Part 2
Sometimes, you worry about the little things in life. The things we should normally overlook, that we should ignore. Much like death- it is a part of life, so why should you--correction--we worry about it?
Princess Celestia, the ever-wise and benevolent leader of Equestria, was worrying about one of these small things. She stood on her room’s balcony of elegant marble It was something like a tingling in the back of her head. A hunch, if you would. It wasn’t something normal, like forgetting something. One way or another, it had to do with something, but that ‘something’ she couldn’t put her hoof on. Apprehension? Maybe. She couldn’t remember the last time that occurred.
What the hay was it, then? Not even the calm, soothing breeze which flowed across her face could rid her of her worries. The air in Canterlot wasn’t as pristine as the air in Ponyville was, but it usually did the trick for her.
But it just wasn’t working this time. It was as if a tiny voice in her head was saying, ‘Worry’ for no reason whatsoever. It gave no motive, no ‘why’, and it agitated her greatly. And not the worry when she saw that picture of herself eating all that cake.
As if a life was hanging in the balance. But finally, the worries went away. Replaced by a burning curiosity, instead. She began to search her mind, to see if anything would come up. A ‘why’, a ‘where’ a ‘when’. Even a how, she didn’t care what it was that she found, as long as the alicorn could get a lead on her sudden worries.
A vision suddenly popped into her head, after almost half a minute of deep and focused memorizing. It was a dark room, with a glowing yellow light bulb hanging by a thread from an invisible ceiling. There was a chair, illuminated by the light. Quite suddenly, the light bulb shattered spontaneously, as if an unknown force had shut out the light.
She didn’t know what it meant at first, but what she saw next really made her mind wander. A pair of eyes, blue eyes, looked up. Piercing through the darkness, they welled-up with water. Was that... Tears? The tears that streamed down the face of the unknown creature froze, and they turned into little beads of ice and falling off. It resembled a crystal droplet that shattered when it hit the ground.
The light bulb flickered on once more, blinding the vision from her sight. The fading returned, and into another vision. A hill of ice and snow in a land of frost and cold, during a blizzard.
“A blizzard...?” Princess Celestia raised her eyebrows. ‘Is this supposed to be a vision of the future, or am I... simply going insane?’ she asked herself. She decided to walk back into her room and take out a map.
The picture of the land seemed familiar. The barren wasteland of ice and snow stayed in her mind, until she took out and unrolled the map of Equestria from a drawer in her room. It connected within mere milliseconds. “The Frozen North...” she spoke in a curious tone. The conundrum that she was experiencing finally came to an end. A teardrop, turning into an icy crystal. That alone should have made the connection, but it was quite an interesting metaphorical representation. Quite a mind-boggling one, too. Visions are really strange sometimes. At least this one was a bit more direct.
The last vision, prediction more like, she had was a dolphin jumping over the moon and a black and white wafer cookie, for example- meant that her sister wanted to bring eternal night. Now that took her awhile to figure out.
Luckily for her, she deduced that there was a form of disturbance in the Frozen North. But where exactly, she couldn’t tell. For now, however, she would search for somebody to explore and investigate this disturbance.
- - - - Four Hours Later...
Nopony. She could find nobody either who was willing to go into the Frozen North. Not a donkey, not a bear, not a gryphon- and they were the more study ones. At least, not yet.
Though, after looking through a book on explorers, famous ones, she got an idea. One of them, the greatest of them all, was still alive. Which was a stroke of luck, a huge one on Celestia’s end. Soon enough, she managed to find this ‘Indago Trail’, and mail him a letter.
The word about this got around and about. Very quickly, the UEA(University of Exploration and Archaeology)’s headmaster herself asked her in-person if she’d bring along a group of inexperienced students with the aged explorer. Keeping in mind the old saying ‘safety in numbers’, she agreed to the offer.
Though, sooner than she expected one to come back, she got a letter.
It was from Indago, which was great.
“Dear Princess Celestia,
You’ve offered me quite the opportunity here. An opportunity to relive the glory days of mine, to relive my dying passion. I’m nothing special, so let’s set that straight. My wife doesn’t want me to leave the household and explore like I used to, due to my age.
But I have the energy, I have the remaining little bit of my passion, for one last venture. Just one. I know the Frozen North like the back of my hoof, I’ve been there so many times. Get those students all geared and ready, or at least, tell them to get geared and ready. I’ll go over there and pick them up, provided you give me transportation.
- Indago.”
The Princess smiled at this, and let out a sigh of relief as she sipped at her Canterlotian tea. She closed her eyes, and got a pain in her head. Celestia winced as she almost dropped her teacup.
