//------------------------------// // 10: Library recovery // Story: Dawn of The Ice King // by KingdomBrony16 //------------------------------// I opened my eyes slowly, blinking a few times… everything felt stiff and numb and something was on my left hand… When my vision finally cleared enough and my eyes adjusted to the light I saw I was in a hospital room. Why was I in a hospital room? What… what happened? Then I remembered… oh yeah… Dark Magic hit me pretty hard… I looked over myself and saw both my legs were in casts; my right arm was as well, most of my torso was covered in bandages as was my left arm. And Fluttershy was on my left hand asleep… wait Fluttershy? I tried to sit up but nothing would move except for my neck and left arm, which I moved from under her and started to pet her, she started to purr, "That's still weird." I croaked out. Well my voice is a bit…. Hmmm. I heard the door to my room open and for some reason the peripheral vision in my left eye wasn't so good so I had to turn my head to look at who came in. It was a nurse, when she saw I was awake she gasped and I put my finger to my lips, "Shh, she's asleep" I said quietly. "Oh I'm sorry; I just didn't expect you to be awake." She said as she walked to the other side of my bed checking things that I couldn't really see. "Mmmm, how long was I out?" I saw that it was the daylight out so I assumed through the night. "About a week, you were pretty banged up." She said. "Did you say a week?" My mouth was dry and I tried to swallow which led to coughing. Not loud or hard enough to wake Fluttershy up. The nurse handed me a cup which I took graciously and chugged down, "I did say a week, and we actually expected you to be out for another few days." She looked down at Fluttershy, "That poor dear has been in here every day unless someone came and got her, other than that she's been here all the time watching you. I've even caught her singing to you a few times. She'd get embarrassed if she knew I was there so whenever I heard it I'd wait outside for her to finish and then come in pretending like I didn't hear anything." "Thank you, she loves to sing but as I'm sure you've guessed she's very shy about it, and she really only sings to me openly and that's rarely." I said playing with her ear for a quick second. "She must really care for you to sit in a stuffy hospital all day." The nurse said checking some charts. "You have no idea… I don't know what I'd do without her. I hope I didn't worry her too much. Though I'm going to get such a stern talking to when she wakes up." I gave a laugh and coughed again being handed another glass of water. "Thanks nurse… Uhm, I don't think I got your name." "Needle Point, nurse Needle Point." She said smiling. "Hmm fitting name, well thank you Nurse Needle Point." Again I couldn't see that well out of my left eye for some reason, "Hey, do you know why I can't see out of my left eye that well?' She hesitated for a second, "W-well that's because you don't have a left eye anymore…" She was joking right of course I still had my left eye right? I mean it was right here. I lifted my head to my left eye and felt bandages over it as well as an indent… "Oh… I-I guess I don't…" "Are you going to be ok?" She asked. I just nodded silently, "Alright, I'm going to go tell the Dr. Braveheart you're awake, if you need me just press that red button there. I looked at the remote next to me with my one eye and nodded. After she left I could feel tears rolling down one side of my face and that just made it worse. But I didn't make any noise, I didn't want to wake Fluttershy up, so I just let the tears stream down my face and continued to pet her. She woke up soon after though and felt me petting her. "Mmmm… Chris…" Then her eyes shot open, "Chris!" She sat up and smiled at me about to say something but then she saw I was crying and her smile disappeared. "Chris… what's… what's wrong?" I tried to answer her but when I opened my mouth my voice would hitch and a soft whine would come out which only made my cry more. So instead I lifted my hand up to the bandage side of my face. And she understood so she just took my hand and squeezed it softly. She held my hand while I cried and told me what happened. How everyone was watching as I had surgery done on me. What they all said, how they all didn't want me to die. That's when I was crying tears of sadness, happiness, and regret. I made my friends worry so much; I made them sad, I made them cry. Eventually I stopped crying but I still couldn't talk. "Are you feeling better?" Fluttershy asked. I waved my hand back and forth, "A little bit, I see, would you like some water?" I nodded and she got me another cup, which I drank slowly this time before finishing off. "Better?" I nodded again. "I was so scared." She started to say, "I was so scared that you weren't going to wake up, I was so scared I was going to lose you." She was crying now, "Everypony told me you'd be ok but I could tell they weren't sure either. Pinkie was always so happy, so positive, but I could tell that other than me she was the one who was most affected." She sniffed, "Everyone came by to visit one at a time and