The Northern Winds

Chapters

Prologue: An Air of Worry
Chapter 1: Chills From the North
Chapter 2: Permafrost
Chapter 3: Fury of The Frozen North
Chapter 4: Separation in Desolation
Chapter 5: Friends in Cold Places
Chapter 7: Frostbite
Chapter 8: Hoarfrost Returns
Chapter 9: Heart of Frost
Epilogue: Drums of War
Chapter 6: Crystalline Rebirth

Prologue: An Air of Worry

The frozen halls echoed with every step Princess Celestia took upon the cold hard floor. She was a white alicorn with a majestic mane composed of light blue, light green, and light red swaying in the air with a sun as her cutie mark. She had woken up in a mysterious frozen palace that she had never seen before and had no idea where she was. There were icicles hanging off every inch of the ceiling and the floor was nothing but ice causing her to slip here and there. The hallway she had woken up in had many doors on either side of her along with a larger door at the end of the hallway and no windows. As she was looking around frantically to try and find out where she was, she suddenly heard a voice echo in her mind whispering, "This way." She immediately turned her head towards the large door at the end of the hallway where the sound seemed to originate. She heard the voice say "Come closer," only slightly louder this time.

Princess Celestia began walking down the hallway towards the large door staying aware of her surroundings so that if something were to startle her she could immediately make her escape. With every step she took the voice in her head whispered the same thing and kept growing louder in volume until she finally reached the door. The voice stopped and she grabbed the handle of the door with her unicorn magic. She looked around her to see if there was anything else in the hallway with her that could possibly be making the voice she was hearing in her head. When she found nothing she opened the door. She was greeted by a blinding white light which caused her to close her eyes and shield her face due to the brightness. The voice returned still in its hushed tone only this time so loud that she thought that someone was yelling at her saying "Set me free!"

Princess Celestia quickly woke up gasping for air and sitting up in her bed in her room in Canterlot castle. It took her a while to comprehend that what she just saw was a dream. She felt cold as if she was actually in the place in her dream. Once she had settled down slightly and realized that she was in the safety of her own castle she got out of her bed, ran over to her sister, who was sleeping in her own bed on the other side of the room, and began to shake her vigorously attempting to wake her up.

"Luna, Luna!" she said. "Come on! Wake up! I had the dream again!"

Princess Luna woke up and sat up in her bed. She was a dark blue alicorn with a mane that looked like the night sky swaying in the air and a crescent moon in a black nebula for her cutie mark. "Again?" she asked. "That's the third time in a row this week."

"What do you think this means sister?" asked Princess Celestia. "I am beginning to worry. Can't you feel the magic in the atmosphere? It's different." Celestia went over to the balcony of her room and looked out at the Crystal Empire's aurora waving in the northern skies. After a while she was joined by her sister.

"I feel it as well, sister," said Princess Luna. "It is a constant flow of magic that seems to be coming from the Frozen North. It feels as if some ancient magic is begging to resurface. What do you think we should do?"

Celestia pondered for a while before coming to a conclusion and saying, "Come, sister, let us send for Princess Twilight's friends in Ponyville," responded Celestia. "I will inform Princess Twilight myself of the situation."

"We aren't going to send them into the Frozen North are we?" asked Luna. "Nopony has ever gone farther than the Crystal Empire before. They'll freeze to death out there."

"If not them then who?" replied Celestia. "I am absolutely positive that Twilight and her friends can find out what is happening. They have not yet failed me before and I have no doubts in my mind that they can't do it."

Princess Luna paused for a moment and then responded, "Very well, we will send for Princess Twilight's friends to arrive in the morning. If you have faith in them then so shall I."

Princess Luna left Princess Celestia on the balcony alone to go tell the guards to send for Princess Twilight's friends. Princess Celestia stayed out on the balcony a while longer watching the aurora lights that the Crystal Empire was giving off before returning to her bed to attempt to sleep the rest of the night without having the dream again. This was the first time in her life that she had no idea what was happening. It was also the first time in her life she was worried.

Chapter 1: Chills From the North

It was a bright and sunny morning. Sunlight beamed through the window into Princess Twilight's bedroom in Canterlot castle. The beam of sun landed on her face causing her to open up her eyes. She was a light purple alicorn with a dark purple mane that had a pink highlight to it and a giant pink star surrounded by five other white stars as her cutie mark.

As she rose up in her bed she turned to her right and looked down at a sleeping purple and green dragon. "Spike," she said in a sweet voice trying to gingerly wake the baby dragon up. The dragon just lay there continuing to sleep. "Spike," she repeated still trying to wake him up. This time the dragon turned a bit in his bed but still showed no sign of waking up. By this time Twilight had grown tired of the fact that her baby dragon was refusing to listen to her so she decided that he had his chance and resorted to less gentle ways of waking him up. "SPIKE!" she yelled at the top of her lungs in a final attempt to wake the dragon.

Spike flew out of his bed screaming and landed on the floor with a thud. He was scared stiff at the volume of the voice that woke him up and took him a while to calm down. "Oh it's only you Twilight," he said while he rubbed his head. "I guess I overslept again didn't I?" He looked over at Twilight who was staring at him with an annoyed look on her face.

"Look Spike," said Twilight. "I know you aren't a morning person, but you need to start getting used to getting up earlier. Now that I am a princess I have more responsibilities and guess who gets to help me make sure I get everything done."

Spike rolled his eyes and said, "I do." in an unenthusiastic tone.

"That's right," said Twilight, "Which reminds me. What's on the royal checklist today?"

Spike looked over at the door to the room and saw a piece of paper slightly larger than the size of a business card lying on the floor right in front of it. Slowly he got up and walked over to pick it up. "That's odd," he said. "Today's checklist is a lot smaller than it normally is."

"What does it say?" asked Twilight.

Spike picked up the piece of paper and read it to himself. After he read it his eyes widened and he said, "It's an urgent message from Princess Celestia! It says she wants us to go see her as soon as we get this message!"

Immediately Twilight jumped out of her bed, lifted Spike up onto her back with her unicorn magic and ran out the door. Swiftly she galloped down hall after hall rushing towards the throne room With Spike hanging on to her back for dear life.

"Woah, slow down Twilight," said Spike. "When the paper said 'urgent' it didn't mean this urgent."

"Get real Spike," said Twilight. "Whenever the princess 'urgently' summons me it means either something terrible is going to happen or something big is about to happen and she 'urgently' needs my help. Who knows when that note could have been written. Which means whatever was about to happen could be happening right now."

"Umm, Twilight," replied Spike. "If it really was that urgent don't you think they would have just woken you up? I mean the writing on the note didn't seem that rushed and all of the royal guards are just standing around on guard. Wouldn't you think if something bad was really happening they wouldn't be just standing there?"

"That is a good point Spike," said Twilight. "But we still have to hurry. It has got to be important otherwise the princess would have just pulled me aside during the day. Just bear with me on this one Spike."

Spike just sat there, rolled his eyes and slapped his claw against his face. Before they knew it they were just outside of the throne room door where Spike dismounted Twilight. Twilight's mane had been slightly messed up and she was gasping for air because of how fast she had traveled, so she took some time to fix her mane and catch her breath before she entered the throne room leaving Spike outside waiting by the door. Once she was in the royal throne room she looked around and found Princess Celestia sitting on her throne at the top of a set of stairs, filling out important paperwork, heavily guarded by the royal guard. Twilight swiftly rushed up to her saying "Princess Celestia, you wanted to see me?"

"Ah, there you are Princess Twilight," responded Princess Celestia. "What's wrong? You look like you just ran a mile."

"Sorry, Princess," said Twilight. "I rushed over here as soon as I got your note. What's going on? Is there anything bad about to happen?"

"All will be revealed in due time, Princess Twilight," said Princess Celestia. "But first I have a certain task I think you might actually enjoy for you to accomplish before I tell you what really needs to be done." Twilight looked up at Princess Celestia partially in confusion and partially in anticipation as to what she was going to say next. "I need you to got down to the train station and welcome your friends to Canterlot."

"My friends are coming to Canterlot?!" exclaimed Twilight in excitement.

"Yes, Twilight," answered Princess Celestia. "I summoned them here in the middle of the night. They should be here in about thirty minutes. I want you to go greet them and then bring them here where I will inform them as to why I have summoned you all on such short notice. Can you do that for me Twilight?"

"Yes, of course I can!" said Twilight in excitement. It had been a while since her friends had visited her in Canterlot and she had a lot of exciting activities planned out for when they did end up visiting.

"Good," said Princess Celestia. "Remember, bring them here, to me, first and then I will let you have time with them alone to catch up. You may go now."

Twilight bowed, then turned and left the throne room. Once she was outside the throne room she was greeted by Spike who was eagerly waiting to hear what Princess Celestia had to say. "Well," he said. "What did she have to say to you?"

"You were right Spike," said Twilight in a more relaxed tone. "There wasn't anything to worry about. She told me to go down to the train station to pick up our friends."

"Our friends are coming to Canterlot?!" exclaimed Spike in an excited voice.

"Yes," responded Twilight. "The princess summoned them her last night. She has a special task that needs done and she is having us do it."

"A task?" asked Spike. "What kind of a task?"

"I don't know," Twilight answered. "She said she would tell us once we arrive back here with our friends." Twilight started merrily galloping down the halls of Canterlot Castle. "Come on Spike," she said joyfully. "Lets go welcome our friends."

Spike ran after her and before they knew it they were on their way to meet their friends at the Canterlot train station. They left the castle and went out into the busy city followed by two of the castle's Royal Guard. While they walked trough the city everypony parted to the sides of the road at the sight of her and bowed. As Twilight went down the road she felt somewhat uncomfortable with all of the attention she was getting. Never in her life did she think that she would rise to the current state she was in and she was still getting used to being the pony that everypony admired. Sometimes she still wondered what life would be like if she was still just a unicorn and still lived in Ponyville with her friends. But the fact that her friends were finally coming to visit her in Canterlot for the first time since her coordination made her the happiest pony in Equestria and made her forget all of those thoughts.

They had arrived early to an almost deserted train station so both Spike and Twilight sat down on a bench nearby and waited for the train carrying their friends to come, still guarded by the two Royal Guards on either side of the bench. Not many other ponies were in the train station as well and those who were there paid little to no attention to Twilight due to the stares they were receiving from the guards.

It wasn't long before Spike started up a conversation. "So," he said. "What do you think is so important that the princess had to summon your friends in the middle of the night for?"

"To be honest, Spike, I'm really not worrying about it that much at the moment," replied Twilight. "She said she would tell us all together once our friends get here, remember?"

"I know, I know but haven't you noticed that the princess has been acting a bit distracted this last week or so?" asked Spike.

"What do you mean Spike?" asked Twilight.

"Well for starters she seems to be wandering off in her own little world," replied Spike. "She has been having trouble focusing on the tasks placed in front of her like she's worried about something."

"I guess when you put it that way, I have noticed that she's been acting kinda preoccupied because of something but I just don't know what." answered Twilight.

"Exactly," said Spike. "I have a feeling that might be why she sent for your friends in the middle of the night."

Twilight began to ponder about the subject to herself before her thinking was interrupted by the whistle of a train pulling up into the station. "That must be the train." she said getting off of the bench she was on. Slowly the train pulled in getting slower and slower until it had finally stopped. Simultaneously all the doors to the train cars opened and out of the door that was closest to Twilight flew a pink earth pony with a messy pink mane and two blue balloons and one yellow balloon for her cutie mark. The pony hit Twilight with such force that both ponies flew back several feet and landed on the ground unharmed.

"Twilight!" exclaimed the pink pony squeezing the life out of Twilight with a very friendly hug. "We've missed you so so so so sooooo much!"

"I've missed you too, Pinkie Pie," said Twilight. "But do you think you can get off of me? I'm starting to lose feeling in the lower half of my body."

Pinkie obeyed what Twilight asked her to do and helped her get back up on her hooves. Once she had stood back up a yellow pegasus with a curvy pink mane and three pink and blue butterflies for her cutie mark stepped out of the train car saying "Oh my. Twilight, are you ok? Pinkie you shouldn't tackle ponies like that when they aren't expecting it."

"I'm fine, Fluttershy." answered Twilight exchanging a hug with the pegasus. Just then a light blue pegasus with a slightly less messy, rainbow colored, mane than pinkie pie's and a white storm cloud with a red yellow and blue lightning bolt for her cutiemark zoomed out of the train car trailing a rainbow.

She stopped next to Pinkie Pie and said, "Wow, Pinkie. You really darted out of that train. I would say you were almost as fast as me. Almost. As in still not as fast."

"Gee thanks Rainbow Dash," said Pinkie Pie. "I have been working on my calisthenics lately."

"Well lookie here," said a orange earth pony with a blonde mane put into a ponytail with a cowboy hat on and three red apples for her cutie mark. "If it isn't Equestria's newest and finest princess. Long time no see sugarcube.

"Applejack," said Twilight trotting over to give the earth pony a hug.

"Don't forget about me," said a white unicorn with a purple curly mane and three diamonds for her cutie mark.

"How could I possibly forget you Rarity," said Twilight. "Come on everyone, group hug." All of the ponies gathered around Twilight and Spike and shared in one big hug filled with laughter and smiles. The hug was so warm and welcoming to Twilight that she was the happiest that she had ever felt for the last three weeks.

After a while the hug dispersed and Applejack went on to say, "So what did the princess want with us so bad? I was woken up at five o'clock this morning by a member of the royal guard knocking at my door saying that the princess needed us here in Canterlot."

"That's just it, Applejack," said Twilight. "I don't know either. She said once everyone was together she will tell us why and then she will let us have some free time so that we can catch up with each other."

"Then what are we waiting for?" said Rainbow Dash. "Let's go see the princess."

The six ponies trotted back through the streets towards the palace still under close watch of the royal guard. As they walked they entertained each other with stories about what they had been doing in Ponyville while Twilight was in Canterlot. "You should have seen it," said Rainbow Dash. "Pinkie filled an entire pool with strawberry flavored jello at one of her parties and we all got to jump in it! Well, all of us except Rarity of course."

"I refuse to give in to your barbaric ways, Rainbow Dash," said Rarity. "What is the point of jumping into a pool full of jello?"

"Um, it's just like everypony's dream to do it since they were a little filly," answered Rainbow Dash.

"Ya'll shouldn't talk too much about what excitin' stuff we have done with out Twilight around," said Applejack. "We don't want her to feel left out now do we?"

"Oh its ok, Applejack," said Twilight. "I understand I miss a lot of fun being in Canterlot and all but I enjoy listening to what all of you are doing as friends even without me."

"To be honest," said Fluttershy in a shy voice. "Even though we are all having fun together I still feel like something is missing part of the time." All of the other ponies nodded their heads and sighed in agreement.

"I hear you girls," said Twilight as they approached the palace's main door and the royal guard that had been following them went back to their posts. "But we are going to have to get used to being away from each other. Don't worry, like I have said before, the separation doesn't mean that we aren't friends anymore. I will continue writing you as much as possible and take any chances I get to visit you in Ponyville. Besides, by the fact that Celestia has summoned us all together again probably means we have another adventure in our hooves."

The six ponies turned and looked at each other with smiles beaming across their faces before they entered the palace. The group made their way back to the throne room door where Spike sat down and waited faithfully as the other ponies entered. When they entered they found Princess Celestia still sitting on her throne filling out her paperwork while under close watch of the royal guard. It didn't take long before Celestia realized her guests had arrived. She put her paperwork to the side, stood up, and motioned for the royal guard to leave. The royal guard obeyed the order and left the room. Once the royal guard members had left the room Princess Celestia began talking. "Greetings, friend's of Twilight, and welcome back to the marvelous city of Canterlot," she said as she began to descend the set of stairs at the foot of her throne. "I bet you are all wondering why I have called you here and why on such short notice. I assure you, all will be revealed in due time. Come, walk with me and we shall discuss this matter in which I have summoned you here."

With that order the six ponies began following Princess Celestia. She lead them through a door on the west side of the throne room into a hallway filled with stained glass windows lighting up the hallway with many beautiful colors, depicting the six ponies accomplishing many heroic deeds.

"As your friendship continues to grow with each other, you also continue doing many miraculous deeds that no other pony could possibly think about doing alone," said Princess Celestia continuing to walk down the hallway. "This fact has lead me to realize that you are the right group of ponies for the task in which I require you to accomplish."

"What is it Celestia?" asked Twilight.

"This past week both me and my sister Luna have sensed a new type of magic flowing from the northernmost part of Equestria making it's way here," Princess Celestia replied. "If you focus hard enough, Twilight, you can feel it as well. We need somepony to go investigate it to make sure that all is well in the region and to document it's magical properties."

"Sounds easy enough," said Rainbow Dash. "Where is it at? The Crystal Empire?"

"That's just it," replied Princess Celestia. "We have no clue as to where this mysterious force is coming from. All we know is that it originates somewhere deep within the Frozen North, far beyond the Crystal Empire.

"But nopony has ever gone past the Crystal Mountain range before," said Twilight.

"Which is the reason why I believe that both you and your friends are the right ponies for the job. Not even I have knowledge of what lies beyond that mountain range," replied Princess Celestia. "The choice is yours Twilight. I will give you the option of having somepony else go instead of you or you going alongside your friends but you must take into mind what I have said. You truly are the best group of ponies for the job."

Twilight looked back at her friends who were all standing tall behind her. She turned around and said to them, "What do you think girls? Should we accept one more adventure together?"

The six ponies stood there staring at each other before Rainbow Dash spoke up saying"Are you kidding? "Let's go! Finding out where this magic is coming from might be the greatest discovery in all of ponydom!"

"Besides," said Applejack. "If not us then who? Like the princess said we are definitely the right group of ponies for the job."

"I needed some time out of the boutique anyways," said Rarity. "I am in as well."

"It'll be a blast!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "We can make snow cones all the time up there!"

"I'll go too Twilight," said Fluttershy. "Who knows. I might even find a new species of animal up there that nopony has seen before."

Twilight smiled. She had never seen her friends so eager to run into the unknown before. She turned back around to Princess Celestia and said "Princess, we accept your task."

"Excellent," said Princess Celestia. "We will all travel to the Crystal Empire tomorrow morning. There, we will gear you up for the journey and I will teach Twilight a new form of magic so that she may track the flow of magic upstream to the source. But first, as I have promised, you may have the rest of the day devoted as free time to catch up with each other. I advise you to not stay up too late, however, for we must depart early in the morning."

"Thank you, your majesty," said Twilight.

"You may go now," said Princess Celestia. At that command each of the other six ponies filed out of the stain glass hallway, through the throne room and back to a patiently waiting purple and green dragon.

"So what does the princess want you to do?" asked Spike.

"She wants us to go up north to investigate a new form of magic that is originating there," replied Twilight. "We leave for the Crystal Empire tomorrow morning."

"Am I going too?" asked Spike.

"No," replied Twilight. "It is too dangerous for you."

"Aw, but Twilight," Spike begged.

"No buts about it," said Twilight. "Besides I need you here, holding down the fort. That is still a very important job. Think you can do it for me?"

"I guess," answered Spike. "It doesn't seem that important though."

"Trust me, it is very important," replied Twilight. "Come on, let's go have fun with our friends now before we have to leave."

The six ponies and Spike went out of the palace together to begin the long list of things Twilight wanted to do when her friends happened to visit her in Canterlot. They started by going to Doughnut Joe's where they ate loads of doughnuts and drank hot chocolate until Pinkie Pie accidentally spilled some of her hot chocolate on Rarity. Next they all took a trip in Twilight's new chariot. Rainbow Dash challenged the chariot horses to a race and the chariot horses lost to her. Finally, after they were all done with that, they spent the rest of the day in the royal Canterlot gardens. They watched as the two royal sisters lowered the sun and raised the moon. They could not have thought of a more beautiful way to end the day together. Afterwards they headed back inside the castle, not before Pinkie Pie accidentally tripped and landed in a small pond in the garden. When they got back inside the castle they each said goodnight to each other and went to bed in the rooms they had been given by Princess Celestia. They had a long journey ahead of them in the morning and needed some extra sleep. However, for Twilight it was harder to sleep. She began hearing voices in her sleep calling out to her, saying "Come closer," and "Set me free." Eventually the voices began to die down and she was able to sleep. She began to wonder, however, if the voices had something to do with the new magic flow that had surfaced. The thought quickly faded away as she drifted back to sleep.