It was yet another vision. It was those eyes, the sky-blue eyes. Tears rolled down the face of the creature they belonged to, lighting up the face with a dim, blue light. It was a facial structure like nothing she had seen before. The creature was grimacing, as the vision zoomed out. The vision showed the full body of the creature, curled up into a ball.
It was bipedal from what she could guess, as it had hands (much like that of a Minotaur) instead of hooves on its upper arms, its long legs also making it awkward to go on all fours. It wore black denim jeans and a belt of leather, with a black leather jacket. Under the jacket was a white shirt that she couldn’t see much of, due to the jacket.
The most peculiar thing was the helmet it wore- it was almost teardrop shaped, when looking at it from the left or right. The visor of the helmet only barely shrouded the biped’s expression of hopelessness, helplessness and utter emotional agony as it was frozen in ice, in a hill-covered cave of ancient ice before the mountains. It was both a painful sight, and one that was a disclosure to an assumed location at which the creature was.
She was both in awe and denial of what she just saw. A sapient being, well, after relating it to a minotaur, was trapped and preserved in ice, many thousands of years ago. That helmet was certainly a sign of design and flair.
“But if it was that long ago... how did it happen?” Celestia asked nobody in particular. She began to assume. As it was -out of assumption- that long ago, could it have been the work of Discord? But why would he even consider bringing a creature into the world by way of his omnipotent magic?
Celestia furrowed her brow as she set it aside, before writing down the coordinates to the area in which she best-assumed the creature was, along with a quick note. Making it urgent, she lit up her horn, and the letter disappeared into thin air.
Only to reappear in Indago Trail’s mailbox.
- - - - A Week Later, the Frozen North...
Beams of light cracked through the hole of the cavern, and into the camp as the sun rose high into the sky. Raincatcher, the pegasus mare who watched over the fire, had flown up to the hole to check if the blizzard had passed by. She smiled tiredly in relief, as the blizzard had passed them by overnight. “Guys, wake up...” Raincatcher yawned as the others cracked open their eyes.
“Aaahhh... mornin’ girls.” Professor Indago said, getting up quickly.
“Mm...” Grace replied dully, wanting a few more hours of sleep.
Karma, however, got up a bit slowly. Stretching out her hooves over her head, she yawned. Thanks to their huddling and cuddling, they stayed warm during the night. “Good morning...”
“C’mon now, Grace, get off ‘yer haunches and wake up. We got a long walk ahead of us, and we can’t be dawdling around.” Indago ordered.
The pegasus rolled her eyes and did as she was told. “Alright, alright...” her back ached as she got up. She unfortunately slept the wrong way, and now she was paying the price.
“Professor Indago, I’d like to ask if we could go see this creature?” Karma questioned, opening her eyes a bit more.
Indago let out a long sigh. “I suppose, as long as you’re all with me. There’s a hole in the cave ground, and I sure as buck ain’t lettin’ y’all hurt yourselves. Understood?” he asked the question with a sense of authority, which he had and upheld without hesitation. Even after waking up.
“When will we be going, then?” Karma asked.
“Whenever all of ‘ya are ready.” Indago replied.
Grace sighed, sniffling a little bit. “Hey ‘Prof., I need a few minutes.”
“What’s wrong?” Indago asked with concern.
“Just wakin’ up. Think I caught a small cold, nothing big.” the pegasus replied.
Indago nodded. “You take your time, alright? Oh, and, Rain, did the blizzard pass us over?” he asked.
The mare in question nodded. “Mhm. I... could use a bit of rest, so I won’t be coming along with you all.” she said, laying down on her bedroll and closing her eyes.
“Sure thing... now, you all good to go, Grace?” the legendary explorer questioned.
“Yeah, yeah I’m good.” she replied, before walking beside the professor and the unicorn.
“Good. Now, come on.” Indago ordered, walking forth into the cave, igniting the torch that he grabbed from his pack.
“Wow... so this is ancient ice?” Karma asked as they went deeper and deeper into the cave.
“It sure is.” Professor Trail replied. “Built up over thousands of years. Just so happened to make this cavern, pretty convenient if you ask me.” he chuckled a little bit.
“Definitely...” the unicorn agreed.
Sooner or later, they reached the room with the lump of ice. “Well...” Indago said, “Here we are.” he stopped walking.
“And there it is!” Karma rushed over to the lump of clear ice, her curious eyes glued to it, scanning it like a hawk.
“What the... hay is it?” Grace cocked her head at the creature’s form. “Better yet... what is it wearing?” and this is why her full name was ‘Graceful Threads’. She had a talent for fashion, but she didn’t like what fate had decided for her. So she tried to veer off the path which was paved for herself, but it became harder than she thought.
