Harried Nightmares
It was dark and cold. The wind wailed eerily in a tumultuous blizzard; covering the very earth in shimmering white flakes; vision was poor and the path was uncertain in the frozen darkness.
A filly finds herself within the heart of the blizzard, veering her crystal-like translucent gaze across the plain of snow; alone. Then she blinks and her vision is suddenly filled with the sickly color green. She felt weighted down and floaty.
The filly found herself in another location: a dull and dirty lab, confined in a glass tube. Complex machinery lay amongst the lab, and documents with scribbled-out words were scattered everywhere. The filly knew this place too well; she was a prisoner here; abducted by a cold, harsh-sounding stallion draped in white.
The filly floats over and taps the glass with a hoof. It was hard, but it could be shattered. She tried to hit it as hard as she could, but being submerged in the viscous green water caused the force of her attack to be ineffective.
She thought about using her magic to blast her way out but found she couldn't. Fearful and perplexed, the filly felt the top of her head to feel a circular object clasped tightly around her horn. A cold wave of dread whisked through her tiny body; the ring suppressed her magic.
Feeling the rising panic beginning to overwhelm her, the filly tapped as hard as she could against the glass tube; she was desperate to escape. But for all of her struggling, however, amounted to nothing, yet she did not cease trying; the filly was adamant in her frantic attempt to break free.
A flash of white caught her attention. She gazed at a blurry figure in white. It was her abductor; the stallion who took her from the orphanage to be an unwilling test subject. Instead of anger coursing through her hooves, fear ran rampant instead.
The stallion held something in his hoof: a small device with a blue button in the middle. He held a pearly-white smile as he pressed it.
At first, the filly thought nothing had happened until she saw something thin and bright flick rapidly in front of her. More and more bright thin lights flickered; the filly had to squint her eyes to stave off the bright flashes. Then, a sharp burning surged through the filly's body, causing her to shriek in agony, but no sound came no matter how hard she wailed.
Her body writhed in the vat of viscid green water, helpless to escape; her body wracked and convulsed as she flailed madly, silently hoping to be saved, but no pony came to rescue her. Her eyes bulged and were bloodshot, her white coat spiked in all directions as she begged in muted silence for the pain to cease.
The pain only mounted without relenting. She turned as her agony-stricken gaze fell onto her abductor and a surge of anger and desperation flared in them. Her horn fought against the suppression ring; it glowed with a white glare as ice formed around the glass tube, fogging the abductor's view of his wailing victim.
The white light grew and grew until it enveloped the entire lab in its magical effulgence; the ring shattered and an explosion of ice and snow erupted out of the glass tube before everything quickly turned black.
"Snowy!" called a voice. It was deep, full of concern and fear. "I'm here! Snowy, wake up!"
Snowy snapped open her crystal-like blue eyes with a shriek, lurching forward on her bed. Her heart pulsed madly as she veered her fearful gaze around fretfully and found that she was in her room. Ice and snow covered every inch of her sight; the filly was in a world of white.
"Snowy," the voice said, causing the aforementioned filly to flinch in its direction.
It was the pegasus Flash Sentry, a pony she met before departing to the Crystal Empire a week ago, shivering and covered in snow; his breath billowed out clouds of white mist. He looked frantic.
"Are you okay? Did something happen? Are you hurt?!"
Snowy stared blankly at him as if she didn't know who he was, too unsettled and horrified to respond. She looked beyond his concerned visage to notice two ponies standing in the doorway that led into her bedroom.
One pony was pink with wings and a horn; an alicorn. She held a hoof to her mouth as if she was shocked by what she saw. Another pony was a buff-looking stallion with a blue mane and white coat sharing the mare's concerned countenance.
Snowy gazed at her ice-encrusted window to faintly discern a shimmer of moonlight. It was the middle of the night.
Snowy turned sullenly to face the pegasus, aware and ashamed. "I-I'm sorry," she stammered feebly, casting a guilty glance at her frosty bed, unable to look at Flash. "I didn't mean for this to happen..."
