//------------------------------//
// S1 Episode 9: Cold Blooded 
// Story: JTHW: Journey To Hearth's Warming 
// by Lighttone GryphonStar 
//------------------------------//

Explosions tore through the darkness and lit the sky up with a flurry of lights. Starlight struggled at the brightness, unable to stand the burning. She slowly awoke, looking around, but couldn't figure out what was going on.

“Why?!” A loud shout echoed above her. “Why would you attack this place out of any other?” It was a male voice, but the owner's face couldn't be seen anywhere.

“Because this is the center of everything." Another male voice echoed outward. "All my joy and all my hatred are in this single place. This. Is. Where. It. All. Begins!!”

The last roars carried through the swirling ruins of the older and new buildings as they fell to the ground. Finally, the booms reached the clock tower and the altar that stood before it.

Starlight stood in a crowd of many creatures that seemed to have been gathered in one spot. She tried to find the voices' owners, but no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't see them. Their voices were dampening by the second and yet a new sound was replacing them.

Sounds of drops echoed louder and louder. Starlight spun back and forth curious about the noise. Finally, it became clear.

Tears fell from the face of a lavender mare as she shivered in place, a few meters away from Starlight. The mare wasn’t cold, despite the snow all around. Yet the shivers refused to leave her, no matter what. 

This lone mare seemed to give little care to the echoes or the ponies, griffins, and sirens that coward from it.

Starlight tried to approach her but found her feet stuck in place. Her mind replayed over the events that led to this, yet she could feel that the events had only happened minutes ago, everything about them was a complete blur. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember any details, nor who the lavender mare or the corpse was that the mare watched so closely.

She wanted to remember so badly, but something deep inside her chest kept stopping her. It was as if her own heart didn’t want to know, or at least it didn't want to give in to what her mind was demanding.

Answers…

Answers…

Answers…

Starlight stopped her questioning at the sight of the lavender mare. Starlight attempted to follow her. Despite, her knees jolting back and forth, her feet refused to move. She tried again, and her legs nearly fell out from under her. Pushing harder, she finally got one step out. Her legs were screaming in pain, yet she pushed onward. Each step she took echoed through her head louder and louder.

Starlight fell a few inches from the lavender mare as the mare reached the corpse. She picked herself back up and knocked the snow out of her face and looked at the corpse, then back to the mare.

Answers…

Answers…

Answers…

Again, no answer came. She couldn't figure out the corpse, nor who the lavender mare was, no matter how hard she tried.

“Oh by the gods, it’s an alicorn.” A voice, so small, yet loud enough to break through Starlight's confusion.

Starlight turned to see a small dark blue colt pointing to the wings on the lavender mare's back. She gasped as he walked over to console the lavender mare, “Oh lovely goddess, don’t weep!” The colt walked closer. “The good lord said when we die we go to a better place?”

The words made Starlight’s lips tremble and her face shake. She didn’t know what was going on, but she certainly didn’t want this to be true. But she couldn’t deny it anymore. All the facts were now clear. The lavender mare could only be her teacher, Twilight.

Then the only question now was, who was the corpse? However, before any more answers could be found, the unexpected happened.

The colt's attempts to calm Twilight’s pain were halted by another voice, this one far older. “It’s an alicorn, a famed immortal!”

Starlight turned too late to see a stone fly by. It landed on the ground, barely missing Twilight’s face.

“Like the immortal who brought this war to us!” another voice screamed out in rage.

Starlight’s mouth drops, “No, it’s not like that. It wasn’t her fau--” she attempted to stand in the way of another stone, but this one went right through her. Her eyes widened at this. Finally, everything was clear. She wasn’t here.

Was this a dream? A vision? Some twisted nightmare or hallucination?

“Get away from that colt!” Another stone flew. This time it finally made contact, tearing into the left side of Twilight’s face. “You don’t deserve to be near him. You practically are the one who killed them all.”

The eyepatch fell to the ground.

Starlight was at a complete loss for words. Why was she being shown this? She couldn’t watch this any longer. Closing her eyes, she demanded that this whatever it was end. “Stop it!” 

“Get away from him!” More voices shouted.

“You are responsible for all of this!!”

“Don’t you dare mutilate him, you selfish witch!!”

“You are as evil as that ghost!!”

“Stop it!” Starlight kneeled, hoping this would end soon.

Yet as quickly as it began, it ended. The shouting stopped and the echoes of the stones ended. Starlight slowly let go of the grip around her ears and lifted her head. She half assumed this vision was over, but she was regrettably wrong.

All the ponies had stopped. Despite them still having stones in hand, they were still. A slash of fear covered each one of their faces. Starlight was in utter confusion… until she turned to see where Twilight was.

Her teacher was nowhere in sight. However, standing in Twilight’s spot was a brown donkey in tattered clothing. “Did you like what you saw?” he questioned.

Starlight was caught completely off guard by these words. She felt deep inside herself that the brown donkey was talking to her. She had to know for sure, so she pointed at the ponies around the area before pointing to herself.

“No, not them. I’m talking to you. Only you can see me.” The brown donkey walked right up to her. “This is the first time we have met in this form, isn’t it?” His voice was filled with a thick amount of familiarity, yet Starlight couldn't place where she had heard it before.

"Elisus tried warning Twilight. She wouldn’t listen, so I must warn you.” He leaned down and grabbed her hand gently. "Stop them."

"What do you mean?" Starlight reached out to him but without warning, the vision finally faded. "Wait... who are you?!"

"You already know who I am. I've always watched over you two from the moment you entered this timeline and now the strings of fate are making their move!!"

With those last words, the vision fully faded to darkness. Starlight reached out in vain demanding answers, "Please, tell me what is going on?"

"I would... but you have to wake up... "

******

Starlight jumped out of her bed with no hesitation. An icy chill covered every pore of her body. She could barely catch her breath or realize that she was in the bed, even though, she never remembered reaching it. Flicking her horn, her gentlemare sword flew into her hand. All of this before she could even compute the dream had ended already.

It was the grip of the doorknob that brought her back to reality. She pulled back as intense pain filled her hand. Such sensations she knew could never happen in a dream. But then her mind raced with great confusion. “How did I get back to my room? Where are Crimson and Twilight?”

Her heart sank so fast into a reality that despite her fear of the dream having vanished, the chill over her body had not. It was far colder now than it was before. She tried to fight it, but her body at that moment wanted to stop in place. 

Pushing forward, she placed her hand on the wood door instead of the frozen metal knob. With little force at all, the door broke off its hinges and slammed into the ground.

Starlight’s eyes were wide at the sight of the entire tavern covered in ice. Taking in a deep swallow of breath, she stepped out and found the floor could barely hold her. She quickly ran as the ground fell without pause, making her way to the window as the entire third floor collapsed.

Outside, she was greeted with a cold punch to the gut. The only thing stopping her from falling was the fact that her teacher, Silver Pear, and even Granny Apple couldn’t be sensed anywhere in the building. She concentrated harder on sensing them, but still nothing.

"Damn it, calm down Starlight!" She yelled at herself. However, her grip on air became very shallow once she looked at the ground.

"No... " Her eyes widened at the sight of blood over the thick snow. A trail going off away from the tavern. "No... No..." Before even finishing her words, she burst into a run in that direction.

After she went, deep within the rubble, something moved. A brown hand reached out, and a voice spoke forth. “Please don’t fail.”

******

Ice beat against the titan airship as it fought through the winds. Inside, Fredricson held tightly to the wheel while the others ran around. “We best hold on to, well, everything!”

Lady Cat rushed out from Adagio’s room and toward the head of the ship. “Of course, you damn bilge rat. Why do you think I'm rushing through every room?”

“Of sure you know better than me, you’re a batpony. You are used to living in these types of conditions all the time with your canyons.”

“Don’t get stereotyping with me, you racist!” She gripped the door, reacting to a dramatic shift in the ship. “Shit, leave it to the earth pony to drive like a mule.”

“Hey, you didn’t act like that last night!” Fredricson turned the wheel to the far right.

“That’s because my rear isn’t as big as this ship--” Suddenly they were both stopped by cotton candy poofing into their mouths.

“Will you two please not compare this fright to your nighttime fun?” Starswirl walked past them to the very front of the ship. Holding out his hand, his yellow eyes glowed brightly. Many yellow circles swarmed out from his hand and incantations followed. “Chaos Spell Number Fifty-Five!” He twisted his hand and the circles' span, “Absolute Halt!!”

Without warning, the ship came to a complete stop. It was so sudden that nearly everything in the front deck flew forward.

