Chapter 1
The sun was riding high in the clear sky over the courtyard of the Castle of the Two Sisters. Ponies were shopping at numerous stands, enjoying pleasant sounds of music played by a band of minstrels. A beige unicorn mare with a green mane was hanging some decorative flowers on the castle wall for an upcoming ball.
A foreign, tall, red-maned, snowy-coated, unicorn lady with a brown saddle bag on, walking from one stand to another, looking for a particular kind of flowers glimpsed the blossoms on the wall. She immediately headed towards the decorator.
"The Ice-Lilies, where did you get them?!" the foreigner said strictly, aiming her horn at that mare.
The beige pony took fright a bit, "from Princess Luna's Personal Royal Florist called Lis De Glace."
As the red-maned mare heard the name, her eyes widened. She looked like she just found a treasure she had been searching for centuries for. "Where can I find her?!" the pony lady asked eagerly.
"Only Princess Luna knows where she is. I don't know anypony who's really seen her."
"How do you get the flowers then?"
"I go to the castle cellar, put bits into a small iron box, and my assistants take crates with the flowers that are already prepared there for us."
The foxy turned around, quickly crossed the courtyard and entered the castle.
A royal guard stopped her, "your invitation, please."
She showed him a golden medallion on which was written, "Honorary Member of the Unicorns' Council of Equestria."
The guard shook his head, "the Unicorns' Council was dispersed after the coronation of our Princesses. The medallion is obsolete and invalid. So, if you have no invitation, I must ask you to go away."
"I need to get inside. It is important!"
"Yes, everypony needs to get to the ball today," the guard retorted.
In a moment, other six guards were at her.
She could easily beat them with her magic, but she thought to herself, 'I need no fuss,' and walked out of the castle.
"Professor Eveningray," a pegasus guard standing in a corner of the courtyard called out and came to her. "The Princesses will be so glad to see you again," he smiled.
"Don't tell anyone that you've seen me here!" Eveningray said, "Princess Luna is in danger!"
"I must alarm all the guards then!"
"No! Just tell me where Lis De Glace is."
"Actually, I don't remember seeing her ever," the guard rubbed his mane, "but her room is next to the room of Princess Luna."
Eveningray galloped out of the courtyard, through a garden, to the north-western wall of the castle. She pushed a stone of a slightly different shape in the wall with her hoof and a secret door opened. After several minutes of trotting through secret passages, the foxy got to the Royal Florist's room door. She unlocked with her magic and entered.
"At least you should have changed your name, 'Lis'!" the red-maned lady called out to a light-blue unicorn mare with a red ribbon adorning her violet mane who was sitting behind a big lexicon of black magic.
"You wouldn't believe what treasures Princess Luna's secret library hides," Lis De Glace uttered calmly.
"Enough, Whisperer! Transform back into your true shape!" The foxy stood broadside to her opponent, riskily exposing her right side to a possible attack, in order to block her way to the door. She took shackles out of her bag and threw them on the floor in front of Lis. "Put them on. It's time to go!"
The light blue mare slowly rose from behind the book, stepped over the chains and glared at Eveningray, "so, it seems that you, stupid arrogant unicorn have forgotten who is the hunter and who the prey! I don't change my shape. It's my whispering that makes ponies see me as this pretty mare. Most time I repeat it subconsciously on and on like a dark magical mantra. It means that if you see me as Lis De Glace, in spite of the protective amulet on your neck, you are under my spell! But if it will make you feel better--"
Lis De Glace ceased the disguise spell, and the foxy saw the light-blue mare turn into a big, dark, bat-winged, double-tailed cat.
"I've been waiting here for you," the beast grinned.
Eveningray lit up her horn and shot a freezing beam against the demon. Whisperer jumped towards her, in the air dodged the beam, struck the floor, slid through the space between her front and back legs, stopped on the opposite side of the room and stood up.
Eveningray quickly turned around and aimed her horn at Whisperer to strike the demon with another freezing beam, but the mare couldn't light up her horn. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in the right side of her body. Eve found three deep scratches behind the right front leg.
The cat raised a front paw to display proudly its extended, long, sharp claws. "You are not half as fast as you think, stupid pony."
Eveningray tried to light up her horn again. To no avail.
"Don't try. I am master of your power now," the demon laughed.
An hour later, Princess Luna looking for Lis De Glace found Eveningray alone in the room. The northern mare was standing there in a circle of runes with her legs frozen to the floor. Her mane and tail were light blue and covered with tiny crystals of ice. There was a diamond sword lying two yards in front of her.
Overwhelmed Princess Luna took a few steps towards her, "Professor Eveningray, what has...?"
"Stay away from me! I can't control my power!" the unicorn lady shouted.
"Where is Lis?" Luna asked.
"Lis De Glace is demon Whisperer!"
"No, she is my friend..." Luna objected.
Eveningray looked straight in Luna's eyes, "listen up. In our kingdom, there is a place among three mountains called Porta Ignis, and in the middle, is a gate of the underworld sealed by a huge marble broad stone. Whisperer found a lexicon of black magic in your library. Now it knows how to break the seal and free all other demons! You must send a message to Queen Polar Sky. Only she can stop the demon now! But first, there is another thing that you must do. I wrote these runes to hold my frost within the circle, but they won't last long. Whisperer had left this sword here for me. Take it and put its blade through my heart, or Equestria freezes within days!!"
Luna shocked by her former Professor's request was hesitating for a while. As if the sword weighed several tons, she slowly raised it with her telekinesis into the air. Then she frowned and broke the sword in two pieces. "How could you even think that I would do something like that? We will find another way to break the spell. Now excuse me. I will bring help."
Princess Luna galloped to the throne room to tell her sister what had happened. "...we must send our fastest pegasi to Queen Polar Sky!"