"It was just a nightmare," Flash Sentry soothed, placing a hoof on Snowy's white mane. She felt comforted by his reassuring gesture and met his warm blue gaze. "Was it about... Were you dreaming of Professor Lander?"
Snowy nodded silently. Professor Lander was a researcher who worked for Princess Celestia. After finding out about his desire to experiment on his fellow ponies, Princess Celestia ordered his arrest which the professor fled to evade capture.
At one point, he snatched up Snowy from an orphanage to experiment on her, unknowingly forcing out the filly's unique affinity for ice magic by torturing her in a test tube he held her in for an unknown period.
It wasn't until Flare Brimstone, an agent of Princess Celestia,
was tasked to track down and bring the rogue researcher to justice and save Snowy from his ruthless experimentation. Snowy did not know what Lander had wanted as she wasn't told the reason, and she didn't want to know.
After Lander's incarceration, Snowy was given to Flare to look after until Princess Celestia decided what to do with her. It was arranged that Snowy would be in the care of the Royal Crystaller Sunburst, along with Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, and Flash Sentry, who served as her bodyguard.
"Do you...want to talk about it?" Flash Sentry had asked Snowy cautiously. "Princess Luna will be able to help with your nightmare if we ask."
Snowy shook her head quickly. She didn't want Princess Luna to get involved in her problems; she would have felt even more guilty for wasting the princess's time.
Flash rubbed the back of his mane with a hoof. "Okay. Do you want to send Flare a letter?"
"No!" Snowy yelled, causing Flash to recoil slightly at her ardent refusal. The last thing she wanted was for Flare to be bothered. Snowy both respected and loved Flare Brimstone deeply for her willingness to look after her. "I...don't want to be a bother."
Flash sighed and leaned forward, caressing Snowy's mane with his lower jaw gently. "Flare would be over here in a heartbeat for you," he whispered. "She said that you can send a letter anytime you want. You know she wouldn't mind."
Snowy relished in Flash Sentry's gentle touch. Ever since she came here a week ago, Flash had treated her well; he was patient, compassionate, and a pleasure to be around. Snowy felt safe under his watchful gaze, and she appreciated his soft demeanor whenever she was in distress.
Snowy leaned into him, taking comfort in brushing her coat against his orange fur. "I know, but I'll be fine," she murmured. "Thanks for being here, Flash..."
The pegasus smiles proudly. "It's my duty and pleasure to look after you." He turned to face Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. "She's okay," he called softly to them. "It was just a nightmare, but everything is under control now."
Cadance, though relieved, still looked worried. "Is there anything Snowy would like?" she asked her guard.
"She'll be fine," Flash answered respectfully. "Although... Snowy might have trouble falling back to sleep."
"Then you may stay with her for the night," Shining Armor suggested. "I think Snowy will find it easier to sleep with you around."
Flash Sentry saluted. "Thank you, sir."
With that, the two ponies left Flash and Snowy alone. Snowy was already feeling better with Flash by her side. She had taken to him quickly after their first meeting, and she wanted him wherever she went if he wanted of course.
"Before you sleep," Flash began, "do think you can reverse all this ice and snow?" He was shivering. "It's getting a little bit too cold..."
The next day stood Snowy outside a glassy crystal dome with Flash Sentry and Sunburst. It was constructed to harden the crystal guards to the cold of the Frozen North.
They left the Crystal Empire in the early morning and ventured precariously into the pale wastes, the frigid winds assaulting their coats as the chilling frost and ice threatening to consume them, where the dome resided; its location on a boreal hill ten minutes from the empire.
To combat such measures, Sunburst, who has been training his magical strength, produced an orange glow that enveloped him and Flash Sentry to help stave off the frigid cold. For Snowy, however, the frozen wasteland did little to affect her, if at all, allowing the filly to trudge through the never-ending winter without need of magical protection.