“Clothes, maybe?” Indago smirked sarcastically.
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, shush...”
“Do you think it’s alive?” Karma asked the professor.
“Nope.” Indago replied simply. “With the magic that we have now, it can be resurrected, yeah. But as it stands now, it’s as dead as the tumbleweeds that go by my home every now and then. The thing’s blood is frozen. Even if we unthaw it and let it sit in the sun, it’ll still be nothing but a corpse.”
“I wouldn’t think so quickly, Inda.” Karma retorted. Her horn was already ignited. “It isn’t dead. Like you said earlier, it was preserved in ice. It is merely in a coma. Once we unthaw it, it will be conscious, but numb as hay.”
“Well we don’t know everything, so we can’t go around making assumptions.” the professor reasoned. “Alright, we’ve seen it for enough time. We gotta go pack up and get a move on. We’re just burnin’ daylight.” he began to walk back to the camp, followed by the two mares.
Once they were back, Trail thought aloud, “Now... how to get out...”
“It’d be tough on me, but I could fly up and throw down a rope.” Grace offered.
Indago thought for a moment. “No, we need to climb out. Our hooves weren’t designed to wrap around things like a minotaur’s hands do. I have an idea...” he picked up the ice pick that Raincatcher took, and began to pick away at the wall, until finally, he made three large blocks, each larger than the other. He placed them in front of one another, small to large. The whole process took nearly half an hour. “Alright...” Indago put away and put on his gear, wiping sweat off of his forehead. “Raincatcher! Wake up and get your stuff packed, we’re leaving.”
Raincatcher almost had a heart-attack, but she was alright as she got up. She didn’t say a word, she just began to pack without even thinking about it. Since she didn’t get three hours of sleep, she didn’t even begin to get into the REM stage of sleep. Thereby, she felt like she didn’t even sleep at all.
“Okie doke... I’m ready.” Karma said, having packed up all her stuff last.
“Good. Now, I remember the coordinates, so don’t worry about asking.” Indago informed the group.
“You must have a really good memory then...” Karma complemented.
Smiling, Indago chuckled. “Hah, I guess you could say that. Thanks.”
“Not a problem.” Karma smiled back at him, before walking up the makeshift staircase. It was a bit wobbly, but nothing too unstable. She had to jump and pull herself out to get out, but it worked in the end.
“Alright Rain, you’re up.” the professor said.
Raincatcher nodded and walked up the staircase, being careful not to slip as she pulled herself up. She didn’t have to jump, due to her height.
Soon, everyone was out of the hole, and trotting through the snow once again. The fire had gone out by now, which was a good thing.
But the bad only just begun, as the ceiling of the cave began to split and crack from the remaining heat.
Indago heard this, and his eyes widened when he saw the hill’s surface beginning to crack and split. “Move, MOVE!” the professor yelled, as the cracks began to head towards the group. In a split second, they all began to make a run for it. They already fell down once, and nopony was in the mood to go for a tumble again.
The ground caved in, revealing other caverns around the main one. They ran for what felt like an hour, but was truly a minute. The caving-in ground was right on their tails, threatening to devour them whole if they fell into the pits of newly-formed jagged, serrated blades of ice.
When they were quite far out, they stopped running. Panting, Indago looked to the cave. The one they fell into was just the center of a humongous cavern. All of the others were blocked off by walls of ice.
Luckily though, the main cave was still able to be accessed. With a little bit of digging of course, to get the ice out of the way. But the top of the descending hole could be seen.
“By Celestia...” Indago gasped at the newly-formed canyon of ice. “Let’s... let’s get back to the train station.”
“With... pleasure...” Grace said as they all stood up, beginning to walk back.
“Let’s... also hope that the area stays stable so the Princess’s excavation team can get the cre-” Karma said, before Grace interrupted her.
By kissing her on the lips. Karma’s cheeks went bright red, but she giggled and pulled away. Grace rolled her eyes. “Just shut up and be glad that we made it...” the pegasus joined the unicorn in a giggle as well, before they went along.
“... Karma, Grace...? You two are in a... relationship?” Raincatcher was just confused.
Karma just nodded. “Mhm... you don’t have a problem with that, do you?” she asked, her eyes showing a bit of concern.
“Girls, if you’re all done worrying about the sexual orientation of one another, can we stop dawdling and get a darn move on?” Indago snapped, which made the girls silence themselves and continue trotting through the snow.
- - - - Many Hours Later, the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters...
Indago decided to speak to Celestia about this in-person. Normally, one would schedule an appointment for this kind of thing, but this was urgent. The guards out front initially wouldn’t let him pass, but they let him through when he said, “It is urgent news that is relevant to the disturbance in the Frozen North. I am professor Indago Trail of Appleoosa.”
