BAM!

Another apple tree shook violently in response to Applejack's powerful buck, dropping apple after apple into the baskets below. Applejack wiped sweat off her brow with a hoof, feeling more exhausted than usual. She supposed that she was just feeling down. One of her best friends was whisked away to another dimension, the sky had turned green, monsters prowled all over the place, and one of her other best friends had been nearly killed in the freezing mountains. Anypony would have been expected to feel depressed under those conditions. However, work still needed to be done, so she just had to work through her pain. She was strong; she could do it.

As she worked, a dark figure watched her from the edge of the Everfree Forest, hiding in the shadows while viewing her through a rifle scope. The entire time, a malicious grin spread across his face. Finally, Applejack's work day ended, she went inside, and the figure lowered his rifle.

Oh, I think I could have fun with you, the figure thought. Still, just hunting you down would be boring. He looked through the scope again, and noticed Fluttershy approaching Sweet Apple Acres. His brow rose at the sight of the pale yellow pegasus, and he made a motion with his face, seemingly to the rifle. As if on that cue, the scope burst into flame. The flames quickly died out, leaving the scope intact...and with highly advanced scanning abilities. He turned its view to Fluttershy once more...and learned many fascinating things about her.

Oh yes, you'll do nicely, he thought. Just one little push, and you can cause the suffering I crave.

A hand poked up from the edge of the snowy cliffside, pulling Daniel up along with it. He turned around and reached out his hand, grabbing Twilight's hoof to pull her up. Rainbow Dash wasn't kidding when she said this place was cold. Daniel could see frost forming between the feathers of Twilight's wings, freezing them to her body. He, himself, was freezing, despite his devil blood granting him resistance to cold. Strange, though, how this place was so similar to its Equestrian counterpart. It seemed there was a limit to how different two worlds could be.

"Are you alright?" Daniel asked.

"I-I can k-keep g-going," Twilight chattered. She wasn't going to last much longer.

Daniel sighed. "I've never done this before, but...here." He reached out to the purple alicorn, and dozens of shadow shreds raced out of his hands, covering her body. Twilight panicked at first, but then realized the dark energy was warming her. Her wings thawed out, and she stretched them, thankful to regain their mobility. By the time the darkness left, she was as warm as she was before climbing the mountain.

"Thanks," Twilight said graciously. "I thought dark magic could only hurt people."

"It's a little different when you're born with it," Daniel replied. "I kinda just tested it out, just to see what it could do. It's still mainly a weapon, but it's got a few other uses."

"Well, we should keep going," Twilight mentioned, turning to climb the next cliff.

Daniel paused for a time, then pulled something out of his pocket. It was a dark blue disk, a black splotch with a white crescent moon adorning the center of each side. He opened the disk, revealing a mirror. As a parting gift, Luna had given him this mirror, and taught him the communication spell. This was his lifeline, his continuous link to the one pony he trusted.

He stopped. The one pony he trusted. Why? He had known the blue princess of the night for barely a day. He had more reason to trust Twilight; she had been with him since he'd arrived in Equestria. And while Luna shared a hint of his pain, so did her older sister. He ruminated on the issue, and finally reached a conclusion. While the other ponies he had met still valued him, they had approached him first as a curiosity: as a human in Equestria, as the Grim Reaper, as an intruder, as a means to an end. To an extent, they all still saw those things in him. When Luna had approached him on that balcony, she had approached Daniel Hayes, the person; not the son of Lucifer, not the cause of her problems, not the way for Twilight to return home. To her, he was just Daniel. So he trusted her. He closed the mirror and tightened his grip on it, as if pulling it closer to his heart.

I will find a way back to you, he thought to himself. I promise.

He put the mirror back in his pocket and looked up...only to see Twilight fly back down from the cliff she just climbed.

"Dead end?" Daniel wondered.

"Worse: Riftspawn," Twilight reported. "A big one. It looked angry. I think it knows you're here."

