"Come on Rarity! We made it! We've finally made it!" shouted Twilight in excitement climbing up a set of frozen steps leading to a giant set of doors made of ice in an even bigger wall. Towers and turrets could be seen reaching high up into the sky over the brim of the wall all surrounding one main structure which resembled the main structure of the Crystal Empire. At the top of the main structure the mysterious aura they had been following the entire time was clearly visible rising into the sky where it dispersed into different directions.
"Isn't it beautiful, Rarity! Not only are we discovering an entirely new form of magic but quite possibly an entire new undiscovered civilization!"
"That's wonderful dear, but could you do me a favor and slow down?" Said Rarity struggling to keep up behind her. "We've not stopped for a break since you first laid eyes on this place and my hooves are just writhing in pain."
"Come on, Rarity, the doors are just ahead of us. You can rest once we get inside and sort out this snow storm problem we were sent to fix in the first place." Twilight was in so much joy, that she had forgotten how much her own body was aching due to their journey.
"Fine, I guess you are right after all." replied Rarity as the two ponies came face to face with the giant door in the wall of ice.
There were knockers in the door also made of ice but as Twilight reached out to use one the doors lurched and began to open on their own.
"Looks like they were expecting us, Rarity!" exclaimed Twilight still excited as ever. "This must be the welcoming party."
The doors opened all the way revealing a city resembling that of the Crystal Empire's with only one thing different. Nopony could be seen for miles.
"What?" Said Twilight, her excitement being replaced with curiosity. "I-I don't understand. Where is everypony?"
"Quite mysterious indeed." Replied Rarity. "It seems we've stumbled upon a ghost town. It doesn't look like this city's been touched for a really long time."
"I-I don't quite understand. There has to be somepony in this massive city." Said Twilight, still puzzled, "Why don't we split up and see if we can't try and find anyone."
"That would be the most efficient way of finding out whats going on." said Rarity.
"Alright then. You go left, I'll take right. We'll meet in the center at the main castle in approximately forty five minutes. If anything goes wrong or if you find something signal by shooting some magic into the air."
"Right, got it."
The two ponies went their separate ways searching the city for any signs of life or clues as to what would've happen to cause an entire city to go barren of it's people. The more Twilight took in her surroundings as she searched the more the city looked exactly like the Crystal Empire only made of ice. The streets were covered in snow drifts and every so often the wind would pick up and cause snow dust to fly around, occasionally slapping Twilight in the face.
She came to what seemed to be what was left of a library. Four pillars of ice held up a roof above two large doors at the top of a set of steps made of ice covered in snow. By now, in situations like these, it was almost second nature for Twilight to check the library for information first. She climbed the steps and opened the doors to reveal any book lover's worst nightmare: a library stripped clean of it's books.
The inside of the library was massive and lit by three massive chandeliers of heaven's lights crystals all in various colors, but not a single book or scroll was in sight. Twilight saw that something about the library was strange, however. She saw that everything inside the building was made of ice as well which was not usual after all she had seen so far but what was really strange were the bookshelves. Even though everything around her made of ice seemed more masterfully crafted they looked deformed as if something of intense heat had partially melted them.
Twilight went to inspect the scene out of curiosity and found pieces of burnt material and ash frozen in the remaining ice. With the amount of knowledge she had gathered she had arrived at the conclusion that any and all books, scrolls, and records were burned at one point in time but for reasons she did not know. Perhaps to hide the past from the future or maybe to keep ancient secrets hidden.
Just then a glimmer of light caught her eye causing her to shift her attention towards a desk towards the middle of the library which seemed to have been used as a receptionist desk. Twilight went to investigate. She found a crystal sitting in the middle of it and nothing else. Twilight attempted to pick the stone up but when her magic came into contact with it it sent out a pulse of light across the entire building. She began seeing ponies who weren't there before who seemed to be a part of the city's military forces by the uniforms and weapons they were carrying. Suddenly, the two main doors to the building swung open with force revealing a white alicorn mare standing behind it.
"Your highness, we have secured the library as you have ordered." said one of the higher ranking ponies.
"Are all scrolls and archives accounted for?" The white alicorn questioned.
"Yes, your highness."
"Burn everything."
"What?"
"Do it!" snapped the alicorn. "You know as well as I what I must do to protect this world. Before I do, it must be done. No matter what these documents must not fall into the wrong hands. Do you understand commander?"
"Yes... Of course."
At that moment a squad of ponies lit torches and ran up and down the bookshelves setting each ablaze with fire until there was not a shelf left ablaze. The scene began to glow with light until it all suddenly ceased from existing all except the white alicorn in the doorway who now stood staring down at Twilight. The stone that she held dissolved into the wind without a trace.
Twilight returned the alicorn's stare for a while until the mare spoke.