talked to you, hoping you would wake up. I sung to you every day, hoping you would wake up. They even brought you presents from the town." I looked around and I saw numerous knick knacks but one thing stood out, it was a heart and a snowflake carved out of Crystal. I touched her cheek to get her attention and pointed to it. "I saw it and thought of you, I thought you would like it. Since you made these for us." She pointed to her ice pin. "We've haven't taken them off once, I saw that and thought that if you were a pony your cutie mark would be a heart." I could feel my eyes watering again; I gave her the 'come here' signal with my finger. She stood up and got closer. I did it again and she leaned down, I place my hand on her face, caressing her cheek and pulled a bit closer. When she was close enough I kissed her and I felt more tears roll down my cheek. It was a salty kiss from our tears but it was a loving kiss. "Ahem!" we heard, she backed away with a squeak, and I turned my head to look who that came from, it was a doctor and all my friends. "I hope we aren't interrupting anything." The doctor said and I'm assuming he was Braveheart. I shook my head and smiled sheepishly at them. Fluttershy was blushing hard and hiding in the collar of her sweater. "Oh you can't talk? Hmmm that's not good." The doctor said checking his charts. I let out a sigh, "I can… I just…" my voice sounded a bit better. "Sound like a frog trying to woo a chainsaw." Rainbow said, gaining looks from everyone. "What? He does." I started to laugh having that mental imagine. But my laugh sounded even worse than my voice which caused everyone else to laugh eventually the room was full of laughter and anyone walking passed the room to see what was going on and then shook their heads and left assuming that they dwelled into insanity. "It's good to see you up though guy." Rainbow said and then winced at her choice of words. Well that killed the mood. "Yeah, see…" I said quietly. "Sorry I didn't mean…" Rainbow tried to say. "It's ok I know you didn't. So how much longer will I be in here doc?" He looked over his charts again and checked the machines by my bed, "Hmmm well it seems you've healed faster than we thought, normally this wouldn't be much of a big deal since… you know magic and all but you are highly resistant to magic. Yet despite that you have an extremely fast healing factor, I think, we don't know how fast this is compared to the rest of your species, but you should be fine but everything is going to be stiff and not wanting to move. If you haven't already tried." "Yeah it normally takes months for a human to recover from broken anything if not years depending on what's broken. I did try to move as well and all I can do is talk, move my neck, and my left arm." I said while demonstrating each. "That's probably mainly because of the casts, those will be removed within the next hour or so." He said. "In fact… after the casts are gone you should be free to go, we're going to want to do a few last tests but, yeah, other than that you're fine." "So does that mean I can give him a big hug now?" Pinkie asked, getting a nod from the doctor. "Yippee!" She jumped on me and pulled me into her chest, hugging me tight. As much as I would love to be smothered in Pinkie's chest any other day, I tapped her on the arm, "Pinkie… boobs… can't… breathe…" She held me back with an apologetic smile as I took deep breaths of sweet sweet air. "Pinkie, I'm glad I'm ok too but don't go putting me back in the hospital while I'm still here." She got off of me with a giggle, "Hehehehe… Sorry, Chrissy." "Hmm yes, well, I'll be back in an hour to remove the casts and do the last tests. I'll leave you all to catch up." He flipped all the papers back on his clipboard and made his way out the room. Once he left I got rushed by the rest being hugged, "Ok, ok, ok… I'm happy to see you all too." I said with a laugh. Once I had them all off of me I looked around and frowned, "I'm sorry…" "For what sugar?" AJ asked. "I worried you all, I made all of you cry. I'm not supposed to make you all cry, you're all my friends I'm supposed to protect you." I said, not meeting any of them in the eye. "Darling, you did protect us. If it weren't for you that brute, Sombra, would've gotten into the Empire and who knows what would've happened if he did." Rarity said. "Sombra… he hasn't attacked since has he?" I asked. "Surprisingly no… Which is weird, I think he would've thawed out by now and came back, don't you?" Twilight asked. "Maybe, I'm not sure, well what have you guys been doing for the past week?" "Well…" Twilight told me that they learned there was a festival to cheer the ponies here up and possibly return their memories, I asked about the doctors and nurses here. They were brought in from Equestria, which made sense, ponies didn't have memories? Call in the medical experts first. So the set up this festival using a book on the history of the Crystal Empire that Twilight found. But there was a page missing which she didn't find until later that mentioned something about a Crystal Heart that could repel evil. And apparently she looked everywhere using all sorts of