//------------------------------//
// S1 Episode 8: Great Howling 
// Story: Journey To Hearth's Warming 
// by Lighttone GryphonStar 
//------------------------------//

A great howling echoed over the icy seas without a single sign of dipping pitch as it traced through each wave and fall. Reaching the shores, it quickly traveled over several mountains and down to the surrounding canyons. It flowed to the cities, first hitting the most northern lands of the Crystal Empire. The crystal ponies gave it no mind at all.

The howling traveled to lower lands and to the great pastures, reaching the Unicorn Providence where most gave no care to its sounds or reasons. Many creatures, both young and old, seem to give no thought to this noise as it passed by them. Never once did they question its origins or why it never lost its tone no matter the distance it traveled.

The noise then spread outward like a wave over the lands in all four directions. In the west, the Earth Pony Conglomerate could hear sadness about it but paid it no mind. In the east, the Pegasus isles were feeling nervousness about it and gave it no heed. And finally, in the south, both zebra tribes and buffalo tribes sensed an urgency about it and again believed no concern for it.

All heard its voice, but all presented it with little if any consideration, interest, or concern ever. Delivering enough attention to notice it and move on. All went about their own business as if it never happened.

Soon the howling went silent, and the creatures of these lands continued with their lives. Within a matter of seconds, the sound was forgotten...

Until it returned a year later on the same day. Again, no one creature gave it single care, and as quickly as it started, it was forgotten. No matter how loud it was or moving, it never gave attention enough to discern meaning or reason from it.

Again, it left only to return another year later on the same day. Again the same reaction, so it left and was quickly forgotten. Again, it returned after another year and again the same.

Another year passed and another year. Time moved faster than any other. Years became decades, then centuries, then millennia. Finally, this howling came as an acceptance by most mortals. By this point, they knew not when it started, only that it was always there…

To them, there would never be a reason to discern it or query its possibilities. What little reason existed had vanished, and it simply became an observable cycle in this world, like the Sun and Moon.

It always arrived on the Winter Solstice. The moment the sun would set on the previous day, the howling would start. It was the shortest day in the year and the howling would last...

******

Starlight opened her eyes at a white as it shined over her face. She held her hand up to this beam, almost trying to reach for it as it rose over the horizon. "The Moon looks so close in this timeline. I never noticed that before." She got up and looked around, and found herself on a table. The party seemed to reach its end some time ago. She didn't realize she had fallen asleep.
 
She jumped off the table and walked around to pick up some of the trash. "That part that Pinkie wrote is right. There always is a mess. I don't think I would agree with that pink pony on how fun the cleaning is." She was quick in her movement, getting almost everything in only a few minutes.

Soon enough, she realized Twilight was nowhere in sight. "Huh, I don't remember that much before falling asleep," her mind tried its best to glean any memories but came up empty. "Well, Teach must have gone home after I dropped out--" her voice stopped at a strange sound that caught her off guard.

Looking up at the sky, she finally noticed the unusual howling that filled in the air. "Wow, it's started already. Even after being here for two years now, I don't think I'll ever get used to that howling." She placed the last piece of trash away and let her mind ponder on something other than the party. "I wonder why it howls?"

"Some believe a creature is searching for his lost love."

Starlight jumped at that voice and saw a tall charcoal stallion with a short unkempt navy blue mane standing at the entrance. He wasn't there before; she knew that for sure. She was looking at the exact spot not but five seconds earlier.

"Right? I'm sure you would know more about that than I would." Starlight mentally slapped herself when noticing how much humility came out of her voice with those words. If only her teacher heard that line.

"You could say I've heard it way too many times to count." The charcoal stallion walked through the area and to the altar. "Looks like there was a mess here."

"Sorry, we had a little party."

"Oh," the charcoal stallion nodded and seemed to mumble a few words to himself. While he seemed to be in his world, Starlight couldn't help but stare. She didn't know what it was, but she sensed a familiarity in his voice. His face, despite its rough cut, gave an air of trust. But she couldn't place why. He wore several scarves and even chains, so the rest of him certainly didn't convey this idea at all.

