Unforgiven Winter

by Rambo

Retribution - Epilogue (Final)

4 hours after the Wendigo ceremony...

Twilight woke up from her sleep and sat straight up, gasping for breath from a sudden nightmare. "What kind of hell was that? It was... it felt so real, so vivid and alive as if though I went through all of it." she mumbled to herself. She looked around the room to see everything was in it's everyday normal state. The only noise was that of her bedroom clock ticking loudly and slowly. "Time is going by slower than usual, rough night I guess." she said slipping out of the bed carefully to be greeted by a punishing pain in her head.

She slammed right back onto the bed while she rubbed her head violently while saying ow numerous times. When the pain was at last gone, she took step by step to the door very slowly seeing as how her entire body felt weak. The door had frost growing on the outer frame. The closer Twilight got to the door, the colder she became. The lone mare's teeth were chattering and wondered if she left the door to her house open or if maybe a window was left open.

The door was cold to the touch and made Twilight's hoof go numb. She adjusted her mane before heading out and questioned the whereabouts of Spike, she didn't see him in his bed which was now larger seeing as how he's growing ever day, it's hard to miss a 5 foot dragon walking around.

Shrugging and assuming he was downstairs, she pushed open the door to see that the stairway downstairs was in pitch darkness. At the very bottom though there was light, a rather odd feature considering it was morning. Not caring and questioning it, she took step by step down the stairs without any trouble, she was all worked up for no reason.

Trotting to and fro in her house looking for Spike, she found a letter resting by her kitchen table. The unicorn served herself a glass of cider she kept in a jug before she opened the letter. The sweet taste of apple and bubbly carbonated combo soothed and relaxed her dry mouth.

While she continued to drink the last of her cider, she hovered the letter towards her and began to read it with one eye monitoring the flow of the cider and the other reading the note.

Dear Twilight,
Gone out to help Rarity with gem searching, hope you feel better and please warm up the place, it should be freezing there by now.
- Spike
P.S
I left a stack of books and notes that need to be burnt, i'll do that as soon as I get there, sorry I couldn't do them before I left, i'll do them when i come back. If there's any other things you need gone, just stack'em on top

She nearly spit out her mouthful of cider when she read about Spike BURNING books. She trotted towards the library part of her house and dived into the depths of the library. Much time has passed and with that, her house expanded at least 3 times the size as when she arrived the first day at Ponyville in order for her to store more books. Meandering through it all, she spotted a few books that she decided would be a fun read later on.

"The Guerilla Factory, I like that one. oh oh! Let's not forget to bring Of Age and Cinder, he really is just as admirable as Daring Do, to me at least. Now where are those books..." she said loudly without worrying of anyone else listening.

When she turned around a corner, she could see the very end of a rainbow tailed being go the other way, someone was in her library. "Hey wait!" she yelled, nobody turned around to answer her cal. She walked over to where she saw the rainbow tail only for the same scene to re-occur, again she saw the rainbow tail go around a corner to the left.

Rolling her eyes, she went into a sprint in her very own library after the intruder. Same scene again, the intruder was too fast but was it intelligent? Twilight sat to recover and began to thing hard on how to catch it. "Of course, why didn't I think of it earlier?" she muttered.

Twilight cast a spell on herself which was basically an exact replica of her, only thing is it acted like a robot. A security spell she found in a book, it would act as her but would patrol the library in case anyone wanted to break in to jack the house. The decoy went off sprinting towards the direction of the burglar and all that was heard was two ponies trotting all over the library. While Twilight waited for the mysterious intruder to come back around to where she was, she thought about where the books that needed to be burned could be, most likely where she usually leaves candles on tables to light the archives.

Five, ten, fifteen minutes pass until finally came a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, Rainbow Dash. Her head was turned back, hoping to see if she had lost track of the decoy which gave Twilight the perfect opportunity to tackle. With a huge accelerated slam and shout, down went Dash. Twilight looked at her in surprised and confusion, asking why she was invading her home.

Rainbow gave her a nasty snarl and look until finally she began having some sort of violent seizure. Twilight backed away and poof, she just disappeared. Twilight's pupils dilated and she began to feel uncomfortable. She shook her head and walked towards many checkpoints of the library, hoping to find the right table with the book stacked on top.

It only took around 5 minutes until she noticed the books were on the table by the fireplace, how convenient Twilight thought to herself. One by one she looked at the covers and titles trying to see why in Equestria she would want to burn a book, that's borderline insanity to Twilight. After skimming through a few and reading a few pages, she levitated the entire stacked and walked down the aisles putting them back in their right location.

On every spine of the book was a label indicating what genre they belonged in; horror, adventure, drama, romance etc. Right under the genre was another small label showing whether it was fiction or non-fiction. Halfway done with organizing the books, she felt a cold presence. lurking again the library. She never felt fear when surrounded by books but this fear was different, it wasn't the fear of what it was, it was the fear of what it wanted. Who in their right mind would want to jack a librarian?

