Chapters Cold
CRACK
...
CRACK
...?
CRACK
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CRACK
SHATTER
THUD
I was suddenly aware of the floor in my face, which was as cold as ice. I rolled over, feeling the cold ground on the back of my thin coat.
"Well, isn't this a surprise," Came my own voice. I was shocked to hear it, and jumped a little bit.
After that, I calmed down and took a look around the throne room, noticing the frozen bodies of Celestia and Luna. The latter was dead, their head's contents on the floor. Thankfully, the contents were frozen in ice, the blood and brains not anywhere near me. I was slightly disgusted, the horrible dark side of myself having hardened me to the sight of gore. Besides that, the room was decorated for some kind of ceremony. Bouquets of flowers and potted plants were covered by the aforementioned ice, some crates and other objects such as fabrics and scaffolding was scattered around.
I pushed myself up, finding that the ground was very slippery, but I managed to get a foothold. I crossed my arms and held them close to my body, wouldn't do me much good to be frozen to death. I took a few steps forward, carefully stepping over any materials. As I did so, I took a look around. It appeared some of the stained glass windows were broken, snow coming in at an alarming rate. Whoever left this stuff here was trying to fix the place up, and probably froze to death or starved in the process.
I shook my head, perishing such thoughts from my mind. It wasn't good to think about death, even if it wasn't my own.
God, would I soon learn a lesson about this frozen wasteland.
Nonetheless, I carried on forward, trying to find any supplies I could. I feared for the worst, it was very unlikely anything was spared from the cold. Especially when the snow was coming in at such a rate. I estimated that whatever was left would probably be unsafe to eat, fearing for the worst again. If I kept this up, I would be stressed to the point of insanity. But, first I decided to find the kitchen, which was a workout in itself. The twenty feet long hallways, the winding staircases, and the dimly lit and freezing cold hallways were a chore to traverse, constantly finding frozen ponies in the process of fleeing.
After some questioning of mortality and existence, I found myself inside of a kitchen. The place was wrecked, cupboards open and boxes of assorted ingredients spilled on the floor, most of the liquids frozen. I found a few vegetables which were inside a freezer, already frozen. Inside, there was also some raw meat, probably for griffins. Although it was frozen, I looked around for something to put it in. It appeared there was nothing here to put it in, so I begrudgingly found some plastic wrap and took out my knife. I proceeded to cut off some ice, and then I wrapped the food I picked up with the plastic.
I placed the aforementioned wrapped food into my bag, then carrying on to find a drink cabinet. The cabinet was full of wine that had something on it, keeping it at a reasonable temperature. Even though I was under-aged to be drinking, I said fuck it basically and filled my bag up. I may have already had some provisions, but it wouldn't hurt to have some more. As I took a quick look around, I found some expensive looking cigars in a case. It was relatively warm, probably having something keeping it at a reasonable temperature as well. I reasoned that I could probably sell the alcohol and cigars somewhere out there.
Some thinking later, I realized I should get a move on and find a way out of here. Perhaps that blizzard stopped, and I could leave. I silently prayed that the blizzard would have stopped, so I could leave and find somewhere to go.
Suddenly, a loud boom came from the entrance. It must have been hundreds of decibels loud to have reached all the way over here. I hoped whoever did that wasn't deaf, and if they were I hoped they could understand me or read lips. I realized that was a foolish thought, as I was a human and they were most likely ponies. Nonetheless, I carried on after pulling out my revolver.
After dashing to the scene, I took cover behind a pillar and watched as the door blew off its hinges. The blast wasn't that loud this time, not causing me any ear damage. As they filed into the room, I noticed the ponies were wearing heavy coats, and crude rifles were held aloft in their magical grips. All of them were unicorns. After all eight of them entered, they moved out of the way as a pegasus with two rifles on a saddle on their back moved in.
The pegasus spoke up, "Alright you idiots, get to work looting the damn room. Make sure you find the hyoo-man, and when you do find him, kill him. If he's not here, search, and then plant the charge and double time it out of there."
A charge? Damn son, these guys were going to kill the Princess if they planted one and blew it up! The ice would easily be broken, and she would be pieces. I had to take them out. I surveyed the situation. I had claws instead of fingers still, I had two guns, I had two knives, and I had a lot of ammo. But I didn't want to go loud. I decided to knock them out first, and then I would drag them away and silently dispatch them with my silenced pistol. I put away my revolver, and then I peeked at them. The pegasus was standing at the exit. Perfect.