When Sunburst learned how tolerant Snowy was to the icy wastes, he chalked it up to her connection to ice magic. Not only did she have the unique ability to cast ice and snow, but it gave the filly a powerful resistance to extremely cold temperatures that would otherwise freeze a full-grown stallion in a matter of minutes.
Flash Sentry was concerned the entire way to the glass dome, occasionally asking if Snowy felt tired, but the filly had merely shaken her head, undaunted and unaffected by the Frozen North's chilling, and sometimes deathly, grasp.
The crystal dome was where she could practice her ice magic without any interruptions, serving as one of the main reasons she was in the Crystal Empire, to begin with.
When Snowy entered the glass dome, she gazed at a wide open space where the roof of the dome portrayed the frigid darkness outside. But she noticed it looked vacant; empty of any equipment aside from a mass of targets lying on the floor in a neat pile used for magic.
"We had the crystal guards remove everything here except for a few targets; we have the dome all to ourselves for a good while," Sunburst explained, shaking his orange pelt of any snow that clung to it. "Today will mark your first day of training. We had you stay within the empire your first week to get you used to being here. You ready to see what you can do?"
Snowy was hesitant and glanced at Flash Sentry for reassurance. Seeing him nod encouragement and settling himself on the floor, Snowy turned to Sunburst and bobbed her head. With Flash being here, Snowy felt a surge of confidence.
"Alright, good," Sunburst said happily. He directed with a hoof to the entrance of the dome. "We have a pony who can be of some assistance."
A unicorn with a lilac coat and mane with purple and teal highlights appeared at the entrance of the glass dome. She was a unicorn, her horn glowing a brilliant blue hue as light shrouded her body. When she entered, the light was gone and so was any snow that clung to her coat.
"Over here, Starlight!" Sunburst yelled excitedly. Starlight teleported next to him, almost startling the stallion. "Glad you can come on such short notice."
Starlight waved a hoof dismissively. "It's not every day I get to visit the Crystal Empire to see my friend," the mare responded merrily. "Twilight has been making me run ragged lately, and with help running the school, it's nice to be away from everything for a while. And don't worry, I got some creature to take my place while I'm gone. So... What's up?"
Sunburst gestured a hoof to Snowy who gave a meek wave at the mare. "I need your help with Snowy's training."
Starlight glanced down at Snowy and waved back with a smile. "So this is Snowy, the one Ms. Brimstone rescued two weeks ago? The one with ice magic?" Sunburst nodded. "Well, you've called the right mare for the job! What do you need me to do?"
"Levitate those targets a few feet in front of Snowy," the orange stallion instructed. While Starlight did as told, Sunburst turned his attention on Snowy. "Your magic from what I had heard is based on your emotions. If it varies in intensity depending on what you're feeling, then having control is essential for mastery; you must have focus, even in the direst of times, because if I'm assuming correctly, your ice magic can become dangerous to ponies around you."
Snowy shuddered at Sunburst's words. She remembered the time when Professor Lander pushed her so hard that her magic caused an explosion of ice in response to her torture. Another time was when Flare found her distressed in a cell, blasting the bat pony's wings and legs in frost until she was soothed by her words.
The most recent was yesterday when she had a nightmare about her torture at the hooves of that deranged professor. Snowy was worried that the next time she had another outburst it could hurt somepony, or worse.
Though fearful, Snowy was gripped by the determination to master her magic. "I understand," Snowy murmured. She gazed at a target suspended in the air by Starlight's magic, floating up and down slowly. "I'm ready!"
Sunburst nodded briskly. "Focus your magic in front of you and shoot a small blast at the target. Picture it in your mind and go for it. And since you have performed high-level magic, even without your notice, shooting a blast of magic from your horn shouldn't be too difficult," he explained. "Whenever you are ready; we have all day."
