//------------------------------// // Chapter 5.5: The Lands Lost To Frost // Story: I Will Be Your Villainess // by Darkevony //------------------------------// A creature barely the size of a grain of rice slowly, methodically weaved its intricate web up upon a dark and moody corner of my room. Its art was meticulous, constantly turning circles and circles across its razor thin scaffolding, creating an almost mesmerizingly beautiful display of ghost white threads shimmering with a blue luster from the coursing magic imbued into it. Like a scrying glass, an image was shown to me of a far away place within that hexagonal shape. Instant communication was a rare and seldom used art, even in the magical Equestria. And yet these tiny little guys had managed it for ages. In Mary's world, technology had progressed to the point that it permeated the very air using satellite communication. Any and all information could be obtained and transmitted in a near instant all across her world. Before the advent of the satellite, however, there was telecommunication. Phones connected via a vast array of cables and transformers the world over, changing the face of human development, and human warfare, forever. It cannot be understated how powerful information can be, especially when you can obtain and transmit it in instants. And now I had an information conglomerate thanks to my small friends who had their own system in play with their magical threads, much like the telecommunication of Mary's world. With their help, I was able to find out more about Sanctuary and its Sisters before I had ever set a hoof within its halls. The first thing I realized about Sanctuary was the distinctly unnatural weather surrounding it. Peering through the eyes of my many friends when I was still within Equestria, I could see a veil of violent snow swirling around that tiny monastery almost as if it resided within a blizzard hurricane. I always figured that Twilight knew about it before ever sending me to the monastery, since the guards that escorted me to it were powerful unicorns in their own right who used their magic to create protective bubbles strong enough to pierce through it. I half suspected she thought that would make a fine enough barrier to dissuade me from leaving Sanctuary at all. No one would've suspected, or yet suspects, that I have tamed the beast that was creating that blizzard to begin with. Yuki was the one behind that swirling mass of magic that encircled the monastery. She'd been called to it due to the intense negativity exuding from the Sisters within, feasting on their blistering hot hatred and contempt for the world. And at night, their feelings seemed to grow that much stronger evident by Yuki's snowstorm gaining in strength. The sisters themselves were reluctant to speak of it. Their ills where their own, being bottled up and left to fester. Even without the help of my tiny friends, I could easily hazard a guess as to what afflicted them simply by keeping awake at night to hear their shrill shrieks and tormented wallows. Their dreams were a hotbed for anguish, turned to nightmares by both a strong foreign magic and their own madness from years of suffering to the hands of it. It didn't take a genius to know what the cause of them were. Tantabi, the only other beings tuned enough to the magics that could affect dreams. Now it made sense that I had seen Luna and Celestia's amongst the new league villains. They'd been left to feast upon a hapless Equestria for who knows how long. The strange part about this whole equation that I couldn't seem to understand was how they had gone unnoticed as long as they did. Mary knew of Luna's plights due to her knowledge of the show, and in our youth, she had even catalogued and planned for it in a calendar of hers. Every episode, every event, down to as much detail as she could remember. It was all in order to save me. Strangely, Luna's Tantabus event never played out like it did in the show of her world. None of the main six mares, Twilight and her friends, spoke of it. No one in Ponyville seemed to know anything about it either, despite the whole town being involved in that fiasco originally. That day came and went with sound dreams and no more mention of magical apparitions. I myself had almost forgotten that Tantabi could even exist until I saw them in the new league of villains next to Silver Spoon and was starkly reminded of them again by the sisters of the abbey who lived constantly tormented by dark dreams and misty nightmares almost as if they were cursed. But it was no curse. Mary's blessing, our shared knowledge, came through again and I was able to put remedies to the test thanks to that. It took a lot of trial and error, enough to set me back a few weeks, but I found a fix for the Sisters’ Tantabi problem. Magical wards of sorts. I needed to conjure items with large enough radiuses of effect to bubble the whole of Sanctuary with veils that could ward off foreign magic. If not singularly powerful items, I needed many much smaller ones to have a similar effect. And this is where the start of my problems began in Sanctuary, and why it took me months to conquer my first hold out. Items that could output the kind of magic I needed to project are rare. Horribly so, especially in the middle of a snowy nowhere like the abbey. It would take nothing short of a relic-grade artifact in order to withstand my magic for any longer than a few hours, since the output needed to be strong enough to drive back Tantabi of all things. Not just any