Chapter 2: Permafrost

The next morning, Twilight woke up to hear somepony knocking on the door. Slowly Twilight sat up in her bed and answered the knock saying, "What is it?"

"Sorry to disturb you, your highness," replied the pony at the door, "Princess Celestia sent for me to wake you so that you may join her and the rest of your group in the dining hall for breakfast before you head to the Crystal Empire."

"Thank you for informing me," replied Twilight, "You may leave now."

"Yes your highness," said the voice.

Twilight looked over at the side of her bed to find Spike oversleeping again but she didn't bother to wake him up this time. Instead she got up, went over to her desk, grabbed a piece of paper and a quill with her unicorn magic and began writing him a note saying,

"Dear Spike,

I figured I would let you sleep in today since you will be staying behind and assisting the princesses with their royal duties in my absence. I wanted to let you know it is a very important job involving a lot of responsibilities so I expect you to find a way wake up earlier in the mornings. Since nopony has ever set hoof in the Frozen North before there is no way for me to be able to tell you how long I will be gone so you might be stuck with this job for a while. I also wanted you to know that I have complete faith that you can do this. After all of these years of you being my assistant I know you have what it takes. I have to go now or else I will be late to breakfast. Remember, you're the dragon of the castle now, take care of the princesses.

Love,

Twilight Sparkle"

After she finished writing the letter she trotted over, set it on Spikes pillow, right next to his head, and made sure it would not fall off. She then trotted over to the door and used her magic to slowly open it so as to not make any noise to disturb her dragon's slumber. As she stepped through the doorway she turned around to take one last look at her dragon sleeping in his little bed next to her's. She smiled to herself as she slowly closed the door behind her.

She began to slowly walk down the hall towards the dinning hall. As she was climbing a set of stairs in the main hall she heard a voice call out to her saying, "Princess Twilight."

She stopped and turned her head to see who called out to her. "Princess Celestia," said Twilight "Is something the matter?"

"No," replied Princess Celestia. "All is well today. I just wanted to catch you before breakfast this morning so that we may talk in private before we journey to the Crystal Empire."

"Oh, ok," replied Twilight, "What did you want to talk about princess?"

"How was your night," asked Celestia.

Twilight was confused with the question. She had thought that Princess Celestia had something more important to talk about rather than how last night went. "Excuse me Princess?" Twilight answered in a confused tone.

"I know its a weird question for me to ask you but, in all seriousness, I need to know," said Celestia as the two alicorns continued walking towards the dining hall, "Just answer the question, how did you sleep last night?"

"I slept just fine your highness," answered Twilight, not thinking much on the question.

"No troubles at all?" questioned Princess Celestia relentlessly.

"Well, I guess I had some trouble staying asleep," replied Twilight. "I heard voices as I was sleeping. They kept waking me up but I didn't think much about them. My guess was that it was nothing more than a reoccurring nightmare."

Celestia's eyes widened when she heard of this new information. "And what did these 'voices' say? Were you able to understand them?" Celestia continued to question.

"Strangely enough I could understand every single word crystal clear," replied Twilight, "They kept saying 'come closer' and 'set me free.'"

"So you have heard them too," replied Celestia.

"You mean you heard the voices too?" asked Twilight, "Then it must not have been a nightmare after all."

"Yes, my young Twilight, I have heard them before," answered Celestia. "But you were right about them being a nightmare."

"What do you mean?" asked Twilight.

"These 'dreams' that we have both experienced are coming from the new flow of magic that has surfaced," explained Celestia, "Who or whatever is causing this new flow of magic is also transmitting these voices that we have heard through the dreams we have encountered. Since the message is carried by magic only unicorns and alicorns strong enough in the magic arts are able to receive these 'dream messages.' Strangely, over the past week the signal has only been affecting me but, for some reason, the signal last night affected both Luna and yourself as well. Also, Luna and I noticed that the new flow of magic seemed to be stronger last night than the previous nights. I believe this is why you and Luna were able to receive the signal as well. I am happy to hear that you are strong enough with your magic to be able to receive these dreams, this means that you are highly capable of learning the new magic tracking spell I wish teach you in the Crystal Empire. Once you learn that spell you will be able to sense the flow of magic just like both Luna and I."

By this time they had arrived and stopped outside the doors to the dining hall where Princess Celestia continued, "I will talk to you more about this subject at the Crystal Empire but for now let us enjoy breakfast with your friends in the dining hall."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea your highness," giggled Twilight, as they opened the doors and entered the room. When they had entered the room they saw an extremely long table filled with breakfast foods of various kinds stretching across the entire room starting at a gigantic window at the back of the room looking out on the Equestrian landscape and ending at their hooves. The side walls were highly decorated with colorful tapestries depicting the reign of the two sisters. All of Twilight's friends were seated at the sides of the table waiting patiently for Twilight and Celestia to take their seats before they began eating. Princess Celestia went to the far end of the table and took a seat at the head of the table with Rainbow Dash seated on her right and an open seat on her left while Twilight followed her and sat down in the open seat next to her across from Rainbow Dash and next to Rarity. Rarity sat next to Applejack and across from Fluttershy and Applejack sat across from Pinkie Pie at the foot of the table. After everyone was seated at the table Princess Celestia rose up from her seat and began to give a speech.

"On behalf of my sister, Luna, and I, we would like to thank all of you for your services to Equestria and your fellow ponies. It takes a great amount of courage to willingly walk into the unknown, under the current circumstances. As a thank you for willingly accepting this task I offer this breakfast fit for a champion of Canterlot. May you use it wisely to prepare for the journey ahead. Now, without further adieu, let us feast!" After the princess had finished her speech she sat back down in her chair and motioned for the food to be brought in. Immediately a group of ponies dressed up to look like professional butlers came in carrying dishes full of oatmeal, apples, oranges, and various other breakfast foods for ponies, like themselves, and set them on the table for the ponies to enjoy.. After all of the other ponies got their share of the food, Pinkie proceeded to take advantage of the free food and started consuming what seemed like the entire table and everypony just sat there with their jaws dropped to the floor in amazement as to how much she was eating. After a while they went back to their own meals slightly disturbed.

After they were finished eating they made their way to the train station. When they arrived they saw a train made entirely out of crystal which sparkled in the sunlight as it rested there, heavily guarded by the royal guard, and waiting for its only passengers to board it.

“That’s our train I presume,” said Twilight to the rest of her friends.

“Indeed Twilight,” said Princess Celestia, “This is the royal train that travels back and forth between the Crystal Empire and Canterlot. We have only used it to transport very important people or items and today its precious cargo is us.”

As Twilight and her friends began to board one of the train cars, Princess Celestia called out, “Princess Twilight, I require you to ride with me in a more secluded car. I have much to teach you and the art of sensing the flow of magic is one that I wish to keep secret to as many ponies as possible. I do hope you understand.”

Twilight looked back at her friends before turning back to Princess Celestia and saying, “Of course. I understand completely.” Twilight then walked over to Princess Celestia’s side and looked back at her friends to see them all smiling at her as they all entered the train. It wasn't long before she lost sight of them. The train door slid shut behind her followed by a loud train whistle. Not long after the train began to move and they were on their way to the Crystal Empire.

The train car that Princess Celestia had taken Twilight into was empty and didn't have any seats or tables like the other cars did. The floor had a royal red carpet and the car was lit by a small crystal chandelier which had eight crystals that gave off a magical light. All of the windows had shades on them which were all closed for privacy and there was no pony else in the room.

"Princess Celestia, how are those crystals glowing like that?" questioned Twilight pointing a hoof at the illuminated crystals on the chandelier.

"They are an extremely rare type of crystal which have recently been discovered in mines around the Crystal Empire," answered Princess Celestia. "So far we do not know their origin or what gives them their light. The stones themselves are called Heaven's Lights due to their illuminating properties. But enough talk on crystals, now is the time for you to learn the new skill of detecting and tracking magic and magical flows.

“For inexperienced users, this spell may leave you exhausted or even incapacitated for a while depending on how strong they are. The more you use the spell the more you learn to handle the physical toll it takes on your body. Are you ready for what is to come?”

“I am ready your highness,” answered Twilight.

“Alright.” Said Princess Celestia, “First I will start by demonstrating how the spell is performed myself for you to see. Stand back.”

Princess Celestia stood up strait and closed her eyes. Her horn started to glow and her hair began to flow faster like it was effected by a wind of some sorts. A ball of energy began to form at the tip of her horn. Her horn began to glow brighter and brighter with magic until the ball of energy was about as big as she was. At that moment the ball of energy separated from her horn and Princess Celestia fell lifeless onto the floor underneath it.

“Princess!” Twilight yelled as she ran to her mentor’s side, “Are you okay!?”

Princess Celestia lay there on her side with her eyes open and glowing with a strange white light. Twilight looked up and saw that the ball of energy seemed to have taken the shape and form of Princess Celestia.

“Princess? Is that you?” asked Twilight.

The image just stood there as if it was watching her. After a while the image bent down and touched its horn to Princess Celestia’s. The image glowed slightly brighter before being sucked back into Princess Celestia’s horn. After the image had completely gone back into the horn, Princess Celestia’s eyes returned to normal and closed shut and then opened back up to stare Twilight in the face.

“Princess!” Exclaimed Twilight, “Are you okay?”

Princess Celestia rose to her feet once more and said, “I am fine Twilight. What I just did was transport my spirit to the plane of magic.”

“What!? But how?” asked Twilight.

“It is a very simple but also extremely dangerous task,” replied Princess Celestia. “First you focus your magic and bind it to your soul. At the same time you must dispel your magic through your horn into the world around you. What happens is since your soul is temporarily attached to your magic, as it is dispelled, so is your soul and both your soul and your magic are transported to the plane of magic where you can then see all of the magic in this world. Even the magic you cannot see. This spell has a couple of other uses as well. For instance, powerful unicorns in the past have been known to use this spell to escape death and live in the plane of magic as a wisp.”

“Does that mean Starswirl the Bearded might still be alive as a wisp?” asked Twilight.

Princess Celestia closed her eyes and hung her head slightly. “Some of the unicorns decide to pass on to the next life rather than stay in this one.”

Twilight paused for a minute and realized what Princess Celestia meant when she said that, “Oh, I’m sorry,” replied Twilight.

“Life goes on,” replied Princess Celestia, “and now is not the time to talk about Starswirl’s death.” She then opened her eyes and raised her head once more. She then continued saying, “The last use of this spell is to gain power. While in the plane of magic, due to the fact that the user of the spell is so close to the magic that he uses in this world his spell power is dramatically increased, however, the dangerous part of this is that the user’s soul is completely exposed making them extremely fragile. If their soul is damaged they will not recover from it. Not even I know what happens to a pony’s soul once it is completely destroyed. This is why I wish to keep this spell a secret to as many ponies as possible.”

“Why are you teaching it to me then?” asked Twilight.

“For a number of reasons,” replied Princess Celestia. “First of all, I am teaching you this technique so that you may use it to track the new flow of magic, which is the main reason. Second, is that you have come so far in your studies as well as become a princess so I feel as though you have the right to know the spell. And third, is that I have complete faith that you will be safe with this spell and will only use it when it is absolutely necessary to.”

“So, what does this plane look like?” questioned Twilight.

“It is time for you to find out,” replied Princess Celestia. “It is your turn to perform the spell.”

“Really?” questioned Twilight. “Are you sure I am ready for this type of magic?”

“I am absolutely positive you are,” replied Princess Celestia. “Remember, I am right here to help and guide you through this. I will not let anything bad happen. I’ll go over it one more time for you. To enter the plane of magic bind your magic to your soul and dispel it through your horn. To return, find your body and touch your horn to its horn.”

“Okay,” said Twilight taking a deep breath. “I've got this.” She then spread her legs slightly to brace herself, closed her eyes and began to cast the spell. At the tip of her horn a purple ball of energy began to form just like when Princess Celestia had cast the spell. As the ball of energy grew bigger and bigger she began to feel more and more lightheaded.

“At this time you should start feeling like you are going to faint,” said Princess Celestia. “Just focus and keep going, you are almost there.”

When Twilight heard Princess Celestia say this she pulled herself together and gave one final push, ignoring the weakness she felt. The feeling she had in her head began to be unbearable until finally, all at once, the feeling suddenly left her and she just stood there with her eyes closed. She heard a voice that sounded like Princess Celestia’s saying, “You did it Twilight. You are in the plane of magic.” Once she had heard this she opened her eyes and looked around. The world she was now in was a deep shade of blue. She could still see everything in the real world only it was all outlined in white. She saw Princess Celestia standing in front of her, glowing bright yellow as the sun with magical power. She turned around and saw her body lying on the ground lifeless and not glowing at all. She also looked up and saw through the train car wall to see a light blue glowing ball which resembled Rarity sitting down in one of the train’s seats in the car ahead of her. She then looked at her hooves and saw that they were glowing purple as well as the rest of her body. Then something on the outside of the train’s window caught her eye. She walked over to the window so that she could get a better view of it. She peered through the curtains and looked up into the sky. She saw two streams of magic that looked like and aurora waving in the sky. One of them was pink, purple and yellow. She followed the stream through the sky and found that it lead to the Crystal Empire, which was now visible in the distance. The second one was blue, light blue and an eerie green which lead off north of the Crystal Empire.

“Okay, Twilight,” she heard Princess Celestia say. “Time to get back into your rightful body.” Twilight turned back and faced her body lying motionless on the floor of the train car. She closed her eyes, bent over and touched her horn to the horn on her original body. When she opened her eyes again she saw everything as it was when she had entered the plane of magic. She began to experience the same lightheaded feelings as when she was casting the spell.

Princess Celestia walked over to Twilight and helped her get back onto her hooves. "Slowly, Twilight," she said. "You did good. Were you able to see the flow of magic?"

"I think so," responded Twilight. "It looked like a blue and green aurora."

"That was it," stated Princess Celestia. "You have done very well and you should rest for the rest of the train ride. As I have said, for first timers to this spell it can be very exhausting and your going to need to regain your energy for the Crystal Empire. Come, let us go sit with your friends." Princess Celestia then took Twilight by the hoof and guided her through the crossover of the train cars and into the the car which had the rest of her friends. Immediately Twilight was crowded and bombarded with questions from her friends due to their curiosity of what went on in the other car.

"Did you do it Twilight? Did you learn the spell? Well? Did ya? Did ya Did ya?" rambled Pinkie Pie.

"We saw so many flashes of light, darling. How did it go?" questioned Rarity.

"Are you alright, sugarcube? You don't look so good. What happened?" asked Applejack.

Princess Celestia began to talk on Twilight's behalf. "Twilight did amazing, but the spell she has just learned takes a lot of energy out of a pony and she needs her rest now. It would do her a great favor to let her sleep the rest of the way to the Crystal Empire." All of Twilight's friends nodded in understanding and parted to allow Princess Celestia to guide Twilight to an empty seat. Once Princess Celestia had helped her onto her seat, she leaned up against the window of the car and watched as the scenery went by. It wasn't long before Twilight had fallen into a deep sleep.

It didn't seem like long before she was once again awoke by the sounds of a train whistle and the lurch of the train stopping in the train station. Slowly Twilight opened her eyes to be greeted by Princess Celestia. "We have arrived," she said. "Time to wake up, everypony is waiting on you."

"Everypony?" asked Twilight.

"Yes. Your friends are waiting out in the train station along with a couple of other special ponies who came out to see you."

Twilight looked out her window into the train station and saw her friends all there surrounding a pink alicorn mare with yellow, pink, and purple hair and a green crystal heart for a cutie mark accompanied by a white unicorn stallion with blue hair and a blue shield with a pink star in the center for a cutie mark. Immediately she got off her seat and ran off the train shouting, "Cadence! Shining Armor!" Both the ponies turned to her and embraced her when she got to them.

"Twiley!" said Shining armor.

"We've missed you so much Twilight." said Princess Cadence as the hug subsided. Then Princess Cadence looked strait into Twilight's eyes and smiled. Twilight smiled back and nodded her head. She knew exactly what Princess Cadence was implying and both ponies began to dance and sing:

"Sunshine Sunshine

Ladybugs Awake.

Clap Your Hooves and

Do A Little Shake."

Both ponies began to laugh as they remembered fillyhood memories. "We heard you were coming on a special mission for Princess Celestia and decided to make our way out to welcome you to the Crystal Empire." said Princess Cadence.

"Now it is our job to take you to where you must go next," said Shining Armor. "If you would all follow us to the castle then."

Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor then led them through the crystal city, which was just as beautiful and clean as ever, and into the main castle. Once inside they led them all down a spiral staircase into a room full of computers and ponies in lab coats.

"Wow," said Pinkie Pie. "This looks super duper uper high techy."

"That's because it is," said a turquoise colored crystal earth pony with white hair and ice crystals for a cutie mark.

"Everypony, this is Dr. First Frost," said Princess Cadence. "He is the head of our Frozen North Studies Program here at the Crystal Empire and he has some equipment you might need to survive out there in the bitter cold."

"First off you can just call me Dr. Frost for short," said Dr. Frost. "Second you can call the Frozen North Studies Program the FNSP for short, not that it matters, and third of all the equipment I am giving you is absolutely necessary for survival in the Frozen North. So if you all would follow me."

Dr. Frost then lead them into another room that was for the most part barren except for a button sitting on a podium near the back wall. Dr. Frost walked up to the button and pushed it. Immediately the back wall parted in two revealing six mannequins dressed with suits of some sort each sitting in its own glass tube in order to preserve it. They were all black in color with hoods which were lined with fur and tinted snow goggles hanging around their necks. On each of the suit's flanks were pictures of cutie marks, each corresponding to one of the six ponies's cutie marks. "Fillies and gentlecolts, I give you the FNS 2000 cold weather survival suit," said Dr. Frost. "FNS of course meaning Frozen North Survival."

"It could use a little more, er, customization," said Rarity.

"The suit was designed to save your flanks from freezing off and not for fashion thank you very much," said Dr. Frost. "Anyways, the FNS 2000 is equipped with snow goggles, a snow guard to protect one's face from the cold, saddle bags capable of fitting all of the necessities to survive out there for up to two weeks, and a special coms panel embedded in the front left sleeve of the suit which acts as a watch, a body temperature gauge, and a means of communication. I must warn you, however, where you all are going you will not get a signal strong enough to communicate with us back here. You may have to just rely on its short range communication ability.

"Now, some useful information you may want to know for your journey. The FNS 2000 is lined with several layers of phoenix down. That alone can withstand temperatures of minus one hundred degrees. It's magical properties, however, allow it to be worn just about anywhere, even in warmer climates, and still allow your bodies to maintain a perfect state of homeostasis."

"Homeo what now?" asked Applejack.

Dr. Frost sighed and said, "Basically you won't fry to death in hot areas and you won't freeze to death in colder areas."

"Oh, okay I got it doc," said Applejack.

"As I was saying," continued Dr. Frost. "The Frozen North has been recorded to have an average of sixty below zero on a cold day. This means if something happens to your suit or if you were to take it off for more than fifteen minutes your body temperature will drop so much that you will be in a really bad position. Another thing is that although the suits have a special space in the hood to allow unicorns to keep their horns protected, the suits do not allow clearance for pegasi to use their wings."

"WHAT?!" yelled Rainbow Dash. "You mean I have to..."

"Walk. Yes, I know. How tragic," said Dr. Frost cutting off Rainbow Dash. "You wouldn't survive thirty seconds of flying in that kind of weather anyways."

"Dr. First Frost, are you quite done lecturing us about the ponies's mission?" questioned Princess Celestia, not enthused with Dr. Frost's sarcasm.

"Yes, of course your majesty. I am sorry," replied Dr. Frost, "I have no more information to share until tomorrow morning, when we begin the expedition."

"Wonderful," said Princess Cadence, "Now, if I could please show you all to your rooms where you will be staying the night in. You all have a very tough journey ahead of you and you will all need your rest for tomorrow." Princess Cadence then took all of the ponies back up the stairs and showed them all to their rooms bidding them all a good night and closing the door behind her.

