Legend of the Burning Snow

by Phoenix Frost

A New Teacher

"And then he told me that I was no longer any use to him!" Discord told the clearly annoyed pair of guards as he leaned up against the chariot to his right.

"How 'bout that?" said one of the guards sarcastically.

"So I got all my magic stolen, and I never forgave Tirek."

"Fascinating," The guard kept mocking. His partner held his head in his hoof hoping the agony would end soon.

"I mean sure, Twilight and her friends did ultimately stop him in the end, but what about me?!" The draconequus held his talon up to his extruded chest at the blasphemous fact.

"What about you?"

"I never got the revenge I deserved. That lousy centaur betrayed me! After I gave him my full trust!"

"What an injustice."

"I mean sure, I did stab all of Equestria in the back first, but I was tricked. Tirek lead me astray from my teachings as a good friend. It's his fault I turned in the first place."

The guard with his hoof in his face started shaking his head back and forth slowly. "I swear to Celestia," he said, "if I have to listen to this guy talk for another two minutes, I'm gonna go tell Frostborn to speed up the process." He reached for his harness and tried to unlatch himself, but his partner put his hoof in the way. "Move your hoof!"

"It'll be fine, just have patience," his partner assured him.

"No, I've had just about enough of this!" The guards started horsing around and smacking each other.

Discord stopped talking and looked down at the conflict. "Oh, pardon me, friends." The guards stopped bickering and looked back at the draconequus. "But I was only trying to share the tale of my betrayal with you, but you decide that some petty dispute is more important than an invigorating history lesson."

"GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" screamed the impatient guard with his hooves over either ear. "THAT'S IT!" He made another attempt at his harness, only to be stopped by his partner again. He struggled in rage trying to throw him off, but was interrupted by the sound of the two massive golden doors opening. Twilight stood in the doorway before the two arguing guards and disgusted Discord.

"Thank heavens, she's here," sighed the patient guard. His partner calmed down and stood normally, cursing Discord under his breath. "Are you ready to go, princess?"

Twilight nodded with a small smile and met her mischievous friend in the chariot. It was hard to hide those insecurities. What was she supposed to think? Her role model had just sent her friends away because they were an interference. She disregarded all the times they've come out victorious in the end and just cast them away because she couldn't be bothered with them. What happened to all those lessons about friendship, and leaning on your friends when the time called for it? This felt like one of those times and yet, Celestia shot the idea down.

"Are you alright, Twilight?" Discord asked. She had been leaning over the side with her head resting on her crossed hooves, staring off into space. The sudden mention of her name made her jump and look around in panic. She eventually remembered that she was in the chariot with the Master of Chaos. "You've been quiet for about ten minutes now."

She looked to the front of the chariot at the two pullers. The one on the left was patting the others back, who's face was red with anger and biting down fiercely on a harness strap. "Yes, I'm fine," Twilight assured him. "Just thinking about stuff."

"Care to share with us?" the draconequus asked.

"I'd rather not. I don't think you would understand."

"I think we could all use something to take our minds off things," the calm guard said, patting his partner's back.

"Besides, you would dare leave us in the dark like this?" Discord accused her. "Very few tortures stand up to the pain of being teased with knowledge, you know." Twilight slouched over the railing again, not giving them the response they wanted. She just gazed down over the rocky desert landscape below them. Tumbleweeds rolled on by with the wind carrying them and the sand through the dunes and along the boulders. "Fine, we don't have to know. I suppose I'm not the most suited to be trusted with a secret, anyway." He leaned his back up against the opposite side of the chariot in disappointment, letting his head and arms droop down from the side as his legs went limp.

"Discord?" Twilight asked, still gazing at the Earth below. The draconequus lifted his head up, excitedly awaiting her response. "Do you think Princess Celestia could be, well, a tyrant?" She looked back at her friend in the hopes that he had a serious answer for him, but Discord was unsure of whether she was serious or not, and the confusion was drawn all over his face with wide eyes and a single raised eyebrow. The alicorn got the message and looked down over the desert again. "It's just that since the beginning of this whole journey, she's been asking me to do things that kept the power away from me and my friends. She just told me that they were nothing more than an interference at this point. We're stronger together and yet..." She didn't finish her sentence.

