Hearth's Warming at Dusk

In the polar north regions of the world, miles North of Equestria where the winter weather thrived for much of the year, there was a mountain which was a prison of sorts for a being so ancient that few knew of his existance. Tucked away in the caverns that lie within the base of the mountain, an old enemy of the world sit dormant, frozen in time for many, many years. Stashed there by his brother, for reasons unknown. Not that much was known about him anyway.

There was probably less known about him by anypony in Equestria or in any of the other kingdoms for that matter, than there was about the Crystal Empire when it had recently resurfaced. Very few books spoke of his existance, let alone any details about who he was. 'Why?' You might ask. Well no one really knows why, except for the one who put him in his prison, oh so many years ago. Discord!

For many years he sat, frozen like a statue in his cave. He and his minions of old, five white bat ponies, or thestrals if you want to use the technical term, slumbered for over a millineum, while the world went on. However their slumber was soon to end, as their prison, their own individual encasements of ice, began to melt from around them. Hour after hour, they began to thaw out. One of them gained consciousness after days of the thawing process and was able to bust his way out of his encasement, that was almost melted away. The largest of the minions, a tall thestral stallion with a small beard on his chin, a scraggly short mane, and large bushy eye brows, wasted no time awakening his comrades. He busted the ice around them, followed by shaking their bodies to wake them up when he had finally gotten them out of their imprisonments. It proved effective as each one he shook awake, woke up and each of them that had waken up did the same to the remaining until they had all woken up. All five of them proceeded to stretch their muscles after being frozen in time for over a millineum.

Each of them were disgruntled and furious, as if they were still living in the moment when they had all been imprisoned by the one they hated the most for putting them there. Their rage was halted when one of them gestured to the place where their boss once stood, the small remnants of his ice prison had been reduced to a few shards of ice sticking out of the ground. Had he escaped on his own? Did he leave? Given his power that he had, it would have come as no surprise if he would have been able to leave despite the fact that the several inch thick wall of ice that kept them hidden in the cave was still in tact, but it didn't make much sense to them for him to leave them there. The largest of the group, knowing this, called out for him.

"Master!" he shouted. "Are you alive?"

"Yeeees..." replied a voice from deeper into the cave. It had nearly startled the group, as the looked around for him while the cave echoed. He was deeper in the cave, too deep to see him from where they were standing. There was no light that far back, but they could see a pair of yellow eyes and red irises inside them staring back at them, there was no doubt in their minds that it was him. "But stay where you are, do not come any closer until I've had the chance to regain my strength. Given the fridged temperatures outside, that shouldn't take too long."

"It is such a relief to hear your voice once again, my lord." replied the same stallion, obviously the lead minion of the group.

"I extend that to you as well, Claus!" said the voice of their master. "It brings me great joy to be free once again! I can no get back to finishing what I started oh so long ago! Turning the world into a winter waste land!"

"Soon Discord will pay for what he has done to us!" said another stallion, this one smaller and thinner than Claus and wore an eye patch, and a stocking cap made out of old rags. "I can't wait ta see his face when we shove him in this prison for... however long we've been here!"

"In due time, Skua!" chuckled the voice. "In due time!"

"And it'll be great to see you in action again, the way you move when you do your wintery spells and-" began the smallest thestral of the group. She was about the size of an average pony mare and had a short silver mane and tail and the only mare. She spoke out from her mind, only to get interrupted by her fellow minion for more ridicule.

"Please don't start on that again, Fidget!" said Oscar, a stocky stallion with a deep voice, and the second largest of the group as he deadpanned his only female compatriot, while she blushed furiously with embarassment. "You will never have a chance with the boss, so why even bother? Besides, everything that comes out of your mouth is creepy! Right Ed?"

The second smallest of the group, and the only one who couldn't speak, nodded in agreement to Oscar's statement, while chuckling.

