Frostlight stood out on the balcony of the Lunar Tower, the living quarters she shared with Chess Queen. Being best friends with the ‘Queen of the Haters’ Guild’ meant she could room with her in the tower that Discord had left open for them… as a reward for their loyalty and helpfulness to him.
Frost personally hated the tower. It always filled her with dread and the gnawing feeling of guilt, as if it were a personal reminder that she had helped to take over the city. From up here, she could see all of Discord’s chaos as it warped the rubble that the once-great city of Canterlot had become. It was still better than the rest of the castle, where the heart of the chaos was centered, and where Discord’s mindless puppets, the mind-controlled Haters, ran rampant and declared out to the world, “For Lord Discord!”
The ruined city had become Discord’s personal… mood ring, for lack of a better word. The draconequus had enchanted the whole area, creatures, scenery, and all, to change to fit his current mood. Whenever Discord was jovially spreading chaos, the sky would turn green, the monsters would become cute little puffballs that could rip off a pony’s head in a single bite, and the castle halls would become lined with candy so sugar coated, mere skin contact with a piece would send anyone into a sugar coma for at least an hour… There had been plenty of those days right after Discord took over Canterlot.
But Frostlight and Chess Queen had been abruptly awakened by the roaring of thunder in the sky, only to look out their window and see the sky turn the shade of blood and the monsters in the city becoming those of the most ferocious and nightmare-fuelling variety. After seeing the sudden shift in the scene of the city, Frostlight instantly knew what was happening; this was the sight of Discord’s rage.
Only few seconds after that, Chess Queen had been summoned by the Lord of Chaos… through the means of a giant spitball being fired from a mini swirly straw, and then said straw sucking Chess Queen up and then spitting the unicorn up from the balcony and into Discord’s tower like a wet projectile.
Now Frostlight was left alone to watch the horrors she could see from Discord’s anger. Silently she worried for Chess Queen’s sake. It only made sense that she would be taken before Discord because of what was causing his rage to show. And if Chess Queen was going to be punished for said thing…
It was all Frost could do to keep from shuddering. Besides the Haters who had first tried to fight against Discord, those of which who had lost all control over themselves, there were several players who had been unfortunate enough to be right in Discord’s path when the draconequus was looking for something to do. More often than naught, they would be thrown into Discord’s cruel, twisted games. Frostlight could only hope the same wasn’t happening to Chess Queen.
But suddenly, the door to the tower room opened as someone stepped through. Frostlight glanced back into the room from her place on the balcony, sighing in relief to see Chess Queen there, unharmed. “Chess, what’s happening?”
Chess Queen remained emotionless, though that was to be expected. That was her usual expression anyways. “Discord is… to say angry would be an understatement.”
Frostlight glanced back towards the red sky filled with nightmarish monsters, “Yeah… I could tell. Did he say why?”
“Yes.” Chess Queen replied, making her way out onto the balcony. “It seems that the Elements of Harmony have defeated Nightmare Moon.”
Frost gasped, quickly turning around to face her friend, “R-really? They finally did it? They have all of the elements now?”
Chess Queen simply nodded, remaining silent.
However, Frostlight felt like she had breathed a breath of fresh air, her first one in months. She turned around, looking back at Canterlot. They were finally coming, and soon the sorry state of this city would be no more. Everything would go back to normal, and they’d finally be free of Discord. A smile came to the mare’s lips as she whispered to herself, “He’s finally coming…”
Chess Queen spoke bluntly from behind, “Though Nightmare’s defeat may have been a trigger for Discord’s current rage, she was not the reason why our lord summoned me.”
“Oh?” Frostlight glanced back towards Chess Queen, a bit of uneasiness on her face, “What is it?”
To her surprise, Chess Queen grimaced, keeping her eyes down with a scowl, “… He knows you didn’t do it… Discord knows you didn’t kill Shadowflame like you were supposed to.”
Frostlight suddenly felt her blood run cold, as if she had been pierced through her gut with one of her own ice-tipped arrows.
