//------------------------------// // 97. Notes from the past // Story: Rebirth of the Damned // by Borsuq //------------------------------// WINDIGOS Documented by: Clover the Clever   Before everything else, I would like to thank two ponies who made it possible for me to write this work. First is my old mentor, Star Swirl the Bearded, the former Archmage of Unicolt. Not only because he was the first one to properly research the old legends of ponykind, but also because if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be the pony that I am today. The second pony is my friend and fellow Founder of Equestria, Commander Hurricane. The tales of the windigos he heard during his time as a griffon’s slave shed a lot of light on what they really are. I suppose I should be also thankful to the Commander for his insistence during our firsts couple of Council meetings, where we tried to unify the laws of the three tribes into one, that the mares need to hold the same rights as stallions. Without those rights, I wouldn’t be able to publish this work. He even went as far as threatening my king and few unicorn nobles when they began to openly ignore his arguments and tried to move on to a different subject.     Star Swirl the Bearded once told me that all tales of the past, be it myths or legends, have at the very least a small seed of truth in them. This had been proven time and time again during this last couple of years, as not only I’ve seen the windigos myself, but north of our new country lies the Crystal Empire, home of the crystal ponies; and deep in the seas of our west shore lies Aquastria, the kingdom of the sea ponies. I wouldn’t be surprised if next would show up alicorns or draconequuses, but let’s leave those for another time. In most of those old legends, windigos are portrayed simply as parasitic, pony-like spirits that feed on the hatred from living beings, and multiply it. They also bring about snowstorms and blizzards, destroying the land around those whose hatred they consume. Those legends used to be fairly known, but in the thousands of years since the three tribes last saw a single windigo, they became forgotten. That’s why, when they returned, nopony had realised it was them. As to what exactly they were, Star Swirl assumed they could be a some sort of manifestation of our world’s magic, or a side effect of a spell somepony once cast, that now made windigos appear whenever there was hatred. However, my old mentor told me that if the latter was the case, then the spellcaster would have to be somepony extremely powerful, as creating a magical construct alone is really difficult when it’s intended. To have them appear by themselves, around the world no less, and due to a side effect… I recall I once asked, if his assumption was true, then what would the pony that cast the spell tried to attempt. Star Swirl replied that we could never be sure, but his best guess was that he might have tried to rid himself or herself of hatred. He then proceeded to theorise that maybe windigos are apparition of that pony’s hatred. In light of what I myself experienced, I would have to say that Star Swirl’s theory was right. Back when we, the Founders, were trapped in a cave and windigos were about to freeze me, Private Pansy and Smart Cookie (having already frozen Princess Platinum, Commander Hurricane and Chancellor Puddinghead), our three’s inner magic reacted to our friendship, and accumulated in my horn, banishing the windigos, and gradually healing our new-found land. However, the sudden magic surge allowed me for a brief moment the sense windigos’ residue of sentience, which theoretically should be possible in the event of them being remains of somepony’s emotions. So I began to think that my old mentor was right… until I talked with Commander Hurricane. He told me the legends of griffons about them. Apparently, before the Snowfeather tribe came to live near the Pegasi Armada’s territory, they and the other tribes of griffons all lived in one land far away in the south. But then the windigos came, and did to them what they did to us: changed their land into a snow covered wasteland. The griffons run away, each tribe to their own. This story wouldn’t bring much into my findings, if it weren’t for one little fact. In the stories Commander Hurricane heard, the windigos had shapes of griffons, not ponies. At first, I had assumed that he must have misheard the griffons, or had simply confused some facts. But he stood by what he said. One of the things I quickly came to learn about Commander Hurricane was that if he wasn’t certain of something, he was not afraid of admitting it. So then I began to think that maybe it was the other way around - that the griffons made a mistake. After all, those events in the legends must have taken place a good thousand years ago. It would be easy to imagine that the story had changed over time. It would be also possible that the griffons deliberately passed on a changed version of the legend, simply because of their griffon pride. When I asked Hurricane what he thought about the latter - as he has, without a doubt, much more experience with them and with how they think than me - he pondered for a moment, and admitted that it could be possible. He told me that the griffons might not have wanted their descendants to think that something pony-shaped made them abandon their old home. I interrupted him then, curious if it wouldn’t make more sense for them to keep the windigos with ponies’ shape, to justify their constant attacks on Pegasi Armada. The Commander, however, chuckled warmly, and replied that for all my knowledge and wisdom, I know little of how warriors think. For the moment, the mystery behind why the legends of ponies and griffons differ seemed solved. But it wasn’t long after the Commander and I had this discussion that I something begun to puzzle me. The windigos came once the relationships between our three tribes grew worse, which happened gradually over the last decades. However, it wasn’t until a generation ago that we began to openly hate each other, and the temperature in our land began to fall. But, in contrast to this… the pegasi and griffons hated each other’s guts ever since the griffons arrived, and with much more passionate hatred than there ever was between the tribes. Why, then, did the windigos hadn’t struck them? All of Star Swirl’s research on the old legends, all his hypothesis about the windigos, all his theories about