magic and couldn't find it, that's when a thought struck me. "Twilight…." I started and she looked at me, "Sombra uses dark magic, did you?" She facepalmed and groaned, "No… no I didn't." "See and this is why you think over everything." I stuck my tongue out at her. "Oh shush you… I'll have to check later. You're more important right now." She said. So we spent the next hour talking about the festival and stuff. Honestly it sounded like a lot of fun and I wish I could've helped out, but the song bit was a big no for me. I hated song magic and I hate when I got caught up in it. The songs were good and catchy, don't get me wrong, but it came out of nowhere and it always got stuck in my head for weeks. After a while Dr. Braveheart came in and took off my casts. "Alright now we're going to need you to stand up." He said. "Alright…" I groaned painfully as I forced my body to sit up and get off the bed. Eventually I did and I stood not without wobbling a bit. "Ok I got that down, what's next?" "Walking." He said simply. "Oh right… that." I tried to step forward and fell over, only to be caught by Fluttershy "Go slowly, imagine there is a goal you want to reach and move slowly." She said. "The more you want what you're seeing, the faster you'll walk." I nodded, "Alright, then go to that far wall." I said pointing. "W-What?" She asked. I pointed again, standing on my own, "Far wall…. Go." She nodded and quickly walked to the wall and stood against it. I focused on her and only her and I willed myself to go forward and before I knew it I was at her, nose to nose. I kissed her quickly and turned around, happy with myself. The girls were just looking at me and the doctor had a smile, "Kid you've got some brass." "Yeah well I almost died, I was out for a week, I lost an eye, I cried for a bit, and saw my friends. Sue me for wanting to go to my mare and kiss her." I said with a confident smile. He shook his head, "Alright up next arms…" The next tests went smoothly and I was given notice to leave but to take it easy for a while since I would still be kind of stiff. But I was advised to keep my bandages on for another 2 weeks or so. I was walking through halls with the girls and I had Spike sitting on my shoulders. "I missed you little guy. Hope I didn't worry you too much." "Me? Nah, I knew you were going to be ok. They were worried out of their minds though." He said, referring to the girls. "Mhm, and who was the one who asked to sleep with me because he had a nightmare that Chris wouldn't ever wake up?" Twilight asked in a mocking tone. "I-I have no idea w-what you're talking about." He said defiantly but the stutter gave it away. "Aww I love you too little buddy. Say where are we headed again?" "The throne room, Cadance wanted to see you as soon as she woke up but she had a few things to take care of." Twilight said walking faster. "Oh… well, so when are you going to use dark magic around the castle if you even can use dark magic that is." "I can, it's not difficult but there is a danger of corruption if you aren't careful. But I'm probably going to start looking after this. It will take a few days though; it's what I was doing while you were recovering. Took most of the week I'm afraid." "Ok so what are we going to do while you do that?" I gestured to the rest of us. "Well Spike is coming with me, but the girls are going to keep the festival going. The higher the spirits the easier it will be to keep Sombra at bay for a little while. You… I'm not too sure." "Great… how far until we reach the throne room?" I asked looking down the hall. "We're actually here now but you might be a bit surprised." Twilight warned. I looked at her but decided to see for myself. I looked to the guards and they nodded, signaling that it was ok for me to go in. They opened the large crystal doors and we stepped through, I saw Cadance sitting on the throne at the back of the room and Shining Armor standing next to her. I walked faster so I could go and hug my big sister and I had a wide smile but as I got closer my smile faded and I slowed down. "Cadance, are you… are you ok?" Most of her color was faded, she had bags under her eyes and it seemed like she was struggling to even sit up straight. She looked at me, away from whatever space she was staring at and donned a smile and sat up a bit straighter, "Chris, it's good to see you." She then looked me in the eye, and I mean that literally. "Oh Chris… I'm sorry about your eye, I wish there was something we could've done." She was clearly struggling and trying to hide it. I walked up to her and gave her a soft hug, "It's ok Sissi, just relax ok?" I turned to Shining. "What's going on? Why is she so… tired?" "I know I look horrible you don't have to beat around the bush." She said. Shining just sighed, "She's been awake for days holding up the shield. Sombra hasn't been attacking but other creatures have. I would've kept the shield up since I'm better with them but she insisted that I needed all my energy to help the girls look and hold off Sombra if he came back. And you know how hard it is to tell a mare she's wrong." I gave off a weak laugh, looked to Fluttershy and back to Shining, "Yeah, I