Chess Queen could sense Frost’s sudden fear, even without looking up at her, “As a friend, I was willing to keep your defiance towards Discord a secret… but only just because of that. Now that Discord knows, he is becoming suspicious that I knew as well. If he finds out, he will make me his next victim, and I… I won’t have it. I’ve planned for far too long like this to be cut off at this point.”
Chess Queen’s teeth clenched together, her chest beginning to heave as her scowl deepened further. She looked as if she were on the verge of tears, but just barely managing to hold them back. Frostlight quickly trotted up and wrapped her hooves around her friend, pulling her into a comforting hug, “It’s alright, Chelsie. I won’t let Discord get to you… Not over my dead body.”
Chess Queen hissed through her teeth. The only thought that came to her mind was in response to Frostlight’s words, Damn it! Why must irony be such a bitch?
Suddenly, time seemed to stop as bits of red code suddenly burst from Frostlight’s chest. The teal mare gasped suddenly, stumbling back as she felt and heard a blade puncture where her heart would have been. Slowly, she glanced down, only to see the hilt of a knife sticking out of her, her skin lined with red code where it stuck. And wrapped around the hilt was white aura, the same type and color as the kind that glowed around Chess Queen’s horn.
In the corner of her eye, Frostlight saw her entire health bar go black, with a rare status effect that she knew too well: Wither; the incurable poison, the kind that would kill anyone in a minute when they’re at full health, maybe two minutes tops.
Frostlight stared at Queen in shock, while the other mare refused to look her in eye.
With a voice like the grim reaper’s, cold, grieving, she darkly replied, “You knew my goal from the beginning was to survive. As a tactician, I side with those most likely to win. Even with all of the elements, the Elements of Harmony don’t stand a chance against Discord. The Discord in this world isn’t the same we knew about in the old world, and he could kill any of them if he wanted to with a snap of his fingers.
“So even in this world, in order to survive,” She breathed back a small sob, a tear rolling down her cheek,
“… Sacrifices must be made…”
Frostlight felt weightlessness overtake her body as she was pushed back by Chess Queen’s magic, unable to move out of her shock as her limp form toppled over the balcony railing. But as she fell, a sad look of understanding crossed her face. Softly, Frostlight thought to herself, Don’t worry, Chelsie… at least your secret will die with me…
___________________________________________
I tore through the sky as fast as my wings would allow me, the streets and buildings of the ruined Canterlot passing below me in a grey blur I took no notice of. Even the shouts of my team, as they tried to call me back to them, were lost over the wind in my ears and the tunnel vision in my sight. The monsters in the sky, the ruins, the castle… all of them might as well have been nonexistent, because the only thing I focused on was the limp form of the girl I loved plummeting to the ground, her teal fur tinted red by the crimson sky, as if she were already doused in her own blood.
”Frostlight!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, watching as her body swiftly approached me as my wings propelled me. But up close, I could see her eyes were closed, which only heightened my feeling of panic.
Quicker than a flash, she was within an arm’s length and I dove forwards after her. My forelegs wrapped around Frostlight’s body, holding her tightly as the momentum of my flight sent both of us careening through the air as I caught her. I wrapped myself around her protectively as we came to a crash landing on the grassy turf of the palace gardens, and thankfully I had taken most of the brunt of the impact.
When the two of us finally came to stop, I didn’t stop a moment to catch my breath as I looked over Frostlight for any signs that she was hurt. But at the same time, to my relief, she slowly opened her eyes.
Her eyelids widened in surprise of seeing me, her mouth trembling in disbelief, “S-shadow? Y-ou-you’re here?”
I smiled back at her, giving her nuzzle as I held her, “Yes, we finally made it.” As I pulled back, I gave her a determined look, “The last element is ours, and we’re here to finally take care of Discord and get out of this world.”
Frostlight smiled warmly at that, “Yeah, I heard you had beat Nightmare…”
My eyes widened in surprise, “Wait, you did?”
She nodded, closing her eyes. But soon tears began to trail out from between her eyelids, “I-I’m… so glad you’re here.”
I was happy to see her too, and I was about to tell her that, but something caught my eye before I could. I glanced at her health bar, and to my shock, it was black, and the outline of what was left was slowly decreasing. It was only half full now.
