Chapter 7- Betrayal

The arctic breeze chilled Kudurak when he awoke from his slumber. Snowflakes flew by and snow built up on the splintered wood floor. The sky was filled with a heavy set of clouds and the view was limited to only a few meters ahead, obscured by the blizzard-like climate.
Kudurak looked around from where he awoke, trying to survey the area. He glanced down to find bandages over his stomach and hind leg. Fearing he had no idea where he was, Kudurak attempted to get up, but was stopped by a sharp pain in his chest and leg. There were definitely broken bones. Fighting the pain from his injuries, he got up and tried to recover his bearings. He walked out from the back of the split train car to find a small, crude fire pit built just outside the remains of the car. A figure sat near the crackling fire and he began to hear crying.
Kudurak proceeded to walk closer until he saw Rainbow Dash curled up next to the fire, a light leather coat sitting on her shoulders. Her head lay in her fore hooves as she wept.
“Hello?” Kudurak said weakly. The injuries began to ache and the pain soon became a splitting jab in his side, forcing him to sit down. He cringed when he landed, and proceeded to sit up. He turned and looked at Rainbow Dash, who continued to cry as if he wasn’t there. Kudurak said nothing, but felt sorrow for the Pegasus. He knew that she as in a bad situation, far worse than his own. He then lowered his head to gaze at the fire.
“…How long…?” Rainbow asked faintly.
Kudurak looked up in confusion. “What?”
“I said… How long?” Rainbow sniffled.
Kudurak gazed at her and frowned. “Four days… max.”
“Oh… I thought it might be sometime around then.”
“Yeah… it isn’t a fast change…”
“Will it hurt?”
Rainbow raised her head from her fore hooves and looked at Kudurak with a worried expression. Tears formed under her eyes. Kudurak found it difficult to say the next few words and gazed deep into Rainbow’s big violet eyes.
“Yes… very much so.”
Rainbow Dash frowned. “So I am supposed to die like this? Alone and freezing?”
“Alone?” Kudurak asked.
“Without a companion? Nobody to call my own?”
Rainbow halted her statement and simply gazed back at the fire. Kudurak did the same.
“Thank you for patching me up.” Kudurak said silently.
“No problem. I couldn’t just leave you there to die.”
“Any idea where we are?”
“Not really. Most I could see was the train tracks ahead and a small frozen pond a bit further up.”
“And are there any supplies in the train?”
“A few. Some rations and bandages, but nothing else. I just can’t believe that Twilight would do that. She split the train and left us without hesitation.”
“Wait. Weren’t there Unicorns holding the bridge up? Couldn’t we just go to them?”
“Yeah, but they are probably asleep and they aren’t exactly nearby. The train did skid quite a distance, even with a derailed car. The bridge is actually a good mile back from here.”
Kudurak looked back at the train’s remains. Smoke poured out of the side from an inner fire towards the rear of the train. Metal sparked and snow slowly built up along the glassless windows.
“Well. We aren’t going to get help by just sitting here, are we?” Kudurak said and proceeded to get up, ignoring the extreme pain that the motion brought him. Rainbow nodded and wiped her tears. She got up and followed Kudurak into the blizzard ahead.
The blizzard was fierce. Snow built up in the folds of their jackets and their breaths became easily visible. The snow began to fly directly towards them, causing Kudurak to squint his eyes. Rainbow Dash followed close behind, holding her hoof to one of Kudurak’s leather braces.
“Where are we going?!” Rainbow Dash shouted to Kudurak, the blizzard severely affecting their hearing.
“Hopefully to the home of one of the unicorn guards.” Kudurak replied as he peered through the thick wall of snow.

The blizzard was relentless, smashing heavy amounts of snow and ice into both of the Pegasi. The fog before them caused the view to be severely reduced to the point of them not being able to see far past their muzzles. The winds blew them back and forced them to use their wings as a shield against the barrage of icy bullets that rained down on them. All the time Kudurak was still in severe pain from the wounds in his body. During this time, Kudurak had this odd feeling. Like there was something off about this place. He felt like a force was building up in his skull, pushing at the edges of his cranium and causing his head to throb intensely. Frost built up in front of his nose and his eyes could barely keep open. There was a very faint trail marked underneath him, pebbles barely visible through the thick layer of snow. Yet despite all of this, he still pushed forward. He didn’t know why but he felt something towards this Pegasus he was with. Something about her interested him.