Sure enough, the monster emerged from the top of the cliff at that moment, its eyes set squarely on Daniel. It's form was half human, half...what was that? The bottom half didn't seem to resemble any creature either of them had seen. Instead, it had a long body with numerous legs jutting off it, tipped with massive spikes that it drove into the ice and rock to keep steady. In its right hand was a bow. Out of nowhere, a sickly green arrow formed within it, which the centaur drill spider beast...thing drew back.

"No, you don't." Daniel threw his scythe at the monster, splitting it in two before it could fire. He relaxed...

Pain shot through his body as a green arrow tore through his right chest. He turned and looked down. Another Riftspawn had its sights on him, anchored to the rock wall below. He rematerialized his scythe, preparing to strike again, but before he could do anything, the monster was vaporized in a blast of white light. Twilight had flown down and destroyed the beast before it could deal the killing blow.

Daniel collapsed on the ground, writhing in pain. He moved to pull the arrow out of his chest, only to find that it had disappeared with the monster who shot it. Relieved, he let his face fall into the snow. For a normal person, his injury would have been severe, but he could take a good deal more than any normal person, as his devil side made him more resilient to just about everything. As much as he hated his father, being half-devil had its uses.

Suddenly, the wind picked up, and the air was filled with flurries of snow, violently whipping around in the storm. The blizzard almost completely cut off Daniel's cliff perch from the one below, where Twilight was struggling just to hold her ground. She lost that battle, and the winds tore her away from the cliff and threw her off the mountain. Daniel wanted to do something, anything, to save her, but with his injuries, he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Angry that he couldn't do anything, he fought against his pain. His reward was a blackout.

I'm sorry, Luna, he thought as his consciousness drifted away.

The first sense to come back to Twilight was the feeling of sheer cold. The agonizing chill quickly brought back the rest of her senses. A pained grimace formed on her face as she slowly got to her hooves, before finally opening her eyes. Though she had fallen quite a ways, the scenery had hardly changed: snow and ice as far as the eye could see, broken only by steep, unforgiving walls of solid rock. The cliff she had landed on was much larger than the one she came from, roughly the size of Ponyville town square. She checked herself for injuries, and was surprised to find herself unharmed. She quickly turned to fly back up the mountain. She was worried about Daniel...so worried that she didn't notice the figure in the snow until it spoke.

"I can't let you go back."

Startled, Twilight turned toward the cliff edge, where the voice had come from. Standing there was a human in a black suit, a crest of his silver hair covering the left side of his head. He held his katana hilt firmly in his right hand. His cold blue eyes showed only an unbreakable resolve.

"Let me ask you a question," Alex demanded. "That boy, Daniel Hayes. Do you really understand what he is?"

"I know who he is, and I know who you are," Twilight replied, her horn glowing in preparation for a fight.

"That wasn't my question," Alex chided. "Do you know WHAT he is? Do you truly understand the destructive power within the boy you've let drag you all across Equestria? Do you understand MY true might?"

"Well..." Twilight stuttered, her resolve faltering slightly. She didn't know much about these humans, but Rainbow was able to beat one, so...

"I don't think you do," Alex continued. "I doubt you understand how different our worlds are, how much more powerful we all are compared to you peaceful little ponies. We're all out of your league. So I suggest you leave your new friend now, because my comrades and I will be coming for him, and if you get caught in the middle...whatever god you ponies pray to have mercy on your soul."

"Is that a threat!?" Twilight asked rhetorically, her horn glowing brighter, her rage boiling over.

"It's a warning," Alex replied. "No matter what happens from here on, there will be bloodshed. I'm telling you to run. Run far away, where the chaos cannot touch you."

Twilight stopped for a second, weighing her options. It didn't take her long to reach a decision. "If I don't stay with him," she started, "I won't be able to go home. I'll be stuck in this warped alternate reality forever. I can't run, not now."

"I see," Alex answered disapprovingly, his stare gaining a sharp edge. "It seems you don't quite understand the powers at work here. Allow me to demonstrate!" He pointed his sword hilt at the purple alicorn princess. Snow flurries began to form, whisking tiny ice crystals to the hilt. More and more gathered, until they fused together into a blade of ice, gleaming a cold light blue.

