Equestrian Thrones

Cold. If you were to ask anypony, yak, or even zebra what it was like out beyond Mount Everhoof, that was probably the first thing they would tell you. That being said, it was rare now for anypony to describe the great unknown in the north, because nopony ever really ventured there anymore. Ever since the birth of the Two Goddesses, the yaks were in charge of defending the rest of Equestria from the monsters and occasional wild pony/zebra tribes that inhabited the North in exchange for yearly supplies from the south so the yaks could build on their civilization.

However, after the disappearance of the Crystal Empire many years ago, the yaks became distant from the rest of Equestria. The many ponies that would come to Yakyakistan during the Crystal Empires initial reign would sometimes volunteer to go over the wall, but soon after King Sombra was first defeated, only one or two ponies would come, and most would just bring the necessary supplies and quickly leave.

Thus, the history of the Watchers of the Great Unknown faded with time, and soon, many ponies forgot about even the yaks. Only the Princesses knew, and became the sole bringers of the yaks supplies until the yaks asked for them to stop making the yearly visits around 50 years ago. Perhaps it was the yak's stubborn pride, but the true reason for this request is unknown.

Yet with the reappearance and pacifism of the Crystal Empire, Princess Cadence learned about ancient tales of the yaks and the Great Unknown. She vowed to retain the friendship between ponies and yaks once more, which she accomplished thanks to the new Princess of Friendship Twilight Sparkle.

Even though the yaks and ponies were once again friendly and reunited in one land, the yaks believed the ponies could no longer handle themselves outside of Mount Everhoof since most ponies never experienced harsh winters. That was Starburst’s job, on orders from Princess Cadence and Shining Armour of the Crystal Empire where he lived. He would try to help prove to the yaks that ponies could still handle themselves in the Deep North by venturing with them into the unknown.

However, Sunburst would start to understand exactly why the yaks believed ponies couldn't handle themselves in the Frozen North. It was a living Tartarus for ponykind.

“Sunburst, your magical knowledge would help the yaks understand the north a great deal more than they already know. As my magic advisor, you could be of great use to them.”

Those were Cadance's exact words to Sunburst when she told him the news a week before he left for Yakyakistan. At first, he was too shocked to say anything. Not only did Cadance not inform him of her decision before she made it, but the realization that the Watchers did exist confused him. He always knew the North was dangerous, but never thought it had to be protected by yaks.

He asked what the yaks could possibly want him to investigate. The answer Cadance gave terrified him. She let out a sad sigh and told him “ I don’t know. When I mentioned your magical intellect , they immediately agreed to take you, and when I asked why, they simply told me it would be better if none of us knew.” She gave a soft chuckle. “You know how stubborn yaks can be. You don’t continue a conversation they never want to continue.”

Her words left a chill in the library that Sunburst was sitting in. He looked around at all the books that he realized he would have to soon abandon. A sudden flare of anger shot up in the unicorn. ‘Why should I have to go somewhere dangerous to check something that also might be dangerous,’ he thought. But he knew better than to yell at Cadance like that. Besides, he knew she didn't want him to leave. He took such good care of Flurry Heart and was well respected throughout the Crystal Empire. He understood she wanted to prove to the yaks that ponies could help out in the North, and Sunburst might help prove that. How he would prove that, he didn't know, but if it helped out Equestria and the Crystal Empire, he would gladly take the proposal.

“Alright I’ll go, though I’m still not happy you sprung this on me all of a sudden,” Sunburst responded. Cadance let out a sad smile, then thanked and apologized to Sunburst for everything. The last thing she did before she left the Crystal Empire Library was give him a letter she said was from the yaks. The Alicorn princess left then, so silently that when Sunburst looked at the letter and then back at where Cadance originally stood, she was gone.

Sunburst gave a deep sigh and broke open the seal to read the letter. He placed it on his reading desk and looked at it. It was written in incredibly messy PonyTounge, which obviously meant the writer was an incredibly prideful yak. He shifted his glasses to read the letter better, and after several seconds of constant maneuvering, he was able to make out the words. The first thing written on the letter was ‘COLD,’ which was obvious enough. There was also a list of living things to expect north, including Bugbears, Manticores, even Ursa Minors. Sunburst expected to be terrified by all of this, but shockingly, he wasn’t. He already expected all these things to be out there. He heard the stories like every young filly and colt had before, and if the Watchers truly did exist, then so did those stories.