Once Twilight was in her room, however, she decided that practicing the new spell that she had learned would benefit her greatly. So before she went to bed she took up her stance and began casting the spell. The same feeling that she had encountered on the train began to come back but this time it did not bother her as much because she was used to it and ready to overcome it. Not before long she had successfully phased into the plane of magic. As she opened her eyes she saw what had seemed to be a blue lower half of a pony's body phase out through her door. Twilight, overcome with curiosity at the sight, ran over to the door and phased her own head through the door to see if she could see what she had seen but all that she could see on the other side of the door was the hallway in which her room branched off of. Twilight brought her head back in through the door. "It was probably just a cluster of magic in the shape of a pony." she said to herself as she made her way back to her body lying on the floor. She touched her horn to her body's horn and before long she was back in her own body feeling extremely exhausted. She then crawled into her bed and drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 3: Fury of The Frozen North

Twilight woke up the next morning looking like a mess. Periodically through the night she would hear the same voice that she heard while she was still in Canterlot saying, "Come closer," and "Set me free." On top of that she was also kept awake by the cold chills she felt which came and went with the voice. Through the night she had tossed and turned in her bed. She had tried to silence the voice by covering her ears with her pillow but that wasn't the problem. No matter what she did she could still hear the voice as if it was coming from her own conscience instead of an actual physical source. Even though she had arrived at the conclusion that the voice was inside her head it still sounded as if it was originating from a certain direction, the Northern direction. She had finally decided that enough was enough and went to seek out the assistance of Princess Celestia in hopes that she could do something to make the voices stop.

Twilight sat up and hopped out of her bed holding her head in her hooves. Her entire world was blurry to her eyes as she stumbled her way to the door. When she had opened the door she was greeted by a horrendous looking unicorn colt of three times her size staring down into her face with his devilish looking eyes. His pupils were sky blue giving off an aura of the same color that seemed to steal one's hope. His coat was blacker than sin and his mane was white and flowing in what seemed to be an unseen breeze. It seemed to be made of the souls of a countless amount of ponies who had succumbed to his will.

He huffed in Twilight's face and she fell backwards. The colt chuckled to himself and smiled to reveal his razor sharp teeth. "Who are you?" asked Twilight trying not to show her inner fear.

The colt just stood there, continuing to chuckle to himself before turning and leaving the room. Twilight quickly got up and ran to the door to chase after him but when she stuck her head out the doorway she was instead greeted by the sight of Princess Cadence.

Princess Cadence jumped at the sight of Twilight coming around the corner so fast. "Oh my," she said, "I was just coming to get you. Is everything okay?"

Twilight peered over Princess Cadence's shoulder and saw no one else in the hallway. "Have you seen anypony go down this hallway recently?" she asked.

"No. Why?" questioned Cadence.

"I just... thought I saw somepony... that's all," answered Twilight in an unsure voice. "Would you happen to know where Princess Celestia is?"

"She just left this morning. She was called back to Canterlot to handle a situation. It seems a snow cloud has made it's way over Canterlot and the pegasi are having trouble controlling it. Why? Did you need something? If you need to send her a message before you leave I could get the Crystal Empire's fastest messenger pony to do it. He should be able to reach her just moments after she arrives at Canterlot."

"No, it'll be fine," said Twilight. "I'm sure she has her hands full right now. Besides, it's not that important. I just wanted to talk with her a bit before we went out on our little endeavor."

"Well, maybe there's somepony else you could talk to." said Cadence in a playful tone. "Somepony close to you, like, I don't know, maybe, your older brother, or maybe even your old full time foal-sitter."

Twilight looked straight into Cadence's eyes and gave her a warm smile. "Why, good morning, Cadence," she said copying her playful tone. "Would you mind coming for a walk with me around the castle before my friends and i have to leave?"

"I would be honored to accompany you on your walk," replied Cadence with a smile. "Come on, let us walk." and both ponies began to walk the halls of the castle. "So how is being a princess treating you?" Cadence continued.

"I haven't quite gotten used to the attention just yet," replied Twilight. "Everypony bows to me now and guards are always around o keep me 'safe.'"

"Well, I'm not going to lie, you're going to have to get used to it," replied Cadence as the two ponies stepped out onto the castle balcony overlooking the city. The crystal structures of the city were all shimmering as they always do much thanks to the ponies whose lives were dedicated to polishing them every day. Those who took up the job worked like slaves during the day but were paid very generously for their deeds, so nopony was complaining.

Behind them standing in the doorway were two guards on watch. "Watch this, Twilight," whispered Cadence into Twilight's ear. "I am about to show you a trick to get the guards off your back." Cadence then turned to the guards and cleared her throat. "Guards, we wish to be left alone please."

Immediately both guards bowed to the ground, said, "As you wish, your highness," and left the balcony and the two princesses alone. Cadence turned to Twilight, who was standing there with a slightly puzzled look on her face, with a smile.

"Oh come on," said Twilight, "I could've done that."

"Then why don't you?" questioned Cadence, with the same friendly smile riveted on her face.

"Well... um... because," said Twilight struggling to find a reason to justify her actions, or in this case, her lack of action.

"Twilight, you've earned your authority as princess and you shouldn't be shy to use it." replied Cadence in a caring voice. "Guards are easy to get rid of. Yes, it is there job to protect you but the other part of their job is to follow orders. If they are doing their first job too well, don't be afraid to make them do their second job and go away. Understand?"

"Completely!" said Twilight with a smile.

"Great," said Cadence, smiling back. "Now lets put it to the test shall we? And maybe even have a little bit of fun too."

"Huh?" said Twilight.

"I'm going to call the guards back. What I want you to do is send them away. As a test of what I just taught you. Got it?" said Cadence.

"I guess so," said Twilight.

"Great!" said Cadence, "because here they come." She then turned towards the opening in the wall and called out, "Guards!"

Immediately the two guards that Cadence had originally sent away came rushing out onto the balcony and sat still as rocks in front of them. "We came as soon as we heard you, your majesty," said one of the guards, "Is there anything wrong?"

Cadence turned back towards Twilight and waited a while. Twilight, realizing that that was her que, cleared her throat and said in her most solid voice she had, "We wish to be left alone."

The two guards then bowed, said, "Apologies your highness. It must have been the wind in our ears." and trotted back into the castle.

"I did it Cadence," said Twilight in an excited tone. "I.."

"Guards!" interrupted Cadence.

Both of the guards came running back out onto the balcony and again sat still like stones in front of the two princesses. "We are sorry your highness but we know we heard your voice this time and came as soon as possible,"one said.

Cadence turned back to Twilight again and motioned to the guards with her head with a smile on, trying to contain a giggle.

Twilight, understanding what Cadence wanted her to do, smile and nodded back at her. "Please leave us to our little chat alone." she said.

The two guards looked at each other in confusion and then looked back at the princesses. Cadence turned to them with a strait face and raised an eyebrow. "Of course, apologies your highnesses." they said and they once again trotted off the balcony.

As soon as they left through the doorway Cadence once again called out, "Guards!" to witch the guards came out yet again repeating their same routine as the other times they were called out only to have Twilight yet again dismiss them and then Cadence would, once again, call them back out. The two princesses continued to do this until they had a couple of panting guards sitting in front of them. Twilight was about to dismiss them once again when suddenly Shining Armor emerged from the doorway.

"What is going on here?" he said, "Are you two messing with my guards again?"

"We were just putting them to the test, honey, nothing you need to worry about." replied Cadence. "They have done an acceptational job at it as well."

"Are you so sure?" asked Shining Armor, "They look weak and out of breath. I know I didn't train a couple of panseys who got tired after a light trot between two very close destinations. Maybe I should train them even harder to correct this." Both guard ponies immediately sat up and got over their lose of breath rather quickly.

"No, no dear, that will not be necessary," said Cadence, "In fact I think they should be rewarded for their willingness to allow us to 'test' them."

"Alright then, if you say so." said Shining Armor turning towards the two guard ponies. "You two can have the rest of the day to yourselves. I'll find somepony else to cover your posts. Now go, and don't worry, I'll make sure you still get paid for today. Even if it is out of my own pockets."

"Thank you commander, we humbly accept your offer." said one of the guard ponies, and both disappeared into the castle.

"I see Twiley is starting to enjoy her stay here in the Crystal Empire," said Shining Armor.

"Yes, thanks to Cadence of course," replied Twilight.

"It's what foal-sitters are meant for," said Cadence. "Is something the matter?"

"Yes, actually," said Shining Armor. "Dr. First Frost has sent me to round up you and your friends so you can get ready for your trip. He told me to be swift about it because he is predicting that the same thing that is happening to Canterlot right now could happen to the Crystal Empire really soon, and that will cause problems."

"Another uncontrollable snowstorm in the Crystal Empire?" questioned Twilight.

"But that doesn't make sense," said Cadence. "We're closer to the Frozen North. So why are we getting hit with the snowstorm second and not first?"

"Actually, the question should be why are we getting hit last." said Shining Armor. Both princesses looked at him with a puzzled look on their faces. "We are getting reports of uncontrollable snowstorms from all over Equestria. It seems like the Crystal Empire is he last city to be getting hit. Even the towns that haven't seen snowfall their entire lives are getting hit as we speak. Appleoosa, Ponyville, and even the pegasus city of Cloudsdale. The pegasi have no idea where it is all coming from."

"That sounds bizarre," said Cadence. "We should go meet Dr. First Frost immediately."

"You two go ahead," said Shining Armor, "I have to go get the rest of twilight's friends. Take Twilight and I'll meet you two down there in a little bit." With that the white colt left the balcony, back into the castle to collect the rest of Twilight's friends leaving the two alicorn princesses alone once more.

"Is everything alright, Twilight?" asked Cadence noticing a worried look on her face.

"I just remembered that I left Spike all alone in Canterlot. I hope he's doing alright. I never did get to say bye to him properly, I just left a note."

"I'm sure Spike is just fine. After all he is a fire breathing dragon. I'm sure he'll be able to keep himself warm. Maybe even save a couple other ponies from freezing their flanks off."

"I guess you're right. Maybe it was a good idea to leave him behind after all."

"Well, then we should probably get going now. We wouldn't want to keep Dr. First Frost waiting too long would we?"

"Right. Let's go"

Both ponies left the balcony and began making their way down to Dr. First Frost's lab. As they made their way down to the lab, they could feel the air begin to get colder and colder with every step. When they had finally entered the lab what they saw was complete chaos. Ponies were running everywhere in a chaotic rage. Papers and other various scientific items were scattered all over the place and being kicked up into the air as ponies ran over them. Machines everywhere were spiting out papers with different scientific readings which wasn't helping the frenzy or the litter any more. Shortly after the two princesses entered the room, Twilight's friends and Shining Armor.

"Confetti!" screamed Pinkie Pie in excitement as she saw the papers flying everywhere and she proceeded to run into the room rolling around in the papers.

"Oh my, what a mess!" said Rarity, "This is so unprofessional of them to just leave their workplace so messy and unorganized." Rarity then used her unicorn magic to levitate all off the papers off the floor and stacked into towers in an orderly manner. Not long after a scientist pony ran by, nudging the papers, causing them to fall on top of him and once again liter the floor.

"Now is not a time for organization Miss. Rarity. It is a time for action." said Dr. First Frost walking out of the chaos up to the ponies.

A random pony came up to Dr. First Frost and said, "Dr. First Frost, we just got a report in form Canterlot. The snow is falling at an unimaginable pace. In a couple of days the city will be so overwhelmed by snow it will be completely incapacitated."

"I know! I know!" shouted Dr. First Frost back at the pony, "We all know this! We need to get these ponies out of here before we get completely snowed in as well. Go grab a couple of others and come with me. We need to get these ponies in their suits and out of here."

"Right," said the slightly panicked pony, "I'm on it, sir."

"You six need to come with me," said Dr. First Frost, "As I have stated, we need to get you suited up and out of here before we get hit as well. The Crystal Empire's shield may be able to repel evil auras, but when faced with neutral forces such as weather it just lets it go right through like osmosis, and that's why the storm is a threat."

"Osma- what now?" questioned Applejack.

"Ugh," said Dr. Atmosphere placing a hoof on his face, "It means the storm will go right through. Now let's go. We don't have time for anymore definitions, we have to get you out of here before it gets too rough."

The ponies followed Dr. Atmosphere into the room where the FNS 2000 suits were. There, waiting for them, were six scientist ponies each standing next to one of the six suits which were unzipped and suspended by wires which were connected to a steel outer fame.

"Go on then," said Dr. Atmosphere, "get to your corresponding suits and our workers will guide you through getting them on."

The six ponies each walked up to the suit which had their unique cutie mark printed on the flank.

"Right this way your highness," said the mare standing next to Twilight's suit, "If I could ask you to back your way into the suspended suit placing your back two legs in first followed by your front two." Twilight obeyed and backed herself into the suit placing each of her hind legs into theirs sleeves followed by her front two legs. "Wonderful. You must be a natural at this. Now just leave the rest to me." The pony began by zipping up the front half of the suit and then covered the zipper with a weather flap, making sure that it was firmly secure. Then thee pony zipped up the portion of the suit which covered the pony's back and did the same with the weather flap. The pony then walked over to a table next to them which had a set of goggles and a wrist device sitting on it and picked both up. The pony slipped the goggles over Twilight's head so they dangled around her neck. "These are your snow goggles," the pony said, "They are equipped with thermal vision to find each other in a whiteout as well as night vision to find your way during the night or in dark areas. There is a switch on either side of the goggles to turn them on and off." The pony then lifted Twilight's left hoof off of the ground and slipped the wrist device on. The pony switched the device on and it was illuminated with a green screen displaying many options such as communications, maps, and settings. In the upper left corner of the screen there was a body temperature reading, which read "97.9" as well as a temperature reading, which read "48," for the world outside of the suit, both measured in Fahrenheit. "This is the FNS 2000's wrist display," the pony said, "It's primary purpose is to monitor body temperature as well as outer world temperature. It has communication abilities, but where your going you won't be able to use it as much. We only have the range to reach out so far into the Frozen North but after that you're on your own." When the pony had finished talking she covered the screen with a flap that was attached meant to protect it from possible damage that would come it's way. The pony then put up Twilight's hood and tucked in her horn nice and snug. Immediately Twilight felt a warmth through her body. "There, your all suited up and ready to go. Feel anything?"

"Yeah, I feel warmer," replied Twilight.

"That's the phoenix down working. Check your wrist device again."

Twilight lifted her left hoof up and used her unicorn magic to lift the flap covering the screen. Her body temperature read "98.6" and the outside temperature read "28."

"Oh my, it says that the temperature has fallen by twenty degrees in the last five minutes."

"Yeah, I can sure feel it right now out here," replied the pony, "Really wish I had a suit for my own right now."

"Don't worry," said Twilight reassuring the pony, "We'll have this fixed soon, I promise."

"Right," said the pony disconnecting the suspension wires from the suit with a reassured smile forming on her face, "We are counting on you Princess Twilight. I know you will succeed at your mission."

Twilight smiled back at the mare and walked over to meet the rest of her friends gathered in a half circle around Dr. First Frost who was standing in front of a giant steel door.

"Is everypony suited up and equipped properly?" asked Dr. First Frost.

"All mission participants suited up and secure down to the last zipper, sir," replied the mare who had helped Twilight into her suit.

"It's only been three minutes since I've been grounded by this suit and I hate it already," said Rainbow Dash.

"Oh come now deary," said Rarity, "At least they aren't as heavy as I though they would be."

"That's the other thing," said the mare, "You have yet to equip your saddle bags. Here they come now."

Six ponies, each carrying a set of saddle bags with cutie marks, corresponding to the cutie marks on the suits, printed on their sides. Each pony walked up to the the proper suit and dropped the saddle bags onto their backs and fastened them around their waists.

"Ooph," said Rarity when the saddle bag landed on her back, "I stand corrected."

"I don't see what the problem is," said Fluttershy, standing there acting like nothing was wrong to which made the rest of her friends puzzled out of disbelief.

"I'm terribly sorry for all of the extra weight," said Dr. Atmosphere, "but all of this equipment is completely necessary for you to survive out there. Don't worry, the longer your gone the lighter the bags will get. With that being said, it is time to say your goodbyes."

Twilight turned to Cadence and Shining Armor who had recently been brought cloaks in order for them to keeps themselves warm in the falling temperature. "Well, I guess this is goodbye again," she said, "Promise me you two will stay safe and warm while we are gone."

"Don't worry about us dear," Cadence said, "We'll stay warm."

"Besides, we could say the same to you Twiley," said Shining Armor, "Good luck, Twiley. I've seen you grow up so much over the years into the mare you are today and that gives me complete confidence that you will succeed in your mission. Just make sure you come back safe and sound. Anything else is unacceptable."

"Thanks you two," said Twilight giving both ponies a hug, "It means a lot." Twilight turned back towards her friends and said, "Alright, let's go."

"Open the door!" shouted Dr. First Frost, and immediately after the giant steel door behind him began to open up. "This is our access tunnel to The Frozen North. It will take you outside the far end of the Crystal Mountain range. Once you leave the tunnel there should be a couple of maintenance roads you can use, if they aren't snowed in yet, but like I said, they only go so far, so after the road ends you are on your own." The door finished opening. "Once you're in the tunnel we are going to have to close the door behind you. It's cold enough in here already."

"Alright, girls, let's do this," said Twilight, and the six ponies took their first steps into the tunnel, of on their journey, with the acception of Pinkie Pie who was merrily skipping along despite the massive amount of equipment she had on. Once they were all in the tunnel they heard Dr. First Frost shout, "Close the door!" and the door began to close behind them. Twilight turned around one last time and saw Cadence, Shining Armor, and the mare who had helped her into her suit smiling and waving back at her. Twilight smiled and waved back until she was abruptly cut off by the door closing in her face. It was now pitch black in the tunnel.

Chapter 4: Separation in Desolation

Twilight's smile faded off of her face as she stood there in the darkness of the cave. She knew her friends were close by but she had no idea where anything was anymore until, "Hey! Who turned off the lights?" she heard Pinkie say. Immediately afterwards the area they were in was illuminated by a soft glow of light which originated from Rarity's horn and fell on each of the ponies faces and their surroundings. The cave sparkled as the light reflected off of the crystals which composed the floor, ceiling, and walls of the cave in a truly spectacular display.

"It that better dear?" Rarity said.

"It's better," said Rainbow Dash, "But it still only goes so far."

"Just use the night vision setting on your snow goggles then," said Twilight.

"Oh yeah, I already forgot about that," responded Rainbow Dash as each of the ponies grabbed the goggles hanging around their necks and pulled them up to place them around their heads to their proper place in front of their eyes. They all proceeded to turn on their night vision except for Pinkie Pie who...

"Hey! This isn't night vision! Why is everybody so... rainbow-y?"

"That's the thermal vision, Pinkie," said Twilight in monotone, "Try the other switch."

Pinkie hit the opposite switch on her goggles and immediately her face light up. "That's better," she said with a bright smile on her face, "I know night vision when I see it, if you get what I mean."

"Okaaay," said Twilight, "Well, girls, we should get going. There's no telling how long this tunnel is but I have a feeling that since it leads to the other side of the Crystal Mountains we have a bit of a walk ahead of us."

"Right," said Applejack starting to take off down the tunnel, "Let's get moving ya'll. The more we stand around the colder it gets back home. Come on, there's no time to lose."

The other ponies stopped a while to look at each other a while and then started off after her down the long tunnel. As Twilight was walking Fluttershy speed up slightly to catch up to her and whispered, "I-is Applejack okay? I mean, no offense but, she normally isn't this... well... bossy."

"I know what you mean, Fluttershy," said Twilight, "She normally likes to take charge and get things done, but that time it almost felt like she was hustling us. Something has to be wrong in her personal life because I know there isn't anything wrong with us, at least to my knowledge. I'd say just let it play out. If she feels like she needs our help with whatever is bothering her, she'll ask for help."

"R-right," said Fluttershy, "Everything will be okay. Nothing bad will happen, especially not in this scary, dark, cave."