suppose I do. Is she going to be ok though? It doesn't look like she can handle much more of this." "You're right she can't but… she'll last for as long as she needs to. She is very determined to protect her subjects and that's… actually pretty attractive." Shining said. "SHINING!" He got yelled at from his wife and younger sister. He just gave off a nervous laugh. "Anyway, we wanted to see you for really one reason…" He reached behind the throne and pulled out a huge stack of papers. "…These." He said handing them to me. "Papers?" I asked. He nodded, "More specifically, citizenship papers and your half of the "older than 18" adoption papers. Cadance and I had to fill out our half as well. So don't you complain." I did anyway, "Come on, this is like 40 pounds of papers man, it'll take me days to finish…" "Well good thing it's going to take me a few days re-search the castle isn't it?" Twilight said with a smug look. I glared at her and mouthed, 'Hate you, so much.' She just blew a raspberry at me. Cadance looked to Twilight, "I thought you already searched the castle Twilight. Why are you going to search again?" "I actually have Chris to thank for that, I'm actually not sure why I didn't think about it. But what's the type of magic King Sombra used?" She asked them. Cadance nodded in understanding but Shining had something more to say, "Twily, are you sure? Dark Magic is really dangerous if you aren't careful. It could corrupt you, turn you into another Sombra." Twilight gave her brother a look, "Shining, I'm the element of magic. I'm pretty sure that encompasses all magic, even dark magic. I'll be fine as long as I keep my mind focused on something I love." "Alright, do what you have to Twily, Spike keep her safe." He said to the dragon on my shoulders, "By the way doesn't it hurt with him up there considering the bandages?" he asked me. "Oh immensely, but he asked for it and honestly who am I to say no?" I picked him off my shoulders and put him down, he ran back to Twilight. "Don't worry, you know I'll protect her Shining." He said. "I know, now, Chris get started on this paperwork. Twily and Spike, get searching. The girls and I will keep the festival going for a few days. And dear…. Just… don't wear yourself out please." He said before leaving the room with everyone except Cadance and I. I sighed, picked up my stack of papers I set down to set Spike down and brought them to a table that was off to the side of the throne room. 'I hate doing papers so much.' +Yes, well you aren't the one who has to listen to all your random thoughts in here.+ Ixis said a bit annoyed. 'What's got your panties in a knot?' +Other than the fact that you almost died? Oh I don't know, probably nothing.+ 'Yeah… sorry about that, but you're in my head you know how I think. Or how I should. It was either me or them.' I told her looking at the first sheet of paper. 'Full name…. Christopher Tina McGrath.' I said mentally groaning. +Your middle name is Tina?+ 'Yeah… my dad and my mom were a bit… out of it when they named me, that and they didn't really have a middle name thought of but they knew they wanted one for me. Sooo, they looked around and saw a magazine with a lady on it named Tina and that's what they decided and bam Tina is my middle name.' +That is hilarious yet sad at the same time.+ 'Yeah, that's why I never told anyone my middle name I got picked on enough.' +Fair enough, anything else I need to know that you've somehow kept from me?+ 'I like pickles…. Like probably an unhealthy amount.' I snickered… ah unintentional innuendos +How much is an unhealthy amount?+ 'Uh an entire jar in one day?' +My god…+ 'Yeah, now I should probably work on this.' And so I did… for fucking days. You don't understand how many papers I had to fill out and sign and read. It was the equivalent of actually reading the terms and conditions times 10. And I will never do it again… ever, right? Anyway, After a few days Twilight actually found something in the basement of the castle. "It's a journal. Depicting the location where he hid the Crystal heart." She said, putting it on the meeting table we were all sitting at. "Well, where is it?" Rainbow asked, "I mean it can't be that hard to find right?" "That's just it though, it isn't hard to find. The location is in the ice fields… the problem lies in the fact that it's in the most dangerous part of the Ice Fields, the Pillars of Giants." We just looked around and back to her not knowing what the heck she was talking about, "Don't tell me I'm the only one who read up on the geography of the surrounding area? Ugh of course I am, anyway the Pillars of Giants are three monolithic ice spikes coming out from the ground. That area is notorious for having the worst blizzards known to ponykind. It's so cold there that ponies die from it within in seconds and it's been like that for thousands of years. Except for one thing in the journal that says other wise." She paused. "Well… what is it?" AJ asked. "Apparently Sombra wasn't completely gone in the head when he took over. Whenever he had moments of normalcy he would do things that his dark side didn't know about and wrote them in this journal