Discord, still trying to wrap his head around these sudden changes to Twilight's feelings, hesitantly stood up and took the few steps to the alicorn's side. He patted her on the back with his lion's paw and knelt down. "Look, Twilight. I know I'm not the most dependable of friends, as I'm still fairly new to having friends at all, but I think I can say that Celestia is far from being a tyrant." He chuckled, as he still found the idea preposterous. "Irritating, yes, but not a tyrant."

Twilight sighed, "It really feels like it at this point."

"Twilight, a tyrant isn't somepony who separates one's friends simply because they felt like it. A true tyrant would do it because those friends are a threat. Why would Celestia think of you as a threat?" She didn't respond. "And it's not like that goodie-four-shoes has enslaved those around around her. Well, not unless you're Tirek and you call friendship to be just a new form of imprisonment. But I see no chains nor shackles. You have freedom, Twilight, whether you realize that or not."

"It's not like I had much freedom in taking any of my friends with me," she mumbled.

"Oh, am I not your friend? Does our friendship suddenly mean nothing now?"

"You know what I meant," she snapped.

"Twilight, I think there's something you're not seeing here. If Celestia truly were a tyrant, you would know. A tyrant shapes the world around them to remind everypony of who's in charge." The draconequus snapped his talon and the ground beneath them flashed white. When the light faded, the sand below them had suddenly turned to a blue checkerboard design. "They constantly put up these reminders that anyone below them, is at their mercy." He snapped his talons again, and one of the clouds in front of the chariot suddenly turned pink. The two chariot pullers' eyes sprung wide open, as each darted to another side of the cotton candy cloud as it passed between them. Once the sugary obscurity made it's way through, the guards came back towards the center and rammed into each other. The impatient guard's nostrils flared at the draconequus, but his partner made the attempt to calm him down with a pat of the back.

"You see, Celestia is a just ruler. She gives those below her freedom and protection at no cost whatsoever. She only wants what's best for her subjects. And although it took quite some time, I learned to come to good graces with her as well."

"I guess you're right," Twilight accepted, bringing a small smile to Discord's face. "But it doesn't change the fact that I'm left without the ponies I can put all my trust into."

"You only realize what you have once it's gone, Twilight. Another thing I learned the hard way." He summoned a small homemade plushie of Fluttershy with button eyes behind the alicorn's back and nuzzled up to it with a smile. He sent it away before anyone could see it. "You just have to power through it."

Twilight lifted her head up from her crossed hooves cracking half a smile. She stood on all fours again and turned around to give her friend a hug around his waist. "I'm glad to have someone I can count on with me," she said.

"We're coming up on the drop zone, princess," the calm guard alerted her. His partner mumbled something along the lines of "finally" under his breath.

Twilight detached from the draconequus and thanked the guards for the ride. She put her hoof to the side of her mouth. "I imagine it was a little nerve-wracking with your passengers." They nodded and descended towards a narrow canyon below. The floor was littered with rock spires and boulders making finding a place to land a nightmare for the chariot pullers. Luckily, they had stumbled upon a wide section with only a few small rock piles covering the ground. Still a bit of a tight squeeze, but at least they could actually fit in there.

"Sorry we couldn't land anywhere closer, princess," the guard apologized. "Just follow the path heading east and eventually you should come across it."

"Thanks anyway," Twilight said as Discord stepped off the chariot behind her. "You should head back now. Princess Celestia might need you for something."

"You don't want us to wait for you to get back?"

"It's fine, we'll find our way back on our own."

"Alright, then. We'll meet you back at Canterlot by nightfall."

Twilight stepped off the chariot waved as the guards took off. "See you then!" she called. Within seconds the chariot was but a speck in the sky. Twilight turned to Discord, who had already summoned a large shady hat for himself. "We should get moving," she said. "We don't have all day."

"Ugh, this heat is going to be the end of me," the draconequus complained. But nonetheless, he shadowed the alicorn closely. The duo trekked through the barren canyon for quite some time. It must have been hours they'd spent searching. The canyon floor was crawling with lizards, scorpions, and snakes, so they would have to be on alert for those along the way. Twilight kept scanning the rocky walls for that carving of Cerberus, but between the sun's glare and heat, it was hard to focus.