"Is this the center of town?" His question brought Starlight out of her thoughts.

"Uh, yes, it is."

"Odd, if this is the place, it should be right here. How old is this place?"

"Well, I haven't lived here that long, so I don't know." Starlight walked over and placed her hand on the altar's edge. "It's been here longer than I have. look at the cracks."

The charcoal stallion looked at them. "Huh, I guess you're right. Look, I need to know. If you don't know then I'll go somewhere to find this information."

"Wait!" Starlight nearly yelled.

The charcoal stallion put up his guard on pure reaction, yet was at a greater loss when Starlight dropped her head in shame. "Dang it, if my teacher found out I was being this forgetful, she would sentence me to even harsher training." Starlight gestured to him to move away.

"Sounds like an old friend of mine." He moved with confusion but gave little care either way.

Starlight placed her hand on the crack and took a deep breath. "How much do you need this information?"

"It will save me a lot of time, but..." He turned away, "It would save lives too."

"Save lives, huh? I never considered using this for that." Once she was sure that he was the only other living creature there, she began. Frankly, she didn't know why she was being so trusting of this stallion. Nothing he did provide her any reason to help him, let alone trust him with witnessing this. Wincing, she pressed her hand down hard on the sharp end until blood poured forth. A mighty purple glow shot out from her wound as words spoke forth.

"Light," Starlight spoke a word from her mouth and at that exact moment, the purple light turned blue and quickly faded. She opened her eyes and pulled her hand away. The charcoal stallion was shocked to see no wound at all in her hand. Without warning, Starlight fell to the ground. He went to help her, but she gestured a no to him. "Sorry, that happens sometimes. One reason I did that was that I wondered if I still could."

"That was a vision spell."

"Sort of. I never really perfected it. I can only see dates when it's blue and when it's red coordinates."

His eyes widened at her words. It only took him a second to put such seemingly unconnected things together, for he knew of such forms all too well and this was best shown by one word. "Omnipony..."

Starlight felt her whole body pulsate. She didn't know why at all, but the word seemed to hit her very core. It filled her with so much fear.

The charcoal stallion let go of his fear at her reaction. "You don't know yet." He mumbled. "It doesn't matter. There are greater problems to deal with first." He walked closer to her and recomposed his voice. "Please tell me what date this was made."

"Huh," Starlight came to her senses with this less stern voice. "Right, it was made nearly five thousand years ago. I can only see numbers but I felt... pain from the moment of this thing creation."

"Nearly, so it has no direct connection to him or the alathar. Or at least none that can be seen." He smiled and walked toward the exit. "Dang, that pirate was right-" His words stopped at the sight of something at the entrance blocking his way.

Starlight turned to see what stopped him and was met with an almost perfect ice sculpture of a wendigo, out of nowhere, standing in front of the entrance. “Did you make this?” she questioned him.
 
“Impossible, I was talking to you the whole time... I need to get going.” He walked past to ignore it.
 
“Well, who did? It wasn’t there a second ago. It seemed to appear from nothing.” Starlight walked closer to it. "A significant question is, how is it so flawless? It’s strange, it's like it appeared as fast as you did. Maybe even faster."
 
The charcoal stallion stopped at her words and reached to his chest. A maroon glow could be seen coming from an object on his neck. He took a breath and almost nodded a no at nothing before finally turning around. Once the glow stopped, He looked back at the ice sculpture.
 
Starlight scanned it with magic while he walked back to give his examination. He approached closer and found that the surrounding air was much colder than the rest.
 
“Maybe it remembers. There are a lot of memories in this sculpture.” He stopped scanning and mumbled a few words to himself.
 
“Ice with memories. If you had told me this when I was younger, I would think you were silly.” Starlight stopped scanning.
 
“What is wrong with being silly? I know an old wizard who can make anything silly."

"Oh?"
 
“What is your name?” he asked as he fixed something he had hidden under his scarf.
 
“Starlight, and your.”
 
“Rex. I was glad to meet one of your kind, but I must be going. I have work to do. And, a bet to lose,” he mumbled the last part as he turned away and took his leave.
 