Tantabi, but those of the royal sisters. Always easier said than done. Those two had lived long enough and faced so many difficult challenges in their lives as to fester a deep and resentful emotion now in corporeal form. Fighting against those things, then empowered by their years of harnessing strength from other's troubled dreams, was no easy feat. My solution arrived to me in the form of Yona, who had brought a bouquet of flowers with her to Yakyakistan the first time I saw her after so long. My rapport with Berry had progressed to the point that I was finally able to step outside of the monastery for once so long as I was doing so for the purposes of improving and aiding it. That meant that she settled on me quite a large list of items to procure. She was likely still salty about how I tried to gain equal footing with her authority by ousting her history as Tempest Shadow, forcing her to acknowledge me and build a relationship with me out of necessity and compromise. She probably didn't believe I could even make it past the snowstorm and would turn back around as soon as the opportunity arose. That was, until I returned that same day hours later with everything she wanted and half scared out of her mind that I might have perished within that veil of snow. On my second outing, I met with Yona. I'll spare you the story of our reunion, as it was just a lot of emotional Yak hugging. Which you can just imagine that it felt like the equivalent of being trampled over by a steam roller. She'd already been there a couple of days celebrating Yickslurbertfest and decorating her logs with flowers before smashing them to bits. Sounds strange? Well, Yaks work in strange ways. But it's not like they're completely alien. I can empathize with them, and I understand the therapeutic nature of violent smashing. I had done a lot of it for magical practice myself. In Yona's case, I think spending more time with Rarity opened her eyes to the aesthetic sense of things before wanting to smash them to bits. It's sorta like breaking a really beautiful vase compared to a plain and normal one. It's the same thing, but why is smashing the prettier one better? Yes... Smashing pretty things... Yona and I are definitely very alike. Oh what I wouldn't give to get my hoof on that pretty little grey pony. But I digress. Yona's whole act of smashing those logs with the flowers in tow gave me the perfect idea. Why focus on trying to find an artifact strong enough to withstand my magic, when I can just use something far more expendable and easy to replace? Better yet, organic livings things like flowers were better conduits for magic than most metals and would last through a few days if imbued. I hadn't entertained the thought before simply because expending a living thing for my purposes sounded macabre, but I doubt any pony would find doubt in using plants for it. So with the conduit figured out, I now needed to find a good way to get a steady source of flowers and a way to fill Sanctuary with them without seeming too far-fetched as to arise suspicion. My more immediate problem of trying to source my flowers ended up being more difficult than I first imagined, since the snowstorm had a way of shredding them to bits when passing through it. I had not obtained Yuki's trust at that point, and so I had no way to stop the storm from undoing my plans. Not only that, if by some miracle I was able to protect hundreds of different bouquets through the snowstorm, enough to protect the twenty Sisters and Abbess Berry within for weeks on end, my supply would run short before I had to make the trek again and my constant outings would, again, rouse suspicion. Another suspicion arouser? Why flowers? Surely the sisters and the Abbess would have something to say about it. They were not very welcoming to changes in their environment, despite their environment being so bleak and dreary. Partly due to them being so high-strung and emotionally unstable. So my reason had to be as good as any could get. That's when I realized that I could just grow them once I was in Sanctuary, since protecting seeds through the storm was loads easier and more plausible for me to do. It doubled down that carrying bags of seeds yielded more flowers due to their compact nature, so that meant less rounds outside of Sanctuary for me. I also defaulted on lavender flowers once I was in discussions with Mother Berry about what I wanted to do with them. I hadn't thought of my excuse very well by that point since I was scrambling to set everything else up in my head, so when Berry pushed back against my idea, I fell on the first excuse that popped into my mind. Luna used to line lavender in the halls of Canterlot castle for her guests so that they could sleep better. What better way to hide what you're doing than to hide it with itself? Hiding in plain sight, or so one would call it. None of the sisters would suspect that the lavender was not the reason why their dreams were improving, since they were all the superstitious sorts who had heard of their placebo properties before. The problem then became actually growing them... Berry was right. Keeping anything like flowers out in those stormy tundras was practically impossible. Growing them turned out to be no issue. But perhaps it's still too soon to talk of how I went about in doing that. Keeping them alive on the other hoof long enough to do their purpose in those blistering cold hallways? An impossible task, even for me. I needed to get the temperature under control. That meant having to