Secrets of the Forestby Cloud ThunderhoofChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 1Of all the times he had to screw up, it just had to be now. Five armed stallions made of living crystal perused him. They had given up yelling for him to stop; they all knew that if the stories about this pony were true then they should not be chasing him. The sound of their hooves striking the cobbles below was like the distant thunder of an oncoming storm. Frostbite was what he was commonly known as, but the stallion was known by many names and his real one was a closely guarded secret. It wasn’t that the guards scared him, they were just puppets; the puppeteer was who scared him. Under any other circumstances Frostbite could have slipped into the shadows or taken these goons out, but their puppet master knew his tricks and had warned them about it. He ran as fast as he could, his heart pounded and adrenaline coursed through his blood. The road was exceptionally dark since the magical streetlights had gone out. His hooves struck the ground but made little to no noise, an ability he had taken advantage of many times before and planned to do again. The crystal fair was in its second day and the tents would be abandoned until morning. There was a massive blue tent in the center of the castle square, it was probably for the crystal pageant, and would prove a good hiding spot. He turned his head in an awkward way and saw the guards. He had a head start of about two minutes, he wasn’t sure it that would be enough time but it might be. The five crystal guards ran into the tent after the criminal. Although none of them admitted it, they were all terrified. Stories had been told about this pony, he could kill you with a stare, he was a shadow who could fade into the nighttime, he once killed fifteen of the elite guards with nothing but his hooves. They didn’t want to believe the stories but the way their captain had given their orders made them a little edgy, especially what he said afterwards, “This is a very dangerous pony, if he is unrestrained and gets within a few feet of you then he will not hesitate to end you”. Frostbite hung from the ceiling support poles. His unique physical attributes allowed him to shimmy up the poles and hang from the ceiling. The crystal guards below were searching for him. He would have would have chuckled if the blood rushing to his head didn’t hurt so much. They would never think to look up, most ponies would not get up here unless they could fly and he was an earth pony. Even if they did look up he would be invisible in the dark, the tent was the same icy blue hue as his fur. Hanging on to the support poles was agonizing; he only had hooves and an unusual skeleton to work with. The guards spend the better part of fifteen minutes searching the premises although it could have hours, the pain made it impossible to tell. To pass the time he imagined what they were thinking right now. Frostbite knew he was more legend than actual pony, which was good, legends could not be touched and the fear aided him. The crystal guards filed out at last and he began to shimmy down the support pole. Scarlet blood oozed from the place where he had wrapped his forelegs around the pole. He took extra care to descend silently; he did not want to alert any of the guards. He shimmied down to the ground and laid down panting. Frostbite cursed his luck; the one time there was something he could not go without it had to be in the crystal empire. He did not know the landscape. Also the ponies here were not like the ones back home so he could not be sure his strikes would be nonlethal. He may be a thief, a rebel, and a wanted man, but he was no killer. After he had caught his breath and gotten to his hooves he heard a rustling. Something cold and hard struck him in the back of the head. Frostbite’s last thought before blacking out was “I got played, I never get played”. Lights, sounds, feelings, and the smell of blood all came back gradually. He became aware of his surroundings. He was in a small white room, armored guards stood around him spears pointed at him. A unicorn stallion seemed to be in charge of the three crystal ponies. The unicorn stallion seemed to have a small sneer on his face. The stallion spoke in a self-satisfied voice, “the terror of the night, let’s see if you’re as bad as the stories say” he was smug and sure of himself; frostbite would have fun breaking him. The blue earth pony took in everything around him. The leader began to walk towards Frostbite and remove his shackles. The blue pony spoke quickly and in a tone that sounded grateful, “oh thank you, I might have chipped a hoof in those things”. The red unicorn stallion seemed outraged and drew a dagger from a sheath on his leg. The blade was made of steel and curved forward, it was meant for killing. He held it in his mouth since levitating a knife was not reliable. The guards in the corners of the room brought their spears up. He swung the blade at frostbite with murder in his eyes. Armature, Frostbite thought as he struck the stallion in the jaw and neck forcing him to release the knife. The crystal stallions in the corner came forward to restrain frostbite. A door flung open and a larger white unicorn stallion walked in and yelled “Stand down and restrain him”. Frostbite found himself being dragged back and strapped to the ground. The new unicorn stallion sat in front of Frostbite. The blue earth pony spoke “So we meet at last, the brilliant military commander and the rouge he’s hunted for years. Well played I have to say, I honestly didn’t see that one coming”. The white unicorn looked serious but uneasy; he spoke to the previous one in charge in a hushed but audible voice “I want every entrance to and exit plastered with guards, nopony gets in or out without me knowing”. The red stallion walked off to carry out his orders. The white stallion sitting in front of frostbite wore purple armor with golden trim; he had a purple mane with a light stripe in it. Frostbite spoke in a calm and familiar tone “Five star Captain Shining Armor of the equestrian guard core, or Captain shining armor, but its prince Shining Armor now, isn’t it?”. He did not seem amused in the least bit, not that frostbite expected him to. The white stallion spoke in an aggravated voice but worry was also present, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way, tell us your next play and I won’t be forced to hurt you”. Frostbite looked at him closely, his eyes pupils were shrinking in order to adjust to the lighting down here, and there was a small amount of mud clinging to his hooves. From this frostbite ascertained that it was morning and that they were somewhere out of the pristine crystalline city. He looked around, sawdust and dirt sat on the floor and he could smell wet paint. Judging from that and the fact that he could not hear any ambient noise from outside he determined they were underground in a recently constructed facility. He looked up and felt a draft coming from the ceiling. Frostbite needed to buy himself more time so he continued with his banter, “fine, ya caught me, you many now proceed to banish me and lock me in a dungeon where you banish me”. Shining armor called over one of the crystal guards and whispered something in his ear, the guard trotted out of the interrogation room without a word. Shining armor spoke in a calm yet assertive voice “I’m trying to be the nice guy here and give you a chance to tell us what you stole and where we can find it. If you tell me where the items you stole from the secret archives I might even let you go. Just be quick because when Captain Fidelis gets back he is going to have a turn and he won’t be as nice as I am. Now I have to go upstairs (confirming they were underground) in a few minutes so talk quickly”. Frostbite rolled his light brown eyes and scoffed before saying in a dramatic, overly offended tone, “You honestly think any of this good cop/bad cop mind games bullshit is going to work on me? Hell, there’s not even a bad cop, your just trying to soften me up so your psychoactive drugs take effect faster”. Shining Armor tried to hide it but a look of confusion briefly came to his face. Step one complete, time to move on to step two, frostbite thought. He didn't miss a beat when speaking again in another dramatic tone, “You honestly thought that the files on your interrogation of the Griffin Empire spies were well guarded? My school library had better security than your ‘secret military archives’. Even if you pump me full of the same concoction, I’ve built up immunity to it”. The last part was a lie, Frostbite knew he was deathly allergic to them but he needed to sustain the ruse. He knew he needed to be gone by the time the guard was back with the syringe or it would be lights out forever. Frostbite saw the opening in Shining Armor’s mental walls and continued to wear him down. He did not like the next part but it had to be done he changed his tone to a more sinister one before speaking again, “I scare you because you don’t understand me, because I’m a loose cannon that could explode at any minute. I’m a rebel with no clear motives or patterns and nothing to lose versus you, a textbook military officer with a posh life”. The blue stallion continued with his tirade in an even more sickly sweet tone, “So, let’s even the playing field a little bit, I’ll give you a little piece of me for free. I’ve read your file; you have two loving parents, a great sister, and a beautiful wife. So, as my gift to you, I’ll kill them all once I bust out of here and send you their heads in a box. I’ll drag you down to my level and you may finally be able to understand me better”, Frostbite made sure to make unblinking eye contact with the prince. If he was anypony else the statement would hold no weight, but frostbite was known for being unpredictable and unstoppable. It also helped that just to mess with the minds of guards he would warn them in advance of his next target and carry out his plan right under their noses. If he said he was going to do something anypony who had looked at his file knew there was nothing that could stop him. Shining armor spoke with barley restrained fury, “everypony in this room is dismissed, I need to have a private word with the prisoner”. The other armor clad stallions in the room exchanged worried looks but didn’t budge. “GET OUT!” the now purple faced stallion screamed and the others filed out. They now stood fact to face, Shining armor purple faced and enraged, Frostbite with a smug smile. “I’ll kill you first!” the prince screamed as he swung with one of his forelegs at Frostbites head. The next moment was a chaotic blur; Shining armor had not realized that Frostbite was free of his restraints and able to move. Then the blue pony caught the foreleg in between his and forced him to the ground, then he rolled over and heard a cracking noise. The bone broke easily and left shining armor in considerable pain. Frostbite wasted no time in dragging the now immobile pony in front of the door. Then Frostbite struck shining armor in the center of the forehead, knocking him out and hopefully scrambling the memory of the last few minutes. The blue pony went to where he had felt the draft and reared up on his hind legs. He knocked out the small ventilation grate and climbed through it. He was more flexible than anypony he had ever seen before and it let him shimmy up the vent to the surface. He was somewhat right, it was around noon and they were outside of the city limits. He ran to the center of the city to find his belongings and get out as soon as possible. He had chosen to come during the crystal fair because it would let him blend in easily. The streets were packed with crystal ponies and normal ponies tourists. Ever