His eye caught on the bullet point titled ‘WILDFOLK’. Now this shocked him. The monsters he could understand, but this? How could anypony live in such a harsh climate? He was told nopony lived beyond Everhoof, that it was barren except for the bloodthirsty beasts that lurked there. Now they did exist???? This sparked Sunburst’s curiosity. If he could research the ponies of the North, who knew what he could find. He realized maybe these wildfolk used a unique form of magic and that’s what led them to be able to live so long up there. That was probably what the yaks wanted him to research. Now excited from this new revelation, Sunburst began to roll the letter back up, starting from the top, until something at the bottom caught his eye.

It was incredibly small compared to the rest of the handwriting on the letter, so it made sense Sunburst didn't see it at first. Despite the size, the word was very well written, as if the yak wanted to show the reader that it was incredibly important. In shiny black ink, the word read ‘The Winter.’

Sunburst sat at his reading desk for 30 minutes, stroking his orange beard, trying to understand what that meant. If the yaks even knew what it meant. He looked at all the books in the library, but he couldn't find anything. The library was full of ancient books, but while plenty mentioned the Yaks, nothing mentioned the Watchers or the ‘Winter.’ Frustrated, Sunburst returned to his desk to try to somehow come up with the answer himself. He gave that up after a couple of minutes and realized it was after midnight. Usually, the library would be closed for everypony by this time, but Sunburst, being the Princess of Love’s Magical Advisor and all, was an obvious exception.
So there at his desk Sunburst slept, and refused to think about ‘The Winter’ during the week.

It was a week since he left the Crystal Empire and 3 days since he left Yakyakistan. His stay at the Kingdom of the Yaks was shockingly dull. The whole place was built inside a wooden wall, and inside was filled with a bunch of wooden huts that were either homes or inns. Despite the sheer size of the capital, that was all the kingdom was, a bunch of wooden homes and inns. The female yaks were nice enough, but the male yaks were incredibly grumpy towards the unicorn. Once Starburst arrived, he was taken to an inn by the yak guards where he would be told the plan

It was incredibly obvious that all the yaks in the inn, excluding the serving maids, were drunk. He sat at a table with incredibly big and muscular yaks, all talking and joking and sipping on Hard Apple Cider. When the yak guards brought Sunburst to the table, he was greeted with searching eyes from one of them. ‘That one must be the leader’, Sunburst thought.

The searcher let out a slight chuckle. “LOOK LIKE PONY FINALLY HERE TO MEET YAKS. SURPRISED SHE ISN'T ALREADY FROZEN.” If the yak's voice didn't already destroy Sunburst’s ears, the resulting laughter from all of the yaks at the table certainly did. The searcher stopped laughing abruptly, and the rest of the yaks followed suit. He leaned into Sunburst's ear and whispered “MY NAME YAWSAW. LET'S TALK OVER AT CORNER,” which still managed to be louder than most speaking voices. Sunburst suddenly realized the yak guards that accompanied him were gone. With a nod, Sunburst followed the Yawsaw in the corner of the base of the stairwell. There, in his semi-whisper voice, Yawsaw told him the plan

In 3 days, they would leave for the Great Unknown, going past Mount Everhoof to look for wildfolk villages spotted several miles from the mountain in past ventures. Sunburst would be given a cloak and boots to protect him from the cold as well as several heated undergarments underneath those cloaks. The yak then mentioned, rather grimly, how unicorn magic isn't very strong up there, as the cold makes unicorns too weak to cast any major spells. This didn’t really concern Sunburst, as he never could cast any difficult spells, only understand. Still, this made him mad. Why didn't they tell him this in the letter? What else did they forget to tell him? He wanted to ask Yawsaw why they didn't tell him in the letter, but knew better than to interrupt a yak to ask a stupid question like that. All of a sudden, Sunburst came up with an important question.

