//------------------------------// // Cold Winds // Story: They Never Knew // by SilverEyedWolf //------------------------------// We landed well south of the capital of the old empire that evening, just within sight of the snow. Celestia and Luna shook the lacy tendrils of ice from their feathered wings. Shadowfall was gently scraping one of Dawnbreak’s wings while he took care of the other. I looked to my own wings, not iced over but covered with condensation still. I took an extra shirt from my bag and wiped away the water before it could freeze. Stuffing the cloth around some armor Shadowfall had insisted I pack, I looked behind us at the trees that had stopped as though they’d been drawn at a line, few scraggly bushes daring to break the mark. Staring west to the setting sun, I gave myself a moment to admire the fiery sky and bruised clouds before turning to the grey skies directly north. The ground itself seemed to die as it trekked closer to the snow, grass turning from a sickly yellow to a poisoned brown. My fingers twitched as they brushed the wand strapped to my thigh, instead of sitting in a pocket it could fall out of. “How far are we from the nearest town?” I asked, walking over to the Princesses. Celestia shrugged, looking over to Dawnbreak. Looking back towards the shaggy forest we’d flown over, he stared deep into its depths before saying, “Two hundred miles or so.” “Three hours,” Celestia told me. “The capitol is going to be quite a bit farther though, since I don’t want to be flying at night, or in the cold.” I nodded, shouldering the pack that hung limply in my hand. “How much farther are we walking tonight?” “As far as Shadowfall can,” Luna said, winking at the woman in question. Shadowfall humph-ed at Luna and set off towards the snow, walking briskly. Dawnbreak cleared his throat lightly, pulling a long scarf out of his pack and wrapping it around his face and neck. Celestia and Luna copied him, Shadowfall stopping her march long enough to pull her own face protection from her bag. Instead of a scarf like the others, she had a tube of material she slipped over her head, covering her face from her nose to her collar bones. Looking around the group, I put on a loose smile. “Suppose I should have brought something for myself, huh?” Celestia laid her hand gently over her eyes, rubbing them gently with her fingers. Luna giggled as Shadowfall reached into her bag and tossed me a garment like hers, the tossing me a set of clear goggles as well. I must have had a strange look on my face, because she laughed as she slipped her own heavy eye gear over her head, onto her neck “You’ll see why when we get into the snow, Spike.” I nodded and slipped the heavy leather strap over my head, letting the goggles rest on the top of my breast bone. Everyone set their packs on their backs, folding their wings into their clothing, and we started into the chill air. ……………………………………… We were forced to stop three hours into the trek. The full moon hung over heavy clouds, the dim light that slipped between the vapors magnified by the white snow falling all around. I was grateful for the heavy jackets we’d packed, and the thickly padded goggles sparing my eyes from the icy bite of the wind. My mittened hands swiped at the building snow habitually, clearing the thick glass. Celestia and Luna didn’t need the covering apparently, and strode purposefully atop the thick snow. Dawnbreak seemed to be struggling the slightest bit, breaking through the packed snow every tenth step or so. Shadowfall was miserable, trudging along in Dawnbreak’s trenches and grabbing onto his coat to keep herself from falling over at times. I strode through the snow, leaving channels behind me. I’d gotten tired of going through the powder covering the actual hard packed snow, and just stayed on the lower layer after falling half an hour ago. Celestia stopped, pointing through the snow and asking Luna something the wind whipped away. Luna nodded after a moment, and we changed our course slightly. After five minutes more, we stopped in front of a cave entrance, burrowing darkly into the ground. Celestia looked around the group and pointed down into it. Dawnbreak and I shrugged, but Shadowfall nodded emphatically. Luna lifted her shoulders before nodding twice, and we started our slow descent into the earth. After forty or so feet, the tunnel sharply curved, and the wind died out. Pulling off her scarf, Celestia lifted a stone she drew from her bag. The surface of the orb writhed in her hand, then glowed as she ran her fingers over it. The tunnel ran further back into the earth than the light could reach. The walls were smooth grey stone, sloping into the ceiling. The floor had a pockmarked, dented look. Celestia ran her hand over the wall as everyone else pulled clothes away from their faces. “What do you think this place is?” Celestia asked out loud, the first thing I’d heard, besides the wind, in hours. “It looks either like a miner’s tunnel, or a creature’s den,” Luna mused, looking up at the ceiling. “A Wurm of some size, maybe.” I looked around nervously, pulling at the shrunken sword clipped to my bracelet. Celestia saw