Waking up, going to school, getting ‘bullied’ by Diamond Tiara and sitting through completely pointless lessons. Yep, yet another school day went past, but this time it was way easier to bear. After all, Frosty had finally found his Cutie Mark and what would every sensible colt with a Cutie Mark in Necromancy do? Exactly!

Experiments.

That was Frosty’s drive for the whole day, the prospect of getting to experiment with his new abilities to control the dead. Thus, as soon as the bell rang, he practically flew off his chair and out of the school building, waiting only for those within sight to turn their backs, so he could make a dash towards the Everfree.

“Frosty!” Suddenly called a familiar voice from behind him and Frosty let out an annoyed groan, as he remembered what he had promised the day before. He turned around and saw all three Cutie Mark Crusaders run towards him, obviously in eager anticipation towards something and he knew exactly what that something was. Unfortunately, that something was decidedly not what he wanted to do right now, as, for one, he didn’t even know what to tell them yet and secondly, he would rather gather some information first, before he came up with a cover story.

“Yeah?” He replied, putting on a slight smile to hide his annoyance at that moment.

“Ya ain’t forgettin’ what ya promised us yesterday, ain’t ya?” Applebloom asked demandingly.

“No, of course not. It’s just that… I need to do some stuff before I can tell you all that. Is it okay for you girls, if we postpone the next meeting until a bit later in the afternoon?” Frosty asked them, playing it like he was hesitant to ask.

Applebloom, in turn, fixed him with an inquisitive glare, going in almost close enough that their muzzles would touch. “Hmmmm… alright. But no chickening out of this, okay? You promised ta tell us!”

“Yeah yeah, I won’t, don’t worry!” Frosty dismissed, before turning around and trotting off to wherever he was headed.

“Do you think he lied?” Scootaloo asked from behind Applebloom, who turned around to answer her friend.

“Ah dunno… He ain’t lied to us until now, but ah kinda have t’feelin’ that he ain’t really wanna tell us…”

“In that case, why don’t we just follow him?” Sweetie Belle chimed in.

Applebloom and Scootaloo looked at each other for a moment, before nodding.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea!”

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DETECTIVES, YAY!” They shouted together, before running after Frosty.

“Huh… so you’re still here, I see?” Frosty noted, as he saw his Manticore-zombie still standing in the clearing. “Though, I suppose it’s no real surprise, given that I haven’t given you any orders yet.”

He looked around in the clearing, checking if he was alone, before he turned to his ‘puppet’ again.

“Well, first things first, I should probably figure out how to give you commands in the first place. Let’s see… the most obvious thing would be just telling you to do stuff, right?” He asked rhetorically, before scanning his surroundings a little more carefully this time. “Okay… Go and find me another living Manticore!” He commanded, but the zombie didn’t move.

“Huh, didn’t work… well, how about…” He reared up and took on a pose with one front hoof pulled up to his eye and the other pointed towards the Manticore. “I, Frozen Blood, hereby command you: find me another Manticore!”

A few seconds passed… and nothing happened. “Yeah, well… it was worth a try, I guess?”

He thought around for a bit, trying to figure things out, until suddenly, realization hit him and it almost made him smack himself. “Of course! All magic is based on thoughts, so in order to give him orders, I have to give them with my thoughts! Dude, sometimes, I feel really stupid.”

He immediately went to work, concentrating on forcing his will upon his pawn. At first, nothing happened and Frosty was alredy about to give up again, when the Manticore suddenly stirred to life.

“Woohoo, yeah, that’s more like it!” He cheered, as the Manticore moved out, deeper into the forest.

“Yep, better follow him quick, or I might lose him.” He told himself, before following his new toy.

It didn’t take him long to catch up again, thankfully, because the Manticore had stopped only a few hundred meters further into the woods. Frosty was already about to ask, why it had stopped, when he suddenly heard a snoring sound.

He rounded his puppet and saw another Manticore sleeping in front of him, just like he had asked for.

“Hah, alright, that worked, it seems.” He noted, moving on to the next point on his list.

