FrostBound

Chapters

Cold Breeze
Chilling news
Battle of despair
Confrontation
Broken hope
The tragic tale of the FrostBound
The peak of the storm
Frozen tears
Victory within
Secrets in the ice
A Cold Yet Gentle Heart
Epilogue
Prologue
Into the cold mist

Cold Breeze

When Princess Celestia opened her windows earlier that morning, she expected to be graced by the soft winds of Spring as the pegasus on Cloudsdale worked to make the weather warmer, allowing animals to awaken from slumber and make trees and flowers be back into blooming at their fullest. And yet, when the window got opened, she got hit in the face with sudden chilling breeze. “Weird” she said to herself, confused, “I wonder if something happened up there. Maybe I should send a message to the climate squad and—“ *Knock knock*. The alicorn princess turned her attention to her doors, “Come in” she said, kindly. Accompanied by her personal guards, entered a female pony that had a duster as a cutie mark and with white and grey mane and fur. Her name was Dusty Coat and she had took the place as headmaster of the cleaning in the royal sisters castle since the last one went in pension. Celestia noticed that the pony looked a bit alarmed, “Something’s wrong, Dusty Coat?”.

“Well, nothing per se, my princess” she said, “Is just that something weird happen while I was taking off the dust in some of the least used rooms when I noticed, right in the corner of one of them, some kind of device similar to a candle was glowing of unnatural light and so I... Princess Celestia, are you alright?”. The pony noticed that when she mentioned the device the alicorn turned even paler than usual while her eyes widened in fear and disbelief.

“Of what colour was the light?” she asked.

“Red. Why?”.

Princess Luna was going into her eldest sister rooms to refer to her of the weird weather when she meet Dusty Coat. The female unicorn looked perplexed, “Oh Princess Luna” she said, bowing in respect.

“Is everything alright, miss Dusty Coat?”.

“Well, Princess Celestia just gave me and my cleaning team the permits to call this and the next three days off” the unicorn said.

“Really?” Luna was a bit puzzled herself, “Shouldn’t that be a good news for you?”.

“I’m not somepony that likes to leave a job incomplete, my lady” said Dusty Coat. Then she turned her head back, watching the direction from which she was coming, “But I think that there’s more than your sister good nature behind this choice. I just told her about this device that was letting out a red light and then she looked like somepony had just stabbed her in the heart. She told me she was fine, but she didn’t exactly sounded convincing, if I can be honest”.

“I will make sure to help her in case of need. That said, even if there was trouble coming up ahead, you just have to remember that Equestria has always managed to come out victorious” said Princess Luna, giving her most cheering smile.

“Of course not, my lady” replied Dusty Coat before giving another bow.

Once the unicorn left the blue alicorn rushed to her sister room. And there she was, sitting on the bed, looking at the open window. “Celestia”. The white alicorn turned around, allowing Luna to see the fear in her eyes.

“He has awakened” Celestia said, almost on the verge of a breakdown.

“Yes, but maybe is not too late to pull an halt to his attempt to escape” Luna replied. She wasn’t that much sure of her own words, but sincerity wouldn’t have helped her sister calm down. Suddenly there was a flash of light and Discord appeared near the window.

“I’m afraid that’s already too late for that” he said, preferring using the brutal truth.

“You knew about him” said Celestia, surprised.

“Of course I did. How could I miss the existence of a creature that wields a power like that” he watched out of the window with a worried expression, “I was smart enough to avoid to release him in my earlier days when my only source of fulfilment was to bend Equestria at my will, because I didn’t feel it to share my playground with him, AND because I’m not so foolish to trust in someone who has Windigos bound to him. Same thing I didn’t mention of his existence to Tirek because I couldn’t tell what would have happened if he tried to absorb his magic too. Although I’m sure the final result would have been bad in either cases”.

“Very wise of you” admitted Luna.

“Indeed. But do you want to hear the definition of something not wise, for not to say completely bonkers?” Discord turned around, glaring at Celestia, “Keeping his existence a secret to the whole world, even to your apprentice and her friends. That’s something you did quite often, isn’t it?”.

Celestia backed off as if Discord words were deadly spikes. Luna came to her aid, “Now is not the right time to move accuses, Discord. We must warn the Bearers of Harmony and prepare ourselves for what is to come”.

“You’re right, Luna” finally said Celestia, seemingly freed from her shock and back to. “I will go sending a letter to both Twilight and Cadence” she turned to her sister, “Luna, send a message to Iron Brace to prepare our fleet” and then she turned to the Draconequus, “I will need your help too, Discord” she glanced at the window, “FrostBound is out there, we need to rally our allies as fast as we can before he decides to strike”.

An hour later

Twilight had made call Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy to the castle as fast as she could once Spike brought her the letter. “How much do you bet that this reunion is about this sudden change of weather?” asked Applejack.

“You like to not take any chances” replied Rarity, “It’s clear that something is off with this sudden return of coldness” she glanced at Rainbow Dash, “Even though I believed that this was one of your pranks, Rainbow Dash”.

The cyan pegasus looked offended, “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I’ve learned to not get over the top with my pranks. Also, don’t forget that until this coldness won’t leave, Tank is not going to wake up”.

“And Tank is not the only animal which is going to have trouble, with this sudden drop of temperatures. If we will not solve this problem soon enough, they are going to starve” added Fluttershy, worried.
The girls noticed that Pinkie Pie had remained silent all this time. Now that they noticed, she looked tired.

“Are you alright, my dear?” asked Twilight, concerned by her silence, so out of character of her.

“I’m fine” the pink earth pony replied, trying to calm her friends, “Is just that tonight I had problem sleeping”.

Everypony with the exception Pinkie exchanged some confused stares, “And why’s that, darling?” asked Rarity.

“Because” she sounded uncertain, as if she feared to tell them the truth, “Because tonight my Pinkie Sense went crazy in ways that I’ve never felt. It was so sudden and powerful that I fell from the bed and I almost awaken ms and miss Cakes and the twins! Then I spent the rest of the night wondering what kind of trouble is coming to our way”.
The rest of the Mane 6 stood silent, the words of their friend sinking in their minds.

“Well, whatever reason that may be, I think a good hot sweet can always help”. Spike arrived from the kitchen carrying a big tray that had seven cups of warm chocolate and many cookies.

“Thanks Spike” said Twilight, smiling at the young drake.

“You’re the best, darling” complimented Rarity, sweetly.
Spike could only smile clumsily at the compliments, but before he could say anything there was a sudden and yet familiar flash of light. Discord had arrived, and with him there were Princess Luna and Celestia.

“Forgive us from the sudden entrance, Twilight, but we need to act quick”.

“Sure thing, princess, but what—“.

“Wait” Celestia turned to Discord, “Now you can go get her”. And with that Discord snapped his fingers, disappearing. “I know you want answers, my little ponies, but before I explain what is going on we have to wait for Discord return. And for the arrival of Cadence and Shining Armour”.

“But who—“ but once again Twilight got interrupted by Discord appearance. But he wasn’t alone.

“Ember!?” shouted in surprise Spike.

“Spike!? What’s going on!?” asked the young dragoness, almost panicking by the shock of the teleportation. She glared at the Draconequus, “And who the heck are you?! Let me go!”.

“Quite the temperament, no wonder you got the title of Dragon Lord” mused Discord, letting her go “The name’s Discord, master of Chaos”.

“I’m sorry for how you got brought here, Ember” said Princess Celestia, trying to calm the temper of the young female dragon, “I am Princess Celestia. This one here is my sister, Princess Luna. You already know Spike, Twilight and Rarity, but allow me to present you the rest of our friends, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash”.

“Nice to meet you. Now, salutations done, could anyone tell me why I’ve been brought here so harshly?”.

“Because there is a threat looming on the horizon. Something doesn’t threaten just Equestria, but the whole planet itself. Once that the gathering will be complete”.
The Mane 6, Spike and Ember exchanged some worried glares. They had already seen Celestia worried before, but never to this level. She looked on edge and even her very voice sounded nervous. And, above anything else, scared

Celestia made to reply when Pinkie almost leaped from her throne, “Twitchy tail!” screamed in fear.

And then the castle itself shook, hit by something big. And then, from the ceiling of the room, a large chunk of ice crashed down, falling right on the map and making it crack greatly. But the surprises were not finished yet because, once the dust cleared off, everypony noticed a figure trapped inside the ice: Shining Armor.

Before Twilight could scream in terror at the sight of her frozen brother, the ice vanished in a azure flash of light, releasing him. Shining Armor would have fallen flat on the table if his sister didn’t acted fast, grabbing him with her magic. “He... has... her” was all that he could say, before losing consciousness.

An half hour later the group of dragons, draconequus, ponies and alicorns were taking care of Shining Armor. Outside of the castle the weather was slowly changing from a sunny day to cloudy one, while the temperatures started to feel more like deep autumn than spring, with an haunting wind blowing to the trees. Discord watched the scene while pulling gently his beard, thoughtfully. Spike had just returned from the kitchen making hot chocolate for everyone and now was talking with Ember, telling her more about his life with the Mane 6. Princess Luna was working on a scroll before sending it away with a spell, settings things further to avoid wasting precious time. Celestia stood close to Shining Armor, using her warm magic to make him feel better, while the Mane 6 stood there, praying that Twilight’s brother would soon wake up.

Chilling news

Luckily, they didn’t had to wait that long. Shining Armor opened his eyes, watching around trying to understand where he was. “Twily?”.

“Yes, Shiny, I’m here” she said. Then she had to ask those dreaded questions, which sure would bring just as awful answers, “What happened to you, Shiny? And where’s Cadence?”.
To those questions, the prince of the Crystal Empire closed his eyes in a fit of guilt, “She is in the clutches of the one responsible for my sudden arrival” he said, his voice filled with regret and powerless anger. “It happened so fast and sudden. We were on the Crystal Empire train, me, Cadence and our personal guards. We were talking about what was the reason for this sudden call when the weather outside changed abruptly, turning from a nice sunny spring to one heck of a blizzard. And then suddenly the train stopped abruptly. The reason behind such sudden stop? Apparently there were people out there, on the rails of the train, even though we could only see their silhouette in the blizzard. Me and some guards went down to check if they need it any help. Maybe they were travellers caught by surprise by the sudden snow storm and got lost. I should have realized that it was a trap by how sudden their appearance was. By the time we got near them, me and the rest of the guards realized that those weren’t real ponies, but statues. Ice sculpture of excellent quality, but the jarring lacking of any face”.

“Creepy” grimaced Pinkie Pie.

“Indeed, even though it was nothing compared to what happened next. They started to move at fast pace towards us, summoning ice swords and spears and any kind of sharp weapons. We fought back, shattering many of those moving sculptures, but as we took them down, more started to appear, trying to use the sheer number to overpower us. We had to call the rest of the personal guards to even the odds. Cadence too was about to join the fray to help us but, as just she was about to step down from the wagon, those ice ponies stopped their assault and crumbled to the ground. Me and the other guards watched their remains with uncertainty when we felt it”. Shining Armor stopped, shivering, “At first I thought it was just the wind. But then I recognized the feeling of when someone breathes on your neck. Something was behind us”.

“Who was it?” asked Applejack.

“Did you managed to see it?” asked Spike.

“No. Whatever that thing was, his figure was hidden by the blizzard. Or maybe he was the blizzard itself, I can’t really tell. But what I CAN tell you is that it was BIG. And that his eyes were of a dark shade of cobalt and looked like it belonged to a dragon. But the main focus of his attention was not to us, but to the wagon where Cadence was. At first I stood still, as if the coldness around us frozen us into place, watching as the wagon got yanked from the rest of the train. But it was only for a few seconds, then me and the rest of the guards reacted. Some of us shoot rays at the creature and who didn’t had magic threw his spears into a desperate attempt to make it drop the wagon, but to no avail. Me and the others could only watch in horror as the wagon disappeared into the icy mist, hearing Cadence screaming in help. And as that happened, the creature focused his attention to us. Knowing full well that we couldn’t injury it, I summoned all my power to rise a shield to protect my group. The beast sent against us another wave of wind which didn’t just overpowered my defences, but downright ignore it, as if it wasn’t even there. Oddly enough, I remained unscathed by the cold, but not the rest of the guards, which got frozen into place. In a fit of rage, fear and despair, I charged this unknown attacker with one last destructive beam. He ignore it and, without giving me any time to dodge, I got grabbed by one of his hands, taking me even more close to those blood-chilling eyes. Despite that, I glared at him, defying him”.

“Pretty bold” commented Rainbow Dash, impressed by the courage of Shining Armor.

Bold? Yes. Smart? No quite thought Twilight Sparkle, trying her best to not berate her brother actions.

“And then he turned you to into ice and literally sent you here?”.

“Not exactly. First he talked to me. Even though I could swear that he was not actually moving his mouth. He told me that I had less than seven hours to get back there, or else Cadence would die” he concluded, while closing his eyes in frustration, “I hate myself for having failed to protect Cadence, I’m her husband and yet, it seems like I can’t protect her!”.

“Don’t you blame yourself, Shiny, is not your fault” said Twilight Sparkle.

“Indeed. Listen to your sister, Shining Armor” agreed Princess Luna, “Because the one responsible for Cadence abduction is the reason behind this sudden call”.

“And his name is FrostBound”. The Mane 6 turned their attention to Princess Celestia. The eldest of the royal sisters looked (and sounded) like she was strained by what Shining had just told them.

“Oh NO, NOT FROSTBOUND!” screamed Pinkie Pie, scared silly. “Wait, who’s FrostBound?”.

“He was... is a dragon. But not like all the others”.

Yeah, we kind of figured it out already thought Rainbow Dash.

“And he controls ice instead of fire” commented Rarity.

“Is not just ice, Rarity. Cold. He can emit cold, control it in all his forms. His powers are so great that no one, not me or even Clovis the Clever or Stars swirl the Bearded could see a limit”.

“But how did he came to be?” asked Ember, entering in the conversation, “I’ve seen and heard of a lot of my kind, but never someone like him”.

“That’s, Ember, is because his origins are as old or even older than me. But let’s go with order. I’m sure that all of you know about the Windigos, right?”. To that everypony nodded. “Everything started at the end of their rule over the soon-to-be land of Equestria. They had just suffered their first and greatest defeat by the hands of Clovis, Smart Cookie and Private Pans thanks to the Fire of Friendship. But while defeated, they were not completely destroyed by it. Weakened, they tried to regain their strength, but it was too late. With their existence revealed and with the power of friendship spreading through the land of Equestria, the Windigos couldn’t feed on the hatred like they did before and could only get enough to not disappear into existence. Mostly, the hate that they could absorb was their own. They hated those responsible for their predicament and the whole pony kin. They wanted revenge, but to do so they had no other choice but to ask for help from one of the very ponies that they despised. His name was Web Heart”.

“Who was this Web Heart? I’ve read a lot of books about the past of Equestria, but I never found anything about him” asked Twilight Sparkle.

“That, Twilight, is because of his actions. In a way, he was like Clovis the Clever or Star Swirl the Bearded. But, while he shared their intellects and skills with magic and alchemy, he lacked their empathy. He made horrible experiments, testing on innocent creatures in horrible ways, and all of that just for the sake of the science and nothing less. Star Swirl told me some of those and let me tell you: it was the stuff of nightmares. To avoid that anyone would try and follow his twisted passions, it was decided to delete everything about him and his experiments.”.

Everypony looked terrified by those words, but Twilight felt the worst. The idea of using science without any sort of moral was disgusting.

“No wonder the Windigos chosen him as an ally” commented Rarity, quivering.

Celestia nodded, “Indeed. Web Heart at the time was already considered a criminal. He shared the hatred the Windigos felt towards the rest of his kin. To him they were nothing but a bunch of fools, too much attached to morality to appreciate his works. So, when the Windigos appeared in front of him, promising a chance to rule beside them in change of his help, he accepted without hesitation. Web Heart helped them to search for a way to counter the Fire of Friendship, allowing them to surpassing that weakness. The solution was a mysterious piece of ice-looking that he found inside a hole in a cave”.

“But that’s so random” interjected Rainbow Dash, “How can a random stone have such power?”.

“Nobody knows how it was possible. Web Heart never succeeded into finding out from where exactly that thing came from. The only conclusion was that it came from the outside and that such foreign nature would make it impervious to any magic from this world. Web Heart plan was to make a ritual with magic and alchemy, using that cold stone to create a vessel that the Windigos would have used to take over Equestria, without having to worry about the Fire of Friendship. Fortunately, such wicked plan never came to be. Before the ritual could be completed, Clovis the Clever and his friends had finally managed to track him down, discovering his hideout. With the favour of surprise and with the advantage of sheer numbers, Web Heart attempts to fight his way out got easily countered and at last he got arrested. But while the ritual itself never reached its conclusion, neither was it undone by the sudden interruption. And the result was FrostBound, a dragon looking creature which had the Windigos trapped inside his spirit”.

“Oh poor thing” said Fluttershy, “Having to deal with those awful beings inside of him all the time! It must be horrible”.

Celestia nodded, “Yes, sadly those presence in his mind were strong and, with the passing of time, they got more and more stronger. At first, when it was just a whelp, Clovis decided to keep it jailed into a dungeon but, as he grow more powerful, he decided to move it in a more safe place. Even though safe place was more for the rest of Equestria than FrostBound himself. He got taken to the volcano Ifrit, imprisoned in a special room that acted as a cage, with all the necessary spells and runes to keep him stuck there. But in the end it just wasn’t enough. Tonight, he managed to break free from his cage, more powerful than ever”.

“And let me guess, he wants to bring the eternal winter, right?” asked Rarity.

“That, and take over the world”.

“Of course!” shouted suddenly Pinkie Pie.

“Well, what you said was very interesting, Celestia” said Ember, “And I guess that this is the reason of my sudden arrival, right? You need the help of us dragons to face that monster”.

Celestia nodded again, “I tried to act as fast as we could, hoping to gather our forces before FrostBound would strike. But now, with Cadence seizure, he’s forcing us to clash with him before having all the numbers from our side”.

“Is that really necessary?” asked Rainbow Dash, “I mean, it would be awesome to have an army of dragons to our side, but why don’t we just zap him with the new Elements of Harmony? I get that he has amazing powers” she said, quoting her words, “But so had Tirek. I’m sure we can take him on”.

“You know nothing, Rainbow Dash” said Discord. His tone was so serious that it took Rainbow Dash some seconds to actually replying to him.

“Oh come on, Discord, what makes this FrostBound different from all the other bad guys that we have defeated?”.

“Because FrostBound is unlike any of them” replied Discord, harshly. “FrostBound is not a princess that didn’t felt loved enough. He’s not a playful trickster. He’s not a bug queen with dreams of conquers. He’s not a crazy unicorn with a passions for crystals and he’s NOT a jerk that wants to wreck anything by stealing power. He’s a force of nature, fuelled by both an alien element and spirit-like creatures that festers on hatred. And it will send us back to the ice age, if we underestimate him!”. When the Draconequus uttered those last words, it was clear that there was sincere fear in it.

“Then why didn’t he just attack us?” asked Rarity.

“I have no idea” admitted Discord, “Maybe he just wants to deal with us in the first place, so then he can focus on freezing this planet. Or maybe there is something more to it”.

“Whatever he’s planning, we can’t waste any more time” said Celestia “Cadence is in great danger and we must act fast if we want to save her. And for that” she turned to her sister, “I’ve made sure to call for more help”. As she was talking, it was possible to hear the sound of some kind of engine in the air, getting more and more louder. With curiosity, the Mane 6, Spike and even Shining Armor, got to the window to get a view of what was coming.

What they saw was an armada of airship. The air fleet was counted 40 airships in arrow formation, most of them had the same size, except one or two, barely twice as big as a house. But the main one, the one which was situated in the point of the arrow formation, was by far the largest and in length as long as castle of the Royal Sisters. It was one of the very rare occurrences where both Twilight and Rainbow Dash knew who this new comers were: the Dragon Watch. A special group created to, as the title said, watch over dragons activity, making sure that the flying and fire breathing giants wouldn’t start a mess during their research to increase their hoard. To do so, they had mastered the control of the airships, without a doubt one of the most advanced technology of Equestria or even in the whole world: created with the toughest of steel and mithril, magical windows nearly impossible to break on the outside, and armed with two of the few weapons truly capable to hurt and possibly kill a full grown adults. One of this were special devised harpoons, with the spiked end made of enchanted diamonds, and the other were cannons which were capable to shoot highly focused thunders.
Everypony watched the scene with awe. Well, everypony except Discord, Ember and Spike.
The Draconequus looked completely unenthusiastic at the arrival of the Dragon Watch.
Spike and Ember because... well, they were dragons, so having to deal with a group made to fight off their kin was kind of awkward.

A pegasus flew down from the biggest ship and landed on the balcony of the castle. It had a gray coat and a black mane and tail. This one was starting to show some white in it, signs of his age. Yet his strong body and wings and the steel in his jade eyes proved that there was still fire in his soul. His cutie mark was an image of a target on what looked like a dragon. Celestia made the presentation “Allow me to present you the captain of the Dragon Watch, Steel Wing”.

“Is great honour to finally meet the heroes of Equestria” said Steel Wing, bowing in respect.

“Not as great as to meet you, captain Steel Wing” replied Twilight with glee in her voice “You and the Dragon Watch have done your part keeping the control of the most wild dragons”.

“Nothing compared to what you six have done. Saving Equestria is bit more harder than fight some brute dragons”.

“A-hem!” coughed Ember, making her and Spike presence noted.

At her sight, Steel Wing winced, “Oh, I’m sorry if I offended you” he replied, ashamed.

Spike waved his hand, “Nah, we’re not offended. I myself know too well how violent some of us are”.

At those words Steel Wing looked relieved, but then he realized something, “You look familiar” said to Ember.

“You’ve meet my father. And I can say that you and your pals have left a mark on him”. The dragoness words were as cold the air outside.

“So that’s why your father wears an armour” exclaimed Twilight, realizing the meaning of her words and, at the time, try to divert the conversation “Is to hide the injuries”.

“I always wondered why a dragon would wear such banal armour to hide its amazing scales” added Rarity, to help her friends and also add her thoughts on the matter.

“In my defence, miss--“.

“Ember. Dragon Lord Ember for you”. Her tone was on edge.

“Dragon Lord Ember” corrected himself the captain, “As I was saying, your father didn’t let us any choice but to use violence against him. He was attacking a convoy that was carrying a load of gold that served to help build an hospital. We did tried to talk to him, then we tried to scare him off. When even that failed, we had to get serious or get burned into cinder. We didn’t do what we did for spite, but for duty. If it can make you feel any better, your old man put up one heck of a fight, damaging five of our ships before he yielded”.

Ember seemed to consider his words. “Interesting” she said, sounding much more calm, “My father always told me that it was you that started the fight attacking from behind. Is nice to hear the other side of the story. I don’t know who’s telling the truth, but I will find out. Now, let’s focus on the most important stuff”.

“Thanks for your comprehension, Ember” thanked her Celestia, before turning her attention to Steel Wing. “Captain, what have you seen in the area where FrostBound attacked while getting here?”.

The pegasus shook his head, “Not much. The whole zone, for miles and miles, is covered in a isolated and violent blizzard. But I’m ready to bet my very own wings what you want that something big is going in it”.

Luna watched the weather outside and the position of the sun, “If we want to save Cadence, we must make haste”.

“Right. Twilight, you and your friends will join captain Steel Wing in the research of Cadence. Do everything in your power to save her. Five airships of the Dragon Watch will remain near Ponyville and Canterlot, ready to fight back”.

“You can count on it” nodded Twilight, determinate .

“I want to come too!” exclaimed Shining Armor, not less resolute, “Is my wife we are talking about. I failed to protect her, the very least I can do is to help rescue her from the clutches of this FrostBound.”.

“No” replied Celestia, “You’re still too much weakened from your last meeting with FrostBound”.

“But--“.

“Celestia is right” added Twilight, interrupting her brother, “I know that you mean well and I also realize how important this is for you, but I can’t afford the risk to lose you both”.

“Listen to your sister, soldier” said Steel Wing, “I know what it means to be let out from the action. Is frustrating, but you must learn your limits, if you don’t want to hurt yourself even more”.

At first, Shining Armor seemed to not be capable to reply, too much aware of his health, but then he added, “Then allow me to at least go back to Canterlot with you, Princess Celestia. I can’t stand still when everyone else is working to save the country”.

Celestia nodded, “That’s more manageable. Your experience will certainly be helpful if FrostBound will show up”.

“As if” muttered Discord, but not quietly enough. Twilight turned around giving him stern glare with the rest of the group, “What? I’m being honest here. In fact, I think to be the only one to taking this matter seriously (for how much absurd that sound). This plan of yours stink worst than a sewer filled with rotten cupcakes! I expected that at least you took this threat seriously, seeing how it made you look like a foal scared of the Bogey Mare. Do you seriously think that those flying toys and an army of dragons would be enough to stop FrostBound?”

“What would you do otherwise? Other than whining and offending everyone!?” exclaimed Applejack, frustrated.

“Simple, I would pack all my things and leave this dimension, going as far away as possible, never looking back and praying whatever high entity above that FrostBound will not follow us. That is what I would have done, if I wasn’t so much attached to you bunch of ponies!”.

Those words made the stern glares disappear, replaced by genuine surprise. Or, in the case of a certain yellow female pegasus, great glee, “Aw, Discord!” she said, hugging the Draconequus, which looked quite embarrassed by Fluttershy affect.

Celestia sighed, “Discord, I know that my plain doesn’t sound that great. I’m PAINFULLY aware of that. I wish we could gather a much larger army, composed of all the forces in the whole Equestria and beyond, because FrostBound is a threat that involve all the creatures that walk, fly or swim on this planet. But, like I’ve said before, we don’t have the time to make a better plan. So please, help us to make it work, because without you’re magic, we’re doomed”.

Discord looked at the eldest of the royal sister, then to Fluttershy and her friends, then he too sighed, “Fine, what do you want me to do?”.

Celestia smiled “Simple, you and Ember will gather all the dragons that will answer to the call. Then, when you will be ready, we will meet back at Canterlot”.

“Fine by me” nodded Ember.

“Good, at least I won’t be completely useless this time”.

“Can Spike join them?” asked Twilight, suddenly. Last thing she wanted was to leave him alone with a dangerous dragon of doom flying around Equestria.

“Can I!?”. At the thought to actually help save the day rather than sit on his butt, Spike looked overjoyed. And Ember too, even though she, just like Discord, tried to hide it.

“Sure, I don’t see why not” nodded Celestia.

“Good. Before we leave I want to warn Mayor Mare about what’s going on. I want her and all the citizens of Ponyville to get inside the castle, in case this weather is going to get worst”.

“Great idea, Twily” said Shining Armor, proud of his sister.

“Indeed, but before you go there is one last thing I need to tell you”. While saying that, her voice sounded a bit less sure, “Is very likely that FrostBound will be there waiting for you. In that case I ask you to try and rescue Cadence without using the Elements of Harmony”.

As expected, those words caused quite the confusion “WHAT!?” shouted contemporarily the Mane 6, Spike and Discord.

“I know it sounds absurd, but listen to me” replied Celestia, trying to sound firm, “Just like I’ve said before, FrostBound source of power is a mystery to us. We don’t know what effect the power of Harmony would have on him or the Elements itself. For not mentioning the attention you would get to him. Of course, if there is no other way to save Cadence, you have my authorization to use them. Just be careful”.

“Ok princess” Twilight nodded, before her and her friends went to prepare themselves for the upcoming mission.

As they went, Ember asked a question, “What if the Elements actually work on FrostBound and he gets defeated? What should I say to all the dragons that we gathered?”.

The answer came from Luna, and her words sounded grave, almost ominous, “If that happen, Dragon Lord Ember, we shall consider all ourselves lucky”.

Battle of despair

“So, what’s the plan captain?” asked hopeful Pinkie Pie, “Because there is a plan, isn’t it?”.

“We already faced dragons that big... well, almost that big” tried to assure her Steel Wing. But the truth was that the captain of the Dragon Watch was just as scared as the Mane 6 and the rest of his men. During their years of duty, his team had faced almost any kind of dragon, be that big and small. But this FrostBound was something else. The size of this dragon alone was a sight to behold, twice the size of Torch. And those ice powers... until now, the Dragon Watch had never faced one capable of magic. And those eyes, filled with such cold hatred...

“Mister captain Steel Wing?”. A meek voice managed to make him snap out from his thoughts. It was from none other than Fluttershy.

“Yes, miss Fluttershy?”.

“I wanted to know if there is some way to communicate with FrostBound”.

That request made every pony in the control room look at her, astonished by her wish to talk to that behemoth.

“You can’t be serious, Fluttershy!” said Rainbow Dash, in disbelief.

“I have to agree with Rainbow for this one” nodded Rarity, “My dear, what you think of getting by speaking with that monster?”.

“I know that it may sounds absurd but I think that there can be more to him than just a raging monster. Maybe that’s what Celestia has been keep hidden from us, because she was afraid that we wouldn’t want to fight it”.

“Well, is not like we wanted to fight someone like that to begin with” remarked sarcastically Twilight Sparkle. “Probably is not going to work, but I think we should at least try. Then, who knows, maybe we can solve this situation without fighting”.

“Hopefully” muttered Applejack, without taking her eyes off the giant ice dragon. There was something in those eyes so filled of hatred that it made hard to look at them and, at the same time it was hard to look away.

Captain Steel Wing nodded, before turning to the communication with the other ships and telling to the others commanders to wait before open fire on the monster. Then he pushed some button and started talking. “FrostBound, we are the Dragon Watch. It’s our duty to deal with dangerous dragons and trust me, we are good in our job. Now listen here: what about you let Princess Cadence and anyone else that is inside that kart go, so we can avoid a fight that nobody here wants?”.

Steel Wing speech was simple and clear and the right balance between friendly and serious. FrostBound remained silent, glaring at the airships for a few seconds. In those seconds, the Mane 6 and a lot of the members of the Dragon Watch hoped that the enormous dragon would accept those request.
But then FrostBound replied and, just like Steel Wing, his answer was just as clear and straight.
Only that, instead of using words, he used actions. He opened again his mouth and then a stream of almost blinding white/azure flames came out. Too quick and sudden to do anything but watch with horror how it devoured the airship. But instead of turning the vehicle and the crew into cinders, it turned them into ice crystals, which then crumbled into snow, scattered in the wind.
They say that actions speaks louder than word. In the case of FrostBound, his actions were deafening.