Snowy did as Sunburst instructed. She focused hard on the floating target, squinting her eyes. A bright blue glow emitted from her horn, and with a small thrust forward of her head, a blast of ice magic shot out from her horn, directly hitting the target with perfect accuracy and destroying it completely.
Flash Sentry was silent but murmurs of shock and awe came from the two older ponies as they shifted their astonished gazes on the filly. Snowy felt daunted as the silence stretched out, but then she felt Flash's tail rest comfortingly on her back and thanked him silently.
"Snowy," Sunburst began warily, "were you by chance angry or felt a negative emotion?"
Snowy was confused. She hadn't felt anything like that. "No, Mister Sunburst," she answered, her head lowering. "Did I do something wrong? I...I-I'm sorry if I did!"
Sunburst quickly shook his head as if to cast off his shocked expression. "No, no, no, you're fine, Snowy!" he assured hastily. "Normally when a unicorn feels angry, their magic can shatter objects. But your magic is amplified based on your emotions from what I understand. What did you feel before you shattered that target?"
"I felt...well, uh...determination," the filly answered quietly. Flash gently ushered the filly to continue. "When you told me that my magic can hurt ponies, I was scared and sad...but then I felt determined; I wanted to master my magic so no pony I care about will get hurt." She glanced bashfully at Flash Sentry and thought about Flare Brimstone.
"Wow," uttered Starlight Glimmer. "Twilight would have a field day with you. Your magic is pretty powerful; you're a natural, and with the right direction, you could be something amazing."
Snowy thought about what the mare said and felt a prickle of fear and excitement. If she became something amazing, then Flash and Flare would be happy and proud of her; she would be praised and congratulated.
Suddenly, her horn glowed and a giant block of ice materialized and plummeted on the floor away from everypony with a crash that rang throughout the dome.
Starlight Glimmer gaped in surprise while Sunburst and Flash went rigid with shock. Snowy gasped and looked down at her shuffling hooves. Something similar happened before she met Flash.
Snowy was having hot chocolate with Flare brimstone and the bat pony said something that made the filly blush, causing her horn to glow and summon cubes of ice that fell into her cup. Was the idea of both Flash and Flare Brimstone loving her and giving her high praise produce such a large chunk of ice?
Starlight Glimmer trotted over to the chunk of ice and warily placed a hoof onto it, only to swipe it away as a brief flash of pain lit on her face.
Sunburst rushed over. "Starlight," he cried, "are you okay?!"
Starlight gently jabbed the stallion's chest. "I'm fine, you worrywart. That block of ice isn't just cold, it's severe!" Starlight Glimmer showed Sunburst her hoof and he gasped; a small amount of frostbite had accumulated on her hoof. "It burned me," she told him, flabbergasted.
"I'm sorry!" cried Snowy, rushing over to Starlight with tears welling up in her eyes. Flash trotted up to Snowy and embraced the crying filly. "I didn't mean for this to happen. Please don't be angry with me! I'm sorry!"
Flash Sentry noticed a wind as bitter as ice beginning to form inside the dome, gradually increasing in intensity. "Snowy, calm down," he urged softly as the wind blew harshly through his coat.
Starlight was taken aback at the terror that laced Snowy's voice and the strength of her magic. "I'm not angry, you silly filly," she told Snowy, her voice as sweet as honey. She kneeled to face her directly. "I'm impressed by the potential of your magic, so don't be sad."
Slowly the wind died away and the chunk of ice suddenly broke into vanishing pieces of ice crystal, leaving the dome filled with the faint sniffling cries of Snowy.
"I think...if Snowy wants to, we can head back to the empire for today," Sunburst suggested.
Flash Sentry had a thoughtful look on his face. "That may be a good idea. Snowy is distressed," he murmured.
Starlight Glimmer huffed and shook the hoof afflicted with frostbite. "Nonsense," she protested. "We just got here!" She turned to Snowy. "Do you want to head back?"
