Hooves of ice
Chapter 9
Did you ever stop to consider "if?" (Part 3)
World: Equus. Land: Equestria. Location: Frozen North, base of the Pillar. Year: 1001
Black Frost's POV
"That. Felt. Amazing." I thought to myself as I came out over the ground. I had just beat the pulp out of Discord and left him on the brink of death, leaving him a slim chance of survival. The chaos left behind would barely be enough to heal him. It was the feeling of freedom. For far too long had I restricted myself to be careful and use my powers for the good of others. Yet as I had helped I had also been restricted from getting involved in major events such as the fight with King Sombra. Well, no more. I'm not gonna follow the Mare in the Moon anymore. If I'm doing anything, I'm doing it my way! I thought to myself as I ascended alongside the Pillar. Only as I reached the top did I realize that it had been replaced by a giant lollipop.
"Discord had his fun out here, didn't he?" I said to myself. I was somewhat glad that the tower was no longer operational, as I had planned to destroy it myself. Now that it was no longer necessary I could save my powers for what mattered. Taking over this place. I began by flying in the direction with the most chaos energy. It would seem like I would end up in Ponyville. "What a coincidence." I thought I had plans on visiting the crusaders anyways, they could try out for their ice cube cutie marks. He hoped that would be it, they wouldn't be able to try anything else after that.
But I was getting ahead of myself, I still had to find and eliminate the Element bearers as they were the ones most likely to foil my plans. Now that I wasn't restrained by my morals I could do anything, like taking over Equestria and making sure to then wage war on every other country so that I could unite them and have one perfect world. It sounded like the perfect plan. I could even extend it to other Equestrias in other realities. "How nice of me, I am the best Guardian," I thought while I had decided it would be best to start winter early. Everyone loves the first snow after all.
3rd person POV
Ponyville was slowly being covered in snow, as was the rest of Equestria. It seemed that random changes had stopped occurring, as if Discord had suddenly disappeared. The Element bearers were back to normal thanks to Twilight reminding them of who they were, and the Elements of Harmony. But no matter where they looked they couldn't find Discord anywhere. It was worrying, how could they stop him and restore everything to normal if he wasn't there? The cold weather didn't help.
After being unable to find neither hide nor hair of Discord, they were finally able to contact Princess Celestia who informed them that she could no longer sense the troublemaker. They all turned to damage control and started doing all they could to deal with the chaos affecting the town of Ponyville. Flying buildings were brought down, the roads were turned back to dirt ones by covering the soap with new dirt and Sun and Moon were once again under control of the Princesses. The only thing they couldn't do anything about was the remnants of chaos energy in the air and the cold weather affecting all of Equestria.
Even without clouds, the snow continued to fall, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. While nopony knew for certain what had caused the snow, many speculated that it was Discord's doing. But those who examined the snow noticed it had no connection to the chaos magic of the Draconequus. Some concluded that the windigoes were back, but that theory was quickly shot down as no snowstorms were appearing, only a calm, steady flow of soft snow.
The whole scenery of Equestria gave off a peaceful yet uneasy feeling, it was like the calm before the storm. The sudden change of seasons hit many parts of Equestria hard. Farmer ponies could potentially lose the crops that survived Discord, ponies caught outside far away from home had no clothing to keep them warm and the animals of the land were all confused and startled with the sudden development.
Only three little fillies seemed to know how this could have happened.
"So girls, why do you think Jack did this?" Scootaloo asked the other two crusaders.
"I don't know. Maybe somepony made him angry? O-or what if he was evil?!" Sweetie Belle suggested with a bit of fright in her voice.
"No, I don't think so; he's far too nice to be evil. Besides, he's our friend. We could always ask him, I'm sure he didn't mean to create so much trouble..." Applebloom defended the CMC's newest friend.
"I guess you're right. I'm just a bit upset over the thing with Discord..." Sweetie Belle explained herself.
"Yeah, it's kinda weird how all this stuff suddenly started happening after we met that pony and he told us about Jack. Just wish Jack was here. He'd know what to do about Discord. Heck, he might even be fighting him right now!" Scootaloo said enthusiastically, thinking of how cool such a fight would be.