***

“You didn’t told them the truth” said Luna.

Since their return to Canterlot, the two royal sisters had done all in their power to make sure the citizens were warned about the incoming threat and ensuring that each one of the would have a safe shelter and food. In all this time, Luna had been very silent. But now, in the privacy of their royal palace, she had the chance to speak her mind.

“The citizens doesn’t need to know about FrostBound arrival. They are already scared enough with this sudden change of weather. If they knew who is responsible for it...”

“I’m not talking about that, Celestia”.

“Oh” Celestia looked away, ashamed to not have realized what her younger sister was talking about. “I had my reason to keep this thing a secret”.

“Because you are afraid to lose their trust in you. Trust me, sister, I know the feeling” said the blue alicorn, staring at the window glass, depicting when she, as Nightmare Moon, faced the Elements of Harmony and got defeated. “But I also know that keeping this secret is not going to do any favour to you. You must have faith that the bearers of Harmony will comprehend your actions”.

“I will reveal to them FrostBound secret, once he and the Windigos will be stopped. Telling them right away would have distracted them from the battle and not use the Elements in the correct way”.

“What effect do you think the Elements of Harmony will have on him?”.

“I really don’t know. That’s one of the reason why I didn’t used them on him, when I still could control them. They might actually heal him from the curse of the Windigos. That, or he may actually die. After all this centuries, bounded to those hateful spirits... ”.

“It always confused me how you lost the control over the Elements, sister” pointed out Luna, “How’s that possible?”

“I wish I could know. Right after your banishment, they just refused to be activated”.

Luna was about to inquire into the matter when Shining Armor entered in the hall, shaking the snow off him. Other than that, his soldier training made him resilient to the harsh temperatures. “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, I bring the reports from the others cities”.

“Is the situation as bad as here?” asked Celestia, a noodle in her throat, fearing what dreadful news she was about to her.

“Actually, no, is not as bad as here, thankfully” he replied, eyeing the blizzard outside, that was howling like an army pack of Timber Wolves. “Lakes and rivers are frozen, temperatures are pretty low for the season. But other than that, it seems like the focus of this winter weather is all focused between here and Ponyville”.

While hearing that the other cities in Equestria were only suffering slightly trouble was comforting, at the same time it made realize something to the royal sisters. If the weather was so much focused on them, then it meant that FrostBound was very close to them too. That particular made Celestia feel as if she was outside, in the heart of the storm. The princess of the sun looked at the windows, depicting the Mane 6 in all their glory. She prayed that, once again, the Elements of Harmony would make a miracle.

***

“OPEN FIRE!” ordered Steel Wings to the rest of the Dragon Watch fleet, giving permission to give all they got to the gigantic ice dragon. A storm of thunders from the cannons and the mithril harpoons clashed with FrostBound, striking what should have been the weak spot of any dragons, like the wings and the eyes. Word is should. To their horror, neither of the two parts suffered any damage from it. The mithril harpoons on the other hand shattered at contact with his icy skin.

“Impossible” muttered Twilight, incapable as the other ponies to conceive what just happened, “No dragon could be that durable”.

FrostBound stood still, watching their pitiful attack fail to even scratch his cold body, without muttering a word. No monologues about how worthless they were, no laughs. Nothing, except cold glares filled with hate. Then he attacked again and again, using his frost breath and summoning from the sky a hail the size of an house. Luckily, this one attack wasn’t a one hit kill. But it still made tons of damage to the airships. For how much they tried it, they were too slow and the bullets too fast to be avoided. As they tried to do that, they still kept firing at FrostBound, hoping to worn off his resistance before he could destroy them. Or they would run out of Harpoons. A possibility that Twilight wanted to avoid to all cost. She had already seen so many innocents die, she would not allow any more to suffer the same cold fate. And by the short exchange of glares she had with her friends, she knew that they felt the same way.

“Commander Steel Wing” she shouted, so that he could hear her above the noise. “Is time for us to enter in action”.

The male pegasus looked at them with an hint of doubt, “Are you sure of it? I mean, I know that the Elements are powerful but--“.

“No buts. Is our only chance. We have tried to talk to FrostBound. We tried to take him down as a normal dragon. Neither worked. If we want to stop this battle, the Power of Harmony is the only thing it may work!”.

“Hopefully” whispered Applejack.

“Fine then. I wish you the best of luck, against that thing out there”.

The Mane 6 nodded, and then they rushed to reach their goal. During their travel to the bridge of control, the Steel Wing explained to them that, when and if the time would come to use the power of Harmony, the ponies should have went to get on the top of the Monarch. Uncomfortable, especially given how cold was outside, but it was the only way. Other of course to break the window in the bridge of control, like Rainbow Dash mentioned. “Of course, only if necessary” added, after some glares. They run through the corridors, up the stairs, trying their best to not fall down every time the Sovereign moved. After one long minute, they finally reached the gate to access to the top of the Sovereign. Just as they opened the door, they realized how strong and chilling the wind was. Even with their winter clothes, they shivered from it.
Yet they marched on, ignoring that brutal weather.

“Ok, here should go!” shouted Twilight once reached the middle of the outside bride. She had to shout to make sure her friends could hear her, in the middle of the noise. Not hearing anything, she turned around to watch the status of her team. They were watching something right in front of her, their eyes as big as plates by the fear. Following the direction of their stare, Twilight nearly jumped in fear. With the thundering noise of the ion cannons and the howling winds, they hadn’t noticed that FrostBound had moved from the top of the mountain. Now, standing on his hind legs, his massive skull-like head towered above the ponies. He let a short growl out of his spiked jaws. Short, and yet powerful enough to be heard above everything else. His eyes stared down at the Mane 6, paralyzing them without no ice, not cold, but just fear itself. Death glare could have been a good way to call his gaze, but words weren’t enough to express how much hatred filled the cold and dark eyes of FrostBound. Each one of the Bearers of Harmony felt like those eyes were staring right at their souls, freezing them at the same time. Every single one of them felt like they were foals in front of the dreaded Bogey Mare. In that moment, they knew what Discord meant, when he said that this FrostBound wasn’t like all the previous threat they had faced.

It took all the willpower of Fluttershy to shake off from that sensation. “Twilight, we have to use the Elements, now!”.

This seemed to snap the rest of the group from that trance of fear. “Right!”.

And so they activated the renewed power of Friendship. The Mane 6 got surrounded by a luminous sphere that shined above the vast area, colouring it with the colours of the rainbows as it flew well above the Monarch and FrostBound. The ice dragon did not showed any kind emotions, following the sphere with his eyes, not even a bit bothered by the strong lights that came from it. Then at last, the bubble opened, revealing the Mane 6 in their magical empowered form. While the people inside the airships watched in awe at their transformation, FrostBound seemed unmoved by their transformation. In fact, he huffed at the Bearers of Harmony, in what looked like a mocking gesture.

“Did that ruffian just laughed at us!?” asked Rarity, angry.

“If we can call that laughing” replied Pinkie Pie.

“Well, we certainly don’t look threatening, in this form” admitted Applejack.

“Focus, girls. Let’s show him what we can do” said Twilight Sparkle, to which the rest of the mean nodded.

As the Mane 6 prepared to shoot the rainbow ray, FrostBound took a deep breath, charging his own attack. As he released an even greater burst of cold flames, the pony released the Power of Harmony upon him. The clash between the two caused a shockwave so powerful that made all the airships of the Dragon Watch pushed back. The sudden and effective counterattack of the ice dragon caught the Mane 6 unprepared, they nearly let the flame hit them, but were quickly to push it back by increasing their power. The Bearers of Harmony were speechless, before this display of power. Where not even Tirek enhanced by all the magic of Equestria, included the one of Cadence, Celestia, Luna, Twilight and Discord, was powerless against the power of Friendship, FrostBound was actually fighting back.

“He’s not going down without a fight!” noticed Applejack, alarmed.

“And neither do we!” replied Rainbow Dash.

The beam of war between the ponies and the ice dragon. From one side, the power of hatred, from the other, the power of Harmony and Friendship. Both of them turned from concept to tangible forces, capable to devastate or create. Both of them extremely powerful. Both sides determined to best the other.
Sometimes, the cold fire would get some space, other times it would be the rainbow ray. The situation looked more going into a stalemate. In the end, the victor would be the one who could last longer.
Which thought was rather worrying for the Mane 6, given how they never tested their power for prolonged periods of time. The possibility that FrostBound was capable to go on and on for much longer than them made the ponies feel uneasy.
Could this be the time that the Elements of Harmony would fail? Was the world doomed to suffer an eternal winter?
Apparently not. Slowly, one bit at the time, the rainbow ray started to push more and more against the cold fire of the ice dragon, until it finally managed to land a clean hit. As soon as that happened, FrostBound emitted a low growl, before his body started to turn into some kind of vapour, dispersing it all around.

“We did it!” shouted Rainbow Dash, tired but triumphant, as her and the rest of the team descended into the outside bridge of the Sovereign. As they touched the solid ground, her, Pinkie Pie and Rarity started to jump around, chattering and holler in joy at their success.

“One more bad guy bite the dust!” said Pinkie Pie, getting her puffed mane and tail back.

“Do you think we actually have... killed him?” asked timidly Fluttershy. Unlike her other team mates, she wasn’t exactly pleased at the thought of having actually ended the life of another living being, even though this one was more of a beast than an actual person.

“I don’t know and, if I can be honest, I don’t care” replied Rarity. Unlike the shy pegasus, the white unicorn lacked the compassion towards the ice dragon, “After all the victims he killed and the damage he has done, he got what it deserved”. She turned to the sky, noticing how the clouds were slowly moving aside. “Now all I care is that we can go back to Spring and hope that next winter will come a bit later”.

Fluttershy mumbled something, yet not convinced. The same could be said for Applejack and Twilight Sparkle, even though for them the reason was something else.

“Don’t you think it was too easy?” asked the earth pony.

Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Pinkie Pie looked at her like she had lost her mind, “Easy? Did you missed the part where he nearly annihilated us?”.

“Of course not. Is just that... Oh, I don’t know. I feel that’s something is not right”.

Twilight didn’t said a thing. Form one part, it was true, it wasn’t easy to take FrostBound down. He had taken down at least two airships and was capable to match the power of Harmony. Yet she recognized that things could have went much worse, if FrostBound had actually attacked them head on, rather than limiting himself by standing still, making of himself an easy target. Was that just arrogance from his part? Or there was something more behind his actions?

“Probably you’re just tired, darling” replied Rarity, “Now we can take it easy. Our work here is done. We just wait until they will bring out Cadence from that wreckage”.

Some of the smaller airship of the Dragon Watch were slowly descending on the mountain were the kart of the Crystal Empire was.

“I hope she’s alright” said Twilight, worried sickly.

“I’m pretty sure she’s fine. You know Cadence, she looks like you’re typical princess, but she’s though as nails” reassured her Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah, you’re right” nodded Twilight. “Now, let’s go back inside. I want to ask if they will need help to break Cadence free”.

As they walked towards the door, the clouds were nearly gone. Pinkie Pie suddenly stopped. “Twilight” she called, “Is it normal that the sky is turning dark as night already?”.

“Well, I guess in that case the time really flew by. Probably soon the sun will set down” replied the purple alicorn.

“Ok, but what about it having different colours?”.

This question made the ponies suddenly stop where they stood. “What do you mean?”. As she asked the question, she noticed that the light had suddenly changed colours, enlighten the world with light blue azure. And instead of giving warmth, it made them feel coldness.

“What the hay” muttered Applejack, as she and the rest of her friends watched the sky. The sun had changed. Instead of yellow and orange, now it gleamed cerulean and ghostly white.

“But...what’s happening!?” asked Rainbow Dash, confused and distressed.

“I don’t know” was all that Twilight could say. This was another uncanny event in one day filled with absurd moments. Usually, when they used the power of Harmony and Friendship, the magic of it didn’t usually just defeated the villain, but it also fixed all the damage that he, her or it caused. For a second, she feared that by killing FrostBound so quick, they had condemned Equestria to suffer through an eternal winter.

Before she or her friends could say anything, the speaker suddenly blared, making them jump, “Twilight Sparkle, we need you to the control centre, now!”.

And so they did, running all the way back to the control room. Commander Steel Wing was at the window, watching below their position with a telescope. As the Mane 6 approached, he offered them the device while looking at them with a grim and startled expression.

Twilight grabbed the telescoped and took a good look. And suddenly, she knew what was going on. “Oh no” she whispered, as the realization smashed in her head.

Confrontation

“Soup for everyone!” announced Granny Smith, as Big Mac and Applebloom carried one big heavy cauldron filled with smoky and aromatic smell.

All the ponies carried their bowls, taking a good portion for each others. “Mhm, apple soup” moaned the last pony, sniffing into the air. “I guess this time is offering the house?” asked, with a cheeky smile.

“Yup” replied Big Mac

“Good. But just in case” the pony said, pulling a coin out of nowhere.

“There’s no need--“Granny tried to say.

“Allow me. I’m not the kind of person that just takes and takes. I also repay my debts, especially to those that deserve it”.

“I guess that makes part of your work as a merchant, am I right, mister...?” asked Applebloom.

“Gloomy Dusk. And please, don’t call me mister. I’m no lord”.

“Oh, sorry”.

“Oh, never mind kid. I should be used to this, by now”. And as he said that, he moved back to his place, near the window.

“Big Mac” whispered Granny to Big Mac, “Do you also feel like there’s something weird about him?”.

“Weird? How?” asked the strong earth pony.

“I don’t know. The way he look and talk to me, to you, Applebloom and most of the residents of Ponyville. It’s like he somehow already knew us, like an old friend”.

“Mhm, got to admit that is quite weird” admitted Big Mac, but then added, “But, then again, whatever mysteries he may be holding, he doesn’t seem like a bad guy”.

“I guess not” admitted the old pony. When Gloomy Dusk entered in the palace following the crowd, with his dark robe, she immediately feared that he could be a troublemaker or even a threat, especially by how he glared at the walls of Twilight castle. But then he started to helping them keeping the situation calm, distracting the ponies by telling jokes or narrating captivating stories. “He sure has a talent with words”.
Gloomy certainly looked... well, glum at first sight. Other than his dark robe that covered his cutie mark, his fur was of a very dark shade of purple, so dark that it made him look more blue and violet. Then there was his mane: long, dark as raven feather, were clean but also tousled in way that made it look like the barber was a lunatic. Around his eyes there were shades just as black as his mane. At first, she thought it was eye shadow, but then she realized that it was just the colour of his fur. Such shades made his eyes, of blazing orange, stand up even more. But most importantly, he was rather tall for being a unicorn. A bit taller than Cadence, in fact.
And yet, despite that appearance, he was so charming and fun to have around. “We shouldn’t judge a book from its cover” once had told her Applejack. That memory made Applebloom remember what was going on outside and what her elder sister was doing. Please she begged to the heaven, Let her and her friends come back home in one piece .
Unknowingly for the young filly, even the mysterious Gloomy Dusk was talking to an higher entity. I really hope you know what you’re doing, kid .

***

“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, look! The blizzard is coming to an halt” made notice Shining Armor. Indeed, the snow was starting to slow down.

“Could it be a sign that FrostBound has been defeated, sister?” questioned Luna to her elder sister.

“Possibly”. The chance that the elements of Harmony had won should have made her happy. Yet, a part of her couldn’t help but to think what had happened to the ice dragon. She didn’t know what would have been worse, if his destruction, or him being purified by the elements of Harmony. The first would made her feel as if she ordered his execution, the second would have made her feel like an idiot. Dead or alive, he’s finally free from the Windigos torment. Which is more than I can say for the guilt I feel lashing at my soul she thought, frowning. The only thing I can do now is preparing myself to face the consequences of my choices, good or bad that they are . The respect that Twilight and her friends felt for her, would have been put to the test. I couldn’t blame them, for despising me .

“If FrostBound has been defeated, we must warn Spike” came up Princess Luna, “So that we can tell him that there’s no more need for the army of--“

“DRAGONS!” shouted a guard, a grey pegasus, rushing inside the throne room, covered in snow, his armour greatly damaged, “Your majesty, the city is under attack by dragon like creatures! We’re being overwhelmed!”.

The two alicorns and the captain of the guards exchanged alarmed glares at this sudden news, wondering how could they miss the battle that was going on outside. But then they realized it that, between the strong wind and all the snow and ice that had covered the palace, they were practically cut out from the rest of the world. “We must go helping them!” said Princess Celestia.

“I will go. You will stay here” countered her sister, “you too, Shining Armor. Somepony has to protect my sister”. The captain of the guards didn’t liked the idea of remain behind while his troops were in danger, but he apparently knew better than ignoring an order from one of the royal sisters.

Princess Celestia, on the other hand, seemed less willingly to accept it. “I can’t stand still when my people are in danger!”.

“You need to stay safe sister. I have no idea if this attack is part of FrostBound presence, but until contrary proof, we must take that this attacker is from his side and this assault is made to lure you out. I can’t take any chances”.

The response of Luna made awfully sense. She may be younger than me, but she’s not any less wise . “Alright. Just, be safe”.

“I will” promised the dark blue alicorn, as she marched out from the castle, followed by the guard, closing the gate.

***

Princess Luna raced the grey unicorn through streets covered in so much snow that nearly reached the lamp post, buildings painted white by the frost attached to it, windows clouded by the condensation made it impossible to see inside the residences. What once was one city full of life and richness, now looked like a ghost town. And now, the ghost town was invaded by monsters. As she marched through snow and ice, under the cloudy sky, she could hear the cries of terror of the soldiers and the atrocious roars of the attackers.
Once reached the main square of Canterlot, Princess Luna could see what this creatures looked like. It was like a mix between a dragon and a bat. Two wings, two legs, one tail and one mouth filled with sharp fangs. While not nearly as massive as some of the adults dragons she had seen in her life, they were still much bigger than a pony. They are nearly twice as tall as buffalo. And they were far more stronger too. Every attempt to fight them directly, ended with guards being knocked down. Not even keeping distance was enough to deal with them, thanks to their long tails and breath attack, that reminded her of cold vapour, which froze the ponies on their place. Those dragons-like were even durable; their ice scales seemed too thought to be pierced with their spears, which more often than not broke apart at contact. Not even the magic bolts of the unicorns seemed to be more than an annoyance, to them.
With those ability and powers, this dragon-like creature were still capable of taking the royal guards on, despite the latter having the numbers on their part.

There are more or less fifteen of those monsters, against forty of our soldiers. I must intercede, before we lose that advantage thought Princess Luna, as she shot a bolt of magic against the “dragons”. Unlike the bolts of the normal unicorn, hers managed to burst the head of one of those creature open, making it fall to the ground and shatter in a thousand pieces. “Royal guards!” she called with her royal voice, “Unicorns, focus your magic on one single target and hit it at once, but a ray instead of bolts. For the others, point your spears at their eyes, they look like a weak spot!”.
The soldiers listened to her advice, focusing their attacks. While not powerful as hers, the united force of the magic ray managed to damage the ice scales of the monsters, and while the pointy spear couldn’t pierce the eyes, it still managed to push them back. With the help of the princess of the night, the pony managed to defeat and destroy all the dragon-like attackers. It was easy... way too easy . This attack was sudden. If this is work of FrostBound, either he has underestimated our forces . She turned around so quickly she nearly hit one of the guards with her tail. Or all of this was a distraction, to lure me away from my sister! “We must go back to the castle, now!” she ordered, as she made to run back. Or so she would do, but the guards stood still, blocking her way. “What are you doing? My sister may be in danger!” she screamed at them, “We must--AAAARGH”. She cried in pain as she felt something sharp and burning cold bite her sides. She turned around, seeing that her left hip had been hit by a spear made of ice. “What” she whispered as she stared at the face of her attacker. Or, the lack of face. The muzzle was completely absent. She turned around, noticing that all the royal guards were just as blank. The ice sculptures of which Shining Armor had mentioned, when Cadence was abducted! “You damn freaks!” she shouted, her anger overcoming any fear she would have felt in front of those things. The ice ponies ignored her outcry and advanced, swarming princess Luna, all of them summoning other ice spears to put her down. “You will not stop me!”. And as she said that, she let out a powerful magical explosion, shattering them all in one powerful hit.
Yet, despite her effort, the damage was already done. She could feel a sting on the side that was hit by that ice spear. It burnt in a way so similar to fire, and yet it felt somehow even worst. She felt it crawling on her body, making her feel less and less capable of moving. I don’t have much time . Princess Luna flew in the windy sky, trying to reach for the castle before it was too late. She was halfway there, when her wings stopped working right. She crashed against the wall of a tall building, near a window. And through that large panel, she saw a chilling image: Ponies, be that adults or foals and filly, were frozen on their spot, as if they didn’t even had the time to react.
No . In that instant, her wings stopped working entirely. She fell hard on the ground, the snow so hard that it offered very little to softening her fall. Biting back her pain as best she could she proceeded at fast pace. For a few dozen meters. Then her hinder legs stopped supporting her, making her fall face front on the ground. No, it can’t end like this thought Princess Luna, as she felt the sting of coldness grow more and more. She didn’t felt her wings and half of her body. In a desperate attempt, she crawled with her front legs. But it didn’t took long before even those stopped moving. Her body was starting to turn into ice. She could feel her flesh and bones being devoured by the frost. “Sister” she muttered, weak, scared and broken. “I couldn’t keep my word... I’m sorry” she said, as she could feel the ice climb on her throat. “Twilight...Bearers of Harmony...please...save...her”. And with those words, Princess Luna turned completely in a frozen sculpture, all alone in the cold.

***

“This is all my fault” sighed Celestia, after her younger sister run out in the cold, to help their forces.

“Nonsense, Celestia. How could this be your fault?” wanted to know Shining Armor, confused. “You yourself said that this is all because of that damn Web Heart and the Windigos”.

“Maybe. But I still have my responsibilities about this situation. Is not the first time enemies of the past returns, threatening to destroy all that me and my sisters have built through the years. I should have learned better than presume that they would just stay down. But with FrostBound, my fault isn’t limited to just presume something” admitted the ruler of Equestria.

“What do you mean? What links you to this monster?”.

“Is a long story, of which I hoped that I could tell to you, your sister and her friends” . The white alicorn lowered her head, the weight of guilt becoming more and more unbearable. “But now, I’m starting to feel like I’ve sent all of them to their doom”. Tears started to dwell in her eyes. “Discord was right, this plan of mine was terrible. I shouldn’t have let my fear take the hold of me, as I shouldn’t have sent others to deal with my sins!”. Before she could curse her own mistakes, the light of the chandelier turned off, leaving the only luminosity the cold light outside. “Oh no” she whispered, fear strangling her voice.

“Don’t worry, princess. I won’t permit that monster to kidnap another princess from my watch” tried to comforting her Shining Armor.

Celestia appreciated his bravery, but she knew that the captain of the guard was way out of his league...just like her, after all. Suddenly, a cold mist started to creep from the corner of the windows, followed by crawling ice. “Oh no. He’s here” she gasped, terror grasping her brain, “He’s here!” she repeated, turning to Shining Armor, who was watching the main door.

“I know” Shining Armor replied turned around, his eyes of a dark shade of cobalt staring her down with pure hatred.

As Celestia made to gasp at this sudden reveal, a cold light surrounded her

***

When the ruler of Equestria opened her eyes, she found herself laying on the ground of a wrecked throne room. As she tried to stand up, she noticed that her shoes, collar and crown had disappeared without a trace. I’m alive she realized. Of course I’m alive. He wouldn’t have gone through all of this scheming for just killing me on the spot. An hatred such as his can’t be satisfied with a quick death. He’s going to make sure I will suffer first . And she sure was suffering now. As she stood up, her body trembled for both the extreme cold and the pain. Her horn was covered in ice, same was for her wings. She couldn’t use magic, and she couldn’t fly away. And even if she could, where could she go? I could fly to the end of the world, but he would never stop following me, destroying everything in his path. No, I’ve already tried to escape from my responsibilities. Is time for me to face it and, if necessary for the sake of my people, pay the price of my errors she decided, as she watched the devastation caused by the ice dragon.
The walls and the ceiling of the throne room was practically been removed. The ground, while still standing, looked scorched-like by something extremely hot... or extremely cold. That explosion of power didn’t just destroyed her palace, but it completely obliterated, leaving her vulnerable not just to cold, but to attacks from any directions. She stood still, waiting for a sudden strike, trying her best to compose herself. In the instant she felt regain her dignity, she felt something rise behind her, towering on her like a bear does with a rabbit. She turned around slowly, as her formality started to crumble by the weight of fear. FrostBound was there.

Despite being on four legs, his head didn’t had a problem to reach and surpass her point, as his enormous wings peaked from his sides.
The ice dragon glared at her with such coldness that it made the icy temperatures warm, in comparison. His skull-like face, filled with fangs sharp enough to chew the very mountain Canterlot was built in like it was soft pastry. She expected him to roar at her, expressing his hatred and rage like a wild animal. But he didn’t roared. No, he did something far worst...he spoke to her.

“Celestia”. His voice was like the union between coldness and power incarnate, its vibration enough to shake her ear drums and flesh. It’s tone was polite and calm, and yet so filled with hate.

It’s a good sign, if he wants to talk she tried to cheer herself up, Maybe there is still chance to solve this without causing any more suffering . But to do so, she had to be very attentive when choosing her words. “Yes, is been a long time, Cryo” she said, trying to offer a small smile, which turned out to look more like a grimace. “I must say that I’m impressed by your power and astuteness. You managed to make sure that I was left completely vulnerable, weak and with no way out. I must presume that Shining Armor has never left Cadence side and that my sister has fallen into your trap. Is she...”. A sudden screech made her jump. A dragon-like creature flew over her head, dropping something that looked like an ice statue. To the horror of Princess Celestia, it was her sister, Luna. Her body, frozen in a crawled position. In her face, despair. “What have you done to her and the guards? Are they...”.

“Frozen. Not dead. Not alive. Stuck in a sort of limbo, until I decide otherwise” he replied. Her attempts to break the ice with the ice dragon seemed ineffective, to say the least. “Same goes with the inhabitants of this city. A fate that soon all the inhabitants of this world will suffer”.

For a second, Celestia felt her heart succumb to rage, wanting nothing more than attack FrostBound and making him pay for his crimes. But only for a second, before she realized how stupid such approach would be. Even if she could use magic, it would still do no damage to him. I can’t be mad at him. Not when I’m the one responsible for this predicament . “And what about the Dragon Watch and the Bearers of Harmony? Did they suffered the same fate?”.

“Those flying toys has suffered some loss, but the most of them, included your pupil and her...servants, are fine... for now. They have just found the wagon where your niece and her husband are trapped, guarded by a copy of mine. Soon, your lackey will manage to defeat the clone, for then discover what you already know. Without a doubt, once that will happen, they will rush here in a frantic attempt to rescue you. But with the damage that my clone wrought on their vehicle, they will not arrive here in time” FrostBound told her, his voice ever so calm and filled with scorn. “Now allow me to ask you something: Why do you think I’m here for?”.

“You’re here for me. To make me pay for what I did to you” answered Celestia, trying to hold his glare. “And I can’t blame you for that, Cryo. After what I did to you, after the pain that I made you feel... since that day, every time I thought about it, I’ve never felt so ashamed for my choices--“.

“Don’t you dare trying to make me pity you, Celestia” he stopped her, his voice even more stern, his eyes even more narrowed. “Don’t. You. Dare”.

“I just want to--“.

“Comparing my suffering to yours? Don’t make me laugh, Celestia. There’s an infinite void between what we’ve been through. Even if by chance you regretted betraying me, at least you were surrounded by people who loved you and saw in you and your sister two benevolent goddesses , unaware how many secrets you hold from them and so ready to forgive any of your mistakes, all while you can come and go as you please. I, on the other hand, was stuck in that damn volcano for thousands of years, since when I was a but a whelp, saw as a monster which sole objective was to wipe out the pony kind and bring the eternal winter, forced to stay there for the rest of my eternal life, until the end of time itself, while on the inside the Windigos haunted my mind and spirit, trying to turn me in their slave”. For every word of FrostBound, the princess felt as if she was being flogged. When he finished talking, Celestia tried in vain to find an argument, but her guilt held her back. “Let me assure you, Celestia, for how much it saddened you to leave me behind, I felt much, MUCH, worse”.

“It was a mistake, turning my back to you, Cryo” Celestia managed to say, “And you’re right, there is no comparison between what we two went through” tears started to fall down her eyes and turning into ice before they could even touch the ground. She laid gently the iced up sister, then she got up “And I’m so sorry for it”.

Her words were heartfelt and true. And yet they seemingly failed to warm the ice dragon. “Do you really think that saying that you’re sorry will fix everything, Celestia? If so, you’re terribly deluded” responded FrostBound. “Excuses won’t work. Just like keep repeating the name you chosen for me will not mend our relationship, nor is making me feel like having mercy for you”.

“No, but I feel that this is the least I can do for you. But there is something than can fix this matter: The Elements of Harmony”.

“If I knew that I had to actually be a threat, to make you decide to use them on me, perhaps I should have done this sooner” commented FrostBound, with dry sarcasm.

“Another mistake for my part” she admitted, “but that isn’t important. What is important, is that I think the Elements can heal you from the Windigos influence. After the recent events, the Elements of Harmony and their bearers have become even more powerful than before!”.

“Good to know. There is just one problem”.

“What is it?”.

“I don’t care about a cure anymore”.

“What!? But... I thought”.

“You thought what? That once cured I would go back to be your personal pastime pet? That things between us could go back to be the same?”.

“Of course not!” she blurted out, “Cryo, I always considered you not like a pet, but as a friend! But I’m painfully aware that things between us could never be the same. I just want you to be free!”.

“If you truly wanted me to be free, you would have freed me a long time ago” replied FrostBound. “You’ve missed your chance to prove me you were my friend. Now the only thing I want the most is to make you suffer, at least as much I did”

Celestia remained silent for a few but long seconds, staring her frozen sister with a gleam of sadness and comprehension. This truly is all my fault she thought. The white alicorn caressed gently the frozen face of her young sister, I’ve brought to you all this cataclysm, now is up to me to end it. “You’re right” she admitted, walking towards the towering dragon. “I’ve allowed my fear to take the hold of me, which in turn led to this disaster. No excuses are going to change that. And while I can’t forgive your actions, I can’t deny that the reason behind your hatred are fair”. She nearly reached the edge of the construction. “And because of that I won’t try to stop you from taking what you want” mainly because I couldn’t do anything even if I wanted . She opened her wings, in a sign of surrender. “You want revenge? Take it. Kill me. Torture me, if you want to. I just ask you one and one thing only: let the ponies of Equestria and the other creatures of this planet be. Please, do not harm them, I beg you, they have nothing to do in this matter”.

