Prologue

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Today was a relatively normal day in the town of Ponyville, but with the luck that the town has garnered over the past year, it probably won’t stay that way for long. So the ponies of the town were making the most of the peace and quiet as they could. And at the Golden Oak Library, the curator Twilight Sparkle—who became an alicorn a month ago—was peacefully reading a book in the library’s upstairs living quarters, same with her assistant Spike. But the young dragon wasn’t reading a comic this time around, instead he was reading an actual book, and from the unsured look on his face, he didn’t appear to be enjoying its contents.

There are many places within Equestria that are yet to be explored, or have unusual magical properties, or so full of mystery that no pony truly knows about them. for example, the Everfree Forest. Even when princess Celestia and her sister, as well as the Pillars of Light, lived in the forest in the old castle of the Two Sisters, the forest was still full of mystery and wonder. And despite the forest’s limited size, it always seems that its boundaries either shrinks or grows on a whim. This forest even had the master sorcerer, Star Swirl the Bearded, stumped in how the forests magical or paranormal properties work, same goes for the two princesses that used to rule within the forest in their youth.

But despite ponies not knowing the full capabilities of the Everfree, or what it entails. But what ponies do know about the forest, is that it home to a surprising amount of unusual creatures and monsters. From Timberwolves to Ursa Minors and Majors, Hydras, to Cragadiles, and many more creatures that are never seen anywhere else within Equestria’s boarders. Or even around the world of Equus.

However…no pony knows the real reason why the Everfree Forest is home to all of these unusual creatures. And the real reason is because the forest, is a dimensional hub, a focal point in where various points of different worlds align. And because of this, on occasion, anything that wonders into the focal point might end up crossing into the forest of Equus.

“There’s no way this is even possible.” Spike said after reading the section of the book he held in his claws.

“What’s not possible Spike?” Twilight asked as she looked away from her own book, as she lounges on the library’s couch.

“This book claims that the Everfree is some sort of…dimensional focal point…that connects our world to other worlds, and that’s why there are so many monsters the live in the forest” Spike then closed the book before placing it on the nearby table. “That can’t be true, can it?” the dragon asked his alicorn caretaker.

“I personally don’t think so. I’ve read that book you were reading, and several others on the Everfree, and there’s no tangible evidence that supports this theory.” Twilight then turned the page of her own book as she goes back to reading.

“So it’s just hogwash?” Spike asked.

“It’s possible, but considering that life tends to throw curveballs at us Spike, I wouldn’t be surprised if something as farfetched as that could be real.” Twilight said as she continued to read her book.

Shrugging his shoulders the little dragon grabbed the book, and headed back downstairs to return the book to its proper place. But as the dragon did so, he did think about what his caretaker/sister-figure said, in how life tends to through curveballs in their direction. And considering how Twilight was turned into alicorn a month ago, after a year of crazy adventures that happened to him and Twilight’s circle of friends. putting the matter aside the little dragon made his way back up to the living quarters of the library, and decided to fetch one of his comics to read to spend the afternoon.

~~~~~

Far out in the middle of nowhere, reaching high into the sky is a place called the Ancient Tower. Few know who or why this tower was crafted, but now the tower is abandon as well as partially coming apart. But the tower is not completely uninhabited. The tower is the sight, and stomping grounds for various types of monsters, from flying wyverns, elder dragons, and several other different varieties of monsters.

But one of the rarest monsters that visit the tower are the ones known as Kirin’s, elder dragons that resemble equines, with free flowing manes and tails with a long horn protruding from their forehead, that is also covered in dragon scales with three clawed digits on each foot. These majestic and yet aloof creatures also have the ability to not only produce lighting and electricity, but also seem to call them down from the heavens to strike down their foes, even on cloudless pristine sky. However, Kirin’s are not only masters of lightning and thunder, but these majestic equines also have another power, in the form of a sub-species called Oroshi Kirin. unlike their white scaled prime species, the sub-species are midnight blue in color with nearly blacken manes and tails, and instead of controlling lightning these kirins command the cold. Summoning clouds and mist of freezing cold air, pillars, and spikes of ice, even surrounding their horns in ice and snow creating massive blades of ice that can freeze their enemies, or outright demolish them.

And it is one of these majestic creatures that was on high of the Ancient Tower, with a party of four hunters trying to slay it.

High up on a platform within the tower, the air was cold and frigid, layers of frost covering almost every part of area. Accompanied by the occasional spikes or pillars of ice embedded or jutting out of the ground. in the midst of the chilling mist of the area, stood the icy phantom beast that is an Oroshi Kirin, baring small cuts and dents on its scaly hide. With four hunters baring different weapons, surrounding it, and trying to land clean precise blows onto the chilling monster.

“Your mine now!” a female hunter with a Hunting Bow cried out, as she fires a large arrow at the midnight equine. The arrow soared through the sky, skimming past the hunter with a Lance, before striking the ice phantom beast in the shoulder…bounding off the hard scales but also staggering the monster.

“Try this on for size!” the Lance user said as his weapon spiral with a vortex of pressurized wind surrounding it. “CORKSCREW…JAB!”

The Lance wielder planted himself firmly before the Oroshi Kirin, then thrusted his weapon into the monster, releasing a torrent of pressurized air that bored into the monster and due to its staggered state, was knocked down onto its side. Seizing the opportunity the rest of the party took the chance to land clean hits. The Hammer user of the group jumped high into the air, swing his weapon around before coming down like a mountain, slamming the head of his weapon onto the monsters tough scaled hide. Following up on the assault was the Long Sword wielder, swinging her weapon with such grace and pose, that the blade sparked with flames with each strike, ending with a fiery flurry as the hunter swung her weapon full circle before sheathing it.

“And now it’s my turn.” The Bow user said as she charged her arrow, the bladed tip glowing with a thin layer of white, that turned orange then red.

“Take this!” the hunter released her arrow that rocketed towards the monster, aiming to hit the monster right in the head. but the icy beast managed to get to its feet just before the arrow hit, swooshing right under its head, and striking the ground just a few feet behind it.

“AGH, come on! I had that shot!” the Bow hunter grumbled.

“Save the complaining for later.” The Long Sword user said as she darted in with a flourish sword strike, missing her own attack as the kirin hopped out of the way. “We have to kill this thing before it leaves, otherwise we won’t be able to track it.”

The group was then cut off from conversing with one another, as they saw mist quickly building up around their feet’s. All of the hunters dodged rolled away from their positions, before spikes of ice erupted from the ground, creating an icy patch several feet around them. but their respite was not over. The Oroshi whinnied with a passion, as it reared up onto its hind legs, horn swirling with cold winds, and bits of ice particles at nearly reaches well thirty feet into the air. Then with one downward swing of its head, the Oroshi slammed the swirling vortex of ice and frigid wind down onto the Lance, Bow and Hammer wielders, knocking the Bow and Lance wielders to the side. Their bodies covered in frost and ice chunks…while the Hammer user was frozen in place, with spears of ice puncturing through his body!

“Glenn’s down!” the Long Sword user called out, before realizing that the kirin was right before her, red eyes glowing as a cloud of frigid mist surrounded the pair.

“Clair look out!” the Lance user cried out, but was too late, as the mist detonated in frozen flash. Sending spikes of ice over a dozen foot radius, leaving a cloud of ice lingering over it, and frozen and impaled hunter in the center.

“Damn you monster!” the Bow user screamed as she fired three arrows at once, striking the monster in its side again, but it galloped off before another triple shot could hit it.

The monster then hopped about the battlefield, swinging its head around causing large pillars of ice to shoot out of the ground, knocking the Lance user away. Thankfully, the shield blocked the attack, so the hunter wasn’t severely pushed back. the Bow user tried to hit the prancing beast, but every time it looked like one of her arrows would hit, the damn monsters hopped in a different direction, or made a quick U-turn to just make the arrow miss. the hunter was about to launch another flurry of arrows, but had the dodge roll as large chunks of ice came barreling down at her from the sky, mist trailing behind them as they slammed and shattered into the ground, spreading more chunks of ice around the area. Recovering from the dodge the Bow hunter saw the monster galloping away, towards the edge of the towers platform they were on!

“Oh no you don’t!” the Hunter shouted as she fired more arrows, trying to gain the monsters attention, but the arrows either continued to miss or they just bounced off the armored flanks of the monster as it continued to run off.

“You’re not getting away!” The Lance user said as he sheathed his weapon, and ran after the monster, jumping off a small ledge and quickly drawing his weapon out before making a downward thrust! And with all the strength and weight put behind it, the head of the weapon punctured the stone ground…missing the monster as it leapt into the air…and started to scale down the tower.

“Damn it!” the Lance wielder said as he pulled his weapon out of the ground. “It got away.” The Bow user sheathed her weapon as she ‘tch.’

“No use crying over it, for now.” The hunter then pulled out her carving knife, and began to hack away at the ice encasing her fellow hunter. “Let’s try and see if Glenn and Clair can be saved before they die for real.” The other hunter sheathed his weapon, and quickly started to dig out Clair.

Down on a lower section of the Ancient Tower, scaling down its steep foundation, before reaching its lowest section and heading inside the structure. As the creature took a moment in collecting itself from the fight, the beast headed over to a small puddle of water, and took a few quick drinks before nibbling on some moss and vines clinging to the wall. Silently nibbling on the vegetation and drinking from the puddle, the Oroshi’s nose twitched, as an unusual smell slips past its nostrils. Smelling the air and now driven by its curiosity, the monster followed its nose to a different section of the area it was in, smelling crisp fresh forest air coming from the farthest corner of the chamber. But as the monster stepped ever closer to the corner, something happened to the monster.

Reaching the corner the Oroshi was surrounded by a near blinding white light, causing the monster to rear up on its hindlegs and whinny out in surprise. But before it could gallop off, the blinding light grew even more brighter, before an explosion of light filled the chamber and when it dissipated, the monster was gone! The kirin continued to flail about in place, bucking and sweeping its head about, as the light continued to shine around it. and as it continued to flail about, the monster felt its body feel, unusual.

To describe what the monster was feeling, its body was feeling as if it was changing, from its muscles stretching then shrinking, to its bones feeling they were being rolled and mended. It was a painful experience sure, but the changes to its body also caused an strange sense of euphoria to course through it, but the sense of pleasure was overshadowed by the pain. Thankfully, the strange experience ended rather quickly.

When the light finally vanished and the monster was able to regain its sight, the Oroshi found itself in an what appeared to be another chamber. Similar to the one it was in, but not as cavernous or spacious, this one was much smaller, significantly so. Having enough of strangeness for the time being, the Oroshi sprinted out of the chamber, and traversed collapsed hallways and other chambers, moving with such grace and speed that one could mistake it for a ghost. And as it galloped about its mere presence left frost and ice clinging to the ground, walls, and collapsed or scattered objects as it traversed around its enclosed surroundings.

Several minutes of galloping about, the elder dragon reached a large hole in a wall, and when it reached it the monster found an expanse of gnarly trees on the other side of what looked like a steep ravine. Stepping through the hole, the monster trotted a few feet from the structure, the grass being frozen over as a thin layer of mist began forming around the Oroshi. Standing in the midst of the grassy field on its side of the ravine, the monster scanned its surroundings taking in everything around it, including the abandon looking man structure it came out of. After scanning its surroundings the monster turned its attention back to the ravine…and uttered something that normally never comes from the monster, and that something was…a word!

“Strange.”

After examining its surroundings, the Oroshi made its way over to the ravine, and with a single bound the elder dragon landed gracefully on the other side of the ravine. Grass freezing over as it begins to make its way into the forest, the low lining mist trailing just behind the majestic creature, as it disappears into the darken woods.

Chapter 1

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Within the boundaries of the Everfree Forest, trotting about with no direction set, the elder dragon known as the Oroshi Kirin made its way through the trees and the dense underbrush. Sniffing in the unique smells and scents that filled the forest air, all the while each step it took frozen small patches of grass and wild flowers, while low hanging mists follow the draconic equine creature. Chilling the air as it passes by. Amongst its aimless wondering the Oroshi would occasionally stop to take a nibble of either grass, flowers or leaves from low hanging branches.

As it was traversing through the dense and somewhat darken forest, the elder dragon noted that there were various other creature scents mingling in the air, but from its senses alone none seemed to be a threat to it. Though that didn’t seem to stop a few creatures from trying.

The first encounter the Oroshi had with another creature in the forest, was a large male manticore who was a bit bigger than the draconic equine, and thought that it would make an easy meal. But as the large feline monster leapt at the Oroshi, a pillar of ice erupted from a patch of freezing mist, slamming into the manticores underside, bones breaking as the winged beast was launched high into the air before being vaulted a dozen or so feet away. Crashing into a few trees upon its descent, wings being ripped as they get snagged in the branches. As the beast tumbles down to the ground, the Oroshi simply snorted in triumph and just trotted off. not even fazed at what tried to attack it.

Another encounter that the elder dragon had was when it was taking a quick drink at a large pond, which thankfully didn’t freeze over from the sheer cold that accompanied the Oroshi. During its short break, a cragadile came bursting out of the water, accomplishing to startle the elder dragon, but ending up getting frozen solid by a rush of freezing cold air. However its hefty stone body managed to dampen the freezing effects of the elder dragons surprised and startled attack, and continued to try and snap at the Oroshi with its large jaws. But the Oroshi was no easy kill, for anything, for as it dodged the eleventh bite from the cragadile, the equine quickly rose up and swiftly surrounding its horn with ice and frigid wind, swung down and slammed its icy attack on the rocky reptile. Raising its head the Oroshi looked upon its handiwork, seeing the cragadile being frozen in place with spears of ice actually puncturing its stone hide, freezing any blood that spurted out…and any trees that were within a dozen or so feet on both sides and twenty or so feet behind the reptile.

“Annoying.” The Oroshi said after killing the cragadile, then finishing its drink before trotting off again.

During its little wandering through the woods, the Oroshi’s nose again picked up a different scent, but this wasn’t like any woodland or natural scent. The elder dragon smelled the scent of smoke, fire, and strange unknown smells it does not recognize. Again, its curiosity was peaked, and so the monster followed its nose to the source of the strange smells, and after a short trot through the woods it came upon a truly unusual sight. Standing before the Oroshi was a tree, but this tree was not an ordinary one. From its branches hung shiny bottles, some looking like the ones hunters would use when they fought the elder dragon, there were also strange wooden, faces, littered about the area.

Approaching the tree with caution the Oroshi peaked through one of the small holes in the trees trunk, and found that the inside had more bottles, and wooden faces, along with other things that the elder dragon has never seen. But what caught its attention was the small light grey creature that looked like a very small, and hornless kirin, but with black stripes along its body, and what looks like golden rings around its neck and hanging from its ears. As the Oroshi looked at the small creature, some of the chilling mist that emanated from the monster seeped through the hole, and slowly filled the room. which actually caused the small creature to shiver before speaking.

“OH! My goodness, what an usual coldness.”

The creatures voice reminded the Oroshi of the noises that some of the hunters made during the fights it had with them. then again, the Oroshi already knew the creature was female from its scent alone. Pulling its face away from the tree, the elder dragon continued to trot about the forest, still aimlessly wandering around. But that didn’t bother the monster that much.

As the afternoon hours of the day rolled by, the Oroshi eventually stopped its wanderings and decided to take a small nap and rest up from the rather eventful morning it had. it did after all fought four hunters nearly for half an hour, before it managed to make its escape. Once it had slept roughly for about an hour and a half, the Oroshi was back on its aimless trotting through the forest, but during its wandering the elder dragon unknowingly followed a somewhat worn out path on the forest floor, and traveled down it till it reached a break in the trees, coming to a bright sunny evening sky. and a large stretch of less than densely packed trees. Leaving the forest behind it the monster made its way into the land of less packed trees, and as it trotted through them, the Oroshi took noticed of the red fruit that the trees bared.

Stepping up to one of the trees, the Oroshi leaned up on its hind legs, and used its horn to knock around some of the branches to make them drop the fruit. Once it had knocked down a few, the monster went back to standing on all fours, and took a small bite from one of the fruits as if tasting it first before delving fully into them. and with each chew, a small burst of juices with a tangy flavor coated the inside of its mouth.

“Mhhh. Tasty.” The monster said after swallowing the bite in its mouth, before it started to eat the fruit it knocked from the trees.