Princess Celestia shook her head, "there is no pegasus in Equestria who could deliver the message to the Kingdom of the Midnight Sun. Home-grown ponies are used to the local weather conditions, unlike us. Our pegasi would freeze halfway to the Queen!"
Late in the afternoon, while Princess Celestia along with dozens of unicorns was searching the royal library for a magic that would break the Whisperer's spell, Princess Luna set out for Griffonstone.
The blue alicorn asked the Griffon's King to send one of his subjects to the Kingdom of the Midnight Sun.
"Why should we risk our lives?" the King said, "what have ponies ever done for us?!"
"If we don't stop the demon now, literally thousands of demons will come to conquer our world!" Princess Luna told him.
"So you want us to put out the fire that you ponies have started?! No way! And if some intruders come here with hostile intentions, we will show them greatness of griffon warriors!"
The Princess of the Night warned him, "do not be mistaken. These beings are much more powerful than you can imagine!"
"We won't interfere with affairs of ponies! The audience is over!" the King uttered.
At night, Princess Luna came back home and started packing some supplies in her room.
"What are you doing?" Celestia asked her.
"It is all my fault. I let the demon fool me. My book gave it power. It is only fair that I will deliver the message to Queen Polar Sky."
"Do not be foolish, Luna! You can never get there!"
"This is what you are saying. I only know that I must try."
A guard came running, "Princess Celestia, a spectre has been seen flying around the castle!"
"It must be the demon!" Luna said.
Tia looked her in the eyes, "you had better stay here!" and with the guard left the room.
The Princess of the Night carried on preparing for the long journey. At one moment, she caught light of two unusually big stars out of the corner of her eye. The alicorn lady turned her head and saw two yellow-glowing eyes watching her from outside the window.
Frightened Luna flinched, "Lis?"
The yellow-eyed creature hopped into the room. As it stepped into the light, she saw a white griffon with a thick fur on his chest.
"My name is Arcane. I am the messenger you've been looking for," he said.
"Why would you risk your life in the northern winds for us?" the Princess asked.
"When I was little, other griffons were laughing at me for my chest was a bit more hairy then theirs. A pegasus called Rolling Thunder was the only friend of mine at the time."
Luna took a quill pen with her magic, quickly wrote the message for Queen Polar Sky on a parchment, sealed it and passed it to Arcane. She then pointed her front hoof at a place in the dark sky, "look." Her horn shone, and a new star brighter than others appeared there. "Follow this star. It will lead you to the palace of the Kingdom of the Midnight Sun." The Princess hugged Arcane, "good luck."
The white griffon put the message into his bag. "I'll fly like a lightning," he said, hopped on the window sill, spread his wings and flew due north.
Celestia with twenty guards burst into the room, "are you all right, sister? They saw the spectre leaving your room!"
"The 'spectre' is our only hope," Luna said. "You should return to the ball; your guests are waiting for you," Princess Luna uttered and headed back to Lis De Glace's room.
When she got to the room, Eveningray was motionlessly standing there with her eyes closed.
Luna gently stroked her cold, hoarfrost covered cheek, "sleep, my friend; good sleep will make you stronger." She sat down to the lexicon of black magic, and browsed it. The Princess soon found a chapter that Lis De Glace had marked, titled Mind Control. While the blue alicorn was attentively reading it, a neigh sounded. She raised her eyes from the book and looked at Eveningray who was still standing in the same pose. Luna carried on studying the chapter.
Several minutes later, a peculiar, loud, agressive laughter struck Luna's sensitive ears. She raised her head, stood up, and came so close to Eveningray that her front legs almost touched the protective circle. The unicorn lady was softly breathing in her sleep. Luna took a look around the room, "are you here, Whisperer?!" A parquet creaked behind her. "I am not afraid of you!" she said, quickly turned around and pointed her horn against the source of the sound.
"I believe you," Princess Celestia said, "would you stop aiming your horn at me, please?"
"Although having four big hooves, you walk like a ghost! Could you stamp a little next time?!" Luna scolded her. "I thought that you were going to get bored at the ball."
"It ended half an hour ago. I went to my bed and tried to fall asleep, but I could not when Eveningray is--"
"She is asleep. Unfortunately I can't enter her dreams, for her sleep is dreamless."
"Did you hear that dreadful laughter?" Celestia asked.
"Yes. It is strange. As if the demon were here and far away at the same time," Luna said. "According to the marks in the book, Whisperer was very interested in mind control. I learned that there are several ways to take over one's mind: by writing a magic rune on their forehead, hypnotizing them, casting a spell on them, or putting a special ointment made of magic herbs (including Delusion Flower, Wryleaf and Hypnotica) on their body. The demon underscored the last way, which is most effective if you want to gain control over one's powers, but it is relatively easy to break its effect. We must only find and remove the ointment off her body."
"Hypnotica phosphoresce if exposed to the right kind of light," Celestia said, lit up her horn and cast a beam of ultraviolet light on Eveningray. The scratches on the northerner's side shone blue.
"The demon must have put the ointment on its claws and scratched her with them," Luna said.
"It means that the substance..." Celestia uttered.
"...Is running through my veins," Eveningray finished the sentence.
"Oh, you are awake," Luna said. "Was it you laughing here a few minutes ago?"
Eveningray slowly raised her head, "No."
"Why would a demon called Whisperer choose this complicated way, instead of casting a spell with its whispering?" Celestia wondered.
The northern lady turned her head to the white alicorn, "like other demons, Whisperer is a fear-eater. I, Queen Polar Sky and our four friends drove the demon out of a village where it had been keeping local ponies in fear which had been giving it life force and a magic power. When I came to this kingdom, I expected to find Whisperer weakened, but somepony's fear had made it more powerful than before. The demon has to save its strength, though. To open the underworld gate takes so much magic power that Whisperer can't afford to waste by casting a spell upon me."
The Princess of the Night returned to the lexicon and read the chapter again. "Yes! The effect of the ointment ceases after three days," she said.
