Previous Chapters Next
Close
Prologue- The Kidnapping2,237 words
Wanted2,417 words
Nightmares and Break Outs2,592 words
The Frozen North2,394 words
The Fortune-Teller4,409 words
Memories from Yesterday4,282 words
Sweet Dreams Are Made of This...1,105 words
Saddle Arabia2,395 words
Hamuneightra3,473 words
The Pyramid3,024 words
Reunion1,836 words
Return to Ponyville1,714 words
The Forgotten City1,903 words
Battle for Equestria924 words
Epilogue1,697 words

The Frozen North

They were tired.
After escaping from Canterlot, Shining Armor, Spike, Screwball and Rainbow Dash had boarded a train; they didn't bother in asking where the train was going, anywhere was fine as long as there were no Changelings around. The train continued for days, day and night, with no stops. The four friends, however, were not enjoying the views. None of them were focusing on the beautiful sunsets, or the crystal-clear rivers and lakes, nor the prairies green as the leaves of the trees, or the small towns they passed by.

They were all thinking about their friends.

Shining Armor was worried about Cadence and their foal, Screwball couldn't sleep without her daddy to tuck her at night, and Spike and rainbow Dash were worried about the Mane Six who were still somewhere, probably hungry, injured and cold. Twilight and Cadence were the main subjects of worry, since they were both pregnant, and in the emotional distress they were probably in, they feared something would happen to them or their unborn foals.

The night before reaching their destination, everyone was in their cabins, sleeping... or not.

Shining Armor couldn't sleep that night, he was too anguished about Cadence to even get drowsy; all the time he kept remembering their times together, their dates, the wedding, the honeymoon, and many other fond memories of her. If something happened to her, he wouldn't live with that. Tired of roaming around his cabin, he walked out onto the wagon. TO his surprise, he found Screwball sitting there, looking sadly at the night sky and sobbing silently. Judging by the snow falling outside, they had guessed the train was heading to the Frozen North, and the Crystal Empire.

"Screwball?" he called out gently for her, but she didn't turn to see him.

"I miss daddy..." was all she said

He remained silent, thinking of what to say to her. She was a grown mare, but she still had the heart of a filly, and she was very devoted to her father, apparently. If something actually happened to Discord, although there were no possibilities of that since he was immortal, she would be alone in the world. Although she and Twilight had grown quite close, she would not fill the hole in Screwball's heart.

Finally, he gathered the courage to speak, "Don't worry, he will be okay, they don't call him Spirit of chaos for nothing," he assured her, but Screwball simply looked down.

"Daddy always tucks me in at night since I remember," she sobbed, "I can't sleep if he's not here."

"You and Discord are very close, aren't you?"

Screwball nodded slowly, "Yeah. It will sound weird, but... I actually remember some things since the moment I was born. Not everything, but a few things.."

Shining turned to look at her in curiosity, "Like what?"

"Well, there was the first time I made a cotton candy cloud..."

The sun was setting rather slowly today, but not because Lord Discord had decided to make everything back to normal once again, but because his was teaching his daughter how to make cotton candy clouds. He would often help her in forming them, but this particular day, she wanted to do one for herself. The filly was looking at the sunset, with her father curled up around her, but she didn't realize.

"Are you sure you are ready, my dear?" the Spirit of Chaos caressed her mane softly.

"Of course I'm ready," the filly replied, not removing her eyes of the sun.

"I could make a small one for you to practice."

"No!" Screwball removed her eyes off the setting sun and gave her father a scolding look, "You said I could do one by myself!"

Discord just smiled, "Okay, Okay."

The filly's confidence seemed to evaporate after a few seconds, "But can you get close to me? Just in case."

Her father curled up a little more around her, "Just in case."

Screwball closed her eyes and started concentrating; out of thin air, a small pink figure started forming just as the filly started to sweat. Discord simply watched as the cloud slowly became flufier and bigger, but it was still quite unstable. After a few seconds, the cloud formed completely; he had to admit, for being her first time, the cloud was quite well-formed. He looked down at Screwball, and chuckled when he saw she was covering her face with her hooves, fearing she had screwed it up.

"How is it?" she whispered, "Is it there?"

Discord patted her quarters softly, "If you uncovered those beautiful eyes of yours you'd see, my little bubble."

Screwball looked up, and to her amazement, she saw a perfectly formed cotton candy cloud. When her father tasted it, however, she guessed she had to practice the flavor.

"Uh..." Discord reluctantly swallowed the piece of candy, not wanting to hurt his daughter's feelings, "Not bad, but the next time try to do a little more sweet."

"Do I have to eat it, daddy?"

"Well, we can't let it go to waste, can we?"

"Aww."

DIscord giggled at his daughter's face, "Tell you what, I'll let you eat one of my candy clouds if you help me make chocolate rain in the morning... in a few minutes, of course."

Screwball yawned as she snuggled against her father's body, "Okay, daddy..."

When she was finished, Screwball and Shining Armor noticed Rainbow Dash and Spike had joined them and they didn't even realize it. The baby dragon and the Pegasus were staring through the window at the sky, but they had heard the story as well. They hadn't imagined Discord could be such a good father.

"Don't worry, we'll rescue him and the others," Rainbow spoke in a soft tone, which sounded quite weird in her, "As long as we remain together, nothing will stop us."

The mare turned to look at her, "You promise?"

Shining put a hoof on her shoulder assuringly, "We all promise."