and nodded, loosening her own sword in the sheathe on her hip. Pulling the wand from the holster on my thigh, I looked at the blade on my wrist, then at the tunnel’s walls. They were just barely wide enough for me to swing the weapon freely, but I also had four other people in the tunnel with me. Putting the wand back in its holster, I called my talons forward instead, long dark claws spouting from my fingertips. Looking up, I saw the rest of the group spread in a loose line across the tunnel, walking deeper into the earth. I caught up, standing between Celestia and Dawnbreak. Celestia gestured into the tunnel, pushing the stone out and seeming to concentrate the light ahead. A cavern seemed to open ahead, and she lengthened her paces. We entered the cavern slowly, looking all around the circular cave. Instead of the unmarked grey stone, the hollow was littered with decrepit wooden scaffolds and long-rusted mining tools. It wasn’t hard to see what they were mining for, once we looked upwards. Large crystal stalactites hung from the ceiling, almost every color of gem in bright display under Celestia’s light stone. She lifted the stone to show more of the ceiling, dispelling the last shadows in the room. The gem spires turned into stumps around the edges of the room, cut seemingly like trees from the roof. “Look,” Dawnbreak said, pointing straight across the room. Another tunnel started there, but there seemed to be a straight line that cut through the room. Starting at the entrance of the original hall and ending at the other one, there was a large swathe of disturbed dirt and old tools. The path had the same strange dimpling across it, though the rest of the room seemed to have a mostly smooth floor. Dawnbreak pulled his two gauntlets from his belt, slipping his almost fragile hands into the dark steel and flexing his hands. Shadowfall drew her wand and a dagger from her belt, while Luna pulled her hammer from the same not-place that she kept her wand. “Should someone stay at the entrance?” Luna asked. “The rest of us could go in and draw whatever it is out, while we ambush it out here.” Celestia looked around the group and nodded. “Spike, you and Luna stay here. Get your sword out and get ready to slice. Shadowfall and I will go in and engage, then draw the thing out here. Dawn… I’ll leave the decision up to you.” “My fists will do better out here,” he said, looking up to a scaffolding that pressed into the wall over the door. “I’ll fall on it while these two take the sides.” Celestia nodded, then pulled another light stone from her pack and tossed it to Luna. “I have a feeling you’ll hear us coming,” she said with a wry smile, pulling her sword. “No light unless you need it though. Whatever’s down this tunnel, it can probably already see what little I have.” Luna nodded, leaning lazily against the wall. I took a place on the other side of her, fitting my wand into the hilt of the sword I’d resized. Celestia nodded to both of us, before entering the hole in the wall, taking the light with her. Shadowfall touched Dawnbreak’s hand and smiled up at him before following Celestia. I watched Dawnbreak watch them walk down the tunnel until all light disappeared. I heard him move past me, climbing the wood until he was over the door. After that was only waiting, no one breaking the silence except to breathe. Bored minutes passed, and I stared across the way just to have someplace to focus my eyes. With a start, I realized that I was able to see Luna. Her own expression changed as she realized the same, and we both looked around for the light source. “Up,” Dawnbreak’s voice whispered from above, and both of our faces turned up to the crystal ceiling. At first I thought the entire ceiling was aglow, until I noticed the stripe that was moving through the stalactites. It circled around the entire ceiling, a course grinding noise barely audible. The point of the thing reached the center of the ceiling, before drooping to touch the ground. I thought for a moment it was living crystal, before it turned to the three of us. Eyes dotted the front of its carapace, set in dead green flesh and on stalks. Small beetle eyes, large animal eyes, human eyes. A seam split the creature’s head in half, and it slowly tore itself in half to bare a razored mouth, teeth dotting even the top of its mouth as it hissed. A dull red tongue arched out of the opening, writhing in the air. Luna raised a hand, the light stone balanced in her palm. The creature focused on her, small legs waving in her direction like antennae. A few of its eyestalks joined in this waving dance, and I felt bile rise into my throat. “Flash,” Luna whispered, and I squeezed my eyelids together as she clamped her fist down on the stone. All I could see was white, and I almost dropped my sword as the creature screamed in outrage, one of my hands clamping to an ear as the noise ripped through my very sanity. Opening my eyes, I had to swipe moisture away before I could see the beast, face down in the dirt and squirming as its mouth split wide. The teeth-lined flesh ran down at least a third of the thing’s body. Pushing with its stumpy, sharp legs, the