"One of my kind?" It took Starlight five seconds for the name, Rex, to even compute, but once it did her jaw dropped, “Did he say, Rex?” with no thought on the matter, she stopped what she was doing and ran right after him as fast as she could. She ran off so fast that she didn’t even notice that the sculpture vanished.

"Wait..." she called out to no avail. Following him down a corner and stopping as she held her hand toward him, “You said, Rex!”
 
Annoyed, he finally turned around. “Yes, and?”
 
“It's that I--” Starlight stopped her words in her tracks as she saw the sculpture now behind Rex. He stopped moving too, with no need to notice her. "I thought so."
 
Suddenly, the surrounding snow shook as even more sculptures form from the surrounding snowflakes. Rex sighed in annoyance. “I had a feeling they weren’t sculptures. Looks like I certainly lost the bet now. He is here, or at least he will be soon. Now I owe that dang pirate ten bits.” He swung his arm around and the chains covering him loosened and stretched out to a much longer degree than what originally could be seen. "You need to leave now."
 
Starlight frowned at his words, and her horn glowed. "Not a chance." Her gentlemare sword appeared in her hand. "If I left this, I would never hear the end from my teacher."
 
On that, the sculptures came to life and jumped at them. Starlight stepped back as the two crashed into each other where she originally was. “They aren’t as bright as I expected wendigoes to be.” She charged forward and stabbed the closest one in front of her. Three more jumped above her from behind. She turned and swung black and white magic outward, slicing them in half.
 
“No, this is a cheap duplicate spell. The real wendigo is somewhere nearby, or at least one of his allies is.” Rex swung his chains to take down four charging toward him. With a few fast strategic hits, they shattered like glass. Two more grabbed him from behind. His dark alicorn amulet glowed red and special golden chains shot out from it and wrapped around their necks and moved at high speed, chopping their heads off. Now there was only one left.
 
Starlight and Rex turned toward each other and swung their weapons forward, slicing the last one into pieces. Once they were finished, they stopped to catch their breath.

"Damn, you are as powerful as she is," Starlight remarked.

Rex was at a loss about who she was referring to and didn't care. He needed to leave now. This new mare and her teacher would have to be ignored.

"Hey, Rex, an odd question--" Starlight stopped once she noticed Rex had completely vanished without any trace. "What? And here I thought I was good at sensing magic." She walked over to the shards of the sculptures, curious about everything that happened.

Suddenly, she threw up her hands and her gentlemare sword vanished. "Oh no, oh no. I have to find Twilight."

******

Icy blue eyes opened out to the world. They looked up to the night sky and the far east as if longing for something. The eyes had a determination in them to search for something that wasn't there anymore. The stare hardened once the sounds of the howling reached them. The irises widened yet narrowed around the tips like a creature of the night. Deep within those irises were a torrent of emotions that couldn’t be placed on one reason outside of the howling that held the sight so tightly.

Footsteps cut through the howling bringing his attention to the west. Approaching closer was an all too familiar unicorn mare. She seemed out of breath but urgency.

The unicorn came to a stop and her face of fear slowly faded at the sight of the owner of the icy blue eyes. “Crimson…” she questioned.

The dark lavender unicorn smiled at her and held up his hand. “Starlight… what is it?”

“Do you know where my teacher is?!” Starlight spoke up. However, she found her mouth being closed by a red hue of magic.

“Shh, she’s right here.” He lifted the blanket over the bench and revealed that Twilight was asleep with her head on his lap. “She didn’t want anypony to get insulted by her exhaustion, so she told me to cast an illusion spell if she fell asleep during this party.” He whispered.

“Huh, and I assumed she didn’t expect to fall asleep in your arms.”

Crimson raised his hand over his head and attempted to not laugh. “Well, let's say she trusts me more than you think.”

Starlight let out a deep breath. “My teacher works herself way too hard. Here, I plan this party for her, and she is the one pushing herself to the limit.” She dropped gently to the other side of the bench and looked down at Twilight. “I guess it's better she falls asleep near you since you wouldn't try anything, unlike Silver Pear.”