Rainbow stayed a few paces behind Kudurak, making sure to never break sight of him. She found a sense of comfort in his presence, although she still had to deal with the knowledge that she would not be herself much longer. The bite throbbed and swelled frequently and painfully. It was like a welt on her neck. Her cloak covered much of her body so that she would be protected from the ice. She began to think about how the stallion in front of her had kept her safe from the elements, even going so far as to willingly let her have the cloak during the hike to the nearest town. Just as she began to think all would be alright, she saw something. Kudurak was only a few hooves ahead of her, but Rainbow saw something around him, like a shadowy figure. The figure walked almost in his footsteps. It was four times as tall as him and it had outstretched wings the size of Princess Celestia’s body. The shadowy shape of the mane was exceedingly long. She felt her eyes pain when she saw the dark figure, and her eyesight narrowed a bit. The poison was starting to affect her eyes. Before she could look away, the figure turned its head towards her. Sharp, piercing red eyes glared at Rainbow Dash as if staring directly into her soul. They squinted at her and an evil smile began to materialize from the shadow. It wasn’t until this moment that she realized that the figure was not a Pegasus, it was an Alicorn. The Alicorn, however, was not just regular Alicorn. The forehooves looked as if they had thick armor plating and the eyes had a dark essence pouring from them. Vertical pupils stared at her for what seemed like an eternity before she snapped back to reality and realized that the shadow was nonexistent. ‘What was that…?’ she thought.

Kudurak forced himself onward, the snow still pushing him back when it could. His strength would not last him much longer.
“Well. It seems like you are in quite a situation…” an eerie voice said.
Kudurak stopped and glared around to find the source of the cryptic uttering. He scanned the area until his eyes locked with a pair of acid green eyes supported by a shadow.
“Who are you?” Kudurak demanded.
“It would seem that you are headed to my kingdom, are you not?” The shadow replied.
“I said: Who are you?” Kudurak demanded again.
“Oh dear, I believe you do not know of me. I am King Sombra. I used to rule the Crystal Empire in eternal darkness until those dreaded Regal Sisters invaded my kingdom and broke my body. But that is not the… oh my.” Sombra said as he noticed the massive shadow hovering around Kudurak. The Red eyes glared at Sombra without effort. “You… I find it best that I get you to where you need to go, and quickly.” Sombra quickly found himself saying. “If you follow the path you are headed, you will reach a town in a few hundred meters. Ask for Shade. He will help you.”
“Why are you helping me? You are the once cruel leader of an entire empire and now you help us to a town? I find this very suspicious.” Kudurak replied with a hint of disgust towards the shadow he was speaking to.
“My L… Kudurak. I feel that it is important that you find Shade as soon as possible.” Sombra said with hesitation. He knew what had happened and he did not want to cause anything to happen before it was meant to.
“How do you know my name?” Kudurak asked with a curious expression. “I never told you it.”
The Shadow laughed a bit. “I know a many things. Being eternally bound to a shadow gives one time to learn. The fact that I know your name is merely a formality at this point, as you are currently losing your body temperature. It would be best if you took my advice and followed the trail to the town.”
Kudurak stared at Sombra’s shadow for a bit before slightly nodding and turning to walk in the indicated direction. They had quite the journey to travel and not much time to do it.
Suddenly, Sombra spoke one last time.
“Oh and I almost forgot, that Rainbow Dash you are with? She has a few secrets, so don’t think that she’s all that innocent.”
“hmph.” Kudurak grunted as if ignoring the shadow’s statement, and continued along the trail. Sombra’s shadow slowly faded as the two Pegasi forced themselves to follow the trail.