FrostBound remained silent, while his eyes seemed to look into her soul. “Is this that you truly wish?” he asked.

“I do” she proclaimed. And to prove it even further, she even bended her knew, bowing in front of the gigantic dragon, hoping that this act of submission would convince him.

It didn’t. “Then the answer is no”.

“What!?” shouted Celestia, getting up. “No! That’s--“

“Not your desire? Well, we don’t always get what we want... do we, Celestia?”. The hatred in that question could have destroyed worlds.

“This is not you, FrostBound!” she shouted. “I can understand wanting me to suffer, but leave the others out of it!” she demanded, her despair giving actual strength to stand her ground.

“I assure you, Celestia, my choices are my own. The Windigos are just helping me to control this power, organising the hate in me, making me stronger. And now that my emotions are flowing in order, my mind is actually clear” he replied, while raising his massive paw. “You claim that your dear little ponies have nothing to do. We both know that that isn’t true. I haven’t forgot what you told me in that cursed day. You specifically told me that one of the reason behind your betrayal was to protect them. They are part of the reason behind your choice, Celestia. And are just as guilty as you are. And as such, they will not be spared by the eternal winter!” he declared, as his energy started to gleam from it.

What is he doing? And why I feel like a part of me is shivering? Celestia wondered in terror. Then she noticed the light up above in the sky were getting brighter. And then, through the clouds, the sun appeared, tied up in a ring of cold energy. “What...?” she whispered, terrified at what FrostBound was about to do next.

The sun landed right in the palm of his clawed hand, which then closed, capturing the sun in an inescapable hold. The ice dragon looked at the sun with a mixture of curiosity, glumness and anger. “Ah, the sun, the celestial body that’s under your responsibility” he said, while keep staring at it. “For so long I’ve yearned to have the chance to be under it, basking in its warmth, admiring his light, like all the other creatures on this planet do, even for just a few seconds. And now, I’m actually holding it in my hand, like it was nothing else but a bulb of a lamp. Yet, despite me keeping it in my clutch, I can’t feel anything at all”. He slowly turned his attention back to the princess. For a moment, she saw in him the ice dragon she knew and loved, the innocent and kind Cryo. But it was for just a moment. Then, any sign of weakness disappeared, leaving only the vicious and fierce creature that was FrostBound. “Warmth is for me just an illusion. And today, this illusion will be shattered!” As he said that he closed his grip, concealing any sight of the celestial body. For a few long seconds, the world was engulfed by nearly complete darkness.

“NO!” screamed Celestia, only to get ignored by the giant ice dragon. The princess feared that he had just put off the sun, taking away the source of light and warm of the planet. But when he opened his massive clawed hand, she realized what he has just done and how much worse his action was. He didn’t killed the sun, he changed it. Of ghostly white and a dark shade of blue, it was releasing just as much cold as the original sun emitted warmth. “What have you done” she whispered, “What have you done!?” she repeated, shouting, dropping any pretence to sound and act calm.

“The first step toward the complete annihilation of this wretched planet” he replied, coolly, as he let go the now cold sun, which flew up in the sky, back at his place in the orbit. As it did so, the clouds disappeared, showing a sky that has darkened as if the night had already came. “To say the truth, I could just destroy this planet with my own hands, but that would be too fast and merciful for you. In this way, the death of the ponies and all the living things on this planet is going to be just as I want: Slow and agonizing. Think about it, Celestia: Your own sun, that you were so much proud of, turned into the one thing that is going to wipe out all your beloved subjects and friends. Poetic, isn’t it? Your decision, made to protect them, is going to cost them everything” As he said that, on his skeleton like face appeared a chilling looking grin.

“You... are no longer Cryo” said Celestia, silencing the terror in her heart with her anger. “You are a monster!”.

“I am what you made me, Celestia. Web Heart may have turned me into this thing, but it was you that proved him right”.

“Enough! I’ve offered you my apologies and even my life. And for how much I may be responsible for this situation and how awful I feel for you, that won’t preventing me to end your kingdom of terror! I won’t let you harm my people!” she declared, as she tried to focus all her power into her horn so to free it from the ice. But no matter how much determination and force she had and how hard she tried, her horn remained covered in ice.

FrostBound didn’t seemed impressed by her effort to break free. In fact, he shook his head in disappointment. “Even after I’ve bested you in both power and intelligence, you still have the arrogance to claim to have power over me? I should let your horn free and allow you to see for yourself that there’s nothing you can do to stop me. But I know you well enough to know that you would still go at me even once you would have run out of power. Commendable, some would say. A complete waste of time, I say”.

“Maybe I’m powerless to stop you, Cryo. But the Elements of Harmony will!” promised Celestia, exhausted by her attempts to free her horn.

“Wrong. Again. But now, Celestia, is time for our talk to end!”. As he said that, with an agility unseen for such giant creature, he moved his hand, capturing the white alicorn. Keeping her between his thumb and index, as if she was nothing more than a gnat, he took her to his eye level.

Despite being weak, scared and alone, Celestia didn’t wanted to let the ice dragon have the last word. “If you expect me to quiver in terror and beg for my life, you’re wrong. I’m not afraid to die” she hissed.

“Die?” he repeated, releasing a rumbling sound that was supposed to be a laugh. “But you won’t die, Celestia. In fact, you won’t die for a very long, LONG, time...”.

Broken hope

The Mane 6 were sitting in the break room, trying to relax a little. Word is trying, because for them, this last couple of hours had been filled with awful surprises. The last ones were the worst of all. The Cadence and Shining Armor (The real one) abduction had been used to lure them away from Canterlot, leaving the royal sisters and everypony else alone with the main threat. FrostBound had made a fool of them all, playing them like pawns in his sick game. The confirmation of all this came from the mouth of the royal couple themselves.

“Bringing a never ending winter is not his main objective, Twilight” said Cadence, once her and Shining had been taken on board. “He wants Celestia. He told us, so that once you would save us, we could inform you about his plans”.

“And then he took my form, so to make sure to fool you all” added Shining Armor. “Twily, you and your friends must go back to Canterlot immediately! Celestia is in grave danger!”.

Thank heavens our parents are visiting in the Crystal Empire and Spike is with Ember and Discord thought Twilight Sparkle. I wish I could say the same for the family of my friend .

And so, the Dragon Watch split their forces. The Monarch and most of the other airship went to the Crystal Empire, so to take to safety the rulers of the country, while a smaller convoy, lead by the Sirocco, was taking her and her friends back to Canterlot. Neither Cadence or Shining didn’t wanted to let them go back alone, but Twilight refused to back up. “The Crystal Empire needs you” she declared. And when Shining Armor offered to bring their own army to help them battle FrostBound (idea that both Steel Wing and Cadence agreed on), she replied “No. Brute force will cost more than it’s worth. Only we stand a chance against that monster, the other may get themselves in the harm way!”. Calling reinforcement to battle a creature than can be affected only by us was a grave mistake. While is too late to stop the army of dragons coming in our aid, I won’t allow others to get others involved .

After a short glance, they decided to follow her will. But before they parted their ways, Cadence stopped to tell her something important. “Whatever he may do to you, do not hate him. His connection with the Windigos allow him to feed on hatred, making him even more powerful. Don’t let him get through you”.

Is not going to be easy thought the purple alicorn, staring at the table. Especially if he harmed in any way the princesses or the ponies in Canterlot .

“So... What are we going to do?” asked Pinkie Pie. Since the reveal of the fake FrostBound and Shining Armor, her hair had turned back to flat.

“Go back to Canterlot and give a lesson to FrostBound” was the response of Rainbow Dash, “What else?”. Despite her attempting to keep her cool attitude, she could do little to mask the concern in her tone.

“He will be waiting for us, you know” replied Rarity. “I think that, given how much of a trouble gave us his copy, our plan should be something more than just blast him with the Elements of Harmony”. She turned to watch Twilight, “Twilight, you are the smartest among us, you sure have a plan in mind, right?” she asked, while looking at her with eyes that pleaded for hope.

I wish I had, Rarity . “FrostBound has already given proof to be capable of perceive our presence. No stealth attack is going to work, unless somepony doesn’t distract him for enough time”.

“No!” shouted Fluttershy, that until that moment had remained quiet, avoiding eye contact with the others. “Please, no more death” she pleaded, nearly on the point of tears. She certainly blamed herself for the losses of the Dragon Watch.

“Oh my dear, don’t cry” reassured her Rarity, caressing her mane, “We won’t put more lives at jeopardy”.

“And don’t blame yourself, Fluttershy. Even if we had attacked him on the spot, I doubt that would have changed that much” added Twilight. It wasn’t exactly a comforting thought, but she didn’t wanted her friend to feel guilty for something she was not responsible for.

“Yeah, there’s only one here that is guilty: FrostBound” nodded Rainbow Dash. “Once we will be done with him, he’s going to think twice before dealing with us!” .

“What do you mean with us?” asked Applejack, with a grimace.

The rest of the Mane 6 exchanged a confused look. “Us Elements of Harmony, of course. What else are we?” replied the cyan pegasus.

“Good question. What are we, other than that?”.

“What you mean by that? We are the protectors of this world” jumped out Twilight Sparkle.

Applejack wasn’t amused. “Twilight, you’re a great friend, and I hold our friendship to an high value. So, allow me to be honest”. The earth pony slammed her hooves on the table with force, “We are not warriors!” she shouted. That statement made the rest of the Mane 6 fall in a shocked silence. Taking advantage of that, she continued “Twilight, you may have been Celestia pupil and be turned into an alicorn, but we don’t have any of that stuff! Fluttershy is an animal expert, Rainbow Dash is a Wonder Bolt in training, Rarity is a fashionista, Pinkie Pie is a party expert and I’m a farmer. We try to live our lives at the best of our possibilities, in a world already filled with crazy stuff. We don’t need to have even more insane menaces shoehorned in it!”.

“How long?” was the only thing that Twilight could say, “How long have you being holding that?”.

"Since we have used the Elements of Harmony for the first time on Luna. After that day, I’ve been thinking about the role that had fallen on our heads, but I didn’t thought much of it because I thought it was going to be one off thing, and then everything would have gone back normal. But then Discord came, followed by all kinds of threats for Equestria. There may have been some small changes here and there, not enough to change how usually the things go”.

“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” wanted to know Rainbow Dash.

“Because for how much I thought we weren’t suited to be heroes, I knew that it was the right thing to do. Without us, Equestria or even the entire world would have suffered under the reign of tyrants and monsters. After a while, I started to get used to it and even enjoy our role in as protectors, because we were doing good to the world. And doing all of this with my best friends, made every danger on the road worth it” she added, with a weak smile, which her friends returned.

“So, what happened to make you change idea?” enquired Pinkie Pie.

“FrostBound happened. Our battle with him brought me down from the pedestal I placed us, it made me remember that the power we wield bring a lot of responsibilities, and risks. But most of it all, it made me understand that, without the Elements of Harmony to back us, we are nothing”.

“That’s not true!” objected Rainbow Dash. “We have saved the day even without the Elements of Harmony! Like that time we stopped the Changelings invasion of Canterlot!”.

“Cadence and Shining Armor saved the day. Not us. If I remember correctly, our attempts to stop the invasion ended with us getting caught and brought back to Chrysalis”

“Oh… well… we have saved the Crystal Empire from--“.

“That was more Spike, Cadence and Shining work, while we were gawking to the Sombra arrival. And in both situation, we have been incredibly lucky that things worked out for the best”.

“So?” asked Rainbow Dash, too much stubborn to give up.

“So we have been lucky. But luck can’t last forever”.

Those words resounded in the break room for too long for Twilight liking. With this mood, we are not going to last long against FrostBound “Is not luck that brought us together. It was our destiny to find the Elements of Harmony, just like it is our destiny to protect the world with them” replied Twilight Sparkle, hoping that her response would help improve the morale and put at easy the element of Honesty. And it did; Applejack seemed unsure about what to say.

But not Pinkie Pie. “Doesn’t that mean that our friendship is made up? I mean, if we were destined to be friends in a way or another, is less from our choice, but more because of some kind of above entity”.

Not one of the Mane 6 had ever thought this way, but before anyone could proceed on this argument, the speakers of the Sirocco got activated, “Princess Twilight, we’ll be near Canterlot in about five minutes”.

“Well, we will have to talk about this later, girls” she said, “It’s time for us to do our job”.

***
The destruction of the royal sister palace, the sudden appearance of a gigantic dragon or the sun getting changed into a freezing sphere, would have caused massive panic and hysteria to the ponies inside Twilight castle. But Gloomy Dusk, knowing far in advance that FrostBound would have appeared, prevented any chaos happening by casting a sleeping spell on all the ponies inside the castle. Sleep well. If everything goes as planned, you will wake up and this nightmare will be already over.

“Something’s wrong, my friend?”.

“Forcing asleep my friends is not something that I do with joy. I feel like I just backstabbed them” he replied to the mysterious figure.
Just a bit taller than him, standing on his hind legs, he wore a cloak that covered pretty much his whole body, while a hood casted a shadow on his face, accentuating the blue/white glowing of the eyes. The mantle was of a deep hue of cobalt blue, while some kind of painting here and there, that kept changing place as if the cloak was a alive.

“But you also knew that let them see that” the figure said, pointing at the large window and what was going on outside “Things would have gotten chaotic and people could have gotten hurt in the frenzy”.

“Maybe. Or maybe they would have tried to help the Elements of Harmony, getting in even more danger”.

One of the glowing eyes of the stranger narrowed in bafflement, “Would they really be so naïve to think to stand a chance against FrostBound?”.

“You’re new here, kid. Around this parts, people think that Friendship can do the impossible. And in a way, they would be right. Problem is that this thing outside is way out of their league. As I am afraid that the Bearers of Harmony are about to find out”.

“True, but they do have an important part to play, in this story. That said, I can feel that there’s more that is bothering you”.

Gloomy Dusk remained silent for a few seconds, impressed by the empathy of his collaborator. “Is just that I’m used to deal by myself with threats. I’ve trained since I was capable to stand on my hooves, to fight monsters, gods and tyrants to protect the Balance and my friends. I won’t shy away the fact that I’m pretty good at my job. And yet, today I actually found a creature that may be too much for me, imagine the ponies around here. A part of me regret to not just have taken his soul when I had the chance”.

“You could have just ignore the instructions and do it your way” The caped figure said, “I probably would have been too much shocked to stop you. What made you halt your hand?”.

“The fact that I just can’t bring myself to betray the trust of my grandpa, master and parents, by acting like an idiot that thinks to know everything in life and that can take all the choices”.

“That’s very wise of you”.

“Speaking of choices, I sure don’t have the right to declare if that dragon deserves death or less” he walked to the window, taking a good look at FrostBound. The colossal dragon had long sit down, giving his back to Canterlot, waiting for the arrival of the Bearers of Harmony. “It’s absurd, I know, but no matter how absurdly powerful and scary he looks, I can’t help but feel bad for him. I don’t see a monster, but one of the many victims of destiny. But unlike others, this one has an actual chance to be saved. And I will do anything to help him” he said. And then, with a smirk, added, “Also, once cured, he might become a good sparring partner, other than a good ally and member of the Silver Lotus. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. How long before the Bearers of Harmony arrive?”.

“More or less five minutes”.

“Good, then you can help me to something no less important”.

“Oh? And what is it?”

“Helping me clean the dishes”

“Dishes?” repeated the figure, puzzled “But…why?”.

“Because we have time. And because is the least I can do to repay the ponies for this little trick of mine”.

“I guess it can be a good way to spend time” admitted the caped stranger, following the ‘unicorn’ in the kitchen.

***

Just as they saw Canterlot, they saw FrostBound. He was sitting near the frozen city, just as tall as mountain where Canterlot had been built. He was looking directly at the Sirocco and to the Mane 6.
“Why isn’t he attacking us?” wondered aloud the captain of the Sirocco, nervously.

Twilight knew the answer “Because he don’t see you as a threat”.

“That’s not exactly comforting to know” muttered the earth pony.

“Comforting? No, but is not bad either, because in this way you will not be attacked, unless you provoke him” Twilight said, “Now, we will go face him. Whatever happens, do not approach him or attack him”.

"And we should let you fight that… thing alone?” questioned the captain, just as confused as the rest of the crew.

“We appreciate your courage, captain” replied Applejack, “But you have already seen how ineffective your weapons are. We don’t want to put you in more danger”.

"And what should we do if something goes wrong?” inquired the earth pony.

“If we had to fail, I…no, we, want you and the other airship to go to my castle down in Ponyville and take with you all the ponies that are there barricaded; Once done that, take them to the Crystal Empire” explained Twilight, “There you should be protected against this unnatural cold and start planning a counter attack with princess Cadence and my brother, prince Shining Armor. The Crystal heart should be powerful enough to give you a chance against FrostBound”. Or at least I hope so she thought, worried. The actual awful truth was that, if the Elements of Harmony failed, nothing could have stopped him. Absurd, how can the power of friendship fail against the power of hatred? I refuse to believe that to be true . “Let’s go girls”.
Her friends nodded, not uttering a word. Scared. Just like me . It wasn’t until they were in front of the door that would lead them out, on the bridge and onto the battle with FrostBound, that Twilight decided to try one more time to improve their morals. “Pinkie, you’ve asked one good question. On which I, unluckily, I don’t have an answer. The truth is that I don’t really know what brought us together. But I can tell you one thing: Our friendship is real”. The alicorn turned around, giving an honest and uplifting smile. “We have been through both good and bad times. We have faced challenges that put our friendship to the hardest test. Maybe destiny may have created a bond, but I can assure you, that no prophecy will ever break us apart”.

This time, her speech worked. Her friends finally cracked a smile, even Applejack. “Thank you, Twily” said the orange earth pony, speaking for the rest of the team.

“Yeah, now that was a inspiring speech!” nodded Rainbow Dash, “Now let’s go kick that dragon tail”.

“Right”. Satisfied, Twilight opened the door.

Once outside, their fiery hearts got nearly turned off by the glacial temperature. The winds that for so long had howled now were deadly silent. The sky was black and filled with stars as if it was already night, despite the sun being still in sight. The light that the celestial body now emitted, united with all the snow that had fallen in the last couple of seconds, made the landscapes look like the Mane 6 were in another planet. Everything was just as cold as it was shining. So stunning couldn’t help but think Twilight, And yet so deadly . She looked up in the sky, watching the cold sun that was beaming freezing light. Twilight wasn’t the only one wondering how much time they had left, before the cold sun would have made the everything too cold to live on the planet. They had to hurry.
The Mane 6 activated the power of the Elements, turning into their empowered forms, and then they flow off towards the ice dragon, as fast as they could. FrostBound remained still, his wings opened in a majestic way, his eyes following the Bearers of Harmony.
Unlike the snarling copy, the true FrostBound was just as calm as a frozen lake. Even his eyes, while still gleaming with hatred, seemed less severe. And once they were a few miles away from him, he actually spoke as a normal person. Or, at least, a normal person with a voice that boomed like a thunderstorm.

“We finally meet at last, Bearers of Harmony” he greeted them. “I’ve been waiting for you”.

“What, no more dragon freaks or ice-clones from you?” noticed Rainbow Dash.

“My wyverns and my replica already served their part in my plan. I don’t need them to deal with you. Especially you, Rainbow Dash”.

Hearing the giant dragon calling her by her name made the façade of bravado of the cyan pegasus fall apart. “You… know me?”.

“He probably know all our names. Without a doubt he forced this and who knows how many information out of Shining and Cadence!” scoffed Rarity. The white unicorn and element of Generosity was not willing to let that big bully let intimidate them.

“I assure you, that I didn’t tortured them to have your names, Rarity” pointed out FrostBound, without sounding insulted. “Celestia told me your names, one by one. You two. Pinkie Pie, Applejack” he summarized, focusing for a bit on each of the Mane 6. “And at last, Twilight Sparkle, her favorite” he concluded with a scornful and menacing tone, centering his gaze on the purple alicorn. “And I know that you’ve came here to save the Princesses. But I’m afraid that is too late for that” he added, as he started to fold his wings, revealing what little was left of the royal sisters palace.

“No” whimpered both Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.

“You monster” hissed Twilight Sparkle. “What have you done to them!? Where’s Celestia!?” she demanded, nearly shouting.

Her rage had the only effect of making FrostBound smirk a little, “Is that hatred what I feel flowing through your hearts and mind? And I thought that the Bearers of Harmony were beyond such negative emotions. Not that I mind. More free energy for me to feed on” he said, mockingly. As to mark his words, his stature increased of a dozen meters.

His words reminded the Mane 6 about what Cadence had just told them. And, just as Twilight had predicted, keeping her feeling on check was nearly impossible to do. The idea that both Celestia and Luna were gone was just too much for them. Is like trying to stop a dam to break apart without magic . “Why are you loquacious, all of sudden?” asked the purple alicorn.

“Because I wanted to talk with you” replied the ice dragon.

Pinkie Pie raised an eyebrow, “Talk? About what?”.

“I have a proposition for you”.

“If you want to offer place to your side, you can forget about it!” affirmed Rainbow Dash.

“Yeah, we will not be your slaves!” added Applejack.

“I don’t require slaves. And for a place on my side, I think the only one I could offer you is the one as an ice sculpture in my palace” clarified FrostBound. “The proposition is this: give up. If you don’t oppose me, I promise your fate will not as painful as the one that waits your people and the rest of the world”.

“That doesn’t sound like a good offer” pointed out Rarity, defiantly.

“Is the only choice I’m going to give you”.

“What makes you think we would yield without even attempting beating you?” wanted to know Twilight.

“Because you know you can’t beat me. If you thought otherwise, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now”.

“Maybe we just wanted to know what happened to the princesses, before we prepare ourselves to blast you away” countered Rainbow Dash.

“You’re lying” warned them the ice dragon, accentuating his glare “And not just to me, but to yourselves”.

“Enough!” shouted Twilight, “If you think you can scare us to submission, then you don’t know us at all!” added.

“Let’s put it to the test, shall we?” said FrostBound, “Do it, attack me with the power of Friendship, if you want. I won’t move, I promise”.

And so the Mane 6 did. Few seconds of charge, and then the rainbow ray was shot towards the giant ice dragon. This one kept faith to his word and remained still, not even attempting to react to it. Not even when he got hit by the power of Harmony showed any reaction, much to the terror of the ponies. Even when they augmented the energy of the Elements, there were apparently no effects on FrostBound. After minutes of prolonged assault, the Mane 6 ceased their attack, catching their breaths. “How” gasped Twilight Sparkle, “How can this be… the Elements have never failed”.

“There’s always a first time, Twilight Sparkle” answered FrostBound, as he watched the point where the rainbow ray had hit him. Maybe it was because of the fatigue, but Twilight could swear that there was a slight hint of disappointment in both his voice and eyes. But as soon as his eyes turned back at her and her friends, the only emotion in his features was anger and hatred. “Not that I should be surprised. After all, you struggled to beat my copy. Since when you hit him with the power of Harmony, I knew that I had nothing to worry about”.

“You’re… You’re wrong!” cried Twilight, as she and the rest of the Mane 6 felt their hopes being dashed against the horrible reality.

“Be as you think, it won’t change the fact that you never stood a chance against me. In fact, you and your world were doomed in the instant I broke free”.

“You’re wrong!”.

“Twilight, I don’t think repeating those words is going to help our cause” commented Pinkie Pie.

“You should listen to your friend. They don’t seem to be as deluded as you are” remarked FrostBound, contemptuously.

That was the last drop for the purple alicorn. “You underestimate our power! We are more than prepared to take you on!” she shouted at the ice dragon, before turning to her friends, “C’mon girls, one last time. For our friends, for Equestria, for the world!”.

“You are not prepared” replied FrostBound, detached. His words got ignored by the Mane 6, which nodded at her friend and started to charge once again the power of Harmony in one last desperate attack. But this time, FrostBound didn’t stood idle as they charged their worthless attack. He raised his arm, grabbing the protective sphere of magic that was protecting the Mane 6, ignoring the power of the Elements of Harmony and their scream of fear. His massive claw closed in a fist, apparently crushing them as if they were nothing but annoying bugs. When he opened it, the Bearers of Harmony were still alive, but most of them had fallen unconscious and turned back to normal because of the massive pain and exhaustion of power.

Only Twilight was still conscious, although barely. “The Elements” she uttered, her voice just as broken as her hopes “Have failed”.

“And so have you, Twilight Sparkle” stated FrostBound.

The last thing that the purple alicorn saw before losing her senses, was the ice dragon opening his massive maw. And then everything went black.

The tragic tale of the FrostBound

“Well, that went just as expected” replied Gloomy Dusk at the sight of FrostBound defeating and devouring the Mane 6.

“A necessary defeat. Sometimes, humility must be enforced, so that people will learn to not allow arrogance blind them to the dangers of the world”.

The ‘Unicorn’ and the caped figure were sitting on the roof the of Twilight castle. The extreme cold temperatures didn’t seem to be a bother for neither of them.

“That, and because it necessary for our plan to work that they got their flanks handed to them” added Gloomy Dusk. Despite the attempts to hide it, he was clearly worried for the Bearers of Harmony. “Do you think that they are fine?” he asked, allowing his concern to be heard. “I mean, I know that they aren’t dead, but what he has did to them looked very… painful”.

“Nothing that they cannot recover, I can assure you that. And through pain, they will become stronger. Trust me, I know for experience”.

I have no doubt of that thought Gloomy Dusk, nodded. There was something in his partner that radiated not only goodness and pureness, but also pain and melancholy at plenty. Whatever tragedy occurred to him, he hasn’t allowed it to acerbate his spirit .

“Now, I think we must do something about them” added the caped figure, staring at the airships.

“Leave them to me”. As he said that, the ‘unicorn’ horn lighten up of a blue/purple light. Gloomy Dusk knew that, if they came down there, the sight of all the ponies being asleep and the presence of two strangers (And one of them wasn’t even a pony) would have brought them way too many questions. And the last thing they needed now was a distraction. After a few minutes, the Sirocco and the other airship turned around and went to land towards a mountain chain a few miles to east. “There” said Gloomy Dusk, “This way we can be sure they will not be troubling us. Hopefully our giant buddy there won’t take notice of my little convincing spell”.

“He didn’t. He actually has other things in mind” the caped figure said, pointing a gloved finger towards the massive dragon. After watching the Sirocco and the other airship move, he got up and started walking away from Canterlot and from Ponyville. His pacing was slow, but he didn’t need to be fast to cover hundreds of miles with a few steps.

Gloomy Dusk knew where he was going. The wasteland where Twilight had that just as spectacular as preposterous fight with Tirek. “Good. The farther he goes, less chance that someone will die in the pending battle”.

“And then, it will be up to us to make sure that everything goes as planned. And if we fail--“.

“This world is doomed” concluded Gloomy Dusk.

***
Twilight was having an horrible nightmare; one of those where you just can’t seem to wake up from. In that nightmare, she and her friends were battling a monster, trying to prevent him from bringing forth the eternal winter. And yet, despite their best effort and despite having the power of friendship at their side, they still lost badly, getting devoured by the giant creature. It was all so absurd. And yet so real. The cold that surround her made everything feel authentic. She opened her eyes, hoping to see her familiar bedroom, with Spike sleeping in his basket. But what she actually saw was her laying in a ice cell, lacking any comfortable effects and nothing but Rarity clothes and her own fur to protect her against the bitter temperatures. In that moment, Twilight Sparkle realized that this was no bad dream, but the nightmarish reality. We lost she realized, as felt both her heart and her mind shatter to such unfathomable fact.

“Twilight, are you there?”.

“Rarity?”. Twilight ran to the vertical bars. Outside there was a circular room, with other prison cells caved in the ice walls near her. It was right in this one that the voice of Rarity came from.

“Thanks heaven you’re alright my dear!” exclaimed the white unicorn.

“Where are the others?”.

“Right here” responded Rainbow Dash.

“Same with us” said Applejack.

“I’m alive. Albeit freezing” jumped out Pinkie Pie.

“Where are we?” asked Fluttershy. Being the last three in order, Twilight could actually see her friends inside of them.

“Well, last thing I can remember is that FrostBound has eaten us” mentioned Rarity

“So we are inside his stomach?”. Rainbow Dash was shocked.

“Gee, I wonder if my stomach look the same” commented Pinkie Pie.

“Not time for joking, girls. We have to get out of here!” told them Twilight.

“We have tried, Twilight, but this bars won’t budge” said Applejack.

“And magic doesn’t even start to affect it” added Rarity, depressed, “How are we going to get out of here?”.

“You can’t” answered a voice that seemed to belong to a ghost. From the only entrance and exit of the room came three spirit like creature that until now they had just heard of: Windigos. The trio floated in the air, staring at the captive ponies with grim joy. “There’s no way out, ponies. This is going to be both your home and your grave” said the wraith like creatures, speaking like a single entity, with a voice so raspy it was unpleasant to listen at. “Watching you suffer is going to be--“.

“Enough”. FrostBound stood by the passage, glaring at the Windigos. “You will have your chance to torment them. But first, you will let me have a talk with them” The spirits gave the ice dragon an annoyed look, but in the end they nodded in agreement and flew to his side, while still keeping their cold glares at the prisoners. “Good” said, while advancing to the center of the circular room. As he did so, the Mane 6 noticed a few things about him. First, his body wasn’t really a physical manifestation of him, but rather a spiritual representation of his soul. Second, the Windigos were bounded to his spirit by what looked like ethereal cords. Thirdly, while not as gigantic as his vessel, FrostBound was still at least twice as tall as Discord. Fourth, he was carrying Celestia in one of his massive claws.
The eldest of the royal sisters looked all but as the ruler that the Mane 6 had know. Without her royal necklace, crown and shoes. Her horn was covered in ice and so were her wings. Heavy handcuffs locked on her front and hinder legs and her neck, all tied up together by icy chains. To complete the awful sight, on her mouth there was a muzzle so tight that made it impossible for her to talk.
FrostBound dropped her in the center of the room, where new chains materialized from the ground, making sure that she won’t get away. Not that Celestia looked capable of doing that or any other kind of rebellious act. By how slowly she stood up, she looked drained of any strength and willpower to actually fight back.