~~~~~

“Alrighty Big Mac, break times over. Time to finish up todays harvest.” The head of the Apple Family, Applejack, said to her older brother as she places her plate in the kitchen sink.

The elder sibling silently nodded as he finished his apple cobbler and salad. Exiting the household, Applejack reared up on her hindlegs and stretched out her back and forelegs, before going back down on all fours where she stretched her back legs out. Once her stretching was wrapped up, the mare made her way into the orchard, but just as she passed the first few set of trees, the farmer noticed that something was, off. Applejack noticed that each breath she took a puff of hot air could be seen exiting either her mouth, or nose, which showed that it was definitely colder than it was before. Not only that but the mare noticed that there was a low setting fog slowly wafting about the ground, and that the smallest amount of frost was covering the baskets, wagons, and other equipment within the mare’s field of vision.

“What is going on here?

Applejack said to herself as she trotted deeper into the orchard, following the fog, and the increase in cold that was coming from it. but as she continued to head deeper and deeper into the orchard, the mare’s body started to shiver and shake as it got only colder and colder.

“Applejack!” the farmer turned to look behind her to see her brother, wearing a scarf and a thick hat, galloping towards her. “Here.” The brother said as he reached up to his back, and hoofed over a scarf and coat over to his sister.

“Thanks.” Applejack said as she started to quickly cover herself up.

“No prob. But what in land sakes is going on? Why is it so cold?” Big Mac asked through chittering teeth.

“No clue, but whatever is causing this, it seems to be coming from that direction.”

Applejack pointed to her right, where a cold breeze and the fog seemed to be coming from. Now knowing where to go to find some answers, the pair made their way eastward, towards the section of the orchard that boarders close to the Everfree. Trotting further into the east orchard the siblings noticed that more, and more of their trees, even the ground itself was starting to freeze over with large amounts of frost, which soon became patches of ice scattered about. A few more minutes and the siblings found something amongst the frozen trees, and what they were looking at was a rather odd sight.

Standing just ten feet from their position behind a tree, Applejack and Big Mac found an incredibly large midnight blue unicorn, with a thick semi glowing pinkish purple horn. Its body was virtually hairless, and looked so smooth and shiny, but there were patches of fur sticking out from its shoulders and the ridge of its tail, the mane and tail were also rather matted, but it was thicker and had more volume than the other bits of fur on its body. While the pair watched the tall unicorn, who appeared to be as tall as princess Celestia, the siblings noticed something. There were a dozen of eaten apple cores that were frost over that were scattered around the unicorns hooves. And the moment they saw the apple cores, the two siblings instantly forgot the cold, and emerged from their hiding place.

“Hey!” Applejack said with a righteous indignation tone in her voice. But the unicorn just seemed to ignore her, and continued to eat another apple.

“I’m talking to you fella! This here is private property, and those apples yer munching on belong to the Apple Family!” the unicorn turned to look at the apple farmer, its red eye just giving her a curious glance before going back to eating.

“Are you even listening to me?!” Applejack practically shouted as she stomps her way over to the unicorn. But as she got closer to the large pony, it turned to look her way, having both eyes again only glancing at her way, before looking up to the tree tops which luckily weren’t frozen over.

“Don’t just ignore me and try to eat more of our apples ya darn—”

The moment that Applejack tried to touch the unicorn, its left eye quickly stared down at her—before a wave of frigid wind blasted into the mare’s face. as she was blasted with the frigid cold air, the mare was knocked off her hooves, but as she recovered with the help of Big Mac the ponies looked towards the unicorn, only to see a large pile of icicle spike jutted out of the ground. the two siblings looked from the spikes of ice, up to the unicorn with frighten faces, while the unicorn just glared down at them before snorting and knocking down a few more apples.

“AJ we should leave.”

“I’m not going to be scared off just because this fella blasted some ice at me.” the mare countered as she rose to her hooves.

“Sorry AJ, but this guy doesn’t seem like the kind we can handle on our own.” Big Mac said as he pulled his sister back.

“In that case I’ll get my friends to teach this lout a lesson.” With that Applejack galloped off with her brother following behind her, leaving the large unicorn alone to continue to eat their apples.

Exiting the orchard Applejack made a mad dash for the families front gate, and made her way down the path that leads to Ponyville. after galloping non-stop the earth pony ran through the crowed of the town, getting a few odd glances mostly because of the mare running past them or because of her winter attire, but the mare didn’t pay them mind as she was focused on reaching one of her friends that might be able to help her. and upon reaching her destination, which was the Golden Oaks library, the earth pony bolted in through the door.

“Twilight, are you here?”

“I’m upstairs.” Applejack then trotted up the steps and found her friend lounging on the couch. “Hey AJ, what’s up?”

“I need your help Twilight.”

“With what?” the alicorn asked as she closed her book.

“There’s a unicorn at the farm whose eating our apples, and he’s using some kind of ice magic.” the alicorn looked genuinely surprised to hear this.

“Ice magic?”

“That’s right. and he’s freezing everything around him, even the ground is covered in frost and ice!”

“Then whoever this pony is must be a high lever magic caster. Only they can use element type magic.” Twilight then got off the couch, fluffing her wings as she did so. “Let’s have a look at this unicorn, and see if we can reason with them.”

And with that Twilight used her own magic to teleport them to the Apple families farm, hopefully whoever this rude pony is Twilight and Applejack might be able to reason with them. at least, that’s the plan. But when the pair arrived at the farm, both of them were surprised to see a part of the orchard iced over, and seeing a great deal of mist wafting through the orchard trees.

“We better find this unicorn before his magic gets out of control and ruins your orchard!” Twilight said as she galloped into the orchard, with Applejack following close behind the alicorn as they pretty much dove into the ice box, feeling the immense cold seeping through their bodies, even Applejack with her winter attire on.

‘This might be worse than I initially thought.’

Chapter 2

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Pushing through the sheer drop in temperature of the Apple Families Orchard, and feeling the intense cold penetrating down into their bodies, Twilight and Applejack slowly make their way through the thick freezing mist filling the orchard, searching for the supposed unicorn that is the cause of this intense cold. As the pair spent what was like hours of walking in the freezing cold, which was actually only five minutes, the two mares were now covered in a rather thick layer of frost which only weighed them down and was hampering their movements even more. Even Twilight was being crippled by the cold, as her wings and feathers were iced over, practically gluing them closed and to the alicorn’s body.

“T-Twilight…I d-don’t know if I can…g-go on.” Applejack stuttered through chittering teeth, as her whole body couldn’t stop shaking.

“Hold o-on Applejack.” Twilight’s horn sparked with magic, before a dome of transparent violet energy surrounded the pair, and was starting to steadily warm up the interior, melting the frost on the ground and on the ponies bodies.

“Are you feeling better now AJ?”

“Yeah.” The farmer said as she shook the now melting frost off her body. “I can’t believe how cold it got so fast.”

“Are you sure the pony you saw was a normal unicorn?” Twilight asked as she flapped her wings, tossing the melting frost and ice patches off her feathered appendages. “Because this is no ordinary ice-based magic, this is practically Wendigo levels of cold and ice.”

“I’m sure Twilight! He’s a tall unicorn probably as tall as princess Celestia, with a midnight blue body and fur patches.” Applejack said as she starts to describe the unicorn. “And his horn is long to, and it looked like it was glowing a pinkish purple color.”

“Strange. What about his cutie mark?”

“I didn’t see it. then again, I was more focused on the fella eating our apples to check out his entire body, I only noticed how tall he was and what his coloring was.” Applejack said as she was finally warmed back up. “Anyway, we’re close to where Big Mac and I left this fella.”

“Then we better move. Because I think if this continues your whole orchard might just turn into a frozen wasteland.”

The farmer wholeheartedly agreed, and proceeded to trot off to the section of the orchard she last saw the unicorn, while Twilight stuck close by to keep the farmer within her barriers range. As they marched through the ice, and snow that was starting to form, the two ponies continued to search for this mysterious pony, but the mist that filled the orchard was making it hard for the two mares to even see more than a few feet in front of them. but eventually the pair made it to where Applejack left the unicorn, however the pony in question wasn’t around, or at least they couldn’t see him. just as the two were about to go check a different section of the orchard, Twilight saw something off in the distance, it was a dimly glowing purple object.

“I think I found him.” Twilight said as she started trotting towards the glowing object. Applejack followed her friend as they trudged through the snow, the barrier pushing the white mass aside as they did so. And after wading through a dozen or so feet of snow and ice, the ponies found their quarry.

“That’s him!” Applejack said as she pointed to the unicorn, who was leaning against a tree, seemingly taking a nap, despite the freezing temperatures surrounding them all.

Trotting up to the sleeping unicorn, Twilight was able to get a good look at him thanks to the dim light emitting from the barrier. The unicorn was definitely as tall as Applejack said he was, and as the two got closer the alicorn noticed that the large ponies body was actually covered in, scales! The mare was just buzzing with questions on how, or even why this pony was covered in scales, as her eyes scan over his entire form, studying every inch of this unique looking pony. It was only when Twilight was brought out of her examination of the pony when she was tapped on the shoulder, where Applejack silently gestured to the sleeping pony and remembered why she was brought here in the first place. The alicorn then turned back to face the unknown pony, and then very loudly cleared her throat to try and get the unicorns attention in case he was only taking a light nap.

But since the pony didn’t respond to it, the alicorn reached out a hoof to try and shake the pony awake, but the moment her hoof left the barrier, and was about to touch pony the mare felt an intense gaze fall upon her.

Slowly looking up to the unicorn’s head, Twilight flinched back as she was met with a shimmering red eye, staring down at her with an intense look. Just looking into the eye was enough to instinctively tell the alicorn, that this unicorn, is dangerous. Even Applejack, who wasn’t being directly looked at by the unicorn, was feeling the same sense of danger emitting from it. even the glare that Applejack got earlier was nothing more than an annoyed stink eye. But this time, this glaring eye was far more menacing, and caused the farmer to shutter.

The unicorn then slowly rose up to his full height, showing that he easily dwarfed both Twilight and Applejack, as he was twice their size.

“Um…hello.” Twilight says as she looks up to the unicorn who just kept looking down his nose at the two smaller ponies without saying anything, making the situation a little awkward.

“Well, um…My name is Twilight Sparkle, and my friend here, Applejack, has asked me to persuade you to leave her property—”

“And pay for the apples you already ate!” Applejack added.

“Right, and pay for the apples, while also try to dispel or try to control the ice magic you are giving off.” Twilight continued before giving the unicorn a worried look. “Because if you don’t stop this frost, my friend is going to lose her orchard!”

The three equines continued to stand in the orchard in silence for a few moments, both female ponies waiting for some kind of reply from the tall equine. And after another minute of silence the two ponies got a response from the tall unicorn…a loud snort!

Both Applejack and Twilight were taken back by the rather rude gesture, and their shocked expressions grew when the unicorn just trotted off to a different tree and plopped himself down, and went back to taking a nap, all the while the mist that was filling the orchard got thicker. So much so that the mares couldn’t even see past a few centimeters in front of the barrier. Now slightly annoyed by the rude gesture, Twilight marched through the snow and mist to where the unicorn trotted off to, and was ready to be more, firm, with this stubborn and now genuinely rude pony. But after the alicorn made it halfway to where the tall equine was, the barrier was pushed back by a sudden strong gust of wind that battered against it.

“Twilight, what’s going on?” Applejack asked as she stood behind her friend, keeping her steady so she wouldn’t lose her footing after the wind crashed into her barrier.

“I think his ice-magic is getting worse!” Twilight said as she flared her horn with magic. “And if he’s not going to stop this, then I’ll do it.”

Twilight’s horn glowed with an intense glow of magic before it pulsed out, hitting the barrier, and causing it to rapidly expand outward. The entire section of the orchard that the three equines were in was then covered in a massive dome of violet magic, melting all the ice, frost and snow covering the area, and steadily warming everything up. but just after Twilight casted the enhanced version of the barrier spell, the alicorn saw that the midnight blue unicorn was now standing back up, and now was looking incredibly annoyed.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you, but you can’t—”

Twilight was cut off when the unicorn nickered loudly, tossing his head about as a swirling mist and frigid air rushes towards the mares, causing a chill to run down their spines despite the barrier’s warming effects. But then that sudden flash of cold air, quickly turned into a burst of bone chilling cold…followed by Twilight being quickly engulfed in frost! The alicorn screamed in pain as she felt jagged spikes of ice pierce various parts of her body, while a sudden force knocked her backwards a few feet! Causing her tumbling on the ground, and causing a few ice spikes to be pushed deeper into her body!

“Twilight!” Applejack shouted as she rushed to her friends side, seeing the small little icicle spikes embedded into her body, with blood drippling from the wounds.

“Twilight! Speak to me, are you all right?!” the alicorn managed to roll onto her stomach, groaning painfully as she does so, before responding to her friends question.