"If that's the case, who do you think is winning?" Applebloom asked. Curious to what the others thought.
"Well..." Scootaloo said, tapping her chin as she was thinking about Appleblooms question. "I don't know." She said as she stopped thinking. "If Discord was winning there would still be a lot of chaos around. And if Jack was winning I don't think we'd have all this snow here during the wrong season."
"Perhaps they're at an impasse?" Sweetie Belle suggested.
At this, all of them stopped. "Girls... you think what I'm thinking?" Applebloom asked the other two and looked at them, who in turn looked at each other. Then both of them with a smirk on their face looked back at her and nodded. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, EQUESTRIAN HEROES! YAY!" they screamed.
"So, where do you think we should go to try and find them?" Scootaloo was first to ask. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom shrugged. Scootaloo sighed, "Never mind, they could be anywhere. Besides, nopony else has found Discord yet." Scootaloo said sulking and kicked a small rock.
"Wait! I think I know how to find them and find out what happened!" Sweetie Belle said. "You do?" asked the other crusaders in unison. Sweetie Belle nodded. "Remember what Jack told us if we ever needed help and couldn't get a hold of him?" She asked them.
"He said we should speak to the Mare in the Moon? But how do we do that?" Scootaloo asked.
"We do the thing he showed us, duh." Sweetie Belle replied.
"Oh, right. Forgot he showed us how to do it." Scootaloo answered a bit embarrassed.
"Well then. What are we waiting for? Let's go and save Equestria!" Applebloom exclaimed, getting cheers from the other crusaders as they started their race towards their clubhouse.
Once at the clubhouse the CMC began on the ritual that Jack had taught them. The ritual called "Moon's Words". It would allow one without connection to the Mare in the Moon to understand her, unfortunately not in words, but pictures.
The whole process of setting up the ice pedestal and moon crystal he had given them didn't take long, they only had to wait for the moon to rise so that they could speak with her. Or that was their plan.
"This is going to take forever!" Scootaloo whined. "The moon isn't going to rise for another two hours!"
"I know what you mean, but what other choice do we have?" Applebloom asked Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle pondered for a moment. "We could play a game to pass the time." She suggested to the others.
The other crusaders shrugged and then sat down to decide what game they would play, in the end they settled for the game "I spy". Something that was far more entertaining when the world around you is a blend of chaos and its usual scenery.
The crusaders were holding their breaths. The moon had just risen and the moment they had waited for was now there. They were going to speak to the Mare in the Moon.
"So... what now?" Sweetie Belle asked as she stood in front of the crystal together with the other crusaders. "Do we just touch it and ask our question?" She asked while looking at her two friends.
As both of them shrugged Sweetie Belle decided that it was now or never. She went up and touched the crystal. "What happened to our friend Jack Frost, and where is he now?" She asked, thinking about the cheerful legend they had met thanks to the pony called Anson.
The crystal responded by shining weakly and suddenly started creating a light mist the same color as the crystal itself. The mist formed itself into two shapes, one of Discord and another one of Jack, Discord's being a darker shade of blue. It showed them exactly what happened; the fact that Jack had been corrupted had been illustrated with the help of the darker mist making Discord, filling Jack. Discord's regret had then been shown by his mist becoming a lighter blue after Jack left Discord to suffer and possibly die. There was no sound, so the crusaders were unable to hear what had been said between the two, yet they understood what had happened, Jack had been corrupted by Discord. Yet he had turned on Discord and left him powerless somehow. The roles had now been switched.
The crusaders could not believe their eyes. Their friend was now the evil one and the one that was meant to be stopped was now the only hope to help Equestria. They all thought the same, they would have to show Twilight and the others, this they had to see.
Twilight was confused at what she had found out. Contrary to the speculations of the snow being a result of chaos magic, it showed signs of absorbing and neutralizing it, even if only in small quantities. She was planning to pull an all-nighter again so that she could make sure the snow wasn't harmful and what other effects it had. Based on how long it took her to find out what she now knew about the mysterious snow, it would take a while.
