The Dark Origins of the Windigo

by Schattendrache

An Unknown Beginning

I have gotten together with an old friend, Lucky Charms, in the castle room that had been cleared for use in identifying the individual and examining the supplies so the two of us could go over the contents of what has been translated so far. We met in college and when I found out he was in the kingdom, I figured we might get together to go over what I’ve been doing. But one thing led to another and I couldn't resist telling him about what I was working on and invited him to join me in examining the journal. Hopefully, I won't end up wasting the time he has here with a simple story of a pony making a poor decision when attempting to best the Spires.

“You know what, Deep, I wasn’t aware that the Crystal Empire had its own line of Alicorns back then, nor that they were interested in exploring the Frozen Wastes. I mean, with all the habitable lands in the south, I would have assumed they would focus their resources on colonizing them.”

“Yeah, they had a few rulers before Sombra took over the kingdom. If this journal was written when I think it was, the area around the Empire was nothing more than a barren tundra at the farthest reaches of the north. They might as well have been living in an ice age seeing as the area around them would have been little more than a wasteland. In all likelihood, the rulers at the time would have been desperate to find any way to expand it and find better ways to survive.”

“Well, when you put it that way, sending out a small group of explorers makes much more sense. Though I still wonder why they speak about themselves as crystal ponies, you know? If they were the only ones around back there, I don’t see the point in it. They must have had knowledge of the other tribes already, didn’t they?”

“I know that we started to call ourselves crystal ponies after an earth pony explorer found our kingdom from the South. There aren’t any texts that give exact dates, but a generaly accepted time for when that happened was around fourteen thousand ago, so at least we know he wasn't around before even the tribes began to form.”

“Mhh, sounds nearly as old as Princess Celestia might be. You know, nopony’s been able to find a book that’s proved how old she really is. The only reference point we have is from that prank princess Luna played on her when Celestia’s birthday cake ended up being more candles than cake. The whole castle looked like a heartwarming eve tree.”

“Haha, you're so funny. Really, this is serious, we have a pony frozen in windigo ice and your making cracks at Celestia's age? So far, all we have to go on is that he isn’t as old as Celestia and he was an explorer told by his queen at the time that he needed to help with an expedition over the Spires. I’m going to see if I can pull up any information on past explorations by the crown.”

With those words, Deep Analysis began walking out of the room and towards one of the many libraries scattered around the castle interior, leaving behind a headshaking Lucky Charms.

“Always so serious…” Lucky Charms mumbled while he moved his stool in the middle of the table to examine the translated texts closer. It seemed to him that, while it was of course very important to free the poor stallion out of his misery, it wasn’t that time critical.

“Do that,” he shouted after his friend, “I will see if I get anything more useful out of this in the meantime.”

Though after several minutes of reading, he only got the i mpression that the strange stallion indeed had a skill for writing interesting diary entries, but he was none the wiser about what Deep expected to get from reading these records.

“I’m back. I didn’t find anything in any castle records about an expedition sent out to the Frozen Spires by any of the past princesses or queens. I even checked the old poetry section. THE POETRY SECTION LUCKY. You know how much I hate those things.” Deep Analysis came into the room, looking more disheveled than usual. Several parchments were hanging off of his flank and head, not even being noticed by the crystal pony in question.

“Your lack of interest in poetry is sadly known by me indeed. Wouldn’t hurt you to read a bit of Shakespony from time to time.”

“I swear to Celestia, if you make me read another untranslated work by him, I will personally take you to the Frozen Spires myself to figure out what happened.”

“A romantic trip? Just us two? How thoughtful of you!” Lucky Charms batted his eyelashes. “I knew you had a romantic side.”

“Let’s just get back to the journal. What did you find out while I was gone?”

“Well, it seems to be that your new friend had a talent for writing adventure stories, that’s for sure…” He lifted a hoof to prevent Deep from responding to that. “But it also told me that he was not alone on his journey. With him were a guard, a farmer, and a linguist. I wonder where these guys are. They didn’t find anypony else, did they?”

“Unless all of them met their end to a windigo, while I’m fairly certain the bodies would be well preserved due to the effect ice has on decomposition, I’m fairly confident that we wouldn't be able to find them on such a large mountain.” Deep Analysis shook his head. “And even if we could find them, how would we be able to tell them apart from the dozens of other ponies that tried to conquer the Spires?”

Deep Analysis finally noticed the parchments that had decided to tag along with him back to the journal and began to remove and also place them on an empty desk.

“No, that is not how it works Deep.” Lucky raised a wing and spread out one feather after another to support his counting.

“First, finding them doesn’t sound so unlikely, keeping in mind they all should be in or around the cave you mentioned. Second, even if you would find a lot of other ponies around them, you could clearly tell them apart by clothes and appearance. And third, by injuries. I haven’t forgotten what you said about the state of the stallion. If a windigo is to blame for him actually being frozen in ice, I really doubt they would rip off his ear, break his nose, or anything physical like that. That is not how they act. No, no, no, these wounds were caused by something far more physical, like a bugbear or some other hostile creature. I’m confident you’re going to find the same kind of injuries on his team for sure.”

“That's assuming that the other members made it to the cave. You have to remember, until about fifty years ago, the Frozen Spires were thought to be impassable. I have no doubts that at least one of the members would have died on the way up. It's also possible that the other members of the expedition abandoned him after he was frozen. In that case, they could literally be anywhere on the mountain.”

“Now you disappoint me Deep, where did your sense of logic go? If the windigos froze him, the others surely wouldn’t have simply stood there and done nothing. More so, what you described are fight injuries, not frostbite or something caused by the weather. A cold wind doesn’t break your nose, Deep, a punch does.”

“As does a large block of ice or a rock that dislodged itself.” Deep had stood up and was almost shouting by the end, only to slump back into his seat a moment later. “I can’t accept that the last memory he has was of at least one of his companions trying to kill him. I want to see the good in ponies, not the evil. After I saw his injuries, I needed to figure out just what could have caused them. I’ve looked over just about every record we have on the Spires, but there isn’t a single recorded instance of anything living on them. I’m fairly sure I know exactly why he looks the way he does, I just don’t want to be right.”

Used to the sudden outbursts from his friend, Lucky Charms only gave him an indulgent little smile. “I don’t like that scenario either, but life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, Deep. Though, I said something did this, not a pony must have done this. Equis is full of creatures we know nearly nothing about, it’s quite possible that something lives on the Spires that got him before the Windigos did.” He thought for a second. “This would also explain why no one’s found the others by now.”

“I guess. I’ll look into any records of any amarok or akhlut in the area. I don't think anything less than one of them would have been able to survive on the Spires. I’ll also go back to the translator and see what else they’ve been able to get out of the journal.”

“Alright, I, however, prefer to read what we have to the end first. Typical of you, already demanding more when you haven’t read what's already been translated.”

“That's why I have you around. You read it and tell me what you found so I don’t have to.”

“Sounds just like our college years, I do the work while you earn the praise for it.”

With that, Deep Analysis began walking out of the room and back towards one of the libraries to find out what reports there were of animals living on the Spires while Lucky Charms went back to reading the translation. He was also thinking about heading over to the kitchen to grab something to eat, it was afternoon after all, and Deeps obsession with his work had caused him to miss out on lunch.

Author's Note:

Thank you toAzure Drache for acting as a coauthor for this story. Go check out his stories as he is a cool guy and I'm also helping him with one of his stories.