He raised his hand, and Yawsaw seemed pleased Sunburst chose the respectable route to ask a question. “Why can’t the monsters and wildfolk just go around the Yaket Range and follow the river to the Celestial Sea?” The Yak gave gave a booming chuckle and explained that most monsters in the unknown are built for frigid weather only and cant survive in warm temperature. As for the wildfolk, they apparently don't go over there much as bugbears from the opposite side of the Celestial Sea can end up on the other side of the river and attack wildfolk. If wildfolk did somehow manage to make it past the bugbears, they would be forced to follow a mountain seperated in the middle with a waterfall, rendering the would be invader unable to cross, and a round circle of mountains would block the wildfolk from going east. The main way wildings would escape would be to go west where a low mountain pass which would allow the wildings to land near Luna Bay, so it was important that the yaks do a sweep in the west every so often. With an angry snort, the yak also mentioned how more and more frequently than usual wildlings were trying to cross to Luna Bay for an unknown reason. Satisfied with the answer, Sunburst continued to listen to the yak explain everything else in the North. By the end of the conversation, he believed that he was ready for the north.

He was sadly mistaken.

The journey to the border that separated the great unknown from Yakyakistan was simple enough. Sunburst woke from his bed with undergarments, boots and a cloak at the foot of his mattress. Sunburst put them on and instantly felt much warmer. ‘This surely will keep me warm out there.’ He had no idea what the cloak was made out of that kept the wearer so warm. The yaks never told, just called it ‘yak cloak.’ He hoped it wasn’t yak fur, because how in tatuarus the yaks would do that was something Sunburst didn’t want to think about.

He should ask that pony in Ponyville about these cloaks, Starlight Glimmer’s friend, that white pony who was a prodigy when it came to clothi-

Starlight Glimmer

The orange unicorn stopped in his tracks. He forgot to contact her before he left. He facehoofed. How? They were talking more than ever nowadays, and yet he still forgot? ‘Sorry Starlight, I guess I just forgot to tell you I went away to the frozen noth for several weeks for something you could honestly probably do better than me. Let’s still be friends!’ That wouldn’t go over well. Well, now was not the time to think about that. Sunburst unattached one of many wizard cloaks he wore. ‘Won’t need that up there,’ he reasoned. He did need his glasses though, and put on his strongest ones.

He left with Yawsaw and the yaks shortly after, and after a quick number count (18 in total, including Sunburst), they left for the other side of the yaks wall. The guards quickly let the group by and they made their long trek to the border. It gradually got colder, but not unbearable like Sunburst thought. In fact, it was quite beautiful, the early morning combined with the frozen trees and snow capped mountains ahead.

After an hour or two, the group made it to a sub mountain west of Mount Everhoof, significantly smaller than the massive mountain, but still relatively huge. As the group came close, Sunburst saw a wooden door in the mountain that surely must lead to a tunnel to the other side.

Yawsaw made the group stop suddenly. “ WE TAKE THE #3 TUNNEL TODAY. EVERYAK TAKE THEIR TORCHES AND LIGHT WAY. PONY, USE HORN”

Sunburst nodded and sent a slight beam of light from his horn and followed the yaks as they opened the door to the tunnel. The tunnel was pitch black, but the torches and Sunburst’s horn lit the way a little bit. Besides the darkness, there was still nothing special about this tunnel. The walls were a rough rock base, and the floor was just a dirt walkway made hard from years of travel. After what seemed like forever, the group reached the end of the tunnel without even really seeing any bats or the like. Sunburst started to be disappointed in this trip, wondering if anything interesting would happen at all.

The yaks opened the door and they were all greeted with fearsome snowy winds that must have swung near 80 miles an hour. Sunburst gaped at the winds, but the yaks stood unimpressed and continued like nothing was wrong out there at all. Sunburst took a loud gulp and reluctantly continued on. He soon decided he would take a rather boring trip actually, thank you very much.

Sunburst sat at the campfire that the yaks decided to settle out, trying to keep warm. Like the yaks said, Sunburst magic was at a fault here. He was to cold to concentrate, and it even took several minutes just for him to start a fire. Most of the other yaks went out gathering and found several edible shrooms that they were cooking into a stew.

The winds stopped a couple of hours ago, but the effect still stayed. Sunburst felt like he was on the edge of frostbite many times throughout the trip, and he constantly had to keep his head down so the snow didn’t whip him in the eyes. He was still shocked he came out an hour later in one piece. It should have been late in the afternoon by now, but the clouds found over in the Great Unknown made it seem like it was in the evening.

The group was lucky they had not encountered any monsters or wildings, but Sunburst could tell it would only be a matter of time before they would find trouble.