"Fluttershy, nothing bad is going to happen. Your friends are here with you and we won't let anything happen. I promise," Twilight said with a warm smile appearing on her face.

Fluttershy perked up slightly with the small amount of courage that Twilight had given her from her statement. Just at that moment a small gust of wind passed by her ear which she thought she heard whisper, "Fluttershy..." Fluttershy immediately stopped and her ears twitched as she turned her head around to see if there was anything or anyone behind her. At that moment the night vision in her snow goggles malfunctioned and turned off. Out of the shadows of the cave came two sources of a soft, light blue, light which looked like eyes. Out of nowhere deep scratches began to form on Fluttershy's goggles. After a while the scratch marks began to look like letters, and those letters became words which spelled:

"YOUR FRIENDS CANT STOP THE COLD"

Fluttershy quickly ripped off her goggles and threw them to the floor and curled up in a little ball next to the wall of the tunnel throwing away that little bit of courage which Twilight had given her and, wept to herself.

"Fluttershy, what happened?" she could hear Twilight's voice say.

"I saw eyes in the tunnel watching me," she whimpered, "The goggles turned off and scratches started showing up on them out of nowhere."

Twilight used her unicorn magic to levitate the goggles back over to her to inspect them. "Well, whatever scratches that were there are gone now, but it looks like you broke them when you threw them to the ground." Twilight levitated the goggles in front of Fluttershy's face to show her that her once flawless goggles now had a giant crack on them over top where the right eye should be. Twilight hit the switch for the night vision and it turned on. "Looks like the night vision works just fine too," said Twilight.

"I'm sorry, Twilight, but I know what I saw," responded Fluttershy.

"It's alright Fluttershy, it must be the darkness playing tricks on you. You'll be just fine as long as your with us." Twilight levitated the damaged goggles back around Fluttershy's head and put her hood back up. Reluctantly Fluttershy let her and stood back up with her. "Come on, I don't think the others heard us stop. Once we catch up to them you staying in the middle of the group."

"O-okay, Twilight," said Fluttershy beginning to walk with Twilight once more. "Thanks for staying with me, Twilight. I don't know how much trouble I would be in if I was just left there alone."

"It's what friends are for," replied Twilight, "Besides, it was hard not to notice you freeze up like that. You just stood there right in the middle of a conversation with me."

"I did? I don't remember that."

"Strange, but I still think it's the darkness playing tricks on you."

"Okay, if you say so, Twilight."

Both ponies continued to travel down the tunnel until finally they caught up to their friends who were halted at a spot in the tunnel where it turned from crystal to dirt.

"Where were you two?" asked Applejack.

"Fluttershy's equipment was loose so I stayed back to help her tighten it," replied Twilight, "Things got a bit messy and we ended up accidentally cracking her goggles."

"Oh, well, that is a shame. These goggles might not be too stylish, but they are quite useful tools," said Rarity.

"Well, at least they still work," said Twilight, "Why did you guys stop?"

"Well, just look," said Rarity pointing to the tunnel ahead of them, "Dirt. Filthy, disgusting, dirty... dirt."

"The tunnel changes from crystal to dirt here," said Applejack, "Rarity started having a meltdown and that's when we noticed you two were gone so we stopped to wait for you."

"Interesting," said Twilight, "We must be right under the edge of the Crystal Empire. That means we are halfway there to the Crystal Mountain range."

"Awe, all of this walking and we are only halfway?" said Rainbow Dash.

"We've walked that far before and it wasn't a problem for ya," said Applejack.

"Um, are you forgetting something?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I was flying all of the other times. I admit I've skipped a couple of leg days here and there but with this added equipment it's making walking just a bit harder for me."

"Oh, right, I forgot," said Applejack, "But we've got to keep moving. Come on, girls, there's no time to waste."

Applejack, once again, took off leading the pack of ponies down the tunnel this time with Fluttershy making sure to stay closer to the front of the pack. As they were walking this time though Rainbow Dash had trouble keeping a pace with the rest of her friends. She kept falling behind until she was at the very back of the pack trying to keep up with Pinkie Pie who was in front of her when suddenly she thought she heard a voice whisper from behind her, "Your friends will leave you behind."

"Huh?" said Rainbow Dash, turning her head behind her to see if there was anything behind her. She stared back into a deep dark cave with nothing to be seen. After a while of observing and convincing herself that nothing was there she turned her head back forward only to be met with a horrific face. Rainbow Dash let out a yell and fell backwards in a panic.

"Is everything alright... Dashie?" the face said.

"Oh, it's only you Pinkie," replied Rainbow Dash, "You scared me. Your face looks so much different in night vision than it does in real life."

"Thanks," snickered Pinkie Pie as she helped Rainbow Dash up off the floor. "I get that a lot."

"Come on, we need to catch up to our friends," said Rainbow Dash.

"Sounds like a good plan to me!" said Pinkie with a huge smile on her face and both ponies picked up their pace in order to catch back up to their friends.

After a while of walking they began to see the light at the end of the tunnel and the tunnel changed once more from dirt into that of sheer ice.

"Come on ya'll, we're almost there," said Applejack trotting ahead towards the light. The others followed trying to catch up, but were unable to until they entered the light and exited the tunnel. They were greeted by a scene of marvelous beauty. Snow was falling down from the heavens at a decently fast pace but definitely not hard enough to be called a whiteout or blizzard but still hard enough to dramatically limit their sight. The exit of the tunnel had left them on the side of one of the mountains close to the end of the Crystal Mountain range. Behind them they could see the mountain they had just come out of standing proud and tall and in front of them were three more mountains, which only looked like hills compared to the mountain they were currently standing on, overlooking a valley which came between them and the hills. In front of them was the maintenance road that Dr. First Frost had told them about covered in a thin sheet of snow and hard to see but there none the less, leading down into the valley.

After a while of marveling at the scene, their wrist devices all began to vibrate and beep in high pitch tone. They each lifted the device up to their faces and uncovered it's protective flap. The device displayed the words: "INCOMING TRANSMISSION," and soon after a picture of Dr. First Frost's face came on the screen.

"Well, according to our tracking systems it looks like you should be out of the tunnel," said Dr. First Frost, "So, how the view? Not everypony gets the chance to see the magnificence of the northern side of the Crystal Mountain range."

"Oh, Dr. Frost, it's simply amazing!" said Rarity, "Just the way the mountains..."

"Wonderful! No really that's great," said Dr. First Frost, "I'm just dropping in to make sure everything is okay. Which brings me to realize that the yellow one seems to have 'cracked' her goggles."

Fluttershy's ears slicked back in shame and she shied away from her device's screen out of embarrassment.

"We had a little bit of trouble but nothing you should worry about," said Twilight, "Everypony came out just fine in the end."

"Of course, your right," replied Dr. First Frost, "I mean all it is is a 5,000 bit piece of research equipment has been extensively damaged, but at least 'everypony came out fine.'"

"I don't think I like your sarcasm, Dr. Frost," said Rainbow Dash, "I mean, give us a break, we're trying to save Equestria from eternal winter."

Dr. First Frost was about to open his mouth to retaliate once more, but before he could he was cut off by a mare's voice saying, "Uh, excuse me, Dr. First Frost, but maybe I can handle this call for you, sir?"

Dr. First Frost stood there a while more before coming to a decision and saying, "Fine, this call might be a little more productive that way."

Dr. First Frost then walked off the side of the screen and was replaced by a snow white unicorn mare with white and light blue hair and a cloudy white eye for a cutie mark. Upon further inspection Twilight discovered that it was actually the mare who helped her into her suit all the way back at the lab.

"Good afternoon, Miss. Sparkle, long time no see." she said with a smile on her face.

"Yes it has," replied Twilight, "Anypony's friendly voice is more welcome than Dr. First Frost's sarcasm, err... I don't think you told me what your name was."

"It's Snowblind, Dr. First Frost's second in command, and, between you and me, none of us really like it either."

"I can still hear you!" yelled a voice in the background which everypony suspected to be Dr. First Frost's.

"But, as you can see, he likes to get to the point and get things done and done right, which is why he's in charge rather than me."

"Thank you!" the voice shouted one more time.

Snowblind leaned into the screen and put a hoof on the side of her mouth to muffle her voice and said, "I only said that to stay on his good side," this time being more careful to keep Dr. First Frost from hearing. The six other ponies on the other end giggled to themselves and Fluttershy felt much better.

"So, why did you guys contact us then?" asked Twilight.

"Well, truth be told, this is probably the last time we will be able to contact you from here. Normally we are able to reach further into the Frozen North, communication wise, but because of all the bad weather we are getting here it's weakened the signal. We like to check in as much as possible so, since this is the only time we will be able to do that, we wanted to make sure we did. So, from what I've heard,you're at the beginning of the maintenance road correct?"

"Correct." replied Twilight.

"Wonderful, as you can probably see, you aren't quite out of the Crystal Mountain range just yet but that is what the path is for. Take it down into the valley and follow it until you come to a fork in the road leading you in to separate directions. One takes you through the valley between the two mountains on the left and the other takes you through the one on the right. We've been informed by Princess Celestia that you will know which way to take yourself."

"Right, thanks for the heads up then."

"Don't mention it, it was my pleasure, your highness. You're on your own from here on out so, good luck."

"Thank you, Snowblind."

"Oh, no, your highness, thank you. Snowblind out." and with that, the white mare vanished from the screen without a trace being replaced by a black screen which said, "END TRANSMISSION" for a little while before it automatically returned to it's normal screen. Each of the ponies then replaced the protective flap over top of it once more.

"Alright, girls, we've been sat around long enough. Time to get movin','" said Applejack, attempting to take command once more.

"But we didn't even get a chance to sit down and my hooves are killing me," whined Rainbow Dash.

"You're not the only one with aching hooves, Rainbow," replied Applejack, "But, like I've said before, the more we sit around here the colder it gets back home. Now, let's get moving."

The ponies began walking down the snow covered maintenance path descending into the foggy, frosty, valley and heading towards the three remaining mountains.

"Ugh," grunted Rainbow Dash, "Don't you worry wings, as soon as I get out of this suit I promise you a sonic rainboom. Maybe even two."

As Twilight started down the path Rarity quickly caught up to her and began to talk about Snowblind.

"Don't you think Snowblind is the most precious little gem?" she said.

"Well, she is a lot nicer than Dr. Atmosphere if that is what your asking," replied Twilight.

"Oh, but not just that. Her mane, her coat, her eyes they are all just gorgeous, and her wings! I bet those must be beautiful as well."

"Wait, her wings?"

"Yes! Her wings! Don't tell me you didn't see her hiding them under her lab coat."

"Well, quite frankly I didn't."

"I guess she was doing a good job at hiding them, but it's going to take more than a lab coat to hide such gorgeous wings from these precise eyes. But the real question is why would she try to hide them."

"Well, first off, if she dose have wings that would make her an alicorn and those don't come around too often. So, if that's true, then, since alicorns are, for the most part, descendants of royalty, why would she be working for someone like Dr. Atmosphere."

"I don't know."

"Exactly. Which leads me to believe that what you saw might not have been wings."

"I'm pretty sure I know what I saw and what I saw was wings Twilight."

"Let's just ask her when we get back then but, for right now, let's focus on what's ahead of us. This path is getting pretty slippery and it looks like we are almost to the bottom of the valley."

"I think I see the fork in the road that Snowblind was telling us about as well."

"I don't see it, I don't know how you can see anything too far away in this weather."

"Like I said, Twilight, I have eyes like a griffon," said Rarity trotting off ahead of Twilight leaving her doubting her own conclusion. If Rarity really could see that far in the snowy weather then what she saw on Snowblind might have actually been wings. Twilight's mind had an extremely hard time dismissing the thought. Was she actually an alicorn and, if so, was she actually a princess? If she was a princess why is she stuck working for Dr. Atmosphere? Why would Dr. Atmosphere outrank her? Questions kept racing through her mind until accidentally...

*Thud*

Twilight wasn't paying attention to where she was going and ran straight into Applejack who had come to a sudden and immediate halt, causing both ponies to fall to the ground.

"I'm so sorry, Applejack, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," said Twilight.

"Well, I guess that means you haven't noticed that we've made it to the fork in the road," said Applejack rising to her feet and then helping Twilight up.

Twilight looked up and saw that what Applejack said was true. In front of her was a barely visible fork in the road in which the path that they were on split into a "Y" shape with two signs, one on top of the other, in between the roads pointing out which road lead where. The top sign pointed to the road on the left and said: "North West, Areas 1-3, Devices 1-16." The bottom signed pointed right and stated: "North East, Areas 4-6, devices 17-32."

"Well, Twilight," said Applejack, "Snowblind said you would know which path to take. Which way is it?"

"I don't know yet," said Twilight, "I have to use the new spell Princess Celestia taught me and then I'll know."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and use it," said Rainbow Dash remembering to sit down and rest her hooves a while, while they were stopped.

"Because I have to let you all know, first, that this spell uses a lot of my energy and, once complete correctly, will leave me lying almost lifeless on the ground. I just want you all to know that all that means is the spell worked properly. We wouldn't want any unnecessary panicking now would we?"

"Lifeless?!" cried Rarity, "Whatever does your little spell do anyway?"

"Princess Celestia has requested that it be kept as much of a secret as possible so I can't tell any of you. All I can do is ask that you make sure nothing happens to me while I'm 'channeling' the spell. Can you all do that?" Twilight looked around at all of her friends who each nodded back at her. "Okay then, here we go."

Twilight turned to face the sign in front of them, closed her eyes, and began to cast her spell. She had all of the same feelings as the previous times that she had cast the spell but, because she had practiced it a bit more in her own time, they didn't affect her much. Before she knew it all of the feelings of weakness and pain she had disappeared suddenly and she opened her eyes. She had once more successfully phased her spirit into the plane of magic. She then looked to the sky to try and find the flow of magic. She saw the faint aurora of magic coming from the Crystal Empire coming from behind her appearing over the top of the mountains. Mixing with the aurora was another one of various shades of blue and light green flowing from the north. Twilight thought to herself that this had to be the flow of magic she was supposed to be tracking and followed it with her eyes through the sky. The aurora seemed to be originating from the Northwestern direction, towards the side of the path on the left.

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight caught a glimpse of a glowing blue light which seemed to be traveling down the left path by itself. Immediately her mind went back to the blue figure she saw back in her room at the Crystal Empire and her mind once again lit up with questions. What was this anomaly? Where is it going? Is it following me? Does it want me to follow it? Is it heading towards the source of magic too?

"She's still okay right?" Twilight heard Fluttershy's voice from behind her and she turned back to see her friends in the real world waiting for her return. Whatever this thing is it had to wait for another time for now she had to get back to her friends. Before she went back though she turned her head to get one last glance at the mysterious ball of energy but to her surprise it had vanished into the mountains. Questions began to race through her head once more but this time she dismissed them rather quickly and went back to her body. She closed her eyes and touched her horn to her body's horn and when she opened them once more she was back in the real world.

She still felt weak just like all the other times when she cast the spell and as she tried to stand back up her hooves slipped and she fell back down. Quickly, all of her friends jumped to help her back up.

"Are you okay, Twilight?" asked Fluttershy.

"Yes, like I said, it is a very, very, exhausting spell," said Twilight, rising to her feet with the help of her friends.

"So did ya find out which path to take?" asked Applejack.

"Left," said Twilight catching her breath, "It's the left path."

"Alright then, let's go," said Applejack.

"Maybe I should lead from here on out, Applejack. After all I am the one who knows where we are going." said Twilight.

"Right, of course," replied Applejack somewhat reluctantly. "I'll just bring up the rear to make sure non of us are left behind."

"Sounds like a good idea," replied Twilight, "Let's get moving then."

The six ponies started off down the left path with Twilight up front leading them followed by Rarity who was right behind her. Pinkie Pie came next followed by Rainbow Dash who, since the last little break, was now better rested and able to keep up her pace with the others. In the back came Fluttershy followed by Applejack. The path was for the most part an incline going into a second valley which was formed by the two mountains that were on the left side. Eventually the path lead through what seemed to be a pony made canyon carved through the side of the mountain to form a narrow path which was just big enough for the ponies to travel by two through with sheer walls of ice on either side of them.

Up until that point their journey had been peaceful but as soon as they made it about halfway through the pass the ground beneath them started shaking. Immediately all six ponies stopped dead in their tracks.

"W-what's happening? What's going on?" said Fluttershy. Suddenly cracks formed underneath the hooves of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie and the ground ripped open.

"Run!" shouted Twilight, and the ponies scrambled. Fluttershy and Applejack turned and began to run back the way they came while the other four kept running forward as the crack began to spread in both directions chasing both groups of ponies. Eventually. Pinkie Pie tripped and fell to the ground letting out a small yelp. When Rainbow dash saw this happen she turned and headed back to help her up but the spreading crack had already caught up to her and stopped. Pinkie Pie was hanging from the side of the ledge just barely and lost her grip just as Rainbow Dash got to her. Rainbow Dash quickly reached out into the newly formed pit and caught her by the hoof but the momentum of Pinkie Pie's fall ended up taking Rainbow Dash with her and both ponies fell deep into the darkness of the chasm.

After the ground stopped trembling, Twilight and Rarity ran back to the edge of the massive chasm. There they saw Fluttershy and Applejack standing on the other side.

"Are you two okay?" cried Twilight in a loud voice so the other two could hear her.

"Yeah, Fluttershy is a bit spooked but we're okay." she hear Applejack reply. "Where are Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash? They aren't over here."

"Do you think they could have fallen in, Twilight?" said Rarity.

"I think they did. I hope they are okay." Twilight leaned over the edge slightly and called out to the missing ponies. "Rainbow! Pinkie! Say something! Are you two okay?!"

The ponies waited for a while until finally their calls were answered. "We're alright! A little bruised up, but we're okay!" came Rainbow Dash's voice echoing out of the chasm. "It's hard to see down here, but I think we landed in a cave system of some sort! Doesn't look like there is a way out other than going through it!"

"It's so shiny down here!" Pinkie Pie's voice echoed.

"Pinkie's right, there are a lot of weird glowing crystal things down here!"

Twilight thought back to the glowing crystals she saw on the train. 'Heaven's Lights,' she thought to herself.

"Go ahead and follow the cave system to find a way out!" yelled Twilight, "After you do make it out you should be able to use you wrist device to find us on the map."

"Okie, dokie, lokie," echoed Pinkie's voice.

"Alright! We'll see you on the other side then!" came Rainbow Dash's voice.

"As, for you two," Twilight said to Fluttershy and Applejack, "Looks like we are going to have to split up. Turn around and go back out and use the other path to make it to the other side of the mountains. After that, use your wrist devices to regroup as well. Rarity and I are going to continue to head towards the source of this magic."

"Gotcha, Twilight. Come on, Fluttershy, let's get moving."

Before they knew it Applejack and Fluttershy had vanished into the snowstorm and Twilight and Rarity were all alone on the side of the chasm.

"Do you think they'll be okay all on their own Twilight?" asked Rarity.

"I think that they are wondering the same thing about us," replied Twilight. "Come on, let's get moving. We need to get as far as we can and find a place to set up a shelter. It's getting dark..."

Chapter 5: Friends in Cold Places

"Come on, Fluttershy!" yelled Applejack over the howls of the wind, "We have to keep moving if we are ever going to catch up to Twilight!"

"A-applejack. Please wait up." mumbled Fluttershy, but it was so faint that Applejack could not hear her over the wind. The two ponies had gone back down the path that they went and during the time that they had been traveling it had gotten dark and a fierce blizzard had manifested. A large amount of snow accumulated on the path making it completely invisible to anyone who would be looking for it which forced Applejack, who once again took the lead, to wander aimlessly into the cold dark night. Fluttershy could barely keep up with her, especially since her shattered goggles limited her sight dramatically and her silent cries to slow down never reached Applejack's ears. It was only a matter of time before Applejack passed out of her range of sight.

"Applejack?" she cried stopping dead in her tracks, "Applejack! Where are you? I can't see you anymore!" The only answer she got was the howls of the wind and ice flying by her head. She tried turning on her thermal vision goggles to try and find Applejack but the shattered goggles prevented her from seeing at all so she shut turned them back off again in order to regain what little vision she had.