Chapter 8- Flare

Twilight woke up from a deep sleep. It had been a day since she had split the train car to save her princess, but she remembered none of it. The last thing she remembered was seeing Rainbow Dash crash into the window on the bridge. She had blacked out after that. She found herself lying down a mere two feet from the splintered wood of the train car’s floorboards. She gasped and jumped back, fearing she would fall from the car. She glanced around to get her bearings. The train had since left the blizzard area, and now there was an abundance of autumn leaves and lush grasses. Birds flew alongside the train and continued by, and the light from the sun shone through the tree branches to create a harmonious setting around the train. A draft set into the car and left Twilight uneasy. ‘Where is Kudurak?’ she thought to herself. ‘and what of Rainbow?’ This puzzled her, but not as much as the fact that the train car was cut in half and the princess lay in a weakened slumber next to the farthest seat. Her eyes showed traces of tears as if she had wept before falling asleep. Her wound was still scarred, but it was no longer open. Twilight rushed over to the princess, carefully patting her to get her up.
“Princess!” Twilight begged, “What happened? Did someone attack us?”
The Regal Sister slowly awoke from her slumber to find a worried Twilight standing over her. Quickly recovering from her drowsy spell, she sprung up to her hooves and cast a magical chain around Twilight, the yellow glowing chains grasping and squeezing Twilight tightly and she was quickly levitated into the air. Blood began to leak from underneath the chains as it grew tighter, and the Princess had a glare of anger aimed straight for her student. Blind fury enveloped the princess’s eyes.
“YOU!” Celestia growled, “You insolent foal! You dare hold me back and desert your friend?! You may have killed them both for all we know!” She continued to growl and scold Twilight while the chains grew tighter and tighter. Twilight’s eyes began to fill with blood, and she had a look of extreme fear, her eyes begging for her majesty to stop the torture.
“I can’t tell you the amount of animosity I have towards you right now! I…I… RAGH!” She continued to scream until her body began to flare up and Twilight could feel an immense amount of heat building up in the train car. Sparks ignited from the Princess’s white coat, and soon small flames began to envelop the royal mare. Her eyes glowed a deep orange. Her mane suddenly lit ablaze and her body erupted in fire. Celestia’s voice became distorted and sounded as if even her throat was blitzed by the roaring flames around her.
“You will pay for your actions, Twilight Sparkle! And pay you will, with your LIFE!” She screamed in a blind fury. The flames growing ever larger until the entire train car was practically an inferno. Twilight began to cry and saw that her princess was no longer herself.
“Princess, No!” Twilight pleaded with a heavy mass of tears pooling in her eyes. “I don’t know what happened! Please!”
The princess stood holding the chains with an extremely powerful spell of magic. She stopped bringing them tighter, and let go of the student filly.
“Let this be a warning to you, for this is my equivalent to Luna’s Nightmare Moon form. I am Solar Flare. If you dare do this sort of thing to me again, I will be sure that you don’t see the next sunrise.” Solar Flare growled with a crackle in her voice. Twilight had never seen this horrifying form before and never wanted to again. Solar Flare dismissed the chains and faded the flames enveloping her body. She returned to her Royal self and stood over Twilight, who was still coughing up blood from the intense pressure that she had placed upon the heavy chains. A look of disappointment sprawled across her face while she gazed down at the beaten filly.
“I pray for your sake that you never do this again.”
Twilight lay on the ground in pain. Blood dripped out of the various cuts and scratches that peppered her body. She coughed up a bit of blood and looked up at the Princess with a look of heartache and fear. She would never forget this moment, for she had never feared the Princess more. But what could she have done that made the Princess act so furiously? A better question yet, what happened to the other half of the train car?
“Princess?” Twilight asked with a bit of blood still in her mouth.
“hmm?” Celestia replied, a look of disgust still apparent.
“What did I do, anyway?”
“Wait. You mean you don’t remember what happened?” Celestia inquired with a surprised look on her face.
“No, Princess, I don’t remember a thing. I blacked out while Kudurak was tending to Rainbow Dash.”
“Strange…”

Celestia took a few steps forward to the gaping hole in front of her. A smoggy wind blew through the open windows and through the now halved train car. She gazed at the leaves falling behind them as the train chugged along the track to the wondrous Crystal Empire. The princess cleared her throat, causing her fearful student to angle her head towards her with a questioning look. Celestia closed her eyes and bowed her head. She knew something wasn’t right, and she felt that she had better tell her student of what might happen.
“Twilight, my dear,” She began. “You have been the most faithful student I could have asked for. You have faced the most perilous terrors that Equestria could possibly offer. Even in the toughest times you never gave up hope. I know you can handle anything I ask of you.”
“Where are you going with this, princess?” Twilight asked.
“There is a chance that you may have to do something I hoped you would never have to do.”
“What do you want of me?”
“My sister and I are connected with every city in Equestria. Our powers allow us to know events occurring anywhere at any time. That being said, the Crystal Empire holds a secret that only we know of. This secret of ours has the potential to completely ruin all of Equestria. It could turn the entire land to ashes, and nothing would remain. Luckily, we have imprisoned it so that no harm could be done, but I fear that it will not be held much longer. If this secret was to be discovered and released as I fear it has…”
Celestia turned her head so that she could see her student. Her eyes flashed open as she spoke with a serious, unwavering tone.
“You will have to destroy the Crystal Empire where it stands.”

