Freeze opened his eyes slowly, letting out a slow moan of pain. He could hear voices by him, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Sitting up, he saw that he was on the couch in his living room, with a few blankets over him. He could see seven mares nearby, talking to each other. He recognized some of them, but some of them he hadn’t seen before. At the sound of his voice, the mares looked towards him, relief on their faces.
“Oh, good! You’re awake!” Twilight said, breathing out a small sigh. “I was worried that something had happened to you. You were out for a while.”
“How long was I out for?” Freeze asked, his voice sounding a little tired.
“About a few hours,” a cyan pegasus mare said, walking up to him. “You were mumbling things in your sleep, too. Something about being the ‘savior of this world’. What was that about?”
“Rainbow Dash!” a white unicorn mare said, stomping her hoof on the floor. “He is just waking up, and you have to ask a question right away? Honestly, I don’t know what I am going to do with you.”
“It’s fine,” Freeze says, shaking his head. “It’s just that… Something weird happened while I was unconscious, like a vision almost.” As soon as he said that, Twilight rushed up to him, a tint of fear in her face.
“A vision!?” she yelled. “Tell. Me. Everything!”
“Alright, alright,” he said, a little creeped out by her sudden rush to him. He then began to explain what was in his dream: about the forest, the ice pillar, and the voice. When he was done explaining, the seven mares were looking at him in shock, as if they were unable to believe what he just said.
“So, let me get this straight,” the cyan mare, whose name was presumably Rainbow Dash, said to him. “You woke up in this dark forest, found a strange ice pillar, and then heard a voice from it that basically said you would save Equestria from something. Is that right?”
“Yeah,” Freeze told her, before looking down at the floor. “But why me? I’m just an ordinary pegasus. How can I have to power to save Equestria from some great evil?”
“Well, the voice did say that you needed to find the pillar in the real world,” Twilight said to him. “And if my hunch is correct, I would say that the forest you were in is the Everfree Forest. Maybe if we search there, we may be able to find the ice pillar.”
“Yeah, but the Everfree is dangerous,” an orange earth pony with a stetson hat on said. said. “If you want to find that pillar, you’ll need some help.”
“And that’s where we come in!” exclaimed Rainbow. “We’ll help you find that pillar, no problem.”
“Wait, you’ll really do that?” Freeze asked, looking around at them.
“Of course!” the white unicorn mare said, a small smile on her face. “We’ve been in the Everfree many times before, so we know most of the dangers that lurk within it. Plus, maybe we can get Zecora to help too!” Freeze couldn’t help but give a small grin to this, before getting off the couch and standing up. A determined expression came across his face.
“Well, what are we waiting for then?” he said. “Let’s find that pillar!”
“Ugh, it feels like we’ve been searching forever, and not a single glimpse of the pillar! Twilight, are you sure it’s here?” said Rainbow, getting a little impatient.
“The way Freeze described the forest, I’m almost certain it’s in here somewhere,” Twilight told her. “But even I’m starting to have my doubts. Are you sure you described the forest right, Freeze?”
The eight ponies had trekked to the deepest parts of the Everfree Forest to locate the mysterious ice pillar Freeze had seen in his vision. So far, however, there was no sign of it.
“Yeah, I’m sure I described it correctly,” Freeze said to her. “It just felt so… vivid. Like I was actually there.”
“I’m sure that we will find it, it just might take a while,” Fluttershy said from the back. She had been quiet for most of the trip, but out of all of them she was the most optimistic.
“Well, it feels like we’ve been searching for it forever!” Rainbow yelled. “We better find it soon, or I’m heading back! This trip seems like a wild-” she suddenly stopped, hearing a distinct howl coming from behind the group.
“U-um, T-Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, her voice filled with fear. “W-what was that?”
“Timberwolves!” Twilight whispered. “Stay still. Maybe they won’t notice us if we do.”
The group stayed silent, listening for the timberwolves. After a few minutes, the group began to think that they had wandered away and that they were safe, before a shadow leaped out of the leaves and landed in front of them. When it landed, they could see the full detail of the creature. It looked similar in shape to a wolf, but instead of being made of flesh, it was made of twigs, leaves and branches. It had bright yellow eyes that looked over the group, and a low growl escaped from its throat. Suddenly, it let out a loud howl, presumably to tell the rest of its pack about the prey it found.
“Run!” Twilight yelled, and the group turned around and ran for their lives, scared out of their minds. The timberwolf started to chase them, and soon more timberwolves came out of the shadows and joined it. The path was very narrow, so they did not have much space to spread out. Suddenly, they came to a point in the path where it split in two. As the approached it, Freeze jumped up and turned around, facing the timberwolves.
“You guys go on ahead!” he shouted. “I’ll handle the timberwolves!”