"Okay, Fluttershy, keep calm," she began talking to herself, "You're alone in a frozen wasteland in the dark but that's okay. It's not like there is anything else out here other than your friends."

Just then she heard a heavenly voice echo from behind her saying, "Do not lose hope little one." Fluttershy quickly turned around to see what made the voice and off in the distance she saw a bright white light glowing through the snow and darkness getting closer and closer to her. Fluttershy backed up slightly and looked around her to see if there was a hiding spot she could take refuge in but she found nothing but snow. When she turned back to face the light she found a tall white glowing alicorn mare with a beautiful white mane and a cutie mark depicting what seemed to be a breeze carrying snowflakes standing tall before her staring down at her with her soft blue eyes. Fluttershy's first reaction was to lie down and cover her face in fear.

"Do not be afraid young one," the alicorn said, "I assure you, I am one of the few creatures in this place who you can call friend."

Fluttershy uncovered her face and looked back up to the alicorn to see her raise her horn into the air. The horn began to glow with white magical energy forming a sphere at it's tip which then expanded rapidly and engulfed both ponies in what seemed to be a protective half sphere. The wind and snow blowing by Fluttershy's ears stopped. As she looked outside the protective bubble she saw the blizzard still raging but now completely ignoring the area covered by the half sphere.

"W-who are you?" asked Fluttershy in a scared tone.

"I could ask you the same question." replied the white alicorn, "After all, you and your companions are the ones who are intruding on my domain. However, I see that you are of no threat nor are you here with evil intentions, therefore an introduction is in order. My name is Queen Galacia, master of the northern winds and rightful ruler of the Frozen North and all of it's citizens. The ones who aren't imprisoned in ice that is."

"What happened to your citizens?"

"It is a long story that I will share with you later, but right now it seems your friend is in need of some assistance. Applejack, was it?"

"Yes, um, your highness. I lost my friend, Applejack, in the blizzard not too long ago and I can't find her. Can you help me?"

"I can help you help yourself," replied Galacia. "But you must hurry. Your friend is fatigued from her travels and can not handle the storm upon us alone."

"Can you stop the storm?"

"Unfortunately, I cannot. This storm is not of my doing and does not answer to my call. It belongs to a dark stallion named Hoarfrost, lord of despair. But that is a story for another time, now we have to worry about saving your friend for it won't be long before she succumbs to the cold. Look to the ground, young one, and the path shall be made clear to you."

Fluttershy looked at the ground and saw hoofprints in the snow leading off into the distance. As she focus her gaze on the hoofprints the white light, which was being emitted from the alicorn, faded and the snow and wind began to fly by Fluttershy once more. When she looked back up Galacia had vanished from sight completely. Fluttershy looked around to try and find her once more but there were no signs, not even hoofprints in the snow. She turned back to the hoofprints in the snow and said to herself, "Of course, the hoofprints. Why didn't I think to follow them before? I better hurry, I don't want them to be filled with this snow before I find Applejack."

Fluttershy began to follow the hoofprints through the dark snowstorm, each hoofprint getting fresher and deeper as she traveled until she saw a figure lying in the snow covered by a thin layer of snow. As she got closer she was finally able to identify the figure as Applejack.

"Applejack!" she yelled out in her soft voice but no voice came in reply. "Applejack!" she yelled out once more running to her friend laying on the ground in the snowstorm. When she got to her she rolled her onto her back. Applejack's goggles as well as her face guard were completely frosted over but Fluttershy could still see her breath puffing out of her mouth in the cold, signifying that she was still alive.

"Come on, Applejack, wake up. I need you with me." whispered Fluttershy.

"I told you your friends can't stop the cold," came a dark growling voice from the distance. "But you didn't listen and now you and your friends will all perish in these wastelands. My wastelands."

Fluttershy looked up to see who was speaking to her and she saw, off in the distance, the same blue eyes she saw in the maintenance tunnel surrounded in a cloud of black smoke.

"The rest of them were easy. This one, however, had a bit of fight to her but it wasn't long before even she lost hope and fell before me."

The cloud of smoke and eyes began to rapidly travel in a circle around Fluttershy causing her to shy back and watch defenselessly.

"All of your friends are dead and now you too will die. All you have to do is give up all hope."

The circle the smoky figure was making kept creeping closer and closer to Fluttershy and its words tore at Fluttershy's mind. On top of that the wind blew harder and the snow fell faster, each snowflake slapping Fluttershy's face as it blew by. The shadowy figure continued to get closer tormenting Fluttershy with it's words until Fluttershy remembered the words of Queen Galacia, 'Do not lose hope.' and yelled, "NO!" louder than she had ever been before.

Immediately the shadow stopped and stared at her. "I refuse to believe my friends are dead! I know for a fact that they are still alive. Applejack is alive as well and we are going to overcome you and your storm!"

The shadow stood there growling to itself before finally roaring out with rage yelling, "HOW DARE YOU DEFY ME!" as it began to charge at the yellow pony. As the shadow charged a massive black stallion with glowing blue eyes and a white mane materialized. Fluttershy flinched and covered her head with her hooves, preparing for the worst when suddenly a familiar white light returned and she heard a loud crash above her head. When she looked up she saw the massive shadowy figure standing there, repeatedly charging against a magical wall which had formed around her.

"Hoarfrost!" echoed the angry voice of Queen Galacia. Fluttershy turned to see where the voice had come from and saw Galacia descending from the sky, landing beside her. "You will not touch these ponies."

"Ah, if it isn't my beloved Queen Galacia," mocked Hoarfrost. "Enjoying your imprisonment?"

"It isn't the imprisonment that makes me bitter as much as the foul stallion I am imprisoned with."

"I see the feeling is mutual then," growled Hoarfrost, "Tell me now, why do you protect this filly with such vigor?"

"I am not the one who cast this protection spell."

"But, if you didn't then that means..."

"Correct. This filly is in fact a guardian of hope."

"Impossible! I killed the last guardian of hope! I watched his hope fade from his eyes, for I was the one who took it from him!"

"Guardians of hope are not born, Hoarfrost, they are made. From the youngest of earth ponies to the eldest of the pegasi and even the least magically gifted of the unicorn, all have the ability to wield the power of hope but few posses enough of it to be called a guardian."

Hoarfrost snarled to himself once more, "You win this time, Galacia, but soon I will be free and once I am our endgame will decide who is better and who is dead!"

"Leave this place. There is nothing more you can do here."

Hoarfrost growled at Galacia and then turned to Fluttershy and said, "We will meet again, guardian, and when we do I'll make sure Galacia isn't around to stop me from what I will do to you."

Hoarfrost huffed brutally at Fluttershy, who was safely behind her own sphere of protection, causing her to flinch once more. Hoarfrost had one final chuckle as he then turned back into a smokey shadow and vanished from sight causing the wind and snow to die down a bit.

"A g-guardian of hope?" whimpered Fluttershy as the protective sphere around her lowered, "I've never heard of them before."

"I wouldn't expect you to know of them. This is the first time that any outsider has even come close to our dwelling. Guardians of hope are in charge of keeping the hope of the ponies around them kindled. Hope gives them strength, like the courage you showed towards Hoarfrost. Because you had faith that your friends are still alive, that hope gave you courage that you may not have known you had before."

"But what was that protection spell? I'm not a unicorn, but you said I was the one who cast it."

"The magic flowing through the skies recently is a special kind of magic. It has a mind of it's own and seems to ignore unicorns and their influence and favor those whose hope is strong, those who specialized in mastering this magic were called guardians of hope. The magic went dormant, however, when the last guardian fell to Hoarfrost but for some reason it has awoken once more and Hoarfrost is tapping into it's power to allow himself to manifest outside of his prison and cause these blizzards. The only way to stop the blizzards is to free Hoarfrost from his prison and defeat him once and for all."

"That must be the magic my friends and I are looking for."

"Indeed it is, and I will help you to find it if you and your friends agree to help me stop Hoarfrost."

"I'm sure if you talk to the rest of my friends they'll agree to help but I can't speak for them right now. I mean, we were sent out here to stop the blizzards in Equestria and if helping you defeat Hoarfrost is the only way to do it we don't really have any other choice."

"If that is what you believe then I will show you the way." Galacia pointed off into the distance. "Travel in this direction as far as you can and help will find you by the morning they will take you the rest of the way. As for me, I will be watch from afar and make sure you and your friends arrive at you destination without any more trouble from Hoarfrost."

"What about Applejack? Is she going to be okay?"

"Your friend will be just fine. The help I am sending will take care of you both but until then you're going to have to be her legs as well as your own. I must go now. Do as I have instructed and you will be just fine. We will meet again in due time."

Galacia began to walk off into the distance but was stopped by Fluttershy saying, "Wait." Galacia stopped and turned around, "Thank you."

"For what?" replied Galacia, "I simply helped you help yourself."

Applejack moaned and Fluttershy looked down to her. She scraped the frost off of her goggles and saw her squinting her eyes. When she looked back up Galacia had vanish just as quickly and mysteriously as before and, once again, there were no hoofprints in the snow except for her own, despite the amount of action that happened in the area.

Fluttershy looked back down at Applejack and said, "Come on, Applejack, let's go get you some help." Fluttershy reached down and grabbed a loose strap coming from Applejack's suit with her mouth and began dragging her in the direction Galacia pointed out stopping here and there to make sure that Applejack was still doing okay. As she kept going she felt more and more fatigued until eventually she got to the point where she too began to blackout herself. She fell face first into the snow next to Applejack, breathing heavily. With her last bit of energy she lifted her head up to look at Applejack who was still out cold. As she did she saw a dark figure came out of the distance from over Applejack's shoulder which was the last thing she remembered before she finally gave in to her body's demands for rest.

Applejack woke up with thick matted white fur in her face and the massive body of which the fur belong to lying down on her body. The sun was trying to fight its way through a layer of clouds and the snow had stopped falling altogether. Snow was blowing by being carried by the wind in what seemed to be small moving pockets of mist. She struggled to try and get out from underneath whatever it was that was lying on top of her but it was of no use, it was too heavy for her to move with her own hooves. When she struggled the huge white mass seemed to notice and began to rise onto it's four clawed feet and turn around. As it turned around it rose and stood on its back two feet. Once it was facing Applejack it let out a mighty roar which startled her into backing up sightly while still lying on her back. The huge monster stood there a while until Fluttershy appeared from behind it.

"Oh, you're finally awake," she said, "Good morning, Applejack, I hope your nap wasn't too cold. Frost Claw here did the best he could to warm us up." Fluttershy scrubbed the monster's belly and it let out a kind growl of approval.

"Fluttershy! What is that thing?"

"He's a polar bear of course! Up until now I have only read about these creatures, this is the first time I've ever seen one up close and personal. He says his name is Frost Claw and that Queen Galacia sent him to help us."

Frost Claw growled and shook his head in affirmation.

"Hold up now," said Applejack, "Queen who?"

"It's a long story," replied Fluttershy, "It all happened after I lost you in the blizzard."

"Yeah, sorry about that," said Applejack in an embarrassed tone, "I didn't realize I left you until it was already too late."

"Applejack, you haven't been yourself lately."

"What? I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm sorry, but I think you know exactly what I'm talking about. You've been hustling everyone lately, and not in a good way. It's gotten so bad that you left me in the blizzard all by myself."

Applejack hung her head and sighed, "You're right. I'm sorry but I've been worrying a bit much bout my folks back home. Since we live out on the countryside our resources are limited. I just wanted to fix this 'problem' we are having as fast as possible so I don't have to come home to find my family... well... you know."

"Applejack, I'm sure your family will be just fine if not better."

"You think so?" said Applejack raising her head.

"You need to have a little more faith in your family. They are stronger than you may think."

"Your right. How could I have been so blind as to doubt my own family."

"Are you feeling better now?"

"Yes, thank you Fluttershy," said Applejack rising to her feet, "Now let's go find Twilight and stop the blizzards. Together."

"Actually, Frost Claw here is supposed to take us somewhere else."

"Woah, woah, woah, just you wait a second. The bear is supposed to take us somewhere else?"

"Just trust me on this one, Applejack. We'll meet Twilight there."

"Okay then," Applejack said in a awkward tone, "Lead the way then... um... Mr. Claw."

Frost Claw lowered the front of his body to the ground and gave a mild growl.

"We aren't going to follow him, Applejack, we're going to ride him."

Applejack's face was suddenly filed with joy when she heard Fluttershy say that. "Now that's more like it!" she said with enthusiasm as she ran to the huge bear and hopped on his back. She then turned to Fluttershy and helped her up as well. "Alright, Frost Claw, we're set up here. Let's see what you've got in ya."

Frost Claw rose up of the ground and began speeding off into the distance at an astounding pace.

"YEE-HA!" yelled Applejack, "HI HO FROST CLAW!"

Chapter 7: Frostbite

Twilight looked up into the deep blue sky from the side of a steep mountain. Night time had fallen and she could see the stars in the sky clearly even though there was still a raging snowstorm outside. She was in the plain of magic, which allowed her to see through the non magical snow to stare at the flow of magic in the sky so as to regain her bearing. Both Rarity and Twilight had traveled a long distance since and now it seemed like the source of the magic was just over the crest of the next mountain that was in front of them. After she got her bearing and surveyed the land out in front of her she turned to start heading back to her body, which was a little ways behind her but she saw something unexpected.

She saw her body laying on the ground and Rarity's blue magical essence standing right next to it as a guard. She also saw some ominous black mist approaching. Upon seeing the black mist Twilight knew that something was wrong and took off running back to her body practically racing the shadow which began surrounding Rarity and her body. She ran as fast as she could but it seemed her efforts were in vain as the shadow kept approaching Rarity faster and faster. Twilight saw Rarity's magical essence begin to panic as if she saw whatever it was coming up on her off in the distance and didn't know what to do. Rarity's essence discharged a beam of magic into the shadow as it got closer to cut back at the darkness but even that was of no use. The shadow was too great and despite her efforts Rarity was consumed by the shadow and knocked onto the ground.

Twilight couldn't wait any longer and decided to fire a massive beam of magic from her horn into the shadow. The beam of magic was so large and powerful that it repelled the shadow completely and revealed Rarity lying on the ground as if in distress. It wasn't long after that Twilight arrived on the scene and touched her horn with the one she left on her lifeless body. Her world went dark and when she opened her eyes again she was back in her own body lying in the snow next to Rarity who was moaning.

Twilight quickly jumped to her feet ignoring the physical fatigue, which was a side effect of the spell she had just returned from, to go inspect her friend. Rarity was lying in the the snow with her suit torn in multiple places in claw like patterns all over her body which were leaking blood.

"Rarity! Are you okay?" Said Twilight, checking to see if her friend was still okay.

Rarity opened her eyes and stared back up at Twilight, shivering. "I-I-I know it looks bad, darling, b-b-but I assure you I am a lot better off than what my suit looks like. D-d-dr. Frost wasn't kidding when he said it was cold out here though."

"Wait," said Twilight reaching down to look at Rarity's wrist device. It read that the temperature around them was -63 degrees fahrenheit and that Rarity's body temperature had fallen to 93.9 degrees fahrenheit.

"W-what is it Twilight?" asked Rarity.

"Oh, it's nothing, Rarity, you're going to be fine. Just stay with me." Replied Twilight not wanting to let her friend know that she was currently brushing shoulders with death itself. "We should probably find some shelter for the night so you can rest up. Whatever it was it got you pretty bad." Twilight helped her friend back onto her feet and began helping her walk towards the side of the mountain.

"B-but, Twilight, we're in the middle of nowhere in the mountains with nothing but snow and ice around us. Where could we possibly find shelter out here?"

Twilight charged a strong magical beam which she shot out of her horn into the wall of the mountainside carving a cavern into it.

"We'll improvise." replied Twilight who was now getting extremely light headed due to the fact that she had just finished the magic tracking spell and hadn't fully recovered yet.

The two ponies stumbled into the cavern and fell onto the ground next to each other. Twilight struggled back to her feet again fighting her body's will to give up with her own will to save her friend. Se looked over at her friend's wrist device. 89.7, 88.4, 87.1. Rarity was beginning to develop hypothermia and Twilight began to panic to try and find something to reverse the process. She ripped off her saddle bags as well as Rarity's and began to rapidly sift through them for anything that could help. The first items she came across were simple hoof warmers. Quickly she took all the hoof warmers she could find, activated them, and tossed them on her friend.

"That should slow it down until I can find a better solution to this problem." Twilight said to herself as she went back into the bags to try and find more items to help her friend.

"Food rations, ice picks. Ah! Here we go!" Twilight said in excitement as she pulled out a thermal blanket. She quickly stuffed Rarity's shivering body into the blanket and looked at Rarity's wrist device. It had stopped at 83.6 and was very slowly starting to climb back up.

"Okay that problem's taken care of, now we need a fire." Twilight searched the rest of the saddle bags but found nothing along the lines of making a fire. She looked around at her surroundings and found nothing but rock and snow. She then turned back to the saddlebags and came up with a last ditch effort idea that she didn't quite seem to like herself.

Twilight piled all of the supplies she had taken out of the bags. "I really hope this brings Rarity back. This better be worth it."

Twilight used her unicorn magic to light the equipment on fire and then fell to the floor in magical fatigue. As her sight began to fade she caught a glimpse at Rarity's wrist device which was steadily starting to climb back up through the nineties. At that point she knew that her friend was well on the way to recovery and gave in to her bodies demands for rest.

It was dark.

She began to hear whispers.

"This one has power even greater than King Frost Thorn had before he went corrupt."

"Yes, it seems she has no need of our teachings."

"Could she be the Descendant Lady Genesis prophesied about?"

"I'm a Guardian of Hope and even I think that idea is a bit far-fetched. Nopony has ever mastered all three elements and Lady Genesis had no child."

"Shut your mouth. Don't you remember it was doubt that ultimately had us slain in battle? You feed Hoarfrost power even in death. I, for one, agree. She is the Descendant."

"I too believe."

"Me as well."

"I agree."

"... I see... Perhaps I may be mistaken. After all not even I know what Lady Genesis meant by "Descendant." I guess only time will tell."

"Descendant, it is time for you to awaken. Your friend has recovered from the cold and awaits you. The forces of despair are actively hunting you as we speak. Wake up."

"Wake up."

Twilight felt like she was being shook.

"Wake up, Twilight," came Rarity's voice, "There's something outside the cave. Wake up"

Twilight's eyes opened slowly and she was looking up at Rarity who seemed to have recovered from her wounds and somehow repaired the rips and tears in her suit.

"Rarity, how did you fix your suit?" asked Twilight.

"A professional seamstress always has her ways." answered Rarity. "But now's not the time for details. Twilight, I think the same thing that attacked us before is back and it's outside the cave."

Twilight looked at the mouth of the cave. The blizzard only became thicker since she remembered last and it was completely dark. Out of nowhere, suddenly the two ponies heard a large roar which shook the very ground that they were standing on.

"W-what do you think it could be?" asked Rarity.

"I think we both know the answer to that," Twilight responded raising to her hooves. "There is only one creature we've encountered so far in all of Equestria capable of making that sound. A dragon. But not just any dragon. A full grown adult one."

A loud laughing sound came from the darkness followed by a loud deep rumbling voice. "You are quite the smart one aren't you little filly? I am flattered that you have recognized me as such a powerful beast."

"Twilight, what's a dragon doing all the way out here?" asked Rarity.

"It's possible," answered Twilight. "A long time ago, before Sombra tried taking over the Crystal Empire, a dragon stole the crystal heart and took it back to it's hoard in the Crystalline Mountain range which was the same mountains we went under to get out here. According to the reports on the incident, however, that dragon did not breath fire. Instead it breathed frost and shards of ice. It just so happened that this dragon was a newly of a newly discovered species at the time. Due to their breath and the fact that they seem to live in subzero climate they were given the name 'frost drakes.' However, as I have said many times before, there is not much recorded data about dragons in general and it would seem, by lack of information, that this was that only recorded time in history pony kind has come into contact with a frost drake and lived to write about it and that was more than 1,000 years ago. Most ponies have thought the species to have gone extinct before anypony had ventured into their territory to discover more of them."

