Monsters ravage Equus.

Beasts among Beasts destroy cities.

Purest of Monsters destroy, pillage, deceive, and kill by the score.

And Misunderstood flood the outer wilds, trying to survive.

A Cursebringer, marked by a pure white Skull, stands strong in the white.

Curses are brought to all.

It was afternoon in the Crystal Empire, and a certain group of ponies were not entirely happy about it.

"Where on Equus is she?!" Shining Armor roared, pacing around the throne room of the palace. "It's been hours and hours since morning, and she's not here like she said she would be!"

"Shiny, deep breaths, okay?" his wife said, placing a hoof on his withers. He grit his teeth, but eventually did so, taking deep breaths in and out.

"It is quite odd, I must agree," Luna mused, sipping some coffee as she sat on a cushion. "She seemed to have not been lying, if what Applejack told us is true, and she made several good points that we looked into earlier to find them quite true as well."

"And considering how she so quickly left the Empire's walls, it would not be out of the realm of possibility for her to have been able to make it here on time," Celestia agreed, nodding her head as she sat across from her sister.

"Then where the buck is she?!" Shining shouted.

"Shiny, please," Cadance pleaded, giving her husband a look. He grit his teeth, but eventually sighed.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"Well, maybe she had to go back to her world," Applejack proposed, sitting at a table with her friends and playing a board game.

"Hmmm... She did mention being from another Equus..." Star Swirl noted, stroking his beard as he sat with his old students.

"Then what do we do now?" Pinkie asked, looking up from the board game. "I was planning on throwing her a party!"

"Maybe we should go find Skull and confirm things for ourselves?" Twilight suggested.

"That is certainly an option," Rarity said, primping her mane.

"Except we don't know exactly where he is or where he lives, and he's pretty hard to find," Cadance pointed out, sitting on her throne with her husband.

"True..." Luna concurred, nodding her head as she set her mug down next to her.

"Wait, what if we tracked his magical signature?" Twilight proposed.

"We've tried that before, but we never got any traces of him," Shining replied, waving a hoof airily.

"What if we tracked his Void signature?" Cadance offered.

"Of course!" Star Swirl cried, stomping a hoof. "That's it! We've been looking at this all wrong!"

"Oh my gosh you're right!" Twilight said, eyes widening and a grin growing on her face. "We've been trying to find him using the same means we do with someone of our world, but he's not from our world!"

"Well, it seems we've got our solution, then," Celestia stated, taking a final sip of her tea before setting it down. "Now, it's time to plan out our approach..."

An hour later, Star Swirl and the five royals, consisting of the Sisters, Twilight, and Cadance and Shining Armor, were on a carriage, flying through the air towards a distant mountain in the Yaket Range. The tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everhoof. Star Swirl and the others had pinpointed Skull's Void signature to the very peak of the mountain, and had thus been forced to bring some winter clothing with them, lest they freeze to death from the cold of the high altitude.

The others had wanted to come along on the trip, but Celestia had persuaded them to stay. She did not want to start a fight with Skull if she could help it, and bringing the others, and more specifically, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, would have led to that in one way or another.

So it was that the group of six flew through the sky, straight towards the mountain, in the hopes of finding Skull. It was a quiet ride for a long time, all of them bearing masks of steel and determination. Finally, one of them broke the silence.

"So... This is it, huh?" said Shining Armor, gaze locked, oddly, not ahead, but on the floor of the carriage. "We're finally going to confront this guy?"

"Yeah..." Twilight agreed with a nod. "I'm honestly getting chills from the idea."

"Are you sure that isn't just the cold?" Cadance joked, trying to bring some light into the subject. They all let out short chuckles or giggles, but recovered just as quick, their moods once more dampening as thoughts swam unbidden through their minds.

"Still," Luna began, "She has a point. For all we know, he may just attack us on sight," she pointed out.

"If what Miss Angel said was any indication, it wouldn't be surprising. Especially after all we've done to him," Celestia agreed, nodding her head.

"We'll just have to hope she managed to talk some sense into him, then, I suppose," Star Swirl mused, stroking his beard. There was yet more silence as they flew through the cold skies of the Empire. The weight of what they were about to do was hitting them, and they'd no idea how to continue the conversation.

"...Honestly though, this just feels so... Surreal, trying to apologize to someone we've considered an enemy for so long," Shining Armor admitted, ending the silence. He turned to his sister. "How do you even deal with this stuff so often?"

Twilight giggled nervously, rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof. "I uh... Kinda just follow my gut, truth be told..."

Shining sighed with a soft smile, shaking his head. "Well, let's just hope things go well." He turned his attention to the massive mountain in the distance which was steadily getting closer.