“Yeah, Silver Pear sort of tried to invite me and Twilight to his… orgy… that he was planning to have after the party. Twilight quickly slapped him.”

“Well, I would have done the same.” Starlight raised her hand in righteous fury.

“Ha, ha, it's not his fault.”

“What are you talking about? He flirts with literally anything, even trees.”

“Yes, but that is how his father raised his family.”

“Really?” Starlight raised an eyebrow. “Huh, I knew none of his other family members outside of his mom.”

“Well, his father had strange ways, and that seemed to rub onto Silver Pear a little too well.” Crimson looked down at Twilight. “It is one reason I ended things with him. Silver Pear needs companionship… but desires sexual relationships... sometimes a little too much.”

“I never thought of it that way. If only he would show admiration for a somepony's face rather than their ass.”

“I guess that's why you feel so drawn to him…”

Starlight’s eyes went wide. “What?! I hate his guts! I mean…” She lowered her voice at the movement of Twilight. “He's my friend and I have nothing romantic for that idiot.”

“And you don’t have to. You have been alone all your life that simply having somepony who is so far different from that is comforting to you.”

“Really…” Starlight stopped her questioning and let her mind think about that for a few moments. “Hmm, maybe. But he and I are friends, nothing more and nothing less.”

“Oh, alright. That's fine.” Crimson relented.

Starlight noticed something else, though, in all of this. This talk was the longest conversation she ever had with Crimson. “Usually he would shut me off by now.” She whispered to herself in the lightest tone possible.

“Why were you in such a rush, anyway?”

Starlight threw her arms up in shock at that, as she had forgotten. “I need to tell Twilight something important!”

Crimson quickly placed his hand over Starlight’s mouth. No magic this time. “What are you doing?” He questioned with annoyance.

Starlight noted yet another thing Crimson rarely showed. Starlight couldn’t think of a single moment where Crimson was ever angry. However, the next thing that came to her mind was the harshly cold feel of his fur. She tried to push that thought away and pulled away from his grip. “Sorry, it’s --”

Crimson stopped her words by placing two fingers on her forehead. “It’s okay. I’ll send a message to her.” Before Starlight could protest, the dark lavender unicorn read through her memories. “I see.” He slowly removed his hand and repeated. “I see…” His horn glowed a red hue and Twilight’s head slowly lifted. The blanket went up as well and wrapped into a pillow shape and quickly floated under Twilight’s head.

“Wow, to quickly switch between multiple spells that fast and so casually. I did not know you were so proficient with magic. And where did you learn a memory spell?”

Crimson raised his finger back to his mouth. “Please, I must go. Keep watch over Twilight for me. There is somepony I wish to talk to.” Without warning, Starlight’s eyes fell closed and she dropped to the ground, unconscious. With a snap of his fingers, Starlight and Twilight vanished back into the tavern.

“I’m sorry about that, omnipony.” Crimson walked over to the road and looked back to the east. He stopped his advance and lifted his ears to the howling. He gave one more thought to Twilight. The moonlight shone off her face, filling it with beauty. “I… I’m sorry too, Twi... No, Twilight, I had wished she was wrong...” His smile turned into a frown, and he turned toward the road and walked away. Before Starlight could question anything, he was far from their sight.

******

On the other side of town, deep in an alley, the foggy red stallion walked around aimlessly. He knew he had stayed too long. He needed to find a place to sleep before the cold of the night sat in. He walked further before stopping by a trash can. Taking a moment to catch his breath, he didn’t notice he was being watched.

“Hello.” 

“That voice?” The foggy red stallion sprang to attention. His head swung back and forth until his eyes fell upon a filly standing at the front of the alley. It was a light blue siren filly. “What? A filly?” he whispered to himself. He composed himself and walked over once he recognized her. “Hey, did you find your dog?”

The siren filly looked up to his tall height and smiled. “I did. It’s been years, hasn’t it… Bad Wolf.”

The foggy red stallion jumped back at that word. His skin trembled at that voice. It was not the voice of a mere filly. “No… who are you?”

