re-reuniting with the Princesses.

I grinned as I set out from Canterlot castle, intent on making things a bit more... Homey...
Chuckling, I observed as the canterlot nobles fled from my path, taking some piece of amusement from their fear.

Oh, come one. I’m not that scary, am I? Or are you all just afraid I might mock you~?

My grin spread wider across my beak as I watched the petty little nobles flinch and scurry off at the sound of grey.

Now then, let’s see… I think it’s time to bring a bit of home to equestria… I hope you all like snow! Oh, wait, I don’t really care, well, not in this context at least~

I raised my hands to the sky, where a maelstrom of clouds was gathering above me. Gently, ever so gently, snow began to fall from the swirling storm above.

Ah, isn’t it beautiful~? What do you think, Blueblood?

Blueblood flinched as he heard me call his name. “It is… rather pretty, I suppose.”
I frowned at that.

Oh come one! Give me your all!

“I… I would really rather not.”
I sighed and nodded in understanding, I couldn’t blame him for being afraid, especially since one of the first things I’d done since getting on the throne had been to take him and the other stuck-up nobles down a few dozen notches

Can’t really blame you for that. As you were.

I hated bossing people around like that, but I really did have an image to maintain. I couldn’t exactly fight the Bearers if they thought I was a fluffy, huggable pushover, now could I?
I blinked as a new thought struck me. I picked the thought off the ground, dusted it off and grinned.

Voidling, dearest?

Yes, Stardust?

Would you mind sending a CTWM through Spike?

I can do that. What does it say?

And so, two or three chapters later, Eris received a slightly frozen scroll to the face, at with the approximate force required to turn a Draconequus into a cannon-ball. The message read as follows:
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I am sending you this message as a last-ditch effort to find someone capable of defeating a startling new foe. An old friend of my sister and I recently showed up in Canterlot, turning the place into a winter wasteland. By this point, everyone has been frozen into their own houses, and I am sorry to say that the Guard, along with most of Canterlot's unicorn residents have already succumbed to the cold. Unfortunately, this does not signify death, no, in this hellish winterscape, the cold brings the curse of the Draugr and Wight; two ancient undead races, both born of frost. I'm sorry to say that there is a possibility that not only have your parents been corrupted by the Frost, but that the snows have already reached Ponyville, and other nearby settlements. What this means for your friends, I'm afraid to guess. Even as I'm writing this, I can feel the ice leaching into my mind, the frost growing into my soul. Please, hurry.

-Celestia

I chuckled as the letter was sent away, only to barrel out of Spike's mouth and into Eris's gut like a cannonball, in a few chapters. I didn't want to ruin the goop developing between Eris and Thorax.

so... What now?

Now? Now, we wait.
I walked back inside and retired to the library.
Bored now, time to go troll Sunbutt and Moonbutt.

I apparated into my Laboratory in the Clayscape. Due to the... Belligerent nature of the more commonly occurring natives, I had built this place under an entire mountain. And then reinforced the entire surface of the thing with hardened Black. The stuff was pretty rare, but I had a lot, and I didn't really have anything else to do with it, and I needed the extra layer of 'not gonna break' between myself and the Neon...

I closed my eyes and concentrated, fully expecting to find the Clockwork a shattered, broken mess. What I got was... Certainly not what I was expecting. Someone must've cleaned up in here between now and the last time I popped in.
Everything was neat, all the cogs and gears were moving in time to the beat of the central Aether coil, and to top it all of, there weren't even any shattered bits from unsafely closed connections!

Hoo boy, someone's been cleaning up in here! Voidling, did we get a maid?

No... But the self repair is functional...

Ah. Well, that explains it!

I walked through the maze of clockwork circuitry, eventually finding my way onto a balcony, overlooking a vast chamber of lenses. I looked around the balcony, and spotted a cleverly concealed raised, control panel.

I walked over to the panel and raised my talons over the various dials, buttons and levers like a maestro.
After popping my fingers, I went to work, pulling and pushing levers, pressing buttons, and fiddling with dials like a madman.

As I did this, a long manipulator arm reached out, selected a lens, and lifted it up for me to gaze through. I flipped another switch, this time revealing a computer keyboard, and readied my hands over the new set of buttons. The lens flickered to life, and through it, I saw the princesses building a reinforced house out of wood, mud and stone. I cringed as I watched them work. They weren't even hardening their materials! I sighed in shame and shook my head.

Voidling... Do you think we should help them?

Absolutely. We don't want them dead, not really, and they are our friends after all.

To a certain degree of friends, that is.

Voidling and I shared a chuckle at that.

I returned to my own... Well, I couldn't really call it my own body, could I? I returned to my preferred body, and walked through the halls of my laboratory, finding myself in front of a door set into the wall, raised about a foot off the ground. I gazed at the door for a minute or two, building up the courage to open it, and face the surface of the clayscape.

welp. As a great madman once said, GERONIMO!!!!

I pulled the door open and leapt through, and only as the door closed behind me did I remember, I had set the door into the face of a very tall cliff.

damn. I wish I could say it, but then something might happen, and we're only rated T. Dammit Author.

And so, I fell for a hundred-something feet, crashing down into the hardened, black shell of the mountain in a puddle of goop.
Fortunately for me, I reformed once all the kinetic force had moved from me to the ground.

I dusted myself off, and walked down the mountain, into the forest. I idly wondered where the wormlings one of my siblings had made had run off to. I mean, they did have their own civilization at this point, but they weren't made complex enough, or big enough to have any real intellect. It was possible that they had been consumed by the Neon, but if I know Remy, he would've stuck around to defend his worms until they could fend for themselves well enough to survive. And Marlin might still be in that tree of his...

Speaking of, I think that was somewhere around here? I know that Remy and the worms are somewhere over in the jungle, but I'm really not sure about Marlin...
Eh, doesn't matter. What does matter is finding the princesses!

I checked for their positions through the Spiderlings, and found that they had actually holed up at the original site where my siblings and I had settled down initially. Unfortunately, I didn't make it there before nightfall, partially due to a desire to see how they handled themselves when facing up against the Neon. Imagine my surprise when they summoned weapons. Weapons that could Harden things on contact.

Impressive. I wish that I'd thought of that back when I had to deal with those things on an almost nightly basis.

I chuckled as they whirled around to face me, blades of Hardening at the ready. As I watched them quiver, I decided to play nice, for once.

I grinned at them, allowing my body to remember how to be perceived once more. Once I was finished reappearing, I sat down in front of them, observing them as they scratched uncomfortably at their 'wounds'.

You're going to want to remove the infected matter. It won't grow back until there's nothing in the way.

I handed them each a fruit.

Eat those once you've torn off the taint. They'll help your flesh grow back. Might take a bit longer than if you were a Native. But there's only four of those who occurred by themselves.

Author's Note

I know, I know. there were some of you hoping for this chapter to answer questions. that will come later. after Twilight has re-captured our Narrating Character.