“It h-hurts, and I f-feel the cold s-seep into m-my body.” Twilight said as she feels the ice freezing her muscles from the inside, and that the tips of the spikes were just barely touching the bone.

“Hold on Twi, I’ll see if I can pull them out.” Applejack said before she gently bit down on the spike that was sticking out of her friends shoulder, but just even biting down on it caused the alicorn to cry and cringe in pain, as the spiked slightly wiggled from the contact.

“Shoot! You need to see a doctor, wait here!”

“Hey!” a new voice called from out of the blue as Applejack was about to leave her friend. The two mares looked around for a bit before looking up, when they heard something coming towards them from the sky, and that flying object was their flying speedster friend, Rainbow Dash.

“Twilight! What happened to you?!” the pegasus asked as she landed next to her friends, seeing her alicorn friend shivering in pain as small icicles stick out of her, and a bit of frost was covering the wounds.

“I saw one of your barriers just pop out of nowhere when I was practicing, and then I heard screaming!”

“That crazy unicorn over there used his ice magic on Twilight after trying to help me get him off my farm.” Rainbow looked over to where Applejack was pointing with a hoof, where the unicorn was trotting off, as if nothing was happening around him. “Eh?! Hey get back here!” Applejack shouted, causing the pegasus to spring into action.

“Hey, my friend is talking to you!” Rainbow shouted as she was now getting a little angered, knowing that whoever this pony was is responsible for hurting one of her friends.

However the unicorn didn’t bother in turning around to pay the ponies any mind. Seeing as the unicorn wasn’t going to abide by the pegasus’s words, Rainbow leapt into the air and flew over to land in front of the unicorn. But just as the mare landed in front of the large pony, the unicorn was surrounded by a dense shroud of swirling mist. The pegasus spread her wings and gritted her teeth, ready for whatever the unicorn will throw her way, however just as the pegasus was ready for a fight the mist dissipated…and the unicorn vanished.

“Wha—where’d he go?!” Rainbow said in confusion as she looks around herself, in case if the unicorn was going to spring out from behind her.

“Forget him for now Rainbow, I need you to head over to the hospital and bring a doctor!” Applejack said as she looked back to Twilight, who wasn’t cringing in pain anymore, instead she just looked greatly uncomfortable.

“Alright. I’ll be back in a flash.” Rainbow then rocketed high into the sky, and flew in the direction of the general hospital.

~~~~~

Not too far from where the two smaller equines, on top of a small hill that overlooks the grove of trees, the Oroshi walked out from behind the lone tree of the hill eyes looking to where he was a moment ago. While looking down at the grove the elder dragon saw sawing that looked like a prismatic blur fly into the sky, before zooming off into the distance.

The Oroshi watched as the prismatic thing flew for a few more moments, before turning to look back down at the grove for a moment, thinking back to that weird winged purple smaller equine creature. It looked so much like a very small and young kirin offspring, but its overall presence wasn’t like any other monsters that he’s come across with before. The Oroshi was also intrigued by the winged monsters power to make the area warm up almost instantly, but then the monster remembered just how pestering it and the other small monster was in disturbing its rest.

“Annoying.”

The elder dragon grumbled as its ears twitched, and another snort escaped its nostrils, before trotting off into a different section of the grove. As the horned equine trotted about the grove of trees, its feet again frosting over the ground with each step, and air around it slowly started to drop in temperature as mists forms around it. but after trotting for a good few more minutes the Oroshi comes upon a much more, densely packed area, with more vegetation scattered about, however the vegetation and trees gave way for another clearing…but what the monster found in this clearing was, interesting.

In a large tree nearly in the center of the clearing, was a structure, something that reminds the Oroshi of small little round caves that hunters lived in, when it came across them in the highland mountains.

“Strange.” Oroshi muttered as his red eyes scanned the thing from afar.

Venturing closer for a better look the horned creature’s nose started to pick up various smells, some were that of monsters and other animals, however the other smells that filled the air were unknown to the elder dragon. Reaching the tree cave, or the wooden upheave that leads to it the Oroshi’s ears perked up, as he heard noises coming from the small wooden cave-thing up in the tree.

“Alright crusaders, let’s go get those Spa Helpers cutie marks!”

Chapter 3

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In the Hunters Guild Hall, one could see various hunters, staff, and palicos wandering, eating, and drinking, or working. Some of the hunters were even gathered around the large notice board within the hall, checking over the various quests that were posted, there were even a few disputes between hunters on who was taking which hunt before an agreement came to a conclusion. At one of the many tables that littered the hall, near where the canteen was located with the palicos chefs were really cooking up a storm, two hunters ate their meals as they talked amongst themselves. And from the conversation, they didn’t sound too pleased.

“I still can’t believe we lost that Oroshi Kirin.” The huntress with a Bow on her back said as she munches away on a thickly made sandwich in her hand, before washing her latest bite down with a swig of her mug. “And having two of our party be taken down by that icy horse.”

“Yeah, that’s a real kick to the pride ain’t it.” the hunter with a Lance strapped to him grumbled. “But hey, at least Glenn and Clair weren’t fully frozen, and are still kicking.” The Lance wielding hunter said before taking a swig from his large mug.

“Yeah that’s true, but now they’re bedridden for a good long while.” The huntress said before taking a big bite from her sandwich.

And as she ate her sandwich, the Huntress thought back on the hunt, and started to run the play-by-play in her head. trying to figure out on what she could’ve done better to not only pin the Kirin, so it wouldn’t get away, to how she could’ve contributed more to the overall hunt. But as she thought back on the hunt that they failed an hour ago, a thought came to her as she thought about the monster.

“You know what really gets me, is that Oroshi Kirin just…vanished without a trace. Even the observers didn’t see where it went.” She then turned to look at her fellow hunter. “Where do you think it went?”

“Hard to say, but this is a Kirin we’re talking about, one of the more elusive and mostly unknown monsters in the world.” The Lance wielder said as he grabs the large meat on a bone from his plate. “Nobody really knows where they go, or how they can move around as if they’re, teleporting all over the place.”

“Besides, the mission is over with, so forget about the monster and just be glad we didn’t lose our friends.” the Lance hunter said through a mouth of meat before washing it down with a hefty swig from his mug.

“Still though, where do you think it went?” The huntress asked as she looked at her fellow hunter, who just shrugged his shoulder under his hefty looking armor, before continuing to stuff his face.

Deciding that it was no longer worthwhile to discuss the failure she, and her party, had in slaying an elder dragon, the Huntress went about eating her meal before it got to cold. After some time, the huntress and her party member finished their meals, but while she wandered off into the main town where she and the rest of her party was located, the other hunter was caught up in a little bit of side gambling to get more cash. So now the huntress just wandered around, trying to figure out what to do for the remainder of the day, but as nothing specific was coming to her she decided to see how her injured teammates were. they could probably use the company, same goes for her.

~~Elsewhere~~

Today has certainly been an interesting one for the Oroshi Kirin, to say the least. First from the encounter it had with those four hunters, who put up a rather decent fight, to being engulfed in a blinding flash of light that, somehow, moved it from the massive, isolated tower in the middle of nowhere, to being in a forest.

Then after exploring the forest, which had several creatures that the Oroshi has never seen before, from a large winged feline monster to a large rocky thing, both of which were greatly annoying to the monster. But the most annoying creatures so far, were those smaller equine creatures that made the same noises that the hunters made, especially the purple winged one which seemed to wiled a large amount of bioenergy, probably on par with some other elder dragons that the Oroshi as crossed paths with on occasion.

And after all that, the elder dragon then found a strange wooden cave that was up in a tree, with more noises coming from it.

“I still think we should try asking Bonbon to help her make candies, instead of being Spa Helpers.” One of the voices said.

“Nah that won’t work. Remember when we tried to help at the Silver Bit to get our marks?” one of the other voices said to the others. “Ever since then, no pony that works in foods knows better than to let us try and get our marks.” The voices continued on with this meaningless rambling amongst themselves, while the Oroshi Kirin just stood outside the wooden cave, and listened.

“Strange.” Oroshi said as the noises from the cave continued to squawk about.

After its little investigation of the strange tree cave, and hearing more noises from whatever resided inside it, the Oroshi saw nothing else of interest within the clearing and continued to trot about the land before coming upon a wide open field, which seems far more peaceful than the forest or the less dense grove of trees with red fruit. At least it appeared nothing would bother it while it attempts to rest. Trotting towards the lake, the elder dragon made its way to the sole tree of the field, where it promptly laid down with a loud yawn escaping its mouth, before curling into itself as it drifts of to sleep. And as the monster sleeps a thin vail of cool fog surrounds just a few feet around it, freezing the grass and sandy beach of the lake side, keeping the area nice and cool for the Oroshi as it tries to rest.

“Such a strange and bizarre place.” The Oroshi muttered to itself as another yawn escaped its mouth again, before it finally drifted off to peaceful slumber.

~~Orchard~~

It didn’t take long for Rainbow Dash to return to Sweet Apple Acers with some help for her friends, although the help would’ve gotten there sooner if the doctor and nurse were as fast as the pegasus, so the Rainbow had to wait for the hospital ponies to reach the farm where she guided them to where Twilight and Applejack were. and upon seeing the lavender alicorn laying on the ground, shivering like a leaf in a strong wing, and seeing the frost forming on her body where the spikes were embedded, the doctor and nurse immediately went to work.

“Alright princess Sparkle, we’re going to remove the spikes, are you ready?” the doctor asked the alicorn, who could only nod, as her mouth was chittering because of how cold she was feeling. “Alright then. Nurse Cold Heart the moment I pluck a spike out, you need to apply treatment quickly.”

“Understood!” the pale yellow earth pony nurse said, hooves at the ready with the disinfectant, bandages, and a few other knick-knacks the mare pulled out from the medical bag the doctor carried.

The two hospital ponies performed their task with expertise, as the moment the doctor swiftly yanked the ice shard from Twilight, which caused the mare to yelp in pain, the unicorn used some basic healing magic to aid and jumpstart the healing process, while the nurse quickly went about treating the wound before bandaging it up. this process took several minutes to finish, but once it was done the nurse pulled out what looks like a small shawl, and once the nurse placed it over Twilight the alicorn felt her body starting to warm up slowly.

“That blanket is enchanted to provide a steady warmth princess Twilight, but we need to get you in a proper warm environment.”

“Here!” Applejack said as she hauled one of the wagons over to the group. “Load her up in here, and we can take her to my place and put her in front of the families fireplace.”

“Good idea, but she’ll also need some to eat to help her regain her strength.” The doctor said as he used his magic to carefully place the alicorn in the wagon.

“While you all do that, I’m going to see if I can find that unicorn! He’s going to pay for what he did!”

“Hold it RD!” Applejack said before her ill-tempered friend bolted off.

“We don’t know who this fella is, or what he’s capable of. Best to leave him alone for the time being, but for now…” Applejack looked to the wagon, where her friend was laying in, slightly shivering as she bundles up in the blanket. “She needs us.”

The pegasus released a heavy sigh as folded her wings back up, and trotted up to the wagon as Applejack hitches herself to it, and began pulling it back to the Apple Families homestead. Where upon reaching the home the injured alicorn was brought inside, and was being laid on a makeshift bed of pillows that the Apple Family quickly gathered up, while in the kitchen Granny was making some soup for the injured mare.

“Twi, how you feeling now?” Applejack asked in a caring manner.

“A little better.” Twilight said as she looked towards the doctor. “Thank you for treating me doctor.”

“It was no problem; however, I do advise you take your recovery slowly and try not to exert yourself.” The unicorn doctor said before using his magic to pull something out of the medical bag. “For the time being, take one of these pills every day till you feel like you’re no longer in pain.”

The alicorn nodded as she used her magic to grab the bottle, and popped one into her mouth before swallowing it. after the doctor gave one final check-over Twilight, to make sure that she was indeed all right, the doctor and nurse left the house and made their way back to the hospital. Leaving the alicorn in the capable hooves of the Apple Family.

“So Twilight, what exactly are we going to do about this unicorn, huh?” Rainbow asked as she leaned against the side of the fireplace.

“I honestly don’t know.” Twilight says as she enjoys the warm of the blanket and the fire. “Actually, Applejack can you get me a piece of parchment and a quill?”

“You gonna write a letter to the princess?”

“Yes.” Twilight said as Granny Smith entered the room with a tray of soup on her back. “This unicorn is really dangerous, the ice magic he wielded alone was on a whole other level.”

“And the fact he didn’t care in using it to freeze the orchard, but also used it to attack you.” Applejack said in a rather upset tone. “So if willing to all that, what’s to say he won’t do it to somepony else?”

“Exactly. So I’m hoping the princess will have some idea in how to handle this, without ponies being harmed.” Twilight said before a small sneeze escaped her, causing her to inch closer to the fire, while Granny Smith gave her a comforting pat on the back.

Nodding in response Applejack then looked around the house for a piece of parchment and quill, while Twilight began eating the soup that Granny Smith placed before her. As for Rainbow, she just trotted out of the house and flew off, while promising to not go looking for a fight with the unicorn. But she never said anything about not looking for him, and keeping an eye on him, that is, if she can find the unicorn.

Chapter 4

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It’s been a few days since the incident with the strange unicorn nearly freezing Sweet Apple Acers, and heavily injuring Twilight Sparkle. Since that day ponies of the town have started to become skittish, and a little afraid to even leave the boundaries of their town. As they were afraid to run into this mysterious unicorn stallion, who nearly froze Applejack’s property but also attacked an alicorn for no apparent reason, other than he just could.

But while most of the ponies were frighten, Rainbow Dash however was not. The cyan mare has been flying all around Ponyville and the surrounding fields in search of this unicorn, just so she could get some payback for hurting one of her friends after she learned what he did. But unfortunately for her, and lucky for her circle of friends, the pegasus has been unable to find the stallion. She thought she did find some clue to where she might find him down by the lake, but aside from some melted snow and frost there wasn’t anything else. No tracks, or anything useful to tell Rainbow where the unicorn went.

Celestia wasn’t much better. After reading the letter Twilight sent her, she teleported to the hospital and started fussing over the bandaged alicorn like a worried mother hen, causing quite a scene for the hospital staff in the room to witness.

But once the princess had calmed down she started to ask Twilight and Applejack details about this strange unicorn, and when the pair started to further explain what they know of the stallion, the solar princess started to become curious about this stallion. And his use of powerful ice magic. Once the white alicorn was told of everything that Twilight and Applejack could tell her about the unicorn, the princess was starting to get curious about him, but at the moment the princess was more concern about bringing in this clearly hostile equine into custody. So in the following days Celestia had sent out a special group of investigators were sent to Ponyville, and start to investigate Sweet Apple Acers to see if they can find any clues into where this mysterious unicorn went, sadly however the investigation team hasn’t found a single thing aside from very faint & unusual hoofprints.

When the team reported to princess Celestia of their failed investigation in finding clues, Celestia instructed them to remain in Ponyville and continue on searching for anything that could lead to the stallion, and this time expand their investigation to not only Ponyville but the fields and plains around the town.