The dreadful laughter sounded once more. Eveningray was grinning from ear to ear with an insane expression on her face. A strange voice coming out of her mouth said, "but by the time, your stupid former teacher will turn Equestria into a glacier!"
"Whisperer?"
"You guessed right, Princess Luna. It's really me, talking to you via the mouth of my new puppet."
"Leave Eveningray be!!" Luna shouted.
"No, my dear Princess. She, Polar Sky, an earth mare called Maple, and three unicorn stormy sisters must pay for what they did to me!"
"As the Princess of the Night I command you, demon, stop what you are doing, release Eveningray, and maybe I will be lenient with you!"
The demon laughed, "you, 'Princess of the Night' are like a sweet box, just a little pony suffering from so many little fears. It were your what-ifs what fed me and made me so strong.
"'What if I disappoint my sister? What if I am not good enough to rule the kingdom? What if I fail?'" the demon mocked her. "Now I have something to do, but we will meet again and then I'll show you who the real master of darkness is!"
Eveningray hung her head down, "I am sorry, Princess Luna. I couldn't stop the demon from telling you those things."
"Hold on, Eveningray. We will break the demon's power over you," Luna said and looked at her sister.
Arcane following the white star crossed the Kingdom of the Midnight Sun's border, flew over high mountains, frozen lakes and snow-covered forests. There was one thing making him nervous. He didn't meet just a single one night creature all the way through the land of ice and snow. As if they were hidden in their lairs trying to ride out some kind of expected upcoming disaster. He was soon to know why.
In a deathly silence, the messenger reached the central part of the kingdom. All of a sudden, dark clouds overcast the night skies. A strong counter wind started blowing. The white griffon was familiar with northern winds, but this was different. Instead of snowflakes, thousands of tiny icicles like some needles of ice were drifted by the wind against him.
Arcane ruffled up and carried on flying to the palace. A thin layer of ice growing on the tips of his outer feathers was making his wings heavier every minute. After another hundred miles, the ice-covered wings couldn't carry him in the air any longer. The griffon landed and continued on his four legs. He ran across the white land through the fierce wind as fast as he could, but snowdrifts were still higher and the snow under his paws deeper and deeper. Somewhere in the heart of the kingdom, the griffon fell down exhausted upon the snow. He reached out towards the white star that was only slightly shining through the clouds, screamed into the raging winds and fainted.
In the room of the former Royal Florist, Luna returned to the lexicon of black magic.
"You ought to get rid of the book!" Eveningray told her.
"I am only trying to find anything that could help us to break the ointment's effect," the blue alicorn replied.
"If the book contained what you are looking for, the demon wouldn't have left it here," the northern mare said.
"These books are not quite easy to obtain. How-- why did you do it?" Celestia wondered.
"Once," Luna explained, "when I accidentally overturned a painting on the wall in my room, a small paper on which a secret code was written fell out of the frame. I managed to decode it. It was saying, 'there is a book that can give you an immense magic power.' I was not power-hungry. It was only an adventure like a treasure hunt, so mysterious and thrilling--"
Luna saw disappointment in the eyes of her former Professor. The Princess of the Night flattened her ears back in shame, "the indications led me into a secret room in this castle where the book lay under a thick layer of dust."
The blue alicorn closed the lexicon with her telekinesis and threw it into flames in the fireplace. The book absorbed the fire and its dark violet cover turned into grey stone.
"Well, dear sister, you cannot destroy magic book by throwing it into fire," Tia said, set the book on a table, aimed her horn against it...
"No, you..." Eveningray tried to warn her.
Tia shot the book. The table exploded into thousands of splinters, but the book remained intact. In addition, some iron spikes rose on the cover.
"Stop it!" Eveningray said, "lexicon of black magic can only be destroyed by dragon fire."
"There is no dragon in Equestria," Luna said.
"Fortunately, sister," Tia raised her eyebrow.
In the palace of the Kingdom of the Midnight Sun, a piebald earth mare said to the Queen, "when will Eveningray come back? I need her to take care of the stormy triplets."
"Do they misbehave, Maple?" the Queen asked the mare.
"No, that's not the problem."
"Do they tease you for they are unicorns and you an earth pony?"
"No. Believe me, Queen Polar Sky, that I can easily deal with them even without using any magic."
"What is it then?"
"Since Gale turned herself, Blizzard and Tempest into the little fillies, I've been losing my mind. The filly that Blizzard became doesn't remember anything of our journeys to far places that we were making as young mares. I feel like I lost my best friend, but then she looks at me in the way that my bestie used to and I know that it's her. So I tell the triplets about the adventures we went through like some fairytales. Sometimes, I want to say, 'do you remember when we...', but she doesn't and it breaks my heart bit by bit."
"I know exactly what you are talking about, Maple," the Queen sighed, "Blizzard raised me and Eveningray as her own, and now she calls me 'aunt Brook'. She has forgotten all that she taught us, all the days spent together," the Queen sank her eyes. "But she is alive and maybe she will remember someday. If you need to have a rest from the stormy sisters, leave them here for a week or two. Their aunt Brook will prepare an adventurous vacancy for them. And when the arctic bora ceases, you may take my chariot and pegasi to carry you home," the Queen smiled.
"The arctic bora," Maple shook her head, "as the Royal Magician Blizzard was taming these freezing winds."
"We have to be patient, Maple, and wait for Blizzard or her sisters to learn to control the winds again. Until then, our subjects will have to last out the bora confined to their houses and lairs several times every year," Polar Sky added.
A noise of many stamping hooves and murmuring voices echoed in the castle. The Queen rose from her throne and galloped through the palace to the entrance hall where a group of guards was gathered around something white lying on the floor.
"What is it here?" the Queen asked.
A Captain of the Northern Guards said, "our patrol found a foreign intruder on the snow only a few hundred yards away from the castle."
