As Flurry soared through the darkened streets of her kingdom, bobbing and weaving through onslaughts of the risen shadows and chasing after the strange creature, she felt a great deal of regret having to leave them for a glimmer of hope she knew she was gambling on. The only way she could absolve herself was to blast anyway shadows along the way, especially those that threatened her subjects, having to abandon her dress as it was holding her back. She noticed some table of food that hadn’t been spoiled by Sombra’s magic, and picked up the first bag she saw to store them in for the road ahead. All she managed to nab was five apples.
The creature itself was too making quick work of any shadows in its way. Flurry found herself utterly astounded by its ability to move with such speed and agility, and its dexterity with its horn. Whatever this being was, it was a gift from the high heavens right now, and it was for some reason leading Flurry away from what she needed to do most- defeat Sombra, even though it fully demonstrated it could do so itself.
She finally caught up to it out in the ice fields beyond the magical border of the Crystal Empire. She casted a heating spell to keep herself from freezing to death in the frigid blizzard, and the creature was out there patiently waiting for her, plate in paw. She panted and glared at it with frustration. “Why are you taking me away from my kingdom when it needs me the most? What’s at Mt. Everhoof that’s so important that it can’t wait until we take down Sombra!?” She demanded.
The creature just looked back at the fabled mountain, and then back at her. “…sol…”
Flurry sighed. “Please…. Just tell me. I have to know.”
“Ab…. Absol.” It said.
“You…can’t really say much else than that, can you?” Flurry asked. It shook its head. “Ok then…. I don’t know what ‘Absol’ is supposed to mean, but…..can I just call you that until I know what you are?”
The creature perked up as if she had guessed something correctly. “Sol! Sol- Absol!”
It was then that Flurry caught on. “Oh! So ‘Absol’ is your name!” It nodded with an approving smile. “Alright then, Absol, I still don’t know why you’re taking me to Everhoof, but it’s pretty obvious that you’re an intelligent creature and on our side.”
Absol nodded. “Absol.” It said. Flurry giggled, thinking it was oddly cute how it said its own name.
Flurry opted not to ask about its abilities or the pink stone it had, or for that matter, how it made use of the power it held; Absol could only say its name, so getting an explanation out of it would probably be like pulling teeth. It seemed unbothered by the freezing weather, probably because of its thick coat, which Flurry was happy to observe. They hastily made their way to the mountain, but not so quickly that they’d tire themselves out in the raging blizzard. Absol kept a good few feet in front of Flurry, occasionally looking back to make sure they weren’t being pursued by Sombra’s shadows, as was Flurry.
At some point, Absol stopped Flurry when they reached a large, lone hunk of ice laying in the icy land, covered in a blanket of snow and frost. “Sol…”
“Huh? I thought we were going to Mt. Everhoof.” Flurry said. Absol looked at the ice and assaulted it with its amazing speed, causing the blanket of snow to fall off. “<GASP!!> WHAT IN THE WORLD!?!?”
Sealed deep within the ice was an enormous, monstrous creature that looked something like a dragon, buts its wings were frozen over and spiked at the tips. Its arms and hands were tiny compared to the rest of its seemingly already frozen body, and its head seemed to have some sort of icy armor frozen over some of it, not crossing over its soulless yellow eyes. It was the tail that was the truly bizarre part about it; it looked like an ironer with three prongs jutting out of each of the corners, as if it could be inserted into something. Flurry could sense that it wasn’t just some prehistoric animal fossilized in ice- it was alive, but dormant and in a very deep slumber.
“Absol, what is this thing!?!?” Flurry pled, having no idea that such a dangerous looking creature existed so close to her kingdom.
Absol just smiled and put its paw on her hoof, as if to assure her that all was going to be well. “Absol…”
Flurry found herself moved by the gesture, and looking into its eyes could tell that it was being completely sincere. She smiled and nodded at it. “Ok…” They resumed their trek through the Frozen North, but Flurry couldn’t help but to take one more look back at the frozen monster, wondering what it meant to Absol and how it might come into play.
*****
At last, they reached the foot of the mountain. Seeing up close for the first time, Flurry found herself….intimidated, as if she could feel the mountain itself sizing her up for some reason. She almost felt as if she being told that she didn’t belong there, but Absol brought her here for a reason, and whatever reason that might be, she had to have faith that it would help defeat Sombra. She gulped. “O-O-OK….Guess we better…..start c-climbing….”
“Sol…” Absol ran over to a part of the mountain that looked as though it was a cave entrance. Flurry followed it and sure enough, there was a path leading inside.
“Oh! Are we going through here?” Flurry asked. Absol nodded and led her inside.
As she ventured further in, Flurry began to feel the presence of a magnetic field, which wasn’t too surprising considering what the mineral content could be around her. What was a little surprising was just how much warmer it was getting the deeper they went. After a moment or so, they reached a large chamber that had a few bodies of water surrounded by mounds of stone. There wasn’t a clear path forward, but Flurry was curious about this place now that she knew it didn’t seem quite to desolate.