face the winter spirit head on. Facing Yuki... Well, I think my hyper focused anger and hatred was actually a disadvantage in that confrontation. I bore Yuki no ill-will. She wasn't even part of the three Windigos that were floating about the new League of Villains, so I could not get myself to hate her even an inch. That stayed true even as her powerful, ethereal figure trotted over to me with a fearsome fire in its eyes. They scanned me thoroughly, looking for any signs of malice. And while she did manage to find it, it was surrounded by a softness. To her, it must have felt like being insulted down to the very core of her being. The fight that ensued was born of her own anger at seeing this from me. Our battle lasted hours, with our magic tearing the surrounding landscape apart. I had enough foresight to plan for this eventuality so I made sure to stay faraway from Sanctuary when I did finally face Yuki. A great thing too, as I could not imagine the monastery or even the snowy hill it was parked on surviving that onslaught. Yuki was odd, even for the other Windigo. Her power was immense, far surpassing the legends of Windigos past. Her sheer size was that much more enormous to compensate, and could likely tower over Celestia and Twilight with ease. She was left to feast upon the abbey's malice for a near decade considering Sanctuary's creation and first admittance of its special sisters. But that alone could not explain the sheer difference in power and scale from her. Her ghostly coat bore more intricate designs as the lines that traced her body curled on endlessly, creating a beautiful tapestry of her body. Her mane was both beautiful to behold and incredibly unnerving, since it far surpassed that of normal Windigo in both length and majesty. When she was idle and calm, her mane neatly flowed like clouds behind her. When angered, it stood at end like whips and encircled the entire sky like a massive flying kraken. If I could straighten it out when she was calm, her mane would be able to touch the floor and extend several meters out in every direction. Suffice it to say, like most things when it came to conquering Sanctuary, facing her was no simple task. And even after several hours of dodging and countering her attacks, I still could not get myself to hate her. How can you hate something so inherently beautiful? Something so innocent to the plight of ponykind... And that's when it hit me. At the same time she dropped a massive iceberg on top of me having created it from vacuuming the nearby snow all around us, I had my realization of how I could come to hate Yuki truly. She was standing in my way. Innocent or not, she was impeding my revenge. Working against it. Keeping me from my ultimate goal. Stopping me from doing right by Mary... That tiny thought eked out a miniscule bit of my pent up contempt. But it was enough to force Yuki to kneel and to melt that massive slab of ice she’d called down on me. She could harness the power of the sun for all I cared, and even that would not burn nearly as hot as my anger. But a testament to her power, she remained defiant even as she was unable to move from where she'd been forcibly knelt, making every effort to break free. It wasn't until I started moving towards her that she finally stiffened up. The more I saw of her churlish behavior, the angrier I became. With every step closer I got, the more complacent and docile she became. Now not even a hoof-length's away and standing above her, with head bowed to the floor, I witnessed her body shiver for a moment. Was it possible to give an ice spirit a cold chill? Apparently so. All it took was an even colder, crueler, more intense emotion. Something so dark, it should remain in darkness forever. A thought to end her existence, there and then. But watching her bow in reverence and fear of me, and remembering what Mary would've wanted of me, I faltered. It made me rethink what I was about to do. If I'd have stomped Yuki out for good there despite her intrinsically evil nature by Equestria's standards, I truly would've become the villainess that Silver Spoon wanted of me, not the one that Mary did. No pony would have bat even an eyelash if I had done it. I likely would have been recognized as the hero of the Frozen North for doing so. My status and my image would have gained significantly because of it. Magical apparitions like Windigos weren't alive, not in the conventional sense. There really was no moral quandry to ponder. No one to throw me blame. And everything to gain. Mary had changed me in ways I never imagined possible for someone to do. I questioned the very nature of what would be considered evil. I wondered whom was worthy of second chances. And in those questions, I found my answer in Mary's actions towards me. I spared Yuki ultimately. In turn, she became fiercely loyal to my hatred. And it wasn't difficult to train her to do all that I required, as she was eager to follow through and could understand commands easily when using the ancient language of unicorn sages of times long past. A language that needed magic in the voice in order to speak, as it was used to hide, invoke, and perform their derelict, old spells. Another trick that Mary had gifted the both of us, as her intense magic study led her to learning all of that bygone babble. Gaining the trust of Sanctuary after that had it's own fair share of difficulties, all of which I've overcome. It took the wisdom, spirituality, and the benevolence that Mary taught me in order to be triumphant. Because as it