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A Frigid Beginning1,026 words
A Frost-bitten Trail2,166 words
The White Specter2,954 words
Thoughts Carved in Ice2,097 words
Icey Tracks2,459 words
Ice-skating into Town2,946 words
Chillin' Out3,094 words
A Frosty Farmer2,653 words
Cracks in The Ice4,211 words

A Frost-bitten Trail

I groaned as I lifted myself from the ground. Looking around I saw that there was a snowstorm still going on, but it was less massive than earlier. I slowly stood and looked at my hand to find that it had a black, fingerless glove on it and the skin was pale blue. The other hand was the same, both had metal plating along the back and black belts crossing across them in an ‘X’. ‘The Eye’, as I’m going to call it from now on, was embedded into the palm of my right hand, and was glowing slightly. I curled my hand into a fist and it felt like my hand always had.

I looked at my body and found myself wearing a pair of pale, tan pants and armor plated boots that came up to my knees. I had a loincloth that, thankfully, didn’t need to cover anything and was attached to my belt. It had a pattern of intricate lines across the front and went down to my shins. On my chest was a black, short sleeved tunic, covered with equally black plate armor that was held on by three belts going around my stomach.

All of this was topped off by the black cloak that was covering my back and sides with a grey lining on the inside. It even had a hood with a large belt adorned by a blue cross on the buckle and rounded shoulder plates with the same intricate line design on them to hold it on if I were to do anything involving running or lots of motion.

(And for those who lack imagination due to a chemical imbalance... here.)

I undid some of the straps on my left hand and rubbed on the frost bitten metal to make it reflect light. I gazed at my reflection and wasn’t sure if I should panic or just go with it. The skin on my face was a faded pale blue and turned near white as it ran up to my hair. Speaking of which, my hair was now pure white and ran down to my eyebrows that were and equally pearl white, but at least out of all the changes, my ice blue eyes stayed the same. “Well.... fuck.”

I looked around and saw that there was mostly snow and tundra in every direction. “Even more fuck.... Where the hell am I?” I stood there for about two more minutes before closing my eyes and spinning in place. “And I’m going...“ I stopped and pointed in a random direction, “...that way, cause I’ve got nothing better to do.”

I spent the next... hell if I know, I lost track of time... looking for any sign of civilization. “Just..... what.... the...... FUCK!! IS THERE NOTHING HERE BUT FUCKING SNOW AND ICE!?” I looked around in frustration and almost missed the small dot of green on the horizon... barely visible through the snowstorm. “FINALLY!!”

I trudged through the snow banks that had started to pile around the now noticeable field of grass and.... crystals for some odd reason.... and saw that there was some sort of barrier large enough to hold an entire city around the whole thing. “Woah.” I pressed my hand against the barrier and after some effort of pushing I made it through.

Only for my hand to feel like it was about to FALL OFF!! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!! THIS BURNS!!! I pulled my arm out of the barrier with a scream of pain and saw it was smoking for a moment before the frost from before was visibly reforming. I looked between the two before backing away slowly, looking at the sky, and screaming in a fit of rage.

“Is everything I find going to cause me pain today?!” I turned around and started to walk away from the protected paradise when I noticed a trail that was barely visible under the massive amounts of snow. “At least one thing happened that didn’t lead to pain....” I followed the trail for half an hour until I found a small building that was standing in the middle of nowhere.

I walked up to the structure and saw that it was a small, near abandoned train station. There was no one in sight and the ticket booth was empty of anything besides dust and snow. Oh, and a chair. A short stubby chair that would have been impossible for me to sit in. Is this place run by midgets? I mean really, who the hell could sit in that?

I walked into the main building of the station and found that the area was mainly like the ticket counter, but with less snow. I saw some old filing cabinets, an antique desk, and a table in the center of the room. I walked up to the table and saw a stack of books that were bound together with old leather bindings. I looked at them, impressed by the condition they were in, and figured that it would be the best way to find out about where I am. “Okay... let’s see what dark secrets you hold.”

I flicked the cover of the top one open with a finger, not even picking the book up, and saw the cover freeze over as it fell to the table. I was mildly surprised that it didn’t shatter on impact and fucking shocked as all hell that I did that. I looked at my hand and saw The Eye was glowing faintly before dimming out completely. I briefly noticed that there was a trio of crystals on the cover underneath the layer of ice that I accidentally caused.

I decided to ignore the frozen leather and my ‘fuck all’ hand, before turning back to the books. I thanked all the gods in existence at once, be they benign or spiteful, that it was in legibly written english. The first couple pages were still a bit too damaged to read though, It looked like they were worn from being in such a cold place for so long or were just simply ripped out of the book, so I just read what I could. Most of the book depicted the history of the ‘Crystal Empire’ and the ‘Crystal ponies’ .......(Ugh, that sounds so stupid)..... or seemed to be photocopied letters and such. Most of it depicted the Empire to be happy and cheerful, until a figure going by the name of ‘King Sombra’ appeared. I found one of the letters about him that sparked my interest towards the end of the old tome.

