Dark Frost

by BlueColton

Lights

Okay. Let’s do this.

Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath as she prepared to do battle with the mysterious force containing Ponyville. Where magic and brute force had failed, logic would prevail. Arming herself with her years of study, which honed her mind to a razor’s edge, she refused to give in. She was a princess. A princess doesn’t quit. Her friends were counting on her. The whole town was counting on her.

En garde! She lit up her horn. In front of her, a collection of books, tomes, and scrolls opened up on her command. Paramount among them was Celestia’s Journal, the book she used to keep in contact with Sunset Shimmer in the human world. Rarity’s discovery of the imposter had only made Twilight more determined to succeed. If someone else had obtained possession of Sunset’s book, it could mean that her friends at CHS were in danger as well. That meant the fate of two worlds rested on Twilight’s slender shoulders.

With Spike’s assistance, she had collected every book in her library detailing inter-dimensional travel, storm barriers, magic-induced weather, dark magic, wild magic, mind control (for the timberwolves), and even changeling interference. If someone was indeed impersonating Sunset and using her journal, it had to be a being with both ties to Equestria and possessing certain magical properties. A changeling at CHS was unlikely but not impossible and right now Twilight wasn’t leaving anything to chance.

But there was always the slight chance that it truly had been Sunset Shimmer. Twilight had studied graphology in Canterlot, in which one was able to gauge the personality and intellect of the pony by reading their script. While Rarity’s sharp eye had caught the strange discrepancy between the passages of Celestia’s Journal, perhaps Sunset had been scared or injured, two factors that would explain why her writing would be so altered. That Sunset and her friends were hiding from some terrible tear in the sky would certainly interfere with one’s ability to keep the pen steady.

She tried writing back to “Sunset Shimmer” earlier in the day with no response. This got Twilight to wondering just what experiment the writer had been referring to. Had she tried to break through the barrier using magic? The girls at CHS had the ability to pony up, but Twilight doubted that they had enough energy between them to penetrate the barrier. Human technology, perhaps? Again, unlikely. Capable as those bipeds were, this was strange magic and it didn’t play by anyone’s rules but its own.

So entrapped was she in her musings that at first she didn’t notice the strange flashes coming from outside the window. Believing it to be a storm, Twilight didn’t blink until she spotted a multi-colored display of lights that radiated the heavens. “What in the world?” She sprang towards the nearest window. The black clouds were briefly but violently lit up with colors of the rainbow. The snowflakes, once pure white, came down in varying shades of blue, green, yellow, red, and even purple.

The door behind her opened up. “Twilight!”

“I know, Spike,” she said without looking back. “Let’s get out there.”

Both she and Spike were outside the palace in moments. Ponies from all over town, those on patrol, those in their homes, and those who had been fast asleep, now stood in their positions, doors, and windows, gawking at the display.

“What is this?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know. Pretty though.” Twilight scowled at the little dragon. “What? It is.”

“This is no time to take in the scenery, Spike. We’ve…”

“TWILIGHT!” Pinkie Pie came to a screeching halt, sending a hail of snow covering both alicorn and dragon. They dug themselves out to find Pinkie’s chest heaving so much that her head visibly grew and shrunk with each gasp.

“Pinkie? What’s wrong?”

Pinkie inhaled sharply. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!”

“What’s gotten into her?” Spike asked as he removed himself from the snow.

Twilight flapped her wings to loosen the snow. “Nothing more than usual. Except,” she looked at the sky, then to Pinkie, back to the sky and to Pinkie again. “Wait. Do you know what’s going on?”

“Ten bits she had a hoof in it,” Spike muttered to himself.

The pink mare rambled off so fast that she forgot to breathe, “Rainbow Dash wanted to use a Sonic Rainboom to break through the barrier and she asked if I could use Big Bertha to shoot her into the sky like a cannonball and she flew so fast that she did manage to make a Sonic Rainboom only after she did she didn’t come back down and after that the sky started lighting up and there were all these pretty colored snowflakes and I ate one that tasted like grapes which was weird because it was red and grapes are purple but then I thought Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh Rainbow’s in trouble and I better got tell Twilight!”

Twilight blinked. “Huh?”

“Called it,” Spike said.

“Pinkie, could you explain that to me again? Slowly this time.” After she finished, Twilight turned into a multitude of colors herself, ending with a bright, hot red. “You did WHAT?”

Pinkie sighed. “Okay. Slower this time…R…a…i...n…b…o…w…D…a…s…h…”

Twilight was livid. “I specifically told that pony she wasn’t supposed to go above the cloud cover. Didn’t she learn her lesson last time when she almost broke her neck?”

“That’s what I said.”

Spike and Twilight glanced at her.

“Well maybe not, but I did try to dissuade her. You know how stubborn Rainbow Dash can be. She was like ‘Oh, we can’t wait for Miss Egghead to figure things out. I’ve got a plan that will clear the skies in ten seconds flat. Just shoot me into the sky with your party cannon and my Sonic Rainboom will take care of the rest.”

“That was very reckless of you, Pinkie,” Twilight scolded. “You should know better. I expect Rainbow Dash to do something this crazy. She never listens to me. But you?”

Pinkie’s face dropped and her hair deflated. She pawed at the grow nervously. “I know it was a stupid move, Twilight. But Rainbow Dash was really persuasive and, well, after what happened to Applejack, I just wanted this all to end as soon as possible.” The weight of what she did sat on her like a ton of bricks. She slumped to the ground and sobbed. “I didn’t stop to think what it might do to Rainbow Dash. I may have just helped kill my friend.” Hot tears steamed on the snow and Pinkie’s sobs fogged up the air.

