The Adventure Begins Here
THE FROZEN HEART
Written by TheCrimsonDM
Two ponies walked through the snow covered planes of the Frozen North. The snow crunched underneath their hooves with each step, but other then that not a single sound could be heard. With no clouds in the sky the midday sun shone brightly upon them and with no wind blowing it was beginning to get a bit warm.
The taller one named Rita was enjoying the heat of the sun as it warmed the red robes she wore, the gold trim on the robes nearly sparkled in this sunlight. What little of her light brown fur was exposed was warmed by the sun as well. Thankfully her dark brown mane was just long enough to keep the sun out of her eyes. The snow would’ve been more chilly but she had her red and gold stripped socks on, she liked how well they matched her robes.
She looked down at her adopted little brother Razor and smiled. She remembered when they first met all those years ago, and how they’ve never been separated since. She felt pride in taking care of her little brother, and the fact that she was a unicorn and he was not, never once bothered her.
Razor walked a little uncomfortable though, he was wearing a blue coat over his dark gray fur. With how warm the sun was it would seem that Razor’s naturally higher body heat was making him more uncomfortable then Rita would’ve imagined. Rita couldn’t help but admire his silver and red stripped mane, she always thought it looked cool, especially considering how boring she thought her own mane looked.
Despite his obvious dislike for the blue coat, he kept his keen, red lizard like eyes on their surroundings. You see Razor is not a normal pony, although from afar he could be confused for an earth pony, his razor sharp teeth, and split hooves told a different story. Rita had no idea what he actually was, but has always called him The Dragon Pony for a nickname.
“Hey, sis. How long have we been out here? It feels like years since we last seen civilization,” Razor asked as he walked alongside Rita.
Rita looked down at him and answered, “It’s only been a week since the last village. We probably won’t see any more ponies until we begin our return. According to my estimates though, we should be seeing the ruins already.”
Rita and Razor were out here in the Frozen North, with a purpose. They were looking for the ancient ruins of a long lost civilization. More specifically Rita was looking for a specific artifact that was once held inside the old ruins.
“So there aren’t any ponies up here at all?” Razor asked.
“Well if we’re unlucky we might cross paths with a squad of Dusk Knights, but other than that we’re gonna be alone. Don’t worry little bro, I’ll keep you safe,” Rita said with a smile and a wink.
Razor looked away and said in a huff, “I don’t need protecting…but if we encounter any Dusk Knights…we will be in trouble won’t we.”
“Oh we will be totally screwed if that happens, but we should be safe. It’s not like that namby pamby princess has any clue as to where we are,” Rita explained confidently.
“Great,” Razor replied.
Rita stopped just as she saw something sticking out of the snow ahead of them. It was almost cone shaped and stood out of the snow covered earth by a good forty, or fifty feet. The object in question was also very large in diameter and worse yet. It was shiny.
Rita quickly brought a hoof up to her eyes to block out the sun before continuing her examination of the object. There were little holes along the object, and it didn’t seem to be made out of ice. Rather it looked almost crystalline.
“We found it,” Rita said in awe as it dawned on her.
“Found what exactly, it’s really bright,” Razor said a little agitated.
“That’s the very top of the old castle, Razor. We found the ruins, and they are buried under the snow almost completely,” Rita exclaimed as she began galloping towards the structure.
“Why are you excited if it’s buried? Doesn’t that mean we’re out of luck?” Razor asked as he caught up to her.
“No, in fact it means that we have a better chance of finding everything intact. We are going to get that artifact and nopony can stop us now,” Rita shouted with joy.
***
When the two arrived at the base of the structure Rita realized that her theory was indeed was correct. This was the top of the castle sticking out of the snow, but considering the old castle was pretty much just a giant crystalline tower this was to be expected. Rita grinned like a mad mare as she walked up to one of the windows and looked inside.
Just inside she saw an old room, in her opinion a little small for a castle. There was a bed, a chair, and a bookshelf. Two doors in the room meant that one lead to a hallway, the other most likely lead to the toilet. Rita looked back at Razor and said, “Time to go dungeon delving.”
