Magic Paint Brushes 3: This Ice Life...

by Ugly-Duckling123

Chapter 6

"NO!" Suzy screamed looking around and swinging the axe cursing in Changelingese meaning she was really ticked off.

After a bit she just sank to the ground tears running down her face.

"You... Alright Suzy?" Fluttershy asked carefully coming up to Suzy and checking she was alright.

"No..." the old Changeling said sniffing hugging the snowbaby who had come to comfort her as well.

"You know who that pony was, don't you?" Applejack asked as she helped to get Eric down.

"Yes," she said growling slightly "And by Insectava's rule... He will pay for taking Jack away from me..."

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Up on the highest Crystal Mountain, Jack was staring up at the ice palace with wonder and amazement.

"Hey get moving..." the pony who had just taken him from his friends said pushing Jack towards the stairs.

"Yeah like I'm going anywhere you tell me to go," Jack said hands tied behind his back and turning to look the pony in the eye.

Smiling, the pony's eyes began to glow green and Jack began to feel sleepy but only half his brain went to sleep (the sane half since the chaos half was too busy thinking up of pranks and ways to escape to pay attention to the pony in front of him).

"Now I repeat..." the pony said "Get moving."

Now knowing who this pony was, Jack tried to make it seem like he was hypnotized when he said "Yes Scarab," and slowly began to climb the stairs. With each step trying to think of ways to get out of here.

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"Wait Scarab..." Rainbow Dash asked after hearing Suzy's story "As in that lone Changeling from last time who didn't accept you for not wanting to be Queen?"

"No..." Suzy dragged on "I mean the sweet, kind, friendly Scarab who wouldn't hurt a fly... OF COURSE I MEAN THAT ONE YOU USELESS PEGASUS!"

"Whoa ok alright I was just making sure, no need to blow your top," Rainbow said backing off a bit.

"Um... Suzy?" Sarah said wondering remembering what Jack had said on the phone before they came here. "How long ago was the last time Jack got hurt back home?"

"A couple of weeks," Suzy said chomping on one of the giant cookies she asked Discord to zap up because she was hungry. "He was showing off some tricks at the skate park on his board and fell off it and sprained his ankle. Why?"

"I think... You might be pregnant..." Sarah said carefully stunning everyone.

"Well that will be a nice Christmas present for Jack then wont it?" Discord said cheerfully "Congratulations my dear..." he said making a giant cake appear out of thin air and a rainbow spin around it in front of everyone

"Alright," Eric said pushing the background and cake out of the way. "Let's get back to trying to work out how to rescue Jack shall we?"

"Well first thing we need to know to do that, is where they could be," Twilight said getting out a map of Equestria.

"Oh that's easy..." Discord said enjoying some of the cake with Pinkie. "All you have to do is head to the Crystal Mountains and look for the palace he made when he came here 5000 years ago," he said receiving silence from the room. Looking up he asked "What?"

"You know about this guy?" Applejack asked the question the six were all thinking since Sarah, Eric, Suzy and the Princess' know already.

"Well how else was I suppose to be able to tell you what's going on when you lot came here?" he asked zapping up a very old school year book.

After flicking through the dusty pages, he found what he was looking for.

"Here we are..." he said showing everyone a very younger Discord, a centaur will bull horns and red skin, a being with dragon wings and tail who had a medallion around his neck, and a looking the same if just a tiny bit younger Winter.

"The four of us, Winter, Tirek, Scorpan and me," Discord began "Were the best of friends way back when this picture was taken of one of the last few weeks of school.
We were... Not the best behaved students for our teachers, meaning we kept getting detentions which is how we met and got to know each other.
Anyway, as the year was coming to a close we were all wondering on what we could do.
One day me and Winter were out exploring, Tirek and Scorpan were being shunned by their father again, when we found the gate way between our world and this one," he carried on clicking the button on the slide projector that had some how appeared and taken over the book and following Discords story.