"Ugh, how long is this gonna take?" She clenched her stomach from a sudden jolt of pain. She just remembered that she hadn't eaten anything since she first gotten on that train. "And my hunger's not making it any easier."

"Really?" Discord asked. He'd added a matching t-shirt to his tropical sun hat along with a pair of sunglasses and a water canteen hanging from his neck. "I feel fine." She summoned a daffodil sandwich in his talon and took a big bite out of it. Twilight glared angrily at him, but he payed her no mind. "And of course it's taking a while. Who ever said that finding an underground prison would be easy?"

Twilight stopped in her tracks, leaving Discord to keep going and trip over her. The fool dropped his sandwich in the sand just inches before his face. Discord sniffled and a tear dropped down to the ground. "Underground?" Twilight thought to herself. Her face lit up. "Discord, you're a genius!"

"And how is that?" he asked, still lying in the sand. He stood up and brushed off his shirt and sunglasses.

"Tartarus is underground and filled with gemstones. Rarity and I were brushing up on a spell that reveals gems buried in the ground. If I can follow my horn to the largest stockpile of jewels that I can find, we'll have found the entrance to Tartarus." She charged her horn and bolted through the canyon, her companion having difficulty keeping up. "Oh, I'm getting a big number just around the corner!"

"Twilight, could we slow down?" Discord pleaded, panting and sweating buckets as he jogged behind his alicorn accomplice.

"We don't have much time as it is!" Twilight urged. She turned her head to face the draconequus but kept sprinting. "If we don't get there now, we not might not get back to Canterlot before Frostborn arrives." She turned around again just in time to see the massive rock in the wall inches away from her nose. She ran right into it.

Discord stopped to asses the situation, and broke out in hysterical laughter. "Bwahahahaaaaa! Oh, that's priceless!"

Twilight pulled away from the boulder. "Thanks for your concern."

"Oh, Oh, I have to see that again!" Discord snickered. He pointed his talon towards Twilight and she pressed her face against the rock again. He kept pointing and she pulled back again and stopped in the middle of a sprint. Discord flicked his finger forward and Twilight ran right into the rock again. "Hahahahaaaahaha," Discord bellowed. "Oh, my stomach!"

She pushed herself off the wall again. "Discord!"

"Oh one more time!" He pointed his talon at her again and drew it back until she was in the middle of the sprint again. He flicked the talon forward again and she face-planted into the boulder again. Discord held his stomach in laughter and rolled over on his back, squirming uncontrollably.

"DISCORD!" Twilight yelled.

Discord wiped a tear from his eye and held up his talon once more. Twilight charged her horn again and curled up the talon before he could watch again. "Oh, fine. It was rather humorous, if I do say so myself."

Twilight turned back to at the rock she just ran into and looked up. Sure enough, this rock had a marking on it. She recognized the carving of Cerberus from her last visit. It was actually pretty detailed, all the way down to the collar spikes. "We're here."

"That's it? That's the whole distance we could have walked!"

"It doesn't matter. We're here now and we can get on with this little quest of ours."

"Answer me one question, Twilight. How in Celestia's name do we open a rock?"

"Just let me concentrate," Twilight insisted. She sat down on the ground and closed her eyes. Discord raised an eyebrow as the alicorn's horn glowed purple. A very thin beam of magic shot out towards the carving and made contact on Cerberus's collar attached to it's middle head. The magic flowed through the carvings like water through a canal. When the carving was completely full of magic, the beam attaching it to Twilight's horn disappeared, and the carving glowed in bright white.

The canyon floor shook, causing dirt and pebbles to collapse from inside the cracks surrounding the engraved boulder. Discord took a step back while Twilight stood up and waited patiently. The carved rock shifted backwards no more than an inch into the wall. It stopped for a moment and began sinking down into the earth below. The stone opened up to a cave opening, the walls completely filled with gemstones of all kinds. Diamonds, emeralds, amethysts, topaz, and many others all jam-packed into any open space lining the cave walls. Twilight walked inside, Discord following close behind. The second the draconequus passed over the submerged rock, the caves shook again. The duo turned to watch the boulder rise out of the ground again and shift forward slightly.