since the empire had been opened to civilians it had become a major tourist trap especially during the crystal fair. There was a vender selling souvenirs by the road. There were paintings, and toys, and necklaces, but what caught his eye was a grey fedora with a black stripe and an orange crystal feather. He managed to produce the money from a wallet he had swiped from one of the city guards on his way into the city from the interrogation room. The vendor turned over the hat and didn’t question his patron’s injuries, business had been slow and he had foals to feed. Then Frostbite retrieved his belongings from their hiding place and continued on his way. Frostbite put the hat on his head to conceal his spikey white mane. He needed to get out of the city before shining armor could inform the guards of his presence. He knew that during the crystal fair trains would leave and arrive every half hour, and the prince should be out for at least two. What he had said back there left a sour taste in his mouth; he had said what he needed to, not what he would really do. Despite the legends the blue stallion had never killed another pony. It was strictly against everything he stood for to take another sentient life, especially an innocent one. Even if he had intended to kill them, the military record did not name any family members, just numbers. The identity of his family would remain a secret. The train station sat on a hill outside of the city gate. It was small and the station was packed with both arrivals and departures. He bought a ticket and filed onto the train along with others. His heart nearly leapt out of his chest when a guard said “step to the side”. He whipped his head around to see the guard was addressing another pony in line. After giving his ticket to the conductor he went to find his seat. He wanted to look as inconspicuous as possible so he chose a seat next to a purple mare with her muzzle in a book. He pulled the maps he had stolen out from his bag and began to inspect them. Then he pulled out a worn notebook and wrote some things down. “Those look like the maps of the ever free forest from the crystal archives”, Frostbite looked and saw that the mare he was sitting next to was looking over his shoulder. A lie flowed out seamlessly, “they were selling copies”. “Oh” she said. Frostbite considered moving to another seat but he felt like she would follow him. Her cutie mark, a six point star with smaller white stars around it, suggested she was some sort of scholar or intellectual. “What brings you to the crystal empire?” she asked. “Business, im a historian. And you?”, he said, trying to get her to talk about something else. “My brother moved out here after he got married, he wanted to get away from Canterlot, I was just visiting for the weekend”, the mare replied. “What’s your name?” her questions were getting more and more personal but Frostbite wanted to sell the illusion. The stallion had to invent a new name for himself on the fly since the name Frostbite had entered the pop lexicon as a synonym for evil. “Mountain Snow, but you can just call me Snow”, he said hoping it would be an acceptable answer. The purple mare replied “I’m Twilight Sparkle, but you can call me Twilight”. The newly named Mountain Snow knew he needed to lie low for a week or two while the most recent heat died down. He had chosen the sleepy backwater town for two reasons; it had no guard presence and it was on the edge of the Everfree forest. He needed to solidify his new identity and it probably would be best to learn a little about the town before he got there. The two ponies kept up their small talk for the four hour ride back to their stop. It turns out that Snow couldn't have picked a better pony to sit next to, even if the mare didn't know it she would help him carry out his plans. Chapter 2The train pulled into the Ponyvill station, the ride had been much different than Snow expected.Twilight turned out to be an extremely interesting pony, what began as selling a ruse turned into genuine interest. Of course he had not given her any real information about his past; it had all been altered to fit his cover as a historian. It turned out that a project of hers would prove very useful to his plans. The mare, Twilight, he had to get used to calling her Twilight. Twilight had mentioned she was working on decrypting some text she had found on some artifacts she found in the forest. He stepped off of the train and into the sunlight outside. Once his eyes adjusted to the light out of the train he noticed it was very different than the crystal empire station. The Ponyvill station was much smaller; there was a ticket office and a platform but not much else. Mountain Snow and Twilight disembarked and walked to the center of town together. Neither of them spoke but for different reasons. Snow was taking in the scenery and accessing different escape routes and hiding spots. Twilight on the other hand was just happy to be home. They walked in silence for a few minutes before coming to their destination. Twilight had offered to give Snow some things he needed once they got into town. It was around five in the afternoon on a Sunday so naturally the townsponies were out enjoying themselves. There were ponies everywhere; mares and stallions went about their business, some ponies chatted idly, some were preforming various hobbies, some foals played a ball game in the park, all in all it was oddly peaceful. Their destination turned out to be a tree, but there had obviously been a house carved out of it. The entire town had a down to nature feel to it. Snow was used to bustling cities full of big buildings and many more ponies, this country atmosphere was chillingly calm. Twilight opened the door to the tree and they both walked in. The first thing that struck snow was how clean and organized it all was. When she had told him she lived in a library he had pictured a much more disorganized and dysfunctional place. Neat rows of books lined the walls and a table with a horse head statue lay in the center with book stands on it. After the door shut Snow heard a crashing noise coming from above him and twilight rushed up to investigate. The blue stallion peered up the stairs, it was her living quarters but seemed more chaotic than the main space of the library. There were two distinct voices coming from upstairs, Twilight’s and a male one. The mare had not mentioned she live with anyone else so Snow pondered it for a moment. The second voice was youthful and sounded like a colt around 10 or so, but it didn’t sound nasal like most colts of that age. The blue stallion kept himself occupied with his thoughts until he heard something behind him. He could hear heavy hoof steps from behind the door. The door creaked open and every muscle in his body tensed up ready to fight. He spun around and assumed a defensive stance. An orange mare with a blonde mane and cowboy hat stood in the doorway. “Didn’t mean ta’ scare ya’”, she spoke with a very distinctive accent. Snow mentally slapped himself for being so uptight; he was attempting to blend in with the other ponies, not act like a paranoid freak. She gave him a strange look but seemed to shrug it off after a few awkward moments. “Don’t reckon I’ve seen you 'round these parts before sugar cube, ma’ names Apple Jack by the way”, the orange mare said as she extended one of her hooves towards the now uncomfortable blue stallion. He stared at it and then into her eyes before realizing she wanted a hoofshake. He touched her hoof with one of his and they shook. The mare was surprisingly strong seeing as she did not have any obvious muscle bulges. Her hat was worn and had obviously seen years’ worth of heat and sunlight. Her cutie mark, three apples hinted at some sort of farmer or farm laborer. She probably worked at one of the farms he had seen on the way into town. The awkward air between the ponies grew, neither one spoke but they exchanged uncomfortable looks. I’d take being pursued by elite guards over this social interaction stuff any day, if this is what being subtle entails then I want to be found, the blue pony thought to himself. Then there was a crash from upstairs and a then thunking coming from the stairs. Both ponies turned their heads to look for the source of the noise. The same young voice from before came from the stairs, correction, it came from a small figure falling down the stairs. There was a small bipedal figure tumbling head over heels trying to hold down what looked like an owl. Snow nearly fell over in shock, “No way, I…I…” he stammered out loud, which garnered a strange look from Apple Jack. His heart was racing up until the moment he saw what it really was. A short green and purple dragon got up and dusted himself off before shaking a fist at the bird, who flew out of his reach. He looked up and greeted the two ponies in front of him. “Hi Apple Jack, and your name’s Snow right?”, the plump lizard said, addressing the stallion directly. “He aint much for talking”, Apple Jack replied. Twilight came down the stairs shortly after the small dragon. “I’m so sorry about that, Spike and Owlicious don’t always get along”, she said in an apologetic tone as the bird perched on her back and she shot the dragon a disapproving look. “Apple Jack, this is Mountain Snow. I met him on the train and he’s going to be staying in Ponyvill for a few weeks. Snow, this is my friend Apple Jack, she’s a farmer”, Twilight continued in an attempt to formally introduce them. Twilight produced a small scrap of parchment and gave it to Snow, he picked it up in his mouth and read the top lines: 459 Clover lane: ask if they have a room you can rent out. There were more lines after that but he couldn’t read them on account of them being inside his mouth at the moment. “Those are just some places you should stop by while you’re in town. The first one is for Lyra and BonBon, they have a spare room they rent out to travelers and ponies who are just getting started”, twilight told him as he attempted not to ruin the parchment with his saliva. The blue stallion nodded and began to trot out of the door but Apple Jack stopped him. “I know we may have gotten off on the wrong hoof, but any friend of Twilight’s is a friend of mine. By the way, don’t be afraid to stop by some time if ya’ get hungry, we got the finest apples in all of Equestria”, Apple Jack said before letting him pass. When Snow left the house the sun was low in the sky and most of the ponies had gone inside. It was too quiet for his taste and he found himself listening for any signs of a pursuer or somepony waiting to ambush him. He knew that it was safe but he couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. The house mentioned on the slip ended up being a medium sized two story building with a porch and small lawn. The lights inside were on and he could her voices inside. He walked up to the door and knocked on it. He could hear yelling coming from inside and thought it might be best to come again later. Just as he had turned around and was leaving he heard the door open and a female voice ask “Can I help you?”. Snow turned around and said, “Yeah, I, um… Twilight told me you might have a room I could rent for a few weeks, my name is Mountain Snow by the way”. It took the mare a moment to process the words coming out of his mouth but she eventually got it. “Oh… That, yeah, come in and we’ll talk about it. My name is BonBon by the way, my roommate and I live here”, she said then turned around and led him to a kitchen table. Snow finally got a good look at the mare, she had a pistachio colored coat, her tail and mane were pink and purple, and she had grey/blue eyes. Her cutiemark, three candies, indicated some sort of confectioner or baker. She led him to a table in what looked to be the dining room and told him to sit down. “Do you have any identification so I know you are who you say you are?”