I crept past the pillars, the ponies having gone quite far up the room. Some of them had already gone to different locations, and none of them were looking for their boss. I hesitated for a moment, and decided against my initial plan. Time to go silent.
I popped out of cover, and shot the pegasus with my silenced pistol.
The pony went down quick, and no one noticed yet. I looked back, and saw that they had already left for the next few rooms. Creeping along the pillars, I made my way to the next room. I saw a few guards searching around, and quickly shot them without any complications. Four down, four more to go.
I made my way back into the front room, walking in on them shocked at their boss's death, as well as planting the charge.
They noticed me almost instantly.
Soon everything turned into a fire-fight, their crude rifles cracking as musket balls fired from the muzzles of the rifles. I took cover behind a pillar again, peeking out to take fire. They had taken cover behind the adjacent pillars, popping out to fire their rifles. Thankfully, they were moving in a pattern, and soon I had dispatched three of them. The last one shouted at me.
"Buck you!"
He then ran, grabbing a detonator, but I shot him as he grabbed it. He was dead, finally falling over.
"Well, that's over with. I thought that damn fire-fight would never end. Damn looters. Or whatever they were. I should leave, but maybe I should fix one of these coats up to fit me?"
Some time later...
"Ah. This should do it."
I put on the patchwork parka, over my jacket. I took a quick look around, and then grabbed one of their rifles and some ammo. I tore off a strip from an unused parka and tied it to the two ends of the rifle, making a rifle sling. I put the rifle on my back, and carried on.
Now, off to find a shop to sell this shit.
But, where in the bloody Hell would there be a shop in this arctic wasteland? Canterlot is a large place, and I doubt it would be easy to find a shop very quickly, especially when this weather is prominent...
Canterlot Ruins
The first thing I noticed as I stepped out of the door to the castle, was the devastation of the courtyard. Impaled and frozen corpses, warbeasts, guards, and rifleponies lay on the ground. Craters indented into the ground, spread out across the area. The only intact frozen bodies were that of Pinkamena Diane Pie, and Spike Sparkle. Pinkamena's condition could be debated, however. Her head lay a few feet away, buried in ice and snow.
However, I could see the glint of something yellow. It was slightly buried in the snow, but nonetheless was interesting. A pair of yellow tinted shades lie buried beneath a few inches of snow, a singular quarter of the lens sticking out. Decidedly, I picked them up and wiped them off. They were in good shape. The shades were magically enchanted to grow or shrink to fit anyone who wore them, as well as pick up on your vision problems. Perhaps I could use these to get more accurate shots in. I placed them on my face, noticing the tinting was a one way thing.
Interesting. Perhaps, before I leave, I should grab some things from the archives to study later? I decided to go back inside of the castle, and after some more winding long hallways, tall staircases, and steep ramps, I made my way to the archives. The archives took a large portion of the castle, there is even a basement. I assumed many of the dark magics could be stored there. It would be ideal to find some books in there on magic. I thought, for a moment, what about rune magics? Rune magics were considered dark magic, even if the spell contained harmonic particles. They were extremely fabled and legendary magics, that any race or type of pony could use. Even griffons, who did not have magical power, have been recorded to use such magic.
I silently thanked Twilight that she had all those books on myths and ancient magics. If she didn't have them, I wouldn't have bothered to pick up those glasses or even come here.
Nonetheless, I carried on through the archives. This place was protected by a shitload of magical wards, so no snow could get inside of this room and ruin the books. If I tried to burn anything, or do anything to the books, nothing would happen. The wards were too strong, probably set in place by Celestia and Luna themselves. Not that I would want to destroy anything, though.
Anyway, after some extensive searching, I had found nothing but some basic magic books and Equestrian history. I kept a few choice history books, and then this next event would teach me that there were wards in here.
I walked up to the trapdoor, looking down at it for a moment. I blinked, and then took a quick look around before stuffing the history books into my overflowing leathery bag. I pulled out a knife, and began to stab the trapdoor. The door quickly dulled my knife, and soon I put it away. No point in losing a valuable weapon. I pulled out my more slim switchblade, and after some trial and error, I successfully picked the lock. I put my switchblade away. Without those glasses, I couldn't have possibly picked the lock. My perception wouldn't have allowed such a thing.