“So… do I need to kill them first or can I just turn them immediately?” He mumbled to himself, slowly sneaking up on his soon-to-be new puppet.

“Alright, slowly… steady…”

*Crack*

“Fuck.”

Frosty stepped on a fallen twig, causing the Manticore to immediately wake up and roar at the intruder.

“Okay, okay, stay calm now… Concentrate… take some of that energy… and Pu—“

He was just about to push his necromantic energy into the Manticore, when the bush beside him suddenly rustled. He shot around, just in time to see a little white bunny hop out from behind it.

“Phew… wait, OH CRAP!” He looked back to the Manticore, just in time to… see it fall?

Frosty looked on in fascination, as the Manticore struggled with getting back onto its paws, almost as if one of them was broken or… dead?

‘Wait a minute…’ He thought, as he concentrated on his mind’s eye and found that its Soul, as he had determined that shadow-thing to be, was missing one of its front paws.

‘Could it be… Slap!’

The Manticore suddenly whacked itself clean across the face, before looking at its own paw with wide eyes. Frosty, however, was now sporting a sadistical grin.

*Whack!*

“Stop hitting yourself!”

*Whack!*

“Stop hitting yourself!”

*Whack!*

“Stop hitting yourself, heheh.” He laughed.

“Bwahahaha!” the bush beside him suddenly laughed too.

Frosty snapped around and looked at the bush with wide eyes. He slowly walked towards it and, when he reached it, pulled its leaves aside to reveal… three very familiar fillies, who apparently had followed him this whole time.

“Uhhhh…” He said, stunned.

“Uhm… Hi!” Scotaloo greeted awkwardly, “We, uh, just, you know, wanted to… get our Cutie Marks in… plantology! Yeah, that’s it!”

“Is that even a thing?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“How would I—?”

*Growl!*

Frosty whipped back around, just in time to see the Manticore start running towards him with fury in its eyes.

‘Slap!’ Frosty commanded…

But nothing happened.

‘Uh… slap?’ He repeated, but yet again, nothing happened.

The Manticore jumped, ready to devour its meal. A stray thought escaped Frosty that he couldn’t die yet. Not again! Not in such a short order!

His puppet reacted to this, his wish to survive being enough of a command for it to spring into action and catch the blow that else would have killed its master.

Shaking off his momentary perplexity, Frosty reacted quickly and in the only way that came to mind.

‘DIE!’ He commanded and the Manticore slumped to the ground, devoid of life.

“Phew, that was close…” He said to himself.

“Wh-what happened? Is it… dead?” Sweetie asked with an obvious note of fear.

“Uh… uh, no, I just… I commanded it to sleep, that’s all… Anyways, what are you girls even doing in here?!” He demanded, eager to change the subject.

“Well, what are you doing in here?!” Applebloom pushed back.

“I asked first.”

Applebloom looked to her friends for support, who, in turn, only looked back at her, unsure of what to say.

“Ugh, fine… ya know, we kinda weren’t sure if ya would keep yer word, so… we kinda followed you in here… There, now you!”

‘Uh-oh…’

“Uh, I- Uh, you know what I said, right? That I needed to get some things clear before I would tell you more? Well, uh, I kinda wanted to test around with my Cutie Mark a bit and so… I came back to where I got it?” He said, keeping the level of information as low as possible.

‘That’s right… keep it so that it’s barely enough to answer their question…’

“Wait… you got your Cutie Mark in the Everfree?” Scootaloo asked in disbelief, before sharing an excited look with her friends.

“Uhm, yeah, that’s what I just said, but what… Oh no, wait girls, don’t—“

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS EVERFREE EXPLORERS, YAY!” The three shouted together, before running off into the woods.

‘Oh bollocks… Well, I suppose I better follow them, lest something happens and I have to start from zero again...’

He made to follow the three fillies, but he stopped after only a few meters and turned around to look at his zombie.

‘Though, I suppose I can’t just let you sit around here like that, now can I? So, let’s see… how do I reverse that?’

He thought back and forth for a moment, before a simple idea came to mind. If he had pushed his energy into it to turn it undead, simply taking it out should reverse the whole process, right?