"He's only nodding because he was asked a question!" contested Fidget, who was glaring at Oscar furiously before a smug expression came upon her face. "I'm sure the master loves a good compliment every once in a while, don't ya boss?"

"Perhaps he'd be more impressed if you actually did something around here for a change, Fidge!" snapped Skua. "All you do is fawn over the boss and make stupid remarks!"

"You're one to talk!" quipped Claus, stomping the ground with his hoof, making the ground shake. "When you clowns mess everything up, I have to step in and fix it! You're all worthless without me!"

"Oh yeah?" said Skua, foolishly contesting the dominant of the minions. "How would you like to fix your teeth once I'm done kicking a gap into them?" A mere five minutes out of bondage and he'd already forgotten his place.

Annoyed, Claus took advantage of his own strength, tackled Skua and pinned him down to the ground to express his dominance. "I'd like to see you try!" he said before letting up and allowing Skua to get back on his feet.

"On second thought, I think I'll pass... jerk." he said as he climbed back on to the rock he had been sitting on prior to being knocked down to the ground.

Ed threw in a few grunts and groans to keep himself in the mix. Just because he coldn't talk, didn't mean he had nothing to say. Whether or not he would be heard was irrelevant to him.

"Agh" exclaimed Fidget. "Our powers aren't working either!" she said as she looked down at a light blue colored crystal that hung around her neck. "I can't make a single blast with this thing!"

"We have been out of commission for quite some time. How long, I'm not sure, but once we regain our strength our powers will work again!" said Oscar.

"And when they do, we will be unstoppable!" said Skua.

"Just make sure that you numbskulls keep the plan, whatever it may be! We don't need anymore screw ups! That's how we lost the first time!" noted Claus, causing a flamewar among the other four. They clearly didn't like it when he blamed their failures on him, never taking the blame. A bit arrogant? Perhaps, but the negative energy made their master's power increase by the moment. What, in any normal pony's environment, would be considered petty and immature, in this case was almost brilliant thinking on his part. Brains and brawn.

Claus stopped arguing with the others for a minute and mentally noted the thick wall of ice that closed them in. After just waking up, none of them were yet strong enough to escape, not even their master from the looks of things, so they weren't home free yet. Though he was pretty confident in their chances of escaping once they had all fully recovered from their long rest.

"Master" said Claus, knealing before his hidden master. "When we do escape, how will we find him?"

"Don't you worry about that, Claus..." he said giving a few faint manical chuckles. "Don't you worry about that. He will come to us!"

"You're positive?"

"I'm banking on it, Claus!" he said prior to throwing a rock out of the darkness he was hiding in, which Clause saw coming as he ducked to avoid it. The rock then hit the wall of ice and cracked it slightly. "Once he heard of my intentions to freeze everything, he didn't like that. It interfered with his plans for spreading worldwide chaos, so he had to get rid of me. Understandable. But now I'm back and our battle for this world will only intesnify! He has the ability to sense magical imbalances, so... once I begin to really show my stuff, Discord will be rushing back here to put me back in my prison. But... this time will be different! This time I'll be ready! And the five of you had better ready as well! Because once I've taken him down, I'm going to need all of you to help me release my secret weapons that will help me finally take control of the world!"

Claus stared down at the crystal necklace that hung around his neck. Each of the minions possessed one. He smirked when he thought about how fun it was going to be when he and his comrades returned to action.

"It will be done, my liege!"

With no response from his master, Claus rejoined the others as they began to quarrel among themselves, while their boss sat back and took it all in, laughing all the while as they had been doing exactly what he needed them to do.

"That's it..." he said to himself, breathing heavily. "Keep it up! I'll have the power I need to get back on my feet the more you bafoons bicker. But why stop there? I can bring my windegos back once I get the entire world turned against it's self, and then finally I'll be able to accomplish my goal, and every creature shall be at my mercy!" He said as he chuckled maniacally, while his minions bickered amongst each other. "Who will be able to stand in my way, this time?"