~~~~~

At present time Twilight is still at the hospital recovering from her injuries, and is currently resting on her bed and reading a book about the various types of magic that unicorns can perform. Particularly elemental magic. Being able to change magical energy into the form of an elemental force, or use it to manipulate the elemental sources in the world is a rare talent, even seasoned magic casters like her have difficulties in using elemental magic. And Twilight is an alicorn now and still has some level of challenge to create elemental forces. So whoever this unicorn was, is clearly an exceptional user of magic since he seems to be effortlessly change magic into water, and then change that into ice magic! Twilight was brought out of her reading when a series of knocks rattled her hospital room door, but before the alicorn could even respond to it the door swung open, and bounding into the room was none other than…

“GOOD MORNING TWILIGHT!” Pinkie Pie all but blurted in her usual high energy tone which always brought a smile to the alicorns face, as well as a small giggle.

“Good morning—”

“Pinkie Pie!” another voice cut the alicorn’s greeting off as she saw Rarity soon came into view. “You are in a hospital; you need to lower your voice darling.”

“Opps! My bad.” Twilight shook her head at her friend’s antics as Rarity trotted up to the bed.

“Good morning Twilight. How are you feeling today darling?” the white unicorn asked her banged friend in a worried tone while looking the alicorn over.

“Morning Rarity, and I’m feeling much better. I’m not exactly a hundred percent yet, but at least I’m not in a great deal of pain anymore.” Twilight said to her friend who instantly looked a lot more relieved than she did when she came into the room.

“So Twilight how much longer are you stuck in the hospital for?” Pinkie Pie asked as she seamlessly slid across the room and to Twilight’s other bedside all within one step.

“The doctor said another day, or so, mostly to just to make sure I don’t have any side-effects that they just didn’t find.” The lavender mare explained to her bubbly friend who perked up at that little bit of news, becoming even more energic than she was a moment ago.

“Speaking of not finding anything, those investigators still can’t seem to find where this barbaric stallion disappeared to! I swear if that brute of a stallion ever show’s his face around here, so help me Celestia, I will make him pay for hurting one of my best friends, and nearly destroying my other friends lively hood!”

Rarity spoke with such an aggressive tone that both Twilight and Pinkie were utterly shocked to hear their friend, one of the most refined and well-mannered of any pony they knew, speak in such a way. Especially with the amount of venom that seemed to lace her words, even Rarity seemed surprised at how vengeful she sound. Coughing into her hoof Rarity tried to regain some of her composure, while Twilight and Pinkie gave each other a startled look, and simultaneously wondered just what Rarity would do to the stallion. But all that line of thinking ended up is causing the alicorn and earth pony to shutter.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to lose my composure like that.”

“It’s alright Rarity.” Twilight comforted her friend as she gives the white unicorn a pat on the shoulder, as well as a soft smile to show that she appreciated Rarity’s friendship to her. but as she pulled her hoof back a questioning look crossed her face as she started to think.

“But I am surprised that the investigation team hasn’t found anything.”

“Really? I mean he’s a unicorn, he could’ve just teleported to someplace else right?” Pinkie guessed as she rubbed her a hoof through her mane.

“If he did then the investigation team would’ve picked up the residue all magic leaves behind. If he teleported, then they could’ve simply followed the trail.” Twilight tried to explain to her lesser magically learnt friends as to why one reason why the investigation team couldn’t find the stranger.

While the three friends continued with the conversation Twilight’s doctor and nurse soon came into the room, and asked that Rarity and Pinkie to step aside as they do their scheduled check-up on Twilight’s vitals and injuries. The duo obliged the medical staff’s advice, and casually strolled off to the side, letting them perform their tasks. While Twilight was getting her physical examination, she casted a glance over to her book that she placed on the nearby counter, her mind started to wonder back to her initial questions about the stranger. And how he is able to use such powerful ice elemental magic, as well as where he learned to acquire the skills to do so.

~~~~~

The Oroshi was looking out into the vast wide open regions of the land that it finds itself in, while standing on a ledge on the side of a large mountain that it has been scaling for about an hour or so, and has only made it halfway up the towering earthen protrusion. As the elder dragon remained standing on the ledge looking out into the distance, its mind started to wander as it took in things from the past few days. Like the fields and surrounding plains that it traveled up and down for a few days, where it found them all familiar like the fields and plains it traversed back in the lands it was at before. And yet these lands were still unknown to it as while it may appear familiar, the scents and presence of the lands its traveled for a few days were greatly different. Especially since it has yet encountered or spied other large or even small monsters it knows.

But what caught the elder dragon’s attention most of which, was the strange winged equine creature that it encountered in the grove of fruit baring trees. The elder dragon was intrigued an how it looked a little like itself, but smaller and less imposing, yet holding some indication of power almost similar to its own. Or other elder dragons that it has come across in its worldly travels.

But what has the Oroshi Kirin’s attention about that winged equine creature most of all, was its way of communicating. The creature strange way of communicating reminded the elder dragon of the Hunters that occasionally pressure it. In fact, when the Oroshi thought about it, its own voice no longer was its traditional speech. It too started to sound like the hunters, and the strange, winged equine, and some of the other creatures that it has come across as of late. Just where in the world did the Oroshi appeared in? Nothing that it has seen, smelled, nor interacted was the least bit familiar to the elder dragon. The uni-horned monster then turned its gaze to the general direction in where it was a few days ago, where the small settlement was, and the forest that was just a stone throws away from it. The same forest that it appeared in after the burst of light surrounded it, and somehow brought it to this strange land.

The elder dragon snorted out a burst of cold air as it ceased its idling, and thinking of the strange creatures it has encountered thus far, and turned its attention back to its climb up the mountain leaping and bounding from one ledge to another. Even using the small little rocky stumps sticking out of the mountain as a foothold, to launch itself further up the massive land formation. While the midnight beast makes its ascent up the mountain it could start to see something come into view. It was like the towering pillar that it was resting, and confronting the pack of hunters that chose to fight it. But unlike the pillar, whatever the Oroshi was heading towards seemed different, yet the elder dragon was still curious as to what it was and continued to climb.

After another tireless hour of climbing the Oroshi finally made it to the strange structure, however the elder dragon was not alone. When the midnight monster reached the summit of its climb, it found itself face to face with more of the strange equine creatures, however these ones were all covered in shiny yellow armor.

“Hold!” one of the small, armored creatures said as it trotted in front of the Oroshi, who just looked down at the smaller equine creature.

“Who are you and where did you come from?” the elder dragon simply nodded its head towards where he just came from.

“Down there.” it simply stated. The smaller creatures all looked at one another with what appeared to be confusion, but then the first smaller creature looked back up to the Oroshi.

“You still didn’t answer my…my…” the creature ceased its chattering as its mouth started to open and close like a fish, before sneezing loudly. The other creatures also started to sneeze around the elder dragon, and even started to shake in their armor.

“Why is it g-getting so cold a-all of the sudden?” the creature asked as started to rub one of its forelegs with another.

Not bothering to be held by the small creatures any longer, the Oroshi just trotted past them and headed towards the archway just a little bit ahead of it, where on the other side it saw another settlement. But this one bigger, much bigger than the one by the forest. With its curiosity peaked again the elder dragon entered into the settlement.

“W-wait a min—AGH!”

The Oroshi heard stumbling and then clattering as the small creature spoke up. When the midnight monster looked over it withers it saw that the creatures were all laying on the ground, with their hooves frozen to the ground. Turning back away from the small creatures the Oroshi continued to make its way into the settlement, but as it did so it found more and more of the small equine creatures all over the place, and they all were vastly different to one another in color, and species. From those with horns, those with wings, and those who had neither. All in all the Oroshi was now virtually blown away by the amount of small creatures there were in this large settlement.

“Interesting.”

Chapter 5

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Canterlot is considered to be the capital of Equestria, where ponies from all over can bask in its many wonders. From shops run by ponies who are masters of their trades, to dining restaurants that feature some of the most delectable of foods, and finally the apex of and focal point of the city itself. Canterlot Castle, the central hub of where the rulers of the nation live and work, and where many important events are held. And the ponies that live in this wonderous city are well-known to be incredibly smug, and also very privileged if not a little stuck up on their titles of fame, as they felt that simply being able to live in the capital city makes them the cream of the crop when it comes to other ponies.

Another trait that Canterlot brings to the ponies that dwell inside it, is the chance in seeing many creatures from other lands coming to the city for diplomatic missions with the princesses, or coming to Canterlot to make new beginnings for themselves. But even for the ponies of Canterlot, the newest individual to come to the city was one the likes of which none of them have seen.

The new comer that was causally trotting through the streets of the city, with an air of majesty carrying him with every step, was a unicorn. But this was a unicorn the likes of no pony has ever seen.

For starters, the pony was tall, probably the same height as the ponies beloved princess Celestia, and even sharing her slim body apportions to an extent. By the shape and muscle the on-lookers could see this tall pony appears to be male. His body was a gorgeous midnight blue color that when contrasted with the brilliance, shimmered like bejeweled sapphires of the highest quality, and with the accented lines of glowing light blue along his chest, barrel and legs only added to his grandeur. The mysterious unicorn also has tuffs of fur sticking out of various spots of his body, all of which was of the same coloration as the rest of its body, but they seemed to be sticking out on end. But the most striking, and eye-catching part about the large unicorn, was his long spiraling horn that glowed with a pinkish purple hue.

As ponies kept their eyes on the unicorn as he trots about the city, many also noticed something else about the large unicorn. And that was the thin veil of sparkling mist surrounds, and trailing behind him. Ponies that were fairly close to the large unicorn also noted in when he trotted past them, a breeze of very cold air wafts past them. Causing them shiver, shutter, jitter, and even give little sneezes.

“By Jove, who is that?” a fairly tall white unicorn stallion, with a styled mane of blue asked the slim cream coated unicorn mare standing next to him, as they both saw the midnight blue unicorn trotting towards them.

“I do not know.” the mare said in a Prench accent, as her eyes scan over the ponies body, noting down every feature that she could see.

“But whoever he is, he certainly is a sight to behold.” As said unicorn trots past the two ponies, with a curious and intrigued expression on its face, the pair felt an immense waft of bitter cold brush up against them.

“Oh my!” the stallion said as the cold air caused a chill to run down his spine.

“Wherever in the world did that brush of cold came from?”

“I don’t know.” the mare replied to her companions inquire which was followed up by a tiny sneeze.

As the unusual unicorn trotted past the pair and continued his little walk about, their ears perked up when they heard the sound of metal striking cobblestone. When the duo turned to look where the sounds were coming from, they both saw a small squad of royal guards galloping straight towards them. And none of them looked relatively happy. Both the mare and stallion moved to the side of the road as the squad of guards galloped past them, but once they did they all surrounded the mysterious unicorn with the horns lit with magic, which caused the pair and other ponies gawk in surprise of this sudden action by the guards.

“Hold it right sir!” the head of the squad said in an authoritative tone.

“I cannot allow you to roam about the city until we evaluate if you are safe to enter the city. So please follow us to the guard house.” The mysterious stallion didn’t move after the head of the squad spoke, instead he just seemed to try and brush past him. but the leader of the guards quickly stepped back to remain in front of the stallion.

“Sir, please follow us to the guard house for questioning peacefully. Otherwise we will have to take you there by force.”

The guards kept their horns ignited with magic in case they would indeed need to take the stranger in by force. As for the ponies simply watching the event unfold before them, they were all feeling a little on edge as they rarely see the guards in such serious state. It was even rarer for any of the ponies to see them get physical with any creature. But as the ponies watched the stranger and head guard just stare each other down, they as well as the other guards started to notice something, they started to notice how cold it was actually starting to get. Ponies started to see their own breaths, starting to feel their bodies starting to shiver as a deep cold sensation starting to seep into them, they even started to see frost starting to set in on the roads and other surfaces. Even the head guard started to feel the deep cold start to seep into his body, and how his armor was starting to develop frost and further deepening the cold that is encrusting his body.

While the head guard tries to warm himself up with a spell he looked up to the strange unicorn, and seeing that he is just looking down at him with contentment, and a little bit of annoyance. All the while not being affected by the cold or frost! In fact the stranger seemed to be the source of the deep cold and frost, as the mist that was surrounding or even emanating from the taller unicorn. As the head guard kept looking up to the taller stallion, he felt a different chill run down his spine when the midnight blue unicorn was looking down at him. The stallion deep red eyes narrowed as he stared down at the head guard.

“Move.” The deep tone and sense of power, and leveled hostility in the stallions caused the head guard to shrink back in fear. as he felt like this pony would actually attack him, and make it hurt.

So after hearing the strangers command, and possible threat, the head guard moved off to the side after unsticking his hoof guards from the ground. Once the head guard stepped aside, the mysterious stallion trotted past him. And snorted some freezing cold air at the guard before fully trotting off down the street. When the unicorn left the guards behind the squad, and bystanders, started to feel that things were warming back up. Albeit at a slow rate. But even with the harsh cold and frost still lingering, the thing that really chilled the guards and the ponies that were closest to them, was how threatening the stranger sound. And even illuded to inflicting harm onto guards.

“S-sir what should we d-do now?” one of the guards asked the head guard through their chattering teeth.

“We head to the castle, and inform the princess of this. There’s just something, unusual, about that stallion.”

The head guard immediately started to gallop towards the castle, with his squad following behind him. Once they got their hoof guards un-frozen from the road. It didn’t take to long for the squad to make it to the castle, and the moment that they crossed the bridge they immediately made their way to the first location they thought Celestia would be, the throne room.

~~~~~

Celestia was in her private office at her desk where stacks of official government documents, books and tomes stood with bottles of feathered quills and ink stood side by side with them. there was also a small table off to the side of the room with its own stacks of books and papers, but standing beside it was a small trolly with a tea pot, a tea cup, and a few trays of assorted snacks for the princess. There was also a small bookshelf, and even a few windows to lighten the place up, and a very small fireplace incase if the room got cold. Overall the room was rather plain in its design, nothing grand or overly decorated which many ponies would assume the princess office would be. However the aged alicorn wasn’t going over documents, or anything related to her duties as a royal. At least at the moment. Currently the princess was going over a spell book, a really old and worn down looking piece of literature, and seemed to comparing its contents to those on a few slips of papers floating beside her.