The two of them climbed through the window and into the room. The inside of the room was slightly colder without the heat of the sun to bask in. Rita dug through her saddlebags and found a torch. After lighting it she examined the room a little harder.
She couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary save for the door being blocked off by a chair. Rita continued her search into the bathroom, and stopped dead in her tracks. Inside the bathroom she found a very depressing sight. A frozen mummy laid in the tub wrapped in a blanket, this pony must have frozen to death while hiding in here.
Rita backed away and closed the door slowly before turning towards Razor. Razor smiled and asked, “Was it in the bathroom?”
Rita shook her head and lied, “No, I didn’t see anything in there. We should check the lower levels of the castle.”
Razor went to the door and moved the chair out of the way and Rita glanced back one last time at the door before thinking, whatever happened here must have been absolutely horrid, hopefully it was fast. But why did he need to block the door, I thought that it was only the blizzard that destroyed this city.
Now that the door was unblocked the two ponies made their way into the hallway. The hall was dark and cold, Rita held the torch aloft in her telekinetic field, lighting the dark hall. Rita walked just ahead of Razor as they made their way down the hallway cautiously. There was no telling what they could find here.
“Why is this place buried under the snow like this?” Razor asked.
Rita turned down the hall and continued walking as she explained, “Windigos. They came in and froze this entire city a few hundred years ago. Canterlot was full of refugees after this incident, but with the war going on there was no way to stop the windigos.”
“So we might find a windigo down here? With claws, and teeth, and the whole bit?” Razor asked with a hint of fear in his voice.
“First of all, you only see windigos having claws and teeth in their corporeal form, secondly no we won’t find any. It’s the wrong time of year for them to be down here,” Rita explained coolly.
“R-r-rita, I think you might be wrong about that,” Razor said.
Rita looked behind them and saw a giant wolf, easily more than twice her size with white fur and yellow eyes. It looked at them and snarled before saying in a very deep masculine voice, “Oh my, it looks like I just found my lunch.”
Rita turned and fled with Razor down the hall opposite of the beast while screaming, “That’s not a windigo, that’s a white wolf. It’s much worse.”
They ran quickly with the white wolf hot on their fetlocks as they rounded the corner. Rita calculated that ponies could run faster than wolves so they could escape, but white wolves were smart and just running wasn’t going to save them for long.
A set of double doors rested at the end of the hallway and Rita quickly opened it with her magic and fled inside. Just as Razor followed inside she expanded her telekinetic field to grab the dining table and slam it against the door. The dining table, along with a half dozen chairs, and shelves came flying along with the table straight for the door. The two ponies jumped out of the way as the mass of furniture collided with the door and blocked it off.
Razor looked at Rita and said, “Next time you try to squash us with furniture tell me first.”
“Sorry, I only meant to grab the table, my magic got away from me again,” Rita apologized.
Something heavy ran into the door and budged it open an inch before stopping. Rita looked at the crack in the door and saw a single yellow eye staring back at her. The white wolf then said, “You can run, but you cannot hide from me. I have your scent now. You will become the dinner of White Fang, you should take pride in this.”
Rita stood and even though she felt fear in her heart she stared him down and said, “You might have my scent, but what you don’t have is my mind. You won’t stop us from what we are here to do.”
“Looters, all of you ponies are looters. The magical heart will not be yours, but you can look for it if you want. Trust me when I say that the thing guarding the heart is far worse than even me. But I suppose that doesn’t matter much considering you won’t even reach the heart. Nopony has gotten to the first floor with me on the hunt,” White Fang said.
Rita stared into his eyes for a few seconds longer before White Fang pulled his eye away and disappeared. Rita collapsed to the floor after that breathing heavily. The last thing she had expected to see was a white wolf all the way out here. This was going to prove very dangerous for her and Razor, but she had to get that heart, and she wasn’t going to back down now.
***
After resting for a few minutes, Rita and Razor left the room through one of the other doors. There was no telling where White Fang had gone, but they would need to be even more cautious now that he knew they were there. The halls were dark and the further they went in the colder it seemed to get. Eventually though Rita found a long hallway with broken mirrors along its walls.
