded the ship, leaving Winterbrave and Mirrorrim on the edge of the snowfield.

The night (even this cursed night as it was) was clear and beautiful, Mirrorrim thought. Only the presence of Winterbrave could have made it better. "I'm not cold anymore, Winterbrave," she said. She loved his name, the way it flowed around her tongue. Just saying it made her heart hammer in her chest.

"You will never be cold again, Mirrorrim," He said back. "You have mastered the winter's edge, as you have mastered my heart."

Mirrorrim looked into his clear glacial-blue eyes and was instantly lost in a world that she knew only Winterbrave could take her to. She leaned into him and kissed him gently. It was a sad and beautiful moment; one that lasted forever, but not long enough. Of all the things that Mirrorrim anticipated on their journey across Equestria, falling in love was the last of them. But as she already knew, life could not be predicted.

"Awwwww!" Fairweather mooned from the ship's bow.

Winterbrave pulled away from Mirror, "You're gonna have to not do that," he snapped at her peevishly. Mirrorrim giggled silently. He turned back to Mirror. "I'll wait for you," he said to her. "I know you will succeed on your quest, no matter how long it takes. And I'll be here, waiting for you to return to me."

Mirror felt her eyes begin to brim over with tears. "I love you, Winterbrave," she said.

"As I love you, Mirrorrim."

They shared a final kiss, and all too soon it was time for the group of six to disembark. Mirror climbed the gangway onto the deck as Fairweather powered on the Ponyvillian's engines. And as She stood on the bow, watching the ice field and the city of Saba grow steadily smaller, Winterbrave was already galloping hard back across the winter's edge; back to his home in the ice and snow.

*End of Chapter 8*

...

A/N:

Gawd Dayum I got fluffy at the end there, didn't I? Ah well, ponies fall in love too, what can be done. Anyway sorry for the gap between updates, I was kinda preoccupied by the whole debt ceiling crisis thing and the sixteen day song and dance that congress put us through, all just to repeat that bullshit come February...

But now that that's behind us (for now) no better thing to do than resume my fanfic, yay!

Okay, shout out time! I'd like to thank fanfiction user bathroomstahl for the fav, follow and sweet review. Thanks a bunch, buddy /)*

And for a recommendation, definitely read A Skip and a Dash by fanfiction user Miss pookie Fethers.

So that's all for now, thanks to any and all who gave my story a read, I'll see you all again soon.

-B.D. Skunkworks