"Being the young fools we were, we decided to see what it was like on the other side.
We came up on the top of the Crystal Mountains, went exploring for a few hours... caused some havoc... you get the idea... Anyway when we wanted to go back home however... We couldn't find the gate.

Long story short, we had an argument, split up, I went off to find somewhere warmer, and Winter built this..." Discord said clicking the last slide up showing everyone a magnificent two floor ice palace with a balcony on it.

"So that's where you'll find Jack," he said packing everything up, and zapping up rescue/survival packs giving thick hooded coat and snow boots for everyone, except himself and the princesses "Good luck."

"Whoa whoa whoa..." Eric said stepping forward "Aren't you coming as well Discord?" he asked "You know to rescue your Student of Chaos and all that."

"Nope," Discord said firmly.

"But we would need someone to lead us up that mountain," Suzy said backing Eric up not noticing the snowbaby climbing into her bag.

"No you wont, 'cause I'll place you right at the base of the staircase," he said back quickly snapping his talons before anyone else said anything and zapped them away.

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The next thing everyone knew, they were on the top of the highest Crystal Mountain looking up at the palace.

"Sweet Celestia..." Rarity said gawking at it.

"Now that's ice..." Eric muttered remembering all the tricks Jack did last time with ice and snow and how it wondered him.

"Well come on," Suzy said firmly gripping her axe "We didn't come here to look at it..." she said stepping forward placing a foot onto the bottom step.

Suddenly a few piles of snow moved revealing a very big, very annoyed that his nap had been disturbed snowman.

Jumping back just in time but landing in the snow, Suzy tried to find a way past the snowman, getting an idea. "Ok..." she said being helped back up by Sarah. "Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Eric and Pinkie, you guys distract Him," she said nodding to the snowman "And lead him away from the staircase so the rest of up can get in. But don't be killed by him."

"The rest of us go in and find Jack, when we do we'll come out either from the door, or the balcony to meet back up so we can go home." she said quietly so the snowman couldn't hear her.

Nodding those going into the castle slowly stepped back keeping their eyes on the snowman and to the sides.

"Hey Snowman..." Rainbow called out getting the beings attention throwing a snowball at him which had little effect except making him mad and making him form icy armor all over himself, that image being very familiar to the 'going inside' ponies who weren't running away too preoccupied with that then to look.

Quickly, Suzy, Sarah, Rarity, Fluttershy and Twilight, began to carefully rush up the stairs through the doors.

***
Inside everyone was amazed by what they saw. Everything was made of ice. The walls, the furniture, the artwork, there was even a fountain in the back of the foray the was frozen into place.

"Ok... so where do we start?" Sarah asked after a bit walking forwards not looking where she was going stepping on something that made alarms sound and mechanizes to come out.

Quickly Suzy held up her hands and made a bubble of protection around the everyone her Changeling speed beating Twilight and Sarah's reaction time by a long way.

After the last shot was done, and ten seconds more just in case, Suzy dropped the bubble.

"We can start by not drawing attention to ourselves by tripping the traps," she said glaring slightly. "And then..." she said pausing to get a feel of the place "We go that way, to find Jack," she said pointing to the left "and that way to find Scarab and I'm guessing Winter too I can't feel him so it's just a hunch."

"Ok, Suzy, Rarity and Fluttershy you go find Jack," Sarah said deciding the best splitting up forms. "While Twilight and me go and find Scarab and Winter."

"Be sure to leave me something of Scarab to beat up once this is all over," Suzy said before they split up grinning slightly an angry look on her face.
***
In the throne room Winter was looking through the mirror on the wall and smiled.

"So they are here," he said "I thought the boys snowman was just getting bored, oh well... Let the game begin. Scarab you know what to do." he said to the Changeling to the side of the hall.

Nodding and bowing, Scarab silently left to play out Winters plan to get Jack to hand over the magic he stole...

Capture his friends, use them like hostages, and get him to corporate. By any means necessary...

Author's Note:

Insectiva = First Changeling - Changeling Goddess