Rita walked carefully down the hallway, the broken glass crunching beneath her hooves. The walls were lined with large holes from where the mirrors had once been held in place. Another hallway could be seen just through the holes. Rita looked down and inspected the glass a little closer.
The mirrored glass was actually see through on one side of it. She quickly came to the conclusion that these mirrors were once used so that ponies could spy out of them. Considering the hallway adjacent to this one, maybe that was the secret corridor.
Suddenly a white fury muzzle came out of the hole just in front of Rita and snapped at the air. Rita took a step back and watched as the muzzle grew a wicked grin. White fang was standing inside the secret corridor and watching them.
“I told you that you wouldn’t reach the bottom,” White Fang stated.
Rita braced her heart and said, “Nice try big boy.” She then leaned in and quickly kissed the white wolfs nose.
White Fang pulled back his muzzle instantly and began pawing at it. Rita looked through the hole at his confused and shocked expression. Rita smiled just before saying, “You know, you’re kinda cute for a big ol puppy dog. If you weren’t trying to eat me, I might have some fun with you.”
White Fang’s expression became one of utter disgust as Rita turned and walked away. Razor followed with a dumbstruck expression and just as the exited the hallway Rita took off in a full fledged gallop along with Razor. They continued running like this for several minutes before finding a staircase and heading down. As they walked down the stairs the air got increasingly colder.
“Why did you kiss him?” Razor asked.
“It stunned him, there was no way he could expect me to do that and my theory was that it would at least hinder his chase on us…also he is kinda cute,” Rita admitted.
“I thought you liked mare’s,” Razor asked.
“Mare’s and…other races…that doesn’t matter right now, we need to get that heart,” Rita said.
“You are completely insane,” Razor stated.
“Did I ever say otherwise?” Rita asked sarcastically.
Razor gave up with a sigh and the two continued downward in silence. The ever increasing cold, mixed in with the darkness was becoming a little worrisome. But nothing else seemed too bad…yet. Hopefully they could get this heart and escape quickly, if not the white wolf would catch up, and if not him…Rita had the suspicion that something else was down here…something worse than the white wolf.
***
The deeper they got the colder it was, eventually the stairs became covered in a layer of ice. The pair moved very cautiously down the stairs until they finally arrived at the bottom. Rita stared into the vast chamber before them in awe, it was so large that the light of the torch would not reach the end of the chamber.
Rita took a few steps forward along the icy floor and stopped when Razor said, “Sis, look down.”
Rita looked down at the ice and froze in place. She was walking on pure solid ice at least six feet deep, and just underneath the ice was a pony reaching up and looking at her. Well looking up at where Rita was standing anyway. The more she examined the ice the more ponies she saw frozen underneath, most of them wearing armor indicating that they were once soldiers.
“We need to hurry, I really don’t like this place,” Rita said as she forced herself to look away from the ice and continued walking.
Razor followed along reluctantly as Rita continued searching. After walking around the room for a few minutes, Rita had found another staircase leading down, unburdened by the ice. Two thrones now empty. And at least a dozen soldiers frozen beneath the ice. She was in the throne room, and looking at the last of the royal guard who had died fighting to protect their kingdom. No signs of the king or queen though, nor any of their decedents.
Rita lead Razor down what she hopped to be the final staircase and tried to remember what she knew about the history of this place. This once used to be a kingdom full of crystals and a unique race of pony, it prospered for a few years before the windigos attacked. The city froze and although most of the citizens escaped, and rumors have it their queen escaped as well, the city was lost. Along with the city though was an ancient artifact called the Crystal Heart, and that was Rita’s goal for this expedition.
Down the stairs Rita found a crystal door that was completely frozen over. Not trusting her magic Rita looked over to Razor and asked, “Think you can handle this?”
“Ice is no problem for me, after all I’m not called The Dragon Pony for nothing,” Razor said with a wink.
Rita backed up behind her little brother and watched as he inhaled deeply before exhaling a jet of orange flame from his mouth. She watched as he worked his breath all around the door, melting the ice off of it. After a few moments of this he stopped and began breathing heavily, the door was now completely melted and a little charred. Thankfully crystals didn’t tend to catch fire.