and hid it. And he hid the Crystal Heart in a temple that's underneath the Pillars but the most interesting part is that the blizzard around that area was supposedly created by Sombra himself." Twilight explained. "Does it say how to stop it? We need that heart." Shining said. "It does, apparently he created artificial magic." "Well that's not strange a lot of unicorns can do that." Rarity said, "I do so when I create a lot of my dresses." "Maybe so Rarity, but it's the type of artificial magic he created. It's… well it's your magic Chris." She said looking at me causing the rest of the ponies in the room to do so as well. I groaned and slammed my face into the table, probably not a good idea, still had bandages on, "Why am I not surprised… but if I know my lore correctly weren't all the Ice Dragon's extinct at that point?" "Well yes they were. That's the confusing part you have to have a sample of the magic to make a copy of it." +Uh… Chris?+ Ixis cut in. "Yeah?" +I know about that temple she's talking about, Sombra didn't create that magic. I did.+ My eye twitched, "You did… what?" +Well that temple was the last place that actually held any record of our history, our inventions, our culture and anything else. I created the stone to protect it but I never got a chance to activate it, seems someone else did though.+ She explained, laughing nervously, +Sorry… hehe…+ "Great…." I rubbed the bridge of my nose and let out a puff of cold air from my nostrils. "What?" Twilight asked. "Sombra didn't create that magic, Ixis did to protect old tomes that have the history of Ice Dragons, all of the history if not a good chunk. And it seems the magic is powered by a stone. And I'm guessing the Crystal Heart is the Stone, or it's in there with it like the journal said. I'm leaning towards the second one." "I see, and since the magic is Ice Draconic Magic…" Twilight started. "That's why it freezes pretty much almost anything living that gets close. And that means… I have to get it, of course. Or at least get the stone and turn the Blizzard off." "C-could I go too? I mean I'm a dragon too, a Fire Dragon." Spike said. "Spike, no you're too young and you could get hurt." Twilight said. "Oh come on Twilight, you guys go on dangerous missions all the time and come out fine. I'll have Chris and he smacked Sombra around, I'll be fine." He said looking to me hopefully . "I don't know Spike, you got really weak just coming here from the train… I don't think that… wait… oh? Ok, got it, thanks. Ok Spike do you think you could coat yourself in your own fire?" I asked him. He looked at me with surprise, "I don't… yes I can." He looked determined even though I knew he wasn't entirely sure. I sighed, "Fine, Twilight, if I promise to bring him back can he go?" She thought about it, "I-I don't know." "Please Twilight? Please, I'll do all my chores without complaining. I won't eat as much ice cream and junk food as I do now. I'll even re-arrange the books as many times as you want when we get back to Ponyville." He said, trying to convince his caretaker. "You hate rearranging books, you really want to do this don't you?" He nodded vigorously, "Alright, you can go. And you, make sure you take good care of him… he's like a son to me… I don't want to lose him…" She said quietly looking at me. I put my hand on her shoulder, "You know I won't let anything happen to him." "Cool, so when do we leave?" Spike asked me. "As soon as you go dress in something warm, very warm, you may be able to coat your body in your fire but that won't be until we need it." He nodded and ran off to go put some clothes on. I sighed and felt someone behind me, I turned around and saw a worried scowl staring at me, "F-Flutters…" She huffed and just walked away. I looked after her and scratched my head, "W-what was that about?" Rarity sighed, "Chris… look at yourself, you're covered head to toe, quite literally, in bandages. You're missing an eye and you have a limp, don't think we haven't noticed. You're still healing and then you have to do this with no objection on your part. What do you think is wrong?" "She's worried I know but I have to do this, these ponies in this kingdom will die or worse if I don't. Cadance will die if I don't do this. I'm not letting that happen." I said sternly. "Chris, we all know you love to protect ponies, it's an amazing trait you have and I envy Fluttershy because of it but you could also die. Sure not from the cold but you have severe wounds, they could open back up and you'd bleed out. Chris, we almost lost you once. Fluttershy almost lost the one pony, person, she has ever been fully comfortable around. She doesn't want to go through the pain of almost losing you again or actually losing you. None of us do, you know we all care for you in one way or another." She said. I nodded, "I know I know… I'll go talk to her before I leave I promise." I walked passed her and everyone else, when I reached the door I looked back. "I love you all too, even if I'm not the best at expressing it and I promise I won't die, not like that, not out there. I'll only die when I'm ready to die. Until then I'll be around for a while." I gave them a