. Shit, Snow thought as he pulled a forged passport out of his saddle bags. It was under one of his old aliases, not his current one and she would probably notice. His “on the run” mentality kicked in and he started to analyze the room for possible escape as he gave the mare the small booklet. Just before she took it they heard a crashing noise coming from the hallway. The mare got up and yelled “Lyra I told you to keep it down in there!”. Then she turned to Snow and said “follow me, is show you your room. It’s getting late and we can go over the details in the morning”. The two ponies got up and walked through the hallway to a staircase. As they walked a mint green unicorn mare poked her head around a door but BonBon shot her an accusing look. The room Snow was lead to was basic but clean and inviting. There was a bed in the corner, a sofa with a table in the center, some bookshelves, and a desk. The blue stallion thanked her and walked in, “If you need anything don’t be afraid to ask, I have to go to work in the morning but Lyra should be home all day tomorrow”, was the last thing the mare said before closing the door and walking off. Immediately Snow closed the curtains on the windows and laid some maps out on the table in the center of the room. He picked up his journal and a pencil from his saddlebags and began writing. It took him the better part of an hour but he copied the maps he had stolen into his journal. The sounds of fighting from downstairs subsided and Snow finally got some quiet time . It felt like days ago he had been in the crystal empire, evading guards and stealing precious artifacts. However the entire escape had happened this morning. He sat back on the couch in an upright position with his legs dangling down. He had always found that position more comfortable than the normal prone position of a sitting pony. The door swung open and a mint green unicorn mare stepped in. “Damn kid have you ever heard of knocking!?”, Snow exclaimed almost jumping out of his skin in surprise. She stepped back and mumbled in an apologetic tone, “Sorry, it’s just that BonBon told me to come up and apologize for the noise before”. She looked up and said, “I’m Lyra by the way”. The two ponies’ eyes met and their blood ran cold. As if on cue they both said in hushed voices “Oh my gosh”. Both Lyra and Snow were petrified with shock, and confusion was written across their faces. Lyra dashed out of the room and returned seconds later with a quill and parchment. She hastily scribbled something on it and levitated it on to the table in front of the blue stallion. He looked down at the paper, there were a series of numbers and letters written on it: E-204-1. Snow hastily scribbled down a reply on a page he tore out of his journal: N-32-3. He passed the slip to her and she stared at it. Snow gulped and realized the situation had become much more complicated than he originally expected. Chapter 3Snow didn’t sleep that night. Under most circumstances he was most active after the sun fell below the horizon, but what Lyra had written kept him up against his will. The stallion’s emotions ran the gambit of confusion, shock, hope, and distrust. His mind raced, she appeared to be his age or a little older, 23 at the most; there was no way she could have been on the run for 14 years. Snow was ten years old when he was discovered and it was a miracle he had survived this long. His conflicting thoughts and emotions fought for dominance in his mind. She must be a plant sent to lure me out, but there’s no way to fake the eyes, is there? Even then, how they would know I’m here anyway, he thought in a desperate attempt to dismiss her presence as some sort of trick. However his efforts were in vain. Maybe this has all been some dream; maybe I’m still in the Crystal Empire being pumped full of those drugs, his inner voice continued. Snow then punched himself in the gut, confirming he was not dreaming. He knew he should have been happy to have found her, but it only served to make him more worried and anxious. Snow always believed there were other survivors of the storm of hatred which had left him orphaned and alone, and if Lyra was actually what she claimed to be than his hopes would not be in vain. However, after a decade of searching for another like him Snow wasn’t sure he could handle the reality of finding one. The blue pony needed fresh air. He took a steel box out of his saddle bags and placed it on the table. He looked into a glass piece on the front of the box and a light shone in his eyes. After a series of clicks it popped open and revealed the treasures within. The box had trinkets form his past and some of the artifacts he had stolen. Snow removed a framed picture from the box and looked at it. A tear came to the pony’s eye, the picture was taken the last time his whole family had been together and alive. He spoke in a quiet and apologetic voice “I promise I’ll make it up to you”. Snow then tucked his journal and the stolen maps into the box and closed it. Snow walked down the stairs to the front door. “You know its next to impossible to sneak up on me”, he spoke calmly. A mint green mare stepped out of the shadows and replied “I’ll keep BonBon from giving you the third degree as long as you do something for me”. “That depends”, Snow said without turning his head to look at Lyra. “I want answers” she replied as Snow walked outside. Outside it was a cold autumn morning and the sun sat low on the horizon, throwing off brilliant shades of orange. The town was still asleep and the streets were empty. The brisk morning air helped him clear his head and forget what had happened last night. The only other’s he saw out were the public works ponies and the weather team. He took a moment to admire their work. They pegasi above were busy creating a cover of light grey clouds over the town, indicating a light storm ahead. He watched the way they darted back and forth and it intrigued him. Snow had always wondered what it would be like to fly, but he had never gotten the chance to actually try it. A shadow flicked across the sky and then settled next to snow. The ice blue stallion looked up and saw a Pegasus hovering above him. The pony hovered in front of the sun and it made it hard for snow to make out any details. Then the pony landed and he could finally make out their features; the pegasus turned out to be a cyan mare with a rainbow mane. Her cutie mark was a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud. Snow guessed she worked on the weather team but had some sort of speed related talent. “It’s going to start raining soon so you might want to go indoors”, she said. “Thanks for the heads up”, Snow replied semi-sarcastically. “What gives, I was just trying to be nice”, the mare said in turn, obviously hurt by Snow’s lack of gratitude. “Sorry, I’ve just been having a rough day, that’s all”, Snow replied. “It’s only seven a.m. and you’re already having a bad day, that sucks. Say, I can’t say I’ve seen you around here before”, the mare said, changing the topic. “I just blew into town yesterday and I’m just taking some time to get familiar with my surroundings”, he said. “Guess I’ll see you ‘round, oh, and if you don’t like surprises then you’ll probably want to watch your back”, she said with a small hint of malice. Before snow could ask what she meant, the mare took off back into the sky. The blue stallion did not like surprises; mostly because if something could surprise him then it meant it was better at being stealthy than he was, and that scared him. What could have she have meant, the blue earth pony thought, pondering why she sounded as if there was some secret. For the most part the town seemed calm and predictable; the surprise in question was probably nothing. Snow trotted around the small town for about an hour. It seemed to have a very tight knit community. The town began to wake up during his walk and he got a chance to see it up close. It was so calm and everypony knew everypony else, for a moment it reminded him of his home town. Snow reminisced in the few good memories he had of where he grew up. However pain came with the happiness. The stallion did his best to ignore the memory that now demanded his attention, but to no avail. The memory of the night when his world was turned on its ear came back to haunt him, the night when fire rained from the sky. Hunger tugged at his stomach and Snow realized he hadn’t eaten since the morning before the occurrence in the Crystal Empire. Began walking to one of the other places Twilight had written down on the slip: Sugar Cube Corner. The building in question was tall and stylized as a gingerbread house. The doors were open and he could see an open sign in the window. Judging from the lack of patrons they had either just opened or they weren’t very popular. A mare sat behind the counter looking bored. Both her coat and her curly mane were bright pink. When the blue stallion approached the mare seemed to explode with excitement. “HiwelcometoSugarCubeCornermynamesPinkiPieandyourahostoriannamedMountainSnowwhocameintotownyesterdayonthetrain”, the words tumbled out of her mouth and she broke out into a wide smile and let out a squee. Snow finaly processed what exactly had been said and he couldn’t hide his confusion. “Are you some sort of psychic?” he asked, only half joking. “No, my friend Twilight told me”, the mare replied. Then she seemed to drop under the counter and the exact same instant appear behind Snow, garnering a startled yelp from the stallion. He had a bad feeling about the mare, but he decided to stay there and try to blend in. Either way his stomach was killing him. Author's Note I'm sorry if this chapter seems rushed, i needed to get this out mostly for the first part and im getting a little writers block with regards to the next chapter. I would rely like to get some feedback on what you guys thought about this chapter. Chapter 4By the time Snow left the bakery where he had met the strange pink mare the morning sun had risen above the horizon. The sleepy little town had awoken in the time that the stallion had spent having breakfast. The town square where the bakery was located had transformed into a bustling open air market. Merchants now lined the square, setting up stands for their various wares and services. Snow trotted around the makeshift market, examining the products on offer as much as the merchants themselves. The Ponyville merchants were definitely of a different type than the ones he was used to in the big cities. Many of them flashed him friendly smiles as he walked by and didn’t try to push any products onto him, a stark contrast to the business ponies he was used to. The stallion spent a few minutes walking around the market, except that instead of examining the wares he watched the ponies themselves. As he had seen before, this little town was very tight knit, everyone knew everyone else and it created an interesting dynamic in the market. Suddenly snow heard a somewhat familiar voice behind him, “Oh hi Snow, didn't expect to see you here” The stallion turned towards the source of the voice and saw that it was the pistachio mare who was renting him the room. She gave him a friendly smile before continuing to speak to him, “You know you could have told me you’re an old friend of Lyra’s” Lyra had obviously held up her end of the deal, now all snow had to do was make sure he could sustain the ruse “Oh yeah, I guess it slipped my mind last night” he said in the friendliest sounding voice he could muster, which was to say extremely uncomfortably. Snow noticed a minor change in the mare’s posture and when she spoke again it was in a slower and more