Hooves of ice

by Fictional Fanatic

15) Recovering Spring (part 2)

Author's Note:

A big thank you to Muranuse, The Dark Brony and Dream Seeker for helping out with the editing.

Crossover with FrostTheWolf's "Of Magic and Machines". I hope you people enjoy part 2 out of 3.

Hooves of ice
Chapter 16
Recovering Spring (part 2)

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Black Frost's POV

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I was about to once again try and freeze Blood Cleaver after she had so foolishly gotten close to me a second time, but found that I couldn’t, or rather that I no longer wanted to. Memories began flashing through my head in quick succession, filling my mind with different parts of my life from the last fifteen thousand years of my life.

I felt tears beginning to form in the corners of my eyes as I felt regret over what I had done, what I was doing and what I was about to do. I had already made Blood Cleaver lose an arm, and before that, killed someone!

“I-I-” I began, trying to apologize. Panic beginning to fill me as I did. I didn't know who I was apologizing, perhaps to everyone, but before I could say anything else I felt a strong but brief pain to my forehead, and the world fell into darkness.

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I was surprised to feel myself waking up. A slight headache made itself known to me before I decided to open my eyes and see where I was. Opening my eyes, I noticed that I was inside some for of building that I didn’t recognize. Still a feeling bit groggy from my first sleep in one thousand seven hundred years I didn’t immediately recall the events that had led to me being knocked out in the first place.

The main reason I avoided sleeping was because I didn’t actually require any sleep, it was something leftover from my time as a human, the other was that once I did wake up, it took me a fair amount of time to gather myself, mainly due to the vast collection of experiences cluttering my mind from the past fifteen thousand years of my life.

The only one in the room that noticed me waking up was a young girl with white hair draping down the back of her head. She had what looked like two floating metal heads by her side and seemed to be the only one who noticed that I had woken up.

“H-hey, take it easy.” She insisted, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“W-Where am I? And I’m sorry, but who are you?” I asked cautiously as my mind was still rebooting and there was a slight chance that he already knew her. Though as far as my memories had recovered so far, I hadn't seen another human since I had ended up on Equus.

“You're in our world. And my name is Faith, Faith Nocte.” She introduced herself.

I nodded as I began looking around, having informed me of this being a different world, I tried reaching out with my magic, noticing both that I had apparently expended my reserves quite thoroughly and that there was no connection to my network of spyflakes (patent pending), confirming that I indeed seemed to be on another world.

“I’m Jack, Jack Frost, in case you didn’t know that already. But because you can see me I’m guessing you already knew that. I’m sorry if I’m supposed to remember you or something, but my mind gets real fuzzy after just waking up. It should be over in ten to fifteen minutes.” I apologized. I could remember some parts, like my age, very important figures and events, but the rest was gone like the wind until my mind had time to recap.

“This is the first time we met.” Faith pointed out.

“I only know about you and believe in you because my father told me about you many times when I was younger.” She explained.

“I see. I’m sorry. Right now I’m still going through the memories of before Equestria was founded. You know, it’s very weird, right now I know of Equestria and it being my current land of residence, but I have no idea how it’s like. Memories get confusing like that sometimes.” I explained before chuckling at the humor of my situation.

“I see what you mean. I have a hard time trying to remember someone’s name.” Faith replied. “But I still remember a few. Like Uncle Nicko, Grandpa Luke, My dad Anson-.”

“Wait, Anson? The name is ringing a bell…” I interrupt her as the name sends off several attempts to remember something I have yet to recall. Sighing, I decide to instead sate my immediate curiosity of another matter. “Guess I’ll have to wait a little while longer… Who is that then?” I asked, pointing towards a black-haired woman, who was currently sleeping nearby.

“Oh that’s Ms. Blood Cleaver. Don’t worry, it just one of her forms and she’s asleep right now. The real one is with my dad and uncle.” Faith tried to explain. Leaving out what she meant by 'forms' and 'real one'. I had to guess she meant there were more than one of her and that the one sleeping nearby wasn't the original. Her name however set off similarly to Anson's name.

“This is quite surreal. I have no memories of other Humans yet, but I do remember names. Although Blood Cleaver’s seems to be a recent addition.” I pointed out, now even more eager to regain my memories.

“Hmm… It’ll probably come to you in time. I just hope that everything goes well tonight for heart warmers eve.” Faith replied. My memories this time being able to provide relevant information.

“Ah, yes. I just remembered a few seconds ago. It’s quite the holiday.” I commented while smiling. After all, who wouldn't like what was essentially Christmas. “I take it you’re looking forward to it?” I asked.

She nodded her head, smiling. “Yes, I am. For the past couple of days, I’ve been working on a surprise gift with my father. It’s going to be a MAJOR surprise for Uncle Nicko because of all the hard work we put into it.” She explained.

“That sounds like a great idea, it’s good to see youngsters these days tha-” I began, but before I could continue, my mind began supplying me with memories of King Sombra and the Crystal Empire. Discord's rule wasn't pleasant either, and Luna's corruption was one of the worst. It was enough to make me frown as I remembered that I had been prevented from intervening by the Mare in the Moon. But I quickly returned to my otherwise cheery self for the sake of not ruining the moment.