The guards stepped aside and she saw the white griffon. He was unconscious and half-frozen.
"Beware, Your Majesty, the odd creature might be dangerous! You had better stay away from it," the Captain said.
Polar Sky threw a dark stare at him and he stepped back.
The Queen put her hoof above Arcane. Her horn shone blue. "Fortunately, his heart is not frozen yet," she said. The aura of her horn turned yellow. After warming his body up with her magic, the Queen ordered, "take him to a bed in one of our guest rooms."
Maple entered the hall. "This is a griffon," she wondered. "I've been to Griffonstone once. Most griffons live isolated in their kingdom that lies several thousand miles away from here."
"Well, something important made this one fly so far. Not even the bora discouraged him," Polar Sky said.
Arcane grasped her front leg. All unicorn guards aimed their horns at him. He put his other paw into the bag. The unicorn guards lit up their horns. The griffon took the parchment out, passed it to Polar Sky and fainted again.
Four ponies laid him on a stretcher and took away.
Queen Polar Sky quickly read the message and called out to the Captain, "alarm all guards!"
In the Castle of the Two Sisters' royal library, a cyan-maned mare, one of the unicorns searching the books for a magic that would break the Whisperer's power over Eveningray, got to the last one of the bookcase.
Just as she reached out for it, Princess Luna called at her from the door, "this book is exactly what I am looking for."
"I'll pass it to you," the cyan-maned mare offered willingly and put her hoof on it.
"No!" Luna exclaimed. "This is really not necessary."
The cyan-maned mare let go of the book and stepped back, "I'll start searching the next bookcase then."
"Have a short break, my dear," Luna smiled.
"It's so nice of you, but I am not tired yet."
Luna looked daggers at her.
"Well, I can take five," the cyan-maned mare said and left the room.
Luna looked around to make sure that nopony was watching her and pulled the book with her telekinesis. An iron-bars-door of a secret room appeared in the wall. The Princess unlocked, opened it, entered the room, climbed up a granite stairway and put the lexicon upon a dark stone lectern.
Queen Polar Sky with her silver armor on was impatiently walking to and fro in the throne room of her palace.
The door flew open, a guard rushed in and reported, "the arctic bora is over, Your Majesty."
Polar Sky immediately shot ahead. She galloped through the palace hallways to the courtyard where her royal sleigh was already prepared for her. The Queen got in her richly decorated means of transport. A team of four pegasi spread their wings and pulled it quickly high into the dark sky.
In the room of Lis De Glace, Princess Celestia watched Eveningray's frost that began covering the runes.
The northerner noticed it and said, "when my frost overcomes the protective circle, nothing and no one will stop it! Order your subjects to wall me up in here. Hopefully, it will give you enough time to evacuate Equestria."
"No!" Celestia said decisively.
Eveningray closed the eyes, growled and the demon's voice sounded from her mouth, "you ought to obey your friend, Princess Celestia." Eveningray's horn shone. The parts of the broken sword rose in the air and joined together again. "Here you are. This is your last chance to save your kingdom," the demon said and laid the sword at Celestia's forelegs."
Tia took a few steps back as if the sword was dirty.
"Your sister is foalish," the demon carried on, "she doesn't have what to rule the kingdom takes, but you are different. Assume this onerous task and save your subjects."
Celestia took courage and spoke to the demon, "Whisperer, you spent many years among ponies as Lis De Glace. I can hardly believe that you do not feel for us at all. You can still stop what you are doing and live with us in peace."
The demon growled once more, "I am what I am. I can't change and I don't even want to, because I love being a predator."
Princess Luna returning from the library entered the room.
"Think about what I have told you," the demon said to Celestia.
"Begone, Whisperer!" Luna thundered at the beast.
Eveningray slowly opened the eyes and with her own voice again she said to the sisters, "you are only wasting your time with me."
Luna gently took her cheeks with her hooves, "never, never shall I let you down. Like you did not let me down, even when I was a cheeky, spoiled, unbearable adolescent."
At crack of dawn, the four pegasi pulling Polar Sky's sleigh finally landed in Porta Ignis.
The Queen got out and called to the demon that was already standing on the uncovered white marble broad stone seal, "surrender, Whisperer! You have no chance to win this fight!"
"You alone want to defeat me?" the demon laughed.
"I am not alone."
From behind a cloud in the sky, two dozens of armored northern pegasi guards pulling other six sleighs came flying. The pegasi landed and took their harnesses off. From each sleigh, four unicorn guards got out. Along with the pegasi they took their positions in combat formations encircling the demon.
"Meh!" the big cat waved its paw.
"This is my last warning, Whisperer!" the Queen said strictly. "Do you remember this?!" she pointed her hoof at an obsidian crystal placed in the aegis of her armor. "This is a shard of the Black Mirror reflecting negative energy. Each of us has one. You cannot cast a spell upon me nor my guards. So lie slowly down and let them put shackles on you!"
"Your stupid red-maned friend had one too and now she's turning Equestria into an ice cube," the demon grinned and raised its paw. A red light shone in it and a strong shock wave knocked all the ponies down to the snow-covered ground. All the Black Mirror shards cracked and crumbled into dust.
The big cat whispered its spell that made all the ponies unable to move.
Then Whisperer came to the helpless Queen, put its nose to hers and said, "I'll tell you a little secret; you are the key. Without your magic I could never open the gate of the underworld. So, thank you for coming." Whisperer struck a triumphant pose, "you ponies are so predictable. Just a little push and you do exactly what I want."
The demon raised its foreleg to Polar Sky's head. Its eyes shone. A green spark came out of her horn into the beast's paw. Whisperer kindled a flame of it, turned around and sent a burst of green fire to the seal. The flames formed into black-magic signs that erased protective runes below them.