their nature… all of this lead to my assumption that they should had wrought a terrible blizzard across Pegasi Armada’s and Snowfeather’s territory over nine hundred years ago. But that didn’t happen. The mystery behind, the differences between ponies’ and griffons’ version of the legends… I needed to solve them. Which wasn’t easy, remember, we had to move to another land for all three of our tribes. There was a limit as to how many things we could bring, and as such, a lot of old books, scroll and documents were left behind. This includes, much to my dismay, some of my old mentors’ belongings that I somehow overlooked. And the other two tribes brought even less old documents than the unicorns. So I couldn’t simply shut myself in a library and read everything I could. Luckily, I more or less had already read every legend known to the unicorns. As for the legends of the two other tribes, I had to search for ponies that know them. It wasn’t easy. At the point when I began my research  it was only two years after Equestria was founded, and while relations between our three kinds grew gradually better, the old ones (who would know the most about what I was searching for) had problems letting go of old grudges. Pegasi don’t have much elders amongst their ranks, as they usually die on a battlefield. Those few that were lucky to survive various battles in their life to the point when they could retire were rather… cranky, and stubborn. They didn’t want to talk to me at the beginning, and the fact that I was friends with their Commander wasn’t going to help me. Hurricane wasn’t their leader before they retired, and they continued to see him as an upstart, due to his young for a Commander age. But over time, they warmed up to me, and shared with me what little they know. Of course, pegasi prefer to tell the legends of their warriors’ heroics, but they kept in their memories some stories about windigos. Earth ponies’ elders weren’t much easier to get along with. Ever since that unfortunate incident with the love poison six hundred years ago, which made them dethrone their last king and invent democracy (for which I will make no comments here, out of fear of offending anypony), all earth ponies began to perceive unicorns as snob. The Battle of Eastin, for which King Golden was the one most responsible, didn’t help to ease those assumptions. Luckily, Chancellor Puddinghead was very respected among the elderly, so when he helped me with gathering information, my research moved on. And unexpectedly, thanks to one tale, I finally found my answers. It a sad tale of a pony that had everything… a loving family, wealth and fortune… and it was all taken from him by a cruel twist of fate. His wife and kids died to a disease, and his house burned to the ground. He survived, but was now without anything. And nopony would help him. He built a shack in the nearby woods, spending the rest of his life there, hating everypony. For having more luck, for having all that he had lost, for not helping him… his heart grow cold. And when death finally came for him, after many years, with his last breath he cursed everypony that wronged him, whatever they really did or he had just imagined it. His ghost was full of hatred, and it embraced the coldness of vengeance. He buried the small town where he was born beneath the snow and ice. When I heard this story, it all started to make sense to me. I realized that my old mentor’s assumption was wrong, although if he had access to the other tribe’s legends, he would no doubt come to the same conclusion as I had. Windigos are ghosts of those who died hating their own kind, and by feeding upon the hatred of others, their cold hearts manifest their power in the land around them. I guess those windigos that brought that blizzard over on our old homes must have been ponies that especially hated other tribes, or perhaps even died due to our petty quarrels. Their souls, unable in life to escape their hatred were trapped in the mortal plane, bounded forever to feed upon hatred of others. Fortunately, the Fire of Friendship must have freed them, seeing as they left for good. I know that I have no real proof to justify my theory, but that would require capturing at least one windigo to examine it, but this would be highly dangerous and borderline impossible. But, based on what I know about necromancy, the darkest of magic that Star Swirl told me about, I do think that if I had a chance. I could probably bind a windigo to my will if there ever appeared again, although I don’t think I would take the risk. While Star Swirl researched necromancy for a while, he quickly dropped all of his research in that area of magic, and urged the king to forbid every unicorn from practicing it. I only saw him once use his knowledge, when trying to help solve a murder case, but that’s another story…   Matthias yawned, deciding to stop reading Clover’s notes. It was a dangerous subject for him to read further, and even if it weren’t, he knew everything there was to necromancy. He hid the documents in his saddlebag and glanced around. His knights had all gone to sleep. Matthias advised them to take some rest before they would arrive in Vanhoover in the morning after he finished explaining to them the situation. Serenity and Storm had a bit of trouble with falling asleep due to their nervousness, but in the end, all four ponies we breathing steadily. Matthias pulled his thoughts away from them as he gazed through the window. Outside of the train was a field of wheat, barely visible in the weak moonlight. “Again, I go north, to fight the cold death.” he mused, not happy with another twist of fate. Knowing tomorrow will be taxing for him, he turned off the lights in the compartment.     Celestia hummed as she searched through the documents that she kept hidden away in her private study. While almost every important document was kept in the Canterlot Archives, there were some that her father instructed to always keep hidden. Those regarding alicorns were among them. The white alicorn prepared to make a copy of another piece of information about Chrona, as she promised Arthas she would, when her sight accidentally rested on a book she knew well. Dropping her quill, she picked the book up and opened it to a random page. And by pure coincidence, she opened it right on the page she had remembered in this moment. “I guess I will send it to Arthas as well.” Celestia mused, curious what he would think about it.