thing pulled its face from the ground as it lunged at Luna, still standing with the stone shining directly into its eyes. Pushing forward, I swung my blade out in a wide arc. The steel met unyielding flesh, sliding harmlessly off instead of slicing as intended. I still managed to break its concentration, as well as a few eyestalks. Rolling at me, I had to jump away to avoid the sharp spines of its back. Rolling out of the dodge, I was confronted by a large fleshy wall that slapped into me. Flung away from the creature, I smashed into a wall. Gasping for air, I watched as Dawnbreak leapt down from his perch, a fist aimed at the thing’s bared side. It snapped back, flailing its body and forcing him to guard instead of attacking. The worm rolled onto him, forcing him to his knees as it laid its weight directly onto him. Luna appeared from around the beast, planting her feet and swinging her hammer into the beast’s displayed underside. Lifted from Dawnbreak, most of the creature flew towards the far wall, slamming its head into the stone while its lower half curled up towards the upper parts. Dawnbreak followed after the head with his fists, keeping the thing off of its legs as he slammed into the meaty undersides of the creature. Lifting my sword I strode forward, cocking the weapon over my shoulder as I picked up speed. Turning and planting my legs like I’d seen Luna, I swung my blade deep into the organs of the creature’s soft underside, slitting its belly open and causing it to scream weakly. Dawnbreak and I backed away as Luna approached its head, hammer held to her left and down. Reaching its head Luna jerked her weapon straight up, gripping the handle with both hands. The creature twitched heavily and screamed up at the night Princess once more, before she swung the steel down into the thing’s head, a large crunch filling the room. She swung the hammer up again, a grim look on her face as the thing’s legs weakly tried to pull it away from her until she swung back down. For another minute she repeated this process, until the legs scrabbling weakly at the stone floor stopped completely. Dawnbreak had long lowered his hands, and the tip of my sword rested on the ground, the both of us watching in suppressed horror as Luna worked. Finally, instead of swinging her hammer straight up again, she let the handle go. She was panting, and she leaned against the weapon lodged within the thing’s skull. Looking down, her mouth twisted and she pushed away from the monstrosity, wobbling over to a wall and pushing her forehead to the cool surface. “Luna?” I asked, before moving over to her. She held up a hand, pushing herself away from the wall and breathing heavily. “It’s been awhile since I had to…” was all she was able to get out before the leaned against the wall again, vomit spewing from her mouth to splatter against the wall. I flinched and walked over, rubbing gently between her shoulders until she finished, gasping for air. Pulling a canteen from my belt, I offered it as I pulled her gently away from the wall, towards the center of the room. She rinsed her mouth with a few swishes of water before spitting it towards a table beside us before taking a deep drink. Dawnbreak appeared after a moment with a mostly cleaned Eclipse, handing it lightly to Luna. She took it and dispersed it back into nothingness, just as Celestia and Shadowfall ran back into the room. Looking at the beast in the corner, then at Luna, Celestia sheathed her sword and walked over, moving her hands over Luna’s arms and face. Luna swatted her hands away. “We’re alright,” I said. “Besides a couple of bruises, I don’t think we were injured at all. Luna had some adrenaline sickness, but we’re alright.” Realizing I was babbling, I shut up and looked over at the creature. “It was on the ceiling,” Luna said, voice steady again. “Wouldn’t have even known is was there, except it used the crystals on its back for light. I think it was a…” She shuddered, looking back at it. “I’m pretty sure it was one of Sombra’s Constructs. There’s stitching all over, and…” “It’s legs…” I whispered, looking closer than anyone ever should have. “They’re all… children’s…” Celestia grabbed me by an ear, painfully tugging my gaze away from the downed being. “Let’s go,” she said, letting go of my head and walking back to the tunnel she and Shadowfall had explored. Dawnbreak spared a final, pitying look to the thing, before following. Luna kept staring until I took her hand, pulling her after me into the darkness. ………………………………………………… An hour later, with no incidents besides a much smaller, already dispatched Construct, we reached what almost looked like a cave-in, except that there was no grey stones blocking the path, only crystals. I reached out and grabbed a piece off the pile, tossing it towards a wall. With a small rattle, the stone rolled back up to where I’d plucked it and sunk a bit deeper into the wall blocking us. “Enchanted rockslide,” I said, looking of the pile of gems. I grabbed the same stone, this time just holding it and feeling the pull of the spell. “Luna, you know rocks. Any ideas?” Luna looked at me, bemused. “Why do you say I know…?” Realization