I gasped, “Frostlight, your health-“
“It’s called the wither effect,” She quietly replied, a sad tone in her voice, “It’s an incurable poison. I was stabbed by it a minute ago… I probably only have a minute left to live…”
My breath choked in my throat at her words. I gazed at her in disbelief, “What- What do you mean? Don’t tell me you’re-“
Frostlight opened her eyes; those beautiful, orange eyes, glistening with her tears as they stared right back into mine.
She just smiled sadly, “I’m dying, and nothing can help me. But… I’m happy that-“ Her voice cracked with a sob, “I’m happy that I could at least see you one last time… before…” She trailed off as she buried her face into my chest, “… I’m sorry I couldn’t survive any longer… even after I had promised to.”
“No… no.” I denied under my shuddering breath. I felt my own eyes becoming moist, but I desperately tried to blink my tears away, “No! You can’t die! You won’t die! There must be something, anything, to save you!”
Frostlight shook her head, quietly, “No… I already told you. There’s… no cure.”
I winced, clamping my eyes shut to hold back the tears that threatened to leak out… or maybe I just wanted to shut out the cruel reality… “No! We were so close though! We have all of the Elements, and Discord was the last obstacle!” My shoulders trembled as sobs began to work up my throat and into my every gasping breath, “We… w-we were going to go home… together…”
For the next few moments, in what seemed like eternity within a few seconds, I held Frostlight tightly, quaking in grief while she doused the fur on my chest with her silent tears. I didn’t want to let go… I didn’t want to let her go.
Quietly, I whispered, “W-who… w-who did this to you?”
Frostlight paused, and for a moment, I was terrified that she had just passed on like in the real world. But she quietly replied, “If I tell you… do you promise to fulfill my last wish?”
“Yes, I’ll do anything.” I answered immediately.
Another moment of silence, or it could have just been my perception of time just seemed to slow down, with her slowly approaching doom at hoof. Frostlight sighed, looking back up at me, “Please, spare Chess Queen. Even back in the human world, she was my best friend, and I wanted more than anything to help her escape with me.” Her eyes closed in a grimace, “But when Discord found out that I had spared you during the coup, Chess’ life is in danger because she was the only other person who knew what I’d done. I couldn’t live with myself if she died because of my actions.”
She wanted me to spare Chess Queen, the leader of the Haters since the beginning, the one who had created that guild ever since she had joined forces with Discord. Because of her, hundreds of players had died to the Haters… and Frostlight, with her final wishes, wanted me to spare her life?
As much as I hated Chess Queen… this was for Frostlight’s sake.
I gravely whispered to her, “Who killed you?”
Suddenly, I was met by Frostlight’s lips on my own, and I was lost in the feeling. She was dying… and this would be the last feeling of contact I’d ever have with her. I relished in her warmth, her soft lips, and the feeling of her right beside me. The sensation was as great as any other time, save for a bitter taste in my mouth. This was a goodbye… forever.
My tears finally began rolling down my muzzle, right as Frostlight pulled away from the kiss. My eyes darted towards her health bar, which was now barely a sliver, literally less than an inch away from death.
And as the last of her health withered away, Frostlight opened her mouth to say four words that made the world crumble around me.
“It was Chess Queen.”
A monotone blare of the game, like a heart monitor as it flat-lined, signaled Frostlight’s empty health bar. Instantly, her virtual body began to glitch blue, as she shed one last tear as my mouth hung open in stunned silence.
“I love you… Goodbye…”
Frostlight burst apart into blue code, and my arms fell through the thin air where I had held her before. Like vapor, I watched helplessly as the blue code that had been her floated upwards and disappeared… and for that moment, everything seemed to stop. All I could hear was silence, not even the sound of the chaos in Canterlot; not even the wind in the air;
Not even the sound of my staggering breath coming from my lungs. The only thing I was aware of was this pain in my chest… it hurt worse than getting stabbed through the heart by one of those damned hacked weapons.
I screamed.