Whisperer made a ball of dark energy and cast it against the seal now deprived of its magic power. An explosion tore the marble stone to pieces and uncovered a dark rocky ground beneath. The demon sent another burst of the green fire to the center of Porta Ignis. This time the flames formed a wide circle burning around the dark ground which quickly turned into a whirling column of green fire so tall that it seemed to reach the skies. When the fire went out after several seconds, a huge abyss appeared in the ground.
A mighty growl sounded from the deep. In a while, a terrific creature crept out of the pit upon the surface. It was a fifteen feet tall three-headed warthog with a bulk body of a bear and a dragon tail with two pairs of long sharp outgrowths. Its back was covered by spikes. The monster had short backwards twisted horns on the sides of its heads, and two horrific fangs were sticking out of its each mouth.
The left head turned to Whisperer, "bow down before your King, servant!"
The middle head thundered at the cat, "what took you so long?! You are going to pay for each day that I spent down there!!"
The Demons' King lashed its tail and swept Whisperer down into the hole in the ground.
The right head took a look at the spellbound ponies lying around the abyss rim, "ooh, I feel like a piggy in a candy store. So many sweets are lying here."
The middle head looked at the Queen, "but I think that I've just found the sweetest!"
The monster started running towards Polar Sky. When the warthog got at a distance of twelve yards to her, it jumped to possess its prey. The alicorn lady closed her eyes as she expected the attack. Her heart was pounding. It seemed to her that time itself maliciously slowed down its pace to prolong her waiting for the end. A gust of wind blowing from behind her drove a lock of the blond mane in her face. Then she heard a painful roar. Polar Sky opened her eyes and saw the monster in the air. It was carried away from her by huge talons of Thunderbird.
The giant bird cast the warthog hard against the snow-covered ground. Feathers on the tips of his wings shone blue, and with flapping them against the monster Thunderbird sent a lightning at it. The beast had gotten struck before it managed to stand up. Then the bird grabbed the stunned Demon King's body and threw it back into the abyss.
In the palace of the Kingdom of the Midnight Sun, the little stormy triplets sat at a table in their room.
"Hm! The cocoa is still a bit hot," Gale holding a tea spoon to her mouth complained.
"Let me help you," Blizzard said, her horn flashed and a cold breeze blew the cocoa out of the spoon right into Gale's face.
"You did it on purpose!" Gale huffed.
"No, it was an accident. I just wanted to cool your cocoa down," Blizzard defended herself.
Gale's horn shone. A small lightning struck Blizzard's cup. Its content sprayed all over Blizzard's body.
Tempest staying aside the skirmish said, "could we eat in peace just once?"
But at that moment, Blizzard already raised Gale's cup above her sister's head. Gale rose from her chair and ran across the room trying to avoid Blizzard's attack.
"You can run, but you can't hide!" Blizzard shouted. She was carrying the cup with her magic trying to get it above the sister's head again.
Gale struck the levitating cup with another lightning and blew it up in the air. Blizzard took her and Gale's pieces of apple pie ready to throw them on her.
"Don't you dare!" Gale called out. She took a few steps back and hit her butt against a bookcase that swung. The filly jumped aside just a second before the bookcase hit the floor.
Maple burst into the room, "what are you doing here?!"
"This old bookcase fell down. It must have been rotten," Gale said.
"Yes, we were peacefully sitting at the table and all of a sudden..." Blizzard added.
"And why is your cocoa all around the room?!" Maple asked strictly.
"As it fell, I startled and dropped my cup," Blizzard grinned.
"You have never been a good liar, Blizzard," Maple said. "I persuaded Queen Polar Sky to keep you here in the palace for a short vacancy, but you have just proved that I can't leave you here alone like big responsible mares. So I'll cancel it."
"No, Maple," Gale kneeled, "we'll be good."
Blizzard joined her, "yes, you have never seen so good fillies like we will be."
Maple looked at the third sister.
"Anything is possible," Tempest uttered.
"Well, first clean up this mess and I'll think it over," Maple said. Then something caught her sight. It was a book with golden cover glued to the back side of the fallen bookcase. Maple came closer and read the title, 'Magic History of Porta Ignis.'
Down in the underworld, the warthog woke up and rose to its paws watched by hundreds of eyes.
"Climb up and get the bird!" the right head of the King commanded the other demons.
"No!" Whisperer said.
The middle hog's head shouted, "how dare you oppose your King, you little worm!"
"This decision is ineffective and stupid. The bird would smash us one by one. We'd be only wasting our forces. We have to send the Terrorheads first!"
The King bristled up.
The left head called at the top of the warthog's lungs, "maybe all the years spent among ponies made you forget that I command and you obey!! And if you still have a problem to get it, I can easily help you with that!!" The King raised its bear-like paw with claws twice as long as Whisperer's head.
"I challenge you, Sinister!" Whisperer said, "I pretend the title of King!"
The huge warthog put the paw down, all its heads turned as if they had misheard those words, and all at once laughed.
"I accept your challenge," the middle head said.
The left one added, "but keep in mind that you won't make me have mercy on you by turning into a pretty little pony girl!"
Sinister lashed its paw against Whisperer. The double-tailed cat jumped aside and started whispering a spell.
"What are you doing, stupid? You can't cast a spell on another demon with your whispering," Sinister's middle head said.
"I learned some new tricks while you were doing your time down here," Whisperer replied, whispered the second part of its spell that the cat had seen in Luna's lexicon, and shouted at the warthog, "say it!"
Unwillingly, fighting the spell, the right head said," You..."
"...are..." the middle one continued.
"...the King," the left one finished the sentence.
"Down, piggy," Whisperer said and Sinister lay down on the ground. The new King sat down on the throne and ordered, "bring the Terrorheads!"
In a while, some demons dragged two dark things looking like twisted pyramids in front of Whisperer.
"Wake up!" the double-tailed cat said.
