Rainbow Dash probably had the least regrets fighting the monsters. She slowly walked around the murky forest, just looking for a way out.
"Stupid Discord. Making my fight some stupid bird. Putting me in some stupid forest." Rainbow Dash muttered.
"You know I can hear you." Discord replied.
"I don't care! I'll take on anything you throw at me, and I killed that stupid crow of yours!" Rainbow said.
"You shouldn't speak so illy of the dead. Perhaps I should pit you against something just as... cold hearted." Discord chuckled. The way he said 'cold hearted' made Rainbow Dash uneasy.
"Fine! Bring it on! I'll take anything you can throw at me!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
The pegasus heard an eerie noise behind her that made her blood chill. A sort of low, sad cry. Shivering, she turned around, and there was a white creature behind floating her. The creature had a translucent body, and a body as white as snow. The creature had two arms that hung like sleeves, and a red ribbon-like strip around its waist. The apparition had no legs, just a white cloak hovered a foot of the ground. The creature had a sort of mask-like face, showing yellow eyes against a purple skin, covered by the white.
"Well, Rainbow Dash, this is a Froslass. Time your hot-headed attitude got a little cool down, wouldn't you say?" Discord cackled.
"Ha! Piece of cake." Rainbow said, her breath condensing into a visible mist. She took off toward the Froslass, her hooves ready to ram into her opponent. Rainbow was caught off guard as she flew straight through the creature, and ran into a tree. "What the hay!?" She shouted.
The Froslass turned to her with ghastly, emotionless eyes and raised its hand. An flurry of small ice crystals appeared, and and it flung them toward Rainbow Dash. The pegasus flew high into the air, and the ice crystals grew in size as they pinned themselves in the tree that Rainbow Dash was milliseconds before.
"Alright, you wanna play rough?" Rainbow muttered, and rushed down once more. Instead of running into the Froslass, Rainbow circled around it, letting her hooves attack the Froslass with fierce blows. However, her hooves hit nothing but air, and the Froslass swiped at Rainbow Dash with a hand cloaked in dark energy.
Rainbow stumbled and rolled onto the ground, her body stinging. She looked down, but there was no wound. Rainbow attempted to stand up, until the Froslass attacked once more. A fierce blizzard wind tore through the woods, flinging drops of snow and small ice particles at high speed. The frigid gale hit Rainbow hard, but the mare stood her ground. Her eyes stung as she tried to face the Froslass, but the wind was too strong and too cold to face head on. Rainbow Dash's body grew numb, and her hooves started shaking. The Froslass's white color made it nearly invisible in the flurry of snow, so it made detection harder. Soon, Rainbow Dash couldn't feel her body any longer, and passed out from the sheer cold.
It hardly felt like any time had passed. Rainbow Dash slowly awoke from her torpid state, and realized she couldn't move.
"What happened? Where am I?" Rainbow thought. "It's so cold... I can't move!" Her limbs were locked into place, and the mare's vision was clouded by frost. She tried to shift her neck around, feeling something crack around her. She violently thrusted her head in the other direction, and the cracking intensified. With one final jerk, Rainbow's head broke free from whatever encased it.
Ice. Rainbow Dash had been frozen solid, and somehow brought into a cave carved into the side of a glacier. Giant icicles hung from the roof of the cave, and the ground was pure ice, too. All around her were other frozen creatures. Each one varying in shape, size and color. Some of them were paralyzed with expressions of fear,anger or even death, like a snapshot of their icy capture. The Froslass was nowhere to be found. If there was a time to escape, now would be it. The rest of Rainbow's body was coated with ice, but her head was free to look around.
Rainbow Dash shifted her hooves to try to break them free, but she didn't have the same leverage her neck did. Rainbow took a quick look at the ground. She then swung her head from side to side, her body rocked on her hooves. Once Rainbow got enough momentum, she threw all her weight to one side and hit the cavern floor. The impacted shattered Rainbow's icy casing, sending small chucks of ice everywhere.
Now, Rainbow needed an escape. She galloped down the cavern, where the draft was strongest. She gained some distance, but stopped short as the icicles above crumbled, blocking off the exit. The same mournful moan echoed through the cavern, frightening Rainbow once more. The Froslass appeared from the icy rubble, phasing through the blockade. Its eyes were a vengeful yellow, almost sickly with sorrow.
"Am I still fighting this thing?" Rainbow asked herself. "How am I supposed to kill it if I can't touch it?"
The Froslass let out a frightening shriek, which made Rainbow Dash sprint in the other direction. She didn't know why, but the blood-curdling wail made even Rainbow Dash's knees shake like gelatin. She kept running, past the other frozen victims, and turned every corner of the tunnel. She soon ran into the dead end of the cavern. She turned, fearing the Froslass would corner her and freeze her again. She had a feeling that this time, it would be permanent.
The frigid spirit was a small distance away from her, and the ice blocking the exit a long ways away
"Wait. At this distance..." Rainbow thought. She dropped down on her front hooves, and quickly flew down the cavern again, at break-neck speeds. She passed through the Froslass, as expected, and ricocheted of the curved walls of the ice like slides. She could tell the Froslass was right behind her, but not by much. Rainbow Dash heard several cracks as she rushed by the other frozen victims. A conical pocket of air formed at Rainbow Dash's hooves, which exploded into a violent surge of color when Rainbow Dash impacted the ice wall. Rainbow Dash tumbled by the snowy mountainside, breathing heavily as she was finally outside.
But it didn't end there. A wave of hot air blasted out of the cavern, followed by a life-like scream. Before Rainbow Dash could look inside, several other creatures rushed out of the cave, heading their own separate ways, wether by flying or running. Rainbow recognized them. They were the creatures that had also been frozen in the cave. Perhaps the pegasus's speed was enough to break them free... but the Froslass never came out of the cave.
Rainbow Dash cautiously wandered inside, when Discord spoke once more. "My, my. It seems your victory was rather... indirect."
"Wait, I won?" Rainbow Dash asked. "But how did it-"
Rainbow Dash stopped short. Laying on the floor ahead of her was a red ribbon, sitting in a puddle of water.
"You see, Froslass freeze their prey to show off in their caves. Once you freed the others, It seems like they wanted vengeance."
Rainbow Dash stopped to think, something she rarely did. Did one of those things kill the Froslass? "But... why didn't it kill me when it had the chance?"
"Beats me. I guess it was saving you for something more horrific."
"W-what makes you say that?"
"Well, there's a species similar to the Froslass. It's called a Glalie, and it eats its frozen victims. That's right. You might've been something's dinner just now." Discord said.
Rainbow Dash shuddered from the thought of being both frozen and eaten. She quickly shook the feeling. "Whatever. It's dead." Rainbow muttered.
"Wow. You really are the most heartless mare to ever face these things. Well done."
Rainbow Dash stifled a pained grunt and quickly flew out the cavern, with no destination in mind. Flying from her problems. Her follies. Her guilt.