“Hmm, have you forgotten my voice?” The siren filly walked closer, talking with an ancient male voice filled with wisdom and great intelligence far beyond her age and appearance.

“No…” The foggy red stallion’s knees jolted in place. “That… voice…” His arms pulled inward, and he attempted to distance himself from the siren filly, but this did little to halt her advance. “You can’t have found me.” The further he attempted to get away from her, the better she closed the distance. It was as if the world was shrinking around him.

“Oh, but I have and as you can see, Lord Frost has allowed me to continue my work.” The siren filly traced her fingers over her body as she walked closer. "This filly was one of a triplet." She placed her hand on the foggy red stallion's face and traced it down to his chest. Her fingers ran over each muscle slowly.

Both scared and sickened by these actions, the foggy red stallion attempted to push the siren filly away. She ignored him and kept her advance until they both reached the wall. 

Feeling the world close in on him, the foggy red stallion grabbed out a knife. “No, stay back… I… I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Would you dare aim a knife at a poor filly?” The siren filly reached out and placed her hand on the knife. She moved closer until the knife was right against her chest. “Would you dare kill such a hostage?”

The foggy red stallion’s eyes went wide and his face turned pale at the sight of the small amount of blood pouring from the spot. “I…” His hand trembled, “I don’t want to hurt her, yet I don’t want to remember… I don't want to serve you anymore!”

The siren filly pressed her hand hard on the knife until more blood poured forth. This made the foggy red stallion drop the knife to the ground.

“What do you want with me?”

“My ally calls upon you once again,”

“No… I won’t go back… I can’t.”

“He is finally forming the Nine Families.”

“The… Nine Families?”

“Indeed, all he needs now are three more members. One of the next choices is Rex, but the others are still undecided.”

“He wants me to take a spot.”

“Of course.” The siren filly reached over and placed her hand on the foggy red stallion's cheek. “Join the wendigo in his fight.”

The foggy red stallion’s eyes narrowed. “I will never join you or this Indigo Frost.”

“Oh, but you will. If you don’t, I will have to give this curse upon another.” Her hand traced to his eyes, where a faint glow was now growing. “Maybe…”

“No, you leave them out of this. I left them behind.”

“You left because you couldn’t hold up the end of your father’s bargain. You left because you took it upon yourself to take the curse he couldn’t keep and continued the blessing your family has enjoyed.” On that, the siren filly brought her finger to his eye and pressed down.

The foggy red stallion quaked in agony as maroon-colored blood drained. “No, please, I don’t want to go back. Ahh!!” He screamed aloud as his fur changed from a foggy red to a distinct silver. His cheeks stretched backward and his hood fell, revealing a bony-like mane that was booming.

“Rise, forth. My Big Bad Wolf.”

******

Soon the earliest piercing of light cut through a night. The Moon rested its head, and the Sun woke to the new morning. The howling had yet to lose its strength and wouldn't end until the Sun itself took a new rest. This didn’t stop many ponies from waking rather early on this day.

Remembering the events from yesterday filled them with such joy. Their voices grew with great songs of gratitude toward Starlight and Twilight as they walked down the streets and back to the center of town.

Yet above the altar, sitting upon the mighty clock tower as it shadowed overall a tall figure wrapped in a stitch cover cloak. “Hmm, such a lovely song…” On that, a pale white hand pulled free. Sapphire blue eyes opened and glowed brightly. Without warning, the warming Sun’s light vanished. From the white hand shot forth endless cold. It flowed over the city without any restraint or loss of power.

Soon, all was covered in this icy wave. The great and joyful songs, boastful and wonderful sounds slowly faded. What replaced them was something much stronger and bolder. And it was as clear as day. Nothing but icy silence and most of all the true and undaunting howling of the Winter Solstice.

No more was ignored. No time like any other gave it much greater care. All stopped and listened and accepted the pain of one lost soul crying out to the world.

“No song is greater, no words are stronger than the voice of one utterly strong emotion. Hmm, such a lovely song… And that song’s name is…Lamenta.”

******