The Northern Tundra Seas. A majestic sight to behold for mortal eyes. Crystalline waters, peppered ever so lightly with platforms of fragile thin ice and shimmering burgs, topped with lush banks of snow. Assortments of sparkling arctic fish drifted gracefully through the ebbs and flows like fireflies to the night. Harmony would not begin to describe this grand piece of nature. Irony, however, would gladly step in as the hideous giant white frog monster known as Bael propelled off a cliff side and cascaded against the placid waters. The belly flop that caused this scene cracked several ancient burgs, irreversibly damaging the environmental beauty.
This was none of his concern though. Beauty is such a cheap, physical thing. Merely desire for the eyes. It would normally get one injured or worse, and wasn't much good for anything else. He should know. He had used beauty as a weapon to lure unsuspecting prey over for lunch on a few occasions. No, if anything, it was what lied beyond the lovely waters that piqued his interest. It was a smell. A certain smelly smell that he hadn't encountered in years. Not that it was hard to come by. His tastes were just normally much higher, especially after being posted at the mortal world for so long, dining on exquisite human meat. Current circumstances forbade him from complaining about his loss.
A school of the shimmering little morsels passed by his red eyes, oblivious to their impending doom. Bael wasted no time, and snapped them up in his maw like a whale would. Their taste was still as bland as ever. He didn't care for it, but it was considerably better than any equine. He thanked Argosax for that fact.
After an hour of swimming after fish and gobbling what he could, he was finally satisfied... for a few days at least. He could eat more, but he'd save it for later. One would never know exactly what they could find in a strange new world, horse dominated or not. It was the first turn of events that he was moderately pleased with, after such a terrible time. With that, he decided to just enjoy the frigged waters while he could. After all, he wasn't in any rush to return to his makeshift hovel and potentially encounter those things again.
His eyes wandered, and he noticed something below that stood out from the rest of the blue around him. Deep and black as shadow, but solid as any piece of ice around him. The formation presented, however, was the most intriguing. It reminded him of one of the spires of that castle he made a home of in the humans' world. He wasn't stationed there for too long, but he remembered that castle like the back of his tongue. Well, almost. While he knew most of the inner workings of his former home, he'd confess he was never able to get into the towers.
Curiosity wormed its way into his mind as he stared at the sparkling, crystalline, and foreboding black tower submerged down here. Bael licked his teeth in anticipation before he paddled his way down the depths to get closer. As he did, he realized the tower was MUCH larger than the one at his former home. Whatever it was for, it must have housed something HUGE. The frosty toad wasted no more time, and swam as fast as he could up to it.
Within a moment, he found himself at an entrance large enough (and close enough) for him to swim though. He gazed around on the inside, and noticed the black tapestries decorated in what appeared to be a throne room. How quaint. Shadow demons are more subtle than this, Bael scoffed inwardly. He was about to depart the tower when something else caught is waning interest.
Behind the tacky, black, spiked crystal throne, upon a sinister looking pedestal, sat a large lump of black crystal in the shape of a heart. Or at least, the basic shape that symbolizes a heart anyway, and not the grotesque real one. There was something about it though. Something in there that made a soft, quiet voice in the back of the toad's mind tell him, Get away from it!
Almost immediately though, that fragile little voice was swallowed by an overwhelming conviction to defy that notion. He approached cautiously, the sparkle of the crystal reflected in his eyes. He was too close now to defend himself.
Red sparks jumped off the crystal, and a sudden band of red energy tethered itself to Bael. A white hot pain shot through his cold body as the energy band kept connected between him and the black heart. Bael attempted to get away, but something was preventing him. His body wouldn't respond. The heart in front of him began to spin, slowly at first, but quickly gained speed, almost as if it were producing more energy. His own heart quickened for the first time in his life to that once unknown idea as he gazed helplessly at the wicked crystal.
Then, he heard it. A voice, both soft and commanding. Both welcoming and foreboding. Not very deep, but very, VERY dark.
"Ah~" The dark voice sighed, resonating in his mind. "Finally. Thou art a being as black hearted as Us. We cannot give thanks enough for thine noble sacrifice. Now, relinquish thy will, so We may take what We rightfully deserve."
Bael fought back as hard as he could, trying desperately to push this invading force out of him. "How- How DARE you!" the toad bellowed in frustration, "Do you know what you are dealing with?! I am the Lord of the Frozen Soil! A demon General from the depths of the Underworld! No pathetic-" He grunted in strain, "- petty-". He grunted again, "- evil spirit will command me!"
A soft chuckle resonated in his mind, "Thou art strong. Excellent. Rest your mind, beast. We have won."
Bael kept fighting, but he found it harder to move, harder to think. As painful as it was to admit, as it was to experience, the voice was absolutely right. As the great toads eyes began to close and his body sunk to the floor of the room, he felt the tower he intruded on begin to shake.
"We have finally returned..."
-o-v-o-v-o-v-o-v-o-
Cadance and Twilight sat next to each other in the dining room, sipping crystal rosebud tea, after having a decent meal not too long ago. Fluttershy chose her place at the window side, overlooking the north end of the Empire, towards the tundra they just came back from. Fluttershy sighed against the glass, with a look of forlorn worry in her eyes.
"I do hope the little guy is ok," she muttered.
Twilight, having just caught that comment, turned to her friend. "I'm sure the - 'little guy' - is fine, Fluttershy. Don't worry about it."
"But what if something happened?" she asked, turning to her dear friend, "I couldn't forgive myself if the poor thing hurt itself."
"The thing is more than half the size of this room!" The word 'room' echoed around the dining hall walls, which was large enough to hold at least a few hundred ponies. "I think that alone makes it more than qualified to take care of itself."