Twilight’s demeanor softened. She reached out to console Pinkie when Spike called her attention. “Twilight, look!” She did, following his pointing talon to see a bright star permeate the clouds. It was radiant, the most beautiful star any pony had ever seen. For a moment, her heart lifted. Had Rainbow Dash done it? Had her Rainboom succeeded where hours of speculation had failed?

Pinkie looked up as well. Her hair frizzed up and her eyes bulged. “That’s Rainbow Dash!”

And she was right. The star winked and faded before the body of a cyan pegasus materialized from the radiance. She was plummeting to the earth like a falling stone, her wings bent and her tongue lolling out of her mouth as she spiraled out of the control.

“No!” Twilight took flight, her mind quickly calculating a trajectory that would enable her to catch her falling friend. The princess reached out, her arms almost breaking with the force of the impact as she collided with Rainbow. Her large wings compensated, flapping wildly as she tried to slow their fall. They landed, ironically, in front of Sugercube Corner where Pinkie Pie and Spike were waiting. A host of worried onlookers had gathered as well, all of them, eyes wide with fear.

A weak breath left Rainbow’s mouth as her head fell to one side, a trail of blood seeping its way down her cranium. It hissed as it fell onto the snow. “Help!” Twilight said. “We need medical help right away!”

“I’m on it,” Spike said and moved to contact the hospital.

Pinkie Pie was ragged with guilt. She collapsed beside her friend, bawling, and pleading for Rainbow to wake up. “This is all my fault! I’m so sorry. Please open your eyes. Please!”

Twilight tried to tell her to hush up, that yelling at an unconscious Rainbow wasn’t going to do anything, but she couldn’t. She knelt there in the snow, tears falling freely, as her friend bled out beside her.

---

Outside Ponyville, a menagerie of animals were watching the celestial display above them with a mix of awe and fear. These forest critters were simple creatures, always respectful of nature and its power. They knew there was something unnatural about the weather, which is why so many of them took shelter in the one place they felt safe: a small cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest.

Chief among these animals was a small white rabbit. Strong, willful, and possessing an amazing amount of strength for a creature of his size, Angel Bunny was clearly the boss around here. Even his pegasus, and he called her that for he considered her the pet and not him, was often cowed by his assertiveness. He stood among the collection of forest creatures, one leg stomping nervously as he tried to figure out just what in the name of Frith was going on.

“What’s going on?” A soft voice asked behind him.

Angel Bunny didn’t turn around, didn’t even acknowledge the question. If his pegasus was too blind to see what was happening with her own eyes then who was he to tell her? Honestly, all she had to do was crane her head...

“Oh my!”

Finally!

His pegasus joined her friends out on the lawn. “The sky’s lit up. Did Twilight figure out a spell to clear the clouds?”

Angel said nothing. He felt his pegasus standing right next to him, her hooves trembling slightly at the sight above her. “Hmm…I don’t think it’s working.”

You think? Angel Bunny regarded her at last. Even among ponies she had a knack for pointing out the obvious. He could never understand their species sometimes. Powerful? Yes. Resourceful? Definitely. Smart? Not so much. They proved useful at times, such as when the purple one created the bubble spell that protected the cottage from intruders, namely those nasty timberwolves. Angel had sensed something was amiss long before the weather had taken a turn for the worse. He’d think that with all the magic at their disposal, the ponies would have at least bene somewhat prepared for something like this. The region was constantly at the epicenter of strange and hostile activity. Surely someone out there considered the possibility of readying themselves for a freak storm?

Now rabbits? They were always prepared. It came with centuries of being at the bottom of the food chain. They were always planning for every conceivable disaster be it floods, blizzards, carnivores, and droughts. Living among magical creatures like ponies, Angel had acquired a sixth sense, an Angel Sense, as it were, to combat magical disasters like this one. It was he who had rallied the other animals together, having them take shelter in the cottage long before the snow started to fall. He made sure they stocked up on food, placing them in sheltered boroughs throughout the property and like any decent warren, had sentries posted at key points throughout the area. When his pegasus came back from her meeting with her fellow ponies, the cottage was prepared for a siege without her knowing.

Higher species, his tail!

But despite all the preparation, Angel Bunny couldn’t help shake the feeling that he was in over his head. Like all rabbits, he knew they’d their stores would not last forever and that they would eventually need to leave the protection of their bubble to find more. With the timberwolves about, that made things more difficult. The snow would eventually kill whatever was edible and Angel had lived through enough shortages to know how messy that could end up.

“Maybe I should head into town,” his pegasus said aloud.

Yeah that’s right. Go towards where the potential danger is. Honestly, these ponies!

“Angel Bunny,” she said, “stay here and keep an eye on things while I’m gone.”

Angel fought the urge to roll his eyes. Like where was he going to go? Detrot?

“Stay safe. I’ll be back soon.” And she was off. The bubble shivered slightly as she passed through unharmed, making sure to fly well above the tree line.

Angel Bunny watched her for a while before turning back to the cottage. Now that she was gone he could get down to really preparing this place. Snapping his paws together, the rabbit began barking out orders to those around him. There was a lot of work to be done and not enough time to do it.

Had he been less intent on showing off his prowess as a leader and more on observing the area around him, Angel Bunny might have noticed a pair of eyes watching his pegasus’ departure. The eyes, a sickly green, blinked before receding into the forest, the darkness enveloping them.

Comments

[The Red Butcher]

You need to open this back up and finish, we need to know what's going on and how badly it's going to get for them. I'm disappointed I didn't see any of that in these chapters.