turned out, mental and emotional troubles are that much more difficult than whatever magic and might can try to match with. Each mare was her own bag of mental worms that the Tantabi had preyed upon and made that much worse. And the closer I became to each mare, the harder it would then become, because I found myself being their singular beacon in life. They shed their simple grounded comforts they'd found in Sanctuary, and found their purpose in my warmth. In pleasing me, or being next to me. More than once, I felt the drain of a parasocial relationship grow roots in my friendships with the girls of the Abbey. Obsession was no stranger to the Sisters. Anxiety and defeatism, close buddies. Depression and those deeper and darker feelings? Looming over each horizon, ready to blot out their sun. Like lost lambs, with Mary's blessing, I guided each to their own peace of mind. I helped one find her worth in life, by convincing her that she needed to not focus her sole outlook in relationships alone. That she needed to love herself first, before she could honestly love another. And after several days of trying and soul searching, she was finally able to do just that. Another Sister felt like life was too cruel and ugly to keep on living a normal life, and that Sanctuary was the place where she would live the rest of her life in. She never once bore thoughts of leaving or improving it, as she'd given up on everything in general. Her struggle with depression had lasted over a decade, as she was one of the oldest sisters there. And it took a lot to convince her otherwise. With candied words and a confidence that could not be matched, I assured her of the beauty in the world. I took her outside the monastery by force and showed her the great ranges that lead up to Mount Everhoof. I taught her new skills that even she could master and help Sanctuary with. And lastly, what finally inspired her were my spider friends. She was the first soul that I introduced them to, since I knew that she would find heart in seeing their plight and struggle, yet living on voraciously despite that. All it took was a matter of shifting her perspective and to see that she wasn't alone in that kind of struggle. Myrtle, funny enough, was one of the few mares I had the most trouble convincing to like me. She held anger strongly in her heart. Lots and lots of anger. Happiness, love, and even sadness were all replaced by anger. Any quiet moment to herself, she'd default to thinking negatively of others. Any chance she'd get, she'd spread her anger in order to relieve herself of some of it. The sisters who did not spend their time habitually depressed and unmotivated were instead moved to anger by Myrtle's whispers and lies. She almost single-hoofedly created an incredibly toxic environment for all the Sisters in the abbey just with her words. I say almost, because Mother Berry certainly wasn't helping, as she didn't know how to interact with any of them beyond scolding them harshly like she had her hedgehog underlings. And that certainly caused a lot of friction with Myrtle and the rest of the sisters who spread this malice to any of the Sisters willing. The key to Myrtle was not in ridding her of her anger. With her, I taught her the only thing that I, Tiara, could say that I had solely created and used myself to work on my own anger. Mary didn't hold even an ounce of that anger in her heart, so it was up to me to teach her my ways. And they're not something you can simply teach overnight. It takes a lot of stressful, hurtful, and emotionally tasking soul-searching in order to achieve. And that method came in the way of redirecting her anger. Finding more practical and more benign uses for it. At first, we tried to find reprieve in violence by smashing things, like how that Yaks tended to do so. But that was quickly untenable and unfeasible, and it did not seem to improve Myrtle's mindset one bit. Then we tried getting her to channel her anger onto someone else entirely. An enemy she truly hated, like I did. But strangely, Myrtle did not hate anyone. She was filled with anger for the world, but no hate. In fact, this caused her even more distress, because no one was more aware of what she was causing than herself. The thing that ultimately worked for Myrtle was in redirecting her anger towards herself, strange as that sounds. That was an incredibly risky move on our part, as she could've gone from the extreme of anger to the extreme of depression. The worse of the two evils. It was a method that I left as last resort, and was thus pressed against the wall when everything else failed. In all honesty, I panicked so much for Myrtle. I felt helpless to help her, and I was feeling like I would lose someone all over again. But thankfully, that final solution worked for her. In redirecting her anger towards herself, she finally found the willpower in that anger to change herself for the better. Everytime she found she'd begin to speak ill of others, she'd get angry with what she was doing and forcibly stop herself. Everytime she'd encounter bad thoughts, again it would give her the strength nessecary to change. Eventually her anger subsided as she learned to temper it and control it now that it had weakened from constant positive reinforcement. Getting on the good side of twenty one troubled mares was rough. It was a wonder how anyone had ever managed it before. But someone actually had done it once before. And it was that someone that had tied many of the Sisters to Sanctuary in the first place. Of the information