Absol led her up and over the rugged terrain and to a sheer rock wall that was only about fifteen feet high, but there was a ledge that one could stand on, and Absol jumped up there without issue. Flurry just flew up there. Walking around the corner, she was surprised to find a staircase carved from the stone! “<Gasp!>” Wherever she was, she had stumbled upon some remnants of an old civilization. Sunburst would have had a fit. She kept her horn lit as she walked up the flight of stairs with Absol, and when they reached the top, they again came into another chamber, but without any little lakes. Instead, there were a couple of partially broken down wooden bridges that spanned over some long gaps between rocky cliffs. She and Absol easily navigated through the room, but what they finally came to was an even bigger surprise.
“Oh, wow!” Flurry gazed in awe as before her was a painting made into a section of the wall. It depicted three beings in a triangular formation around some red circle that she couldn’t quite interpret. The beings themselves looked like short primate-like creatures with two tails and were just floating there. She then noticed that the wall it was painted on was actually a wall made of gold-colored bricks. “What’s this, Absol?”
“Sol.” Was all it could answer. It then looked out into the chamber they’d just traversed. “Absol!” It was obviously calling out to something, but Flurry had no idea what.
She then heard a sound that sounded like a low bell ringing, and she felt something approaching. “Zoooongggg….”
When she followed her ears, she was startled to see a bizarre entity floating towards them. It looked like an iron bell with arm-like appendages growing from the top of its head, and it had patterns on its ‘face’ that made it seems as though it really did have a face, eyes and mouth included. “Whoa.” She said, keeping her guard up around the strange being.
Absol seemed to ask the bizarre being something, but the bell’s attention was on Flurry. It looked at her curiously with its eyes that would have seemed dead if not for the life-like light that emitted from them. “Umm…. H-Hi there….” She nervously smiled at it.
“Ab…” Absol seemed to be telling the bell that she was its friend and not something to worry about, but the bell eyed Flurry again, still unsure of what to make of her.
Flurry then remembered the bag of apples she had and pulled one out. “W-Want one?” she stammered.
The bell examined the apple for a second before realizing what it was. “Bronzong….” It suddenly glowed a bluish aura all around, and the apple levitated right out of Flurry’s hoof, surprising her. Even more to her surprise, it actually opened its ‘mouth’ and consumed the apple, chewing it before swallowing the whole thing. As if to express its satisfaction, the bell let out a calming ring that put Flurry a little more at ease. It then faced the mural. “Brooooonzooooonnnggg….” It again alit with that mysterious aura, but this time, it caused the bricks in the mural to open apart like a double door!
“<Gasp!>” Flurry was being surprised every second, and she wasn’t sure whether to be amazed or terrified, or even both. “Holy hayseed…” If anypony had explored this place in ages past, they surely would have recorded at least this much about it. She had barely even entered this place, and she could already gain a huge sense of mystery from within its walls. She came back to her senses when Absol called for her, and the two went through the opened way. “Thank you!” she said to the apparently psychic bell. The bell rang once more and closed the way behind them.
*****
They once again found themselves in a tunnel, but for a longer while this time, and it was much more lively. Floating around them in great numbers were weird looking bats that didn’t appear to have eyes, but had long legs without feet; a few of them had bodies that were almost entirely opened mouths, which was pretty frightening. Even stranger were rocks and boulders with faces and limbs! Some only had a pair of arms while others stood on two feet and had four arms. There was even another variety that stood on two stubby legs, had a navy blue body with a large red rock in its face that resembled a nose. They all seemed to eye her the way the bell did, but her company of Absol was likely what was keeping them from getting hostile.
The two came to an exit out into an outer area of the mountain. The snow fell like grains of rice being poured from the sky, forcing Flurry to cover herself with her wings while keeping her heat spell active. She happened to look down the mountain to see Sombra’s darkness clouding over the Crystal Empire, further encouraging her to keep going. Absol was of course largely unbothered by the heavy snowfall, but he slowed down so as to let Flurry follow more easily.
Sometime into their hike, Absol led her into a flat area of the mountain that had a few trees that was surrounded by cliffs. It stopped to take a moment to stretch its body, likely exhausted from the hike up. Flurry couldn’t help but think it was kind of cute, as it reminded her of how Pound sometimes did after a long day of baking whenever she visited Ponyville. “I’ve got a few more apples in my bag if you’re hungry.”
Absol perked up upon hearing that. “Ab?”
Flurry reached into her bag and pulled one out for her escort and handed it to him. “Here you go.”
Absol let the apple drop to its paws, but instead of immediately digging in, it tossed the apple to about eye level and used its scythe horn to slice it into two equal halves. “Sol!” It lightly kicked one of the halves to Flurry’s hooves.
“Oh! Thank you, Absol.” She picked up the other half with her horn and was about to chow down when something jumped out of the trees and snow-covered brush.