"This is quite the unnerving place," Discord commented.

"It gets worse," Twilight assured him. "Trust me." They continued through the sparkling tunnel, taking the left-hoof turn a few meters from the entrance, and walked down a short ramp. As they went on, it was apparent the decreasing number of gems embedded in the stone. Each step they took would take a little less reflection from the cracks in the entry-boulder from Twilight and Discord's eyes. Holes began to pop up in the bedazzled walls as the end of the tunnel came nearer, and by the time they reached the opening into Tartarus itself, the walls were barren once again.

Twilight lead her companion through the small exit to the tunnel. Discord had to duck on his way out, but quickly looked up to gave upon the sight of Tartarus in person. It was amazingly gloomy when compared to any other place in Equestria. The stone was a grey-blue color, and the far back of the massive cave lead to a black abyss full of rock spire prisons, very few not holding somepony captive inside. The mere sight of the spires themselves was enough to make one lose a bit of hope. They were flat, round platforms elevated by long staircases and surrounded by four large pillars of stone stretching to the ceiling. Before all these prison cells were strips of land that all lead to the entrance that Discord and Twilight had just come from. But between the exit and the spires were the large, rusty, iron gates of Tartarus, and Cerberus himself.

Twilight rubbed the back of her head. "Oh, I never thought of how we were getting past Cerberus." She took the hoof she was rubbing her head with and smacked herself in the forehead. "Ugh, how could I be so stupid?" she scolded herself. Discord took no hesitation to casually walk up to the beast. The alicorn looked up at him like he was crazy. "Uh, Discord. What are you doing?" The draconequus payed her no mind and continued towards the three headed dog. Cerberus sniffed at the air with it's middle head, and suddenly all three turned to growl Discord's way. Not a flinch from him.

Cerberus began barking furiously at the Master of Chaos, spraying slobber all over his unchanging, confident face. Discord let the dog have his little fit for a few seconds before raising his eagle's claw. With a snap of the talons, the space between him and Cerberus flashed white, giving way to a massive white bone hovering in the air. Cerberus was instantly interested at the remains of some giant creature and it's six eyes locked on to it, following the bone as it hit the ground. Once it did, the beast dropped down to it's stomach and the three heads started gnawing on the bone. Within seconds the heads began fighting with each other over it and Cerberus broke out into a fight with himself.

Twilight walked up behind the cocky draconequus and stared in awe at the chaos so easily brought out by him. "How did you know that would work?" she asked.

"Oh please, Twilight," Discord replied with a flick of his wrist. "I can make clouds out of cotton candy and make them rain chocolate milk all over Equestria and you don't think I can give a dog a bone?" The alicorn rolled her eyes. "Now let's get going!" Discord said excitedly. "We have a certain centaur to interrogate!" He raced towards the rock spire immediately through the gates, Twilight only keeping up with him as there was still a reason to rush, and it was closing in on Canterlot fast.

They made it to the top few stairs on Tirek's personal cell. They looked to the steel cage in the center of the platform holding the sickly, power drained centaur. He faced the opposite direction, out into the black nothingness of the back ends of Tartarus. "I haven't had any visitors yet," Tirek mumbled in that dark, sly tone of his. "Not since my brother came to see me a thousand long years ago. But I fear that who has come, bearing the sweet, unfamiliar sound of hoofsteps is not an ally to me, today." The centaur took his time turning around in his little cage that offered very little head-room. He held his head down while his hooves slowly shifted it to the entrance. He looked up, and his yellow gaze pierced through the bars at his visitors. He wasn't quite shocked, just disappointed. "And it seems I have quite the talent for guessing."

"We'll be out of your hair very soon if you just do what we say," Twilight said. She took a step forward, but bounced back against a barrier of green light that appeared when she made contact, and faded away. Discord caught her before she could tumble down the stairs and likely fall off the side.

"I don't see what you could want from me," Tirek said depressingly. "I have no freedom outside of this cage." He grabbed the bars and shook them. "I can't even get close to the edge of this prison."

"You're going to teach me something," Twilight informed Tirek. "There's something you know how to do that nopony else in Equestria knows."