“This incredible!” the princess said after reading a passage in the tome.

“According to the investigators reports of their investigation of Applejack’s property, whatever caused the blizzard wasn’t magical in nature. But if that’s the case…” Celestia closed the book while placing the papers on top of it, while her face scrunches up in uncertainty, and mild confusion.

“Just who is this unicorn?”

As the princess sat in her chair and contemplating just who this mysterious unicorn is, and how they could wield or use such powerful forces that isn’t even magic, a knock at her door breaks her out of her thoughts. Using her magic to tidy up her office, mostly placing the books and papers scattered about neatly organized on her desk. After the princess cleaned her office up, the princess removed herself from her chair and made her way to the center of her office, where she would meet her guest fully.

“You may enter.” The alicorn said in a clear and loud enough voice to be heard from the other side of the door. When the door opened the mare was meet with a small squad of guards, all of them seem to be damp and slightly wet.

“Forgive me for disrupting your work princess, but there may be an incident in the city that you should know about.” The center guard said in a respectful tone as he bowed before the aged alicorn. Who in turn gave the stallion a slightly worried look.

“And what is this incident?”

The guard then started to explain to the princess that not ten minutes ago, a strange unicorn stallion just appeared at the main entrance into Canterlot, and not by carriage, or any traditional method of travel. He just, appeared from the side the mountain, and just walked into the city. Now at first the princess didn’t seem to concerned about this, although she did find the detail of his arrival unusual. But it’s the next bit of information that captured the princess attention. The guard then started to tell the princess about the ice magic that the unicorn was creating, and seemed to threaten to use against them if they didn’t leave him alone! Celestia then asked the guards for the description of this new comer, and when the guards described the exact same stallion that nearly frozen over Sweet Apple Acers, and injured Twilight Sparkle the princess excused herself from the guards and teleported out of her office. And appearing right outside the castle.

Once Celestia was outside she immediately took to the air, and started to search for the unicorn starting where the guard had last seen him, which was close to the commercial district. Reaching the district was a trifle for the princess however the search for the stallion might not go as smoothly, but hopefully because of his general description and the veil of frost that seems to trail behind him, Celestia is hoping that he would be easy to find. Then again she thought so when she sent her investigation team to search for him, and they found no evidence of him for a few days. Yet today it would seem fate had decided to give the princess a helping hoof, in the form of a rather loud commotion going on near the central area of the commercial district. Closing in on the area the princess spotted her quarry, and much like the incident at Sweet Apple Acers, this unicorn was casually eating goods from a vender.

“Away! Away I say you…you…scoundrel! You hoodlum!” the apparent owner of the vender shouted while he tried to scare the unicorn away. But his words, and attempts to scare him off, seem to have little if no effect on the large pony. But the vender seemed to perk up when he spotted the princess.

“Princess Celestia! Please arrest this vandal for consumption of my eggplants, cucumbers, and all of my other assorted vegetables!”

“Do not worry sir, I will handle this.” The princess said as she approached the stallion, who was busy devouring a rather large eggplant. And seemed to be greatly enjoying it.

“Tasty.” The unicorn said through a mouth full of food before taking another bite.

“Excuse me sir, but I must ask that you stop eating this venders produce.”

The princess asked the stallion in a measured respectful tone. But the unicorn only ignored her and continued to eat the food. Remembering from what Twilight and Applejack have told her about the stallion, the princess decided to take a more forceful approach if he will not listen to her the first time. So the princess lit her horn with magic and gently picked the stallion up and pulled him away from the stall, causing him to drop a sizable onion from his mouth while he started to look around like a panicked cat.

“I’m sorry sir but you’ve left me with little option for an alternative to get your attention.”

Celestia said to the stallion who finally looked in her direction and narrowed his eyes, as they glowed ominously. Seeing the stallions eyes glow in such a way, and the intense look he was giving her, caused a small pit to form in her stomach. While an underline sense of dread came over her. Just then the princess noted that the unicorn’s horn pulsed with a purplish light, before ice and snow started to form around his horn and start spiraling around it. Then with one swift downward swing of his head, the unicorn unleashed a rushing column of ice and snow into Celestia’s direction! The princess only had a brief moment to use a teleportation spell to avoid the attack, and once she re-appeared a few feet from where she was a moment ago, the princess watched as the wave of ice and snow stretched across the district. Smashing through various stalls and carts, while ponies scream and run in terror. The wave eventually stopped when it reached nearly the other side of the district, while bits and pieces of stalls and carts were either smashed or frozen within the wave.

“NO! MY CABBAGAGES!” a green coated earth pony stallion with brown shouted as the remains of his cart go flying, and ended up crashing into the ground. “My beloved cabbages! WHY!”

The princess then looked over to where the unicorn was, and now he was completely surrounded by what appeared to be a cloud of freezing cold air, with frost heavily coating the ground he was standing over and creeping out away from him. His horn was also starting to have ice and snow start to form around it again, while his narrowed eyes now glowed intensely red. And this time it wasn’t a mere sense of dread that Celestia was feeling, instead she was feeling something else, like a heavy oppressive weight that has suddenly dropped on top of her.

“Leave me, alone!” the sheer malice, and intent in the stallions voice was so potent, so palatable that the princess couldn’t help but shrink away slightly.

‘This…this feeling…’ the princess internally said as she tried to regain her composure, but it’s like every nerve in her body is telling her to ready herself for a fight, or to simply fly away.

“Now!” the unicorn shouted with even more intensity while a cloud of mist surrounds Celestia, then within a split second various icicles formed around the alicorn, and shot forward to skewer her!

Again the princess wielded her magic to defend herself, but this time with a shield to guard against the icicles. However the shield didn’t fully withstand the attack, as the icicle were able to pierce a full foot through the shield! But the princess couldn’t rest yet, as her shield was hit by another attack, which was the unicorn actually ramming into her shield with a whole foot of his horn piercing the spell! The princess immediately started to panic and instinctively fired a blast of magic at the stallion, which to her surprise only seemed to push him back a few feet, and seemed to only make the stallion angrier. And the princess ever growing dread only worsen when she started to feel a great chill start to course through her, as the commercial district started to be covered in ice, while the air around the area started to become thick with snow while frigid winds started to swirl around them.

“How—”

Celestia was cut-off when her shield was battered by icy chunks, and a large wave of snow that crashed into her like a battering ram and knocking her back a great distance. With her shield down the princess was now feeling the full effect of the cold surrounding her, and the frigged wind and snow in the air started to cover the princess’s body, and was causing her to really start feel the cold down into her bones. As the princess tries to combat the cold she looked over to the stallion, who was reared up on his hindlegs with his horn readying another for another powerful ice spell. Panic gripped the princess and without even thinking about it, her horn sparked with magic and in an instant…the stallion was gone. Spirited away via Celestia unconsciously using a teleportation spell, to where though she knew knot, as her mind was put into a state of fear by the stallions intimidating presence and overwhelming power of ice magic.

But with the stallion gone the frigged winds, snow, and ice ceased their ever growing range, and started to subside. With the imminent threat now gone Celestia plopped down onto her rear, as she tries to regain her composure. But as she did so the princess really started to take in what has just transpired.

“Such an intimidating presence!” Celestia muttered to herself as the heavy weight of the stallion sheer aggressive persona still lingered over her.

“I sensed no hesitation in his actions, nor the will to stop until one of us left…” the princess then looked at the snow and ice still covering the commercial district, including the large solid ice wall that the stallion created.

“And this, magic of his. This is no ordinary spell crafting, this is…something else. Something more powerful.” The princess then rose up from her sitting position and started to clean the district up, by means of using her magic to melt the snow and ice, while checking to see if any of her subjects were injured. But as she worked to restore order to the city a thought crossed her mind.

‘Just who is this stallion, and why is he in Equestria?’

~~????~~

The Oroshi was laying in the midst of a rocky field by the foot of a high rise rock formation. As it laid there its body started to already freeze over the patch of land it was laying on, but soon the elder dragon regained its consciousness a groan escaped its muzzle, as the familiar sensation he felt when he first arrived in these lands once again wracked his body. Soon enough the Oroshi was back on its feet, and was surveying its new surroundings. With a greatly baffled expression etched on its face, while its ears started to pick up distant roars and screeches. And deep rumbling before hearing distant booms from far off into the wasteland it now stood in.

“Another new territory.” The Oroshi muttered as decided to trot in a random direction.

“Whatever. Better than that settlement with the annoying creatures in it.” as the elder dragon scaled a cliff face and stood on its ridge, it instantly thought back to that other winged equine creature, and the things it was able to do.

“Who was that? It wasn’t an elder dragon, but not a normal beast.” The midnight skinned monster snorted out a rush of cold air as it shook its head before it started to walk off in a random direction. “Whatever that thing was, the next time it crosses me—” the cliff face and the ridge that the Oroshi scaled almost instantly erupted in violent jagged ice formations before crumbling from the ice puncturing the very basin of its foundation, causing a small landslide.

“I will kill it!”

Chapter 6

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Far off to the south eastern section of Equestria, there lies a land that when compared to those that the ponies inhabit, is nothing but a baren wasteland. In this land nothing but dry foliage grows, but even those pieces of vegetation are scarce amongst the rocks and stones. And yet these lands are perfect for one particular species, and that species are the dragons.

True the Dragon Lands are a harsh landscape for many creatures to even try and live, and yet is an impressive place for dragons to live since it is nothing but rocks and stones, the perfect place for dragons of all ages especially adolescent dragons can use the full extent of their strength and fire power. Heck dragons learn how to manage their powers just by smashing things, or just burning down everything, that’s how the Dragon Lands always shift and change its layout. And with the volcanic activity that occasionally set off, the land changes even further. But even with testing and proving how strong they are, or even playing with the flowing rivers of lava, the dragons that reside in the Dragon Lands even get bored and need a change of pace. But even in these lands, its inhabitants can grow weary.

Amongst the pools of lava being feed by the crimson rivers from high mountain tops and ledges, a large group of adolescent dragons were all partying. Cannonballing into the searing hot pools of lava, or racing each other to see who’s the best. Or even lava surfing down said rivers of lava. However there were a few young dragons that were either just idling around, lazing about, or just laying around and looking like they were bored out of their mind. Particularly three dragons lounging around one of the smaller pools of lava.

“I’m bored!” a rotund brown dragon grumbled while lazily floating in a pool of lava with the other adolescent dragons.

“Same.” A skinny purple dragon commented. “Garble is there anything we can do? Lava Bombing was fun for a while, now it’s, not.” The dragon turned to look at a stockier red dragon that was just a laying on the shore of the pool of lava.

“And what do you expect me to do about it?” the red dragon said in a slightly annoyed tone.

“I don’t know. You’re the one who always tells us what to do.” The skinny purple dragon said as his tail slapped the lava.

“Just shut up you damn whinner!” Garbled blasted a fireball at the skinnier dragon, causing him to flail in the lava when it smacked him in the face. While the purple dragon tried to regain his balance in the lava Garble jumped up to his feet, spreading his wings before taking off.

As Garble starts flying the red dragon started to wander what can he do to kill his own boredom. But as far as he can see, there was nothing of interest that spoke to him. And as he continued to say nothing of interest, the red dragons own sense of irritation started to boil. Today has been nothing but dull and uneventful from the moment he woke up, ate his three servings of gems, to even now. Nothing has happened!

“RAGH! This such a pain! I wanna go burn or smash something that isn’t just rocks.” Garble groaned as he just flies around aimlessly, looking for anything to do.

But while the red dragon continuous to fly about something catches his attention out of the corner of his eye. Stopping in midair the teenage dragon turned his attention to what caught his eye. Trotting through the barren rocky wasteland’s dull greys and brown color scheme, was dark blue equine figure just casually strolling by. But what really caused Garble to look at the pony weirdly, was the patches of white stuff that it created with every step it took. However that mattered little to the dragon. Cause right now, there was something in the Dragon Lands that could finally take care of his boredom. So the red dragon flew down towards the blue equine, a snaggled tooth smile plastered on his muzzle, ready to have some fun on the pony who foolishly wandered into the Dragon Lands.

“Hey you pony!” Garble shouted as he closed in on the pony.

“What makes you think that you can just waltz in dragon territory huh?” the equine turned to look up at Garble, who expected to see a terrified look on the pony’s face. but the only look on the ponies face was a mildly annoyed expression.

“Go away.” The pony said with a voice that greatly expressed his annoyance.

“Oh. You think you can tell me what to do?” Garble challenged as he landed in front of the unicorn.

“In case you haven’t noticed, this is my turf pony! So you don’t get to tell me what to do!” As Garble tried to explain the situation the unicorn, a chill rand down his spine. The pony was looking at him, eyes narrowed only slightly, and yet they held such a fierce and threatening look.

“Go. Away.” Those simple two words were filled with so much power and intimidation that the teenage dragon actually had to take a step back.

‘What is this feeling!?’ Garble asked internally as the pony continued to stare the dragon down.

Just by being in this ponies presence, Garble felt a sense of dread and fear just loom over him. Like a great big shadow from an adult dragon whose had enough of another dragons antics. Honestly, Garble has never this level of fear before, and it was scaring him. Add in the fact that a pony seemed to be causing this looming weight over him, was causing the teenage dragon to be utterly dumbfounded!

‘This…this sensation…it’s like whenever the adults when they get serious about fighting each other.’

“Hey Garble!” the red dragon was snapped back to reality when a loud gravelly voice called out his name. When he turned to look behind him, he saw Charcoal and Scrag flying towards him. “Finally we found you.” Scrag, the scrawny purple dragon said as he and the other dragon landed in front of Garble.

Hey! What’s with the pony?” Charcoal the brown dragon asked as he pointed at the unicorn, and making both Garble and Scrag look over to the pony, who just looked even more irritated than before. Yet the red dragon regained some of his confidence and developed a smile on his broad muzzle, as an idea came to him.

“Nothing much really. I was just flying around looking for something to do—” the red dragon then pointed a thumb at the unicorn while he looked over to his two pals. “When I found this pony just wandering around. And I thought about teaching this pony why he should respect us dragons, and while he’s here we call the shots.”

Garble heard a snort coming from the equine, but paid it no mind as he kept an eye on his fellow dragons, while he tried to act more tough than he was from a moment ago. And it would seem that the other two teenage dragons also cracked a smile, as they seemed to catch on to what Garble meant.