"The past can not be changed. Some may try to forget but in the end..." The alicorn turned and began to leave the building. "In the end it can only be accepted." she said as she left sight.
Twilight ran after her to see where she was going. When she got to the door she poked her head out only to be greeted by the mare face to face. The two then exchanged stares for a while longer until the alicorn suddenly pointed up towards the main castle and whispered, "Set me free." Immediately afterwards a strong wind blew and the mare slowly dissolved into snow dust and fly towards the main castle.
Twilight stood a while longer pondering what she had just seen before trotting off towards the main castle...
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"Nothing," said Rarity, "Nothing but snow, snow, and more snow." She continued to search the barren city. She took a look at her wrist device to see how long she had been searching. "Forty five minutes and still nothing. I guess it's time to start heading to the castle to meet Twilight." Just at that second, however, she heard heavy steps running behind her and she turned to the sound.
A large figure was traveling in and out between houses and alleyways making it hard for Rarity to pinpoint what the figure was or where it was going. She began to cower back in fear as she watched the figure. It was clear by now that it was circling her just waiting to strike.
"Leave me alone!" she shouted, but the figure didn't listen. Seconds later a giant ball of white fur jumped out of an alleyway on her right pinning her to the ground letting out a enormous roar in her face. At that moment, Rarity let out a bloodcurdling scream causing the figure to back off and cover its ears in fear.
"Jeez, Rarity, calm down it's just us." said a familiar voice from atop the figure. Rarity settled down a bit when she heard the voice. She saw two ponies dismounting a giant white bear.
"Applejack? Fluttershy? Is that really you?" Questioned Rarity.
"Yep, sure is." said Applejack. "Who else were you expecting?"
"And this is Frost Claw," Fluttershy said petting him on the head, "You gave him quite the scare with that scream, he was just so eager to meet an new friend."
"Hey, wasn't Twilight with you?" asked Applejack.
"That's funny you should mention. Actually, I'm on my way to meet up with her again. We split up to search the city."
"Oh no," said Fluttershy, "You two split up?"
"Is that a problem darling?"
"It's just that, well..." Before Fluttershy could finish what she was saying, a crack sounded from above them in the sky causing all of them to lookup. They saw a trail of white light flying through the sky heading right towards them.
"What the hay is that?" said Applejack.
"I have no idea but might I suggest we move before it hits us!" shouted Rarity.
The ponies scattered to the sides of the road as the object came in and landed with such a great force that all the snow in the area was kicked up and thrown aside in a massive gust of wind. The ponies that had scattered to the sides began making their way back into the street as the snow flurries began to settle on the ground.
"How's it going everypony? I hope we aren't too late." came Pinkie Pie's voice.
The snow settled revealing Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash standing in the center of the street in their armor made completely of light. After a short while the light armor faded leaving the two standing once more in their snow suits just like before.
"What the?" said Applejack, "Where the hay did that armor come from?"
"To be honest, AJ, neither of us really know," said Rainbow Dash, "But one this is for certain, It was totally awesome!"
"Does anypony care to explain any of this to me, please?" asked Rarity.
Immediately the rest of the ponies turned to face Rarity and simultaneously said, "There's no time! Where's Twilight?"
"Do you know where she is Rarity?" asked Applejack.
"We were supposed to meet back up at the base of the main castle in just a little bit."
"Come on then!" said Rainbow Dash, "Hopefully we can catch her before she accidentally releases Hoarfrost without us around."
"Release who?" said Rarity gust before she was grabbed by Applejack and hoisted onto Frost Claw's back where the rest of the ponies were waiting. Frost Claw then took off heading towards the castle as fast as he could.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The doors creaked and echoed throughout the entire abandoned castle as Twilight pushed them open. She had entered a hallway which had many doors along the sides no windows and icicles hanging off every inch of the ceiling. She was continuing to follow the figure of the white alicorn that she found when she was searching the library. It continued to fade in and out of existence as it traveled down the hallway. Twilight followed closely
"This way," the figure kept whispering, "Set me free."
When it got to the end of the hallway the figure phased through a giant set of doors at the end of the hallway and everything went completely silent. Twilight slowly grabbed the doors' handles with her unicorn magic as she scanned her surroundings for anything she might have missed as she was following the figure down the hall. There was nothing.
Twilight turned back towards the doors and swung them open to reveal a truly astounding sight. The room she had entered perfectly resembled that of the Crystal Empire's to the smallest detail only made of ice. There were windows on ever wall and the throne was made entirely out of ice crystals. In the middle of the room was a ginormous ice block surrounded by the blue and green aura that she had been searching for the entire time she was on her journey. As she drew closer to the block of ice she could see that on the inside was the frozen body of the white alicorn figure she had been following.
