//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: OC Backstory 
// by tazdarkstripe13 
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CHAPTER 2
A MISPLACED ALICORN


The newborn colt breathed in his first gasp of air and instantly started crying. The air he breathed was freezing and was sharp as it went down his throat. Most foals first breathed warm air but this one hadn't been born in a hospital. He was lying on the ground, which was made of ice. All around him he saw strange things. They were big and looked like big spikes, but they were also made of ice. They each had an archway in them. In one of the spikes, he saw some furs hanging on a wall and covering the ground. Most of them were white but there were some blue ones and grey ones here and there. There was nothing else in it that the colt could see, so he quickly lost interest and looked at himself. His coat was a pure black and he had what looked like tentacles sticking out of his back, but they were too hard to be. They didn't bend in the slightest. He felt his head and felt a small spike there in the small clump of hair that was on top of his head. Now that he knew his own body, he lost interest in that, too. It was at this moment that he noticed ponies were starting to come out of the spikes. He looked at them as they cautiously advanced towards him. They all had white coats which were VERY thick. One of them, a rather large stallion, snapped at the colt, who just looked at the stallion. He snapped again, speaking in a very guttural and hoarse voice as he made strange sounds in a foreign language. The colt just looked at him, then giggled. He tried to stand but tumbled and fell face-first on the hard ice. The colt began to cry. The large stallion snapped something at the rest of the ponies and several drew strange blades; they were axes, but half of it was a scythe. As they advanced towards the crying colt, a mare walked in front of them. She stood facing the four stallions who had drawn their weapons and told them something in the same language the large stallion had spoken in. They paused until one of them replied, to which the mare snapped something. The ponies glanced at each other, then withdrew. The mare turned and enveloped the colt in a green magical aura. The colt just looked at her with big eyes. They were a bright, stark blue and the pupils were similar to that of a dragon.
The unicorn carried him to one of the spikes and set him down on one of the furs. It was extremely soft and the colt snuggled in the fur. The mare said something in the foreign language, prompting a blank look. She said something else, in a different language this time. This got another blank look. She sighed and looked around. Then she walked back with a picture. It was of 2 alicorns; one was a dark blue stallion with an ocean-blue mane and eyes while the other was a pale blue mare with a yellow mane. He didn't know why, but the colt felt an overwhelming sadness when he saw this picture. He instantly began crying, the tears flowing freely. The mare smiled and put the picture away.
“I thought so,” She said with a very distinct accent. The colt just continued crying but he was too young to understand speech. “I'll make sure you stay alive. You are but a colt, yet I predict large things in your future, young one. You shall never meet those who spawned you yet you will travel the land and kill more ponies than anypony in history. Your name... is Vindictus Vulnere.”

50 YEARS LATER

Vindictus swung the pickaxe for the last time that day. He'd been working on the spire since two days ago and had gotten no sleep. He didn't mind, he didn't get a lot of sleep anyway. His spire was of average size, not as big as others but not the smallest in the village. The colt had grown slightly and the so-called tentacles on his back had begun to grow some skin between them, so he now knew they were wings. When he would be able to use them, he didn't know. He didn't really care if he could use them or not, he was fine with walking. There was nowhere for him to go, anyway. This village was his life. It was all he knew and he wasn't sure he wanted to leave it. His mother had apparently saved his life when he was first born. Well, he called her his mother but according to her, he had just appeared in the middle of the village from thin air. She had decided to take him in and raise him as her own. He knew he was different from everypony here. They all had thick, bright coats. His was thin and black. And everyone else were either ice ponies or pegasi whereas he was an alicorn. Many had wanted to cut off the small spike on his head but his mother had stopped them.
That had been centuries ago. How he was now alone and had to fight off the ponies almost every day. He'd seen other newcomers come and go but the villagers had always greeted them warmly and built them a spire. Vindictus had to carve his own. Everyone else shared their food, he had to hunt and farm on his own. Also, he had gotten a taste for meat. That combined with his never-changing age, his horn and his colour made him somewhat of an outlaw in this village. There was, however, one pony who the colt liked. His name was Uguns Amur and he was the blacksmith of the village, which had now grown into a town. He had arrived a few years ago and Vindictus had instantly taken a liking to him. The way he raised the hammer and brought it crashing down, sending sparks everywhere and making the metal sing in its high-pitched voice.