Seeing their beloved princess in such an awful state, made the heart of the Mane 6 sunk. “What have you done with her? How dare you chained her as if she was an animal!?” demanded Twilight. Despite knowing that FrostBound could feed on hatred, they just couldn’t help be but being furious at him.

“Made sure that she will not be interrupting our conversation with other lies or weak excuses”.

“You want to talk? And about what?” asked Rarity, bitter like a basket of lemons “How to torture us? On how you’re going to kill all of our family and friends!?”.

“If you want to know all of that, you should ask them, not me” replied FrostBound, eying the Windigos that floated over his head, “No, the argument regards something else. But first, I want to ask something to you, Applejack”.

“Me!?” jumped out the orange earth pony.

“Yes, you, Applejack. I know that you are the Element of Honesty, so you must have a talent in spotting liars. The question is this: did you felt as if Celestia had lied to you, during the meeting?”.

“Well… yeah” admitted Applejack, her eyes jumping to the ice dragon and the ruler of Equestria. When her eyes met with the latter, the ruler of Equestria looked away in shame.

“And I guess that you have spoken about it with your friends, on the Monarch. Wondering about what was it that she’s was keeping you in the dark. Yes, I can see it from your faces that it is so”.

“And what exactly has she kept from herself?” asked Fluttershy.

“My origins”. At those words, the anger inside the ponies minds got suppressed by curiosity. “Part of my story was told right. Web Heart, the ritual, the Windigos, my captivity, those are true. Yet, she has let out a lot. I wasn’t created by the ritual. In fact, I was already there, although not quite out of my egg”.

“Egg?” repeated Rainbow Dash.

“Usually is in the norm from dragon to come out of an egg” explained FrostBound, sardonic.

“But how did Web Heart--“ made to ask Twilight.

“Managed to get his hand on my egg? Is not that hard, when you can buy one on the black market. Those places seem to reek of items that are both powerful and cursed. You should know, Twilight, given how you had to deal with the alicorn amulet”.

That detail surprised the Mane 6. “But how do you know that!?” asked the purple alicorn in disbelief, “You weren’t even there!”.

“Celestia told me. She told me very often about the adventures that you six and Spike, of your slice of life lessons. Once, I could have considered myself a fan of yours… before I came back to my senses”.

The eyes of the Mane 6 focused on Princess Celestia, staring at her with confusion. The white alicorn closed her eyes, cringing. “You… knew each other?” asked hesitantly Fluttershy.

“Why haven’t you told that?” added Rarity, just as perplexed as the others.

“Because she’s responsible for everything” answered FrostBound, giving a cold glare at Celestia. “But let’s go with order. Thousands years ago, Celestia paid me unexpected visit in my cell, inside the heart of the resting volcano Ifrit. She claimed that she had heard of me and wanted to help me to control at least partly the power inside of me, so that one day I would be free from the Windigos presence and be allowed to get out of that damned prison. When I’ve asked the reason because this act of benevolence, she replied that it was just the right thing to do, and promised me that one day I will be cured from this curse. And so, for the next hundreds years, she passed to visit me every time at every chance she had; she brought books filled with information about history, magic instructions, pictures of magnificent places. But, most important of all, she brought company. And warmth. She treated me not as a monster as the guards outside, but as a normal living being. After a while, I had started to see her like the mother I never knew. She even gave me another name, one that didn’t had the same dreadful sound of FrostBound: Cryo”.

This sounds so familiar thought Twilight, shivering at the concept.

“Then, one day, after some time she didn’t visited me, she told me about Discord attempt to take over the world. And of how she and her sister defeated him with the Elements of Harmony. She described to me that the Elements as relics capable of doing the impossible, with a magic so powerful that nothing could stop them. Of course I mentioned that, maybe, just maybe, the Elements were the key to ward off the Windigos from my spirit. She agreed with me at the idea, but told me that she first had to make sure the Elements worked correctly mentioning how, given how rare my curse was and how still mysterious the Elements of Harmony were, she wanted to avoid killing me by accident. Me, being a faithful student, took her word for granted. Sadly, few weeks after that day, she returned in my cell with her mind and heart filled with grief, telling me that she was forced to banish her dear sister to the moon using the Elements of Harmony; after that event, the Elements of Harmony had stopped working, destroying any hope that I had for being cured. Yet, despite the gravity of her words, I swallowed my own disappointment, offering my shoulder for her to cry on, because I knew it was the right thing to do. And so, for the next thousands of years I had completely gave up on the idea of being cured and getting out from that cell, consoling myself that at least, with the help of Celestia, I could at least silence a bit the hate filled whispers of the Windigos. Or at least so I thought. Then one day, she came back with one big smile, telling me that the Elements of Harmony were back, discovered by a group of six ponies and were used to actually heal Princess Luna from her mad state”.

It feels like it was so long ago Twilight reflected, When times were far more simpler .

“Hearing of how you six succeeded into defeating Nightmare Moon and her return to her old self, I was more convinced than ever that the Elements could do the same with me. After all that time, I felt again hope grace my frozen heart. Yet, Celestia was still wary of using the Elements on me without any kind of test, so she insisted that she could make some test on it. This time, I couldn’t hide my irritation with her cautiousness. I would have much preferred if she just used the Elements right away. If I would have died, at least I would be free from the torment that was my life. And if not even the Elements could work, then I would have accepted that I was doomed to this miserable existence, but still being capable of feeling at least joy for the fact that, at least, outside of my prison I had friends. Still, despite my frustration, I still respected her opinion and intelligence, so once again I accepted. And I’ve waited”. As FrostBound talked, he started to walk back and forth. At the same time his nostalgic and sorrowful tone started to change slowly into spite and anger. “Three years had passed, since that day. Celestia started to visit me much less; only four times per month. For the first year, I thought it was because she was taking her time with experimenting on the Elements and, probably, she wanted to enjoy having her little sister back. But from the second year, doubts started creeping in my mind. At first I thought it was due to the Windigos presence, but soon I realized it that it was just cold logic at work. Every time that Celestia visited me, she talked about everything but the Elements. I had to remind her about the studies she was supposed to be having back at her palace. And all the times, her answers were vague or she asked for more time. For the third year, I just couldn’t take it anymore. When she entered in my cell, that day, her smile was even wider than ever. For a second I dared to think that she finally completed her study on the Elements. Oh, how foolish I was. She wasn’t happy for me. Her happiness was all for you, Twilight Sparkle”.

“You’re talking about my coronation” stated Twilight.

FrostBound nodded “She was so proud of you, for having reached your full potential. I? I felt that turning a pony into an alicorn so out of the blue for solving a problem of which Celestia made up, by sending you that scroll, was just an excuse to turn her protégé into one of her own. But I digress. When she told me about your ascension, I demanded (trying my best to not sound harsh) to her if she had arrived at any point in her research of the Elements. When she tried to tell me that she needed more time, I had to do my best to hold the frustration that was building inside me. I got straight to the point, telling her that I felt that she wasn’t being sincere. She tried to defend herself, saying that the Elements were not a simple rebus, especially given what they were supposed to work on my case. Just as she said those words, something in my instinct kicked in, telling me that there was more to it of this delays”. The ice dragon stopped moving, halting right in front of Twilight. “Tell me, Twilight Sparkle, what would you do when a person you trusted the most kept a secret from you? Would you persist to get the truth, or would you let your respect blind you, preferring a comfortable lie?”.

That question was too much for the Element of Magic. She couldn’t decide what to say, not with her own mind torn between her respect for Celestia, or the cold logic of the fact proving that her beloved teacher and sovereign had some shady secrets in her. “I would trust her” she uttered, knowing full well that she was lying to herself.

And FrostBound knew it as well, “You’re lying to yourself, just to defend your own belief of Celestia. I couldn’t expect less, given how much time you passed together. Not that I can blame you, really. Your teacher is good at getting under the skin of her subjects and knows very well how to get their trust. But she couldn’t do it with me. So I decided to insist on the argument with her, resolute to have an answer. I had to beg her, like the most humble of servant, to finally make her admit the bitter truth” He said, towering over the white alicorn. “And the truth was that she never really wanted to cure me”.

As the words sinking into the minds of the Mane 6, a grave silence fall on the room. “What?” murmured Pinkie Pie.

“You’re lying!” shouted Rarity, “Princess Celestia would never do something so unworthy!”.

“I’m not lying. But if you don’t want to believe, ask your friend Applejack. Tell me, Element of Honesty, am I lying to you?” asked FrostBound, moving around Celestia, without taking away his glaring eyes from her captive form.

The orange earth pony remained silent for a few seconds, before letting out a weak “No”.

“What?” shouted the rest of the Mane 6.

“No” repeated Applejack, louder. “He’s telling the truth”. The Element of Honesty already knew that Celestia had lied to them, but she couldn’t believe that she could be so deceitful, not just to them, but to a desperate creature like FrostBound.

The rest of the Mane 6 couldn’t believe what they had just heard. At first, they thought that maybe FrostBound odd powers could allow him to deceive Applejack lie-detector. But then they watched at their beloved sovereign, hoping to see her give a sign that would prove this fact. But instead, she looked at them with the teary eyes. Eyes beseeching for forgiveness. “Why?” was all that Twilight Sparkle could say.

“Because, before she ever visited me, Stars whirl the Bearded asked her to do so, on his death bed. He made her promise to never release me, because the power I wielded could have caused a disaster at the slightest lapse” told them FrostBound. “Apparently it didn’t mattered that I was just a victim, that I never had a choice in my life, that I always tried to behave and ignore all the words of violence the Windigos whispered in my soul. Nothing of all that mattered. Not to Star Swirl, much less to Celestia”.

“But why did she even made you a promise, if she never intended to fulfill it?” asked Pinkie Pie, livid.

“Because, apparently, she thought that it was better to be deceitful and give me a false hope, than honest and offer me a bitter truth. But I guess the latter wouldn’t have made me trust her just as much” replied FrostBound.

“That must have been terrible for you” commented Fluttershy.

“You have no idea how much” hissed the ice dragon, “When she actually told me that, I could feel rage and hatred grew in my heart, obfuscating my mind. I tried to control it, I demanded that, now that the truth had been finally revealed, she could take her leave and never come back to me. But, instead of accepting her faults and obeying my will, she started to making up many excuses; like the ones she told you before, of how the Elements could have indefinite effect on my powers. Or that even if I could be freed by the Windigos, I couldn’t be sure that the cold energies inside of me could be entirely controlled. That she didn’t want to lose me and so on. All pathetic attempts to save her face, trying to have the last word, to be considered fair when she was unjust. Hearing all those insults to both mine and her intelligence, I couldn’t take anymore. The rage, the hatred, were just too much to bare. The mysterious cold element, combined with the power of the Windigos, made me give a sudden and violent outburst of energy, activating the magic defenses that Clovis the Clever had casted so long ago, activating the volcano. I remember roaring at Celestia to leave, my voice distorted by the energies unleashing and the voice of the Windigos. And this time, she listened. Uttering a weak apologize, I watched her following the guards outside, as what was supposed to be the absurdly hot heart of the volcano started to consume the room. I wasn’t bothered by it in the slightest, my main attention was to reclaim control over the storm inside. It took all my restraint to push back the Windigos in the most deepest part of my mind and contain the power outburst. But I couldn’t avoid to unleash a part of it, which is why the volcano got frozen over”.

“I knew it” said Fluttershy, with a sweet smile.

“You knew what?” inquired FrostBound, towering over the yellow pegasus

“That there was more in you than a monster” explained the Element of Kindness, without showing a hint of fear. “Deep down, you’re still the kind dragon that didn’t wanted to hurt anyone”.

“That dragon is dead. Killed by the harsh reality that is the world. A reality of which you ponies have no true idea what it is!” countered the ice dragon, unfazed by the affirmations of Fluttershy. “What do you know about being an outcast? Of having no family? Of being saw by a monster by everyone?” he asked, bitterly, “What do you know what it feels to have the only warmth in your life being revealed to be an illusion?”.

“Nothing” had to admit Fluttershy. “But you shouldn’t allow others to dictate your judgment”.

“Says the one belonging to a species that follows what came up on your flanks” he replied, pointing at their backsides. “You ponies follow everything that your Cutie Marks display, claiming to be a sign of your destiny. Let me ask you one question: what would you do, if a pony got a Cutie Mark that showed a planet being destroyed… would you let him accomplish what fates had in store for him, or would you stop it?”.

“We would stop him, of course” answered Applejack, being her usual honest self.

“Ah so when it suits you, making you look like the paladins of Harmony, is fine to believe that destiny is right, but when the cards are pitted against you, you don’t like it”. At that, none of the Mane 6 could find a good reply. “Celestia used to say that you can’t fight destiny. A claim of which I never agreed on, because I didn’t liked the fact that victims are fated to suffer in the battle between good and evil, and people are forced to be the monsters that the heroes slay. But after her unfaithfulness I understood that, just because you don’t like something, it doesn’t make it any less real. It took me all this time to realize that I just can’t fight what I am. But now, enough talking about me” With a movement of his claws, the muzzle of Celestia disappeared, finally allowing her to talk. “Now, have you something to say to your dear little ponies, Celestia?”.

“Like what? There aren’t words that can wash away my errors” she said, shivering. “I can only hope that you may understand the reason behind my choice” added the white alicorn, turning her attention to the Mane 6, “Even though I doubt that any of you will like it”.

“And you would be darn right” told her Applejack, giving to Celestia a stern look. “How could you lie to all of us?”.

“There’s nothing bad at making more than one promises. But you can’t give your word on two different things like that. That’s like trying to bake a cake and eat it!” added Pinkie Pie.

“Usually I wouldn’t ever think to side for the bad guy. But now I can actually understand his reason!” uttered Rainbow Dash.

“I expected better from a princess!” shouted dramatically Rarity. “Freedom is the greatest gift… and you’ve taken away that from his grasp!”

“You shouldn’t have played with his emotions” said Fluttershy, giving her famous stare at Celestia.

Celestia felt her already proved heart ache at the accusing words and glares of the Mane 6. “Twilight” she said, fearing what her most faithful student would tell her.

“Since that day” started Twilight Sparkle, “Since when you turned me into an alicorn and made of me a Princess, I always wondered why it was so necessary for me to have this wings. But I always tried to ignore my questions and doubts, because I thought that, given your experience and insight, things would have turned for the better. But I can’t ignore my doubts anymore, not when your actions are the reason why Equestria and the whole world are on the brink of annihilation!”. As she concluded her speech, her eyes threatened to drop tears.

At those words, Celestia fell on her knees, the accusations of her most faithful student hurt her deep within. The worse thing was that she was right. “I…” the white alicorn uttered, incapable to respond to any of the Mane 6.

“Well, would you look at that, Celestia” said FrostBound, almost grinning at the troubled princess. “It seems like your dear warriors hates you”.

“We don’t hate her” added then Twilight Sparkle. At that, the ice dragon turned to watch her with genuine surprise. “Yes, she did an awful thing to you, but that alone can’t take away all the actually good things she did to us”.

“And she regrets this situation. Just look at her eyes and you know that she does lament having turned her back to you” added Applejack.

“See, FrostBound” hissed the Windigos, to the ice dragon, “Just as we told you, these ponies will side with Celestia, even after hearing her crimes”.

“We aren’t siding with anyone” clarified Twilight Sparkle. “While we can understand the reason behind her acts, we don’t agree with it, much less like it. We will have long and due talk with her on this argument, you can be sure of that. The point is that, for how terrible your life is, that doesn’t justify you to bring the eternal winter to this land. We won’t allow you to do it”.

FrostBound stared at the Mane 6 with inscrutable eyes for a few seconds, before speaking again. “You really left your mark, Celestia. They are just like you, making statements that they cannot carry out” he said to Celestia, before turning back to the Mane 6. “Your arrogance blinds you, ponies. Your rulers have fallen, your army are scattered and vulnerable and your special weapon has failed against me. You have lost, Bearers of Harmony. And soon Equestria and the rest of this world will be mine for the taking”.

“The Elements have failed?” asked Princess Celestia, her voice made a whisper by her astonishment and fear.

“Indeed. They hit me without having any effect” told her FrostBound. “This body of mine is wholly immune to any kind of attack, even by the most powerful magic of the world. Ironic just as it is tragic, isn’t it? If you just kept your word, you would have still get what you truly wanted. But instead, your attempt to avoid getting me blasted by the Elements is what doomed this world”.

At hearing that, Celestia could only turn her head down, staring at the floor with shrunken pupils.

“Is not over yet, FrostBound!” claimed Rainbow Dash, “We still have Discord and a whole army of dragons on our side! I bet that as we speak their arriving here to stop you”.

“They will try and they will fail. Also, if the books I’ve read about my species are correct, then I will be facing an army of stupid or downright savages or idiots, filled with animosity towards me. Do you know what that means?”

“More hate for you to absorb” realized Twilight Sparkle, horror in her voice.

“Exactly. And Discord will do his part. Especially when he will hear of how I killed his dear Fluttershy”.

“Oh no” said the yellow pegasus. For how much terrible Discord rage would have been at hearing of her apparent death, FrostBound would have just ignored his fury, absorbing all the hate he could give her.

“But we aren’t dead yet” couldn’t help but notice Pinkie Pie.

“Not yet” was the chilling reply of the ice dragon.

“So what’s going to happen to us? Are you actually going to kill us, like Celestia and the rest of the planet?” wanted to know Twilight Sparkle.

“Do you think death is the worst thing that could happen to you? No, there are worse things than death, child. I’m going to do with them the same thing I’ve done with the ponies in Canterlot, trapping their body into ice, forever cursed to feel the most bitter cold for the rest of eternity, while I feed on their emotion. For Discord and his dragon army, I guess I will that burning them to ice dust will suffice. And for Celestia… well, let’s say that I’m going to make her feel what I’ve felt for all this centuries, but far more painful. Almost as bad as what is going to happen to you six”.

“What do you have in mind?” demanded Rainbow Dash, trying to hide the fear in her voice.

“Not what I have in mind, but what they have in mind” précised FrostBound, giving an aside glance at the Windigos levitating over him. “While I have felt respect towards what you did in the past, the Windigos felt the complete opposite way. They see in you the same group of ponies that have ruined their feast, spreading friendship and peace to the creatures of this world. And for such, they wanted to make sure your death would be excruciating. This cage won’t make you feel hunger or thirst, but they will also start to get colder and colder over time. And not at the same time”.

“You want us to see each other die” mumbled Twilight Sparkle, petrified.

“Exactly, you pathetic ponies” said the Windigos, smiling ominously at the trapped Mane 6, “We’ll see how this time your power of friendship will save you now”. And then all three of them moved near to Fluttershy cage, “Tell us, Element of Kindness, do you still believe that there’s good in him?”.

“Yes I do” insisted the yellow pegasus, managing to keep her emotions on check. “But it won’t never come out, until you will infest his soul, corrupting him!” she said, glaring at the icy spirits.

The Windigos eyes narrowed at Fluttershy and for a second, they looked like they were about to attack her. But FrostBound stopped them on track. “Let the Element of Kindness believe what she prefers, it won’t change her or the fate of her friends” said the ice dragon, as he picked up Celestia, grabbing her by the neck. The white alicorn dangled from his claws, almost lifeless, with her eyes staring at the horizon without really seeing much. “We need to be prepared for when Discord and the others arrive”.

“Right” agreed the Windigos, before giving one last malicious grin to the Mane 6, “Don’t you worry, you little ponies. We won’t be away for long. Just the time necessary to crush you dear friends, like the maggots they are. Be sure, we will tell you all the details of their undoing!” promised the frost spirits, following FrostBound to the passage.

“Wait a darn second, FrostBound” shouted Twilight Sparkle, “What was even the point of telling us your past, for then just kill us?”.

The ice dragon stopped on his path, but didn’t turned around to look at the ponies. “I thought that you deserved to know the truth, so you would know for what kind of ruler you threw your life away” said FrostBound, with distant voice. “I gave you the chance to die a quick and painless death, but instead you wanted to play the hero. And now you will pay the price”. And with that said, the ice dragon walked out of the room, leaving the Mane 6 alone in the cold.

The peak of the storm

Spike felt good. He, Ember and Discord had managed to gather as many dragons that they could, using the magic of the Draconequus to bring even the ones that were too much far away to reach. Then he, with Ember, succeeded into convincing them of the importance of their help, and of how much of a threat FrostBound was. Sure, not everything went smooth. Garble of course had to act all cool, saying that they shouldn’t get involved helping ponies; Discord made some snarky with Torch, making the ex-dragon lord tempted to try and, well, torch him. “You would try”, responded the Draconequus. Torch was about to pass from the words to the fact when suddenly the cloud vanished, showing a sun that, instead of warmth, sent cold waves at them. A signal that things had been going south in Equestria. It was time to go and fight.
To make things more quicker, Discord decided to use his magic to make them appear right in the valley below Canterlot, so that there wouldn’t be a problem of space for the army of dragons. Spike agreed on the idea. With 5000 dragons (Which included the gigantic Torch) and Discord, Spike felt as if things weren’t as bleak at it seemed.

And then, once arrived in front Canterlot, he saw the palace of the royal sisters wrecked. That sight made his heart sink. “What happened here?” he asked.

“Do you think we have arrived too late?” feared Ember.

“Probably” said Discord, staring the ruins. If he was worried for either Luna, Celestia or Fluttershy, he was good at hiding it.

“Where is this FrostBound?” wondered the young dragon lord. “He can’t be far away”.

“And you would be right, child” replied Torch, pointing at… them?

No, not at them, but rather was under them. Spike and Ember looked around for a bit, before realizing where they stood: inside the mark left by a dragon which size alone outclassed the ex-dragon lord. “Holy” gasped the two young dragons.
The rest of the dragons shared the same reaction, showing an hint of fear on their faces.

“Are we supposed to fight against the one guy that left this sign?” asked Garble, voicing the dread that most of them felt in their heart.

“What’s the matter, Gurgle? Suddenly afraid to fight?” asked Discord, with a grin.

“What!? No, of course not!” responded hastily the teenager dragon. “Is just that… well, I didn’t expect him to be this big! Also, my name is not Gurgle!”.

For once, Spike could agree with Garble. Just by looking at the paw-print left by FrostBound, it was clear that the ice dragon was on another level. If the size of this thing is correct, he could hold Torch as if he wasn’t more than a whelp realized Spike.

“Bah, he may be bigger than me, but I bet he’s not as powerful” scoffed the ex-dragon lord.

“Wishful thinking” whispered Discord, appearing beside Spike and Ember. “If we follow his tracks, we will find him” added, by making notice other print on the ground

“Why does he walk, instead of flying? Or does he lack wings?” asked Ember, confused.

“Oh, he has wings, let me tell you that. For why he preferred to walk instead of fly, well, I’ve the distinct feeling that in this way he would be sure to be found”.

“Are you telling me that he knows about us?”.

“Maybe” said Discord, caressing his beard with a thoughtful look.

“Then what are we waiting for?” demanded an adult red dragon, “Let’s follow the trail”.

“Hold your horses, hot head. If we charge all together, we may lose the surprise effect on him. He may know that there were reinforcement coming, but he may not know who this back up or how many there are. I say is better for you to stay here, while me, the actual dragon lord and Spike go take a look. Once we actually know where he is what he is doing, we will call you”.

“Sounds like a good idea” nodded Ember, “Didn’t expected such logic from the spirit of chaos” added, sarcastically.

“I am logical enough, if the circumstances require it. Now, can please move it?”.

And so Spike jumped on Ember back and, with Discord, they followed the traces left by FrostBound, with the Draconequus leading them. The purple dragon thought about what Discord had just told them. He’s walking instead of flying, so that we can follow him. And yet, he could have left an even bigger sign by just walking through the mountains. I’m sure that something of his size and his power, he wouldn’t have a problem to do so. Is almost as if he wanted to avoid needless destruction . It was an absurd thought. Why a being that was causing an ice age would be worried of wrecking some rocks? Before he could dig deeper into that question, he, Ember and Discord turned around the mountain, coming in sight with their target.

While they knew about his size by his footprint, seeing it in person was a whole another deal. Spike and Ember were about to shout by surprise, but Discord closed their mouth. “Now now, let’s try to not get his attention already, shall we?” he said with a low voice.

The two young dragons nodded, so Discord let go their mouths. “He hasn’t seen us yet” noticed the female dragon lord.

“He looks like he’s on trance” noticed Spike. FrostBound was standing sit, his eyes gazing into the nowhere.

“Don’t be fooled. I bet what you want that, the second we advance on him he will snap back to reality, so to snap on us” warned him Discord, without taking his eyes off the giant ice dragon.

“We need all our forces to stand a chance against him” said Ember.

And in that instant, FrostBound lowered his stare right where they stood. “Oh crud, we are SO busted” whimpered Spike.

“Not if I can do something” replied Discord, shielding the two young dragons. “I will distract him, you go bring up the other fire sputters”.

At that, Spike and Ember exchanged an unsure glare. “Are you sure about that, Discord?” asked the young purple dragon.

“Yeah, weren’t you the one stating that that guy is too much for everyone?” pointed out the female dragon lord.

“Reminding me of that won’t help us!” answered the Draconequus, clenching his teeth. “I’m the only around here that can buy you some time. Or do you think he will listen to you and your staff?”.

“No” admitted Ember, looking at the dragon lord stuff with impotence.

“Good. Now go and try to not take it forever. Me in the meantime I’m going to get introduced to the big freeze”.

“Just don’t do anything stupid, Discord!” said Spike, as he and Ember flew back where they came from.

“As if me standing in this world would be any smart” commented the spirit of chaos, as he prepared himself to engage an adversary that he knew being far too powerful.

***

Inside the enormous head of FrostBound, the embodiment of the ice dragon soul looked through the two huge round windows that were his eyes. “They will be here shortly” he said to the Windigos. “Be on guard and warn me if you see them”. The Windigos remained silent, replying to him by moving their heads affirmatively. FrostBound moved to the center of the room, where Celestia had been placed. Most of her body was now covered in ice, leaving only her eyes and part of her mouth, allowing her to breath, but not to talk, forcing her to stand up. “Is it comfortable, Celestia? I hope so, because you’re going to be here for a long time” he said to her, while circling around the trapped alicorn like a predator does with its prey. “I think is time to reveal what I’ve in store for you, my dear Celestia. That ice that covers you isn’t just to keep you still or to make you feel cold, but to connect you to the rest of the creatures out there. As they get trapped into ice and I will feed on their emotions, you will feel it too. You will feel ALL OF IT. All their despair, all of their pain. Of all the ponies in Equestria, of all the dragons and all the creatures that inhabit this miserable planet and the universe that contains it!” he said, stopping in front of her and staring in the deep of Celestia eyes. “But it won’t end there, my dear ex teacher. Oh no, I haven’t forgotten our talk about the alternative reality and dimensions out there. Once I will be done with the planet and everything in the cosmos, I will use the knowledge I snatched from your mind while you were unconscious with this alien power and will shatter the barriers and bring the everlasting winter in the whole multiverse, even if it takes eons to do so”. As her eyes widened in terror, he gave her another sharp and malevolent smile. “Oh don’t you worry, Celestia. I’m going to take care of your mind, making sure that all that agony and guilt you will feel won’t drive you insane, so you can taste it all. And then, when all life will be trapped into eternal ice, I will let you break down. And then I will decide if to keep you as my personal jester or put you out of your misery. Quite the hard choice, now that I think about it, but I’m sure I will have all the time to decide”.

Celestia couldn’t speak with her mouth, but the way her pupils shrink into small dots and her eyelid narrowed, she was saying, “No, please, don’t do this to them. I’ll do anything!”.

“Too late” replied FrostBound, growling. “A millions years too late”.

“FrostBound!” called the Windigos. “They are here!”.

“Good” he said, turning his back to the trapped alicorn. “Watch carefully, Celestia. I’m about to extinguish any last burning hope that you had”. The ice dragon walked back towards the eye-windows, stopping right in the middle. There his form started to shine and to become much less concrete.

***

As the ice dragon switched from standing sit to stand up on his four legs, extending his two immensely wide wings and emitting a low growl, staring at the Draconequus which floated a few dozen meters from him.

“Hello there, I don’t think we have met before” Discord said. And I sure wish we never had to thought, offering his best smile.

“Oh, but we have, Discord” replied FrostBound, his tone indecipherable.

“Oh? When and where exactly? I would remember someone of your size” asked Discord. The spirit of chaos was surprised that the giant dragon wanted to talk, but he sure didn’t minded that much. If he could engage him in a conversation rather than a battle, maybe him acting as a diversion wouldn’t have turned too bad.

Instead of answering the question, the ice dragon seemingly ignore it “I’m surprised that you decided to face me directly, giving how scared of me you were in Twilight castle”.

Why does everyone keep bringing that up over and over again!? “Is it really that bad to be only one realizing what kind of threat you…” was about to say when suddenly the words of FrostBound made stop. How did he know? Unless “You… you were Shining Armor” muttered.

“Angry that I’ve managed to deceive you?”.

“Maybe a bit. Actually, I’m more impressed than anything else” commented Discord, sincere. Not even the best Changeling would manage to fool me. But this big freezer with wings and scales managed to do it with easy “I mean, turning from a big scary dragon into a little pony? Color me surprised. And I thought that you were good only at being freezing stuff with your frigid attitude”.

The derisive comment didn’t get anything else but a scornful snort from the ice dragon. “Is this that has become of the great master of chaos that I’ve heard so much about? A comedian with reality warping powers?”.

“You think little of me?”.

“I think that, not counting myself, you were the most powerful being on this planet. But then you turned your back to your true nature”.

Hearing that, the Draconequus rolled his eyes. “Please, spare me the “friendship makes you weaker” speech. I have already heard it once and it won’t work on me twice”

“I’m just stating a point. We two have come into this world for an exact reason. Yours is to bring chaos, mine is to bring coldness”.

Discord didn’t looked impressed by the words of FrostBound. “Maybe, but since when does chaos has an order to follow? Maybe me acting friendly is just as chaotic as I have to. I don’t need to turn the world upside down to prove who I am. Perhaps you should follow my example and stop being such a cold shoulder to everyone else”.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that because, unlike you, I know what friendship truly is”.

“Oh please, enlighten me, oh cold one” mocked the Draconequus.