"Set me free, Twilight Sparkle," the voice said sweetly coming from behind her but when she turned there was nopony there. "Only you can do it. I can teach you how to master this new for of magic. You'll be so much more powerful, with knowledge of ancient times which surpasses even that of Princess Celestia. Don't you want to know what it truly means to be called 'The Descendant?' Most importantly, I can end the snowstorm that is causing so much pain and despair back home."
There was no hesitation in Twilight's mind when the voice spoke to her. Stopping the snowstorm was her primary mission since the beginning.
"What must I do?" she asked.
"All you have to do," the voice returned, "Is shatter the ice. Cast your most powerful spell. Set me free."
Twilight lowered her head and aimed her horn at the block of ice and began to charge a magic bolt. The spell grew and grew until Twilight could barely control it but she maintain her composure and kept it at it's brink.
Suddenly the door behind her slammed open and somepony shout, "WAIT!"
Twilight was startled by the loud unexpected noise and accidentally gave the spell too much energy causing it to fire upon the block of ice. When her magic met with the magic aura of the ice block it created a magical explosion shattering all of the windows and throwing Twilight back across the room.
Maniacal laughter filled the room shortly after. Twilight picked herself up off the floor and looked towards where the ice block was and saw the alicorn that was frozen on the inside now lying on the ground lifeless. A shadow began to form around it gathering on top of it and taking the shape of a stallion as the laughter continued. Soon the stallion had materialized out of the shadow into a hulking black pony with razor sharp fangs, glowing blue eyes and white flowing mane. A snow storm kicked up once more and snow began to swarm into the room through the broken windows.
"My, my, not much has changed in over a millennium has it, Galacia?" the stallion said nudging the alicorn's lifeless body. "Should I kill you now? Or should I punish you for trapping me in such way by letting you watch the rest of the world suffer under my frozen hoof?" The stallion picked up his hoof and slammed it down against the alicorn's chest revealing that the alicorn was not lifeless by causing her to scream out in pain. The hoof began to channel frost onto the skin of the alicorn's body causing her extreme pain.
"Leave her alone!" shouted Twilight.
The black stallion quickly shifted his gaze to Twilight. "HOW DARE YOU ORDER ME AROUND!" the black stallion shouted back taking his hoof off the alicorn's chest. "I AM KING FROST THORN! RIGHTFUL RULER OF THE ICE FLOW EMPIRE! AND I WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH!"
"You are no king," the alicorn struggled to say underneath her breath. "What king sacrifices his own subjects to feed his own lust for power?"
The black stallion lowered his head and stared the alicorn dead in the eyes. "That is why ponies like you call me by a different name." The black stallion looked back up at Twilight, "Hoarfrost," he continued, "Lord of Despair, and bringer of demise."
"We won't let you win, Hoarfrost!" came a voice from behind Twilight resembling that of Rainbow Dash's.
Twilight turned around and found all of her friends, with the addition of a white bear she had never seen before, were standing behind her.
"We shall see all in due time," Hoarfrost responded. Immediately after he had finished speaking the walls of the throne room shattered as a humongous dragon crashed through them. The dragon lifted Hoarfrost off the ground and placed him on it's back and gave out a loud roar.
"But before we do, I have some matter that need taken care of in a place I have been secretly monitoring from within my prison as my primary target of interest. Canterlot, as I remember it being called. I do hope you can come join the party. Let's go Salzaura."
At that moment the Dragon took to the sky, turned, and made it's heading southward. It wasn't long before Hoarfrost and the dragon were out of sight. Almost immediately after the dragon had vanished from their sights all of Twilight's friends, as well as the bear that was accompanying them, raced to the white alicorn's body. Twilight stood frozen in shock and deep in thought as to what just happened.
"Are you alright, your highness?" said Fluttershy.
"I'll be fine, Fluttershy," the mare returned rising onto her hooves again. "Just give me some space." The ponies gave her the space she asked for and once she was on her feet again the white bear gently rubbed his head against her. "I missed you too Frost Claw. But now's not the time. Come, with me. I'll explain the situation as we walk."
The White alicorn began to hastefully walk down the halls of the castle turning this way and that. "For those of you who don't know, mainly Twilight, my name is Queen Galacia and the black stallion you saw back there was indeed Hoarfrost as he has said but he wasn't born with that name. Originally his name was King Frost Thorn, my husband."
"Husband?!" the ponies shouted in shock.
"Back in the days before he became Hoarfrost he was a kind and merciful king. That was until the day our civilization discovered a new form of magic. One that did not favor race such as unicorn but hope,"
"Schools and studies were made soon after in order to teach and train ponies in the use of this new type of magic. Eventually it was found that certain ponies were favored more than others simply because they had the more will and hope in their souls. They became strong in the art and were later named the Guardians of Hope, a division which acted as peacekeepers in our empire. There were six total, non of which were the king himself."