“What!?” Twilight yelled, stopping for a moment. “Are you crazy? You’ll get killed!”
“It’s a chance I have to take!” he yelled back. “I’ll lead them down the other path, you girls get to safety!”
Twilight looked at him for a moment, some tears in her eyes, before wiping them away and nodding to him. She then lead the rest of the group down one of the paths. Freeze turned back to the direction of the timberwolves, getting into his fighting stance.
“Hey uglies!” he yelled. “Over here!” He raced down the other path, trying to get the timberwolves off of his friends tails. Unfortunately for him, they weren’t as dumb as they looked. They saw the larger group go down the other path and, hoping for a bigger meal, raced down the path they had taken, pursuing the unexpecting mares.
Meanwhile, Freeze was unaware that the timberwolves had taken the other path, and kept on running. He soon came to a small clearing, which was lit up by the light of the moon overhead. Turning around, he was ready to fight off the timberwolves, but to his surprise, they were nowhere to be seen.
“Maybe they gave up,” he told himself. “I was probably too fast for them.” He gave a small chuckle and turned to face the clearing, but what he saw inside of it almost took his breath away. There, in the middle of the clearing, stood a sharp pillar made of ice - the same exact one from his dream. Cautiously, he took a few steps towards it, before hearing the same voice he had heard before in his head.
“So.. You have come..,” it said, almost sounding like it was not surprised. “I knew you would find me. I just didn’t know it would be this soon.”
“Who… Who are you?” he asked, taking a few more steps towards it. “Why did you want me to find you? And what did you mean by I will be the savior of Equestria?”
The voice gave a small chuckle. “So many questions, but it is expected,” it told him. “You will get all of your answers in due time, but for now, there is something else that we must discuss.”
“What’s that?” Freeze asked the voice.
“You will need help in your quest to save this world,” it said. “I will give you powers that you can only imagine, and those powers will aid you in defeating the evil here. My spirit will rest inside of you, so you can use those powers.”
“Wait, your spirit will be inside of me?” Freeze asked, confused. “But how will you do that?”
“Touch the ice pillar,” said the voice. “I will transfer my power from here to your body.”
Freeze hesitated for a moment, before reaching his hoof out towards the ice. Suddenly, however, he heard a loud scream of terror coming from deep within the forest. He turned around, a look of fear on his face.
“I know that voice!” he exclaimed, fearing the worst. “That was Fluttershy! The timberwolves must have found them!” He turned back to the pillar. “I need to save my friends! Before it’s too late!”
“You will not be able to help your friends unless you have my power,” the voice told him. “Quickly, touch the pillar, and I will transfer my power as fast as I can.”
Freeze nodded, and thrusted his hoof onto the pillar. As soon as he touched it, he felt a power that he had never felt before surge through him. Closing his eyes, he let the energy expand throughout his body. Soon after he felt the energy enter his body, a ball of blue electricity surrounded his body. He felt his body changing, his hooves turning into claws and feet, and his neck getting longer. A yellow crest grew on his head, and his tail changed to something that resembled a generator. Soon after, the ball of electricity broke outward, and in place of the pegasus stallion that stood before was a large, gray dragon with ice on it. It let out a loud roar and flew in the direction of the timberwolves.
The seven mares huddled together, scared for their lives. The pack of timberwolves had cornered them near a large cliff, and they were backed up against it. Twilight’s horn flashed with a magenta hue, but she was too scared to perform any of her spells.
“Looks like this is it girls…,” she said in defeat, a small tear escaping her eye. They huddled together, ready for the final blow from the timberwolves, when suddenly a bright flash of light came from the sky and hit the pack. They scattered, before looking up at the sky. The seven mare looked up as well, and what they saw astonished them. There above them was a large gray dragon, electricity surging around its body. It had two different claws; one big and bulky, and one small and slim. Its tail alternated between black and white, and its shoulders and jaws were frozen over. Its shoulders also had two white spikes on each of them. What really surprised them, however, was that they could see it had pegasus wings and pony ears, similar to a friend that they all knew.
“Leave my friends alone!” it shouted, before a ball of ice formed in its mouth. It then shot the ice out in a beam, freezing the timberwolves. The dragon then came down to the ground, and from its bulky arm a claw of shadows formed. It sliced the timberwolves with the claw, before they broke apart, defeated. The mares looked at the scene in shock, before one of them walked up to the dragon.
“F-Freeze?” Fluttershy asked, awed at the spectacle she just witnessed. “Is… Is that you?”
The dragon nodded, before his body was engulfed in electricity. His body turned a deep blue, and it began to shrink, tuning into that of a pegasus stallion. The electricity disappeared, leaving a dazed Freeze in the aftermath, who promptly fainted on the spot.