A mockery that once again FrostBound ignored. “A pleasant illusion, a temporary feeling of warmth, followed the glacial feeling of loss. Open your heart to friendship and so you will open it to pain and sorrow. Time will take away any kind of happiness you had, leaving you cold, bitter and alone”.

“Quaint” scoffed Discord, even if he couldn’t help but think that maybe he wasn’t completely wrong. Maybe he’s not mistaken, but it still sound too much like an edge lord .

“You may not believe me, but I think in time you will, as you find out what happened to your friends”.

“Oh, I see what you’re doing” said Discord, pointing his finger at the giant ice dragon. “You’re trying to make me hate you, aren’t you?”.

“I admit it. Is it working?” asked FrostBound, strangely amused.

“Not quite. I may be sad for whatever you did to Celestia and Luna, but I know far too well that if I allow my temper to get the best of me, my hatred will make you stronger. Oh yes, I know about the Windigos inside that brain of yours and that, with all probability, they will feed on my hate. Well if you want to eat something you can go eat some rocks, because I won’t give you a darn thing!” he said crossing his arms and turning his back to the ice dragon in a offended manner. Doing so, he hoped to see any trace of the arrival of the dragon army. Sadly, there was none. Where the heck did they go? Discord wondered, nervous, I doubt I can stall him for any longer. Not with words, at least .

“Oh, but I wasn’t talking about Celestia and Luna” replied FrostBound, with a sinister grin.

At those words, Discord turned around, looking at the colossal dragon with an alarmed expression. “What?”.

“Your friends… or at least, the one friend you have. The one you seem to have the closest thing to respect from…Fluttershy”.

“What… what did you do with her?” asked the Draconequus.

“She and her friends arrived here, so full of themselves, certain to stand a chance against me. I proved them wrong, crushing their hopes and bodies, ending their lives with my bare hands”.

“You’re bluffing” blurted out Discord, “How did they managed to reach you before us?”.

“You’re talking about your teleportation trick? Easy to slow down, once perceived. Your magic might be powerful for the ponies, but compared to mine, they are but child play”.

Discord stared at FrostBound dead into the eyes, before suddenly bursting out in a nervous laughter. “Ah! You nearly got me, frosty” he said, slapping his knees. “If you truly had harmed Fluttershy and her friends in any other way, I sure would have gone nuts. But unfortunately for you, is not that easy to fool me twice!”

“I guess you want proof, so here it is” he said, opening his right hand. As if at command, a cold breeze lifted something so small that would have passed away without anyone noticing. But Discord did. And he saw that those little things were hairs of different colors, that belonged to the manes of the Elements of Harmony. One in particular caught his attention: a pink one.

He managed to grab this one before it disappeared from his sight, then he brought it in front of his eyes, analyzing it, praying to find something, anything, to prove that this wasn’t what it seemed. But it was. “Fluttershy” whispered Discord, as he felt something inside of him break and tears started to spill from his eyes. She’s gone he realized. Once again, he had let down the one being crazy enough to be his friend.

“You feel it, don’t you?” asked FrostBound. “The pain, the coldness, the feeling of being powerless and alone”. Discord lifted his gaze, glaring at the giant dragon, while hot air escaped his nostrils. “Oh, how could I forget about the anger. Tell me something, is it more towards me, for having killed your dear friends? Or is it towards yourself, for having failed to save her?”

“AAAAAAAHH” shouted Discord, shaking both skies and earth with his anger, but not moving in the slightest FrostBound.

“Apparently is the first” replied the ice dragon, indifferent from the rage of the Draconequus.

The spirit of chaos rose his hands in the sky, while purple/blue energy started to emanate from them. Such energy was none others than his own chaotic magic. Despite the fury boiling his blood, Discord was still painfully aware that his foe was still on another level. Yet, he felt that maybe, just maybe, if he used his own energy in a direct attack rather than just summon some random weapon, he could have at least wound the ice dragon. And so, in a few instants, a gigantic sphere of chaos magic formed over his head, double the size of FrostBound. This will have to hurt him. It must hurt him he thought.

“Quite the display of power, even though cartoonish” commented the ice dragon, not a bit frighten by the massive sphere.

“It may look cartoonish, but is going to make you cry in pain, you walking freezer!” cried Discord, throwing his destructive orb at FrostBound. This one remained still, while the sphere literally gobbled him inside of it, disappearing. The magical attack of Discord was powerful enough to cast a dreadful wind, making it seem like the world was coming to an end. It will be his end smiled the Draconequus. After using most if not all of his magic on that attack, he was a bit weary. But I’m sure it will pay off. Nothing could get out of that without a scratch thought, sure of himself. But then, slowly but clearly, the sphere of chaos magic started to disappear, revealing the still standing figure of FrostBound. He didn’t had a scratch. You’ve got to be kidding! That sphere would have obliterated a galaxy and he took it like I just blew some air at him .

“That was rather... disappointing” commented, as he got thirty meters higher, “Thanks for the hatred”.

“Don’t thank me yet, you overgrown lizard!” hissed Discord, “You’re not the only one capable of getting smaller or taller by will”. And as he said that, he grew of one head bigger than the ice dragon. “If magic won’t hurt you, then my fist will!”. Making appear a boxing glove made of steel and covered with fire in his lion arm. But as he tried to punch FrostBound, this one managed to halt his attack with one hand. Discord had barely the time to register what just had happened that the ice dragon turned the flames off and crushed the boxing glove as if it was made of cardboard. And with it, the very hand of Discord.

The spirit of chaos kneeled while screaming in pain, as he tried to free his hand from the clutches of FrostBound, but it was only for his choice that he managed to get his hand back. But before Discord could take a breath of relief, the gigantic hand of the ice dragon grabbed by the head, holding it as he would do with a pony by how big it was. Then the pain became nearly unbearable. The touch of the ice dragon was so cold that it felt like it was scorching his head, his attempts to break free pointless. “Weak” grunted FrostBound, before lifting the Draconequus up and then down, making his head smash onto the ground. Holes and cracks opened the ground as far as the eye could tell, as the planet itself seemingly got moved by the impact. After that, Discord attempts to break free nearly stopped. The only thing the Draconequus could do was glare defiantly at his attacker. He knew that FrostBound would have just gotten stronger, but he couldn’t help himself. “And here’s where that friendship of yours has taken you; down in the path of pain” claimed the ice dragon. “Now tell me, was it really worth it?”.

With his chicken hand, the spirit of chaos snapped a finger, making fall on FrostBound a whole casket of eggs, much for the irritation of the enormous beast. What do you think, you big jerk? Discord thought, grinning despite the pain in his body.

“You find this amusing, don’t you?” asked FrostBound, cleaning himself from the yolk of the egg. “You know, I thought I would just kill you, but seeing how determinate you are to die for a lost cause I think I will change my plans”. The cold hand of the ice dragon turned even colder, making Discord squirm helplessly. “If you insist into helping the ponies, you will share their fate. Frost will engulf you, trapping you into an ice statue. You thought that being turned to stone is bad? Stone may be cold, but ice is colder and far more relentless. It will literally bite your bone, flesh and mind, as if it was burning fire. It will make your captivity look tame in comparison. And unlike that, it won’t never end”.

Discord was about to try and summon something else to try and distract the ice dragon when he heard the sounds of thousands of wings beating. Ember and Spike were finally back with the rest of the dragons. What took you so darn long, you dang fire spatter wondered Discord, frustrated.

“Looks like the so called dragon lord and her servants have arrived” mused FrostBound. “I will deal with you later”. The ice dragon threw Discord apart as if he was trash, sending him flying and then crashing violently to the ground.

Aching and exhausted, the spirit of chaos turned back to his standard size. This one is up to you, Spike. I’m fighting my own battle to stay awake . Without much to do, Discord watched as the dragon army charged the titan dragon, painfully aware that, if neither he or the Elements could stop him, Ember army was about to enter a fight they couldn’t win.

***

“Girls, I’m afraid my cage is getting colder” said Fluttershy.

“No way, Fluttershy. Is my cage that’s getting colder” countered Pinkie Pie.

“Girls, is not that I don’t appreciate the attempt to cheer Fluttershy up, but I think we should use the time we have to find a way to break out of here” pointed out Applejack.

“Right” agreed Rainbow Dash. “We can’t let all our friends and family to suffer the eternal winter!”.

“Even if we managed to get out of this cells, there’s one particular that I feel we need to address: what are we going to do against FrostBound? Our elements doesn’t work against him” reminded them Rarity.

That question made everyone fell silent, aware that they lacked the answer. FrostBound is smarter and more powerful than us had to admit Twilight Sparkle, has she made work her brain in search of a solution to their problems. Now that she wasn’t plagued by doubts about Celestia and her secrets, she could finally feel her mind work like it usually did. But he has to be a weakness we can use to our advantage . Just as she thought that, the purple alicorn remembered what FrostBound had told to Celestia. “This body is immune” he said “I’ve got it!” shouted Twilight, euphoric.

“You got what?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“I know how we can stop FrostBound!”.

“Really!?” cried the rest of the Mane 6.

“Tell us everything!” said Applejack.

“His body is immune to the Elements, right?”

“That’s what he said!” nodded Pinkie Pie.

“But now we are inside his body”.

“You mean his spirit may be actually vulnerable to the power of Harmony?” asked Rarity.

“Is a chance. The only one we got”.

“Better than nothing. I’ll take it” stated Rainbow Dash.

“Well, good to have that solved. Now, anything about to how get out of here?” questioned Applejack.

At that, Twilight didn’t knew the answer until her attention turned to the bars of the cell containing Fluttershy. “I think that, while greatly empowered by that mysterious cold element, the ice is still mostly made of the Windigos magic. For proof, look at Fluttershy bars. They are far more thin compared to all of us”.

“Is true!” exclaimed the yellow pegasus. “But how…”

“That’s because unlike us, you have a greater control over your hatred towards FrostBound” explained the purple alicorn. “If we want to break free, we need to control our emotions, putting the hate we may feel aside”.

“Well, after hearing the story of Frost…Cryo, I don’t feel that angry at him” admitted Rainbow Dash, “In fact, I actually feel very bad for the big guy”.

“He went through so much. Alone” nodded Applejack. “Without a family”.

“Without a good laugh” added Pinkie Pie. “Tormented by ill thoughts”.

“But we can actually grant him his greatest wish. We can cure him from his curse” said Rarity.

“He’s not a monster, he’s just a victim of a cruel fate” stated Fluttershy.

The bars started to melt away. “We must help Cryo, not destroy him” claimed Twilight. “Celestia may not have kept her word, but we will!”.

“FOR CRYO” cried the Mane 6 like one pony. At that, their cages disappeared in mist, allowing them to get out.

“So good to be out of there” commented Pinkie Pie.

“Is going to be much better when we will be out there” said Rarity.

As they said that, they rushed outside of room. As they did, they found themselves into what looked like a giant ice organic cave, mostly dark “It reminds me of a story of Daring Do: Into the belly of the beast” mentioned Rainbow Dash.

“And how did she found a way out in that story?” asked Applejack.

“By following the digestive system” told her the cyan pegasus.

“But we won’t have to do that… right?” questioned Rarity, shivering in disgust.

“No, we must go up, not down. And instead of following the digestive system, we will follow those things” replied Twilight Sparkle, pointing above their heads. On the ceiling there was the only source of light in the place; they looked like veins filled with intense white energy.

Suddenly the sound of distant thunders echoed till them. “Sounds like the battle started” noted Rainbow Dash. “If we want to avoid a slaughter, we’ll better hurry”.

“Let’s go”. And with that the Mane 6 race through their goals.

Author's Note

After putting down the 9 chapter that I've written down, I think I'm going to stop here for now.
Have a good reading and leave a like if you want.

Frozen tears

“Discord is down” shouted Spike, so that Ember could hear him between the loud flapping of the dragons army.

“I’ve seen that, but there isn’t much we can do, other than attack” the dragoness replied, before turning to her army. “Get ready!” she cried, “At my signal, unleash hell on the target!”.

Their target remained still, staring at them with scorn, as if even the sight of them annoyed him greatly. He’s not afraid of us noticed Spike, Then again, if he managed to take Discord down, maybe he has a good reason to be so bold .

“Ready… NOW!”. At the order of the dragon lord, all the dragons, Spike and the dragon lord herself, shouted fire at unison. Their multicolored flames fused together into an immense stream of fire so hot that could have burned down pretty much anything in its path. But not FrostBound. The flames hit him with no result, before being turned off by his cold aura. “No way” muttered Ember, expressing what her and the rest of the dragons were thinking.

“Pathetic” said FrostBound, before taking a quick breath.

Ember wasn’t the only one knowing what was about to happen. “DUCK!” she screamed, moving out of the way. Most of the dragons managed to follow her example, either by using decent flying skills, their brutes strength forcing others apart. A big portion of the dragon army successfully dodged, but the other half didn’t make it in time to avoid the assault of FrostBound. The icy flame of the frost dragon looked much more like a beam of energy than the fire stream used by Ember armies. It hit hard, and it hit fast. The one in the main center got disintegrated, but even those that were outside of it got hit by the extremely low temperatures, getting frozen instantly and falling to the ground, shattering into many piece.
With one attack FrostBound had nearly wiped out the whole dragon army. At that, Ember was almost traumatized. Seeing her kin die in such outstandingly way, swatted aside and killed like they were less than vermin, made her feel guilty. Those lives were under my responsibility and I’ve threw their lives away like nothing thought the dragoness, feeling dirty at holding the dragon lord staff.

The ex-dragon lord and father of Ember, Torch, seemed to be more angry than anything else at the sight of his brethren suffer. “You arrogant whelp!” he shouted, charging the much bigger dragon, pointing at his face, spitting fire, clawing and head butting his eyes.

“Funny thing said by one of your size” commented FrostBound, flicking Torch away as if he was nothing but a pesky bug and making fly over the horizon.

“Father!” cried Ember.

“Ember” called Spike, “We can’t face FrostBound by ourselves. We need Discord!”.

“But I can’t leave my people in the time of need!” replied Ember, as tears started to drop from her face. “It’s my fault if some many have died. I shouldn’t have followed my approach on this serious matter”.

“I doubt that any plan would have worked differently anyway, Ember. But we are still in time to prevent a the complete destruction of the rest of our forces”.

At times, I wonder if Spike is older than I am thought the young dragon lord, impressed. “Okay, I will take you to him. I need to do something, or else I won’t be able to consider myself worthy of this title”.

And with that she took the purple drake to the downed spirit of chaos.

***
Wow, what a surprise, FrostBound is wiping the floor with them thought acidly Discord, as he tried to stand up. Ah, what is the point of all of this? Why do I even bother to get back to a fight I know I’m going to lose? Maybe I should just lay here and wait for FrostBound to come back to finish me. That would be far less embarrassing for me. Or maybe I should do as I said I would if I didn’t had friends to care for, and just leave this world behind . But he couldn’t do any of it. He just couldn’t let that big frosty jerk have the last laugh. Not after what he had took from him.

“Discord”. The Draconequus lifted his head, finding out that Spike was standing a few feet away from him, “Are you okay?”.

“What kind of stupid question is that!?” replied Discord, getting up, only for nearly fall over. Easy there, one step at the time he warned himself sitting down. “Nothing is okay! I just got my flank handed to me by that popsicle dispenser over there. Our big bad army has been decimated in seconds flat and Fluttershy…”. Discord stop himself, considering how Spike would have reacted at the news of the death of the elements of Harmony. If for me is so painful for having lost just one of them, how is he going to react at hearing the death of all his friends? “He killed them, Spike. Fluttershy and all of her friends. They have arrived before us and hit him with the Elements, failing at stop him” As he said that, his voice nearly broke. Here comes the tears .

“No their not”.

“What?” asked Discord, confused.

“They are not dead” replied Spike, surprisingly calm.

“But how… how do you even know it?”.

“They have told us” said the young drake, pointing in the skies. Some of the airships of the Dragon Watch were flying towards the battlefield to engage FrostBound. “When Ember and I went back to bring the rest of the dragons, we have met the commander of the Sirocco airship. He told us about the defeat of the Elements”.

“And what about them knowing if their dead or not?” questioned Discord, not bothering to look at the scene. He knew well enough how that cavalry would have ended.

“They… could feel it. I don’t how to explain it to you, but they felt that Twilight and the others are still alive, and are inside the giant dragon. And the more I think about, the more I think that they were right”.

So what? They have heard voices now? I may be the spirit of chaos, but even I found that hard to believe thought the Draconequus. And yet, despite the absurdity of it all, he wanted to believe that feeling. “Ok, so they are inside that monster there. So, what are we going to do about it?”.

“I… don’t know” admitted Spike. “But we sure could use your help against FrostBound”.

At that, the Sirocco and the other airships got obliterated by another burst of frost flames by the ice dragon, much to the horror of Spike and the resignation of the Draconequus. “My help isn’t going to change a thing, kid. If neither my power or the one of the Elements of Harmony could stop him, nothing will. Unless you know of some secret and unknown by many MacGuffin that is going to turn the tide to the last second”.

“Well… no. But we both know that the Twilight and the others have already managed to get out of awful situation. Why this one should be different?”.

Discord nearly laughed at that. “Well, considering how awful things are now, they should be close to win the day” commented the spirit of chaos, before he caught up something. “Looks like the dragon lord is in danger”.

In fact, FrostBound had captured Ember and now he was holding her in his fingers, ignoring the attempts of the others dragons to release her. “We have to do something!” shouted Spike, alarmed.

“Calm down, kid, we will save your girlfriend” said Discord.

“She’s not my…WHOA!” exclaimed Spike, finding himself suddenly on a slingshot.

“Catch” added the spirit of chaos, passing him one of the harpoons of the Dragon Watch that had been shrink enough to allow the young dragon to use it.

“You want to send me alone against him!?” blurted out Spike, terrorized.

“Oh stop being a sissy. I’m going to catch on soon enough, I just need a little bit of time to strategy a bit”. And before Spike could ask him anything else, he sent the purple dragon flying towards the much, much, MUCH bigger one. “Now go and save your girlfriend!”.

***

Dragons were famous for their though scales, which protected them from harsh weather, be that extreme heat or cold. But this weather was putting such durability to their limit. How long we will be able to fly? Let alone breathing fire? We need to take him out, before any of that happens to us . But to do that, the young dragon lord had to figure out how the situation was. Once dropped Spike near Discord, Ember flew as high as her wings allowed. Up there, she could see clearly the chaos underneath. Or at least, the chaos of their army. Her forces were scattered all around; some trying to get to safe distance from the giant dragon, others attacking relentlessly in hope to actually damage him. Neither of the two strategies was working properly. FrostBound on the other hand didn’t seemed to have a problem picking small groups down with swift attacks, something unlikely for one of his size. I need to save them… but how? Ember wondered. At last, she soon realized that the only approach that wouldn’t have be fatal for her was the pony approach. If Discord managed to keep him busy by chatting, maybe I can do the same . And so she flew right in front of FrostBound, making the giant dragon stop his attack by staring at her with apathy. “Halt!” Ember shouted, trying to sound firm. “I am Ember, the dragon lord. I have been chosen to be the master of all dragons. Of which includes you too. So I demand you to stop what you’re doing and yield!”. Okay, maybe is not EXACTLY the pony approach, but is going to suffice for now . FrostBound was about to say something when he turned his head around, glaring at the arrival of the Sirocco and the other airships of the Dragon Watch. They had barely enough time to shoot some ineffectual thunder blast and harpoon before FrostBound replied with his far more powerful ice breath, destroying them immediately.

“I know who you are” replied the ice dragon, turning his attention back to her. “That ludicrous staff of yours is hard to miss”.

“This staff proves that I am the Dragon lord!”.

“It also makes you an easy target in the heart of the battle, allowing to anyone to recognize your status and knowing that, if you get taken down, the rest of your army will either give up, run away or turned against itself”.

Ember was about to reply, but then realized that what FrostBound had just told her was true. The fact that she didn’t realized this sooner made her feel rather silly. I’m such a dork she thought, failing to hide her frustration.

“Didn’t thought this through, haven’t you? Typical. You dragons have never been famous for your intelligence. More focused on gathering treasures to eat than anything else or trying to play hero, when the best thing you could do is hide from me”.

“Where could we hide from that?” she said, pointing at the cold sun. “You’re putting the whole world in danger, the least we can do is try to save it”.

“You can’t save it. Not with brute force and certainly not with worthless titles granted; even less when such title is granted by taking an hold on something that even the weakest of creature could take. I may look like a dragon, but my essence is more than even your simple mind could grasp”.

“What’s so hard to grasp? You’re just a dragon of ice that freeze stuff up!”.

“You know nothing, dragon lord. What you’ve seen me do is just a small taste of what I can do. But I doubt your feeble mind could understand it”. Suddenly, Ember found herself grabbed by two clawed fingers of FrostBound. “So I won’t bother to even try. Prepare to die, whelp lord”.

No, it can’t end this way she thought, trying to escape the ice dragon grasp, but with no success. “You won’t win” Ember hissed, defiant till the bitter (and cold) end.

“Spare me the bold remark, Ember, I’ve already heard enough of it. Rather, pray that the one you’re buying time for will come in time”.

“What?”. Then the sound of someone screaming in panic ringed in her head. A sound that was getting louder, closer. She recognize it. “Spike” she whispered. A second later, the young purple dragon landed head first on the hand holding her. Spike got up, shaking off the groggy feeling, realizing on what he was standing off. He then quickly raised the harpoon on his hand and dropped violently on the limb with all the strength in his arms. A valiant effort, but sadly the only result was to shatter the point of the weapon into pieces.

“What was I expecting?” asked himself Spike.

“So is this one your savior? You must be really desperate, having to count on a wingless dragon” commented FrostBound.

“Stand back, you big bully!” shouted Spike, holding the broken weapon like a club. “You don’t scare me”

“Spike, get away!” cried Ember, afraid for the life of the little but brave purple and green dragon.

“I won’t, not even if I could. I will save my friends!” he declared.

“Another one ready to give his life in an attempt to save a dying world and its inhabitants” grumbled FrostBound, nearing his massive head closer to the younger drake. “Do you want to give your life to protect the one you care for? Be my guest. You will soon find out how pointless…”. The demoralizing speech of the ice dragon came to an halt, while on his eyes appeared an hint of surprise. He moved his head even closer to Spike, he took a sniff to the much smaller dragon, the air coming from the two fissures that were his nose reminded him of a blizzard. The eyes of FrostBound widened in shock, “No, that can’t be” he whispered, before seemingly falling into a trance-like state. Doing that, he accidentally released Ember from his grip.

“Eh, what just happened?” wondered Spike, rather confused.

“I don’t know. But I do know we need to get as far away as possible, before he snaps out of that” said Ember, taking the purple drake with her. “We need to regroup our forces. Have you got Discord back on his feet?”.

“Yes” told her Spike. “I think he’s planning something”.

“Well that’s good to hear. Do you what exactly?”. As she said that, they noticed a shining light coming from their right. A warm light, that fought back the low temperatures. The source of that pleasing sensation was a gigantic fiery ball , that Discord held in his hand as if it was a balloon. “Did he just created a little sun?”

“Yup” was all that Spike could say.

As they made to reach the Draconequus, all the other dragons followed them, escaping from the bitter cold. “Glad that you made it” said Discord at their arrival.

“You’ve sent Spike alone against that beast!” accused him Ember, glaring daggers the spirit of chaos.

“Aw, the dragon lord cares for her little boyfriend”.

“He’s… not my boyfriend” she said, looking away while blushing, missing how Spike did the same.

“As you prefer. And about me sending Spike to face mister popsicle, I knew that mister popsicle there wouldn’t kill him right away because I know that he likes to chit chat. I guess that spending all those years without having a chance to talk has made him very colloquial with everyone that wants to talk with him” explained Discord. “What I didn’t knew was that you would somehow incapacitate him. How did you do that?” he asked the young dragon.

“I have no idea” told him Spike. “He sniffed me and then he stopped moving. And no, before you ask, I washed myself just yesterday”.

“Good to know. Well, let’s hope that he stays still until something or someone will defeat him”.

“Maybe we don’t have to wait that much” said Ember, pointing out to the horizon.

The Dragon Watch (or what remained of it), with the Monarch in front of the smaller airships of the fleet.

“Ah great, more meat shield for us” scoffed Discord, before suddenly noticing something. On the bridge were standing to figures. “What on Equestria are those two doing here!?”.

***

“We got the beast on the sights, princess Cadence”.

“I’ve beg you to not call him beast, captain Steel Wing”.

“Princess?”.

“I know that it must sound absurd or even insulting after what he did to your mates, captain, but FrostBound… Cryo, is not a beast. He’s just a lone soul, devoured by hatred” told him the pink alicorn. “And if we want to put an end to his rampage, we must help him to exorcise the real monsters in his soul” she stated.

Confused, the pegasus looked at the white stallion, as if asking him the meaning behind the princess words. “Is a long story we will tell you later” replied Shining Armor, “Just let Cadence do her job, is our best chance”.

“Well I doubt that we can do anything against him, especially now that he gotten even bigger” noticed Steel Wing, expressing the resignation that he and his fleet were feeling right now. “You’ll better go now. I doubt he will let you get on the outside bridge”.

“Thanks, captain” said Shining Armor, following Cadence through the corridors. Once at a certain distance, he added, “I feel bad for him. Is already bad enough to losing your comrades, but not having a chance to help defeating the one responsible”.

“I know. I felt something similar when Chrysalis trapped me in the Canterlot caves. If only Cryo didn’t abducted us, I could have avoided to involve them or the dragons. Violence will not end this problem”.

“I’m surprised that Celestia or Luna didn’t thought the same. Especially Celestia. She should have knew about the powers of Cryo”.

“Her fear towards him and the guilt for what she did to him has tampered into her intellect. And Luna probably wanted to protect her to all cost”.

“Comprehensible. I bet she still feels in debt for what Nightmare Moon did”.

“Probable”. Cadence suddenly stopped and gave her spouse a worried look. “Shining, you aren’t forced to do this”.

“I beg the differ. We are married, remember? Husband and wife, together in both the good and the bad times. And this is certainly a bad time, don’t you think?” he asked jokingly, trying to cheer her up. “And you know that we work better together than by ourselves. Remember how we defeated Chrysalis and protected the Crystal Empire?”.

I couldn’t have married a better pony was all that the pink alicorn could think, smiling dearly at the white stallion. The two shared a deep hug and then a kiss, “You’re just the best, Shining” she said.

“No, we are” replied the white stallion. And with that the royal couple hurried to the outside bridge

***

FrostBound broke out of his controlling state, wobbly stepping back. “What was that?” he asked out loud.

“We were wondering the same thing” replied the Windigos, “What’s going on, FrostBound? Why did you stopped? Look! They gotten away!” complained then, pointing out how the two young dragons were flying away from his point of sight.

“They are not a threat” replied the ice dragon. “Not immediate and not even in the far future. I will get them again. Soon. And this time I will crush them!” promised.

But such promise didn’t seem to calm the frost spirits. “They may not be a threat, but they still did something to you. Particularly the little one. Don’t think that we missed that. What did you smelled from him?”

“He… had a familiar smell” confessed FrostBound.

“What do you mean with familiar?”.

“I wish I knew”.

“Probably is just the smell that all the dragons have” suggested the Windigos. “Anyway, is nothing worth getting so nervous about it. Get yourself together and destroy those pests!”.

“Right” he said, ignoring how despotic the frost spirits were becoming. I’m the commanding here. Not you he would have said if he didn’t knew that now it wasn’t the best time for bickering. As he moved back to his place, he noticed the arrival of Dragon Watch. You got to be kidding me. How many airship must I destroy before they will learn how feeble they are? FrostBound thought, aggravated by having to destroy more of those over glorified aircrafts. But then he noticed the presence of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. An unexpected event, but not an unwelcomed one. He was getting bored at beating up those puny whelps.

“What are those two doing there!?” hissed the Windigos.

“Let’s go ask them”. And with that, FrostBound returned in control of his physical form.

***

“Why are Shining and Cadence here?” wondered Spike.

“He has awakened!” exclaimed a green dragon, pointing at FrostBound. Indeed, the ice dragon seemed to have snapped back to his sense. And now was focusing all his attention on the Monarch and the two ponies on the top of it.

“We must do something!” exclaimed Spike.

“And we will” promised Discord. “But only once that you will all got warmed up. I don’t know if you noticed, but you all look nearly frozen”.

The Draconequus was right. Most of the dragons were only now starting to get rid of all the ice that was forming on their wings. “If go now, we won’t last long” pointed out Ember. “Let’s wait and hope that your friends will last enough”.

Spike didn’t liked the idea to leave Shining and Cadence alone in the time of need, but he couldn’t deny the points of Ember and Discord. Se he took a sit on his personal armchair that the spirit of chaos had summoned for him and the whole dragon army, hoping the royal couple had a plan.

***

They had just reached the outside bridge when FrostBound noticed their presence, and as they walked to the edge of the bridge he had already covered the distance with a few steps. “If it isn’t the rulers of the Crystal Empire. Looks like in the end Celestia plan to having another army to place against me has almost come in to fruition. Even though” he said, eyeing around, “I don’t see your forces with you. Neither I feel the presence of Crystal Heart”.

“It’s just the two of us. Our soldiers and the Crystal Heart have remained home, so that they could defend the ponies that live there, in case of our failure” declared Cadence, calm.

“Touching. Pointless, but touching. Celestia always told so many good things about you and your husband” scoffed FrostBound.

“Just like she told me a lot about you, Cryo. I’m one of the few ponies that Celestia told me about your story”.

Hearing that name coming from the pink alicorn, made the eyes of the ice dragon widened with surprise. “So… you know what I am”.

“Not what, who. You’re the victim of a cruel fate, forced to be a vessel for cold hearted creatures that want to turn this world into a frozen wasteland. And I also know about what Celestia did to you”.

“Did she told you of how she betrayed me, by chance? Of all her lies?”.

“She didn’t lied to you, Cryo. Or at least, not when it came to her affection towards you”.

“You don’t have any--“.

“Of how much pain you must endured? I haven’t experienced the hurting you felt, but I could see in it in my aunt eyes and in her voice, when she revealed to me of your past. Her regret for not keeping her word, the pain of leaving you behind”.

“You’re not telling me anything new, Cadence. I know that she felt bad, but that’s the LEAST she could do after what she did to me. And still, no matter how much affection she had for me, her fears were much greater than her love. Today I had another proof, when she started to gather an army to battle and subdue me, rather than confront me peacefully”.