"This, of course angered the king. He did not like the thought of another pony being more powerful than him in any way and thus his attitude changed towards life. Eventually he found a way that he could become more powerful that the strongest of the Guardians but at the cost of many lives. He developed the technique of stealing a pony's hope and taking their power for his own but in doing so the technique would kill the victim but the king did not care. One fateful night the king himself turned on his empire. It was him alone versus an entire empire and yet with every kill he did not show any signs of fatigue or mercy. He took the hope of every citizen without warning. Every time he performed the technique it warped his body until he turned into his current form. He became so powerful he summoned a dragon to fight along his side with the promise of eternal life."
"One by one he took on the Guardians of Hope and each of them fell to his horror."
"I was the only one left and I knew what I must do to save the future of this world."
"With all the hope for a brighter tomorrow I drew upon my strength and as Hoarfrost attempted to perform his dark technique on me I trapped him within my shadow. I could only hold him for so long so I cast another spell in order to trap both of us in a block of ice. Not to be seen again for more than 5,000 years. The new source of magic had died at that time."
"Now for some reason the magic resurfaced and Hoarfrost began to act as a parasite, using the magic to project his soul across the world to cause havoc and attempt to get somepony to free him from his prison."
"And that pony was me." said Twilight lowering her head in shame, "I set him free and now he's going to attack Canterlot. It's all my fault."
"No my child, it is not your fault." Queen Galacia said, "If Hoarfrost wasn't going to get his way from within the ice he was willing to freeze the entire world over. The only true way of defeating him was to let him out and best him in the world."
"But I thought you said the Guardians had all fallen." said Rainbow Dash, "Weren't they the only ones who were even close to defeating him?"
"Guardians are not born, they are made." Galacia responded. "And I can see that each of you have just as much strength in the art of hope to match each one of them. Not only that but this time we have something we did not have back then." The group finally stopped at a door much bigger an more decorated with beautifully crafted ice crystals than any in the entire castle and Queen Galacia turned to look Twilight straight in the eyes.
"We have the Descendant."
"Me?" asked Twilight. Galacia nodded back. "But what exactly does that mean?"
"In due time," replied Galacia, "Right now we must equip you for the battle ahead."
Galacia lowered her head and inserted her horn into what seemed to be a keyhole of some sort and the entire door began to glow. After a while the doors slowly opened revealing six pedestals each with a necklace with a single glowing crystal on the end suspended by an unseen force.
"It was discovered that this type of stone was able to channel the magic into powerful weaponry and armor. After we found this out we found the six of the purest type of these stones and gifted them to the Guardians as necklaces so that they would always be able to draw upon their power. Once they had fallen I was able to recover them and I locked them away behind this door in hopes that one day they'd find use again. Today is that day."
The ponies stared up at the necklaces in awe at the colors which radiated off of the gemstones. Twilight knew exactly what type of stones they were. They were Heaven's Lights.
"Well don't just sit there. Put them on." said Galacia, "Hoarfrost could be assaulting Canterlot as we speak."
Each of the ponies ran up to a necklace and put them on. Immediately the stones began to glow and cover each pony with light taking on the form of armor. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were both equipped with the same weapons and armor as they acquired in the caves. Fluttershy had a set of rounded defensive looking armor with a massive wall shield slung upon her back. Applejack's armor appeared offensive in nature while still maintaining basic defensive features. She was given a smaller kite shield which seemed fastened to her left arm and a sheathed long sword on her left hip. Rarity's armor seemed lightest of the group but also very durable. She was given a set of razor sharp hoof blades.
"Now this is definitely more stylish than those tacky suits Dr. Frost gave us." said Rarity.
All Twilight was given, however, was a cloak made of pure light and a mask with two narrow diagonal slashes going down towards her muzzle to see out of.
"Great, now that we are all suited up and ready to go, how are we going to get back to Canterlot in time to stop Hoarfrost?" said Rainbow Dash.
At that moment another dragon, which was slightly smaller in size, burst through the wall of the castle and let out a big roar. The ponies coward back slightly to the sight but Galacia stood there smiling at them.
"What?" she said, "Hoarfrost isn't the only one capable of raising a dragon from the dead." The ponies stared at each other for lack of any words to say. "This is Frostbite, in short, she's Salzaura's little sister. Now, come on, she doesn't bite unless I tell her to. Climb aboard and hold tight."
The ponies ran up the dragon's back and seated themselves on the dragon's back.
"If you want to come help us, it's probably going to be a rough ride for you Frost Claw." Galacia said to the bear to which the bear responded with a confident roar. It was clear that he wanted to come along. "Alright then, don't say I didn't warn you."
The dragon reached out and took Frost Claw into it's talon as gently as it could and then took off full force into the sky heading for Canterlot.