“Why did you stop us, sir? I knew we could have gotten through that.” Fredricson finally got his mouth free.

“Yes, but at what cost?!” Starswirl rarely showed his anger, but this was needed right now. “The ship would have been completely shredded by that.” He pointed to the thickening blizzard that was quickly covering the entire town.

“Damn, that umbrum was right?” Fredricson walked over to see the destruction. “I should have parked closer--”

“Settled your bet with Rex later. I'll have to go down to the surface. He and Clover will need all the help they can get.” On that, Starswirl vanished.

******

Starlight’s feet kept kicking herself forward as she followed the bloody trail through the village streets for an unknown amount of time. She didn’t know how long she had been following the trail, only that she was at least still in town but long enough that the chill of the frosty morning air was no longer bothering her. Her mind wandered on hopes and fears as she increased her speed.

Sounds of crashing broke her from her thoughts. She turned to her left and saw townsfolk being attacked by wendigo sculptures. Her feet wanted to go forward and keep following the blood, but her hands were saying no as they reached for her gentlemare sword. Her eyes darted back and forth, she knew from the look of the creatures they were the same type that she had fought yesterday, but she didn't have time to deal with that as the blood trail thinned out with newer layers of snow covering it.

Suddenly, a scream from one of the townsfolk chose for her as she rushed to wendigo sculptures. She rushed in with a quick slash, taking down one before turning to slice another clean in half. She felt the chill of one from behind and ducked below its twisting claws as it barely missed her mane. She swung backward, punching the hilt of her gentlemare sword into the jaws of the enemy, busting it open. She spun back around and kicked with significant force, sending the wendigo sculpture crashing through the snow and into a wall.

Her teeth gritted at the feeling of ice grabbing her feet. She pointed her gentlemare sword downward and stabbed a rising wendigo sculpture in the eye. Pushing herself upward with the force of the attack and jumping into a crowd of them that had quickly surrounded some fillies. Standing over the fillies, she swung.

Suddenly, a green blur ran through the crowding wendigo sculptures and saved the fillies. Starlight smiled as she felt the big powerful arms of Red Steel lifting her above the attacking forces. Starlight used his arm to jump clear of the crowd as he pulled out a massive boulder out of the ground. The buffalo swung the boulder around with very little strength, smashing the wendigoes around them.

Hermes appeared with the fillies in his arms and put them down as the wendigo sculptures shattered a few meters behind him. Starlight and Red Steel walked over to him. “Wow, wow, I didn’t think I would ever in a million, zillion years be fast enough to save those adorable little fillies. It was like the push from a strike of lightning, or maybe faster. unlikely as the speed of light, which is--”

“Okay, we don’t have time for that, Hermes,” Starlight interrupted him as she held her hand up to his mouth.

Suddenly, a deep whistle pierced everything around them. They all came to attention and spun around to find the source. Starlight didn’t know who sent the noise, noting it was very distinct from the Great Howling that always appeared during this time of the year since she could still hear that as well in a faint distance.

Instantly she stopped as the whistling ended, and her eyes fell upon a tall, icy blue figure standing on the clock tower in the distance. It was too far to see what the figure looked like, but it was very clear that this thing was the real wendigo responsible for the attack.

Without warning, a massive amount of snow shook between them and the icy blue figure. Giant chunks swarmed from the ground and formed a massive wendigo sculpture. This was way too big for them to take alone, they had to stan together. Starlight with her gentlemare sword, Hermes with his sabers, Red Steel with his tomahawks.

Luckily, on the best of timing, the mighty lion Lighttone jumped out of nowhere into the air and bit down on the wendigo sculpture’s neck as his attack pushed with enough force to knock it into an empty building nearby, missing them completely.

Once he had it pinned, he bit down into its pseudo-flesh, only to pull back and gag. “Ugh, this doesn’t taste like a wendigo. It tastes more like something else.”

“Something else?” Starlight ran over to him as he climbed out of the rubble.

“Indeed.”

“But how? This is a memory duplicate spell, right? There has to be a wendigo responsible for this.” Starlight pointed outward.

As they argued, Rainbow Blitz walked up, “Don’t you two sound confused, but I’m going to have to agree with Lightttone’s taste buds today. I came from the direction of that whistle and that tall one is far too large to be a wendigo.” He stopped long enough to take a swing of his whiskey. "Not only that, but I also saw Granny Apple being held hostage by some sort of wolf creature.”

“What?” Starlight turned toward Rainbow Blitz in a bit of a rush and demanded, “Is she okay?”

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t get close enough to see.” Rainbow Blitz rubbed his dizzy eyes. “I had too much to drink today. But I saw that Twilight and Silver Pear were fighting their way over there.”

“It’s okay.” Starlight grabbed his whiskey. “I’ll go help save Granny Apple. You stop with the drinking.” Suddenly, several more wendigo sculptures rose from the snow. “Meanwhile, you four save as many town folks as you can.” She threw the bottle to the ground and jumped upward and forward. Quickly, she ran over the heads of the wendigo sculptures that were in the way as the others charged into the surrounding enemies.

******

On the other side of town, black shadows covered buildings as wendigo sculptures were cracked and busted with little effort. Clover jumped over roofs and through layers of chains as they shot by. The seafoam green unicorn despite not being very good with most flying or levitation-based spells, was always extremely acrobatic and useful to close combat spells.

Rex was prolific with field spells, especially the native ones of his species. He stayed near the ground, controlling most of the area's movement to his advantage.

"So, were these fakes as durable as they were yesterday?" Clover questioned.

"No, these are more sturdy." Rex swatted some away.

"Maybe the earlier ones were more of a test."

"Possibly he was building up strength--" Rex was stopped by twenty of the sculptures jumping from the snow and grabbing him. Clover jumped down to help him but stopped halfway at the sight of his eyes glowing. "Hell's Spikes!!" He roared outward, and many spikes shot out from the shadows.

Clover spanned her staff to knock away as pieces flew by her, and Rex waved out the remains off of him. "Either way, we need to take out more before we get a sight of him.”

"Fine!" Clover smiled and slapped Rex's right hand before doing several flips in that direction. Before reaching the crowd, she pushed on her final touch of the ground and launched herself high above the enemy, and landed on the other side.

Rex held back his right hand. "And..."

"Get down!!" Clover shouted to the griffins.

"Now!" Rex fell into his shadow and the strings on his fingers pulled with him. Clover followed suit and gripped tightly onto the other side of the strings that she grabbed earlier and ran to one side, quickly using the sharp sides to slice the sculptures in half.

"Yes--" Clover's victory was cut short by feeling the edges of a knife to her back. Jumping forward barely quick enough to dodge being stabbed, she landed near the griffins.

"Dangnabbit. I missed." A scalpel span in the hand of a flaming mare.

Clover's eyes went wide. "Impossible, Rex killed you."

"Oh, I'm not her." Vanity smiled and charged forward.

Clover twisted her staff, knocking away the small weapon as it closed in. Vanity crashed her fist into the staff and turned her scalpel downward through the defenses, barely missing the unicorn's throat. Clover withdrew her staff away in a false pullback. Before the ifrit could react, the staff flipped back around and knocked her scalpel away.

Seeing herself weaponless, Vanity went in with more fists, punching Clover right across the face. Clover caught it and twisted the hand and elbowed Vanity in the gut and punched her staff into the flaming mare's chin. The hard-hit, pushed Vanity fair back, breaking the closeness of the bout.

"I assume you are working for that wendigo as well." Rex rose behind her and wrapped chains over the ifrit.

"What?!" Vanity struggled. "Damn you Alicorn Lapdog. You killed my sister!!"

"So that would make you Vanity Claymore. The ifrit doctor who helped your brother with their unusual ways."

"Shut up! She was a fine mare--" Vanity was knocked out by a swift punch to the stomach.

"Well, everypony has their ways." Rex dropped her and walked back over to Clover. He reached over the unicorn's face, noting a minor cut near her chin. "Sorry, for not coming back sooner."

"Don't worry, I had that fight handled fine." Clover walked over and kicked Vanity in the face.

"Okay... I guess we should go back to the hunt..." Rex stopped as flames surrounded them both.

"Rex..."

"It's not this one..." Rex pulled in his chains, only to find that Vanity had been freed and was nowhere in sight.

"How did she get free?" Clover jumped around in annoyance.

"I don't think she is the only ifrit that wendigo has in his employment." Rex held up his hand and swung outward, knocking the flames away with his chains. "Either way, we need to get back to work."

