• Published 5th Mar 2015
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Hooves of ice - Fictional Fanatic



Going to Equestria is a dream come true for many bronies/pegasisters. Yet, when Jack gets what he wants in his world, he got the short end of the stick when he met the 'Merchant'. This is a Displaced story.

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1) The return of a pony long gone

Hooves of ice
Chapter 1
The return of a pony long gone.



World: Equus. Land: Equestria. Location: Canterlot Castle. Year: 1001


3rd person POV


Luna was In a bad mood.

But it wasn't strange considering she didn't enjoy her lessons. Yes, lessons. Even as a Princess that had lived for many years, many more years than anypony else would experience, she still had to take lessons, history lessons. You see, Princess Luna had a lot to learn about what happened during her 1000 years of absence, she had been banished to the moon during her period as Nightmare Moon. Something she wished could all be undone.

Nightmare Moon might still have had access to the dreamscape during her banishment, but the memories during that time were not Luna's to remember. For she and Nightmare Moon were not the same. Therefore the lessons. These lessons usually left the princess depressed as it constantly reminded her of her time as Nightmare Moon.

But today Luna was in a much worse mood than usual. She had found out that during the banishment a whole race of ponies had vanished! Thankfully it was not the Batponies that made up her Night Guard, no, these were a much older race of ponies that had mysteriously disappeared a short time after the banishment of Nightmare Moon. The Frost Ponies. And she had a feeling that Nightmare Moon might be too blame.

Despite the many History books one might have read, there was rarely anything being mentioned about frost ponies. One reason might be that after 1000 years ponies forgot about them, just like they had forgotten about Luna and Nightmare Moon. But on the other hoof, this didn't make much sense. After all, it was the frost ponies that had guided and helped unify the tribes when the Windigoes appeared. Yet, it was almost like nopony remembered them. This was the biggest reason for Luna's bad mood.

Luna had barely been able to believe this, it was outrageous. The ponies responsible for the unification of the three tribes were not remembered at all! How could her sister, Princess Celestia, have allowed this to happen?

This, she had to find out, and she would. Very soon. But as she was the mistress of the night, she was also awake during the night while her sister was awake during the day. Resulting in them rarely meeting during their regular schedules. Only sometimes would they be able to talk during breakfast. And seeing as the night was still young and she did not wish to wake their sister right now as she would need all the sleep she could get before her royal duties. Luna would have to wait until breakfast and try to get a hold of her sister.

While storming through the hallway leading to the throne room where she would shortly hold night-court she did not notice the unusually big snowflake following her on the outside of the castle. Had she done so she might have know what was to come.


Celestia had just about woken up and was heading for the Dining room. After an early breakfast, she would have to raise the sun and then prepare for a day full of paperwork, inspections, and the royal day-court.

But when Celestia finally arrived she was surprised to see her sister waiting for her at the breakfast table. Now as Alicorns they did not require as much sleep as the rest of the ponies. Yet, both of them had the habit of following the same sleep cycles as the ponies/bat ponies, mostly out of comfort. So to find Luna staying up this late (or early) was highly unusual. (No matter what ponies think it is not required for both princesses to be present during the raising and lowering of the sun and moon.)

"So, Luna. How may I help you? You seem to have something on your mind." Celestia had noted her sister's bad mood and the fact that she looked troubled.

"Indeed dear sister, for we have only recently heard of what happened to the ponies of frost. Yet, they are not remembered properly in any kind of form. In all the books we read on our own, only very few ever even mention them. Would you care to enlighten us, dear sister, if you are aware of this and if so, be kind enough to explain to us as to how and why this has come to be?" Luna explained with what could only be a tone of disappointment and a little blame. Something Celestia could understand as she too blamed herself for this.

"I was indeed aware of this Luna. Guards! You may leave us. I wish to speak with my sister alone." Celestia ordered and soon followed up with a spell as the guards left the room, to keep anypony from eavesdropping on them.

"Sister, tell us. Why is there such a need for secrecy?"

"I am afraid that what you're about to hear is not for sensitive ears. You see, this has to do with a certain kind of sabotage."

At this point Luna could only gasp, sabotage? A concept she thought she would not hear again so soon. This was indeed troubling.

"And as such, I can not let our subjects hear of this. I do not wish to spread panic after all. You see dear Luna, the reason the books do not tell the stories of the frost ponies is simple. They were erased from history, somepony has actively been preventing the knowledge of frost ponies from spreading. All and every book mentioning them that was written after their disappearance either vanished or was found edited to not include the frost ponies. And I am afraid I do not know who may be the culprit as I have many times tried to apprehend them but been unsuccessful. And I don't think our little ponies can handle the fact that their rulers are unable to stop somepony that can change history just like that. To be honest I am even surprised that you have been able to find anything at all regarding the frost ponies."