Soon after some musing, I flung the trapdoor open and plunged myself inside, landing on the stone floor with a thud. I took out my lighter, and as I flicked it, the flame died.
"Dammit. Magical ward bullshit." I mumbled to myself.
If anything, this would be really difficult. Especially without any sort of li-
Suddenly, as I started forward, torches flickered to life on the wall behind me. The room lit up with a faint glow, and I moved forward more. The room was filled to the brim with bookshelves and stacked books, lecterns, lanterns, and tables. Old candles dripped as a blue flame spouted forth from their wicks. As all of this happened, I stumbled upon a rune magic section. There was five volumes here. The basics, the advanced, the master's, the grand-master's, and the unspeakable. The last volume filled me with intrigue. The unspeakable? Perhaps necromancy and other forms of dark magics? Maybe chronomancy or the Harmonic Theory? Maybe the Chaos Theory too.
Either way, I stuffed my bag with these last five books. I took a quick look around before I left. I found some severed unicorn horns and pony skulls. A few sketches and strange equations were marked down on a page near these items. A strange gland of some sort was floating in a jar. A few putty body parts were laid out on the table too, covering a unicorn anatomy diagram. I had the strangest feeling to take the unicorn horns. Maybe something in one of my books talks about that?
I opened the basic rune magic book, flipping to the fifth page. A few diagrams of that gland and a unicorn horn were on the page. In cursive, details on the first rune were written. It required a unicorn horn. The rune would bind magic to the horn, and this would be the base for a magic wand. This could also be done with a stick, but unicorn horns could channel magic even easier. Alicorn horns would take zero effort. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything but the severed horns on hand. I grabbed two of the nine on the table. Once I removed these, I uncovered an elaborate rune. Someone else was studying this before me. But what pony would want to learn rune magic, if they themselves were unicorns. You can't just pop into this section of the archives as anything other than a very special unicorn or an alicorn. Hell, there was even a sign up there stating that.
But, I honestly didn't give a fuck. I was going to survive if it meant I would be hung. And most importantly, I was going to goddamn learn
necromancy so I could give these ponies their lives back. I wrongfully took them, and I wouldn't rest until they were alive once again.
Now, it was time to leave. I should really get to a market and sell my items, that would be an ideal thing to do. I need bits, or else I can't buy any ammo or black-market items. Surely this palace would have so many rich ponies that they leave coins around? Nope. Nothing. Nada. Besides that, I began my trek to exit this place. I found myself walking beside a wall, looking down. I tripped up on some books, landing so that my face pointed towards the entrance to a strange green-glowing area.
I pushed myself to my aching feet, and stepped inside with my new rifle in hand.
What I saw shocked me to my core.
The large circular room had six tanks of green goo against the back walls. Inside of one was the body of Twilight Sparkle, or what was left of her.
The other five tanks of strange glowing goo were empty. Plaques of exquisite gold were placed onto pillars with a slant, the plaques placed on that slant. The best I could think of in the moment was that all the other bodies couldn't be uncovered, and Applejack was just giblets and red frozen gunk. The pony in the tank, though, was at peace. Hundreds of I.Vs, cords, wires, and metal covered her body. Most notably, where the lower half of the body usually was, there was a metal box of sorts. If I was able to detect magic back then, this room would have been red warning signs. Black magic was in the air here.
The books in my bag lit up, hundreds of strange symbols and runes were scattered across the floor and tanks. The entrance had deep purple runes set into it. After this examination, I ran up to the singular filled tank. I tapped on the glass, seeing that the pony's left eye slightly cracked open.
Maybe she wasn't dead? (Heh, I was really stupid back then. Of fucking course she's alive if her eye opened.)
I tapped on the glass again, seeing the right eye do the same as the left eye. This time, I lightly banged on the glass. The pony inside stirred, their eyes going wide as they saw me. Soon, the runes lit up and the pony passed out again. How is this possible? I killed her! I was confused, how could Twilight have possibly survived that kind of blast? Wait... What about those diagrams?