******

Back toward the center of the town, Starlight arrived at the area around the altar. The place differed vastly from before. All the joy from yesterday was replaced with horror and violence as many creatures did the best they could to survive the vast onslaught.

Hearing a crash of familiar magic, she saw Twilight fighting off a few of those wendigo sculptures. However, she couldn’t spot where Silver Pear or Granny Apple was.

She didn’t have time to keep searching forever. Plus, her memories of the dream were still at the back of her head. She decided her best bet was to help Twilight out first.

She charged forward and sliced off the head of one as she passed around the group that was surrounding Twilight. Twilight smiled as she saw her, knowing almost instantly what she was planning to do. She held up her kopises and summoned a shield spell around herself as Starlight made the last pass.

Starlight concentrated magic to the tip of her gentlemare sword as running around the group was creating a white circle of magic around the enemy. Meanwhile, a black circle appeared on the edges of Twilight's shield as they spoke the words to complete the spell.

“Dark Magic Ring!” Twilight shouted as she completed her circle.

“Light Magic Ring!” Starlight shouted as she completed her circle.

"Omni Cleve!!” They spoke in unison as the two circles became one and chopped the large group of wendigo sculptures in half.

Twilight quickly fell to the ground as the scar under her eyepatch burned.

“Teacher, you okay?” Starlight ran over.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine…” She could only sneer the rest of her words with pain as her horn glowed with dark magic, purely on its own. "It's been reacting like that all morning."

A large one shot out of the snow behind, too fast for Starlight to react. She turned with only enough time to pull her guard almost into place.

“Sorry, I’m late, Lovely.”

She smiled as it shattered upon hitting the ground and then quickly gave a look of annoyance at that damn nickname. Silver Pear stood grinning over the rubble with his claymore out over his shoulder.

“Glad you could make it.” Starlight jumped forward and punched him in the gut with the hilt of her gentlemare sword.

“Ouch, what was that for?” He grabbed his gut in slight pain.

“Watching your back,” she gave an evil smile as she pulled her weapon out of the enemy that had been standing behind him.

Silver Pear blushed once he realized his mistake. “Sorry, again.”

The two jumped back from each other as another giant one dropped his hand between them as Twilight stabbed her kopises through it.

“Eno… Enou… Enough… flirting, you two. Fight!” Twilight could barely get her words out, so she switched to basic magic, hoping the pain would subside. She jumped back upward and took off the giant one’s head with a crescent-shaped attack. “Single Crescent Moon.”

"Fine..." Silver Pear huffed.

Starlight didn't let any little breath stop her as she rushed through the armies of wendigo sculptures. She had to end this fight and now before the dream became reality. “Did you see them from that building?”

“No, I didn’t" Silver Pear sliced through more enemies. “Where could my mother possibly be?”

“I don’t know, but we will find her.” Twilight knocked the sweat off her brow after shattering another one.

******

As they charged into the increasing number of wendigo sculptures, a mysterious dark blue siren watched from above a small building in the distance. He narrowed his eyes deeper into binoculars, aiming them at Twilight. His stare was so intense, yet the rest of his face was so placid, giving the feeling of strong thoughts with no outer reason to react to them.

One of the wendigo sculptures knocked Twilight down. Its claws went toward her throat. On pure reaction, the siren stallion reached for his sheathed falcata but stopped and took a breath. “No, you are here purely to observe.” Letting go of his weapon, he looked outward across the battlefield. “Now where are you? Rex..."

A buzzing cut through the air and he huffed in annoyance. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a crystal. Pressing on it, a voice spoke forth. "Cold Blue, How is your surveillance?"

"No problems, Lord Blood Diamond. I have found a few promising details, including a strange lavender mare."

"Hmm, didn't the legends say Indigo Frost had a lover that was lavender--"

"That was a dark lavender siren?" Realizing he interrupted his lord, Cold Blue quickly apologized.

"It is okay." Blood Diamond did his best to hide a chuckle.

Cold Blue cleared his voice. "The details about this not-dark but normal-colored lavender unicorn mare is that she has a lot more power than one might think. Plus, upon checking more information about her magic signature..." He leaned over toward the direction of Twilight.

"What about her magic signature?"

"It seems to match the masked figure that refers to himself as Indigo Frost. They might be connected."

"You are saying she might know who is really behind the mask."

"Maybe." Cold Blue tried his best to clarify his words. "She is certainly a piece to keep watch over."

"Fine, continue your watch. Also, keep an eye out for Rex. We don't want him to cause too much trouble."

"Is that a remark against Rex or the alicorn he works under?" Cold Blue stopped upon sensing several wendigo sculptures around him. Jumping high backward, he landed behind them. The crystal floated around him while Blood Diamond continued to talk.

"Our aunt has never been a bright mare. Either way, we must leave you back to your duties. We will meet with the leader of the unicorns soon enough. Hopefully, this Princess Platinum can be of use to us."

"Understood." Cold Blue lost no step in taking down the wendigo sculptures. All while keeping a close eye on Twilight Sparkle.

******

Eventually Twilight, Starlight, and Silver Pear found themselves almost finished. The numbers were dropping fast. Some of them considered it too fast.

However, without warning, the whistling that had summoned these wendigo sculptures returned. This time even louder than before. They covered their ears in distress but also tried their best to keep their guards up.

Despite their attempts, the sound was not the greatest danger as the snow on the ground swelled up. Struggling, they quickly found themselves gripped in place and separated.

Meanwhile, the whistling tore across the entire area, spreading out to the furthest reaches of the town, and shook everypony straight to the bone. Soon, though, the sound stopped, and the wendigoes halted their advance. The battle went incredibly silent, so much so that the sweat from their faces could be heard hitting the ground. Everything was quiet except for the Great Howling of this day.

******

On the other side of the town, Rex and Clover were heading toward the center. However, Rex stopped in place, and Clover quickly followed.

“What's wrong?” Clover questioned.

“The whistles, it stopped the dark magic of this spell.”

“Impossible.” Clover looked back and forth. “The wendigo sculptures are still standing.”

"Yes, but why..." Rex’s eyes widened. “Not standing still, waiting… waiting for a command.” He dropped his hand and rushed forward. “We have to hurry.”

******

Twilight felt every part of her body twist in agony. Her legs hurt the most as the snow twisted tighter. She looked over to Starlight and Silver Pear. Despite their distance, she smiled at the sight of their safety.

“Don’t smile yet,” an icy, bitter voice struck right through Twilight, making everything fade and be quickly replaced by fear. She looked over toward the altar, surprised to see herself far from it. The entire area around the altar had been stretched. She swung her head around and shivered at the sight of the massive crater over the entire area that had remade the entire place, all except the altar and the clock tower. Both, despite being at the center of the crater, were completely untouched.

"How did so much get displaced?" she questioned. Was this some form of magic? Her mind raced over any spell, but nothing came to form.

“Are you done?” The voice returned and again it made her heart jump. With no hesitation, her sight raced to the altar.

How did I not see him--” Her voice stopped once the figure upon the altar became clear to her. Striking through her whole being what this was, who this was. Instantly, she shook against her strongest guard at the sight of his bony smile.

It was a wendigo, this was completely true. But something deep within her told her this was a complete denial of the truth. One thing was sure, she couldn't ignore the familiarity and fear growing the longer she stared.

It had fur that was icy blue and sapphire-colored eyes with a long blonde mane flowing out of a large deer skull that he wore over the upper part of his face. His body was very thin and bony, yet muscular, hidden well under his very long leathery cobalt cape, covered in stitches edged with snow leopard fur. Pulling back his cloak revealed an underlining that was covered in long pure white feathers that have been combed down, almost giving the form of angel wings. Under it all, he wore a vest made from a black panther’s pelt with a silk indigo-colored backside over a green dress shirt with a cobalt tie. For his lowers he wore a pair of green leathery high water pants but no shoes.

Yet none of these details made Twilight back away in horror the most. Yes, they were all important, but none so more than the final.

What made her whole form wrack with fear was the fact that the sleeves had been cut short, leaving his wrists to his elbows completely exposed to the fur below… showing that one of his arms was pale white as if it had been replaced.

The white arm replaced the very arm… that... that Silver Pear had cut off two years ago.

“I see you finally spotted it.” He held up the pale white arm and traced the fingers of his hand over the scar. “It took me some time to find a replacement. Who would have thought randomly choosing that one day and one part of the forest for a quick, easy meal two years ago would accelerate my plans so completely.” He dropped his arms and walked forward until he reached the edge of the altar. “It was as if it was fate.”