Rita carefully opened the door and looked out into the vast darkness beyond. A pale blue light could be seen in the distance. Rita took a few steps forward her torch lighting the way as she moved cautiously. Razor followed closely behind.
It took her a few minutes before she finally reached the object causing the blue light and was surprised to find that it was a heart carved out of blue crystal. It was floating ever so gently above the icy ground and all Rita had to do was reach out with a hoof and grab it. Rita stretched out when Razor suddenly said, “Stop.”
Rita stopped and looked at him for an explanation, Razor was staring off into the darkness someways off. Rita followed his gaze and her eyes widened as she saw what it was he had been staring at. A stallion with white fur and a blue mane was frozen in a block of ice, he had a sword in his mouth. The sword was piercing through the chest of a blue icy pony shaped creature. This creature had its hooves raised toward the ceiling and the ice extended from his hooves up towards the ceiling. This icy creature was the one who had frozen the room just above them…this was a windigo.
Rita turned away from the sight; she didn’t want to look at it anymore. Razor however just stared and asked, “Who is that?”
Rita couldn’t be sure but she had a good guess. “It’s King Shining Armor, and I think he stopped the windigo from killing his queen. It was a noble sacrifice, so let’s get going.”
“Is he an alicorn?” Razor asked.
Rita took one more look and noticed that the white stallion had a unicorn horn, and white feathery wings. Rita sat down and the cold ground froze her butt so she quickly stood up feeling a little silly for sitting on the ice. Rita looked back at the Crystal heart and said, “Yeah…he is. I guess that means he is still…”
“Alive,” finished a stallion’s voice from behind her.
Rita quickly turned and saw three stallions wearing dark purple armor with gold trim. They all looked at her and Razor with stern expressions. One of the stallions was a white pegasus, there was also a green earth pony, and their leader was a cyan blue unicorn. This was exactly what Rita had feared coming across. The Dusk Knights.
Rita backed away slowly and spaced herself apart from Razor while asking, “What are you doing here?”
“We were out patrolling the north, when we came across some tracks in the snow. One set of tracks looked very strange, not like a ponies at all. So we decided to check up on them. Guess what we are doing now,” said the unicorn.
“What?” replied Rita.
“Hunting,” answered the unicorn.
With that answer Rita knew that she had only one real option at this point; take the money and run. Rita quickly turned and using her hoof she swiped the Crystal Heart and pocketed into her saddlebags. Rita then turned to face her enemy and the entire room shook violently as the sound of shattering ice filled her ears.
The ice containing both the windigo and Shining Armor shattered instantly. Shining Armor dropped to the ground with a hard thud while the windigo turned into a thick mist that began spreading out towards the three stallions. Rita watched as the unicorn leader began summoning fire from his horn and blasting the mist with a flamethrower spell.
Razor nudged Rita’s side and pointed towards the fallen Shining Armor. Rita nodded in understanding, if there was ever a chance to save the alicorn king it would be now. The pair quickly galloped across the frozen ground towards the body.
On Rita’s approach the alicorn king stirred and rose to his full height. His imposing height made Rita stop and stare in both aw and fear. Suddenly Shining Armor took a step forward and collapsed to his knees.
“What…what happened?” Shining Armor asked weakly.
“You’ve been injured in combat while saving your queen. It’s time to retreat and lick your wounds,” Rita replied quickly while using her telekinesis to help him stand.
Shining Armor looked down into Rita’s eyes and said, “You saved me…thank you.”
Razor quickly said, “We need to hurry, those guys are actually struggling with that thing.”
“What thing,” Shining Armor began saying before his eyes widened and he whispered, “The Windigo Lord.”
The entire room shook violently for a second time and Rita looked up to see pieces of the ceiling beginning to collapse. Rita shouted, “Crap, it’s falling on top of us.”
