Twilight Sparkle had followed the summons of the cutie map to a jungle in the middle of nowhere. Her friend Rainbow Dash was accompanying her in this trek through the foliage and she took the opportunity to wear some of her favorite jungle-tromping attire. All of it was styled after Daring Do, of course, but the small comfort of clothing against the thicket and bramble of the jungle paled in comparison to the chilling dread that filled the senses of the two ponies.
Closer and closer they walked, their wings tired from having carried the ponies this far. The canopy was too thick to fly past, and Twilight had pointed out that it would only get worse as time went on. Now, Rainbow Dash and Twilight found themselves deep in swampy water, swatting at flies that buzzed around their ears.
"Who could have a friendship problem way out here?" Rainbow growled at a fly, intimidating it into finding somewhere else to buzz. "Maybe they don't want our help, you know?" Her tail flicked in irritation.
"This is where the Cutie Map is sending us, Rainbow. You saw the weird marking. A raven's skull? It's never done that before." Twilight was inspecting a map of the area that she had traded with a Zebra to obtain. "It has to be really important if it's sending us here."
"You say that," Rainbow flapped her wings to land next to her friend, "but maybe the skull meant for us to stay away from this place? Jungles are supposed to be really hot and humid, but the closer we get to that spot on the map, the colder I feel."
Twilight shivered, well aware of the lowering temperature. "We've been through worse, Rainbow. No reason to chicken out now."
Rainbow blinked in surprise, "I'm not scared!" She puffed up her fuzzy chest with pride and bravado, "No creepy cold jungle in the middle of nowhere is gonna send me running."
The alicorn smirked, "I know you're not scared, Rainbow. Besides, we're almost there anyway. You see the ice crystals?" She pointed to a nearby fern with her horn, her face still buried in the map as she walked half-blind through the jungle. "Those really aren't normal, but from what Celestia told me... they're a symptom of something that's probably worse than strange weather."
"What do you think is causing all of this?" Rainbow pointed at the ground ahead which had been frozen solid. "The raven skull?"
Twilight grimaced and lowered the map in her magical lavender grip in order to see properly. "I was speaking with Celestia before we headed out here, Rainbow. She said it was only legends, but if it's true... we could be confronting a necromancer."
Rainbow raised her eyebrow, "A what now?"
Twilight folded up her map and stuffed it into her saddlebag. "They're ponies whose special talent is raising the dead. Like... like skeletons and zombies and things like that."
Her eyes went wide, "You mean like that prank you played on me with the cookies where you all pretended to be sick?"
Twilight nodded, "Like that, but the zombies and skeletons eat ponies instead of cookies."
Rainbow Dash shivered. The memory of that prank was enough to set her back a step. "You're really sure we have to do this?"
A grand temple loomed in the horizon, frozen over with cold winds causing the alicorn and pegasus to bristle and ruffle their feathers. The temple looked to be made of stone, perhaps marble, but it was difficult to tell from the cliff where they stood.
"Well," Twilight stretched her wings and shook her head, fighting off the jitters of confronting something so ancient. "Here goes nothing."
The two ponies swooped down from the cliff and glided over the icy terrain, each feeling a bit under-dressed for the occasion. Celestia hadn't mentioned how cold it would be here.
When Twilight and Rainbow arrived at the temple's main door, they were confronted with a single keyhole. The ponies shared a look at one another, each expecting that they might suddenly come up with an answer. Finding that neither knew what to do, the ponies began to investigate.
A thick overgrowth of vines and ivy leaves had concealed the temple's entrance. It was a quick work of magic to pull the foliage away, though Twilight felt just a little bit queasy from using her magic on the vines.
"Are you okay?" Rainbow asked her friend, "you look like you just bit into a rotten apple."
Twilight shuddered, "I'm fine, it just... felt weird is all."
Rainbow tapped the newly cleared wall with her hoof. "Hey, doesn't this look like that door in Celestia's castle? The one with the sun emblem on it where she stuck her horn in to give us the elements of harmony?"
The alicorn nodded, "we don't have Celestia here, though."
Rainbow pointed to Twilight's horn. "You're an alicorn, remember? Why don't you try it?"
It was as good a suggestion as any, Twilight surmised. She bent her head and slid her horn into the keyhole. Nothing happened.
"Maybe it needs a bit of magic?" Rainbow shrugged, "or you could try some horn-lengthening spell."
Twilight rolled her eyes, "A horn lengthening spell? Really?"
"I don't know!" Rainbow hastily gestured to the door, "I'm freezing my feathers off out here. Just try it!"