“BOMAAAAAA!!!!” Whatever it was came out and slammed its huge glowing green fist between them. They managed to hang onto their apple slices as they jumped away, but Flurry was horrified at what she saw. It could be described as a yeti that was somehow a mobile plant and not an animal, indicated by its apparently tree branch-like limbs along with clusters of pine needles covering its body that likely served as its fur. “SNOOOOOWWWW!!!!” it roared.
Flurry was flustered. First a psychic bell, sentient rocks, bizarre-looking bats, and now an animalistic frost tree? What kind of place was this? Even Equestria’s ecosystems weren’t known to be home to crazy life forms like these! “WHA!?”
Absol jumped between her and the tree monster. “ABSOL!” It seemed to be trying to command the monster to stop rather than stand ready to fight it, but the berserk tree wouldn’t heed it. It roared as it slammed its fists onto the ground which caused columns of ice to erupt from the ground one by one quickly towards Absol. Absol’s body suddenly sheened a clear-colored aura just before it dodged the ice pillars with its imperceptible speed, leaving a white streak in its wake. It then charged the ice monster, crashing itself into the beast’s face, which barely even caused it to nearly fall over. Absol used its momentum to backflip off of the monster and charge its horn with the same wind power Flurry had observed before. “AAAAAAAAB-SOL!!!!!!” It threw from its horn a sharp-looking gale that Flurry recognized as the same wind that freed her from Sombra’s chains.
The tree monster covered its body to shield itself from the wind, and its weight kept it from being toppled over by the forceful gale. It took that opportunity to charge its own energy at its mouth. It formed a green energy ball at its lips and violently vomited it towards Absol. “BOMAAAAASNOOOOOOW!!!!!!” It had managed to catch Absol off guard as it was still holding its focus on its razor wind technique, and it couldn’t put up an immediate defense.
“SOL!!” Absol went flying back upon being hit by the forceful direct blast and tumbled to the snow-covered ground in a heap.
“ABSOL!” Flurry exclaimed. She faced the tree monster and glared. “HOW DARE YOU HURT MY FRIEND!” She fired a blast of magic at it just before it could slam its fists on the ground to attack again. It hit with such force that it came close to knocking the beast over, prompting it to glare over at her. She was internally quite frightened to be combatting a completely unknown monster, but she wasn’t about to abandon Absol. “Come and get me!” she hissed.
The ice monster fell for the taunt and turned its undivided attention to Flurry. It inhaled a large volume of air and exhaled chunks of ice about the size of basketballs. “SNOOOOOWWWW!!!!!” Flurry quickly erected a magic shield that blocked the ice shards, and she blasted it forward to try and topple it over, which nearly worked if not for that fact that it was really skilled at regaining its balance. As it flailed it arms from trying not to fall on its back, Flurry took the opportunity to charge towards it with her horn pointed forward and ready to strike it, but it corrected itself more quickly than she thought, and it forcefully smacked her with a glowing green fist.
“AIIEE!!!” Flurry felt as though she had been hit with a whole tree, and she crashed into the ground like meteor, snow scattering everywhere. “Ugggghhhh….” She struggled to lift her head up to look at the monster, and her heart started racing when she saw it towering right above her, roaring like a predator ready to strike the final blow, which it was about to. It sent its glowing fist down towards her, and she closed her eyes.
“AB-SOL!!!” Absol suddenly parried the fist away with an energized slash from its horn, forcing the monster to cease its assault.
“Absol?” Flurry weakly said. Absol had a few bruises on its body, but it seemed unbothered by its injuries as it faced up at the tree monster. Before the beast could ready another strike, Absol flashed the pink stone slab at it, and it suddenly calmed down. It looked at the plate as if it was about to receive some punishment from it, but also seemed sort of…..amazed.
“Bomaaaa…” It bowed its head as if to apologize and gently helped Flurry to her hooves; it even brushed the snow off of her coat. “Snoooowwww…..”
Flurry used a healing spell to fix herself and Absol up before looking up at their former attacker. It seemed genuinely remorseful of its actions. “We scared you, didn’t we? You must live here.”
It nodded. “Abomasnow….” It muttered.
Flurry reached into her bag and pulled out another apple. “Here. Hungry?” The frost tree gently grabbed the small fruit with its big hand and munched on it, obviously enjoying it. It let out a satisfied roar as if to thank her, and she giggled. “Oh! You didn’t get yours, did you, Absol?” She noticed that their initial apple halves were on the ground and dirty, so she pulled out another one and asked Absol to cut it in half, which he did. She and her bizarre friend happily enjoyed their food, and she could feel a friendly warmth building between them.
“Absol…” It rested its head under her neck, and she gently stroked its coat. Its fur was soft and silky, and it radiated a strange warmth that probably came from the odd powers it possessed.
It started lightly nuzzling her, and she started laughing heartily. “HEEHEEHEEHEE! Absol, that tickles!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!” It stopped and lifted its head away, and she calmed down. The frost tree monster then motioned for them to follow, quite business-like as Flurry noticed and they complied.