The sides of the pyramids moved. They turned out to be membranous wings wrapped around bodies of weird reptiles standing on their heads. Both of them folded the wings and stood up on their legs. At first sight they were true monsters. Two legs carried a scrawny body with prominent ribs and a long split tail. The neck was covered by scales and spikes. Their front legs were attached to the wings and had a long sharp talon on each finger. But the most terrifying thing about them was the head. Actually, it was a bird-like skull with a massive beak and relatively small dark eyes.
"Go and get the bird off the sky!" Whisperer commanded the Terrorheads.
The two monsters spread their wings and took off. In a few moments, they reached the abyss rim. Thunderbird circling above the opened gate of the underworld spotted the two freaks. He immediately sent a lightning against them. The Terrorheads got struck, but it had no effect on them. Thunderbird decided to lure them away from Porta Ignis and headed for a remote forest. But with their long wings and slim bodies they were much faster than the bird. They caught up with him in a little while. The long talons of one of them just very closely missed Thunderbird's left wing, while the other beast unsuccessfully tried to hit his right wing with its beak. Both monsters passed him.
While they were turning for another strike, Thunderbird climbed up to a higher altitude. The two freaks headed towards him from below, getting near him at an impossible speed. Just at the last second before they reached him, he took a sharp turn and avoided the talons and beak of one freak, but the other reacted fast and scratched his right wing. Before the monsters managed to turn around, they got more than half a mile high above the earth.
Thunderbird dived low. With his wing scratched he was only gliding, skimming the snow-covered ground. The Terrorheads rushed headlong to attack their target. With every second the distance between them and the bird was a hundred yards shorter. He glanced back at them. 6, 5, 4 hundred yards left to the hit. The freaks opened their beaks ready to deliver him the final blow. On the snow, he glimpsed their shadows closing his. 3, 2, 1 hundred yards. The bird quickly turned his wings as much vertically as he could, and flapped them forward, which rapidly slowed him down. The Terrorheads missed him and hit the ground at full speed. A cloud of scattered snow rose from the place of the impact. One by one Thunderbird grabbed their unconscious bodies and threw them back into the abyss. They fell down right in front of the new Demon's King.
Angry Whisperer rose from the throne. For a few moments its power over Sinister loosened a little bit. The warthog lying by the throne sat up.
"Down I said!" Whisperer shouted, its eyes shone and Sinister lay back down.
Queen Polar Sky found that she was now able to move her head. She said low, "hear my calling."
Whisperer sat down upon the throne and commanded the other demons, "climb up there and attack the cursed bird and the spellbound ponies!"
"This is Sinister's tactics," Dark Prowler remarked.
"It's my tactics!" Whisperer yelled at the cheeky demon, "don't discuss and obey!"
A group of several hundred demons headed for the abyss rim.
Queen Polar Sky lying on the snow raised her voice, "Eternal Flame, I am calling you!" The snow melted around a spot next to her, a small cleft appeared there and a long blue flame leaped out of it.
"Eternal Flame, wash the evil away from me!" the Queen uttered.
The blue flame turned red, ran all over her body and returned to the underground. Polar Sky freed from the Whisperer's spell stood up.
The group of demons got out of the abyss and ran towards the motionless northern guards who were spread around the huge hole in the ground in all directions. Thunderbird started attacking the freaks, catching and throwing them back into the pit by four, but there were too many of them.
Queen Polar Sky's horn shone bright. A tall wall of fire rose out of the ground and encircled the space between the abyss rim and the guards which prevented the demons from getting to them. She made the circle of fire start contracting like a slip noose tights. The fire drove the demons back into the abyss.
The Queen ceased the magic and the flames went out.
Thunderbird landed next to her, "we can't guard this place forever. I hope you know how to close the gate of the underworld."
"I wish I did," Polar Sky sighed.
Meanwhile in Equestria, Eveningray grew much worse. The unicorn mare became delirious, softly speaking words nobody understood with her eyes closed.
Princess Celestia stood in front of her and with concern in her voice said, "I wish I could help her, or stop her from hallucinating at least."
"Hallucinating!" The Princess of the Night exclaimed. "In other words, she has a fever dream. I could enter it, break the Whisperer's power over her and bring her back."
"But she has no fever, Luna. On the contrary, her body temperature is deep below the freezing point," Tia replied.
"It does not matter. This is similar," the blue alicorn smiled at her sister.
"No, Luna! Once you told me that you could easily get lost in a fever dream!" Celestia objected.
"Yes, it is risky, but I cannot only sit here and wait any longer!" The Princess of the Night closed her eyes. Her horn shone bright. Luna's spirit flew out of her body high above the mares. A tunnel of blue light opened before her and an invisible force pulled her inside. The Princess was drifted forward like a feather in a windstorm. The tunnel was winding from left to right, up and down. Her 'flight' resembled a wild rollercoaster ride. Just when she thought to herself, 'the journey is much longer than usually,' the flight ended in a dark void place.
The mare was floating freely in a weightless condition. Suddenly, Luna spotted a sole red star quickly growing in size. Then she realized that the star was not growing, but she was nearing it fast. Several seconds later, the red star turned out to be the mouth of a red-light tunnel that sucked her in and another fierce flight started. After many sharp turns the red-light tunnel spit her out in a desert.
The Princess hit the ground. She stood up, dusted herself off, spread her wings and flew up to take a look around.
There are many kinds of deserts, but this place was like no other. Even though the sky was permanently overcast by dark clouds, obviously no raindrop had ever touched the grey sand. A repulsive stale smell hung in the hot humid air. The only landmark around was a dormant volcano towering in a distance. As the Princess flew above the depresively looking landscape, soon something like small ponds of water caught her sight. When the alicorn passed them by, she saw that they were just some tar pits.
Finally, she found an oasis in the deadly wilderness. It wasn't that sort of oasis with palms, grass, sweet fruits and water pools. It was just a few yards of green thorn bushes as if gathered around a white spot. Then the spot raised its head and the Princess discerned Eveningray fighting some thorned tendrils wrapped around her body, pulling her down into quicksand. Luna flew closer and tried to make them disappear by using her power, but her efforts were to no avail.