At this moment, he made his way to the sound of the hammer and watched Uguns for a while.
“You've grown,” The blacksmith said, dipping the white-hot blade he was pounding in a bucket of black liquid. It steamed and hissed for a while before he left it in and went to pour some of the molten metal into a mould.
“No, I haven't,” Vindictus replied with a chuckle. The both spoke in the hoarse, guttural language of the north. It had taken less time than everyone had expected for Vindictus to start talking.
Uguns chuckled. “Aye, maybe you haven't.” He looked at the colt. “Why do you always come here?” He asked. “You can't come here for a talk as you know I'm a busy pony. What is your reason?”
Vindictus looked up at the stallion towering above him. “I want to do what you do,” He replied. “I want to make the metal sing, I want to turn a bunch of ores into a sword, I want to create the strongest weapons ever!” He expected Uguns to laugh, to say he was crazy and go back to working on his home. Instead, the blacksmith walked forward and around Vindictus.
“You work a lot?” he asked.
“It's all I can do,”
“What kind of work?”
“Hunting, building new spires, the usual,”
“And how long have you been doing it?”
“About two hundred and fifty years...”
Uguns nodded. “Do you think you can lift the hammer?”
Vindictus walked over to the anvil where the large hammer was and put a hoof on it. He lifted the large object. It was heavier than he thought and it dropped to the ground. He was still holding it so he lifted it again, his muscles straining from the exertion. He lifted it with one hoof and put it back on the anvil before letting go and panting. Uguns was laughing.
“Well, you can lift the thing. A few more weeks and you might be able to hammer the metal flat.”
“You think so?” Vindictus felt a bubble of excitement rise in his chest but it was instantly burst at the sound of a loud voice.
“UGUNS!” The chief stormed in. “WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?”
The blacksmith looked at the large stallion.
“Chief?” He asked. “What do you mean?”
“Because of you, the wyrms are attacking!” He thundered. “We have less than ten minutes to-” He's cut short by an explosion of ice. They were all thrown back and Vindictus crashed against a wall of the large spire. He yelped in pain and fell to the ground. He looked up weakly and saw Uguns draw a large sword. It was a claymore, at least two meters in length and it looked extremely sharp. The explosion had been caused by a huge creature that looked vaguely familiar to the colt but he couldn't place it. It looked like a large, furry white pillar with splotches of grey and light blue. There was a roar and another explosion from outside. Ponies screamed and ran for shelter, even though they knew it would make no difference.
Uguns roared and ran forward. He swung the sword at the pillar and it cut through the fur like a knife through snow. A dark red liquid gushed out, splattering everything. There was a high-pitched shriek and the pillar collapsed, crushing half the spire as what looked like organs spilled from the cut. The smithy picked up Vindictus and ran outside, where there were several large holes in the ground. Even more ponies were lying dead or dying, most pinned to walls and the ground by long shards of ice, their blood a stark red against the blue of the ice. Uguns ran past the holes in a random direction. They passed several stallions running in the opposite direction, weapons in hoof and armour on. The screams and sobs of the dying and fleeing were mingled with both the roars of the Frost Wyrms as they emerged from the ice and the yells of the ponies as they tried to fight the serpentine creatures. The blacksmith and the colt ran out of the village, passing the 2 tall towers that marked the entrance to it. As they did, one of the wyrms exploded from the ice right in front of them and one of the shards made a deep gash in Vindictus' side which drew a cry of pain from him. The creature roared and dived back down. Uguns dived out of the way first and the cot dived a second later, but slightly too late. He didn't jump far enough and he fell down the tunnel the Wyrm had created. He screamed as he fell, fear grasping his heart and causing him to flail his arms as he fell into the dark abyss. Uguns shouted his name but knew he couldn't help. He sighed and stood before running away again. There was nothing he could do now. As he ran, he thought about the great things that pony could have achieved. He had been five hundred years old, yet he was still a colt. Even so, that colt was as strong as most stallions in their prime and even most of those stallions had trouble lifting his hammer. There might be a chance the colt had lived. He'd gotten beaten a lot at the village but had never backed down. Vindictus was an angry colt. He'd never looked for a fight but never backed down from one, either. He was only a young colt and even though he was strong, numbers and size often overpowered him, leaving him broken and bloody on the ice. Even then he always fought back to his hooves and continued fighting. A normal foal would have died long ago but Vindictus was not a regular colt. Uguns sighed and continued walking, the claymore strapped to his back.