I put my rifle back against my spine, slipping the rifle sling onto my shoulder and under my arm. I then started sprinting, and found myself back at the table. I cleared it off, finding some more diagrams and papers. This all made sense. The clay body parts, the runes, the horn and the skull. Whoever this was, they had been commissioned to bring Princess Sparkle back to life. And it appeared they succeeded. I pored over some notes, finding that all of the runes in there are meant to keep her asleep. If she is to wake up for a long period of time before everything is properly fixed, she would die.
But, the latest note was cut off. It stated that Twilight Sparkle was fully ready to be revived, but she would have trouble walking like a biped. Wait. The note said biped? Did they give her weird robot legs or some shit like that? I would find this question out soon. The note then stated that an evacuation was called. A hastily scribbled description of how to deactivate the runes was on the next page, which I proceeded to grab.
The note stated that the only way to deactivate any of the runes, was to disrupt it with a magical conductor, or a wand of some sorts. There was a very specific way to deactivate them all, as doing it in the wrong order would cause gas to fill into the room and the exit to block off. Damn, this pony was really determined to make sure no one could do anything to Twilight. Probably for the best.
The order would be easy to follow, so I decided to do this quickly. I rushed back to the room, and ran over to the full tank. I did the sequence, and watched as the glass shattered, and everything did as said in the note. The goo was drained, the I.Vs detached, and all other implements fell off. Twilight was lowered slowly onto the floor by a magical aura. Twilight blinked her eyes open, and they once again went wide.
She spoke with no haste in mind, her brain trying to catch up with what happened. "S-spike? Is that you?"
I replied casually, "No lady, my name's Peyton. I'm also the person who killed you, sadly, and once again the person who revived you. Currently, the land of Equestria is plagued by an eternal blizzard, the sun and moon move by themselves, and everypony who didn't get to a safe place is frozen. You are in a hidden room in the Restricted Section of the Canterlot Archives."
That was information overload. She looked dizzy, and then passed out. Well. That's an excellent start. I spoke again, "Oh dear. That wasn't supposed to happen..."
She would be out for a while, so I sat down and waited. This was going to be a long day, I could tell that.
Questions and Answers
Twilight Sparkle had been out for over four hundred years. This time ago, she was killed in a terrorist attack coordinated by an unknown creature.
That creature was me.
She was recovered by a Spike Sparkle, who asked immediately for permission to enter the restricted section. He constructed a room and made six tanks with the intention of making the Mane Six come back to life. He kept her there, intending of never telling anyone of his project. The inspectors who came to inspect it every week didn't know they were alive. His cover story was to state that he wanted to research the Elements of Harmony for use against the creature.
By the time anyone realized the true purpose, Canterlot was being evacuated. After a short confrontation, Spike returned here to use his emergency spell. His wild card worked, and made the Princesses forget about it. Pinkie Pie had already been revived, and the rest of the Mane Six were not found. Or so everyone thought. The truth, in its entirety, was that he decided to leave the rest of them dead. No point in it. The only reason he chose Pinkie Pie, was her useful abilities.
Once the deed would be done, memories would be erased and Pinkie Pie would finally be put to rest. At least, that was, until I arrived. He was forced to use his backup, one designed to create a crack in reality to allow power to flow through and give him enough magical power to destroy me for good. Every instance of me and everything that led to me existing would not happen.
I wouldn't have ever been alive or had the chance to live, the chance to do anything. Spike had intended to destroy me, to never allow me to kill or hurt anything. If I was in control enough, more than I was then, I would have allowed him. I was worthless, a pile of trash. I deserved to be dead, and never have the chance to change or impact anything in any way. But I was here now, and I would revive them. I would not allow such an injustice to go unnoticed. I would return everything to normal, and then I would publicly execute myself. I would intentionally fail at making a height significant enough, and then I would use a spell to ensure my death is long and painful. No, I wasn't going to jump off a cliff, I was going to choke myself out on a noose.
A well-deserved death for a horrible person. I should have never lived, and I should have never existed. If I didn't, hundreds of ponies' lives wouldn't be ruined.
I realized where my thoughts had derailed, and found myself pointing a knife at my own throat. Sweat dribbled off my face, as I finally realized the gravity of the situation. I'm batshit insane, and I'm also a suicidal mental and emotional train wreck. I was anything if ready to perform what I wanted to accomplish, no, not wanted. What I needed to accomplish. I was going to set things right, and then leave. The knife hadn't left its previously mentioned position. Something was fighting my determination to accomplish what had to be done. As I thought of this, a panicked scream came from my left. Twilight had awakened by this point, only to see someone about to commit suicide.