I gathered with the help of my spiders, the old Mother Superior was the one with the most secrets. Tera Amare was her name... Commonly reported as an aged, all-white pegasus with a yellow mane. Stranger yet, some reported and remembered her as a unicorn. An earth pony? Perhaps a shapeshifter like a changeling or using some form of magic then, as none of their accounts line-up with each other as she seemingly had a different form for each of the Sisters and for anyone who knew of her. The one undeniable constant was that no matter what form everyone reported of her, they always mentioned the cloth around her eyes that seemed to suggest she was blind. The original Abbess, whatever she was, was many things to all of the sisters, even to Mother Berry. From every single account I'd gathered, she was a shining example of the kind of pony I was hoping to become. Her dominion over the hearts of everyone still held strong to this day, and the sisters could often be heard still lamenting the Monastery's loss over her. On many occasions, I was often the shoulder they cried to when they would begin to miss her. So strong was her influence, that during the transitional moments when she was training Berrytwist for her new role and could no longer be called "Mother Superior" due to her officially stepping down from it, the sisters instead took to calling her Grandmother out of respect and love. The only one who refused to call her anything different was Berry herself. None had more love for the Abbess than her, and had tried to emulate her so much, she eventually became Grandmother's first pick when it came time to choose the next Abbess. The Storm King had abandoned his conquest partway through, likely from his understanding of the future and having joined Silver Spoon's league of villains. His aims never met Equestria, and so Twilight never had to step in to defeat him. And yet, somehow, as if the show had met at an impasse and it needed to continue on, Equestria still faced a similar issue almost to a down to the exact detail. Twilight still found herself heading to Mount Aris on a quest to obtain aid from the Hippogriffs. And she still ended up having to face a villain who had stolen the Alicorn's powers using the The Staff of Sacanas. Except the one who filled the Storm King's role was none other than Tempest Shadow, Mother Berry herself. She personally led a secret attack against Equestria using only a handful of fleets she had commandeered and stolen from The Storm King with the help of the hedgehogs who were still loyal to her due to her much more aggressive nature when compared to that of the original show that depicted her. So the fact that she was solely responsible for the assault against Equestria's Alicorns ended up having worse consequences for Berry. Thankfully for her, this issue never reached the public's ears. The assault did not take place during The Friendship Festival since Berry had already long been fired and disbarred from her position in The Storm King's military, and so her attack was done in a more secluded area far later. She was also lucky that the ones she had tried to cast down were Twilight and her friends. Of course they would give her the option of redemption if possible. After being inevitably defeated, Twilight gave her the opportunity to repent at Sanctuary, and although fiercely reluctant at first that redemption would ever find her anywhere, she did end up finding it in the end. She found it within Abbess Tera's forgiveness and love. She found it in the old Mother's almost supernatural way of sensing and cleansing turmoil in the heart. She found it in the way Grandmother used to speak of family and unity in a way none had ever managed to convince Berry that they mattered. So in some strange twist of irony, Berry's refusal to call her anything else but Mother ended up being very apt in the end. With Tera stepping down from the title to give it to Berry who was now the Mother Superior to all the sisters, and with the sisters taking to call her Grandmother, it all just fell into place like a rather poetic set of events that were always meant to be somehow. By all accounts, that blind mare was one huge mystery. No matter who I talked to, no matter how much information I gleamed from my spider friends, and no matter where I searched in Equestria for her, she remains completely illusive. I would have wanted to get to know her and understand her secrets if I could, but she seems to have vanished with most of them. Note, I said 'most of them', because some still yet remain. When I first arrived at Sanctuary, Grandmother had already been long gone. Yet, as if waiting for me all along, in the stillness of my private room nestled and tucked into a hidden corner was a letter addressed to no one, but clearly meant for someone. It was hard to read since the letters were sloppy as if written solely by memory. And they were tilted from the page at an angle slanted across its page, as if the one who wrote it could not see the dimensions on its surface. A blinded unicorn using magic would have likely yielded the same results. No doubt, this was the work of Abbess Tera. That letter turned out to be a story. A very relevant story to my goals. Almost uncannily so. That letter is the single reason why I've taken such a deep interest in Tera Amare, since it feels as if she knew of me long before I had ever been a whisper in the air. Long before I was ever unjustly exiled. And long before I had even been possessed... I understand it's impossible and that