uncomfortable, “Sorry to bring this up now, but we still need to decide about the rent” Snow suddenly became painfully aware of how light his wallet had gotten over the past few weeks. Under normal circumstances Snow would just pickpocket some rich ponies but that probably would be the best course of action considering the circumstances. “Do you think that can wait until later, I’m not prepared to have that discussion right now” the blue stallion asked the mare “No problem, now I have to get back to work” She replied before trotting off towards the store which Snow assumed she worked at. The icy blue thief groaned when she was out of earshot, it’s always the money isn’t it, how ironic that my greatest weakness is my wallet. He mentally went through all of his belongings and their worth, and unsurprisingly his entire stash boiled down to a box full of dusty maps and trinkets, none of which would be worth much to anyone besides historians or collectors. Snow considered selling some of the relics to wealthy collectors in Canterlot and even though he had them all committed to memory and copied elsewhere he quickly realized the flaw in his logic seeing as he had stolen all of them from ponies like that. The thief quietly chuckled, imagining the reactions he would get if he showed up at some wealthy pony’s mansion with items he had stolen from them. There were a few things that would catch the eye of even the simplest pawn shop employee but they all had too much sentimental value. Then an idea lodged in his head. The castle of the two sisters was a mile or two away from the edge of town and was bound to have some trinkets he could steal and flip for cash. From what he had read most of the ponies in the town didn’t dare go anywhere near the forest and with good reason, meaning that the castle wouldn’t have been looted to extensively. However the thief realized that it would be a fool’s errand to go there without the proper equipment and information. He had some supplies and maps he could use but they were back in his lockbox. That presented an interesting problem, mostly having to face Lyra and, presumably, having to answer her questions. They were one in the same, Snow had no doubts of that, and that should have made him happy. However he only felt apprehension, he had spent over a decade of his life searching for some indication, some ray of light, that he wasn’t alone in the world. Then when he found it he couldn’t bring himself to face it, almost like it was a dream and the slightest nudge would bring the horrors of reality sweeping back in. The thief had spent the bulk of his life deceiving and manipulation others, burning every bridge he could have made in the name of his crusade; and some part of him believed that it would never end. There was no other option, all of the reasonable scenarios lead back to meeting with her. The house wasn’t far from the town square and Snow didn’t waste any time in getting there. As the icy blue pony pushed open the door and listened for a moment, not hearing any signs of life inside. Then when he reached his room something that left him genuinely dumbfounded; Lyra sat on the sofa the contents of his lockbox strewn out over the coffee table. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Snow screamed at the mint colored mare, his mouth working faster than his mind. “Come on, you and I both know that neither of us would be alive right now if we couldn’t pick locks” She continued in the same maddeningly calm tone as before. Snow sprung forward and swatted her hoof away from his belongings before glaring at her. “You honestly didn’t expect me to just accept that you are who you seem to be” She replied, giving a look like she expected more from him. Snow just stood there, realizing how trusting he had been and who stupid it was of him. Lyra’s gaze suddenly shifted and she stared at the picture of Snow’s family and she spoke up in a much more sympathetic tone “How long?” The rage which had initially consumed the icy pony instantly died and he replied, emotionless “Ten years, four months, and twenty seven days” “You were thirteen?” She asked “And it still hurts everyday” he replied, maintaining the detached note “Were you the only survivor?” Lyra asked as if she was afraid of treading on the wrong ground. The thief’s reply showed that she was through its grim neutrality, like the calm before a storm “One of my brothers made it out alive. He’s the shortest one in the picture” Snow began as he used a hoof to point towards the only reminder had of his prior life. Lyra opened her mouth, reading the expression of grief on his face and trying to change the topic before he said what she knew was coming next. However she did not act in time and snow finished his thought “We survived together for a year, living off of dumpster scraps and the dirty city rain. We couldn't risk going to any of the foal’s’ homes in the city, their checkups would had exposed us in an instant. Then one day I left him alone, he was seven and I left him alone in the bad end of Manehattan, I'M A FUCKING IDIOT!” his sentence ending in a release of years of pent up remorse and self-doubt. Then his tone changed, “And in the end it was the gangs or the murderers, it wasn't the rats or the disease they finally got to him. It was Equstria’s finest” he punctuated his sentence with more contempt than anyone thought possible. “When i saw those royal guards dumping my little brother's crumpled body into a cart it made me realize something; these things that killed my family and tore the world down around me bit by bit weren't monsters, no, they were something much, much worse” He finished, looking directly into Lyra’s eyes. The mint green mare said nothing, just looked Snow’s eyes. She saw all of the seething rage and darkest hatred in him and it scared her. She knew that the icy blue pony wouldn't harm her, but the look of pure hatred in his eyes made her blood freeze. “What did you do to them? You…” the green mare began Snow turned and glared at her then scoffed, “What? You expected me to rush in and fight them, a thirteen year old who forgot how his hooves worked once and a while versus two trained and hardened killers? Listen, the real world doesn't work that way. All of those skills that made me such a good fighter I got later in life. If they had seen me they would have killed me so I ran for my life, and they will never let me stop running” “The world we live in is nothing like those fairy tales we heard as kids, it’s dark and merciless. There is no such thing as the knight in shining armor who charges into battle just to thwart evil and save the day. If you try to be upstanding and riotous then the world will break you. I am no hero” Snow said, making sure that every word he said got through Then to his surprise Lyra looked him straight in the eye and spoke calmly “Then why don’t you kill?” The question took the outlaw by surprise and he was forced to reconsider what he was planning on saying “The ponies I fight don’t deserve to die, most soldiers and guards have no idea about what happened to our kind and it’s not right for me to take their lives for the sins of their comrades” “Why not, they killed your family?” She continued, her efforts to understand Snow’s convoluted moral compass were obvious if not a little cliché. “If I kill ponies who had nothing to do with my suffering than what makes me any different than the ones who did?” He asked hoping that would be a satisfactory answer. “So the rumors are true, the infamous Frostbite isn’t a killer” Lyra said, looking at the icy blue stallion Snow recognized the name and realized that she knew exactly who he was, but he tried to act as if she had it wrong “What makes you think that I’m him?” Lyra replied calmly, obviously knowing that she was right “I read your journal and all of those relics and maps with your belongings are the same ones which Frostbite, AKA you, stole” Snow stood there, on one hand he resented her for her intrusion but on the other hand he knew she would have found out eventually. In the end he chose to nod, knowing that she would not report him. “For a thief that could break any bank in the country you don’t seem to have a keen interest in money; all of the things you've stolen are ancient relics and maps and judging from your little stash and journal you don’t sell them. So, what have you been after, since it’s not money or jewels like most thieves” Lyra said Snow smirked and looked into the mint pony’s eyes before speaking “They did a very good job of burying the truth about our kind under years of lies and indoctrination, so good in fact that we don’t even know the whole truth. But no matter how hard they try to suppress it there loose threads in the web of lies they call history, there are things that cannot be buried under lies or destroyed by fire, things that I can find the truth from. I have no interest in money or power in the traditional sense, the truth is a good enough weapon for me” “So you’re hunting down the truth so that you can show the world what happened?” Lyra asked, almost sure she had him figured out. The blue pony smirked shook his head “That’s a side effect. No, I’m not some hero like you seem to think. When you assumed that I wasn't out for revenge you were wrong, I’m not out to seek retribution for what happened to me, I’m avenging all of the deaths. I want to watch the carefully constructed world of deception crumble around the silver tonged bitch who started all of the suffering. I want to watch Celestia’s world to burn” The duo stood there in silence, trying to find something to say. Before either of them could speak up the sound of the front door creaking open. The steady sound of light hoof-steps below them confirmed that someone was in the house. “Bonbon back”, Lyra said in a hushed voice “And a stallion”, Snow replied filling in the gap Lyra didn't know existed. “What?” she asked, not understanding what made him think that. Snow crouched down and closed his eyes before speaking “There are two sets of slightly offset step patterns, one’s much heavier and spaced out indicating that someone tall is with your friend. Also there is a slight variation in the gate of the second pony which doesn't match with hers, probably a stallion judging by the spacing of the sounds” Lyra stared at him unable to understand how he got all of that from listening to ponies walk “How...?” “Years of practice and hypersensitive ears” The expert thief interjected. The mint pony nodded, impressed but not sure she fully understood “She is going to notice if I’m up here and I don’t think it would be wise to attract any unnecessary attention, given the nature of our conversation” Snow nodded and then spoke in his usual calm manner “Any idea who the other pony is?” “I may not have your gift for hearing but it’s pretty obvious that it’s her boyfriend, don’t worry about him noticing anything strange, he’s as oblivious to the world around him as a rock” Lyra began Then to her surprise Snow’s expression changed to a slightly embarrassed grin “So you’re not…together? Not that there’s anything wrong with that…” “Bonbon’s my best friend not my girlfriend” she said, giving Snow an incredulous look. They both stood back up and without a word Lyra walked out of the door and closed it without making a sound. However before snow could start doing anything else the door creaked back open and the mint green head poked around the corner. When she spoke it was in a hushed voice and a different language, however Snow understood every word of it “If you had all of the skills and training you have now when your brother died would you have killed those guards?” Snow’s face remained absolutely neutral while he replied, speaking in the same language as Lyra “I often ask myself that same question” Author's Note That took way too long to publish.