“She was scared, Cryo. Scared of what you would do, or what the others would say if they knew what she did to you. Fear and guilt made her act recklessly, trying to do what was best for the kingdom and the world. If you wouldn’t have abducted me, I would--“.

“--I don’t care for ifs or buts!” blurted out FrostBound. “Nor I care for empty words. All I want is to bring forward what has been my destiny: end the world in ice! And you will not stop me with your speech about love and compassion”.

“I have more than simple speeches, Cryo” declared Cadence with a defiant glare. “If you know me, you must know that I’m an expert on the magic of love, which allowed me to rise as an alicorn”.

“And you think that you can defeat me with the power of love?” asked the ice dragon, amused.

“In a way, yes. But most of all, I want to remind you something”. Without adding anything else, the pink alicorn charged out a powerful beam, shooting it right at FrostBound forehead. As the ray touched the temple of the ice dragon, this one seemed to fell in some kind of trance.

Shining Armor watched the scene, always beside his wife, ready to shield her in case something went wrong. Is my duty to protect her, even with my life. This time I won’t fail you he promised to her.

***

After no selling every single attack, FrostBound remained quite shocked when he found himself into this white void, comparable to the one he had spent nearly three years. How did this happened? I should be immune to the magic of this world thought the ice dragon. Or maybe he said? He couldn’t be sure.

This is not just magic, Cryo. This is the power of love replied to him Cadence, with a wide gentle smile. I’ve used the link between you and the Windigos to circumnavigate around your immunity, so to reach your mind .

Remarkable trick had to admit FrostBound. Indeed, the ice dragon was actually impressed by the magical skills of the pink alicorn. He could almost respect her for that, if it wasn’t for her condescending tone. But for how long do you think you can keep this up?

Long enough to purify your mind by those ill thoughts. Look around, Cryo. Is just you, me and your memories claimed Cadence, as her horn lighten up. At her command, the ice dragon found himself surrounded by what looked like animated pictures of his past. Most specifically, it’s time with Celestia. Look at them and tell me if what you see doesn’t warm your heart .

FrostBound stared at his memories, contemplating the days in which Celestia would have come visiting him. Not all of them were about teaching him to control his powers, but also playing chess, reading, talking about philosophy, eating (even though he didn’t needed to) or getting information about what had happened in Equestria. And above all those memories, there was the very first day that Celestia had visited him. After a while of staring at those collection of remembrances, FrostBound moved closer to them, touching them with one of his arms, in a way that seemed to look like affection and melancholy. At that Cadence believed herself to have it accomplished her goals: purify his heart and mind from hate. But her hopes slowly started to get crushed just as FrostBound expression turned fierce. Warm my heart he repeated, voice filled with scorn, You little, insolent, ignorant FOAL . With a loud roar, his memories got blown away by a sudden burst of aura. Do you really think that I’ve forgotten about my time spent with her? It’s one of the main reason why I’m doing all of this!

But…but you’re not uttered Cadence, both scared and shocked at the ice dragon reaction.

I’m what? What was all of this show supposed to do to me? Reform me? Making me realize that hate is bad and love is good? Celestia told me that you know all about how love works, but what you tried now proves that you know only a part of it. So allow me to tell you something. Love and hatred may be different, but they’re still entangled with each other. Love may be strong, but hatred can be just as strong as an emotion, especially if such love is betrayed. When that happens, hate will feed on love, getting stronger. Just like mine! FrostBound explained bitterly, as his body convulsed, as if the ice dragon was trying to keep himself under control. Your attempt to subdue me had only one effect: to feed my hatred for Celestia and the whole world, just like throwing oil into the fire! You made me more powerful that you can even image! I could almost thank you, if I didn’t loathed everything about you!

No whispered Cadence, as terror and shame froze her into place.

Now get out of my mind! FrostBound shouted, as his body started to shine a cold and sinister light, breaking apart the white void with dark azure cracks.

***

When Cadence opened her eyes, she found herself in the arms of her husband. Shining was looking at her with fear. “Cadence, are you alright?”. The pink alicorn felt so weak, she could only nod. She also noticed that they weren’t alone anymore. Spike, Discord and an azure dragoness that had to be Ember, the dragon lord. The spirit of chaos was holding a small sun like a kid would hold a balloon. And all around the airship she could see a flock of dragons fly all around.

“What did you do?” demanded Discord.

Being Cadence too weak for talking, Shining took word for her, “She wanted to use her power over love to weaken Cryo, making him realize that was wrong”.

“So she wanted to stop him with pink hearts? And who the heck is Cryo?”.

“She used her magic to enter in his mind and use his memories with Celestia” elucidated the white stallion, annoyed by the mocking tone of the Draconequus. “And for the second question, FrostBound is Cryo!”.

Spike, the azure dragoness and Discord exchanged some confused glares. “Celestia knows FrostBound…Cryo… that thing?” asked Spike.

“Is a long story, but now we don’t have time for this. Rather, does any of you know where Celestia and the Bearers of Harmony ended up to?”.

“I… we don’t know. But now we have a far bigger problem to deal with” said the dragon lord, pointing at the giant ice dragon. FrostBound had lowered his head, eyes closed, while his wings were opened at their best, his claws were digging holes in the ground. All in all, was a menacing sight, but the true alarming bit was the aura that was accumulating all around him.

“Is this part of your great plan, princess?” asked bitterly Discord.

Shining was about to reply to the snarky spirit of chaos, when Cadence finally managed to get up (albeit difficultly) and took up word. “No. It is not” she replied with broken voice. “I hoped that I could reason with Cryo, to help him overcome his pain. I thought that, given my experience with the magic of love, I was the only one capable of doing that, bar Twilight and her friends. But I was just over my head, and in the I’ve just rubbed more salt on his deep wounds”.

“Then… what should we do now?” wondered Spike.

All the eyes pointing at her, Cadence had only one chilling answer: “Run”.

Suddenly, FrostBound started to growl and at the same time his aura started to make a deep sound while becoming more visible and blinding. “We need to get out of here!” shouted the azure dragoness, “Discord, use your magic, teleport us away, quickly!”

But it was too late. With a earsplitting roar, the aura exploded, blinding everyone, be them dragons, ponies or spirit of chaos.

***

FrostBound snapped out of his control once again, nearly falling to the ground. The Windigos weren’t happy about it. “No!” whined the frost spirits, “Why did you interrupted our feast? All that precious hatred…”.

“It was too much too handle” replied the ice dragon, catching his breath. Indeed, after Cadence pathetic attempt to purify him with his memories, his mind had fallen into a storm of not just hatred, but also agony. A pain born from the awareness of what he was. He was a monster, forever fated to never feel any warmth or happiness, that the only emotion that could come close to feel like joy was retribution. Just because you know something, it doesn’t make it any less awful. Or painful . “If I tried to absorb it all, it would be a problem”.

The Windigos didn’t seem to understand his answer, “A problem? How?”.

“I could have destroyed everything. A quick, sudden, flashy, end to all the living things on this planet. And if that happens, you can say farewell to your plans to trap and torture the ponies for getting their emotions. Did I made a point here!?” snarled FrostBound, while getting up.

“Right” had to agree the Windigos, almost scared by the ice dragon reaction. “Well, at least we got rid of those pests”.

“I wouldn’t be so sure” FrostBound said, pointing at his eyes.

“What the” exclaimed the frost spirits, enraged, “How are they alive!?”

***

All that Spike could see was blackness. Yet, he could hear voices, coming from somepony that he couldn’t see.

“Too close” huffed someone, “Too darn close”.

“His power is truly incredible. But then again, I shouldn’t be surprised, given how he’s the first one” said a second voice.

“You’re still sure that you can keep that up?”.

“Yes, as long as I don’t get distracted. Speaking of which, we’ll better move, before they wake up”.

“Right”.

“Wait” uttered Spike.

“Spike?”.

As the young purple drake opened his eyes, he found Ember right in front of him. There was no trace of those two mysterious persons that were talking. He looked around searching for them, but could only see Shining Armor and Princess Cadence helping each other getting up and Discord taking some pills, as if to calm his headache. They were still on Monarch, but the airship had landed on the snow and ice covered ground, just like the rest of the fleet. The dragons were doing the same. “Ember? What is going on?”.

“I have no idea. One second it seemed like we were about to get obliterated by that… aura explosion caused by FrostBound and the next second we’re here, miles away from where we were”.

“Well I can tell you one thing for certain” said Steel Wing, joining the group on the bridge. “Whoever took us away to safety, it also made sure we can’t move anymore. The engine of not just the Monarch, but the rest of the Dragon Watch, are frozen. If FrostBound… Cryo, is going to attack us again…”.

“I don’t think we have to worry about him, for the time being” stated Discord.

A magic barrier of a strong shade of azure was surrounding the giant dragon, keeping him from moving. But while contained, FrostBound was still an intimidating figure. He had growth hundreds of meters tall, and him standing on his hind legs made his size even more imposing. The ice dragon didn’t seem to realize that he was being contained. He was still hollowing at the sky, a sound that made everyone shiver. It was a sound of both rage, but also despair. It was like he was cursing any entity above for his fate. The group soon noticed something even more jarring. Under his eyes, there were something that looked like a trail of tears that had been frozen over. “He’s…crying” said Ember.

“Poor child” whispered Cadence, her too looking close to tears.

Ember didn’t seem to share the feeling. “How can that barrier hold him?” she wondered.

“Mhm” muttered Discord. The spirit of chaos extended his lion paw in a comedic fashion, making it scrape the magical blockade, for then bringing it back to him, for then taste it. “Just as I was thinking. This is the very same element of FrostBound. Incredibly cold and yet so vibrant of life”.

“But… what does this mean?” asked Shining Armor, confused.

“Don’t you get it? We aren’t the only one dealing with FrostBound, here. There’s a third group involved into this story. A group that apparently prefers to stay behind the curtain, avoiding the attention”.

“I’ve heard some voices, before Ember called me. Two voices” said Spike, “Could it be that one of them share the same element with Cryo?”.

“Probably. But we will not know until later. For now, let’s focus on what we can get an answer from”. As the Draconequus said those words, he fixed his stare on Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. “Like what exactly links Celestia to that thing over there. I don’t like not knowing stuff. And I hate being lied to”.

“I guess that it is long due” sighed Cadence. “First of, I want you to let me tell you the story without interruption”. As the Spike and the others nodded, she began telling the actual story of Cryo.

***

“What kind of sorcery is this!?” the Windigos almost screamed, looking both at the group of survivors and the barrier that was surrounding them. “How could any barrier stop our attacks!?”.

“Because that barrier is not made by any kind of magic of this world” told them FrostBound, more intrigued that angered by the sudden event. “Who casted that spell share our own element, somehow”.

“What!? But how--“

“--This isn’t the time for questions. If we want answers, we need to break that barrier down”.

“That, but also taking down those vermin” added the frost spirits. “Don’t waste any more time talking with them. Destroy them, so that we can focus on more concerning matters”.

“Right”. FrostBound was about to go back in his control mode, when suddenly he felt the presence behind him. Someone was trying to sneak up on him. He allowed them to get over the nearly frozen Celestia, before suddenly turning around, making aspirant attackers jump in fear. The identity of his assailants wasn’t a surprise to him, but the way they had managed to get out of the prison actually managed to astonish him.

“Well, so much for the sneaky attack” huffed Pinkie Pie.

But before he could say something, the Windigos took word. “YOU! How did you get out of your cells!?” shouted the frost spirits, with voices tainted by venomous hatred and anger.

“We would tell you, but we doubt that creatures such as you could ever understand it” said Rarity, with snobbish tone, increasing the rage of the Windigos.

“And now you have come here to stop me?” asked FrostBound, more bored than angered.

“We’re here to save you, Cryo” replied Twilight Sparkle, with a tender smile.

At that, the ice dragon became silent, as if unsure as how to reply.

The Windigos didn’t had the same problem. “And how do you think you can “save” him? Your pathetic power of Friendship has already failed against us!”.

“On the outside you may be invulnerable, but not inside. On the inside, you’re exposed to our element and vulnerable!”.

“Vulnerable? Maybe” admitted FrostBound, while raising his right claw “But not defenseless”. Suddenly, the Mane 6 fell to the ground, clutching their chest while gasping for air. “There are enough ways for me to kill you without even having to lay a finger on you; enough to write a book about it. This is one is me freezing the air in your lungs. Painful isn’t it? And yet is not the most painful way to die, I assure you”.

“Please” managed to utter Fluttershy, “Don’t do this, Cryo. You don’t have to be… a monster”.

“It’s too late. Too late for you, for me, for Equestria and for everyone else in this world”.

“Enough talk, FrostBound!” hissed the Windigos, “Kill them. Or knock them out, so that they join the rest of their pathetic friends into a cold death”.

“Afraid to face us into a battle that you can actually lose, chickens?” coughed out Rainbow Dash.

“They probably fear to lose against us ponies again” added Applejack, with a smirk.

“We’re not!” claimed .

“Yes you do. And you really stink at lying”.

At that, FrostBound snorted something similar to a laugh. “Useless to try and lie to the Element of Honesty, just like is useless to lie to me. Are you really that afraid of losing a battle with them? After that we have already proved to be more powerful than their power of Harmony?”.

The Windigos remained silent, pondering on the words of the ice dragon. “You’re right. Why should we fear a fight that we’re going to win? It’s them that should fear this battle, not us!” they nodded while smiling self-importantly, “Let them get up, so that they can taste for one final time their failure!”.

“As you wish. Get up and fight, Elements of Harmony” said FrostBound, allowing the Mane 6 to breathe. “Is time for you to understand once and for all that your creed is wrong and that your world is doomed”.

“No” countered Twilight Sparkle while her, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash started to channel the power of Harmony, “Is time for us to do what Celestia should have done long ago: releasing you from your curse”.

“May those words be your epitaph, Elements of Harmony”.

Victory within

“And this would be all” concluded Cadence, while studying the expression Spike, Ember, Steel Wing and Discord.
The captain of the Dragon Watch seemed shocked to hear the story of Web Heart and of how FrostBound was borne.
The dragon lord looked saddened to hear that a poor and vulnerable dragon egg was used to such nefarious purpose.

The spirit of chaos though was the worst of them all. There wasn’t just surprise on his face, but also anger. “I always knew that Celestia wasn’t as pure and innocent as she played out to be” Discord said, while trying to keep his anger under check. “But this… I really hope that Celestia isn’t dead, because I REALLY want to have a nice chit chat with her. Not even the old me would be so cruel as to play with emotions like she did”.

“Is a bit more complicated than that--“ tried to say the pink alicorn. But Discord silenced her brutally.

“Oh quit trying to defend your aunt, Princess of Crystal Bucket! If she had even the slightest backbone, she would have told old Star Bucks Beard to shut it, staying on the side of the one true victim here”.

“She didn’t feared Stars whirl, she respected him”.

“Shame that she didn’t respected Cryo the same, didn’t she?”. At that retort, Cadence didn’t know how to reply.

“Now is not the time for this, Discord” tried to intervene Shining Armor.

“I think the contrary. If we are to survive, I want to make sure that Celestia actions won’t be forgiven with a simple “I’m sorry”. What do you think, you two?” asked Discord, looking at Ember and Spike. “Surely, having one of your kin treated this way...” was about to say, but then noticed that the young dragon wasn’t no longer standing right beside the dragon lord. A quick look around revealed that now Spike was near to the edge of the bridge, staring at the towering ice dragon with sadness and sympathy. At that, the anger of the Draconequus nearly vanished, feeling bad for the young drake.

“I knew that Spike was far more capable of empathy compared to others of our kin” commented Ember, “But why does he look so… sad?” she asked to Cadence and Shining.

“Because Cryo story is familiar to his” told her Shining Armor. “Both didn’t knew their true parents, both get raised by ponies which growth attached with. But unlike Spike, Cryo story ended in a nightmare. While Spike had friends, Cryo had no one except Princess Celestia”.

“And in the end she left him” concluded Discord, bitterly.

“You’re never going to live it down, aren’t you?” grumbled Cadence.

“Not until I, Celestia, or the world lives”.

“Look!” stated Spike, catching everyone else attention.

“What is it, Spike?” asked Ember, rushing at his side with the rest of the group.

“The eyes, look at the eyes” he said. “There’s something going on in there!”.

Steel Wing put on telescope that he kept in one of his fanny pack and took a good look. “Good eye, kid, there’s clearly some movement up there. A lot multicolored lights, clashing against a white/blue one”.

“It must be the Elements of Harmony battling the spirit of Cryo!”.

“I knew it that they were not let us down!” stated Shining Armor, smiling proudly at the thought of his younger sister and her friends facing down the main theat.

“So the voices weren’t wrong” mumbled Discord, thinking out loud.

“What?” asked Steel Wing.

“Let’s call it an hunch”.

“Ok, I’m just happy that not everything is lost”.

“You, me, and all the creatures on Equestria and the rest of the world”.

“Our hopes are all in you, Elements of Harmony” said Ember. And so the group watched, hoping for the liberation of the planet from the rule of the eternal winter.

Unknown to them, two figures were standing right behind them. But even if they turned around, they wouldn’t be able to see them. “The signal” whispered the caped one.

“Excellent” said the unicorn, smiling wickedly while his horn glowed. In a flash of deep purple light, a big scythe appeared to his side, floating in his magical hold. “Let’s go finish this”. And with that, the two vanished.

***

It took few seconds for the Mane 6 to understand that victory was far simpler to claim than to achieve, as their rainbow ray clashed against the glacial beam that FrostBound was shooting not from his mouth, but by his own body, only to start getting pushed back one moment later. Their best effort was to avoid to get completely overwhelmed by the ice dragon assault. But even then, the cold ray was gaining more and more ground. The ponies could only scowl at the sight, feeling that their best attempt was not getting anywhere.
The Windigos, on the other hand, were ecstatic. Any fear they had to face against the Bearers of Harmony had gone, and now the frost spirits wore the most sadistic smile their intangible muzzle could bear. “Die” they said, “Die!” said again, their smiles growing bigger as their voices sounded more and more deranged. “DIE!” repeated for the third time, sure that victory was theirs. FrostBound remained silent, his face devoid of any emotion.
But the Mane 6 didn’t gave in to panic and fear, instead, put even more power into the battle, pushing as best they could.

Then, slowly, something started to change. The rainbow ray of the Elements of Harmony started to actually gain back some space. “We’re doing it!” claimed Rarity, in surprised and joy.

The event made the maniac grins of the Windigos vanish “No… how are they…?” questioned the frost spirits.

“Looks like now it’s them being afraid of us” noticed Rainbow Dash.

“Then let’s give them another good reason to be” said Twilight.

Suddenly what looked like an hopeless one sided battle turned into an actual fight. A fight that the Mane 6 were winning. The two sides were so much focused that they missed the nearly invisible presence of two intruders. Except for the ice dragon. It’s time .

One bit at the time, the power of Harmony gained more ground. And as that happened, the Windigos become more frantic. “What are you doing, FrostBound!? Put more power into this fight! Don’t you see we are in trouble!?”.

“We do?” asked the ice dragon, with such a causal tone that for a second the frost spirits didn’t knew how to reply.

“Yes! And if we go down, you will follow!”.

“I am?”.

“What?” gawked the Windigos, confused by the irrational behavior of their ally. But then they saw his maw turn in a smirk, and finally understood what was going down. “You… wanted this to happen!?” shouted the frost spirits.

“You catch on quick” mocked them FrostBound, confirming their words.

“But how…”.

“How I managed to fool you for all this time? Is pretty simple, actually. I just had to give you what you wanted. I’ve allowed you to feed on my hatred that I felt towards Celestia, so that you wouldn’t bother to pay attention to what else was going through my mind”. As he explained that, the rainbow ray gained more ground.

“You…” the Windigos were just as baffled as furious, “You dare betray us!? After all we have done for you!?”.

“To betray someone is to switch side. The truth is that I was never on your side. And for what you’ve done for me… are you even serious? What have you gave me, other than nightmares and misery? You tried to turn me into a monster”.

“You whelp!” hissed the Windigos, almost forgetting of the assault of the Elements of Harmony. “Do you really think that this will change what you’ve done? All the lives you’ve taken!? You’re monster, just like us!”.

“Maybe. But I still do have a soul” replied the ice dragon, before turning to the Mane 6. The ponies looked baffled at the sudden turn of events. Only Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle seemed to realize something about Cryo latest actions “Elements of Harmony, listen carefully if you want to stop this once and for all. I will let you hit me. When that happens, you need to use all the power you wield. And I mean all of it. The curse won’t be undone by just one blast. You will need to make it course through my essence, only this way the world will finally be free of the Windigos presence! I won’t lie to you, the power that you will have to output… is going to be painful, for all of us. But I promise you, you won’t die for it!”.

The Mane 6 exchanged some thoughtful stares, but then nodded. “We aren’t afraid to die, if it means to protect our friends and family” stated Rainbow Dash, proving why she was the element of Loyalty. “Still, thanks for worrying”.

“You must be really desperate to trust him!” sneered the Windigos.

“And who should we trust? You?” told them off Applejack, “We will take our chances. You should be more worried about yourself!”. And with that said, the Mane 6 renewed their assault, as slowly the assault of the ice dragon became weaker and weaker.

“No! We will not let you ruin everything!” screamed the frost spirits, in panic and anger. “We share your essence, FrostBound, we will--“.

“You’ll do nothing. If Web Heart ritual was completed you could, but it was interrupted, remember? I’m no mindless vessel for you to use. You, on the other hand, are just a burden that I’ve carried for far too long” replied the ice dragon ignoring them, keeping his eyes closed as if he was meditating.

“Then will just hide inside your essence! We are still part of you!”.

“That you could do… if only I didn’t overfeed you so much. Now you’re far too powerful to hide inside of me and I won't allow you to creep in my soul!”.

“FrostBound…” snarled the Windigos, as the rainbow ray was just two meters away, “We will make you suffer!” promised the frost spirits, glaring him down

At that, the frost drake snapped his eyes open, responding at the glares of the ice spirits with one of his own “My name. Is. CRYO!” roared, halting his assault and letting the Elements of Harmony to hit him.

“NOOOO!” shouted the Windigos, as the power of the Elements started their purification process, shaking powerless into an attempt escape from defeat.

Cryo remained still, embracing for what was about to happen next. “Now, Elements of Harmony, do your magic! And don’t hold anything back!”.

“We won’t!” promised the Mane 6 like one single pony.

Soon, they realized that just because Cryo had let them win the beam war, that didn’t meant that victory would be obtained. The ice dragon was right, there was just as much opposition inside of him than outside. They poured their own essence, trying to cleanse his own, corrupted by centuries of being linked to the Windigos. And, just as Cryo had warned them, the whole ordeal was downright straining. But still, they kept going, using all the power of the Elements that were coursing through their body and souls. In a literal way. As they put more and more power, their “rainbow” form started to vanish, slowly turning each of them back to their normal looking self, before falling to the ground, unconscious.
The first ones to fall were Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash. The elements of generosity because of her wanting to make an easier work for the others, the element of honesty because of her wish to maintain all the promises to her and her friends, the element of loyalty because she knew of all the lives that were at stakes.
The seconds to fall were Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. The element of kindness, because she wanted to help a being that had suffered too much, the element of laughter, because she wanted him to feel more than just bitter emotions like anger and hate.
The last one standing was Twilight Sparkle. The element of magic had channeled the power of others 5 elements through her, but it wasn’t enough. Not yet. She pushed herself to the limit and, as she turned back to her normal form, something started to happen to her wings. Feathers were starting to fall from them, like leaf in the fall season. The purple pony didn’t noticed that, as she was too much focused on channeling the power of Harmony, using every bit of it. Once she run out of that, she joined her friends on the ground, too weak to stand up, but still barely conscious. She could see the Windigos vanishing into nothingness, like a nightmare in the wake. One of them though seemed to put some struggle against the purification. And this one attention focused right into her.

“Wretched ponies!” he shouted, his voice twisted by pain and hatred. The last Windigos charged right into Twilight with clear violent intentions. But whatever plan of vengeance he had it in mind, he never managed to fulfill it. A figure appeared right in front of the downed element of magic, armed with a scythe. The blade of that weapon plunged into the Windigos neck, cutting it like it was flesh and not ghost-like energy. The frost spirit looked first the blade, then the one wielding the scythe, baffled and terrorized. A wheeze came out of his muzzle, before that and the rest of his being joined the rest of the Windigos into the nothingness.

“What a relief” muttered the mysterious savior, making vanish the scythe in a flash of light.

“Who… are” tried to say Twilight Sparkle, but the words came out more like whispers than anything else.

Yet the figure, a tall and lean unicorn, managed to hear her. He turned around but, because of the strong light coming behind him, she couldn’t see nothing but his dark orange eyes. “A friend” replied the figure, with kindness “You six have made an incredible job here. Rest now, Twilight Sparkle, and enjoy a healthy slumber with your friends”. Twilight didn’t wanted to sleep, but her desires weren’t enough to keep her up. Her head slowly laid down, she fell asleep.

***

As the multicolored light faded after gleaming so brightly, the white/azure glow returned to shine, so powerful that it hurt to look at. For a second, they feared that it was a sign that the Elements had lost. But then, they saw something happen to the giant ice dragon. His body was starting to crack, as energy started to pour out of the many fissures.
“Is that a good or bad?” asked Steel Wing, worried.

“Eh, as long that barrier is there we are safe” shrugged Spike. Not even three seconds after he said that, the barrier vanished. “Never mind” grumbled, annoyed by the timing.

“Shouldn’t we… oh, I don’t know… run!?” pointed out Ember, “I doubt that energy will do us any good”.

“I don’t think we have to worry about it” said Discord. Then, preventing the questions of ponies and dragons, added, “The energy that is coming out of him is quite different from the one that nearly blow us away. I can feel it”.

“Does that mean that the Elements of Harmony have actually won?” questioned Shining Armor, hoping for a confirmation.

“I’d guess so. So, let’s relax and enjoy this wave of energy”.

“Not like we have much choice on the matter” pointed out Cadence.
Indeed, once FrostBound body crumbled apart completely, the energies started to expand through all directions, absorbing everything and everyone. Some dragons, frighten by the output, tried to fly away, only to follow the same fate. As the energy burst advanced towards them, Shining and Cadence embraced, Ember grabbed Spike and covered him with her wings in an attempts to protect him, Steel Wing stood still, facing the coming blast with the bravery of a soldier. Discord instead put on his sunglasses and waited with curiosity the consequences of being “devoured” by what could be described as Cold itself.

Author's Note

So, after pondering on the lenght of the latest chapters, I've actually decided to cut the next chapter into smaller parts.
Reason behind this is that the actual chapter I had in mind at first was going to be one of the longest of this story, or even much more longer than the last one.
Because of that, there will still be at least two more chapters + the epilogue.
Hopefully, I will succed to post the other chapter before the end of the weekend.

Secrets in the ice

CHAPTER 11: SECRETS IN THE ICE

Cryo found himself standing on a top of a snowy mountain surrounded by clouds of a cotton white. All around him there was a pure azure sky, with a beautiful orange/yellow sun on the horizon. The most odd and at the same time amazing thing was that he could actually feel the warmth. Well, maybe feel was an hyperbole, but somehow, he could sense the warmness that was coming from it. For a being that couldn’t for the life of him feel any heat, this was a miracle. It feels so nice he noticed. Was this a dream?
He looked at himself and noticed that his form was the same as when he had sealed himself inside his mind. Maybe not a dream, but something that’s far from reality he initially thought, before suddenly he realized what that actually meant. This no dream. This is my subconscious.

“Indeed it is, my friend” said the familiar voice of Gloomy Dusk, appearing behind him. “This is the very same place where we two meet. Now that you’ve finally got rid of those pesky Windigos, your mind has finally cleared up”.

“And not only that” said an unknown voice this time, making Cryo turn around in surprise. He was no pony, that was pretty clear by his posture alone. But that aside, he couldn’t really grasp of what kind of creature it was, because of the blue/azure cloak and hood that kept any appearance hidden from anyone. But it couldn’t hide the elemental power that coursed through his being, the very same Cold element that the ice dragon had. “Your spirit and your connection to the element of Cold, or some say Frost, has been fixed”.

“You… you are the one who made up that barrier”. It wasn’t a question.

“Correct” nodded the caped figure, “Allow me to present myself. I am the Ice Master”.

Ice Master? That sounds more like a title than a name. Or does his species has the same funny names than the ponies? Cryo wondered.

“I know you have questions about me, but first I think it’s for the better to focus on other important matters”.

“Right” had to agree the ice dragon, before turning to Gloomy Dusk. “So, has everything went down without an hitch?”.

“Everyone is fine and well” nodded the “unicorn”. “Just as I promised. And the Ice Master here helped me, especially when dealing with that frosty fire of yours. Without him it would have been rather tricky”.

“Good” huffed Cryo, feeling a weight being pulled off of his back, while thinking when he meet Gloomy.
He had done pondering between accepting the Windigos offer and was about to reject it, when suddenly the frost spirits had been stopped into place, as if time itself had been frozen. And then this mysterious unicorn appeared, with the most nonchalant manner possible, mocking the Windigos and saluting him in a friendly manner, before offering him a way out of that nightmare. Cryo was completely taken aback by how informed Gloomy was on both him and the Elements of Harmony. But for how much the ice dragon wanted to believe in his words and to be cured, he couldn’t accept it; he knew that, to fool the Windigos, to making them think that he was on their side, just trapping the ponies in ice wouldn’t have been enough for them. They wanted to crush, destroy. Kill. And he couldn’t run the risk to take innocents life. So the “unicorn” assured him that he didn’t had to worry about that because Gloomy would have made sure that no one would have really died off. Somehow, Cryo believed in his promise and accepted. “I thank both of you for your help” he then said bowing his head in respect.

“You take our words for granted?” asked the Ice Master, in a curious manner.

“I can tell that you’re not lying. When I were still under the Windigos curse I could sense that he wasn’t lying. And now that my mind is finally free, I can actually sense that he’s saying the truth. In fact, I can sense a lot of thing that first I didn’t noticed. For an example, that spell he’s using to hide away his wings”.

“Ah… so you’ve noticed it” commented Gloomy, looking embarrassed.

“I doubt a simple pony could do what you did. Then again, I never heard or read of a male alicorn with that kind of power over the dead… at least in this dimension” he added with a knowing look.

This time, the alicorn in disguise couldn’t help but chuckle, “Can’t keep anything hidden from you, isn’t it?”.