As darkness laid down on the snowy landscape, Yawsaw sneaked up and scared the shit out of Sunburst. “ YAKTAT FOUND THING WE NEED YOU FOR. COME PONY.”

Sunburst looked around at the campfire. Hopefully he wasn't going to be too late for dinner. He got up, pushed his glasses back on his muzzle, and followed Yawsaw to this mystery location. Every couple minutes, Sunburst would have to shake himself from the excess snow he obtained from the winds, which was still buried in his forehooves and back hooves.

Sunburst tried to keep himself warm but it was such a challenge. He felt everything on his body frozen, and his cheeks felt they would fall off any minute. ‘Relax Sunburst, you'll be fine. Survive this and you will be back in Equestria soon. Everything is going to be fine.’

Sunburst walked over heaps of rocks randomly jutting out from the snow. On the horizon was even mrw snowy hills and mountains, but to Sunburst’s right was a huge forest filled with White trees with red leaves. Sunburst wondered why there was a forest randomly in the middle of this rocky terrain, but he pushed that thought into the back of his mind. He would ask the yaks about it later.

After several minutes of walking, Sunburst came across a large rock who’s roof carried off from the rest of the rock, causing what looked like a claw and forming a sort of shelter. As Sunburst got closer, he realized that a group of ponies called this place their home. The frozen corpses gave that away.

Most of the bodies were left in an upside down u shape that connected to the ends of the rock. Some only wore gigantic slashes on their bodies or face, but Sunburst caught limbs from every which way and even a decapitated head a couple feet from the slaughter. Under the roof was more scenes of madness, but what stook out was a young filly with a grey mane and dark ble coat cradling a little brown foal. The filly died from a gigantic sword slash across the belly with only a sliver of flesh to keep the body seem complete, while the foal obviously died from the cold a couple hours ago.

The whole picture disgusted Sunburst and he threw up right then and there. He just wanted to curl up and be sent away from this place. This was easily worse than the pain, even though it was a different type of pain, he experienced from the mountain winds. The yaks seemed unscathed however, and Yaktat was simply moving the bodies aside to investigate. Even though they were dead, Sunburst wanted to shout to leave the dead alone, but he thought better of it. The killers might still be near after all.

“PONY COME HERE. YAKTAT NEEDS YOU TO INVESTIGATE THIS.” With all his might, Sunburst got to his hooves and went to the center of the masacre. What he saw shocked him. A giant symbol laid diagonally inside the circle: three parallel scratch marks. All of different sizes and extremely roughly drawn, but Sunburst knew that they were meant to be grouped together

“WHAT IT MEAN PONY?”, Yaktat yelled loudly.

“ Its definitely the result of something magical, but I think it's just an imprint left by a spell. Whatever was here is something with a huge magical po-”

Sunburst stopped. He realized the gravity of the situation. Magic wasn't strong up here, and yet, this…. Things that obviously took a lot of magic to leave just showing up? Sunburst wanted to throw up again. There is something dangerous stirring here.

“ This doesn't make any sense….. This shouldn't be possible.”

Yaktat snorted, his long brown hair separated for a second, showing troubled eyes. “YAKS KNOW THAT. MANY MORE LIKE THIS. FEARED THE WORST, AND SEEMS WORST COME TRUE.” Sunburst hoped that the yak would keep his voice down, but knew that probably wasn't going to happen. Suddenly, Sunburst heard Yawsaw say something.

“COME YAKTAT, WE MUST GO TO THE FOREST AND CHECK FOR ANY UNORDINARY OCCURRENCES. PONY INVESTIGATE MAGIC.” Yaktat nodded and made the motion to leave towards the strange forest. “NO, don’t go! Don't leave me here with these ponies alone!” Sunburst pleated.

Yawsaw gave a low (yet still loud) laugh. “THE DEAD ARE DEAD PONY. DEAD CAN'T HURT YOU. WE YAKS COME BACK IN COUPLE MOMENTS.” With that, the yaks went into the forest, leaving Sunburst freezing and alone with the mauled corpses of the wildfolk.

Trying to calm down, Sunburst started to control his breathing, and looked at the marks more closely. Despite the obvious knowledge that this was caused after a great spell, Sunburst couldn't tell anything else about it, and he was too weak to cast an identification spell. Sunburst kicked a mound of snow. ‘Damnit. Why did they choose me. My magic is useless here. They should have gotten someone like Princess Twilight, or even Starlight!”

