//------------------------------//
// A thin veil 
// Story: Deer Me: Black Snow 
// by The Psychopath 
//------------------------------//

"These are the basic forms of spirits. They have yet to become something determined, like I am," the windigo flaunted.

Stelimus patted one away from his face, and, surprisingly enough, it abided and flew away. The others stared on and some started playing around with the orbs. The windigo flew towards them and rest her head on her forelegs.

"Spirits who receive positive energy, like the ones you are playing with, become 'good' spirits." She scoffed. "At least, 'good' by your own people's classification. Good spirits help everything they can, but don't try to irritate them or destroy what they like for they can become some of the most dangerous incorporeal creatures to exist." She looked around and noticed Stelimus swatting the balls away from him and attracting more, erratically sparking balls. "Giving any form of negativity to a spirit can change it to something...sinister."

One of the balls kept bopping Stelimus on the head, angering him to the point where he intercepted its flight path and smashed it under hoof and into the snow. He was quite proud of himself and stood in place as if getting his victory pose ready for cameras, but the snow beneath him started to rumble and crackle while a black light flashed through. Eventually, the stag was tossed away and a terrifying creature erupted out from beneath. It stepped towards Stelimus and chuckled while tilting its head left and right.

Its body was a chitinous black and its head was...disproportionate in several areas. The forehead was replaced by an upside-down maw filled with teeth and the normal area for a mouth still had one identical to the mouth above it. The middle area was bare but deformed with a crevice here and an outgrowth there. The main body was very mangled and was almost akin to fleshy string with some solid bits of chopped beef held in freezers. It had two right arms with three lanky, sharp fingers; and a single left arm identical to the other two. Its lower body was just a tail comprised of many different 'threads' of 'flesh', and it was whipping around in the snow. Its mouths would occasionally open up and let leak a blue, bile-like substance that melted in the snow.

"Congratulations, Gregary. You're the only deer I've met to create a Barmephant," the windigo said with no emotion. She was very apathetic to the whole event, although she did scratch the back of her head. "Granted, I haven't met many deer. Still."

The creature inched slowly towards Stelimus and eventually slashed its right arms at him, missing him narrowly. Now that he started to gallop away, it followed after, considering the chase to be a game.

"Barmephants are spirits distorted by the current activities they were performing in their pre-spiritness and interactions with the 'living'. They're actually quite malevolent. This one is a newborn so it only immediately imitates its previous existence."

A fawn stepped up and asked:

"Shouldn't we be helping him?"

"Why?...Oh. Right. They want me to bring them all back alive from the trips. Ummm, do any of you have the blood of a locust?" They all shook their heads. "Then you won't have the rest. Three of you just step right there and two of you join your hooves in an arc pattern. Now you stick your head underneath and cover your face."

"Why?"

"Do it," she replied coldly. "Your friend will arrive shortly."

The three fawns in question shrugged and did as told. Sure enough, Gregary came running back like a buffalo with the barmephant playfully chasing after him and slicing up the snow in front of it. The fawn had the mind to dodge the 'totem' in front of him, but the barmephant did not. The second it saw it it started being pushed away by some unknown force. It tried to struggle but eventually dissolved into some sort of water substance and flew away into the wind, leaving Stelimus to fall onto his haunches and let his jaw drop. He was in complete disbelief.

"What the hell is this? What's going on? I actually felt some sort of real pain when it tossed me, then it chased me? I'm definitely in a coma so I'm perceiving time wrong, but then, how did this happen? How? It couldn't be...I haven't been in denial for so long, have I?"

The windigo wrapped around Stelimus and exhaled some freezing cold air onto his face. "Snap out of it. You already broke half my class with your little routine so we'll skip directly to frost magic."

A young, white doe hopped in front of the spirit and asked:

"But teacher, why did what they do work?" Filiane asked.

"Because barmephants hate constricting environments. The rounded shape of the joined hooves represents anything above its head, like a roof or a cave wall, and the face being covered shows its complete lack of freedom, being both bound, blinded, and trapped."

Stelimus cracked his neck slowly towards the windigo and had a look of pure horror on his face. "How did I ruin it? I didn't know what would have happened! You could have told us sooner that any negative interactions would have consequences on those balls of light!"

"It is your fault that it was created."

"How is it MY fault?! I didn't even know what they were! You were supposed to teach us this!" He pointed accusingly to the spirit.

"Isn't it a given that any negative interactions will have negative consequences?"

"I...Um..." Stelimus' hoof slowly lowered in defeat.

The windigo continued to display no emotion and turned back to the class. "To use frost magic, you must use your essence, your being. For windigos, it's simply what we do when massive, interminable arguments occur. It comes naturally, and we freeze those responsible in eternal arguments so that we may feed from them." The deer shivered, but a few didn't react. "For frost magic, the best way I've learned for deer to use it is by finding a focal point to channel your thoughts or emotions through. I--" She slapped a deer that appeared to be trying to focus. "No focusing. That doesn't help."

"Then how are we supposed to find what to focus on?" a doe asked.

"I didn't say focus. I said focal point. You're supposed to bring the energy through your body and bring that energy from around you."

Oporus groaned and closed his eyes. A sudden flash of black frost erupted from his hooves and coated a small portion of the snow around him. "Like that," he said.

"If we sharpen that edge any more he might cut through the planet just by walking," Stelimus mused.

