Rising Darkness Lost Friendship
Frozen North
5.7 miles west of Crystal Empire
3 years ago...
Darkness was all that could be seen, was all that could be felt, was all...that he knew. Though his body was trapped and completely immobile in this ice tomb, his mind was free to wander and pace. In his mind he was seething in rage, pure murderous rage. For how long he couldn't tell but, he knew it was too long that he could have died long ago if not for this accursed seal on his body preventing him from being ravaged by time.
Maybe it was a bit much but, after the multiple acts of chronic and sustained cruelty he had inflicted on all around him you would think he'd get the death penalty. Sadly, such a thing is difficult when the condemned has stolen greatest power and will use it to counter any spell thrown at it. Even more sadly, he could use this power to fend off most spells except for ones casted only by the most powerful magic wielders; The Eternal Seal.
This spell could imprison any target and bound them as they are in mind and body. These kind spell created to not be possible to escape unless of course the caster or another being of equal or greater power decided to free the imprisoned. But what kind of dumbass would attempt or even consider releasing one of these psychopaths?
Any who, you'd think that after spending what could have been decades in and a frozen prison that one would take this time to show remorse on these actions, learn from this past mistakes and repent. Well, you would be right but in this case you are dead WRONG! All the thoughts that have swirled in this guy's head has been nothing but revenge. Someday he would-NO! Someday he will escape and when that day comes it will be the end of days for many. However, one question enraged him more than his imprisonment and even more than his enemies: HOW?
BOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!
Suddenly there was a faint sound and a slight rumble. At that moment he felt ...something. It was a new feeling, like something from the outside was reaching out to him. It was like he was shook awake, all around the ice crumbled into flakes and pieces, then there was nothing. A huge gust of wind picked up blowing all the snow away revealing the body of the prisoner, he laid there panting and shook violently.
After a while he raised his head and looked on to see endless ice everywhere a sight that made him very upset that he was freed into a death trap. Pwooooft! He stopped shaking and slowly moved his head to the sudden noise. Then he saw it, a strange object stabbed into the ice. It was sending out a wave of heat similar to the one he felt just before his. The object was glowing red at its sharp end while the other end looked dark grey and broken. Every few seconds it would send out a pulse, followed by an eerie sound on the wind.
Yessssssss.
With what little amount of energy he had left, he reached out and grasped it in his claw with no intention of letting go.
Then there was a sudden flash of purple and green followed by a high-pitched shriek…
Then silence.
* * * * * * *
Twilight suddenly awoke with a start, sitting up on her bed panting and sweating. After a while she finally calmed down.
'Stupid storm' she thought to herself.
Outside her window there was indeed a storm which was making quite a racket. She glanced over to the clock on her left to see it was 2:15 am. With an irritated sigh she slumped back on her pillow with both hooves over her face. It's been about three and a half years since Twilight's ascension to an alicorn princess and it has been two years since that the stress of being one has gotten to her. And everypony knows that stress can do one heck of a number on your sleep. However tonight she was actually trying to stay as calm as possible to get a good night's rest and it worked, unfortunately the weather schedule had other plans.
Being a princess was not all that it was cracked up to be. Now her responsibilities have been doubled even though she completed her advanced studies. She didn't want to admit it to anyone but, she honestly would prefer not to be a princess or even and alicorn. Even after her adventure to the human world, she just wanted everything to go back to the way they were. She just wanted a day to meet with her friends when it was not for official business. She still lived in Golden Oaks Library but she still had to make trips to Canterlot for royal duties because she did not want to leave her friends, which she was seeing less because of said duties.
She was very thankful to still be with her all friends.
She lowered her hooves down and glanced to the foot of her bed to an empty basket.
At least most of her friends.
She used her magic to open the drawer near her bed and lifted a plush toy that she only brought out on nights when she felt very alone. In this past year she has never felt more alone. She stared into the doll's emerald green buttons it had for eyes, then shut her eyes while gripping the doll to her chest and asked herself the same question tormenting her every night.
"Where are you Spike?"
Of all of Twilight's friends, no one was closer to her than Spike. He proved this many times since he was assigned by Princess Celestia to be Twilight's assistant and the two have been nearly in separable. As the years past they were slowly drifting apart without even being aware of it, until a terrible tragedy occurred during their second year in Ponyville...
* * * * * * *
Spike was on his way back from Sugarcube Corner after helping Pinkie Pie put out a fire they created when Pinkie thought it was a good idea to give Spike a sip of her favorite drink called "The Mississippi Queen".
"I swear that crazy mare is going to be the end of me" he muttered to himself while clutching his gut.