“Well why don’t we help you teach this pony some respect eh?” Scrag said while Charcoal chuckled in agreement while Garble just looked satisfied as his friends shared his sense of bullying for fun.

“Be my guest, let’s teach this pony who thinks that he can talk back to to…to…”

Garble was cut off when he gave a rather loud sneeze, before feeling a shiver run down his back again. But instead of fear this chill down the spine felt normal, as a cold sensation coated his body. And it seemed that both Charcoal & Scrag were also feeling this same cold sensation. When the red dragon wandered why he was getting so cold, he noticed something. There was snow on the ground! No, not just on the ground, Garble saw that there was snow covering the whole area, and the air looked like it had specs of ice in it! the teenage dragon and his two pals then turned to where the pony was, and they all saw that in the white out of snow and ice specs in the air, the unicorns eyes were glowing an ominous red while his horn glowed an faint purplish pink color.

“Stand aside.” Was all the unicorn said, still carrying a threatening tone in his voice. “Or die where you stand!”

This threat seemed to spark the challenging instincts that are hardwired into dragons, as all three teenage dragons flared their wings, growled, and snarled in anger. While fire starts to build up deep inside them. Whenever a dragon is threatened, or challenged, they meet the obstacle head on. Ready to show that they aren’t afraid of anything, and show whatever it is threatening or challenging, that they are superior.

“You still think you can boss around in our turf?” Garble said as a puff of fire vents from his mouth as a wicked smile crosses his features.

“How about we show you what happens…WHEN YOU TRY AND TELL US DRAGONS WHAT TO DO!” With that all three teenage dragons lobbed big fireballs at the unicorn, hitting him directly and causing the unicorn’s body to be engulfed in flame.

“Ha! How did you like that pony? Did you—”

At first Garble felt nothing other than the cold snow and wind on his body. But for some reason, he felt nothing now. It’s as if all form of sensation just left his body. However that small period of dullness wavered fast, as the cold chill started to creep back over him, but there was another sensation. Mixed in with the cold touch of ice and snow, there was a warm feeling starting to sprout from various places on his body. Garble then looked at down at his body to see what was causing the warm sensation…and what he found truly frightened him. Piercing out of the ground, and puncture through his chest, arms, stomach, and legs were spikes of ice. Spikes of ice coated in his blood.

“Wha—”

~~~~~

Today has been a rather irritating one for the Oroshi. First there were those small equine creatures in armor, who twice tried to get in his way. Then there were the equines in that clearing with all the food, barking, and squealing at him, all while he tried to eat in peace.

Then there was the large, winged equine, who challenged him and actually dared enough to try and attack him, but its assault was short lived. And finally was this moment of having his peaceful trot stopped when annoying red lizard came out of nowhere, and started to bark and squeal like the equines. Already the elder dragon’s day was turning out to be bad, and just having a red flying toad, and two other monsters actually try and stop the midnight coated equine was crossing the Oroshi’s patience.

“Stupid flying toads.” The Oroshi grumbled as he trots past the three now dead, and frozen, creatures that he just dealt with.

But as the elder dragon continuous trot through this stony wasteland, it would seem that his luck had changed for the best. After trotting for roughly ten or so more minutes without other lowly creatures getting in his way, the Oroshi came across a nice little cave. Which doesn’t seem to have an owner.

Heading into the cave and trotting for a few minutes, the monster reached the back chamber, which was nice and cool, and the darken atmosphere had a wonderful calming effect on the quadrupedal monster. When the monster entered the chamber the Oroshi wasted no time in getting comfortable, as he wasn’t exhaustedly tired, but a good nap after everything that had happened today would be nice. So after the midnight coated monster laid on the ground, the walls, floor, and ceiling started to freeze and frost over, while a nice little blanket of snow started to cover the cave floor. Providing a nice little nesting bed for the elder dragon to rest up. And put the day behind him before continuing his own adventures through this strange new land.

Chapter 7

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The Oroshi started to slowly awaken from its undisturbed slumber in his little cave hideaway, raising his head from the snow covered ground as a yawn escapes his muzzle. As the Elder Dragon takes his time from waking up from his sleep, the uni-horn monster shifts his body around in the snow as he tries to lay in a different position, trying to get a bit more rest before waking up fully. Five or so minutes later the Elder Dragon decided to finally wake up fully, and started to trudge his way to the opening of the cave.

But as the midnight monster makes his way to the mouth of the cave, the monster started hear distant rumbling, and what sounded like distant roaring. But when he exited the cave the Oroshi didn’t see any creatures nearby, or in the general location he was in. Deciding that the distant roaring and sounds weren’t of any interest, the Oroshi started to trot about this wasteland of rock and stone for something to eat. However considering that this land of baren rock, with rivers of lava flowing through it the Elder Dragon figured he’ll have to leave this desolate landscape, and search for more favorable environments. And as the Oroshi scales rocky basins, or cliffs to gain height to survey the land the monster noticed a mass collection of creatures far off in the distant, and with his curiosity peaked the Elder Dragon decided to take a closer look.

Bounding across the land in a few steps with great speed the Oroshi lands at the edge of a crater, where it finds various types of creatures that looked like the three annoying winged reptiles it encountered yesterday, with the majority of the group being no bigger than the ones the Oroshi killed. But there were some that were extremely big, as big as some of the more large monsters that the Elder Dragon has seen from time to time. And the large ones seem to be in a very intense state as they are shouting at each other.

“—I WANT VEGENCE NOW LORD TORCH!” one large red and orange monster shouted as flames puffed out from her mouth, while her tail slapped around behind her.

“My Garble was murdered, and I want vengeance! I want to find whoever did this and make them pay!”

“Do you think I don’t know that!” a far larger monster bellowed at the red and orange monster.

“Three of our young ones have been killed, unjustly and meaninglessly! I assure you this will not stand!” the larger monster bellowed again, but this time accompanied by a claw slam onto the ground.

“However we don’t know who has done this. The only thing we know is that whoever has done this, must’ve used some kind of strong piercing weapon as their bodies have clean straight holes through their bodies.” The large monster said to the orange and red monster as he scratched his chin with a claw, before slamming it onto the ground causing the ground to shake as pieces of rock are set loose and sent flying a short distance.

“But I assure you, we will get to the bottom of this!”

The cluster of creatures continued to shout and roar at each other as they bickered, but whatever they were going on about didn’t stick to the Oroshi as he lost interest almost instantly. Bounding back the way he came; the elder dragon went back on his mission of searching for food. But as the elder dragon went about into looking for food, his search was again interrupted, although this time it wasn’t due to the distant roaring of the creatures. This time the elder dragon was halted when a large gust of fire came crashing down in front of him, scorching the rocky ground as the sound of wing beats caused the elder dragon to look up, and see a large dark blue scaled winged monster coming down to the ground.

“What is a pony doing in Dragon Country?” the large, towering monster asked as it lowered its head to look the Oroshi Kirin in the eye, but the elder dragon wasn’t at all intimidated by the monsters size, or even fazed by the fire it stood in.

“Move.” The elder dragon said in a commanding tone as he stared back into the monsters eyes, who honestly seemed surprised. And then out right humorous as it started to laugh.

“Oh! Such a feisty little thing aren’t you? Perhaps you forgot where you are pony…” the monster said as it reared back a bit, a claw raised as a grin crosses its long face. “Let me help jog your memory!”

~~~~~

In the Golden Oaks Library Twilight’s friends stopped by to check up on how their alicorn friend was, luckily the mare was doing much better. However her body was still covered in bandages and medical patches on the places she was injured. Today though the six mares were also joined by princess Celestia, who showed up out of the blue and startling the group of mares altogether, but once they all calmed down from surprise visit Celestia explained the reason for her visit. Which was the incident with unknown unicorn that injured Twilight, and nearly froze Applejacks farm. And when the group was told the level of destruction, and just overall behavior of the stallion when Celestia confronted him, they were all shocked.

“Just who is this strange unicorn, and why is he causing so much harm?” Rarity asked as she, along with her friends grow increasingly curious and concern of this strange, and clearly dangerous stallion.

“I don’t know but if he ever shows his face around here—” Rainbow threw a punch to signify her intention for the stallion.

“No offense Rainbow, but I doubt you’ll be much of a threat to this stallion.” Rarity commented as she looked to her cyan feathered friend. “He sounds like a rather dangerous individual.”

“I just hope he doesn’t come around here again. He might freeze all of Ponyville like he did with Applejack’s farm.” Fluttershy said in a fearful manner, terrified after hearing what this stallion did to two of her friends, and in Canterlot.

“I gotta be honest, even I feel like this guy might not be a good pony to make friends with.” Pinkie said in a rarely sad and worried tone which just made her friends feel uneasy as well.

As the group wandered just what is going on with this strange unicorn, Twilight was silently thinking to herself just on who this stallion was. Where did he come from, what is he doing in Equestria, and why is he abusing his magic in such a violent way. These questions, and many more continued to bounce around inside the alicorns head, before she broke her silence as a sigh escapes her mouth.

“I just wonder where he came from…and where he learned to harness such powerful ice magic.” Twilight said mostly to herself but still managed to grab the other six mares attention.

“How could he weld such strong magic?”

“I’m not sure Twilight, but hopefully we won’t have to deal with him.” Celestia said in a rather hopeful manner, but a concern look still adorned her face.

“Although I fear that with his personality, we will certainly hear about him and his exploits if somepony rubs him the wrong way.