However, as soon as she moved on to the test where she would try it's liquidated properties the door to the library burst open. Twilight could hear a few books dropping from their shelves and cringed a little. She regretted not having locked the front door before going down into the basement. The one entering didn't know anything about privacy and what time of day one was supposed to come over for a visit.
With her concentration broken and the now developing ruckus upstairs Twilight decided to go and see what the commotion was about, Spike couldn't as he was already sleeping upstairs, he was only a baby dragon after all.
As she came up the stairs she could barely comprehend what she was seeing. In the room stood the crusaders and a big light blue crystal mounted on a small pedestal made of pure translucent ice. Out of the crystal, there was a constant flow of light blue mist. The mist itself formed what she recognized as Discord and another bipedal being, slightly reminding her of a Minotaur, one of the biggest differences being that it didn't have a tail. Twilight would have wondered how bipedal locomotion was possible without a tail. However, right now she was busy with other things.
Twilight stood there gaping. What she saw gave birth to an incredible amount of questions, questions she just had to get answered. She stood in the opening leading to the basement for a full minute before she came back to her senses when the mist receded into the crystal.
Before Twilight could recover enough to start questioning the crusaders she was spotted by Sweetie Belle, immediately followed the onslaught of storytelling from the crusaders to explain what they knew and what they found out from the crystal.
The whole situation would have been something that would have made Twilight turn into her most analytic mode. However, the brief explanation from the crusaders and a small demonstration showing what happened between Jack and Discord was enough to make Twilight understand how dire this situation was. She quickly formulated the one question she couldn't understand why the crusaders hadn't asked the crystal.
"What can we do to stop Jack? I don't think the Elements will work if we can't hit him!" Twilight exclaimed, while touching the crystal. As she removed her hoof the mist came pouring out from the crystal once again and formed what looked like a kitchen knife. As Twilight looked upon the knife, wondering what good a knife would do, she noticed it becoming solid and gained colors. She did a double-take and reached out for the knife, mostly so that the crusaders wouldn't get any ideas, and also to make sure she wasn't seeing things.
As her hoof touched the metal of the blade she heard a feminine voice, one that reminded her a lot of Pinkie. And she heard the message embedded within the token they had found.
"To those that have found my weapon; I ask of you to help me in my quest. Call me, let me come to your world and find my sister, let me warn her and my previous tormentor of what my world brought me. Let me help them and prevent disaster. To those of you who let me do such, I offer you my help. Be it a threat from an unimaginable evil, or a simple need to talk, I would love to help. Call me, Blood Cleaver, and I will appear."
The name made Twilight shiver, she didn't know why. But as it stood she weighted her options; if she called this so-called Blood Cleaver she didn't know what would happen. But if she left things as they were things would go south rather quickly. She decided to take this chance.
"Blood Cleaver, I ask for your help. I do not know about your sister, but promise we will do whatever we can to help if you help us with our problems." Twilight said, holding the knife with her hoof, feeling rather silly for talking to a knife. Yet she saw it as their only hope as the Elements would most likely be useless. The princesses were unreachable as Spike was asleep and needed his sleep from such a stressful day. The desperation had led her to ask help from an unknown being.
A sudden *POP* announced the appearance of the mysterious being that Twilight had summoned. Unfortunately it appeared in midair and fell to the floor with a loud thud. The force of the landing was enough to knock a few more books from the shelves. The being in question was much like the bipedal one Twilight had seen from the crystal, only this one had a somewhat different body and clothes. It had a long, pink and black mane. The clothes were almost nothing but black. Before Twilight could observe the creature any more it stood up on its legs and then looked at her with its light blue eyes and spoke:
"Sup, you're the ones who summoned me?" It asked, before looking around the library, and frowned a little. "There's quite a mess in here. I hope this isn't the trouble you called me for." Blood Cleaver stated with less enthusiasm as before having looked around the library.
Meanwhile Twilight was trying to comprehend how this being had managed to magically appear in her home and workplace, without using magic! Unfortunately, she could not, and she blacked out.
UPDATE! Diane Vs. Jack, that's going to leave a few craters
*sees awakening of a tactician* oh yeah, here we go!!!
Hihihi!
I won't back out, I actually have the perfect scene for him to show up!