He entered the library and closed the door behind him sighing in relief, then he noticed Twilight wasn't down stairs working on her research on mystical artifacts of power after the alicorn amulet incident. Her papers and books were left unattended on the kitchen table where he left her in the morning to go hang out with Rarity only to find a note saying she went on a camping trip and wouldn't be back until the day after tomorrow, and thus hanging out with Pinkie. He decided to go check if she was working upstairs.
'But why would she be upstairs if her work material is down here?' he thought to himself.
His thoughts were immediately silenced as soon as he heard faint sobbing coming from their room as he was half way on the stairs. Sensing something was wrong, Spike dashed up to the second floor and saw twilight crying in her bed facing away from the door. He went up the second stair case and straight to her bedside.
"Twilight! What's wrong?! What happened?!" shouted the little dragon.
Twilight was about to meet his gaze but quickly turned away. Spike got closer and laid a reassuring claw on her shoulder, she flinched but didn't resist.
"Please Twi, what happened?"
* * * * * * *
Twilight cringed at the memory, but it was through that horrible event that her friendship with Spike regained its full strength forevermore. He held her and no longer pried to know more of what happened to her other than "I made a mistake" she said. When the night came she asked him to share her bed which he accepted without hesitation, and they both made a promise to each other. Twilight promised to stay with her friends more, especially Spike and he promised her that "everything is going to be just fine".
However, as much as they intended on keeping their promises ...they realized couldn't. This year proved that. In the last year there were sudden events that could be considered unfortunate coincidences but never considered more. The events in this past year were indeed very unsettling to say the least, but none compared to the one that griped the heart and mind of Twilight Sparkle;
The sudden disappearance of Spike the dragon.
It was another beautiful morning in Ponyville, the sun was rising from the west of the valley. The sky had scattered snow clouds, gentle winter breeze followed by snowflakes slowly cascading down to the earth. The thunder clouds from the previous night could still be seen but at a distance that did not disturb the peacefulness it left. Winter had just begun and every foal had excited as ever to go out and play, and at that moment 3 pre-teen fillies were dashing through the snow on a... well, what was left of a go-cart now turned into a sleigh.
Behind the wheel was a yellow earth pony filly, wearing a green scarf with a matching beanie. Hanging on for dear life next to her was a white unicorn filly, wearing a magenta scarf and matching snow cap both gleaming in small lavender gems. Powering this crate in the back was an orange Pegasus filly wearing a dark grey hoodie, with black rims. They flew down the streets, spreading a wave of snow on passing ponies, to their destination: CMC Club house. Assuming they make it there in one piece or their new destination would be: Ponyville General!
"Scootaloo, please slow down before sompony gets hurt!" yelled Sweetie Belle.
"Aw, don't be a wuss. Besides were almost there!" replied Scootaloo.
"Ah think Sweetie's right, we kinda are going fast."
"Will you both relax, nothings happened yet and we're almost there."
"We hit 3 snow ponies, got caught in the cross fire of a snowball fight, nearly crashed into Granny Smith and you STILL think we shouldn't slow down"
"Pretty much"
"Your crazy"
"Crybaby"
"Dodo"
"Hey! Don't call me things I don't now the meaning of!
"Then read a book more often"
"Ha! Spoken like a true egg head"
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"
"Hey, Scoots guess what?" asked Applebloom looking back.
"What?"
"Chicken butt!"
"URGH! That's it! I'm gonna-"
"Look out!" shrieked Sweetie"
"Huh?" asked both in unison.
Looking ahead they saw they were heading off the road and down a hill. Trying to get her steering back, Applebloom turned the wheel to get back on course, but it slid off. While they all started screaming, Scootaloo tried to slow the sleigh down, but her efforts were futile as the sleigh soon reached one of Scootaloo's old skating ramps. instead of smashing through, they took off, soaring through the air hanging on to their go-cart/sleigh/wingless plane.
Meanwhile, somewhere further away...
Two colts and a young stallion were making a snow pony.
"All right boys, looks like we got us a snow pirate pony" Neo stated proudly.
"But Neo-"
"For the last time Snips, we already made three snow ponies of Trixie. Besides you lost 2 to 1. Get over it."
"I wish Snails were here to back me up"
"Where is he any way?" Pipsqueak asked.
"He's hanging out with Peppermint Twist...again"
"Pfft ha ha! I can't believe Snails, Snails, of all ponies got a girl left ya hanging"
"Hanging on what?"
"Forget it. So Pip, whatcha wanna do?
"Hmmm? OH! I know, let's make a pirate ship snow fort!"
Both Snips and Neo's eye brows shot up.
"We MUST do that immediately. Brohoof on three."
"One"
"Two"
"Thre-GAH!"
SWOOSH!