Soon, Indago found himself sitting in a chair, having a cup of tea with the Princess of the Sun herself. He had only seen her maybe once or twice in his entire lifetime, but they were in public events. Never had he actually talked to her in-person like this. Looking at her was already a task; she was just a lovely mare to stare at. “So, what did you find, Professor Indago?”
“Please, Celestia, if you would... don’t call me by a title. I don’t really appreciate feeling like I’m being exalted above somepony else. Just... just call me Indago, or Inda. Whatever you please.” Inda said, rather blatantly. The hint of nervousness could also be picked up, but it wasn’t very noticeable.
“Very well then, Indago. What did you find in the Frozen North?” Celestia asked.
If it weren’t for the urgency of the situation, Indago would have almost lost himself in her eyes. “It was a cavern. The team and I fell into it, but we came out unscathed. We stayed the night there. While they did, I went deeper into the cave. Once I reached the end of it, I found a lump of ice in a room. Upon further inspection, the lump of ice was... housing a creature.”
Celestia stopped him right there. “Hold on. Describe this creature, please.”
Indago nodded, though he quickly caught wind of the change in her gaze. He went on to describe the creature, trying to remember the details since he didn’t write anything down. “It was a bipedal creature, curled up into a ball. It was wearing clothes, and a helmet of sorts, I believe. And I also believe that it is either dead, or in a severe coma. Either way, though, we can unthaw and resurrect it with magic.”
“Interesting...” Celestia was obviously holding back some enthusiasm, as he described it as it was almost exactly as she saw it in the vision. “Did you take any notes or pictures?” She asked.
“Yes, yes I did... but they were lost after the cave collapsed.” Indago winced.
“The cave collapsed?” Celestia almost sounded disappointed.
The stallion panicked in the back of his mind. “Y-yes, it did. I know the coordinates to the exact location of the creature though. Your excavation team will just have to dig straight down, or dig through the... canyon of ice to get to the creature.” he said.
The Princess nodded. “I see. So my options are dig or dig?” Princess Celestia teased, her left eyebrow raised.
“Aheh. Yes, I... did realize how silly I sounded when I said it outloud.” Indago chuckled, the Princess joining him.
They both finished off their cups of tea, conversing with one another. “Indago, would you like to stay the night here at the castle?” Celestia asked.
“Oh, no, I couldn’t--” the professor was cut off.
“Nonsense, I wouldn’t have the greatest explorer of all time come here just for a conversation, only to be sent back home in Appleoosa. I’ll have a guest room set up for you.” Celestia pretty much destroyed him with authority.
Seeing as there was no arguing with it at this point, Indago sighed. “Alright then... thank you, then, Celestia.” It was a good thing that Celestia was alright with him calling her as such. He didn’t want to make a bad first impression. Especially with royalty.
Celestia kept her word, and got a few royal maids to clean and set up a guest room. One with a view, like he requested.
The aged earth pony explorer practically jumped onto the soft, fluffy bed.
In minutes, Indago was sound asleep.
- - - - Meanwhile, in Celestia’s Room...
The Princess had decided to write a letter to a special student of hers. Twilight Sparkle, the physical embodiment of the mysterious Element of Magic.
What she wrote and sent was as follows:
“Dear Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student,
Recently I have sent out a team of explorers, who included the all-famous Indago Trail. You may or may not know of him, but it is a great chance that you do, due to all the books you’ve read. He, along with the team, investigated a disturbance in the Frozen North. I wanted to tell you about it before the disturbance was dealt with.
You see, this ‘disturbance’ isn’t truly a disturbance. It is a bipedal, sapient creature. This being was frozen, preserved in ice for thousands of years. I plan on sending a crew to excavate the creature from the frozen ice, bringing it back to the castle’s basement in Canterlot, and thawing it.
If it is dead, I will require your help to resurrect it. But Indago Trail assumed that it was either dead or in a coma. Resurrection spells are hard to perform, even for somebody of my caliber of expertise. I wish to thaw this creature in order to find out about a hunch I had.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia.”
BONUS!:
- - - - Meanwhile, in a Dark, Dark Place...
I let out a groan inside my head. I was still damn conscious, and it sucked! I was in one long-ass lucid dream! I ‘lived’-out each one of my fantasies, EVERY. LAST. ONE, again and again! And now this stupid, disturbing video I watched was stuck in my head like a damn broken record!
HEY! I’M GOING TO THE STORE!... BITCH!
Help me. Please, GOD! JESUS, SATAN! CHUCK! HELP ME!
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yay i like it
2840635 Haha, of course.
2841338 I'm glad, my friend! I hope you enjoy it.