toothy smile and left. "I have no idea what it is about him but he annoys me yet I can't help but like him." Shining said shaking his head, "Welcome to our world." They all said to him. ~Outside of the room Fluttershy is in~ I knocked on the door to our room and I didn't get any answer, "Shy, it's me… can we talk?" Again no answer, "I'm coming in shy." I opened the door and I saw her sitting there holding a pillow and the pin I gave her. I sat down next to her and I heard a sniffle come from her. I turned my head so I could look at her, probably should've sat on her left side, oh well. But she must've been crying before I came in. "Shy…. Come on Shy, talk to me." "Do you have to do this?" She asked. "Yeah… it's the only way to save the Crystal Empire." I took the pin she had in her hand and looked at it. "I promise I'll be ok, I won't die, I swear." "How do you know? You came so close to dying before, how do you know you won't die this time?" She asked squeezing the pillow harder. "I can't lose you, you helped me so much, I've become so much braver because of you. I don't think I would be able to be as brave without you here. I don't think my heart would be able to take losing you." I looked back down at the pin in my hand and reformed it into a hair pin and put it in her hair holding it back from covering her eye. "There, much better. Fluttershy, you don't need me to be brave, you've had it inside you the entire time. In here…" I poked her chest. "You just didn't believe yourself up here." I poked her forehead. "All you have to do is believe in yourself and you can be as brave as you want." "I-I don't know if I can believe in myself." She said quietly, but at least she wasn't crying anymore. "Hmm then do me a favor, you do this for me and I promise I'll come back." I told her. She looked at me, "What can I do?" "If you can't believe in yourself then don't. Don't believe in yourself, don't even believe in me. Believe in the me that believes in you." I told her. She giggled, "That makes no sense." "No but it made you giggle and that's all that mattered. But Shy you are much braver than you give yourself credit for. And I would never leave you, I'm not going to put you through the pain I went through. And I'm so sure I won't die because, like I told Rarity, I'll only die when I'm ready to die and while I still have you that will never happen." I said wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close. "Promise?" "I promise." I hummed a song for a bit while we just sat together. "I love you Shy, I love you so much." She blushed and kissed me on the cheek, "I love you to Chris, I promise I won't ever hurt you." I smiled, "I'll hold you to that." ~Little bit later~ We were standing at the edge of the barrier, I was in my cloak and I had my hood up. I looked down to the small dragon next to me; he was wearing a big poofy jacket, a scarf, some goggles, and a hat. "You ready to go?" I asked him, I got a nod in response since he couldn't really talk through all the stuff. "Alright then, let's get this over with." I had a map that Twilight made and I was holding it in front of me, as long as we walked straight from where we exited the barrier. But it's been 1000 years, who knew how much the landscape changed since the old map she copied this from was drawn. Apparently not much, it was just a really long walk, like 3 hours or so. Halfway through Spike was getting tired so I offered him a ride on my shoulders again, he accepted graciously. Eventually we reached 3 towers of pure ice rising from the ground. "Well I think we're here." I stated. "Really, what gave that away, the howling blizzard of death surrounding the Pillars or the Pillars themselves?" Spike asked sarcastically. "I will make you walk back the entire way, don't tempt me. But you'll have to walk now anyway I can't carry you through that." I told him and he climbed down. "So how do we get through that anyway?" Referring to the blizzard of death. "Well I'm guessing I just walk right through, probably won't affect me too much. You on the other hand, that's where the whole setting yourself on fire comes in. In theory the fire that's surrounding your body should melt any sharp ice particles that get close to you, it'll also keep you from freezing solid, though I could probably fix that I don't want to risk it though. The actual wind is your biggest problem, it'll try and blow your fire out so you have to keep it going, this will test your strength as a Fire Dragon. Can you do it?" He gave me a cocky smile, "Of course I can do it, just watch." He breathed a large stream of green fire that began to wrap itself around him. Eventually his entire body was covered in it, "Told ya I could do it." His voice was a bit distorted through the flames. "Never doubted you for a second kid." I turned to the blizzard and stuck my arm in, I was right the cold and ice weren't a problem; the wind however was a lot stronger than I thought it was. I hope Spike is able to hold out. I stepped into the blizzard and looked behind me to see a glowing green light very close by, good. I walked forward towards the middle of the pillars, 'So Ixis, do you remember how to get into the temple?' +If I remember correctly there is a panel on one of the pillars that unlocks a mechanism that opens up a door to stairs leading down.