//------------------------------//
// The New Discovery 
// Story: The Northern Sky 
// by DashTillDawn 
//------------------------------//

"So, he's an alicorn, but he's not royalty?" Princess Cadence asked.
"I don't quite understand it, myself. He's from before Celestia and Luna earned their wings." Starlight answered.
"I'm standing right here." I announced.
"Sorry, I'm just having difficulty wrapping my head around this." Cadence apologized.
We had gotten Twilight to the castle, and she was now in a separate room, sleeping. Her brother sat at her bedside, while Cadence watched their foal, and kept us company.
"Twilight will be okay?" I inquired.
"She'll want to take it easy for a while, but she should be fine."
"We're going to need her, if we want to stop Midnight." I informed Cadence.
"How do we even know that he's a threat? He still hasn't struck, and I'm not sure he ever will." She questioned.
"He's essentially the reason your sister-in-law almost died. I'm sure he has big plans."
That's when things went south. Shining Armor blasted through the doors.
"Twilight's temperature is dropping! I don't know what to do!"
We ran down the hall, and into the bedroom Twilight was in. She was loosing her color, and cold to the touch. Starlight turned to me, an idea forming in her head.
"North, I think this one's up to you."
"Me?! What am I supposed to do?"
"You're immune to the cold. Do the same thing for her"
"I don't know if I can!"
"She's dying! You have to try!" Shining Armor shouted.
I had no idea what I was doing, or where to start. I had to do something.
"Alright, I'll give it a shot."
I took in my surroundings. I was in a large bedroom, surrounded by ponies I had only recently met. There was a fire going, on the far side of the room. Twilight lay in the bed in front of me. The windows were closed, but the curtains open. Through those windows, I could see the city below. Beyond that, the frozen wastes. Then, I blocked it all out. The only thing I focused on was the cold, Just like when I had been frozen in ice.





North stood for a few seconds, before closing his eyes. We wondered what he was doing, while the room around us changed. First, the room temperature fell. Then, frost formed on the windows. The fire went out. We were able to see our breaths fill the air with mist. Ice formed around North's hooves, and spread across the room. His horn began to glow an uncharacteristic light blue- the shade of ice. His usual magic was green, like the color of his eyes. 
His horn glowed brighter, and he opened his eyes again. They were plain white, the way Twilight's were when she was really trying hard to cast a spell. The room grew so cold, I thought it would snow.
The ball of magic he had created descended on Twilight, before disappearing. That was it. The room temperature became normal, the fire resumed burning, the ice vanished. North blinked, and his eyes were their usual green again.
"W- what did you just do?" I stuttered, being the only witness currently capable of speech. Cadence and Shining Armor lost control of their jaws, which hung ajar.
"I'm really not sure. I just thought back to my time in the ice."
"Maybe you should hold off on doing that again, at least until we talk to Celestia about it."
"What happened?"
"You froze the room, before casting a spell I've never seen before."
"Did it work?"
"Did what work?" Twilight mumbled
"There's your answer." I told him, before turning my attention to Twilight. "How do you feel?"
"Like I took an ice bath in the frozen tundra, but aside from that, fine. Why? What happened?" Twilight responded.
"North tried to make you immune to the cold, before it killed you."
"Will I always be this cold, now?"
"I tried to make it temporary, but we'll have to wait and see." North informed her.
"I hope not. How do you live like this?" She asked.
"I just tried to ignore it, and eventually it became natural."
"I don't want this to be natural, but I'll deal with it for now."
But it only got worse from here. There was an explosion that shook the building, bringing Shining Armor back from his stupor.
"That sounded like it came from the Crystal Heart!" He yelled.
I ran to the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of the source. At the foot of the castle stood a lone figure: a deep blue colt with a black mane. Though it was difficult to tell from here, he seemed to be looking right at me. North joined me, while Cadence took her filly to a safer place, and Shining Armor issued orders to the guards that had shown up.
"That's him." North said to nopony in particular.
"Midnight?" I guessed.
"You got it."
"What do we do?"
"I'm going to find out why he's doing this. Maybe I can talk him out of it."
I raised my hoof to object, but he was already gone. He had launched out of the window, and flown to the ground. I turned to Twilight, who was trying to climb out of bed. She shrugged. Out in the hall I could hear one of the guards saying something about potential damage to the Crystal heart. Could things possibly get any worse? As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I hated myself for thinking it.





"Why are you doing this, Midnight?!" I shouted.
"You still don't know? I should have figured you would be too stupid to figure it out, brother. I was always the better one, after all."
It took everything I had, not to blast him on the spot. He would have seen it coming, anyways. We stood at the base of the castle, about thirty feet apart. Anypony who hadn't run from the blast started to gather around. It almost look like the buildup to a fight in the schoolyard.
"Well, if I'm 'too stupid' to figure it out on my own, why don't you just tell me?"
"But that spoils the fun! Besides, I know better than that. Now, I'm afraid I have important business in elsewhere. Sorry I can't stay longer, but destiny calls!" Then he was gone. Luckily, that was all I needed from him. I now knew what he was up to.