Chapter 9- Folds

The sky slowly began to clear as the two shivering, frostbitten Pegasi found their way to the run down arctic town. Wooden buildings sat in the snow, the log walls caked with layers of snow and ice. Iron lanterns swung furiously in the winds, and lights faintly shown through the worn, fogged glass windows. Icicles hung from every roof and the path was all but buried below the knee-deep snow. Kudurak paid no attention to the houses, but Rainbow found herself looking at each window, wondering who could possibly live in such an environment. Eyes peered through the windows as they passed, and soon Rainbow found herself feeling uncomfortable.
The Two made their way to a dimly lit cottage that seemed to stand out from the others. Iron chains replaced wood guardrails and smoke crept out of the cracks in the splintered wood walls. Through the heavily fogged window, a pair of bold, red eyes glared at them as they approached. Kudurak squinted in an attempt to see the mysterious viewer more clearly, but his efforts were in vain. Rainbow stood behind Kudurak, knowing well that there was a lot to fear about this place. Her headstrong attitude and bold personality had all but faded to nothing since her realization that her life was coming to a close. She instead found herself acting like Fluttershy. She had become more timid and hid herself beneath her cloak.

Kudurak moved carefully so as to not to cause a ruckus. A slight crunch from the thick sheet of hardened snow was all the noise he made. He managed to keep his metallic gear from clanking around while he moved. Just as he was about to reach the front step of the cottage, Kudurak felt a heavy thud against his side and his wing was forced open for a second. When he turned to see what happened, he found Rainbow Dash under his wing, scared to death. She looked up fearfully at the dark stallion before nudging him forward and nuzzling into his fur. Her rainbow mane draped over one eye and only one of the bright violet eyes was visible. Kudurak looked at her for a moment and questioned her motives. She was never this soft in the stories he had heard, and he couldn’t figure out why she was so frightened.
“I-It’s cold...” Rainbow said quietly, “I need more warmth... is all…”
Kudurak turned his head to the cottage door. “Once we get inside, we should be alright,” he said, “I guarantee that the owners of the cottage have some sort of fireplace. “
“If you say so…”
Kudurak nodded and redirected his attention to the cottage. He proceeded to ascend the front steps and knocked on the wooden door. Within moments, the door opened to reveal a tall, grey unicorn with large red eyes and a greasy spiked mane. He stood a good 2 inches over Kudurak as he glared unwaveringly at the Pegasus. He stood there for what felt like a small eternity before a word was spoken.
“What do you want?” The unicorn asked bluntly. “Can’t you see that there is a blizzard about?”
“Yes. We noticed,” Kudurak replied. “We hope we are not bothering you, but we are travelers from Canterlot and we have been abandoned here and we are in desperate need of assistance. Can you help us?”
“Hmm… I will help you, but there is something you must do for me, first.”
“What would you have of us?”
“Well. It is more of a promise that you will do something for me. You see, I am in charge of raising and lowering the bridge over the Forgotten Crevice. You know. It’s the one that the trains cross over, and most likely you used it as well. Anyway, recently there has been a noticeable amount of magic pooling in the crevice and it has given the townsfolk worry. Tomorrow when the storm clears I would like you to investigate it for me.”
“Consider it done.”
“Thank you. By the way, I am called Shade and you may address me as such.”
The tall unicorn stepped aside to let them though. Kudurak let Rainbow in first and then cautiously walked behind her. Shade led the two up a log staircase to the guest bedroom. He opened the bedroom door and let them through, then closed the door behind them. Rainbow looked at the single king bed and turned to Kudurak.
“There is only one bed here,” She said. “Do you want the bed or-“
“We can share it,” Kudurak responded. “It’s just for the night and there is plenty of space.”
He nudged Rainbow to one side of the bed while he took the other. A good few feet were between them and they both fell asleep within seconds. The Day had been all too long for the two, and it was merely a relief that they could finally rest.

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long to publish. I've been pretty busy the last few weeks and i couldn't find time to finish this up. I will be taking a few days to think about where i want to go with this, and if anyone has any suggestions, please leave it in a comment! i would love some ideas for secondary quests for the main characters. Also if you see any errors in the text or you see anywhere where i could improve the literary quality, please feel free to let me know! Thanks!

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