‘No knowing without trying, I guess…’ He told himself, trying out his idea and giving a satisfied smirk, when the Manticore slumped to the ground beside the other.

‘Yep, that worked. I should really look into a way to make corpses vanish, though. For now, I just hope that these don’t taste too much like necromancy for the Timberwolves to eat them…’

He thought to himself, before galloping off to catch up with the Crusaders.

“Huh… well that’s strange…” Scootaloo mused while she and her friends, including Frosty, were walking through the woods.

“What do you mean? I don’t see anything strange…” Sweetie pointed out, looking around her, trying to spot whatever Scootaloo had meant.

“That’s exactly it! Normally, we would’ve been attacked by a Manticore or something by now, but this time, there’s absolutely nothing!”

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked around, only now noticing the strange lack of even the more common Everfree-Predators.

“Yeah… I wonder why that is…” Frosty said slowly, while killing monsters left and right that tried to jump on the group, using his newfound powers. Each time he did so yielded another small amount of necromantic energy for him and with each time, the small ball of said energy inside him grew bigger, more potent and hotter.

It wasn’t a scorching heat, no, far from it even. It felt strengthening, empowering even. As if his powers would grow with every life he took. It was a feeling that could not be described in mere words, just as delighting… as it was scary.

James had seen many a human fall to the promises of power. It was tempting to just give in to it and kill everything in his wake, but he couldn’t do that. After all, as Frozen Blood, he wants to conquer Equestria, not destroy it and what would there be left to rule if he just killed everything?

He would have to keep himself in check, lest he’d lose control and risk losing everything he had gained thus far. Granted, it wasn’t much at this point, but no one ever said that it was to remain like that…

“Frosty? You still with us?” Scootaloo suddenly asked, ripping him out of his thoughts.

“Huh? What? Uh… yeah, I was just… thinking about stuff, is all.” He quickly replied.

“Okay… anyways, what do you say?” She asked enthusiastically, obviously referring to something that Frosty had missed out on.

“What do I say about what?”

She groaned in annoyance and pointed towards a gigantic cave entrance in the side of a cliff, that Frosty had somehow missed out on.

“Should we try our luck in there?” Scootaloo repeated for him.

“Ahhh… I don’t think that would be a good idea to be honest…” Frosty replied, earning him a surprised look from Scootaloo.

“See? He’s against it too! Why don’t we just go back home now? It’s getting late and Rarity really doesn’t like it if I stay out too long…” Sweetie chimed in, drawing Scootaloo’s attention to her.

“Hah, well that’s two against two and that means we go in!” Scootaloo announced.

“No, it doesn’t!”

“It does!”

“Does not!”

“Does yes!”

“Uh, hey girls?”

They both whipped around to Frosty, when he reminded them of his presence.

“WHAT?!” They both spat, making him recoil ever so slightly.

“Uh, have you seen Applebloom? I thought she was with us just a moment ago?”

The two fillies looked around, only now becoming aware of the third’s disappearance.

“Ahm in here! If y’all can’t git a move on, then ah’ll jus’ go ba mahself!” Applebloom suddenly called from within the cave.

“Hah, that’s the spirit, Applebloom! Wait a second, I’m coming too!” Scootaloo answered her, speeding off into the cave, before either Sweetie or Frosty could stop her.

The latter two shared a short, disbelieving look, before looking into the cave, after their friends.

“Alright… let’s make sure, those two don’t get themselves hurt, shall we?” Frosty said, moving to follow the two eager fillies and, with a sigh, Sweetie, too, followed close behind.

The inside of the cave was actually everything but dark. It was filled throughout with a soft blue glow that seemed to emanate from somewhere further within. None of them could exactly figure out, what exactly caused that glow, but at the moment, it didn’t seem important.

“Woooow, look at these SPIKES!” Scootaloo exclaimed, pointing at the abundance of stalagmites and stalactites before them.