“You… it can’t be.” Twilight’s dread pulled the other’s eyes to what she was seeing.

“Impossible. I sliced you through the chest. Silver pear took out your arm... that would kill anypony.” Twilight tried straightening her now loose stance but her legs felt like putty.

“You can’t kill what is already dead.”

Twilight was perplexed by his words.

“Have you forgotten my name already...” He lifted his head and scraped his claws lightly over his mask. "Indigo Frost."

“Fine, Indigo Frost, where is my mom?!” Silver Pear shouted.

Despite the past connection he had with Silver Pear, the wendigo gave little care to the earth pony and continued to feast at the sight of Twilight’s fear.

“Hey, answer me!” Hearing the annoyance again, Indigo Frost finally gestured his hand.

Twilight followed his suit, and her iris shrank at the sight. Being pulled to the platform was Granny Apple… and Crimson, both in chains; they were being brought by a rather large gray inugami with red highlights.

The inugami brought them to the center and then stopped. “That will be all, Bad Wolf. Now stand by for further orders.”

“But…”

“I said standby!”

Bad Wolf’s eyes went wide and his mouth trembled before backing away from the chains. His movement was rather slow as he seemed to watch Granny Apple extremely closely.

The inugami's actions confused Silver Pear at first, but he was at least happy to see his mother alive and well. With no wounds on her, nor on Crimson. His mind wanted to question whose blood was outside the tavern, but he was more worried about his mother’s well-being first. “Are you okay, mother?”

She looked at him and gave a pale stare before looking at Bad Wolf. Her mouth hung for a moment before looking back at her son and not saying a single word. This only brought more confusion to Silver Pear.

Twilight meanwhile had her mind completely on Crimson. "What was he doing here?"

“What is wrong, Twilight? Can't figure out the reason for these choices of hostages?” Indigo Frost interrupted her thoughts with his bitter words.

Was this a threat? If so, why was Crimson here? She didn’t even know him back when she had her encounter with this monster. “Fine, what do you want? Revenge!” Twilight dosed her weapons with magic.

“No, I’m after something better.” Indigo Frost’s grin grew bigger. "However, what I'm after involves you.” He pointed down to the altar they stood upon. “Do you know this place? The name of this altar.”

“I… I…”

“I thought not. This altar was designed by the first to hate wendigoes. When magic is here, especially dark magic, something happens to the user...”

“You want me to use dark magic here.”

“Soon, but not yet.” He turned to Crimson, "I need to claim something. First." He held out his hand, and the snowflakes rose from the ground and pulled him forward. "Though, I never considered you of all creatures would be the one to bring it right to me.”

Indigo Frost's eyes raced back to Twilight as he reached for the necklace on Crimson's neck. Gripping it tightly, he yanked hard, bashing Crimson's face into his knuckles. "Oh, yes, it is fate that led us to this moment."

"Crimson!" Twilight attempted to swing her arms but quickly found them being held down by snowflakes as well.

“You don’t know what this is, do you?” Indigo Frost ripped off the chain and held the turquoise pearl up high. “This is an alathar, one of nine artifacts that once belonged to a fallen god who lost his name long ago, simply known now as Madness of the Broken One."

"Enough!" Without warning, Rex and Clover landed on the altar.

"Ah, Rex, I see you arrived." Indigo Frost didn't take his face off Twilight once. Despite that, his snowflakes quickly surrounded Rex and Clover.

“Drop that now!”

"Do you want to hurt my hostages?" On that large ice spikes shot up around Crimson's and Granny Apple's throats.

"Please... "Twilight's voice could barely leave her shock-filled mouth. "Don't hurt them."

Indigo Frost loosened his grip and the ice spikes faded back to snowflakes. He even dropped Crimson down.

"Only if you let me finish." Indigo Frost pointed toward Twilight.

"Fine..." Twilight's face dropped. 

Bringing up the turquoise pearl, he lamented his words so slowly. "This is the Void of Dreams. The heart of the hateful sirens, and once wielded by the pure Morpheus Morningstar himself.” His eyes turned to Rex. "This one would be most useful to you."

“What do you mean?” Rex question.

“It allows the wielder to bring their greatest dream to life. And what do you dream of most?”

Rex turned his face away. "I have no dreams."

"How about dying?” Indigo Frost's eyes narrowed at the fear this brought to Clover's face. "Or maybe you wish to bring someone back?"

Rex’s eyes widened at Indigo Frost's soft words. “What are you talking about? Why would I need anyone?!?!” He raised his hands and chains shot out from his shadow and flew toward Indigo Frost.

The wendigo used the snowflakes to raise Crimson into the line of fire. Instantly, the chains stopped in mid-air. “Now that's a lie. Had this been her, you would not hesitate to go right through and stab me.”

Rex pulled back his chains at those words. "Her...?"

“I guess you’re not as monstrous as the legends used to say.” He tilted his head, “Or maybe it’s because you replaced her so easily?” Indigo Frost gestured to Clover, “With a much younger model.”

"Enough!!" Rex’s eyes narrowed and went back in for the attack again. He increased the speed of his chains, yet they still couldn’t make their mark. All his chains bounced around, never once hitting Crimson or Indigo Frost.

“Stop, please!” Twilight pleaded louder.

“You heard the ever so beautiful mare.” The wendigo lowered and held his claws to Crimson’s throat.

Indigo Frost and Rex continued to talk. Starlight's mind was on Twilight and Crimson. Her thoughts were flowing like a river in the dream. Was this what the being was trying to warn her about?

Her eyes kept on Crimson the entire time, hoping it was all wrong. She tried her best to figure out a way to save him or maybe a way to get Twilight far from here at least. Despite all the time that had passed, she still couldn’t see an opening at all. She looked at Crimson’s face. his face was on Twilight, his eyes were on Starlight.

It seemed as if he was trying to gesture to her something important, but she couldn't gather what. Following his eyes downward, she came upon a dagger in his pocket. Her sight quickly raced back to Twilight. She was seeing the same thing. A plan was forming, but it needed one more thing.

Knotting her head, Starlight followed with her horn. She poured magic outward in a bright light that quickly filled the entire area. Twilight smiled. Rex caught on to the plan and dropped his chains into his shadows as they got bigger.

All seemed to have their plan on how everything was about to go down. And as the light got too bright to see, Crimson launched forward.

******

Cold Blue landed on a destroyed building at the far end of the altar. He looked on in silence as everything replayed for him.

"Looks like I was too late to witness the plan come to fruition." Turning his falcata downward, he charged it with maroon-colored magic. He stabbed it into the building and a shield shot outward. "I can't let this darkness escape."

Quickly, his sight fell upon Twilight once more. He saw every bit of emotion on her face as things moved too slowly for most to even process. He frowned at the sight of blood flowing out over the altar. "I... I'm sorry this had to happen to you."

******

The light quickly faded and victory seemed assured as smiles grew on Twilight and Crimson’s faces, followed by cheers from Silver Pear and confusion from Rex and Clover… However, all that came to a halt as blood splattered over the altar.

Twilight’s eye darted at the sight of Crimson’s hand floating through the wendigo's chest… almost like there was nothing there at all.

Indigo Frost leaned his head down to the trembling Crimson and licked at the sweat pouring down the unicorn's face. “I’m sorry. You couldn’t harm or even break me. For when it comes down to it. You can’t kill a ghost.” He pulled his pale arm back and Crimson’s eyes went blank. "But a ghost can certainly kill you."

Crimson’s body jolted with every pull, and Twilight’s eye widened more. Indigo Frost lifted the gently beating heart of Crimson from the body. Each thread-thin vein slowly popped off with each movement.

Indigo Frost held it up high to Twilight. “This is what I'm truly here for.” On that, he yanked hard, breaking each string of both Crimson's heart and Twilight's mind. "To see you all shatter!" He brought the heart to his mouth and bit down, chomping up and down in less than a few bites.

Twilight’s face went pale and her legs buckled. Her hand did little to hold her weapons up as they fell into the snow with an almost harder thud than Crimson’s body, as it too crashed to the ground at the same time. Her mouth fell open and tears pooled in her eyes.

Seeing the opening, Rex and Clover rushed forward with attacks. Indigo Frost jumped away from the corpse and summoned up an ice wall. He turned to Bad Wolf and spoke, "Time to leave.”

Hearing his words broke through the fear that had caked the beast's face the entire time. He walked over to Granny Apple and picked her up. Meanwhile, Rex and Clover broke through the ice wall and charged forward. They chased after Indigo Frost as he jumped up the clock tower. Silver Pear went after his mother.