+ She said. 'Alright thanks.' "Spike can you hear me?!" I yelled over the wind. "Yeah I can!?" he yelled back. "Ok, there should be a panel on one of these pillars you go check the far one I'll check these two!" I instructed. "Alright!" I made my way to the pillar on my left and looked all around it for an extended panel or a square shaped cut… "Damn, nothing." I moved on to the next and repeated the process still finding nothing. "That must mean it's at Spike's, what's taking him so long?" "CHRIS!" I heard him yell out. I turned in the direction the yell came from and ran, he sounded scared. When I got there I saw his fire died out and he was quickly freezing over. I had to find that panel and quick, I felt around the pillar as fast as I could until I looked up and saw a square panel sticking out at the top. I looked at spike and saw that the ice was at his stomach. I had to do this fast or he would die, I backed up far enough away and started to sprint when I got close enough I formed the claws of the ice dragon and jumped as high as I could, digging into the pillar. I landed a few feet away from the panel so I started to climb. When I hit the panel it when in and I heard a rumbling, I looked around and saw that large door was opening on the ground at the center, so I jumped down. Spike was now covered in ice up to his neck, I decided to pick him up and run as fast as I could to the door, which was a lot harder consider I was carrying an 80 pound popsicle that kept slipping from my grasp. When I got close enough I dived into the open hole and hit a panel I saw while jumping, closing the door behind us. I looked down at spike and the ice was below his eyes. I put my hand to his stomach and absorbed the ice into me. When he was free I sat down and gave a sigh of relief. "That was way too close for comfort…" I was panting, that was a lot of stuff to do within a few seconds. He plopped down next to me, "I'll say, I almost became a Spikesicle. Thanks for saving me man." I held out my fist and he bumped it, "You're my little brother I wasn't going to let you die and besides Twilight would kill me if I did. Whoo, come on we aren't done yet." I stood up and brushed myself off and looked around, we were in a hallway of sorts that led quite a ways back. "Right so what next?" He asked. "Well we get to the end of this hallway and we look for something shaped like a heart and any other large gem you come across, destroy it." I said. "Alright I can do that, would be a shame though." He said rubbing his stomach. I sighed, "Yeah it would…" Hey, gems tasted good. We walked for a few minutes before come across something that startled us both. "Are they….?" I waved my hand in front of it, "Yep, dead as doornails. Looks like they froze a long time ago a very long time ago." We were staring at the corpse of a Mare holding her foal frozen in ice with a terrified look on their faces. 'Were these here when you put the gem in place?' I asked Ixis. +No, this place was empty save for books. These must've happened after I disappeared but not long after because you're right this is old.+ 'It almost looks like what would've happened to…' I looked at Spike and then back to the corpses. "Sombra…" I growled out. "What he did this, how?" Spike asked looking at them his face filled with sympathy. "I'm guessing before he set up the gem to protect this area he didn't check to see if anyone was taking shelter in here and a wave of cold washed over and froze them." Poor souls. "Man…" "Yeah… let's keep going…" We kept walking and the further we got in the more bodies we found frozen, there were so many, mainly mares and foals. That made me think, I'm guessing that the few who could escape took their foals and followed Sombra when he wasn't crazy with the darkness to this place. I bet that they saw this as a place to rest even if their 'King' was there. I'm also guessing that Sombra didn't know he was being followed otherwise I don't think he would've done this willingly, considering he seemed like he actually cared when he wasn't dark induced. As we walked further in I examined the faces of the deceased they got slightly less terrified to more peaceful relaxed like they were taking a break from a long walk, so that lead me to think that the mother and foal we saw at the entrance were the last to live in this group. She saw her companions were freezing over and tried to run only to run into a closed door without knowing how to open it and she well… yeah. I don't want to think about it anymore. "Spike you holding up ok?" I asked him, he was only 11, and he shouldn't be seeing this. He stopped in front of a lone mare 'asleep' in the corner. "Spike?" "She looks so much like…" He didn't finish that sentence, he didn't need to. "Yes, she does, but our Rarity is still alive at the castle. Don't let this get to you, you've been doing well so far, and you can keep going. Come on we're almost there I can see an opening." I walked passed the Faux Rarity and Spike and he just stayed staring at her for