At that moment Twilight and her friends already started thinking up various scenarios of what this stallion could be up to right now. From causing havoc in another city like he did in Canterlot, or just terrorizing smaller towns with his mere presence and display of power. even Celestia was worried about what this stallion might be up to at this very moment, after all, she had no idea on where she teleported the stallion to. as the sheer level of fear that took hold of her, when the unicorn was charging up a powerful attack, disrupted her from thinking clearly on where she was going to send him. A while later after Celestia finished her visit to inform her student and her friends the situation that took place yesterday, and told them to take care and be careful if the stallion ever found his way back to Ponyville, the princess bid them farewell and teleported back to Canterlot.

~~~~~

The Oroshi was trotting through the baren wastelands, scales, and patches of fur ever so slightly singed. And as the Elder Dragon trots off, scaling a small cliffside, the body of the dark blue creature was left behind. large spikes of ice erupted from the ground and piercing through its body, with spears of ice stuck into various other places of the monsters body, while frost and snow covered it and the area around it. The large imposing monster was left just suspended in spikes of ice, like propped up carcass.

As the Oroshi reaches the top of the cliff it looked back at the dead monster, a highly annoyed and upset look plastered on his face. A large, hefty spike of ice starts to form above the Oroshi Kirin, as particles of ice and snow swirl around it and merges into the spike. Once the icicle was to the Elder Dragon desired it was then launched at great speed, soaring through the air with a sharp ‘swoshing’ sound before it punctured into the back of the monster, going right through it, and slamming into the ground. with the monsters heart ripped from it, and now splattered onto the ground where the icicle landed.

“Stupid beast.” The Oroshi hissed as the hair covering his body stood on end as he snorted a puff of cold air. A moment later the Oroshi heard distant roaring as it saw figures flying towards his direction.

“Great. More stupid beasts.” The Oroshi grumbled as he shakes his head.

“Better move before they try something stupid.”

With that the Oroshi started to travel at surprising speed across the land in long leaps and bounds, almost like a ghost freely drifting over the land. As the Elder Dragon continues to skip across the land, the roars from before grew in volume to the point where the ground itself started to shake and rumble. But the Oroshi didn’t pay them to much attention as he just continued to leap and bound, eventually the Elder Dragon reaches another large cliff face but stretching high up like a land rise, causing the midnight skinned monster to scale its with little effort. Reaching the top of the land rise the monster was able to see less baren rocky terrain beyond, and started to see what looks like a steppe with a few trees and other foliage scattered about.

“Finally something to eat.” The Oroshi said as he started to trot down the cliff towards the steppe, heading over to a few large bushes with what looks like berries on it under the shade of a large wide-brimmed tree.

Just as the Oroshi took a big bite of one of the bushes, getting a mouth full of leaves and berries, the monster heard more roars, but this time accompanied by rushing air. Tilting his head up and from under the rim of the tree he was under and saw several of the large monsters fly overhead, and out towards the farther ends of the steppe and beyond. Soon the monsters were nothing but specks in the horizon as the Oroshi just continued to munch away on the bushes.

“At least they aren’t going to bother me.” Oroshi said before he swallows his mouthful of food, licking his lips to get the berry juices that slathered them.

While the flock of flying monsters disappeared from view the Elder Dragon went back to filling his stomach. And after roughly ten or so minutes and reducing three bushes to barren branches, the monster was now satisfied and was now at ease as he was able to enjoy a peaceful moment.

“Finally. A nice quite moment, and no interruption to my meal.” The Oroshi said as he scanned the area of the steppe he was in, eyes wandering over the wide expanse of flat land.

“Now where should I go next?” The Elder Dragon continued to survey the steppe for a little while longer, before trotting off in a random direction.

Chapter 8

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Canterlot was currently in a state of panic, ponies were shut up in their houses, any building they could refuge in. and through the windows all of them looked towards Canterlot Castle, where they all saw a dozen large dragons hanging along the walls, scaled on the towers, or perched on the roofs. With smaller dragons soaring around in the air, keeping an eye on everything in and around the castle grounds. At the castle Celestia and her sister are standing on balcony, where they stand face to face with the lord of dragons and were in a heated debate.

The princess appear to be trying to calm the massive dragon, but Torch’s anger is not so easily subsided. And his booming voice and fearful flames are a testament to his rising anger as he, and the princesses continue to talk with one another.

“--WE WANT ANSWERS NOW PRINCESS!” Dragon Lord Torch shouted as fire puffed from his mouth as he stares down at the two alicorns in front of him, who throughout the talk have been remain calm and composed. Not wavering from the blusterous dragon’s shouting.

“Why was one of your kind in our territory, and killing dragons!”

“Lord Torch as we have said we know nothing about this transgression towards you, or your people. But I assure you no pony would be capable of these atrocities.”

“Oh really?! Then how do you explain me, and my kind finding one of our own, held up by spikes of ice puncturing through his body, and one of our young ones…in the arid molten hot dragon lands?!” Torch roared as he flared his wings as the dragon lords temper continues to rise, but the dragon seemed to have missed the slight display of shock that Celestia portrayed, which she quickly replaced with her stoic expression.

“I promise you Lord Torch we will get to the bottom of this, and bring whoever this criminal is to justice—”

“NO!” Torch bellowed as fire erupted from his mouth, scorching the balcony and part of the interior of the hallway leading from the balcony. Luckily the princesses were able to put up a shield to protect themselves from the flames.

“Once this killer has been found, you will give them to us. And WE will pass judgment onto them!” With that Torch and the other dragons started to flap their wings taking off into the air.

As the dragons take off and start flying towards the distance the princesses both released sighs of relief, although this period of respite would not last long as a great sense of dread is building up in Celestia, especially with the elder princess already knowing who is responsible for the killing. And the look of great concern on her face portrays her fears to her sister, who is now quickly looking just as concerned, if not worried.

“…it’s that unicorn that can control ice, isn’t it sister?” Luna asked, sounding like she already has a rough idea on who the culprit is.

“I fear so.” Celestia said as she headed back into the castle, both her and Luna’s gilded shoes clopping against the scorched floor.

“I can’t believe that a pony would ever go so far and actually, kill with their magic!”

“I also find it hard to believe that a pony would use their magic in such brutal manner.” Luna said as she follows her sister through the hallway. “But what are we going to do Celestia? Even you said this pony is a dangerous threat, any pony we send after him will end up like Twilight, or that those dragons he killed.”

“…I’m not sure. But I will think of something.” Celestia said as confidently as she could, but in the back of her mind the solar princess wasn’t quite sure how she is going to confront this dangerous pony, if there is a way to do so peacefully without any pony getting hurt.

~~Elsewhere~~

The sun was high in the sky as the Oroshi Kirin continues to travel the vast open plains, occasionally crossing through a few forests and gorges but other than that, the Elder Dragon has been able to have a pleasant trot. Along his wandering the monster has been on the watch for anything that could cause him problems, as of recently that has been growing since he came to this forging land. As the Elder Dragon continues to travel across the land he eventually came upon what appears to be a desolate rocky landscape, with only a sparce of trees, bushes, and other types of vegetations scattered about.

But during his aimless meandering the Oroshi Kirin’s nose picked something up. Raising his head up a little the monster started to sniff the air, and as it does so it picks something up that seems familiar, the scent of monsters that smell like kirin. Intrigued by the discovery of the scent, the Oroshi Kirin started to follow his nose, bounding across the landscape, and making his way to a large land rise. Reaching the land rise the Elder Dragon started scale its rocky surface, bounding and leaping between the smallest of ledges and bumps, leaving traces of frost and snowflakes behind as he continues to climb. With one final leap the monster reaches the top of the land rise, where it finds a pocket jungle like location within a cavity in the middle of the rocky formation.

“This is where the scent is coming from.” the Oroshi said to its self as it trotted the ledge of the cavity, and then leapt so high into the air, and over a vast distance from where he jumped from. and in a moment the monster landed in a sizable clearing, where his hooves clapped against the ground as frost starts to form.

Once the monster has landed and stood up he continued to follow his nose, tracking down the source of the familiar scent. But as the monster does so, something about the scent started to make itself known in that while it is familiar, something about it was slightly different from regular Kirin and other Oroshi Kirin scents. But the Elder Dragon couldn’t exactly place what that the difference was, the oddity was just so, strange, and unfamiliar to other monster scents. Soon enough the Oroshi Kirin reaches the source of the scent, however his discover causes him to pause for a moment. Past the line of trees that the monster was using as cover stood a small town, however unlike the ones its accustomed to, or the one from that tall mountain with the small herbivores in it, this town was smaller, and its occupants looked slightly different.

The inhabitants looked like the small herbivores that the Oroshi unfortunately have already stumbled across, however these ones are more furrier with thick bushy collars and manes, with long tails with only a tuff of fur at the end. The horns on these monsters are also different, being more wavy or curved, with an additional branch or two growing from them.

“Interesting.” Oroshi muttered to himself as he watches the little ones trot about, talking and interacting with one another.

“They look like young kirin, but they seem different. Also…there’s something about them that I can’t quite pin down.”

After watching the little monsters go about their business the Oroshi decided to just not interact with them. but as the Elder Dragon was about to trot off and leave these little ones to themselves, he stumbles into one of said little ones. The little thing gave an alerted cry as the Oroshi nearly stepped on it, but the Elder Dragon was able to effortlessly move around the small monster by vaulting over it, and gracefully landing a few feet from it. Once the midnight colored monster has landed he casted a glance towards the small monster, and saw it just sitting on its flanks and looking at him with both surprise, and a hint of wander.

“Wow! That was so cool, the way you flipped over me and landed like a dancer, just—wow! You got some really nice moves.” The little monster said in a very excitable manner as she hopped up onto her cloven hooves, and trotted her way towards Oroshi.

“So who are ya big guy? You a new comer around these parts? Oh! What am I talking about, of course your new, cause I’ve would’ve remembered seen a tall, dark, and handsome bloke like you around here.” The little monster kept on yammering away as she circled around the Oroshi, her golden amber eyes scanning him all over.

“You’re really noisy.” The Oroshi said very blatantly before making one large jump from a standing position, and soared over the tree line landing on the rocky ridge on the other side.

“WOW! Did you all see that!” the distant voice of the small female monster shouted which the Oroshi could visibly see scampering around, excitedly trotting about talking to the other small monsters.

“Strange little one.”

The Oroshi then started to trot about the rocky ridge of outlining this town and forest in the creator, eyes wandering over everything from the little ones going about their lives, and seeing that noisy one going to every other small monster and quite loudly speaking about him. Although the other small ones don’t seem to be listening to her all that much. as the Oroshi continues to trot about the rocky ridge enclosing the little pocket forest, the Elder Dragon finds a nice little spot just a few paces away from a rocky ledge, there were even a few trees that have plump orange and yellow fruit growing from them. Licking his lips the monster trotted his way over to the trees, and started to knock them down one by one before biting into them, and tasting the sweet yet tart flavors of the fruit.

“Hey there big guy!” the familiar voice of the excitable female creature broke the peaceful silence of the Elder Dragon’s feast. And when he turned to look behind him low and behold, the excitable female creature was trotting up from behind him.

“So this is where we went.” The female creature continued to trot towards Oroshi, but stopped when she was a few feet from him, where frost has started to form on the ground.

“Wow you can create ice, that’s so cool! How do you do that?” the female creature asked as she continues to tort up towards Oroshi till she was standing by his side.

“So buddy you got a name?”

“Name?” the Oroshi asked through a mouthful of fruit. “What’s a name?”

“You…you don’t know what a name is?” the female creature asked as she looked up to the Elder Dragon with a baffled look. “A ‘Name’ is you, the thing that defines you. you know?” the monster continued to look down at the small creature with an unsure look, before something came to mind as he seemed to understand the creatures question.

“I’m called Oroshi.”

“Oroshi? Interesting name, mine’s Autumn Blaze.” The little creature says as her horn glows with a shimmering orange light, which also surrounded one of the fruit and starts to fly up to Autumn. Where she just start eating it. Now Oroshi was curious on how the small creature was able to levitate the fruit to herself, but quickly dismissed it as he continued to eat his own fruit, not minding the company. As this one isn’t trying to get in the way of his feasting.

“So Oroshi where did you come from? And how long will you be staying? We don’t get many visitors around here.” Autumn said as she chews on her fruit noisily. Oroshi finishes his second fruit before speaking to the small creature.

“I came from the west. Before that I know not, I am unfamiliar with these lands.” Oroshi said as he turns to face the outer plains from ridge. “I don’t know where I am, but it matters not. These new lands are plentiful, and rid of annoying hunters.”

“Hunters?” Autumn asked Oroshi as the smaller creature looked up to him.

“What hunters?” Oroshi decided to indulge the little creatures question, and laid down next to her continuing to eat fruit, while telling Autumn about these hunters, all the while the small horned creature laid down as well not minding the frost that is steadily growing around the pair. Looking enthralled as Oroshi begins telling the small monster about the hunters that pester him, and anything else that Autumn asked him to explain about the place he came from.

Chapter 9

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On a normal day, Twilight Sparkle always looks forward to getting a letter from Celestia. Whenever she receives a letter from her mentor the alicorn always expects either, a letter asking how the princess of friendship is doing, a new subject of study or even some new magical researcher that the sun princess thought Twilight would like to study. Or on the very rare occasion, an invite to a little get together for tea.

Today however, the message that Twilight received from her mentor was less than, appealing to say the very least. The letter described the events that took place not but a few hours ago, in where the dragons and their leader came to Equestria and accused some pony not only killing a fully grown adult dragon, but a hoofull of teenage dragons. But what really made the accusation send a chill down the violet alicorn’s spine, was that the adult dragon was killed by massive spikes, made completely out of ice! Already Twilight has a terrible feeling on who could be the culprit of these murders. And when she flew to Canterlot to talk to Celestia directly about the matter, the solar princess confirmed that the events were indeed real, and that she shared in Twilight’s hunch on who is the culprit.

“I can’t believe this is happening!” Twilight muttered in a panic state as she trots about in a small circle as many horrible scenarios play out in her mind. “I mean, harming ponies with no regards of the consequences is one thing. but actual murder! I can’t believe that this stallion would actually go to such extremes!”

“Indeed.” Luna said as she watches the smaller alicorn continue to pace around Celestia’s private chambers. “Never has any pony in Equestria’s history ever taken a life with no reason.”

“And what’s worst is that if we don’t find this stallion soon, the dragons will take matters into their own claws to find the culprit responsible.” Celestia said in a worried tone has her horn glows with magic, while a Map of Equestria floats in front of her, with a little ball of light hover over it and moving slowly around it.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to find where he currently is with this divining spell.”

“But even if we do find him, what are we going to do with him?” Twilight said as she finally stopped her pacing around, and trots over to her mentor with Luna following her.

“He’s a powerful elemental sorcerer princess, even if we capture him he could just break himself out of prison.”

“Which is why we are having a special cell being built specifically for him in the dungeons.” Celestia said as the ball of light on the map ceased its movement across the map, and turns into a ring before laying against the map and burning a ring mark around set of mountains in a desert like area.

“It seems your divination spell has found him sister.” Luna said as she looked down at the map. “Now the question is how do we go about an capturing him.”

The three alicorns started to deliberate on how they should go about in capturing this ice wielding unicorn. a battalion of guards accompanied by Shining Armor would’ve been a good choice, but the princesses doubted that even the entire castle guard would be able to take the stallion down long enough to arrest him. Not only that, but the princesses felt that during the struggle the guard’s would have mass casualties in subduing the stallion, as he is more than willing to inflict mortal injury, or even killing. Which seemed more apparent as the majority of the royal guard may be trained, but have no combat experience that would aide them in trying to survive the encounter.

Twilight did offer to go and search for the stallion, and with her friends in tow they might be more able to capture the stallion. Yet Luna questions if her friends would be capable of dealing such a violent adversary, especially with her less than physically able friends such as Rarity and Fluttershy. The night princess also questioned if any of friends could really stand against such a powerful opponent. Unfortunately Twilight is unsure about this prospect herself with this bit of insight now facing her. The princesses continued to discuss about on what they should in order to handle this situation, without having any pony being gravely injured, or even killed in the process.

~~Elsewhere~~

Oroshi had just finished telling the small creature named Autumn Blaze, several accounts of his encounters with the beings known as hunters and how most of them ended up in fights of survival. As Oroshi told Autumn of his encounters with the hunters, and a little of what the places he visited like when the small creature asked, the elder dragon took a break from his reminiscing of older times to eat some fruit that Autumn brought at some point. But while he tried to eat in peace, the little creature that laid beside him was just a non-stop mulling chatterbox, always asking more questions, or going off on some small mumbling about what Oroshi had just told her. In all honesty, the elder dragon was starting to grow tired of the small creature.

“Gotta say it sounds like wherever it is you came from, was a bad place to live.” The little creature said as she took a bite out of her tenth fruit.

“It can.” The Oroshi simply said as he looks out to the expansive lands beyond the rocky ridge, as the frost around him really started turn the ridge he, and Autumn were laying into a nice patch of frozen rock. Although Autumn seems unaffected as she still lays on a non-frozen patch of rocky surface.

“But these lands are also not pleasant to live in. ever since I got here I’ve been harassed by the other creatures, especially whenever I decide to eat. Always coming around to bother me, and just annoy me to no end.”

“That does sound a little rude of them to do especially if your trying to enjoy a nice quite moment to yourself.” The little creature said as she finishes her fruit.

“I wish that I could find one place that I can live in peace and quiet.” Oroshi said as he gets up to his hooves and trots over to the edge of the ridge.

“Well if you want you can stay here, it’s pretty quiet and peaceful.” Autumn said as she to gets up and follows Oroshi to the ridges edge, but the elder dragon just snorted out a puff of frigid air.

“No. If I am going to live anywhere, it will be a place where nothing other than myself lives.”

With that said Oroshi leapt off the ridges ledge, and scaled down its rocky cliff face until he reached the ground floor, where he started to gallop off into the distance. Bounding and prancing over great distances as he crosses the desert landscape. But in the midst of his galivanting across the land, the elder dragon was stopped in his tracks when a golden light surrounds him. confused as to what the light was the elder dragon tried to leave the light, but when he approached the light he was stopped when he couldn’t pass through the light. Now even more confused the Oroshi unleashed a flurry of ice at the light, causing its golden surface to freeze over but nothing else, so the elder dragon started creating a large icicle to fire at the golden light that has him trapped.

“Disburse your spell!” a voice called out which caused the monster to look up where the voice came from, and found the same white winged equine monster he encountered in that monster village. The one that tried to challenge him.

“You are being placed under arrest for not only the crime of assaulting your nations royalty, but also for the killing three young dragons, and one adult dragon.” the midnight blue monster looked to the left of the flying creature, and found another winged equine of similar color to his own talk down to him. “We do not wish to harm you, but we will if you force us to by resisting us.”

The Oroshi isn’t quiet sure what this new monster is babbling on about, but one thing is for sure it as well as the white one are the reason for his entrapment. So the monster continued to building up his icy energy, until he fired the icicle at the frozen wall of golden light, and shattering it on one hit freeing him from his imprisonment. The elder dragon the looked up to the two flying monsters, which both appeared to be startled and frighten, then swung his head around which caused several smaller yet still powerful icicle spike to fly towards the airborne duo. They managed to dodge the attack, but the Oroshi did not ceased his attack and started to send out powerful blasts of freezing winds, all which the flying equines were just managing to dodge in time. But bits of their bodies actually started to frost over when they could not fully dodge some of the attacks.

The winged equines tried countering the Oroshu by sending out glowing energy attacks, but unlike them the Oroshi was able to evade more of their attacks, with only a few scrapping his scaly hide and not doing a lot of damage. This back and forth exchange of attacks continued on for a few more minutes, with the area growing colder and more tundra like as the Oroshi continued to use his ice powers, with snow, ice, and frost covering what used to be rocky landscape with bristled and harsh foliage. The fight was brought to a stop when the elder dragon was surrounded by vines of light blue energy, which struck out at it and coiled around its body, tethering it to the ground.

“There!” the blue winged equine said as the Oroshi watched her and the other creature land, the snow and ice crunching under their hooves.

“He certainly did not make it easy.”

“Becareful Luna this stallion is not—”

Before the white one could finish speaking, the Oroshi neighed so loudly that the snow around him was actually blown back, before jagged spikes of ice erupted from the ground from him and outwards. The spikes nearly skewered the flying equines because they landed so close to him, but were able to take off in time to only have the lower parts of the legs get cuts and scrapes. The glowing vines that entangled the elder dragon were still trying to hold him down, but the monster’s own chilling presence was causing them to freeze over and start to crack. But the vines snagged as the midnight monster used its own raw strength to snap the vines, while he rears up on his hind legs and lets loose a powerful battle cry, followed up by what looked like a giant blizzard that shot into the air. Catching both the winged creatures, causing them to cry out before being engulfed in the blinding white avalanche of snow and icy wind!

Going back down to all fours the elder dragon huffed out a large cloud of cold air, as his eyes glared at the falling bodies of the creatures which were mostly covered in ice and frost, while the cold icy winds around the area continue to just whip across the land. Tue Oroshi then reared up again onto his back legs, his glowing purple horn having icy energy swirl around it as the frigged wind and snow around the monster follows suit, creating a giant pillar of spiral ice that reaches high into the air.

“Now DIE!”

The Oroshi shouted out in both anger and frustration, as well as vengeance as he remembered the promise of killed the white winged equine if it bothered him again, while he swings his head downward. Bringing the massive pillar of icy energy careening down towards the pair. But the elder dragon noticed that as his attack was halfway through its fall, a brilliant violet flash of light appeared where the two fallen creatures were, before it appeared again before the pillar crashed down causing the ground to shake, and massive waves of ice splashed out and freeze solid a second later. After the attack had landed the Oroshi made his way to where the creatures were, and found no trace of their bodies buried under the ice and continuously growing layer of snow and frost. Even their scents were no longer present.

“Why won’t these creatures just leave me be.” The Oroshi said as he leapt down from the mound of ice, and started to leave the now frozen area that he had created.

~~Canterlot~~

A flash of violet light suddenly appeared in the throne room of Canterlot Castle, where the doors to the room opened up and a pair of guards came trotting in and looked on with terror at what they saw. laying on the floor, shivering and covered in ice and what appeared to be red snow, were princess Celestia and Luna. Teeth chattering, wings twitching, and bodies in a constant state of shaking. Between the two princess was Twilight Sparkle, who for herself was only covered in a light coating of snow, but held a panicked expression on her face as she stares at them.

“Bring a medical team here now, and hot water! Lots of hot water, towels, anything that can warm them up!” the youngest princess said in a frantic tone.

“Right away your majesty!”

The two guards did as they were told and galloped out of the throne room, leaving the violet alicorn alone with the two nearly frozen older alicorns. While the guards went to do as she instructed, Twilight tried using magic to melt the ice off the princesses and trying to warm their bodies up. even just by standing next to them, the small alicorn could just feel just how cold they are. Soon the guards returned with what Twilight asked them to bring, plus several maid and butlers to help, and they all immediately went to work on treating the princesses. Carefully using magic to blanket them in hot water, and having the medical staff check the injuries they received. As they worked Twilight stood off to the side and just slouched down as hopped that the sisters will be alright.

Chapter 10

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The sun started to make its ascent into the sky as it brings forth the dawn, and as it does the Oroshi awakens from his slumber under a large tree, with snow and frost covering a sizable area around it. Stretching out his body to help get the lingering vestiges of his slumber, while the frost and snow that has accumulated on his body to be tossed off. Even the ice that formed on his patches of fur, mane, and tail were tossed about, making soft ‘clumps’ on the ground as they meet snow. Once the elder dragon was now fully awake he peered over the expanse open fields that he was in, miles away from where he meet the smaller versions of himself, and had his brief fight with the flying equines.

Surveying the region nothing was standing out to catch the elders attention, or make him take significant interest in. The whole land itself was fairly expansive steep with nothing but shrubs and a few trees scattered about, and a few large rocks and other rocky ornamentation covering the land.

The monster then started to leap and bound in the direction of the East, his cloven hooves leaving small patches of ice and frost on the dry desolate ground. While Oroshi was traveling across the land as swift as the wind, a low deep rumbling sound started to catch his attention coming from his left. And when he looked to his side he saw a large dust cloud forming on the horizon. With his curiosity peeked, Oroshi veered from his original path and started to make his way towards the dust cloud, and in no time he reached a ledge that overlooked a significantly wide valley where the dust cloud was, with its source being some kind of large furry beast with feathers growing from their heads.

“More smelly beasts.” The elder dragon remarked as he watched the herd bellow on forward.

But something quickly caught his attention as he continued to watch them. The herd was heading into a small pocket forest, with a clear path splitting it down the middle. And at the end of the path the Oroshi could see more of the small equines, all of which were gathered around what looked like grey pillars with steam coming off them, and as he looked at the small group of equines something tickled his nose. The smell he was sniffing was fruity, citrussy, and other scents that started to make his moth salivate. With this irresistible smell now lingering in his nose, the Oroshi began to scale down the ledge he was on, and once he reached ground level he reached the end of the forest in no time. And when he reached the boarder of the trees where the smell was coming from, Oroshi spied the columns of grey pillars and started to make his way over to them, ignoring the odd stares he was getting from the small equines.

“Ugh hey there sir.” One of the small equine stallions said to Oroshi, but was just ignored.

“Where did you come from?” again Oroshi just ignored the stallion and just made his way to the small pillars, and found one the small ones having what looked like a round mushroom cap, but was producing the delicious aroma he was smelling.

“Oh you smelled one of our freshly made apple pies.” A small mare said as she trotted up to the elder dragon.

“Well if you want one then go ahead take one, we got plenty of—OH! When did it suddenly get so cold?!”

The mare shuddered as the Oroshi took one of these, pies, in his mouth and trotted off a bit before he started to eat it. The moment that Oroshi took his first bite of whatever this food was, an explosion of fruity flavors and other things filled his mouth! After that first bite Oroshi all but gobbled down the pie-thing, tasting every bit of flavor that it had and even licking the metal thing it was in clean, trying to get every last bite and crumb. With the consumption of the pie-thing done the Oroshi immediately turn to get more, but that’s when he saw the equines start tossing the delicious food to the larger beasts, as they thundered down the path and exiting the forest.

“Don’t worry mister, there should be plenty of leftovers if your still hungry!” the mare from before said as she effortlessly tosses a pie onto one of the large beasts head as it passed by.

But the elder dragon didn’t want to wait to be offered more of the food, so he was going to take as much as food as he wanted. Although something stopped the Oroshi from retrieving the pie-things. The Oroshi’s ears perked up as he heard something off in the distance, another deep rumbling sound. Although unlike the rumbling of the beast’s that were passing by him, who also stopped their thunderous charge and seemed to take notice of the rumbling as well along with the equines, this new rumbling echo sound was coming the south of the forest boarder.

Turning to where the sound was coming from, and pivoting his ears the elder dragon could hear the rumbling sound getting closer, and closer and as it did the monster felt the ground beneath him start to shake. Just then the rumbling sound and shaking of the ground intensified, the duo commotion startling the larger beasts and equines causing most of them to back pedal. Then as the sound and shaking got closer something came bursting out of the ground, a loud and deafening roar bellowed as a familiar monster that the elder dragon has seen, and come across appeared. And it seemed that the larger beasts and the small equines are familiar with this as they all yelled something out.

“It’s the bull dragon!” one of the equines shouted before they galloped away.

“Run for your lives!” one of the larger beasts said before thundering back the way he came.

“Give me the food!” the large heavily armored monster which the Oroshi knew to be was a Diablos, although, this one was much smaller, and its body looked more rounder and less threatening.

But it still acted like every other Diablos that the Oroshi has seen and came across. Though that didn’t matter to much to the elder dragon, what did matter was that this monster was going to try and take his food. To get the brute wyverns attention Oroshi gathered ice energy around his horn, and then with a quick sweep of his head the elder dragon sent out a wave of ice at the winged monster, crashing into its side and freezing its feet and the tip of its wing to the ground.

“What!” the larger duel-horn monster shouted before struggling for a few moments and causing the ice to shatter.

“Who did—” the monster’s bellowing stopped when it laid eyes on Oroshi, who was starting to gather more ice energy around its horn as he stood proudly before the armored monster.

“E-Elder Dragon!” the Diablos said in a hushed tone before lowering its head and taking a step back. the Oroshi then took a few steps towards the larger monster, eyes narrowed as looks down at the monster, frost and ice starting to form around the ground.

“This is my food.” Oroshi says in a very threatening tone as he generated more ice energy around his horn, creating not only a giant icy column with frigid wind not only surrounding it, but also the surrounding area creating frost and snow all over the mouth of the forest.

“Leave!”

The Diablos gave a low submissive growl before turning around and walking off back to where it came from, where it started to dig back into the ground, disappearing fully as the rumbling sound the monster made started to leave the area. With the brute wyvern now gone Oroshi turned to get more of those delicious pie-things, but again the elder dragon was stopped, though this time by the large beast and the small equines. All of whom were sound excited, and overjoyed for some reason.

“I can’t believe it! You actually scared off the bull dragon!” the mare from before cheered.

“No creature has ever stood up to him, let alone make HIM run away.” One of the larger beasts said in disbelief.

“Three cheers for the brave stallion!” one of the other equines said, causing the large herd to exclaim in excitement three times. All the while Oroshi just looked at them all with a perplexed look.

“Why are you all so happy?” he asked simply.

“Because you scared off that no good crook bull dragon.” the mare said again as she made her way to the front of the group. “Ever since he showed up a month ago, he’s been destroying parts of Appeloosa and taking a lot of food away. He’s even killed a few of us!” the mare said to Oroshi before continuing.

“And no pony has been able to stop him, but you! All you did was just used a little bit of magic, and he just cowered before you. You saved not only our lives, but possibly our whole town!” the herd continued to cheer in joy, and strangely enough Oroshi started to feel something strange, it was like a fluttering feeling in his chest. Like a swarm of butterflies fluttering around in a small bush.

“As a show of our gratitude let’s throw a party back in town in your honor!” the whole herd again made some joyful cheers, even stomping their hooves onto the ground in excitement before they all galloped and thundered off in the opposite direction, leaving the mare and Oroshi behind.

“Come on follow me.” the mare said before galloping off after the herd. Both confused, and a little intrigued, Oroshi decided to follow the small mare to see what a ‘party’ is.