"Truthfully, I can't say I'm all that ready to forgive him," Star Swirl said. The faces of the others changed to frowns and furrowed brows.

"Yeah... I can understand that," Twilight agreed.

"Same here," Shining concurred.

"Well, tis not like he will not go on trial," Luna pointed out.

"Indeed. Assault is a serious crime, after all," Celestia said, nodding.

"That's a bit more relieving to know, I guess," Cadance admitted.

More silence followed as they drew closer to the mountain. It's staggering peak loomed above them, above the clouds that rained cold snow upon the tundra below. They would be making landfall soon, for the mountain was just a scarce few thousand yards away.

But their tense ride was interrupted. A giant monster that could only be described as a flying, scaly lamprey without eyes was sat on a ledge lower on the mountain, and it let out an ear piercing, shriek of a howl, forcing the ponies to cover their ears from it's sheer volume, before, to their shock, it shot a ball of electricity from it's mouth at them, which impacted the flyers and electrocuted them on the spot. The ponies in the carriage cried out in alarm and dismay as they began to plummet towards the mountain, the monster making to dive towards them and likely snatch them up.

Another loud sound pierced the air, however, followed by a massive explosion, and the ponies saw the monster flail, its wing now sporting a hole as it tumbled through the air and fell into the white.

Meanwhile, they were plummeting to their own demise. In short order they crashed into the mountainside, wood and the like splintering and in some cases piercing the pony's soft flesh, while the others were just very painfully hit with the effects of whiplash. They all cried in pain at this, but had little time to react as the mountain rumbled low, like thunder. The thunder grew louder, and when they all managed to look up, they saw naught but a wave of white rolling towards them, fast.

They tried to react, to move or do something, but they were in too much pain, and the snow overtook them, burying them in seconds under several feet of snow. Tense minutes passed, and the mountain soon regained it's imposing silence as the ponies were knocked unconscious and left under the heavy blanket of white.

All the ponies thought as they fell into the black of unconsciousness was just what happened to them.

Luna woke up with a start, sitting upright in... A sleeping bag? She looked around, finding a large log cabin around her. There was a large rug made of, to her disgust, an animal's hide, white in coloration, but to her interest there was a large rack on the far left wall, weapons the likes of which she had not ever seen before in all her years. A workbench covered in tools of all sorts lay below the racks of weapons, a singular, strange looking slow cooker on the top shelf of the workbench, bearing small, white, metallic and hollow wings.

To the right of the workbench was a large, blocky red chest, and to the far right of that was a door leading outside, with a kitchen to the right of the door, and a dining room table behind her.

She looked to her right to find a hearth with a prominent, large, saber-tooth tiger-like skull mounted above it, though there were some key differences. But what drew her attention the most was the large, bipedal figure sitting in a fur-covered wooden chair, seemingly tribal in design. It was unlike any creature she'd seen, with tan, sun-kissed skin - a strange thing for a creature living in the far north to bear - and long, scraggly black hair along with a five o'clock shadow and a black, shiny tattoo on his forehead. This was all complimented by golden eyes that stared straight at the flames of the hearth. It wore white fur clothing that, while not exactly lavish, still looked like it would be a hit with any nobles in the Crystal Empire.

She knew immediately who this creature was. Skull. She looked around herself to find the others around her in similar sleeping bags, and looking like they had been healed completely.

"Awake already?" came the deep voice of Skull. Luna's eyes widened momentarily, looking to him to find that he had not even given her the same courtesy.

"How-" she began, but he cut her off.

"I was hunting that Khezu that attacked your carriage. After it knocked you guys down and caused an avalanche, I pulled you all out of the snow and brought you here," he explained. He grabbed a wooden mug from a table on the side of the chair, and drank deeply of it. He let out a breath as he finished his gulp of the beverage. "You should all just be happy I even decided to bring you here. On normal circumstances, I'd have left you all to die in the cold." He sighed, sinking a little more into the chair. "...Guess I have Angel to thank for my change of heart."

"You...saved us?" she said slowly, evidently surprised.

"I did, but only because Angel would have my head if I hadn't," Skull said tersely. Luna was silent for a spell as she took this information in. She had originally thought that when they met he would react with outright hostility, but he hadn't. He had actually gone so far as to bring them into his own home and heal them.

"Well... I thank you for your kindness, nonetheless," she answered, giving him a small smile. He just grunted, shifting in his chair. A short quiet followed, filled only with the crackling of the fire and Luna looking around. Soon, she broke it, looking at him. "How long have we been here, might I ask?"