Chapter 1Of all the times he had to screw up, it just had to be now. Five armed stallions made of living crystal perused him. They had given up yelling for him to stop; they all knew that if the stories about this pony were true then they should not be chasing him. The sound of their hooves striking the cobbles below was like the distant thunder of an oncoming storm. Frostbite was what he was commonly known as, but the stallion was known by many names and his real one was a closely guarded secret. It wasn’t that the guards scared him, they were just puppets; the puppeteer was who scared him. Under any other circumstances Frostbite could have slipped into the shadows or taken these goons out, but their puppet master knew his tricks and had warned them about it. He ran as fast as he could, his heart pounded and adrenaline coursed through his blood. The road was exceptionally dark since the magical streetlights had gone out. His hooves struck the ground but made little to no noise, an ability he had taken advantage of many times before and planned to do again. The crystal fair was in its second day and the tents would be abandoned until morning. There was a massive blue tent in the center of the castle square, it was probably for the crystal pageant, and would prove a good hiding spot. He turned his head in an awkward way and saw the guards. He had a head start of about two minutes, he wasn’t sure it that would be enough time but it might be. The five crystal guards ran into the tent after the criminal. Although none of them admitted it, they were all terrified. Stories had been told about this pony, he could kill you with a stare, he was a shadow who could fade into the nighttime, he once killed fifteen of the elite guards with nothing but his hooves. They didn’t want to believe the stories but the way their captain had given their orders made them a little edgy, especially what he said afterwards, “This is a very dangerous pony, if he is unrestrained and gets within a few feet of you then he will not hesitate to end you”. Frostbite hung from the ceiling support poles. His unique physical attributes allowed him to shimmy up the poles and hang from the ceiling. The crystal guards below were searching for him. He would have would have chuckled if the blood rushing to his head didn’t hurt so much. They would never think to look up, most ponies would not get up here unless they could fly and he was an earth pony. Even if they did look up he would be invisible in the dark, the tent was the same icy blue hue as his fur. Hanging on to the support poles was agonizing; he only had hooves and an unusual skeleton to work with. The guards spend the better part of fifteen minutes searching the premises although it could have hours, the pain made it impossible to tell. To pass the time he imagined what they were thinking right now. Frostbite knew he was more legend than actual pony, which was good, legends could not be touched and the fear aided him. The crystal guards filed out at last and he began to shimmy down the support pole. Scarlet blood oozed from the place where he had wrapped his forelegs around the pole. He took extra care to descend silently; he did not want to alert any of the guards. He shimmied down to the ground and laid down panting. Frostbite cursed his luck; the one time there was something he could not go without it had to be in the crystal empire. He did not know the landscape. Also the ponies here were not like the ones back home so he could not be sure his strikes would be nonlethal. He may be a thief, a rebel, and a wanted man, but he was no killer. After he had caught his breath and gotten to his hooves he heard a rustling. Something cold and hard struck him in the back of the head. Frostbite’s last thought before blacking out was “I got played, I never get played”. Lights, sounds, feelings, and the smell of blood all came back gradually. He became aware of his surroundings. He was in a small white room, armored guards stood around him spears pointed at him. A unicorn stallion seemed to be in charge of the three crystal ponies. The unicorn stallion seemed to have a small sneer on his face. The stallion spoke in a self-satisfied voice, “the terror of the night, let’s see if you’re as bad as the stories say” he was smug and sure of himself; frostbite would have fun breaking him. The blue earth pony took in everything around him. The leader began to walk towards Frostbite and remove his shackles. The blue pony spoke quickly and in a tone that sounded grateful, “oh thank you, I might have chipped a hoof in those things”. The red unicorn stallion seemed outraged and drew a dagger from a sheath on his leg. The blade was made of steel and curved forward, it was meant for killing. He held it in his mouth since levitating a knife was not reliable. The guards in the corners of the room brought their spears up. He swung the blade at frostbite with murder in his eyes. Armature, Frostbite thought as he struck the stallion in the jaw and neck forcing him to release the knife. The crystal stallions in the corner came forward to restrain frostbite. A door flung open and a larger white unicorn stallion walked in and yelled “Stand down and restrain him”. Frostbite found himself being dragged back and strapped to the ground. The new unicorn stallion sat in front of Frostbite. The blue earth pony spoke “So we meet at last, the brilliant military commander and the rouge he’s hunted for years. Well played I have to say, I honestly didn’t see that one coming”. The white unicorn looked serious but uneasy; he spoke to the previous one in charge in a hushed but audible voice “I want every entrance to and exit plastered with guards, nopony gets in or out without me knowing”. The red stallion walked off to carry out his orders. The white stallion sitting in front of frostbite wore purple armor with golden trim; he had a purple mane with a light stripe in it. Frostbite spoke in a calm and familiar tone “Five star Captain Shining Armor of the equestrian guard core, or Captain shining armor, but its prince Shining Armor now, isn’t it?”. He did not seem amused in the least bit, not that frostbite expected him to. The white stallion spoke in an aggravated voice but worry was also present, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way, tell us your next play and I won’t be forced to hurt you”. Frostbite looked at him closely, his eyes pupils were shrinking in order to adjust to the lighting down here, and there was a small amount of mud clinging to his hooves. From this frostbite ascertained that it was morning and that they were somewhere out of the pristine crystalline city. He looked around, sawdust and dirt sat on the floor and he could smell wet paint. Judging from that and the fact that he could not hear any ambient noise from outside he determined they were underground in a recently constructed facility. He looked up and felt a draft coming from the ceiling. Frostbite needed to buy himself more time so he continued with his banter, “fine, ya caught me, you many now proceed to banish me and lock me in a dungeon where you banish me”. Shining armor called over one of the crystal guards and whispered something in his ear, the guard trotted out of the interrogation room without a word. Shining armor spoke in a calm yet assertive voice “I’m trying to be the nice guy here and give you a chance to tell us what you stole and where we can find it. If you tell me where the items you stole from the secret archives I might even let you go. Just be quick because when Captain Fidelis gets back he is going to have a turn and he won’t be as nice as I am. Now I have to go upstairs (confirming they were underground) in a few minutes so talk quickly”. Frostbite rolled his light brown eyes and scoffed before saying in a dramatic, overly offended tone, “You honestly think any of this good cop/bad cop mind games bullshit is going to work on me? Hell, there’s not even a bad cop, your just trying to soften me up so your psychoactive drugs take effect faster”. Shining Armor tried to hide it but a look of confusion briefly came to his face. Step one complete, time to move on to step two, frostbite thought. He didn't miss a beat when speaking again in another dramatic tone, “You honestly thought that the files on your interrogation of the Griffin Empire spies were well guarded? My school library had better security than your ‘secret military archives’. Even if you pump me full of the same concoction, I’ve built up immunity to it”. The last part was a lie, Frostbite knew he was deathly allergic to them but he needed to sustain the ruse. He knew he needed to be gone by the time the guard was back with the syringe or it would be lights out forever. Frostbite saw the opening in Shining Armor’s mental walls and continued to wear him down. He did not like the next part but it had to be done he changed his tone to a more sinister one before speaking again, “I scare you because you don’t understand me, because I’m a loose cannon that could explode at any minute. I’m a rebel with no clear motives or patterns and nothing to lose versus you, a textbook military officer with a posh life”. The blue stallion continued with his tirade in an even more sickly sweet tone, “So, let’s even the playing field a little bit, I’ll give you a little piece of me for free. I’ve read your file; you have two loving parents, a great sister, and a beautiful wife. So, as my gift to you, I’ll kill them all once I bust out of here and send you their heads in a box. I’ll drag you down to my level and you may finally be able to understand me better”, Frostbite made sure to make unblinking eye contact with the prince. If he was anypony else the statement would hold no weight, but frostbite was known for being unpredictable and unstoppable. It also helped that just to mess with the minds of guards he would warn them in advance of his next target and carry out his plan right under their noses. If he said he was going to do something anypony who had looked at his file knew there was nothing that could stop him. Shining armor spoke with barley restrained fury, “everypony in this room is dismissed, I need to have a private word with the prisoner”. The other armor clad stallions in the room exchanged worried looks but didn’t budge. “GET OUT!” the now purple faced stallion screamed and the others filed out. They now stood fact to face, Shining armor purple faced and enraged, Frostbite with a smug smile. “I’ll kill you first!” the prince screamed as he swung with one of his forelegs at Frostbites head. The next moment was a chaotic blur; Shining armor had not realized that Frostbite was free of his restraints and able to move. Then the blue pony caught the foreleg in between his and forced him to the ground, then he rolled over and heard a cracking noise. The bone broke easily and left shining armor in considerable pain. Frostbite wasted no time in dragging the now immobile pony in front of the door. Then Frostbite struck shining armor in the center of the forehead, knocking him out and hopefully scrambling the memory of the last few minutes. The blue pony went to where he had felt the draft and reared up on his hind legs. He knocked out the small ventilation grate and climbed through it. He was more flexible than anypony he had ever seen before and it let him shimmy up the vent to the surface. He was somewhat right, it was around noon and they were outside of the city limits. He ran to the center of the city to find his belongings and get out as soon as possible. He had chosen to come during the crystal fair because it would let him blend in easily. The streets were packed with crystal ponies and normal ponies tourists. Ever since the empire had been opened to civilians