“Ah’m pretty sure they have a name, but ah can’t remember…” Applebloom mused. She looked to the ground, while walking on further into the cave, trying to remember the name of these rocks, when her head suddenly hit something soft.

She bounced back a few meters and rubbed her head. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were beside her in an instant.

“Are you okay?” Sweetie Belle asked in concern, helping her friend back onto her hooves.

“Yeah. What in the name o’ Celestia was that?” She said, rubbing her head with a hoof and looking at the strange, blue-glowing wall in front of them.

“I dunno… but it definitely looks cool. Hey, wait a second… do you two suddenly feel wind in here?”

The three fillies went silent for a moment and there was, indeed, the soft whistle of wind to be heard. They could feel it rushing through their fur, though strangely, it seemed to change directions every few seconds.

“Uh… girls?” Frosty suddenly asked in a very nervous sounding voice. “Uh, maybe you should look up?”

The three did as they were told and noticed, that unknowingly, they had entered a cavern, which seemed to stretch on forever… and within which stood a gargantuan purple, ethereal creature in the shape of a bear.

The Ursa Major looked down onto them with rage, having been awoken from its slumber by the sudden touch of the filly. Said filly, as well as her friends instinctively hid behind the biggest thing in their vicinity, which was not the Ursa and which just so happened to be Frosty.

The Ursa leaned down to them and took in two deep sniffs, to pick out the one who had disturbed its slumber. However, instead of finding the intruder, it seemingly found something else entirely, as its eyes suddenly widened and it took on a look of surprise and… fear?

The Ursa seemed genuinely afraid of something that it had sniffed. It looked like it was being cornered by an even bigger predator, which couldn’t be since it was only the four foals with it in the cave, right?

The Ursa didn’t seem to see that the same way, as it suddenly turned around and fled out of the cavern with a pathetic whimper.

“Euuuhh… what was that?” Scootaloo asked, though none of the others could answer her.

Only two hours later, Frosty stood in front of a very familiar Oak tree in the middle of Ponyville. The place, he had originally tried to visit, before being forced into an encounter with the CMC, Golden Oaks Library.

He had postponed visiting the library after he had met the crusaders, seeing as the CMC wouldn’t exist if Twilight wasn’t in town yet… right?

Truth be told, he couldn’t be sure. After all, he could have landed in a universe that’s similar, but not the same. One good indicator towards that was that he had yet to get a welcome party by Pinkie Pie, which was most worrying.

In the end, though, he wouldn’t know without trying and thus, he finally brought up the courage to knock on the door, which was answered shortly after by a familiar purple unicorn.

“Uh, hello young colt. I’m sorry, but the Library will be closing in a few minutes, so we don’t give out any books anymore.

With the confirmation that Twilight was there, Frosty could check off a point that had been on his mind for way too long by now. However, that wasn’t what he had come here for.

“Oh… so, uh, is there still enough time to look something up? I found something and I really want to know more about it.” Frosty said, hoping for a specific reaction.

“Ooooh, a research endeavour! Come on in! Oooh, in that case, you should start with Simple spells volume 1 and Basic Herbology here! Oh and Starswirl’s Collection of Artifacts is a good read too!” Twilight brabbled excitedly, skipping around between the shelves and retrieving the mentioned books, until she suddenly stopped in the middle of the room and looked over to the door sheepishly. “Ehehehe, uhm… what was it you were looking for again?”

Frosty chuckled softly to himself, satisfied that he indeed got the reaction he wanted. With Twilight’s help, he quickly found what he looked for, thankfully. He read through the tome, or rather, the sections of it that were interesting to him.

“Let’s see… U… U… Ursa… Ursa Major, there it is!”

“The Ursa Major is a bear-like ethereal entity that can be as large as the mountain it is housed in and spends most of its lifetime sleeping, one sleep session lasting between a few hours and sometimes hundreds of years.

Even though its size and nature as a magical entity make it near-invulnerable to all potential enemies, it has been found that Ursas are afraid of the smell of the deceased or maybe even death in general. As such, every settlement that borders the Everfree has its own graveyard to protect it from stray Ursas.”