there's no real evidence to suggest that she did. But for me to be the first and only one to find this letter was no coincidence. Here, maybe you'll agree. The letter read as so, beginning with a short limerick: I am sure that you've heard this story before. And I'm positive that you've heard many versions of it too. Hundreds of different stories passed down now like tales of yore. So fickle and finnicky when told orally and said to be 'true'. That is just the truth about life. We tend to forget, we tend to ignore, The feelings and memories that now seem so far away. We toss, we turn, we struggle and strive to live for tomorrow. That's why yesterday can seem so muddy, so distant, and so grey. So do not fret over what has been lost and listen to this tale of sorrow. This is one of the many stories of kingdoms lost to pony kind, divided in race, divided in rule. Of a long gone weathered land frosted over by cruel magic, and where the Alicorn Amulet got its jewel. Fimbulpur once told me a sad tale of the three kingdoms past. I was too young to know of them, as my parents were already in the midst of fleeing south before I was of conscionable age. He mentioned that they were likely seeking refuge in the lands beyond Mount Everhoof since the three kingdoms had already long been in steady decline. The Windigos had now taken strong root upon the land, showering it with massive sheets of snow which made the land barren and inhospitable. Reaching no unified consensus, the three pony races all came to the same conclusion once the situation had gotten too dire for all of them now that food ran scarce. Their answer was to abandon their lands in search of newer one, untouched by the snow white fury of the Windigos. Like many ponies in those times, my parents met their end in the Great Migration due to the gruesome trek and its many dangers. Somehow spared of it all and orphaned as a result, I was adopted as a foal by the Sage of Fate himself. He gave me eyes to replace the ones I'd lost. He taught me the value in family, even when not connected by blood, soil, soul, or world. He told me many stories of the lands now called Equestria, and of places I'd never be able to see. Of the stories he told, my mind often drifted onto one of them. The fall of the three kingdoms. The rise of the Windigos. And of the terrible weapons, armors, and artifacts of war that were left to haunt their pedestals like ancient automaton batteries. Fimbul spoke of them grimly, as he mentioned that most of those items had been made with ill-intent and had absorbed the lingering souls of the fallen who could not make the journey to the now Equestria. Their contempt against the gods for abandoning them gave birth to the unholy mixture of magical metal which housed thousands of ailing spirits, with strengths and properties sometimes so outlandishly impossible, they were the stuff of myth and legend. But myth they are not, for if anyone knows the truth of things, it's Fimbul. He mentions three relics in particular. A sword, an armor, and an amulet. Each the symbols of the three kingdoms. The Pegasi were a warrior culture who were often the protectors of the land, even from mother nature herself. So a sword of unparalleled sharpness was created to do just that. The kind that could rend even the heavens. Now the souls that lay within sharpen it endlessly to this day, making sure that it will always be ready to cut down the gods at a moment's notice. The Earth ponies were cultivators, metal workers, and carpenters. What they lacked in magic and fighting ability, they made up in ingenuity, tenacity, and sheer craftsmanship. So for them, an immovable plate of armor was created to bolster their already impressive physical durability. Now the souls that lay within continue to temper, harden, and steel it further should it ever have to face the wrath of gods. Finally, the Unicorns. A fragile race who made up their many weaknesses by focusing on the powers of the almighty Lady Magic. But despite their major advantage, they cannot call on her aid indefinitely. To stand equal footing with the other two races, they were tasked in focusing their best sages to control the shifting of celestial bodies. With their arrogance and pride bolstered by centuries of performing this sacred all-important duty, they grew complacent of their patron and were shamed countless times in their failure to do so consistently. But noble ponies like the Unicorns would not take that shame lying down. They aimed to create the greatest of the ancient relics. An artifact of incredible power, the kind that would allow a single unicorn to control the Sun, Moon, and Stars on their own. The Alicorn Amulet. It took nearly a century to make. Each miniscule indentation added to its magic adaptability. Each careful edge to its efficiency. And finally, it was the jewel at its center, a kind of gem that could only be found once in a world's lifetime, that was the engine and beating heart of this almighty artifact. Truly, it was a conduit unlike any other. Even an ordinary Earth pony could use it to manifest their latent magic for more than strengthening their muscles. A foal could take hold of it and raise the sun and moon with ease with only their tiny magic capacity, such was the fearsome nature of this artifact. It did not add to the wielder's magic, no. But it made using magic of any kind a microscopic cost of its original price. It was equivalent of being attuned to a particular kind of magic ten times over. Thankfully, the Unicorns of that time were level