That’s when he saw it. On the wall- the one with the dead filly-, Sunburst could make out a strange symbol. Sunburst walked closer, careful not to step on any bodies on the way for fear of absolutely losing it, and examined it. It wasn't from the result of magic like the scratch marks. This was a carving, a very common one at that. It depicted Luna and Celestia circling around a mesh of sun and moon. Normal enough, Sunburst decided. But then he looked more closely, and was shocked.

Those weren't Celestia and Luna. they were replaced with…...something else. Before Sunburst could put his hoof on the answer, he heard a loud crack come from the forest. As Sunburst turned to look at the woods, he felt something cold grab his back hoof. He looked down.

The dead filly was alive, and her dead hand now grabbed Sunburst with a vice like grip. Her torso still threatened to get thrown off from her body if the filly made any quick movements, but it didn't bleed. The foal she carried in her death stance was dropped carelessly to the floor. Her eyes were pure white, though the border between the eyeballs and her whites were still somehow visible, devoid of any emotion.

Sunburst gave a yelp of fear, and tried to break away from the young mare, but the filly held him down with surprising strength. Sunburst smacked back down into the snow, and then he saw something that shouldn't have been possible. All the dead ponies were now somehow alive, all looking at Sunburst without the slightest hint of any feeling at all. Some ponies who had entire limbs chopped off were now alive. He even saw a decapitated head staring at him. Each and every one of them had white eyes. Sunburst also thought he saw the claws glowing a light blue color.

Sunburst just stood there immobilized with fear, unable to think of anything productive. He suddenly felt an icy cold wind pass him, and it, similar to the crack, also came from the forest. Sunburst managed to look over the dead ponies and saw a white wind, whiter than even the snow in the ground, grab something from the forest and hurled it at the center of the dead circle. It landed near Sunburst, and he realized it was the decapitated head of Yawsaw, his orange hair covering what was most likely eyes of fear.

Fear somehow gave way to adrenaline, and Sunburst suddenly knew what to do. He weakly floated his knife from his cloak belt and slashed it at the filly’s arm. In one swift motion, the hand came off, but the filly gave no sign she felt anything. At that moment, one of the dead let out a piercing shriek, and all at once, the dead slowly walked (or crawled) towards Sunburst, while the wind, starting to materialize into….. something, watched.

A horn coming from behind the rock sounded, and Sunburst realized somehow that the yaks knew what was going on and may have decided to fight. Or it could have been something else. Sunburst didn't care; it was a distraction. He ran towards the dead, and managed to push through them, as they were all distracted and looking towards the horn.

Sunburst didn't look back. He just ran away from the forest, away from the rock, away from the yak camp, away from “The Winter”, and ran towards the Great Unkown.

He didn't know how long he ran; it could have been hours, but it felt like days. He forgot what it was like to feel safe in the Crystal Empire, and on his first day out here, not only does his magic prove useless, but now knew a major threat could threaten to destroy Equestria, and he couldn’t do anything but run away.

He now stayed in a cave he found amongst the rock terrain. It was dirty and smelled like shit, but at least it was semi warm, which allowed Sunburst to make a fire with relative ease. The running also helped solve the cold a bit.

Sunburst knew he couldn't do anything against that threat, but he knew those who could. He floated out something from his saddlebags, which shockingly stayed under his cloak through the whole ideal, and brought out an orb. He put a little magic into the orb and it began to grow a bright purple. Still holding it with his magic, he transferred his memories from the fire to escaping the dead. The orb changed to a bright orange glow for a second, then back to purple.

Sunburst let his magic go, and the orb dropped, but floated mere inches from the rock ground. “Go to the princesses. Now!” The orb seemed to obey, and flew off into the distance, and after several seconds, it vanished from Sunburst’s field of vision.

Sunburst let out a hollow sigh and leaned against the wall of the cave, the fire lighting the walls in a yellow-orange glow. If fate should have it, that should reach the princesses dreams and notify them about the danger. Sunburst remained awake, ready for the worst to come.

*************

In Camelot, inside the VIP guest bedroom, a sleeping Twilight Sparkle stirred in her sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED……….