it had become a major tourist trap especially during the crystal fair. There was a vender selling souvenirs by the road. There were paintings, and toys, and necklaces, but what caught his eye was a grey fedora with a black stripe and an orange crystal feather. He managed to produce the money from a wallet he had swiped from one of the city guards on his way into the city from the interrogation room. The vendor turned over the hat and didn’t question his patron’s injuries, business had been slow and he had foals to feed. Then Frostbite retrieved his belongings from their hiding place and continued on his way. Frostbite put the hat on his head to conceal his spikey white mane. He needed to get out of the city before shining armor could inform the guards of his presence. He knew that during the crystal fair trains would leave and arrive every half hour, and the prince should be out for at least two. What he had said back there left a sour taste in his mouth; he had said what he needed to, not what he would really do. Despite the legends the blue stallion had never killed another pony. It was strictly against everything he stood for to take another sentient life, especially an innocent one. Even if he had intended to kill them, the military record did not name any family members, just numbers. The identity of his family would remain a secret. The train station sat on a hill outside of the city gate. It was small and the station was packed with both arrivals and departures. He bought a ticket and filed onto the train along with others. His heart nearly leapt out of his chest when a guard said “step to the side”. He whipped his head around to see the guard was addressing another pony in line. After giving his ticket to the conductor he went to find his seat. He wanted to look as inconspicuous as possible so he chose a seat next to a purple mare with her muzzle in a book. He pulled the maps he had stolen out from his bag and began to inspect them. Then he pulled out a worn notebook and wrote some things down. “Those look like the maps of the ever free forest from the crystal archives”, Frostbite looked and saw that the mare he was sitting next to was looking over his shoulder. A lie flowed out seamlessly, “they were selling copies”. “Oh” she said. Frostbite considered moving to another seat but he felt like she would follow him. Her cutie mark, a six point star with smaller white stars around it, suggested she was some sort of scholar or intellectual. “What brings you to the crystal empire?” she asked. “Business, im a historian. And you?”, he said, trying to get her to talk about something else. “My brother moved out here after he got married, he wanted to get away from Canterlot, I was just visiting for the weekend”, the mare replied. “What’s your name?” her questions were getting more and more personal but Frostbite wanted to sell the illusion. The stallion had to invent a new name for himself on the fly since the name Frostbite had entered the pop lexicon as a synonym for evil. “Mountain Snow, but you can just call me Snow”, he said hoping it would be an acceptable answer. The purple mare replied “I’m Twilight Sparkle, but you can call me Twilight”. The newly named Mountain Snow knew he needed to lie low for a week or two while the most recent heat died down. He had chosen the sleepy backwater town for two reasons; it had no guard presence and it was on the edge of the Everfree forest. He needed to solidify his new identity and it probably would be best to learn a little about the town before he got there. The two ponies kept up their small talk for the four hour ride back to their stop. It turns out that Snow couldn't have picked a better pony to sit next to, even if the mare didn't know it she would help him carry out his plans.
Chapter 2The train pulled into the Ponyvill station, the ride had been much different than Snow expected.Twilight turned out to be an extremely interesting pony, what began as selling a ruse turned into genuine interest. Of course he had not given her any real information about his past; it had all been altered to fit his cover as a historian. It turned out that a project of hers would prove very useful to his plans. The mare, Twilight, he had to get used to calling her Twilight. Twilight had mentioned she was working on decrypting some text she had found on some artifacts she found in the forest. He stepped off of the train and into the sunlight outside. Once his eyes adjusted to the light out of the train he noticed it was very different than the crystal empire station. The Ponyvill station was much smaller; there was a ticket office and a platform but not much else. Mountain Snow and Twilight disembarked and walked to the center of town together. Neither of them spoke but for different reasons. Snow was taking in the scenery and accessing different escape routes and hiding spots. Twilight on the other hand was just happy to be home. They walked in silence for a few minutes before coming to their destination. Twilight had offered to give Snow some things he needed once they got into town. It was around five in the afternoon on a Sunday so naturally the townsponies were out enjoying themselves. There were ponies everywhere; mares and stallions went about their business, some ponies chatted idly, some were preforming various hobbies, some foals played a ball game in the park, all in all it was oddly peaceful. Their destination turned out to be a tree, but there had obviously been a house carved out of it. The entire town had a down to nature feel to it. Snow was used to bustling cities full of big buildings and many more ponies, this country atmosphere was chillingly calm. Twilight opened the door to the tree and they both walked in. The first thing that struck snow was how clean and organized it all was. When she had told him she lived in a library he had pictured a much more disorganized and dysfunctional place. Neat rows of books lined the walls and a table with a horse head statue lay in the center with book stands on it. After the door shut Snow heard a crashing noise coming from above him and twilight rushed up to investigate. The blue stallion peered up the stairs, it was her living quarters but seemed more chaotic than the main space of the library. There were two distinct voices coming from upstairs, Twilight’s and a male one. The mare had not mentioned she live with anyone else so Snow pondered it for a moment. The second voice was youthful and sounded like a colt around 10 or so, but it didn’t sound nasal like most colts of that age. The blue stallion kept himself occupied with his thoughts until he heard something behind him. He could hear heavy hoof steps from behind the door. The door creaked open and every muscle in his body tensed up ready to fight. He spun around and assumed a defensive stance. An orange mare with a blonde mane and cowboy hat stood in the doorway. “Didn’t mean ta’ scare ya’”, she spoke with a very distinctive accent. Snow mentally slapped himself for being so uptight; he was attempting to blend in with the other ponies, not act like a paranoid freak. She gave him a strange look but seemed to shrug it off after a few awkward moments. “Don’t reckon I’ve seen you 'round these parts before sugar cube, ma’ names Apple Jack by the way”, the orange mare said as she extended one of her hooves towards the now uncomfortable blue stallion. He stared at it and then into her eyes before realizing she wanted a hoofshake. He touched her hoof with one of his and they shook. The mare was surprisingly strong seeing as she did not have any obvious muscle bulges. Her hat was worn and had obviously seen years’ worth of heat and sunlight. Her cutie mark, three apples hinted at some sort of farmer or farm laborer. She probably worked at one of the farms he had seen on the way into town. The awkward air between the ponies grew, neither one spoke but they exchanged uncomfortable looks. I’d take being pursued by elite guards over this social interaction stuff any day, if this is what being subtle entails then I want to be found, the blue pony thought to himself. Then there was a crash from upstairs and a then thunking coming from the stairs. Both ponies turned their heads to look for the source of the noise. The same young voice from before came from the stairs, correction, it came from a small figure falling down the stairs. There was a small bipedal figure tumbling head over heels trying to hold down what looked like an owl. Snow nearly fell over in shock, “No way, I…I…” he stammered out loud, which garnered a strange look from Apple Jack. His heart was racing up until the moment he saw what it really was. A short green and purple dragon got up and dusted himself off before shaking a fist at the bird, who flew out of his reach. He looked up and greeted the two ponies in front of him. “Hi Apple Jack, and your name’s Snow right?”, the plump lizard said, addressing the stallion directly. “He aint much for talking”, Apple Jack replied. Twilight came down the stairs shortly after the small dragon. “I’m so sorry about that, Spike and Owlicious don’t always get along”, she said in an apologetic tone as the bird perched on her back and she shot the dragon a disapproving look. “Apple Jack, this is Mountain Snow. I met him on the train and he’s going to be staying in Ponyvill for a few weeks. Snow, this is my friend Apple Jack, she’s a farmer”, Twilight continued in an attempt to formally introduce them. Twilight produced a small scrap of parchment and gave it to Snow, he picked it up in his mouth and read the top lines: 459 Clover lane: ask if they have a room you can rent out. There were more lines after that but he couldn’t read them on account of them being inside his mouth at the moment. “Those are just some places you should stop by while you’re in town. The first one is for Lyra and BonBon, they have a spare room they rent out to travelers and ponies who are just getting started”, twilight told him as he attempted not to ruin the parchment with his saliva. The blue stallion nodded and began to trot out of the door but Apple Jack stopped him. “I know we may have gotten off on the wrong hoof, but any friend of Twilight’s is a friend of mine. By the way, don’t be afraid to stop by some time if ya’ get hungry, we got the finest apples in all of Equestria”, Apple Jack said before letting him pass. When Snow left the house the sun was low in the sky and most of the ponies had gone inside. It was too quiet for his taste and he found himself listening for any signs of a pursuer or somepony waiting to ambush him. He knew that it was safe but he couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. The house mentioned on the slip ended up being a medium sized two story building with a porch and small lawn. The lights inside were on and he could her voices inside. He walked up to the door and knocked on it. He could hear yelling coming from inside and thought it might be best to come again later. Just as he had turned around and was leaving he heard the door open and a female voice ask “Can I help you?”. Snow turned around and said, “Yeah, I, um… Twilight told me you might have a room I could rent for a few weeks, my name is Mountain Snow by the way”. It took the mare a moment to process the words coming out of his mouth but she eventually got it. “Oh… That, yeah, come in and we’ll talk about it. My name is BonBon by the way, my roommate and I live here”, she said then turned around and led him to a kitchen table. Snow finally got a good look at the mare, she had a pistachio colored coat, her tail and mane were pink and purple, and she had grey/blue eyes. Her cutiemark, three candies, indicated some sort of confectioner or baker. She led him to a table in what looked to be the dining room and told him to sit down. “Do you have any identification so I know you are who you say you are?”