*This one is for all the awesome people that read my last fanfic, I appreciate all of your support and encouragement.
Prologue
The old stallion sat out on his boat, enjoying the warm summer sun. He breathed in the fresh air, supplied from the freshwater lake and the nearby trees. It had been one long day, but he always had his lake and the fish within it to keep him company after a long day’s work. It was a rough, but rewarding life for him. He lived on the far end of the small town known as Hoofington. Most of the denizens were nice enough for him, but as his old age came along he found himself to prefer seclusion from others. It was understandable since his wife died, there was never really anyone for him to talk to anyways. He was too old, too un-hip for the young ones that ran the town now. So he came out here every day after he was done working on his modest home and enjoyed the peaceful negation from the rest of society the lake provided.
He was resting his eyes when something very peculiar happened, the air began to turn cold. He opened his eyes and found the familiar summer sun rising well up into the afternoon sky, beating down rays of sunshine. Strange, why was the air cold? He looked to the side of the boat and was shocked to find that the lake had been frozen solid. What had happened? This was the summer, there was no way any body of water could freeze out at this time of year. He scanned the frozen lake bed, and found a strange being dipping its hands within a small pocket of water not yet covered in the ice by the shore. When it reached out, however, the area was soon frosted over and the last bit of exposed water was no longer visible.
The stallion didn't know how to react to what he had just seen. Something about it horrified him and fascinated him at the same time. He just sat there in his boat, watching the figure slowly glide across the lake top. It was coming to him, he thought. Why else would it head in this direction? The majority of Hoofington was in the other direction. The figure's features become distinguishable as it closed in on the old stallion's boat, and it horrified him all the worse. The being was long, very long, and it carried no features across its face and it wasn't in any shape that he could find comparable to any creature he had seen before in his long life. It’s like it was constantly changing shape, like a piece of cloth blowing in the wind, and outside of its limbs and head there was no way to get a handle on where it was. Its pale skin was rivaling the whiteness of the lake top and that made it only harder for the stallion to keep tabs on it as it finally stood before him.
The figure cocked its head to its side in curiosity. “Greetings... friend.” It finally said, its voice hoarse and chilling.
The stallion found himself shivering in terror, even though the being had simply greeted him. He fought to find his voice in his trembling chest. “G-g-good day...” was all he managed to force out to the strange creature.
The being pulled back, and simply stood there for a few minutes, its featureless face seeming to study him without any hindrance. “Would you.... like a gift....?” the being asked him after the haunting moment.
“W-what kind of g-gift?” The stallion asked.
The pale being closed in on his face, stopping only inches before the trembling stallion's face. “Why... I offer you preservation... A sort of... immortality, if you will...”
The air around them was beginning to fog from the chill. The being was hauntingly cold, as if it emanating subzero temperatures. Whatever this thing wanted, the old stallion wanted nothing to do with it, he just had to get away. He scurried out his boat, hoping that the sudden movement had surprised the pale being. The lake bed had less traction than he had thought. He fumed at himself for forgetting it was ice and soon found himself slipping and falling roughly on his side. He tried desperately to get his hooves back under him, but it was futile on this surface and with his old age.
He felt that cold air again, that chilling cold air trickling down his back. It made him stop instantly and he just laid there on his belly, the terror gluing him in place.
“My friend... why would you try to desert me....?” The voice called with true hurt.
“G-get away from me!!” The stallion cried out. But the words did the exact opposite and he felt dead cold fingers wrap around his body and pull him off the ground, and he found himself staring into that featureless face once more.
“I see no sense in your protest...” He pulled him closer to his face. “I only offered you a gift. I attend to give it to you. I attend to give it to you all, along with my very dear friends.”
The figure turned at an angle and the stallion finally caught sight of what it meant. There on the lake's shore were more of the strange white beings starting to make their way towards Hoofington, the ground and trees frosted over and snow forming on the leaves wherever they crossed the ground. This couldn't be happening, he still didn't even know what was happening in actuality. It had to be bad, it just had to be.
He looked back to the pale creature holding him, and in place of the blank face he had come to know from this monster, was a mouth that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It was opened so far agape that it covered the entire diameter of its face. It wasn't natural, it couldn't be. He screamed and flailed but their faces only got closer and closer.
“You will enjoy this gift.... trust me... my friend...”
He felt a rush of icy wind blow into his face. It was somewhat comforting at first, but then he realized he could no longer move his head or his eyes. They were frozen in place, and he could only look in horror as the pale being encased the rest of his body in pale white ice.
The mouth finally closed, revealing the face that was burned into the stallion's mind forever. It placed his motionless figure lightly on the icy lake top. “See... I knew you'd love it...” It circled his inert but still cognitive body slowly, admiring its handiwork. “I must go now... My friends need help sharing this gift with the rest of you.. No need to thank me... It was my pleasure...”
He watched as the creature strode across the lake bed in his peripheral vision. He couldn't move, he couldn't do anything. He wondered how he was still alive when he knew he wasn't breathing. The creature was sick and demented if it thought this was a gift of immortality. He tried desperately to get at least one joint moving in his whole body. It was useless, he was stuck here for who knew how long. He wanted to part his lips, to scream, to get any sound out but found himself exerting the rest of his energy and slowly losing consciousness with his eyes still opened. The chill was no longer just around him, it was inside him now, in his very heart.