The alicorn's horn glowed with a vibrant lavender as it was empowered by her magic. A heavy click was heard from beyond the door that caused the temple to rumble. Twilight quickly withdrew her horn and the two ponies stood close together as the temple came to life.
Heavy stone doors slid apart, grinding against the equally hard floor as it wore grooves into the stonework. Stale air and dust greeted Twilight and Rainbow Dash, causing them to cough and back away.
When the dust had finally settled, the two shared a look of mutual assurance before proceeding onward.
The two ponies had been wandering through the temple for some time now, their path illuminated by the lavender light of Twilight's horn. Their path had been slick with ice as they walked, the clacking of their hooves echoing through the temple as winds blew through the stone structure. Eerie howling mixed with chilly air, combined with the feeling of complete emptiness that the temple was soaked in.
"H-hey, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash was shivering from the cold, "I just thought of something..."
"Y-yeah?" Twilight stammered, "what's that?"
"Why did the temple need an alicorn to unlock it?" Rainbow kept an eye out for anything strange, but the temple was filled with an unnatural darkness that made seeing anything further than a few feet away rather difficult.
"It could've just needed a regular unicorn, Rainbow." Twilight redoubled the effort of her horn's glow, but the darkness remained the same. She grumbled in frustration.
Rainbow's ear twitched and she placed a hoof on Twilight's chest. "Hold on, do you hear that? The echo isn't as bad here..."
The two ponies huddled together and advanced with caution towards the lack of an echo and found themselves at the top of a staircase leading downwards into the temple.
"Or... it could just be a creepy stairway. Great." Rainbow Dash sighed and stepped forward.
Twilight followed after her friend only slightly worried about the possibility of the stairs suddenly becoming a slide. King Sombra had pulled a similar trick on her before and she was reluctant to revisit the experience.
Down and down the ponies trotted, step by step into the dark abyss. Well, less than that, as it appeared.
"Wait, there was only twelve steps?" Twilight looked behind her at the small staircase feeling cheated. "Who builds a temple with only twelve steps!"
"Uh, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash was pointing to the face of a statue, its face obscured by a hood. "Who is that?"
Twilight turned and inspected the statue along with her friend. Her horn shone brighter still, and the darkness seemed to retreat. "Well, they're a unicorn. Kind of strange, though. Look how fluffy he is!"
"Are you serious? We run into some statue at the bottom of a creepy temple and you're talking about a fluffy statue? It's made of stone!"
"Wait, look!" Twilight pointed to a golden pocket watch that was around the statue's neck. "Those engravings..." She squinted at the pocket watch to study it further.
Rainbow studied the rest of the statue and noticed something fairly important. "Twilight? This pony has a Raven Skull on their flank."
Twilight leaned away from her magical perusal of golden artifacts to get a better look. "Yep... that's the cutie mark all right." She then took a step away from the statue, "We should probably stand back. Something doesn't feel right about--"
Just then, a sharp crack of stone sounded out through the temple. The statue's face had fractured and began seeping icy cold fog.
"...This," Twilight finished. Her horn charged again with power, "Stand next to me, Rainbow."
Rainbow Dash did as her friend requested and a lavender dome protected the two ponies from what was happening. Fog continued to flow freely from the statue as it fractured more and more. It soon became clear that this was no simple statue, nor was it a golem. This was someone frozen in stone, just as Discord had been, and they were waking up.
"Is this bad? Things in stone escaping are usually bad..." Rainbow was anxious and her feathers bristled, "what if he's angry?"
Part of the statue's face broke off, revealing the icy white fur of the pony underneath. A huff of frustration came from the stallion in stone and his horn charged with light-blue energy, causing the rest of the stone to quickly crumble away.
In the statue's place stood a dust-covered stallion. His teeth were barred and he looked none too happy when he leapt from his pedestal onto the stonework below. Each of his breaths exuded cold fog and he rubbed his eyes, seeing as they were caked with stone.
"Hey," Rainbow called out, "are you okay?"
The stallion's head whipped to face the source of the noise, his horn icy-cold in its intensity. "Who said that?" His eyes narrowed on the lavender dome in front of him. "An... wait, what? An alicorn? But you're..." He rubbed his eyes again and his horn faded. "Tartarus curse this dust in my eyes!"
Twilight and Rainbow both shared a raised eyebrow with each other. He didn't seem that scary.
The stallion sneezed and shook his head, his hoof batting at his nose as he sneezed again. "Aagh!" He loudly complained, his nose stuffy. "What did she even hit me with? Rainbows!?"
This gave Twilight and Rainbow some pause. The rainbows sounded like the Elements of Harmony, and if this stallion had been locked away in a statue...
Rainbow cupped a hoof and whispered into her friend's ear."I've got a bad feeling about this, Twilight."