I screamed as loud as I could, with my head tipped up towards the sky in agony. My vision blurred too badly to see behind the veils of tears in my eyes. I didn’t know what exactly I was shouting at the top of my lungs. It could have been Frostlight’s name, as if I were trying to call her back. But it just as likely could have been the names of every person I blamed for this, all of them shouted to the heavens with every curse I could let loose.
I couldn’t think straight. My mind was a jumble, like some kind of puzzle that had been divided in half, but each side still interlocked in the most impossible angles. It was as if it were trying to decide whether I was heartbroken or enraged, but to no avail.
I wailed in mourning, driving my front hooves into the ground in fury, ”NO! FROSTLIGHT! NOOOOOOOO!”
I lashed out at the grassy turf with punch after punch, screaming with every blow, “NO! NO! NO! No! No! No. No. no… no…” Eventually, I just collapsed on the ground, winded and gasping for breath between sobs… For a moment, I sat there, not even bothering to move despite where I was. There on the ground, I wept as the thought passed through my head.
… She… she was gone. Frostlight… why couldn’t I have been here sooner?
I lifted my head off the ground, I glanced up towards Canterlot Castle, hued blood red by the eerie sky overhead. Inside was Discord, I was sure of that… but how could I hope to defeat him… how would I even save everyone in this game, when I couldn’t even save her?... Even after I promised her… that we’d come out of this deathtrap together?
But, as I gazed at the overwhelming structure before me, I spotted a lone figure, standing on the balcony that Frostlight had fallen from. Up there, I saw Chess Queen, gazing back down at me from her perch, like the vulture she was.
It was Chess Queen.
I watched as Chess Queen curtly turned away from the balcony, returning back into the tower… it was akin to a cold shoulder, but I only felt my blood boil at the sight of her.
“It… It was you!” I hissed through my bared teeth. ”You killed her!” My scream rang through the air as loud as all of my other cries had been.
But as I glanced upwards, it was only then that I realized that my cries had attracted unwanted attention, as I saw three nightmare monsters quickly descending from the crimson sky above, fangs bared and claws snapping.
They were getting in the way between me and settling the score with Chess Queen… between me and avenging Frostlight’s death!
“STAY. OUT. OF. MY. WAY!” I roared at them as I reached towards my weapons on my back. The instant my sword ripped out of its sheath, it burst into flames; burning with white fire as my rage seeped into my spell.
I kicked off the ground with a single flap of my wings, and in an instant, I met the monsters head on. Not even sparing them a glance, my blade tore through them like a guillotine; one blow to each igniting their gruesome forms before leaving them to burn to death on their way to the ground below.
My flight path aimed straight towards the balcony Chess had been, I streaked across the sky like a bullet, before crushing the ground like gravel beneath my hooves. The floor where I landed was crushed like dust as my hooves left flaming craters in their wake. I turned my gaze towards the tower’s interior, giving a look that I would have liked to kill the one I found waiting for me, tower shield in her magical grasp as she stood in the center of the room.
”You,” I seethed, with all the amount of hatred I could muster, ”You did this. You killed Frostlight! You murdered her!”
Chess Queen simply stared back at me, emotionless. There wasn’t even a single tone of guilt in her voice as she replied, “If we are to survive under Lord Discord’s rule, sacrifices must be made.”
In the corners of my eyes, I vaguely noticed what seemed to be tendrils of white flames licking the sides of my vision. But Chess Queen's curt reply kept my gaze leveled at her, the flames covering my sword intensifying as I felt more enraged than ever before, "SHE WAS YOUR FRIEND! SHE TRUSTED YOU, AND YOU BACK-STABBED HER TO SAVE YOUR OWN HIDE!"
Chess Queen bitterly gave a tsk, "If you were faced with a choice to survive, would you take it, or would you have both you and your friends die together? Frostlight was my friend, but what good would it have done her if we both died because of her 'mistake'?" She narrowed her eyes, "Tell me, Shadowflame. What would you have done to stand against Discord?"
"I would have died for them!"
That... was when my vision turned red: right when I felt my body blaze into a raging inferno of white fire.