Just then Twilight was interrupted by a gigantic head of a blue dragon covered in snow and frost that came out of the darkness ramming the mouth of the cave full force shaking the ground and causing the ponies to stumble and fall.

"DOES IT LOOK LIKE WE'RE EXTINCT!" The dragon shouted letting out a huff of cold air out of his nostrils.

The cave went dark causing Twilight to illuminate her horn with magic so she could see in the darkness. When she had done so, however, she was surprised to see no traces of the dragon.

"Where did he go, Twilight," asked Rarity as the ponies rose back up onto their hooves again.

Twilight remained silent keeping her eyes fixed on the entrance to the cave. At first there was no sign of anything other than the blizzard which was still raging outside. Out of nowhere she suddenly saw something which looked like a blue flame rapidly building in the distance and the cave began to fill with fog. It didn't take long for Twilight to realize what was about to happen.

"Get down Rarity!" she shouted as she dove to the ground pulling Rarity along with her just a a massive wave of the dragon's freezing breath engulfed them. Shards of ice and frost filled the cave completely overwhelming the two ponies for a shot time before the breath subsided.

The dragon once again slowly poked his head into the cave expecting to see the bodies of two ponies encased in ice but was startled by what was actually there. The two ponies were safely taking refuge underneath a shield made of white light which made the dragon furious. However instead of attacking again the dragon seemed to keep his cool as if he knew something.

Twilight raised her head from her protective position to see the dragon and the shield made of light. Many questions ran through her head like what was this mysterious magic that came to her rescue and where it came from. But the question that puzzled her and applied to the situation the most was why the dragon didn't strike again. She knew it was in the dragon's nature to be very aggressive. VERY aggressive.

"Well then, it seems you are much more gifted than I thought little filly." the dragon said, "And maybe even more than you knew yourself."

"Just who do you think you are!?" shouted Rarity, "You just assaulted us for no apparent reason! What in the world did we ever do to you?"

The dragon turned his head towards Rarity and let out another huff into her face. "Quiet you!" he shouted back at her shaking the cave. "I only wish to speak with the purple one."

Rarity stood frozen with a scared look on her face.

"If it is I you wish to speak with I refuse to speak unless you treat my friends with a little more respect. As a matter of fact I was just about to ask you the same question so what difference does it make if it came from her mouth or mine?"

The dragon's eyes narrowed. "Very well. My name is Salzaura."

"Salzaura?" questioned Twilight.

"What's the matter Twilight?" asked Rarity. "It looks like you've heard his name before."

"Because I have." Twilight turned to the dragon. "If I'm not mistaken, Salzaura was the dragon from the crystal heart incident that happened over 1,000 years ago. Dragons live long but they are still mortal so the fact that this dragon is still alive is a miracle."

"That's because I'm not alive." The dragon answered. "I have been dead now for more than 600 of those years."

"But how?"

"I am alive through the magic of my master which binds my bones and marrow together in exchange for servitude."

"Was this 'master' the one who ordered you to attack us?"

"Yes."

"But why? Who is he?"

"It was a test of strength. He felt your presence in his kingdom and wanted to make sure you were the one he was calling out to. His name is Frost Thorn."

Frost Thorn. That's the second time I've heard his name in a short period of time. He must be the source of the magic. He must be the one calling out for help.

"Please, take us to your master."

"I'm afraid I am not allowed to do so. I am not allowed to get too close to his fortress for... certain reasons. Only on rare occasions does he ever call me there and this is not one of them. Besides, if it weren't for your weak pony eyes you would be able to see that his kingdom, the kingdom in which you seek, can bee seen from the mouth of this cave." The dragon turned to the side and seemed as if he was speaking to an unseen force. "Hmm... Yes... Of course master, I shall inform them." The dragon turned back towards the ponies again, "As a matter of fact my master says he will pause the snowstorm in the morning to allow you safe passage into his kingdom. You must make haste in the morning for he can only hold it off for a short time. Once you get there you must find the royal throne room and free my master from his icy prison. Afterwards he will explain everything and he will make the world's weather stable once more."

"Very well, we will rest here for the night and travel to you master's kingdom in the morning."

"He will be expecting you Miss. Sparkle. As for me, I will patrol the area to make sure your rest goes on undisturbed."

The dragon then withdrew his head from the mouth of the cave and wing flaps could be heard going off into the distance.

Twilight turned to Rarity and said, "I can't help but think that that dragon was hiding something from us."

"He was very calm but I could read his actions. He kept something secret. But I have no idea what."

"I guess from here on we'll have to proceed with more caution. But for now let's use this time for some well deserved rest."

"I couldn't agree with you more."

Both ponies curled up into a little ball and slowly drifted off into sleep. When the next morning came Twilight was the first to wake up and when she did she woke Rarity up as well. Outside the snow had stopped falling just as Salzaura had said it would. Eager to see the kingdom the dragon was talking about, Twilight ran to the entrance of the cave and looked out so see a massive city which very closely resembled The Crystal Empire only made purely of ice. At the top of the main spire the magical aura they had been searching for the whole time was plainly visible to the naked eye and shooting up into the sky.

"Rarity! Come quick!" Shouted Twilight.

"What is it Twilight?" Rarity answered.

"We made it. We've finally made it."

Chapter 8: Hoarfrost Returns

"Come on Rarity! We made it! We've finally made it!" shouted Twilight in excitement climbing up a set of frozen steps leading to a giant set of doors made of ice in an even bigger wall. Towers and turrets could be seen reaching high up into the sky over the brim of the wall all surrounding one main structure which resembled the main structure of the Crystal Empire. At the top of the main structure the mysterious aura they had been following the entire time was clearly visible rising into the sky where it dispersed into different directions.

"Isn't it beautiful, Rarity! Not only are we discovering an entirely new form of magic but quite possibly an entire new undiscovered civilization!"

"That's wonderful dear, but could you do me a favor and slow down?" Said Rarity struggling to keep up behind her. "We've not stopped for a break since you first laid eyes on this place and my hooves are just writhing in pain."

"Come on, Rarity, the doors are just ahead of us. You can rest once we get inside and sort out this snow storm problem we were sent to fix in the first place." Twilight was in so much joy, that she had forgotten how much her own body was aching due to their journey.

"Fine, I guess you are right after all." replied Rarity as the two ponies came face to face with the giant door in the wall of ice.

There were knockers in the door also made of ice but as Twilight reached out to use one the doors lurched and began to open on their own.

"Looks like they were expecting us, Rarity!" exclaimed Twilight still excited as ever. "This must be the welcoming party."

The doors opened all the way revealing a city resembling that of the Crystal Empire's with only one thing different. Nopony could be seen for miles.

"What?" Said Twilight, her excitement being replaced with curiosity. "I-I don't understand. Where is everypony?"

"Quite mysterious indeed." Replied Rarity. "It seems we've stumbled upon a ghost town. It doesn't look like this city's been touched for a really long time."

"I-I don't quite understand. There has to be somepony in this massive city." Said Twilight, still puzzled, "Why don't we split up and see if we can't try and find anyone."

"That would be the most efficient way of finding out whats going on." said Rarity.

"Alright then. You go left, I'll take right. We'll meet in the center at the main castle in approximately forty five minutes. If anything goes wrong or if you find something signal by shooting some magic into the air."

"Right, got it."

The two ponies went their separate ways searching the city for any signs of life or clues as to what would've happen to cause an entire city to go barren of it's people. The more Twilight took in her surroundings as she searched the more the city looked exactly like the Crystal Empire only made of ice. The streets were covered in snow drifts and every so often the wind would pick up and cause snow dust to fly around, occasionally slapping Twilight in the face.

She came to what seemed to be what was left of a library. Four pillars of ice held up a roof above two large doors at the top of a set of steps made of ice covered in snow. By now, in situations like these, it was almost second nature for Twilight to check the library for information first. She climbed the steps and opened the doors to reveal any book lover's worst nightmare: a library stripped clean of it's books.

The inside of the library was massive and lit by three massive chandeliers of heaven's lights crystals all in various colors, but not a single book or scroll was in sight. Twilight saw that something about the library was strange, however. She saw that everything inside the building was made of ice as well which was not usual after all she had seen so far but what was really strange were the bookshelves. Even though everything around her made of ice seemed more masterfully crafted they looked deformed as if something of intense heat had partially melted them.

Twilight went to inspect the scene out of curiosity and found pieces of burnt material and ash frozen in the remaining ice. With the amount of knowledge she had gathered she had arrived at the conclusion that any and all books, scrolls, and records were burned at one point in time but for reasons she did not know. Perhaps to hide the past from the future or maybe to keep ancient secrets hidden.

Just then a glimmer of light caught her eye causing her to shift her attention towards a desk towards the middle of the library which seemed to have been used as a receptionist desk. Twilight went to investigate. She found a crystal sitting in the middle of it and nothing else. Twilight attempted to pick the stone up but when her magic came into contact with it it sent out a pulse of light across the entire building. She began seeing ponies who weren't there before who seemed to be a part of the city's military forces by the uniforms and weapons they were carrying. Suddenly, the two main doors to the building swung open with force revealing a white alicorn mare standing behind it.

"Your highness, we have secured the library as you have ordered." said one of the higher ranking ponies.

"Are all scrolls and archives accounted for?" The white alicorn questioned.

"Yes, your highness."

"Burn everything."

"What?"

"Do it!" snapped the alicorn. "You know as well as I what I must do to protect this world. Before I do, it must be done. No matter what these documents must not fall into the wrong hands. Do you understand commander?"

"Yes... Of course."

At that moment a squad of ponies lit torches and ran up and down the bookshelves setting each ablaze with fire until there was not a shelf left ablaze. The scene began to glow with light until it all suddenly ceased from existing all except the white alicorn in the doorway who now stood staring down at Twilight. The stone that she held dissolved into the wind without a trace.

Twilight returned the alicorn's stare for a while until the mare spoke.

"The past can not be changed. Some may try to forget but in the end..." The alicorn turned and began to leave the building. "In the end it can only be accepted." she said as she left sight.

Twilight ran after her to see where she was going. When she got to the door she poked her head out only to be greeted by the mare face to face. The two then exchanged stares for a while longer until the alicorn suddenly pointed up towards the main castle and whispered, "Set me free." Immediately afterwards a strong wind blew and the mare slowly dissolved into snow dust and fly towards the main castle.

Twilight stood a while longer pondering what she had just seen before trotting off towards the main castle...

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Nothing," said Rarity, "Nothing but snow, snow, and more snow." She continued to search the barren city. She took a look at her wrist device to see how long she had been searching. "Forty five minutes and still nothing. I guess it's time to start heading to the castle to meet Twilight." Just at that second, however, she heard heavy steps running behind her and she turned to the sound.

A large figure was traveling in and out between houses and alleyways making it hard for Rarity to pinpoint what the figure was or where it was going. She began to cower back in fear as she watched the figure. It was clear by now that it was circling her just waiting to strike.

"Leave me alone!" she shouted, but the figure didn't listen. Seconds later a giant ball of white fur jumped out of an alleyway on her right pinning her to the ground letting out a enormous roar in her face. At that moment, Rarity let out a bloodcurdling scream causing the figure to back off and cover its ears in fear.

"Jeez, Rarity, calm down it's just us." said a familiar voice from atop the figure. Rarity settled down a bit when she heard the voice. She saw two ponies dismounting a giant white bear.

"Applejack? Fluttershy? Is that really you?" Questioned Rarity.

"Yep, sure is." said Applejack. "Who else were you expecting?"

"And this is Frost Claw," Fluttershy said petting him on the head, "You gave him quite the scare with that scream, he was just so eager to meet an new friend."

"Hey, wasn't Twilight with you?" asked Applejack.

"That's funny you should mention. Actually, I'm on my way to meet up with her again. We split up to search the city."

"Oh no," said Fluttershy, "You two split up?"

"Is that a problem darling?"

"It's just that, well..." Before Fluttershy could finish what she was saying, a crack sounded from above them in the sky causing all of them to lookup. They saw a trail of white light flying through the sky heading right towards them.

"What the hay is that?" said Applejack.

"I have no idea but might I suggest we move before it hits us!" shouted Rarity.

The ponies scattered to the sides of the road as the object came in and landed with such a great force that all the snow in the area was kicked up and thrown aside in a massive gust of wind. The ponies that had scattered to the sides began making their way back into the street as the snow flurries began to settle on the ground.

"How's it going everypony? I hope we aren't too late." came Pinkie Pie's voice.

The snow settled revealing Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash standing in the center of the street in their armor made completely of light. After a short while the light armor faded leaving the two standing once more in their snow suits just like before.

"What the?" said Applejack, "Where the hay did that armor come from?"

"To be honest, AJ, neither of us really know," said Rainbow Dash, "But one this is for certain, It was totally awesome!"

"Does anypony care to explain any of this to me, please?" asked Rarity.

Immediately the rest of the ponies turned to face Rarity and simultaneously said, "There's no time! Where's Twilight?"

"Do you know where she is Rarity?" asked Applejack.

"We were supposed to meet back up at the base of the main castle in just a little bit."

"Come on then!" said Rainbow Dash, "Hopefully we can catch her before she accidentally releases Hoarfrost without us around."

"Release who?" said Rarity gust before she was grabbed by Applejack and hoisted onto Frost Claw's back where the rest of the ponies were waiting. Frost Claw then took off heading towards the castle as fast as he could.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The doors creaked and echoed throughout the entire abandoned castle as Twilight pushed them open. She had entered a hallway which had many doors along the sides no windows and icicles hanging off every inch of the ceiling. She was continuing to follow the figure of the white alicorn that she found when she was searching the library. It continued to fade in and out of existence as it traveled down the hallway. Twilight followed closely

"This way," the figure kept whispering, "Set me free."

When it got to the end of the hallway the figure phased through a giant set of doors at the end of the hallway and everything went completely silent. Twilight slowly grabbed the doors' handles with her unicorn magic as she scanned her surroundings for anything she might have missed as she was following the figure down the hall. There was nothing.

Twilight turned back towards the doors and swung them open to reveal a truly astounding sight. The room she had entered perfectly resembled that of the Crystal Empire's to the smallest detail only made of ice. There were windows on ever wall and the throne was made entirely out of ice crystals. In the middle of the room was a ginormous ice block surrounded by the blue and green aura that she had been searching for the entire time she was on her journey. As she drew closer to the block of ice she could see that on the inside was the frozen body of the white alicorn figure she had been following.

"Set me free, Twilight Sparkle," the voice said sweetly coming from behind her but when she turned there was nopony there. "Only you can do it. I can teach you how to master this new for of magic. You'll be so much more powerful, with knowledge of ancient times which surpasses even that of Princess Celestia. Don't you want to know what it truly means to be called 'The Descendant?' Most importantly, I can end the snowstorm that is causing so much pain and despair back home."

There was no hesitation in Twilight's mind when the voice spoke to her. Stopping the snowstorm was her primary mission since the beginning.

"What must I do?" she asked.

"All you have to do," the voice returned, "Is shatter the ice. Cast your most powerful spell. Set me free."

Twilight lowered her head and aimed her horn at the block of ice and began to charge a magic bolt. The spell grew and grew until Twilight could barely control it but she maintain her composure and kept it at it's brink.

Suddenly the door behind her slammed open and somepony shout, "WAIT!"

Twilight was startled by the loud unexpected noise and accidentally gave the spell too much energy causing it to fire upon the block of ice. When her magic met with the magic aura of the ice block it created a magical explosion shattering all of the windows and throwing Twilight back across the room.

Maniacal laughter filled the room shortly after. Twilight picked herself up off the floor and looked towards where the ice block was and saw the alicorn that was frozen on the inside now lying on the ground lifeless. A shadow began to form around it gathering on top of it and taking the shape of a stallion as the laughter continued. Soon the stallion had materialized out of the shadow into a hulking black pony with razor sharp fangs, glowing blue eyes and white flowing mane. A snow storm kicked up once more and snow began to swarm into the room through the broken windows.

"My, my, not much has changed in over a millennium has it, Galacia?" the stallion said nudging the alicorn's lifeless body. "Should I kill you now? Or should I punish you for trapping me in such way by letting you watch the rest of the world suffer under my frozen hoof?" The stallion picked up his hoof and slammed it down against the alicorn's chest revealing that the alicorn was not lifeless by causing her to scream out in pain. The hoof began to channel frost onto the skin of the alicorn's body causing her extreme pain.

"Leave her alone!" shouted Twilight.

The black stallion quickly shifted his gaze to Twilight. "HOW DARE YOU ORDER ME AROUND!" the black stallion shouted back taking his hoof off the alicorn's chest. "I AM KING FROST THORN! RIGHTFUL RULER OF THE ICE FLOW EMPIRE! AND I WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH!"

"You are no king," the alicorn struggled to say underneath her breath. "What king sacrifices his own subjects to feed his own lust for power?"

The black stallion lowered his head and stared the alicorn dead in the eyes. "That is why ponies like you call me by a different name." The black stallion looked back up at Twilight, "Hoarfrost," he continued, "Lord of Despair, and bringer of demise."

"We won't let you win, Hoarfrost!" came a voice from behind Twilight resembling that of Rainbow Dash's.

Twilight turned around and found all of her friends, with the addition of a white bear she had never seen before, were standing behind her.

"We shall see all in due time," Hoarfrost responded. Immediately after he had finished speaking the walls of the throne room shattered as a humongous dragon crashed through them. The dragon lifted Hoarfrost off the ground and placed him on it's back and gave out a loud roar.

"But before we do, I have some matter that need taken care of in a place I have been secretly monitoring from within my prison as my primary target of interest. Canterlot, as I remember it being called. I do hope you can come join the party. Let's go Salzaura."

At that moment the Dragon took to the sky, turned, and made it's heading southward. It wasn't long before Hoarfrost and the dragon were out of sight. Almost immediately after the dragon had vanished from their sights all of Twilight's friends, as well as the bear that was accompanying them, raced to the white alicorn's body. Twilight stood frozen in shock and deep in thought as to what just happened.

"Are you alright, your highness?" said Fluttershy.

"I'll be fine, Fluttershy," the mare returned rising onto her hooves again. "Just give me some space." The ponies gave her the space she asked for and once she was on her feet again the white bear gently rubbed his head against her. "I missed you too Frost Claw. But now's not the time. Come, with me. I'll explain the situation as we walk."

The White alicorn began to hastefully walk down the halls of the castle turning this way and that. "For those of you who don't know, mainly Twilight, my name is Queen Galacia and the black stallion you saw back there was indeed Hoarfrost as he has said but he wasn't born with that name. Originally his name was King Frost Thorn, my husband."

"Husband?!" the ponies shouted in shock.

"Back in the days before he became Hoarfrost he was a kind and merciful king. That was until the day our civilization discovered a new form of magic. One that did not favor race such as unicorn but hope,"

"Schools and studies were made soon after in order to teach and train ponies in the use of this new type of magic. Eventually it was found that certain ponies were favored more than others simply because they had the more will and hope in their souls. They became strong in the art and were later named the Guardians of Hope, a division which acted as peacekeepers in our empire. There were six total, non of which were the king himself."

"This, of course angered the king. He did not like the thought of another pony being more powerful than him in any way and thus his attitude changed towards life. Eventually he found a way that he could become more powerful that the strongest of the Guardians but at the cost of many lives. He developed the technique of stealing a pony's hope and taking their power for his own but in doing so the technique would kill the victim but the king did not care. One fateful night the king himself turned on his empire. It was him alone versus an entire empire and yet with every kill he did not show any signs of fatigue or mercy. He took the hope of every citizen without warning. Every time he performed the technique it warped his body until he turned into his current form. He became so powerful he summoned a dragon to fight along his side with the promise of eternal life."

"One by one he took on the Guardians of Hope and each of them fell to his horror."

"I was the only one left and I knew what I must do to save the future of this world."

"With all the hope for a brighter tomorrow I drew upon my strength and as Hoarfrost attempted to perform his dark technique on me I trapped him within my shadow. I could only hold him for so long so I cast another spell in order to trap both of us in a block of ice. Not to be seen again for more than 5,000 years. The new source of magic had died at that time."