"Why is my magic not working in this dream?" the Princess wondered.
An unusually bright flash of light came out of Eveningray's horn and burned the tendrils to dust. The exhausted unicorn lay there for a little while to catch her breath and gather the strength for getting out of the quicksand, but at the moment that she tried to move, new tendrils wrapped around her body.
Luna landed in front of her.
The northern mare aimed her horn at the Princess, "what tricks are you trying to play on me, Whisperer?!"
Luna moved aside nimbly. "No, Eveningray! This is I," the Princess shouted. "For some reason my magic has no effect on the bushes, but I can pull you out of the quicksand. You only have to let me help you!"
"Begone, demon!" Eveningray lit up the horn. The tendrils pulled her deeper into the quicksand. Eve turned her head, emitted the bright light and burned them again. Luna didn't hesitate. With her telekinesis she pulled Eveningray out, and carefully laid her upon a solid ground several yards farther.
The northerner whispered, "it is really you."
"Yes, it is all right now," the blue alicorn smiled.
"No!" Eveningray shook her head and slowly rose upon her still slightly shaking legs, "you must leave!"
"I have come to help you," Luna objected.
"Have you no idea where we are?!" Eveningray glared at Luna.
"In your fever dream."
"You are wrong. This is no dream. You are not prepared for this place! Nopony is!"
The unicorn lady wrote some peculiar magic runes unknown to Luna into the sand. The runes shone blue, the earth quaked, and the sand around them formed into a rectangle projecting out of the ground that turned into a wooden door.
"Go home, Princess Luna," Eveningray said strictly, "I mean it!"
"No. I have come to bring you back and I shall not go without you!" Luna replied.
"Go, Luna!" Eveningray repeated her request.
Eve turned the handle with her magic, and the door opened into another reality. There was a seemingly endless sea of fog around a black stone stairway leading from the door up to a dark sphere hovering in the air.
At that moment, a light flashed in the clouds, and a small ball of fire streaking downwards headed their way. Luna jumped on Eveningray, they made three rolls, and ended up lying on their bellies fifteen yards away from the place where Eveningray had been standing before and that the meteorite hit hard.
As the mares stood up, many other lights flashed in the clouds and a rain of meteorites began to fall from the sky.
"Come!" Eveningray leaped over a three yards wide crater made by the impact, through the door into the other reality. Princess Luna followed her and the white unicorn closed the door before the meteoritic rain bombarded the desert.
Angry Eveningray scolded Princess Luna," I told you to go home!"
"You need me here! Maybe you did not notice, but I saved you! Twice!" Luna rejoined.
Eveningray said in a caring voice, "Princess Luna, this place is too dangerous. Each and every thing around us is poisonous. I only don't want you to get hurt. Stay here and try not to touch anything, please."
This time Luna obeyed her without any protests.
Eveningray climbed up the stairs, looked at the sphere and touched it. A dark slimy matter stained her hoof. The northern mare shuddered with distaste.
"Eveningray!" Luna startled.
"It is all right, Princess Luna," Eve called and entered the dark sphere.
In the Royal Florists' room, Princess Celestia was watching the motionless bodies of her sister and former Professor in silence.
Suddenly, the northerner opened her eyes white like fresh snow and in a glass-like voice said, "now you'll get what you deserve!"
The hoarfrost overcame the protective circle of runes and very rapidly spread all over the room. Celestia took fright. She instinctively grabbed the sword with her telekinesis and pointed its tip against Eveningray.
"No!" Awoken Luna shouted and pushed Tia aside hard with her body.
Celestia fell down. The aura of her horn went out, and the diamond blade got stuck in the stone floor.
"She did not say it to you!" Luna explained to Tia.
Down in the abyss of Porta Ignis, spellbound Whisperer rose from the throne and uttered, "now you'll get what you deserve!" Two freezing beams came out of its eyes and in a few seconds all demons of the underworld including Whisperer itself froze. A thick layer of ice covered their bodies.
The demon's power over Eveningray ceased. Her eyes became normal and her mane turned red again. She broke out of the ice holding her legs, took a few steps forward and fainted from exhaustion. Princess Luna called some guards in, and ordered them to take the unicorn mare to a bed.
Queen Polar Sky's guards rid of the paralyzing spell took their combat stances around the mouth of the abyss, ready to fight the demons.
A small one-seater flying sleigh landed among the mountains. The piebald earth mare got out of it and came running to the Queen.
"Go away, Maple," Polar Sky thundered at her, "the fight is not over yet!"
"Listen up, Queen Polar Sky; this is important!" Maple said, "five hundred years ago, there was a demons' stronghold here with a hall of the 13 Black Mirrors concentrating their power. But they made a mistake which resulted in a vortex of their own dark energy that smashed the stronghold down, ripped over the ground and pulled almost all demons into the abyss. Before they managed to return, five mighty unicorns had closed and sealed it with the most powerful magic of their time."
"This is what I know, Maple," the young Queen uttered.
"When the dark beings decided to build the stronghold, they chose this place, because it is sheltered by the three mountains. But eight hundred years ago, long time before any demons came to this kingdom, there was only one big alp here. In those ancient times, a wise unicorn called Fiery Comet discovered the force driving the underground rivers of magma that he named 'the Eternal Flame'."
"It's high time you left, Maple!" said the Queen nervously watching the mouth of the pit.
Disregarding Polar Sky's warnings the piebald mare carried on, "Fiery Comet soon found that the Flame rules the earth itself. In other words, if somepony gains control over the Flame, they will literally be able to move mountains. The avid unicorn really tried to harness this force and move the original alp, but the Flame refused him as its master. Comet's magical experiment failed and the Flame split the alp into these three peaks!" Maple looked in Polar Sky's eyes, "it means that you, the Guardianess of the Eternal Flame, and you only can close the gate of the underworld for good."