"Oh... ok. I hope you're right," she sighed, defeated.
Twilight turned back around to face Cadance. There was a slight disapproving look in the crystal princess' eye. "Perhaps you were speaking a bit too harshly to Fluttershy, Twilight?"
The Element of Magic sighed to the comment in remorse. "I know Cadance. I'll apologize to her later, bur right now, I'm just a bit stressed. Especially after seeing it first hand."
Cadance nodded, "It must have been quite an ordeal."
Twilight put her cup down gently. "Cadance," she started, inquisitively, "are you sure that thing is connected to the energy surge? I was able to feel a build up of magic coming from that creature, but nothing that would register as anything catastrophic."
"I'm not quite sure, but we would be better safe than sorry. Which means we should try to keep tabs on it as often as possible. Well, when it comes back."
"Fluttershy is positive it will. I don't know for sure, but I'll trust her judgement on this. She's better at working with wild animals anyway."
"I doubt that it really is a wild animal though, with what you and Shining have told me." Cadance leaned back, sipping her tea gently. "A massive, sentient frog. Equestria has never seen an amphibian such as this. Dragons were the only other creature out there at that size that are capable of speech and complex thought patterns, and they came a long way since they first started."
"Indeed. From what I've read," Twilight looked out the window as she spoke, "Amphibians, like frogs, haven't gone through any major evolutionary changes in the last 1000 years or so, like dragons have. This... thing, is beyond anything in recorded science or magic. It's impossible."
"And yet, there it was, and here we are."
Twilight slumped in her chair, and rubbed her temples with her hooves. "Let's talk about something else," Cadance suggested with a smile, "What about that energy surge. Do you have any idea what it might be, or what it might have done."
The young unicorn shook her head, "I'm sorry Cadance. I don't really know much more about it than you do... But, I have to confess something. I believe I might have felt it too, only maybe less so than you. I really didn't think much about it because Spike told me that it might just be gas from that iffy flower I ate yesterday. Then again, that's his excuse for everything..."
"You felt it too?" Shining Armor exclaimed, as he walked into the dining room to join his sister and beloved.
"Yes I did, but just barely. Wait, you felt it also?"
"No. Cadance just kept telling me about it. I didn't really believe her at first, but after seeing that thing, I'm ready to believe anything right now." He shrugged as he trotted up and took a seat beside Cadance. "Hold on. How come you two could feel it, and I couldn't?"
Both mares remained silent, unsure looks upon their faces.
"Whatever the source is, and whatever properties the surge had, it has to be tremendously powerful." Twilight concluded. "Magic like that is unreal, and either it created this creature or..." she pauses as she looks out the same window Fluttershy was looking out of. "Or, it was pulled into our world."
Cadance leaned in towards Twilight, asking, "You don't think it really came from somewhere outside of Equestria, do you?"
"That theory is starting to make more sense, though. It is something we've never seen before, and it talked about wanting to eat something called a hyoo-man, whatever that is." Twilight's hoof pawed her chin gently in deep thought. "Furthermore, we have no idea what it's capable of. Fluttershy was just barely able to keep it under control. If it ever got hostile, we would be in serious trouble."
"How could you say that?" the shy pegasus accused, "He's not hostile. He's just a lost and lonely little tadpole that needs to be shown a little kindness, and a welcoming home."
"Fluttershy," was all Twilight was able to say before the tower began to quake. And, as quickly as it came, it ended. "What the hay was that?!"
Cadance felt a deathly shiver crawl up her spine, as her mind flooded with memories. Her eyes became pinpricks of horror, as she immediately fled the dining room, heading for the observation room. Wordlessly, the others followed her, and found her looking through the telescope.
"Cadance, what's wrong?"
"No..." the Crystal Princess uttered, "that's impossible..."
"What's impossible?" Twilight asked in worry. Cadance stepped back while her sister in law approached the telescope. Far off to the north west, a sinister looking black crystal tower rose from the waters. It was now Twilight's turn to panic. "But... but that was just an old mare's tale..."
"Not anymore... The Shadow Tower has returned. Sombra's old castle, before he took over the Crystal Empire the first time. But how did it come back? It needed a powerful enough dark magic to summon, and Sombra is long gone."
There was a low boom in the distance, and something shot out of the top of the tower. It sailed through the air for a few moments, and began to steadily get closer to the city as it descended.
"It's coming right for us!" Shining exclaimed in a sudden surge of fear as he hugs his wife close.
The object in question struck the barrier and easily passed through it, falling once again and landing right in the town center. The four ponies looked over the balcony, and gazed upon what just hit them. To their utter shock and horror, it was the giant white frog. It was here, in the city... and groaning in discomfort.
"Oh no!" Fluttershy exclaimed as she bolted out of the room and down the tower.
"Fluttershy, wait!" Twilight called after and pursued her friend, with Cadance in tow.
"Don't go out!" Shining Armor commanded in futility, "It might be danger- Oh forget it." He chased after them.
Outside, the three mares and stallion stood before the identified flying object, which sparked with black and red energy. A crowd, had already gathered around it, kept back by the crystal guard to let the two royals and elements go unhindered. Fluttershy approached it cautiously, and spoke to it, "Uhm... Mr. Frog? Are you alright?"
The giant ice toad shook out his daze, and opened its pitch black eyes. It smiled darkly, making the four feel uneasy. There was a low chuckle, and different voice came from the monster's mouth. "We are feeling absolutely perfect, my little ponies..."
Cadance's expression melted to horror as she remembered the name that owned that voice. "S-Sombra?"