"You come seeking the knowledge of how to steal magic? What use could have for that? Last I checked, having your friends by your side created enough power to stop me at my fullest. Why not just use them for whatever issue plagues your precious world?"

"Princess Celestia decided that this would be a better option. I've had my doubts, too, but in times like these, I don't know who else to trust."

"Hmm?" Tirek asked. "So, there's a threat to Equestria so intimidating that even Celestia is resorting to her enemies for aid? Oh it would be a shame if said enemies refuse to comply. Your whole civilization would surely crumble." The centaur tapped his fingertips together sinisterly.

Discord stepped up. "Well, it's a good thing said enemy has no say in the matter, then." He snapped his talon and a gigantic version of it appeared before Tirek's cage. It flicked it's claw and sent the cage flying towards the abyss beyond the spire, if the barrier hadn't ricocheted it off the sides, that is. The giant talon disappeared with a flash and Tirek hit his head on the cage as it bounced on and off the walls of the cell. Eventually, the centaur ran out of momentum and his cage came crashing to the ground, luckily right-side-up. Tirek struggled to a stand, rubbing the back of his horned head. "Is that enough to change said enemy's mind, Tirek?"

"My magic is the key to limitless, power, Discord," he groaned. "To teach it to the one who locked me in this cage," he turned to Twilight and growled, "would be unthinkable." Discord didn't take too kindly to that response. He levitated the cage into the air, above the magical barriers, and snapped his talons again. A giant wooden baseball bat appeared at Tirek's altitude and it wound itself back. In full force, the bat swung and his the cage went flying into the blackness beyond the spire. The centaur screamed in fear as he was being launched into an unknown chasm where no one could hear him. He shut his eyes in terror when there was another flash of light just in front of him. Discord had summoned a baseball mitt in proportion to the bat, and it caught Tirek in the cage. The glove fell back with the catch and came back to throw the centaur back to his prison. Another mitt appeared above the tower to catch him and drop him back behind the barriers.

"I could do this all day, Tirek," Discord taunted. "That's something that I had and you didn't. Creativity. Now I won't hesitate to use it to bring you to my mercy."

Twilight spoke up, "Discord. That's a little dark for a reformed draconequus, isn't it?"

"Ugh," he grunted. "Fine, but I'm more than willing to toy with this clown if he does not comply with our terms."

Tirek stood up and cracked his back. "Fine, fine, I'll teach you. Just as long as this torture ends."

"I'm glad you see it our way, Tirek." Discord had an evil smile on his face. He snapped his claw and the centaur's cage was gone in a flash. He stumbled trying to adjust to the few inches of ground suddenly disappearing from under his hooves. Twilight tried to walk onto the platform to meet her tutor, but bumped into the magical green barrier again. "Oh, allow me," Discord offered. With another snap, there was a flash of light in front of Cerberus back at the gate. His massive bone teleported to the entrance to Tartarus, and the dog's three heads' attention automatically shifted to it. It ran up and picked up the bone with all heads as Discord nudged Twilight through the barrier. Cerberus came trotting back and sat back down at the gates with it's bone.

Once the beast made it back to it's post the silence was suddenly broken by a loud scream. "Aw, C'mon!" Twilight, Tirek and Discord all turned their attention to the spire neighboring Tirek's to the right. There was a bright green pegasus with a brown, slicked-back mane who got himself caught inside the barrier as it had reformed, his front legs stuck on the stairs and his hind legs on the flat ground inside. He wore a pair of black glasses over his light brown eyes, and he had a cutie mark of a big black boot on his flank.

"Who's that?" Twilight asked.

"Footsy Prickmane, or something like that," Tirek answered. "Apparently he was thrown down here because he kidnapped Celestia's last protege and held her for ransom."

"I WAS FRAMED!" the pegasus exclaimed.

"Well, in any case, we have a test subject for you, Princess Twilight."

"But he's a pegasus," Twilight argued. He doesn't have magic."

Tirek held the back of Twilight's neck with his thin, wrinkly fingers. "Strength and flight can be taken just as easily as magic, Twilight. Just walk to the edge of the spire and do as I say." Twilight did as instructed. She sat down on the edge of the platform and waited for Tirek to give the word. "Are you ready?" he finally asked.