"How?" the Queen asked.
"You'll have to listen to your instinct and find your way," Maple said, returned to her sleigh and flew away.
Whisperer imprisoned in the mass of ice recovered consciousness. Its eyes shone red. The ice around its body exploded to pieces. The double-tailed cat spread its wings, flew up, darted out of the abyss, and in the air sent a beam of dark energy against Thunderbird sitting beside Polar Sky. The giant bird got hit and passed out. Whisperer stretched its foreleg forth, the red light flashed in its paw again, and another shock wave knocked all the guards and the Queen down upon the ground.
The enraged demon landed before the young pony lady and shouted, "who do you think you are to stand in my way?!"
The beautiful alicorn stood up, took her silver armor off, and called out, "I am the fire!"
She then reared, spread her large snowy wings, and lit up the horn. Her golden crown turned into a red flame burning above her head. Her eyes shone orange like two embers. Flames leaped out all over the white alicorn's body. Her mane, tail, even the smallest feathers of her wings, all turned into flames.
Polar Sky became a pony of fire. The flaming monster came back down on all fours and started walking towards the demon. The snow melting, evaporating under her fiery hooves sizzled with every step she took. Whisperer began walking backwards away from the incredible creature of fire. After several dozen yards, the big cat felt jut rocks of the abyss rim under its back paws. The demon halted, spread the wings and took off, but the Queen caught Whisperer with a strong grasp of her telekinesis and pulled it back down to the ground.
"You still have something that belongs to me!" the Queen said in a strange hissing voice. She turned the demon's chest to herself. The green spark came out of its body and entered her blazing horn.
Polar Sky pulled Whisperer closer. She put her nose to the demon's. Its whiskers burned to dust. The demon tried to whisper the paralyzing spell, but couldn't catch its breath in the heat radiating from the pony of fire's body. Whisperer was writhing, whipping its tails around, trying to extricate itself from the torturing heat, but the grasp of her telekinesis was tight.
"Hm, strange; I can smell your fear," she said, flung the demon's body into the air, turned around and kicked Whisperer with her back hooves into the mouth of the abyss.
The pony of fire stamped her right front hoof. The flames went out and she turned back into the normal alicorn mare with the golden crown on her head.
"Everypony, leave this place, immediately!" the Queen ordered the guards.
The unicorns helped the pegasi to put their harnesses on, got in the sleighs and the pegasi pulled them into the sky.
The Queen came to Thunderbird collecting himself from the Whisperer's attack, "I must ask the same with you, my friend."
"I only hope that you know what you are doing," the giant bird said, flapped his wings, took off and disappeared in a distance.
Polar Sky sent a burst of the green fire against the mouth of the deep pit. She concentrated her mind and made the flames encircle the abyss rim, but when they went out, the huge hole in the ground was still there.
Whisperer was lying unconscious on the bottom of the pit with two horseshoe prints burned on its butt. The ice holding the other demons within began to break.
Polar Sky tried again. Not even this time the ring of fire closed the gate of the underworld.
First demons broke out of the ice and started climbing up the abyss walls.
The alicorn lady remembered Maple's words about using her instinct. She sat down on the snow, closed her eyes and whispered, "Eternal Flame, show me the way."
The demons reached the last quarter of their way out of the abyss.
The Queen opened her eyes. Green sparks glittered in her pupils. She stood up, aimed her horn at the abyss rim and sent a burst of the green fire for the third time. The flames encircled the mouth of the pit, formed into a tall column of fire and when it went out, a dark rocky ground was in the place of the huge pit.
Then Queen Polar Sky flew up high above the mountains. Her eyes and horn shone white. The earth quaked. At the foot of each mountain the ground rifted and streams of lava made their way up on the surface. Soon the streams became rivers. In a while, Porta Ignis was flooded with the yellow-glowing matter. The alicorn lady moved her right foreleg up. All three mountains started drifting on the lava like wooden rafts on water. With a loud rumbling sound they met in the middle of Porta Ignis, right above the closed gate of the underworld. Then a red flame leaped out of the lava, enveloped the mountains and joined them together in one. In the end the Queen burned a protective magic rune into each side of the restored alp.
Whisperer woke up on the still frozen bottom of the underworld.
"It seems that you have a big problem!!" a deep voice growled behind him.
The double-tailed cat turned around and saw angry Sinister standing there.
The next morning in the Castle of the Two Sisters, Eveningray explained what had happened in the 'fever dream' the day before, "when Whisperer entered my mind, the connection enabled me to find my way step by step into the mind of the demon. The beast was interested in my frost, so I gave it all that I could."
After breakfast, the red-maned mare said goodbye to Princess Luna and before she set out for home, she took Celestia aside to tell her, "watch your sister! She was with me in the demon's mind. Even those few moments that she spent there could poison her heart! If she behaves suspiciously, use this!" Eveningray gave a blue crystal to Celestia, "just tap it three times; a diamond in my bracelet will flash and I will come as soon as possible."
That night Celestia found her sister staring at a candle light in the throne room. Her eye pupils were oddly narrowed. The diamond sword lay on a table by her side.
"What is the matter with you?" Tia asked her.
Luna blinked. Her eyes turned back into the normal state. She raised the sword with her telekinesis and watching its blade asked, "what if Eveningray had not broken the demon's power over her? Would you have sacrificed her?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"And would you have sacrificed me if it had saved Equestria?" the blue alicorn laid the sword back on the table.
"Luna, I know that the past days were hard for you but this is crazy!"
"Yes, for we both know the answer!!" Luna said and with slamming the door left the room.
Tia took the blue crystal out of a small jewel box. She was watching it for a little while. Then she said, "no, my sister is only a little upset," and put the crystal back into the box.
🐎THE END🐎