5904546 Glad to hear.
5904426 It should certainly prove interesting.
Awakening of a Tactician. Two white haired dudes in Equestria. Nice.
Chapter 4
That´s too much.
Also too much.
Chapter 7
Also too much.
I have no idea what you wanted to write there, but you need to correct that.
You have to write that small.
Chapter 9
Scootaloo
I think a "need" would be good there.
5916891 Thanks I'll get to fixing these right away.
5958793 Another swing and a miss.
Without using magic? She just used magic!
5983860 Well, not really. It's more connected to the fundamental laws of the Displaced universe based on writing.
5983870
But Twilight doesn't know that, and she doesn't have a passive "detect magic" ability. Plus the Crystal ball was magical and she put her hooves on it to grab the knife, so she in fact used magic for the summon.
So, since in fact there was some magic used, there is no way for Twilight to know if it was magic on not unless she is told or explained it.
5983876 I believe Twilight would be able to tell. The fact that there was neither flash nor sound from the sudden appearance would point towards that it wasn't a regular teleport.
5983882
It still too sudden for Twilight to say that no magic was used, since Twilight world literally runs of magic, she would just think it was weird, not assume it wasn't magic. She would only asume that if she could not dtect any magical at all, and she just used the crystal sphere, Twi is a rationalist pony, she doesn't' just assume things without prof and experimentation.
Also, how can there be a mare in the moon, if the mare in the moon in Equestria disappeared since it was the sign of Nightmare Moon being sealed?
I think the story would work better if you removed the crossover with other stories.
For example, Discord could have actually believed in things that don't exist, like Jack already, since is not the logical thing to do, and chaos magic already does the "impossible".
And Jack could have got the idea of making the CMC believe in him, by writing something in a piece of paper or something, since they are kids, so they would not have that much trouble to believe. Plus is the CMC so why not?
There is no need for another displaced to defeat Jack, when the Elements and Discord can do that.
In fact, since you seem to be writing Jack mostly in character, why make it a displaced story at all? Just make it a story about Jack Frost in Equestria.
5983906 Well.The point with Twilight, I'll give you that.
The Mare in the Moon however has always existed. But once Nightmare Moon was banished she was mistaken as the Mare in the Moon. Therefore there are technically two Mares in the Moon.
The point with Discord... Well, It's called plot convenience.
What you say about Jack revealing himself to the ponies is very true. He could do that. But he has reasons not to. He has to be revealed by outside sources. If the existence is proven, then it's not genuine belief, and would therefore be contradictory.
An yes. Black can very well be defeated by Discord or the elements. But for what I have planned I required a few crossovers.
5988408 It really is ridiculous that he is constructing a body for himself. But take into consideration that he is A, from a future earth and most likely has a more advanced education and such. B, he is ancient and most likely has learned a lot since then. C, Magic opens up a lot of possibilities. D, It's not a completely human body. It's an Avatar for him to walk around in. Meaning a few features have been changed for comfort. One being that he will never bite the inside of his cheeks, again.
6011203 Good for you. Have a cookie.
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6012111 That is the most awsome cookie i have ever seen!
I thought of a name though I don't think it's much better. Drumroll...
Jack Ice
Originally I thought of Black Ice, Ice we can't see that appears in the worst place possible, causing crashes and deaths all through out winter. But the Black part is what I have a problem with in the name. He's Jack Frost, that's a fairy tale famous right there. I even my niece knew who he was before the movie came out. Plus, as a fan of the septiceye and the ripper, I can say with certainty that Jack is a boss name. It needs to be there. So, Jack Ice. Where frost is soft and a sight to see ice is hard and will kill you when you're not looking and sometimes when you are.
seriously??
6500880 How many letters did he cough up? In this situation, he wouldn't even be able to send another letter if his life depended on it.
The winter link at the end there for displaced doesn't work.:\
7205294 Yeah, that fic got deleted by the writer. So that whole universe was basically unmade after Jack's visit.
Oh, by the way, since you asked earlier, I don't mind tellin' ya my Displaced ideas. Just know that I'm not certain what all ones I'll be starting in which order. Once the project I've been working on finishes, I'll be starting them. One in particular would be started first among them, but as for the others' order, unsure yet which order to do.