Rex got to the top of the clock tower and shouted to the wendigo. "Why would you do that? Why do you see fit to bring this pain?"

Indigo Frost stopped and looked over at everything. "I wanted somewhere to show my might and power."

"You haven't any might. Only fear and hatred. And why here, of all places?"

“Because this is the center of everything. All my joys and all my hatreds are in this single place. This! Is! Where! It! All! Begins!!

******

Indigo Frost’s echoes beat down over the town’s roads and pathways. The sounds carried through the swirling the ruins of the older new buildings as they fell to the ground. Bouncing off the edges, and slowly back to the clock tower and the altar that stood before it.

Tears fell from the face of a lavender alicorn mare as she shivered in place. She wasn’t cold, despite the snow all around. Yet the shivers refused to leave her, no matter what. 

This lone mare gave little care to the echoes or to the ponies, griffins, and sirens that ran from it. Sure, she wanted to give some sort of reaction outside of her self, but her legs wouldn’t answer. All she could do was stare at the fresh corpse lying on the altar in front of her.

Her mind replayed over the events that led to this, yet the events had only happened seconds ago, everything about them was a complete shadow. She couldn't see everything in a better light, all she could pull forth was darkness.

Darkness...

Darkness...

Darkness...

No sliver of light came to her. No signs, no hope, no kindness, no laughter, no generosity, no honesty, no loyalty, no friendship...

Friendship…

Friend…

Free…

Her mind screamed for an answer as she finally felt her leg move. On their own, or out of some base instinct, her legs pulled her toward the corpse. Despite how much she wanted to know the reality of what she was seeing in front of her, her mind was now screaming at her to stop.

Don't look...

Don't look...

Don't look...

It's not real...

It's not real...

It's not real...

It's a shadow...

It's a shadow...

It's a shadow...

Finally, she found herself in front of the corpse. It was mere inches from her. The face of the dead, dark lavender unicorn stallion stared back with the blankest stare. She reached out and brought its forehead to her.

Her eyes widened, and her mind could no longer deny reality. The shadows faded, and the darkness lifted to show Crimson dead in Twilight's arms. In pure reaction, she squeezed tighter, wanting him to react, to give some sign that maybe this wasn't real, but it was very real, no matter how much she didn't want it to be.

“Oh by the gods, it’s an alicorn.” A voice so small, yet it broke through Twilight’s agony. She turned to see a small dark blue colt.

The colt reached out and placed his hand on her back. “Oh, lovely goddess, don’t weep!” The colt walked closer. “The good lord said when we die, we go to a better place?”

In the background, Starlight watched in total fear. Everything was playing out like the dream. This meant only one thing to her. Stop it now!

With no more hesitation, she rushed forward.

The colt attempted to calm Twilight’s pain but, like in the dream, he was halted by another voice, this one far older. “It’s an alicorn, a famed immortal!” The older one threw a stone.

Starlight quickly knocked the stone away as it flew. It landed on the ground, barely missing Twilight’s face.

“Like the immortals that brought this war to us!” another voice screamed out in rage.

Starlight landed between Twilight and the quickly growing crowd of anger. “No, it’s not like that. It wasn’t her fau--” Another stone flew, this time hitting her in the face.

“Move, mare. The witch must die!" A heavy stone punched Starlight in the stomach, pushing her to the ground.

"Get away from that colt!” Another stone flew. This time it finally made contact, tearing into the left side of Twilight’s face. “You don’t deserve to be near him. You are practically the one responsible for all of this.”

The eyepatch fell to the ground.

Starlight reached out, yet all she could do was a twist as great shame wracked her whole body. Her eyes looked at the crowd, and her mind raced back to the dream.

Narrowing her eyes, she found the brown donkey standing in the crowd. Sorrow and fear covered his face. She reached out to him for answers, maybe even help, but she got one word and this didn't come from him...

"Failure..." A dark voice spoke from behind her... from Twilight.

“Get away from him!” More voices shouted to the alicorn.

“You are responsible for all of this!!” Another throw...

“Don’t you dare mutilate him, you selfish witch!!” Another throw...

“You are as evil as that ghost!!” Another throw...

“Stop it!” Starlight attempted to get up, but with no warning at all, she was knocked away by a massive pulse of maroon-colored magic. As quickly as it began, it ended, the shouting stopped and the echoes of the stones ended. The colt backed away.

The lone lavender alicorn turned away from the corpse and faced the crowd as massive amounts of maroon smoke pushed forth from her mouth and eyes. At this moment, she seemed devoid of all emotions, swinging her head around like a random beast.

She lifted her head and screamed so loud. Mindless rapidness was gone in an instant. All things are replaced by pure rage. Over her face, the frostbitten scar, as if powered by this maroon magic, moved and to her body.

The surrounding ground shook and cracked. With one swift move, the altar ripped open to reveal a vast pit. The ground crumbled around it almost in fear, yet what Twilight stood upon was so still.

The maroon smoke got heavy and flowed toward the pit. It flooded out like a tidal wave as she twisted and growled. The gas flowed to the ground, moving across like sludge. As fast as the pit appeared, the gunk filled every crevice before shooting upward. 

Turning solid and as thick as the hardest crystal, the maroon formed a giant hand. Gripping tightly to Crimson as it grew taller and wider. Many looked in horror as it quickly outstood the clock tower that had always shined overall. More confusion was brought as the remaining ground that could only shriek away was now bending upward around as if something was pulling each stone and pebble, creating massive gashes in all directions.

Watchers could only back away. Starlight herself tried reaching Twilight, but it was as if a mighty gravitational force was pushing her back with more power than she ever felt before. Out of nowhere birds nearby crashed to the ground, squirrels twisted and fell out of trees, and dogs and cats threw all their rage at the sight of the hand before quickly falling too, all these animals could do was show their anger and quickly die by an unknown force.

Finally, Twilight dropped her head and stopped screaming.

All continue to look in confusion. Horror had only faded to the sheer height of the mighty sculpture in front of them. Its shadow nearly covered the entire city. Many stared at it... except for Starlight.

Her eyes were on her teacher and the pain of her revelation. The dream came true. This is what the voice wanted to hide from her. She failed. She did her best, but it was all for naught. However, she wouldn't know the genuine horror of her hesitation until she finally heard Twilight speak.

"You want a monster...” Twilight's voice was... so cold. Devoid of all joy, or sorrow. All that could be heard was one absolute thing that brought a chill to everyone's core and drove all their attention back to her as she finally faced them.

"Twilight..." Starlight walked forward. A faint smile filled her mind upon feeling the mysterious field gone.

Twilight's form had changed completely. All her fur had turned hard, like the frostbitten eye, fading to the same color, pale, almost icy blue. Her form had grown in height yet shrunk in width. She was almost as boney as Indigo Frost. One thing was certain: at this moment, this lone mare standing at the center of everything was no longer Twilight.

"Monster!! A shattered monster!!" The mare's roars punched Starlight to the ground. Slowly, the mare approached the group.

Rapidly, the pale mare's head tilted left and right as her mane floated upward. Her eyes fell on the colt that had shown her kindness. With no warning or even any signs of hesitation, she rushed at the colt, pushing him to the ground. She pushed her hand into his throat and pressed down. "Well, do you want a shattered freak of nature?" The harder she pushed, the clear a smile formed on her lips as her horn pulsed a maroon color and her hand filled with magic. “I'll give you... the darkest spell... Number Ninty-nine... Darkness Shattering Moon Light!!”

The mare’s words were stopped and the spell faded with a distinct noise. It was soft yet also very sharp. She loosened her grip and scanned around, searching for the source, until her eyes fell on a dark blue siren right behind her with a strange dagger-like ocarina in his mouth.

For a second, Starlight through the ocarina's noise was the same as Indigo Frost's summoning spell, but this was different. Despite the instrument resembling a weapon, its sound gave no fear or rage.

Cold Blue stood strong, aiming his falcata right at her head. “Let the child go. Now!” The pale mare only growled at him. “I see. The brilliant mare I watched from afar is not even here anymore. There is only the..." His words stopped as he brought the strange instrument completely away from his mouth. “ as they said, a bastard, a killer, and a butcher. Behold the Pale Mare of legend."

With no fear, Cold Blue charged forward and tackled the pale mare off of the child. Pressing his falcata right between the center of her breastplate, he wrestled her far away from the group. Turning, he yelled to Starlight, "Omnipony get the child."