Although Snowy did want to head back after thinking that she hurt Starlight's hoof, she was right. Snowy came here to figure out how to use her magic and use it well, and going back home after barely doing anything would only send the filly into a depressed mood. She needs to make Flare Brimstone and Flash Sentry proud of her and whining like a foal wasn't going to help.
"I...don't," Snowy whispered. She glanced at all the eyes staring down at her and fought to suppress a shudder. "I...want to control my magic and use it to help the ponies I...I love."
Flash nuzzled the filly's mane, eliciting a giggle from the recipient. "Well said, Snowy."
Sunburst gazed thoughtfully at the filly, dipping his head in assent. "Alright," he said. "We can continue since you're up for it... Let's begin with a few theories."
Starlight Glimmer lifted two targets in the air high above Snowy's head. Sunburst wanted the filly to use her magic to create a freezing wind that blew from her mouth. He told her to think of a cold wind and use her magic to conjure it from her breath.
It took a few tries but eventually Snowy was able to exhale a steady torrent of freezing breath that blasted the targets, covering them in a thin coat of icy verglas. Starlight lowered the targets to the ground and praised Snowy for showing exemplary control; she was truly a natural and quite shrewd.
At Sunburst's command, Starlight lifted six targets in a line and told Snowy to pierce all of them with her magic. At first, the filly was daunted by the task, but she glanced furtively at Flash who watched her with mingled happiness and interest, and Snowy felt reassured by his attentiveness.
Whenever Snowy hit the targets, Flash Sentry would praise her, further boosting the filly's self-confidence; it was addicting to be praised so openly and Snowy was becoming excited.
The white-coated filly charged up her horn and thrust it forward, but the movement was fueled by so much goodness that the motion became more intense than Snowy wanted, blasting out a large ray of ice that pierced through all of the targets at once, freezing them solid and causing them to explode into flittering shards of frost that descended to the glass floor.
Everypony gasped except for Snowy who was trotting in place as if her hooves were lit on fire; her excitement had bubbled over, summoning a cloud that covered the entire roof of the glass dome. A shroud of darkness was cast, plunging everything in near pitch blackness. Snow began to fall from the looming cloud; a breeze had started up, but it was gentle and hardly cold; pleasant and refreshing.
Snowy turned her gaze to Flash Sentry, barely able to see his orange coat in the chilly gloam for another sign of any praise or positive affirmation, but only an expression of worry mingled with uncertainty and bemused perplexity was what she saw.
Snowy began to worry. Why hasn't he shown any joy in her latest triumph? The only reason she was able to perform that magic was because of the praise given to her. But now when she looked at him, a gaze of ambiguity was all she saw, and that made her worry. Had she done something wrong again? Perhaps she shouldn't have gotten so happy.
"Flash... Is there something wrong?" Snowy asked the troubling question, afraid of his answer.
Flash Sentry struggled to shift his gaze to meet Snowy's as his attention was still raptured by the snow cloud looming above them.
"I think that we should be heading home for today," he told Snowy, her heart slowly beginning to plummet.
The snow cloud dissipated into nothingness as the area around the four ponies shifted back to normal.
"Did I do something wrong?" she murmured, anxiety layered in her voice. "You don't seem pleased. I... Flash, I'm sorry if I made you mad..." To her surprise, Flash had shaken his head; the filly's fears slowly began to vanish.
"It's odd." Flash Sentry watched Sunburst and Starlight speaking together in hushed whispers, occasionally glancing at Snowy. "It's really beautiful, but it's crazy too," he went on, "that such magic can create wonderful displays which hadn't been performed before."
Flash Sentry's compliments to Snowy's magic caused the filly's cheeks to blow up red; her horn casting icicles that fall around her, shattering into tiny pieces of frost and snow. Flash had done more than praise; he was enamored with her magic, and that made Snowy very elated.
The training went on for a few more hours until Snowy was showing signs of tiredness and Flash Sentry declared that she had done enough for today. Snowy watched, panting from lack of breath from all of the magic training, at Flash, Sunburst, and Starlight chatting a few feet away.
