Four kilometres north of the city of Hoofington, deep in a sprucewood forest, there is a place where the snow never stops. Nopony knows why this is, though the locals have many theories. Some say it is the home of a vile witch whose heart is so cold that the very air around her is chilled to freezing temperatures. Others speculate that Nightmare Moon had cursed the area before her banishment. No matter the cause, everypony who knows of it avoids the area, and those who enter never return.
It is called The Madmare’s Cage, and everypony who speaks of it does so in hushed whispers.
Deep below the earth, completely sealed off from the outside world, rests the Cage’s namesake. In a completely spherical cavern, its walls covered in a smooth layer of frost, The Madmare hovered in place.
She was pretty. Beautiful, in fact. Had she not been what she was, she would have attracted many suitors. But she was what she was- a beast. She wailed and moaned in her prison, for it was a prison. She was unable to escape.
Her unnaturally long, flowing green mane whipped around in a wind only she felt as she thrashed her limbs in an attempt to move, just as she had for hundreds of years. Formless spirits swirled around her, a hurricane of misery. They were the souls of those who dared enter The Madmare’s Cage, and they were hers, their material forms wasting away in the wilds above.
She was lonely. For hundreds of years, she had inhabited The Cage, with none to keep her company. She drew toward her the souls of those above, luring them in with promises of warmth and love, yet their company wasn’t enough. She needed more.
Then she felt it. Someone long gone had returned. She did not know how, or even who- her memory had degraded since her imprisonment, and she could hardly remember who she was, let alone those from her past. But the feeling that warmed her heart as the being appeared once more comforted her, and she knew she had to find them.
She could feel them, in a place far to the west. She would find them, but first she would have to break free of her prison. She would find a way to do so.
She started to plan.