~~~~~

Oroshi was greedily gobbling down every bit a food that was placed before him by the small equines, vigorously devouring them all and savoring the wonderous flavors that they all had. Apparently what the equines called a party, was some kind of large herd celebration that mirrored something he’s only seen by the small felyne’s, or by the more erratic shakalaka.

Whatever this was, Oroshi was certainly enjoying all the wonderous food he was eating, and the liquids they were bring him in wooden things. And it wasn’t just the food that the Oroshi was enjoying, he was also actually enjoying the company of the equines and larger beasts, as they like the small kirins did not bother him or try to attack him. Especially the mare that gave him his first pie, as she was very friendly, so the elder dragon decided to keep his icy aura at a low level to not harm the delightful creatures.

“So how our you enjoying the party?” the mare asked Oroshi after he finishes another bundle of mixed herds and other plants.

“It’s different.” Oroshi simply said. “I’ve never really been to anything like this, or be in a town like this one.” The elder dragon said as he looked around at all of the structures, always expecting to see a hunter appearing out of them.

“Really?” the mare asked. “But where do you live?”

“In the wilds.” Oroshi simply answered.

“The wilds!?” the mare repeated. “As in, sleeping in the dirt, and in caves?”

“Yes.” Oroshi stated simply before grabbing one of the mugs, and drinking the ‘cider’ inside, enjoying the fizzy and crisp apple flavor.

“Well not today your not!” the mare said as she stomped her hoof. “I insist that you stay in town and get proper sleep.”

“Alright.” The elder dragon again said very simply.

“By the way you never told us your name, what do we call you?”

“Oroshi.” The monster said as he looked over to the mare.

“Oroshi. Interesting name, mine is Crisp Crust, and I work at the towns bakery making all kinds of delicious treats.”

“So you made all of these pies, and other pie like things?” Crisp just simply nodded her head.

Oroshi and Crisp continued to talk with one another, in a similar sequence that Oroshi had with Autumn. But unlike with the small kirin, Crisp wasn’t as overly energetic, or talkative as the Autumn. Yet Crisp was very nice to talk to, and asked some of the same questions that Autumn asked him a few days ago. And the mare seemed just as intrigued, but she also found the fact that Oroshi was not like them, despite the fact that Oroshi’s body clearly showed being covered in scales. The two continued to talk until it was late into the afternoon, and the party started to die down and the equines and larger beasts, which were actually called buffalos, started to clean everything up and head on home.

With the party now over, Crisp actually guided Oroshi to the building that she both works and lives at, and it was here that Oroshi took something called a bath in a strange thing called a tub. The moment that Oroshi entered the bath he practically melted. As he sunk lower into the hot water, Oroshi felt his usually tensed and always altered body, relax, loosen up and feel completely at ease. It was an amazing feeling. After taking his first bath, Oroshi and Crisp continued to talk in the living room of the building, where both Oroshi and Crisp told stories about themselves to one another. And while Oroshi was enjoying hearing what is that Crisp does for work, and some of the strange things that happen to here, the mare found Oroshi’s travels from the lands he came from very exciting. From how he fought other monsters, or the packs of hunters, and about the lands themselves that he visited and lived.

Eventually the duo had to stop with their telling of stories, and having a nice dinner that again, Oroshi just loved, and went off to bed. Crisp even showed her the spare bedroom she had that she said Oroshi could sleep in, which to the elder dragon looked a little too small for him, and looked a little unnecessary. But the monster attempted to sleep on the bed, and the moment he felt how soft and comfortable it was, he practically drifted off to sleep faster than he has ever had before. And as Oroshi was drifting off to sleep, he easily concluded that today in this strange land was definitely the best.