"Very good. He's channeling his whinyness and made it into black ice."

The stag was appalled. "Whinyness?!" he repeated.

The windigo ignored his personal horror and gently floated around the group. "You should be able to feel the cold flowing through you. Use that cold and let it flow to the tips of your limbs. That will be the first part of it the lesson. I won't go any further until you can do it like your friend."

Stelimus watched everyone, save Oporus, start to force their bodies to do who knew what. Naturally, it wasn't working and just made them look like they were trying to evacuate their innards. The fawn walked up to the windigo and paced himself at her speed.

"You're a bad teacher, you know that?"

"And you're a bad student."

"To be a student, one needs to have a teacher." He looked ironically and appeared puzzled. "If you notice, there are none around here."

"That's a nice quip, unfortunately, we already made that quip before you, so windigos basically made you, which means we can unmake you, which I just did."

Stelimus blinked. "You're really good at this 'argument' thing." The windigo didn't reply. "Right...So in this dream I can use ice magic? Sounds simple enough."

Gregary stopped following his 'teacher' and remained in place. An hour had passed and all the fawns were getting incredibly upset at their lack of progress. If Oporus wasn't such a non-conformist he could probably be mocking them as loudly as possible. Even the so-called god-king's own blood was incapable of mustering up the energy required. He only felt his blood vessels chill which grossed him out and frightened him briefly.

"Looks like you all fail. Well, we'll continue this tomorrow."

"But--" several of the fawns protested.

"You didn't explain anything correctly and just rushed over them all..." Stelimus growled under his breath.

Before they knew it, the barrier had collapsed, coating everyone in snow. As before, the windigo picked everyone up and tossed hem back into the snow. The lamps had already been lit and let the little flames flutter gently within their heads. Once fully recovered, several of the fawn left the 'class' and fled as far away from the windigo as possible. It truly terrified them.

"I bet that bitch is internally rubbing her hooves menacingly together and snickering at our expense," Stelimus glared at the windigo.

He was unexpectedly hoisted out from the snow by an unusually large doe flanked by a young stag of average proportions. "Uhhh, thanks for helping me out," Stelimus said with embarrassment.

"It's nothing," the doe replied.

The stag stepped forward and said:

"Hi! I'm Radivus. This is my half-sister, Tenyom." The giant lifted a hoof briefly then dropped it.

The giant was a shiny orange-brown color save for a few brown spots on her face, and the tiny one had a reversed color scheme compared to his half-sister.

"So, you want to do something in the city? Go to the candy shop, play around...watch my sister trick people into thinking she's weak and frail then con them out of their money with a foreleg wrestle?"

"I--" Stelimus caught sight of the sergeant in the corner of his eye before he could give a proper response. "I'm sorry, but not right now. I'm not sure if I'll ever be properly free for events with you. I mean, it's not like I don't want to socialize, but I have many pressing, familial matters."

"Oh. Okay then. See you tomorrow at 'actual' school, then," Radivus waved his foreleg to the leaving stag.

Finally reunited with the guard, Stelimus made a sigh of relief while walking down the streets with the single reindeer.

"I take it you had a rough day?" Maninim wondered.

"Yes. First I get terrified by a spirit, then we're thrown outside the walls, and then I get attacked by a sabre-tyrant."

"I hope the teacher chased the spirit away. You don't yet have the knowledge to fend them off."

Stelimus rubbed his leg. "Umm...That's the thing. The teacher is...a spirit."

Maninim stopped in his tracks and Gregary could see his right eye twitch. "What spirit is it?"

"A windigo."

"A WIN--No. I'll talk about this to your father. I don't want to make a scene."

"IIIIII think it's too late for that," Stelimus said while pointing around him.

The sergeant noticed that pretty much everyone was staring at him after his outburst.

"It's like we're Abbott and Costello."

"Who?"

"Yes. He's on first."

"What's on first?"

"No he's on second."

"Who's on second?"

"No, he's on first."

"Who's on first?"

"Yes."

Mananim face-hoofed.

"I bet I could do the whole routine with this sucker."

Finally in front of the entrance to his home, the first thing Stelimus did was laugh hysterically, tears of joy erupting from his eyes and blinding him to whatever was in front. Mananim was absolutely perplexed at whatever the young fawn was laughing at. The laughing stopped when Stelimus bumped into something large and fell on his haunches. Looking up, the fawn thought he came face-to-face with the Reaper itself, then a thought hit him.

"Uncle Grimliss?"

"Nephew Stelimus!"

The hood dropped to show the stag's creepy undead face surrounded by his dark energies. He picked up Stelimus with his weird dark energies and hugged him, crushing the young stag.

"What brings you here so early?" the fawn forced out.

"Well, I'm going to take you to the Crystal Kingdom, and we're going to be escorted by the ponies and my own guard...who don't appear to be here right now."

Grimliss looked around and narrowed his eyes, if he actually had any and started to look around. Stelimus was greeted by an overzealous unicorn just barely above his height. Her mane was a fiery orange and made to look like a soft flame flickering in powerful winds but refusing to extinguish. Her coat was less energetic and was a complimentary, firetruck red, just like her eyes.

The unicorn clicked her hooves together and saluted the two. "FLAME ARROW REPORTING FOR DUTY!" she bellowed.

Both Grimliss and Stelimus slowly bent away from her as if they were facing a new escapee from an insane asylum.