"Now for some reason the magic resurfaced and Hoarfrost began to act as a parasite, using the magic to project his soul across the world to cause havoc and attempt to get somepony to free him from his prison."

"And that pony was me." said Twilight lowering her head in shame, "I set him free and now he's going to attack Canterlot. It's all my fault."

"No my child, it is not your fault." Queen Galacia said, "If Hoarfrost wasn't going to get his way from within the ice he was willing to freeze the entire world over. The only true way of defeating him was to let him out and best him in the world."

"But I thought you said the Guardians had all fallen." said Rainbow Dash, "Weren't they the only ones who were even close to defeating him?"

"Guardians are not born, they are made." Galacia responded. "And I can see that each of you have just as much strength in the art of hope to match each one of them. Not only that but this time we have something we did not have back then." The group finally stopped at a door much bigger an more decorated with beautifully crafted ice crystals than any in the entire castle and Queen Galacia turned to look Twilight straight in the eyes.

"We have the Descendant."

"Me?" asked Twilight. Galacia nodded back. "But what exactly does that mean?"

"In due time," replied Galacia, "Right now we must equip you for the battle ahead."

Galacia lowered her head and inserted her horn into what seemed to be a keyhole of some sort and the entire door began to glow. After a while the doors slowly opened revealing six pedestals each with a necklace with a single glowing crystal on the end suspended by an unseen force.

"It was discovered that this type of stone was able to channel the magic into powerful weaponry and armor. After we found this out we found the six of the purest type of these stones and gifted them to the Guardians as necklaces so that they would always be able to draw upon their power. Once they had fallen I was able to recover them and I locked them away behind this door in hopes that one day they'd find use again. Today is that day."

The ponies stared up at the necklaces in awe at the colors which radiated off of the gemstones. Twilight knew exactly what type of stones they were. They were Heaven's Lights.

"Well don't just sit there. Put them on." said Galacia, "Hoarfrost could be assaulting Canterlot as we speak."

Each of the ponies ran up to a necklace and put them on. Immediately the stones began to glow and cover each pony with light taking on the form of armor. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were both equipped with the same weapons and armor as they acquired in the caves. Fluttershy had a set of rounded defensive looking armor with a massive wall shield slung upon her back. Applejack's armor appeared offensive in nature while still maintaining basic defensive features. She was given a smaller kite shield which seemed fastened to her left arm and a sheathed long sword on her left hip. Rarity's armor seemed lightest of the group but also very durable. She was given a set of razor sharp hoof blades.

"Now this is definitely more stylish than those tacky suits Dr. Frost gave us." said Rarity.

All Twilight was given, however, was a cloak made of pure light and a mask with two narrow diagonal slashes going down towards her muzzle to see out of.

"Great, now that we are all suited up and ready to go, how are we going to get back to Canterlot in time to stop Hoarfrost?" said Rainbow Dash.

At that moment another dragon, which was slightly smaller in size, burst through the wall of the castle and let out a big roar. The ponies coward back slightly to the sight but Galacia stood there smiling at them.

"What?" she said, "Hoarfrost isn't the only one capable of raising a dragon from the dead." The ponies stared at each other for lack of any words to say. "This is Frostbite, in short, she's Salzaura's little sister. Now, come on, she doesn't bite unless I tell her to. Climb aboard and hold tight."

The ponies ran up the dragon's back and seated themselves on the dragon's back.

"If you want to come help us, it's probably going to be a rough ride for you Frost Claw." Galacia said to the bear to which the bear responded with a confident roar. It was clear that he wanted to come along. "Alright then, don't say I didn't warn you."

The dragon reached out and took Frost Claw into it's talon as gently as it could and then took off full force into the sky heading for Canterlot.

Chapter 9: Heart of Frost

Princess Celestia sat wrapped in a heavy blanket with a roaring fire in the fireplace before her in her study chamber. Thousands of books from the bookshelves around her littered the floor making the shelves themselves barren except for a couple of books left over here and there. She had bags beneath her eyes due to the lack of sleep over the last couple of days.

Suddenly the door to the chamber swung open behind her to revel her sister walking in dressed in a heavy winter jacket with a scarf and a wool hat. "Any luck, sister?" she asked.

"I've read almost every book in this library," replied Celestia, "From the day Equestria was founded until now. There has been no historical records of an uncontrolled snowstorm this big or of strange magic coming from the north."

"It's definitely not wendigos. This storm is far too intense even for their powers."

Celestia turned to face her sister. "I'm afraid our only hope now is Twilight and her friends."

Luna looked back at her sister and saw that even she had lost hope in finding a way out of their problem.

"Has Spike finished lighting the bonfires in the streets?" asked Celestia.

"That's what I came to speak with you about." replied Luna. "The snowfall has gotten so bad that even the bonfires we started back when the storm first began have been snuffed out. Even after they had been given time to grow strong."

"Where is he then?"

"That's just it. Even after he saw that it was hopeless of starting the bonfires he personally volunteered to travel from house to house lighting everypony's fireplace for them."

"The dragon has a heart of fire that much is certain."

"Not only that but the Royal Guard has also finished distributing the cold weather gear to the public. Even some of the troops gave up a couple of layers of their own gear to keep some of the children warm but those who did are wishing they hadn't about now as the storm worsens."

Celestia stared into Luna's eyes for a while longer before she turned back toward the fireplace. "It's good to see that everypony else still has hope."

Luna's heart sank when she heard her sister say those words.

"Your highness," Luna heard from behind her. She turned to see two members of the Royal Guard behind her.

"What is it?" asked Luna.

"Our lookouts have spotted a large figure in the sky approaching from the north. We came as soon as we could but due to the low visibility we couldn't detect it to warn you in a timely manner. Whatever it is it could be upon us at any-"

The guardsman was interrupted by the head of a massive dragon crashing through the wall of Celestia's study chamber.

"Dragon!" yelled the guardsmen rushing to protect the princesses only to be smacked by the dragon's claws throwing them against a wall knocking them unconscious.

Celestia rose from her sitting position staring at the best in horror as the cold wind and pelting snow also flooded the room. A dark stallion made itself known standing on the dragon's head. The dragon got closer to Celestia and the stallion opened his mouth full of razor sharp teeth. A white colored energy began to leave Celestia's body and be consumed by the stallion but before the stallion could finish another dragon swooped down and tackled the first one sending both flying across the city crashing into another building.

Moments later the door to the chamber slammed open once more this time to reveal Twilight and her friends.

"Princess Celestia! Are you alright?" asked Twilight.

Celestia stood speechless at what she had just seen. "I... I don't... feel..." she collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"Celestia!" shouted Twilight as she ran to her mentor's side.

"What is the meaning of all of this?" shouted Luna.

At that moment Frostbite was thrown against the building they were in with a roar of pain and Galacia was dismounted from her seat upon the dragon's head landing in the room along with Twilight and her friends. Salzaura emerged from the snowstorm's limited visibility with Hoarfrost seated at his head pinning Frostbite to the building with his claws.

"Fool." Hoarfrost said with a chuckle. "Don't you remember what happened last time you tried to stop me Galacia? All of those ponies who lost hope and fell to my power looking to you for guidance? Their faces full of fear and hopelessness. Don't you remember? I'm sure they remember you."

Hoarfrost's mane began to separate into thousands of balls of white light raining on the city below him. When the balls reached the ground they took on the form of spirit ponies who seemed to be once part of an ancient empire's military wearing century old armor wielding blades, axes, halberds, and spears.

"And as for you, Descendant." he said with a smile. "I saved the best for last."

A final giant ball landed in front of Twilight.

"I'm sorry I can't stay, I'm terribly busy ravaging a city. I do hope you enjoy your gift though." Hoarfrost then flew away on his drake continuing to lay waste to the city below.

"NO! I WILL NOT LET ANOTHER CIVILIZATION FALL TO THE LIKES OF YOU AGAIN, HOARFROST!" yelled Galacia hopping back onto Frostbite's head and giving chase after Hoarfrost and Salzaura.

Twilight then shifted her gaze towards the ball of light that Hoarfrost had left only to find out that it had took the form of Princess Celestia herself.

"Sister?" said Luna rushing to her sister's side, "Sister, what's happening? What are we..." Luna's questions were cut short when Celestia fired a powerful beam of magic at her hitting her in the head and throwing her across the room. When she landed she sunk to the floor unconscious. Celestia then shifted her gaze upon Twilight once more and stood waiting for her to make the first move.

"What's the plan Twilight?" asked Applejack standing ready to fight beside Twilight, "Yer' making the calls now, and don't worry. We're all here with ya on this one."

Twilight looked around at her friends who were also right next to her ready to fight. She looked in the sky and saw the two dragons fighting and causing mayhem on the streets below them. When she looked down at the streets she saw thousands of Royal Guard fighting the spirits that had been summoned by Hoarfrost and civilians being chased by the spirits as well. She then looked at the two princesses' unconscious bodies lying on the floor motionless and she began to feel overcome by everything that was going on. She couldn't focus on one thing at a time. Her entire world around her began to spin and just when she was about to lose her mind she remembered something somepony very dear to her said a while back...

"Twilight, you've earned your authority as princess and you shouldn't be shy to use it."

"Everypony is counting on me to lead them out of this mess," she thought to herself. "Well, Twilight, let's show them we've got this under control."

Twilight began to issue out orders, "Rarity, Fluttershy, you two recover the two princesses. Get them to a safe place and keep them stable. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, I want you to go to the city below and rally our forces. Hold out as long as you can. If anyone gets hurt bring them to Fluttershy and Rarity. Rainbow Dash, go help Galacia take down the dragon but be careful. See if any other pegasi is brave enough to face the weather and help you out. As for me... I'll handle Celestia."

"Are you sure you can handle her alone, sugarcube?" asked Applejack.

"Of course I can," replied Twilight. "Besides, nopony else would be able to match her power. Now, get ready, we all move on my signal."

"We're all ready for you, Twilight." said Rainbow dash.

"Three..." Twilight began counting down while she prepared herself to charge, "Two..." Her friends around her prepared to rush their separate directions. "One... GO!"

Twilight took off charging at Celestia while at the same time charging a magical attack with her horn.

Celestia stood her ground and charged her horn as well.

Both alicorns fired off their charge at each other at the same time colliding in between the two in a huge orb of light. Twilight slid back slightly due to the force but kept her magic beam strong while Celestia stood there unchanged as if she was barely breaking a sweat holding her attack back with her own. She managed to open her eyes and look off to the side to see Fluttershy and Rarity reaching the two princesses.

"Princess Luna, can you hear me?" questioned Rarity.

The princess did not answer.

"Come on, Fluttershy. Let's take them to the throne room. It's close and it has a lot of space for other ponies who need care."

The two ponies attempted to sling both princesses on their backs but had trouble doing so due to the princesses being bigger in size. Seeing their struggle, Applejack and Rainbow Dash decided to turn back around and help Rarity and Fluttershy with moving the two princesses. Each pony took one of the princesses' front hooves and they dragged them out the room and down a flight of stairs leading to the hallway with the stain glass windows which lead to the throne room and began to make their way to the end of it. When they had gotten about halfway when suddenly a couple of stain glass windows behind them shattered inward as two ghostly militia ponies jumped through them. One with a spear and the other with a sword in it's mouth.

"Think you two can get em the rest of the way?" asked Applejack.

"Yes, I think we can manage." replied Rarity. "If anypony gets hurt out there you know where to send them. Also it would be nice if you sent a couple of medical specialist our way if you happen to find some."

"Got it," said Applejack grabbing her long sword's hilt with her mouth and unsheathing it getting ready for battle. Rainbow dash spread her wings revealing her many wingblades she had and also prepared to engage.

Applejack heard the door to the throne room shut behind her. She was alone with Rainbow Dash standing before the two ghostly militia ponies who began to close in slowly.

"You've got a plan, Applejack?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Not at the moment." Applejack answered.

"Good, because I do. Follow my lead."

Rainbow Dash flew up from the ground and picked Applejack up with her. She then took off full force at the two militia ponies spinning at a rapid pace. Rainbow Dash flew directly in between the two militia ponies hitting one with her wingblades and the other with Applejack's long sword slicing both at the same time. Both militia ponies fell to the ground in halves and immediately dissolved into the wind.

"I've always wanted to pull a move like that," said Rainbow Dash. "Maybe we could do it again sometime."

Applejack stumbled dizzily on her feet. "No," she said, "Next time we follow my plan."

At that moment the wing of a dragon crashed through the side of the hallway, ripping the walkway clean in half revealing that the hallway was suspended a great amount in the air and throwing both ponies to the ground on separate sides of the hole that had just opened. The second dragon crashed straight through Applejack's side of the hallway taking her with it.

Applejack landed with a thud on the dragon's back and began sliding off before she reached out and caught onto one of the spikes on the dragon's back before she fell. She looked up and saw queen Galacia standing without any fear of falling at the dragon's head controlling it's movements.

"Oh hey Applejack!" She heard a voice behind her. "How's it hanging? Ha Ha. Get it? because your hanging on for dear life, just like me. Ha ha." She turned to look behind her and saw Pinkie Pie holding onto a spike just like her.

"Pinkie Pie?" said Applejack. "How the hay did you get up here? Aren't you supposed to be helping on the ground?"

"Couldn't I ask you the same questions Applejack?" Replied Pinkie Pie. "I'd love to stay and chat but here comes my stop." At that moment Applejack watched as Pinkie Pie let go of the spike she was holding onto and fall down landing on two ghostly militia ponies who were fighting a member of the royal guard on the roof of a building stabbing both in the back of their heads with her daggers.

"Ah swear something's wrong with that girl." Applejack muttered to herself.

"Applejack! Are you alright?" shouted Rainbow Dash as she flew along side the dragon. "That was so awesome how the dragon came crashing through and took you with it."

"Uh, sorry to kinda cut you short there, Rainbow, but aren't you supposed to be handling this dragon problem we're having?"

"Oh yeah, that's right. I should probably get on that." She replied as she sped forward to engage the enemy dragon.

"It would've been nice if you helped me get to the ground Rainbow!" Applejack shouted as Rainbow Dash took off. Unfortunately, she was not heard and so reluctantly she began climbing from spike to spike with the wind and snow beating at her face to try and reach queen Galacia at the dragon's head. As she was doing this the dragon flew over the tower in which Twilight was still locking spells with Celestia.

"Just give up already, Twilight Sparkle. Your struggle is in vain." said Princess Celestia, "Nopony has ever defeated King Frost Thorn. This world will freeze. Listen to your teacher and just give up."

"You're not my teacher!" Screamed Twilight, "My teacher would never lose hope in me!"

Celestia began to chuckle to herself and the more she did the more her voice changed. It got deeper and deeper until it closely resembled that of Hoarfrost's and her face began to warp in dark manners.

"Are you sure about that? Ha ha ha! Because she already has!" she said in her dark voice as her spell began to increase in power and break Twilight's limits.

Twilight drew up extra strength to push the spell away from her but she could only stall it's advance.

"Galacia!" shouted Applejack as she finally reached the head of the dragon.

"Not now, guardian! Your friend is disrupting Salzaura's flight pattern! He's slowing down! I almost have him!" She shouted back.

Frostbite began to speed up as Salzaura began to slow down until both met with a full on tackle. Both dragons began tumbling back down to the ground in an all out fight. Eventually Salzaura's head wrapped around and sunk his teeth into Frostbite's neck bringing Hoarfrost up close to the two ponies on Frostbite's head. Applejack saw this as an opportunity to strike at him so she took out her long sword once more and leaped towards him. The sword lodged itself in his left shoulder causing him to roar in pain and dismounting him from his dragon causing both ponies to fall. It wasn't long before they hit the floor of the tower in which Twilight was fighting Celestia in. Hoarfrost quickly rose to his feet.

"You foolish whelp!" He screamed at him as he opened his mouth and sank his razor sharp teeth into Applejack's neck. He then lifted her up off the floor and threw her across the room. Her body landed hard and slid across the floor until it came to a stop as it hit a wall that still remained intact.

Applejack's body lay there, neck bleeding profusely showing no sign of getting back up.

"Applejack!" Twilight screamed, as her focus began to shift and the ball of energy where her spell met Celestia's began to approach.

"Enough of these games!" shouted Hoarfrost as he ripped Applejack's sword out of his shoulder. "All of this ends now! Between you and me descendant!"

Hoarfrost stepped into Celestia's ghostly image and appeared to absorb her power. Out of nowhere he grew a horn and pair of wings. The magical beam began to grow stronger when this happened and the ball of energy crept closer until it had almost met Twilight's horn causing a great amount of stress and pain to surge through her body.

At last Hoarfrost's might broke through and the ball of energy hit Twilight sending her flying across the room landing on the ground in defeat.

Hoarfrost began to laugh at Twilight's defeat. "Is that it?" he questioned, "Is that all the descendant has to offer! It's pathetic!"

Twilight's vision began to fade as she laid in defeat. She began to feel the cold around her surge through her body as Hoarfrost began to approach her to execute his final blow but was stopped when he saw Twilight rising to her feet once more.

Hoarfrost began to chuckle once more. "You don't know when to quit do you?" he questioned firing another beam of magic at her but once again she rose to her hooves. "You're defeated. Why won't you accept your fate?" He fired another beam of magic knocking her down but again she got back up. "Damn you!" he shouted, "Why won't you stay down!? Why do you persevere in the face of defeat!? Why do you fight!?"

"Why do I fight?" Twilight muttered under her breath. She drew up the last of her strength and fired a powerful beam of magic at Hoarfrost meeting his own halfway in a ball of energy once more.

"I fight for peace between nations!" she yelled. An ancient symbol carved itself in the right cheek of her mask as her magic grew stronger pushing the ball of energy towards Hoarfrost.

"I fight for the love of my friends and family!" a second symbol carved itself into the left cheek of her mask as her magic grew even stronger pushing the ball closer to Hoarfrost.

"But most importantly, I fight for the hope of a better tomorrow!" a third symbol carved itself in the forehead of Twilight's mask and began to glow like the other two and suddenly two lines from the other two symbols reached out and joined together in between Twilight's eyes and continued as one light until it reached the third symbol at her forehead. A third, brighter, line began from the third symbol and reached up to Twilight's horn charging it with even more power than before completely overwhelming Hoarfrost's magic and engulfing him in a giant beam of light causing him to scream out in defeat as his body dissolved into the white light. When Twilight finally ceased her magical attack her vision was foggy but she could faintly make out what seemed to be a heart which closely resembled that of the Crystal Empire's heart where Hoarfrost once stood as she sunk to the floor and blacked out.

Epilogue: Drums of War

Twilight began to open her eyes, her vision was still foggy but she could obviously see that the sun was shining bright in the sky beaming in through a window on the wall opposite to her warming her face and she was laying in a hospital bed. She attempted sitting up in her bed but she was stopped by a friendly voice.

"Whoa there, sugarcube. Take it easy."

"Applejack?" asked Twilight looking to where the voice came from blinking her eyes a couple of times in order to clear up her vision. She saw Applejack laying in a bed next to her with her neck wrapped in bandages where she had been bitten. "Applejack are you okay?"

"Don't you worry about me, Twi." Applejack replied, "That was some show you put on back there."

"Is it over? Did we beat Hoarfrost?"

"Well, it ain't snowin' no more and it's a whole lot warmer so I'd say we've done it," replied Applejack.

"Where is everypony else?"

"They're out helpin' to get everything back to the way it was. There's a lot of snow to melt and it ain't gunna melt itself."

Suddenly the door to the room they were in swung open and in walked Princess Celestia and Queen Galacia ,who was carrying a chest adorned with gold trimmings and precious stones with her magic, stopping at the foot of Twilight's bed.

"Looks like our hero is finally awake," said Celestia. "I hope you don't mind us interrupting you two but we have some important matters to discuss."

"I'm sure you have many questions to ask, Descendant..."

"Twilight," said Twilight interrupting Queen Galacia, "Please, just call me Twilight."

"Twilight," Queen Galacia replied with a smile. "I'm going to start back in the beginning and explain why all of this is happening."