Starlight came to her senses with that word and ran over and picked the child up. She checked over and was glad to see no wounds at all. However, her thoughts were still in Twilight. "Okay, he's fine, now let go of my teacher--" she stopped at the sight of Cold Blue pulling back his falcata and aiming toward the pale mare's heart.

"No!" Starlight screamed forth as black and white magic quickly grabbed the weapon as pierced the armor. "Leave her." Starlight couldn't hold back her tears at this moment.

"Why?! Tell me!"

"Because she's not a monster!"

"Tell that to them." Cold Blue pointed out to the townsfolk as he pushed down harder. The hold weakened enough for him to now puncture the armor and skin.

"I..." Starlight's eyes fell on them. The very folks who had partied with her and Twilight in this very place not but yesterday. All were backed away in unheeded fear. "She's... my teacher... my friend."

Despite the roaring of the pale mare below him, Cold Blue couldn't help but understand Starlight's words. "... Fine." On that, he turned his falcata to its hilt and bashed it against the pale mare's head, knocking her out.

With that, the maroon magic faded around them. The scar shrank back into place and her fur, size, and body returned to normal. The true Twilight had returned.

Getting up, he walked over to Starlight. "She will live as long as you keep her away from this altar. When she wakes, she will be normal again." He tried rephrasing, "She will not remember this event ever happened."

Starlight let go of the child and let it run back to its mother. Taking in a deep breath, she walked back to Twilight, passing Cold Blue along the way. "Thank you--"

She was stopped when he placed his dagger-like ocarina to her throat. "Don't you dare thank me at all? She needs to die, not to save these weak souls but to save herself." His eyes pointed to the mother of the colt they saved, much to Starlight's shock. The mother's sight was filled with rage toward Twilight, and them as well. "They will never forget. They will never stop hating. This is the path of a monster and likes it or not, your teacher is now on this path."

"What should I do?"

"Take her far from this place. No matter what happens in the future, no matter whether it is filled with hope or darkness, never return here--" He pulled the dagger away and sliced a rock that had flown toward them in half. "Because next time I won't be here to save her from their... prejudice." On that final note, he dropped his weapons to his sides and ran off from sight. "You have until sundown before they show you who they truly are."

Starlight didn't know at all how to react to what he said or everything she saw today. The one thing she knew for sure was she had to get Twilight out of sight for now and at least far away from this area and the monolith now standing in the center of it all.

Picking Twilight up in magic, she ran off where she assumed her friends from the tavern were still. She hoped they could help her in at least some way.

Meanwhile, Silver Pear only stood still. His eyes were blank in utter confusion. He took Indigo Frost's arm all those years ago, so why did it seem like this whole attack was all directed toward Twilight? His mind wanted to worry about his mother's safety and who this Bad Wolf was, yet he couldn't deny the curiosity to it all. How did it all connect?

Suddenly his eyes came upon the small ass of a certain seafoam green unicorn as she ran toward the battle flying through the sky. He didn't know how to compute everything that happened today, but he knew this mare had to have answers.

******

Up in the sky, Indigo Frost flew over random buildings, letting his laughter echo over all that could hear him. Rex tried his best to keep up with the wendigo. He too wanted to question the reasons for this attack, but he was always brasher when in anger, and all of this pain, that was one thing he couldn't deny. Reaching up to his turban, he didn't hesitate any longer.

"No, Rex, not here!" Clover shouted.

"Yes, it has to be here." Rex tossed his turban at Clover and charged up magic in his curved blue horn. A maroon color flowed over it and lightly fuzzed at the top. Smoke tipped at his eyes and flowed down to his hands. Holding his fingers in a horn style, he swung them around his body fast in exactly thirty-two exes. "Dark Shadow Mix Spell Thirty-Two, Tentacles of the Kraken!"

Without warning, the ground shook and all the nearby shadows in a thirty-two-meter radius spasmed before charging toward to central points that dotted the area. The whole action made Indigo Frost stop in his tracks. Looking at each center, he was surprised to see what looked like tentacles rising from them.

"Thule would be so happy to see a spell similar to this." Indigo Frost readied himself. "Of course, a spell of that size would destroy the entire city. Why are you holding back?"

Rex's eyes widened and his mouth sneering with rage stopped his movements for only a moment but kept his fingers in the right form. Quickly swinging one hand at a time made each tentacle move. Indigo Frost jumped around, dodging all of them. However, as the seconds moved, the tentacles went faster. It was getting harder.

The umbrum increased the number of tentacles and multiplied the speed. Meanwhile, down on the ground, Clover made her way through the maze, hoping the plan would work. All while neither knew of Silver Pear following everything.

"I know you can't keep this up all day!" Indigo Frost questioned Rex's actions.

"Only long enough to get answers."

"Like..." Indigo Frost poised for Rex to question, but he knew all too well what each word would be.

"Why this place--"

"Come on, I answered this one. Give me something better."

"Fine, why that mare?"

"When I fought her two years ago, I found her so interesting. She will put friendship above her own life." The wendigo couldn't hold back his laughter. "Can you believe that? Friendship?!"

"Now I know!" Rex smirked.

"Know what?"

Rex's eyes fell to a glare. "That you could never be the Indigo Frost of legend. The great king of the wendigo would never mock such a thing."

"Who said I'm mocking it? I am Indigo Frost, and this is the path I walk now."

"Then this is where your path ends." Rex closed his fingers and smiled.

Indigo Frost's eyes widened at the sight of several strings now quickly flying toward him as the tentacles pulled back.

The strings wrapped tightly around Indigo Frost's body. They held down with so much force, much more than he could handle, as he didn't even fight once they were in place. He simply took a breath and landed on a building.

Rex landed in the same building and walked right to him. "Too easy. All I had to do was keep you distracted long enough for Clover to pull the string across every tentacle." After that, Clover jumped up to the same building.

"Hmm, it looks like she is useful for something." Indigo Frost leered at the seafoam unicorn.

"Plus, it kind of helps that others can see quick tactics as well." Silver Pear appeared seemingly out of nowhere and aimed his claymore at the wendigo's throat. Clover and Rex put up their guard at the random guest but kept their eyes on Indigo Frost the entire time.

"What are you doing here, earth pony?" Rex questioned.

"Don't worry, I want answers as much as you." Silver Pear walked closer and placed the tip of his weapon right against Indigo Frost's throat.

"Do think I can give answers that only others know the truth of--"

"Quit the wordplay." Clover pulled her side of the strings tighter.

"It's not wordplay, if anything it's very correct." Indigo Frost looked at Rex and leaned closer. "What you should ask is why didn't I escape sooner after seeing this trap twice."

The wendigo's words brought shock and realization to Rex's eyes, especially when he noticed that Indigo Frost was looking beyond him. "Shit--"

Out of nowhere, flames shot upward all around them, quickly consuming the strings. Indigo Frost ripped free as each string snapped and charged right at Rex, knocking them both off the building. He carried Rex off by the throat. Clover jumped backward off the building in search of the obvious ifrit helping the wendigo.

All three were gone before Silver Pear could even compute what happened.

******

Starlight continued to carry Twilight to safety. She didn't know what she was going to do or where she was going to go, only that she had to take the siren's words to heart. Even then there was somepony she was thinking of in the back of her mind that could be a strong possibility, but she wouldn't be sure until she had another conversation with him. Until then, she had to find a place to hide.

Combining all of this thought and movement filled her with much loss of breath and a large gaining of fear. She was almost panicking. She did not know what was about to happen, but out of nowhere, something fell from the sky, stopping her movement instantly.

Rex crashed into a building a few meters in front of her and Twilight. Indigo Frost was driving a massive ice stake through the umbrum's chest, impaling him into the wall. "What?! Rex!" Starlight jumped back and dropped Twilight to the ground.

"Well, this seems to be our end." Indigo Frost pushed the stake deeper into Rex as he struggled at him. "You don't realize the irony of fighting me." Indigo Frost reached over and tapped on the Dark Alicorn Amulet. "Tell that goat hello for me." On that, he jumped back at the sight of Rex's eyes struggling to stay open.

At a distance, Sage watched with intrigue. "So now I will see why Rex is so important to this plan."

Indigo Frost smiled at the sight of Rex's body going limp. Once he was sure, he turned to Starlight and Twilight. Particularly, his sight fell on Twilight and the faint glow from the scar he gave her. "I'm so glad she stabilized." On that, his body faded to distinctly red snowflakes. "Soon the Pale Mare will return." With that final word, he floated out of sight.