“I think doing that is nearly impossible. Now that he’s in perfect synchrony with the cold” mentioned the Ice Master.

“Wasn’t I before?” questioned the ice dragon.

“You were… but the Windigos were a disturbance with their corruptive presence. Now, thanks to the Element of Harmony, the power of the Cold has embraced you completely. How do you feel it?”.

“Pure like the winter winds, clean like this snow right here” responded Cryo, “After feeling a whole lifetime so corrupted… I still have to wrap my head on this sensation”.

“I guess one way to help you to clean your confusions will be to answer your questions and doubts. Ask, Cryo, and we will do our best to answer it”.

They didn’t had to say that twice to him. “What is the Cold? And how is it that I’m bounded to hi… It?”.

“Before I respond to this question you must promise to keep this a secret. What I’m going to tell you is made only for our ears. The other creatures that inhabits your world must not know this”.

“You have my word” promised Cryo.

Gloomy Dusk had pulled out from nowhere a bag of popcorn “It’s exposition time!” exclaimed, before enjoying his snack.

“I will try to make it simple. The Cold (or Frost) is an abstract force. One of the most alien, one of the most ancient. For the most part of its existence, it lived in the void. Unfortunately, in that awful place, it got infected by the most vile of all evils: the Corruption, a force that twist anything that exist into a monster that hungers for destruction and to return creation into the Nothingness. One day, during a battle between the forces of good and evil, the Cold got awakened in an attempt to defeat the heroes, nearly condemning the rest of the creation. But two heroes managed not only to stop the Cold, but also purifying him from the Corruption. But through such battle pieces of the purified cold flew through time and space itself, ending up in various worlds at random times. One of those remnants ended up into your world. For eons it lay inside one of the many caves near the Smokey Mountains, before finally being founded by the pony know as Web Heart, which then he used it on you during the ritual”.

“Why not using it on himself?” asked Cryo.

“Because Web Heart was a paranoid. While he could sense the immense power in the fragment, he didn’t want to risk his life until he figured out how the remnant worked. But he never had the time to do that, before the Windigos came knocking at his door. A fortune, for the ponies living here, just like a fortune that the ritual was halted before it was too late. Now, be that the fruit of coincidence or fate, the name Web Heart gave to you is actually what you have become. You, Cryo, are a FrostBound”.

“A FrostBound? Is that like a cryomancer?”.

“Something alike a cryomancer and yet very different. Were both a FrostBound and cryomancer share the same element, the first has a more deep connection to it, especially if its energies are channeled into one body and spirit, like you, Cryo. Because of that, a FrostBound can be just as powerful as the most powerful of cryomancer; or, like in your case, even surpass him, going very close to the power of a champion of Frost”.

“Champion of Frost? Who are those?”.

“Beings chosen by the Cold/Frost itself to be its avatar in the material world. Usually those people already have a connection to the Element of Frost, while for the FrostBound such bond is created by entering in contact with the fragment. Usually, the Champions of Frost are the most powerful in the art of mastering the ice energies of the element”.

“And you think that I can rival them?”.

“I can’t say if you are the oldest of the FrostBounds that I’ve met, nor if you are the first one, given how the fragments flew through time itself. But I can safely assume that you are the most powerful I’ve met until now”.

“And how powerful are you?”.

“I’m not as powerful as a Champion of Frost, nor I am a braggart, but my position of Ice Master allows me to can take away the touch of Frost from the FrostBounds that are not using the power in the right way. As Ice Master, that is my duty, as it is to help the FrostBounds to comprehend their situation and overcome the difficulties of the changes”.

“If that’s so, why didn’t you came to help me? I could have used your help”.

“That’s… my fault actually” replied Gloomy Dusk, ashamed, “Well, maybe not my fault, but the one of my grandpa. You see, this plane of existence is pretty much off limits. Believe it or not, this multiverse has been plagued by a lot of beings that are referred as Displaced. This creatures varies a lot, but more often than not cause a lot of problems in the balance, with them jumping across universes, making all sorts of messes. So to avoid that, my grandpa, being the guardian of this plane of existence, decided to put the hoof down. He sealed any passage between universes, allowing only those he deemed worthy to pass. I know, it sounds a bit extreme, but if you had seen the number of Displaced crossing over and bringing over chaos, you would do the same. Even though, now that the Displaced activity has dropped a bit, he’s considering lowering the defenses. But I digress; my grandfather wanted to try by himself to solve your problems. The first idea was to use his soul based powers to rip the Windigos out of you. So he made a test, creating a visual representation on what would have happened. What he had seen in that test…”. The alicorn in disguise stopped, looking unsure if to continue.

Well that’s a good sign thought Cryo, sardonically. “Was it that bad?”.

“Trust me, you wouldn’t like to hear it”.

“No, but tell me the same”.

Gloomy Dusk took a deep breath “In that scenario, things turned from the worst. The ritual, despite being incomplete, had still united your soul both to the Windigos and to the element of Cold. By ripping off such connection, while he did succeeded into freeing you from the Windigos, he also made you go… bonkers, to say it friendly. Berserk, if you want a more honest term. The power of Cold consumed your mind, turning you into a beast, a force of nature hungering for destruction. Your sole presence was enough to tear the multiverse apart. In the end my grandpa had to stop you. What happened next was the most difficult my grandpa ever faced, forcing him to go all out and using all the power at his disposal to stop you. In the end he succeeded, but with all the destruction your fight caused, it felt more like a pyrrhic victory than anything else”.

“Who or what is exactly your grandfather, to be able to do all that stuff?” wanted to know the ice dragon, curious.

“He has many nicknames. Grim Reaper, guardian of balance, the pale alicorn. But his name is… Death” responded Gloomy Dusk, with a bit of superb grin.

Cryo eyes become big as plates as he watched his hands in awe and fear. My power is truly so great? I can understand why both Clovis, Stars whirl and Celestia didn’t wanted me to get out of that cell .

“Anyway” continued the alicorn in disguise, “After that… well, let’s call it disastrous test, my grandpa decided to work on a more delicate approach to help you out”.

Hearing that, Cryo did a double take, “But- Why? Why going through all of that, especially after seeing me nearly destroying everything and everyone?”.

“Because it wasn’t in your control, Cryo. You were a victim of chance and even more of destiny” told him the Ice Master.

“What does that mean?”.

“It means that behind the most recent events, someone has been plotting against you, to make sure you wouldn’t get in his way” replied Gloomy Dusk, a spark in his eyes. In that second, he caught the eyes of the alicorn in disguise change from the ones of a pony to the ones of a dragon and then back to normal. “The name of that vermin was Fate Weaver. She was the embodiment of destiny of this plane of existence; an alicorn looking wench, with an obsession with control. In the recent years, she has proven to make sure the old saying “you can’t fight fate” to be more than words in the wind. She tried to plot behind my grandfather and to gain more and more power for herself, by manipulating the ponies of this and other dimensions to her will. Mostly, she tried to make the Bearers of Harmony and everypony related to them in one way or another be under her control. And to stop anything that could interfere in her projects. Fate Weaver knew that the Elements of Harmony could have released you from the Windigos curse, but she also knew that the your immunity towards the magic of this world would’ve made you immune to her control. So she manipulated both Stars Whirl and Celestia, forcing them to keep you in prison. She counted on your good nature to stop you to break out and wreck everything, at least until she could find a way to get rid of you permanently”.

“I can’t help but notice you use the past tense. What happened to her?”.

“Death happened. Putting the Balance in danger equals to signing your execution. My grandpa gave her a choice: either gave up her dreams of conquer and her title of embodiment of Destiny, or die. Fate Weaver replied by nearly starting a war, but my grandpa stopped her before things could take a turn from the worse. Her fixation of domination sealed her own fate. Poetic justice at his finest” explained the alicorn in disguise, with a grin.

Cryo let what Gloomy had just told him sink in his head. A part of him wanted to leave this matter aside, glad that maybe Celestia betrayal wasn’t her fault and that she didn’t faked her affection to him. Yet, another part of him, more cold and rational, wanted some explanation “What exactly do you mean with manipulation? Did she used some kind of mind warping spell on Celestia?”.

“Not exactly. Fate Weaver controlled not much the mind, but the emotions of her victims, clouding their judgment. She used the fear that Celestia and Stars Whirl had for you, increasing them at levels of paranoia, making them act irrationally when it could have use to have a clear mind on your subject. So, to ask to your real question, we could say that Celestia is at 50% responsible for her choice to not fulfill her promise to you. But I can assure you, her regret was more than 100% real. What she and others have told you is true, Cryo. And I know that you know that too”.

“Yes” admitted the ice dragon, looking conflicted. He did know that Celestia pain was not regret born out of fear for her life, but he couldn’t accept her apologies. Not without revealing his true intentions to the Windigos. Sure, this didn’t changed the fact that Celestia love for him wasn’t strong enough to win the fear that was hidden in her heart. But can you really blame her to be afraid? Of you and all that alien like power that course through your body and soul? Cryo asked to himself, scolding his wounded heart. You can’t blame her to be smart enough to comprehend the risks of having you around. And yet, while she feared to let you out of your cage, she never really stopped paying me a visit. And if Fate Weaver didn’t interfered… who knows . “So, once dealt with Fate Weaver you and your grandfather decided to help me out”.

Gloomy Dusk nodded, “We know that the Elements were the solution to your problems. But we needed to study how the effective way to use them to cure you once and for all of the Windigos presence. Neither of us, you included, wanted to take any chances of them somehow surviving, forcing a second chapter out of this story”. At that, Cryo stared confusingly at the Ice Master. This one shrugged, unsure to what to say. “So, after some tests, we came up with the plan that we just executed. And to make 100% sure that the Windigos couldn’t find a way to meddle everything up and help avoiding casualties Grandpa gave the job to me and our friend here” he said, giving a friendly pat to the Ice Master. “Between my own control over the souls and his power of the element of Cold/Frost, we made sure that everything went according to plan”.

“It seems like I’m in greater debt with you than I though. Both with you two and you grandfather”.

“No debts, Cryo. There are never debts between good friends. And for my grandfather… well, let’s just say you can repay him by doing your best to control that cold attitude of yours, if you catch my cold. Since that horrible vision of that alternative future, he’s a bit worried of what you could become”.

“Trust me, neither of us wants that to happen” assured Cryo.

“Good, now is there any other question?”.

“Actually, I do” And is by far the question of which I fear it’s answer the most “You told me my past and one of my possible futures. But what about my origins? Where do I come from?”.

Gloomy and the Ice Master exchanged a sad glare. “To answer your questions, we must look beyond Equestria. In the northern hemisphere, to be precise. The vast and cold north is incredibly well populated, with many kingdoms and creatures that lived in peace and harmony. One of those creatures are the north dragons; Unlike the southern dragons, the northern are far more civilized. They are not interested in gathering hoards of treasures, preferring to the calmness of solitude so to ponder on the secrets of the universe. And yet, for how powerful and intelligent they were, they just couldn’t find a solution to one problem. Unlike the other inhabitants of those lands, the northern dragons were bounded to those lands. The more they moved to south, distancing themselves to the coldness of the land, the more their bodies started to suffer. And those that tried to persevere through the pain, ended up losing their lives, while their bodies turned into lifeless ice sculptures the size of icebergs” told him the Ice Master.

“Still, while the northern dragons were quite frustrated to be stuck in one place, even if as vast as the north hemisphere, they decided to go on with their life. But while they couldn’t leave the cold lands, that didn’t stopped people from the outside to come there” continued Gloomy Dusk. “A southern dragon that didn’t hunger for gold but for adventures, named Pyrus. He arrived in the northern hemisphere and, thanks to his attention to detail, he managed to find where the northern dragons lived. Alarmed at fist by his intrusion, he gave his word that he would keep their presence a secret. Thanks to their ability to smell a lie or the truth, they knew he meant those words, so they decided to allow him to see how they lived. It didn’t take long for Pyrus to fell in love by the life-style of the dragons of the north. He had never liked how narrow-minded and gem obsessed were his kin in the south, compared to this sages that didn’t feel the need to fill their homes with coins or gold that they would have never used anyway. And he also fell in love with one dragoness of the north. Her name was Afrid, and she was one of the best philosopher of her people.” As he said that he opened a magic window for a minute, showing a picture of two adult dragons. The male had a purple scales, with green gills, the female was mostly blue and azure scales. And both looked very happy together.

“They had so much in common, it didn’t took long for them to become first friends and then engaged, ending in a wedding” said the Ice Master. “Pyrus decided to settle down, preferring to stand beside his beloved one, and Afrid was happy to have found a mate that wasn’t just strong, but also smart, compassionate and funny. Their love brought them two eggs. One seemed to have taken from the father, the other from the mother. But they both were immune to high temperatures. This was a reason of joy for the parents, and it sure would have meant a lot for the rest of the northern dragons, if only they had the time to tell them about it. But, sadly, things were about to take a turn from the worse. One of the creature belonging to the other races in the north came visit the northern dragons, offering them a solution for their problem. He claimed to be a good hearted wizard that wanted to help the ones in trouble. He offered them a cure to their vulnerability to the hot weather, without asking for nothing else in exchange. The offer of this stranger made the northern dragons starting prolonged debates. Some were doubtful of the intentions of this wizard, feeling that there was something strange in this individual, others just dismissed such feelings, claiming that they shouldn’t allow fear and doubts to make them miss this chance. So in the end, they decided to let the ones who wanted the cure take it, so to prove that there was nothing to worry about the wizard”.

“But, as I’m sure you already feel it, there was a lot to worry about this wizard. For starter, it wasn’t a wizard, but a warlock, banished by his people for his attempting to take over the throne. But he was not yet out of his game. He had worked on a powerful spell that could warp even the minds of the northern dragons. When he casted his spell on the dragons, they got turned into his puppets in scale and ice. And then he turned them against their friends and family, so that they could get the same treatment. Afrid and Pyrus luckily were among those that didn’t trusted him, so they tried to help the resistance. But it was already too late, the ones free from the mind spell just couldn’t bring themselves to hurt their own people, nor were they prepared for such betrayal. So, in the end, they couple had to leave to avoid being captured. They took the eggs and fled, trying to find shelter outside of the kingdom of the north dragon and maybe warn the others kingdoms of the incoming threat, but they were chased by some of the best flyers. Forced to move till the line that was separating the northern hemisphere to the southern ones, Pyrus decided to stay behind and fight the chasers, so that her wife and his sons could escape. But they were too many and their icy breath too deadly, he fell in less than ten seconds. With her heart broken, she knew that now it was all upon her to avoid being turned into a slave with her children. She preferred death over this fate, but she couldn’t dare to end the lives inside the eggs. So, knowing that they would have been immune to the warm weather in the south, she decided to fly as much as her wings could. Then, once surpassed the edge, she landed on a floating iceberg. There she used her ice control to close the two eggs in an ice container that looked a lot like a smaller iceberg” went on Gloomy Dusk.

“Afrid begged the dragon gods to allow the two eggs to reach somewhere safe, and then she pushed them into the water. She watched them drift into the mist losing sight of them, as her body started to turn into ice. She hoped that the two eggs stayed together, but just as the northern dragons couldn’t survive the warmer environment, so the magic got weaker. The ice thawed, separating the eggs, making them go through different places. Both eggs got found by ponies, but at different times. Yours got found first, by some nasty members of the black market. The other egg navigated the waters of the vast ocean for an incredible amount of time, before finally being found by none other than Stars Whirl the bearded, breaking it free from ice. But the long time spent into the iceberg made the egg very hard to break, it took time and a strong dose of magic before it was possible to hatch it open” completed the Ice Master

“Spike” said Cryo.

“Yup” nodded Gloomy Dusk, looking worried. “How do you feel?”.

“Not sure” admitted the ice dragon. “I feel enraged for what that warlock did to my people, sadness for the fate of my parents, joy at the thought that I have still a family”.

“Comprehensible. Rarely a FrostBound has an cheerful beginning, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get your happy ending” said the Ice Master, putting an hand on his shoulder. “We lose only when we think that we haven’t anything else to fight for. Do you have someone worth fighting for?”.

“Yes” Maybe even more than one .

“Good. Now, do you have any more question?”.

“In fact… I have one” replied the ice dragon, while his eyes started to burn in fiery cold energy. “Who is that warlock?”.

Author's Note

*Look at the lenght of the chapter*
Yep, I did well to split the chapters.
Now Cryo past has no more secrets, but his future may lay some surprise yet.

A Cold Yet Gentle Heart

For the second time in that day, Twilight awakened from the slumber. But, unlike the last time, this time she didn’t found herself imprisoned in a cold cell, but in a vast hall that was actually familiar to her: the ballroom where usually Celestia kept the Grand Galloping Gala. But first and most importantly, she actually felt warmth. As she got up, she noticed that she and her friends were not alone in there. There was Shining Armor, Cadence, Spike, Ember, Discord, Steel Wing, Luna and Celestia. Once got over the dizziness, the joy to be reunited was great, but there was also confusion.

“What a nice gathering we got here” commented Discord. “Now, before we start with all the kisses and hugs, can somepony tell me what’s going on?”.

“Yes” had to agree Shining Armor , “did you managed to defeat Cryo?”.

If they didn’t, I doubt we would be here right now. Neither there would be the sun, restored back to normal” pointed out Steel Wing, looking outside, before noticing something that let him nearly speechless. “Wait. Up there, in the sky… that’s Hasty Hooves airship!” exclaimed the pegasus, taken aback by the presence of a airship.

“The Sirocco is there too!” pointed out Spike.

“I knew that the power of the Elements of Harmony was great, but I didn’t expect them to even bring back the dead” commented Steel Wing, amazed.

“I don’t think it was us to do that” told them Applejack, unsure.

“Oh? Then who?” asked Princess Luna.

“Me” said a voice in the air. Before anyone could ask who was it, there was a flash of blue and white light, followed by the appearance of Cryo. The ice dragon had made some changes to his look. The scales had turned from black to a strong shade of cobalt, with the ones of the underbelly looking slightly more dark, while his eyes had changed from blue to a snow like white. His horns were of a glacial azure, while other spikes look more grayish. But the most amazing details of his aspect were his wings. They were of a blazing azure, a display of the immense energies that were coursing inside of his body. “Or, to be more precise, me and my friends”. He added with his deep but no longer echoing voice, lowering his head to their level. His face was no longer a skull, but an actual muzzle. A rather elegant one, which was a perfect balance of strength and beauty. When he opened a his mouth to talk, he revealed the most perfect set of teeth and fangs they had ever seen in a dragon. Not too big that came out of his mouth in a comical or aggressive way, nor too small that made it look weak and fragile. In short, his appearance was awe-inspiring and majestic.

“Friends? You have friends?” asked Discord, “Weren’t you the one claiming that friendship is stupid?” mused the spirit of chaos.

“Oh, don’t mock him, Discord. We wouldn’t be here without him” came to his aid Fluttershy.

“Yes, is thanks to his help that we won, after all” mentioned Rainbow Dash.

At that, everyone except Cryo and the Mane 6 exploded into a big “WHAT!?”.

“Is true” said Celestia, taking word. “I was there when he betrayed the Windigos, instructing the bearers of Harmony on how to purify him from those hateful spirits”.

“Well would you look at that, even after you betrayed him he’s still a nice dragon” commented Discord, glaring at the white alicorn.

Celestia looked shocked, “How did you…?”.

“I told them” confessed Cadence, ashamed “I’m sorry, aunt, but the truth had to come out sooner or later. With you possibly gone and the world coming to an end, somepony had to tell them the truth”.

“And now that we know what you did, don’t expect this story to have an happy ending for you. You may have gotten you castle back, but I doubt you will ever get the trust of your ponies back” almost snarled Discord, menacing.

Celestia couldn’t find anything to reply, not in front of all the expressions of her people. The Mane 6, Spike, Steel Wing, Cadence and Shining Armor looked so disappointed, while Discord and Ember were downright furious. Luna was the only one that didn’t seem to embittered, but she still couldn’t find something to say, other than nice but empty words. In the middle of that silence, Cryo took word again. To her and everyone else surprise, his words weren’t accusing. “Don’t be mad at her. What she and Stars Whirl did, was beyond their control”

“What do you mean by that?” asked Luna.

Cryo took a brief look outside “I will tell you. But I need to be quick, so that I won’t need to repeat this story for the others later”.

***

There would have been a time in which, seeing Celestia having to face the rage and disappointment of her people for what she did to him would have made him feel good. But now that he was free from the hateful presence of the Windigos and finally knew the reason behind her betrayal, he couldn’t allow to see her suffering. So he told the little crowd in front of him everything. Well, almost everything. He told them about the manipulation of Fate Weaver, about the help he got from the Ice Master and Gloomy Dusk and about the plan to deceive the Windigos, but he kept from himself the origins of his power, the fact that the two were from another dimensions, and the story of his people. And the fact that Spike was his brother.
I will tell them about it, one day, but not today Cryo thought. If he told them about what the warlock did, they would have decided to try and help him and his people to get rid of that tyrant. I can take care of him by myself, without any assist . And for Spike, he couldn’t just bring himself to tell him about it. Is it fear to be rejected as a brother by him? Or is it because I don’t want to upset him? His brother is a basically a deity, his parents are dead because a warlock turned their own people against each other for his own gain. No, too much to know in one day. Another time maybe, when I will feel that both of us are strong enough to face the truth .

“So you’re telling me that Celestia actions were all the result of a incarnation of destiny?” summed Discord, not nearly as surprised as the others.

“In short, yes”.

“Ah! I knew it! Fate only brings trouble. That’s why I always prefer chaos. Much more freedom and not as many problems” said the Draconequus, nodding by himself proudly.

“So it was because of Fate Weaver the latest events. With Celestia putting me to the test and me getting the wings and becoming a princess. That, and me accepting the coronation without any questions. Knowing that, I’m even more proud to not having those wings anymore!” commented Twilight Sparkle.

“I’m afraid your wings are not the only thing that got lost, during our battle” said Cryo.

“What do you mean?”.

“The power of Harmony. Try to summon it”.

The Mane 6 obeyed and tried to transform into their “harmony” forms, but without success. “I… don’t understand. Why we can’t use the power of Harmony anymore?” asked Rainbow Dash, trying it by herself, but with the same results.

“Because, while the elements coursed through my being, cancelling the presence of the Windigos, they got overpowered by the energies of my own, deleting them from your bodies”.

“But… but that means that Equestria doesn’t have their first defense against the most serious threats!” exclaimed Shining Armor.

“Couldn’t be that the power of Harmony may come back? It isn’t the first time we thought we had lost them, after all” mentioned Cadence.

“Maybe yes, maybe not” told them Princess Luna, prudent. “But if they do come back, is going to take time for that to happen. We must hope that, during that time, no threats will endanger our country or the world”.

“But what if it happens?” wanted to know Steel Wing.

Discord was about to take breath to speak, without a doubt offering reluctantly to play the hero for them in that time of need, even though that would have meant to tarnish even more his title of “spirit of chaos” (Or what little he had left) when Cryo took word once again. “If any threat had to appear on the horizon, I will take care of it” said the ice dragon.

“You!?” snapped Discord, having an hard time to decide if feeling relieved to not be 100% a hero or angry, for having stolen the chance to show off his powers.

“You would do that for us?” asked Rarity.

“Why wouldn’t I?” retorted Cryo. “After giving you such an hard time facing me down, and you losing your main defense against the forces of evil this is the least I could do to repay you”.

“That’s so kind of yours” said while smiling Fluttershy. “Thank you”.

“No, thank you, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. Is only thanks to you that I had a chance to finally be freed from the Windigos. Of course, I doubt I would have been able to gain their trust, if I didn’t proved how ruthless I was towards my adversaries” he added, pointing at Steel Wing, Ember, Spike and Discord. “For that, I own you just as much”.

“Glad we could be useful” nodded in respect Steel Wing, glad that his presence was of an actual use. “And thank you for not killing for real my soldiers”.

“Same here” agreed Ember, “But I doubt my people will handle this with the same grace of the ponies here. Especially my father, after you humiliated him like a whelp”.

“I’m painfully aware of how grumpy your kin can be. I wouldn’t be surprised if they would try to pick a fight with me”.

“Trust me, they won’t bother you. I promise you, on my title of Dragon Lord, that they will not try to torch you” she said, before adding with small grin, “Even though I doubt that they will be capable of doing anything to you”.

“And you would be right. Good, then I think I’ll be going”.

“Going where?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“To the volcano Ifrit”.

“Wait, what!? But why?” questioned Rainbow Dash, just as confused as the others.

“Yes, why, darling?” asked Rarity, “After spending so much time there, why on Equestria would you want to go back there? You don’t have nothing there, except bad memories”.

“Because is the only place where I can stay without endangering someone” told them Cryo. “Celestia and Stars Whirl may have been manipulated by Fate Weaver, but their fear was not misplaced. I am truly too much powerful to stay among the other creatures of world. Isolation will keep you safe, at least until I won’t have learned all there is to know about my powers”.

“You don’t need it to do it alone, Cryo” said Celestia, getting closer to the ice dragon. “You can stay here, with me and my sister. Together we will help you, but unlike in the past, there won’t be any lies”. The white alicorn place a gentle hoof on Cryo claw, “Please, allow me to repay you for all the pain I’ve caused you, to deserve your forgiveness”. The ruler of Equestria and the ice dragon looked at each other eye, while the rest of the group looked at the scene with curiosity and hope for a good conclusion.

After what seemed like an eternity, Cryo replied, “After what I’ve learned, there’s nothing you must prove, Celestia. I will forgive you, eventually, but I need time to clear out my emotions, first. When that will happen, I will consider your offering”.

“Is all that I could ask” said Celestia, her eyes filled with tears of happiness, instead of sadness and fear. “Hopefully one day we will manage to make a party in your honor”.

“I’m going to prepare it just once we go back to Ponyville!” jumped out Pinkie Pie, excited. “Just let me know what you would prefer to eat and I will prepare it by myself” promised the pink earth pony.

"Speaking of Ponyville, I think is time we go back to tell the others to come out, now that the crisis has passed” commented Applejack, who just wanted to have big family hug.

“And I need to bring my people back to the dragon lands, before they start to get nervous” added Ember.

“Then I guess is time to say goodbye” said Cryo. “But first, I have something to give you”. The ice dragon moved closer to Spike, handing him something similar to a crystal, “If you had to face threats bigger than you can face, don’t hesitate to contact me with that, and I will come to your aid in a blink of an eye”.

“Does that include opening a very hard pickle jar?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“No”.

“Ah, Ok” replied the pink pony, grumpy.

“Now is time for me to leave” declared Cryo, “Ah, one last thing, Celestia, given how I no longer need supervision, I took the liberty to drag back to Equestria the group that was watching me over in Ifrit. Most of the group is made of brave ponies, that even in the face of certain defeat fought with valor. Except for one of them, a certain pegasus without the bravery of a chicken that flew away in the time of need, trying to save his own hide. I hope that you’ll know what to do with him”.

“Yellow fur with a blue mane?”.

“Yes”.

“Flash Sentry” grumbled Twilight Sparkle, annoyed as the rest of her friends. The pegasus was infamously know to be more attentive to his own health than the one of others. That, and being just incapable of guarding a place without getting distracted by his own reflection or self-centered thoughts.

“We will have to think about something that won’t endanger the whole country” said Princess Luna.

“I’m sure you will find something. Now I bid you farewell, my friends” declared Cryo.

“If you see him, thank Gloomy Dusk and the Ice Master for our part” said quickly Twilight Sparkle.
The ice dragon nodded, before vanishing in a flash of light.

“Great, now he’s copying my style” grumbled Discord.

***

Once Cryo left, the rest of the group departed ways.
Steel Wing saluted them and the dragon lord Ember, claiming that it was an honor to have worked by side with dragons, instead of against them.
Ember said the same, as she flew the reborn dragon flock back to their lands (While picking up his unconscious father on the way, but not before giving one strong hug to Spike, thanking him for his attempt to saving her, making the purple dragon blush.
Through that time, Twilight couldn’t help but think to the mysterious Gloomy Dusk. A wise pony once said the eyes can reflect their souls. If so, Gloomy Dusk eyes told her so much and yet so little. Eyes capable to show incredible kindness just as terrifying but right anger. I wish I could know him better thought the lavender unicorn. When they left the Canterlot palace, she and her friends could feel that Princess Celestia was back to her old self. In fact, she looked even happier than before. Cryo purification seems to have purified even Celestia, from her fault and guilt.
When Discord teleported them back to Ponyville, they found out something unexpected.

“What in the hay happened in here!?” blurted out Applejack. Twilight castle had lost any color and was filled with cracks. It looked nearly ready to fall apart at any moment. Luckily, as they soon discovered, all the ponies in Ponyville had left the palace, going back in the open, enjoying the weather outside. Now that the Windigos had been destroyed, spring had returned filling the world with colors and warmness, making disappear any trace of winter.

As the Mane 6, Spike and Discord made their way towards the palace, their presence was noticed by Applejack family and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Hi sis” greeted Applebloom, as Sweetie Bell said, “Hello Rarity”.

“So, have you taken care your mission?” asked Scotaloo.

The casual tone of the CMC left the Mane 6 confused. “Yes but… weren’t you scared?” asked in return Rarity.

"Nope” replied Applebloom.

“Why would we?” added Scotaloo.

“Because there was a giant” was about to told them Rainbow Dash, before Fluttershy closed her mouth with an hoof.

“Haven’t you noticed something big going outside the castle?” preferred to ask Twilight Sparkle

Sweetie Bell shook her head. “We were all sleeping until a few minutes ago, until Gloomy Dusk wake us up, telling us to get out before the palace could fall on our heads”.

“Gloomy Dusk?” muttered Twilight Sparkle, taken aback.

In that moment, the CMC noticed something about the lavender pony. “Twilight, what happened to your wings!?” questioned Scotaloo, alarmed by her sudden lack of wings.

“I’ll tell you later, now, please, tell me where Gloomy is”.

He remained back, wanting to pick those up” told them Sweetie Bell, pointing a few suitcase and baggage, which both Twilight and Spike recognized instantly.

[“Our stuff” said the pony and the dragon as one.

“After that, he told us to tell you to go where once there was the Golden Oak Library”.

“Thanks” and with that Twilight picked Spike up and run towards where once her old home was, followed by her friends.

“But… what about the castle?” tried to ask Sweetie Bell, confused.