“Sorry, I just had a bunch of bad memories of the Crystal Empire, Discord’s era and Nightmare Moon come in all at once. As glad as I am to regain my memories, those aren’t good ones. And, I think I’m about to regain the last ones right about-” I began as the last thousand years quickly filled my head. Only to make me pause as I suddenly remembered what had happened. I froze in place as I remembered what I did to Discord, what I had done in other worlds and how I had killed another Displaced. Remembering the thoughts I had, the way I had been thinking and how much it was me that had been behind the words I said, the actions I performed... it was almost too much. And still, rather than get rid of me as she could, Blood Cleaver instead choose to save me. I slowly turned my head and looked towards Blood Cleaver, before covering my face in shame, staying like that.

“Jack?” Faith said, her voice carrying a tone of worry. I shuddered as she touched me on my shoulder. I knew touching me wasn't pleasant, after all, I was ice cold.

“I-I…” I managed to get out before deciding to remove my hands, tears beginning to run down my face as I looked straight on. Unable to say anything, making me hate myself even more for it.

Faith, despite how undoubtedly cold I was to the touch, wrapped her arms around me trying to hug me without overdoing it.

“It’s okay… Everything is going to be okay…” She said, trying to calm me.

“I-It’s not… Faith… I killed someone. I killed someone before I came here, before Blood Cleaver could stop me.” I tried to explain to her, almost unable to stand myself.

“You didn’t kill them. You weren’t yourself,” She responded. “You were the opposite of the person that I’m seeing right now in front of me.” She said. While I could see her point, I didn't fully agree with her. It was still my body that had been used, and somewhere deep inside, I knew that I had the potential to be like Black Frost.

“B-but, I still should’ve been stronger. I’m over ten thousand years old, I should have been strong enough to resist it, but instead, I didn’t even notice or realize what had happened. All I knew was that Discord had changed my way of thinking a little bit, not that I wasn’t myself… I’m afraid, because it wasn’t just something made by Discord that was acting, but me. All of the ideas, they came from me. Parts of me that I have locked away and ignored, trying to shape myself into the one I define myself as. The parts you saw, they’re just as much me as the ones you see now. And it scares me.” I explained as well as I could pulling my legs in close to myself before hugging them for at least some form of comfort, forcing Faith to let go of me as I angled my gaze downwards.

“I haven’t been through anything like that, but you just need to stay brave in times that seemed impossible. I was afraid of myself for many reasons when I was younger. But my dad taught me how to have courage and to overcome your fears no matter how scary they might be. But the most important thing I learned is that to overcome something, you need support. And for that, I’m here to help you.” Faith placed her hands on my shoulders, this time not bothered by the cold at all. Before I could respond once again however, I heard the door open up slightly, someone having opened it, intending to enter the room.

“Faith, it’s time for-. Oh…” I heard the voice of my friend, “Jack?” He asked.

Looking up, I saw Anson. “Anson?” I asked, hardly able to believe how much he had changed since our last encounter. Suddenly, it clicked that the father Faith had mentioned that knew me must have been Anson, since her name was Faith Nocte, the same as Anson Nocte. And I had tried killing both of them.

I looked away from Anson, not willing to meet his gaze, feeling ashamed of what I had almost done to him and his daughter.

“Hey, buddy? What’s wrong?” He asked. “It seems like you and Faith were getting along just fine now.” He stated, not helping. Just thinking about how close I had been to hurt him. I had already killed one other Displaced... I shook my head, there was no way I could forgive myself for something like that.

“I tried to hurt you… I tried to KILL you! How can I ever forgive myself for something like that?” I questioned him.

“Because I forgive you.” He responded, as if it was just that simple, taking out something I immediately recognized. The Snowflake that was my token.

“You were the first Displaced I met and you're my friend, I care for you. I know that it wasn’t you who did this, but still have the memories. And I forgive you either way.” Anson said. Making me feel a little bit better, but he didn't know. He didn't know that I had already performed a sin I couldn't take back.

“I-I don’t know. Anson, you weren’t the first. Before I came here I managed to kill another Displaced before Blood Cleaver chased me off. Even if you do forgive me, I can’t forgive myself. I went against my calling, my very nature. I’m supposed to care for and protect everyone, and yet…” I trailed off, still not able to look at Anson, being certain he wouldn't be as welcoming anymore. Who would want to be associated with me now anyway?

Instead, I heard Anson sigh. “Jack, look at me. Do I look upset? No. I’m not upset or mad at you. I’m relieved that you are okay. Some things you can address later, but for tonight, it’s supposed to be a night of joy. Forget about the things that Black did. Just focus on being you, Jack. The cheerful happy self that you are.” With the last sentence, I felt him pat my shoulder while Faith surprised me by hugging me from behind.

Comments

[Wolfblood2203]

Question: who did he kill.

[Fictional Fanatic]

9813148
Read chapter 1X. While there is a "Non-canon" label on it, it is what originally happened, and what Jack is referring to. It is indeed no longer canon, but something along the lines of what did go down. The reason it was labeled "Non-canon" was because the other party deleted their story, as far as I recall.

Edit: Also, thank you for pointing this out, as I had overlooked this when I intended to edit this part... Now I need to contact FrostTheWolf to see if we need to coordinate this together.