He rushed at Twilight with insane speed, giving her less than a second to put up a ward spell. He began slashing wildly at the magical shield, forcing the purple mare to concentrate entirely on keeping her protective dome intact. As a result, she didn't notice that the snow beneath her had started forming into a set if icicle spikes...until it was too late. Her magic bubble burst as she was pierced by numerous shards of ice, somehow managing to keep her vital organs intact.

In desperation, she took to the air, narrowly avoiding another swing of Alex's katana. Flying felt so much harder now, as each flap of her wings agitated her wounds, and caused blood to spurt from what little space there was between the wound edges and the icicles still lodged withing them. She was tempted to pull the ice out, but figured she'd bleed out if she did. Looking for some sort of advantage in the battle, she eyed Alex's ice katana. She shot a quick bolt from her horn, aiming to shatter the blade. The blade did indeed fall to pieces upon contact, but before Twilight could congratulate herself, she noticed, just in time to dodge, the fragments flying towards her, seeking to lodge themselves in her head. By the time she had collected herself and looked back, Alex had already reformed his blade. Twilight instictively dodged again, barely avoiding a sharp ice spire as it formed and rose out of the ground to make good friends with her insides.

She was starting to see the pattern with this odd cryomancer. To make up for the fragility of his element, he had based his fighting style around traps and set-ups. He let himself be a decoy, holding his opponent's attention while his ice spells formed and struck their unsuspecting targets. Even his weapon of choice played into his mind games. It kind of reminded her of Trixie, though the blue showmare's magic tricks weren't nearly this deadly. No, Alex's fighting style was more a perversion of that attention grabbing. Enjoy the show...so I can stab you in the back.

And yet, none of this conniving nature could be seen in the man himself. Just looking at him, looking into his eyes, she could tell. His were not the eyes of a conniver or a trickster. Rather, they were the eyes of a person who was dead set on their goal. It was clear he had a reason to remove Twilight from the equation, and he would do whatever he had to to make it happen.

Still, if his arsenal was based on tricks, perhaps Twilight could work with that. She flew down at Alex, who raised his blade as he prepared his next assault. She let loose a powerful magic blast from her horn, aimed directly at the cryomancer. In response, a huge chunk of ice formed in front of him, shards chipping off as it absorbed the blow. Alex sent the shards flying back down the path of the beam, back to Twilight...except she wasn't there. While the blast and ice wall obscured Alex's vision, Twilight teleported behind him, and let loose another blast. It connected, knocking him to his knees...for all of two seconds.

"If that was your best, then I've already won," Alex boasted, though not in arrogance. Rather, he said this as a continuation of his warning, that Twilight had no hope of surviving what was to come if she stayed involved.

Suddenly, Alex disappeared, teleporting right beside Twilight and kicking her through the air. She coughed up blood during the flight, as the impact had caused the icicles to dig further into her, some of them breaking and leaving sharp shards of ice floating around her insides. Struggling to stay conscious, she straightened out, preparing herself to act again. Only when she had regained her balance did she realize, too late, that she was headed straight for a flurry of Alex's creation. She soared right through the cloud of white, and fell to the ground upon exiting it, her entire body torn to shreds by the thousands of tiny ice particles in that one gale.

Alex teleported in front of the broken, bloody mare. "You've had enough," he stated definitively.

Just then, mustering the last of her strength, she blasted Alex with her horn. Caught by surprise, he took the full force of the blow, and flew off the cliff. Only, he didn't fall. As he went over the edge, he curled into a crouching position in midair, his right hand placed where the ground should have been. Using his powers, he formed a large icicle, upon which he landed upright. As he slid along the new mass of ice, he made it bigger and bigger to ensure he had room to slide, ultimately forming a mass of ice the size of a Canterlot castle spire, jutting out from the side of the cliff. Once he had stopped, he ran forward. As he reached the base of the ice, he moved down to the mass' underside, and sliced it off the cliff face with one strike. He gave the falling mass one powerful kick upward, thrusting it into the sky. Finally, he teleported into the sky, and gave the giant ice block one last slice. It split into several pieces, smaller but still massive, and fell toward Twilight. She tried to escape, but her injuries protested, shooting searing pain through her body, and the ice shards within her shifted and sliced her open. Ultimately, she was helpless as a falling ice block pinned her in place, breaking her back and knocking the air out of her lungs. Her wounds oozed blood, turning the snow around her and ice above her dark red. Her eyes were bloodshot from the exertion of just trying to stay alive. She stopped everything, however, as the cold blue blade was put to her muzzle. Wearily, barely staying conscious, she looked up at the cold eyes of her killer.