Together the three ponies gave the mist and the Dusk Knights a wide birth as they moved quickly as they could towards the stairs. Rita watched the Dusk Knights as they fought the mist. Tendrils of mist were lashing out and attempting to strike them. The pegasus was using his wings to create gusts of wind to direct the mist into the unicorns fire. The earth pony was dodging the mists and taking every opportunity to distract the mist from his allies. Those three soldiers didn’t look phased, not even a little. They were truly a terrifying force to be reckoned with if they could fight off a windigo so easily.
***
Rita, Razor, and Shining Armor managed to get to the top floor while dodging falling debris. That’s when they saw White Fang sitting at the top of the stairs staring down at them. He wore a wicked grin as he said, “Oh so you managed to survive down there after all. And here I thought that you left me all alone.”
Rita returned a false grin and said, “Sorry big boy, but we have a much nastier problem coming up those stairs any time now.”
White Fang licked his sharp teeth and eyed her for a few seconds before noticing the new companion she had. His eyes went from confident to fearful as he asked, “How did you save the king?”
“I broke him out of the ice…along with the monster holding him there. Now if you don’t mind sexy, I need to get the king out of here,” Rita replied before walking forward with as much confidence as she could muster.
White Fang only stared on as Rita got close and then walked pass him, her two companions close on her tail. Suddenly shouts came from downstairs as the Dusk Knights began heading up. Rita turned towards White Fang and said, “if you’re still hungry, I left some dinner for you down there. It should be on its unsuspecting way up soon. Until next time sweetie.” Rita finished with a wink at the white wolf and smiled at his confused expression.
The three ponies made their way through the halls. Their destination was outside, and with another violent shaking of the structure they knew that they needed to hurry. Just before they were out of earshot Rita was treated to the screams of the stallions who had met up with White Fang. It was doubtful that the white wolf would be able to kill them, but he would at least distract them long enough for her to get far away from here.
***
They ran for the door and burst through quickly, on the other side Rita found the same old window that she had entered from. She ran up to it and let Razor climb out first, then she surprised Shining Armor by lifting him up with her magic and practically throwing him out the window. Finally she climbed up and out and turned just in time to watch the window sink beneath the snow.
The building was collapsing and anything trapped inside was going to have a fun time trying to claw its way out. Hopefully those Dusk Knight’s had killed the windigo, but somewhere in the back of her mind she held a sliver of hope that White Fang wasn’t killed. Even if the wolf had tried to eat them, he wasn’t necessarily evil…he was just trying to survive…probably.
“So, Shiny, how are you feeling?” Rita asked.
After a long moment of silence Rita turned to face him and noticed the look of shock on his face as he stared at the still sinking structure. At her staring he finally said, “That was my castle…my home.” He took a look around himself and at the endless plains of snow before saying, “The entire Crystal Empire is gone…it’s missing beneath the snow…my kingdom…my people…my family. What about my family? Is Cadence alive? What about the kids?”
Rita looked away from him and said, “Your people escaped…most of them anyway. As for your family, according to history they escaped just fine but receded into solitude after the fall of the Crystal Empire. There wasn’t a whole lot they could do for Celestia, so they lived out a peaceful existence in some small village. I think it was called Ponytown.”
“She went to Ponyville!” he exclaimed.
“Yeah that’s the name. I mean the place is a city now, so she might still be there but you could ask Princess Twilight to help you,” Rita offered.
“My little sister is alive…I…thank you. What was your name?” Shining Armor asked.
“I’m Rita,” Rita explained before pointing a hoof at Razor and saying, “and that’s my little brother, The Dragon Pony, Razor.”
“A dragon pony, I’ve only seen those in books. It’s my pleasure to meet the two of you...do you think you two could help me reach my sister?” Shining Armor asked.
Rita began walking south towards civilization while saying, “I can only take you to the first town…maybe even the first city. After that though, you are on your own I’m afraid to say.”
Shining Armor followed, his height still causing a little worry for Rita. Shining Armor gave her a kind smile and said, “Thank you. I won’t forget this, and I’ll repay you in any way I can.”
Rita laughed before saying, “Nah, I’m good. But thanks for the offer anyway.”
Now as the three of them walked south back towards civilization. Rita only had one question left to answer. Where was she going to sale The Crystal Heart at, and how much could she possibly get for it?