"Who blasts somepony with Rainbows!?" The stallion continued.
"Excuse me," Twilight called out to the pony, "what's your name?"
The stallion again looked to the magically shielded alicorn and to the pegasus in front of him. "I'm Bone Marrow. Who are you, and why are you an alicorn?"
"I'm the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle." The alicorn stated officially. It didn't sit well with Bone Marrow. He had few rules that he kept to, and trusting strangers was never one of them.
He squinted suspiciously at Twilight and stated her name in his head. Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight shivered and took a step back. Her vision was now Bone Marrow's vision. The name was true. He watched himself nod in confirmation through Twilight's eyes and stated his own name in his mind, returning his vision to his own body.
"Alright then, Twilight Sparkle, can you tell me where in tartarus Princess Celestia sent me? I was in Canterlot a few seconds ago, and now I'm in some dark tomb with dust in my eyes."
"Wait, what did you just do?" The other pony, a pegasus by the looks of her, inquired.
The pegasus caught Bone Marrow's attention. Her fur was cyan, her eyes were magenta... similar to his friend Scenic Sights. The mane was different, but the similarities were striking.
Twilight held up a hoof. "I don't know what you just did, but could you warn me in the future?"
Alright, this was odd now. Bone Marrow knew of Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, the double-crosser that she was, but this new alicorn, Princess Twilight? She was something altogether different. She wasn't commanding him to do anything and she wasn't behaving like Celestia. Also, there wasn't an army of guards at her flank, so that was a bonus.
"Hello?" The rainbow maned pony asked, "anyone home?"
Bone Marrow shook his head. "I just burst my way out of a statue, there's dust in my eye, and I don't know either of you. Give me a minute." Icy fog lingered near his hooves. "A few seconds ago I was in Canterlot. Would you mind telling me where I am?"
"You're in a hidden temple in the middle of nowhere," Twilight succinctly replied. "The Cutie Map told us to come here, and I think that it wanted us to speak with you."
"The Cutie Map?" Bone Marrow raised an eyebrow, "what are you talking about?"
He had so many questions. Why was there a third alicorn? What was he doing in the middle of nowhere? Why was this temple so dark? Each question received an answer, more or less, and Bone Marrow was relieved to find that his golden pocket watch was still around his neck.
"So..." Rainbow Dash trailed, "what now?"
"We could go to Princess Celestia. She might have an idea of --"
"No!" Bone shouted, "I'm not going anywhere near that lying, double-crossing, back-stabbing witch!" The icy fog had grown in strength as crystals of ice began to form on the stone floor.
Rainbow and Twilight recoiled from the sudden outburst. "Right... okay, not to Celestia then." Twilight's eye was twitching. How could anyone say something like that about Princess Celestia?
"I don't need you to take me anywhere. If anything, I'd prefer to go alone than with two ponies I don't know. Especially since you're an alicorn, Twilight Sparkle."
"What's your deal with alicorns?" Rainbow Dash challenged from behind Twilight's lavender shield.
Bone Marrow growled and moved to walk past Twilight and Rainbow. "None of your business, is what."
"What's his problem?" Rainbow whispered to Twilight. "Think he was blasted by the Elements of Harmony for a reason?"
Twilight shook her head, "Discord was also frozen in stone, but he was only freed with the help of someone else." She pointed a hoof to the hooded stallion that they followed behind. "He broke out all on his own..."
Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Yeah, after a thousand years of trying."
"That's not the point, Rainbow!" Twilight hissed, drawing the attention of Bone Marrow.
"Are you two going to follow me everywhere?" The white-furred stallion grumbled. "I'm having enough trouble without you gossiping behind me."
Twilight gave a polite wave and a smile, causing Bone Marrow to grumble and continue walking where-ever he was going. She leaned over to whisper to Rainbow, "the point, is that we can't leave him alone. Who knows what damage a necromancer could do to Equestria?"
Bone Marrow stopped in his tracks and gave a weary sigh. "You know I can hear you two, right?" He turned to face Twilight and Rainbow Dash. "You're not very quiet."
The two ponies winced, "We're just trying to figure out what to do," Twilight explained, "The cutie map is usually for Friendship Problems, but..."
He raised an eyebrow. "Friendship problems? A magical map is concerned about ponies' friendships." Bone shook his head and muttered to himself, "First I find out that I've grown since Canterlot, that my voice is deeper, that I'm surrounded by jungle in the middle of who-knows where, and I find out there's a map that's dedicated to friendship."
He turned to walk off. "Where's a bandit when you need one?"
Twilight and Rainbow Dash shared a concerned look with one another and followed after the Necromancer. Something was very wrong here...