Except...his eyes weren't cold. The determination Alex had held in his eyes was gone, replaced with hesitation and regret. His blade wavered in front of her nose, before finally disappearing into the ether. He looked away somberly.

"I hope you learned something, for your sake," he told the dying mare. "Next time, you won't be allowed to just walk away. Run, while you still can."

He disappeared from sight, leaving Twilight helpless, fighting for her life, on that frigid plateau. The ice had left with Alex, preventing further injury, but that just caused her wounds to bleed out faster, not that they were no longer clogged with ice. She took one final look up, just in time to see Daniel drop down to the plateau. Relieved, her strength left her, and she lost consciousness.

A small campfire crackled quietly at the base of the snowy mountain range. Nearby were two tents, shoddily crafted and pitched in haste. Within one tent, sleeping soundly, lay Twilight Sparkle, her body covered in bandages. What fur could be seen underneath the mummy wrap was tinted dark red by her dried blood. Her breathing was stable, but slow. She was alive, but barely.

In the other tent, his back resting against the rock face that passed for a back wall, lay Daniel Hayes, contemplating the events of the day. He had a small hole in his shirt, ringed with dark red, where the arrow had pierced him, but the skin underneath had completely healed. It made him feel sick. He managed to walk off a bolt to the chest, while Twilight was just barely managing to stay alive. He'd done all he could for her, but still.... It wasn't right.

He pulled out his mirror, and thought about Luna. Now's as good a time as any. He cast the spell, and the pocket mirror fogged up, before clearing to reveal the blue princess of the night.

"Oh! Good evening, Daniel," Luna greeted him, before noticing the somber expression on his face. "Did something happen?"

"We ran into some trouble in the mountains," Daniel explained, grimacing painfully. "Twilight's.... Twilight's in bad shape."

Silence filled the encampment. "Will...will she be all right?" Luna finally asked tentatively.

"I think I can fix her up," Daniel answered. "Gonna take a long while, though. She was practically dead when I got to her."

"I see..." Luna noted, obviously uncomfortable about the subject. She decided to change it. "Um, about your world...."

"Hmm?"

"You said you didn't think anyone would miss you...when you went to die," Luna started. "Do you really believe that?"

"I doubt they even care that I'm gone," Daniel answered without a second thought. "I was just a nuisance to them, a freak. Better that I'm outta their hair."

"Not one person reached out to you?"

"They saw a monster. They reached out to me all right...with swords and pikes."

"Then why would you sacrifice yourself for their sake?"

"Because Dad's worse," Daniel replied. "Trust me, I don't give a crap about the people of my world, and I couldn't care less what happens to it from here on out. But Dad.... No one deserves him, no matter what they've done. I didn't risk my life to save my world. I risked my life to kill my father."

"Your father.... Is he truly as bad as you say?"

"His idea of "recruiting" me was destroying a village and killing everyone in it looking for me. Yeah, he's that bad."

Luna fell silent for some time before speaking again. "You've lived a harsh life," she noted, "never knowing kindness or happiness. But you can start again here. Once you've cleared up all of this, I'd...I'd like to offer you a permanent place with us."

Daniel went silent, stunned.

"You deserve happiness," Luna continued. "I'd like to give you the life you should have had."

"I...I'd like that," Daniel replied, touched by the offer.

Luna gave him one last smile, a gentle, warm smile, before the mirror returned to its original state. A similar smile spread across Daniel's face as he closed the mirror and put it away. Strange, he thought. This is the first time I've felt this way. I guess...this is happiness. He glanced over to the tent wall, where Twilight's tent was, as he lay down to sleep.

Get some rest, Twilight. We've got a lot of work to do.

Author's Note

Well, the gore's finally here. (Best I could do; there's no "smiling cringe" emoticon.)