‘Huh… so they fear death? That would explain, why it ran from me…’ Frosty thought, turning the page to the next subject of interest to him.

“Necromancers…”

Later in the evening, Frosty was walking back towards the orchard. The Cutie Mark Crusaders wanted to meet with him again and he didn’t know why he should decline. He wanted to stay on their good side, after all. However, his mood was not the best at the moment, which was largely due to his visit to the library.

Actually, it was what he did in there that had soured his mood. The research he had done to maybe help him find out a bit more about his own abilities was entirely for naught. Sure, he had found out why that Ursa fled, but the section about Necromancers was useless.

It actually couldn’t even be called a ‘section’ as it only contained two sentences.

“Necromancers are adepts in the manipulation of soul magic and are classified as dark magic users. They specialize in robbing individuals of their lifeforce and raising their corpses as their slaves, or even manipulate their souls while they are still alive.”

Although, that last part was interesting. Could he really manipulate their souls while they were still alive? He had, after all, successfully controlled a single arm of a Manticore already, although he actually accidentally killed it off first, before he then turned it undead and so on… although in the end, the Manticore seemingly regained control over it… that definitely needed more research.

For now though, he found that this ‘controlling while alive’-thing was more important… and by sheer coincidence, he was currently on his way towards three perfect test subjects.

As soon as he arrived at the clubhouse and stepped in, he found himself the center of attention. The three fillies had already been waiting for him and all wore very cheerful smiles.

“Duude, that was AWESOME!” Scootaloo was the first to speak up, imitating her idol out of habit.

“Yeah, that was cool! How did ya make an Ursa flee? Ah wanna do that too!” Applebloom chimed in.

“But Earthponies can’t use magic.” Sweetie Belle told her nonchalantly.

“Who said he used magic? Ah didn’t see none.” Applebloom replied.

And just like that, it devolved into an argument yet again. Not that frosty cared, as he hadn’t been paying attention in the first place. He was way too focused on figuring out how that controlling worked. Maybe he needed to concentrate on their souls?

Their souls… it looked tasty… it felt warm… so warm… need to…

*touch*

He planted a hoof on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder, who suddenly seemed to undergo a severe case of shuddering from it. She shook herself once over from top to bottom.

“Whoa, dear Celestia, Frosty, did you know you have some really… cold… hooves?” She looked over to Frosty and, as soon as she looked at him, suddenly trailed off. Her cheeks went red and her eyes wide and her gaze remained fixed solely on Frosty. Frosty made a tentative step towards her, which seemingly freed her from her paralysis.

“Ah, euh, Rarity told me to be home earlier today, so uh… I’ve… got to go now!”

With that, she dashed out of the Clubhouse, leaving the others behind with their confusion.

“What’s up with her?” Scootaloo asked.

Frosty looked at his hoof, then to the door, Sweetie had just disappeared through, then back at his hoof… and then at Scootaloo.

*touch*

A cold shudder ran through Scootaloo, as Frosty touched her chest fluff, this one seemingly far more intense than the one Sweetie experienced.

“Tartarus, Frosty, you really have… cold… hooves.”

Same as Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo suddenly trailed off and blushed, when making eye contact with Frosty and then…

“Uh… I think I left my window open! See ya tomorrow!” Scotaloo, too, fled the clubhouse.

“Uh….” Applebloom was about to ask a question, but Frosty was faster than her.

*touch*

Frosty touched her snout, which resulted in the exact same things he saw with the other two.

“Uh… Ah think sis called me! See ya at dinner!”

Frosty stood alone in the Clubhouse now, looking at his magic hoof and trying to figure out what had happened, when suddenly, it clicked.

“Ooooh. Well, I mean, I thought the phrase went ‘stole their hearts’, but ‘touched their souls’ works too, I guess? Well, anyways, I better find a way to reverse this, before…” He stopped for a moment, when a thought occurred to him. “Or actually, why would I want to revert this? I mean, having them grow attached to me is exactly what I wanted, right?”

And thus Frosty could end the day on a positive note, as yet another step towards his ultimate goal was made.

Author's Note

Oh no