I barely registered that she pulled the knife from my grasp, I was too busy pondering the thoughts in my mind. Normally, I wasn't bothered being called worthless by myself. But something was telling me, telling me on a personal level that I am nothing. That I am two conjoined specks of sand. I lowered my hands to my sides, and my expression became grim.
"Give me my weapon back. We're leaving." I calmly said, my expression changing to that of an uncaring person.
She hesitated, and then spoke, "I can't give you it back. You may have hurt me more than I could understand or even comprehend, but I forgive you. I don't care if you're here for some higher purpose, and your fate is to die here."
At least, that was what my mind fabricated. I sighed darkly, and whacked her with my hand on the side of the horn. The knife dropped to the ground, which I promptly picked up.
I looked over my shoulder as I moved to leave.
"You're alive because I'm not here for a higher purpose. You're alive because your life was stolen from you too early. And your friends have been stolen from you. Being immortal will lead you to something horrible and inescapable, your life will spiral downward as your friends die left and right. You'll eventually lose track of time, and everyday will become the same dream. Get up, get breakfast, do work, sleep. Rinse and repeat until you are an empty shell of a pony. Because, you are immortal. You will not die by old age. Your only way to die would be to take your own life, or have someone take it from you. I'm not a good person. You are. You can handle things that I can't. You haven't fallen. Because, you're special in a way. You have a friend who I can bring back, who did everything for you. He was like a brother to you, but you ignored him. You physically abused him even. I've seen it. Don't ever take him for granted again. Don't ever say that you have nothing. That you have no one left. Because you won't, soon. I'm a monster, I accept it fully and embrace it. You're an innocent pony, fallen into this conundrum. I'm sorry you had to get mixed up in this."
I left the room. I left Twilight to her own devices. That could have gone worse. I had not read up on dark magic, but I knew it could afflict anyone who uses it. It would be stupid for me not to know that dark magic is bad, and corrupts your brain. Hell, look at Nightmare Moon. She used dark magic, and then wanted Equestria to be eternally in darkness. That resulted in a horrible war between siblings.
Spike wasn't afflicted. I could tell that he wasn't in that fight. He was too competent and coordinated, reading back over that entry. Every piece of evidence pointed to him not being afflicted. But, nonetheless, I pushed everything else to the back of my mind and focused on exiting the palace.
Meanwhile...
A piece shaped like that of me, Peyton, slid onto a tile. The chessboard had sixteen ponies scattered across it. Six of them, the Elements of Harmony, were not moved from their original places. Finally, Twilight's piece moved to the left. As this happened, the rest of the pieces, the Princesses and eight other currently unknown pieces stayed perfectly still.
The black hoof that moved those pieces cast a shadow over the 64x64 tile chessboard, blocking out the light from a torch on the wall behind the source of the hoof. As Twilight moved left, she was flicked off the board by a precise and careful magic spell. She joined a pile of other pieces on the floor, as a piece of a model of Spike moved onto the board the pile. The figure did not laugh evilly. It did not gloat to itself how it had concocted a master plan. This was a psychotic genius, and this psychotic genius had enough common sense to know how cliche that was. This wasn't a cheesy, easily defeated villain, or a brute force oriented axe murderer.
This was a tactician of the highest caliber, hardened by murders of the most gruesome types. She had tortured, stolen, and done everything imaginable to everypony she wished to. Her name was that of legend, someone long forgotten. Now, no one knew her name except me.
And she intended for everything to happen like that. She was not only cunning, but she had long since set up her death to belong to me. She had long since played her cards right, in her favor. She may have not lived to fully take responsibility for it, but she was an evil mastermind. And she had set up everything she wanted. From my arrival, to my death at an old age. She had taken hundreds of years to finish this plan, but she was sure as hell determined to finish it. Now, all she had to do was wait.
And wait she would.
The cold outside was nothing compared to a dark chill I had as I was leaving the archives. Now, was time to get to that shopping area before something else happened. I had a lot to sell, and intended to do it as soon as possible.
I set out on foot, and began my trek through Canterlot's ruined city.
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