Once the wendigo left, Starlight didn't hesitate to run over to Rex. "No, no, no. You can't die here." She scanned him over with magic while her eyes flipped back and forth between him and Twilight. "If you die, then she..." She charged up her magic. "I can't let that happen--"

"You'll find that to be pointless," Starswirl moved her with magic. "Now away."

Starlight looked in confusion at the sound of an old wizard's words. "What are you talking about? If I don't heal him, he'll die--"

"Ah!!" Without warning, Rex jumped to attention and screamed out in agony. The Dark Alicorn Amulet shone forth a bright maroon light, followed by smoke.

Starlight was shocked to see that it was the same way the magic flowed out of Twilight before, only instead of it coming from the eyes, it was coming out of the amulet. It was far finer than Twilight's rigid smoke. The maroon smoke grabbed hold of the massive stake and pulled it free from Rex.

The umbrum fell to the ground and started coughing up maroon liquid as the smoke moved away. "Damn it," he screamed in between each splat of liquid.

Starlight's eyes widened at the sight of the smoke going to Rex's massive wound and sealing it up as if it was never there at all before returning to the amulet. "Impossible."

"No, very possible," the old wizard posed.

"Huh," Rex looked up and smiled, "Well, Starswirl, how did you know he wouldn't at least let me sleep a little longer."

"As you said yourself, this wendigo claims to be Indigo Frost. The king was the original owner of the amulet so whether this is the real wendigo or a fake posing as him he got the Dark Alicorn Amulet's attention. Therefore, I am certain the spirit inside will hold you in a tighter grip until it has answers." Starswirl walked closer and pointed to the very object they were both talking about as the maroon smoke fully reseeded.

"Great..." Rex huffed a deadpan as he got to his feet.

"Wait, you can't die!" Starlight could only point in shock.

"Quite the reverse." Starswirl turned to the unicorn. "You could say his life or death, in this case, has a chain over it."

"Yeah, Starswirl's words sum it up pretty well." Rex walked over to Starlight before stopping at the sight of Twilight. He didn't know why his eyes were brought over to her, only that there was a great familiarity on her face.

Starlight's eyes jumped again, and she pointed to the old wizard, "Wait, Starswirl?"

"Yes, I am Starswirl." He walked closer and looked her over. "Hmm, looks like that siren and Rex was right about you."

"Wait, siren?!" Rex jumped to guard, "When did Cold Blue get here?"

"He left after giving me a message. I wish you had told me as soon as possible."

"The omnipony? I only found out about her yesterday and the attack happened before I could get back to the ship."

"Now that's a lie since the attack started in the morning." Starswirl puffed cotton candy into Rex's mouth. "It seems you didn't notice the other detail. Luckily Cold Blue did."

"What do you mean?" Starlight questioned. "What detail--" She was stopped as both she and Twilight were scanned by a bubbly red, yellow, and black-colored magic.

"Of course, my spell worked!" Starswirl smiled in joy. "Or at least it will."

"What..." Rex pulled the cotton candy free from his mouth and threw it to the ground. "Are you talking about?"

"Rex, it seems we have new guests joining us on our journey." Starswirl turned away.

"Isn't taking on that siren filly and her sisters enough--"

"Shush." Starswirl laughed after poofing another cotton candy into Rex's mouth.

"Wait, what's going on here?" The voice of somepony caught them all off guard. Starlight quickly turned around to see Twilight slowly getting up.

"Teacher, don't rush yourself."

Twilight gestured Starlight away before fixing her stance and demanding again for answers. "Answer me now, lord of chaos!" She pointed right at Starswirl, making the old wizard stop in his tracks.

"Lord of Chaos? Huh? Oh, the future holds so many possibilities." Starswirl jumped for joy.

"What? Teacher, that Starswirl the Bearded not Disc--"

"I know what I said!" Twilight interrupted her student. "Which makes you," she pointed to Rex. "Rex Moba, Master of Shadowmancy... and my... and my ..." Before she could finish, she fell to the ground.

Starlight quickly rushed over to her. "Don't push yourself..." She stopped her words upon noticing Twilight was out cold again. "Damn it!"

"Calm down, Lovely." Silver Pear walked up finally. "She is simply out of breath."

"Rex..." Clover also showed up with no delay.

"Hmm, did you find the ifrit?" Rex questioned.

"No." She gripped his hand tightly. "But I sensed your..."

"Don't worry, I'm still here." He raised his hand to her mane.

"On that note, it's best that all of us head back to the ship." Starswirl gripped Twilight in his magic to help Starlight out. "Every single one."

"Wait, them too--" Rex stopped his words and jumped back from poofing cotton candy. "No more. Give me answers now!"

"Fine," Starswirl brought Twilight over to Rex. "Look into her face. Tell me who you see."

"I... I... I don't see anypony." Rex turned away. There was a fainting glint in his eyes. "Nothing at all."

"Okay, What do you see, Clover?" Starswirl brought the alicorn over to her.

Clover looked Twilight over and, at first, couldn't figure out what he meant. However, the longer she looked, the more her eyes widened. "No, there is no way."

"No way, but with time travel." Starlight walked over to them. She reached over and pulled at Rex's hand, bringing it to Twilight's face. "I never considered the possibility that you and she would ever meet, but she always considered it. Oh, how I hate when she is right?"

"What are you talking about? Rex pulled away. “Who are you?"

"Well, my name is Starlight Glimmer, and she is Twilight Sparkle." Starlight pointed right to Rex. "We are from the future and are--" Suddenly cotton candy puffed into her mouth.

"I think that will be enough spoilers for now. We are taking them with us and this is final." Starswirl lowered Twilight over Starlight's shoulder and then held out his hand, gesturing his fingers out away from everypony. Making a few symbols followed by a snap, a portal opened. "Chaos Spell Number One, Graceful Opening!"

On the other side was a pathway covered in a large amount of machinery that Starlight couldn't recognize. She knew she could trust her teacher and maybe even Starswirl if the legends were true, but seeing this powerful spell made her uneasy.

"We... need to leave..." Twilight's words barely spoke through her weakening mind.

"Fine, teach. Don't push yourself." Starlight tried to push her fear away and walked through the portal.

"I'm going too," Silver Pear commented.

"What?" Rex stepped in the earth pony's way. "Why would we need you--"

Silver Pear didn't hesitate to point his claymore at Rex's throat. "Because I might be useful to you."

"And how?" Clover knocked away the claymore with her staff.

"Well," Silver Pear leaned in close to the mare. "Little Missy, outside of the fact that wendigo took my mom, I know for a fact he isn't a ghost."

"What do you mean?" Starswirl posed.

"Sure, you can't kill a ghost, but you certainly can't wound one either." Silver Pear pulled back his claymore to his back and walked around Rex and Clover.

"You wounded him? When?!" Rex demanded.

"Not exactly wounded... I took his arm off." These ultimate words stopped all three of them.

Silver Pear walked through the portal with no more problems in his way. Starswirl could only laugh as he followed. Clover walked through, confused by everything that had happened. Meanwhile, Rex stood in place, seemingly not ready to leave. He was so distracted by Silver Pear’s words that he didn’t notice the brown spider crawling by and into the portal.

"Impossible," Rex spat once everypony was out of sight. "How could he?" He took a few steps to the portal before stopping at a sound. He turned to a building in the distance and flinched at nothing. "Or maybe this masked wendigo has more up his sleeve than it appears." In those last words, he walked through the portal.

After it vanished, back up on that very building, Sage pulled himself free from the fear of being spotted. He had witnessed everything from the shadows and even helped Indigo Frost and his allies in certain moments during this whole thing. Now that everything seemed to end, though, all he could think about was Rex's last words.

"I have to know... "

******

Thousands of miles away in the far north, beyond all reach of land, floated a mighty fortress. Inside a weak tan unicorn in a teal cloak, panic is his rush toward the center. He did his best to carry each scroll in his arms with care while making sure to not fall once.

Each scroll had an orange tip and was written on black cloth. it was very faint, there was a pinch of writing on the front of each one. They were all named.

Soon he came upon a sparkling red tower that stood higher than any other. Taking a deep he slowed his breath and his movement before entering. He was still in a panic, but he couldn’t let the one he was about to see observe that in him.

Passing through the doorway, he gulped at the sight of seemingly innumerous stairs. He straightened the scrolls and took his first step of many. After a much longer time, he finally reached the top.

Opening a final door, he spotted a tall orange unicorn stallion in black centipede-like armor with orange lines and a thin, long red mane that reached to the ground. Taking attention to not step on the mane, he got closer and presents the scrolls. “I brought what you asked for, oh great, Lord Red.”