Twilight was beginning to second guess this idea. "Element of Magic," she muttered, trying to regain confidence in herself. She turned her head halfway towards the centaur and nodded.

"Good, now face your prey." She didn't like that phrasing, but she forced herself to do so. "Now inhale slowly, but keep focus. Feel his energy merging with yours. Sense his power and claim it as your own." Twilight's eyes clenched tightly as she breathed in. Her horn began surging with magic, and the pegasus was soon surrounded in a transparent veil of magic the same color. A strand of magic formed from the veil and fed it's way into the alicorn's mouth. He couldn't move, he was paralyzed, but Twilight kept going. As every second passed, she felt his power draining and her own magic strengthening. Eventually Twilight felt nothing left to feed off of, and the magic beam connecting them cut off, along with the magic around her horn and around the pegasus.

Twilight's victim suddenly felt limp, and his legs quavered until they could no longer support him. His upper body drooped down over the stairs and his eyes were barely open and grey. Twilight sat on Tirek's spire with her head down, a tear rolling down her cheek. How could she let herself do that? She knew that it would leave that pegasus helpless, but she couldn't even forget about it. She was constantly reminded through every second of the process that all his strength would soon become hers. What was Twilight becoming?

"Very good, my student," Tirek applauded, patting her on the back. "Done like a professional."

Twilight stood up and pushed Tirek's hand out of the way. "I'm not your student! I'm a princess of my own now I don't need magic lessons anymore." She started to make her way for the exit.

"There is always more knowledge out there, Princess Twilight," Tirek reminded her. "You learned something just now, didn't you?" Twilight stopped in her tracks. "You can never have enough, Twilight. You just have to keep searching until you can find more."

"That's enough out of you," Discord snapped, both figuratively and literally. He reset Cerberus's bone to drop the barriers again and let Twilight out. The bright green pegasus' limp body came tumbling down the stairs once Cerberus moved. All the way down, he rolled over himself until he reached flat ground, still unable to stand up. Twilight forced herself to look away as Discord guided them down their staircase. Cerberus walked back and resealed the barriers while Discord and Twilight made their way back up the ramp to the surface world. "Oh, and one more thing before I go," Discord called back to Tirek. With one final snap, a white light flashed around the centaur and faded to reveal his cage back to limit his movement to turning again.

"Gaaaaaah!" Tirek growled across the gates. Discord just smiled and followed Twilight through the gem-lined tunnel back to the exit. They reached the boulder that blocked their path and it inched toward them and sank into the ground. The duo was suddenly struck by a cool breeze as a shiver ran down their spines. What was causing that? The canyon was the same as before: dry and barren.

"That's peculiar," Discord commented as Twilight walked out into the open. Suddenly the cold grew more intense, and it wasn't stopping. The alicorn looked to the sky and over the canyon wall behind her.

"Uh, Discord," she said. "Maybe you should take a look at this." Discord walked out to meet his friend and followed her vision. Yeah, there was something to see alright. Only about fifty yards away from the entrance to Tartarus was a thick blizzard closing in on them fast. Discord gazed up at the dark clouds in horror while Twilight tried to think of a way out of this mess. It was mere seconds before she finally thought of something. "Discord, grab on!" she commanded, unfolding her wings and getting ready to take off.

The draconequus shook his head until he could think straight again. He directed his attention to Twilight and looked at her like she was crazy. "You're gonna fly us all the way to Canterlot?"

"Don't question it! Just grab on!" Discord took hold of the alicorn's hind leg with his talon and Twilight started putting all her effort into lifting them off the ground. It took a few flaps, but apparently that pegasus gave her just the flight power they needed to get moving. She booked it back up north to Canterlot with all her might, Discord's snake-like body waving behind her. They were on their way home.

The draconequus looked back as the storm covered the canyon floor in a blanket of snow. Something else he noticed was that the entrance to Tartarus never shut. It started to rise back up into position, but too much ice was forming in the cracks for the rock to move anywhere. It was stuck open. He didn't say anything to Twilight. It didn't seem important enough to interrupt her. As long as that storm was close, getting to Canterlot would be a total race against time.

And time was something that they didn't have.