Frozen North
5.7 miles west of Crystal Empire
3 years ago...
Darkness was all that could be seen, was all that could be felt, was all...that he knew. Though his body was trapped and completely immobile in this ice tomb, his mind was free to wander and pace. In his mind he was seething in rage, pure murderous rage. For how long he couldn't tell but, he knew it was too long that he could have died long ago if not for this accursed seal on his body preventing him from being ravaged by time.
Maybe it was a bit much but, after the multiple acts of chronic and sustained cruelty he had inflicted on all around him you would think he'd get the death penalty. Sadly, such a thing is difficult when the condemned has stolen greatest power and will use it to counter any spell thrown at it. Even more sadly, he could use this power to fend off most spells except for ones casted only by the most powerful magic wielders; The Eternal Seal.
This spell could imprison any target and bound them as they are in mind and body. These kind spell created to not be possible to escape unless of course the caster or another being of equal or greater power decided to free the imprisoned. But what kind of dumbass would attempt or even consider releasing one of these psychopaths?
Any who, you'd think that after spending what could have been decades in and a frozen prison that one would take this time to show remorse on these actions, learn from this past mistakes and repent. Well, you would be right but in this case you are dead WRONG! All the thoughts that have swirled in this guy's head has been nothing but revenge. Someday he would-NO! Someday he will escape and when that day comes it will be the end of days for many. However, one question enraged him more than his imprisonment and even more than his enemies: HOW?
Suddenly there was a faint sound and a slight rumble. At that moment he felt ...something. It was a new feeling, like something from the outside was reaching out to him. It was like he was shook awake, all around the ice crumbled into flakes and pieces, then there was nothing. A huge gust of wind picked up blowing all the snow away revealing the body of the prisoner, he laid there panting and shook violently.
After a while he raised his head and looked on to see endless ice everywhere a sight that made him very upset that he was freed into a death trap. Pwooooft! He stopped shaking and slowly moved his head to the sudden noise. Then he saw it, a strange object stabbed into the ice. It was sending out a wave of heat similar to the one he felt just before his. The object was glowing red at its sharp end while the other end looked dark grey and broken. Every few seconds it would send out a pulse, followed by an eerie sound on the wind.
Yessssssss.
With what little amount of energy he had left, he reached out and grasped it in his claw with no intention of letting go.
Then there was a sudden flash of purple and green followed by a high-pitched shriek…
Then silence.
* * * * * * *
Twilight suddenly awoke with a start, sitting up on her bed panting and sweating. After a while she finally calmed down.
'Stupid storm' she thought to herself.
Outside her window there was indeed a storm which was making quite a racket. She glanced over to the clock on her left to see it was 2:15 am. With an irritated sigh she slumped back on her pillow with both hooves over her face. It's been about three and a half years since Twilight's ascension to an alicorn princess and it has been two years since that the stress of being one has gotten to her. And everypony knows that stress can do one heck of a number on your sleep. However tonight she was actually trying to stay as calm as possible to get a good night's rest and it worked, unfortunately the weather schedule had other plans.
Being a princess was not all that it was cracked up to be. Now her responsibilities have been doubled even though she completed her advanced studies. She didn't want to admit it to anyone but, she honestly would prefer not to be a princess or even and alicorn. Even after her adventure to the human world, she just wanted everything to go back to the way they were. She just wanted a day to meet with her friends when it was not for official business. She still lived in Golden Oaks Library but she still had to make trips to Canterlot for royal duties because she did not want to leave her friends, which she was seeing less because of said duties.
She was very thankful to still be with her all friends.
She lowered her hooves down and glanced to the foot of her bed to an empty basket.
At least most of her friends.
She used her magic to open the drawer near her bed and lifted a plush toy that she only brought out on nights when she felt very alone. In this past year she has never felt more alone. She stared into the doll's emerald green buttons it had for eyes, then shut her eyes while gripping the doll to her chest and asked herself the same question tormenting her every night.
"Where are you Spike?"
Of all of Twilight's friends, no one was closer to her than Spike. He proved this many times since he was assigned by Princess Celestia to be Twilight's assistant and the two have been nearly in separable. As the years past they were slowly drifting apart without even being aware of it, until a terrible tragedy occurred during their second year in Ponyville...
* * * * * * *
Spike was on his way back from Sugarcube Corner after helping Pinkie Pie put out a fire they created when Pinkie thought it was a good idea to give Spike a sip of her favorite drink called "The Mississippi Queen".
"I swear that crazy mare is going to be the end of me" he muttered to himself while clutching his gut.
He entered the library and closed the door behind him sighing in relief, then he noticed Twilight wasn't down stairs working on her research on mystical artifacts of power after the alicorn amulet incident. Her papers and books were left unattended on the kitchen table where he left her in the morning to go hang out with Rarity only to find a note saying she went on a camping trip and wouldn't be back until the day after tomorrow, and thus hanging out with Pinkie. He decided to go check if she was working upstairs.
'But why would she be upstairs if her work material is down here?' he thought to himself.
His thoughts were immediately silenced as soon as he heard faint sobbing coming from their room as he was half way on the stairs. Sensing something was wrong, Spike dashed up to the second floor and saw twilight crying in her bed facing away from the door. He went up the second stair case and straight to her bedside.
"Twilight! What's wrong?! What happened?!" shouted the little dragon.
Twilight was about to meet his gaze but quickly turned away. Spike got closer and laid a reassuring claw on her shoulder, she flinched but didn't resist.
"Please Twi, what happened?"
* * * * * * *
Twilight cringed at the memory, but it was through that horrible event that her friendship with Spike regained its full strength forevermore. He held her and no longer pried to know more of what happened to her other than "I made a mistake" she said. When the night came she asked him to share her bed which he accepted without hesitation, and they both made a promise to each other. Twilight promised to stay with her friends more, especially Spike and he promised her that "everything is going to be just fine".
However, as much as they intended on keeping their promises ...they realized couldn't. This year proved that. In the last year there were sudden events that could be considered unfortunate coincidences but never considered more. The events in this past year were indeed very unsettling to say the least, but none compared to the one that griped the heart and mind of Twilight Sparkle;
The sudden disappearance of Spike the dragon.