Before they could get to three, Pipsqueak, Snips, and Neo found themselves taken along on a runaway sleigh with 3 familiar screaming fillies. Soon they were back in town, trying to avoid hitting anypony. Ponies were scattering to avoid any injuries, running into each other and random object didn't really help. Good news: they didn't hit anypony, bad news: they were heading straight for Golden Oaks Library!
"OH, SHIIIIIYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Thinking quickly, Neo shifted his weight to the right, avoiding the library while screaming like a filly.
Twilight jumped at the sudden sound of snow smashing against her window as well as the screams that went by. She rushed to her balcony just in time to see three fillies, two colts and one stallion speeding down the street on a weird-looking sleigh until they where out of sight.
Rolling her eyes, Twilight trotted back inside to get ready for her trip to Canterlot. She had been going back and forth all morning preparing for this trip. She walked past her desk, with the photo of Spike and her when they went star-gazing. She walked past a chalk board that had a map, photos of Spike and some photos of the Everfree Forest. There were arrows, circles and question marks as well, surrounding the photos. Then she passed the shelf next to the bedroom's entrance. This weeks news paper laid on the shelf, the front page read "MISSING TRAIN" showing a picture of the Friendship Express and some of its missing passengers.
She had her bags ready, her materials, and her crown didn't bother her as much as it used to, but for some reason being a princess was just so stressful for her sometimes.
She shook the thought away.
"Right now I have more important things to worry about."
"Who"
"Me-wait'"
"Who"
Twilight turned to her pet owl who had been patiently watching her in silence, which had been a full 30 min.
"Oh, sorry Owlowiscious" Twilight said sheepishly.
Owlowiscious just waved a dismissing wing, flew to her side and presented her a paper with check marks.
"You finished all everything on the list?" the owl answered with a nod.
"Great! Then you can just head on over to Fluttershy's until I return tomorrow" she said cheerfully.
After she nuzzled him, Owlowiscious took off through an open window.
Twilight was as eager as ever to make the trip to Canterlot. For today, Twilight was to attend an important meeting with the Director of the Equestrian Bureau of Investigation. The EBI is an equine government organization that has been the most reliable in investigations, national security, and justice since its establishment by the four alicorn monarchs two years ago. Ever since Spike went missing, she had maintained contact with the Director on a weekly basis for the last year. She hoped and prayed that she would be united with the BEST friend she has ever had, and every time she received an update on the investigation was all she could think of, she went to search with the field agents, the forensics team, and still very few clues were found that could tell the where abouts of Spike. When they discovered what appeared to have a disturbing resemblance to dragon's blood near the Everfree forest, Twilight went absolutely hysterical.
The other elements of harmony didn't take the news well either, but they had to help their friend before she did anything drastic. Once they gathered at the library, Princess Celestia, arrived with a somber look on her face. She was upset as Twilight but seemed more in control of her emotions. She told them that Spike was still alive, though she could not find his site, she explained that since the first week of Spike's birth, Celestia created a magical link with him to send messages and small objects. She still sensed her connection with him, though she could not send any thing to confirm if he was well. This was comforting for them all, but with the search looking bleak, Twilight slowly slipped into depression, letting her nightmarish fears roam her mind. She feared Spike had been abducted, trapped, injured, or worst of all...dying.
Fears that to be banished by the other element bearers, as they confronted and comforted Twilight before she could get any worse and encouraged her to have faith in the ponies searching and Spike. Once Twilight re-composed herself, she returned to her duties as princess and seemed to have progressing well.
Twilight saw a royal carriage descending outside and gathered all her belongings by the door.
"Nothing can possibly go wrong today."
"How could things have possibly gone wrong today!"
"This never would have happened if we made a snowpony of Trixie."
"SHUT UP SNIPS!"
Neo was running out of options. On one hoof he could jump off with some of the foals before the rest hit the lake. On the other he could throw them all off on the soft pile of snow and risk hitting the lake himself. Oh boy, this was a tuff. 'No wonder I almost didn't graduate high school' he thought. He looked back at the kids and made his decision.
"Curse you stupid conscience!"
One by one, he started flinging them of the sleigh and into the snow. Each of them let out an 'oof!' as they hit the snow. Neo chuckled to himself as they fell in very odd-looking positions that would make a grumpy dude go LOL. Especially when he saw Snips had done a scorpion fall. Neo was getting closer to the lake, but he still had time to jump.
"Yippee ki yay motherfu-woah what?"
He was about to jump, but his flank got stuck in the kids seat! He started panicking, struggling to get free. He huffed and sweated like he was having trouble taking a crap.
"No, No, No, No, NO!"
He braced himself for the pain. Yet, he only felt a jolt, Neo opened one eye to see what was the hold up. The front of the sleigh pierced in the ice! Neo sighed, relieved that he didn't get dunked in the ice water.
CRACK
Neo's eyes shot open, the ice was starting to give way!