“Well done, Clovis the Coward. I needed to compare other listed creatures.” His horn never glowed and yet, quickly unrolled every single one and floated them around his sight and the mirror in front of him.

At first, they seemed almost completely blank, but the same faint writing covered each one. The eyes of the orange unicorn glowed, and the writing lit up with bright light.

Clovis gasped at the sight of his master’s power and walked closer to the mirror. He noted an image being shown within the mirror. “Is that it--”

“I’m not sure what this claw might be, it is not made from normal magic.” The alicorn scanned through more scrolls, “No, I saw something before… The Broken One, he used to use these as markers.”

“The fallen Ideal himself.”

“Indeed…” He grimaced and increased his search. He looked over the scrolls until he came upon one with red writing. “Oh, this candidate. I believe he was the last descendant I saw with this power.”

“But Lord Red. That name.., Rex Moba.”

“I know. And it seems the scroll noted him as far from the spot where the claw rose forth.”

“That’s impossible. His magic has incredible range, yes, but to summon such a thing from that distance while fighting off those dangerous beasts at the same time seems far too out of his range.”

“Oh Clovis, you have too much doubt.” Lord Red couldn’t hold back his laughter.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t doubt your words, his potential.”

“But I never accused you of doubting me at all,” Lord Red remarked back.

“I… I…” Clovis fell backward at his master’s words. While Lord Red didn’t seem to have any open anger toward him, Clovis could sense deep within the offense. “I wasn’t doubting you, I swear!” He fell to his knees and begged.

“Calm yourself.” Lord Red’s mane lifted and padded Clovis on the head. Clovis couldn’t but smile at the kind gesture and did as he was told. “I noticed something else about this.” Lord Red waved his hand over the mirror and the picture seemed to change.

The claw was still there, but it was as if it was a different color now. Clovis's eyes widened, and he realized what his master suspected. “Unknown magic signature seems to match Rex and...”

"Exactly, this proof must never leave this room." He waved his hand over the mirror. "For now, I need you to head to the Unicorn Providence Capital. Meanwhile, I need to confirm this at the Giant Blue Hourglass."

******

Hours later, deep in a slowly darkening room, three souls were still bound to chairs. So much time had passed since Vanity's last words, and the food in front of them had long lost its fresh smell, their eyes had not left the sight of it.

Over in the far area of the room, a small crystal lay hidden from sight, yet in a big enough opening enough to see everything. It observed every detail and transmitted it to another location. On the other side of the feed was a room covered in nearly absolute darkness. For the moment, the only light was from the feed. It was too small to show much of anything and especially it couldn't reveal the one watching.

Without warning, the door flew open. Sage slowly stepped inside. "They told me you would head here next."

A pale white hand reached over and grasped into a bowl filled with eyeballs. "Yes, I am here."

"Watching them slowly turn on each other."

"Actually, no. While the sight of their growing hunger is a suitable backdrop, the genuine show is from outside." The pale hand pointed before dropping an eyeball into the sharp jaw.

It was at this moment that Sage realized... "You aren't wearing your mask?" He attempted to step closer. Opening the door had brought in more light. It still wasn't enough to show the full form of the being sitting in the room.

With the idea of the mask off, curiosity grew in Sage's mind on answers about who was leading this group. Who was using the name of a fallen king? However, under all of that was another curiosity. "Wait, what genuine show?"

"Step closer and I will tell you."

 the room was chilly before, to Sage it now felt so much colder. Doing as he was told, he walked into the room and closer to the figure covered in shadows, following his pale gesturing hand.

"What is this genuine show? Tell me?"

"Don't you hear it? It's been playing all day." The hand stopped once Sage was close enough and reached back into the bowl and pulled out another eye. "Here, enjoy."

Sage was stopped in his thoughts by the eye placed in his hand. He couldn't deny that it was the same eye of his siren ally that he had betrayed to get this close to everything.

"Eat and mourn the Lamenta."

"The..." Sage's words fell short as he stared deep into the eyeball being placed in his hand. Yes, he had eaten this siren's arm days ago, but this was different. Sage's throat tightened and finally, in pure reaction, he turned away. Holding tightly to the eyeball, he moved his hand up to his throat and pretended to chew before hiding the eyeball in his sleeve.

"That is, mourn the sounds of his Lamanta." The pale hand moved away to an object sitting on a table near the chair.

Sage looked in shock to see the object was the mask of Indigo Frost. Now he knew for sure what his words next would be. "Lamanta, whose Lamanta?"

"Don't you hear him? He's mourning as he always does. Every Winter Solstice." The pale hand gripped tightly to the skull. "That's the answer you are searching for, right?"

"What?" Sage stopped at the sight of copper-red eyes that replaced the sapphire eyes. They were staring right through his soul. "You knew what I wanted?"

"Of course. You wish to know who I am and I won't lie. Everything I did today was actually to destroy the truth. Yet, in all of it, my father's mourning still echoed through it all."

"Wait... you mean the Great Howling."

"Yes, that sound that we all hear every Winter Solstice. It is the cry of the true Indigo Frost as he mourns for his beloved." The pale hand loosened its tight grip on the mask. "But, maybe now this howling will be a joyous call of hope for his son's victory."

"You're... his..."

"I was born on the day of my mother's death." The pale hand picked up the mask and brought it to his face. "Born on the day this all began and this has decided the fate of my mission."

"Which is?"

They both stopped at the realization. The Great Howling had stopped. It all came to its close with the setting of the Sun of this day. The shortest day of the year.

And as the wendigo observed… “Don’t worry, father.”, He lifted the skull, “As by the right of taking your name and wearing your skull,” He brought the skull up to his face. “I swore you would never need to mourn for my mother ever again. So said I, the son of Indigo Frost, the new frost over the land of lies. Here to shine a brightness on their malice.” He stepped up from his chair and walked over to the monitor. “Here to bring a torch to their hatred! Here to guide their souls through the river of sin!” Turning to the light and letting it finally shine upon him. “And with the truth in hand, all things will be a reality!! That every creature, no matter the species, race, age, rank, right or position is life, is and has always had a monster deep down inside them and my mission here is to bring that monster to the surface!!”

******

Years ago, longer than any could remember, a boat approached the barely standing ruins of a castle on an island in the middle of a semi-frozen ocean. Two ponies walked out of the boat and marveled at the remains.

“So this is where it happened?” the red stallion commented.

“Indeed. From what I heard about this place,” the blue stallion answered.

“Okay, let’s see if we can find any treasure.” The red stallion ran off.

“Don’t be in such a rush. We still have plenty of time before the actual salvage crew gets here.” He pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Puffing slowly, he noted everything in sight. From the frozen and toppled watchtower to the remains of frozen corpses. “Shit, those sirens certainly gave it their all. Damn fools.”

“Jackpot!” the red stallion could hold back his shouting.

The blue stallion smirked at the sight of his friend swinging around a golden staff. Not really giving much care, he threw his cigarette to the ground and ran toward him. He should have been paying attention to the ground halfway there. He tripped and banged his leg against a broken door.

“Fuck!” The blue stallion grabbed his leg.

“What happened?” The red stallion ran back over.

“Don’t you ever see a damn thing?” He hissed in pain.

“Said the one who tripped--” the red stallion stopped at the sight of something catching his attention. “What the?”

“Did you find a golden crouch for my leg?”

“Look.” The red stallion reached over and dragged out a baby from under the rubble.

“Where did that come from?”

“I don’t know, it was laying here.” The red stallion stood up and looked closer at the baby. “Hey, do you think this is…”

“Possibly.” Annoyed that he wasn't getting any help, the blue stallion huffed and attempted to sit down. “Maybe the stories are true.”

“That queen was a whore.”

“Whether it was that or some twisted form of mind control, the proof is here right in your hands. That isn’t a siren and the mere fact you can hold it without your hands freezing proves it can’t be a true wendigo.”

“But it looks so much like one.” The red couldn’t hold back his laughter and he lightly rocked the baby up and down. “Child of a whore.”

“Whether or not she was one doesn’t matter. We are not here to decide. We are here to steal from this land. it's not like one could ever really love a monster, anyway.”

“Hmm, do you agree, little one?” The red stallion smiled at the baby. “Are you as much of a monster as your dad? The red stallion’s voice echoed with more laughter. “A monster! A freak of nature! You’re going to be as beastly as he was, aren’t you?!”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. A bastard, a killer, and a butcher.”

******