Discord, who had remained behind, was still looking at the castle. The Draconequus knew what had happened. Given how the Elements and the castle were bound together, once they got cancelled out, so did the vitality of the building. Now it was just a matter of time before the castle would crumble down. “But why wait?” he asked to himself, before snapping a finger and making the palace fall into piece, while making sure that nopony got hurt by accident, before following the Mane 6 and Spike with their stuff.

Meanwhile, Twilight and her friend reached the point where Gloomy Dusk was supposed to be. But there was no trace of the mysterious unicorn. Instead, they saw something unexpected. The Golden Oak Library was back, just as pretty as the last time she saw it. “It’s back… I can’t believe it!” uttered the lavender pony, taken over by emotion.

“I had forgotten how much pretty it was” commented Fluttershy.

“That castle may have been shinier, but this one doesn’t need to shin to appear pretty” added Rarity.

You know, if you wanted it back so much, you could have just asked me” pointed out Discord, appearing to their side.

“Twilight!” called Spike, “I’ve found this attached to the door”.

It was a note. On it there was written: “You know the old saying, you can’t beat the classic. Enjoy your library. By none other than Gloomy Dusk”.

“Who are you, Gloomy Dusk?” wondered out loud Twilight.

“Do you think we will ever meet him?” asked Spike.

“Maybe, but until then… who wants to come in for a drink”.

The group nodded, entering inside the oak tree, cheering for the return of the old library. Twilight entered last, looking over where once her old castle was. Just like her wings, she wasn’t sad to have lost it. It was just like she said, back on the Sirocco. “Fate may have brought us together, but it’s up to us to remain friends”. Well, now that’s a certainty thought the lavender pony. Fate Weaver is gone, and now we are all free to make our own choices, be that right or wrong. And whatever the future has in store for us, we will face it together, as friends . And with that, she joined her friends inside.

Epilogue

The stormy weather had stopped for quite some time and now a nice bright sun enlightened the Ifrit island, even though could do little to nothing to melt the ice that covered it. The island had just went through another transformation, turning from a barren isle to a mesmerizing forest made of frost. To the center of it, there was a tall building, which took the place of the dead volcano. And inside of it, in a rather empty room, stood the one responsible for this transformation: Cryo the FrostBound.
The ice dragon stood still, sitting on a throne, his eyes closed, as his consciousness was at work training his mind in learning the almost endless abilities at his disposition.
That, and reminding his conversation with Gloomy Dusk and the Ice Master.

"Tempest King. This is the name of your nemesis” told him the alicorn in disguise. “And he still rules in the northern hemisphere, even though his conquers go far beyond that land. Once taken over the north, he went on in the east and the west. And now he has sight pointed at the south. Usually, in others parallel universes, he would take his time to gather his forces while waiting for the right time to strike. But now that he has noticed your amazing powers, he will send his second in command to capture you, so that he could steal your magic, so to use it to his own gain”.

“Both him and his lackeys will soon find out that I’m no prey”.

“Of that I’m pretty sure of it. I wish I could stay here to see you wipe off that contemptuous, smug face from her face, but sadly I’m required elsewhere. I’ve got an unfinished business to take care of, before going back to help my team. A good leader is always there for his team”.

“What kind of team is it?”.

“It’s called the Silver Lotus. Is a group composed by others like you, Cryo. Victims of Fate Weaver, that wants to fight back against a cruel fate that wanted them to be the bad guys. Is quite the heterogeneous group: we got Dire wolves, dragon-pony hybrid, robot and even a Changeling. You would be welcomed to join us, if you ever wish to do so”.

“I will consider it”.

“Good, now I have to go. Has been nice knowing you, Cryo. Hope we will see each other again soon”.

“Twilight sure does hope that too” told him the ice dragon, grinning a little. “She seem to be intrigued by your mystery”.

"Ah” Gloomy Dusk blushed, becoming red as a tomato, “That’s good to know” he added, goofily. “Well… see ya!” and with that he vanished, leaving Cryo alone with the Ice Master.

“I need to go too, there are other new fragments of Frost outside of this reality. But before I leave you must promise me to not leave your emotions have the better of you” asked the cloaked figure. “Tempest King may be a villain, but not all those under his thrall are cruel as him. Most of the follow him because he has power over them or because he stripped them away of any freedom”.

"Trust me, I won’t go on a roaring rampage of revenge” assured him the ice dragon. “I will make sure to point my attention only to those that deserve it. And I will free my people”.

“I know you will”. And with that he left too, leaving Cryo alone with his thoughts.

After that, he had his conversation with the Mane 6 and their allies, finally having the chance to talk with Celestia, before going back to Ifrit, preparing himself for the incoming invasion.
Since then, a few days had passed. Days in which Cryo learned many incredible techniques and magic spells. The fourth day, the second in command finally arrived.
He felt her arrival as her airship (Not even closely comparable to the impressive models of the Dragon Watch) appeared on the horizon. Once landed and opened the doors, revealing a small army of simian like creatures, covered in white fur and magical armors. They marched towards the entrance of his palace. Leading them was a rather tall unicorn with a broken horn. Once she and her forces crashed inside his home, she made her way ahead, confronting him.
Gloomy wasn’t kidding about her sporting a rather confident and cold face. “How about we start with your complete and total surrender?” she asked.

Cryo remained silent for some second, staring at the army of simian like creatures in front of him, studying them. If they were frightened by his size, they sure were good at hiding it. “Tell me, child, what is your name?” asked the ice dragon, not a bit bothered.

“If you have to know, my name is Tempest Shadow. I’m here by order of my lord, Tempest King to capture you, so you’ll do better to yield, if you don’t want problem”

“So I’m literally facing a shadow?” mused Cryo. “Quite the dramatic name, got to admit. I wander though, it is real?”.

For a second, there was an hint of surprise in the face of the unicorn with a broken horn. But it soon faded back into cold hostility. “I’m not here to talk. If you don’t want to give up--“.

“I won’t give up. You have nothing capable of threatening me”.

“What about THIS!” shouted Tempest Shadow, kicking an orb that was emitting arcane energies around it right to the ice dragon.

Cryo catch it with one arm, for then studying it from close. “Interesting magic. Powerful enough to overpower an alicorn” he stated, before turning to the unicorn and her army, taking pleasure in seeing how her cold smug look had disappeared, replaced by shock and fear. “But it doesn’t work against me” added, before crushing the orb with disinterest. “Just like your anti-magic armors won’t protect you from me”. Now it was the turn of her forces to look rather scared. Their fear increased as Cryo got up and advanced towards them.

“How… how is that possible?” asked Tempest Shadow, her confidence just as shattered as her orb.

“Isn’t that a question I’ve heard often, lately” commented the ice dragon towering the army in front of him, ignoring their weapons. “Nothing you have will work against me. Shame you can’t say the same”. Cryo eyes emitted a powerful light, that froze over Tempest Shadow army right where they stood.
The pony had enough time to realize what just happened, before she got grabbed by the ice dragon. “Now, what about this offer: you, being the second in command to the Tempest King, will tell me everything there is to know about him. Keep silent, and I will snatch the answers I seek from your soul, from your frozen corpse”.

The End

Author's Note

And so, this is it.
This is the last serious story I had planned.
Is nice to see that I've managed to actually complete another work here.
If any of you people would like to work on a possible sequel to the story or a spin off about Gloomy Dusk, you're welcome.

Prologue

“Ugh, I can’t believe that I got transferred here! What have I done to deserve this?” complained the guard, trying to get any bit of warm from the fire and the heavy cloths. The top of the tower offered a great view of the place, but it didn’t do much to protect it from cold other than the small bonfire they had a disposition.

“If what I’ve heard from the captain of the ship that brought you here, I think you should ask yourself what you DIDN’T do” replied the other guard, annoyed.

“What did the princesses excepted me to do? Face Tirek all by myself?”.

“You had your duty to protect them, not your own flank, you lame excuse of a guard!”.

“Ah, then what are you and the other lots doing here?” asked the Pegasus.

“We’re here by our own choice. To respect our father, grandfather and even grand grandfather work. To keep the eye on him”.

“Nice work it is. Stuck here out in the nowhere, freezing our behinds to watch over a cold corpse” commented sarcastically the Pegasus point their surroundings.

The place looked like an island from the deep east sea, with heavy snow falling from the cloudy grey skies and ice spikes making its way on the mountain. Funny to think that once this place was known to be one of the biggest volcano on the whole Equestria, named after a mythological creature called Ifrit. Yet something had happened to turn the once fiery mountain into a frozen dead volcano, literally. On this desolate island were placed some small guard post all near a cave that allows to enter the very core of the volcano.

“He may look dead on the outside, but have you tried to watch his eyes?” asked the unicorn. The he noticed the grim expression of the Pegasus, “Ah, of course not. Then let me tell you that inside those eyes you can see some kind of light. Cold but yet very alive. I don’t know what exactly happened to him, but I can tell you that he’s still alive and kicking. Our presence here is to make sure that, if he ever wakes up, to warn Celestia”.

The flying pony grumbled some vague answers. There was no point trying to debate with that stupid unicorn. He knew exactly that this work was just a waste of time. Heck, he was sure that even Princess Celestia herself knew that there were little chance for that... thing to wake up. Or else why there were so few dozens of guards around? Once he heard that this place was as much filled with guards as Canterlot during the Changelings assault. In the end this new assignment was chosen to be more than a punishment for his rational thinking than anything else. And now he was stuck inside this small fortress situated nearby the beach that had seen better days.
But the Pegasus was wrong. He was just as much mistaken as much the Unicorn was correct. Inside the frozen volcano stood the motionless an adolescent dragon, encased in the icy wall. He didn’t looked that much different from any other drakes, with cold blue scales, fangs, claws and wings. And yet there were two big differences: unlike other young drakes he didn’t had fangs going out of his mouth, nor was he too chubby or thin. Instead he looked elegant, although such beauty was just as sharp as his claws. Second thing that made him different from all sort of dragon, big or small, adult or whelp, was the power which irradiated from his silent figure. A power beyond any imagination... a power that didn’t belong to this world. And that soon, very soon, it would be unleashed upon this world. Because, while on the outside the frozen dragon looked into a deep sleep, his inner spirit was still active.

Inside his mind, spirit or soul, the dragon laid on the top of an ice pillar, surrounded by a blizzard so violent that didn’t allowed to see beyond his snout. The drake was staring at the storm with a gloomy look when he heard something come from behind his back. A voice. Raspy and yet guttural, ethereal and, above anything else, cold. Windigos. Ghost-looking horses, which main food was the hatred that they absorbed through the ponies. And, for so many centuries, from him. “FrostBound” they called, at the unison like a single entity.

“And to think I was hoping to have got rid you” he replied, more to use irony to hide his true spiteful emotion.

The Windigos laughed at the dragon, although he doubted that they caught the sarcasm in his words. “You can’t get rid of us, FrostBound. What you did last time caught us unprepared, but all you did was to push us into your deepest corner of your very being”.

“Not deep enough” grumbled the dragon.

“It will never be deep enough, FrostBound. We are part of you. We are linked to your mind and very soul”.

“Stop call me like that! That’s not my real name” he hissed.

“Ah no? Would you prefer to be called with the same name that was given you by the one responsible for your own predicament?” now it was the Windigos turn to use irony against him.

“There’s only one person responsible for my situation; the same one who plagued me with this curse”.

“Maybe. But he didn’t played with your emotions like the other one which we mentioned. And for how much you can loath him, we can feel that such hatred is surpassed by the one you feel for her”. The Windigos were circling above him, slowly, like ominous vultures would do to a some prey near to death. The dragon lowered his head, trying to ignore them and, at the same time, hiding his true feelings. “Oh, we can feel it the same way we do for that immense power of yours. Such beautiful hate! The one which can only be created by betrayal!”.

“Does really change that much whom I decided to direct my hate into?”.

“More than you can imagine, FrostBound. In the past you were always smart enough to avoid giving into your hate towards us or him, avoiding so that we could get stronger. But now, after what she did to you, such hatred is beyond your control. And we can feed on it as much as we like, getting more and more powerful. And one day, FrostBound, be that tomorrow, a year or a century, we will become strong enough to take control over your very essence. And when that day will come your soul will vanish like the fog in the morning”.

“Why are you telling me all of this? Other than make me hate you even more, I mean?” he asked, no fear in his voice.

“Because we want you to realize how pointless your stubbornness is. We could just wait, be patient, and in the end we will get what we want. But what about you then? What about your dreams of revenge?”.

“So caring of you, worrying about me” huffed the dragon.

“We mean it, FrostBound. After all, isn’t that what friends do with each others?”.

“You do realize how fake that sounds, said by you?” asked the dragon, rising an eyebrow.

“Maybe. Point is, FrostBound, that we want to help you avoid such nasty fate” one of Windigos stood in front of him, trying his best to put on a friendly smile, “And if you just accept us, we will help put at use that immense power that you keep inside of you. And then you will finally get your vengeance on her”.

“I won’t let it happen!” he roared, standing up.

“Why? Oh, let us guess: because you are not a monster, isn’t it? Too bad that she didn’t thought the same, didn’t she?” mocked the Windigos. The young drake made to reply, but his mouth closed before any words could get out. “This your self-imprisonment is pathetic. You think that your act is noble but instead you look like a fool, defending a world that doesn’t deserve anything more than your rage”.

“No” he whispered, the words of the hateful spirits sinking into his mind like a poison.

“Think, FrostBound, think about her betrayal. Do you think she ponders that much about you anymore? She most probably has forgotten your very existence. No, her attention now is all towards her subjects and to teach the art of lies to that new princess, Twilight Sparkle. Her people love her and, by any chance, our past would be revealed you can bet that they would still claim that she did right to deny your freedom. Is that the people you want to protect!?” hissed the Windigos.

The young drake remained silent, trying in vain to find a good reply to the words of those evil beings. “I’m no monster” he whispered.

“No” admitted surprisingly the Windigos, “She and her people are the ones who see a monster. But we know that you can be much more. And if you let us do what we started last time, we can grant you that, once we will be finished, you’ll become a GOD!” claimed the ice spirits, “You have two choices, FrostBound: accept your fate by accepting our presence and our present for you, so that you may finally make her and everyone else pay. Or you can stay here, lying at yourself for as long as your conscience will be, letting her rule the world with that falsity that is the power of Harmony, while your rot away. The choice is yours”.
With that said finally the Windigos stop talking, leaving the young dragon to think. For how much he doubted on their words he couldn’t deny that they had brought some valid point to their (and his) cause. She had abounded him, of this he was certain of it. His attempt to avoid the Windigos take control over him didn’t do anything except prove her that he had to stay imprisoned for the rest of his existence. They were also right about his hatred for her.

“Celestia” he whispered. The eldest of the royal sisters and ruler of Equestria. He HATED her. The more he thought of their past together the more his loathing grew. But was he willing to follow the path of revenge, knowing what the consequences could be? But, again, the Windigos had mentioned that it was only a matter of time before his essence would vanish, consumed by the very same hatred that he couldn’t control. And while he doubted the sincerity of the friendship of those ice beings, he felt that they weren’t lying either.

Is there any hope left in me he wondered, must I sacrifice what left of compassion to have my revenge? Or should I stand here for all eternity, keeping her secrets untold? No, there is only one thing that I can do.

***

“Did you heard that?” asked the elder guard.

“It was just the wind” huffed the pegasus.

“That’s no wind! Look!” screamed another guard. Something was going on inside the dead volcano. An almost blindly light sparked from the passage, a sign that the prisoner had woken up.

“What’s going on?” asked the pegasus, looking ready to soil himself.

“He has awakened” whispered the guard.

“What!?”. It had to be an awful joke! That thing had slept for years and NOW he was going to wake up!?

“We must warn princess Celestia, now!” he said, more boldly.

Before the coward pegasus could reply the light stopped all of sudden. Few seconds passed and the watcher dared to hope that it was all just a false alarm. But their hopes were crashed as the towering mountain started to shake and cracking, as if something huge was about to break free.
Flat Sentry watched pieces of the mountain falling over, making tremble the whole place and raising a lot of dust which started to make it hard to see what was coming out from it. But he was not interested into staying here to find out. Taking advantage of the distraction of the guards he got up from his chair and, without any second doubt, flew away. He heard the elder guard call him out, yelling harsh words at him and in normal circumstances he would have used his magic to stop him or sending the others pegasus to bring him back to his rightful punishment. But now the captain of the fort had more important concerns than one rouge pony. Flat Sentry counted on it. He didn’t had to look back to see that old fool preparing the rest of his soldiers for some kind of last stand against whatever was about to break through.
Idiots he thought, if they were as smart as me they would follow my example . The pony sure believed to be smarter than others, but in his panic he forgot few things like a) the distance between his ex-job and the main land and b) that, while outmatched, at least they had walls to protect them. He was completely vulnerable to what happened next. A roar so loud that seemed to shake even the cloudy skies made the pony stop in mid-air, taken aback from the sudden piercing sound. Despite his best instincts telling him to keep flying he actually turned his head back in the island. Such growl could only come from the chest of a massive creature and, oh boy, if that wasn’t the biggest dragon he had ever seen. Sure, he hadn’t seen that much, but he doubted that he would be considered small. The drake was surrounded by smoke that kept his true appearance hidden, but his silhouette was more than enough to show his monstrous size. The soldiers back at the fort tried to attack it using spears, magic rays or even just stones. Their efforts were pointless if not downright suicidal, failing miserably into hurting the giant dragon. His attack, on the other hand, proved to be much more effective. Unlike other dragons, he didn’t spit fire from his mouth, but an icy looking ray, that turned the fortress and everypony in it into ice.
Flat Sentry watched that scene with wide open eyes, seeing this huge dragon tower over the now frozen fortress. The monster did to... just for then lifting his gaze, staring in his direction. Two reptilian eyes of the most creepy shade of blue stared at him, filled with hatred. The pegasus throat made his scream of terror sound very faint. Turning his back to the dragon, Flat Sentry started to fly as fast as he could in an attempt to escape certain death. Sadly for him, the monster didn’t need it to move to take him down. The dragon flapped his wings, as if to checking out if they were work properly, unleashing a brutal wave of gelid wind, that crossed the distance between the two, turning the surface of the already cold water into ice. Flat Sentry had barely the time to let out a more loud shriek of fear when he felt something burning biting his flank before turning into ice. His frozen body fell on the equally frozen sea without crashing into pieces. If that was a good thing (not dying) or a bad thing (forever trapped unconsciously in ice) was anyone else guess .

Dealt with that little pest, FrostBound opened his large wings and took for the sky. In few instants he reached the stratosphere, getting a good view of the world beneath him. Once he fixes his sense of direction he took off, going for his next target.
If his captors had succeeded into warning Celestia or not it wouldn’t helped the rulers of Equestria. Nor her lackeys. His sharp mind was already at work, planning how make Celestia pay in the most painful of ways.
Unknown to him someone was watching him fly away from the wreckage of his prison.

“Well” muttered Discord, deadpan, “This is bad”.

Author's Note

Welp, here it is: my last story of Mlp FIM.
Or, at least, the last serious story.
FrostBound went through a lot of delays and changes. At first, he was supposed to be a pegasus turned into alicorn, but I've decided to turn him into a dragon for 3 main reasons:
1) Alicorns are overused and overrated.
2) Dragons are cool and underused.
3) I wanted to make a tribute to one of my most favorite dragon in fiction: Neltharion, also known as DeathWing.

That said, I hope you will enjoy this story.
Ps: Listen to this music. I think it fits with FrostBound like a glove.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-NfGeHbvjA

Into the cold mist

As they got into the main ship of the Dragon Watch, the Monarch, the weather got worst. The sky got covered by grey and black clouds and snow was falling fast and unmercifully, lead by a violent wind that sounded similar to the howl of either wolfs or some kind of haunted ghost. Luckily, the Monarch and the other airships didn’t looked too much troubled by the blizzard.
“Is not the first time the Dragon Watch has to drive with bad weather” told them Steel Wing, “We went through storms with hail and thunders, flew over volcanoes in eruption and even near a tornado, and it always remained unscathed. Is not that easy to shatter something built with the best steel and titanium and mithril”.

The journey to get into the zone where the abduction happened went by pretty fast. Once they got there, the blizzard became even more violent. “What a whiteout” whispered Rainbow Dash, scared by the thought of what would have happened if caught in such a brutal conditions. If the strong wind wouldn’t made her juggle around like a ball, the freezing temperatures would have frozen her wings.

Steel Wing was worried about this lack of sight. “We can’t fly around without a clear sight. Get me lieutenant Hasty Hooves”.

“Right away sir” said the pony at the radio station.

“Hasty Hooves, can you hear me?”.

It took a few seconds for the lieutenant to reply. “Aye, captain, do you need help to make sure the road ahead is clear?” Hasty asked, jokingly.

“When we’re dealing with someone capable of scaring our ruler, you can bet on it. Try to amp the signal of your radio, just to make sure that, in case that you and your soldiers get lost in the storm” replied Steel Wing with a grin.

“As if” muttered the lieutenant, “Come on, boys, it’s time to show off again!”. They saw a much smaller ship going out of the arrow formation and flew much more inside of the blizzard with high speed.

While they were waiting, Twilight turned around and noticed the expression of Applejack. The orange earth pony looked troubled. “Don’t worry, Applejack, everything will be fine. I’m sure your family will hold on until we have done with this mission”.

“Is not about that. Well, not only about that” replied Applejack, hesitantly.

“Then what?” asked Rainbow Dash, “Come on, Applejack, spill the beans!”.

Applejack took a deep breath, “Ok, but please, do not jump at me for what I’m about to say” she glanced around, making sure no pony was listening to them, “I don’t think Celestia told us all the truth about what’s going on. In fact, I feel like she outright lied to us”.

It took all their resolution to avoid jumping at her. Especially Twilight. “My dear, what makes you think such outrageous thing?” asked Rarity, trying to control her overly dramatic tone.

Pinkie Pie nodded, “Oh, Applejack, that’s so silly! Is not like Princess Celestia has an habit to keep secrets to us” she started saying, before realizing something, “Except that time she told you to not warn us when you had the power of all three alicorns in you. Or that time she sent you that Stars whirl spell that mixed our Cutie Marks so that Twilight could get her wings” her smile started to fade, “And then all the other times in which she kept precious information about the Crystal Empire and Sombra, or Discord or Nightmare Moon” concluded, now sharing the same thoughtful look of Applejack.

The rest of the Mane 6 remained silent, their minds only now acknowledging such fact.

“Why haven’t we noticed that before?” wanted to know Fluttershy, shocked that she missed such fact.

“Well, we never really had that much to think about it” noticed Rarity, “When all that stuff happened, we had a lot to think about”.

“But why? Why would she hide any information to us?” asked Rainbow Dash, a bit frustrated, “What, aren’t we fully trustworthy for her?”.

Applejack turned to Twilight Sparkle, “What do you think, Twilight? You know her better than we do, what kind of secret is she keeping for herself?”.

Twilight wished she could answer that question, but the truth was that she hadn’t. Her mind was a battlefield; faith and trust that she felt towards Celestia clashed against cold logic and reason. Indeed, Celestia was not as an example of honesty, but in the end she had her reason to do so. But, again, such secrets also put her and her friends in danger more than once. Yes, but in the end they also managed to get out fine. Yes, they did... at the last second and more by luck than anything else.
Those thoughts were giving her an headache, so she decided to put them aside for now. She was about to tell her friends to keep those questions for later, but the radio sounded again.

“We got movements, captain!” said Hasty Hooves. He sounded a bit less calm and relaxed than before.

“FrostBound?” asked Steel Wing.

“I don’t think so. From what we’ve been told, he’s supposed to be huge. Whatever we have seen out there, is about the size of a train cart. I *BBZT* Wait... what the HECK!”. There was a sudden scraping noise, followed right away from the sounds of windows crashing. And then ponies were screaming in terror and helpless anger.

“Hasty Hooves, what’s going on!?”.

“IS not just one! Is not just *BBZT* hold them back! Damn it, they are so *BBZT* .” more screeching noises come from the radio, more than one of them sounded like hissing or roaring. The scout airship was fighting... and it was losing.

“Hold on, Hasty Hooves, reinforcement are on their way!” shouted Steel Wing, trying to get heard by his lieutenant.

“*BBZT* what are this things!? *BBZT* CAPTAIN, KEEP YOUR GUARDS UP, THERE IS MORE THAN ONE! *BBZT*” the guttural snarl that was in the background turned more clear, “Oh no... AAAAAAHHH--*BBZZT*” and with that the signal was lost.

The crew and the Mane 6 remained silent in shock and fear from what they had just heard. The scout ship was gone, and whatever had done that was out there, ready for them.

Steel Wing knew that the only way to avoid suffering the same fate of the scout airship, they had to be prepared. He turned the radio to the rest of the air fleet. “Ok men, you’ve heard what Hasty told us just as you heard what happened to them. Let’s focus our efforts to try and survive, so that we can have our chance to avenge them!”.

“Yes sir!” replied his crew, with the addition of the Mane 6.

“If we’re going to face more than one moving target, then is better to calibrate our weapons to shoot powerful yet short ranged blast. We will keep the harpoons for the main target. Each gunner will protect each other ship”. Every single commander of the others airships replied affirmatively. Satisfied, Steel Wing turned to the Mane 6, “You better brace yourself, girls, things are about to get moved”.

So they ventured in the new territory, ready for a fight. The tension was palpable as the cold outside and just as sharp. And then they attacked. They came out of the mist like bats out of hell, snarling and growling and hissing. This flying creatures looked like dragons, with the sole exception that, instead having four legs, they had only two. But what lacked in paws was reinforced in their large wings and very long tail. Another big difference was that they were made of ice. And, yet, every single movements looked like they were made of flesh and bones (or scales, being them dragons). Oh, and they were also insanely fast. The flock of those dragon-like monsters flew against the airships in rage.

“Open fire!” ordered Steel Wing. An obvious order, but he liked to follow the military etiquette.

And so with great sense of timing, all the airships started to fire the ice creatures with the cannons. The ion cannons, weapons which worked thanks to the very volatile gems that grew on the tallest mountains and that were capable to be charged with the energy of the wildest thunder. Until the cannon wouldn’t get overcharged, they could shoot without worrying for ammunitions. The gunners proved to be great shooters, hitting those flying monsters hawkeyed accuracy. The bolts were too much for those ice creature to handle, making them shattering on impact. Dozens got destroyed... and then hundreds appeared out of the mist, increasing their numbers. Then they started to shoot back. Instead of a stream of flames, their breath looked more like vapour that, at the contact with the airships, left clear marks of frost. When those creatures managed to get close enough, they started to tear through all the steel and mithril with their claws and tail.
The battle went one for a few minutes before both captain Steel Wing and the Mane 6 understood what was going on.

“We can’t go on like this, or we’re never going to reach Cadence!” shouted Twilight Sparkle, to make herself hear over the roars and explosions.

Steel Wing nodded, “Yes, this FrostBound is quite smart, using his forces to slow us down and weaken them. We will have to change game” he turned to the radio, “Time to move on, boys! Assume formation “protective state”. You know the rest of the drill!”.

The rest of the Dragon Watch once again proved their ability, manoeuvring the airships in almost perfect coordination. Almost, given that the assaulting forces weren’t conceding a break. That way it was easier to protect each other from the flock of ice monsters.
With that move, the Dragon Watch proceeded at top speed, trying their best to avoid most of the damage. Fluttershy covered her eyes, trembling like a leaf, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were crossing their hooves, trying to shove the jinx away, Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth to fight back the tension, Applejack kept watching outside with a wide eye, fearing that one of those monsters would come crashing through the windows. Twilight instead focused on the front of the window. “Come on, come on” she muttered, praying in Celestia and Luna for the success of this mission.
Suddenly, the white mist disappeared, making possible to actually see the outside. But while it was nice to be capable to watch their own surroundings, the view was haunting. The sky was of a very dark shade of grey and once in a while, there was a sudden burst of lighting, a rare sight for such cold weather. But, of course, given who and what they were facing, this conditions weren’t the slightest bit normal. Just to give another confirmation, they could actually see that the blizzard surrounded the area for miles to come, as if to hide something.

“They aren’t following us anymore” noticed Rarity.

“Better. We don’t have the time to deal with those freaks” commented Rainbow Dash, sighing in relief. Something that everyone else did.

“But we may have to face those things again, once we get Cadence back” said Applejack, clearly worried about the idea of facing those things again.

“Yes” nodded Twilight Sparkle, “But that’s something we will deal with later. Now let’s focus on Cadence rescuing”.

Captain Steel Wing was speaking at the radio, hearing the summary of the damage taken from the recent battle. He gave order to resume the usual arrow formation, then he turned to the Mane 6.

“Other than Hasty Hooves and his crew, we haven’t lost anyone else. Few injured, but nothing too serious. When you want, we’re ready to proceed”.

“Let’s go. Cadence can’t be that much far”.

“Indeed she isn’t” commented one soldier who was watching outside with a binocular, “She’s right there, on the top of that mountain”.

The ground was covered with snow and ice mountains of such strong shade of blue that it made them look almost black. On the top of a long formation of mountains, there was the train cart. Covered in frost and claw marks, it looked like it had went through some wild ride.

“Can you see any sign of activity inside?” asked Twilight, hoping that they were still in time.

“Is a bit hard to see. I can kind of see some figure on the inside, but the ice and the condensation doesn’t give a clear visual. We should get closer”.

“We’re going to get closer, one way or another. Let’s go, before those winged fiends change their minds” concluded Steel Wing.

And so the Dragon Watch proceeded to get closer to the mountain. They were half way there when suddenly something huge completely covered the cart. Claws. Huge, frosty claws. Then, slowly, something emerged from behind the rocky formation. A figure surrounded by a blizzard that made almost impossible to see its exact features. Except for two dark cobalt eyes with slither pupil of a dragon. Those two orbits turned into a death glare, that seemed focus mainly on the Monarch. Or, more probably, to the Mane 6.

“He knows” whispered Pinkie Pie, her mane turned flat by fear.

The creature rose at his full height and that mist vanished, allowing everyone to see exactly what they were up against.

Over 300 meters tall, dark blue scales, with wings which width was miles long, a tail that was as long as it was sharp, claws capable to slash anything, two curved and sharp horns. And his head... it reminded vaguely of a skull, for how lean it looked, the zone near his mouth looked sculpted in sharp looking jaws.

“FrostBound” whispered Twilight, completely taken aback from that sight.

The ice dragon opened his gigantic mouth and released a roar so loud to make both earth and sky shake in fear.