hit her, and then hit me. Literally. I got a smirk after though, so I suppose the bruised shoulder would be worth it. “It’s just a magnetization spell,” Dawnbreak said. Shadowfall nodded, pulling out her wand and tapping the stone in my hand. It stopped pulling, and I tossed it further down the tunnel. It didn’t return. “I don’t suppose you can do that for the entire pile?” I asked hopefully. She concentrated, waving her wand in a large circle over the pile. The topmost layer shifted and rolled down, revealing the next layer. She repeated the motion, crunching over the gems she’d already disenchanted, walking into the bejeweled hallway. I scooped at some of the gems, trying to keep them out of the way, until Luna gently pulled me away and waved her wand over the discarded crystals, sending them shooting down the hallway in a stream. The last layer crumbled outwards, revealing a large, much too warm cave. Steam seeped from several cracks in the floor, and the room was wet with water. “There must be a hot spring around,” Celestia said, already pulling off some of her warmer clothes. “Or, we’ve stumbled into one of the city’s bathing areas. We’ve certainly been walking long enough…” We spread out, following the walls around the natural room. Luna was the first to call out, and we all gathered around the rotted remains of a door laying on the ground. The walls all around the door were perfectly smooth, however. “You don’t think someone just threw it in here, maybe to make room for the crystal enchantment?” Celestia asked Luna, who was tapping on the stone wall. Instead of answering, Luna pulled Eclipse from her pocket-space, swinging it back before crushing a part of the wall, leaving a jagged hole leading to a flight of stairs. Instantly a cold wind howled into the room, chilling the steamy bath into freezing temperatures. Shivering, Celestia sighed as she bundled back into her jacket as the rest of us pulled on our face protection. I was the first one completely ready, and I hurried up the stairs. Halfway up I met a snowbank covering most of the stairway, a small hole the size of my head the only opening to the rest of the world. Reaching up, I started pulling away snow, dropping it to the stairs beside and behind me. With a little wriggling, I popped out of the stairwell and into a dilapidated shack, one wall snowed through and ceiling barely there. The doorway faced away from the rest of the city apparently, as I could only see fields beyond the portal to the outside. I turned and worked on clearing the rest of the snow piled against the doorway, and I had opened it enough for Celestia when she finally reached the top of the stairs. I helped her through, then Shadowfall. Dawnbreak slipped through easily enough, but it took both his and my help to get Luna through the apparently small hole onto flat ground. Celestia had stepped through the doorframe, and was sniffing curiously at the air. The four of us still in the shack quickly piled out of it, curious as to what was to be seen. I smelled what Celestia had instantly, my nostrils prickling as the burnt scent passed through them. Turning, I saw a crystal tower rising in the distance, with a multitude of houses made of the same material surrounding it. “That’s the castle,” Luna said, pointing unnecessarily as the tower. “If Sombra’s anywhere in the city, he’ll be there.” We marched through the city, slowly picking our way around and above rubble and through alleyways. We reaching the castle without incident, walking cautiously between massive crystalline doors. We didn’t need to bother being careful. The most dangerous thing in the entryway were the large icicles hanging from the chandelier. Splitting, Luna and Dawnbreak went one way, the other three of us wandering the other way. After an hour of searching, we met in the old throne room. “Nothing?” Luna asked as we entered, rising from her sprawled pose on the throne, removing her legs from the left arm as she stood up. “Nothing,” agreed Celestia as she threw her pack on the floor and flopped onto it, wincing and adjusting something inside before relaxing on it. “Where could he be then, if not here?” I asked. Dawnbreak had been busy with a piece of chalk, marking the floor with a myriad of runes and symbols I hardly recognized. With a flourish he tossed the chalk to Shadowfall, gesturing at the massive circle in the floor. She walked around it, grin slowly growing. Making a single change, she nodded and elbowed Luna gently. “Eh?” She asked, gesturing to the floor. Luna frowned, shaking her head. “I don’t really do runes, that’s always been Celly’s specialty.” Celestia was walking around the circle already, grinning half as widely as Shadowfall, so twice as much as I’d ever seen her smile. “Do you think my guard captain could keep it running?” She asked. Shadowfall pointed to the rune she’d changed, and Celestia nodded. “What is…?” I started, but Dawnbreak had already strode to the center. I stood back as he took a pose in the center, hands held high and meeting above his head. Swiftly, he bought his hands out, holding them over two large runes. An incandescent, transparent blue