___________________________________________________
Chess Queen watched in emotionless surprise, but surprise nonetheless, as Shadowflame’s form was engulfed in the raging white fire. His voice had harshly dropped into a deeper tone, sounding more like it belonged to a monster from the pits of Hell. That fact alone caused her fur to stand up on end, despite everything she had seen in the last few weeks.
Of course, that could have only been because of the twinge of fear that came with the realization that this time, she was on the receiving end of this frightening rage.
The inferno of a fiery vortex whipped itself around Shadow’s non-visible form, like a raging tornado as the magnitude of it caused the wind to breeze wildly through the room and scattering any loose items within it. But at the peak of its intensity, the flames burst like a firecracker, letting loose tongues of fire to scorch almost every inch of the room. Had Chess not raised her shield to deflect direct contact, she was sure she would have been incinerated for a good chunk of her health, if not more.
With the fire dispersed, a figure was revealed standing where Shadow had been before. He was an alicorn that stood twice Chess Queen’s height, with a white mane and tail that billowed about like an open flame… no, those were actual flames. His fur was now a sickly black color, like burnt charcoal. His cutie mark wasn’t visible beneath his armor, a full body, dark grey plated armor that covered almost every inch of his body. And finally, his signature cloak still trailed across his back from where it connected to his armor.
Drawing his sword and shield in bright, white magic, the alicorn that used to be Shadowflame glared down at Chess Queen with burning red eyes, ones that seemed to spark with flying embers as they snapped towards anyone that met them with their own. His voice, a cruel distortion of what it had been, came out in a deafening roar.
”GO TO HELL AND BURN!”
Chess Queen allowed herself to grimace in anticipation at her foe, putting her tower shield between herself and the alicorn… though as she did, she caught sight of his health bar, or rather, the ID above it: Nightmare Pyre
Chess quickly backed up, lighting her horn in a burst of magic as she summoned monsters to take place in front of her, between her and her assailant. In a flash, two fighters were appeared in the middle of the room, a berserker pony, armed with little armor, bristling muscles, and a sword whose length trumped even his own body size. The other was a cloaked archer, with a long bow and a hooffull of knives in his grasp.
As Chess Queen backed up farther towards the door exiting the tower (always good to have an escape route at the ready), the berserker charged Nightmare Pyre with a roar that matched the alicorn’s, his giant sword ready in the grip of his mouth. Meanwhile, The ranger pony began firing arrows at rapid speeds towards the black alicorn.
Nightmare Pyre didn’t spare a glance as the arrows protruded through the open parts of his armor, not even flinching in pain as he kept his red eyes on the berserker. In less than a moment, the giant pony was within the reach of Pyre’s sword, and the berserker’s giant blade was already swinging in a wide arc towards him.
“Die.” Pyre spat, before suddenly swinging his sword in a silver blur over the top of the berserker’s head. The moment, the sword collided, the force of the impact caused the giant pony to suddenly buckle down, collapsing to the floor in a heap as Pyre’s blade sliced through his skull.
To Chess Queen’s shock, the berserker suddenly became engulfed with white flames, before bursting into code not a moment later.
Another arrow flew from the ranger’s bow, lodging itself with twelve other arrows that riddled the cracks of the joints between Nightmare Pyre’s plated armor. But as it did, Pyre glared at the ranger with a hiss of pain. Suddenly his horn blazed brightly with white fire, and instantly the ranger spontaneously combusted in writhing agony, before collapsing and bursting into code like the berserker had not ten seconds ago.
With the only attackers in the room gone, Pyre glanced back towards where Chess Queen stood, or rather where the mare had been standing before. Just behind said spot was the door leading out of the tower, slowly swinging on its hinges to reveal someone had slipped through it just recently.
Pyre snarled in fury, his gigantic charcoal wings spreading out at his sides as they propelled him forwards toward Chess Queen’s escape route, and upon reaching the portal, broke through the door with the sheer power behind the impact. Pyre was met by the flight of stairs that led down towards the lower levels of the castle, and throughout the stairwell, he could hear the sound of fleeing hooves echo on the walls.
”GET BACK HERE!” The nightmare rumbled as he pursued her down the stairs. She was his prey, and he wasn’t about to let her get away. Not without seeing her disappear like her pitiful pawns!