"Asleep, you mean?" he queried. She nodded. "About five hours."

Luna hummed in thought, only for the others to begin to stir around her.

"Ugh... What happened...?" groaned Shining Armor.

"All I remember is crashing into the mountain..." Twilight voiced, slowly sitting up and blearily opening her eyes.

"It would seem that we were found by the one we were looking for," Luna explained, and the eyes of the others widened and shot open, taking in their surroundings and finally, the man by the fire. Star Swirl's eyes narrowed at him, but he didn't speak.

"So, you are Skull, then?" Celestia asked slowly.

"I am," Skull responded, still not looking at her or the others, gaze fixed on the fire.

"I see... So that namesake of yours was not your true face?" Celestia ventured. He shook his head. "Yet you are content with the name we gave you?" Skull frowned deeply at this.

"No. Not in the slightest. But, I lost the right to my old name a while ago, so I've kept the one you guys gave me," he explained. He took a sip from his mug, still having not faced them. "I'm guessing you were all trying to find me since Angel didn't show up, right?"

"Correct. We wanted answers, and finding you was the only way to get them," Luna affirmed.

"...How'd you find me?" Skull asked after a short pause.

"Oh! We tracked your Void signature!" Twilight told him, grinning proudly. He turned to her, and she wilted a little under his gaze, realizing excitement was apparently not welcome in this environment, but he soon returned it to the fire, allowing her to relax.

"It was only a matter of time, I guess," he said with a long sigh. He didn't speak for a few minutes, and the ponies watched him just as silently as he watched the flames of his hearth dance. "...What do you want to know?" He finally asked.

"I would like to know why you attacked me and my companions," Star Swirl began, shooting the man a glare. If Skull was affected by it, he didn't make it known.

"I did it to warn you guys to back off. Simple as that," he replied simply.

"But why? You could've done anything else!" Twilight pointed out, frowning at him. Skull shot her a glare, and she wilted once more.

"I tried to. Multiple times. But after being chased out of towns or hunted for four years, I figured the only way to get it through to you guys was to meet hostility with hostility," Skull said matter-of-factly.

"So you didn't actually want to resort to it?" Cadance asked. Skull paused at this.

"...No, I didn't. I'm a man of God, and I didn't want to hurt anyone," he replied after a bit. The ponies looked at each other, seeming to have a silent conversation as Skull just stared into the flames, as if searching for something among them.

Finally, they turned back to him. "It seems we owe you an apology, Mr. Skull," Celestia began.

"We were too hasty, and labeled you a monster without even trying to understand you," Luna continued.

"For that, we are sorry," Celestia finished. Skull remained silent.

"Can you forgive us?" Cadance asked, a plea in her eyes. Skull was still silent. Finally, he sighed, turning his head to face them.

"...I can't forgive you guys, no," he began, and their hearts sunk, but he continued, "Just like you guys likely can't forgive me for hurting your friends so badly. But..." He stood up to his full height, towering over Celestia by a full foot. Furthermore, they could easily tell he was very muscular, and very well toned. "...As a man of God, I'll give you all one final chance."

The ponies sighed in relief. Celestia stepped up. "That's great to hear. But..."

"...You have still committed crimes, and must be punished appropriately," Luna finished. Skull's face formed a deeper frown, staring them all down with a hard gaze. But, slowly, it softened, or rather, weakened, and he sighed.

"Fair enough. I can agree to that, as long as the judgement is fair and unbiased," he said eventually. His glare returned, though it seemed more to dare them than anything. "I imagine I can be assured of that much?"

They all frowned as well, Star Swirl and Shining seemingly wanting to retort, but they were held back by the others.

"We will endeavor to keep it as such, yes. We won't be so callous again, I assure you," Luna promised. Skull nodded.

"Good. Now... How are you all feeling? Any aches or pains?" he asked. They all blinked, then looked to each other.

"Um, no, not really," Cadance replied. He nodded.

"Good, that means the potions did their job," He said. He walked across the room to the chest, opening it. "Can you all wait outside? I need to get changed if I'm going to be put on trial." He didn't sound happy about the prospect, but at the same time he didn't seem angry about it either. The others looked to each other once more, then slowly walked to the door.

"Right, um... We'll be waiting, I guess," Twilight said, before they all walked outside.

Skull pulled a heavier fur coat out of the chest, looking it over, though his eyes were cloudy with other thoughts. He sighed. "Lord... Why can't this be easier?"

Author's Note

EDIT: Opening theme is here!

Well, here's the continuation of the last chapter. I think it does a good job of introducing the results of its predecessor, but hey, that's just me.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this one. Thanks for reading.

-Timeless Celestial