. Shit, Snow thought as he pulled a forged passport out of his saddle bags. It was under one of his old aliases, not his current one and she would probably notice. His “on the run” mentality kicked in and he started to analyze the room for possible escape as he gave the mare the small booklet. Just before she took it they heard a crashing noise coming from the hallway. The mare got up and yelled “Lyra I told you to keep it down in there!”. Then she turned to Snow and said “follow me, is show you your room. It’s getting late and we can go over the details in the morning”. The two ponies got up and walked through the hallway to a staircase. As they walked a mint green unicorn mare poked her head around a door but BonBon shot her an accusing look. The room Snow was lead to was basic but clean and inviting. There was a bed in the corner, a sofa with a table in the center, some bookshelves, and a desk. The blue stallion thanked her and walked in, “If you need anything don’t be afraid to ask, I have to go to work in the morning but Lyra should be home all day tomorrow”, was the last thing the mare said before closing the door and walking off. Immediately Snow closed the curtains on the windows and laid some maps out on the table in the center of the room. He picked up his journal and a pencil from his saddlebags and began writing. It took him the better part of an hour but he copied the maps he had stolen into his journal. The sounds of fighting from downstairs subsided and Snow finally got some quiet time . It felt like days ago he had been in the crystal empire, evading guards and stealing precious artifacts. However the entire escape had happened this morning. He sat back on the couch in an upright position with his legs dangling down. He had always found that position more comfortable than the normal prone position of a sitting pony. The door swung open and a mint green unicorn mare stepped in. “Damn kid have you ever heard of knocking!?”, Snow exclaimed almost jumping out of his skin in surprise. She stepped back and mumbled in an apologetic tone, “Sorry, it’s just that BonBon told me to come up and apologize for the noise before”. She looked up and said, “I’m Lyra by the way”. The two ponies’ eyes met and their blood ran cold. As if on cue they both said in hushed voices “Oh my gosh”. Both Lyra and Snow were petrified with shock, and confusion was written across their faces. Lyra dashed out of the room and returned seconds later with a quill and parchment. She hastily scribbled something on it and levitated it on to the table in front of the blue stallion. He looked down at the paper, there were a series of numbers and letters written on it: E-204-1. Snow hastily scribbled down a reply on a page he tore out of his journal: N-32-3. He passed the slip to her and she stared at it. Snow gulped and realized the situation had become much more complicated than he originally expected.
Chapter 3Snow didn’t sleep that night. Under most circumstances he was most active after the sun fell below the horizon, but what Lyra had written kept him up against his will. The stallion’s emotions ran the gambit of confusion, shock, hope, and distrust. His mind raced, she appeared to be his age or a little older, 23 at the most; there was no way she could have been on the run for 14 years. Snow was ten years old when he was discovered and it was a miracle he had survived this long. His conflicting thoughts and emotions fought for dominance in his mind. She must be a plant sent to lure me out, but there’s no way to fake the eyes, is there? Even then, how they would know I’m here anyway, he thought in a desperate attempt to dismiss her presence as some sort of trick. However his efforts were in vain. Maybe this has all been some dream; maybe I’m still in the Crystal Empire being pumped full of those drugs, his inner voice continued. Snow then punched himself in the gut, confirming he was not dreaming. He knew he should have been happy to have found her, but it only served to make him more worried and anxious. Snow always believed there were other survivors of the storm of hatred which had left him orphaned and alone, and if Lyra was actually what she claimed to be than his hopes would not be in vain. However, after a decade of searching for another like him Snow wasn’t sure he could handle the reality of finding one. The blue pony needed fresh air. He took a steel box out of his saddle bags and placed it on the table. He looked into a glass piece on the front of the box and a light shone in his eyes. After a series of clicks it popped open and revealed the treasures within. The box had trinkets form his past and some of the artifacts he had stolen. Snow removed a framed picture from the box and looked at it. A tear came to the pony’s eye, the picture was taken the last time his whole family had been together and alive. He spoke in a quiet and apologetic voice “I promise I’ll make it up to you”. Snow then tucked his journal and the stolen maps into the box and closed it. Snow walked down the stairs to the front door. “You know its next to impossible to sneak up on me”, he spoke calmly. A mint green mare stepped out of the shadows and replied “I’ll keep BonBon from giving you the third degree as long as you do something for me”. “That depends”, Snow said without turning his head to look at Lyra. “I want answers” she replied as Snow walked outside. Outside it was a cold autumn morning and the sun sat low on the horizon, throwing off brilliant shades of orange. The town was still asleep and the streets were empty. The brisk morning air helped him clear his head and forget what had happened last night. The only other’s he saw out were the public works ponies and the weather team. He took a moment to admire their work. They pegasi above were busy creating a cover of light grey clouds over the town, indicating a light storm ahead. He watched the way they darted back and forth and it intrigued him. Snow had always wondered what it would be like to fly, but he had never gotten the chance to actually try it. A shadow flicked across the sky and then settled next to snow. The ice blue stallion looked up and saw a Pegasus hovering above him. The pony hovered in front of the sun and it made it hard for snow to make out any details. Then the pony landed and he could finally make out their features; the pegasus turned out to be a cyan mare with a rainbow mane. Her cutie mark was a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud. Snow guessed she worked on the weather team but had some sort of speed related talent. “It’s going to start raining soon so you might want to go indoors”, she said. “Thanks for the heads up”, Snow replied semi-sarcastically. “What gives, I was just trying to be nice”, the mare said in turn, obviously hurt by Snow’s lack of gratitude. “Sorry, I’ve just been having a rough day, that’s all”, Snow replied. “It’s only seven a.m. and you’re already having a bad day, that sucks. Say, I can’t say I’ve seen you around here before”, the mare said, changing the topic. “I just blew into town yesterday and I’m just taking some time to get familiar with my surroundings”, he said. “Guess I’ll see you ‘round, oh, and if you don’t like surprises then you’ll probably want to watch your back”, she said with a small hint of malice. Before snow could ask what she meant, the mare took off back into the sky. The blue stallion did not like surprises; mostly because if something could surprise him then it meant it was better at being stealthy than he was, and that scared him. What could have she have meant, the blue earth pony thought, pondering why she sounded as if there was some secret. For the most part the town seemed calm and predictable; the surprise in question was probably nothing. Snow trotted around the small town for about an hour. It seemed to have a very tight knit community. The town began to wake up during his walk and he got a chance to see it up close. It was so calm and everypony knew everypony else, for a moment it reminded him of his home town. Snow reminisced in the few good memories he had of where he grew up. However pain came with the happiness. The stallion did his best to ignore the memory that now demanded his attention, but to no avail. The memory of the night when his world was turned on its ear came back to haunt him, the night when fire rained from the sky. Hunger tugged at his stomach and Snow realized he hadn’t eaten since the morning before the occurrence in the Crystal Empire. Began walking to one of the other places Twilight had written down on the slip: Sugar Cube Corner. The building in question was tall and stylized as a gingerbread house. The doors were open and he could see an open sign in the window. Judging from the lack of patrons they had either just opened or they weren’t very popular. A mare sat behind the counter looking bored. Both her coat and her curly mane were bright pink. When the blue stallion approached the mare seemed to explode with excitement. “HiwelcometoSugarCubeCornermynamesPinkiPieandyourahostoriannamedMountainSnowwhocameintotownyesterdayonthetrain”, the words tumbled out of her mouth and she broke out into a wide smile and let out a squee. Snow finaly processed what exactly had been said and he couldn’t hide his confusion. “Are you some sort of psychic?” he asked, only half joking. “No, my friend Twilight told me”, the mare replied. Then she seemed to drop under the counter and the exact same instant appear behind Snow, garnering a startled yelp from the stallion. He had a bad feeling about the mare, but he decided to stay there and try to blend in. Either way his stomach was killing him. Author's Note I'm sorry if this chapter seems rushed, i needed to get this out mostly for the first part and im getting a little writers block with regards to the next chapter. I would rely like to get some feedback on what you guys thought about this chapter.
Chapter 4By the time Snow left the bakery where he had met the strange pink mare the morning sun had risen above the horizon. The sleepy little town had awoken in the time that the stallion had spent having breakfast. The town square where the bakery was located had transformed into a bustling open air market. Merchants now lined the square, setting up stands for their various wares and services. Snow trotted around the makeshift market, examining the products on offer as much as the merchants themselves. The Ponyville merchants were definitely of a different type than the ones he was used to in the big cities. Many of them flashed him friendly smiles as he walked by and didn’t try to push any products onto him, a stark contrast to the business ponies he was used to. The stallion spent a few minutes walking around the market, except that instead of examining the wares he watched the ponies themselves. As he had seen before, this little town was very tight knit, everyone knew everyone else and it created an interesting dynamic in the market. Suddenly snow heard a somewhat familiar voice behind him, “Oh hi Snow, didn't expect to see you here” The stallion turned towards the source of the voice and saw that it was the pistachio mare who was renting him the room. She gave him a friendly smile before continuing to speak to him, “You know you could have told me you’re an old friend of Lyra’s” Lyra had obviously held up her end of the deal, now all snow had to do was make sure he could sustain the ruse “Oh yeah, I guess it slipped my mind last night” he said in the friendliest sounding voice he could muster, which was to say extremely uncomfortably. Snow noticed a minor change in the mare’s posture and when she spoke again it was in a slower and more uncomfortable, “Sorry to bring this up now, but we