The next morning, everyone awoke with an air of confidence as they were dropped off at the Crystal Empire. The crystal ponies bowed when they saw their prince pass by, and Shining greeted them as he passed by, but the group was more concentrated in looking for a clue of the Cadence, Twilight, Discord and the others' whereabouts. They decided to start by taking a peek in the library; if there wasn't something there, then there would be nothing elsewhere. Rainbow Dash recalled hearing Chrysalis speaking about some "artifacts" required to bring Sombra back, but she did not know how they was called, other than it was part of a spell to bring back the dead.

As soon as they arrived to the library, the ponies started looking around the ancient spells section, and Screwball took a peek into the forbidden spell section. They grabbed every book they found useful, and searched through the countless pages, hoping to get a clue. However, none of those books contained any actual information about the artifacts, or their whereabouts. Just as they were about to lose hope, however, Screwball was skipping the pages of a copy of Forbidden Spells and Dark Artifacts when she found a chapter about a spell to bring back the dead.

"Everyone! I found something-" before she could finish, Shining, Rainbow and Spike had already rushed to her side and set their eyes on the page she was currently reading.

"What does it say?!" Rainbow asked out loud, her voice echoing in probably all of the halls of the library.

Shining Armor read out loud, "According to legend, a scepter was created by Unicorns who desired to bring their loved ones back from the dead, but the spell backfired and they were all sent to the Underworld. The Equestrian Royal Family feared the scepter would be used for more dark purposes, and so they split it in three pieces and spread it across the farthest corners of Equestria. One in the Frozen North, another in Saddle Arabia, and the last in a lost city forgotten by everypony ages ago."

"This gives me an idea," said Spike, "How about we find the artifacts before Chrysalis does? And we'll force her to tell us where she took the others!"

Rainbow grinned, "That might just work."

Screwball gulped, "But daddy said that black magic is very dangerous, even for him."

"I'm afraid that we don't have any other choice if we want to get our friends back."

Rainbow Dash suddenly perked up her ears, hearing what seemed to be the sound of wings... insect wings. She looked up to the ceiling in suspicion, and in the dark, she spotted a pair of blue eyes and a black shape.

"Changeling!" She immediately took off, flying after the Changeling. the Changeling flew away as fast as he could, avoiding pillars and walls as he did so, looking for an open window.

Finally, he spotted an open window, and he dove towards it with a grin... but before he could cross the window, some magic closed it, and he crashed headfirst into it, falling unconscious unto the floor. This particular changeling not only had a silvery-colored shell, but he had two fringes of hair... or whatever their equivalent of hair was called, cascading in his face. His mane was spiky and pointing a little upwards, and his tail was much longer than the rest. Rainbow turned around to look at the others, Shining Armor had a grin on his face as his horn stopped glowing. The cyan pegasus grinned as she landed next to the Changeling, and was soon joined by the others.

When the Changeling recovered consciousness, he noticed he was tied up, still in the library. He tried to get free, but it was no use; around him were the ponies who had captured him. He recognized the bearer of Loyalty, and the Captain of the Guard, but the baby dragon and the purple-maned girl were unknown to him. They didn't look very friendly.

"Alright, you better tell us where Twilight and the others are before I turn you into an empty sack of hay!" Rainbow growled before being gently pushed aside by Spike.

"Let me handle this," The baby dragon then turned to look at the Changeling menacingly, "Alright, you better tell us where Twilight and the others are before I turn you into an empty sack of hay!"

The cyan pegasus simply rolled her eyes in annoyance.

The Changeling started trembling in terror, fearing they might actually do what they said they'd do to him if he didn't comply. The mare with pink coat and swirled eyes walked closer to him, and started examining him; however, she was looking at him with a child-like curiosity, as if she didn't know what he was.

"Why does this pony have holes in his legs?" she turned to look at the others with a baby-like innocence.

"He's a Changeling!" Spike explained, "He's supposed to look like that! But he can change into the shape of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off the love you have for them!"

"I've never heard of those Changethings." Screwball simply said.

The Changeling didn't say anything for a while. Seriously? What pony didn't hear about the Changelings even in bedtime stories? Everyone gasped, the Changeling included, when the mare untied him.

"Why did you do that?!" Shining practically yelled.

"If we're mean with somepony, he'll be mean to us. If we're nice with somepony, he'll be nice to us," Screwball simply said before hugging the Changeling, "And he's so adorable!"

The Changeling felt sick in his stomach when she called him 'adorable.' She wasn't supposed to call him adorable, she was supposed to flee. But the embrace felt so warm... he hadn't felt like this since... since... remembering it brought tears to the Changeling's eyes, and he returned the hug, sobbing silently.

Rainbow Dash, Shining Armor and Spike were staring at Screwball and the Changeling with incredulous looks. they knew Screwball was more innocent than a baby, but they didn't imagine she was this innocent. And they did not imagine Changelings could actually cry.

"What's your name?" Screwball inquired.

The Changeling sniffled a few more times before answering weakly, "... S-Stormfly..."

"Stormfly, could you tell us where our friends are, please? My stepmommy and uncle Shining's wife are pregnant, and we don't want anything to happen to their foals."

Pregnant? He hadn't been told about that detail. He knew what was it like to expecting being a parent, but... He just couldn't let these ponies go through the same he had, no matter if they were his enemies.

"... I... I know where the bearer of... Honesty is..."

Almost immediately the other three ones exploded in questions.

"Applejack?!"

"Where is she, you parasite?!"

"Is Rarity with her?!"

The Changeling grew nervous again, but he still spoke, "Queen Chrysalis sent her to a series of caverns in the Crystal Mountains. She must be still trapped in there."

Shining Armor leaned to the Changeling menacingly, "In that case, you will take us to her right now!"

Screwball wrapped her arms around the Changeling once again, "You don't have to be so mean!"

Stormfly gulped, hoping the Queen would not find out about what he was about to do, "... Alright, I'll take you there."

2,579 views