Disinterested, Snowy instead veered her head to the dark blizzard-filled sky. She was amazed at how strong she was and a little proud of her performance. She was a natural and a quick learner.
This was her first training session and she had managed to impress not only Flash Sentry but also two unicorns that were very adept with magic; she was even beginning to feel a bit more poised.
Silently reveling in her performance, Snowy stiffened, her ears suddenly pricked. There was a noise, but it was faint. It sounded like a husky whisper of a stallion saying something next to her, but when Snowy looked around the glass dome, there was no such stallion.
Slightly anxious yet suspicious, Snowy closed her eyes and focused on the odd whisper, blocking out Flash, Sunburst, and Starlight's words.
She listened and listened for the noise until...there it was! The gravelly voice was murmuring something, but it was still too indistinct to make out. But one thing was for sure: the voice was calling out to grab her attention.
"What are you trying to say?" Snowy whispered hoarsely, trying not to alert the other ponies. "I can hear you, but you sound too far away. Where are you? Show me..."
The voice drifted from one place to another, to here and there, back and forth, side to side as if it couldn't figure out how to stop. Snowy continued to listen, her head moving in the direction she thought the voice called. She kept hardening her focus, using the full extent of her hearing to pinpoint the voice's exact location.
There!
The voice was there and Snowy could hear it albeit vaguely, but it was enough for her to hear what the voice was saying.
"You there," the voice whispered, its reverberatingly husky tone ghostly and cold, sending chills down Snowy's back. "Can you hear me? You there..."
Heart racing, Snowy says, "Yes, yes, I can hear you. Who are you? What are you?"
The voice didn't respond for a few seconds. "Something... A shade; a shadow. But I'm different... I feel something has gone wrong. Something. Something."
"What do you mean?" Snowy asked.
"I am not supposed to be here," the voice answered, its tone troubled. "Something went wrong but I do not remember. I feel different somehow. Vastly different."
"Well, what was the last thing that happened to you? Maybe that could help," Snowy had suggested, feeling somewhat sad for the voice.
"There was this light, a blinding light overtaking my vision," the voice started, its troubled tone straining and agitated. "There was screaming and then the sound of something shattering until darkness shrouded my sight. I'm not supposed to be here..."
Catching her breath, Snowy says, "Are you a ghost?"
"No," the voice answered with such conviction that it could not be wrong. "Something should have happened, something to help me, but whatever happened between before and now is muddled."
The voice went silent and Snowy had to desperately strain her ears again to find it again.
"I am bound...here. Wait... That's not entirely true. I latched onto something."
Snowy was confused. Whatever this thing is has problems remembering the past. "What are you talking about?"
"I believe that somehow, some way, I am bound in magical manacles, to you," the voice explained, almost making Snowy gasp. "I am different from before. I am unable to recollect the past. Perhaps while I am shackled to you, I may gather what I have lost. What is your name?"
Though daunted by what she heard, Snowy answered. "I am...Snowy. What's your name?"
"I am..." The voice had paused, struggling to answer.
"How about I call you Darkan?" Snowy suggested. "Just until you remember your real name."
"Very well, that will suffice," Darkan said, sounding relieved.
Before Snowy could say anything else, her eyes shot open by Flash Sentry tugging on her coat.
"Huh?! What?!"
Flash Sentry chuckled, nuzzling Snowy's cheek with his muzzle, causing her to blush. "I said that we are heading back to the empire. You must be tired; you can rest on my back."
Again, before Snowy could say anything she was hoisted onto Flash Sentry's back with the help of Starlight while Sunburst cleaned the training area. Though she wanted to protest at first, Snowy was reminded how comfortable riding on Flash's back was, so she bit back her complaint.
Unfortunately, Snowy couldn't hear Darkan anymore; she was too unfocused, but she knew that it was bound to her somehow, so she knew that they'd talk again soon. For now, it was back to the castle.