headed enough to understand that such a relic should have never been birthed to begin with. One realization of what it could do made them scramble to hide it from existence itself. But we cannot fault them, so says Fimbul. As they could not know that the more you try to hide something, the harder it is to keep it hidden. When word inevitably reached the two pony kingdoms of its creation, they were outraged. "You did not think to tell us of this artifact?!" Yelled the Chancellor. "When we created ours, we swore upon that transparency and we kept our end of the bargain. Tell me then, what reason have you to lie against our goodwill?" "What would you even do with such power! Wield it against your neighbors!? Why else keep it secret!" Stormed the Commander. "This is nothing less than a declaration. The first act of war!" It was then the Windigos appeared. They'd already been a long part of the world's history, and finally found their opportunity to feast upon this momentary seize of deadlock. The two rulers were ready to cut down the immediate threat before them in their haste to protect their own, and the windows just outside were frosting over with the tension in the room. But thankfully, it was King Bullion's wisdom that calmed the situation then. "Please! I know you're upset. But I cannot undo what I've done as the amulet is far too strong to be destroy now by normal means. It far exceeded what we were hoping to create, in that, you must hear it as truth. So I urge you, you should listen to my pleas and understand our plight. My fellow regents, for the sake of our kingdoms, you must hear my words." Silence at last. King Bullion, while a doting father to his newborn at the worst of times, was a fantastic King at the best of them. "I ordered the creation of the amulet not for the sake of my Kingdom, but for all our kingdoms. You will know I speak the truth by its very design." Carefully, he uncovered the cloth upon which the amulet sat on its velvet cushion. There, the striking, unthinkable, unimaginable image of the races combined resided. A golden trinket with a beautiful blue gem at its center. Long had the races dreamed to be any one other race than their own. The grass always seemed a little greener on the other side of one's hooves, so it seemed. Yet never did they think to be all of them at once. If a singular symbol could unite the races together, than this was surely it. An Alicorn. It inspired the image of divinity, such was the effect that it seemed to have. The Unicorns had created the amulet to wield godly power, in essence. The Unicorn's plight was simple. They had created the amulet for a singular purpose. To lighten the burden of having to raise the cosmos everyday. The kind of magic needed to do so when not attuned to it was incredibly harmful and tasking to the many individuals who performed the ritual, and often the unicorns were left to apologize to other kingdoms for having failed in their task time and again. For more than just their vanity and pride being on the line, raising the sun and moon consistently allowed crops to yield higher results and make more predictable and manageable weather for the Pegasi to fight against. There were no end to the benefits that control over the stars meant for all of ponykind and even the other sentients races beyond them. And for a while, none had an objection to this proposal as it truly did benefit all. The use of the amulet, by the accord of the three kingdoms, was heavily regulated and required the agreement of the three regents in order to be wielded for any other purpose. The balance had been made. But the balance had been broken upon the decline of King Bullion's health, years later. Long was one winter with terrible illness abound, and the King was no exception. While not out of the count entirely, his ailing body could not do what a King's duty required of him. In his place, his daughter was left to take on the crown and throne in the name of her father and her fellow unicorns. And while she'd been raised with the ideas of nobility in her heart and serving the greater good, unfortunately, she was still too young for the role of a leader. Level-headed at the best of times, emotional at the worst. And from here, I think we all know the tales. The worst was coming to pass. It was a gradual build up to how things got. It started with Princess Platinum's authority being questioned, and whether she had good intentions to use the amulet for the sake of the three kingdoms or not. The other two races demanded that the amulet should be relinquished for the sake of giving them peace of mind that she would not abuse its powers. The Unicorn's pride shaken once more and especially that of young Platinum, the Unicorns bit back with accusations of the other races being insignificant, bolstered by the idea that the amulet could grant them the power to protect themselves and their world all on their own. Long had the Pegasi protected everyone's borders at the risk of their own lives, and were rightly insulted from their inner depths. Would the Unicorns just undo the work of all the Pegasi who had given life and limb for the sake of their lasting peace? But that's the truth of things you see. We tend to forget, we tend to ignore. When you're facing even one level of separation from the past, it then becomes harder to understand what sacrifices had been made, and what they must have meant to the living. Unfortunately, Platinum's generation could not see it. In a similar vein, the Earth ponies, being the lifeblood of the