still need to decide about the rent” Snow suddenly became painfully aware of how light his wallet had gotten over the past few weeks. Under normal circumstances Snow would just pickpocket some rich ponies but that probably would be the best course of action considering the circumstances. “Do you think that can wait until later, I’m not prepared to have that discussion right now” the blue stallion asked the mare “No problem, now I have to get back to work” She replied before trotting off towards the store which Snow assumed she worked at. The icy blue thief groaned when she was out of earshot, it’s always the money isn’t it, how ironic that my greatest weakness is my wallet. He mentally went through all of his belongings and their worth, and unsurprisingly his entire stash boiled down to a box full of dusty maps and trinkets, none of which would be worth much to anyone besides historians or collectors. Snow considered selling some of the relics to wealthy collectors in Canterlot and even though he had them all committed to memory and copied elsewhere he quickly realized the flaw in his logic seeing as he had stolen all of them from ponies like that. The thief quietly chuckled, imagining the reactions he would get if he showed up at some wealthy pony’s mansion with items he had stolen from them. There were a few things that would catch the eye of even the simplest pawn shop employee but they all had too much sentimental value. Then an idea lodged in his head. The castle of the two sisters was a mile or two away from the edge of town and was bound to have some trinkets he could steal and flip for cash. From what he had read most of the ponies in the town didn’t dare go anywhere near the forest and with good reason, meaning that the castle wouldn’t have been looted to extensively. However the thief realized that it would be a fool’s errand to go there without the proper equipment and information. He had some supplies and maps he could use but they were back in his lockbox. That presented an interesting problem, mostly having to face Lyra and, presumably, having to answer her questions. They were one in the same, Snow had no doubts of that, and that should have made him happy. However he only felt apprehension, he had spent over a decade of his life searching for some indication, some ray of light, that he wasn’t alone in the world. Then when he found it he couldn’t bring himself to face it, almost like it was a dream and the slightest nudge would bring the horrors of reality sweeping back in. The thief had spent the bulk of his life deceiving and manipulation others, burning every bridge he could have made in the name of his crusade; and some part of him believed that it would never end. There was no other option, all of the reasonable scenarios lead back to meeting with her. The house wasn’t far from the town square and Snow didn’t waste any time in getting there. As the icy blue pony pushed open the door and listened for a moment, not hearing any signs of life inside. Then when he reached his room something that left him genuinely dumbfounded; Lyra sat on the sofa the contents of his lockbox strewn out over the coffee table. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Snow screamed at the mint colored mare, his mouth working faster than his mind. “Come on, you and I both know that neither of us would be alive right now if we couldn’t pick locks” She continued in the same maddeningly calm tone as before. Snow sprung forward and swatted her hoof away from his belongings before glaring at her. “You honestly didn’t expect me to just accept that you are who you seem to be” She replied, giving a look like she expected more from him. Snow just stood there, realizing how trusting he had been and who stupid it was of him. Lyra’s gaze suddenly shifted and she stared at the picture of Snow’s family and she spoke up in a much more sympathetic tone “How long?” The rage which had initially consumed the icy pony instantly died and he replied, emotionless “Ten years, four months, and twenty seven days” “You were thirteen?” She asked “And it still hurts everyday” he replied, maintaining the detached note “Were you the only survivor?” Lyra asked as if she was afraid of treading on the wrong ground. The thief’s reply showed that she was through its grim neutrality, like the calm before a storm “One of my brothers made it out alive. He’s the shortest one in the picture” Snow began as he used a hoof to point towards the only reminder had of his prior life. Lyra opened her mouth, reading the expression of grief on his face and trying to change the topic before he said what she knew was coming next. However she did not act in time and snow finished his thought “We survived together for a year, living off of dumpster scraps and the dirty city rain. We couldn't risk going to any of the foal’s’ homes in the city, their checkups would had exposed us in an instant. Then one day I left him alone, he was seven and I left him alone in the bad end of Manehattan, I'M A FUCKING IDIOT!” his sentence ending in a release of years of pent up remorse and self-doubt. Then his tone changed, “And in the end it was the gangs or the murderers, it wasn't the rats or the disease they finally got to him. It was Equstria’s finest” he punctuated his sentence with more contempt than anyone thought possible. “When i saw those royal guards dumping my little brother's crumpled body into a cart it made me realize something; these things that killed my family and tore the world down around me bit by bit weren't monsters, no, they were something much, much worse” He finished, looking directly into Lyra’s eyes. The mint green mare said nothing, just looked Snow’s eyes. She saw all of the seething rage and darkest hatred in him and it scared her. She knew that the icy blue pony wouldn't harm her, but the look of pure hatred in his eyes made her blood freeze. “What did you do to them? You…” the green mare began Snow turned and glared at her then scoffed, “What? You expected me to rush in and fight them, a thirteen year old who forgot how his hooves worked once and a while versus two trained and hardened killers? Listen, the real world doesn't work that way. All of those skills that made me such a good fighter I got later in life. If they had seen me they would have killed me so I ran for my life, and they will never let me stop running” “The world we live in is nothing like those fairy tales we heard as kids, it’s dark and merciless. There is no such thing as the knight in shining armor who charges into battle just to thwart evil and save the day. If you try to be upstanding and riotous then the world will break you. I am no hero” Snow said, making sure that every word he said got through Then to his surprise Lyra looked him straight in the eye and spoke calmly “Then why don’t you kill?” The question took the outlaw by surprise and he was forced to reconsider what he was planning on saying “The ponies I fight don’t deserve to die, most soldiers and guards have no idea about what happened to our kind and it’s not right for me to take their lives for the sins of their comrades” “Why not, they killed your family?” She continued, her efforts to understand Snow’s convoluted moral compass were obvious if not a little cliché. “If I kill ponies who had nothing to do with my suffering than what makes me any different than the ones who did?” He asked hoping that would be a satisfactory answer. “So the rumors are true, the infamous Frostbite isn’t a killer” Lyra said, looking at the icy blue stallion Snow recognized the name and realized that she knew exactly who he was, but he tried to act as if she had it wrong “What makes you think that I’m him?” Lyra replied calmly, obviously knowing that she was right “I read your journal and all of those relics and maps with your belongings are the same ones which Frostbite, AKA you, stole” Snow stood there, on one hand he resented her for her intrusion but on the other hand he knew she would have found out eventually. In the end he chose to nod, knowing that she would not report him. “For a thief that could break any bank in the country you don’t seem to have a keen interest in money; all of the things you've stolen are ancient relics and maps and judging from your little stash and journal you don’t sell them. So, what have you been after, since it’s not money or jewels like most thieves” Lyra said Snow smirked and looked into the mint pony’s eyes before speaking “They did a very good job of burying the truth about our kind under years of lies and indoctrination, so good in fact that we don’t even know the whole truth. But no matter how hard they try to suppress it there loose threads in the web of lies they call history, there are things that cannot be buried under lies or destroyed by fire, things that I can find the truth from. I have no interest in money or power in the traditional sense, the truth is a good enough weapon for me” “So you’re hunting down the truth so that you can show the world what happened?” Lyra asked, almost sure she had him figured out. The blue pony smirked shook his head “That’s a side effect. No, I’m not some hero like you seem to think. When you assumed that I wasn't out for revenge you were wrong, I’m not out to seek retribution for what happened to me, I’m avenging all of the deaths. I want to watch the carefully constructed world of deception crumble around the silver tonged bitch who started all of the suffering. I want to watch Celestia’s world to burn” The duo stood there in silence, trying to find something to say. Before either of them could speak up the sound of the front door creaking open. The steady sound of light hoof-steps below them confirmed that someone was in the house. “Bonbon back”, Lyra said in a hushed voice “And a stallion”, Snow replied filling in the gap Lyra didn't know existed. “What?” she asked, not understanding what made him think that. Snow crouched down and closed his eyes before speaking “There are two sets of slightly offset step patterns, one’s much heavier and spaced out indicating that someone tall is with your friend. Also there is a slight variation in the gate of the second pony which doesn't match with hers, probably a stallion judging by the spacing of the sounds” Lyra stared at him unable to understand how he got all of that from listening to ponies walk “How...?” “Years of practice and hypersensitive ears” The expert thief interjected. The mint pony nodded, impressed but not sure she fully understood “She is going to notice if I’m up here and I don’t think it would be wise to attract any unnecessary attention, given the nature of our conversation” Snow nodded and then spoke in his usual calm manner “Any idea who the other pony is?” “I may not have your gift for hearing but it’s pretty obvious that it’s her boyfriend, don’t worry about him noticing anything strange, he’s as oblivious to the world around him as a rock” Lyra began Then to her surprise Snow’s expression changed to a slightly embarrassed grin “So you’re not…together? Not that there’s anything wrong with that…” “Bonbon’s my best friend not my girlfriend” she said, giving Snow an incredulous look. They both stood back up and without a word Lyra walked out of the door and closed it without making a sound. However before snow could start doing anything else the door creaked back open and the mint green head poked around the corner. When she spoke it was in a hushed voice and a different language, however Snow understood every word of it “If you had all of the skills and training you have now when your brother died would you have killed those guards?” Snow’s face remained absolutely neutral while he replied, speaking in the same language as Lyra “I often ask myself that same question” Author's Note That took way too long to publish.