After a few minutes the cold spine tingling presence just vanished, it was just Twilight's mind playing tricks on her. Thinking about her sleep and nightmare, the purple unicorn began to shelve the books slower and slower with the deeper her thoughts became. To stack on that, she began to question why Rainbow Dash was even spotted, why did it feel as if something was watching her, why was she so scared?

Setting the books aside on the nearest possible table she could find, she sat down and began to rub her temples. Looking down the aisle, it seemed like it had no end, it was just an endless amount of shelves with books stacked on each one. Staring down and down the abyss of books felt... strange. Was this all her life revolved around? Where was that special stallion she longed for but abandoned?

A mental barrier kept her from thinking hard of a certain black mane'd pegasus. A long silent stare, with only the crackles of the flame from the candle laying on the table she sat next to. "The books stare back at you." Twilight shrieked int he startle the voice gave her resulting in her knocking the table hard enough for the top book to fall straight on the top of her head and knocking her out.

She slowly reopened her eyes to see the large book that thumped her over the head was lying in front of her. Rubbing the small lump that formed, she sat back up and hovered the somewhat heavy book onto her lap. Dust was on the book, dust so thick the letter and cover were obscured, it's as if the book hasn't been touched in centuries. curiosity struck Twilight when she finally wiped the grime and cobweb off the book and gave a nice good blow to shake off any remainder specks of dirt and whatnot. She moved the candle lightly to the side to shine light upon the book.

She turned to see the spine of the book to see what it's category and genre was. Something was strange about the writing though. Usually the labels tagged onto the books were a black, bold, and can be clearly seen that it was written by a typewriter. As for this book, its labels were hoofwritten and it's color was a thick paste-looking red. She was careful not to touch the labels and read them instead of examining them.

Genre: Tragedy
Category: Non-fiction

There was no briefing on the back, no special patterns on it but you could easily see that pages and various other things were added to the book since many other objects poked out from all the sides. Twilight kept looking at the cover until finally her eyes grew larger after realizing what this book was. Her eyes went to a pure white stage, her gasp took her brain back all the way to the day she woke up, hoping to find that stallion laying next to her and how the events proceeded from then on.

She sat there with her eyes pure white and her head tilted downwards. She saw it all flash before her eyes, through the eyes of evil itself. She lured Kale and Syra into the cave. Syra's purple and white dual colored mane and soon her entire body was consumed by the black shadows and Kale's mane blended right in until finally the red eyes came from all directions. She could hear them both scream.

Another flashback, this time in front of Syra at the twin brother's home. "YOU BETRATED ME!" she yelled out shaking the ground. "It wasn't me!" she retorted back with tears. All at once it all came back to her, all her memories, a barrage of them came back, overflowing her mind with knowledge and evil.

"I will resurrect my kind and have your winter forgiven, a great rebirth."
"What great rebirth?"
"TWILIGHT!"
"Kale! Syra!"
"Twilight's vengeance is the bedrock of our return"
"NO!"

The last wisps she saw was the helicopter being picked up and thrown at her having her entire body bathe in the fire. She was screaming because of her failure, not because of her pain. The last words she ever heard from the two of them were words she'll never forget. "Forget about us."

After what seemed like hours she whispered to herself "I remember." slowly. The shellshocked pony stood up. On her lap was the jagged sapphire tear gem that came from Syra's very own ghostly eyes. Twilight stared at the tear stone and picked it up. Every time she rubbed it, a very good happy childhood memory would appear inside the sharp edged tearstone. She smiled at the memories happening before her eyes, bringing tears to her own eyes.

She she rubbed her hoof too much on it though, it gave her a small cute. She dropped the gem onto the opened scrap book and the picture right in front of her were Kale, Syra, and herself, all in one picture. Syra and Kale had their heads down with their heads and back turned away from Twilight while the creature in the middle was unrecognizable, it was some sort of demon. The eyes were white, fuming purple smoke, had a chipped and worn out horn, messy and violently fashioned dark magenta mane, and devilish smile to match her whole look of evil.

After closely looking at it, she realized that it was her, it's what she had become. Throughout this entire journey, Twilight did change, her mind and sanity weren't the same anymore. not after what she went through. Looking back into the reflection of the tearstone, she saw her own reflection and it matched the same demon pony of that in the scrap book picture.

She turned the tearstone around to see what exactly it was. A blue shiny gem, with a beautifully shined front and roughly textured back. Sharp edges and jagged top. On the side however were written letters. Leaning in closer she read them to herself. One must remember when killing monsters to not become a monster themselves. perching over, the thousands of memories, thoughts and nightmares from Canterlot and the cave rushed back to her like an angry swarm of bees.