a bit before joining me. "Well, it's a library alright and that must be the Crystal Heart." I said pointing to a large heart shaped gem floating on a pedestal at the back of the Library. "Spike you think you can get it, I'm going to look for the gem that's creating the blizzard." He just nodded numbly and walked forward. I looked around the library and saw a faint white glow behind one of the far bookshelves. I went to it and it moved so I kept following it and each time I got closer it moved until eventually I found a huge floating diamond with snow swirling around inside of it. But that wasn't really what I should be focused on, what I was focused on though was the ghost of Faux Rarity standing next to it smiling at me. "Uhm…. Yeah I don't smoke anything so I know I'm not high and I'm at least 90% sure I'm not drunk. Who… or what are you?" I asked it. It shook its head and pointed to them diamond. "What you want me to destroy it?" It nodded it's head, "Well that's what I came to do, but why do you want it destroyed?" She frowned. "Wait, it's trapping you all here isn't it?" She nodded sadly and then pointed in the direction of the crystal heart. "Uh… the Crystal Heart is too?" She shook her head again and pointed to her horn and then me. it took me a minute to understand what she was trying to say. "Oh, so is King Sombra and you want me to stop him?" She nodded happily. "Well I was planning on doing it anyway, but I promise I will and I never break my promises." She clapped her hands together and smiled. "Hey Chris, you find the gem?" I heard Spike's voice coming from behind me and I saw him round the corner, he was holding the Crystal heart. "Yeah I was just talking to this" I turned my head back to give gesture to the ghost but she was gone. "Talking to what?" he asked looking around. "Uh… nothing but yeah, this is the gem or Diamond I guess." "How are you going to break it? It looks pretty tough." "Good question." I lobbed an Icy Fire ball at it and nothing happened, I punched it with my diamond fist of the ice dragon and nothing happened, I even used roar of the ice dragon and nothing happened. I only had one idea left. "Imma eat it." I said bluntly. "You're gonna do what? Are you sure you can, I mean it does look good but that magic looks dangerous." He said eyeing the diamond. "It's still ice magic and I can consume that I think I'll be ok." I picked it up and took a bite out of it, my teeth cleaving clean through it. Good thing that worked, I devoured the entire thing within a matter of seconds. "Huh, I didn't think that would work." Spike said. "Me neith-ahhh brain freeze!" I didn't even know I could get brain freeze, then things exploded and got covered with ice, seems familiar huh? "Oh so that's what it feels like when that happens… Cool" +I don't know why that happened, according to your body it wasn't supposed to but I'm thinking you eating the diamond sped things up a bit. This might actually be good, the increase in power might be enough to help you beat Sombra. Permanently.+ Ixis said. "It might, Spike after this I'm going to be out cold for a few minutes, and I know you don't want to but you have to walk back through that hall, open the door and watch to see if you see Sombra or anything. If you do run back here and wake me up somehow." He hesitated but nodded in the end. "Good now… this is gonna suck." I put my hand to the ice and absorbed it back into me feeling super energized and then the pain and freezing over started. Then blackness. "Oh… that's what happens… huh…" Spike ran to the entrance to the temple. "Chris, come on wake up… Chris… Chris…. CHRIS!" I heard a voice shout in my ear and I sat up quickly and looked around. "Whosit whatsit… huh?" I felt something heavy at the back of me. I looked behind and saw that I had a dragon's tail. It was dark blue and the spines leading down it were shaped like a shark's fin and were snow white. The tip of my tail was not a heart shape like Spike's, instead it was cone shaped with a spiral pattern making it look like a drill. "Huh I have a tail." I twitched it and giggled. "I always wanted a tail, cool." "You can play with your tail later Chris, Sombra remember? I saw him head towards the city." Spike said. I snapped out of my stupor and jumped up, picking up Spike and the Crystal Heart. "Ok, time to go!" I started running and I realized I was a lot faster than before, nice. As we were running I could see the ghosts of the dead looking at me, silently cheering me on to get there. When we reached the exit I realized it closed back up since Spike came back down and I already ran a bit passed it but then I remembered I had a new tail, so I just extended it back and smacked the panel with it. I did so with good timing too because I really couldn't control my momentum but the door opened enough for me to jump out. Ok yeah this enhanced things quite a bit because I jumped pretty high in the air, I looked around saw the blizzard had stopped and a lot of the snow in the surrounding area calmed down as well and when I landed a shockwave of snow and ice spread out in a ring around me. "Hang on everyone, we're coming." And I took off running again.