Luna was sad to hear about this, she was also feeling a bit remorseful for suspecting her sister for not even trying to keep the tale of frost ponies alive.

With Celestia's leave to tend to her duties as well as to lift the sun from its rest, Luna had been left at the table with a lot to think about.


Once back at her sleeping quarters, or rather her room, Luna had concluded. She would try to apprehend the changer of history herself. And she had already formed a plan; She would write all she could remember about the frost ponies and then apprehend the culprit once they made an appearance. She would place every and all spells she could remember that would help her stop any intruder that would try and slip past her and take her document (no harmful spells would be used of course), if they wanted the knowledge of frost ponies gone then they would be in for a surprise!

But first and foremost Luna would have to write the document itself.


Luna was done, she had completed her document as it now contained all she could remember about the frost ponies, what they had accomplished and their appearance. Weaving her detection and protection spells to both protect the documents and alert her of any magic or is getting close to the documents was not straining in the least. She was an Alicorn with a nearly unfathomable amounts of magic at her disposal, making simple spells like this "Easy as pie". She always loved to say that.

And now, ready as she was, all she had to do was wait.


Luna woke up. It was soon time for her to bring up the moon once again. Still sleepy and not fully aware of her surroundings she got up getting ready for tonight's duties. However, during her preparations, her sight wandered and happened to land on her writing desk. Suddenly she remembered the document! She had somehow fallen asleep while guarding it! Quickly she made her way over to her writing desk where the document had been left as bait. However, as she neared the desk her hooves were suddenly glued to the carpet, her wings bound almost painfully hard to her barrel and her horn was caught in a ward to prevent her from using magic. In her haste, she had walked into her trap and triggered every single one of her alarm spells. Embarrassed as she was she had at least considered the possibility of herself getting caught and was able to dispel her spells without magic with the safety words she had imprinted into the spell. "The Hippo is hungry yet it eats not." She said and felt herself being released. Thankful for the fact that she had not needed assistance. It would have been far too embarrassing to explain that she had sprung her trap. Nopony needed to know this.

Those sentence "The Hippo is hungry yet it eats not." did not mean anything, it was just what had come to mind at the time when she came the part of the spell that required her to imprint a password into the spell-matrix.

Now finally free from her trap she walked over to the desk and looked over the document she had left. She could only stare. Every single one of the words she had written was gone, as if she had never written them at all. Yet, this was the very same parchment she had used, only now it simply had two words written in the middle of the parchment with her hornwriting.

Night Court.

Luna fully understood what this was. It was a challenge, not only had the culprit been able to bypass every single spell she had laid down, they had also edited her document and erased all knowledge imprinted on the parchment. But these words did what they were supposed to, Luna was frightened. The culprit was gonna show up in Night-court. Daring her to be there once they arrived.

"I will have to double the amount of guards in night-court." She told herself with a hint of fright in her voice.

Still looking at the words imprinted on the parchment Luna failed to see her surroundings and therefore did not see the small snowflake come into existence and land on the corner of the parchment just outside her field of view. Luna almost jumped as a third word appeared on the parchment.

Alone.

Luna was frightened, she had been unable to sense any kind of magic being performed in the room, yet the parchment had changed. This led to one conclusion, she dared not disobey.


Luna sat on the throne, she was in the middle of night-court, or rather she would be if there was anypony willing to attend it. It had been like this ever since she had returned. Celestia got swarmed during her day-court while during the night nopony would attend except a few small exceptions. However they didn't count, they were usually only trying to go behind Celestia's back, foalishly thinking Luna would aid them. But today Luna was expecting somepony and had asked the guards that usually resided in the throne room with the princess to leave the room as she had to meet this pony alone.

After a long time, Luna had started to consider if she should just close night-court for the night when one of the guards entered the throne room.

"Princess, there's a pony that wishes to have an audience with you."

"Thank you, you may show the pony in now."

The guard nodded and exited the throne room only for another pony to enter. Said pony was clothed in a black cloak that covered most of its features while a hood covered the pony's head. Luna was now worrying more than ever, had this been a wise decision?

But Luna was brought back to reality as the pony stopped in the middle of the throne room and bowed before taking down the hood and smile towards the princess. Luna was left breathless, she knew this pony. And then she smiled, she could do nothing else but smile cause she would soon have all her answers from her old friend.

Now, with three smiles in the throne room everything was set right.

Author's Note:

So, how's the first chapter?

Also, who's the third attendant that neither Luna nor our mysterious visitor have yet to notice?

Next time: Twilight and her friends go to meet an old friend of the princesses. Eh... nope.

Well, no pre-reader this time. Buck it, we're doing it LIVE! Now edited! By me... oh well, better than nothing I suppose.