>                                                     > by Kezraux > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Oh > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A young man named Derek was sitting on his bed, all by his lonesome one rainy night, when a knock came upon his window. Derek was no pussy ass bitch, so he stood up and approached the window bravely. A small, midnight blue pony was outside staring up at Derek through the glass. "Hello. Your princess requests company. Perhaps you may-" Derek closed the blinds on the pony princess. So goes the story of Derek.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         > when > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek was sitting at his table eating breakfast. Cereal and orange juice, simple but satisfactory, if you will. As Derek reached across to pick up the glass of orange juice that he had just poured, however, he knocked it over with his arm. Oh dear. A knocking came upon the door. Derek sighed and stood up from the table. He was growing tiresome of the constant interruptions to his rainy morning. Upon opening the door, Derek was greeted with an adorable, midnight blue pony. "Greetings, my faithful subject. I beli-" Slam. Derek returned to his cereal. > again and again > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek was tying his shoes, preparing himself for a light jog in the heavy rain. He didn't have the best shoes. They weren't brand name, and they were an ugly shade of greenish-blue. But they worked just fine. The bottom of the shoes had a ridged, rubbery pattern that did well to grip the sidewalk, unless it was icy. Another nice feature of these shoes were the laces themselves. They were soft, flexible and colored a bright, neon red. Derek was very fond of them, and more than a few times Derek had woken up to find the shoes in bed with him. Not on his feet, but on the pillow next to him. Finally, Derek finished tying his shoes. But as he stood up, a knocking came from the ceiling. "What the hell?" Derek muttered to himself, looking up. Not a moment later, part of the ceiling caved in, and a pony came crashing down onto the floor, a smile on its face. It lay limp for a long while, staring at Derek with its soulless eyes. Its fur was matted and covered in dust from the broken sheetrock, but Derek could make out the familiar midnight blue. It spoke. "Thou art-" Derek calmly picked up the pony, walked to the window on the other side of his house, opened it with his free hand, and dumped said pony into the thorny roses. Derek then decided it was time for his jog. > about > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ice. Ice everywhere. It got boring very quickly, the ice did. Derek found this out very quickly. One moment he was out for a relaxing jog, and the next he was stranded in the frozen tundra, snow whipping past him, pelting his face like tiny bullets. Derek was cold. He had gone out into the rain wearing a coat, yes, but it was a light raincoat. Derek slowly fell to his knees. The snow overtook him. Derek's breathing became shallow. His eyes darted around. His heart pumped ever faster with each passing moment. His attention finally came to rest on a pair of glowing blue lights in the distance. They were moving, and they were at least twenty feet high in the air. As the lights got closer and closer, Derek could make out a dark, hulking mass in the wind and snow. The lights became obvious eyes to what was a gigantic, humanoid beast made of ice. On its shoulder rested another creature, this one small and furry. Derek quickly recognized it as similar to the midnight blue one from before, only this one seemed a bit smaller, with a softer overall shape and electric blue mane. Finally, the golem stopped about ten meters from Derek. It showed no sign of intelligence, and simply stared onwards, into the blizzard surrounding them. The pony stared down at Derek for a spell before opening its mouth to speak, but a grunt from the golem diverted its attention. Derek was weak from the cold, but still turned to see what the golem was looking at. It was a snow demon. About as tall as the golem, but made of ice-blue flesh. The demons's eyes radiated with light as it pointed a finger at the golem. A beam of energy shot out, boring through the beast of ice and felling it. As the golem fell, so did the pony on its shoulder. With a stroke of bad luck, the pony landed on a chunk of particularly hard ice rather than in the snow. Derek heard the sound of bones snapping. He winced. Moments later, a second beam of energy hit Derek. Derek fell to the ground, dead. Poor Derek. > Time. > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tharaal was one of the most prominent demons in all of Equestria. The ice was his to command, and no being would dare to bother him on his own turf. For the pettiest of creatures, Tharaal would simply blast them with a beam of energy, which could penetrate even the strongest of armors. But when it came to other beings of supernatural abilities, Tharaal treated them to his ice magic. One cold morning, in the frozen north, Tharaal had just gotten done slaying a golem, a pony, and a naked monkey. He gave himself imaginary points for only needing two blasts of energy for the three creatures. He had laughed internally upon seeing the pony fall and snap her neck. Trudging through the ice, the demon eventually found himself at the entrance to his lair. It was a giant, blue steel castle. In the very center of this castle was a tower. It shot high into the sky, to the point where the top was not even visible. Tharaal himself knew not how high it went. His personal unicorn wizard, Khlateel had built it. It most likely had a physics-breaking spell on it. Tharaal hardly paid mind to all of the complex magics in the world. He simply liked ice. Without further hesitation, Tharaal walked through the bitter, cold gates. Tharaal himself lived underneath the castle. With a snap of his fingers, a large trapdoor revealed itself in the frozen courtyard. Minions immediately flowed out of the endless tower and went to work pulling levers, raising the large door so that Tharaal could enter. And enter he did. It was dark inside. So dark, in fact, that the only real light came from Tharaal's own glowing eyes. He walked at a leisurely pace, until he reached the end of the dark hallway. Pushing open the doors, Tharaal entered into his throne room. His officers and personal guard bowed deeply, but Khlateel the wizard simply dipped his head. Tharaal didn't expect a bow from him. Over the time he'd known Khlateel, Tharaal had soon found no mutual trust. The truth of the matter was that Khlateel was crossing the icy north one night when Tharaal stumbled upon him. Tharaal was highly intent on just stomping on the pony and going on his way, but the cloaked unicorn immediately put a stop to that with a simple, but extremely potent force reflection spell. Impressed that such a small creature could have such great magical ability, Tharaal decided to take in the mysterious wizard for the night. After learning that Khlateel had no goals or purpose, Tharaal invited him to stay until he wished to leave. And so it was.