Vindictus landed on his right wing and heard it snap instantly. He screamed in pain and the sound echoed through the tunnel to be answered by nopony. He whimpered in pain but slapped himself. Now was not the time for tears. He pushed the pain aside and pushed himself to his hooves, then looked around.
“Hello?” He called only to be answered by his echo. He started walking, surrounded by an eerie blue glow of the ice all around him. The sides were impossibly smooth and were partially transparent, revealing skeletons and objects that had long since been frozen in the ice. The colt looked around, all his senses on high alert. He heard scratching and scraping every now and then but stopped noticing them after a while. They must be from other tunnels connected to this one. That was when he stopped. What if this was a huge tunnel system? Would there be a way to the surface? If so, would he be able to find it? He asked themselves these questions but he found no answers, so he just continued walking. He knew this was a Frost Wyrm tunnel. After all, it had been one of those things that had gotten him down here. He still had to see one, though. It would be interesting to see what they looked like up close, even if it would only be for a few seconds before he died. But he'd always been daring like that. The only source of meat was the smaller creatures like the Reiks and the chimeras. Their flesh was very tough, but once cooked right it was delicious.
Vindictus' mouth began to water at the thought of it and his stomach rumbled. He suddenly realized that he hadn't eaten in days. He looked around but found nothing, so he put his hunger aside with his pain and continued walking. After a while, he arrived in a huge cavern. He looked up and saw that it led to the sky. As the walls went up, there were holes in them that were very smooth around the edges. The walls themselves were jagged and looked like they would be easy to climb. Just as he was about to begin, he heard an all too familiar roar and dived behind a large chunk of ice.
A Frost Wyrm had appeared from one of the holes in the walls and was roaring at another Wyrm. This one was keeping quiet and trying to get away but the bigger one kept on forcing it back. As the bigger one continued to roar in the smaller one's face, it began to get louder and more ferocious.
The big one's fur was a shade darker than the smaller one and had more grey and blue patches. Its teeth were too big for its mouth and stuck out from its lips at regular intervals. When it roared, the mouth opened wide enough to swallow at least eight stallions whole. The scales on its head were stark white and it had several scars where the scales had been torn out.
The small one was light grey and half the big one's size. It didn't have as many blue or grey patches and only the tip of its primary fang was visible when its mouth was closed. It stayed silent as it got roared at by the older one and kept its head down.
Vindictus watched the whole scene and felt tempted to attack the older one. He knew what it was like to have his elders toss him around like a disposable object, to be treated worse than the ice and the snow. But he wasn't ready to die. Not just yet. He kept on watching the scene and kept to himself. That is, until the older Wyrm wrapped its jaws around the smaller one and crushed it in half. Vindictus continued to stay silent but was now standing in plain sight. The large Wyrm turned and roared at him spittle flying everywhere and blood staining its teeth and lips. It started moving towards Vindictus, not bothering to go fast. The colt was way smaller than the serpentine creature and wouldn't get far should he decide to run. The colt took a step forward and his hoof hit something hard. He looked down and saw an icicle, long and sharp. He wrapped his hoof around it and held it up, knowing he was going to die but he didn't care. He'd seen too many young ponies and creatures die. Everywhere he went he saw an ice wolf kill a small learg. He saws young colts and fillies die from the cold. He saw young stallions killed in bar fights and muggings. He didn't want to deal with it anymore. He would die here, trying his best to kill a Frost Wyrm with an icicle.
Vindictus Vulnere closed his eyes, took a deep breath and stabbed the icicle upwards.