three races by working year round the hard labor to cultivate their foods and create their weapons, armors, and tools, were rightly insulted too. Magic could never replace the careful work that they do. Slowly, surely, the three kingdoms fell to the increasing differences in view. But it wasn’t until one particular moment that the Windigos who were standing watch in the sky patiently waiting for their time, finally got their chance to strike. The last straw. The Alicorn Amulet had been stolen. The accusations between the regents and even the citizens became horribly ugly, and they led to the kind of deeply rooted hatred that could give a Windigo the wind to her breath. And from there, you know the story. The Great Migration. Fimbul says that the Amulet has had many hooves, claws, and hands posses it by now, as it has been traded and shifted amongst owners faster than one could bat an eye over the millennia since it was stolen. It remained largely unused. Why would an all-powerful artifact like that be untouched? Like any other relic of immense power, it too absorbed the souls of the fallen. It journeyed with the ponies outside of the three kingdoms, and preyed upon the souls that fell during their travels. It reached new lands, and preyed upon the souls who fell to establish it. And it has been feasting ever since, in lands vibrant with life. So many it has consumed over the years, it is said that its once golden luster has become pitch black with the souls’ malice. It's vibrantly deep-sea blue gem has become dark red with their anger. And the Alicorn that depicted it has become sinister to show the hatred that rests within. One look, and it was imagined to be cursed. Contrary to what you might think, even if the ponies initially sought the amulet for power, they would think twice before setting it around their own necks. Such was the unnerving effect it seemed to have. Only a few dared to wear it for their own gains, and they were each met with disaster. The souls within were now the amulet's own magical fuel. A pool of unimaginable amounts of magic, bigger than the Celestial Sea and Luna Ocean combined. We can imagine that, that kind of power was something that not many could handle. And those that could, found the soul's presence within to be a corrupting influence that eventually led its wielders to ruin. With the amulet amassing stories of everything awful over its time in Equestria, its cursed nature became widely known. And yet even then, it passed through hooves like water through a river. If the ponies of today knew the truth of how magical relics were made, they would be appalled. Most don't even question how they've come to be. They understand them to be rare, but they assume they are made through careful craftsmanship. These new age folk don't ask themselves why they don't see more relic smiths roaming around. They don't wonder why their regents don't just create new ones for every day use if they are so powerful and potent. They have dozens upon dozens of layers of separations from the times in which those relics were birthed, so it's understandable that knowledge of them has been lost or safe-guarded in the most secure libraries. If they knew, however, they would likely call for them to be destroyed. Such things were an affront and an insult to all that is good in Equestria. Call me an old fool, but I know that the one who will get to read this letter of mine will be much wiser than the ponies of today. They will be the only one to know that such perceptions of things are not truthfully so black and white. They will have a hunger in the heart to do right by this world, and will understand the true and tragic nature of such relics. Should the world be threatened by someone ready to wield the Alicorn Amulet to it's utmost, Fimbul and I know that they will be the ones to cast it down. So to you, readers of mine, heed my words. Find the relics of yesterday... and let the souls within find peaceful rest. I do not request this in part of Fate. I do so at my own personal discretion. Because I am one of the last few in this world with no degree of separation from them. For me, if for no one else, let my parents find rest at final last. I'm sorry, Grandmother Tera. I cannot promise something like that. For all we know, I may not even be your prophesized hero. The one you speak of was likely Mary, who had that love in her heart to see past all of that evil in order to peer at the beauty within. I know myself. I KNOW myself. I know I can’t be the one to fulfill your request. Please forgive me. I wish she were around to hear my words. I wish I could've spoken to her once. What I wouldn't give... At the very least, my future has direction thanks to her guiding words. I know what I must do, and what I must obtain. I will venture past Mount Everhoof and further deep, deep within the Frozen North lands. I will make that same trek in where many ponies failed to make the travel across those dangerous planes. And I will reach the lands lost to frost, the resting place of the ruins to the three kingdoms of pony kind. Only a few more days now before Berry returns from having convicted the Marquis, and having spoken to Twilight about my leave. No matter what the answer is, I will have to depart Sanctuary sooner or later, perhaps even for good if it is an answer not in my favor. But it is nessecary. If I am to go against Fate and the rest of the gods, I will do so with equipment that will see my plans through to the end. If I must fight, I will do so with kindred spirits.