"Some time ago there were three very similar empires each representing a different element of civilization and each was in charge of keeping their specific element kindled using special towers which were called the Conduits of Eternity by using a special power source to spread their element across the land. The Crystal Empire, which has already resurfaced, represented the element of love, The Ice Flow Empire, the empire I was in charge of, represented the element of hope, and The Empire of the Sands, which seems to have yet to resurface, represented the element of peace. When all the empires functioned properly, civilization flourished.

"However, each of these elements had their polar opposites called The Elements of Decay. Where there was love there was fear, hope, despair, and peace, war. Over time these dark elements began to manifest in the form of corrupted ponies called The Lords of Decay each consumed by their desire to see the world bend to their will. The first conduit to fall was The Empire of the Sands, which, to my knowledge, fell due to a civil war caused by the commander of the guard Colonel Bloodhoof.

"After Colonel Bloodhoof was appointed commander of the guard it didn't take him long to develop a lust for world domination but whenever he would appeal to the empire's ruler, King Sandstorm, to campaign for more territory he was immediately declined. Eventually, Colonel Bloodhoof formed a coup d'etat within the government and a civil war ravaged the city for three days before King Sandstorm cast a spell banishing the empire to the sands. Thus, the first conduit, the conduit of peace, was lost to the sands.

"The Ice Flow Empire was the next to fall due to Hoarfrost's greed for power causing him to turn on his own subjects. In a last ditch effort to prevent him from continuing his conquest, I sacrificed myself and used our power source, the Heart of Frost to freeze us both by forcing the heart into his heart. Without it's power source The Ice Flow Empire was unable to tame the storms of the north and quickly became a frozen wasteland sadly taking the lives of those who lived in it.

"Since you were able to defeat Hoarfrost, however, I was able to retrieve this," Queen Galacia paused to open up the chest she was carrying to reveal a heart made completely out of ice inside it. "The Heart of Frost. Soon after our discussion here I will travel back to the Ice Flow Empire to restore it back to power. Once I do, it should cause the land to be a more habitable place allowing for ponies to once more live in it's streets."

"How come we didn't know about these conduits before all this happened?" asked Twilight.

"I have a couple of theories myself," replied Princess Celestia, "The most possible being the fact that this happened when Canterlot was still being founded. Our only encounter with these conduits was when Luna and I led a campaign to stop King Sombra who had already succeeded in taking control of The Crystal Empire. Our only mission at that time was to stop him from attacking our kingdom. That and corrupted documents. My bet is that when King Sombra came into power he didn't want certain details about the conduits to be accessible to anypony which may have caused him to destroy certain text."

The door to the room they were in swung open once again and in walked Dr. First Frost and Snowblind stopping at Celestia and Galacia's feet and bowing before them.

"I am terribly sorry to interrupt your highnesses, but I have been sent down from the Crystal Empire to acquire infromation from the six ponies who ventured into the Frozen North for my studies."

Queen Galacia's eyes quickly darted towards Snowblind and seemed to widen in shock as her jaw dropped.

"S-S-Snowblind?" Galacia stuttered, causing Snowblind to look up at her. "I-i-impossible."

"Y-y-yes your highness?" Snowblind muttered shyly standing back up.

Galacia dropped the chest she was holding and ran to embrace Snowblind. Tears began rolling down her face. "I thought I'd never see you again. I thought I had lost you forever."

"E-excuse me your highness but I'm not quite sure what you mean." said Snowblind.

"Of course," Galacia said releasing Snowblind from her embrace, "You were too young to be able to remember, but, your my daughter."

Everypony's jaw in the room dropped at that moment.

"B-but how?" asked Galacia.

"I might be able to explain." said Dr. First Frost, "During one of my endeavors in the Frozen North I came upon a creature that resembled a bear only with white fur. At first I didn't know what to think but as the bear approached I noticed that it seemed to be cradling a small filly wrapped in cloth in one of it's arms. He came up to me and passed the filly off to me then turned around and left. I took the filly back with me to my facility and unwrapped it. Sure enough it was a filly alicorn. There was a name on the blanket she was wrapped in reading 'Princess Snowblind' so I kept the name. I decided to raise her as my own and once she became of age I made her my assistant."

"Frost Claw must've found you after I froze myself and took care of you." said Galacia, "I'm so happy to see you alive and well. You've grown up so much since I saw you last. When we go back to the empire I'm going to teach you how to run it and soon enough you will be the new ruler."

"I-I can't believe this," stuttered Snowblind, "My mother. I've finally met my mother."

Both ponies embraced each other once more.

"Thank you so much for taking care of my daughter all this time." Galacia said to Dr. First Frost, "If there is anything I can do for you."

"Actually," said Dr. First Frost, "Did you mention something about an empire in the Frozen North?"

"That is correct," answered Galacia.

"Could I possibly come along with you to continue my studies and live in this empire?" asked Dr. Frost.

"Of course you can." replied Galacia.

"Excellent!" said Dr. Frost, "I'm going to head back to the Crystal Empire immediately to put the expeditionary team. Please don't leave without me."

"We'll wait for you there."

"Excellent. Thank you ever so much your highness." Dr. First Frost turned and raced out of the room to catch the next train heading back to the Crystal Empire.

"Well, now that that is over," said Princess Celestia, "Now we get back to the problem at hand and that is since two out of the three conduits have resurfaced it means the last one is bound to resurface soon as well."

"Of course," said Galacia, "The third conduit is most likely to resurface soon and we all know what will be coming with it. Colonel Bloodhoof or, better known as, Warlord Bloodmoon, bringer of war. I suggest you use this period of time to build your military strength Princess Celestia. For with the conduit of Peace, comes the Lord of War."

Chapter 6: Crystalline Rebirth

Chapter 6: A Rainbow in The Dark

Rainbow Dash poked her head out of the giant pile of snow she had been buried in and searched her surroundings. She had fallen deep into an underground cavern which seemed to be lit by glowing crystals scattered around the walls and ceiling in various shapes and colors. A short while later Pinkie Pie shot out of the same pile of snow she was in.

"Whee! That was fun! let's do it again" she said bouncing around the cavern as if she didn't just barely escape with her life after a fifty foot fall. At least that's what it looked like to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash struggled to dig herself the rest of the way out of the pile of snow. Once she had freed herself she looked back up at the hole they fell into. She then looked to her sides and attempted to flap her wings or move them in some way but to no avail. She growled to herself in frustration and pain due to the soreness the fall gave her.

Ugh, stupid suit. Why couldn't they make it so pegasi could fly? That would make this job so much easier for me.

"Wow, Dashie, that was quite the fall we had huh?" said Pinkie Pie. "Guess we won't be going back up that way. I mean it's not like that suit allows you to fly us out of here. I mean, if you could do that then problem solved right there, right?"

"I know, Pinkie," Rainbow grumbled in an irritated tone, "You don't have to remind me."

I can only handle so much of this.

Suddenly, Rainbow could hear the voice of Twilight echoing down from above, saying, "Rainbow! Pinkie! Say something! Are you two okay?!"

Rainbow's ears perked at the sound as she stood straight and looked up. Surely, she thought, that if anyone could get her out of ths mess it would be Twilight. "We're alright! A little bruised up, but we're okay! It's hard to see down here, but I think we landed in a cave system of some sort! Doesn't look like there is a way out other than going through it!"

Before she could utter her next sentence, Pinkie Pie exclaimed, "It's so shiny down here!"

"Pinkie's right, there are a lot of weird glowing crystal things down here!" said Rainbow

The two ponies waited for another response from Twilight. "Go ahead and follow the cave system to find a way out!" she said, "After you do make it out you should be able to use you wrist device to find us on the map."

Rainbow Dash's heart sank. What Twilight just said was that she was going to leave her trapped in a cave system with Pinkie Pie, which may or may not have a way out, and expected them to find a way out on their own.

While Rainbow Dash was taking all this in Pinkie Pie blurted out, "Okie, dokie, lokie!"

Rainbow Dash snapped out of her trance and responded as well. "Alright! We'll see you on the other side then!" and suddenly silence fell upon them which made Rainbow Dash's heart sink even deeper. The rest of her friends had left her.

"Come on Dashie! Why the long face?" said Pinkie, when she noticed that her friend wasn't as enthusiastic as she had been before.

Rainbow Dash lifted her head and looked Pinkie Pie dead in the eyes. "Leave me alone, Pinkie," she said, "Let's just get moving." She then began to reluctantly travel through the cave system.

Pinkie Pie, however, didn't take getting shrugged off too lightly.

"Gee, I wonder what's gotten into Dashie lately." she said to herself, "She seems so moody all of a sudden. I guess I should find out why." Pinkie Pie ran to catch up with Rainbow Dash and asked her, "Is the something wrong Dashie?"

"No," Rainbow Dash replied as she continued to keep her bearing and walk deeper into the cave.

"Then why the long face?" Questioned Pinkie.

"Just leave me alone, Pinkie." Rainbow Moaned once again keeping her bearing and continuing to walk into the darkness of the cave.

"Come on Dashie! You'll never see your friends again."

T'his time Rainbow Dash quickly snapped her head back to look at Pinkie who was standing there with a malicious looking grin on her face. "Wait. What did you just say?"

"I saaaaid, We'll make it out of this cave."

Rainbow Dash stared back at her awkwardly for a while. Did I just hear her say... She thought before slowly turning back to face the tunnel and continue down it's path.

"Your only escape is through the grave."

This time the voice was different. Is was darker and malevolent. Rainbow Dash was more hesitant to turn around and see what or who was now following her because only one thing was certain in her mind: It was no longer Pinkie Pie. Slowly she turned her head to face whatever was now behind her. When she finally finished turning she had looked a pitch black stallion with a white flowing mane in his sky blue eyes. An overwhelming sense of fear entered her body and shivers ran down her spine at the sight. "W-Who are you?" she questioned in a nervous tone.

The stallion began to chuckle to himself as he began to walk closer to Dash. "Who am I? What an insult. After all we've already met. I am the chill that so gently caresses your skin. As of this very moment I am in your body. I flow through your veins and eat at your soul until you have nothing left but emptiness. Simply put, I am despair and I have come for you for you have lost hope."

The stallion stopped right in front of Rainbow who was frozen in fear and just when she was about to give up what little hope she had left the crystals around her began to glow with intense power and a light shown from the caverns behind her.

"GAH!" the dark stallion shut his eyes and yelled in pain. "GALACIA!" Rainbow Dash's fear had subsided and she now stood in amazement as she watched the evil entity suffer in front of her.

Suddenly a voice called out from within the light saying, "Do not lose hope, Rainbow Dash. Now is your chance. Run to me while the monster is blind. I can only hold him off for so long."

"NO!" Shouted the stallion, "She is MINE! You will not take her from ME!"

Rainbow looked back towards the light at the end of the cavern.

"Quickly, to me my child!" The voice called out again. This time Rainbow Dash obeyed and took off down the cavern towards the light.

As she approached the source the light began to fade and she started to make out two silhouettes. A tall one and one about her size standing at the tall one's side. By the time she had reached the source the light had faded and Rainbow could see the two ponies who she had been running to. The tall one was a beautiful white alicorn with a white coat and long white hair. The other had been none other than Pinkie Pie who was overjoyed to see her lost friend.

"There you are Dashie," she said giving her a tight hug, "Where have you been? We've been looking all over for you."

"There is no time Pinkie," said the taller pony, "Our enemy approaches with rage. You must keep him at bay while I awaken your friend."

To this command the pink pony released her friend and saluted the tall pony saying, "I'm on it your highness."

Pinkie Pie turned to face the dark cavern which Rainbow Dash had just ran out of, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. The crystals on the walls and ceiling began to radiate light. After the light had grown exponentially the light left the crystals and traveled to coat Pinkie Pie in the form of sharp heavy armor from head to hoof. Along with the armor came a set of what seemed to be sheathed throwing daggers along a strap that trailed from one of her shoulders across her body turning around at her opposite hip and traveling back up her back to meet itself where it started at her shoulder. Two longer daggers were also sheathed at her sides attached to a belt around her waist.

She stood ready at the mouth of the darkness as the dark stallion jumped out at her.

The stallion growled at her and said, "Step aside, fool! The rainbow one is mine!"

Pinkie vanished suddenly and reappeared riding on the dark stallion's back ruffling his white mane. "Sounds like somepony's having a bad day."

The stallion reared up and attempted to knock Pinkie off but she had already disappeared and reappeared back in her space between the taller pony and the stallion.

"FOOL!" shouted the dark stallion, "You toy with forces you do not understand!"

"Oh I understand," said Pinkie, "Understand that your a big meanie who's trying to hurt all of my friends and take over Equestria."

The dark stallion roared and lurched forward to bite the pink pony with his razor sharp fangs but Pinkie had once again disappeared and reappeared behind him throwing a couple of blades made of pure light at him which lodged themselves in the stallion's stomach to which he moaned in pain.

"Hey, Dashie!" said Pinkie cartwheeling to the side to doge another attack and throw a couple more blades of light at the stallion, "Hurry up and get hopeful or else you'll miss out on the fun!"

Rainbow Dash turned back to the alicorn and said, "What the hay is going on right now?!"

The tip of the alicorns horn began to glow and suddenly there was a giant flash of light which caused Rainbow Dash to close her eyes. When she was able to open them again she found that her surrounding had changed completely and she was now alone. There was no light anywhere and she couldn't even tell if there was a floor even though she knew she was standing on something.

"Where am I?!" she shouted into the darkness. She heard her own voice echo on for miles.

A voice came back from an unknown origin saying, "It seems you have forgotten something Rainbow. This is where you will remember."

"Remember what? I haven't forgotten anything." Rainbow replied.

"Your friends," the voice echoed back.

Rainbow closed her eyes and began to think about her friends. She visualized each of them in her mind and when she opened her eyes again there they were. All standing in front of her.

"Guys?" she said, "Are you actually there?"

The images faded away.

"Hey, what gives?" she said, "What was that? Why did you take them away?"

"I didn't take them away, Rainbow." the voice answered, "You did."

Rainbow's heart sank a little in her chest.

"Your friends have always been with you, Rainbow. Through all of your adventures, your hardships, and your milestones."

Memories of all of the adventures that Rainbow had with her friends and they began to show up in the darkness. With every memory that showed up the area she was standing in began to get brighter.

"No matter what, Rainbow, friends will always be there for you." The voice said, "But sometimes things happen and it may seem like they are gone. Like they are not there for you anymore."

Rainbow remembered when she fell into the giant fissure. Sure enough the memory showed up in the darkness and she watched as she fell into the hole, losing sight of her friends as she fell into the darkness. She remembered thinking that she wasn't going to survive the fall.

The area went completely dark again and Rainbow's heart sank the rest of the way and she sank to the floor. A tear rolled down her cheek, followed by another, and another.

Rainbow Dash began to cry.

Over her shoulder a mysterious white light appeared and crept closer to her. When it had stopped she looked up and saw the white alicorn standing there smiling.

Rainbow reached over and grabbed a hold of one of the white alicorns front legs continuing to sob and said, "I didn't want them to go. I didn't want them to leave me in the dark to die. I don't even know if there is away out."

The white alicorn began to caress Rainbow's mane. "But you weren't alone, my child." she said.

Rainbow took her face out of the alicorns leg. She saw Pinkie Pie cuddled up next to her in a ball sleeping. She could feel a bit of warmth enter her body coming from Pinkie Pie and the area got a bit brighter.

Rainbow's crying began to calm down. She looked back up at the alicorn and said, "What do I have to do to see my friends again?"

The alicorn smile even bigger and said, "Persevere, my child. You must not lose your determination. You must remember your friends and that they are always there for you. Even when you can't see it. They are there. You must remember that there is something worth fighting for. There always is. Once you realize this you will find the endurance to survive the coldest of snowstorms. Even light the darkest of caverns."

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and began to remember her friends again. As she did she began to feel more and more warmth fill her body until she finally opened her eyes to see that she was now surrounded by her friends cuddling her and keeping her warm. The area began to radiate with what seemed like the purest white light she had ever seen.

Rainbow turned and looked up at the alicorn with tears of joy now hanging from her eyes. "Your friends are counting on you," the alicorn said, "Do not let despair take a hold of you. Remember, there is always something worth fighting for." The light began to radiate brighter and brighter. It became so bright that it started to overwhelm Rainbow's vision and she closed her eyes once more. "Now go." she heard the alicorn say, "For you are the only one who can master your own despair."

After a while Rainbow Dash felt the light die down and began hearing the sounds of the fight she was watching before she had left. She opened her eyes again to see that she was in the same cave system and that Pinkie Pie was fighting a losing battle with the black stallion. By this time he had her completely disarmed and pinned to the ground.

"Your time has come, pink one." said the stallion, "Now you must pay for the setback you gave me."

Pinkie Pie just sat there with a look of indifference on her face. "Yeah, yeah," she said, "you don't know how sill you sound when you say that."

At that moment a rock came flying from across the cavern hitting the stallion in the head causing him to growl and turn towards it's origin. He saw Rainbow Dash standing before him.

"Leave my friend alone," she said, "I'm the one you want, right?"

The black stallion smiled showing off his razor sharp teeth before charging at Rainbow pinning her to the ground.

"Have you come back to accept your fate?" he growled, "What a shame. I like it more when they struggle."

"No, I haven't," Rainbow Dash replied, "I've come to show you what I've learned."

At that moment, the the crystals in the cave began to radiate light once more.

The black stallion looked around at the crystals in fear. "No!" he said, "This cannot be!"

The crystal's light left them to coat Rainbow just like they had done with Pinkie Pie. Once all the light had reached her she let out a pulse of light which threw the black stallion off of her and rammed him into the wall opposite them. When the light settled once more it revealed Rainbow Dash now equipped with the same armor as Pinkie Pie only instead of knives each individual feather on her wings were made to be sharp blades made out of light and she had regained her power to fly which she was now doing with pride.

The black stallion growled to himself. "You may have won this battle, but in order to truly defeat me you must set me free and once I'm free I will be even more powerful than you could ever imagine."

Rainbow Dash took off at full speed flying in a spiral like patter until her razor sharp wings made contact with the stallion, cutting him clean in half. What remained of the stallion fell to the floor motionless, dissolving into shadow until nothing was left. Rainbow Dash then skidded to a halt moments after and stood in triumphant glory in her new suit of armor.

Pinkie Pie ran up and embraced her victorious friend. "Woo-hoo!" she cheered, "You got the moves Dashie!"

"Thanks Pinkie," Rainbow replied, "I still have no idea what's going on though. Care to explain what you've learned?"

"Sure thing Dashie," Pinkie replied releasing Rainbow Dash, "But I'll have to tell you on the way to the Ice Flow Empire."

"The what?" questioned Rainbow Dash.

"Duh," replied Pinkie, "The Ice Flow Empire. You know. The conduit of hope and all of that fancy business."

"I have no idea what you are talking about Pinkie," said Rainbow.

"You mean Queen Galacia didn't tell you?" said Pinkie.

"Queen Galacia?" questioned Rainbow, "Was that the name of the tall white alicorn?"

"Yup, and the black one's name was Hoarfrost. He's the one causing the snowstorms." answered Pinkie. "That's enough for now, I'll tell you the rest on the way. Come on, you fly and I'll give you directions. Although really it's just a little ways to the north from here. Oh well. That just gives me more time to talk."

"Fly?" questioned Rainbow, "But I thought I couldn't fly in my..."

"The armor your wearing allows pegasi to fly and keeps you warm." replied Pinkie, "I know mine keeps me warm."

"Really!?" shouted an excited Rainbow Dash, "Alright! I love this armor!" Rainbow flew up slightly and picked Pinkie up by wrapping her legs around her and squeezing as tight as she could while Pinkie did her best to hold on herself. "Now hold on tight, Pinkie. It's going to be a bumpy ride until we get out of this cavern."

Rainbow Dash took off as fast as she could down the cave system going down the same tunnels as they did before dodging columns of ice left and right until they saw the light that was coming in from the hole they fell through above. When they got to that point Rainbow Dash pulled up almost suddenly and withing a few seconds they had cleared the hole and flew straight up into a white sky that was no longer snowing. Once Rainbow got to a decently high altitude she leveled off and began to head north, breaking the sound barrier and causing a sonic rainboom in the process.

"Woo-hoo!" cheered both ponies as they zipped off into the distance.