.........nd the Wendigos still cause the snow fa...................................................................... We are running out of....................... need to head to the Cry.................. to get more suppl...............ed. I have almost got everything I need. I jus...................... ast the wendigos outside and avoid getting caught by Sombra.........................

.............................. If I can get in and obtain some of the untainted crystal that remains, then I can contact The Royal Sisters...........Equestria for assistance. I only pray that Sombra does not find me hiding here in this old hut.

I looked away from the book and sat in thought. The wendigos were causing the snow? I looked down at my hand and the books iced cover. So does that mean by being their successor that I can do that?.... Wait.....That was a stupid question considering I froze a book by just touching it not five minutes ago.

Unfortunately, the page ended there and didn’t have any more info on Wendigos, so I turned the page (Without freezing it thankfully) and found more notes that were handwritten into the book in blue ink that sharply contrasted the worn black of the previous pages.

These were the last notes of the resistance leader, Diamond Edge, before he was able to send a letter for assistance to the Royal Sisters. While the letter was successfully passed along by one of his subordinates, He was captured shortly after and publicly executed by Sombra himself. Soon after, the entire crystal empire disappeared from the curse that Sombra cast upon his defeat.

More recent events, however, have lead to the Empire being rediscovered by the Elements of Harmony and prevented a second attempt from Sombra at taking over. Sombra was destroyed completely by the Crystal Heart.

I stopped reading the book because the rest of the pages were blank or torn out. The other books depicted a moon with what looked like the head of a unicorn on the surface, and the last one had a blank cover.

I decided that it would be best to take all of them with me. I didn’t know what was in the other two, but I knew that I was going to get rather bored just walking around in a frozen wasteland. I looked around the room to see what I could find that could be of help to me traveling around. I opened the filing cabinets and found they were empty. It looked rather recent due to the lack of dust that was inside the old metal.

The desk seemed to be locked for the most part. I tried to pry open the lock only to succeed in making my fingers hurt. Little piece of.... I glared at the lock and wished that it would freeze into a brittle piece of tin. I felt a small pain in the back of my head as The Eye started to glow and ice formed over the lock and forced itself inside. Two seconds later I was reeling from sudden exhaustion and the lock fell off of the desk.

I stared at the remains of the lock for a second before looking to my hand. Did I just do that? I thought back to my chat with the Wendigos. “Well.... they did say that I would gain their power.... I suppose this is what they meant.” To test my theory I looked over to a chair that was knocked over and pointed my hand with it. I focused on covering it in ice and with some difficulty a coat of ice, 1/4 inch thick, formed over the entire thing.

I grinned and pulled the ice-chair up and sat in it. It didn’t feel cold to me and my grin widened. “Cool.” I couldn’t help but chuckle at the small pun and looked outside. The weather hadn’t let up and I looked at The Eye. “I guess I have you to thank that I didn’t freeze to death in that.” I looked at the desk and scooted my seat over. Might as well have been a fucking wheely chair with how I zipped past the desk and crashed into the table. “FUCKING HELL!!”

After grumbling and moving a normal chair into place, I started to rifle through the desk for anything useful. I found an odd set of bags that I probably could sling across my shoulders, a couple blank journals, some semi-frozen quills and some completely frozen ink. I looked at the ink and sighed, but put it, the quills and all of the books into the bags before slinging it over my right shoulder and opening the door.

The wind hit my face instantly and knocked my hood off. I flinched from reflex but relaxed when the wind didn’t hurt or bite at my face. In fact, it was rather soothing for a blizzard. I pulled up my hood anyways and fastened the belt, covering my mouth and nose. I don’t think that any light was able to hit my eyes so I figured that I looked pretty imposing right now. I walked around the outside of the station and found a hand trolley that was stored in a small garage. I am not using that....

Thankfully, fate agreed with me and from the direction of what I can only assume now was the Crystal Empire came a train headed towards me. I grinned as it made it’s way to the station and noticed something odd for what seemed to be the fifth time today. Why isn’t the train slowing down? Derp, again, stupid question. The place is abandoned genius.

I looked at the oncoming train and swore. As it moved past the station I jumped off and grabbed onto one of the back cars railings. With some effort I managed to pull myself between the cars and grinned. “Well that was easier than I thought....” Not being turned to paste under the wheels is an added bonus as well!

I sat on the train as it headed down the tracks. Where I ended up would be anyones guess at this point. All I knew was that I was headed to civilization that hopefully, by the look of the train’s decor, wasn’t covered in a ultra painful fucking barrier.

Speaking of which... If I find the asshole who made that, I am punting them to the FUCKING MOON!

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