shield bubbled up from the floor, covering Dawnbreak and showering the room in light and warmth. I was about to say something, but he flipped his hands and pushed out, with his hands palm out to both of his sides. The shield seemingly exploded, shooting over all of us and covering the room, then phasing through the walls. Running to a window, I watched as the enormous bubble covered the city, apex sitting at the top of the tower and covering a decent field around the town. I watched, flabbergasted, as the grass inside the blue grew long and green and the snow melted into nothingness. I was about to ask a question, I forget what, when a roaring scream rent the very air. An immense shadow broke from the clouds directly over the city, falling to cover most of the shield. Slowly it condensed, transforming from a black mist into a dark, green eyed face hovering over the tower. A deep frown contorted the face of what probably used to be an attractive man, white cumulus contrasting against his eyebrows, two dark storm clouds converging on emerald smog with black lightning irises. The same dark storms raged as a long goatee and shaggy, whirling hair. “Who are you, to attempt to seal me from my own throne?” A voice rumbled, the lips hardly splitting to utter his question. We all gathered at a balcony. “No attempt, Sombra,” Celestia called up as she threw open the doors, striding to the center of the terrace and causing the face to contort into a deep rage. “You know our power. This city is yours no more, Necromancer.” Instead of words, Sombra dropped dark lighting from his mouth, the volume deafening and terrifying. Each spark struck the shield and was absorbed, turning the light sky blue into a deeper, darker hue. Eventually the cloud ceased its barrage. “You will not keep me from what is mine,” it uttered sulkily, before dissipating. Celestia walked back to the throne room, unsteadily made her way to the only chair in the room, and then collapsed. She was grinning though, and let out a small laugh. “We’ve done it,” she said, staring around the throne room. “Without his crystal tower he cannot project his powers as he once could. We’ve cut him from his power, his true power, and he knows it.” She laughed again, louder this time, before standing quickly. “Let’s go find out where he’s stuffed his citizens,” She said, striding from the room. …………………………………………………… We found the entrance south of the castle, a large hole that had been covered by snow and ice before Dawnbreak’s spell. Now it was surrounded by water, a large crater that was filling with the runoff from the snow. “Look,” Luna said, pointing to the middle of the tiny pond that was formed inside the walls of the hole. A small whirlpool had formed, and the ice on top of the melted water spun merrily above and around it. Walking around the sunken stone, Celestia raised an edge around it, so that the runoff from the snow was forced elsewhere. The water drained quickly enough, showing what seemed like a hastily covered hole with a large crack running the middle of it. Flicking her wand, Celestia pulled the stone out of the hole and tossed it carelessly aside, blocking a part of the street but clearing a crystal-encased room with rotten wood bunks scattered throughout. I jumped down, looking around at the walls. Celestia landed beside me, followed by everyone else. I pointed to the wall behind her, the only bit that was covered in grey cobblestone and dirt instead of crystal. Lifting her wand again, she tugged the bit of fallen street out of the way, moving it up by the stone on the street. Dropping it, she let out a breath and slid her wand back into nothingness. “You can move the next giant roadblock Luna,” She breathed. She nodded, and we set off down yet another dark hole in the ground. This one stayed pretty light, however, mostly because of the glowing crystal that lined the walls. Shadowfall was the first to discover an actual person, in an offshoot of the main tunnel. A gentle prod was enough to wake the person, evidently, but no amount of cursing on Shadowfall’s part could help the bruise that quickly rose on her forehead. After an apology, we had another helper in waking the crystal folk. After another roomful, and assurances that there was no monsters in the tunnel complex, we left the crystal folk to wake the rest of themselves and returned to the castle. We all set out our sleeping bags in the throne room after locking the large doors. Scribing a quick letter and flaming it back to Equestria, Celestia flopped onto her thinly padded blankets and started snoring. Luna and Shadowfall shared a giggle before setting up themselves, Shadowfall suspiciously close to Dawnbreak, Luna flopping her sleeping gear right next to mine. Before she laid down she walked over to a window, joining me as I watched lights flickering on inside houses, and all along the road. “At least we know there are some Unicorns down there, with their wands.” Luna nodded, then tugged me away from the window and towards our apparently shared bedding. “They’ll be okay down there tonight, right?” Luna laughed quietly and kissed my nose, pulling me down onto the thin blankets.