"I remember... you bastards... you bastards! Y-Y-You killed them, you killed all of them!" in the rage, her eyes went back to the blank white eyes accompanied by foaming at the mouth. She began to light up her horn and teleported to the front door with gear, saddle, scarf, everything she needed to survive the harsh winter outside. Kicking the door open, her anger was silenced.

"Woah woah woah! Hold on right there cowboy, what's the rush?" a powerful force of wind launched her so far back, she knocked over a table that held the candle she needed for light in the living room area near the door. Twilight's vision was blurred for a moment but when she regained focus, right there in the living room with her was Kale and Syra standing there with smiles.

"As much as we appreciate you trying to avenge us-"
"Doing so will only make her stronger."

She didn't know what to feel anymore. She turned around to stare at the mirror. She gazed at the reflection and took a good hard look at herself. She matched the demon perfectly. The same messy dark purple mane, same white blank eyes, and same scars, especially the "X" on her left cheek. Her reflection gave her a devilish smile with her forked tongue licking her razor teeth occasionally.Soon enough in the reflection appeared Syra and Kale in their physical form. "Aren't we just the best of friends?" said the blue phantom of Syra.

Twilight smiled, happy to see the trio back together again for one last time. "Forget about us Twilight." "You had a fortunate stroke of serendipity to see us again... sadly though it won't happen again... haha, serendipity! It's all you have left! Let our words be the salient memory of the night!" Kale said loudly. While Twilight was confused at what he meant at first, she joined in the laughter of her two dead friends in one final moment of happiness.

"Sorry I couldn't be good enough for you deary, hopefully you find someone who foes match your standards." Before Twilight could even answer, the mirror began to crack loudly. First a small streak came from the top left corner, then a thick large one from the left, and finally the entire mirror began cracking piece by piece.

Kale and Syra disappeared and Twilight was left with herself. Parallel to her was the real universe, the reality she made for herself. Twilight was never happy and humble in her home, that demonic pony wasn't a reflection of herself, it really was her. When she gazed into the mirror, she merely gazing at what could have happened if she were to not be swallowed by anger. Happy with her friends still being alive, and everything ending with peace.

As the final pieces of the glass fell to the ground and smashed, the hellish purple unicorn sighed and kept staring at the shards on the ground, hundreds of small pieces a mirror of their own, each one showing Twilight. She slowly trotted away with the same saddle saddle on her back she brought to the bazaar, not regretting her actions but not enjoying them either.

Rainbow Dash was alive and well at her home. She didn't even know anything about Canterlot or so it seems. Perhaps she was hiding it hoping it was all a a bad dream and nothing more. Hours passed? More like weeks, all the re-occurring phantoms and such were just visions of what it could of been like if it weren't for Twilight anger. It's been a long time since the ceremony and for the most part the winter was actually at peace. No one knew that the season itself now had a life of its own officially.

The mirror to Twilight was just a tool where she could see into a dimension of joy and prosperity, instead though she resides in her own carved destiny having her live a life of guilt. Spike was gone hunting gems with Rarity, as a bigger dragon now, no one would dare approach a dragon.

She looked at the shattered mirror pieces one last time to see that she wasn't herself. She was the cause of the death of her friends, the death of her Bestrfriend and the only one that adored her more than anything. She blasted the piece she was staring at with a bolt of magic. Sighing as she looked out the window she packed Syra's tearstone in a sidepocket. Tightening the saddle, wearing a grey hood similar to Zecoras when she was first rejected in Ponyville, and readying her hooves with some sturdy snow boots, she opened the door to the pitch black night wondering where to go...

She looked up at the two large wendigo's that were the size of the evolved timberwolves. Both having a distinct eye color, the right one with green eyes and the left one with turquoise eyes. Shiarika and Centrillious both stood on either side of her door looking down on Twilight with a wry smile. Both shot their heads up high at the black sky and neighed out a cry of accomplishment.

Twilight looked around at her surroundings, ponyville, it was gone, there was nothing there but darkness. There was a clear narrow path ahead of her front door that led to more darkness. At the end of the path was a blue light, a light that called out to her, begging for her presence.

Aligned along both sides of the path were both wendigo's of various sizes and timberwolves. At this point, Twilight didn't know what was happening yet she did not care, all she knew was that it was time she takes responsibilities for her actions and what better time to do it than now?

She took a few steps out of her house and onto the narrow dirt path ahead of her, illuminated by the glowing eyes of the winter minions. As she began walking, everyone down the path bowed down to her excellence. "Let Centrillious, and Shiarika serve your highness, we are here to serve your highness. Our heir, our leader, our true dark and monstrous lord." Twilight continued to walk down the path staring at the blue fire ahead, no facial expression and with purple smoke still frothing from her blank white eyes.